TAMMANY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 231, 4 July 1872, Page 8

TAMMANY.

The following account of the Tammany Society taken from the " Pall Mall Gazette " may be new to many of our readers : — " The Tammany Society, Avhose name at least is familiar to English ears, furnishes a striking instance of the base use to which benevolent institutions may come to at last. The Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, Avas, as its charter sets forth, organised on the 13th May, 1789, by William -Murphy and others, inhabitants of the city of New York. The purpose of Mr. Murphy and his friends in their associating was 'to afford relief to the indigent and distressed members of the said association, their Avidows and orphans, and • others Avho may be found proper objects of their charity.' On the 9th day of April, 1805, the United States Legislature, desirous of enabling the members of the society ' the better to carry into effect the benevolent purpose of affording relief to the indigent and distressed, presented them with a charter of corporation, which thpv ordered should be 'construed in all courts and places benignly and favorably for every beneficial purpose therein contained. 1 How benignly and -tor what beneficial purpose Mr. Tweed construed the charter is well-known, particularly to the people of New York. There is, in fact, too mucli reason to fear that ' the indigent and distressed- members of the association, their Avidows.and orphans," the society in fact, became owners of vast properties devoted to purposes only in a very restricted sense benevolent. The Legislature of 1805 Avarily limited the range of Tammany's usefulness by making the existence of its charter dependent upon the real and personal estates of the society not exceeding the clear yearly A'alue of 5000 dollars. As the city of NeAv York itself leases property from the Tammany Society of the annual value of 36,000 dollars, legal evidence is at hand in support of a petition for the repeal, upon these grounds, of the society's charter, and action has been already commenced in that direction. Of course the iniquity of Tammany is no neAV thing. It was a notorious disgrace to New York for many years, while its schemes "Avent to and fro in the high places of the*eity unrebuked and unabashed.- But New York suddenly became virtuous, andiletermined that there shall be no more 'cakes and. ale — at least not for Tammany."