Samuel J. Tilden

“ At a time when powerful tendencies are at work to subvert the original character of our government—to break down the limitations of power established by the Constitution—to centralize the action and influence of official authorities—to create a governing class, using the machinery of government as a corrupt balance of power in the elections, and then shaping legislation and administration in the interests of the few against the many—the precepts and example of such a man as Mr. Jefferson cannot be too often invoked. ”

“ In comparison with the evils of anarchy, or of a government of force, which alone could prevent anarchy, four years of usurpation—but usurpation in accordance with the forms of law—seemed to me by far the lesser evil. Besides, we have not yet tested the judgment of the people as to the great outrage upon all justice and right which has been perpetrated. There is no reason to suppose that it will be sanctioned by the popular voice, but if it should be we could not hope to save them from usurpation and despotism by force used against the judgment of a majority of the people. ”

“ Dear General,—Now is a time, it seems to me, when every true lover of our country will desire to do all he can to allay excitement and to reach an honest and fair conclusion upon the question about which all are thinking—Who ought to be the next President? I believe a great majority of the American people, North and South, desire peace and quiet, as well as an honest decision on that question; but there are, unfortunately, some in both sections, and perhaps in Congress, who have nothing to lose and may gain something by turmoil, strife, and excitement. ”

“ It was my judgment in 1876 that public opinion, demanding a change of administration, needed to embrace two-thirds of the people at the beginning of the canvass, in order to cast a majority of the votes at the election. If this tendency is not arrested its inevitable result will be the practical destruction of our system. Let the Federal government grasp power over the great corporations of our country and acquire the means of addressing their interests and their fears; let it take jurisdiction of riots which it is the duty of the State to suppress ”

“ I think it is due to you from me to inform you a little more how deeply you are esteemed and loved for your integrity, pureness, patriotism, and moral courage. Not one in a thousand of our best public men would have relinquished the Presidency when it was fairly in his grasp, and that, too, for the sake of peace. History will do you justice. A memorial unique and grand, better far than the actual Presidency, showing to all generations the moral sublimity of an American citizen, will be yours. May your precious life and health be long preserved. ”

“ If Hayes shall be declared President, with grave reason to believe that he has not been honestly and fairly entitled to have the electoral votes of certain States, he and his party must bear the consequences. Those consequences, if his opponents are wise, will be, not that his title to the office is to be resisted, but that the people are to be appealed to to use their constitutional and peaceful methods of redressing all wrongs and punishing all outrages—namely, by the ballot-box. No such appeal can be made if the country is to be plunged into anarchy by denying Hayes' title to the office. ”

“ Barnum is so unfit, so much of the Tweed order of men, and a pig-iron protectionist into the bargain, that the effect of his election will be bad, not only in the State, but throughout the country. It will be cited everywhere as a proof that the professions of the party do not amount to anything; I do not, however, know what you can do about it, or whether it would be advisable to exert an influence if you could; but it is an event that is likely to disgust the free-trade element intensely, and also those who have a deep conviction of the necessity of political reform. ”

“ Knowing you as I have had good opportunity of doing, and the earnestness and truthfulness of purpose which were the incentives to your every action, and your courage to carry out what you deemed to be the path of duty irrespective of consequences to party or persons, I am led to deplore the finding of the electoral commission as a national misfortune—an injustice done to the whole country in greater measure, if possible, than to yourself. ”

“ The Democracy all over the land are looking to you as the one person above all others to lead them in the coming political contest. The only question seems to be: will you consent to be the candidate? I know nothing of your determination, except what may be gathered from the conflicting statements of the press, and I do not expect or ask a reply to my letter. My only object in writing is to urge upon you the duty of yielding to the united demand of the Democracy. There are times when patriots must not hesitate, if necessary, to take their lives in their hands for liberty's sake. ”

“ But if he can, by being President, benefit this people by saving their institutions, now in utmost peril, by reforming the methods of administration, by teaching both the great parties, and, in an especial degree, his own, that adherence to principle is as desirable in a party as in an individual, &c., &c., is that not an object worthy the attainment of any man? And is it not an object that would prolong life, and not bring it to termination? I am very much mistaken if renomination, and election, and administration would not do Mr. Tilden good. ”

“ It is also my conviction that no man can pay a much greater homage to another than to deliberately misrepresent him. It is a cowardly confession of weakness and of inferiority. With this sort of homage no public man in this country, so far as I know, has ever been so liberally favored as Mr. Tilden. But two short years ago and there was no American of equal political prominence who could to a greater extent be said to receive the praises of his countrymen, without distinction of party, nor one, perhaps, who had enjoyed fewer of the advantages of adverse criticism. ”

“ If your policy be one in the interest of peace, then a patriotic address to your countrymen would give you a noble immortality, preserve constitutional government, and restore the Democracy to power at the next election. Should such be your determination, meetings should be simultaneously held throughout the Republic, declare your election, but waive the administration of the government, and denounce the usurpers who seek to overthrow the Constitution. ”

“ For three years the Republicans have been laboring to destroy your good name in order to avoid the issue the presentation of your name will make. Certain Democrats aided them in committing the great fraud, and they have been aiding them to destroy you for the same reason. They say they have succeeded. They seek to impress the public that you are not available. I do not believe the American people are idiots or knaves, nor are they ready to consummate their own degradation at the bidding of this coalition of Republican and Democratic politicians. ”

“ That I have occasion now to consider the question is an event for which I have no responsibility. The appeal made to me by the Democratic masses, with apparent unanimity, to serve them once more, is entitled to the most deferential consideration, and would inspire a disposition to do anything desired of me, if it were consistent with my judgment of duty.
"I believe that there is no instrumentality in human society so potential in its influence upon mankind for good or evil, as the governmental machinery for administering justice, and for making and executing laws. ”

“ But so strong was the desire for reform that the Democratic candidates received 4,300,000 suffrages. This was a majority of the popular vote of about 300,000, and of 1,250,000 of the white citizens. It was a vote of 700,000 larger than General Grant received in 1872, and 1,300,000 larger than he received in 1868. For all that, the rightfully elected candidates of the Democratic party were counted out, and a great fraud triumphed, which the American people have not condoned and will never condone. [Prolonged applause and cheers.] Yes, the crime will never be condoned, and it never should be. ”

“ 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 the American people are worthy of popular government they will visit their wrath upon the authors and abettors of that crime. The most effective way to do so is by your re-election. You have no right to deny them the opportunity of doing so. You have no right to deny to the Democratic party the privilege of presenting your name to [596] the people, nor have you the right to relieve the party from the shame of refusing to present your name to the people. ”

“ Those that have made haste to buy and sell, and to bribe and lobby their way through a most foul administration, are not the standard or measure for honest claimants that have patiently waited, with the evidence of the money paid into the United States Treasury, against the day of 'reform' and the return to honesty, and a just discrimination on the merits and facts of the case ”

“ On the other hand, the Republican party has always been dominated by principles which favor legislation for the benefit of particular classes at the expense of the body of the people. It has become deeply tainted with the abuses which naturally grow up during a long possession of unchecked power, especially in a period of civil war and false finance. The patriotic and virtuous elements in it are now unable to emancipate it from the sway of selfish interests which subordinate public duty to personal greed. ”

“ The army will suffer from its past action if it has acted wrongfully. Our regular army has little hold upon the affections of the people of to-day, and the superior officers should certainly, as far as lies in their power, legally and with righteous intent, act to defend the right—to us—the law and the institutions we represent. It is a well-meaning Constitution, and it would be well if it should have an opportunity to be recognized as a bulwark in support of the people and the law. ”

“ Undervaluing in nowise that best gift of Heaven—the occasion and the power sometimes bestowed upon a mere individual to communicate an impulse for good; grateful beyond all words to my fellow-countryman who would assign such a beneficent function to me, I am consoled by the reflection that neither the Democratic party, nor the Republic for whose future that party is the best guarantee, is now, or ever can be, dependent upon any one man for their successful progress in the path of a noble destiny. ”

“ To invite the antagonisms of active politics without the power to submerge them by shaping a policy which should appeal overwhelmingly to the people, would be to impair the repose and comfort for which I have surrendered all public honors. I cannot be induced to meddle at all, even in the way of private advice or opinion, except under the influence of patriotic and friendly motives. ”

“ Some persons apprehend that if the election devolves upon the House (which I cannot conceive possible on any reasonable grounds) we shall lose the Vice-President, whose choice will have to be decided by the Senate; but this cannot be, as the contingency will not arise for such a resort. For the Constitution expressly provides that 'the person having the greatest number of electors shall be President, if such number be the whole number of electors appointed.' Now, how can they be appointed unless lawfully done, and who is to judge of such legality? ”

“ He felt it to be the duty of every citizen to sustain the government in its resistance to territorial dismemberment. To those who thought, as did many then calling themselves Republicans, that on the whole it would be as well to consent to a peaceful separation, Mr. Tilden always answered that peaceful separation was an illusion; that the questions in controversy would be rendered infinitely more difficult by separation, and new ones still more difficult would be created ”

“ I might have disposed of your question more briefly by simply saying that no contingency provided by the Constitution ever existed in which Mr. Tilden could lawfully or properly take the oath of office as President. The idea that Mr. Tilden ever thought of taking the oath of office illegally is, in my judgment, quite as preposterous as is the other idea that he would have omitted to take it if any contingency had arisen in which it was his right or duty to take it, or that any menace would have had the slightest influence in preventing his performing his whole obligations to the people. ”

“ 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 [588] 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. ”

“ A party that drifts in a crisis like the present is certain to wreck upon the breakers. And whatever policy is to be adopted should be carefully considered, promptly be determined, and be decisive. The inauguration of two Presidents means a war which in its destructiveness would dwarf the rebellion. Not to count the electoral vote and declare an election would be to create a dictatorship which would soon result in armed conflict. ”

“ If the next Presidential election should be controlled by corrupt influence exercised by the government upon the voters in particular States, opening a vista of third terms, and an indefinite series of terms, and the undisputed mastery of the office-holding class in the successive elections, our government will be degenerated into a bad copy of the worst governments of the worst ages. ”

“ The right of the two Houses to count the electoral votes, and to declare that any person has a majority, is a matter of implication, precedent, and practice. But the right of the House of Representatives to supply the failure of a choice is a matter of positive and express constitutional provision. ”

“ I am exceedingly sorry that the Hendricks nomination and the platform seem to shut us up to the support of Hayes. At the same time, I feel like congratulating the independent press and honest men of all parties on the great reform they have succeeded in securing in forcing unobjectionable nominations from the Republicans, and compelling the Democrats to take Tilden. It does not seem to me by any means clear that he will not be elected. If he is we ought all to pray night and day that his health may be preserved to protect us against Hendricks. ”

“ Tilden's views were at variance with those adopted by the administration; he had more faith in the people, in their readiness to bear the burdens and make the sacrifices which the occasion required, than was manifested by the authorities at Washington. Before their financial policy was fully determined upon he advised that the money for carrying on the war should be chiefly drawn from loans to be supplemented by taxes, and no more Treasury notes not bearing interest issued than were barely necessary to supply the new uses created by the government in its own payments. ”