Captain Isaiah Rynders was an American businessman, sportsman, underworld figure and political organizer for Tammany Hall.
17 Facts About Isaiah Rynders
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Isaiah Rynders 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.
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Isaiah Rynders was similarly successful in the presidential elections of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, the latter appointing him US Marshal of the Southern District of New York.
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Isaiah Rynders was said to have "sometimes permitted his love of the Irish and hatred for the English to upset his judgment", however he recognized the value of using the numerous street gangs for Tammany Hall.
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Isaiah Rynders later established a network of saloons and gambling parlors which supported his political club and generated revenue for Tammany Hall.
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Isaiah Rynders originally operated from Sweeney's House of Refreshment, an Ann Street tavern popular with volunteer firefighters, before founding the Empire Club in 1843.
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Isaiah Rynders was alleged to have been involved in instigating the Astor Place Riot in 1849.
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Isaiah Rynders later made trips to Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans where he advised local Democratic leaders on Tammany-style machine politics.
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Isaiah Rynders was a particularly important figure in civil disturbances against abolitionists during the period encountering such people as Frederick Douglass and Abby Gibbons.
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Henry Ward Beecher invited Phillips to speak at Plymouth Church and, when a mob led by Isaiah Rynders followed Phillips, he and his followers were met by a group of well-armed men who defended the building.
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Isaiah Rynders was involved in the successful presidential elections of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, during the presidential elections of 1852 and 1856 respectively, and was appointed by Buchanan as US Marshal for the Southern District of New York in 1857.
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On June 9,1854, Isaiah Rynders married 20-year-old Phoebe Shotwell, the last surviving child of real estate mogul John Shotwell and Phoebe Byron, in Washington, DC For a brief time during this period, he renamed his political organization the Americus Club and switched his allegiances to the Know Nothings causing a deep rift between him and his Irish supporters, most notably his protege John Morrissey.
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Isaiah Rynders's reputation suffered considerably after this point and Morrissey eventually replaced Rynders as head of the Sixth Ward.
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Isaiah Rynders remained in politics, attending the 1860 Democratic National Convention as a regular member of the New York delegation.
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Isaiah Rynders reported that he had heard rumors that Russell was residing in Philadelphia but that he did not believe the report.
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Isaiah Rynders was among several Tammany political leaders who opposed the American Civil War, going so far as to support Mayor Fernando Wood's proposal to take New York City out of the Union, and later fought the federal government over conscription prior to the New York Draft Riots in 1863.
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Isaiah Rynders was portrayed in the historical novel The Furies by John Jakes and Lucrecia Mott by Dorothy Sterling.