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)
Tammany further attempted to counteract the impetus of the Clinton
movement by touching at length upon its own patriotism in the past
and by stirring up class hatreds. On the vital issues the Wigwam was
silent; but in another long fulmination it recalled the “sins” and
“treason” of Clinton against the Democratic party. “He is haughty in
his manners,” it went on, “and a friend of the aristocracy--cold and
distant to all who cannot boast of wealth and family distinctions and
selfish in all the ends he aims at.”
The partizans of Jackson carried the city. Presidential electors were
still selected by the Legislature, and it is therefore impossible
to determine Jackson’s vote. A fusion between the Clintonites and
the People’s party caused the defeat of most of Tammany’s Assembly
candidates, but the victors were Jackson men, and Clinton himself had
declared for Old Hickory. The full Jackson strength was shown in the
vote for the three Tammany candidates for Congress, who were elected.
Clinton’s victory was sweeping. The near completion of the Erie Canal,
for which he had labored so zealously and which Tammany had opposed
so pertinaciously, made him the idol of the people, and he was again
elected Governor, carrying even New York City by 1,031 majority. That
eye was blind which could not see in the opening of the canal the
incalculable benefits Clinton had estimated from the first. This great
work secured as a virtual gift to New York City the inland commerce of
the vast empire west of the mountains, no rival being able to contend
for it. The trade of the canal almost immediately increased the city’s
business $60,000,000 annually, and year by year the amount grew. Along
its course a hundred new and thrifty villages sprang into existence,
and the State’s wealth and population went upward by leaps and bounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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