Tammany Hall and the Presidency

Report Outline
“The New Tammany Hall”

In every presidential election since the establishment of the federal government, the State of New York has cast the largest number of electoral votes given to any state. Its present number of electoral votes—45—exceeds the total of all states west of the Rocky mountains, It is natural, therefore, that major political parties should compete for the favor of New York, and that the state should exercise a considerable influence in the selection of their presidential tickets.

In presidential elections held during the last century, excluding that decided by the House of Representatives in 1825, the electoral votes of New York were cast 12 times for Jeffersonian Republican or Democratic candidates, and 12 times for candidates of the Federalist, Whig or present-day Republican parties.

New York voted on the losing side in only four elections during the last century—for DeWitt Clinton, Frémont, Seymour and Tilden. And during the first quarter of the present century it voted only once on the losing side—for Hughes in 1916. With the exception of Frémont, all of these candidates were New Yorkers.