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T.
L E T T E R S
AND
LITERARY MEMORIALS
OF
SAMUEL J. TILDEN
EDITED BY
JOHN BIGELOW, LL.D
VOL. 1
NEW YORK AND LONDON
II A R PER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1908
Copyright, 190S, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
Published February, 1908.
Shortly before the death of the late Samuel J. Tilden, and in compliance with his wishes, a selection was made by our senior colleague from such of Mr. Tilden s public writings and speeches as were then conveniently accessible and seemed then responsive to a popular demand. This selection ivas edited and published in 1885.
The forty-second section of the will of Mr. Tilden, who died in the following year, provided as follows:
"I also authorize my said Executors and Trustees to collect and publish in such form as they may deem proper my speeches and public documents, and such other writings and papers as they may think expedient to include with the same, which shall be done under their direction. The ex- penses thereof shall be paid out of my estate. My Trustees and Executors are authorized and empowered to burn and destroy any of my letters, papers or other documents, whether printed or in manuscript, which in their judgment will answer no useful purpose to preserve."
In discharge of the duty imposed on us by this clause of the testator's will, we have selected such portions of a vast correspondence ivith, or relating to, the testator as give promise of answering a useful purpose; and at our solici- tation Mr. Bigelow has undertaken to edit and publish them in a form that shall harmonize with, and be complementary to, the volume of " Speeches and Writings of Mr. Tilden," already in print.
John Bigelow, \ Executors
Georg'e W. Smith, > and L. V. F. Eandolph. ) Trustees-
PREFACE OF THE EPITOK
At an early period of his life Samuel J. Tildcn seems to have had a sense of its importance not ordinarily felt by youth of his age. This may be accounted for in part by the circumstance that while barely out of his teens, both by pen and speech, he had secured the respectful attention of many of the leading statesmen of his generation. At school he preserved all his composition exercises, and from that time to the close of his life it may well be doubted if he ever wrote a note or document of any kind of which he did not preserve the draft or a copy. As the events with which he had to deal came to assume, as they naturally did, in- creasing importance with his years, one or more corrected drafts were made of important papers, most, if not all, of which were carefully preserved.
As what may fitly enough be termed Mr. Tilden's public life covered more than half a century, during most of which time he was one of the recognized leaders of one of the great parties of the country, the public will learn without surprise that the accumulations of social, political, and docu- mentary correspondence which fell into the hands of his executors, to be measured by the ton, embraced among its topics almost every important political question by which this nation has been agitated since the accession of General Andrew Jackson to the Presidency in 1829.
A collection of Tilden's Public Writings and Speeches was published in 1885, only a year before his death, but very little of his private correspondence appeared in that publication.
The duty imposed upon his executors of looking through such a vast collection of papers and selecting such as would be profitable for publication has been a long and a very te-
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
dious one. They indulge the hope, however, that the volumes now submitted will be found to shed upon the history of our country during the latter half of the last century much light unlikely to be reflected wTith equal lustre from any other quarter. It will also, they believe, help to transmit to posterity a juster sense than as yet generally prevails of the majestic proportions of one of the most gifted statesmen our country has produced.
Tilden may be said to have fleshed his maiden sword in politics as a champion of President Jackson in his war against the recharter of a United States bank of discount and deposit. He next became somewhat more personally conspicuous as a fervent champion of Mr. Van Buren's sub- stitute for the national bank, now known as the Assistant Treasury.
In 1848 he led the revolt of the Democratic party in New York State against the creation of five slave States, with their ten slave-holding Senators, out of the Territory of Texas. Among the immediate results of this revolt were the defeat of General Cass, the Democratic candidate for President, and the development of a Free-soil party, which later took the name of the Republican, nominated and elected Abra- ham Lincoln to the Presidency — synchronously with which, and for the first time in the nation's history, the decennial census of 1860 disclosed the fact that the political su- premacy of the nation had been transferred to the non-slave- holding States.
Though averse to resisting the secession of the slave States by flagrant war, Tilden did his best and much during the war to prevent an irreconcilable alienation of the people of the two sections, while at the same time building up for himself a reputation in his profession scarcely second to that of any other in the country; and by it, before he had reached the fiftieth year of his age, a fortune which made him no longer dependent upon it for his livelihood.
The first public use he made of this independence was to retrieve the fortunes of the Democratic party by deliver- ing the city of New York from a municipal combination which was threatening it Avith bankruptcy.
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Of Tilden's many achievements as a public servant, it may well be doubted if there was any for which he deserves so much honor as for his part in the overthrow of this pil- laging combination, familiarly known as the Tweed Ring, nor any for which it seems so entirely impossible to have then provided another equally competent leader who could and would have given the time, incurred the expense, and assumed the risks that Mr. Tilden did when, with no personal advantage in view, he boldly consecrated several of what might have been the most lucrative years of his professional life to this desperate battle with intrenched municipal villany.
The people of the State were not slow to realize that a man with the courage, power, and resources exhibited by Mr. Tilden in this memorable conflict was precisely the kind of man needed by them for Governor; and while yet wearied with the fatigue and covered with the dust of this municipal struggle, lie was constrained by his admirers to enter the lists as a candidate against General Dix, the Re- publican candidate for that office. The result was a change of about 100,000 votes from the number by which Governor Dix had been elected two years before, and Tilden's tri- umphant election to his place.
Without doffing his armor, and even before his investiture with his new robes of office, he instituted an elaborate in- vestigation of the canals of the State; so that he had been but a few weeks in office before he was engaged with numer- ically a far more formidable foe than the one over, which he had just triumphed, but one for which his official position happily equipped him with, far .superior resources. His triumph over the Canal Ring of the State was consequently so short, quick, and decisive as to give him a national repu- tation, and to make him, long before his term of office at Albany expired, the inevitable candidate of his party to succeed General Grant for the Presidency. He was unani- mously nominated by the Democratic National Convention, held at St. Louis in 1S76, on the second ballot, and was elected by a popular majority of over 250,000. He was then destined to receive a distinction never shared by any
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President of the United States, of being an elect of the people for that office, which, by the operation of a tribunal unknown to the Constitution, was given to another.
For the remaining ten years of his life Tilden's health prevented his being wholly a candidate or wholly not a candidate, so reluctant were his numerous friends to give up all hope of such a restoration of health as would enable him to resume once more the leadership of his party. In this they were disappointed.
Thus for more than half a century Mr. Tilden was a shaper and a maker of American history. What kind of history and by what means it was made these volumes are expected to render more clear to the world, and his fame perhaps more enduring.
Mr. Tilden's life, like that of Israel's second king, was, as we have seen, a life of almost constant warfare, and of course he was always more or less liable to be viewed by partisan eyes and judged with only partial justice. None of us can judge himself quite correctly until he can look back upon his conduct after a considerable lapse of years. So we only see a public man as he is entitled to be seen, as Moses was permitted to see his Lord: after He had passed. It is to be hoped that sufficient time has elapsed since Tilden was taken from us to enable us to see by the reflection of his life in this correspondence how lofty was the plane of his entire public life, and how correctly he judged his qualifications for a successful political career when he said that his party standards were too high for the multitude. They were too high, unquestionably, for what is commonly understood as success in politics. It would have been easy for him — as these pages will show — to have been President had his ethical standards been nearer the average of those of the parties of his time.
Without presuming to institute any invidious compari- sons, I have no hesitation in expressing my conviction that neither in the writings, speeches, or literary remains of any President of the United States thus far will be found more suggestions profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for the instruction of anv American who
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aspires to be a maker of a nation's laws or an adminis- trator of them, than will be found in Mr. Tilden's Writings, Speeches, and Correspondence.
With the permission of Messrs. Houghton & Mifflin, I have prefixed to these volumes an " Appreciation " of Mr. Tilden by the late James Coolidge Carter, which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of October, 1892. Mr. Carter's eminence at the American bar and forum, and his relations, both personal and professional, with Mr. Tilden, give value to his judgment of his deceased friend which, both for the honor of himself and of Mr. Tilden, is entitled to all the prominence that can be given to it in these volumes.
MR. TILDEN
AN APPRECIATION, BY JAMES C. CARTER
My acquaintance with Governor Tilden began a few years before the War of the Rebellion, and my first im- pressions were not favorable to him. Completely dominated by the combined and swelling impulse of patriotism, pas- sion, and aspiration under which the Republican party was then gathering its mighty hosts, I was in no condition to tolerate anything in the nature of opposition to the move- ment, or even to appreciate the reasons upon which any such opposition might be founded.
It was not until the war was over, when the passions had subsided, when it became necessary to cultivate the arts of peace and to restore the waste and ruin which war had wrought, that I was inclined to extend any hospitality to the qualities for which he was most distinguished, or to lend any ear to his teachings. Drawn from year to year into a nearer acquaintance with him, and having occasion, when he came to fill stations of influence and power, to observe the ready sagacity and easy skill with which he con- ceived and carried through important measures for the re- dress of errors and frauds in public administration, I became more and more impressed with his prodigious superiority to other men.
What he would have been able to accomplish had he been permitted to assume the functions of the great office to which the majority of his countrymen believed him to have been elected is matter of idle conjecture only; but the list of his achievements during the few years in which, upon a nar- rower theatre, he acted a public part can hardly be matched. Omitting from view the splendid contributions made by him
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from time to time, prior to 1871, by papers and speeches upon the principles of politics and the methods of govern- mental administration, and taking note only of the practical measures in the conception and execution of which he was the leader during the five short years in which, either as a private citizen or as public officer, he was actually engaged in the public service, we can distinctly impute to him the following results: In 1871 he seized the opportunity; suggest- ed by the disclosure and publication of the prodigious sums drawn from the New York city treasury by way of pretended payment of municipal debts, to endeavor to fasten upon the principal city officials the crime, universally suspected, but of which there was no proof, of having corruptly embezzled to an enormous extent the moneys of the city. By a long and patient tracing of a multitude of accounts in different banks, he reached a series of results which, when compared, not only disclosed but conclusively demonstrated, by com- petent legal evidence, the whole scheme of fraud, the offi- cials engaged in it, and the amounts received by each. Although a strict party man and chairman of the Demo- cratic State Committee, yet, finding that the Democratic organization of the city of New York could not be wrested from the control of the official delinquents, he organized and led the popular movement which effected their over- throw. He accepted, at the same time, a nomination for the legislature, was elected, and extorted from a reluctant majority the impeachment of the corrupt judges who had disgraced the judicial ermine. In 1874, when the craze for fiat money had become prevalent throughout a great part of the country, and more threatening to the public prosperity than the free-silver delusion has at any time been, he drew from the Democratic State Convention of New York the first condemnation which it had received from either of the national parties. Elected in that year as Governor of the State, he conceived an extensive series of reforms in ad- ministration, drew the necessary legislative bills, secured their adoption, and carried them into effect. These plans contemplated, by the adoption of new methods and various economies, extensive reductions in the public expenditures,
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the institution of suits for the punishment of frauds of public officers, and the recovery of moneys embezzled by them. They had very large practical results.
Nor was he less efficient in baffling mischievous schemes. The Democratic organization of Tammany Hall, reorgan- ized, after the overthrow of Tweed, under the leadership of John Kelly, an able and not dishonest partisan chief, de- manded from the Democratic majority in the legislature the passage of laws designed to secure to that organization a more complete control of the municipal patronage. Gov- ernor Tilden refused to lend his countenance to this policy, and the imperious leader undertook to force him into acqui- escence by forming a combination in the legislature with the numerous adherents and stipendiaries of what was known as the Canal Ring. That coterie of men, powerful in both parties, had already scented the peril to their prac- tices threatened by the Governor's reformatory plans, and were only too willing to join in a warfare against him. He suddenly found himself in danger of being deserted by a majority of his own party. The Democratic Speaker of the Assembly took the floor, and arraigned him as unfaith- ful to the Democracy of the State. He had long before seen the possibility of this combination against him, and had sought by the practice of all the conciliatory arts, of which he was a thorough master, to prevent it. When it came, he was not daunted by it, but boldly went behind his enemies to the constituencies which they were betraying. They soon found that they were dealing with an adversary who possessed resources which they had not taken into ac- count. Most of them abandoned their opposition. The rest were severely dealt with by their constituents.
Never were the possibilities for good of a great office like that of Governor of New York so happily devel- oped and displayed. In the course of an administration of two years, an enormous reduction in taxation was effected; the administrative system in every department was im- proved; the lobby was almost dispersed; and at the same time the Governor, in his communications with the public through his annual messages, his veto messages, ami speeches
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upon official and other public occasions, was furnishing to the people of the State, and indeed of the whole country, a nearly complete exposition, theoretical and practical, of the whole work of public administration. I have never read a state paper which, equals his second annual message in the power and ease with which it treats of the principles upon which government should be conducted, or in the order and perspicuity with which it arranges and sets forth the details of public business. In this paper he considers at much length the then depressed condition of business, its causes, and the proper remedies. It may be thought — was thought at the time by some — that this was going beyond the do- main of state affairs in order to make an ambitious display of knowledge upon the larger concerns of the nation ; but it would be well if every man possessing such knowledge as is here exhibited, and such a capacity for communicating it, would embrace all opportunities to display it. Governor Tilden, however, had a special motive in placing his views before the country at that time. He saw the false policy of indefinite issues of government legal - tender currency everywhere taking hold of the public mind, and that, unless speedily corrected, it would acquire a force to which the timidity of political leaders would submit. He had already induced a convention of the Democratic party in New York to take ground against it. He wished to draw forth a simi- lar declaration from the Democracy of the nation, at its next convention for the nomination of a President. He succeeded ; and to his influence, probably, more than to that of any other man, we owe the downfall of the paper-money delusion.
An attempt to analyze the rare combination of talents and faculties which enabled him to accomplish so much in a period so brief may not be uninteresting. His original intellectual endowments were of the highest order. They were not of that character which, while leaving their pos- sessor satisfied with some hasty and superficial conclusions that at the moment seem true, enable him to impress them upon others by fervid and moving language. These are the intellectual traits most frequently exhibited by the ablest
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men whom our public life brings into notice ; but they do not make up the scientific mind which Governor Tilden's pre- eminently was. At the beginning of his intellectual man- hood he clearly perceived that the whole moral world was as rigidly as the physical world subject to an order, an arrangement, a law; and that all policies, whether in gov- ernment, in finance, or in business, not founded upon a recognition of this truth would result in confusion and mis- chief. Naturally attracted to the study of the public econ- omy of States, his first aim was to discover the laws govern- ing: everv part of that extensive domain. Whether the theme was expenditure, taxation, private or public justice, internal improvements, or any form of public administration, he would make no utterance until his brooding mind had reached what he conceived to be the underlying truth; and the same trait was manifest in him where the purpose was not to refute or establish a general policy, but to ascertain, in a particular case, the truth upon a disputed question of fact.
This was well illustrated in his defence, in 1856, of the title of Azariah C. Flagg to the office of comptroller of the city of New York, against the claim of John S. Giles. Flagg had been declared elected by the Board of County Canvassers. He was a man of resolute integrity, had held the office before this election, and, by his obstinate defence of the city treasury against unjust and fraudulent claims, had drawn upon himself the hatred of the municipal plun- derers, and earned from them the title of " Old Skinflint." His enemies had made a combined and desperate effort to defeat his re-election, and, having failed by a few votes only, they determined, upon the pretence of an erroneous return, to make an attempt to oust him from his office by a judicial proceeding and install Giles in his place. For this purpose they fixed upon the vote of the first district of the Nineteenth Ward, the majority of the election officers of which were bitter enemies of Flagg. Their pretence was that the re- turn of the district election officers giving 31 G votes for Flagg and 186 for Giles was a clerical error, by which Giles' vote was awarded to Flagg and Flagg's vote to Giles.
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Three of the election officers who signed and filed this re- turn were sworn as witnesses for Giles, and positively testi- fied that the vote as actually counted was just the reverse of the return; that Giles had 316 votes, and Flagg 186. The original tally-list of the regular tickets, which would have shown the truth, had been conveniently lost, but these witnesses produced what they swore was the original tally- list of the split tickets, and upon which was a pretended transfer of the votes on regular tickets, which they swore was correct, and this fully supported their statements. Other witnesses on the same side testified that they were present at the close of the counting on the day of the election, and heard the result proclaimed, and that it gave 316 to Giles and only 186 to Flagg. This formidable case could be overthrown only by showing that these witnesses were per- jurers, and this pretended split tally-list a forgery. Tilden had no doubt that this was the fact, but he had no direct evidence to prove it. He was a determined enemy of these base conspirators and a close friend and ardent admirer of Flagg, and he was resolved that the fraudulent scheme should not succeed. Acting upon the assumption that a lie has no place in the regular order of nature, but is something violently thrust into that order and will not fit the surround- ing and attendant facts, he laboriously endeavored to bring into light, so far as possible, all those surrounding and at- tending facts. It so happened that this election was a con- test between numerous factions, and that there were seven regular tickets voted; that is, tickets having uniformly the same names and for the same offices ; and there were twelve candidates for the various city offices on each ticket. There were also many split tickets, created by erasure of one or more names from a regular ticket, or otherwise. Here was fruitful material for the exercise of Tilden's powers of in- vestigation. He demonstrated, and with mathematical cer- tainty, by an analysis and comparison of the actual returns of votes for all the candidates on these tickets, that the pretence of Giles was a pure fabrication. At the close of his argument he threw his demonstration into a dramatic form, which created such an impression that, as Mr. Charles
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MR. TILDEN: AN APPRECIATION
O'Connor, who was associated with Mr. Tilden, once told me, the case of the plaintiff Giles was utterly defeated be- fore the defendant had called a witness. It was, of course, difficult for the jurors to carry in their minds the numerous figures which made up the demonstration. Something was needed to impress upon them the result. For this Tilden pitched upon the lost original tally-sheet of the regular vote. It was upon the amount of Flagg's regular vote that the whole controversy turned. If the contents of that lost tally could be shown, all doubt would be dispelled. Said he, " I propose now, gentlemen, to submit this case to a process as certain as a geometrical demonstration. I propose to evoke from the grave that lost tally; to reproduce it here, to con- front and confound these witnesses who have been upon the stand swearing to what is not true. It is an honest ghost. It will disturb no true man." And he did it triumphantly. Handing to the jurors sheets containing copies of the regular tickets, and selecting a name which was found on only one of these tickets, that of Samuel Allen for street commis- sioner, he called off from the actual return to the Board of County Canvassers, and the jurors set down Allen's vote, which was 215. It necessarily followed that every other name on that ticket must have received the same number, or the ticket would not be regular. Proceeding in the same way with all the names on all the tickets, and then deducting the regular vote from the whole vote as shown by the actual return, and thus obtaining the split votes for each candidate, and comparing these results, except as to Flagg and Giles, with the tally-sheet of the splits which had been produced by the witnesses for Giles, and which was presumably cor- rect, except in respect to the vote for Flagg and Giles, he slowly, step by step, re-created an original tally of the regu- lar ticket, which, when increased by the split votes shown on the split tally-list, corresponded in every particular with the actual return to the county canvassers except as to three unimportant names, and as to these it was manifest that the actual return was erroneous. Each juror found, at the close of the calling, that he held in his hands what he could not but believe was an absolutely accurate count of the votes in
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the first district of the Nineteenth Ward for all the candi- dates voted upon, for whatever office, at the election under investigation. The hideous monstrosity of the figures as- signed to Elagg and Giles in the split tally-list became so palpable that none could doubt. It is needless to add that when the case was finally submitted to the jury they imme- diately returned with a verdict for " Old Skinflint."
He employed a similar method in the case of what was called the Six Million Audit fraud of Tweed and his accomplices. That the payment of this enor- mous sum was a gigantic fraud no one could doubt; but there was no proof showing lioiv much of the payments was in excess of what was due to the claimants, or among whom the excess was divided, and how much to one and how much to another. Mr. Tilden unlocked this mystery. He went to the banks in which the conspirators kept their accounts, and by a patient decomposition of the credits into the orig- inal items, as shown by the deposit tickets, evolved the plun- derers' rule of division. Applying this rule to any one of the hundreds of paid city warrants embraced in this series of frauds, and without going beyond the face of the warrant, it could be determined how much each of the conspirators received; and the determination would be verified by find- ing, upon examining the bank accounts and deposit tickets of the same parties, that they had received on the day of the payment of the warrants the same sums which, accord- ing to the rule applied, they ought to have received. It vexed Mr. Tilden very much that the shares of the con- spirators, as thus computed, did not correspond with perfect exactitude to the amounts deposited to their credit. The difference, being trifling in amount, hardly affected the con- clusiveness of the demonstration ; but it showed that there was some element in the rule of division which he had not discovered. The missing link was subsequently found, and then the conformity between the computed and the actual shares was in every instance exact to a penny. This divi- sion and conformity, appearing upon the face of the accounts themselves, proved with absolute certainty the conspiracy to defraud, the amounts of the embezzlements, and the pre-
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cise shares received by each. Had Mr. Tilden been present at the meetings of the conspirators and witnessed their divi- sion of the spoils, he could not have given evidence so con- clusive of the fraud as that which he thus drew from written memoranda which the conspirators had thoughtlessly allowed to be made.
It was indeed wonderful to observe how a man who could study these dry details with such patience, and even with pleasure, could pass at once into the fields of political science and compel a wholly different class of facts to yield to him the loftiest generalizations. But in truth the process was the same in both instances. It was the original investiga- tion of facts for the purpose of framing a just theory. It is a common practice, even with able men, to disparage the conclusions founded upon the employment of the reasoning powers as being mere theory; as if their own conclusions, so far as they have any value, were reached in any other way. These are the criticisms of men who are too indolent to engage in the work of patient investigation, or not suffi- ciently instructed in the methods by which it should be pur- sued. Undoubtedly there are many minds that undertake the task of evolving the laws underlying some subject mat- ter and reach conclusions which are confidently believed and asserted to be true, but that turn out when adopted in practice to be erroneous. It is in this way that the results of investigation and reasoning are brought into discredit. But the fault in such cases is not that the conclusions are those of mere theory, but of erroneous theory. The reasoner lacks the patience, or the skill, to embrace in his investiga- tion all the material facts, and to exclude all others. These are, indeed, the rarest of qualities. They are possessed in an eminent degree by a few men only in each generation, and the value of such men to society is inestimable. Gov- ernor Tildon's pre - eminence was especially manifest here. His educated intelligence was able to pronounce, as if by instinct, whether the conclusion lie had reached was suffi- ciently certain to be made the basis of action, or was so encumbered with doubt as to call for further scrutiny into the facts. He knew how — to use his own happy phrase —
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" to limit theory by practice and enlighten practice by theory."
The mere pursuit of truth, the pleasure which comes from the actual exercise of superior powers, the sense of satisfac- tion which arises from the overcoming of difficulties, would have been a sufficient reward and stimulus to a mind like his ; but this was not his principal motive. His chief aim was to convince others ; and he knew that this could be done only by the effective use of language. He recognized the importance of the art of rhetoric, and labored upon the composition of his papers with the same care which the purely literary man employs ; not for the purpose of making up a piece of what is called fine writing, but to engage and hold the attention by imparting life and interest to his treat- ment, and, by an easy and natural development of his sub- ject, to carry the mind gratefully along towards his con- clusions. It would be hard to find better examples of the way in which subjects apt to be regarded as dull may be made lively and interesting, and yet without departing in the slightest degree from a rigid and logical development, than are found in his report, while a member of the legis- lature of New York, upon the causes of the anti-rent dis- orders and the proper remedy for them; or his speech in the constitutional convention of that State in 1867, unfold- ing the true policy to be pursued in relation to the canals ; or his second annual message when Governor in 1876. I find, on the page at which I open a volume of his speeches and writings, the following sentence, which well illustrates the ease and power with which he could clothe weighty truths in their appropriate language : " Generations, like individ- uals, do not completely understand inherited wisdom until they have reproduced it in their own experience."
These high intellectual traits would have made him a man of mark had he been a philosophical recluse holding himself aloof from the busy activities of life; but the ex- traordinary thing was that he was at all times emphatically a man of action. Whether engaged in the conduct of some great lawsuit or of some important business enterprise, or managing a political campaign, he was equally at home.
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The schemes of small party chieftains and the power of local bosses gave way before his masterful leadership. lie did not despise the aid of partisan machinery or of official patronage; but he fully perceived that the scope and influ- ence of these instrumentalities were narrow, and that, unless held rigidly secondary and subordinate, they would obstruct, rather than aid, the march of a political party. Profoundly convinced of the truth of the political creed which he avowed, he engaged in political warfare only to secure its permanent establishment. Any victory won by shifty ex- pedients he knew would be but temporary, and would not fail to retard a lasting success. At the same time he recog- nized the fact that no main purpose of a political party could ever be carried except by the permanent union of men dif- fering from each other upon a multitude of minor points, and exhibiting every grade of culture, character, and con- duct. Compromise and concession be recognized as the daily duties of the statesman. He had little regard for those im- practicable natures which refuse to join any party because they find something to object to in all parties. He was the last man to yield to self-conceit and obstinacy the titles of conscience and wisdom. Such men, he once declared, for- get " that without concession there can be no' common action for a common object, and that without the capability of such action a man is fit, not for society, not even for a state of nature, but only for absolute solitude." I wonder that the mugwump - haters have not borrowed his description of some non-partisans of his day: " I know there is a class of no-party men who vindicate their claim to that character by doing injustice to all, even without the excuse of bias."
Put how far should you carry the spirit of compromise and concession — hoiu far tolerate what you believe to bo error in order to obtain an ovor-balaneing good? This is the puzzle of statesmen, and indeed of every man, so far as he undertakes any part, even though only as a private citizen, in public concerns. There are two ways of dealing with it. One is to shirk it by an indolenl abandonment of the im- portant offices of social and public life The other is to meet it with the best solution we can find. Tilden had little re-
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gard for the first of these methods. He accepted the second ; and with his matchless ability for drawing a line up to which we must, but beyond which we must not go, he would have had little excuse for the other choice. There were several occasions when he felt obliged to draw this line and rigidly observe it, although the result might be immediately dis- astrous to the party to which he was attached and to his own personal ambitions. His opposition, in 1871, to Tam- many Hall, already noticed, is an instance. Occupying, as he then did, the important post of chairman of the Demo- cratic State Central Committee, he could not step out of the local organization in the metropolis and make war upon its leaders without seeming disloyalty to his party, nor without endangering its success in the next State election. But he determined, against combined solicitations and threats, to take this course, and the result showed the wisdom of his choice, even as a measure of party policy. And again, when the irredeemable paper-money delusion had to a far greater degree than the free silver coinage craze gained possession of the popular mind throughout the West and South, and in the view of many ardent politicians promised a victory to the Democratic party if that party would extend some favor to it, he compelled from the national convention of the party a repudiation of the heresy. ISTo temporary advantage which his party might gain would in his view be worth ac- ceptance, if purchased at the price of such a sacrifice of fundamental principle.
It is not to be wondered at that with his profound knowl- edge of the causes by which human affairs were controlled, combined with such capacities for skilful action, he should have accumulated a large fortune. Aside from what he received for professional services, his large gains were, I imagine, rather easily acquired. Among the mischiefs of an unstable currency is the facility with which men who have the power of dealing skilfully with exceptional condi- tions may amass large fortunes. Few men understood such things better than Mr. Tilden. He had striven to prevent, as well as a man in opposition could, the issue, during the war, of an irredeemable government currency ; but I remem-
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ber his saying to me after the policy was adopted, in sub- stance: "Now is the time to make yourself rich. Buy all that you can pay for, or run in debt for. Every day it will be easier and easier for you to pay, and your property will correspondingly rise in value, or rather in price." And at the close of the war he advised the opposite course. I do not know, but I have little doubt that he acted extensively on this policy. If there were a question as to the propriety of such action, he certainly was excusable. Had his counsels been regarded, no such measure would have been adopted.
The malice of political opponents was wont to ascribe his success in money-getting to schemes for obtaining interests in the property of insolvent railway companies at less than their value. They stigmatized him as a " railroad-wrecker." Never was there less foundation for a charge. He was a railroad-preserver. His skill in the management of difficult and complicated affairs, combined with his profound knowl- edge of the fundamental principles of equity, made his services invaluable to parties interested in the property and securities of railroad companies which by bad management, or in consequence of over-sanguine expectations, had fallen into difficulties. His capacious mind was just fitted for the survey of such situations. He was among the first, if not the first, to perceive that a ruthless attempt to foreclose a first mortgage and thus to crush out all subordinate liens and interests was ill-suited to such cases; that the just and true method was to ascertain the real capacities of the busi- ness, and to reorganize the enterprise upon a scheme which would indulge the hope of saving to the junior securities a large part of their supposed original value. More than one of the great railroads of the country have, at his skilful touch, risen from absolute bankruptcy into prosperity, and repaid all or the larger part of the original investment.
With all his capacity for making sober estimates, and escaping the illusions by which many minds are carried away, he was yet an enthusiast, especially in respect to the plans and enterprises which were the offspring of his own fruitful brain. This came partly from personal vanity, of which he had a plentiful supply, and partly from the ex-
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liilaration which attends the exercise of high intellectual powers and rewards the conquest of difficulties. I remem- ber a display of this tendency which greatly impressed me.
In the performance of a professional service for him while he was Governor, in connection with a lawsuit to which he was a party, it became necessary that I should tarry several days at his house in Albany in order to secure his attention during the intervals between his official duties. It was while the St. Louis Convention was in session at which he was nominated for the Presidency. One would suppose that under such circumstances he could have given his mind to little else than the business in which his personal fortunes were so deeply concerned. But he could not have devoted himself more ardently to recalling and arranging the facts of the complicated transactions out of which this lawsuit grew than he did on the very day when he was nominated. Late in the afternoon of that day, after protracted work, he took me upon a long drive with him. In the course of it he did not even allude to the convention, or its doings, al- though a flight of telegrams had been coming to him. His conversation, animated and incessant, was upon false policies in government, the mischiefs and burdens of over-expendi- ture, the true principles of taxation, the errors of protective tariffs, etc. One could see that the mere matter of holding the Presidential office was little to him; but that the chance of laying his reforming hand upon the multitude of abuses with which, as he supposed, the whole administration of the general government was infested aroused his enthusiasm, as the prospect of a season of sport would that of a boy. Becoming animated with his theme, eloquent and intense in his language, he failed in attention to the high-spirited horse he was driving, and I was in constant fear of a catastrophe. Indeed, on a similar drive the succeeding day we met with one from the same cause. The injury was inflicted instead of received, and cost the Governor several thousand dollars by way of damages. When, on our return, on the day first mentioned, we were near home, I observed to him that he would perhaps find at the house a telegram announcing his nomination. " No," said he, unconcernedly, " not until
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MR. TILDEN: AN APPRECIATION
about half-past nine." It came not many moments from that time. Impressed upon this occasion with his profound and extensive knowledge of everything relating to the science of government, and thinking his views not substantially at variance with those held by leading Republicans — for at that time the Republican party had not become com- mitted to its present dogmas on the subject of protective tariffs — I ventured to express to him the surprise I felt that he had not allied himself with that party; saying that it seemed to me that, considering the greatly superior number of men of education and public spirit to be found in its ranks, he could much more easily procure a general accept- ance of his opinions by acting in alliance with them. He answered that he thought that I was mistaken; that, while it was true that a large majority of the men of culture, wealth, and force were to be found in the Republican party, the trouble was that, to use his language, " it was a party of self-seekers." He explained that he did not mean this in any offensive sense ; that what he meant was that the con- trolling men of that party were men of large pecuniary interests, seeking to build up fortunes and families; that these personal interests were so large as necessarily to engross their thoughts and control their opinions, leading them to use their powerful influence so as to shape the legislation of the country in a form which would favor those interests; that it was difficult to lead such men along the pathway of those fundamental principles of democratic government by which alone equal justice could be done to the masses of men; that the Democratic party held within its ranks a far less number of men of this description — not enough to con- trol its action — and consequently the opinions of its great masses could be more easily shaped and molded by the mere force of ideas; that this was the distinction between the former Democratic and Whig parties, and that the Re- publican party would, as the patriotic inspirations caught from the opposition to slavery and the defence of the Union died away, become the mere successor to the spirit and policy of the Whig party.
"These observations, as applied to the two present
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parties of the country, would not, probably, be accepted without dissent ; but they intimate a most important truth. This is that when a man comes to be the pos- sessor of large property interests, these will, whatever may be his character, control his opinions in relation to any question affecting them. The great railroad interests of the country are conducted by men, I suppose, of as honorable character as can be found in any walk of life ; but they will not, in the face of threatened disaster, keep the agreements they make with each other. They do not hesitate, when these interests are threatened by adverse legislation, to de- fend them by secret arts and practices — kept secret because they could not be avowed without a blush. Mr. Jay Gould, in some testimony drawn from him by a legislative com- mittee, expressed the truth by saying that he was " some- times a Democrat and sometimes a Republican, but always an Erie man." It must be admitted that the occasions are often fearfully trying. They sometimes impose a test which human nature is ill-fitted to bear. The individual who is subjected to them is called upon to defend, not only his own property, but that of others. A man may surrender his own interests, but what account is he to give of himself when he surrenders interests which have been intrusted to him for defence ?
I cannot help thinking that Governor Tilden possessed, on the whole, greater capabilities for usefulness in public life than any other man of his generation. I cannot find elsewhere such a union of the ability to discover true gov- ernmental policies with the firm and undeviating purpose to pursue them. This is not the universal estimate of him. A certain measure of distrust seems to have accompanied the general admiration of his talents. For this there never was any just foundation. I do not think any public man of his time was more faithful to his conceptions of truth. No impartial man could now well doubt this after going over the record of his services and reading his speeches and public papers. Indeed, it is hardly possible that so ardent a searcher after scientific truth could be otherwise than faithful to it. We can scarcely imagine Socrates and New-
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ton to have been dishonest men. That Lord Bacon fell excites our wonder. And yet there must always be some ground for any widely extended impression. I think that in this instance the cause is manifest. His pre-eminence was in the intellectual rather than in the emotional powers. In order to achieve his purposes he preferred to appeal to the intellect rather than to the heart. Plain, blunt honesty is universally perceived and understood, and is admired and confided in, even when it blunders. But com- mon men have so often been deceived by the sharp practices of those who are a little brighter than themselves, that they are apt to distrust intellectual superiority, and half suspect it to be a species of cunning. The malice of personal and party hostility, working upon this natural tendency, has found an easy acceptance of its calumnies.
But, beside this, Governor Tilden was a practical leader in affairs, both of business and politics; and although he was all openness and candor in his public discussions, yet in his methods of action he could not, any more than other men, dispense with secresy and reserve; and as he was apt to excel others in whatever methods he adopted, he per- haps excelled them in secretiveness as well. A good share of another quality which does not tend to secure admiration for the possessor fell to Mr. Tilden. It was not unnatural that a man so conscious of superior powers should be some- what vain. Men do not like to have " I told you so " flung into their ears at every turn in the course of events, and Mr. Tilden had a habit of doing this.
But he was by no means wanting in the sense of moral earnestness, and he had a just perception of the occasions demanding the exercise of that faculty. He was well aware that fraud and corruption could not be successfully com- bated with the weapons of reason, and that they did not deserve to be reasoned with. When he found himself con- fronted by the powerful Canal Ring, which had fattened for a generation upon fraudulent contracts for repairs and pre- tended improvements to the canals, a ring which had founded wealthy and influential families, and had its stipendiaries among the able lawyers of the State, he per-
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ceived that it was a warfare in which no quarter could be given, and which could not be carried on by the weapons of facts and figures alone. He courageously determined to invade, single-handed, the strongholds of his enemies, and to arouse against them the moral indignation of the people. Using a vacation from pressing official duties, he made a series of speeches in a tour along the line of the canals from Buffalo to Albany. Flinging aside his customary tem- perance and moderation, he denounced his adversaries — men of wealth and the highest social standing — as crimi- nals, and summoned the people to stand by his side in an effort to enforce against them the criminal law. Speaking at Syracuse, in the midst of the men he was condemning, he said : " Here, under your own eyes and your own ob- servation, these transactions have been carried on in open day, by a combination that has sought to rule the State. ... I was called upon this morning to speak some words of encouragement and hope to four hundred little boys in the Western House of Refuge. During all my journey I have been frequently followed by persons asking for their friends and those in whom they were interested a pardon from the penitentiaries and State - prisons. I have been compelled to look into such cases to see who are the inmates of these institutions, and of what they have been accused, and to ascertain what it is that constitutes the wrong to society of which they have been convicted. When I compare their offences, in their nature, temptations, and circumstances, with the crimes of great public delinquents who claim to stand among your best society, and are confessedly prom- inent among their fellow-citizens — crimes repeated and con- tinued year after year — I am appalled at the inequality of human justice." He made by this series of addresses a profound impression upon the public mind.
He was cautious not to be imposed upon by those who wished his official aid or influence, and commonly subjected them to a searching cross-examination, but a case of real distress quickly moved him. I remember an instance which occurred during my sojourn, already mentioned, at the Governor's mansion in Albany. We were at work together
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rather late one evening, when he was told that a little girl wished to see him. She was wretchedly clad, and seemed to be in great misery. Moments were then quite precious to him, but he dropped everything and spent half an hour with her. When he returned to the library where we were at work he told me her tale. It was that she was the oldest of several children; that her father was a drunkard and cruel to her mother, who also sometimes got intoxicated — though, as the girl said, only when her father abused her — and who had, the day before, although having a nursing infant only a few weeks old, been sent to prison for ten days for drunkenness; that the little girl had been vainly endeavoring to take care of the infant and the rest of the family, but had given up in despair. The Governor seemed a good deal moved at this separation of mother and infant, and spoke with indignation of the manner in which the criminal law was administered in the lower courts by in- competent magistrates. He immediately despatched a secretary to the executive chamber for a sealed pardon in blank, filled it up and signed it, and sent the same secretary with the girl to the prison, with instructions to see that the woman was released and taken to her home that very night. I asked him whether this was not rather hasty and inconsiderate action, adding that possibly the magistrate, if consulted, might give a different statement of the case. He answered : " No, and I wouldn't believe him if he did. Don't I know that the little girl told me the truth?"
In assigning to Governor Tilden capacities for public usefulness superior to those of other men of his generation, one qualification should perhaps be made. lie could not have led, or rather guided, as Lincoln did, the storm of patriotic passion which the Southern insurrection aroused. There are resistless currents in human affairs which dis- dain the feeble control of mere reason, and insist upon work- ing their way by force alone. War is a conflict of the passions, and, when it becomes necessary or preferable to peace, those passions should be inflamed rather than checked.
But the superior wisdom of Governor Tilden was equally
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manifest in this great crisis, although, perhaps, incapable of dealing with it. Naturally anti-slavery, he had encour- aged the first tendencies towards the assertion of the Free- soil sentiment of the North by joining in the revolt of the Northern Democrats against the nominees of the Demo- cratic convention in 1848, and supporting the candidates nominated at the Barnburners' convention at Utica. But when he saw this movement developing into the formation of a permanent political organization under the name of the Republican party, with the avowed object of preventing by national legislation any further extension of slavery, he paused and receded.
The argument of the supporters of the new movement was that Congress had the power, not, indeed, to interfere with slavery in the States, but to prevent its establishment in the Territories; and that they were but exercising their constitutional rights in forming a party for the purpose of securing such legislation. Tilden could not deny the mere claim of constitutional right; but this, with him, was but a small part of the question. What would be the conse- quence of a successful assertion of that right? Could it be reasonably supposed that the Southern States would view it otherwise than as an attack upon what they deemed to be a vital interest? Would not its necessary effect be to force unanimity among them in opposition to the policy? Was the supposition that there was any considerable Free - soil sentiment in the South which would array itself on the side of the government anything but a dream ? Should we not have two strictly sectional parties arrayed upon the ques- tion of preserving or destroying an institution which one of them, not unnaturally, regarded as essential to self- existence ? These, in his view, were questions which must be first solved before such a movement could be encouraged. His solution led him to the conclusion that war would be the necessary result of such action ; and this involved the further inquiry whether the object in view would be gained by a civil war, or, if gained, would be worth the terrible cost. Appalled by the uncertainties and terrors of such a con- flict, he took refuge, as Mr. Webster had before him, in
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MR. TILDEN: AN APPRECIATION
the belief that the natural forces in operation would of themselves accomplish all that could be gained by the policy of restriction. In a letter to William Kent in 1860, before the election of Lincoln, he stated his conclusions and the reasoning which led to them with his characteristic modera- tion, but with masterly force. His main conclusion was that if the Republican party should be successful, the national government in the Southern States would cease to be self- government, and become a government by one people over another distinct people — a thing impossible with our race, except as a consequence of successful war, and even then incompatible with our democratic institutions. He said:
" I assert that a controversy between powerful commu- nities, organized into governments, of a nature like that which now divides the North and South, can be settled only by convention or by war. I affirm this upon the universal principles of human nature, and the collective experience of all mankind." And again: "A condition of parties in which the federative government shall be carried on by a party having no affiliations in the Southern States is im- possible to continue. Such a government would be out of all relation to those States. It would have neither the nerves of sensation which convey intelligence to the intel- lect of the body politic, nor the ligaments and muscles which hold its parts together and move them in harmony. It would be in substance the government of one people by another people. That system will not do with our race."
This reasoning was founded upon the facts of human nature, the philosophy of government, and the teachings of experience. Its truth is more manifest now than when it was uttered. Who of the great Free - soil leaders would have had the hardihood to persist in their course if they could have foreseen the consequences so clearly? Greeley, terrified by the horrible spectacle of war, was driven to say : " Let the wayward sisters depart in peace." Seward's short vision predicted that it would he nil over "in sixty days"! But in great crises the foresight of the wisest is but blind- ness. Were it always given men to see what they are to go through with, the greatest steps in moral advancement
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would never be taken. Tilden did not foresee, through the storms of war, any more than others, the freedom of the slave with the acquiescence of the master, and the conse- quent unification of the republic.
But the trials of our popular system of government were not terminated by the simultaneous overthrow of the Re- bellion and slavery. It may be, rather, that they have just begun. We were confident before the war that slavery was the source of the only peril which really threatened us. That out of the way, we find ourselves confronted with new dangers, growing out of differences of opinion respecting the extent to which the black race shall be allowed to par- ticipate in government. That participation is now prac- tically denied by the Southern States, and the mandate of the Constitution is unhesitatingly set at naught by the em- ployment either of force or fraud. The remedy suggested is an enforcement of that mandate by Federal legislation, which means simply the enforcement of its will by one section against that of the other. This is not democratic government, but the rule of the conquered by the conqueror. The evil is bad enough ; and the remedy will probably be worse. We begin to see that the real danger which has at all times menaced us is the presence on our soil of a different race, unequal, for the present, at least, to the great office of self-government. Slavery was not itself the evil, but only one of the methods of dealing with it. Is our substi- tute, the bestowal upon the race of universal suffrage, a successful device ? And, if this must be abandoned, what shall next be tried ? These grave problems, already threat- ening, will assume a graver aspect if the results of the census just taken, when studied and compared, shall be found to show a more rapid rate of increase in the black population at the South than in the white. To meet such perils we need nothing so much as a class of statesmen of which Samuel J. Tilden was the most distinguished example.
LETTERS AND LITERARY MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
LETTERS AND LITERARY MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
1810-1844
In 1801 President Jefferson appointed Robert R. Living- ston, then Chancellor of the State of New York, as Minister to France. On his return, in 1804, Livingston brought with him some sheep from Spain, then the home of the famous Merino breed, developed from races of sheep originally in- troduced into the peninsula by the Romans. In 1809-10 a flock of 4000 Merino sheep were brought into the United States to meet the demand created by Mr. Livingston's first importation. The following letter from the father of Samuel J. Tilden, written the very season of the larger im- portation, justifies the presumption that such importation had been made by Mr. Livingston himself or at his behest. The letter of Elam Tilden was sent to his son Samuel by the late Eliphalet Nott Potter in December, 1882, with a note in which he said :
" In looking over a package of Livingston letters I find the enclosed, and thinking that possibly it may be of some slight interest to you, I beg that you will accept it with best wishes of the season and for the New Year."
This letter ,was written four years before the writer's son Samuel J. was born.
ELAM TILDEN TO HON. ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON
" New Lebanon, March 19, 1810.
" Dear Sir, — I want to get four or five pounds of your best full-blood Merino Wool to manufacture into cloth for a
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
Coat. I applied to you once before for the article for the same purpose, but you informed me ,that your wool was all previously engaged. I hope, Sir, that you will accommodate me ; I can by some means get it forwarded to Hudson, from whence I can get it. I will thank you to drop me an answer by the mail, by which conveyance I will forward you the money, or get it to you by way of my friend, Dr. Younglove, of Hudson, if you accommodate me with the wool.
" I am, Sir, Your
" humble Servant,
"Elam Tilden."
The most disastrous fire with which the city of ISTew York has ever yet been visited is referred to in the following letter. It reduced to ashes pretty much every structure within the area bounded by Wall and Broad streets and the East River, a tract which then embraced nearly, if not quite all the important commission houses in the city; crippled all our insurance companies, and gave to the territory it covered a blow from which, after a lapse of nearly three- quarters of a century, it has but partially recovered. Like the great fire of London in the seventeenth century, it is still referred to as the Great Fire of 1835.
S. J. TILDEN TO ELAM TILDEN
" New York, December 11, 1833. Friday, 2.30 P.M.
" My deak Father, — The last has been the most calam- itous night ISTew York ever saw. The very centre of the commercial part of the city — from Wall Street across William and nearly to Broad, and to Coenties Slip, — all is a mass of smouldering ruins. A concurrence of unfortu- nate circumstances rendered the fire thus disastrous. The engines had been much disordered, in consequence of the extensive fires on the previous night — the hose, many of them, frozen and unfit for use. The atmosphere was in a state peculiarly calculated to support and extend combus- tion, the wind blew with great violence, and the weather was so intensely cold as to clog and almost close up with ice the hose. The flames raged through the whole night with uncontrolled violence, impressing every beholder with the utter impotency of human effort to contend with the
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TIT/DEN
devouring clement. The spectacle was grand and awful beyond conception. I shall not attempt to describe it. All the fires that ever occurred here before were perfectly in- significant in comparison.
" The question is now, not who is injured, but who has escaped ? Almost all I know are involved in the common catastrophe. At No. 12, Mr. Iliclicock burnt out; Mr. Birch, not even his books and papers saved. Mr. Brown burnt out, and his goods consumed in the street or in the stores to which they were removed. Mr. Starkweather not yet injured, but in imminent danger. Mr. Williams' em- ployees, everything destroyed ; and also Mr. Conckling's, I believe. At 14, Mr. Stewart's employees. At 20, Mr. Bronson among the lost; Mr. Soullard, same; Mr. Davis and escaped. Ilalsted and Baines, $40,000 lost;
20 to 30,000 saved. LTunt and Andrews, Conckling & , &c, &c.
" So vast is the destruction that insurance affords but a very insufficient security. The whole insurance capital of the city will scarce exceed one-half the amount of property consumed in one night! Estimates are very vague and un- certain— the loss, however, can hardly be less than twenty millions of dollars.
" There is not time to write a word more to-day.
" Affectionately yours,
" S. J. Tilden.
" I have business acquaintance with a great many of the sufferers."
Silas "Wright took the oath of office as Senator of the United States from the State of New York on the 14th of January, 1833, and in the thirty-seventh year of his age. lie is still regarded in his native State as one of the half- dozen wisest statesmen that ever occupied a seat in the Upper House of our national legislature. lie was a warm supporter of the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and the most eminent victim of New York's suc- cessful opposition to the conversion of the Territory of Texas into five more sovereign slave-holding States of the Union. He was also a close friend and constant correspondent of
Elam Tilden and of his two elder sons.
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
The letter which follows reached Mr. S. J. Tilden only a few weeks before he was deprived of the Presidency by the 7-to-6 vote of the Electoral Tribunal of 1876. It con- notes Senator Wright's first appearance in the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Waddell, to whom Mr. Tilden was indebted for Wright's letter, had been United States marshal during the administration of Mr. Van Buren.
WM. COVENTEY H. WADDELL TO S. J. TILDEN
" Bennett Building, New York, February 26, 1877.
" My deae Goveenoe, — I know that you have the high- est appreciation of the writer of the enclosed ; but I do not know that you have a special taste to preserve interesting mementos relating to such persons. If you have, and will observe the expressions in this letter, you will perceive that W. notes his ' first appearance ' as counsel before the Su- preme Court of the United States. I beg your acceptance of it for your collection of interesting memorials, and beg you to believe me to be, with sincere regard,
" Yours very truly,
" Wm. Coventby H. Waddell."
senatoe weight, of new yoek, to the new yoek united states marshal
" Senate Chamber, Washington, February 23, 1839.
" My deae Sie, — The motion in the ' Custody ' case was made in the Supreme Court this morning, at the opening of the court at 11 o'clock a.m., and counsel we're most patiently heard. Mr. Gilpin, for the Collector, and I my- self for the Marshal. It was, as you know, my first appear- ance in that high court, and the decision is yet to come. All I can say to you is that I made just as good an argu- ment in your favor as I hoped to be able to make. I believe the decision will be in conformity to your wishes, but of that I have no knowledge, except that impression which a lawyer always gets from the argument of a cause.
"Your late letter was duly rec'd. It will give me great pleasure to see you here before we leave, but I shall leave on the morning of the 4th of March at 6 o'clock a.m. If I get the decision upon the motion in time, I will send it
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
to you; but if it is not made so that T can send it to you before I expect you will start for this city, I will not send it to you.
" I have been called upon to give six notes since I com- menced this short note, and I will stop it now, for I do not believe that you can find out what is already written. Rest satisfied that the motion has been made, has been, as I think, very fairly argued, and will be decided, as I think, in your favor ; but decided some way in the due course of time, and as I hope before you come here.
" Very truly yours,
" Silas Wright, Jr."
s. j. tilden to iiis sister henrietta
"New York, July 15, 1839.
" My dear Hetty, — Why don't you answer my letter ? If the ring does not suit send it and I can easily change it; if it does, send it that I may have your name put in it — unless, indeed, you conclude to come with Pa, which I much wish you would, and, since you are not in school, I see nothing to prevent. . . .
" I am uncomfortably situated in many respects. I per- fectly abhor this mode of life. The social slavery of the family to any scapegrace, man or woman, the latter worse, who may choose to sojourn here is really intolerable. And the whole routine of such an upon-the-town life is opposed to every good habit and in favor of every bad habit. I did hope that when one family left, the burden would be light- ened ; but it has proved to be only a change of riders. These and other petty annoyances vex me more than they used to ; perhaps my temper is at fault ; but I assure you they are numerous. And it is unpleasant to me, as you can well understand, to see a disease so full of terror fastening itself gradually but surely upon J. ; to see not one thing in the circumstances to which she is subjected that gives the least hope of counteraction ; and to feel myself without power, in the slavish routine of the house, to remedy or prevent. I do not often speak of troubles when I have them, and would do so now only to you ; so you must preserve my confidence.*
* Henrietta was the sister of Samuel J. to whom, on the fifth of the month preceding the date of this letter, for the first and only occasion
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
u
As to myself, it is only the condition of things at home that prevents me, if I could make the necessary arrange- ments, from going abroad. It is the only thing to which I look with any confidence or much hope to act upon my own constitution ; and would separate me from circum- stances not calculated to lessen the weight of an inevitable misfortune to which I have been long subject.
" I think that if you are able to come now, your visit will be more pleasant than last year. " Write to me.
" Am y'rs,
" S. J. Tilden."
JOHN M. NILES* TO ELAM TILDEN
" Washington, December 12, 18^0.
" My dear Sir, — I have your letter of the T'th inst., and thank you for the copy of the excellent speech of your son, which for the facts it contains, and sound, practical views, is worth more than all the speeches Daniel Webster has de- livered on the currency question. The principal article in the Globe on prices and the wages of labor was from my pen, and I am pleased to learn that it met your approbation.
" That measures will be adopted before Congress closes to reorganize the Democratic party and settle on the course of action for the future is so manifestly proper, not to say indispensable, that I cannot doubt it will be attended to.
" Arrangements should be adopted for obtaining the facts from every country, town, and precinct in the Union, in relation to the foul frauds practised in the late elections. The statements and certificates of these facts should be veri- fied by oath when it could be done ; and the whole ought to be published in a volume and put into the hands of every honest elector in the United States. This mass of informa- tion would be used by the Democratic papers as they might have occasion.
in his life he opened his mind on the subject of matrimony, a topic at that time of serious concern to her. See Bic/clow's Life of Tilden, Vol. I., p. 80. Before the expiration of the year of which this letter bears date, she died. The brother when he wrote this letter was living with an aunt who kept a boarding-house at what was then the upper part of Broadway.
* Proprietor of the Hartford Times at the date and United States Senator from Connecticut.
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. T1LDEN
" It is true, as you say, that the battle is not yet really begun; the true issues which divide the Democracy and the Federalists cannot be presented before the country except the latter are in power. They are then forced to come out with their measures and disclose their principles.
" There will be a glorious fight for the next four years, the result of which, I confidently believe, will be highly auspicious to the Democratic cause and the preservation of our popular institutions.
" I am, respectfully,
" Y'r ob't ser't,
"John M. ISTiles. " E. Tilden, Esqr.,
" New Lebanon,
" New York."
President Harrison died just one month after his inau- guration, a casualty from which the Whig party never fully recovered. To the Congress which convened in extra ses- sion May 31, 1841, President Tyler intimated his desire that the members of that body should request a plan for a national bank from Mr. Ewing, then Secretary of the Treas- ury. In pursuance of the resolutions for this purpose adopted by both Houses, Mr. Ewing sent in a bill for the incorporation of the " Fiscal Bank of the United States," the essential features of which were framed in accordance with the President's suggestions. The bill passed Congress August 6, with a clause concerning branch banks differing from Mr. Ewing's, which was vetoed by the President. The letter from Mr. Tilden which follows was a criticism of this bill, and probably had something to do with its untimely fate.
It does not appear from the copy to whom this letter was addressed by Mr. Tilden, but it was probably to Senator Wright.
Congress subsequently passed another bill intended to meet the objections of President Tyler. He concluded he could not approve it without inconsistency, and therefore vetoed that bill also, by which act he alienated the United States Bank wing of the Whig party to such an extent as
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
to make many friends among the party of the opposition. It is to that phase of that absorbing bank issue at Washing- ton that Mr. Tilden refers in the succeeding letter to Mr. Nelson J. Waterbury, then a very earnest, active, and in- telligent Democratic politician, a few years Mr. Tilden's junior.
TO ME. NELSON J. WATERBUKY
"New Lebanon, September 11, 1841.
" My dear Waterb qry, — On a flying visit of a few hours, which I made to the city some two weeks ago, I re- ceived your letter, but I was so busy in running about the country that I did not get a chance to answer it.
" You judge rightly as to my sympathy with your senti- ments and action in regard to the veto. Our line of duty is plain. While we render to Tyler liberal credit for every good act he does, and sustain every right measure which he proposes, and defend him against the unjust and uncon- stitutional attacks of the Whigs, we cannot give his admin- istration an unqualified support, or commit ourselves in favor of his re-election. So far, we agree with him only on the bank question — and there as to act of the veto, not as to its reasons, which are qualified and hesitating, and min- gled with crudities and unsoundness ; while as to the other questions — some of which are of great, if not equal, im- portance— we differ from him. If his course had been less objectionable we ought still to keep ourselves uncommitted as to the succession. We cannot enter into a bargain of office for measures. Whatever he does right, he must do spontaneously, and we will freely and heartily support, leaving the future to take care of itself.
" I never regarded Tyler as a man of very high capacity, and his public documents since he has been President have not increased my estimate of him. The last veto — which I have just read over — is better in matter and manner than the former, which was very objectionable in principle, but neither of them is creditable.
" I will confess that at first I was not without apprehen- sions that Tyler's course might be such as to conciliate a portion of our people, and weaken the efficiency of our action, while it would not be such as we could fully approve or safely support; and that he might construct a half-and-
8
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
half administration in which real and thorough democratic principles might sutler more than by open hostility. But my fears are diminished. Our people seem to be taking the right ground ; and the enthusiasm at first excited will, I believe, settle at about the right point. A gentleman to whose opinion I very much defer thinks that Tyler is not a man to accumulate any political strength around him ; and can in no event be dangerous.
" I do not know whether the Whigs will attempt to put in execution any of the desperate means which have been shadowed forth — such as a formal demand by the members of Congress for Tyler's resignation — a rejection of his nomi- nations of official advisers in case the present cabinet shall retire — a systematic clamor to intimidate him to a sur- render of his constitutional authorities. If they do, we must stand by him and his official rights to the uttermost.
" I intend to return to the city in about three weeks. Meanwhile I shall be particularly glad to hear from you.
" I thank you for the paper you were so kind as to send me.
" Sincerely y'rs,
" S. J. TlLDEN."
SILAS WEIGHT, JR., TO ELAM TILDEN
" Washington, December 6, 18^1. My dear Sir, — Your favor of the 15th ult, directed to me at my home, came round to me here on this day. I left home on the day of the date of your letter, and when I reached New York found you had left there but a day or two before. I had a very pleasing visit from your son at my room at the City Hotel, but should have been greatly pleased if your visit to the city had been prolonged, as my stay was unusually long and I could have seen more of you than I have been enabled to see for many years.
" Our victory has been truly great and gratifying, and yet your strong, practical thinking has, in my judgment, brought you, as it almost always does, to a correct conclu- sion as to consequences. If the Whigs had retained the Senate for this year it would probably have been easier for us to have regained the State completely next year. We must not, however, complain of prosperity, and especially when it comes, as I think it lias come now, by the sole ener-
0
a
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
gies of " the sober second thought "' of an honest people. We must meet the crisis as it meets us. We must show the people the truth as to our finances, and then act as honest men would act, determined to pay their debts and avoid insolvency. Everything hangs upon the action of our Legis- lature during the coming session. If our friends in that body are bold and frank and honest the people will sustain them, but if they underrate the intelligence and patriotism of the people and continue the attempts to humbug them and to purchase their good-will by their own credit sold in the market at eighty cents for the dollar, we shall as cer- tainly be beaten next fall as we have beaten the Whigs this. These seem to me to be truths so plain that no one can mistake them, and I still tremble with fear lest some of those elected to the legislature as Republicans may, from mistaken views, from apprehensions of local expediency, from selfish interests, or from some other improper or un- wise impulse, urge a continuance of our system of extrava- gance and resist the measures indispensably necessary to a return to health and soundness.
" I have little fear of what may be done here beyond what was done at the extra session. An effort will doubt- less be made to rouse the tariff feeling again, but our point, as I think, should be to raise no more revenue in any way, or for any purpose, until the land - distribution bill is re- pealed and the system of giving away the revenue we have is formally abandoned.
" I have very little hope from President Tyler, except that he may prevent some mischief which his party would otherwise do. I do not think there is enough of him to build upon, or that he has enough of the democratic princi- ples and sympathies left to govern him.
" I have not a moment of time more. Please let me hear often, and believe me,
" Most respectfully,
" And truly yours, " Elam Tilden, Esq. Silas Weight, Jr."
SILAS WEIGHT, JR., TO ELAM TILDE1ST
" Washington, January 29, 1842. "My dear Sir, — Your letter of the 18th Dec. has re- mained a long time without an answer, and I cannot now answer it, but a single subject collateral to it.
10
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. T1LDEN
" Within the last two days I have received two letters con- cerning your Post-Office matters, which have deserved and received my attention. I cannot do here all my friends ask, and have a right to ask, and from me especially, deserve, but I try to do all I can; and yet unselfishness and indo- lence may often induce me to think that I do what I can, when I might do much more. I fear I have exhibited my- self to you in this way in reference to your Post-Office. But of that I have not time to write, nor do I wish you to ill ink, as I know you give me more credit for faithfulness than 1 merit, and I give you every possible credit for valu- able and faithful friendship. I will, therefore, to the New Lebanon Post-Office.
"Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Bryant, of the Evening Post, are the gentlemen to whose letters I refer. As the Senate did not moot to-day, I have had the day to devote to busi- ness of this character, and I have just returned, at 3 o'clock p.m.., from a day most pleasantly spent in attention to them.
" Upon a personal call at the Post-Office Department I learned that, in September last, an application was made to have the name of the post-office at the Springs changed from that of ' Columbia Hall ' to that of ' New Lebanon Springs,' and to have Mr. Bull removed as postmaster and Mr. Nichols appointed. Both these things were done, and Mr. Puller, the Assistant Postmaster - General, who has the charge of the appointments, supposed at the time, and now supposes, that the effect of that action was to remove the office from the Springs to Lebanon village, the location of the New Lebanon post-office, when you kept it. I suppose he is wholly mistaken, and as you are a matter-of-fact man, T wish you to send me papers properly signed by such dis- interested men as you may sec to be the most proper men, showing where the office was kept under Mr. Bull and where it is kept under Mr. Nichols; and in the same papers you may show, if you please, where your office was kept and where the office you formerly held is now kept. Let the papers be directed to the Postmaster-General, and have no political, but a mere local bearing, and make a map which will be plain, and if convenient let the men who vouch the facts be Whigs as well as Democrats.
"Yon must find my apology for this very hasty and bad- looking letter in the fact that since 1 began to write it I have heard of the death of a member of our body, Mr.
11
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OK SAMUEL J. TILDEN
Dixon, of Rhode Island, and have been summoned to at- tend his remains and participate in arrangements for his funeral, and I have been anxious that this should go to- night and found it would not if I did not enclose it before I left for that solemn duty.
" Most truly yours,
" Silas Weight, Je. " Elam Tilien, Esq."
SILAS WEIGHT, JE., TO ELAM TILDEN
" Washington, February 13, 1842.
" My deae Sie, — I have but a moment to say that your favors of the 4th and 8th and the documents in relation to your P.-O. affairs all came to me together on Friday even- ing. I saw Mr. McClellan yesterday, and we have agreed to make a visit to the Department together on some day this week, when we can both find leisure to do so, and if possible bring the matter to some final termination.
" I consider it now perfectly certain that either Mr. Tyler must submit unconditionally to Mr. Clay, and must place the administration in his hands or that open and desperate war is to be carried on, not against him simply, but against his administration, for the future. And yet he is daily removing from office our best and most worthy men, even those whom the Whigs dare not attempt to remove, under the delusive idea that he is filling their places with Tyler men. When he shall call upon them he will find them where the great body of his party now is to him, missing and enlisted under another leader.
" In haste, I am,
" Most truly yours,
" Silas Weight, Je."
M. VAN BUEEN TO S. J. TILDEN
" Lindenwald, October 24, '42.
" My deae Sie, — As you forgot my former commission, I trouble you by way of revenge with one something like it. I owe the clever editor* of the Spirit of the Times the amount of the within check, which I wish to have paid to him, and his paper discontinued. As this, that is, the discontinuance,
* Lewis Gaylord Clark. 12
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
is at best an ungracious act, I wish to have it performed in the most gracious way, and therefore commit the matter to your hands. I am, doubtless to my shame, not much of a sportsman. I have not, therefore, read his paper as at- tentively as others, but I have seen enough of it to impress me most favorably, not only in respect to the talents, but the just and honorable bearing of the editor. It would, there- fore, afford me pleasure to continue the Times, if the num- ber of political papers which I feel myself bound to take did not render my expenses in that line too heavy for a farmer's income. If there is an objection to discontinuing until the end of the year I will, of course, take it till then. " Excuse this trouble, and believe me to be
" Very sincerely, your friend,
" M. Van Buren."
RECOMMENDATION OF S. J. TILDEN FOR THE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY FOR THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK
" To the Democratic Members of the Com. Council:*
" The undersigned, members of the Bar, recommend Samuel J. Tilden for appointment as Attorney to the Cor- poration. Mr. Tilden's services and qualifications are such that in our opinion his appointment would give the highest satisfaction to the Democratic party, the legal profession,
and the public generally.
" New York, April, 1848.
" I sign the above most cheerfully :
Lewis H. Sandford, William S. Sears,
John R. Livingston, Jr., D. D. Field,
C. V. S. Kane, Chs. G. Havens,
Ciias. B. Moore, James J. Roosevelt,
L. Robinson, C. McLean,
Samuel A. Crapo, Theodore Sedgwick,
Hawks & Scoville.
"I cheerfully concur in the foregoing recommendation: Tnos. R. Lee, Lathrop S. Eddy,
P. Reynolds, Wm. McMurrav."
* The place of attorney for the City and County of New York for which this address to the Democratic members of the. Common Council, was the only office Mr. Tilden ever held by appointment. He held it but about one year, during which time he docketed 123 judgments for violations of city ordinances.
13
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
The nomination, election, and inauguration of Senator Wright as Governor of New York State, in 1844, gave Mr. Tilden a greater influence perhaps than was possessed by any other individual in the dispensation of the patronage of the Executive at this time. His friend, John W. Ed- monds, in whose office he had studied his profession, a native of the same county as himself, and a lawyer of con- siderable ability, was anxious for the appointment of Sur- rogate of ISTew York city. Though he failed in this effort, he subsequently was appointed one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, largely, not to say entirely, through Mr. Tilden's influence.
By the spring elections of 1844 both the old parties were thrown into confusion and driven from the field by the " Native American " party, so called, which appeared with a suddenness and force of a tropical cyclone and swept the country.
The friends of Mr. Van Buren in ISTew York naturally looked to Mr. Van Buren as their candidate for a renomina- tion to the Presidency. He was defeated, however, in the national convention, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, received the nomination. The following letter from Mr. Tilden to his brother is the only account we have from his pen of his experiences in that convention to which he was a delegate. Unhappily, the manuscript is incomplete.
S. J. TILDEN TO HIS BROTHER
" Baltimore, May 21, 18U.
" My dear Brother, — Here we are in a state of extraor- dinary excitement and great uncertainty. There is a deep and almost universal disaffection in the South. Virginia is against us by a large majority, also North Carolina, Ga., Miss., Ark., La., probably Maryland, Indiana; New Jer- sev, Michigan, Alabama, 111., Conn, doubtful; N. Y., Mis- souri, Ohio, N. IT., Vermont, R. I. reliable; Penn. in- structed and ready to vote with us on the main question, but liable, some of them, to cheat on collaterals.
"We have a small fixed majority certain on the first ballotings, but some of the Penn. delegates and probably
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
some others may be and probably will be inclined very soon to desert. But the plan of the disaffected is to require a two-third vote to make a nomination. This, they think, and probably with correctness, that. Mr. V. B. cannot get, and then they may bargain with those who vote with us but are not hearty in our cause. Some of the Penn. men who are instructed and are therefore obliged to vote for V. B. would prefer Buchanan — have been approached by propositions from the South to bargain with them, with what effect* we cannot know."
SILAS WRIGHT TO S. J. TILDEN
" Washington, May 10, 18H. " Private.
" My dear Sir, — Your letter came safely, but you will have conjectured, from the public appearance of things here, that some of us have been rather busy for some days past. I have but a single moment now to say that if you shall have occasion to send papers here for distribution, Mr. Stevenson will do the labor, so far as you shall direct addresses, and we will see that others are obtained here, but we cannot send you franks.
" I have only completed the speech to-day, and it cer- tainly is not better for having been written out amidst the unexampled excitement of the last two wTeeks. A part of it will appear to-morrowr, and the residue on Monday even- ing, and I will take a pamphlet copy, when I get one, and mark it off as you suggest, by proper heads to the divisions.
" Please inform me, as soon as you receive this, if Mr. Butler has returned. I want to communicate to him on the subject of the convention as soon as he reaches, if he is not yet home.
" A letter from Cambrcling received to-day tells me that he is off for Carolina only to return to the Convention. lie ought to be at hand to meet the delegates in New York when they should have a meeting.
" In very great haste,
" I am, truly yours,
" Silas Wright. " Saml. J. Til den, Esq."
The triumph of the Native American party and the elec- tion of Mr. Harper for Mayor led to a general and prompt
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
change of all movable officers of the municipal administra- tion. Mr. Tilden tried to anticipate the party proscription, but by some mistake, the nature of which is illegible in the following letter, he had to undergo the proscription of the victors, which, however, neither politically nor financially involved any personal sacrifice.
SAMUEL J. TILDEN TO K. L. SHIEFFELEN, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF
THE COMMON COUNCIL
"New York, May 25, 18U.
'' To the Honorable the Common Council of the City of New York: " I have expected at each of your meetings to be removed, but have been disappointed. In case my successor as Attor- ney to the Corporation shall not be selected this evening, I respectfully present to you my resignation, to take effect on the day after your next joint meeting, until which time the public interests entrusted to my care shall not be embar- rassed.
" I am, respectfully, your, &c,
" Samuel J. Tilden."
Comparatively recent note in pencil in Mr. Tilden's handwriting :
" In the haste of preparing to leave the city for the Bal- timore Convention this wish was omitted, and while I was there I was removed."
Senator Wright yielded very reluctantly to the irresistible pressure of both divisions of his party that he should ac- cept the nomination tendered him for Governor at the fall election of 1844. It was apparent to the friends of Mr. Polk that he could not carry the State of New York with- out the support of the friends of Mr. Van Buren and Wright, and no less of a sacrifice than the transfer of Mr. Wright from the Senate to the Governorship could make the State reasonably secure for the Presidential ticket. How reluctantly Mr. Wright yielded to this pressure is not
to be measured solely by his far-sighted doubt of its policy
16
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
and of the advantages of a victory for the Slavery-Extension party at that time. lie had other reasons of a domestic nature presented some three years before in a most pathetic and touching letter addressed to Mr. Tilden's father.*
The logic of the situation presented by Mr. Wright's nomination for Governor in 1844 required that he should by his election save the Presidential ticket and then "suc- ceed President Polk in 1848 or retire from public life," and Mr. Marcy to defeat Mr. Wright's re-election as Governor, or himself retire from public life. It was practically to engage in such a duel that Mr. Wright went to Albany and took the oath of office on the 1st of January, 1845. He had in his favor a great parliamentary reputation, and a char- acter for wisdom, probity, and political sagacity, enjoyed in a superior degree by no other American statesman of his generation.
On the other hand, he had to contend with an administra- tion in whose eyes all these virtues, when enlisted against slavery, were regarded only as so many additional reasons for crushing their possessor. He had also to contend with a very considerable number who still called themselves Dem- ocrats, but who had deserted the party from mistrust of the success of its financial policy, and who were impatient to recover some sort of party standing.
Mr. Tilden engaged in this canvass for President Polk with more zeal than in any other except, perhaps, the last, in which he was himself a candidate, and in both instances Mas betrayed by his party.
Not the least efficient of his services in this campaign was the establishment of the Daily News in connection with John L. O'Sullivan.
o'sullivan's plan and estimate in regard to the
"morning news."
.luhj 1.1, 18U-
" Outline of plan of arrangement for the paper between S. J. Tilden and J. L. O'S. — proposed by me.
"J. L. O'S.
* This letter first appeared in print in the Life of Tilden, Vol. I., p. 102.
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
" 1. The entire concern to be owned in equal halves by S. J. T. and J. L. O'S.
" 2. Any disagreement of opinion ever arising, if re- quiring a decision, and irreconcilable by discussion, to be determined by reference to B. F. B. or some other friend, unprejudiced in the matter.
" 3. In case of either party ever desiring to withdraw, the other to have the refusal of the purchase of his interest, on equal terms with those offered by any one side, or of any portion of the same at proportional rate.
" 4. In case of failure of the enterprise and both desiring to give it up, the materials purchased to be vested in trust in (query — the Chairman of the Gen. Committee — or Young Men's Gen. Committee? — or B. F. B. ?) — for the benefit of the Democratic Party. This is to be determined within six months. If one desires to give it up and the other does not, at the end of six months, or before, the whole property then to become absolute in the one remaining.
" 5. Neither to place the firm under any debt or obliga- tion without the consent of the other.
" 6. The business machinery to be managed by a Chief Clerk (Guion), at a salary of $ — , and 1/10 of profits.
" 7. The estimate of profits of the concern to be made after the allowance of editorial salaries. S. J. T. and J. L. O'S. to be entitled to draw a sum not exceeding $30 a week apiece, for editorial labor and time. Each to do this at his own discretion, and according to his own estimate of a reasonable compensation for his labor and time. If here- after, from regard to health or other cause, either should de- sire to withdraw for longer or shorter period from active participation in editorial charge, the other remaining in charge to be entitled to an editorial salary of $2500 per annum. In case of death of either, the other to inherit his share, subject to an annuity for ten years, according to direction of the deceased, amounting to one-third of that portion of the general profits which would otherwise have been divisible between the two — the salary of $2500 in that case being allowed to survivor for editorship.
" No other points now occur to me requiring provision.
"J. L. O'S.
" It is possible that Mr. Waterbury may desire to have some connection with the paper, which will be in that case
18
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
perfectly agreeable to me. The amount to be allowed him for his services in it, in that event, whether in the form of a certain proportion of profits, or part salary and part pro- portion of profits, I leave to be fixed by you. I should like also myself to employ my brother in it, if as clerk and general aid his services should appear desirable, his com- pensation being fixed between us, ranging above a certain small minimum, according to his services and the ability of the concern.
"J. L. O'S."
TILDEN TO
" New York, April 25, IS/,'/.
" My dear Sik, — I returned three days since, and have been trying to get an opportunity to write to you without success until now. The prospect of overcoming the pecuni- ary obstacle appears favorable. A few days will decide the question, when I will write to you more particularly.
" A modification of the plan is meanwhile being at- tempted, which, if successful, must greatly increase its use- fulness. It is, if possible, to get the $5000 absolutely; with a condition that if we cannot get a subscription of 25,000 or deem it wise to publish a less number, we shall have the same value in such printed matter as we may choose, and additional matter at cost ; which we can circulate in what way we may think best. My own opinion is that, as a general rule, it should be sold, at or below cost, which will itself be very low if the quantity is large and the work managed economically. It seems to me that in this mode we could circulate 2, 3, 4, or 5 times our actual capital ; that we should tempt purchases from every part of the country, and make the most extensive and efficient use of our money.
" Of course there are a great many details to be contem- plated in arranging so large a machine: I cannot now state them sufficiently even to explain my suggestions, but hope to be able to speak nmre definitely in a few days.
"Mr. V. B. was perhaps less impressed with the impor- tance of the paper than yourself, and circumstances of delicacy prevented my taking that view of the subject. Nevertheless, he was anxious to have it undertaken, and, since my return, tho I have in no measure availed myself of the aid which he was willing to render, our people seem
19
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
better inclined than I expected. Still, the experiment can- not be regarded as tested."
SENATOR SILAS WEIGHT TO TILDEN
" Senate Chamber, Washington, April 11, 18-M.
" My deab Sib, — Having labored in vain during the whole of yesterday to find time to write to yon my promised letter, and not having approached the probability of such leisure between 8 o'clock a.m. and 12 o'clock p.m., I now take my seat for the purpose.
" I have conversed as extensively as I could with our Western friends upon the subject of the paper of which we take,* and all I can say, as to the result of my confer- ences, is that no dependence can be made upon them, be- yond a reasonable effort to extend the subscription, in case we shall conclude to take the hazard of making the attempt to establish the paper. The same feeling of which I spoke to you has produced the influences I supposed it would, and it, together with the efforts we are making here to distribute documents, has cooled the anxiety formerly ex- pressed for such a paper, and especially so when a suspicion arises that the man's own pocket may be connected with the effort to establish the paper.
" Still, I confess, I have not been able to diminish, to my own mind, the importance of such a paper to our cause. I think our State press, as a general remark, in a very bad state for the pending contest. The country press has been, time immemorial, accustomed to look to the Argus for lead and tone in these great fights, but the Argus, during the whole time we have been here, appears to me to have been insensible of the pendency of the contest, as perfectly una- ware of what appears to me to be its true character. It is not my object to complain of the Argus, and I doubt not that the singular and very unfortunate state of things at Albany has embarrassed its cause, and perhaps presented reasons for its silence upon national questions, of which I am ignorant. In any event, the Argus furnishes no lead to the country press ; we have no weekly general paper, and the Whigs, through the showers of the Tribune which they
* The paper here referred to was the New York Daily Neivs. For an account of Tilden's connection with its establishment and management, see Life of Tilden, Vol. I., p. 108.
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
are pouring over the State, are doing much to get the start of us and to turn the current of feeling with the impulsive and unthinking against us. At least these are my fears, and it seems to me that these must be the natural conse- quences of constant effort and allegation and falsehood on the one side, and comparative silence upon the other. Of this, however, our friends at home can judge much better than I can, and I therefore renew the advice I gave you before we parted here, to go and make Mr. Van Buren a leisurely visit, and take his counsel and advice about the whole matter, and act as he shall think best.
" You will not be surprised when I tell you that the news from your charter election* has thrown everything here, for this morning, into that state of excitement and confusion which renders it troublesome for one to keep cool and good- natured both. After some months of constant session, the atmosphere becomes so thoroughly tainted here, and the members of Congress themselves become either so far cor- rupted, or so lost in their remembrances of home and what the people really are, that they are really more childish and more excitable than so many children, and it takes more patience than I can command to bear up against their whims. In the result of your charter election I have experienced little disappointment, and see no great cause of alarm. If our press would improve the advantages it presents, it ap- pears to me it could not fail to fix the Irish and other emi- grant vote throughout the country; but in this, as in other things, I fear we shall feel the want of some paper which is recognized as having a lead and giving the facts and the aims of the whole party. The Post is well edited for its place and circulation, but its exchange-list, I suppose, is not the broadest, and it never has been looked to for the party lead. I say this in no disparagement to Mr. Bryant, for no one holds him in higher estimation than I do, and it is our own fault and not his that his paper has not held the leading place.
" But I must return to the subject of my letter, and writing, as I do, in my seat, and in the hearing of an ex- cited debate, I can say little more, even upon that. You can tell Mr. V. B. all our views about the proposed estab- lishment of a paper as fully as I could repeat them to you
* The triumph of the Native American party. 21
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
as to him if I had the time, and if he shall think that we overestimate our need, or the utility of such a paper, if estab- lished, I shall be perfectly content that any farther move- ment be abandoned. If he thinks it best for you to consult any of our friends at Albany he will tell you who and how. You will let him know, too, that the reason we did not think of Albany, rather than ISTew York, was that we supposed the state of things and state of feeling there to be such, and the relations to our two papers there, those which would be likely to defeat any movement made there with this view, or compel it to be made either against active opposition from our own friends or under dissatisfied feeling on the part of those connected with one of those papers.
" It appears to me that if anything is to be done it should be done quietly, so that the paper may commence with the nominations. I do not doubt, if subscribers are sent here to be distributed, that many, very many, subscribers will be obtained from without the State, and especially from Indiana and Illinois, and probably from Ohio and Michigan, but to that end all the time which can be given will be desirable.
" I must close, for I have been listening to speeches, while writing, until I do not know what I have said or what I wanted to say. After your return let me know the result of your mission as soon as you shall find leisure.
" I am, most truly, yours,
" Silas Weight.
"Private.
" N. B. — I shall write to Mr. V. B. upon this subject by this mail, and I think it not best for you to go up until after my letter can reach him. May it not be best for you to drop him a note, saying that you propose to make him a visit, naming the day, and telling him the subject is that of a paper, about which you suppose I have written to him %
" S. W."
SILAS WEIGHT TO S. J. TILDEN-
" Washington, April 30, 18J,//.
" My deae Sie, — Your letter has come, and I have read it with deep interest, but have not time to give you any answer beyond a mere note. Events follow so thickly upon us now that I cannot promise when I shall have another hour at command. The speech has been made, but it will
22
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never be written, if I am overrun as I have been ever since it was spoken.
" Mr. V. B.'s Texas letter is producing the fever and fury which I expected, but I hope feeling will, bye and bye, settle down to a better state. There is great talk now of another candidate, as a third candidate, but the members who join in the movement are, as far as I can learn, much less in number than was expected, being, as is said to-day, only about 20. I think the number will grow less.
" A single word about your effort. Do not involve your- self pecuniarily. If you cannot see your way clear without that, let it go, for it is not your duty to ruin yourself, even for such an object. Your views of the indispensable neces- sity for minute organization are perfectly sound.
" All I can send to you is some copies of the Philadelphia Club preparation, as I cannot get time to draw out in detail what T have suggested for my own and other counties. You will do that better than I can. I am called.
" In great haste,
" Most truly yours,
" Silas Wright."
1845-1850
The purpose of the advisers of President Polk to pros- trate the political organization of which Mr. Van Euren and Governor Wright were the most conspicuous representa- tives was scarcely disguised in the appointment of Mr. Van Ness as Collector of the Port of New York. Their part in preventing the organization of five more slave States, with their ten pro-slavery Senators, instead of one State with but two pro-slavery Senators, was such an offence to the Nulli- fiers of the South that the President, a citizen of a slave State, was compelled very reluctantly to yield to it and use his patronage accordingly.
The effort was made to seduce Tilden from his allegiance to his friends in New York by the offer of the naval office, then a lucrative and honorable position. Tilden had but just completed the thirty-first year of his age; the emoluments of the office were some twenty thousand dollars a year; the labor and responsibility inconsiderable. Tilden was poor,
23
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
and many years must elapse before he could hope for any such revenue from his profession. The offer, however tempting it was, he promptly declined, saying that he did not labor for the election of President Polk to push his private interests ; that when he was admitted to the bar he resolved that he would hold no merely lucrative office, and that, if he took any, it must be in the line of his profession or a post of honor, but under the then existing circumstances he could accept of nothing from this administration.
From this time forth there were practically two Demo- cratic parties, so called, in the State of New York: one led by William L. Marcy, and vulgarly known by their ad- versaries sometimes as " Hardshells," and sometimes as "Hunkers," who were either in favor of or not opposed to the extension of slavery into the free Territories from which it had been excluded by the ordinance of 1789 ; and the other led by Silas Wright while he lived, also vulgarly known sometimes as the " Softshells," and sometimes as " Barnburners," who were opposed to the extension of slav- ery into those Territories.
Though the division lines of these parties, like those of latitude and longitude, were not visible to the eye, nor the parties themselves sufficiently organized to occupy hostile camps, the ends towards which they were severally working were quite as distinct as if they were.
The following letter was probably addressed to William L. Marcy, who had allowed himself to be. made the instru- ment of the pro-slavery contingent in New York, and had been on that account selected by the President as his Secre- tary of War.*
S. J. TILDEN TO
"New York, 1845. " I cannot give you in full detail the grounds of the almost universal odium with which Mr. Van Ness is regarded by the Democracy of this city and State, but will briefly allude to some of them.
* Letters from Tilden intended for Marcy were commonly addressed to Marcy's brother-in-law, Mr. Newell, who resided in Washington dur- ing Marcy's war ministry.
24
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
" His appointment was not originally recognized as a
Democratic one or received from a recognized Democratic President. He was personally and politically a stranger; did not occupy that proper representative relation to the party here to make his selection proper or acceptable, or to give him or entitle him to their confidence. On the con- trary, all that was known of his private character and of his political tendencies was calculated to repel such confi- dence.
" His conduct since has confirmed and exacerbated the sentiments with which his original appointment was re- garded. In his official action and his political influence he lias been the mere representative and instrument of a mis- erable little faction, whose fortunes he has solved equally when it was in a state of partial alienation and open hos- tility to the Democratic party and its regular nominations. For months after Mr. Polk's nomination, for two-thirds of the whole canvass, he was an open and decided supporter of Mr. Tyler. All sorts of intrigue were employed by this little band of officeholders and their dependents to exact from the mass of the party a partial approval of Mr. Tyler's administration and an adoption of his appointments as a condition precedent to his withdrawal. Such had been the ahuses and corruptions of his administration in the use of its patronage here — incredible to those who like yourself have looked upon them from a less central position — and shocking to the moral sense of honest men of all parties; such was the general disgust and hostility pervading the masses of the Democracy which had been for several years vexed by the abuses and corruptions of the government patronage employed for the purpose of distracting the party ; so large was the number who had been the subject of ex- clusion and proscription because of their very political fidelity, and so large also the number who desired a new distribution of official favors, that such a concession as was demanded would have revolted public sentiment, in all probability have lost this city by a very large majority. Such was the conviction at the time of our soundest and most judicious men. who kindly and temperately but firmly resisted and defeated the project.
" The perilous crisis in our local politics you may form some idea of, if you will remember that there were then, delicately poised and uncertain to go for Clay or Polk until
25
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within a few weeks of the election, a body of men more than sufficient to have changed the result in this State. Mr. Polk has nowT to choose between the 19/20ths of the party and this faction ; between the disinterested and honest who were true to his and the party's interest, and the venal gath- ered from all former parties into the common receptacle of Tylerism, who would have sacrificed both to their own mercenary objects. His choice between them will in- dicate the morale of his character and administration. Ever since Mr. Tyler's attempt in 1841 to become the Presidential candidate of the Democracy, the patronage of the government in this city has been assiduously employed to harass or control the party here. It was managed by Mr. Curtis, who was skilful in if not the originator of all the corrupt tactics of the Glentworth school ; and since his removal, his machinery has been used by Mr. Van Ness [with] much more industry and zeal and with no less profligacy."
TILDEN TO WM. H. HAVEMEYER* (PROBABLY)
" Washington, March II, 18^5.
" My dear Sib, — I have received your letter of yester- day, which is much more acceptable than your personal presence. Indeed, I suppose that your intelligence from Albany would have changed the design, even if you had entertained it, of coming here. I did not expect you to start before Mon. morning, f
" As far as your personal position is concerned, it is sus- tained by your renewed declension — perhaps uttered, al- though, that it did not need. For be assured that nothing has been done to bring in question, the sincerity and reality of your declension, as well as the good faith of your grounds, but everything to satisfy both. It, however, does lessen our right, or apparent right, to complain of the precipitancy of Mr. Polk's action before the receipt of Mr. Van Buren's letter.
I judge from your letter that every time the excitement
u
* Twice Mayor of New York City.
fMr. Tilde'n on Saturday, after seeing Mr. Polk and delivering my letters, and perceiving a disposition to make the appointment finally made, wrote to me to come on to advise. This I declined, believing the matter disposed of, as proved to be the fact. The letter to Gov. M. was mailed at Washn. on Saturday p.m. W. H. H.
26
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of the particular motive operating on your mind for the moment to accept any department, subsides, your aversion returns and strengthens. This shows that it is the predom- inant and settled conviction, which ought not to be, without imperative necessity, disregarded, and applies even in the -case of a recast. In this connection, I should add to the hasty view of the affair I yesterday gave you that Bancroft thinks that if you had accepted the War a recast could have been had, and intimates the possibility as if from the Presi- dent. This may be so — others have thought so the whole time — but I doubt, for reasons I will explain when I see you.
" Last evening we had an interview with the President. Representations had been made to him which were repeated by us and which he said convinced him of his error, but it was now too late to retract if the Heavens and the Earth came together. He assured us that he had acted from mis- information, and with the best intentions — that he would do all he could to counteract the consequences of his error — that he should be President himself, although not coming in with the same personal strength as some of his predeces- sors, and would protect us from any malign influences — that in regard to the important appointments in N". Y. he would rely on his old friends and act with the concurrence of V. B. and W. He has repeatedly and to different persons pledged himself as to the Collector. His asseverations of attachment, fidelity, and fair dealing towards 1ST. Y. were earnest and strong, almost passing dignity, yet with an air of sincerity which made a strong impression as to mere personal intentions.
" Still I have perhaps more fears than hopes. The ad- ministration is captured by the quasi-Van Buren men who went with us before Baltimore but deserted us there; who cannot risk the power of the government in those who un- derstand and remember them; and confederate now against Wright. At least that seems to me the influence — which in spite of Polk's probable intentions — has shaped the ( labinet. Calhoun has no share. There will be no one in the Cabinet on whom ^T. Y. can rely. Buchanan you know. Walker has a strong will enough to predominate over all the rest. Marcy is taken by the same influence which selected Walker because while lie answers some of the demands of decency towards y. Y. is least identified with Wright.
27
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Mason, Atty. Gen. (unless to James) and R. John-
son. How can Bancroft stand up against all the others ?
" Truly y'rs,
" S. J. TiLDEN."
NELSON J. WATERBURY TO TILDEN
"New York, March 8, 1845.
" Dear Sir, — I have seen Secor. He says that he only contemplated speaking to Langley, if you had no objection, but to go no further. That he did not suppose you un- derstood or thought or expected him to transfer to any- body unless for a price. That he would write to you im- mediately.
" You will see Purdy is going ahead for Collector. He has been recommended by both of the Genl. Committees, various ward associations, and a German meeting. Secor tells me he also has a strong letter from Van Buren, and he went to Albany last night to get testimonials from there, I suppose. If he is appointed he will fill the Custom House with a laughable assortment — good, bad, and indifferent. I am inclined to believe that he will be more thorough in turning out than we expected. Of course you understand that all his recommendations are bargained for ; places are to be given to the men who get them up. If he succeeds you may rely that the dissatisfaction which his appointment will excite will be excessive. There is one way to [head ?] him. That is a merchants' memorial, asking that none but a commercial man be appointed. This would do, and Have- meyer could be made Collector and Purdy Postmaster. But nothing ought to be done unless Polk is entirely straight.
" Henry, my brother, is just down, has been at Albany. Our friends are very much dissatisfied. Polk's offers to Wright and Butler are not regarded as having been made in good faith. It is supposed that he has his eye on a second term. I incline to concur in the first partially — that is, they were mere compliments — not in the second. I think Polk is as weak as dish-water, but honest. If he is really so, and could or would be wise, he should send in Have- meyer's name forthwith. I do not believe that our friends north of this can be induced to urge it. By the way, Purdy's movements to get this office are, and his appointments would
28
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be, a second edition of Jesse Hoyt's. This is by far the most important thing to be seen to now.
" I suppose if Bancroft is confirmed you will get on fine- ly with the Renshaw business. There will be nothing to call you home in some days.
" Yours truly, " N. J. W. " 8. J. Tilden, Esq/'
TILDEN TO
"Hudson, March 17, 18>,5.
" My dear Sir, — An hour or so before I left Washing- ton I learned of an act of my friend O'Sullivan which gave me some annoyance and which I intended at once to explain to you. I should have1 done so before except for a rapid current of business which hurried me here.
" You might, fairly enough, perhaps, suppose that O'S.'s act, although not instigated by me, was induced by his knowledge of my views. But such an inference would be unjust to me. I suppose the thing was suggested to him by two circumstances. First, his knowledge that Mr. Cros- well had, in December, proposed it to me with some urgency, and, as (after casting about to discover his motive for a proposition which had until then never been presented to my own mind) I concluded to interest myself in behalf of Gov. Marcy for a Cabinet appointment, which I had at the time declined to do. Second, the arrival the night before of a gentleman from ISTew York who said that my name had been discussed — in highly respectable quarters certainly — in reference to the Collectorship. In reply to some remarks of O'S. afterwards, I said that even if that idea had been seriously entertained I should not desire the place both from inadequacy to its physical labor and aversion to its hang- man's duty at the present time. In that connection, the other place was spoken of as free from these objections and nearly as advantageous to me personally, and in reference to the political administration, as the Collectorship; but I said, that while the large value and light labor of it would be attractive, I should hesitate to take; it, even if it were offered to me, which T certainly did not expect, from re- luctance to hold a mere pecuniary, professional office, and to surrender or so far postpone my professional pursuits. I did not, I suppose, decide the question, because spoken of
29
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casually, as it was, I had no thought that it was, or was ever to become, a case to be decided.
" The moment I learned what O'S. had done, I told him that it was wrong — that you and Mr. V. B. ought, in no case, to make any recommendations until the Collectorship was settled and settled properly, because it might, on some pretence or claim of apportionment between the different sections of the party, embarrass that case. I should have written on my way back to that effect had not Gen. T)ix, whom I saw just as I was starting, told me he had done so.
Aside from this, I considered the question a balanced one,, which I could not decide in favor of acceptance without some consideration and advice. Under no circumstances which I now contemplate could I present myself as an ap- plicant for a place of this description. I did not know that after what has occurred you and Mr. V. B. would inter- meddle at all in such matters."
GOVERNOR WRIGHT TO TILDEN
" Albany, May 1, 1845.
" My dear Sir, — Your note of the 26. ult. was duly reed, and I will attempt to give you a brief reply to it.
" The pardon of Honoria Shepherd was granted upon the exclusive application of the Inspectors and Keepers of the Prison, upon the ground that she was effectually reformed, and that longer confinement would be injurious, and not beneficial. Miss Bruce, one of the Assistant Matrons of the prison, came up in person to get the pardon, and said her health compelled her to leave the prison, that she was about to go to Illinois to reside, and that she proposed to take Honoria with her, and keep her with her in Illinois.
" I have sent copies of all the papers in this case to Judge Edmonds, who was a leading person in the application, upon whom I principally relied, and he .will show them to you, if you wish to look at them. He, too, will advise about any defence of men in this case.
" Thomas Henry was pardoned upon the recommenda- tion of the Board of Inspectors of the prison, upon the ground that he was in a confirmed consumption, was a patient in the Hospital, a constant expense, and must re- main so while he lived, and that he had friends who were willing to receive, nurse, and take care of him, if pardoned.
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This was a voluntary report of the Board of Inspectors, em- bracing the report of the Surgeon upon 13 permanent in- valid Convicts, only two of whom were known to have friends able or willing to take and take care of them, and those the inspectors recommended for pardons, considering it inhumane to ask pardons for the others to turn them out sick and without home, or friends. I. Parsons of your city is the father-in-law of Henry, and takes him to take care of him. Parsons is a Ship joiner and Spar maker, and his daughter, the wife of Henry, who came for the pardon, has a highly respectable appearance.
" The pardon of George Potter was granted upon the application of William F. Godfrey of your City, who gave his address to me as JSTo. 94 Grove Street. He brought a letter of introduction to Judge Edmonds, speaking of him as his neighbor, referring to his business and saying ' I beg to say that you can fully rely upon his representations in the matter.'
" Godfrey presented a petition numerous and respectably signed, representing Potter, though guilty, as the dupe of old offenders, the offence for which he was convicted as his first offence, and him as very penitent and subdued, and earnestly praying his pardon.
" Potter was arrested on fresh pursuit, on the charge of pi eking a pocket in Broadway, and the report of the testi- mony showed that he was one of 4 or 5 who must have com- mitted the felony. One witness was very positive that Pot- ter took the pocket book, but another witness testified that he arrested Potter, that he kept his eye upon him from the time he started to run, and that, upon search, no pocket book, or money, was found upon him. Yet that he was principal or accessory, there is no doubt.
" A letter from James M. Smith Jr., Attorney for Potter on his trial, says Potter always avowed that he did not pick the pocket, and expresses the belief that, though guilty, he was the dupe of others.
"A letter from the Keeper of the Prison says 'Potter has conducted very well, since he has been an inmate of this prison, and he appears to show deep contrition for his "crime'' and degradation; but he is a man of peculiar temperament, which renders it extremely difficult to judge, with any degree of certainty, the true state of his feelings.'
" This is a brief sketch of the paper case presented. Mr.
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
Godfrey assumed to speak of Potter from personal knowl- edge, and said he came to this country from England, some year and a half ago, a young man, with a wife and two or three children, and with $15,000 in cash; that he fell into the company of some English blacklegs in j^ew York, who induced him to gamble, drink, and carouse with them, un- til they stripped him of his money, and vitiated his habits, and rendered him desperate from want, when they com- menced to initiate him into the art and mysteries of picking pockets; that in his first attempt he was caught and con- victed, while the real rogues and the booty escaped ; that his friends in England had been kept in ignorance of his course and his fate ; that they were wealthy and respectable ; that friends in I\Tew York had sent his wife and children to them, instructing her not to tell of his condition ; and that they were satisfied his disgrace and punishment had prepared him, if pardoned and sent to them, to pursue a different and an honest and respectable course, and they only asked a pardon conditioned that he should leave the country, never to return to it.
" Confiding in these representations of Mr. Godfrey, I granted the pardon with such a condition, and I now sup- pose Potter sailed for England either on the 15th or 20th of April.
" Since I have seen the strictures in the newspapers upon this case, I have been very fearful that I was imposed upon by Mr. Godfrey, and especially as he has not come for- ward either to justify, or excuse, my act. I did act prin- cipally upon his representations, under Mr. Edmond's en- dorsement of him, and I should, at the least, have required him to put those statements upon paper, and made them upon his oath. I did neither.
" Now as to the matter of explanation and defense, I have felt in no haste, because I am sensible that I may de- serve some castigation for having been too yielding in the first and last of these cases, and I have endeavored to school myself neither to wince, nor to be made sour by fault find- ing, which I am conscious I deserve, but to try to be im- proved and made better by it. If I were to make a defence for myself I should make about the substance of these re- marks and this Confession a preface to it, and yet it might not be either very graceful, or very wise.
" This matter of pardons is the most troublesome to me
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LETTERS AND .MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
of anything I yet find connected with my troublesome office. The applications will, I think, average from 3 to 5 per day, from the day I took the oath of office. My predecessor left an enormous legacy of undecided cases, and several with promises of pardons after specific periods, which are occa- sionally falling in, and this has greatly increased my labor.
" I do not intend to exercise this fearful power carelessly, or loosely, and yet I feel daily that I am in danger of doing it. I find that Courts, and Judges, and Jurors, and District Attorneys, sign with some of the facility which attends ap- plications for office, and that the officers of the prison are also sometimes under the influence of the amiable weakness, so that there is no standard by which I can govern my action, and it is probably impossible to avoid occasional impositions.
" I thank you most sincerely for your friendly care, mani- fested by your note, and will now leave these cases with you, and Mi-. O'Sullivan, with whom I had a hasty verbal conversation about them yesterday.
" Will you do me the favor to read this hasty letter to my friend Judge Vanderpoel, and say to him that I should have written it to him, if I had not preferred to trouble yon with it, that I thank him most earnestly for his letter to Mr. Van Buren, and have intended to write him daily, since I saw that letter, but have not been able to find the time; and that, while T will hold this as the necessary answer from me to the part of it touching pardons, I will soon write him a satisfactory reply to the personal portions of it, for which I also thank him, as he is one of the last men I would have intentionally wounded by a careless, and what was intended to be a jocose remark.
" I am Very Truly Y'rs,
" Silas Weight."
TILDEN TO J. L. O'SULLIVAN
"Washington, May 31 (Hat.), 2:30 P.M., 18f,5. "My dear O'S., — At the levee last evening which T at- tended for the purpose, T made an appointment with the Pres., and am now waiting in the War for the Cabinet to disperse.
" In the afternoon I had seen Ritchie for a few moments, and made an engagement with him. I had a considerable
33
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OE SAMUEL J. TILDEN
talk with Seth Barton at the levee and with Tom Green at breakfast. All of them introduced the subject of the Collectorship, and all of them especially warned me against imprudence or menace in the interview which they seem to assume I am to have with the Pres. — all tell me he is very sensitive to the idea of compulsion — and that the greatest obstacle we have is the indiscretion of some of us or of those who favor us. They all are exceedingly afraid that they may be thought to be afraid, which shows, I sup- pose, that they are only calmly conscious of their own cour- age. But only think of it — such admonitions to me/ the very incarnation of Falstaffian valor !
" I replied to Ritchie's caution — which was the first I received ; and which was given when I was talking with some decision, with great dignity. I ought to have thanked him for its good intention while I intimated that it was superfluous — I told him that I did not come here to forget what was due to Mr. Polk or what was due to myself ; I had no design to obtrude upon the President ; I had no personal interest in the question about Van Ness or any solicitude except as it should affect the party and the administration ; my only doubt was whether I should seek an interview on the subject ; I was willing to state facts, make explanations, expose the whole truth, if the President desired to hear it, respectfully but frankly; the administration was mainly interested in coming to a right decision. We had no idea of hostility to it if it was faithful to our principles— the only question was whether it was to assail us. All we asked of it was to let us alone. Our politics were now in excellent condition. We could take care of the Whigs and Conserva- tives together if the administration would not systemati- cally embarrass us, and I rather thought we could if it did. But we thought we were entitled to an amnesty from our friends at least while we were so busy with our enemies. The old gentleman seemed greatly mystified, but I promised to explain hereafter.
" (Confidential.)
" Bund. Morn. " I was not able to send my letter yesterday, and now add a word. I had an interview with the President yester- day. I ran over the case of Van Ness pretty freely. He replied at considerable length, ascribing the delay in his
"34
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
removal to the improper manner in which it had been de- manded. He did not say, but implied that he had never intended not to remove him ; made no defence or argument on the question of its propriety; merely excused the delay. Mr. Butler, he said, had written to him that it would do no harm to retain him until the year expired, if it were imme- diately announced that a particular man would then be ap- pointed. He complained bitterly of the attempts to intimi- date and coerce him — talking magnificently about being himself President and the locum tenen for nobody ; said that in his own time, perhaps Monday, perhaps afterwards, Van Ness should be removed, but swore with that terrible oath, " if the heavens and the earth come together," by which Ritchie and Green and Barton had successively warned me he might refuse if a mischance word of mine should chafe his angry mood, that he would not appoint Coddington. He sin mid select a man, he said, who would be received with applause throughout the State; on his own judgment, whom lie knew and had served with. Who that man was he did not say and I did not inquire, though I did express myself with some freedom as to what the man should do. Probably the question may now be deemed settled ; for you remember "he employed the same planetary concus- sion to illustrate the fixed irrevocable fate by which Marcy wras to represent New York in the Cabinet. His solemn form of fiat, I suppose, answers as the " By the Eternal " of the younger Hickory, and, being partly of earth and part- ly of heaven, is undoubtedly of an improved quality of im- aginary thunder. Still it did not shake my nerves, as a lady's displeasure might. T took it quietly, and talked occasion- ally as I had a chance, not so fully on all points as I wished, or mean, if an opportunity comes unsought; but, although I was conscious of having exposed myself to a part of a very respectable performance for the benefit of the rebellious Butler, Dix, and O'Sullivan, in which, perhaps, I might lose ;i little when it came to be privately repeated to the Cabinet and confidants, I thought that, nevertheless, T should net be justified in converting farce into tragedy. So T behaved well and was myself well treated. T inquired what was the ' intimidation ' and ' coercion ' referred to, and T believe was not very definitely answered. The only specification T got was letters from three — not more, he said, than three persons, whose names, he said, he would
35
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. T1LDEN
not tell me — who might never know about it themselves, whom he could not answer without getting into a corre- spondence inconsistent with his dignity, who might not be aware of the expressions they had incautiously and rashly used. Your letter to Bancroft was distinctly alluded to as, among other offences, alleging ' violated pledges.' I ex- pressed great doubts whether its contents had not been ex- aggerated, and when he said he had not seen it, and it was not intended for him, advised him to get it and read it. The warmth of these communications I vindicated as true representations of public feeling, expressed in honest free- dom ; though this part of the subject came up when the interview was forced to a close, and I could not do full jus- tice. Some explanations, which it was not prudent to make in the danger of exoneration, I have since made to his inti- mates with kindness but clearness and coldness, and shall to him if circumstances solicit. Am not I a lucky fellow? Soothed all day by the fiery Southerns, and then sitting quietly, as in a summer shower, when the storm is beating fiercely on those imprudent young men, Butler, Dix, O' Sul- livan— even, while refreshing myself, putting up my um- brella to protect them ! I only talked treason.
" He felt deeply the warm letter of his old friend Hoff- man— an honest man. He would swear by him, live by him, die by him. I added Mr. H. was a true-hearted man — he was the last man almost from whom I parted ; I had a long conversation with him. He fully concurred in the indis- pensable necessity of removing Van Ness — in the earnest and strong convictions expressed by the others on that sub- ject. The Pr. replied not. I think it was he that told me, and then that there had been letters saying that Hoffman would make his own acceptance conditional on V. IST.'s re- moval. No, it was Cave Johnson afterwards.
" The President expressed great sorrow that he could not see Silas Wright for an hour and have his advice. As to what, I did not certainly understand."
JOHN A. DIX TO TIXDEN
" Private. East Hampton, June 21, 18.'t5.
' My dear Sir, — I wrote to you some time ago in relation to the 1ST. Y. collectorship. Since then the matter has been disposed of; but in such a. way that I naturally feel a curi-
36
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OK SAMUEL J. TILDEX
osity to know, as far as it is proper that I should, the ground taken by the President in declining to appoint Mr. Cod- dington. 1 have seen a letter designed as a justification of
the Cabinet in the matter; but there is no allusion in it to assurances given to others as well as myself that the appoint- ment would be made in accordance with the wishes of Mr. Wright and his friends.
'* My letter, I presume, reached you; but as I have heard nothing from you in relation to your visit to Washington, it 1ms occurred to me that there might have been some mis- take about it. I am, Dr. Sir, Yours truly,
" John A. Dix."
TILDEN TO HON. CHARLES P. BROWN
" New York, October 13, 1845. " Hon. Charles P. Brown.
" My dear Sir, — Contrary to my expectations, I find my name among those from which your convention are about to select candidates for the Assembly. I had so uni- formly expressed my strong repugnance to any nomination this fall, and the grounds of it, that I did not suppose any misapprehension could exist on the subject; but I am now compelled to ask you to lay this communication before the body over which you preside.
" If the present were an occasion of peculiar or unusual importance, and if I flattered myself that I was capable of rendering essential service on such an occasion — nothing, in my power and consistent with other obligations, would be withheld, or ever will be withheld, from the interest, the honor, or the wishes of the Democratic party. But T am not able to take any view of the time or of myself which does not allow me, in this political calm, to devote myself to professional and private business on which alone I rely for an independent livelihood, and which the more imperatively claims my attention now from the partial withdrawal of it during the great contest of last year. I, therefore, respect- fully decline a nomination. Truly Y'r Friend,
"S. -T. TiLDEN."
As Mr. Wright had yielded very reluctantly, and more
to Mr. Tilden's solicitations than probably to those of any
other person, to leave the Federal Senate to be the Gov-
37
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
ernor of New York, lie had a right to insist upon Mr. Tilden's coming to the legislature, where his services were regarded by Mr. Wright as practically indispensable to him in the discharge of his executive duties. Mr. Tilden there- fore did not press his objection to the nomination he had declined.
TILDEN TO
" New York, November 4 (1 P.M.), 1845.
" My dear Sir, — I thank you for your two letters, tho' I have not before been able to reply to them.
" My opinion is that our whole Assembly ticket will be elected. Col. Stevenson may be in danger, and if the cur- rent opinion were reliable would be, but I think he will succeed. As to myself, the opposition at the country meet- ing was inconsiderable in point of numbers; but it was the only hostile organization not counteracted by a friendly one, and I am the only candidate left off from any of the pretendedly Democratic ballots. I expect to be scratched by some of those who were hostile to Mr. Van Buren, some of those who are hostile to Mr. Wright — the Tyler rowdies and the Walsh men."
CERTIFICATE OF MR. TILDEN's ELECTION TO THE ASSEMBLY
" The Board of County Canvassers of the City and County of New York, having canvassed and estimated the votes given in the several election districts of said city and county at a general election held the fourth day of Novem- ber, 1845, do hereby certify, determine, and declare that Alexander Stewart, Alexander Wells, Samuel J. Tilden, Jonathan D. Stevenson, John E. Develin, Gerardus Boyce, Joseph C. Albertson, Wilson Small, James H. Titus, Robert H. Ludlow, Joshua Fleet, Thomas Spofford, and John Townsend, by the greatest number of votes, were duly elected members of Assembly.
" And the said Board of County Canvassers do further certify, determine, and declare that Samuel Osgood, by the greatest number of votes, was duly elected Register of the Citv and County of New York.
"Dated New' York, November 21, 1845.
" B. J. Meserole, " Alex. II. Robertson, Chairman.
" Deputy County Clerk and Secretary." 38
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
JOHN A. DIX TO TILDEN
"Washington-, December 19, 1845.
" My dear Sir, — I sent you Fremont's report, which I presume you have ere this received.
" As to matters here, I really know as little as yourself — I mean of the views and intent ions of the administration. My intercourse with the President is official; and the Sec- retary of the Treasury I have not yet seen. I came here with the determination of acquiescing in whatever should he desired in respect to organization. I have acted on this determination. In respect to measures, I consider myself free to act according to the dictates of my judgment. Hap- pily, the President's recommendations I cordially approve, and I shall give them my zealous support. Where we shall land is doubtful. We have an able and adroit opposition; and advantage will be taken of the minutest error in our movements. We had abundant proof of this in the matter of Cass's resolutions. I never saw two cleverer cases of gen- teel sparring than that of Cass by Crittenden and Allen by ( 'lavton.
" I wish to open a correspondence with Mr. Kittell. Will you put me in the way of it ?
" There are a few measures I have much at heart — the warehouse system and the branch mint at iST. Y. ; the great measures, of course, take care of themselves.
" You know I shall always be happy to hear from you. 1 will write when I can. But I am a new member, have everything to learn, and not half time enough to learn it in.
" I cannot yet say whether there is any truth in the report as to Lawrence. His name is not yet before us. Indeed, we were in executive session yesterday for the first time, and I suppose the President has been waiting for us to organize before sending in the great mass of his nomina- tions.
" Yours truly,
"John A. Dix."
TILDEN TO HON. N. I\ TAI.LMAGE
"New Yobk, December 25, 1845.
" My dear Sir, — A few days since I received a note from your brother requesting me to call and see him, and I was distressed to find that in the short interval since I had last
39
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
met him his health had become so dangerously worse. He is anxious to obtain a consulship or some other place which will give him the benefit of a climate better adapted to a chronic pulmonary disease, and a reasonable support while subjecting himself to its remedial influence. I need not say I felt a strong sympathy for him ; but I feel some disability for rendering him useful aid, which I will in part explain and which he and you will appreciate. Although he sus- tained the Democratic ticket at the late general election, and did service which I understand has been handsomely recognized by the President, his course was so little con- spicuous that the impression left by his association with former events will naturally predominate in the minds of the party generals. If, therefore, the administration should regard the case in the light of mere party expediency, I do not think I could in candor towards them say what would be of much avail to him ; especially as caution in my ex- pressions being the more necessary lest I should expose my- self to be quoted not merely as offering a particular instance in regard to which I should have no hesitation if it stood alone, but as contributing to and thus sanctioning a general distinction of local patronage which is objected to, in part on the same ground on which this might be exposed to un- friendly criticism, and which has prevailed here in the lesser appointments which most interest the mass of the party to an extent that excites very great dissatisfaction. Nor does it seem to me that formal recommendations can at all benefit your brother, nor anything which I might say in his behalf, unless the administration desired affirmatively to do some- thing for him. If such be their real feeling — if they regard his case as one to be controlled by liberal considerations, if they recognize the strong appeal it makes to their humanity, and if they are nevertheless restrained by solicitude as to how the appointment would be received by their political friends here — it is possible that I may be of some little service to him, in the only contingency in which it seems to me any service can be efficient. The object of my letter is to assure you that if the administration take favorable views of the matter, as I hope and trust they may, I shall be ready to do what I can to cause the appointment to be well received by the party here; and that such, I believe, will be the general disposition of those of our friends to whom the circumstances are made known. The only hesi-
40
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
tation I have in saying this is lest it may be assuming in me; but if you think it will do your brother any good, you may communicate it for thai purpose. I did not venture to write to anybody other than yourself lest, in my ignorance of the state of fooling on which my letter might fall, and however guarded my language might be, I should unwit- tingly do harm, which, however frankly I may write to you, I shall avoid, even if I fail to do good.
" With the best wishes for the success of this object and your welfare, * Truly y'rs,
" S. J. TlLDEN."
The Albany Argus, since the election of President Polk, had become the organ and an extreme partisan of the so- called Hunker party and champion of the policy of the Slavery Extensionists. One of the consequences was the establishment of the Atlas at Albany by the friends of Van Buren and Wright. The Argus was conducted by Edwin Croswell, a then veteran journalist, and the Atlas by a Mr. Van Dyke, assisted by a very clever young man of Irish extraction named Cassidy. These two prints registered the stages of the ineffectual struggle of the Van Buren and Wright party with the administration at Washington, a spe- cimen of which is disclosed in the following correspondence between Mr. Croswell, Mr. Tilden, and John Van Buren, a gifted son of the ex-President Van Buren, and then rap- idly becoming a conspicuous figure in national politics.
E. CROSWELL TO TILDEN
" Albany, January 26, 18/f6. " Dear Sir, — I am informed by a member of the Legis- lature, whoso veracity I cannot question, that you stated to him that I had made a proposition in relation to a compro- mise of the questions of difference between the Argus and Atlas, which had been accepted by you or your friends, but which I had flown from or violated under the pretence of consulting my friends.
"Allow me to ask whether T am to understand you as having made such a declaration.
" Very respectfully,
" Yr. obt. servt.,
" E. Croswell." 41
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
TILDEN TO E. CROSWELL,
" Albany, January 21, 181(6.
'• My dear Sir, — The inquiry which your favor of yes- terday contains is so made up of statements and inferences — so very general in some respects, and so imperfect in others — that an answer to it which expresses neither more nor less than the truth must be more specific than you seem to ask.
" I understood from gentlemen whose veracity I could not question that on the Wednesday before the recent caucus you made to them a communication to this effect :
" You said that it would not do for you to make any further proposition relative to the union of the Argus and Atlas, but you invited a proposition to be made, to you, the terms of which you specified as follows: That the Argus and Atlas should be united, at an appraised valuation; that the joint establishment should be owned by Messrs. French, Cassidy, and Sherman Croswell in three equal parts; that you should withdraw from the concern ; that Messrs. Cas- sidy and Sherman Croswell should be candidates for State printers ; and that the emoluments of that office, if it were conferred upon them, should belong to the joint establish- ment.
" This proposition, you said, would be entirely acceptable to yourself, and you expressed great confidence that you could induce your friends in the Senate to confirm it. In that event, the bill purporting to abolish the office of State Printer, of which you expressed decided disapprobation, would, you hoped, be postponed or greatly modified or de- feated, and harmony, as you thought, restored to the Re- publican party. The result of your efforts was to be com- municated to those from whom the proposition was in form to emanate before the assembling of the caucus. Your sug- gestion was in all respects adopted and followed by them.
" Deriving from these facts, as well as from the inter- views which you had sought with me on the subject, strong hopes that an arrangement satisfactory to all parties, con- sistent with public duty, and conducive to the interests and the honor of the Democratic cause, would be effected ; and having reason to believe that more of the radical Democrats of the Assembly and all those of the Senate would assent to the union of the two papers (being first convinced that
42
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAM I EL J. T1LDEN
the advocacy of sound Democratic doctrines would be essen- tially secured — of which fact you were, after consultation with them, advised — you may imagine my surprise when, half an hour before the caucus met, I learned that, although twenty-four hours had elapsed, you had not even communi- cated with several of your prominent friends i*i the Senate; had not seen your partner and relative, who is a member of your own family; had failed to keep your appointments; and, when sent for, at my instance, who was still unwilling to impute a design to evade, were unprepared to close the negotiation, to make any definite arrangement, or even a proposition. Attended as this failure was by the forcing through the Senate, at an extra session, held in the mean time, by your friends, of the bill you disapproved, and fol- lowed, as it has since been by your advocacy in the Argus of that bilk, I am forced, in the absence of all explanation, to entertain more distrust than I remember having ex- pressed, or wish to express, of a negotiation in which I engaged at your solicitation.
" In regard to the particular language which your letter ascribes to me, I have no recollection of having used it, nor does it, in the way you have stated it, remind me of any conversation out of which the information you repeal to me may have originated. Nor does it seem to me in substance correct, so far as it may be construed to imply much of a direct personal communication between you and me after the first stage of the negotiation; or any effort to 'compro- mise the questions of difference between the Argus and . 1 / las,' further than to unite, these two papers, which I was sincerely anxious to bring about, and after the intimations from you did actively recommend to my associate Demo- crats of the Assembly, while I left them and myself at per- fect liberty to act according to our individual judgments and consciences on any questions of reform in regard to the office or the functions of the State Printer. But that I may not have adverted to the distinction, if there be any in sub- stance, between your making a proposition and suggesting one to be made to you which you declared beforehand would be entirely acceptable to you, and may have spoken in gen- eral terms of the proposition as yours as well as that of those you represent, is very possible; and thai 1 may have casually expressed the sentiments which the facts above stated neces- sarily excited, in regard to the part you bore in the trans-
43
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
action is possible, though I do not remember having done so, and I am sure if I have not the forbearance is to be imputed solely to reluctance with which I have put an un- favorable construction upon your conduct.
" If there is any explanation to be offered I should be glad to hear it, and to learn if I have even in thought done you the least injustice.
" With great respect, your obdt. servt.,
" S. J. Tilden."
JOHN VAN BUREN TO EDWIN CROSWELL
" (Circa January 27, 1846.)
" Dear Sir, — I have reed, your favor of the 26th inst. making certain inquiries of me, and I very cheerfully state my recollections in regard to them.
" On Wednesday, before the late caucus, I ^earned from gentlemen of undoubted veracity that you had made to them the following communication: You said that you would make no further propositions in reference to the union of the Argus and Atlas, but you invited a proposition to be made to you, which you said would be entirely acceptable to yourself, and expressed great confidence that your friends in the Senate would be induced by you to confirm it. In that event the bill to abolish the office of State Printer, pending in the Senate, of which you expressed your decided disapprobation, you hoped would be postponed and greatly modified or defeated, and harmony restored to the Repub- lican party. The result of your efforts was to be communi- cated to those who were to make the proposition prior to the assembling of the caucus. The precise offer that you in- vited was made to you on Wedy. aftn.
" Hearing these facts, and having strong hopes that an amicable arrangement satisfactory to all parties would be brought about thro' your exertions, and having reason to believe that the great mass of the radical Democrats of the Assembly and all those in the Senate approved of the union of the two papers on the terms now suggested, which they thought secured the advocacy of sound principles, you may imagine my surprise on being informed, a half-hour before the caucus met, that altho' more than 24 hours had inter- vened, you had not even communicated with several of your personal friends in the Senate, had not been able to see your
44
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
own partner and cousin, who is a member of your family, failed to keep yr. appointments, was found with difficulty, and was not prepared when found to make any definite arrangement or even proposition. Attended as this failure on your part was by the forcing thro' the Senate by your friends of the bill you disapproved, and followed by strong and indignant denunciations the next morning in the col- umns of the Argus of several leading Democrats in the Senate, and warm advocacy of the same bill, I was forced, in the absence of all explanation, to conclude that if you had not acted in bad faith you had certainly trifled in a most extraordinary manner with a subject I considered of great importance.
" Under these circumstances, I claim credit for myself in speaking of your conduct with great forbearance, and have no recollection of using the language you attribute to me in your note, tho', as I did not advert to the distinction (if there be any in substance) between your making a propo- sition and inviting one to be made to you, which you de- clared beforehand would be acceptable to you, I have doubt- less spoken freely of the part you bore in the transaction as inexplicable and censurable.
" I shall be happy to hear any explanation you have to make, and glad to know if I have unintentionally, even in thought, done you injustice."
CERTIFICATE OF THE ELECTION OF MR. TILDEN AND OTHERS
TO THE CONVENTION ORDERED TO REVISE THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF
NEW YORK IN 1846
" The Board of County Canvassers of the City and County of New York, having canvassed and estimated the votes given in the several election districts of said city and county at a general election held the 14th day of April, 1846, do hereby certify, determine, and declare that Charles O'Connor, Henry Nicoll, Samuel ./. Til den, Benjamin F. Cornell, Campbell P. White, Alexander F. Vache, Lorenzo B. Shepard, John A. Kennedy, John L. Stephens, Robert H. Morris, William S. Conely, David R. Floyd Jones, Solo- mon Townsend, John TT. Hunt, Stephen Allen, and George S. Mann, by the greatest number of votes, were duly elected ' Delegates to meet in convention for the purpose of con-
45
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. T1LDEN
sidering the Constitution of this State, and to make such alterations in the same as the rights of the people demand and as they may deem proper, under an act of the Legis- lature of the State of E"ew York, entitled, " An act recom- mending a convention of the people of this State." Passed May 13, 1845.'
" Dated May 11, 1846.
" Egbert Benson,
" Chairman. " James Conner,
" County Clerh, Secretary."
N. J. WATERBURY TO TILDEN
"New York, August 28, W{6.
" My dear Sir, — Mr. Guion* visits Albany at my re- quest to see you and Kennedy, and through you to consult with others for the purpose of finally ascertaining whether anything is to be done to sustain the News. If anything is to be done it has got to be made available for Monday. Unless some money is then obtained, that will be the last number of the paper issued. I have the same opinion as before expressed in relation to the great importance of sus- taining the paper until after the election at least ; and I have stated to you the only plan I know of for doing so. Gen. Spinner suggests that John G. Floyd be induced to take the paper. With $3000 we can sustain the paper until January 1st. With $2000 until November. If it should go down before the election it will injure us greatly. Mr. Guion goes up at my earnest request, and not that he has any further personal solicitude about the matter than you and me and all our friends feel.
" In haste, yours very truly,
" K J. Waterbury."
"New York, Sep. 8, lStf. "6 1-2 O'clk. P.M.
" Dear Tieden, — The long agony is over — the Morning News is dead — dead; no time to say more.
" Truly y'rs,
" Clement Guion."
* The business manager of the Daily Nevis. 46
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
The public interest in the history of the Morning News, of which Mr. Tilden and John L. O'Sullivan were joint proprietors, may be said to have terminated with the execu- tion of the document of which the following is a draft, found among Mr. Tilden's papers.
conditions on which tilden retired from the "morning news"
" S. J. T. retires — surrenders all his interest — is indemni- fied against its outstanding liabilities.
"J. L. O'S. and II. G. L. (II. G. Langley) rearrange their proportion of ownership. Hereafter to own equally. The difference of capital to be equalled by credits to II. G. L., the necessary amount on his "advances, existing or pro- spective.
" H. Q. L. contracts to devote himself faithfully to the business and interests of the paper — to conduct with the utmost energy and fidelity the procuring of advertisers.
"Failing to do this, he is to retire, giving O'S. all rea- sonable facility to substitute some other persons on reason- able terms of sale. All disputes and differences of opinion as to these stipulations to be left to the decision of —
jj
The triumph of the pro-slavery party in the election of Mr. Polk resulted in the revolt of Texas from Mexico, her annexation to the United States, and a war with Mexico.
At the expiration of his term, Governor Wright was re- nominated almost unanimously. If elected, nothing in the future appeared more certain than that he would have been Mr. Polk's successor in the Presidency. The reversion of the Chief Magistracy to such a formidable opponent of slavery extension as Governor Wright, who could neither, be cor- rupted nor cajoled, was then regarded at Washington as a peril, to avoid which no sacrifice was too great. The magni- tude of the sacrifice of Mr. Wrighl was as correctly appre- ciated at Washington, and by the very men who were to offer it up as a propitiation to the demon of slavery, as at Albany; but to the short-sighted vision of the statesmen then
in the ascendant at the national capital the political su-
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
premacy of the slave-holding States was to be maintained at any price.
The influence of the Federal government was, therefore, all turned against Mr. Wright at the Gubernatorial election in 1847, and it proved to be sufficient to give a majority of some eleven thousand to John Young, the candidate of the Whigs.
Mr. Wright, at the expiration of his term, returned to his home in St. Lawrence County, consoled by the reflection that the evil consequences of taking him from the Senate and making him a party to the faction fights in New York had resulted as he had predicted — in disaster to the party and in his own political destruction. He died within nine months from his retirement.
The annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico which ensued resulted in the acquisition of vast territories, sooner or later to be organized into States, to be consecrated to freedom or to slavery. To open these States to slavery and reinforce the slave representation in Congress, it had be- come necessary to paralyze the Democratic party in New York.
The first steps towards this end had been taken in the defeat of Mr. Van Buren's renomination for the Presi- dency, and putting a Southern man in his place. The second had been taken in the defeat of Governor Wright's re-election in 1847 ; the third, yet to be taken, was to deprive the Democracy of New York of its legitimate influence in Congress and the next Democratic national convention.
In this scheme the administration was entirely success- ful. At the commencement of President's Polk's adminis- tration the Democratic party was completely in the as- cendant in New York. It had elected its Governor and Lieutenant-Governor; it had a majority in both branches of the Legislature, and a majority of the delegation in Con- gress. At the expiration of two years its Chief Magistrate was a Wnig, and its Congressional delegation was reduced to a meagre minority. The following year the whole legis- lative power of the State was transferred to the Whigs by
an overwhelming majority, and the schism in the party,
48
Letters and memorials of samueL j. tilden
encouraged by the bestowal of all the patronage of the Federal government upon the " Hunkers," had become ir- reparable."
JOHN A. Dixf TO S. J. TILDEN
" Washington, January 2, 1847.
" My dear Sir, — Yours is received. I do not know whether I can have any influence in the matter referred to, but will bear your wishes in mind.
" Everything here is in miserable condition. I do not know whether Mexico will make peace, but I am sure she would not if she know what a state we are in. Still I hope for the best. Mr. Polk is in a minority in both Houses. His most disinterested and reliable supporters are the friends of those he has treated worst. I am sick of the whole concern, and, most of all, of the miserable manoeu- vring for high place, which is beginning to show itself.
" If we had a discreet and energetic leader in Mexico, I think we might bring the war to a close. But the lieutenant- general has been slain, and with him I think dies all prospect of success by arms or diplomacy. Our only chance is in luck, and Mr. Polk is so fortunate in getting out of scrapes just when he is most straitened that I am inclined to bet on him yet.
" Yours in haste,
" John A. Dix."
THE FIRST GUN FOR FREE SOIL
April, 18Jf8.
At the threshold of the Free-soil revolt of 1848, ex- President Van Buren, who w7as spending the winter in lodgings at Julian's Hotel in Washington Place, New York, said one day to Mr. Tilden, as he handed him a roll of manuscript : " If you wish to be immortal, take this home with you, complete it, revise it, put it into proper shape, and give it to the public."
Mr. Tilden replied that he had not the slightest wish to be immortal by any process tlial would impose upon him at
*Life of Tilden, Vol. I., p. 11G-117.
t At this time a member of the United Slates Senate from New York.
49
Letters and memorials of samuel j. tilden
that time any more labor ; but he consented to take the manu- script down to the residence of the ex-President's son, John Van Buren, who then resided in White Street, and he agreed that if John would do half of the work he would do the other half. John did agree, and a few days after the interview referred to, Tilden and John met at the ex-President's lodg- ings to report.
Mr. Van Buren opened the subject by asking what they had done with Niagara Falls. This referred to a somewhat ambiguous metaphor which had found its way into the ex- President's manuscript. " We have struck that out," was the reply. Fie laughed, as if rather relieved at having an unpleasant duty discharged by other hands, while they went on to read the result of their joint labors.
After the address had received the combined approval of each party to its composition, the next question was how to get it before the public. After discussing various plans, they finally decided to issue it as an address of the Demo- cratic members of the Legislature. Accordingly, on the 12th of April, Senator John G. Floyd, from the committee of Democratic members of the Legislature to prepare and report an address, read the paper to his colleagues, by whom it was unanimously adopted. This memorable and epochal document was given at length in the Public Writings and Speeches of Tilden, Vol. II., page 537. This address de- serves to be regarded as the corner-stone of the " Free-soil " party, as distinguished from the party of unconditional abo- lition.
S. P. CHASE* TO JOHN VAN BUEEN
" Columbus, June 19, 18Jf8.
" My dear Sir, — Many of our Free - Territory men in this quarter are in doubt as to the course which the New York Democracy intend to pursue in reference to the Buffalo convention. Will they be represented in it ? Will they con- cur in the nominations made by it? If Judge McLean can
* A resident of Ohio, the following year was elected to the United States Senate, subsequently became War Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln, and died Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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be induced to accept a nomination for the Vice-Presidency, in connection with Mr. Van Buren for the Presidency, will
they cordially accept it ? If the convention, on mature de- liberation, should think it expedient to nominate Judge McLean for the Presidency and Col. Samuel Young or Bradford R. Wood or yourself for the Vice - Presidency, would the New York Democracy concur in that nomination? There is a strong disposition, also, in the West to drop the older politicians altogether and take younger men, who bet- ter represent the spirit of the time. One of the best and ablest Democrats in the State, I mean Edwin M. Stanton, said to me to-day that if John Van Buren should be the nominee of the Buffalo convention he would roll up his sleeves and go to work till the election for the ticket; and I am sure that to all the young Democrats and all the young Whigs in the State your name would be more acceptable than your father's. Suppose the convention should be animated by this spirit and nominate men of this generation, would the New York Democracy concur ?
" I put these questions to indicate the various phases which the movement may assume. My own opinion is that, under existing circumstances, the best possible nomination for the Presidency has been made at Utica, provided the name of John McLean can be associated with it. Whether it can be is, as yet, in doubt, though I fear the doubt will be resolved against my wish. If it cannot be, we have no man in the West whose name on the ticket would be alto- gether unexceptionable. If Judge McLean should consent to allow his name to be used, the ticket would undoubtedly sweep Ohio, and would gain immense accessions of strength throughout the West. I firmly believe that the nominees may, in that event, be elected this year. It would be, to be sure, sacrificing a good deal on the part of Judge McLean, so long prominent in the regards of the people as a candi- date for the first office, to accept a nomination for the sec- end; and the bitterness with which he could be assailed by the slaveholders and their allies would exceed greatly that which is now manifested towards your father. Nothing but a strong sense of personal duty, and a deep interest in the success of the movement (and he avows that interest openly), will prevail on him to consent, and, I fear, he will not feel that duty absolutely requires the step. Tt is prob- able that he would regard an offer of a nomination for the
LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
first office differently. He would then be the recognized head or representative of the movement, and would feel the abuse directed against him, as levelled chiefly at the cause. And I think he would represent the movement al- most exactly as Silas Wright would have done if living. I regard him as more nearly resembling Silas Wright in the general character of his views on public questions than any living public man. While, therefore, I repeat that if we can have Judge McLean's name for the Vice-Presidency I would rather take the ticket as it would then stand — Martin Van Buren and John McLean — than any other, you will not wonder that I regret that the action of the convention at Utica has interposed an obstacle to a different arrangement. Whether the obstacle is insuperable you are a far better judge than I am. If it be, then, we must take the Utica nomination, supply the Vice-Presidential vacancy and make the best fight we can.
" You will have observed the difficulty suggested by the National Era growing out of the expressions in your father's letter, in relation to slavery in the District of Columbia ; and you are doubtless aware that all that part of the letter in reference to the course of his administration on the sub- ject of slavery is very distasteful to almost all anti-slavery men, whether Whig, Democratic, or Liberty.
" I wish that part of the letter could have been omitted. It does no good to revive the past. Our business is with the present and the future. Your remarks in your speech at Genesee on the 20th of June are full of truth. The free- Territories question, in discussion, must bring up the whole slavery question inevitably. Our contest is with the slave power, and it will break us down unless we break it down. The people will not stop with the exclusion of slavery from Territories : they will demand its complete denationaliza- tion. ISTow many understand Mr. Van Buren's letter, so far as it touches upon slavery in the District, as a reiteration of his pledge to veto a bill for the abolition of slavery there if enacted by Congress. I do not myself so understand it. I cannot believe that at the present day and under present circumstances, when a strong anti-slavery sentiment exists in Maryland and Virginia, which would be vastly strength- ened by such a measure — so strengthened, indeed, that those States would by it be converted into free Territory States — that he would interpose the slightest obstacle to its adoption.
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I cannot doubt that, on the contrary, he would give it every favor consistent with the proper discharge of his function as President.
" So many, however, take a different view from mine that it is highly desirable, in the event that M. Van Buren is to be the nominee of the Buffalo convention, to have all doubt on this matter removed, so that he may be received and un- derstood everywhere as a true representative of the move- ment.
" The uprising in this State exceeds all expectation, and if we only can present a proper ticket at Buffalo we shall have the best chance of carrying the State. But the effect of the movement is different here from its effect in New York. The question in this State will be between the in- dependent nominee and Cass. Taylor is, with us, entirely out of the question. The people reject him, and the poli- ticians support him, when they do at all, doubtingly and without enthusiasm. The Cass men are more active and with better hopes. In conversation with Judge Wood yesterday, or the day before, I remarked to him that I was a little sur- prised, after reading of the interview between himself, Cass, and the people at Cleveland, to hear of his advocating on the stump the claims of Cass, as a Wilmot proviso man. ' Oh,' says the judge, ' He is for the proviso as much as any of us.' ' Do you mean to say, then, that the Nicholson letter was designed to cheat the South and get the nomination V I asked. ' T) — n them,' said he, ' it is their turn to be cheated.' This is a common argument among the Cass men ; and as there is something like retribution in hind indicated by it, it don't take very badly among the people.
" I shall be very glad to hear from you, and to be advised of the views of yourself and others, to Avhom you may show this, as to what is best to be done and the best mode of doing it. Yours verv truly,
"S. P. Chase.
" P. S. — Did you or Mr. Preston King receive a tele- graphic despatch, at Utica, stating the action of our people's convention, which adjourned the day before your session commenced? We, Mr. Vaughan and myself, sent one on the evening of the 21st, and it should have reached you on the morning of the 22d at the latest. We shall be glad to know whether it reached vou at all, and, if so, when."
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TILDEN TO S. P. CHASE
" New York, July, 1848.
" My dear Sir, — Your letter came here in the absence of Mr. J. Van Buren, which still continues, and it has been handed to me by Mr. Bryant, with a request that I would answer it. I desire to do so with perfect candor, and with as much accuracy as I can in regard to questions which de- pend upon the concurring action of numerous individuals composing a large party.
" As to your inquiry whether the- Barnburners of New York will be represented in the Buffalo convention, I can only say that so far as representation consists in the presence of persons who will be asked to consult with the members of that body and inform them of the views of the Democracy, there will be no want of it. But representation of the formal and authoritative character which is usual in the delegated conventions of organized parties will not be possible, either from the nature of the convention itself or the circumstances in which the Democracy of this State are placed. The con- vention professes to be merely a mass convention, and does not aim at the indispensable characteristics of a delegated body — among which is a proportionate representation of ascertained constituents, whose numbers and relations are already known ; but it will be simply a voluntary assemblage of individuals, whose relations to each other are to be for the first time established. Nor is there any person to act authoritatively for the Democracy of this State, as an or- ganized body, until the meeting of the Utica convention on the 13th of' Sept.
" But all this is not deemed to be a matter of much con- sequence. The Buffalo convention must act with spontane- ous harmony or it will fail of its objects, and the spirit of the people and the circumstances of the occasion will be likely to make it very independent of forms. If it acts with wisdom, the TJtica convention will doubtless concur in its nomination for the Vice-Presidency.
" As to the Presidency, it will not, under any circum- stances, be practicable to change the position of the De- mocracy of this State. Their convictions on this subject would be irresistible, whatever might be the desires of lead- ing men. Nominated, as Mr. Van Buren was, against his wishes, and because he was believed to be the strongest can-
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didate with nearly all to whom they had a righl to look for support, and acquiescing, as he did, on the ground that his old companions and their descendants had a right to his name to strengthen them in maintaining their characters and cause amid the perils and difficulties which surrounded them, it would not be decent towards him, now that more than they at first hoped is sure to he accomplished, to seek another representative. A si ill stronger consideration would he the had faith of such a procedure towards large numbers of men and influential presses which have been drawn into our support of Mr. V. TVs name. Another would be the great impolicy of changing front on the eve of battle, when the public mind has adapted itself and individuals have found relations with reference to the candidate. And an- other would be the conviction that in this State at least his name is far the strongest that can be presented with reference to practicable accessions to the cause. Of course this may be assumed to be- the fact among the Democrats from whom our strength must mainly come — and the aid we have de- rived from it has been very great — while those Whigs who are disposed to go with us prefer him to any other Democrat, if T may judge from their expressions to me and others be- fore the convention of the 22d of June.
" The Democracy of this State supports the cause and Mr. Van Buren, an organized party having more than fifty presses, many of which are the longest established and most influential in the State, and are organs on which perhaps the contest turns."
GOVERNOR COLES TO M. VAN" BUREN
" Philadelphia, October 12, 18^8. "My dear Sir, — Your very kind and flattering letter of the first instant would have been sooner acknowledged but for my having had the pleasure of having with me Mr. and Mrs. Singleton and Miss McDuffie, and also your son, the colonel, and Angelica, and since they left me I have been so unwell as to be incapable of writing. And I am still too much indisposed to do much more than to express the grati- fication I derived from its perusal and to receive your com- mendation of my letter to Mr. Richards, which gave me the more pleasure, as 1 found my letter would disappoint him and other friends from its treating on newspaper and com- mon-place topics, accessible to all, instead of giving facts and
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anecdotes not generally known, and which had become par- ticularly well known to me, from the deep interest I have long taken in the subject, from my residence in Illinois at the period when efforts were made to make it a slave-holding State, and from my intimate acquaintance with most of the great men of the country. But I was sensible of not being able to do justice to the information I possessed, without a reference to documents not accessible to me at Schooleys Mountain.
" Your son John having requested me to send him a copy of a letter written by Mr. Jefferson to me in August, 1814, on the subject of slavery, and also a communication made by me to the National Intelligencer, and published in that paper Feb. 14, 1838, in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, I have since my return home from my summer excursion enclosed them to him to 91 White Street, New York, and hope he has received them, as I think the republication of Mr. Jefferson's letter at this time will do much good.*
" In explanation of some parts of Mr. Jefferson's letter, I ought to add that it was written in reply to one from me, informing him of my repugnance to holding slaves, and my determination to leave Virginia unless I could see some prospect of abolishing slavery in the State, and urging him to step forward as the leader in the great work. He showed our correspondence to many persons, and urged them to asso- ciate with me and form what he called a phalanx for bring- ing forward the necessary measures to put an end to slavery. Seeing no prospect of success, I abandoned the State, re- stored to my slaves their liberty, and removed them to Illi- nois, where I have had the high gratification of seeing them free, happy, and prosperous.
" I have been too unwell to see and to deliver to our old friend, Mr. Short, your kind message. As soon as I am well enough to walk to his house I will do so. As I am now suffering a good deal from headache I must conclude, after repeating assurances of my great respect and sincere regard.
" Edward Coles. " Martin Van Buren, ex-President U. S."
* The letter here referred to was brought to me by John Van Buren about the date of the letter here given ; was published by me promptly in the New York Evening Post, and was republished by the late Paul S. Ford in his edition of the Works of Jefferson. — Editor.
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THOMAS VAN RENSSELAER TO MARTIN VAN BUSES
"New York, Oct. 16, 18*18. " Hon. Martin Van Buren.
" Respected Sir, — Under ordinarv circumstances it would be out of place for such an humble individual as my- self to address you, but I consider that a crisis has arrived in this country which calls for the untiring exertions of every good man to check the spread of slavery which threatens the very existence of the institutions of the country, and my apology may be found in the fact that I am identified with this proscribed class. You will recognize me as the conductor of a small newspaper in this city called the Ranis Horn, a few copies of which I have taken the liberty of mail- ing to your honor.
" The approaching election I look upon as one of consid- erable importance to the country, and altho my paper is not a political one, yet I have thought right under existing circumstances to advocate the nominees of the Buffalo con- vention,* and try to induce the few hundred of my colored brethren in this vicinity who have votes to cast them in favor of Free Soil. We have had several meetings, and, in fact, done all we could with our limited means, and I have con- sulted with the Free Soil men here what is our best course to pursue, and the conclusion is to continue pubishing and operating as efficiently as we can among ourselves, and if we can obtain a little pecuniary assistance for a short time I think we can do considerable in the right direction. Can you put us in a way to have a little funds at our disposal, and thereby enable us to forward the good cause ?
" Respectfully,
" Thos. Van Rensselaer."
m. van buren to s. j. tilden
" Lindenwald, October 18th, '1(8.
" My dear Sir, — As you are the man of business, if not the only one in our ranks, you must not complain of the trouble I arn about to give you. The enclosed has embar- rassed me not a little. Having been pleased with the writer's
* At this convention Martin Van Buren had been nominated by the Free-soil party for President, and Charles Francis Adams for Vice- President.
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very successful reply to Mr. Gerrit Smith, which I think we read together, I feel loath to slight him altogether, and yet I can neither do what he suggests without falsifying my position or open a correspondence with him without expos- ing the act to perversion. I wish, therefore, you would take the trouble to send for him and explain to him my situation upon the said point. In haste, very truly yours,
" M. Van Buren."
TILDEN ON ME. GREELEY, THE LEGISLATOR, AND THE SLAVERY
QUESTION*
[From the " Evening Post," Dec. 23, 18^8.]
" When we wrote our former articles on the bill of Mr. Douglass we had not seen the letter from Mr. Greeley which was published in Saturday's Tribune (Dec. 16, 1848). The intimation contained in that letter of his sentiments and probable course in regard to that bill if presented in its original form, would not have been allowed to pass without the animadversion which its extraordinary nature calls for, and which we shall now briefly make, not upon the imper- sonality which edits the Tribune, but upon Mr. Greeley, the legislator, who represents in part the people of this city in the highest councils of the nation.
" When, after having professed to consider the extension of slavery to free Territories as the question of questions involved in the late election — after having for months ex- horted all to treat it as far above the other objects of party association, and reproached those who did not so treat it as false to freedom — after having at first distrusted the noble band of Democrats who proclaimed their determination to maintain throughout the canvass and at the polls the senti- ments which they had before professed, taunted them with the prediction that they would ultimately surrender prin- ciples to a slavish subserviency to party, and at length ap- plauded their constancy when it could no longer be dis- puted ; after having stigmatized as recreant to principle and duty all who should support a candidate for the Presidency not avowedly in favor of the Wilmot proviso; after having denounced General Taylor as identified in interest and asso- ciation with the slave power, and probably unsound in prin-
* Mr. Greeley was at the time this article appeared in the N. Y. Even- ing Post a member of Congress from New York city.
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ciple on the greatest of issues; when, after having done all this, the editor of the Tribune, on the eve of election, an- nounced his intention to support General Taylor, to vote for a man because he was available, whom he had denounced for that very reason when nominated as an available ; to vote for a man because he would beat Gen. Cass, whom he had denounced when nominated on that express ground; to vote for a man whom, after three months of nice balancing, he found to be a shade less objectionable than another candi- date, because it was necessary to make a choice of evils be- tween the nominees of the two old party organizations, no matter how wrong and dangerous the principles of both might be; thus surrendering the great question of freedom in the Territories, in the same manner and for the same reasons, for which most of the supporters of Taylor and ( ass at the North professed to surrender it, and uniting with them in presenting the miserable spectacle of a num- ber of electors sufficient to choose the President, all voting for men not representing their sentiments on a question pro- fessedly regarded by them as the most important, because there was no chance of electing one who did represent those sentiments; when, in a word, after all his former profes- sions, Mr. Greeley ended in doing precisely what the original Taylor men and the Cass men of the North did, and for precisely the same reasons, and addressed to others precisely the same arguments which had been so long^ addressed to him in vain, and which he had been so long refuting, he shook deeply — very deeply — the confidence in his sincerity which his apparent zeal in behalf of freedom had inspired. For our part, we were inclined to take a charitable view of his conduct. We thought we saw him struggling in the meshes of party association, and yielding not until he had half satisfied his own conscience that he could vote for Tay- lor as not so certainly declared as Cass, and therefore not quite so objectionable on the great issue, and at last recon- ciled to himself by the general sense that it was a little better that Taylor should be elected than Cass. We thought we saw a painful conflict with his self-resped and his sense of con- sistency— a consciousness that he had not chosen the nobler, even if the more expedient, part — that he was doing at best a doubtful act against which his better nature revolted. We are disposed always to respect, in silence, such manifesta- tions, and not to reproach.
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" But what shall we think, what shall we say, of the spirit exhibited and the sentiments expressed in the follow- ing passage of Mr. Greeley's letter, which we have read with astonishment and regret :
" '. . . And now to revert to the main question — the organization of the new Territories, and the allowance or disallowance of slavery therein — I have been confidently hoping for an early and peaceful adjustment of the whole vexation. The bills of which Mr. Douglass, in Senate, gave notice on reaching this city — to provide for the organization of California as a State and New Mexico as a Territory — were signs of promise. Upon the basis here suggested, it seemed to me practicable to settle the whole difficulty with- out farther excitement or peril. I thought we should ulti- mately agree to permit New Mexico, as well as California, to take the requisite steps for organizing as a State, and bring them both into the Union in the course of the next two years, leaving them free to frame their own institutions. This done, the North would be morally certain that slavery would not be tolerated in either State, and the South would save the point of honor by the almost certain defeat (in Senate) of the Wilmot proviso, which, to an established and admitted State, is confessedly inapplicable. And thus would close the grave of agitation with regard to slave terri- tory.'
" And the letter then proceeds to say that ' the bright sky has been overcast ' by the modification by which it is pro- posed to annex the portion of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande to Texas, which is stated as the only objection to the bill.
" The first remarkable thing in this letter is the spirit in which it speaks of the question of extending slavery to the Territories now free. If the only thing to be done was to get rid of a troublesome question, Mr. Greeley's mind would seem to be directed exactly to the object. If the writer were one of the conservatives of the Syracuse convention of 1847, who laid the Wilmot proviso on the table, or one of the Whig Dough Faces of the Philadelphia convention, who ' kicked it out ' of that body, the terms in which the measure is spoken of would be very characteristic. To adjust ' the whole vexation ' — 'to settle the whole difficulty without farther excitement or peril ' — 'to close the grave of the
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•
agitation/ was precisely what they desired to do. But if there is something more to be done than to evade this great question in order to save party arrangements from embar- rassment— if it is of any importance to make freedom in the Territories certain instead of leaving it to chance — if the opinion, which has been so frequently and earnestly main- tained by Mr. Greeley, as well as all who profess to be friends of freedom, that for this purpose an express enact- ment by Congress ought to be made, be not an utter im- posture and fraud, then we submit that the spirit manifested in this letter is not that in which this great question should be treated.
" The second remarkable thing in the letter — and by far the most remarkable — is the mode in which it purposes to adjust ' the whole vexation.' A Territory extensive enough to make thirteen States as large as New York has been ac- quired ; it is wholly unoccupied, except by a small popula- tion in a few localities. The question is, shall slavery be allowed to be established in it during its territorial condi- tion? Neither party to the controversy regards as of prac- tical moment the territorial condition, except as it will influence and practically control the conditions, in this re- spect, of the States which are to be formed out of the Terri- tory. And it is gravely proposed at once to declare this Territory, which is in no proper situation to be formed into States, and which nobody would think of forming into a State now except for the purpose of getting rid of the neces- sity of acting on this subject, to be a State. And this is called by Mr. Greeley 'settling,' instead of dodging, the question !
" Gen. Cass proposed, in his Nicholson letter, to leave to the scattered inhabitants who are to be found in some small portions of this vast region to decide the question by a terri- torial legislature. Mr. Greeley, in his letter, proposes to leave it to precisely the same individuals 'free to frame their own institutions ' by a State legislature.
" What essential difference is there between the two plans, so far as the extension or restriction of slavery is con- cerned '(
" Suppose that on the 3rd of March next, at the close of the session, Mr. Greeley's plan should be adopted; that on the 3rd of July a territorial legislature should be elected; and that on the 3rd of September it should meet and adjust
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the ' whole vexation,' Or suppose that on the 3rd of March Gen. Cass's plan should be adopted ; that on the 3rd of July a State legislature should be elected ; and that on the 3rd of September it should meet and decide the question.
" Would it be important whether the government were called ' State ' or ' territorial,' so long as it had equal power to act on this subject, and constituents and representatives were the same, assumed their functions at the same time, in the one case as in the other % Would it affect in the slightest degree the actual extension or restriction of slavery which should be decreed by them ?
" But Mr. Greeley evidently thinks that this little change of names gets him over the whole difficulty. And he touches what he obviously regards as the point of the case when he adds that ' the Wilmot proviso ' is ' to an established and ad- mitted State ' confessedly inapplicable.
" Without discussing the authority of Congress to insert a restriction against slavery in the act of admission, which was done with most of the Northwestern States, it is true that after a State has been established and admitted the Federal legislation has no power to apply to that State the ' Wilmot proviso ' ; and that by the unconditional conversion of a territory into a State Congress divests itself of that power. But it is not easy for anybody — except Mr. Greeley — to see how the reference of the question, even when con- fessedly within its jurisdiction to a territorial legislature, as proposed by Gen. Cass, is more objectionable in a moral point of view than the voluntary divestment of that juris- diction for the very purpose of shirking off the question upon the same legislature called by a different name. Gen. Cass's plan has some advantages over that adopted by Mr. Greeley.
" It is less evasive and more manly, frank, and honest.
" It may afford some chance that the fate of the various parts of this immense tract of unsettled lands shall be decided by the people who shall at some future period inhabit them after they shall be organized into distinct Territories, the more densely populated portions having been admitted as States ; which might be somewhat better than leaving to a few thousand persons in Santa Fe and San Francisco to fix the destinies of hundreds of thousands of square miles in which not one of these persons ever trod.
" Above all, it would not, in the miserable attempt to
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avoid the question of shivery in the Territories by admitting a State of boundless dimensions, incur the great and perilous mischiefs which we have pointed out in our two previous articles, to the safety and permanency of the confederacy, and incur these evils without the least necessity or any com- pensating benefit.
" But Mr. Greeley says that ' the North would be morally certain that slavery would not be tolerated ' in the States to be formed. So said Gen. Cass in his Nicholson letter, when he proposed under a little different name to leave the question to be settled by exactly the same persons. So said Mr. Buchanan. So said Mr. Clayton. Yet nobody de- nounced their contrivances with more indignation than Mf. Greeley. Talk of the Cass ' juggle,' the Buchanan ' compro- mise/ the Clayton ' trap ' — the Greeley and Douglass juggle is worse than any of them."
The prostration of the Democratic party — whether by the defeat of General Cass or by the conditions which procured his nomination, it is inopportune here to discuss — though a great disappointment to Mr. Tilden, was, like most disap- pointments, good-fortune in disguise. It gave him the op- portunity and provocation to devote all his energies and tal- ents for the succeeding quarter of a century to his profession, during which period of its service it rewarded him as the wisest of Israel's kings was rewarded for his obedience — with fame and fortune. In less time than he had spent in making himself a leader of his party in New York, he placed him- self in the front rank of the American bar.
It was not until the year 1850 that Mr. Tilden leased his first office for professional purposes after his admission to the bar. It was on the third floor of what was then known as Jauncey Court, now replaced by majestic banking-houses, on the south side of Wall Street, a few doors west of William street. His landlord was Alexander Hamilton, Jr., one of the sons of President Washington's first Minister of Finance. Here is a copy of their agreement, followed by a bill of Til- den's personal taxes for the previous year:
" This is to certify that I have hired and taken from
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LETTERS AND MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN
Alexander Hamilton, Jr., the office, consisting of two rooms, on the 3rd floor of the Jauncey Court Building, and marked on a plan of said building No. 1 (it being understood and agreed that if the above premises shall be rendered unten- antable by fire, the rent shall cease during the interval occurring from the happening of said fire until the premises shall have been repaired), for the term of three years from the first day of May, 1850, at the yearly rent of four hun- dred and twenty-five dollars, payable on the usual quarter days.
" And I hereby promise, in consideration thereof, to make punctual payment of the rent in manner aforesaid, and quit and surrender the premises at the expiration of the said term, in as good state and condition as reasonable use and wear thereof will permit, damages by the elements ex- cepted, and not to assign, let or underlet the whole or any part of the said premises, or occupy the same for any busi- ness deemed extrahazardous on account of fire, without the written consent of the landlord, under the penalty of for- feiture and damages. And I do hereby, for the considera- tion of aforesaid, waive the benefit of the exemption speci- fied in the first section of the act entitled e An act to extend the exemption of household furniture and working tools from distress for rent and sale under execution,' passed April 11, 1842, and agree that the property thereby ex- empted shall be liable to distress for said rent ; and also, that all property liable to distress for rent shall be so liable, whether on or off the said premises, wheresoever and when- soever the same may be found.
" Given under my hand and seal this day of February, 1850,
in the presence of
" Samuel J. Tildex." [Seal.]
This lease was renewed on the 12th of February, 1853, for three years, to end May 1, 1856, for $550 a year, an increase of $125 a year.
The rent paid for these two rooms by Mr. Tilden does not contrast more violently with the price of equal accom- modations now, than his charges for his professional service
during his first year contrasts with the rewards for similar
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