Chapter M: Van Buren to S. J. Tilden

"LINDENWALD, _August 3d, '55_.

"MY DEAR TILDEN,--I regretted not to see you during my short stay at New York, but was happy to hear that you are about to do what you ought to have done long ago, and if the young lady I had the pleasure to see at Rome is the happy fair one, you have my ready and hearty consent.

"I am engaged in putting my house in order, and will thank you to hand me a statement of my affairs in your hands and the papers by the first convenient opportunity.

"In haste,
"Very truly yours,
"M. VAN BUREN."
_"S. J. Tilden, Esq."_

S. J. TILDEN TO----

"NEW YORK, _August 23rd, 1855_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--After I received your letter, some three months ago, proposing to confess judgment to the Bk. of North America for the note due to it, I saw Wm. Henry, who desired me, if possible, to get the matter postponed, in order that some different arrangement might be made. I applied to the bk., and they consented to some further delay, willing to receive part payment and to renew the residue. But no plan of that kind having been acted on, the bk. has been latterly speaking to me every time I meet its officers, and urge some proceeding so strongly that it cannot be further delayed.

"The bk. prefers an action which may bring in all the parties to a confession of judt., and I have had Mr. Green take the proceedings to save any unnecessary expenses. A copy of a summons and complaint is sent, with an admission of service endorsed, which you will please sign and return.

"At the same time, I cannot forbear expressing my regret that the matter has not been put in a shape which would render this course unnecessary. Persuaded in this instance, not without great reluctance, to violate the rule on which I habitually and almost without an exception in my whole life--act, and which requires me to refuse all endorsements and suretyships--I feel that I ought to be prevented from annoyance from this transaction. If I have submitted and am submitting to have the trouble and care growing out of the affairs of the company thrown upon me most disproportionately, it is simply from a friendly disposition, as far as I can within any bounds of reason, to see through a matter in which my friends are involved, and at least to get it in the best shape I may for them. From the beginning I resisted connecting myself with the enterprise, into which I was, nevertheless, drawn; and except, for the considerations mentioned above, I would dismiss the affair from my mind forever. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that I feel that the trouble and care thrown upon me thro' my regard for the interests of friends should not be added to by their omission to take care of their confidential paper.

"Mr. Green has recently spent some days in Vermont in making investigations into the circumstances under which the Stark Bk. became the owner (if it is so) of your acceptance. The results are very satisfactory. It will be necessary to make some additional inquiries of the corresponding banks. I think we shall be able to show that the Stark Bank took the paper for antecedent debt which will dispose of their claims effectually and forever.

"Authority has been given to Mr. Thompson to sell 1,000,000 of the bonds, as W. H. & Co. is dissolved.

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

S. J. TILDEN TO----

"NEW YORK, _Aug. 26th, 1855_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--My name having been connected by some of the delegates with a nomination by the Democratic convention for the office of Comptroller, and in the public journals with that of Secretary of State--it is due to those who may do me the honor to think of me for either of these distinguished trusts that they should not be allowed to be under any misapprehension as to the true state of the facts. The old friends whose names I see on the list of delegates will recollect that I have never permitted personal feelings or taste to govern my political action, or been wanting in deference to the general interests or judgment of my associates; and will do me the justice to believe that I act in the same considerate spirit when I say that obligations which I am at present under and have no right to renounce are, in my judgment, incompatible with my undertaking properly to discharge the duties of either of the offices mentioned. As I do not deem it consistent with propriety to be nominated for either of them under such circumstances, you will do me the favor to communicate this determination to any of my friends who may be disposed to present my name to the convention, and in case of its being so presented to withdraw it from the consideration of that body."

JOHN B. MILLER, WM. CASSIDY, THOS. G. ALVORD TO TILDEN

"UTICA, _Sept. 8, 1855_.

"SIR,--Pursuant to the direction of the convention of the Democratic party of the State of New York, assembled at Syracuse on the 29th ultimo, the undersigned were commissioned to notify of their nomination the various candidates recommended by the convention to the people for election. The delegates convened, as above stated, have signified their unanimous desire that the votes of their constituents be cast for your name at the coming election for the office of Attorney General. The Democracy of the State await an official announcement of the acceptance of the candidacy from those upon whom the choice of their representatives has so satisfactorily fallen.

"With great respect,
"JOHN B. MILLER,
"WM. CASSIDY,
"THOS. G. ALVORD."

"_To Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, New York._"

TILDEN TO DEAN RICHMOND

"NEW YORK, _Sept. 9th, 1855_.

"MY DEAR RICHMOND,--I expected to find you here yesterday on my return from Lebanon, where I had occasion to go on Sat. But I suppose you stopped at Albany.

"Since our conversation I have thought over the question of my running for Atty. Gen. The ground you put it on--expediency for our friends, without much prospect of success to me--is not one which makes it easy for me to decline. I could not render that reason or, with such friends as you, act on it while rendering another. Nor do I, in truth, care much for any consequences I can conceive as resulting from defeat. But I am worn from overwork. I have upon my hands now more than I can do for the next six months. And if upon the ticket I shall be expected to share in the canvass more than will be possible, and subjected to those special annoyances that are peculiar to a candidate residing in this city. I therefore greatly desire that you should make up the ticket so as to let me off."

"NEW YORK, _Sept 14th, 1855_.

"GENTLEMEN,--Your letter appraising me that the recent Democratic State Convention 'have signified their unanimous desire that the votes of their constituents should be cast for "my" name for the office of Attorney General,' has been received.

"In accepting their nomination thus tendered, I acknowledge my deep sense of an honor, conferred by a convention in which was assembled so much of remarkable and varied abilities, of political virtue and personal worth, and enhanced by association with a ticket which, in my judgment, will, if elected, constitute a working body, capable of acting with unity, wisdom and effect, for a restoration of the honest and wise policy indicated by the convention, and for _reestablishing good government within this State_."

"With great respect, gentlemen, I remain,

"Very truly, yours, &c.,
"S. J. TILDEN.[23]

"_Messrs. John B. Miller,
"Wm. Cassidy, and
"Thos. O. Alvord,
"Committee, &c._"

TILDEN TO----

"NEW YORK, _Dec. 28, '55_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter in answer to mine in respect to your debt to the Bk. N. A., on which I am endorser, came to hand. It was not what I supposed from your previous assurances I had a right to expect, nor what seems to me just. Whether it be even wise for yourself, I will not undertake to judge.

"An endorsement made for a man's accommodation is called _confidential_, because it is supposed to impart a very high and sacred obligation to protect the friend who incurs such a liability in your behalf and for your benefit. It was a departure from my usual habit and settled rule, wrung from me by the importunity of friendship. With a good deal of trouble to me, it has been deferred from time to time at your instance, and in the last case with a strong assurance on your part.

"You must pardon me if I say that I am not advised of any circumstance that can excuse the failure of so high an obligation. I have no reason to believe that an _absolute inability_ exists.

"You allude, in this connection, to other liabilities hanging over you; by which, I suppose, you mean the claim on the drafts held by the Stark Bank. I should think that if anything _could_ add to the obligation to protect me from a liability on your confidential paper, it would be that I have been engaged, and am still, with infinite care, labor and trouble, in trying to rescue you from that unjust claim--that the intricacies of the case, the complexity of the transactions out of which the claim grows, the witnesses being out of the State--" [The rest wanting.]