Part 18

"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._