COLLAPSE AND DISPERSION OF THE “RING”--1871-1872 237 CHAPTER XXVI TAMMANY RISES FROM THE ASHES--1872-1874 250 CHAPTER XXVII THE DICTATORSHIP OF JOHN KELLY--1874-1886 258 CHAPTER XXVIII THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER--1886-1897 267 CHAPTER XXIX THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER (_Concluded_)--1897-1901 284 CHAPTER XXX TAMMANY UNDER ABSENTEE DIRECTION--1901-1902 290 CHAPTER XXXI CHARLES F. MURPHY’S AUTOCRACY--1902-1903 299 CHAPTER XXXII THE SWAY OF BRIBERY AND “HONEST GRAFT”--1903-1905 307 CHAPTER XXXIII TAMMANY’S CONTROL UNDER LEADER MURPHY--1906-1909 324 CHAPTER XXXIV ANOTHER ERA OF LEGISLATIVE CORRUPTION--1909-1911 342 CHAPTER XXXV “CHIEF” MURPHY’S LEADERSHIP--FURTHER DETAILS 1912-1913 356 CHAPTER XXXVI GOVERNOR SULZER’S IMPEACHMENT AND TAMMANY’S DEFEAT--1913-1914 375 CHAPTER XXXVII TAMMANY’S PRESENT STATUS--1914-1917 392 HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL CHAPTER I RESISTANCE TO ARISTOCRACY 1789-1798 The Society of St. Tammany, or Columbian Order, was founded on May 12, 1789, a fortnight later than the establishment of the National Government, by William Mooney.[1] “His object,” says Judah Hammond,[2] an early member of Tammany, “was to fill the country with institutions designed, and men determined, to preserve the just balance of power. His purpose was patriotic and purely republican. The constitution provided by his care contained, among other things, a solemn asseveration, which every member at his initiation was required to repeat and subscribe to, that he would sustain the State institutions and resist a consolidation of power in the general Government.”