III.

Rising Political Influence

The society first attained a dominant political influence in New York City in 1855, when one of its leaders, Fernando Wood, was elected mayor. About 13 years later the notorious William Marcy Tweed was elected grand sachem or head of Tammany; his regime, which lasted until 1871, was marked by a notable rise in corruption in the municipal administration.

Beginning in the 1880s under New York City Democratic leader Richard Croker, and after 1902 under his successor, Charles F. Murphy, Tammany Hall exercised a profound influence over city and state politics. It continued to have a reputation for corrupt practices and was regularly opposed by reform groups. Tammany leader Alfred E. Smith ran unsuccessfully for the presidency on the Democratic ticket in 1928. In 1926 the Tammany candidate Jimmy Walker was elected mayor of New York. Charges of corruption were leveled at his administration, and the findings of an investigation conducted at the insistance of the state legislature caused Walker to resign in 1932. Excluded from power during the administration (1933-1945) of reform mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, the Tammany Democrats returned to office in the late 1940s, but were weakened in subsequent years by a growing Democratic reform movement. After the defeat of Democratic leader Carmine De Sapio in 1961, the name Tammany Hall gradually passed out of use.