Chapter M: L. Stearns Governor Commissioner Hot Springs (1)

F. C. Humphries Elector Collector Pensacola
S. B. McLin Member of Returning Board Associate Justice of New
Mexico (not confirmed)
Moses J. Taylor Clerk Circuit Court Jefferson
County Clerk United States Land
Office
Joseph Bowes Inspector Leon County Clerk Treasury Department
W. K. Cessna Judge Alachua County Postmaster
R. H. Black Inspector Elections Alachua
County Philadelphia Custom House
Geo. H. DeLeon Secretary to Gov. Stearns Clerk in Treasury
Department
John Varnum Adjutant General Receiver Land Office
Chas. H. Pearce Elector
James Bell Changed tickets, Jefferson
County Timber Agent
Manuel Govin Republican Manager of Monroe Consul to Spezia
---- Phelps Political Manager Secretary to McCormick at
Paris Exposition
E. W. Maxwell Detective in employ of
Republican Visiting Statesmen Lieutenant in Regular
Army
P. G. Mills Telegrapher who gave news about
Democratic dispatches Treasury Department
W. G. Purman Republican Member of Congress Sister in Treasury,
dismissed when he said
he considered Tilden
elected
Dennis Eagan Chairman Republican State Com. Timber Agent
L. G. Denni Republican Manager of Alachua Treasury Department. Removed and
published affidavit
J. W. Howell Manager false return from Baker Collector Fernandino

VISITING STATESMEN.

John Sherman Visiting Statesman, La. Secretary Treasury
John M. Harlan Visiting Statesman, La. Justice Supreme Court
Stanley Matthews Visiting Statesman, La. Senator from Ohio
James A. Garfield Visiting Statesman, La. Administration candidate for
Speaker
Eugene Hale Visiting Statesman, La. Offered Postmaster-Generalship
E. W. Stoughton Visiting Statesman, La. Minister to Russia
John A. Kasson Visiting Statesman, La. Minister to Austria
Samuel Shellabarger Visiting Statesman, La. Messrs. Hayes and Sherman's
Private Counsel
John Coburn Visiting Statesman, La. Commissioner Hot Springs
E. F. Noyes Visiting Statesman, La. Minister to France
Lew Wallace Visiting Statesman, La. Governor of New Mexico
John Little Visiting Statesman, La. Attorney-General, Ohio

The following officers of the Government were in Florida during the Presidential canvass, drawing their regular salaries, looking after the canvass:

Thomas J. Brady Second Assistant Postmaster-General
---- Peyton Assistant in Attorney-General's Office
H. Clay Hopkins Special Agent Postoffice Department
Wm. Henderson Special Agent Postoffice Department
Z. L. Tidball Special Agent Postoffice Department
B. H. Camp Special Agent Postoffice Department

SPECIAL AGENT

Wm. M. Evarts Secretary of State

The sum total per annum which these men who counted Hayes in
receive is $254,115, which will amount in the four years that
Hayes must remain _de facto_ President to $1,022,460.

STEPHEN J. FIELD TO TILDEN

"WASHINGTON, _Dec. 11, 1877_.

"DEAR SIR,--I did not forget, on my return to Washington, the promise I made in New York to send you the copy I have of Judge Bradley's letter explaining his action on the electoral commission, but for some days I could not find it. Having now found it, I enclose it to you, and also an extract from an article which appeared in the Newark _Daily Advertiser_ about the same time, and to which the judge evidently refers in his letter.

"The language of the letter[21] justifies some of the comments of the press upon the change of views which the judge experienced shortly before the vote was taken in the Florida case.

I am, very sincerely yours,
"STEPHEN J. FIELD."

[21] Judge Bradley's peculiar if not exclusive responsibility for
counting Mr. Hayes instead of the candidate chosen by the people
into the Presidency is more clearly set forth in a communication
of the writer entitled, "The Supreme Court and the Electoral
Commission: An Open Letter to the Hon. Joseph H. Choate," first
published in the New York _Sun_, on the 19th July, 1903, and later
in a pamphlet by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN JUDGE FIELD'S LETTER

[_Justice Bradley to the Newark "Daily Advertiser" and the Electoral Commission._]

The _Sun_ gives Bradley's letter in full as follows:

"'STOWE, VT., _September 6_.

"'EDITOR "ADVERTISER."

"'SIR,--I perceive the New York _Sun_ has reiterated its charge that after preparing a written opinion in favor of the Tilden electors in the Florida case and submitting it to the electoral commission, I changed my views during the night preceding the vote in consequence of the pressure brought to bear upon me by Republican politicians and the Pacific Railroad men, whose carriages, it is said, surrounded my house during the evening. This, I believe, is the important point of the charge. Whether I wrote one opinion or twenty in my private examination of the subject, is of little consequence and of no concern to anybody. The opinion which I finally gave was the result of my deliberations without influence from outside parties. The above slander was published some time since, but I never saw it until recently, and deemed it too absurd to need refutation. But as it is categorically repeated, perhaps I ought to notice it. The same story about the carriages of leading Republicans and others congregating about my house was circulated in Washington at one time, and came to the ears of my family only to raise a smile of contempt. The whole thing is a falsehood. Not one visitor called at my house that evening, and during the whole sitting of the commission I had no private discussion whatever of the subjects at issue with any person interested on the Republican side, and but few words with any persons. Indeed, I zealously sought to avoid all discussion outside the commission itself. The allegation that I read my opinion to Judges Clifford and Field is entirely untrue. I read no opinion to either of them, and have no recollection of expressing one; if I did, it could only have been suggestively, or in a hypothetical manner, and not for committal of my final judgment or action. The question was one of great importance to me, of much difficulty and embarrassment. I earnestly endeavored to come to a right decision, free from all political or extraneous considerations. In my private examination of the principal question, about going behind the returns, I wrote and rewrote the arguments and considerations on both sides as they occurred to me, sometimes being inclined to one view of the subject and sometimes to the other, but finally I threw aside these lucubrations, and as you have rightly stated, wrote out a short opinion, which I read in the Florida case during the sitting of the commission. This decision expresses the conviction to which I had arrived, and which after a full consideration of the whole subject seemed to me a satisfactory solution of the questions; and I may say that the more I have reflected since, the more satisfied have I become that it was right. At all events, it was the result of my own reflections and consideration, without any suggestions from any quarter, except the arguments adduced by counsel in the public discussion and by members of the commission in private consultation. As for the insinuation contained in a recent article published in a prominent periodical by a noted politician, implying that the case was decided in consequence of political conspiracy, I can only say that from the peculiar position I occupied on the commission I am able positively to say that it is utterly devoid of truth, at least, so far as the action of the commission itself was concerned. In that article the writer couples my name with the names of those whom he supposes are obnoxious to the public odium. The decencies of public expression, if nothing more, might well have deterred so able a writer from making personal imputations which he did not know to be well founded.

"'Yours respectfully,
"'JOSEPH P. BRADLEY.'

"NEW YORK, _September 6th_.

"The _Sun_ regards Bradley's letter as a confession, and calls for his impeachment.

"JUDGE BRADLEY HEARD FROM

"An explanation has at last been offered in behalf of Judge Bradley respecting his alleged misconduct as a member of the electoral commission. It is found in the columns of the Newark _Daily Advertiser_, a journal with which he is known to maintain relations of unusual intimacy, and is in the following language:

"'It is just as well that the full fact should be known as a
matter of history. Judge Bradley had already decided, in the
Florida case, that he could not go behind the returns of the
State officials. In the Louisiana case, he finally, and, after
anxious thought, held to the same opinion, but of two sets of
returns he chose the one he thought most authentic and legal.
That elected Hayes. As to the doubt whether Judge Bradley
could have prepared a written opinion on one side while he
was expressing different opinions orally on the other, the
facts are worth telling, and we dare to assert them without
any other authorization than our challenge that they cannot
be contradicted. The morning before the opinion was given,
Senator Edmunds had guessed out Judge Bradley's decision, but
he did not know it. Up to that time, as we understand, the
opinions delivered had been oral. There may have been one or two
exceptions. At the session next day, Senator Edmunds whispered
to Judge Bradley that as the opinion he was to give was to be
decisive, it ought to be in writing. The argument had not then
closed. Bradley accepted the suggestion, and, sitting at his
place, dashed down the decision on paper within an hour, in
the presence and during the debate of his colleagues. He was
subsequently urged to enlarge the argument, but it stands in the
printed report just as it was then written. And therefore Judge
Field is very correct in saying that Judge Bradley did not, at
any time before, "read" to him an opinion.'"

H. F. TYLDEN TO TILDEN

"CUMBERLAND HOUSE, CHILHAM, N. CANTERBURY,
_26th March_ (_1878?_).

"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I sent you the fly-leaf of an old Bible, in my possession, the year after you left England. It was scribbled over with the word 'Catts' in different places, and had the names of several Tyldens--John, Richard, and Henry and a Mary. The Bible was published in 1559. I was sent the accompanying rude verse, which is supposed, in the last line, to refer to the change in the spelling of the name Tylden, and Catts is again mentioned, as if it were the home from which the Tyldens said 'Good-by' when they were going across the water. I have painted the writing over, as it was so indistinct. A man living in Ashford had it in an old receipt-book. I wonder if that house we went to see near Tenterden could have been Catts? There is a farm called Cat's Farm quite close here, but I don't think it can be the one alluded to, though Sir John Fagge, whose palace adjoins Chilham Park originally spelt the name Fogge (or rather his ancestors did), and evidently the book of receipts originally belonged to some one of that name. We hope your party arrived quite safely in New York. Some day I shall ask you to send me all their photographs, as we wish to get all the Tildens and Tyldens in a book together.

"Katie was thought like one of your nieces by some of the people here who saw them walk up the village. I don't know which it was. Dick is still quartered at Woolwich; he was at home for three weeks lately, and Katie much enjoyed riding about with him. We are now having a little winter, snow falling. I am suffering from inflammation of the eyes. The state of Ireland is a great worry to me for many reasons. I can't tell you how we always think of you, and wonder if we shall meet again.

"I should very much like to send you the Bible of which I sent you the fly-leaf. I think it might be interesting to you. Messrs. Morgan were your agents when you were here. I might find out from them how to send it. Katie joins me in love and kind remembrances to your nieces.

"Believe me to be, dear Governor.

"Very sincerely yours,
"H. F. TYLDEN."

(Enclosure.)

"Kentish Tyldens like to ratts
Have crossed water fleeing Catts
Lo, every ratt that said Good-bye
Has turned a tail into an eye.

"J. FOGGE,
"_Halden_.
1713."

General William Preston to S. J. Tilden

"LEXINGTON, KY., _30 March, 1878_.

"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--The kindness and interest you have shown towards my son in New York are very deeply felt by me, apart from the great aid you gave him in commencing his life in an untried field. Through your influence he has commenced his career under excellent auspices, but I can readily discern from our correspondence that the social and fashionable attractions of the city can have left him but little time for reading and work. This he tells me very frankly in his letters, but I have indulged in no long admonitions or remonstrances, because you must give a young horse head sometimes to keep him to the course. As I know you have equestrian tastes, you must pardon my illustration. But whilst I observe this plan, I do not wish my son to run with a loose rein nor swerve from the course. I know he has honor, truth, and courage, and I hope he will be a true gentleman and useful citizen in after life. Although wealth and distinction in the intellectual world are desirable, they are not, to my mind, paramount objects. I was brought up with old-fashioned ideas that honest military renown and oratorical distinction were first, and rather inclined to the thought '_Ratio ab oratio sunt arma hominis acutiora ferro_,' but it seems that taste is not hereditary; or, at least, I fear it is not. The course he is pursuing is rather in obedience to my own advice than his inclinations.

"But I sat down to write only a few lines of thanks to you, and I am trespassing on your time. Wickliffe writes me that he will be with you, or at your house, on Monday, and if you can write me a few lines so that I may know how he is getting along in New York, you would confer upon me a great personal favor.

"I pray you to present my kind remembrances to your sister Mrs. Pelton and to the ladies, and to believe me.

"Very truly and sincerely,
"Your friend,
"W. PRESTON."

Whitelaw Reid to S. J. Tilden

"23 PARK AVE., _April 4, 1878_.

"DEAR GOVERNOR,--I want you to advise me in a matter which interests you, since you have promised to come to my dinner to Bayard Taylor at the Union League Club on the evening of the 10th inst. I invited Mr. O'Conor, and am sure, from the tone of his reply, that he would like to come. He declines, however, basing the refusal on the belief that I cannot, and ought not, keep the entertainment private, and that he is anxious for the remainder of his days to avoid any agency in public displays.

"You know him so well that you can tell me in a word whether it would be discreet for me to write again endeavoring to remove his objection. The dinner is to be limited to about twenty (the table will only seat twenty-five), and I am not going, under any circumstances, to admit any reporter. It will be absolutely as private as it is ever possible to have anything of this sort.

"Mr. O'Conor's letter is so evidently sincere in tone, and I have been so desirous, anyway, to have him present, that I venture to ask your advice as to whether I should try again.

"Forgive the bother, and believe me

"Very truly yours,
"WHITELAW REID."

TILDEN TO HON. CHARLES CAREY

"NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY MORNING, _June 5th, 1878_.

"DEAR MR. CAREY,--I received your telegram late last evening, and answer by mail because the telegraph is leaky.

"My appreciation of Mr. Henderson has been so manifest that I need not say how competent I deem him, or that he may fairly be classed among those from whom a choice is to be made.

"But I am totally uninformed of the views of Governor Robinson. He may, for aught I know, have a purpose already formed; and he is always independent and persistent. I think it would be advisable for you to learn the situation as fully as possible before making our friend a candidate, whom you do not wish to expose to a failure. Perhaps you had better go down to Albany quietly and get what information you can. The attempts of the Republican press, when Governor Robinson first came in, to create an impression (utterly unfounded in fact, as everybody who knows his independent, self-poised, and firm nature must see) that he occupied to me a relation of dependence, was intended to wound him and his friends, as well as to misrepresent me; and induced me to adopt the rule of not recommending anybody, or anything to him, of my own motion, or unless he had occasion to consult me, which he seldom, if ever, has any need to do. Under that rule of delicacy and respect, I am less advised of his ideas than might be supposed.

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

S. S. COX TO TILDEN

"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
"WASHINGTON, D. C., _June 17th, 1878_.

"DEAR SIR,--In rummaging over and burning up the documents which have accumulated through twenty years' service, I found your old pamphlet, which gave to me many lessons during our perilous days before and during the war. Thinking that it might be of more interest to you now than to one who has learned it by heart, and knowing how valuable, after many years, are one's own thoughts for memory and suggestion, I cannot refrain from tendering it to you--if only for a retrospect. It may be more useful to you than to myself.

"We are just closing up the long session. You will see by my last vote, all alone from New York--though for one, if alone--I would never consent to quiet bad title, even though technically legal. The worst things that I have ever known in public life have been statutory.

"If ever the devil took a walk upon earth, according to Coleridge's poem, he took more delight in seeing a bad lawyer cheating by _statute_ than by any other mode.

"Yours with respect,
S. S. COX."

"P. S.--Excuse the _mutilations_; you can see that I have used the pamphlet in various ways and at various times. The clippings are significant.

"_Vide_: 'Logical result after disunion--'

"P. S.--This is an interesting as well as curious coincidence, and will please you, I am sure; so I have told Mr. Cox to let his friendly and charming letter go to its destination. As I wrote you on Friday, Keith was the only speaker on the right side--but there were some staunch men who stood by him. I shall get to see you Wednesday morning, when I shall hope to be able to make our visit to Mr. O'Conor.

Sincerely,
H. W."

ARPHAXED LOOMIS TO TILDEN

"LITTLE FALLS, _August 4, 1878_.

"HON. S. J. TILDEN,--I write to express to you the gratification I have felt on reading the _exposé_ in this morning's _Argus_, by Mr. Marble, of your opinions and course in respect to the memorable arbitration for the Presidency. The common sense of public opinion pointed in the same direction. Moral courage and firmness from the start in the House would most certainly have secured a just result.[22] The perpetrators of the wicked fraud would have cowed. If Grant's military _penchant_ had brought in the use of arms, the rash resort and its consequences would be for the other side to answer for. But timid counsels prevailed. Your friends consented to arbitrate whether your coat belonged to you or to Mr. Hayes--they had, moreover, the weakness to confide in the fair professions of the other side, so far as to give them a majority of the arbitrators.

[22] This remark was confirmed to me by a very competent authority.
In June of 1877 Mr. James G. Blaine was one of the Inspectors of
the United States Military Academy at West Point. He spent an
afternoon with me at my residence in the immediate neighborhood,
and the action of the Electoral Tribunal, among other things,
became naturally enough a topic of conversation. He said, with some
emphasis, "I was surprised at the time that the Democrats consented
to the Electoral Tribunal," and added in substance--I cannot pretend
to recall his exact words--that if they had remained firm it could
not have succeeded.

"I am glad to learn by Mr. Marble's _exposé_ that you gave no assent to the arbitration, but took your stand upon the true legal and constitutional ground. And in this expression I believe a great many of your friends concur. When the decision was made, by a tribunal appointed by law, it was too late to revolt. Concurrence was then the only manly course.

Sincerely yours,
"ARPHAXED LOOMIS."

TILDEN TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE LOUISVILLE INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION

"NEW YORK, _Aug. 25, '78_.

"GENTLEMEN,--It would give me the greatest pleasure if I were able to attend the exposition to which you do me the honor to invite me.

"I am not a stranger to the excellence of the agricultural industries of Kentucky. I have derived from them the favorite horses which I have used for out-of-door exercise, and should be delighted to see the best specimens of the Kentucky stock in the beautiful region where they were nurtured.

"Two months ago I returned from a brief visit of rest and recreation to the British Isles. I brought with me a vivid impression of the yet unappreciated value of the cereal products of the Mississippi Valley. I felt thankful that we have a sun in our heavens which, in the season of agricultural growth, pours down daily floods of light and warmth, making the earth prolific, giving abundance and variety of fruits, assuring the wheat crop, yielding cotton in its zone, and ripening corn everywhere, even to the verge of the farthest north. Take, for instance, the single product of Indian corn which forms one of the staples of Kentucky. It is the most natural and spontaneous of our cereal products. It ought to give in our country an annual yield of 1,500,000 bushels, or three times the whole wheat crop. It is little inferior to wheat in nutrition, and costs less than one-half on the seaboard and much less than one-half on the farm. It can be cooked by those who consent to learn how, into many delicious forms of human food. It is the most valuable sustenance of animal life. It ought to become the basis of an immense traffic with the British Isles, where the scantiness and economy of food strikes the American traveller, with the contrast to the immense abundance and wasteful consumption of our own people.

"Almost as I write, I notice a late statement that the exports of our country for the year past have been nearly $250,000,000 in excess of our imports. This result is mainly due to the development of our agricultural industries. It is a cheering indication that amid the pressure and distress we are laying the foundation of a new and real prosperity by the energies of our farmers.

"I regret that involuntary engagements render it impossible that, on the present occasion, I should be a personal witness of the attainments of our agricultural industries."

TILDEN AND A "WORLD" REPORTER

(WHY HE DID NOT TAKE THE OATH AS PRESIDENT)

"_1878-9._

"Last Friday evening a reporter of the _World_ visited Mr. Tilden in his Gramercy Park mansion, and was accorded a brief interview in the commodious and well-appointed library of that distinguished gentleman. Mr. Tilden looked well, and conversed with all his old-time fire and interest.

"'Of course, I have come to see you by instructions respecting the story that General Woodford related to Mr. Mines, and that the latter gentleman has related to the public through the _World_.'

"'I have not read it through. A friend told me of its substance this morning while I was down-town. But I am averse to talking about these insignificant matters.'

"'Nothing can be insignificant, Mr. Tilden, that concerns your relations to the Presidency or its relations to the public. What the _World_ mainly wishes to know is whether or not you at any time purposed taking the oath as President.'

"'At any time'--musingly. 'Certainly, if the House had declared me elected. Then I should have had a certificate--a title. But after the electoral scheme, which I always opposed, was complete--although advised that I might so as to raise the question--I never for a moment entertained the idea of taking the oath of office either in Washington or in New York or elsewhere. It would have been ridiculous. I have no evidence of title then--no claim--no warrant.'

"'Then you do not believe General Grant intended to arrest or detain you?'

"'How can I tell what General Grant intended? All I can tell you is what I intended as the representative of the people who, by nearly half a million majority on the popular vote, elected me their President.'

"'Is there anything more in the story you would wish to speak of?'

"'I have not thoroughly read it. Besides, as the pivot of the story is my intention to challenge an issue by taking the oath of office, is not the story substantially disposed of when I tell you that there is no real pivot?'"

WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER TO TILDEN

"TRINITY BUILDING, NEW YORK, _June 23d, 1879_.

"MY DEAR GOVERNOR TILDEN,--I was very glad to find that no obstacle presented itself in the way of your completing the arrangement for hiring Mr. Waring's place at Yonkers, and the prospect of numbering you and your household among our residents is a very gratifying one to me. I have lived nearly fourteen years in my little suburban home there, and am satisfied that I have warded off serious dangers to my own health and that of my family by the change from city to semi-country life. I believe Yonkers to be in every respect the most desirable suburb of New York, and I trust you will conclude to purchase Mr. Waring's property on which I know a vast sum has been well expended. I hired my house when I first went to Yonkers, but in less than sixty days bought it, in the belief that whether I remained or not it was a safe property, and I have never regretted the purchase.

"Hoping to see you soon in our neighborhood,

"I am, yours sincerely,
WM. ALLEN BUTLER."

* * * * *

For some time previous to the receipt of the foregoing note, Mr. Tilden had been encouraged by his medical advisers to provide himself with a country home conveniently accessible from the city, where he would secure as many hygienic advantages from its situation as possible. He had been assisted by Mr. Trevor, himself an old resident at Yonkers, in selecting a property in that city which was for sale, and bore the name destined to become famous--"Graystone." He leased it at first, but before his lease expired completed the purchase of it. To the original purchase, he added several adjoining properties in subsequent years. The cost of his purchases and improvements at Yonkers may be stated with sufficient precision as follows, and possesses a certain historic interest:

ESTIMATE OF COST OF PROPERTY AT YONKERS

1879. Original Purchase:
June 25. To cash paid Mutual Life
Insurance Co $3,000 00
Sept. 4. To cash paid Mutual Life
Insurance Co 119,162 26
Sept. 5. To cash paid taxes 12,544 77
Sept. 5. To cash paid J. F. Waring 3,500 00
Sept. 5. To cash paid J. F. Waring 11,792 97--$150,000 00
Improvement (?) 48,208 91
Baldwin Property, purchase 55,198 40
Baldwin Property, improvements 546 02
Clark Property, purchase 12,266 38
Other plot 10,521 10
-----------
_Forward_ $276,779 81

_Carried forward_ $276,779 81

Work on Greenhouse:
Lord Hort Mfg. Co. $49,611 50
Stewart, mason 635 83
Plumbing, painting, concreting, etc. 685 12
Labor, blasting, and digging 4,696 21
Supplies, chairs, bedding, etc. 102 87-- 55,731 53
Wall in front of Greenhouse 945 62
Gardener's Cottage 3,045 88
Farmer's Cottage 6,849 38
Additions to barn 703 27
Plumbing 18,964 55
Allowance Stone Stable 1,500 00
Furniture 19,269 05
Furniture Baldwin House 1,600 00
Plants in Greenhouse 8,901 89
Plants outside 75 25-- 8,977 14
____________
$394,327 23

JOHN BIGELOW TO HON. WILLIAM H. PECK, EX-SECRETARY OF STATE OF MICHIGAN

"NEW YORK, _Febry. 28th, 1879_.

"MY DEAR FRIEND,--In your last note you ask me if Tilden will be in the field for the Presidency in 1880.

"That is a question which, I presume, no one, not even Tilden himself, could answer categorically at present. I can express to you my own conviction, and you may take it for what it is worth.

"Mr. Tilden has scarcely been in a position at any time, since the election, to consult his own tastes or personal comfort in this matter; if he had been, I think he would have notified his friends immediately upon his return from Europe in 1877 that they must look for another leader. He forbore to take that step, because he shared the popular belief that he was the President-elect of the United States, and that he was thereby clothed with certain responsibilities to his party at least, anomalous and unprecedented it is true, but which were of the gravest character and which it was impossible for him to put off.

"He was still the commander in the midst of a campaign in which he had defeated the enemy, but had not yet realized the fruits of victory. To leave his soldiers in the field and in the presence of the enemy without a leader was a step which would not stand the test of a moment's reflection. Washington could, with equal propriety, have resigned his command after the battle at Yorktown and delivered his sword to Cornwallis, instead of himself taking the sword of the British general.

"Such a procedure on Mr. Tilden's part would have practically disarmed the Democratic party and compelled its surrender at discretion. What in 1877 would have been only compromising subsequent events would now make disgraceful. Conscious that they had come into office by criminal processes, and that Tilden was the choice of the people, the administration has exerted all the powers of the Federal government in the effort to reconcile the country with this result by defaming and maligning the character of Mr. Tilden, and persecuting him, if possible, out of public life.

"In the latter purpose, they would probably have succeeded had Mr. Tilden been a poor man, and dependent upon his profession for his daily bread.

"Mr. Tilden could easily accommodate himself to the choice of any good man for the Presidency, for it is no vulgar ambition which has led him to accept the prominence which his party has given him, but he cannot be expected to make the slightest concession that involves his personal honor. He will defend that as long as he has a drop of blood in his body, whoever may stand by him or desert him. Of this you may feel perfectly assured.

"Now, I do not see how it is possible for Tilden, under the circumstances, to withdraw from the canvass for 1880; and just so far as it seems impossible for him to withdraw, it seems impossible for his party to assent to his withdrawal.

"There are three questions which must take precedence of every other in the next national convention.

"1. Was Tilden elected by the people in 1876?

"2. Was Hayes counted in by corrupt and fraudulent means?

"3. Has Tilden done anything since the election to forfeit the confidence of his party or of the nation?

"Its answer to these three questions will exercise a controlling influence over its final action.

"On the proofs already in the possession of Congress, I venture to say that there could not be found a jury of twelve disinterested and unbiased freeholders in the land who would hesitate to hold---

"_First._ That Tilden was elected President by the people.

"_Second._ That he was deprived of the office by fraud; and,

"_Third._ That the charges of attempting to purchase electoral votes are not only not proven, but that they are the foul offspring of the most ruffianly and rancorous partisanship.

"To take another candidate in 1880 is to admit that Tilden was never the choice either of his party or of the country, and that he was unworthy of the support of either. It is to sanction the base conspiracy by which the people were defrauded of their choice. It is to lie down under the degrading imputations by which, through Tilden, the conspirators have sought to humiliate and demoralize his party.

"Can you believe for a moment that the Democratic party is or can be reduced to such extremities?

"The calumnies which have been propagated against Tilden will rather strengthen than weaken him as a candidate if renominated. They will be fatal to any other candidate, and for the obvious reason that any other candidate would have to contend with the practical admission of his party that it had presented and supported a candidate at the last Presidential election who was unworthy of its own or the country's confidence, and whom they had in consequence deliberately abandoned.

"Such an admission would be fatal, and the more surely fatal both because it would be an act of the most flagrant injustice to Mr. Tilden, and because the responsibility for such an act of political brutality would be directly traceable to the unreasonable ambition of men whose first duty it should be to sustain and defend him.

"It is, therefore, a vital necessity for the party to vindicate itself no less than Mr. Tilden, while to desert him would be as much more disastrous to the former as the interests of a nation are greater than those of any individual citizen however eminent.

"I do not think there are many people in the Democratic party so dull as not to see this, or so wanting in loyalty to a brave and successful leader as not to feel that they themselves will have to suffer most by deserting the man who has endured three years of unparalleled persecution rather than desert them.

"To you I need not dwell upon other obvious reasons for renominating Tilden--I need not remind you of what he has done for the Democratic party during the last fifty years, and especially since 1874; I need not tell you how he has stood and stands to-day, like Saul in Israel, a head and shoulders above all his countrymen as a statesman and party-leader; of the impossibility of our carrying his native State for any other candidate whose nomination must of necessity be an insult to him and to it; of the vast power and promise treasured up in the political personality, which for several years has enjoyed the distinction of concentrating upon itself the hostility and malignity of all those classes and parties which it has always been the paramount effort and duty of the Democracy to subdue or to exterminate.

"Independent of these obvious, though on that account none the less important, considerations, and looking solely to the special questions which for the first time in our history will confront the next national Democratic convention, I do not see how it can hesitate to renominate Mr. Tilden by acclamation unless he refuses to be a candidate. Nor do I see how, under the circumstances, he can refuse to be a candidate. I have never heard him express any determination upon the subject, but I think it safe to presume that if he had not intended to be a candidate again he would have purchased the peace and repose which such an announcement would have procured him long before this, and when such a step was beset with fewer difficulties than at present.

"That I have not incorrectly interpreted the drift of public sentiment on this subject, I send you a copy of the Albany _Argus_ containing five or six columns of extracts from the leading Democratic journals of nearly every State in the Union. They show how much more logically the people generally are reasoning upon the subject than many who aspire to lead them. These journals, as you will see, almost unanimously recognize not only the expediency, but the necessity of renominating Mr. Tilden. Yours faithfully,

JOHN BIGELOW."

"_Hon. William H. Peck._

* * * * *

The universal conviction that Mr. Tilden was going to receive the votes of the nation for President in 1876 compelled Mr. Hayes, or his official dependents in Washington, to begin, in the fall of that year, a campaign of defamation against the one who promised to become General Grant's inevitable successor.

Mr. Tilden's public services and character, and the expressions of popular favor with which the press was teeming, left the administration no resource but calumny.

The prosperity which he had enjoyed in the prosecution of his profession during the years succeeding the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency inspired the suspicion that he had become a man of far greater wealth than he had yet realized; and through the control which the administration could exert over the machinery of the Federal courts, they hit upon the device of charging him with giving false reports of his income to their officers.

Without any proof except their corrupt suspicions, they directed the United States District Attorney at New York to institute proceedings for the recovery of the income supposed to have been illegally withheld. By such a proceeding they not only expected to subject Mr. Tilden to enormous expense in reproducing records of his professional income reaching back fifteen or twenty years, but to hold him up, in the press, at least, until after the election or his retirement from public life, as a defaulter to the government and as a perjurer in his returns of his professional earnings.

This suit moved along very leisurely, but actively enough to keep the subject and the victim of it before the public during the election. Later on they realized that its partisan uses not only had not been exhausted, but were more important than ever to them; for the fraudulent means by which Mr. Tilden had been deprived of the office to which he was elected made him apparently the inevitable candidate to succeed Mr. Hayes.

In due time the weakness of their machinations could no longer be concealed, and in the winter of 1878 they were obliged to confess that they never had any testimony on which to go to trial in support of their caluminous allegations; but to keep the charge alive in the servile prints of the administration, they filed a "bill of discovery" to extort from Tilden himself proof of their infamous charges. It was in consequence of this aggravating persecution that Mr. Tilden invited Mr. O'Conor to assist in his defence, which led to the following correspondence.

The history of this vexatious and vicious prosecution will be found in ample detail from its initiation, in 1876, to the government's ignominious retreat, in 1882, in the _Biography of Tilden_, p. 225.

O'CONOR TO TILDEN

"_March 20, 1879._

"DEAR SIR,--As I never accept retainers,[23] you will pardon me for returning the enclosed.

"Yours truly,
CH. O'CONOR."

"_Hon. Samuel J. Tilden._

[23] This I afterwards learned from Mr. O'Conor's own lips was
his invariable practice. He never asked pay for his professional
services until he had earned it.

MEMORANDUM OF CASE FOR O'CONOR'S OPINION

"_March, 1879._

"A copy of the draft of the Bill of Discovery intended to be filed in the United States Circuit Court is submitted. It is for discovery merely, and is in aid of a common-law action pending in the district court. The complaint in that action is also submitted.

"Some of the questions on which Mr. O'Conor's opinion is desired in the first instance are the following:

"First.--If to the Bill of Discovery a plea, or an answer in the nature of a plea, should be made denying the right of action of the United States in the suit in the district court, and, consequently, its claim to a discovery on the ground that the quasi judicial determination of the assessor as to the amount of the tax, and the satisfaction of the judgment rendered by him are conclusive against the United States, and if the Circuit Court should overrule that point and grant the discovery, would that decision of the Circuit Court be a final judgment on which an appeal would lie to the Supreme Court?

"Second.--Would that appeal probably be effectual to obtain the rulings of the Supreme Court on the main question of the controversy?

"First.--If to the Bill of Discovery a plea, or an answer the defendant's income was in excess of the amount found by the assessor to be his income, calls on the defendant to state on oath every item of income during ten years, and every item of deductions therefrom and many items of receipts which are not income. There is no proposition between the foundation and the superstructure.

"What are the rules applicable to such a case?

"The interrogatories are not even limited to taxable income, but would involve accretions of value which are not taxable.

"Can the objection (_a_) that there is not any proper foundation for any interrogations? (_b_) that an interrogatory is too broad? (_c_) that an interrogatory relates to a matter in which the plaintiff has no interest or concern, as, for instance, to a subject not within the tax laws--can such objections be taken by way of special plea if we prefer that mode?

"The opinion or advice on the first and second questions is more emergent--the others can be dealt with later."

CHARLES O'CONOR TO TILDEN

"_Monday, Mar. 24, 1879._

"DEAR SIR,--I have your note requesting me to examine some questions touching a bill of discovery. No papers accompanied it except the original complaint and a copy of the bill.

"This controversy has been some time in the courts. The law case is at issue, and arguments and a judgment have been had in it. The nature and merits of the law case should be understood by any one who would venture to advise in the equity case.

"It is true that I could investigate all this matter from the beginning without aid from any one; but, considering that you have had counsel in the law case, it seems to me that a statement from them, with points referring to statutes and authorities, might be put into my hands with advantage. As this might facilitate my researches, it would expedite my conclusion and you indicate a desire for speed.

"Yrs. respy.,
"CH. O'CONOR."

TILDEN TO O'CONOR

"NEW YORK, _March 25th, 1879_.
"TO CHARLES O'CONOR.

"MY DEAR SIR,--The action of the United States in the income tax case is a common-law action. The complaint has been sent to you.

"The substance of the plea is that the defendant had been assessed by the proper officers of the United States. The tax and penalties fixed and the amount collected by the government. A copy of the plea will be sent to you, but the above is the substance of it.

"The question argued before Judge Blatchford in the district court was on the point raised by the defendant that the action of the government officers was quasi judicial, and their determination conclusive and exclusive.

"The points of the defendant are sent herewith.

"In this state of things the District Attorney proposes to file a bill of discovery to obtain the facts which shall establish the right of action.

"It is understood that the District Attorney desires, if possible, to have the judgment of the Supreme Court on the main question. But that purpose may, perhaps, be regarded as confidential.

"The advance sheets of the bill of discovery intended to be filed, which had been informally furnished to one of the defendant's counsel, have also been sent you.

"The first point upon which your opinion has been asked is whether, in case we plead to the bill of discovery, that the plaintiff is barred as to his right of action by the quasi judicial determinations of the officers, and has no right to discovery by reason of having no right of action, and that plea is overruled by the Circuit Court, the decision will constitute such a judgment as will be appealable to the Supreme Court.

"There are other questions, but this is the most immediate.

"I write this note to give you information at once without the delay incident to getting the counsel together to write out a case for submission.

"Very truly yours,
"(Signed) S. J. TILDEN.

"Hon. Charles O'Conor."

TILDEN TO GEORGE W. CLINTON

_"August 26, 1879._

"DEAR JUDGE,--I thank you for your kind letter.

"The life I am leading with out-door exercise and physical activity alternated with rest has left me little time for correspondence after I get through with other calls upon my attention. But I none the less appreciate intercourse with such men as yourself. Nor do I forget that there are three generations since my ancestors were first allied to the great founder of your family, amid the trying scenes which attended our national independence, and the formation of a genuine government of the people.

"You are quite right in the impression that I would not think it fit for me to run for _Governor_ at the coming election. The reasons against it are conclusive.

"In the first place, I don't want to add to the burdens I have had and now have connected with public affairs.

"In the second place, although I do not expect to be installed in the Presidency to which I was elected, I deem it due to the four and a quarter millions of voters who have been defrauded of the fruits of their suffrages, that I should not, during the term for which I was chosen, do anything inconsistent with their moral right.

"In the third place, I should not like to be a convenience to the dictation to the Democratic State convention that they must surrender their choice if it be Governor Robinson, whose administration has deserved so well of all good citizens.

"I have not time to dilate on these topics, but I do not doubt that you and I will think the same things concerning the Republic.

"It will give me great pleasure to hear from you whenever you find time to write me, and I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you personally.

"Very truly yours,
"(Signed) S. J. TILDEN."

TILDEN TO JOHN GILL, JR., CHAIRMAN

"NEW YORK, _September 27, 1879_.

"GENTLEMEN,--I have received the letter of the Democratic executive committee in the city of Baltimore inviting me to attend a mass-meeting at the Maryland Institute on the 29th inst.

"It would give me great pleasure to meet so respectable a representation of the Democracy of Maryland, but my engagements will deprive me of that gratification.

"I concur with you in regarding the issue created by the subversion of the election of 1876 as the most transcendent in our history. The example of a reversal of the votes of the people after they have been deposited in the ballot-box, if successful and followed by prosperity to the wrong, would be fatal to the system of elective government. _The hierarchy of office-holders would maintain their possession indefinitely, and every effort of the people to change the administration would be nullified. The government, elective in form, would become imperial in substance precisely as did that of Rome._[24] Such an issue, involving the very existence of our free government, is not to be belittled into a personal grievance. It is to be dealt with as a great public cause.

[24] The italics are the editor's.

"With assurances of my cordial esteem for yourself personally,

"I remain, very truly yours,
"(Signed) SAMUEL J. TILDEN."

S. J. TILDEN--INTERVIEW WITH "SUN" REPORTER

(Draft.)

"_Dec. 19, '79._

"A _Sun_ reporter called on Mr. Tilden, showed him a copy of the _Sun_ of Sunday last containing an article copied from the _Star_, and asked if it would be agreeable to him to say whether there was any, and, if so, what foundation for the statements there made about negotiations with him to obtain the electoral vote of the State of South Carolina for $30,000.

"Mr. Tilden took the paper, ran his eyes over it, and then said: 'I have no objection to answer your question if my friends of the _Sun_ think the publication worthy of such notice.

"'I do not see, on looking this article over, any statement concerning me personally which is not a mere fiction.

"'The substance of the story is that I was visited at my house by a gentleman from South Carolina, who told me that the vote of the State had been given to me, but that the Returning Boards had determined to count it against me unless they were paid $30,000; that after declining the proposition, I recalled this agent by a letter addressed to him at his hotel; that on the second interview I referred him to a gentleman in this city; that that gentleman gave him a package containing $30,000, which was sent to Charleston; that the letter had scarcely left the wharf when the agent received another letter from me requesting him to call at my house immediately; that I then insisted upon the immediate return of the package unopened, and that it be restored to the person from whom it was received; that the agents remonstrated, saying:

"'"The corrupt men in Columbia and in the State generally have not tried to count Hampton out. They know perfectly well that both you and Hampton are elected and have received a majority of the votes of the people, but they can afford to count you out, but not to count Hampton out, because he and his friends will not stand it."

"'That notwithstanding this remonstrance, I persisted in requiring the package to be restored to the person who handed it to the agent.'

"Mr. Tilden: 'Every one of these statements is totally false; no one of the three pretended interviews ever happened. I never sent either of the two letters attributed to me; I never referred any agent bearing such a proposition to Mr. Brown or to Mr. Anybody else. All the details concerning the package of money being sent and recalled and my conversations respecting it also are wholly destitute of truth. They are simply a fabrication from beginning to end.'"

GEORGE L. MILLER TO S. J. TILDEN

"_Personal and Confidential._

"'HERALD' OFFICE, EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT,
"OMAHA, NEB., _Dec. 26th, 1879_.

"HON. SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Pardon a preliminary statement before I reach the main object of this letter.

"Since I last saw you I have met the slanders circulating against you, to the effect that you were seeking a second nomination to the Presidency by corrupt and other means, by saying in my paper, as a matter of my own opinion, that you would neither seek nor accept such nomination. I have also said, on my belief in Governor Seymour's sincerity, that _he_ would not accept a nomination to the Presidency. I now want to give you some news for your special information.

"I have a letter from a leading Democrat of Oneida County who has peculiar facilities for getting at the 'true inwardness' that Horatio Seymour will not decline a nomination to the Presidency. He will not write any letters forbidding the use of his name, and if he is interviewed at all the result will be uniformly that which was recently seen in the New York _Times_. He will not change front exactly. No one will be authorized to say he will consent to run, but it will appear that the Governor's health is greatly improved, and that he was never better in his life, and nothing authentic will be got from him to show that he would not accept a nomination.

"I said this is sent to you as _news_. It may not be such to _you_. But the information I get is such a great surprise to _me_ that I could not rest without sending it to you.

"I am, most truly yours,
"GEORGE L. MILLER."

JOHN A. McCLERNAND TO TILDEN

"SPRINGFIELD, ILL., _Jany. 27th, 1880_.

"EX-GOVERNOR SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

"DEAR SIR,--There is no other motive for this communication than a patriotic one. Its purpose is not to intrude counsel or to invite confidence. A common interest upon a subject of vital public concern is its only warrant.

"The fundamental right of the people to choose, according to constitutional forms, their Chief Magistrate has been violated in your person. This fact devolves upon every true Democrat and, no less, upon you as their representative, the solemn and binding duty of redressing the wrong. In no other way can that duty be so effectually performed as by renominating and re-electing the old ticket. The masses are emotional and sentimental rather than metaphysical. They feel that the old coach stands ready to be hitched to, and that, that done, a safe and prosperous journey is before them.