Tammany, Tamendy, or Tammenund was an Indian chief of the Delaware nation who lived about the middle of the seventeenth century. He was a great friend of the whites, and was famous in tradition for so many other virtues that in the latter days of the Revolution he was facetiously adopted as the patron saint of the new republic. A society called the Tammany Society was founded in New York city, May 12, 1789, originally for benevolent purposes, but it ultimately developed into a mere political engine, becoming the principal instrument of the managers of the Democratic party in New York City. The number of the general committee arose to over 1,400, delegates ultimately being sent from each district and precinct; and finally a central " committee on organization" was chosen from this unwieldy body, whose chairman was "boss" of the hall. The most notorious of these "bosses" was William M. Tweed, whose gigantic frauds, and those of the "ring" of which he was the chief, were finally exposed in 1871; Tweed was convicted, and died in gaol while suits were pending against him for the recovery by the city of $6,000,000. This catastrophe sadly crippled the power of Tammany, but its influence in politics was by no means killed even then, and it has since, with its leaning towards a protective tariff, proved a constant source of insecurity and danger to the Democratic party at large.

Its influence was thrown into the scale against Hancock, successfully, in 1880, and against Cleveland, unsuccessfully, in 1884; and the organization is still strong enough to carry its candidate for the mayoralty, even against a combination of opposing forces.