The History of Tammany Hall: Second EditionMyers, Gustavus
History
The History of Tammany Hall: Second Edition
Myers, Gustavus
New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government; Tammany Hall (Political organization)
A new series of revelations concerning the conduct of Tammany
chieftains was made public during 1817-18. Ruggles Hubbard, a one-time
Sachem and at the time Sheriff of the county, absconded from the city
August 15, 1817, leaving a gap in the treasury.[3] John L. Broome,
another Sachem, was shortly after removed from the office of City
Clerk by the Council of Appointment for having neglected to take the
necessary securities from Hubbard. John P. Haff, a one-time Grand
Sachem and long a power in the organization, was removed by President
Monroe on November 14, 1818, from the office of Surveyor of the Port,
for corruption and general unfitness.[4]
But the most sensational of these exposures was that concerning the
swindling of the Medical Science Lottery, by which Naphtali Judah[5]
and others profited handsomely. The testimony brought out before Mayor
Colden, November 10, 1818, showed that a corrupt understanding existed
between Judah and one of the lottery’s managers, by which the former
was enabled to have a knowledge of the state of the wheel. Not less
than $100,000 was drawn on the first day, of which Judah received
a large share. Further affidavits were submitted tending to show a
corrupt understanding between Judah and Alderman Isaac Denniston in the
drawing of the Owego Lottery, by which Denniston won $35,000. John L.
Broome was also implicated in the scandal, and Teunis Wortman, while
not directly concerned in it, was considered involved by the public,
and suffered a complete loss of popular favor,[6] though retaining
for some time a certain degree of influence in the society and
organization.
Always as popular criticism began to assert itself, Tammany would
make a sudden display of patriotism, accompanied by the pronouncement
of high-sounding toasts and other exalted utterances. Such it did in
1817, when the society took part in the interment of the remains of
Gen. Montgomery in St. Paul’s Church. And now the Sachems prepared to
entertain Andrew Jackson at a banquet, and also indirectly signify
that he was their choice for President. William Mooney, again elected
Grand Sachem, sent to Gen. Jackson, under date of February 15, 1819, a
grandiloquent letter of invitation which, referring to the battle of
New Orleans, said in part:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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