(NEW YORK CITY) George Graham; engraver Tammany Society memb

Sale 2546 - Lot 167

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(NEW YORK CITY.) George Graham; engraver. Tammany Society membership certificate issued to the notorious Daniel Sickles. Engraving, 25 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches, completed in manuscript with name of recipient Daniel Sickles, the date, and signatures of three officers including Grand Sachem Clarkson Crolius, with intact seal; worn and restored, laid down on Japanese paper, not examined out of mat. New York, 10 December 1840

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New York's Tammany Society was founded in 1789 as a fraternal order with American Indian trappings, and by 1800 had become important in the city's Democratic-Republican politics. They would develop into the dominant force in New York's Democratic Party over the course of the 19th century, most notably under Boss Tweed.
This example of their membership certificate (engraved before 1801) is especially noteworthy for the name of its recipient, a 21-year-old aspiring lawyer named Daniel Sickles. He used his Tammany connections to rise quickly through the ranks of New York politics: the state assembly in 1847, city counsel in 1853, United States Congress in 1856. His personal life was . . . colorful. He married a 16-year-old Italian girl, then carried on a very public affair with renowned courtesan Fanny White while leaving his pregnant wife at home. In 1859 he shot and killed a Washington politician for having an affair with his wife, and in the subsequent murder trial became the first American acquitted on the grounds of temporary insanity. Did this end his career? No, he was made a general in the Civil War, where he famously disobeyed an order at Gettysburg and lost his leg during the ensuing assault on his exposed unit. His postwar resumé included stints as Minister to Spain, New York sheriff, and congressman. Perhaps none of this would have been possible without his support from the Tammany machine?