Boss Tweed in the Beginning.

• Author: Devereux, Dakota
• Position: William Tweed

"In 1861, William Tweed leaves behind his fire department and runs for sheriff of the Metropolitan Police. He loses. Instead, he becomes the chairman of the Democratic General Committee, the head of Tammany--Boss." IN 1798, the Tammany Society moved into its own meeting space in Lower Manhattan on Spruce and Nassau streets. It was a long room and became known as Tammany's "Hall," but society members called it "The Wigwam." Appropriating indigenous culture was not new to them; their society already was named after the Lenape leader Tamanend even though Tammany members had no apparent connection to Lenape people and banned anyone who was not an Americanborn white male from membership.

As the years passed and the population of Lower Manhattan grew, Tammany shifted from a "patriotic" social club to direct involvement in New York politics, taking advantage of its connections and influence on voters (landowning white men). It became an entrenched power in the Democratic-Republican Party and was called upon by candidates for campaign support as early as the presidential election of 1800.

Aaron Burr enlisted the help of Tammany to secure Thomas Jefferson's position as the third president of the U.S. Some historians believe that without Tammany. Jefferson would not have defeated John Adams. Jefferson only won by a small margin of eight electoral votes; without Tammany's influence on New York, which held 12 votes, the election easily could have swung the other way. Tammany, which always had known the power of wealth and influence, was learning the power of numbers. Perhaps the rapidly growing population of the changing New York was not such a bad thing.

Tammany continued to expand for another two decades while keeping its exclusive club mentality, barring any and all immigrant men from joining but, when the growing population of New York became dominated by floods of German and Irish immigrants, Tammany struggled to retain a positive public opinion. Its record of elitism no longer was beneficial. It was forced to change and widen its membership. The question was, what tangible influence could the immigrant population have on the growth of Tammany's power in politics if they could not vote? Tammany began to push for a legislative change to voting rights ramping up to the 1821 New York State Constitutional Convention.

From the 1821 Convention came the second constitution of New York. It was a historic win. Property qualifications were removed for white...