The Tammany Society, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, had been founded in New York on May 12, 1789, originally as a branch of a wider network of Tammany Societies, the first having been formed in Philadelphia in 1772.

The society had originally developed as a club for "pure Americans".

The name "Tammany" comes from Tamanend, a Native American leader of the Lenape.

The society has adopted many Native American words and also their customs, going so far as to call its hall a wigwam.

The first Grand Sachem, as the leader was titled, was William Mooney, an upholsterer of Nassau Street.

By 1798, the Society's activities had grown increasingly politicized.

High ranking Democrat-Republican Aaron Burr, seeing Tammany Hall as an opportunity to counter Alexander Hamilton's Society of the Cincinnati, has developed it into a political machine.

Eventually, the Tammany political machine (distinct from the Society), led by Aaron Burr, who is never a member of the Society, emerges as the center for Democratic-Republican Party politics in the city.

Burr uses the Tammany Society for the election of 1800, in which he is elected Vice President.

Without Tammany, historians believe, President John Adams might have won New York state's electoral votes and won reelection.

Tammany Hall had slowly revived itself between the years 1809 and 1815 by accepting immigrants and by secretly building a new wigwam to hold meetings whenever new Sachems were named.

The Democratic-Republican Committee, a new committee which consists of the most influential local Democratic Republicans, will now name the new Sachems as well.

Support for Tammany Hall had also reemerged after their support for the War of 1812.

Grand sachem John Ferguson had defeated Dewitt Clinton and been elected mayor from March to June 1815. (It is believed that he was appointed mayor under the understanding that he would soon turn over the position to Jacob Radcliff, in return for an appointment as Surveyor of the Port of New York.)

In 1817, however, Clinton had become Governor of New York and Tammany Hall was again weakened.

During this time, Tammany Hall has begun to accept Irish immigrants as members and soon becomes dependent on them in order to remain a political force.

Clinton will remain Governor of New York until his death in 1828, with the exception of a three year period between 1822 and 1825, and Tammany Hall's influence will wane.

William M. Tweed begins his thirteen-year term as "Boss" of Tammany Hall in 1858.

Tweed was born April 3, 1823, at 1 Cherry Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The son of a third-generation Scottish chair-maker, Tweed grew up on Cherry Street.

His grandfather arrived in the United States from a town near the River Tweed close to Edinburgh.

Tweed's religious affiliation was not widely known in his lifetime, but at the time of his funeral the New York Times, quoting a family friend, reported that his parents had been Quakers and "members of the old Rose Street Meeting house".

At the age of eleven, he left school to learn his father's trade, and then became an apprentice to a saddler.

He also studied to be a bookkeeper and worked as a brushmaker for a company he had invested in, before eventually joining in the family business in 1852.

On September 29, 1844, he married Mary Jane C. Skaden and lived with her family on Madison Street for two years.

Tweed became a member of the Odd Fellows and the Masons, and joined a volunteer fire company, Engine No. 12.

In 1848, at the invitation of state assemblyman John J. Reilly, he and some friends organized the Americus Fire Company No. 6, also known as the "Big Six", as a volunteer fire company, which took as its symbol a snarling red Bengal tiger from a French lithograph, a symbol that will remain associated with Tweed and Tammany Hall for many years.

At the time, volunteer fire companies compete vigorously with each other; some are connected with street gangs and have strong ethnic ties to various immigrant communities.

The competition can be so fierce that buildings will sometimes burn down while the fire companies fought each other.

Tweed had become known for his ax-wielding violence, and was soon elected the Big Six foreman.

Pressure from Alfred Carlson, the chief engineer, had gotten him thrown out of the crew, but fire companies were also recruiting grounds for political parties at the time, and Tweed's exploits came to the attention of the Democratic politicians who ran the Seventh Ward, who put him up for Alderman in 1850, when Tweed was twenty-six.

He lost that election to the Whig candidate Morgan Morgans, but ran again the next year and won, garnering his first political position.

Tweed then became associated with the "Forty Thieves", the group of aldermen and assistant aldermen who, up to this point, are known as some of the most corrupt politicians in the city's history.

Tweed had been elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1852, but his two-year term was undistinguished.

In an attempt by Republican reformers in Albany, the state capital, to control the Democratic-dominated New York City government, the power of the New York County Board of Supervisors is beefed up.

The board has twelve members, six appointed by the mayor and six elected, and in 1858 Tweed is appointed to the board, which becomes his first vehicle for large-scale graft; Tweed and other supervisors force vendors to pay a 15% overcharge to their "ring" in order to do business with the city.

The board also has six Democrats and six Republicans, but Tweed often just buys off one Republican to sway the board.

One such Republican board member is Peter P. Voorhis, a coal dealer by profession who absents himself from a board meeting in exchange for twenty-five hundred dollars so that the board can appoint city inspectors

Henry Smith is another Republican who is a part of the Tweed ring.

Danile Sickles had received numerous perquisites in jail, including being allowed to retain his personal weapon, and received numerous visitors.

So many visitors had come that he was granted the use of the head jailer's apartment to receive them.

They included many congressmen, senators, and other leading members of Washington society.

Sickles is charged with murder.

He secures several leading politicians as defense attorneys, among them Edwin M. Stanton, later to become Secretary of War, and Chief Counsel James T. Brady who, like Sickles, is associated with Tammany Hall.

Sickles pleads temporary insanity—the first use of this defense in the United States.

Before the jury, Stanton argues that Sickles had been driven insane by his wife's infidelity, and thus was out of his mind when he shot Key.

The papers soon trumpeted that Sickles was a hero for "saving all the ladies of Washington from this rogue named Key".

Sickles had obtained a graphic confession from Teresa; it was ruled inadmissible in court, but, was leaked by him to the press and printed in the newspapers in full.

The defense strategy ensured that the trial was the main topic of conversations in Washington for weeks, and the extensive coverage of national papers was sympathetic to Sickles.

Sickles had publicly forgiven Teresa, and "withdrew" briefly from public life, although he did not resign from Congress.

The public is apparently more outraged by Sickles's forgiveness and reconciliation with his wife, than by the murder and his unorthodox acquittal.

Daniel Drew is popularly credited with introducing what would be called "watered stock" to the New York financial district, to describe company shares that were issued by false means such as counterfeit certificates or shares issued that were not authorized, resulting in a dilution of ownership; the term supposedly came from his time in the cattle business, when he would have his cattle drink water before selling them, to increase their weight temporarily.

The tactic will be used in the Erie War of 1866-1868 to block Vanderbilt from getting ownership of Erie.

In 1857, Drew had become a member of the board of directors of the Erie Railway and had used his position to manipulate the firm's stock price.

In 1864, Drew had once again struggled with Vanderbilt, speculating on the stock of the New York and Harlem Railroad.

Drew had been selling the stock short, but Vanderbilt and his associates had bought every share he sold, ultimately causing the stock price to rise from 90 to 285 in five months.

Drew loses $500,000.

Born in Carmel, New York, Drew had been poorly educated.

His father had died when Daniel was fifteen years old.

Drew had enlisted and drilled, but because he enlisted too late, never fought in the War of 1812.

After the war, he had started a successful cattle-driving business, marrying married Roxanna Mead in 1823.

In 1834, he had entered the steamship business, competing unsuccessfully with Cornelius Vanderbilt but running numerous profitable lines outside of New York.

He had founded the brokerage firm of Drew, Robinson & Company in 1844, which dissolved a decade later with the deaths of his partners, after which he had continued to work in the brokerage business as an independent operator.

Jay Gould's father-in-law is credited with introducing the younger man to the railroad industry, when he suggested that Gould help him save his investment in the Rutland and Washington Railroad.

Gould had quickly acquired a majority of the company's bonds at 10 cents on the dollar.

Jason Gould was born in Roxbury, New York, the son of Mary More (1798–1841) and John Burr Gould (1792–1866).

His father was of British ancestry and his mother was of Scottish ancestry.

Gould's maternal grandfather Alexander T. More was a businessman, and his great-grandfather John More was a Scottish immigrant who founded the town of Moresville, New York.

Known as Jay, young Gould had studied at local schools and the Hobart Academy, where his principal was credited as getting him a job working as a bookkeeper for a blacksmith.

A year later, the blacksmith had offered him half interest in the blacksmith shop, which he had sold to his father during the early part of 1854.

Gould had devoted himself to private study, emphasizing surveying and mathematics.

In 1854, Gould had surveyed and created maps of the Ulster County, New York area.

In 1856, he had published History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York, which he had spent several years writing.

In 1856, Gould had entered a partnership with Zadock Pratt to create a tanning business in Pennsylvania in what would become Gouldsboro.

Eventually, he had bought out Pratt, who retired.

In 1856, Gould had entered another partnership with Charles Mortimer Leupp, a son-in-law of Gideon Lee, and one of the leading leather merchants in the United States at the time.

Leupp and Gould had been a successful partnership until the Panic of 1857.

Leupp had lost all his money, while Gould had taken advantage of the opportunity of the depreciation of property value and bought up former partnership properties for himself.

After the death of Charles Leupp, the Gouldsboro Tannery became a disputed property.

Charles Leupp's brother-in-law, David W. Lee, who was also a partner in Leupp and Gould, took armed control of the tannery, believing that Gould had cheated the Leupp and Lee families in the collapse of the business.

Eventually, Gould took physical possession, but was later forced to sell his share of the company to Lee's brother.

In 1863, he had married Helen Day Miller, with whom he will have six children.

Moses Taylor holds an interest in the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company founded by Cyrus West Field in 1854.

Although its attempts to lay a cable across the Atlantic were initially unsuccessful, it eventually succeeds and in 1866 becomes the first transatlantic telegraph company.

After the Civil War, during which he had assisted the Union with financing the war debt, he continues to invest in iron, railroads, and real estate.

His real estate holdings in New York bring him into close association with Boss Tweed of New York's Tammany Hall.

Moses Taylor’s parents were Jacob B. Taylor and Martha (Brant) Taylor.

His father had been a close associate of John Jacob Astor and had acted as his agent by purchasing New York real estate while concealing Astor's interest.

Astor's relationship with the Taylor family had provided Moses with an early advantage.

Moses had begun his career at age fifteen at J. D. Brown shippers, but had soon moved to a clerk's position in the firm of G. G. & S. Howland Company of New York, a shipping and import firm that traded with South America.

By 1832, at age twenty-six, Moses had accumulated sufficient wealth to marry, leave the Howland company, and start his own business as a sugar broker.

As a sugar broker, Moses dealt with Cuban sugar growers, found buyers for their product, exchanged currency, and advised and assisted them with their investments.

Although he never visited Cuba, Taylor's friendship with Henry Augustus Coit, a prominent trader who was fluent in Spanish, had allowed him to trade with the Cuban growers.

Taylor had soon discovered that loans and investments provided returns that were as good as, or better than, those from the sugar business.

By the 1840s, his income was largely from interest and investments.

By 1847, Moses Taylor was listed as one of New York City's 25 millionaires.

When the Panic of 1837 allowed Astor to take over what was then City Bank of New York (Citibank), he had named Moses Taylor as director.

Taylor himself had doubled his fortune during the panic, and brought his growing financial connections to the bank.

He had acquired equity in the bank and in 1855 had become its president, operating it largely in support of his and his associates' businesses and investments.

In the 1850s, Taylor had invested in iron and coal, and had begun purchasing interest in the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad.

When the Panic of 1857 brought the railroad to the brink of bankruptcy, Moses had obtained control by purchasing its outstanding shares for five dollars a share.

Within seven years, the shares had become worth two hundred and forty collars, and the D. L. & W had become one of the premier railroads of the country.

By 1865, Taylor was holding twenty thousand shares worth almost fifty million dollars.

William M. Tweed has begun to form what will become known as the "Tweed Ring", by having his friends elected to office: George G. Barnard had been elected Recorder of New York City; Peter B. Sweeny had been elected New York County District Attorney; and Richard B. Connolly had been elected City Comptroller.

Tweed was born April 3, 1823 at 1 Cherry Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The son of a third-generation Scottish-Irish chair-maker, Tweed had grown up on Cherry Street.

At the age of eleven, he had left school to learn his father's trade, and then became an apprentice to a saddler.

He had also studied to be a bookkeeper and worked as a brushmaker for a company he had invested in, before eventually joining in the family business in 1852.

On September 29, 1844, he had married Mary Jane C. Skaden, and had lived with her family on Madison Street for two years.

Tweed had become a member of the Odd Fellows and the Masons, and had joined a volunteer fire company, Engine No. 12.

In 1848, at the invitation of state assemblyman John J. Reilly, he and some friends had organized the Americus Fire Company No. 6, also known as the "Big Six", as a volunteer fire company, which took as its symbol a snarling red Bengal tiger, a symbol which will remain associated with Tweed and Tammany Hall for many years.

At the time, volunteer fire companies competed vigorously with each other; some were connected with street gangs and had strong ethnic ties to various immigrant communities.

The competition could be so fierce that buildings would sometimes burn down while the fire companies fought each other.

Tweed had became known for his ax-wielding violence, and had soon been elected the Big Six foreman.

Pressure from Alfred Carlson, the chief engineer, had gotten him thrown out of the crew, but fire companies were also recruiting grounds for political parties at the time, and Tweed's exploits had come to the attention of the Democratic politicians who ran the Seventh Ward, who had put him up for Alderman in 1850, when Tweed was twenty-six.

Losing that election to the Whig candidate, he had run again the next year and won, garnering his first political position.

Tweed had won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1852, but his two-year term was undistinguished.

In an attempt by Republican reformers in Albany, the state capital, to control the Democratic-dominated New York City government, the power of the New York County Board of Supervisors had been beefed up.

The board has twelve members, six appointed by the mayor and six elected, and in 1858 Tweed had been appointed to the board, which became his first vehicle for large-scale graft; Tweed and other supervisors had forced vendors to pay a fifteen percent overcharge to their "ring" in order to do business with the city.

By 1853, Tweed was running the seventh ward for Tammany.

Although he was not trained as a lawyer, Tweed's friend Judge George G. Barnard had certified him as an attorney, and Tweed had opened a law office on Duane Street.

Defeated in his bid for sheriff in 1861, he had become the chairman of the Democratic General Committee shortly after the election, and had then been chosen to be the head of Tammany's general committee in January 1863.

Several months later, in April 1863, he had become "Grand Sachem", and began to be referred to as "Boss", especially after he tightened his hold on power by creating a small executive committee to run the club.

Tweed then took steps to increase his income: he used his law firm to extort money, which was then disguised as legal services; he had himself appointed deputy street commissioner—a position with considerable access to city contractors and funding; he bought the New-York Printing Company, which became the city's official printer, and the city's stationery supplier, the Manufacturing Stationers' Company, and had both companies begin to overcharge for their goods and services.

Jim Fisk has aided Daniel Drew, who had become treasurer of the Erie Railway, in the struggle against Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the railroad from 1866 to 1868.

To get revenge, Vanderbilt had tried to corner Erie stock, which led to the so-called Erie War, bringing him into direct conflict with Jay Gould and Fisk, who had just joined Drew on the Erie board.

New York state law restricts the number of shares a company can issue

However, Fisk and Gould have become involved with Tammany Hall, the New York City political ring, and Boss Tweed had arranged, through bribes, for legislation that had legitimized fake Erie stock certificates that Gould and Fisk had issued in large quantities

Vanderbilt, unaware of the increase in outstanding shares, had kept buying the “watered” Erie stock and sustained heavy losses

Eventually conceding control of the railroad to the trio, Vanderbilt had lost more than seven million dollars in his failed attempt, although Gould will later return most of the money after Vanderbilt uses the leverage of a lawsuit to get his losses back

Vanderbilt and Gould become public enemies

Gould will never get the better of Vanderbilt in any other important business matter, but he will often embarrass Vanderbilt, who uncharacteristically lashes out at Gould in public

By contrast, Vanderbilt will befriend his other foes after their fights ended, including Drew

Boss Tweed, in return for his role, receives a large block of stock and is made a director of the company.

James Fisk was born in the hamlet of Pownal, Vermont, in the township of Bennington on April Fool's Day.

After a brief period in school, he had run away in 1850 and joined Van Amberg's Mammoth Circus & Menagerie.

Later, he became a hotel waiter, and finally adopted the business of his father, a peddler.

He applied what he learned in the circus to his peddling and grew his father's business.

He then became a salesman for Jordan Marsh, a Boston dry goods firm.

A failure as a salesman, he had been sent to Washington, D.C., in 1861 to sell textiles to the government.

By his shrewd dealing in army contracts during the Civil War, and, by some accounts, cotton smuggling across enemy lines—in which he had enlisted the help of his father—he had accumulated considerable wealth, which he soon lost in speculation.

In 1864, Fisk had become a stockbroker in New York, and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer.

Boss Tweed had taken control of the New York City government following the election of 1869.

His protégé, John T. Hoffman, the former mayor of the city, had won election as governor, and Tweed had garnered the support of good government reformers like Peter Cooper and the Union League Club, by proposing a new city charter which returned power to City Hall at the expense of the Republican-inspired state commissions.

The new charter had passed, thanks in part to six hundred thousand dollars in bribes Tweed has paid to Republicans, and is signed into law by Hoffman in 1870.

Mandated new elections allow Tammany to take over the city's Common Council when they win all fifteen aldermanic contests.

The new charter puts control of the city's finances in the hands of a Board of Audit, which consists of Tweed, who is Commissioner of Public Works, Mayor A. Oakey Hall and Comptroller Richard "Slippery Dick" Connolly, both Tammany men.

Hall also appoints other Tweed associates to high offices—such as Peter B. Sweeny, who takes over the Department of Public Parks—providing the Tweed Ring with even firmer control of the New York City government and enabling them to defraud the taxpayers of many more millions of dollars.

In the words of Albert Bigelow Paine, "their methods were curiously simple and primitive. There were no skilful manipulations of figures, making detection difficult ... Connolly, as Controller, had charge of the books, and declined to show them. With his fellows, he also 'controlled' the courts and most of the bar." (Paine, Albert B. (1974). Th. Nast, His Period and His Pictures. Princeton: Pyne Press, p. 143)