A political association in New York, organized to support the policy of Thomas Jefferson, and continued under Democratic auspices. See Notes and Queries, 10 S. ix. 126, 154, 278; and ‘Encycl. Britannica.’ The name is that of an Indian chief, with whom William Penn negotiated for land. In course of time this chief was jocularly or ignorantly called “Saint Tammany” or “King Tammany”; and a festival was kept in his honour on old May-day. For examples of the word before it assumed a political tone see the N.E.D.
1788. ‘American Museum,’ iv. 308–9: Letter in reply to “Bellisarius,” signed “Tammany,” Nov. 2, 1786: to which “A Poor Soldier” rejoins:—“The old man asked me if I had seen the letter signed Tammany.—I told him I had; and who is Tammany? said the blind man; Tammany, said I, is the tutelar saint and patron of America.”
1794. The opera of ‘Tammany; or, America discovered,’ was advertised in the Gazette of the U.S., Phila., Nov. 8.
1808. A tribe of savages in New York, called the “Tammany Society,” lately addressed a letter to Mr. Jefferson, in which they flattered him egregiously.—The Balance, April 26, p. 66.
1842. Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, was founded by William Mooney, an upholsterer residing in the city of New-York, some time in the administration of President Washington. The institution takes its name from the celebrated Indian chief Tammany, whose attachment to liberty was greater than his love of life.—J. D. Hammond, ‘History of Political Parties,’ i. 340. [There was a Tammany Club, which met on May 1, 1772, and which may have been the nucleus of the larger organization.]
