Chapter II: Preface: Of the Editor (2)

The argument of the supporters of the new movement was that Congress had the power, not, indeed, to interfere with slavery in the States, but to prevent its establishment in the Territories; and that they were but exercising their constitutional rights in forming a party for the purpose of securing such legislation. Tilden could not deny the mere claim of constitutional right; but this, with him, was but a small part of the question. What would be the consequence of a successful assertion of that right? Could it be reasonably supposed that the Southern States would view it otherwise than as an attack upon what they deemed to be a vital interest? Would not its necessary effect be to force unanimity among them in opposition to the policy? Was the supposition that there was any considerable Free-soil sentiment in the South which would array itself on the side of the government anything but a dream? Should we not have two strictly sectional parties arrayed upon the question of preserving or destroying an institution which one of them, not unnaturally, regarded as essential to self-existence? These, in his view, were questions which must be first solved before such a movement could be encouraged. His solution led him to the conclusion that war would be the necessary result of such action; and this involved the further inquiry whether the object in view would be gained by a civil war, or, if gained, would be worth the terrible cost. Appalled by the uncertainties and terrors of such a conflict, he took refuge, as Mr. Webster had before him, in the belief that the natural forces in operation would of themselves accomplish all that could be gained by the policy of restriction. In a letter to William Kent in 1860, before the election of Lincoln, he stated his conclusions and the reasoning which led to them with his characteristic moderation, but with masterly force. His main conclusion was that if the Republican party should be successful, the national government in the Southern States would cease to be self-government, and become a government by one people over another distinct people--a thing impossible with our race, except as a consequence of successful war, and even then incompatible with our democratic institutions. He said:

"I assert that a controversy between powerful communities, organized into governments, of a nature like that which now divides the North and South, can be settled only by convention or by war. I affirm this upon the universal principles of human nature, and the collective experience of all mankind." And again: "A condition of parties in which the federative government shall be carried on by a party having no affiliations in the Southern States is impossible to continue. Such a government would be out of all relation to those States. It would have neither the nerves of sensation which convey intelligence to the intellect of the body politic, nor the ligaments and muscles which hold its parts together and move them in harmony. It would be in substance the government of one people by another people. That system will not do with our race."

This reasoning was founded upon the facts of human nature, the philosophy of government, and the teachings of experience. Its truth is more manifest now than when it was uttered. Who of the great Free-soil leaders would have had the hardihood to persist in their course if they could have foreseen the consequences so clearly? Greeley, terrified by the horrible spectacle of war, was driven to say: "Let the wayward sisters depart in peace." Seward's short vision predicted that it would be all over "in sixty days"! But in great crises the foresight of the wisest is but blindness. Were it always given men to see what they are to go through with, the greatest steps in moral advancement would never be taken. Tilden did not foresee, through the storms of war, any more than others, the freedom of the slave with the acquiescence of the master, and the consequent unification of the republic.

But the trials of our popular system of government were not terminated by the simultaneous overthrow of the Rebellion and slavery. It may be, rather, that they have just begun. We were confident before the war that slavery was the source of the only peril which really threatened us. That out of the way, we find ourselves confronted with new dangers, growing out of differences of opinion respecting the extent to which the black race shall be allowed to participate in government. That participation is now practically denied by the Southern States, and the mandate of the Constitution is unhesitatingly set at naught by the employment either of force or fraud. The remedy suggested is an enforcement of that mandate by Federal legislation, which means simply the enforcement of its will by one section against that of the other. This is not democratic government, but the rule of the conquered by the conqueror. The evil is bad enough; and the remedy will probably be worse. We begin to see that the real danger which has at all times menaced us is the presence on our soil of a different race, unequal, for the present, at least, to the great office of self-government. Slavery was not itself the evil, but only one of the methods of dealing with it. Is our substitute, the bestowal upon the race of universal suffrage, a successful device? And, if this must be abandoned, what shall next be tried? These grave problems, already threatening, will assume a graver aspect if the results of the census just taken, when studied and compared, shall be found to show a more rapid rate of increase in the black population at the South than in the white. To meet such perils we need nothing so much as a class of statesmen of which Samuel J. Tilden was the most distinguished example.

LETTERS AND LITERARY MEMORIALS OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN

1810-1844

In 1801 President Jefferson appointed Robert R. Livingston, then Chancellor of the State of New York, as Minister to France. On his return, in 1804, Livingston brought with him some sheep from Spain, then the home of the famous Merino breed, developed from races of sheep originally introduced into the peninsula by the Romans. In 1809-10 a flock of 4000 Merino sheep were brought into the United States to meet the demand created by Mr. Livingston's first importation. The following letter from the father of Samuel J. Tilden, written the very season of the larger importation, justifies the presumption that such importation had been made by Mr. Livingston himself or at his behest. The letter of Elam Tilden was sent to his son Samuel by the late Eliphalet Nott Potter in December, 1882, with a note in which he said:

"In looking over a package of Livingston letters I find the enclosed, and thinking that possibly it may be of some slight interest to you, I beg that you will accept it with best wishes of the season and for the New Year."

This letter was written four years before the writer's son Samuel J. was born.

ELAM TILDEN TO HON. ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON

"NEW LEBANON, _March 19, 1810_.

"DEAR SIR,--I want to get four or five pounds of your best _full-blood_ Merino Wool to manufacture into cloth for a Coat. I applied to you once before for the article for the same purpose, but you informed me that your wool was all previously engaged. I hope, Sir, that you will accommodate me; I can by some means get it forwarded to Hudson, from whence I can get it. I will thank you to drop me an answer by the mail, by which conveyance I will forward you the money, or get it to you by way of my friend, Dr. Younglove, of Hudson, if you accommodate me with the wool.

"I am, Sir, Your
"humble Servant,
"ELAM TILDEN."

The most disastrous fire with which the city of New York has ever yet been visited is referred to in the following letter. It reduced to ashes pretty much every structure within the area bounded by Wall and Broad streets and the East River, a tract which then embraced nearly, if not quite all the important commission houses in the city; crippled all our insurance companies, and gave to the territory it covered a blow from which, after a lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century, it has but partially recovered. Like the great fire of London in the seventeenth century, it is still referred to as the _Great Fire_ of 1835.

S. J. TILDEN TO ELAM TILDEN

"NEW YORK, _December 11, 1833_. Friday, _2.30 P.M._

"MY DEAR FATHER,--The last has been the most calamitous night New York ever saw. The very centre of the commercial part of the city--from Wall Street across William and nearly to Broad, and to Coenties Slip,--all is a mass of smouldering ruins. A concurrence of unfortunate circumstances rendered the fire thus disastrous. The engines had been much disordered, in consequence of the extensive fires on the previous night--the hose, many of them, frozen and unfit for use. The atmosphere was in a state peculiarly calculated to support and extend combustion, the wind blew with great violence, and the weather was so intensely cold as to clog and almost close up with ice the hose. The flames raged through the whole night with uncontrolled violence, impressing every beholder with the utter impotency of human effort to contend with the devouring element. The spectacle was grand and awful beyond conception. I shall not attempt to describe it. All the fires that ever occurred here before were perfectly insignificant in comparison.

"The question is now, not who is injured, but who has escaped? Almost all I know are involved in the common catastrophe. At No. 12, Mr. Hichcock burnt out; Mr. Birch, not even his books and papers saved. Mr. Brown burnt out, and his goods consumed in the street or in the stores to which they were removed. Mr. Starkweather not yet injured, but in imminent danger. Mr. Williams' employees, everything destroyed; and also Mr. Conckling's, I believe. At 14, Mr. Stewart's employees. At 20, Mr. Bronson among the lost; Mr. Soullard, same; Mr. Davis and ____ escaped. Halsted and Baines, $40,000 lost; 20 to 30,000 saved. Hunt and Andrews, Conckling & ____, &c., &c.

"So vast is the destruction that insurance affords but a very insufficient security. The whole insurance capital of the city will scarce exceed one-half the amount of property consumed in one night! Estimates are very vague and uncertain--the loss, however, can hardly be less than twenty millions of dollars.

"There is not time to write a word more to-day.

"Affectionately yours,
"S. J. TILDEN."

"I have business acquaintance with a great many of the sufferers."

Silas Wright took the oath of office as Senator of the United States from the State of New York on the 14th of January, 1833, and in the thirty-seventh year of his age. He is still regarded in his native State as one of the half-dozen wisest statesmen that ever occupied a seat in the Upper House of our national legislature. He was a warm supporter of the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and the most eminent victim of New York's successful opposition to the conversion of the Territory of Texas into five more sovereign slave-holding States of the Union. He was also a close friend and constant correspondent of Elam Tilden and of his two elder sons.

The letter which follows reached Mr. S. J. Tilden only a few weeks before he was deprived of the Presidency by the 7-to-6 vote of the Electoral Tribunal of 1876. It connotes Senator Wright's first appearance in the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Waddell, to whom Mr. Tilden was indebted for Wright's letter, had been United States marshal during the administration of Mr. Van Buren.

WM. COVENTRY H. WADDELL TO S. J. TILDEN

"BENNETT BUILDING, NEW YORK, _February 26, 1877_.

"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I _know_ that you have the highest appreciation of the writer of the enclosed; but I do not know that you have a special taste to preserve interesting mementos relating to such persons. If you have, and will observe the expressions in this letter, you will perceive that W. notes his '_first_ appearance' as counsel before the Supreme Court of the United States. I beg your acceptance of it for your collection of interesting memorials, and beg you to believe me to be, with sincere regard,

"Yours very truly,
"WM. COVENTRY H. WADDELL."

SENATOR WRIGHT, OF NEW YORK, TO THE NEW YORK UNITED STATES MARSHAL

"SENATE CHAMBER, WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1889_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--The motion in the 'Custody' case was made in the Supreme Court this morning, at the opening of the court at 11 o'clock A.M., and counsel were most patiently heard. Mr. Gilpin, for the Collector, and I myself for the Marshal. It was, as you know, my first appearance in that high court, and the decision is yet to come. All I can say to you is that I made just as good an argument in your favor as I hoped to be able to make. I believe the decision will be in conformity to your wishes, but of that I have no knowledge, except that impression which a lawyer always gets from the argument of a cause.

"Your late letter was duly rec'd. It will give me great pleasure to see you here before we leave, but I shall leave on the morning of the 4th of March at 6 o'clock A.M. If I get the decision upon the motion in time, I will send it to you; but if it is not made so that I can send it to you before I expect you will start for this city, I will not send it to you.

"I have been called upon to give six notes since I commenced this short note, and I will stop it now, for I do not believe that you can find out what is already written. Rest satisfied that the motion has been made, has been, as I think, very fairly argued, and will be decided, as I think, in your favor; but decided some way in the due course of time, and as I hope before you come here.

"Very truly yours,
"SILAS WRIGHT, JR."

S. J. TILDEN TO HIS SISTER HENRIETTA

"NEW YORK, _July 15, 1839_.

"MY DEAR HETTY,--Why don't you answer my letter? If the ring does not suit send it and I can easily change it; if it does, send it that I may have your name put in it--unless, indeed, you conclude to come with Pa, which I much wish you would, and, since you are not in school, I see nothing to prevent....

"I am uncomfortably situated in many respects. I perfectly abhor this mode of life. The social slavery of the family to any scapegrace, man or woman, the latter worse, who may choose to sojourn here is really intolerable. And the whole routine of such an upon-the-town life is opposed to every good habit and in favor of every bad habit. I did hope that when one family left, the burden would be lightened; but it has proved to be only a change of riders. These and other petty annoyances vex me more than they used to; perhaps my temper is at fault; but I assure you they are numerous. And it is unpleasant to me, as you can well understand, to see a disease so full of terror fastening itself gradually but surely upon J.; to see not one thing in the circumstances to which she is subjected that gives the least hope of counteraction; and to feel myself without power, in the slavish routine of the house, to remedy or prevent. I do not often speak of troubles when I have them, and would do so now only to you; so you must preserve my confidence.[1]

"As to myself, it is only the condition of things at home that prevents me, if I could make the necessary arrangements, from going abroad. It is the only thing to which I look with any confidence or much hope to act upon my own constitution; and would separate me from circumstances not calculated to lessen the weight of an inevitable misfortune to which I have been long subject.

"I think that if you are able to come now, your visit will be more pleasant than last year.

"Write to me.

"Aff. y'rs,
"S. J. TILDEN."

JOHN M. NILES[2] to ELAM TILDEN

"WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1840_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I have your letter of the 7th inst., and thank you for the copy of the excellent speech of your son, which for the facts it contains, and sound, practical views, is worth more than all the speeches Daniel Webster has delivered on the currency question. The principal article in the _Globe_ on prices and the wages of labor was from my pen, and I am pleased to learn that it met your approbation.

"That measures will be adopted before Congress closes to reorganize the Democratic party and settle on the course of action for the future is so manifestly proper, not to say indispensable, that I cannot doubt it will be attended to.

"Arrangements should be adopted for obtaining the facts from every country, town, and precinct in the Union, in relation to the foul frauds practised in the late elections. The statements and certificates of these facts should be verified by oath when it could be done; and the whole ought to be published in a volume and put into the hands of every honest elector in the United States. This mass of information would be used by the Democratic papers as they might have occasion.

"It is true, as you say, that the battle is not yet really begun; the true issues which divide the Democracy and the Federalists cannot be presented before the country except the latter are in power. They are then forced to come out with their measures and disclose their principles.

"There will be a glorious fight for the next four years, the result of which, I confidently believe, will be highly auspicious to the Democratic cause and the preservation of our popular institutions.

"I am, respectfully,
"Y'r ob't ser't,
"JOHN M. NILES."

_"E. Tilden, Esqr.,
"New Lebanon,
"New York."_

President Harrison died just one month after his inauguration, a casualty from which the Whig party never fully recovered. To the Congress which convened in extra session May 31, 1841, President Tyler intimated his desire that the members of that body should request a plan for a national bank from Mr. Ewing, then Secretary of the Treasury. In pursuance of the resolutions for this purpose adopted by both Houses, Mr. Ewing sent in a bill for the incorporation of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States," the essential features of which were framed in accordance with the President's suggestions. The bill passed Congress August 6, with a clause concerning branch banks differing from Mr. Ewing's, which was vetoed by the President. The letter from Mr. Tilden which follows was a criticism of this bill, and probably had something to do with its untimely fate.

It does not appear from the copy to whom this letter was addressed by Mr. Tilden, but it was probably to Senator Wright.

Congress subsequently passed another bill intended to meet the objections of President Tyler. He concluded he could not approve it without inconsistency, and therefore vetoed that bill also, by which act he alienated the United States Bank wing of the Whig party to such an extent as to make many friends among the party of the opposition. It is to that phase of that absorbing bank issue at Washington that Mr. Tilden refers in the succeeding letter to Mr. Nelson J. Waterbury, then a very earnest, active, and intelligent Democratic politician, a few years Mr. Tilden's junior.

TO MR NELSON J. WATERBURY

"NEW LEBANON, _September 11, 1841_.

"MY DEAR WATERBURY,--On a flying visit of a few hours, which I made to the city some two weeks ago, I received your letter, but I was so busy in running about the country that I did not get a chance to answer it.

"You judge rightly as to my sympathy with your sentiments and action in regard to the veto. Our line of duty is plain. While we render to Tyler liberal credit for every good act he does, and sustain every right measure which he proposes, and defend him against the unjust and unconstitutional attacks of the Whigs, we cannot give his administration an unqualified support, or commit ourselves in favor of his re-election. So far, we agree with him only on the bank question--and there as to _act_ of the veto, not as to its reasons, which are qualified and hesitating, and mingled with crudities and unsoundness; while as to the other questions--some of which are of great, if not equal, importance--we differ from him. If his course had been less objectionable we ought still to keep ourselves uncommitted as to the succession. We cannot enter into a bargain of office for measures. Whatever he does right, he must do spontaneously, and we will freely and heartily support, leaving the future to take care of itself.

"I never regarded Tyler as a man of very high capacity, and his public documents since he has been President have not increased my estimate of him. The last veto--which I have just read over--is better in matter and manner than the former, which was very objectionable in principle, but neither of them is creditable.

"I will confess that at first I was not without apprehensions that Tyler's course might be such as to conciliate a portion of our people, and weaken the efficiency of our action, while it would not be such as we could fully approve or safely support; and that he might construct a half-and-half administration in which real and thorough democratic principles might suffer more than by open hostility. But my fears are diminished. Our people seem to be taking the right ground; and the enthusiasm at first excited will, I believe, settle at about the right point. A gentleman to whose opinion I very much defer thinks that Tyler is not a man to accumulate any political strength around him; and can in no event be dangerous.

"I do not know whether the Whigs will attempt to put in execution any of the desperate means which have been shadowed forth--such as a formal demand by the members of Congress for Tyler's resignation--a rejection of his nominations of official advisers in case the present cabinet shall retire--a systematic clamor to intimidate him to a surrender of his constitutional authorities. If they do, we must stand by him and his official rights to the uttermost.

"I intend to return to the city in about three weeks. Meanwhile I shall be particularly glad to hear from you.

"I thank you for the paper you were so kind as to send me.

"Sincerely y'rs,
"S. J. TILDEN."

SILAS WRIGHT, JR., TO ELAM TILDEN

"WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1841_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 15th ult., directed to me at my home, came round to me here on this day. I left home on the day of the date of your letter, and when I reached New York found you had left there but a day or two before. I had a very pleasing visit from your son at my room at the City Hotel, but should have been greatly pleased if your visit to the city had been prolonged, as my stay was unusually long and I could have seen more of you than I have been enabled to see for many years.

"Our victory has been truly great and gratifying, and yet your strong, practical thinking has, in my judgment, brought you, as it almost always does, to a correct conclusion as to consequences. If the Whigs had retained the Senate for this year it would probably have been easier for us to have regained the State completely next year. We must not, however, complain of prosperity, and especially when it comes, as I think it has come now, by the sole energies of "the sober second thought" of an honest people. We must meet the crisis as it meets us. We must show the people the truth as to our finances, and then act as honest men would act, determined to pay their debts and avoid insolvency. Everything hangs upon the action of our Legislature during the coming session. If our friends in that body are bold and frank and honest the people will sustain them, but if they underrate the intelligence and patriotism of the people and continue the attempts to humbug them and to purchase their good-will by their own credit sold in the market at eighty cents for the dollar, we shall as certainly be beaten next fall as we have beaten the Whigs this. These seem to me to be truths so plain that no one can mistake them, and I still tremble with fear lest some of those elected to the legislature as Republicans may, from mistaken views, from apprehensions of local expediency, from selfish interests, or from some other improper or unwise impulse, urge a continuance of our system of extravagance and resist the measures indispensably necessary to a return to health and soundness.

"I have little fear of what may be done here beyond what was done at the extra session. An effort will doubtless be made to rouse the tariff feeling again, but our point, as I think, should be to raise no more revenue in any way, or for any purpose, until the land-distribution bill is repealed and the system of giving away the revenue we have is formally abandoned.

"I have very little hope from President Tyler, except that he may prevent some mischief which his party would otherwise do. I do not think there is enough of him to build upon, or that he has enough of the democratic principles and sympathies left to govern him.

"I have not a moment of time more. Please let me hear often, and believe me,

"Most respectfully,
"And truly yours,
SILAS WRIGHT, JR."

"_Elam Tilden, Esq._

SILAS WRIGHT, JR., TO ELAM TILDEN

"WASHINGTON, _January 29, 1842_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 18th Dec. has remained a long time without an answer, and I cannot now answer it, but a single subject collateral to it.

"Within the last two days I have received two letters concerning your Post-Office matters, which have deserved and received my attention. I cannot do here all my friends ask, and have a right to ask, and from me especially, deserve, but I try to do all I can; and yet unselfishness and indolence may often induce me to think that I do what I can, when I might do much more. I fear I have exhibited myself to you in this way in reference to your Post-Office. But of that I have not time to write, nor do I wish you to think, as I know you give me more credit for faithfulness than I merit, and I give you every possible credit for valuable and faithful friendship. I will, therefore, to the New Lebanon Post-Office.

"Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Bryant, of the _Evening Post_, are the gentlemen to whose letters I refer. As the Senate did not meet to-day, I have had the day to devote to business of this character, and I have just returned, at 3 o'clock P.M., from a day most pleasantly spent in attention to them.

"Upon a personal call at the Post-Office Department I learned that, in September last, an application was made to have the name of the post-office at the Springs changed from that of 'Columbia Hall' to that of 'New Lebanon Springs,' and to have Mr. Bull removed as postmaster and Mr. Nichols appointed. Both these things were done, and Mr. Fuller, the Assistant Postmaster-General, who has the charge of the appointments, supposed at the time, and now supposes, that the effect of that action was to remove the office from the Springs to Lebanon village, the location of the New Lebanon post-office, when you kept it. I suppose he is wholly mistaken, and as you are a matter-of-fact man, I wish you to send me papers properly signed by such disinterested men as you may see to be the most proper men, showing where the office was kept under Mr. Bull and where it is kept under Mr. Nichols; and in the same papers you may show, if you please, where your office was kept and where the office you formerly held is now kept. Let the papers be directed to the Postmaster-General, and have no political, but a mere local bearing, and make a map which will be plain, and if convenient let the men who vouch the facts be Whigs as well as Democrats.

"You must find my apology for this very hasty and bad-looking letter in the fact that since I began to write it I have heard of the death of a member of our body, Mr. Dixon, of Rhode Island, and have been summoned to attend his remains and participate in arrangements for his funeral, and I have been anxious that this should go to-night and found it would not if I did not enclose it before I left for that solemn duty.

"Most truly yours,
"SILAS WRIGHT, JR.

"_Elam Tilden, Esq._"

SILAS WRIGHT, JR., TO ELAM TILDEN

"WASHINGTON, _February 13, 1842_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I have but a moment to say that your favors of the 4th and 8th and the documents in relation to your P.-O. affairs all came to me together on Friday evening. I saw Mr. McClellan yesterday, and we have agreed to make a visit to the Department together on some day this week, when we can both find leisure to do so, and if possible bring the matter to some final termination.

"I consider it now perfectly certain that either Mr. Tyler must submit unconditionally to Mr. Clay, and must place the administration in his hands or that open and desperate war is to be carried on, not against him simply, but against his administration, for the future. And yet he is daily removing from office our best and most worthy men, even those whom the Whigs dare not attempt to remove, under the delusive idea that he is filling their places with Tyler men. When he shall call upon them he will find them where the great body of his party now is to him, missing and enlisted under another leader.

"In haste, I am,
"Most truly yours,
"SILAS WRIGHT, JR."