Isaiah Rynders

Captain Isaiah Rynders (1804 – January 3, 1885) was an American businessman, sportsman, underworld figure and political organizer for Tammany Hall. Founder of the Empire Club, a powerful political organization in New York during the mid-19th century, his "sluggers" committed voter intimidation and election fraud on behalf of Tammany Hall throughout the 1840s and 1850s before Tammany became an exclusively Irish-dominated institution.

He held considerable influence in Tammany Hall for twenty-five years and was credited for delivering New York to James K. Polk and securing his election as President of the United States. He was similarly successful in the presidential elections of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, the latter appointing him U.S. Marshal of the Southern District of New York. Although Rynders Street (now part of Centre Street) is sometimes said to have been named in his honor, the street name was in use as early as 1794, prior to his birth.

Although nominally loyal to Tammany for the majority of his career, his Empire Club heading the fight against the nativist Know Nothing movement for over a decade, Rynders aligned himself with the Know Nothings for a brief period during the 1850s. This eventually brought him into conflict with his former protégé John Morrissey who would eventually replace him as political boss of the Sixth Ward.

Biography

Born to a German-American father and an Irish Protestant mother, Rynders first appeared in New York City during the mid-1830s, after a brief career as a professional gambler and pistol-and-knife fighter on the Mississippi River, and soon became involved in local politics.

An enthusiastic supporter of Tammany Hall, he established himself as one of the most politically skilled organizers in the city. He was said to have "sometimes permitted his love of the Irish and hatred for the English to upset his judgment", however he also recognized the value of using the numerous street gangs for Tammany Hall.