CHAPTER I. CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE FORMATION OF THE TAMMANY SOCIETY. N May, 1783, the officers of the American Army, in cantonments, on the Hudson, under General Washington, having in view the eventual disbandment of the army after exchange of ratification of the definite Treaty of Peace, decided to form a society, to perpetuate as well the remembrance of the bloody conflict of eight years which had established the Colonies as free, independent and sovereign States, as the mutual friendships which had been formed under the pressure of common danger, and in many instances cemented by the blood of the parties. They accordingly met at the Ver Planck Mansion, the Headquarters of Major-General Baron de Steuben, near Fishkill, N. Y., and formed themselves into a Society of Friends, and agreed to an Institution which they declared should endure as long as they or any of their eldest male posterity remained, and, in failure thereof, the collateral branches who should be judged worthy of becoming its supporters and members. In this Institution they set forth that: "The officers of the American Army having generally been taken from the citizens of America, possess high veneration for the character of that illustrious Roman, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus; and, being resolved to follow his example by returning to their citizenship, they think they may with propriety denominate themselves THE SOCIETY OF CINCINNATI." The officers of the army were intensely patriotic, and they had undergone untold sufferings, privations and losses of property, in order to continue in the service of their country, and bring to a successful termination the war which secured the independence of the United States. They keenly appreciated the fatal defects in the Articles of Confederation, which had not gone into effect until 1781, and under which independence had almost been lost; and, accordingly, in addition to provisions as to benevolence, they also incorporated a political principle for a firmer union between the States and the maintenance of the national honor, then imperilled through interfering State regulations as to commerce and the absolute worthlessness of the Continental currency. In their Institution they said that "The following principles shall be immutable and form the basis of the Society of the Cincinnati: "An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liberties of human nature for which they have fought and bled, and without which the high rank of a rational being is a curse instead of a blessing. "An unalterable determination to promote and cherish between the respective States that union and national honor so essentially necessary to their happiness and the future dignity of the American empire. "To render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the officers: The spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, and particularly extend to the most substantial acts of beneficence, according to the ability of the Society, towards those officers and their families who unfortunately may be under the necessity of receiving it." The General Society, for the sake of frequent communications, was divided into State Societies, with local officers, wherein applications for membership were received and acted upon. The Institution prescribed an order by which the members should be known and distinguished, which was the Bald American Eagle, with appropriate emblems, and the motto "OMNIA RELIQUIT SERVARE REMPUBLICAM," and a ribbon by which it was suspended from the breast, of deep blue edged with white, typical of the then alliance between France and America. In November, 1783, the Continental Army was formally disbanded, and the officers and soldiers again became private citizens. Much opposition was manifested at first to the Society, because of its supposed aristocratic tendencies, which was in due time dissipated. The American officers, in providing that the representative membership should descend through the eldest lineal male descendant, had merely followed the rule of primogeniture then prevailing throughout the United States, and probably with the idea that the eldest son, as heir to the estate of his father, would be better able to do his full share toward the benevolent objects of the Institution. The members in the Thirteen States began at once to agitate for a more perfect union, and for the establishment of a national government under a constitution which would give peace and prosperity at home, and protection abroad. The history of the period of four years from 1783 to 1787, when the Constitution of the United States was adopted, and from thence until the inauguration of the Government under it, in 1789, shows that the influence of the Society of the Cincinnati was most potential in effecting this great patriotic object. When the Government of the United States under the Constitution was finally inaugurated, the General Society, in Triennial Meeting convened, and the several State Societies, in communications to General Washington, then President of the United States, declared that a good Constitution for their beloved country was what the officers had contended for, in the field and in council. The political principle in the Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati having thereupon become engrafted, with sanctions, in the organic law for the United States, the political work of the Society of the Cincinnati came to an end, and thenceforth its members devoted themselves to their domestic concerns, and to celebrations of Independence Day, as required by the Institution, and to works of benevolence, in which, in the course of years, they expended very many thousands of dollars in relieving the necessities of deserving descendants of Revolutionary officers. The political work of the Cincinnati having thus terminated, it ceased thenceforward to be a political factor, and, as its membership was restricted, it could not perform the functions of a great patriotic society to which all citizens should be eligible, and which should at all times have a potential influence in the direction of patriotism, and as a conservator of good government. At this juncture, 1789, a citizen of the City of New York, William Mooney, conceived the idea of forming just such a great patriotic organization, and, having communicated his views to other citizens, who enthusiastically approved, "THE SOCIETY OF TAMMANY," or, "COLUMBIAN ORDER," whose motto is "FREEDOM OUR ROCK," was established; and for many years, on Independence Day, passed the compliments of the day with the New York State Society of the Cincinnati, and each drank the health of the other. A considerable number of the earlier members of the new patriotic Society were also original members of the Society of the Cincinnati. The first meeting place of the infant Society of Tammany, which was organized May 12, 1789, was at Barden's, or the City Tavern, located on lower Broadway, not far from the Bowling Green. Here, for lack of a more commodious place, the new society met until 1798, when they obtained the use of Martling's long room; and this has generally been thought to have been the first wigwam. Mr. Abraham D. Martling kept what would now be called a hotel on the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets. His office, dining-room and kitchen were located at the front of the house, facing on Nassau street, while the famous Long Room was at the rear, running parallel with this street. This room afforded accommodation for either convivial parties or for public meetings, and many a fine political campaign was there inaugurated and carried through to success, before the followers of St. Tammany dreamed of erecting a building for their sole use. It was, however, little more than a dozen years later before the project was matured for erecting the ample building, of which the corner-stone was laid in 1811, near the site of Martling's old place, on the corner of Nassau and Frankfort streets, which was occupied by the Society until the erection of the present elegant and substantial building on Fourteenth street. The meaning of the word wigwam, as is very generally supposed, is not a tent, but a communal house, such as many of the stationary tribes of our North American Indians built for the common home, and which were usually large enough to accommodate from forty to sixty families. Some large tribes had many wigwams. In regard to the appellation of "Saint" to Chief Tammany, we believe John Trumbull, the artist, is to be credited with its bestowal, he thinking that the monarchial countries of Europe should not have a monopoly of the saints; but he alone was not of that mind; some early calendars published in Philadelphia give the first of May as the day of St. Tammany, naming him the patron Saint of America. There is also a St. Tammany parish in Louisiana, on the northern boundary of Lake Ponchartrain. The Society of Tammany, or the Columbian Order, is nominally, and by the terms of its incorporation, a social, patriotic and charitable association, and is practically and really a distinct body from the General Committee of the Democratic party generally understood by the term "Tammany." |