Chapter M: Van Buren to Tilden

"FISHKILL LANDING, _October 14, '59_.

"MY DEAR MR. TILDEN,--I am here on a visit to Judge Kent; intend to remain till Monday, then go to Mr. Kemble's, remain there till Wednesday or Thursday, and then go home. I left John at Lindenwald, suffering from a slight attack of the liver, which I thought required attention, and with considerable difficulty extracted a promise from him to remain till Monday of next week, and avail himself of Mr. Pruyn's advice; as an inducement, I promised him to ask you to come up and spend a day or two with us the latter end of next week. Can't you come? Take the whole the week after Thursday, or, if necessary, Wednesday to Friday. Perhaps Saturday would be the least inconvenient to you, and to come down with John on the Monday following. I am particularly desirous to see you, as I wish to have some conversation with you on a subject in which my feelings are deeply enlisted. Drop me a line here, if you can, and if not, at Coldspring, informing me of what you can do. The sooner the better, as I would like to inform John so as to assure his inducement to remain.

"As ever,
"Truly Yours,
"M. VAN BUREN."

TILDEN TO M. VAN BUREN

THE MAYORALTY ELECTION OF 1859

"NEW YORK, _Dec. 25, '59_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I wish you a 'merry Christmas!' It is the first opportunity I have had to acknowledge your kind letter of condolence. I take it up first of a bundle of letters which have waited for me to get out of the ice-pack of engagements which collected around me in ten-days' career in politics. I am just ill enough to be justified in declining all dinners, and am having a quiet time to-day.

"If your curiosity to know the 'whys and wherefores' of our defeat is not displaced by some later topic, I will drop you a hint or two towards a theory.

"A modern invention practised in Tammany Hall is for the genl. Committee to dispense with primary elections. It was introduced by Wood and has continued since he was driven out. The effect of two or three years' practice under the system has been to break off relations between that body and the masses in the wards. It was no longer necessary for the one committeeman and his four dummies, who represented a ward in the committee, to keep up a vital party in his ward. The ward committees fell into disuse, and in some cases what remained of them were in hostile hands. Meanwhile the outsiders felt that they had no chance, and antagonisms were multiplied in all the captains of tens and fifties--the new men, the active elements of fresh ambition. The chiefs of the general committee became totally bankrupt, were split into two parties--about equal--had been occupied for months in a scuffle for the assets, the real value of which they did not see till the last moment. In a party twice as large as any it had to contend with, and therefore tending to division--with its central organization in this condition, and its ward all run out--Wood hung up his sign over the outsiders. He made local organizations among them; worked at it assiduously for two years. When I stepped inside the ring and took a view I thought that in some wards, each having once and half as many people as your county contains, we should scarcely have machinery enough to run our ticket with--the 11th, for instance. We had less than two weeks to get up our organization, beginning anew--in a bad state of local nominations, many of the candidates running on both tickets and being really against us. Wood had gained the lower stratum of the Irish, combined many special interests, and at last had the aid of the jobbing Republicans, two of whom voted for him to every one of the other class for Havemeyer. Then the _Tribune_, in _bad_ faith, and the _Post_ in good faith, succeeded in making the impression that the way to beat Wood was to vote for Opdyke; and not only kept the moderate Republicans to him, but drew many quiet citizens who preferred Havemeyer, but were most anxious to beat Wood.

"In truth, the leaders of the Republican party and Wood were in perfect concert, as they are partners in the gigantic schemes of plunder, which will presently appear.

"Mr. Havemeyer polled a prodigious vote of the business classes and of the silent people, but not enough to supply the defects of the organization which, in my judgment, did not by its own strength give him 15,000 votes.

"Enough of this. I should not have gone over the ground except for the curiosity you expressed--that what appeared to be an immense public opinion was ineffectual. It is a public opinion with a party, and not without, that sweeps the stakes.

"For myself, while I am quite aware how different is the _prestige_ of success from defeat, and how great was the part which might have been attempted in reconstructing the administration of the government of the city, I cannot but feel more comfortable as I am. The proper duties of the office are one thing. A joint tenancy in the administration of a city like this (if you really attempt to do anything); a reconstruction of its government, which must be made from the very foundation, in order even to palliate existing evils, is a different matter. Overworn as I am with some heavy engagements, from which I cannot retire, yet uncompleted--and some heavy cares unrelieved--I could not help seeing the burden more than anything else. This may have been morbid. A little more strength and health might have dispelled it. But it enables me to accept the result with a sense that a great trouble is off my mind, and leaves no personal regret to mingle with the disgust I feel at Wood's election, and the disappointment and injury to our friends. At present, I am content to live from hand to mouth, and take no thought for the morrow.

"Notwithstanding your invitation to discuss the matter, I feel some excuse necessary for a letter that has grown so long and so personal.

"With my best wishes for your continued health and comfort and progress in the work which enlivens your retirement, and my kind remembrances to Mrs. and Miss Van Buren,

"I am, very truly, your friend,
"_S. J. Tilden._"

"P.S.--I had almost forgot to mention that the prospect now is that you will get your end paid in full. I should take the money."

* * * * *

The two succeeding communications to N. H. Swayne, afterwards one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, are interesting from their giving a sketch of the preliminary but comprehensive preparations for the rescue and reorganization of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad during the early days of the Civil War, and transforming it from a bankrupt corporation into one of the most prosperous highways on this continent. It is doing injustice to no one to say that it was mainly through Mr. Tilden's devotion, sagacity, professional ability, and foresight that this transformation was so successfully accomplished.

TILDEN TO W. H. SWAYNE

"FEB. _10, 1860_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--It being designed, if possible, to provide for a reorganization of the Pittsburg, F. W. and Chicago R. R. Co. during the present year, such legislation as is necessary should be obtained at the present sessions of the Legislatures of Penn. and Ohio. That would be expedient even if we were to wait for legislation in Indiana and Illinois until next winter. But I do not think it is necessary so to wait. I suppose that a corporation created by one of the States in which the road is situate, if endowed by the law of its creation with the capacity to exercise its functions in the other States, may hold and operate the road in those States if the sovereigns there will allow it to do so. I suppose that express permission is not necessary. It may do so on the principle of comity, unless prohibited by the legislation or declared public policy of those States. It may still be prudent to get the assent of those States declared legislatively. The act which governs the constitution of the corporation may be obtained in Penn. That will avoid any question as to the operation of the clause of your constitution imposing a personal liability upon stockholders. In Indiana there is a general law adequate to enable us to reorganize a corporation of that State. Its Legislature, like that of Illinois, does not meet till next year. There is nothing in the statutes or decisions of Illinois to prevent a corporation of Penn. or Indiana from holding and operating a railroad in Illinois. I presume there is not in Ohio, but that I have not investigated, as it is wiser to have an act of recognition. In Penn. the statutes of _mortmain_ exist by judicial adoption, and no foreign corporation can hold real estate there without express permission.

"We propose, then, immediately to get what we can, viz., a parent act from Penn. and an act of recognition from Ohio.

"The act for Penn. was finally agreed upon between Mr. Campbell and me yesterday, and was taken by Mr. Ogden to Mr. Cass to be passed. I will send you a copy as soon as I get one.

"I have drawn and send herewith what I deem to be a suggestion towards the bill proper to be passed by your Legislature.

"There may be a disposition to add some provision bringing the corporation under the jurisdiction of Ohio. You must be careful that nothing of this kind is done in such general terms as to bring the stockholders under the operation of your Constitution or laws as to personal liability.

"I would like to have you revise this bill and put it in motion. We must rely on you and Judge Thompson to have it passed. It would be prudent to urge it forward as fast as possible.

"I enclose some passages cut from my points in a recent case, which touch on the questions I have alluded to.

"It is very desirable that Mr. Stansbery's bill, converted into a general form, or some other bill applicable to all railroad corporations in your State needing reconstruction, should pass. I trust you and Thurman will aid in effecting such a result. There are plenty more of cases needing your doctoring. I regret that I must write in so much haste. I have to leave here in half an hour, having just returned from Phil.

"Mr. Ogden is to-day in Pittsburg with authority to have a settlement effected if it can be.

"Do me the favor to let me have your views as soon as possible.

Truly,
"S. J. TILDEN."

S. J. TILDEN TO M. VAN BUREN--UNFINISHED

"NEW YORK, _Feb. 21st, 1860_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--My mind has often turned to your letter, which I am some six weeks in arrears in answering. But I have in that time been three times called to Philadelphia, and once to Lebanon by the extreme illness of my mother and sister; and, altogether, have had my hands full. I am much obliged by the kind expressions of your letter, as well as the friendly interest you have taken in me.

"In respect to the subject which you incidentally mentioned in your letter, I do not think that my private business affords the elements of a desirable combination between John V. B. and myself.[26] It furnishes few occasions which would give scope to his powers, less, perhaps, than ought to be availed of even by me; but it and other cares occupy me too much to leave any room for the ambition of collecting the materials, or constructing a business of a different character. I content myself each day with what my hands find to do. I have not been very fortunate in deputizing such business as I have generally had. It may be because the things which come to me are usually complex and difficult, or because I am exacting as to the mode in which my clients are served."

It is to be regretted that Mr. Tilden's letter to ex-President Van Buren, assigning his reasons for declining to enter into a partnership with his son John, is incomplete. A more impracticable union for business purposes than such a partnership would have yielded can hardly be conceived. It is probable that the original of this letter to Mr. Tilden may be found among the collected papers of Mr. Van Buren, which have recently been presented to the Library of Congress, unless it was destroyed immediately upon its receipt, which is not unlikely.

TILDEN TO JOHN CLANCY

"N. Y., _May 19, '60_, EVENING."

"MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter inviting me to act as a vice-president of a meeting to be held at the Cooper Inst. was recd. yesterday, but I was so busy in a trial that I had no chance to answer it earlier.

"Having elected a delegation in which we have confidence, it is contrary to my personal disposition towards them, as well as to my notions of what is most conducive to their power and usefulness in their conference with the other representatives of the Democracy of the Union, to interfere by any public meeting before they shall have completed their trust. Without questioning the judgment of those who think differently, I must decline your invitation.

"Very respectfully,
"Your friend,
S. J. TILDEN."

_"Hon. John Clancy._

S. J. TILDEN TO THE EDITORS OF THE "EVENING POST"

"2 UNION PLACE. TUESDAY EVENG.
"_Oct. 9th, 1860_.

_"To the Editors of the 'Evening Post':_

"GENTLEMEN,--You politely offer to publish in your columns a speech of mine which you seem to think was not adequately developed at the Cooper Institute last evening, and you add that my friends among your readers 'would be glad to know how' I 'have reasoned' myself into the associations in which I stand on the Presidential question.

"If I had a speech already written I would at once avail myself of the opportunity of submitting my views on public affairs to a mass of readers, among which are many cultivated intellects and some friends of my earlier years who, I respectfully say I think, are widely and dangerously wrong in their present political action. I have but the intervals of exhausting daily engagements in which to prepare a speech; but if after this explanation your offer shall continue open, I will endeavor within the next few days to write out in a condensed form what I think ought to be said, not to my friends only, but to all our citizens touching the present state of the country. If, indeed, it can be justly said that I have helped to lead the _Evening Post_ into any 'heresies,' I acknowledge the sacred duty of showing it a 'decent way out' of them.

"With much consideration, I remain,

"S. J. TILDEN."

"Though we invited Mr. Tilden to give us the speech which he proposed to address to his spectators--they would not permit him to call them his audience--at the Cooper Institute, we are quite willing to extend the courtesy to anything he may choose to offer us in which he thinks the public has an interest. The readers of the _Evening Post_ know much better than the crowd he tried to address at the Cooper Institute that Mr. Tilden never writes or speaks without having something to say worth hearing, though they have not lately been unfortunate enough to agree with him on Federal politics."

The foregoing letter, with the editorial comment which follows it, appeared in the _Evening Post_ October 10, 1860.

The occasion which provoked it was the following account, which appeared a day or two previous in the _Evening Post_, of a meeting at the Cooper Union of malcontents, having little in common to unite them but their hostility to the party which had nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. They were mostly the unaccounted-for _débris_ of the old Whig party, who tried to disguise themselves by taking the name of "Merchants of New York." Mr. Tilden was invited to speak, but this motley audience did not care to listen long to so prominent a political partisan of Jackson and Van Buren, who had also been the most formidable critic of all Whig measures during all their successive administrations:

"THE TREMENDOUS DEMONSTRATION

"The 'Dry-Goods party,' as by general consent the fusionists have come to be designated, held what they called a 'Union meeting' last night at the Cooper Institute. They did not meet at Tammany Hall, for obvious reasons, though it must have made some of the gentlemen who contributed towards the expense of the entertainment feel a little queer when they found themselves associating politically with a class of men who could not be persuaded to put a foot inside of the old Wigwam. It has been observed that political parties, as they decline in strength, lengthen the list of officers supposed to officiate at their public gatherings, just as the shadows of mountains lengthen as the sun goes down. The Dry-Goods party did not attempt to be an exception; on the contrary, they seem to have made all of their party vice-presidents that they did not make president and secretaries. In looking over the list of gentlemen who figure on this occasion, we could not but be struck with what Clay called the 'mutability of all human opinion.' It seemed as if the milky portion of the old barn-burning party of '48 which had soured from the effects of Republican thunder, had been specially served up for the public entertainment. There was Dix, who ran for Governor with Van Buren in 1848 against Cass, nominated for chairman by Wilson G. Hunt, largely in the dry-goods line, who supported Van Buren and free soil as zealously and liberally as he now supports Breckinridge, Douglas, Bell, Sam & Co.

"Our old friend Tilden, who stood at the wheel during all those troublous times; who was one of the counsel for the Barnburners in the Baltimore convention of 1848, and who helped to lead the _Evening Post_ into all its free-soil heresies without ever showing it any decent way out of them, offered the resolutions and made a short speech. It would have been longer, but the audience wished to hear Wood. Either Wood or a song they must have, and so Mr. Tilden retired with his speech just as good as new, and, as it appeared, too good for his audience, that they might hear a song from a Mr. Cosgrove, Wood being returned by the officer 'not found.' The preference for Wood is explained, perhaps, by the fact that the first vice-president, W. B. Astor, was one of the ten or dozen gentlemen who certified to Mayor Wood's character when a candidate a second time for the '_mayorality_'--as Mr. Wood is in the habit of spelling the dignity he at present enjoys--and who recommended him warmly to the suffrages of the people. All the rest of the gentlemen who signed that 'character,' Moses Taylor, M. Aspinwall, the Browns, etc., figure also among the vice-presidents, and it is not strange, therefore, that a meeting thus officered should prefer a speech from Fernando Wood to a speech from Samuel J. Tilden.

"Then there was Henry Grinnell, who paid liberally towards raising the standard of rebellion at the park meeting, held shortly after the nomination of Cass, in 1848, and whose name was freely used by the Barnburners until about the time that the Union-saving steamship companies began to be incorporated and subsidized by Congress. Since then he has had little or no interest in anything North, this side of the Arctic circle.

"John Cochrane, Dan Norris, Henry Eveson, William F. Havemeyer, Stephen Cambreleng, Charles A. Secor, Myndert Van Schaick, whom, to his great disappointment, the Barnburners failed to elect Mayor of the city before the days of fusion, T. B. Tappen, John Van Buren, A. B. Conger, Addison Gardiner, etc., etc., make up the list of distinguished Barnburners of the milky sort who have 'turned,' and now form the cheesy pillars and architrave of the Dry-Goods party.

"The speakers for the evening were James W. Gerard and Charles O'Conor, two of our ablest lawyers, skilled to make the worse appear the better reason, and, from long professional training, about as much at home on one side of a question as another. As neither of these gentlemen were in good standing with the old Democratic party, the first being an old Whig and the other a fractious and crockery-breaking independent, they were listened to with patience by an assembly conspicuously impatient of anything savoring of old-fashioned Democracy.

"What effect the bringing together such a crowd of officers for such a thin display of speakers will have upon the dry-goods market will doubtless appear in the column where such reports are usually chronicled; what effect it will have on the Pennsylvania election will appear by the returns in to-morrow's _Evening Post_; what effect it will have upon the vote of this State is of no sort of consequence, for we were sure of a large majority before it was held, and of course we may reasonably expect a larger majority now.

"We are sorry about Mr. Tilden's speech. We have no doubt it was a good one, and as we are the friends of free speech we will publish it cheerfully in the _Evening Post_ if he will give us the opportunity. It will reach a great many more of his friends through our columns than stood within the reach of his voice, and they will all be glad to know by what process so clever a man has reasoned himself into such bad company."

WM. CASSIDY TO TILDEN

"'ATLAS & ARGUS' OFFICE.
"ALBANY, _Octr., 1860._

"DEAR TILDEN,--Newell tells me that you are preparing a reply to the _Post's_ appeal to be 'shown the way out.' Do so; and it will give me a chance to write an editorial, which I intended and postponed till the occasion passed by. I enclose a reply to an assault upon our consistency, the last half of which is _apropos_ to the _Post's_ inquiry. I am afraid your committee of fifteen will do more harm than good--as usual. You recollect how the Castle Garden movement defeated Seymour and elected Church, reversing its intended effect, and how the Fifth Avenue movement of last year paralyzed us? Let it go, however, with the other blunders.

"What I write to you about is to say that I intend to come down to New York on the 7th proxo. and consult you in regard to a project which O---- and I have long discussed--establishing a New York daily. We can readily get $60,000 (or more) for shares, and from a few men. I can name Plumb, DeWolf, Johnson (of Oswego), Ross--besides Richmond, Cagger, Corning, Kelly, etc. We could _add_ what an establishment here is worth, $40,000 or $50,000. The sum could be increased, and all subscribed outside of New York. It is not for help (to ask you 'to go round with a paper,' as your party friends generally do), but simply for advice. Wesley, the banker, once proposed to sell me some of his interest in the _Times_ if I would go in there. This is _entre nous_, and I allude to it only to explain why I am going to consult him, as well as you.

"If we could buy the _World_, the _Express_, or the _Post_, that would make the best beginning. If we established the New York _Argus_ or _The Age_ we could start with a larger subscription and in better organization than any two other persons. Of course we would have to go to great expense, employ many hands and heads, and meet a fearful competition. But neither of us are without experience, and we have regarded the question on all sides. There must be, and there will be, a Democratic organ in New York. Who is to control it? In the transitive state of politics, 'that is the question.' There's a vast volume of Democratic patronage going to waste in the city, and still more beyond it. We send out 40,000 weekly papers from Albany, and in less than a year could raise it to 200,000 if we were in New York. That is as much as Greeley has for his _Tribune_, and that is the source of its influence.

"There is plenty of ability in New York that could be called in. What is wanted is conduct--a policy, prudence, independence--for the political part. For the business part we want competent men--an association, if possible, with a great publishing house, in order to avail ourselves of literary talent, not allowing it, however, to be our publisher. Commercial and other reporters, and enough literary talent to supply a daily _feuilleton_; for we must call on the aid of fiction, as the Paris papers do, and so gratify a taste which is stronger here than anywhere else. I would commence by getting Hawthorne or some writer of equal talent to furnish a novel, which might be republished afterwards in a volume, and which would thus pay. To do this, we should want a paper like the _World_. We will reverse the wish of Archimedes: give us the _World_, and we will find the lever to move it.

"But I intend to ask your advice, not to forestall it. Until I see you, which will be after the November triumph, I remain

"Yr. frd. & fellow-sufferer,
"WM. CASSIDY."

"When Wood was elected by Greeley's agency, I made up my mind that he would administer retributive justice upon G. & Co. by some stupendous organization of the canvassers. But you have an honest vote of 100,000. The Republicans are not entitled to more than 30,000 of this. Give us 40,000, and we will carry the State. Organize--make them do it. The registry will facilitate such work."

JOHN BIGELOW TO S. J. TILDEN

"OCTOBER _10, 1860_.

"DEAR TILDEN,--Send on your MS. to-night if you can; that is, what is ready, and the rest as early as possible to-morrow. I will then announce it to-morrow for Saturday. If we undertake to get it up to-morrow it will not be well printed, as all outside matter must be in hand before 10 o'clock. Of course, therefore, the men will have to work on it in the afternoon after the work of to-morrow's paper or to-day's to get it up and properly proved. Besides, I want time myself to read it, for I presume, if you sleep in my bed, I should have the privilege of making it up.[27]

"Yours truly,
"JOHN BIGELOW."

JOHN BIGELOW TO S. J. TILDEN

"EVG. POST, _Oct. 11, 1860_.

"MY DEAR TILDEN,--By the _Post_ of to-day you will see that our printers are waiting for copy. I desired to put you in a position to be regarded by the public as a representative of your party, and by your party as their chief and most capable champion and defender. If you prefer to put what you have to say in the form of a letter you need not hesitate to do so in consequence of anything which has passed. Artistically, I can imagine that the letter shape will have some advantages over an undelivered speech, and I would recommend it, though it was my purpose only to say I hoped you would unburden yourself in just the way you find most agreeable.

"If you can let me know, a day or two in advance, when your copy will be ready I shall be more sure to secure a place for it without delay.

"Speaking in your interest, not in our own, I would advise you to be as brief as possible, for I want to have what you write read. If you can get within a couple of columns, so much the better for all concerned.

"Let me suggest that whatever you have to say you will lose nothing by conceding the errors which have brought the Dem. party to its present condition. It becomes you to write as a statesman, and not as a partisan, in this instance, at least, and perhaps we Republicans, as well as those you particularly address, may profit by your teachings.

"Yours truly,
"JOHN BIGELOW."

S. J. TILDEN TO JOHN BIGELOW

"2 UNION PLACE, _Oct. 11, 1860_.
"EV.

"MY DEAR BIGELOW,--I thank you for the very kind terms of your note. I entirely agree with you as to the letter form, and the space you suggest is what had occurred to me as proper. I shall keep as nearly as possible to it. I note what you say as to notice. My only real difficulty is the _rush_ of things in which I live.

"Very truly yours,
"S. J. TILDEN."

S. J. TILDEN TO JOHN BIGELOW

"OCT. _27, 1860_.

"MY DEAR BIGELOW,--I extremely regret that my letter has reached such unexpected length; and I have condensed it as much as possible, and omitted much which I desired to say, but you did not propose, nor I undertake, to have the thing done too imperfectly. I must, therefore, throw myself upon your indulgence. I assume you will, and that the balance will appear on Monday.

"Very truly yours,
"S. J. TILDEN."

"_Sat. Morn., Oct. 27, 1860._"

EDWARD EVERETT TO S. J. TILDEN

"_Nov. 6, 1860_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I cannot content myself with a mere formal acknowledgment of your admirable pamphlet, which I have read with extreme pleasure. Nothing which I have met with on the dreadful subject which now convulses the country has seemed to me more clearly or forcibly urged.

"I remain, dear sir, with high respect,

"Very truly yours,
"EDWARD EVERETT."

SENATOR J. M. MASON[28] TO S. J. TILDEN

"SELMA, NEAR WINCHESTER, VA., _12th Novr., 1860_.

"DEAR SIR,--I have just read your pamphlet--'The Union, its dangers, and how they can be averted.' To say only that it is the best which the occasion has called forth, would be to do as little justice to my discrimination as to its merit.

"It is too late now to arrest the catastrophe which it shows impending; but it must, to minds capable of understanding fact and logic, force the people to pause and consider.

"I trust that measures will be taken to give it an extended circulation in the Northern States; in the South its effect only can be to make the people comprehend what they already feel.

"My note, however (which I am obliged to write through an amanuensis), is only to thank you for this great contribution to American thought, and, like the hungry schoolboy, to ask for more. Can you oblige me by sending me some twenty copies, or as many as you can conveniently spare?

"From your obliged
"friend and servant,
"J. M. MASON."

"_S. J. Tilden, Esq., New York._"

G. S. HILLARD TO S. J. TILDEN

"BOSTON, _Nov. 19, 1860_.

"DEAR SIR,--I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of, and to thank you for, your letter on the Union. I agree with you heartily in your views: they are sound, wise, and patriotic; but what avails it to proclaim them? Anybody who preaches moderation and forbearance--who endeavors to calm the tempest of excited feeling--is called 'a skulking neutral,' or, at best, an obsolete old fogy, whose proper place is in Noah's ark. We must learn wisdom by the smart of folly, and it looks very much as if the teaching was begun. I look upon Mr. Seward as the most mischievous man now in the public service; and for his incendiary course he has not the apology of a fervid temperament and rash blood. His words are the more dangerous, because so deliberately uttered. But I rejoice that you have written the letter, and that so many patriotic and judicious men have been willing to speak and write as you have done. Always anticipating the election of Lincoln, I have been in the habit of saying to our friends that the value and importance of the Union party would not be fully apparent until after that event. I think I was a true prophet. If the country is to be safely navigated through the shoals which are around and ahead, it will be by the agency and instrumentality of the Union party.

"Yrs. truly,
"G. S. HILLARD."

"_Samuel J. Tilden, Esq._"

THE PROMISED REPLY OF THE "EVENING POST" TO THE LETTER OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN

(_Continued and Concluded._)

"The people of the United States voted yesterday upon the questions at issue between the Republicans and their adversaries, as represented by Lincoln and Hamlin, candidates of the former, and by Douglas and Johnson, Breckinridge and Lane, and Bell and Everett, representing the latter, with the following result:"

LINCOLN AND HAMLIN.

Connecticut 6
Illinois 11
Indiana 13
Iowa 4
Maine 8
Massachusetts 13
Michigan 6
Minnesota 4
New Hampshire 5
New York 35
Ohio 23
Pennsylvania 27
Rhode Island 4
Vermont 5
Wisconsin 5
---
Total 169

DOUGLAS AND JOHNSON.

Missouri 9
---
Total 9

DOUBTFUL.

Oregon 3
California 4
---
Total 7

BRECKINRIDGE AND LANE.

Alabama 9
Arkansas 4
Florida 3
Georgia 10
Louisiana 6
Mississippi 7
North Carolina 10
South Carolina 8
Texas 4
---
Total 61

BELL AND EVERETT AND FUSION.

Delaware 3
New Jersey 7
Kentucky 12
Maryland 8
Tennessee 12
Virginia 15
---
Total 57

RECAPITULATION.

_Electoral Votes._
For Lincoln and Hamlin 169
For Breckinridge and Lane 61
For Bell and Everett 57
For Douglas and Johnson 9
For Doubtful 7
----
Whole electoral vote 303

Lincoln's majority over all, certain 35
If Oregon and California vote for Lincoln it will add to his majority 7
---
Total 42

TILDEN TO W. H. SWAYNE ON THE PROCURING A CHARTER FROM THE STATE OF OHIO FOR THE PITTSBURG, FORT WAYNE & CHICAGO RAILROAD

"_Dec. 6, 1860._

"MY DEAR SIR,--Two modes of investing the future owners of the P. F. W. H. R.[29] with a corporate character within the State of Ohio have been suggested.

"1. One is to make them a corporation of the State of Ohio--by creating them a new corporation, or by continuing to them the old corporate franchise.

"I understand Mr. Stanbery and Mr. Hunter to propose the latter method. By providing for the transfer of the existing franchise to be a corporation by a general law, they avoid the constitutional provision that 'the general assembly shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers.' They think, also, that by preserving the identity of the existing franchise they can avoid the operation of the constitutional provision 'that in all cases each stockholder shall be liable over and above the stock by him or her owned, and any amount unpaid thereon, to a further sum, at least equal in amount to such stock,' upon the ground that the provision is not retractive, and was established subsequently to existence of this corporation. They think, also, that although the identity of the corporation will be preserved, it can be discharged from liability for the debts and contracts which it has made. If it should be found to be liable for those debts and contracts, the main object of the reorganization would fail.

"2. The other mode is to make the future owners a corporation of Pennsylvania or Illinois, and to enable that corporation to hold, maintain, and operate the part of the road which is situate in Ohio, without being a corporation of the State of Ohio.

"To enable a Pennsylvania corporation, for instance, to hold, maintain, and operate the part of the road situate in Ohio two things are necessary:

"_First_, that it should be endowed by the law of its creation (which would be the act of Pennsylvania creating it), with capacity to hold, maintain, and operate the part of the said road which is situate within Ohio.

"_Secondly_, that it should have the consent, implied or expressed, of the State of Ohio to the exercise within that State of its powers to hold, maintain, and operate the part of the railroad situate within that State.

"Such consent in this case will be implied, unless the implication is negatived by express legislative declaration of the public policy of the State.

"As the laws of Ohio allow an individual purchaser to hold, maintain, and operate the railroad--which individual might be a non-resident--and as there is no policy established by legislation or by a judicial construction to disable a corporation of another State having the requisite capacity from doing so, the case comes clearly within the principle on which nearly all the acts of corporations in other States than those of their creation are sustained by the courts as lawful.

"The rights of the State of Ohio are not violated; for it is by her consent that these powers will be exercised within her dominion. That consent could have been withheld. I do not say that it might not be withdrawn by legislation, not so as to divest rights of property which accrued while it existed, but so as to produce inconvenient consequences to the tenure of the corporators: nor will I advert to the fact that a vast number of transactions are daily carried on in some of the States by corporations of other States, subject to the same possibility, or that in some States, as in New York, most corporations exist subject to full legislative power to repeal the act conferring the franchise.

"For I have not doubted--I have uniformly expressed the opinion that in a case of the peculiar nature and vast importance of the present it is wise to obtain an express consent.

"Shall that consent be given by special act or general law? Would it have any effect on the extent of the liability of the corporations?

"The essence of the corporate character is that several individuals are united in one body--enabled to exist and act as an artificial person created by law, the members of which can change without impairing the identity of that body of person.

"The code of regulations, according to which it exists and acts, which fix its _modus_ is incidental to that creation.

"Its other powers, which may be and often are possessed and exercised by natural persons, are not, strictly speaking, corporate powers, such, for instance, as making discounts, granting insurances, operating railroads; there is nothing in the nature of these powers which necessarily confines them to corporations. They are not of the essence or of the incidents of the corporate character. I think the prohibition of the Ohio Constitution that 'the general assembly shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers' is a mere paraphrase of the prohibition of the New York Constitution, contained in the following provision: Corporations may be formed under general laws, _but shall not be created by_ special act, etc. The next clause of the Ohio Constitution provides that 'corporations' may be formed under general laws.

"The provision was, in the main, copied from the Constitution of New York. The modification of details accounts for the change in the collocation.

"In a cursory review of the discussions in the Ohio convention I see no trace that anything further was intended by the prohibition than to interdict the creation of corporations by special acts.

"That construction accords with the true meaning of the words 'corporate powers,' which is powers essential or incident to the nature of the artificial being created by law--such as the power to take a common name, to have corporate succession, to contract and be contracted with, and to sue and be sued as one person, etc. These are properly corporate powers. It is true the words are sometimes used to include all the powers which the particular corporation possesses; but that is a loose and inaccurate use.

"I think that the correct interpretation of the publication is that it simply forbids the creation of a corporation by a special act of incorporation--nothing more. It does not forbid an act operating to enlarge, modify, or restrict the rights of an existing corporation, any more than it does a similar act in respect to a natural person in a like case. Still less does it forbid such legislation in respect to a foreign corporation. It is enough for the present case to say that the clause does not prohibit a legislative recognition or an express sanction of an existing comity of the State in favor of an existing corporation of another State.

"1. I am, therefore, of opinion that a special act declaring the assent of the State of Ohio to the exercise within that State of all the powers necessary for a beneficial use of the Pittsburg, F. W. & Chicago Railroad by a corporation of Pennsylvania or Illinois, which should have become the owner of the part of such railroad situate within the State of Ohio, would be valid and effectual.

"A general law would, of course, be somewhat preferable, as it would avoid this question. If it is certainly attainable, I would seek our legislation in that form.

"But I foresee the possibility that it might excite more jealousy than a special act, because its full application and use cannot be certainly anticipated. I foresee, also, the possibility that it may affect special cases of existing interest, prejudice, or passion, of which I am ignorant.

"In the first section of a draft of a general law which I have hastily made at a suggestion, I have tried to avoid the first of these two objections by limiting the cases to which the law applies.

"1. An existing railroad.

"2. Partly situate in Ohio and partly in some adjacent State.

"3. Sold under an existing lien.

"4. Acquired by a corporation of another State in which another part of the same railroad is situate.

"5. Such corporation acquiring the part of the railroad situate in that other State.

"6. Of course, such corporation having the capacity to take and operate the part situate in Ohio.

"Perhaps I may have put in more limitations than are necessary.

"Whether the measure will run foul of any other interest can be better judged of by men conversant with the state of affairs in Ohio and in its legislation.

"The general law, as proposed, is not more liberal than the existing consolidation act of Ohio. We ought to be able to obtain it. If there is a strong probability that we cannot, we ought to obtain a special act of a similar nature, applicable only to our particular railroad.

"2. The advantage of not making the corporation a creation of the State of Ohio is that it certainly and unquestionably avoids this double liability of the corporators imposed by the Constitution of that State.

"The degree of liability to which the individual corporators shall be subject is a part of the code of regulations specifying the mode and conditions of the existence and action of the artificial being. Sometimes it is nothing beyond the stock paid in. Sometimes, as by the Ohio Constitution, it is a limited amount beyond the stock paid in; sometimes it is absolute, as in the case of partners. It is not of the essence of corporations--it is a regulation imposed by the sovereign who creates the artificial being an incident to the particular corporation. Nobody but that creator could impose such a regulation. The most any other State could do would be to refuse its comity to a corporation until it should get the regulation imposed by the lawful authority of the State of its creation.

"Besides, the provisions of the Constitution of Ohio applies only to corporations created by or under the laws of that State. It does not purport to operate on corporations of other States transacting business in Ohio under the comity of its sovereign.

"3. In respect to the general act proposed by Mr. Stanbery and Mr. Hunter, I think they should prepare it and that we should co-operate in procuring its passage. It would be open to our choice if on consultation we should prefer to act under it; and it would be useful in other cases. My idea originally was to have that general law and a special act for the Pittsburg, F. W., C. R. R. If we change the latter to a general law, it makes two of that character; but I do not see any objection if we can get them both passed.

"I should like to have a copy of the draft of such an act as Mr. Stanbery and Mr. Hunter propose.

"The draft of a general act which I send contains provisions which ought to be considered as consulted upon. I have prepared them without, perhaps, sufficient study of your laws on the subject, and without knowing the temper of your Legislature.

"In some particulars they must be regarded as mere suggestions. Consider--

"1. The clause of Sec. 1, subjecting the company in respect to its management of the part of the railroad to the duties and regulations imposed by your general laws--whether there is any provision which should be accepted, whether this clause ought to be made more stringent in order to be satisfactory to your Legislature. But care should be taken not to use expressions which could include the personal liability provisions of the Ohio Constitution and laws.

"2. The clause of the same section subjects it to be--

"Section 2 is intended to give the same power as to mortgaging the rolling stock, etc., which is contained in the Pennsylvania act. I do not think this ought to be objected to.

"Section 3 is an adaptation of a clause proposed last summer.

"I cannot send a fair copy of the special act without losing a mail. The general one is sufficient as a basis of consideration and consultation.

"I would like to have you consider the matter, and must contrive some way to meet in consultation.

"I address this letter to you, though its contents are for Mr. Stanbery, Mr. Hunter, and Judge Sherman, to whom I pray you to offer my best respects.

"Yours truly,
"S. J. TILDEN."

"_W. H. Swayne, Esq.,
"New York, Dec. 6, 1860._"

TILDEN TO W. B. OGDEN

"NEW YORK, _Dec. 17, 1860_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--As you leave in the morning to return to Chicago, I seize a few moments this evening to submit to you some suggestions as to the present crisis in the affairs of our country. I know you have no personal aspirations; that you are exempt from the blinding and misleading influence of active partisanship; that your disposition is equitable; that you have no motive but the public good--no interest except in common with all patriotic citizens; and that, far better than most men, you understand that there is usually another side to a controversy than 'our side.'

"Your situation may enable you to be of great service to your country and to mankind, and of not less service to a gentleman who to-day occupies a more important and responsible position than has been the fortune of any other of his generation. Of course I allude to Mr. Lincoln. His patriotism I do not doubt. The impression he made on me, upon two occasions when I casually met him, was that of a frank, genial, warm-hearted man. In the actual duties of the Presidency he cannot but take conservative views. No man can have a motive so strong and yet so noble to prevent his own name from closing, amid public sorrow and shame, the illustrious roll of American Presidents which began with Washington.

"It must be his renown or his calamity to decide whether he shall be the Chief Magistrate of a whole country or of half a country. Providence has cast upon him that immense responsibility. In saying this I do not touch the question, What has caused the mischief? I speak only as to the question, _Who has the power to save the country?_

"1. The reality of the _danger_ of disunion, I think, cannot be doubted. The cotton States are far more unanimous for secession than our fathers were when they made our revolution despite of the royalist majority. Practically, their people are unanimous. We can only hope for an effective minority forming itself in some qualified position within the current of popular opinion. A statesmanlike policy would be to aid the formation of that minority--to strengthen it that it may become a majority, to create, to hasten, to swell the reaction for which we hope.

"2. Our first necessity is to comprehend the crisis. That is difficult. A man on one side of a question cannot easily turn out the set of ideas which fill his mind and admit the opposite set, even for an experiment. Nothing is so difficult in ordinary experience as to see both sides of a question. For us who have been educated with Northern ideas or in party controversies, we must be almost more than mortal to be able to take a perfectly candid and impartial view of the position of our adversaries. It is necessary to do more--to imagine ourselves in their position, in order to form a policy adapted to their case."

TOWNSEND WARD TO TILDEN

"PHILADELPHIA, _Dec. 19, 1860_.

"DEAR SIR,--Last evening, at Mrs. Gilpin's, I met Mr. Ogden, who kindly gave me a copy of your letter to Mr. Kent.[30] It is so well calculated to do good that I want to obtain copies for distribution. Can you have your publisher send me fifty, with a line stating the cost, which I will remit? Years, perhaps, of the dreary labor of reconstruction of our empire are before us, and it will not do for us who foresaw the storm to desert the wreck while a single plank of hope remains.

"I send you a copy of a pamphlet by a Mr. John R. White, of this city. It has some good points.

"Very Respectfully,
"TOWNSEND WARD,
"204 S. 5th St.

"_Samuel J. Tilden, Esq._"

S. J. TILDEN TO (TOWNSEND WARD)

"NEW YORK, _Dec. 1860_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Immediately on receiving your note I caused 50 copies of my letter to Judge Kent to be sent to your address. I acknowledge a deep sense of the favorable estimate you express of that effort, on a sudden occasion, amid the toils which fell upon me as one of the Union committee, to recall our Northern people to the duty of justice and fraternity towards our Southern fellow-countrymen. I have delayed writing to you to say so until I could seize a moment in which to add a suggestion as to the future; and, in the mean time, how rapidly, how fearfully, have events been hurrying forward!

"It seems, too, that these events cast largely upon the Virginia statesmen of this generation the momentous duty of saving from destruction a political system which we and the world owe mainly to the Virginia statesmen of the golden era of the Republic."

S. L. M. BARLOW TO TILDEN

"_Private._

"NEW YORK, _Wednesday_.

"MY DEAR TILDEN,--I understand that you are to be consulted this evg. as to the propriety of assuming control of the Pres't and his adm'n from this time forward on his promise to surrender everything to the Democrats. This plan assumes that Church and yourself will enter heartily into this movement, and that one of you will go into the Cabinet.

"Whoever does so will, in my judgment, run a very serious risk of damaging his own record; the adoption of the plan will hasten rather than retard impeachment; it is not unlikely that the finances may be deranged, which will be chargeable to us, and with Johnson's sins of omission and commission on our backs, we stand a fair chance of defeat, when otherwise we might win in the coming Presidential fight. I see nothing to be gained except a few places, very few, too, with Congress against us, for a few men who want position. I hope, if you agree with me, you will not countenance the plan in any form.

"Y'rs,
S. L. M. BARLOW."

"_S. J. Tilden, Esq._"

FOOTNOTES:

[19] To whom this letter was addressed does not appear, but there is every reason to believe it went also to Mr. Newell, through whom he conducted most of his correspondence with the Pierce administration.

[20] Mr. Campbell was a member of the Catholic communion.

[21] Mr. Grover had acted with the Free-soilers in 1848. He was now suggested by Van Buren's friends to succeed Judge Bronson as Collector of the Port of New York.

[22] John Van Buren.

[23] For the history of Mr. Tilden's nomination to the office of Attorney-General, and of his correspondence with Mr. Sutherland, his "Hardshell" competitor, see _Bigelow's Life of Tilden_, Vol. I, p. 127-130.

[24] Governor Tilden's eldest brother.

[25] Who had been Atty.-General under Van Buren when President.

[26] This is no doubt the subject referred to in Mr. Van Buren's letter of October 14, 1859, in which his feelings were deeply interested.

[27] For further particulars of this memorable and very able letter, see _Life of Tilden_, Harper & Brothers, 1895.

[28] The following year Commissioner of the Confederate States to London.

[29] The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad.

[30] The letter here referred to will be found in the _Writings and Speeches of Samuel J. Tilden_. Harper & Brothers, 1885.

1861-1867

TILDEN TO WYNDHAM ROBERTSON

"NEW YORK, _Jan. 13, '61_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I read your letter, and the printed one you were kind enough to send me, with much pleasure, and gave them to Mr. Miller, with the stipulation that they should go to Messrs. Hewitt and Cooper in succession. In the main I assent to your views.

"I have no doubt--

"1. That the late election[31] was not a verdict of the Northern States on the theoretic questions urged by the Republicans. Masses went for Lincoln, from habit and association, as a lineal succession from Whiggism. Masses from mere opposition to the Democratic party, and from all the causes which gradually operate to make a revolution between the ins and the outs. The drift created by the disorganization of the Democratic party, and our inability to present any single candidate as a point of union to the conservative sentiment, and the concession from April till October that we must inevitably be beaten; I say this drift alone might fairly be 24,000 out of 675,000 voters, or 3-1/2 per cent., which would have changed the result in N. Y. and in the Union.

"2. That a very important reaction has already taken place.

"3. That, even if we had not had our present difficulties to bring men to consider, Lincoln's administration must necessarily go utterly to pieces when it came either to _present affirmative measures_ or to _distribute the patronage_.

"4th. That, on the whole, through all these struggles and much apparent increase of the anti-slavery element, there is growing a larger and stronger party, capable of doing the Southern States full justice, than ever has existed for half a century past; I mean, capable of recognizing, on reason and principle, the right and the necessity the Southern States have to grow in the natural expansion of their industrial and social systems. In 1820 the North was unanimous in claiming the right to attack conditions operating after a State should be admitted. That idea is now abandoned by a vast majority of our people. It is natural that when a new question arises, assumed to be within our constitutional jurisdiction, our people should all start to apply to it the ideas on which they have acted at home. To see that it cannot be wisely disposed of by their merely voting in respect to it as if it were a purely domestic question; that they must calculate for the co-existence and expansion of the two systems; that they must partition the Territories--is a later stage in their political education.

"I am of opinion that prevalent errors have, in the main, run their course; and we need only to give our people a fair chance to secure the adoption of a wiser and better system than they have ever before understandingly accepted.

"If the present Congress continues unable to do anything adequate, I think the next best thing will be a convention of all the States to propose amendments to the Constitution, with an arrangement, if practicable, to keep the parties in _status quo_ while those amendments are being perfected and submitted. The convention should be elected in districts on the basis of the House of Rep. The submission should be to conventions.

"That would make two popular elections necessary. The convention would be sure to be conservative. By summer the disintegration of the Republican party would be completed, the reaction perfected, and three-quarters of the States would ratify amendments substantially on the basis of Crittenden's propositions.

"Our people are temporarily misled, but by a vast majority conservative at the bottom. We only need time to bring them to a sound position.

"Excuse the haste with which I am compelled to write, and believe me,

"Very truly,
"Your friend,
"(sd.) S. J. TILDEN.

"_Hon. Wyndham Robertson,
"Richmond, Va._"

Dudley Burwell was a prominent lawyer in Albany, a thoughtful and estimable man, and had been an active Democratic partisan of Van Buren in opposition to General Cass in 1848. He shared Mr. Tilden's apprehensions of a civil war as the inevitable result of Mr. Lincoln's election. He held no office himself, and I am not aware that he ever sought any. His letter is valuable as an illustration of the diversity of opinion among leading men of all parties by which Mr. Lincoln's government was perplexed during the three first years of his administration. Advice was in abundance, but no two counsellors entirely agreed about what the government should do or abstain from doing. It was impossible to divine the opinions of the people upon any subject, the succession of new and unfamiliar events was so rapid and surprising.