Levi D. Slamm was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 labor leader, the editor of the Daily Plebeian, a radical Democrat and a leader of New York City’s Locofocos

Locofocos

The Locofocos were a radical faction of the Democratic Party that existed from 1835 until the mid-1840s.  The faction was originally named the Equal Rights Party, and was created in New York City as a protest against that city’s regular Democratic organization .  It contained a mixture of...

.

Slamm was appointed Purser in the United States Navy on November 30, 1846 by President James K. Polk

James K. Polk

James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...

 following the death of Purser Richard Russell Waldron

Richard Russell Waldron

Richard Russell Waldron was a purser "and special agent" in the Wilkes Expedition, together with younger brother Thomas Westbrook Waldron . Cape Waldron in Antarctica, and perhaps Waldron Island in Washington state, were named after him. Waldron Ledge overlooking the Hawaiian Kilauea Crater is...

 on October 30th. By one account (Sam Colt's Own Record, ed. John E. Parsons, 1949, p. 5) Slamm sailed aboard the Corvo from Boston under Capt. Jeremiah Spalding in August, 1830 together with Samuel Colt

Samuel Colt

Samuel Colt was an American inventor and industrialist. He was the founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company , and is widely credited with popularizing the revolver. Colt's innovative contributions to the weapons industry have been described by arms historian James E...

 the firearms inventor (Slamm received a presentation inscribed cased Model 1851 Navy revolver from Colt - see Book of Colt Engraving, R. L. Wilson). Soon after his naval appointment Slamm married Jane E. Morsell in December, 1846.

Importantly, he joined the Locofocos and soon became one of the most influential, in part through his publication of the radical periodical the Daily Plebeian. The New York Herald nicknamed the Locofocos "Slamm, Bang, and Company" in reference to Levi and another party leader, Henry Bangs. In 1838, together with Locofocos Alexander Ming Jr. and Charles Ferris, Slamm struck a deal with the Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...

General Committee to adopt the entire Locofoco's radical Declaration of Rights, thus uniting the two halves of New York's Democratic Party that had been in schism since 1835.