in filibustering and gerrymandering, in stealing governorships
and legislatures, in using force at the polls, in colonizing and
in distributing patronage to whom patronage is due, in all the
frauds and tricks that go to make up the worst form of practical
politics, the men who founded our state and national governments
were always our equals, and often our masters." And this at a
time when only propertied persons could vote in any of the States
and when only professed Christians could either vote or hold
office in two of them!

While Washington was President, Tammany Hall, the first municipal
machine, began its career; and presently George Clinton, Governor
of New York, and his nephew, DeWitt Clinton, were busy organizing
the first state machine. The Clintons achieved their purpose
through the agency of a Council of Appointment, prescribed by the
first Constitution of the State, consisting of the Governor and
four senators chosen by the legislature. This council had the
appointment of nearly all the civil officers of the State from
Secretary of State to justices of the peace and auctioneers,
making a total of 8287 military and 6663 civil offices. As the
emoluments of some of these offices were relatively high, the
disposal of such patronage was a plum-tree for the politician.
The Clintons had been Anti-Federalists and had opposed the
adoption of the Constitution. In 1801 DeWitt Clinton became a
member of the Council of Appointment and soon dictated its
action. The head of every Federalist office-holder fell.
Sheriffs, county clerks, surrogates, recorders, justices by the
dozen, auctioneers by the score, were proscribed for the benefit
of the Clintons. De Witt was sent to the United States Senate in
1802, and at the age of thirty-three he found himself on the