Tammany Ring

Tammany Ring. The American political organisation called the Tammany Society was founded in 1789, taking its name from Tamendy or Tammenund, a half mythical Indian chieftain who lived in the days of Penn. It became a powerful instrument in the hands of the Democrats of New York; but, owing to the excessive number of delegates on the General Committee, the management of affairs was left to an inner circle or ring, headed by Mr. William M. Tweed, which gained a complete control over the municipal revenues The frauds committed by the ring were fully exposed (mainly through the efforts of the late Mr. Louis Jennings, M:P., then editor of the New York Times) in 1871, and Tweed died in prison, but the organisation still retains much of its old influence.