From customs (in gold)$194,538,374 44From internal revenues185,128,859 07From sales of public lands3,350,481 76From miscellaneous sources28,237,762 06Total$411,255,477 33
"To reduce the gold revenue from the customs to currency requires the addition of the premium on gold. The gentleman to whom I intrusted that computation made an average which fixed the premium at 24 per cent. That is no doubt considerably below the real premium at the times when the revenues were collected.
"The amount of the premium is $46,689,209.86. From that should be deducted premium received on the sales of gold which form the larger part of the 28,000,000 of receipts from miscellaneous sources, and amount to $15,294,137.37, leaving a balance of $31,395,072.49—
$31,395,072 49Add411,255,477 63$442,650,550 12Add to that the amount collected by Postmasters15,141,623 71Total$457,792,173 83
"The estimate of the amount drawn from the people by taxation by the Federal government, contained in the table to which you refer, is made in round numbers $450,000,000.
"There can be no doubt it is below the truth.
"Very respectfully yours."
"Cleveland, O.
"Rec'd at Albany,July 15, 1876.
"To Governor Tilden,"Albany, N. Y.
"I have spent the afternoon here and seen many Democrats. Our gains are large, and we can carry Ohio, but all say it is worth thousands of votes to repeal the resumption clause on some terms. I think you should urge a proper measure of repeal.
"T. A. Hendricks."
"House of Representatives,July 26th, 1867.
"My dear Governor,—We have got over another day, thanks to an election case, without action on the silver bill. We believe now that we shall be able to defeat action, if not vote down the measure. It has been a hard fight, and, if we win, it will be due to considerations of expediency rather than of principles on the part of the Southern members.
"The object of this note is mainly to suggest something in regard to the civil-service plank. A very intelligent newspaper man says that the real issue is not so much in the personnel of the clerks as in the modes and machinery of administration in the several departments of the Govt. In other words, that the abuses are largely due to the defective organization of the department, that the business has outgrown the methods and machinery devised by Hamilton, and that it is the framework of the government machine which needs reformation, reconstruction, and adaptation to the requirements of the public business. In this view, the mere appointment and discharge of a few clerks is of but little consequence, compared with such a reform in the mode of conducting the public business.
"This crude statement seems to contain the germ of aposition in politics in regard to civil service, far higher and more practical than the declaration of Hayes.
"The P. S. dept. may be instanced to illustrate the state of affairs. When it was a small affair it was not of such consequence, and before the days of railroads and telegraphs indispensable, perhaps, that it should use its receipts to pay its expenses and pay over to the Treasury any balance that might remain at the end of the fiscal year. Now, however, when the receipts are very great, they should be paid all into the Treasury, and the expenses drawn thence by warrant, as in other departments of the government. This is not the case, but the Postmaster-General, having the control of the money, authorizes and allows expenditures, such as repairs and improvements to buildings, amounting to large sums, without any authority from Congress, such as is necessary in the other departments for such outlays.
"So the bookkeeping of the government is not in accordance with the experience of the times, but is crude, old-fashioned, unsatisfactory, and even contradictory. Now a broad declaration from you that you will endeavor to reform these abuses which are of a gravity far greater than the incompetence or negligence of clerks, and that this reform is the most urgent and will receive careful attention would, I think, strike the public favorably.
"Faithfully y'rs,"Abram S. Hewitt.
"Scott Wicks, of Ill., one of our best members, and who stood by us on the banking and currency committee, has lost his renomination in consequence. It is a severe blow to him and to me, and if we win he must be taken care of. He is a first-class man.
"I do not think you begin to appreciate the bitterness of these Western inflationists."
"Personal and private.
"Sunday, 8 P.M., Washington,Aug. 6, '76.
"My dear Governor,—I have been very unwell all day, caused by the nervous exhaustion of yesterday's work in the House. And yet I will try to give you some idea of the situation and the results. The banking and currency committee decided to report the repeal of the resumptiondate on Friday. I persuaded them to wait till Saturday, hoping that your letter would come and change the situation. The letter did come, but the committee were perfectly fixed in their determination to report. I tried to get them to substitute a commission to inquire and report in December on the whole resumption question. They offered to accept this as an amendment, but not as a substitute. To this the hard-money New England men would not agree, and so I decided to offer my substitute, as we could well vote for repeal pure and simple, without measures of preparation. We had a debate of two hours. You will find what I said in theRecord. After the debate was over they declined to let my substitute be offered. The House was determined to get a vote on it, and so no quorum voted on the motion for the previous question. This brought them to terms, and they allowed the substitute to be offered. It was lost by twelve majority. If the House had been full it would have carried. The vote then recurred on the repeal, and it was carried by 20 majority, all the hard-money men voting against it. There was no hard feeling, and no bitterness remains. The hard-money men have made their record, and the soft-money men have got the repeal, and no longer any excuse for not carrying their States. I think that the matter is in the best possible shape. The party is committed to specie payments by the platform and your admirable letter, and by Hendricks' mushy acquiescence.
"Immediately afterwards we passed a concurrent resolution establishing a commission to consider the silver question and the resumption of specie payments. So that we can say that we have made provision for investigation and the elaboration of a practical scheme for resumption.
"On the whole, I now think that the matter has been managed as well as the difficulties of the situation would admit.
"Your letter gives general satisfaction, especially to the Southern members, who [are] loud in its praise.
"I hope that Congress will adjourn this week, so that we may organize for the campaign. I have in preparation all the necessary documents to show the frauds and corruption of the administration, and if we have means to circulate them I anticipate the best results.
"Faithfully yours,"Abram S. Hewitt."
Considering the friendly and very intimate relations which had subsisted between Mr. Bryant and Mr. Tilden from the latter's early boyhood, it was natural that the Governor should inspire the request contained in the following letter from one of his nephews. The correspondence which ensued, and its results, will be found in Bigelow'sLife of Tilden, Volume I., page 300. It is proper to repeat here that Mr. Bryant, at the time he wrote his letter declining to be named as one of the Tilden electors, was only a proprietor of half of theEvening Postproperty, and his partner, Mr. Henderson, feared the effect upon the prosperity of the paper which would be likely to result from the appearance of its editor in such conspicuous relations with the Democratic party. Mr. Bryant, however, went so far as to give instructions, which were pretty carefully observed, to permit nothing personally hostile to Mr. Tilden to appear in the columns of thePostduring the canvass, and voted for him at the election.
Besides the reasons here stated for Mr. Bryant's embarrassing attitude towards Mr. Tilden, there were others communicated to Mr. Tilden a few weeks later by Miss Julia Bryant in the note succeeding Mr. Pelton's.
"(August, 1876.)
"My dear Mr. Bigelow,—It seems very desirable that Mr. Bryant should be put on as one of the electors at large, and we must know that he will not decline if nominated. Will you undertake to communicate with him at once? I would suggest that you write him and send a messenger with the letter to Cummington—or perhaps it would be better to write Mr. Godwin, who is there, or was a few days ago. Of course, you can state as strongly as you please how much it is desiredherethat he accept.
"Can't you send Monday morn, train, so as to get reply early.
"Sincerely yrs.,"W. T. Pelton.
"Satrdy. evg."
"Roslyn,Sept. 30, '76.
"Dear Mr. Tilden,—I am very, very sorry that you and your friends and your enemies will not see the article in regard to the slanders about your income tax which my father wrote at Cummington last Saturday. He bestowed much time upon it, read it to me, and pronounced it himself 'a good article,' and sent it on Monday to Mr. Sperry,[9]with the injunction to publish it entire, whatever might have appeared previously on the subject in theEvening Post.
"After our return here this week a letter came from Mr. Sperry begging my father most earnestlynotto publish the article, as it would certainly be followed by abuse of Mr. Henderson in theTimes—abuse more virulent than ever before—because in this article theTimeswas attacked, although indirectly, and mostseverely censured. It wasurgedthat my father should not persist in publishing what would cause such distress to Mr. Henderson, already so worn by his troubles. On this score my father felt that he must yield, but he did it most unwillingly and quite ungraciously.
"I am anxious, however, that you should know what has passed; and should know, also, that my father, averse as he is to such constant watchfulness, has had much to combat in keeping attacks on you out of the papers, and has insisted that you should not be treated in theEvening Postotherwise than with respect. You may think that he has not exerted himself in your behalf, as he might have done for an old and esteemed friend, and one who has done him such good service; but, truly, it has required no small effort on his part to keep the paper as moderate as it is.
"He knows that I am writing this now.
"I am obliged to finish in great haste, as I am just going to town.
Yours truly,"Julia Bryant."
"138 Eagle St., Albany,Aug. 8th, 1876.
"Dear Miss Hunt,—I lately learned by chance that it is to you that I am indebted for a copy of the new edition of the works of Ed. Livingston on criminal jurisprudence.No information as to the source of the presentation had ever before reached me. I ought, perhaps, to have caused inquiry to be made into that matter, but in the rush of things amid which I have lived, did not. The work which has fallen on me in my present career has been constantly outgrowing my help and my own capacity for attention to the secondary things; and I must confess in myself a tendency to become more and more absorbed, with increasing intensity and increasing persistence, in the parts of the work on which its success depends as on the turning-points of battle—a habit not favorable to secondary things, very unfavorable to the human machine, but surprisingly serviceable to the work which gets the benefit of it.
"I will now say what I would have contrived the opportunity to say earlier, if I had ever known to whom it should have been addressed.
"It is impossible to appreciate more highly than I do the character, abilities, and services to his country and to the world of Ed. Livingston. And then, I have always taken a special interest in the man. Among my early recollections is this of him: He used to come to Lebanon Springs, which is on the edge of the beautiful valley in which I was born and passed my youth. My father's acquaintance with him was the occasion of my seeing him and retaining a recollection of his form and features. His taste for antiquarian researches led him to dig open some mounds in the neighborhood and leaving on the rustic mind some impression of eccentricity. My father had been more intimate with the chancellor, and deprived from him a taste for Merino sheep, and shared in his importations.
"I need not add with how much interest I read Mr. Hunt's biography of Ed. Livingston, which is itself a delicious portrayal of a most attractive character.
"I beg you to accept my thanks for the volumes you were so kind as to send me, and believe me,
"Very truly yours,"S. J. Tilden."
"Montgomery Place, Barrytown-on-Hudson,Aug. 10th.
"Dear Governor Tilden,—Your kind note has reached me safely, while mine, sent with the books, never arrived at its destination, as it should have done.
"My aunt, Mrs. Barton, in a spirit of filial piety, had preserved a number of copies for the purpose of presenting them in suitable quarters. But before she could accomplish the object Mrs. Barton herself suddenly died. The duty having consequently devolved on me of distributing the volumes, I felt special satisfaction in offering you a copy of them, who, as the Governor of the native State of Edward Livingston, are so conspicuous for wisdom and devotion to the cause of public reform.
"May I venture to add a few words, and to say that at such a moment as this it is quite impossible not to feel the deepest interest in the work which you tell me has proved so absorbing to yourself. It is, indeed, your high fortune to lead in the reform all over our country, and no one, watching the drift of the national canvass in your favor, can fail to be full of hope and belief in the future.
"Should you ever come in our neighborhood, I beg that you will not pass us by. It would be a great gratification to me to have the pleasure of receiving you at Montgomery Place.
"Louise Livingston Hunt."
"138 Eagle Street, Albany,Aug. 11th, 1876.
"My dear Sir,—Mrs. Van Buren has been so kind as to send me your letter to her. I am glad to renew an acquaintance which, although slight, has not wholly passed from my recollection.
"You mention an inquiry of yours in 1872, whether I had entirely abandoned public life. In the sense of official life, I can scarcely be said ever to have any. Tho' I have given almost half my life to public affairs, it has been as a private citizen. In 1846 I went to the Assembly for a special object, to help Mr. Wright in a crisis of his administration, and retired. In 1872 I went again to the same body to obtain the impeachment and removal of corrupt judges who swayed the administration of justice in the metropolis, and again retired. In 1846, and again in 1867, I served in conventions to revise the State Constitution. That is all in that long period.
"I never destined myself to a public career. I did not come into my present trust until I found myself unable inany other way to have it on the side of reforms I had begun three years before, and to which I had surrendered my professional business, attention to my affairs, and my peace and comfort. I had felt gloomily the decay of all my early ideals of my country, and engaged in the effort to restore them in the city and State in which I live, with no idea of any result to myself except of sacrifice. The logic of events has brought me into my present situation. I have been tempted to do so much to satisfy the curiosity of an old acquaintance, and, as I stop, I do not know but I have provoked more than I have satisfied.
"At any rate, it is a real pleasure to refresh what remains of a set of early associations. I think you were something of a pet of Mr. Van Buren, as I was also. He would have been interested in the course of present events; and puzzled about me, for he told me, near the close of his life, when he had observed me for thirty years, that I was the most unambitious man he had ever known.
"I will send you a pamphlet which will give you some idea of the events in this State to which I have alluded.
"With much esteem, I am very truly yours,
"S. J. Tilden.
"Hon. John Bragg, Mobile, Ala."
"Newport,12 August, 1876.
"Dear Governor,—Since reading your admirable letter of acceptance I have begun two letters to you to say how sincerely I congratulated you, but have destroyed both, chiefly moved thereto by memories of my young days, when I had occasion to know how pestered a candidate for the Presidency is by letters from friends which have no business importance, but which, nevertheless, either consume his precious time by the reading or are turned over to the files. This letter now begunmayhave a better fate!
"I cannot see how an acceptance-letter could have been framed better adapted to the imperative needs of the situation. Repeal of the law of 1875 was on the platform, and you had to deal with it. 'Contraction' is a red rag to our friends in the West and South, and that must be accepted. And along the Atlantic coast are they who fancy their pecuniary salvation depends oninstantlylifting the greenbackto an equality with gold, and these could not be lost sight of. And, finally, you had to keep in mind apolicywhich you could 'work' when you enter the White House next March.
"There was possibly a little peril in departing from the traditional acceptance-letter of fine phrases and loyalty to the platform; but you did wisely to incur that peril, for I do think your letter has practically eliminated the financial issue from the canvass—has prevented an alarming sectional conflict and bad blood between debtors and creditors—and will in the end convince all reasonable people you purpose to 'resume' as rapidly as human power can. And besides this (which may seem a contradiction), I believe you have given a hint to those who are in pecuniary distress and sorrow, and would like inflated business to lift them, as they think, out of their misery, that they had better join hands with the Democracy.
"My idea of the canvass is that the independent voters will soon come to think there is little difference in the purposes of you and Governor Hayes, and the only question is which of you is likely to be most able to carry them out. That, of course, leads to an inquiry into the personal qualities of the two candidates and the temper of the party behind each. On both of those inquiries yououghtto win, and you will (excepting in a contingency to which I will presently refer) win. If the independent voters appreciated your mental and moral fibre as I do, they would not doubt as to the first; and as to the second, our party is new in power, ambitious to establish a dynasty, and is extremely amenable to reason and fair-dealing.
"I was a little sorry you said anything of a second term. You cannot accomplish much if it is known you won't have a second, and a good way to treat Hayes would be to suggest that he resign at the end of two years (if elected), or never be inaugurated.
"My forecast of the situation is that 'the machine' will squelch the reformer (but of that we can judge better after the RepublicanStatenominations); that the financial issue will drop to the rear; and the Republican managers will endeavor to force on us the Southern question and obscure the reform issue. I hope our friends will not dally with the Southern question, but say (defiantly and offensively, if need be) that they will give no moral sympathy or supportto those who seek to deprive the negroes of any of their political rights or embarrass the free exercise of them. Rightly or wrongly, they are citizens, and we at the North must look upon them as such. Under the recent decisions of the Supreme Court (which are correct) the Federal govt., certainly the President, can do little; but it does seem to me that your moral influence, if judicially manifested in a letter for publication (as it would be by you), would do good in every respect.
"I have written, as you see—currente calmo—and at too great length, for all I wished to express was my appreciation of the wisdom of your acceptance-letter, and my belief in your triumphant victory.
"Faithfully yours,"Sidney Webster."
"Cummington,Aug. 28th, '76.
"My dear Bigelow,—I don't know what Mr. Bryant has written, but I presume he has not consented. John and I have both tried to get him to pronounce himself publicly, but he will not, tho' saying that he means to vote for Tilden all the while. I presume he feels himself bound in some way to the E. P. I hope to be in Alb'y on Wednesday or Thursday with Minna!
"Yours very truly,"Parke Godwin."
"Boston,Augt. 28, 1876.
"Dear Mr. Tilden,—I am much concerned touching the matter about which Messrs. Avery and Collins and myself conferred with you a few days at Albany.
"Although the Fenian sympathizers seem disposed to oppose the nomination of Mr. A.,[10]I think their opposition can be controlled; but a certain candidate, who has hitherto expressed himself willing to waive any claims he may have for the nomination in favor of our man, has now changed his mind and wants it.
"We fear he will cause such discord in the convention as to prevent our offering the nomination to Mr. A. upon the terms upon which he consents to accept it. These are, that it should be made with reasonable unanimity.
"We can carry the convention for our candidate, but not, probably, with such general consent as would be required.
"We have had several interviews with the party causing the trouble, and tried our best to impress upon him the importance of nominating Mr. A. for the sake of our causeoutsideof Massachusetts, but to no effect.
"If we fail in this matter I shall feel that we have lost some of our chances for success.
"Congratulating you upon the auspicious outlook elsewhere,
"I am, very truly, y'rs,"F. O. Prince."
"Adams Building, 23 Court St., Boston,January 10, 1906.
"My dear Mr. Bigelow,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of yesterday, the 9th.
"The extract you make from the letter of F. O. Prince is quite intelligible to me. I remember all the circumstances.
"Mr. Tilden was very anxious, indeed, that my father should be the Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1876. Mr. F. O. Prince was then chairman, I think, of the Democratic committee; at any rate, he was influential. Mr. Tilden, as you very well know, was never at a loss when it came to handling men.
"Mr. Tilden worked through Mr. Prince to accomplish his end. William A. Gaston, afterwards Governor, desired the nomination. It is he who is referred to as a 'certain candidate.' My father was wholly unwilling to accept the nomination unless it came to him unsought, and with 'reasonable unanimity.' The Irish were strongly opposed to him. Their dislike, or rather personal antipathy, to him dated far back—as far, indeed, as 1840, when the questions relating to the burning of the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown were before the General Court of Massachusetts, of which my father was a member.
"Considerable pressure had to be brought to bear uponMr. Gaston, who finally consented to withdraw, and did, although not with very good grace, nominate my father at the convention. His nomination, of course, gave a certain prestige to the ticket. As a popular candidate in that election my father did not prove a success. A considerable Irish element refused to vote for him.
"It is rather strange to reflect that all these events occurred now thirty-one years ago—nearly the lifetime of a generation; but it is the Irish opposition to which Mr. Prince refers as the 'Fenian sympathizers.' They proved quite irreconcilable. The whole thing is now ancient history.
"Believe me, etc.,"Charles F. Adams."
"Sept. 1876.
"My dear Sir,—I have an abiding faith that a falsehood never hurts any but those who propagate it. It is also my conviction that no man can pay a much greater homage to another than to deliberately misrepresent him. It is a cowardly confession of weakness and of inferiority. With this sort of homage no public man in this country, so far as I know, has ever been so liberally favored as Mr. Tilden. But two short years ago and there was no American of equal political prominence who could to a greater extent be said to receive the praises of his countrymen, without distinction of party, nor one, perhaps, who had enjoyed fewer of the advantages of adverse criticism. From the moment, however, that he loomed above the horizon as a probable candidate for the Presidency until now, the invention of his political adversaries has been taxed to the utmost to feed whatever appetite remained unsatisfied for calumny and scandal.
"Most of these inventions are so improbable and monstrous that they perish in coming to the birth. As, however, you seem to think the charge of disloyalty during the war has been raised to the dignity of an exception by the recent letter of Gen. Dix, which you enclose, I cheerfully comply with your request to furnish what I trust you and those other Republican friends in Maine, with whom it has been my privilege in times past to co-operate, will regard as a satisfactoryanswer, not only to the insinuation of Gen. Dix, but to any and every other charge or insinuation that has been or may be made in impeachment of the loyalty or patriotic devotion of Mr. Tilden to the Union, whether before, during, or since the war of the rebellion. To make this perfectly clear I may be obliged to ask your patience, but I will try not to abuse it.
"Let me first dispose of the statement of Gen. Dix that 'Mr. Tilden did not unite in the call for the great Union meeting in New York, after the attack and surrender of Fort Sumter; but he refused to attend it, though urgently solicited to by one of his own political friends.'
"The most charitable construction to be put upon this statement is that the writer had been misinformed; he certainly could have had no personal knowledge upon the subject. It was publicly contradicted when it first appeared in print; it is not true in point of fact; and, if it had been, it would not follow, by any means, that Mr. Tilden did not sympathize in the objects of the meeting.
"Mr. Tilden received a formal written invitation, bearing date the 18th of April, inviting him to act as an officer of the meeting in question. As soon as he found himself at liberty he went to the proper quarter to ascertain what resolutions were to be proposed, and, on being satisfied in regard to them, then and there assented to the use of his name as one of the officers of the meeting. He not only assented to such use of his name, but was himself in actual attendance upon the meeting; and not only did he attend this meeting, but only two days later he attended another meeting of the New York bar, which was called for a similar purpose, and took part in its deliberations.
"Now let me state to you precisely the attitude which Mr. Tilden occupied during the war, and why he manifested so much caution in any action which might possibly influence the course of events at that critical moment.
"It has been my privilege to know Mr. Tilden familiarly, not to say intimately, during his entire public life, embracing a period of nearly or quite forty years. During that time, though we frequently differed about processes, and were often enlisted under opposing political organizations, and though we took widely different views of the fittest way to meet the storm which had been brewing since the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, it never occurred to me forone moment to suppose there was any man in the country less tolerant than he of the doctrine of secession, or prepared to make greater sacrifices to preserve our Union and the republican institutions which had been bequeathed to us.
"At the comparatively youthful age of eighteen years Mr. Tilden had acquired settled opinions upon and shared in the public discussions of the subject of secession. In a speech at a Union meeting, held in Union Square, at which Gen. Dix presided, and Hamilton Fish, William H. Aspinwall, James Brown, Andrew Carrigan, and many other Republicans were vice-presidents, on the 17th of September, 1866, Mr. Tilden, in vindication of President Johnson, incidentally alluded to his early investigation of the subject of secession, and to the conclusion to which he then arrived. He said:
"'The Constitution of the United States is, by its own terms, declared to be perpetual. The government created by it acts within the sphere of its powers directly upon each individual citizen. No State is authorized, in any contingency, to suspend or obstruct that action, or to exempt any citizen from the obligation to obedience. Any pretended act of nullification or secession whereby such effect is anticipated to be produced is absolutely void. The offence of the individual citizen, violating the lawful authority of the United States, is precisely the same as if no such pretended authority ever existed.'
"On the subject of slavery, Mr. Tilden's opinions were no less fixed. Though never what used to be known as an Abolitionist, neither was he ever the advocate or apologist of servile labor. In the controversy which grew out of our territorial acquisitions from Mexico in 1847, he was for doing everything to secure those Territories the benefit of the social and industrial institutions of the North. In that sense he acted in 1848 in opposing the extension of slavery into any of the free Territories by the act of the Federal government; and again, in 1854, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was under consideration in Congress, and the flames of sectional controversy broke out afresh, Mr. Tilden was open and decided in his opposition to the repeal, in reference to which he stated in a letter to Wm. Kent in 1860:
"'I used all my influence, at whatever sacrifice of relations, against the repeal ... because I thought a theoreticalconformity to even a wise system dearly purchased by breaking the tradition of ancient pacification on such a question and between such parties.'
"Accustomed as I was to converse with Mr. Tilden freely upon all public questions, even when our views were most at variance, having always been in the habit of reading everything which I knew to come from his pen, I feel that I may safely challenge anybody to produce a particle of evidence, either oral or in print, of any sympathy on his part either with secession or with slavery, or any evidence that in the course he felt it his duty to pursue he was not actuated by his best judgment as to what was wise and right for the government and for the welfare of his country. After the breach with the South in 1854, I think I am competent to affirm that he had no partisan relations whatever with slave-holding States. In a letter to theEvening Post, written in February, 1863, he speaks of being taunted by Senator Preston King as an object of proscription by the South, and of being asked if he thought his name could pass the Senate of the United States.
"'I answered,' said Mr. Tilden, 'that it was a matter of very little consequence to me whether it could or not; but that it was of great consequence to me that I should do what I thought best for the country.'
"Every act and every expression of his during the war, so far as it has come under my cognizance, was in full accordance with this position, and, what is more, in entire harmony with the whole tenor of his life.
"Better than any person that I knew, he comprehended the irreconcilability of the forces that were arraying themselves against each other in the country. Exaggerating, perhaps, the danger of attempting to rule the country by a sectional party, he deemed it the part of wise statesmanship to postpone as long as possible, in the hope, through the mediatorial offices of time and its inevitable changes, of avoiding a collision.
"No one contested the force of his reasoning on this subject; but they derided his apprehensions of a civil war. So preposterous did they appear to the impassioned multitude in the North, that I remember myself to have been asked by one of his personal friends whether he was quite in his right mind on the subject.
"In 1860, after the failure of the Democratic party at Charleston—though he was then and had been for severalyears withdrawn from political life—he did not hesitate openly to proclaim his conviction that the dissolution of the Democratic party and the attempt to govern the country by a party like the Republican, having no affiliation in the Southern States, would inevitably result in civil war. He was asked to fill a vacancy in the delegation from New York at the adjourned meeting of the Democratic convention of that year in Baltimore. In that body he made two speeches, in which he portrayed, as an inevitable consequence of a sectional division of the Democratic party, a corresponding division of the States and an armed conflict. These speeches were described by those who heard them as inspired by a solemn sense of patriotic duty and a most vivid perception of impending dangers. After the election of Mr. Lincoln, and when the dangers he had foretold were becoming realities, he took part in several conferences in which Hamilton Fish, the late Charles H. Marshall, the late Daniel Lord, Moses H. Grinnell, the late Wm. B. Astor, Moses Taylor, William B. Duncan, Richard M. Blatchford, A. A. Low, and other gentlemen of more or less prominence participated; and on two of these occasions he made speeches in which he sought to impress upon his hearers a juster sense than was generally entertained of the threatened dangers, and of the fittest means of averting them.
"Earnestly as Mr. Tilden labored to avert the war and to thwart the measures which seemed to him calculated to precipitate it; anxious as he had been to contribute no fresh ingredient of hatred to the seething caldron; when, without any responsibility on his part, the war came, he never for a moment hesitated as to the course he was to pursue. He felt it to be the duty of every citizen to sustain the government in its resistance to territorial dismemberment. To those who thought, as did many then calling themselves Republicans, that on the whole it would be as well to consent to a peaceful separation, Mr. Tilden always answered that peaceful separation was an illusion; that the questions in controversy would be rendered infinitely more difficult by separation, and new ones still more difficult would be created; that, if the antagonized parties could not agree upon peace within the Union, they certainly would not have peace without the Union. They never could agree upon terms of separation, nor could they agree upon the relations to subsist between them after the separation; and, however lamentablemight be the consequences, force could be the only arbiter of their differences.
"Though Mr. Tilden was opposed to any illusory concessions to the spirit of disunion; though he was satisfied, after the attack on Fort Sumter, that the differences between the two sections could only be settled by the last argument of kings; and though he was disposed to do everything in his power to make that argument as effective and decisive as possible—his co-operation with the administration of President Lincoln was qualified by a fixed difference of opinion upon several points.
"This opinion was in accord with the view Mr. Tilden had frequently expressed on other occasions, and was also in accord with the opinion which he subsequently gave when his advice was solicited by the then Secretary of War. The week preceding and the week following Mr. Stanton's assuming the duties of Secretary of War, and at his invitation, Mr. Tilden had frequent conferences with him, at the first of which he is reported to me to have said in substance: 'You have no right to expect a great military genius to come to your assistance. The whole human race have been able to furnish such men only once in a century or two; you can only count on the average military talent; you have three times the available population and perhaps nine times the industrial resources of your antagonist; though you occupy the exterior line, you have an immense advantage in the superior capacity of your railways to move men and supplies. What you have to do is to make your advantages available; you must make your combinations so as to concentrate your forces and organize ample reserves to be ready to precipitate them on critical points. In the probable absence of military genius you must rely on overwhelming numbers, wisely concentrated.' Mr. Stanton appeared to adopt these views, but unhappily they did not prevail in the councils of the government.
"A year and a half later, when Mr. Tilden, accompanied by ex-Gov. Morgan, visited Washington for the purpose of securing greater harmony of action between the Federal and State government, Mr. Stanton, in a conversation with Mr. Tilden, referred to this advice, and added: 'I beg you to remember I always agreed with you.' I refer the more freely to the deference which Mr. Stanton testified to Mr. Tilden's judgment in these matters, because it is known not only tothe Hon. Peter H. Watson, then Assistant Secretary of War, but to some, at least, of the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet who are now living.
"On the subject of the finances, an element so vital to the successful prosecution of a war, Mr. Tilden's views were at variance with those adopted by the administration; he had more faith in the people, in their readiness to bear the burdens and make the sacrifices which the occasion required, than was manifested by the authorities at Washington. Before their financial policy was fully determined upon he advised that the money for carrying on the war should be chiefly drawn from loans to be supplemented by taxes, and no more Treasury notes not bearing interest issued than were barely necessary to supply the new uses created by the government in its own payments. He was of the opinion that if these measures were promptly adopted, so that the supply should keep pace with the wants of the government, the war might be carried on without any serious embarrassment, without any exorbitant inflation of prices, and without any extreme depreciation of the government bonds. In discussing the financial situation of our own State in his first message to the Legislature in 1875, Gov. Tilden briefly restated the views which he then entertained and expressed upon this subject.
"Though Mr. Tilden foresaw the disastrous consequences of the policy which prevailed at Washington, the wild inflation of prices, the ruinous depreciation of government securities, the extravagant premium on gold, and the certainty that the continuation of that policy would lead, as it has done, to incalculable disaster; and believing, as he did, that it might even endanger the ability of the government to continue the war, he rigorously abstained from any public discussion of them that might tend to create the discredit which he apprehended, and restricted himself to private remonstrances with the more influential friends of the administration.
"While doing all he could to counteract what he deemed the errors of the government, both in the management of the war and of the finances, he was determined neither to be made responsible for nor to be compromised by either. His attitude throughout that pregnant period of our history was, so far as possible for a private citizen holding no official or even active relations with any political party, that ofpatriotic constitutional opposition to supposed errors of administrative policy, openly co-operating with all the measures of the government of which he approved, and privately discouraging those of which he disapproved.
"At the same time he said, in a speech:
"'That in a time of war we could not deal with our government, although disapproving of its policy, without more reserve than was necessary in debating an administrative question during a period of peace; that the reason was that, if we should paralyze the arm of our own government, we yet could not stay the arm of the public enemy striking at us through it; that it was this peculiarity which had sometimes caused minorities to be suppressed in the presence of public danger, and made such periods perilous to civil liberty.'
"Mr. Tilden was more solicitous than almost any other prominent man in the country to avert the war, because he saw more clearly than most men the grave proportions it was likely to assume; and when it broke out he did not associate himself publicly with the party which he had thought had unwisely precipitated it, because he could not entirely approve of the methods by which they were conducting it. I have yet to see one particle of authentic evidence that, when the war had become inevitable, Mr. Tilden did not do everything that might have been reasonably expected of him to make all the resources of the country available for its vigorous and successful prosecution. Happily my own convictions on this point are confirmed by abundant testimony, some of which it may be a satisfaction to your friends that I recapitulate:
"On the occasion of presenting a stand of colors to the Thirty-seventh Regiment of New York State Volunteers on the 22d of June, 1861, Mr. Tilden was among the speakers, 'and,' says John T. Agnew, who was also present and took part in the ceremony, 'made a stirring appeal to the officers and men of the regiment; a speech not excelled in patriotism by any public speaker during the war of the rebellion.'
"At even an earlier period Mr. Tilden made a journey to Washington, at the request of Brig.-Gen. Ewing, in the especial interest of the Seventy-ninth Regiment of Highlanders.
"The Hon. J. D. Caton, formerly Chief-Justice of the State of Illinois, and the bosom friend of President Lincoln,in a recent letter to the Hon. Mr. Hewitt, which has already been published, says that during the war of the rebellion he had several interviews with Gov. Tilden on the subject of the war, and ever found him ardent and earnest in its support.
"The Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, who, during the war, was in constant intercourse with the War Department, and much depended upon by its chief for his advice at the period, was also in almost daily intercourse with Mr. Tilden. In a recent speech in Congress, which has already become famous, he indignantly repelled the idea that Mr. Tilden ever manifested any sympathy with disunion.
"In October, 1862, Mr. Tilden prepared, in behalf of the Democratic party, a declaration of its adhesion to the Union, and of the war to preserve it. This declaration was made in substance as written, and in so authentic and authoritative a form as to produce a profound popular impression, both in the South as well as in the North. I have examined the manuscript, which has fortunately been preserved, and, with a perfect familiarity with the Governor's handwriting, have no difficulty in verifying its authenticity.
"In 1864, Mr. Tilden, though absorbed by his profession and holding no relations with the public not shared by any private citizen, found himself appointed a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago. He deemed it his duty to attend. In the delegation he made a speech, the substance of which was briefly reported. The points of it were:
"1. Opposition to any declaration in favor of an armistice.
"2. He insisted that the adjustment of the controversy pending between the North and the South, on any other basis than the restoration of the Union, was manifestly impossible.
"At this convention Mr. Tilden used all his influence to resist, though ineffectually, the adoption of certain expressions in the platform that might have a tendency to discourage the further prosecution of the war; he always refused to acquiesce in them, and subsequently sent a message to Gen. McClellan, the nominee of the convention, urging him to disregard them in his letter of acceptance.
"To these evidences of Mr. Tilden's earnestness in theprosecution of the war, let me add one more, which is perhaps more conclusive than all the rest.
"All the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet were perfectly cognizant of his position during the war, and were in the habit of soliciting his advice; and two of the three who still survive, and with whom Mr. Lincoln had the most intimate and durable relations, are now publicly advocating his election to the Presidency.
"I wish you to realize, as I do, how utterly wanton and shameless is this attempt to associate Mr. Tilden's name with the enemies of his government, and how desperate must be any cause which has to rely upon such methods for success.
"As it seemed to be my duty as a journalist to oppose and often to criticise the course pursued by Mr. Tilden, both before and during the war, I feel it but simple justice to him to bear this testimony to the honorable and patriotic motives with which I never doubted him to be animated.
"John Bigelow.
"Highland Falls, Orange County, New York."
"No. 152 Broadway, New York,Sept. 1, 1876.
"Gov. Tilden.
"Dear Sir,—I wish to direct your attention to four acts of Kelly at Saratoga hostile to our success—not for effect upon him, but that they may enter into your mind in respect to action affecting the cause:
"1. He showed disregard of success in placing himself at the head of the electoral ticket.
"2. He tried to defeat the party by his attack upon the Liberal Republicans.
"3. He made a deadly effort to foreclose success by forcing Potter.
"4. He never, during the whole convention, said a word to encourage the Presidential canvass.
"Yours truly,"Nelson J. Waterbury."
"Confidential.
"Saturday Evening,Sept. 9th, 1876.
"My dear Governor,—I had supposed, after what was said at Saratoga, Tuesday and Wednesday, that our friends tacitly agreed with me that the idea of bringing my name forward for Governor should not be seriously entertained, and therefore I did not think it necessary or becoming to take any further steps about. But I learn, on my return from the North, from Mr. Manning and others, that the project is assuming definite shape and may, unless at once ended, be carried to a nomination.
"I appreciate how high the office is, and of what importance and conspicuousness, and am sensible how much it is beyond anything to which I could at present naturally aspire. I feel gratified that I should have been thought of at all in connection with so great a trust, and am especially proud that you should have deemed me fit successor.
"The more I reflect, however, the more convinced I am thatit will not do.
"I feel certain that under the present circumstances my nomination would be a mistake, andknowthat it might be fatal.
"Aside from these public considerations, I have private reasons which you would admit sufficient, if I could trouble you with them, to prevent my acceptance of the nomination. I should deeply regret it if these, in fact, interfered with the success of our party, but I am sure such is not the case. I regard them as insuperable, and I have written Mr. Manning a note, of which he can make public use, declining to have my name used at the convention.
"I write this that you may first and at the earliest moment know of my conclusion.
"Yours with the greatest respect,"Samuel Hand."
"Sheriff's Office, City and County of New York,"September 14, 1876.
"To his ExcellencySamuel J. Tilden,"Governor of the State of New York:
"The recent publications in the newspapers of the capture of William M. Tweed, at Vigo, in Spain, are confirmed by a private telegram received by me.
"There are several indictments for forgery, found by the Grand Jury of this county, against said Tweed, which were untried at the time of his escape on the 4th day of December last.
"He was also at that time in my custody, under an order of arrest, issued in a suit commenced against him by the people of the State of New York, in which a judgment has since been perfected in an amount over $6,000,000, the execution on which has been returned wholly unsatisfied.
"It is said that the government of Spain are willing to surrender said Tweed to the authorities of this county.
"May I ask you to present the subject to the government of the United States, so that prompt and efficient measures may be taken to secure his surrender?
"I remain,"Your obdt. Servant,"Wm. C. Connor,"Sheriff."
"City of New York,Sept. 19th, 1876.
"Sir,—I transmit herewith for the use of your department a copy of the official application made to me by the Sheriff of the City and County of New York concerning the case of William M. Tweed, a fugitive from the justice of this State, who is understood to be at this time held in custody as such at Vigo by the Spanish government.
"Owing to my being in this city, this document did not come to my knowledge until late yesterday, and, although advised that the Attorney-General of this State has already addressed you to the same effect, I deem it proper now tosuperadd my earnest request that the government of the United States may employ its efficient and perfectly adequate powers to induce a delivery of this great criminal into the hands of the sheriff at this city.
"Yours respectfully,"(Sd.)Samuel J. Tilden,"Governor of the State of New York.
"Hon. Hamilton Fish,"Secretary of State of the United States."
"New York,Sept. 19, 1876.
"My dear Sir,—As a Southern man, whose interest in your election is greater than your own, because it involves the right to live, I beg permission to make a single suggestion, the result of general intercourse here for the last ten days with gentlemen from all sections of the country. The politicians, as a rule, are not overzealous for your success. Could they separate their fate from yours this feeling would be openly manifested. Your self-poise offends their vanity, and they are controlled where they think they should direct. It was the confidence of the people in this phase of your character, as much, even, as the spirit of reform, that secured you the nomination at St. Louis. It certainly greatly influenced my action. Still, I think, if you will allow me to say it, it might be proper for you to recognize and act upon certain suggestions that have been made with reference to the campaign in Indiana. Your election may not depend upon the result in that State in October, but it will be so urged and considered generally, and I am very sure that you have not overlooked this possibility. The suggestion I wish to make is that you would in some proper way manifest such interest in that election as to satisfy your friends in that State and elsewhere that you appreciate the importance of carrying that State in October. My excuse for this letter is the fact, known to you, that I was an original Tilden man, and, I will add, I have seen no reason to regret it.
"I shall leave to-day for Alabama, carrying with me the conviction that your election is almost an assured fact. God grant it. With high respect, yours very truly,
"L. P. Walker."
"Department of State, Washington,21st September, 1876.
"To his ExcellencySamuel J. Tilden,Governor of the State of New York, Albany.
"Sir,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter from New York of the 19th inst., accompanied by a copy of one addressed to you by the Sheriff of the City and County of New York, concerning the case of William M. Tweed, a fugitive from the justice of that State. In reply, I have to assure you that it may not be doubted that if the person adverted to should come into custody of authorities of this government he will be received for the purpose of being transferred to the proper authorities of New York, agreeably to your Excellency's request.
"I am, Your Excellency's Obedient Servant,"(Sd.)W. Hunter,"Acting Secretary."
"Cummington, Massachusetts,September 21st, 1876.
"Dear Bigelow,—The attacks on the personal character of Mr. Tilden are shameful. There was no need of asking me to see that a fair and just treatment of his statement in refutation of the story about the income tax should be accorded to him in theEvening Post. I wrote to Mr. Sperry yesterday on the subject, telling him that I thought that the paper should express as great indignation at the slander, as soon as its refutation should be made public, as if the Republican candidate had been the subject of it. I only wish that the opportunity for such an expression had been given a little earlier.
"Yours very truly,"W. C. Bryant."
"New York,Sept. 22d, 1876.
"To his ExcellencySamuel J. Tilden,"Governor of the State of New York.
"Sir,—It is probable that William M. Tweed, a noted delinquent, who went abroad many months since, will be tenderedto the custody of the Sheriff of the City and County of New York within a few days.
"At the time of his departure the same sheriff held him in formal custody under an order of arrest in a civil action requiring bail in $3,000,000. Since his departure judgment has been recovered against him in that action at the suit of the State to an amount exceeding $6,000,000.
"For his negligence in permitting the escape there was, in fact, no ordinary civil remedy against the sheriff except a very trivial and inadequate one on his official bond. The proper steps for securing this measure of redress have been pursued with all proper diligence; and, until this time, there did not seem to be any utility in prosecuting any other line of action. But as Tweed may be again in custody at an early period, it has now become important to consider what course should be adopted for the purpose of rendering that custody safe and secure. As already stated, the remedies allowed by law against the delinquent custodian who allows his prisoner to escape are totally inadequate. Consequently, should Tweed be again in legal custody, there will be no effective security for his detention to meet the awards of civil and criminal justice, except what may be afforded by the personal and official fidelity and vigilance of the custodian.
"Your predecessor, Governor John A. Dix, made a public and official remonstrance against the palpable favoritism displayed towards this person in his then existing custody as a prisoner in the Penitentiary. During the same year the Sheriff of the City and County of New York, by gross negligence, suffered the escape of Genet, a convict of the same general class as Tweed.
"With these circumstances to excite vigilance, the present sheriff nevertheless allowed Tweed to enjoy a sort of free custody, precisely similar to that which had been accorded to Genet; and Tweed, availing himself of the facility, left the State.
"Would it be proper, on Tweed's return, to place him in charge of the same officer? I think you will answer this question in the negative.
"The Constitution, arts. 10, secs. 1 and 5, together with the act of 1848, Edmonds Statutes, vol. 3, p. 330, affords to you as Chief Executive the means of meeting the exigency. You can, on brief notice to him, remove the presentsheriff and appoint a perfectly reliable custodian to receive the prisoner.
"Perhaps all the office I ought to assume in this matter properly ends here. But, when one acts at all in an important affair, he ought to do all that his best judgment dictates towards accomplishing the object in view.
"The history of Tweed's prosecutions, imprisonments, judicial releases, and ultimate deliverance from custody is well known to you and the public. To it I refer for a justification of my further remarks.
"The person whom you may appoint to fill the place made vacant by a removal of the present sheriff can hold only until the end of the present year. A new sheriff, elected by the people, with full notice of their needs in November next, will enter on his duties on the 1st of January, 1877. For the short term of about three months created by the removal, I take leave to recommend the appointment of General Francis C. Barlow. His persistent hostility to official swindlers, and his zealous activity in prosecuting Tweed to conviction, are well known to you. Tweed would not escape from his hands. I have consulted no one on this subject, nor have I any knowledge that General Barlow would accept the office. Should he do so, you will have well performed your duty; and, in any event, your tender of the appointment will effectually refute all assertions that you owe Tweed favor, or fear his disclosures.
"Yours, &c.,"Ch. O'Conor."