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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 C/^ss 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND PUBLIC SEEVICES 
 
 0, 
 
 I HON. SAMUEL J. TILDEN, 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT OF THIS UNITED STATES. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED A 
 
 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HON. THOMAS A. HENDRICRS, 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 THEODORE P. COOK, 
 
 OF THE TJTICA OBSERVE!:. 
 
 NEW YOEK : 
 D. APPLE TON AND COMPANY, 
 
 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 
 
 1876. 
 
1 
 
 ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
 
 D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 THE accompanying biography of Governor Tilden has 
 been announced as written under his authority. It is 
 proper that the reader should understand just how far that 
 " authority " extends. The author has enjoyed the per 
 sonal friendship of Mr. Tilden for several years. He has 
 had an opportunity of studying his character under favor 
 able circumstances. When it became evident that the 
 Governor would be the Democratic candidate for the presi 
 dency, the author frankly announced to him his desire to 
 write his life. He not only consented to the proposal, 
 but kindly turned over the numerous pamphlets, letters, 
 speeches, messages, etc., emanating from him or relating 
 to him, which he held in his possession, and some of which 
 papers were not elsewhere obtainable. He also submitted 
 to a series of inquisitive (not to say inquisitorial) inter 
 views, in the course of which he promptly answered all 
 questions which a healthy desire for information could 
 suggest. He gave the author the freest access to the rec 
 ords and memorials of his life, and assisted him to prosecute 
 his inquiries on some questions where controversies had 
 arisen. In the sense which this explanation covers, and in 
 no other sense, the work is issued under his authority. 
 The author is alone responsible for what it contains. 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 Much more time lias been devoted to verifying facts 
 and to sifting rumors in relation to Governor Tilden than 
 to polishing the style of the following pages. An honest 
 effort has been made to tell in a straightforward manner 
 the events and incidents which mark the eventful career 
 of Samuel J. Tilden. The work has been rapidly done, 
 and the author knows that from a literary standpoint it is 
 quite imperfect. The design was, to make it comprehen 
 sive in its scope and accurate in its details. If that design 
 has been fulfilled, the reader will probably forgive the 
 numerous faults which are inseparable from hasty writing. 
 
 The sketch of Governor Hendricks has been prepared 
 from matter furnished by a gentleman who was author 
 ized by him to perform the work. 
 
 T. P. C. 
 
 DAILY OBSEKVEB OFFICE, UTICA, July 15, 1876. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. Ancestry, Birth, and Boyhood 
 II. College Career Early Successes as a Political Writer and 
 
 Speaker 1834- 38 . 9 
 
 III. Mr. Tilden and the Working-men 1838 . 16 
 
 IV. The Campaign of 1840 Mr. Tilden s Speech on Finance . 24 
 
 V. His Law-Office His Acquaintance Silas Wright and Others 
 
 He establishes a Paper, helps to elect a President, and 
 declines the Naval Office 184 1- 4 5 . 41 
 
 VI. In the Assembly and Constitutional Convention 1816 . 47 
 VII. Sumptuary Legislation 
 
 VIII. Mr. Tilden as a Lawyer The Flagg Case . . 57 
 
 IX. The Burdell Case . 62 
 
 X. The Pennsylvania Coal Company s Case 
 
 XL The Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railroad Case 73 
 
 XII. His Position during the War . 
 
 XIII. The " Tammany Ring " Its Members 
 
 XIV. Mr. Tilden s History of the Overthrow of the Tammany Ring . 93 
 XV. Elected Governor of New York 1874 . .. 130 
 
 XVI. First Annual Message . .139 
 
 XVII. The Louisiana Outrage . I* 78 
 XVIII. The " Canal Ring" and its Overthrow . 
 
 XIX. The Government Municipalities . . . 225 
 
 XX. Second Annual Message 1876 . . .241 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGK 
 
 XXI. The Veto of the Pauper-Labor Bill 1876 ... 291 
 
 XXII. The Preliminary Canvass for the Presidency . . . 295 
 
 XXIII. The St. Louis Convention ..... 303 
 
 XXIV. Speech of Acceptance ...... 335 
 
 XXV. Governor Tilden s Letter of Acceptance .- . . 339 
 
 XXVI. A Study of Mr. Tilden s Character . 354 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HON. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Life and Character ...... 363 
 
 II. Speech at Indianapolis . . . . . .376 
 
 III. Speech at Zanesville . . . . . 397 
 
 IV. Speech at Philadelphia .-.....- 414 
 V. His Views on Temperance Legislation . . . 434 
 
THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J, TILDEN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCESTRY, BIKTH, AND BOYHOOD. 
 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN was born in New Lebanon, Columbia 
 County, New York, on the 9th day of February, 1814. He 
 comes of a sturdy and an honest race. His ancestors were 
 among the earliest recruits to the little band of Puritan pil 
 grims who settled Massachusetts. Before coming to these 
 shores, in the freedom-loving county of Kent, in England, 
 the Tildens had gained distinction. Nathaniel Tilden was 
 mayor of the city of Tenterden, England, in 1623. His 
 uncle John had held the office in 1585 and 1600. Nathaniel 
 was succeeded by his nephew John. Kent was a county of 
 farmers. It was divided into small estates, which were in 
 herited equally among the children of the family, Kent re 
 fusing to accept the law of primogeniture. It was a king 
 dom by itself under the Saxon heptarchy, and it maintained 
 its independence in a remarkable degree. 
 
 Nathaniel Tilden, with nine other men of Kent, sailed 
 for America in the ship Ann, in 1634, and became one of the 
 founders of the town of Scituate, Massachusetts. His brother, 
 Joseph Tilden, was one of the consignors of the Mayflower. 
 Nathaniel s wife was Hannah Bourne, one of whose sisters 
 married a brother of Governor Winslow, and another the son 
 of Governor Bradford. After Nathaniel Til den s death his 
 1 
 
2 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 widow wedded Timothy Hatherby, another consignor of the 
 Mayflower, who was a leader of opinion in Scituate until he 
 was driven thence for refusing to persecute the Quakers. 
 
 The second generation of Tildens in America settled in 
 Lebanon, Connecticut. Among the ancestors of the Govern 
 or in that town was Colonel Daniel Tilden, a stanch friend 
 of Jefferson, and one of the founders of the Democratic 
 party. When the news came of the battle of Lexington, in 
 April, 1775, Daniel Tilden raised a company of men, and 
 marched to the relief of the imperiled patriots of Massa 
 chusetts. He returned from that expedition, and was fore 
 most in the movement which led, that same year, to the en 
 rollment of the Connecticut militia for the war. This was 
 months before the Declaration of Independence. Under this 
 organization Israel Putnam received his commission as briga 
 dier-general, while Daniel Tilden enlisted under him and 
 entered the Revolutionary service as a captain. At the bat 
 tle of Trenton he commanded the company in which James 
 Monroe served as a lieutenant. Many years later, when 
 President Monroe visited Connecticut, he sought out his old 
 commander and revived the reminiscences of their early cam 
 paigns. 
 
 Lebanon was the headquarters of the patriots in Connect 
 icut during the Revolution. It is a quaint old town, with a 
 main street nearly five hundred feet wide, shaded by trees, 
 some of which are now two centuries old. It was the home 
 of Connecticut s Revolutionary Governor, Jonathan Trum- 
 bull, the original " Brother Jonathan " of our national 
 legends. It was to him that General Washington went on 
 many occasions for comfort and counsel. Governor Trumbull 
 called around him his own chosen band of advisers, shrewd 
 men, loving liberty with all their hearts, and meaning to 
 achieve the blessing they sought by taking advantage of all 
 the blunders and follies of their enemies. 
 
 In 1790 Governor Tilden s grandfather, John Tilden, re 
 moved to the State of New York, and made his home in 
 
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND BOYHOOD. 3 
 
 Columbia County, in a town christened New Lebanon in 
 honor of that Connecticut village from which the Tildens and 
 other settlers came. Here in New Lebanon the Governor s 
 father came to man s estate, and conducted a farm while he 
 also carried on business as a merchant. 
 
 The Governor s ancestors on his mother s side trace their 
 family line direct to William Jones, who was Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the colony of New Haven. In England this 
 family was connected by marriage with Oliver Cromwell, and 
 was associated by sympathy with him and with John Hamp- 
 den. Wide differences of opinion exist with regard to the 
 Protector and his followers, but nobody disputes their cour 
 age. The fearless nature of these men was reproduced in 
 some of their families certainly in this remote descendant 
 of Governor William Jones with whom we deal. 
 
 There has been a natural tendency in the United States, 
 which gradually lessens as the years advance, to " scorn the 
 claims of high descent." The conceded equality of all men 
 before the law generated the belief that there was nothing 
 in blood that would " tell." But there is. Generations of 
 self-reliant, firm-hearted, freedom-loving people bring forth 
 fruit after their kind. Figs are not of thistles, nor grapes of 
 thorns. The traditions of Tilden s home were the traditions 
 of liberty, of enterprise, of energy overcoming obstacles. 
 They were not thrown away upon him. He may be said to 
 have inherited clear perceptive faculties and perfect fearless 
 ness. 
 
 He was born in the year before the close of the last war 
 with Great Britain. That war was followed by a protracted 
 season of high prices and general suffering which stands 
 without parallel in the history of the country. Almost the 
 first words that the child Samuel comprehended were those 
 which conveyed the meaning of hard times. His parents 
 were well-to-do in comparison with most of their neighbors, 
 but they did not escape the wide-spread calamities of the 
 period. Young Samuel was not counted a precocious boy. 
 
4 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 He was small for his years, and his health was uncertain. 
 Lacking for a time the companionship of children, he early 
 learned to listen to his elders, and would sit with wondering 
 eyes while they enlarged on the evils of the times. It is pos 
 sible that these first impressions produced a lasting influence 
 on the undeveloped mind of the boy, and shaped the destiny 
 of his life. 
 
 The leading citizen of Columbia County during Samuel 
 J. Tilden s boyhood, and for many subsequent years, was 
 Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States. 
 He was a man who sought the advice of his neighbors, and 
 knew how to utilize a sound opinion from whatever quarter 
 it came. Oftentimes he rode over from his home in Kinder- 
 hook to New Lebanon, to take counsel of the Tildens. His 
 reflective Dutch nature gained something by coming into 
 contact with the minds of these thrifty and self-opinionated 
 Yankees. He and they were reared in different schools, and 
 they clung to their traditions with inflexible tenacity ; but 
 none the less they admired Mr. Van Buren s superior talents, 
 his indescribable shrewdness, and his unquestioned ability to 
 solidify the nebulous forces of politics into a positive power. 
 
 The year 1832 is memorable in the political annals of the 
 State of New York. What was known as the Albany Re 
 gency had been in existence some thirteen years. The Re 
 gency may be described as an honest ring, which sought the 
 promotion of worthy ends through the power of party disci 
 pline. It was the first effort at thorough organization which 
 the State or the country had seen. Before the birth of the 
 Regency the politicians trusted blindly to the drift of the 
 currents. The Regency guided the currents, and, by fore 
 casting public opinion, brought about results with almost un 
 erring accuracy. Mr. Van Buren, from 1819 to the time of 
 his elevation to the presidency in 1837, was at the head of 
 the Regency. William L. Marcy, Azariah C. Flagg, and 
 Edwin Croswell, the editor of the Albany Argus, were 
 among his early and most trusted lieutenants. During the 
 
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND BOYHOOD. 5 
 
 thirteen years from 1819 to 1832 Mr. Van Buren reaped an 
 abundant harvest of political honors. He was elected (1821) 
 to the United .States Senate ; reflected in 1827 ; resigned 
 that office in 1828 to become Governor of the State of New 
 York ; resigned the governorship within three months from 
 the time he entered on his duties to become Secretary of 
 State in Jackson s cabinet (March, 1829) ; and in 1831 re 
 signed that office and took an appointment as minister to 
 England. The Senate refused to confirm him, and he re 
 turned home to accept a nomination for Vice-President on 
 the ticket with Jackson. This brings us down to 1832, when 
 Samuel J. Tilden first made himself felt in politics. 
 
 He was eighteen years old. One who knew him then 
 describes him as a tall lad his slender form giving him the 
 appearance of greater height than he possessed with a pale 
 face, firm lips, and full, blue eyes. Even at that early age 
 the discussion of politics had engaged his attention for years. 
 In the store, by the fireside, on the farm, everywhere, the 
 exciting events of Jackson s Administration formed the staple 
 topic of conversation among all classes of people old and 
 young. He had no difficulty, therefore, in comprehending 
 the political situation. The State of New York, always de 
 batable ground, was more evenly divided than usual. The 
 opponents of the Administration, under the name of Na 
 tional Republicans, had formed a coalition with the Anti- 
 masonic organization. This last-named party, which stands 
 as an anomaly in political history, was established for the 
 purpose of destroying the masonic order. It grew originally 
 out of the excitement attendant on the alleged abduction 
 and murder, in September, 1826, of William Morgan, of Ba- 
 tavia, New York, who was said to have exposed the secrets 
 of the masons, and to have met his death on that account. 
 Within a year the movement gathered such strength that, at 
 the election of 1827, it carried the counties of Genesee, Mon 
 roe, Livingston, Orleans, and Niagara, -in face of both the 
 existing parties. At the election of 1828 the Antimasons 
 
6 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 cast 33,345 votes for Solomon Southwick for Governor ; if 
 they could have united that vote with the vote of the Na 
 tional Republicans, it would have defeated Mr. Van Buren. 
 In 1830 such a coalition was arranged ; Francis Granger be 
 came the Antimasonic, National Republican candidate for 
 Governor, and was opposed by Enos T. Throop, the Demo 
 cratic nominee. Governor Throop was elected by a majority 
 of 8,400 in a total poll of 230,000. When the lines were 
 drawn for the exciting canvass of 1832, the Antimasons held 
 a national convention in Philadelphia, and nominated William 
 Wirt for President. The National Republicans, who were 
 really the Whigs of that day, and the devoted followers of 
 Henry Clay, made him their candidate. The Democrats, as I 
 have shown, renominated General Jackson, and unanimously 
 selected Martin Van Buren for Vice-President. It was clear 
 that the election in New York must turn on the ability or 
 the iijability of the Antimasons and National Republicans to 
 improve on their coalition of two years before, and unite in 
 one solid column all who opposed masonry and all who op 
 posed Jackson. With this object in view, the Antimasonic 
 Convention assembled on the 21st *of June, 1832, and re- 
 nominated Francis Granger for Governor, and put forward 
 the names of a full electoral ticket. On the 25th of July 
 this entire electoral ticket, together with the State ticket of 
 the Antimasons, was adopted by the National Republicans. 
 If the presidential electors had an understanding as to 
 whether in the event of their election their votes were to be 
 given to Clay or to Wirt, they kept it bravely to themselves. 
 This combination threatened to be exceedingly strong to 
 draw in not only the elements which it professed to control, 
 but also such Democrats as were dissatisfied with the Albany 
 Regency, and such also as had been friends of the United 
 States Bank. To break or weaken the coalition was a task 
 which might well engage the attention of the foremost minds 
 of the party ; and it was the boy Sam Tilden who did it ! 
 Young Tilden had listened attentively to the arguments 
 
ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND BOYHOOD. 7 
 
 pro and con. He was particularly struck with the clear and 
 forcible statement of the case put forth by an uncle who was 
 staying at his father s house at the time. Big with the sub 
 ject, he went to his own room and wrote out an elaborate 
 " Address to the People " on the subject of the coalition. 
 He enlarged both on the insincerity of the movement and on 
 the folly of it. He showed how the politicians in the name 
 of Antimasonry had not scrupled to combine with the masons 
 in good standing who were opposed to Jackson. He reviewed 
 the action of the two conventions which had joined in pre 
 senting the coalition ticket, and dwelt on the dead silence 
 they had both preserved in regard to the course the electors 
 should pursue in case they were successful. He pointed out 
 the hollowness of the movement so far as the presidential 
 candidates were concerned. If it benefited Mr. Clay, it must 
 benefit him at the expense of Mr. Wirt. Were the Anti- 
 masons ready to do that ? If it assisted Mr. Wirt, it must 
 hurt Mr. Clay. Were the National Republicans who pro 
 fessed such boundless love for the Kentucky statesmen will 
 ing to become parties to such a plot ? 
 
 At every point the address was vigorous, logical, and mar- 
 velously convincing. I doubt if such clear political ideas 
 were ever before conveyed in language so appropriate by a 
 youth of eighteen. Having finished the address, which was 
 not a brief affair by any means, Samuel submitted it to the 
 criticism of his father. The elder Tilden listened to the read 
 ing of it with marked attention. He did not dare to tell his 
 son how pleased he was with the production. He feared to 
 trust his unaided judgment as to the merit of the work, lest 
 it should betray him into an extravagant estimate of his boy s 
 talent. Mr. Van Buren was staying at Lebanon Springs. 
 He was a critic whose judgment was unerring. To him, 
 therefore, the father and son went and submitted the address. 
 The shrewd statesman saw at a glance that it was precisely 
 what was wanted. He did not stop to inquire the age of the 
 author. He accepted him off-hand as one worthy to think 
 
8 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 for the party. At Mr. Van Buren s suggestion the address 
 was signed by a dozen leading Democrats in the State, and 
 put forth officially through the columns of the Albany Argus^ 
 where it occupied half a page. That it produced an effect 
 may be judged from the fact that the Albany Evening Jour 
 nal charged the authorship of it upon Martin Van Buren, 
 and accepted it as the supreme effort of the Democrats to 
 break the coalition of their opponents. Thereupon the Argus, 
 announced, " on the authority of Mr. Van Buren," that he 
 did not write the address. It was successful in the sense 
 that all Mr. Tilden s later papers are successful it set people 
 to thinking. The coalition was really broken even before the 
 election occurred. The Antimasons became distrustful of 
 their allies, and the National Republicans began to think 
 they had made a mistake. The Democrats carried the State 
 by a majority approximating 10,000, and no more was heard 
 of Antimasonry in politics. It was the first victory in which 
 Samuel J. Tilden bore a part. 
 
 The next year (1833) he passed the preliminary examina 
 tion for admission to Yale College. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 COLLEGE CAREER EARLY SUCCESSES AS A POLITICAL WRITER 
 AND SPEAKER 1834- 38. 
 
 MR. TILDEN S career at Yale College presents no other 
 point of interest than that he was a member of the class of 
 1837, to which William M. Evarts, Chief- Justice Waite, Ed 
 wards Pierrepont, and other famous men belonged. He did 
 not remain there any considerable time. 
 
 He is remembered as a studious young man ; good- 
 natured, helpful to his associates, and shy. He won the 
 respect of the faculty ; and, in after years, the college con 
 ferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 He did not graduate at Yale. Toward the end of his 
 first year his health failed him. His ambition exceeded his 
 strength, and he applied himself so closely to his books, 
 and gave himself such limited time for physical exercise, that 
 he broke down under the strain. The lesson which his severe 
 sickness taught him has been of use to him during all his sub 
 sequent life. Amid the engrossing cares of his professional 
 and political career he has found time for a long walk or ride 
 every day, and has thus preserved his health and husbanded 
 his strength in a remarkable degree. He went home from 
 college doubtful if he should again be able to enter upon a 
 student s life. But the air of his country-home, and the ab 
 solute relinquishment of his books for a time, restored him. 
 But he did not again return to New Haven. It was decided 
 that he should complete his academic course at the University 
 of New York that he might be near to his father s faithful 
 friend and adviser, the late Judge John W. Edmonds, in 
 
10 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 whose office he had already decided to read law. At the uni 
 versity he gave careful attention to his various studies, but 
 his mind was largely occupied with the consideration of po 
 litical topics. In the summer of 1837, just before he gradu 
 ated, he won a second conspicuous success as writer on pub 
 lic affairs. To understand the scope of his work it is neces 
 sary to review briefly the political situation at that time : 
 
 About the 10th of May, 1837, two months after Mr. Van 
 Buren s inauguration, the banks in the city f New York sus 
 pended specie payments, and almost simultaneously all the 
 banks in the country followed their example. The causes 
 which led to this general suspension were numerous and 
 complex. After the removal of the Government deposits 
 from the United States Bank, the money had been placed in 
 the State banks a large portion of it in the city of New 
 York. This money had been freely used by the banks for 
 discount purposes, and was treated as a part of their capital. 
 In 1836 the speculation in public lands had reached its 
 height. Partly to check it, and partly to protect the Govern 
 ment from loss, General Jackson issued an order that the 
 land-offices should receive nothing but gold and silver, or 
 certificates of deposit in specie in the United States Treasury 
 in payment of land. 1 The speculation did not cease, but the 
 heavy drafts on the banks tended to exhaust their supply of 
 gold. The Government was entirely free from debt that 
 year, and had accumulated a surplus of forty million dollars. 
 Congress, to the surprise and disgust of the banks that were 
 holding and using this sum, ordered that it should be dis 
 tributed pro rata among the States. To these principal 
 causes many minor causes contributed their share toward 
 producing the " panic " of 1837. It came so suddenly and 
 swept so swiftly through the land that nobody was prepared 
 for it. It complicated and threatened to paralyze the affairs 
 of the Federal Government. In 1836 Congress passed a law 
 requiring the officers of the Treasury not to deposit the 
 
 1 Hammond s " Political History of New York," vol. ii., p. 463. 
 
EARLY SUCCESSES AS A POLITICAL WRITER. H 
 
 national funds in any bank which did not on demand redeem 
 its notes in specie. By the act of 1816 United States officers 
 were forbidden to pay out any notes not redeemable in coin. 
 At the time of the suspension every dollar belonging to the 
 Government was in the possession of the banks, and the 
 banks refused to pay out any specie even to the Government. 
 Under these circumstances Mr. Van Buren, on the 15th of 
 May, issued a proclamation calling Congress together in 
 extra session on the 4th of September. When the Congress 
 had assembled the President addressed the two Houses in a 
 special message, clearly setting forth the financial condition 
 of the Government. He showed the necessity of some ac 
 tion, and then proceeded to discuss the various possible plans 
 of deliverance. He had pledged himself to oppose the char 
 tering of a national bank, and on that issue he had been 
 elected, and must redeem his pledge. He showed that the 
 experiment of depositing the Government funds in State 
 banks had been tried three times, and had signally failed in 
 every instance. What, then, was to be done ? In obedi 
 ence to the behest of the Constitution, he recommended that 
 the Treasury of the people should be kept by the officers of 
 the people, and that there should be an entire and total 
 separation of the business and property of the Government 
 from the business and concerns of the banks. 1 
 
 The remedy seems simple and sensible enough after this 
 lapse of years, but at that time it provoked fierce opposition 
 from 1. The banks ; 2. The people who wanted favors of 
 the banks (and they were numerous) ; and, 3. The political 
 opponents of the President, who charged him with a desire 
 to set up a money-holding crowd of irresponsible office-hold 
 ers. Congress straightway divided on the question, and not 
 party-wise. Mr. N. P. Tallmadge, who was then a Demo 
 cratic Senator in Congress from New York, opposed Mr. Van 
 Buren s plan for an Independent Treasury, and (with Mr. 
 Rives, of Virginia) declared himself a " Conservative." The 
 1 Hammond, vol. ii., p. 475. 
 
12 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 bill passed the Senate, however, but in the House a sufficient 
 number of Conservatives joined with the Whigs to de 
 feat it. So Congress adjourned without doing anything 
 except to authorize the issue of a limited amount of Treas 
 ury notes. 
 
 The Independent Treasury question threatened to split 
 the Democratic party in the State of New York. On this 
 question, at least, the general inclination seemed to be to 
 oppose Mr. Van Buren. In September, while Congress was 
 still in session, a series of papers signed " Marshall " ap 
 peared in the Albany Argus, contesting the wisdom of the 
 President s recommendations and advocating resistance to 
 their adoption on the part of the Democratic party. Mr. 
 Tilden read these articles (which are supposed to have ema 
 nated from one of the leading lawyers and statesmen of 
 that day), and set himself the task of answering them. He 
 prepared for the Argus a number of papers, to which he 
 attached the signature " Crino." They produced an immedi 
 ate effect. They were written in an admirably terse and 
 correct style, and they evinced such comprehensive knowl 
 edge of governmental affairs, political economy, law, and 
 finance, that they were ascribed by common consent to Esek 
 Cowen, then one of the justices of the New York Supreme 
 Court, a man of large learning and marked ability. Nobody 
 suspected that they came from a young fellow who had not 
 yet completed his college education. They were not only 
 well written, but the views they contained were sound, and 
 have withstood the test of time. 
 
 The financial revulsion produced a political revolution in 
 New York. In the November election (1837), the Whigs 
 carried 101 of the 128 Assembly districts, and three-quarters 
 of the Senate districts. The previous year the Democrats 
 had been victorious everywhere through the State, and they 
 believed their strength was invincible. They were utterly 
 bewildered, therefore, at this astonishing and unprecedented 
 triumph of their opponents. 
 
EARLY SUCCESSES AS A POLITICAL WRITER. 13 
 
 In 1838 Mr. Tilden, who was growing more and more in 
 terested in politics, played a conspicuous part in the campaign 
 as a participant in a well-remembered debate. It happened 
 in this way : The Democrats renominated Governor Marcy, 
 trusting to his deserved popularity to regain the ground lost 
 the previous year. The Whigs, feeling that they were on 
 the road to victory, threw aside their old leaders, who had 
 been beaten full often, and named for Governor the most brill 
 iant young man in their ranks, William H. Sevvard, who at 
 that time was only thirty-eight years old. The so-called Con 
 servatives, who had failed to impress on the Democracy their 
 opposition to an Independent Treasury, called an informal 
 convention at Syracuse, on the 3d of October, and resolved 
 to support Seward. Senator Tallmadge, not only by reason 
 of his high official position, but also because of his power as a 
 public speaker, was the acknowledged leader of this bolt. He 
 was enthusiastically received by the Whigs, who expected 
 through him to convert a large number of Democrats. During 
 the month of October he was advertised to address the citi 
 zens of Columbia County. "The meeting was very fully at 
 tended, and was composed in about equal parts of Democrats 
 and Whigs. The Democrats had come, not to be " con 
 verted," but to hear what excuse their Senator had to offer 
 for deserting them. The Whigs, of course, controlled the 
 meeting. The burden of Mr. Tallmadge s speech, so far as it 
 related to himself, was that he had not changed his opinions ; 
 that it was the Democrats who had gone away from him, and 
 not he who had gone from them. He then entered into an 
 elaborate discussion of the Independent Treasury bill and 
 other current issues. He closed by reiterating his assertion 
 that he had not changed. 
 
 The Whigs were pleased, and the Democrats were corre 
 spondingly dejected. They wanted to hear their own side of 
 "the question advocated, as they and not as Senator Tallmadge 
 understood it. But all their leading citizens were absent. 
 They looked about them, and found in the audience Samuel 
 
14 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 J. Tilden. They had heard him speak once or twice. He 
 was a young man and looked boyish. But he had gained a 
 reputation among his neighbors for wisdom beyond his years. 
 The sturdy old farmers of Columbia County felt even then 
 that in him they had a safe leader. So it happened that by 
 a common impulse loud calls for " Tilden " went up from all 
 parts of the assemblage. The Whigs, amused at the idea of 
 pitting a stripling against an old and practised debater, ech 
 oed the cry of " Tilden ! " So Mr. Tilden came forward and 
 mounted the platform. Mr. Tallmadge looked with undis 
 guised contempt on the young man who had the audacity to 
 attempt an off-hand answer to the prepared speech of a "United 
 States Senator. But the Senator s contempt was changed to 
 wonder, if not to admiration, as the young man proceeded. 
 Mr. Tilden opened modestly but effectively. He showed that 
 easy and graceful command of language which distinguishes 
 him to-day. He took up the first point of the Senator s 
 speech and argued that somebody must have changed. Was 
 it the Democrats ? They presented the same candidates for 
 whom the people had voted two years before ; they put forth 
 the same principles, with the same exponents of those princi 
 ples, and they met the same opponents that they had met in 
 many previous contests. Surely it was not they who had 
 changed. But was it the Whigs who had changed ? " Have 
 you changed, venerable sir ? " he asked, turning suddenly 
 upon the chairman of the meeting. " You, who for these many 
 years have stood steadfast in your devotion to the doctrines 
 of Henry Clay, and who have opposed the Democratic party 
 in victory and defeat ? Or have you changed ? " he asked, 
 turning to another old Whig, and calling him by name. The 
 effect was electrical. The Democrats cheered lustily, and the 
 Whigs appeared troubled. Having thus won his first point, 
 Mr. Tilden began to develop his power of argument. His ar 
 ticles of the previous year on the Independent Treasury bill 
 had made him quite as familiar with that question as Senator 
 Tallmadge could hope to be, and on other questions he showed 
 
EARLY SUCCESSES AS A POLITICAL WRITER. 15 
 
 almost equal skill in debate. He finished with a fine appeal 
 to the Democrats to stand by their candidates and their prin 
 ciples, and as he sat down three hearty cheers were given, in 
 which many of the Whigs joined. It did not occur to any 
 body that he had been overmatched in the debate. 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 ME. TILDEN AND THE WOKKING-MEN. 1838. 
 
 BEFORE participating in the debate with Senator Tall- 
 madge, and while at the university in New York, Mr. Tilden, 
 during the same year (1838), had been called upon to do 
 some rather important work in behalf of the Democratic 
 party. The charter election in the city in the spring was 
 generally accepted throughout the State as a test of the rela 
 tive strength of the two great parties ; and, in the critical 
 condition of affairs which followed the agitation of the Inde 
 pendent Treasury policy, it was considered desirable that the 
 voters of the metropolis, and particularly the laboring-classes, 
 should be well informed of the national issues involved in the 
 election. Two meetings of " Democratic Republican Mechan 
 ics and Working-men " were accordingly called in Tammany 
 Hall, one on the 6th of February, and the other on the 
 26th of February, 1838, to consider the financial condition of 
 the country, and to take action thereon. At the first of 
 these meetings a long series of resolutions was adopted ; at 
 the second an address was issued. Both papers were the ex 
 clusive work of Mr. Tilden, and, as might have been expected, 
 were enthusiastically received. Meetings for political pur 
 poses are never over-critical, and the supposed labor of their 
 accredited committees is generally cheered ; b-ut that these 
 resolutions and this address should bear the test of criticism, 
 after a lapse of nearly forty years, shows that they were not 
 made of the ordinary campaign material. From among the 
 resolutions the following are selected, in the belief that they 
 will repay perusal now : 
 
MR. TILDEN AND THE WORKING-MEN. 17 
 
 8. JResolved, That we require in banking, no more than in govern 
 ment, a monarch and a privileged nobility to regulate our affairs ; 
 that an application to finance of the principle of EQUAL LIBERTY, 
 so long successfully applied by the American people to politics, is 
 imperatively required a liberty, not of unlimited license, which pos 
 sessed by one individual would destroy the liberty of every other, 
 but of a character which, under general equal laws, extends the 
 largest measure of freedom and enforces the most perfect security to 
 the rights of all ; that, if abuses in banking, more than in any. other 
 business, affect those who do not participate in them, the remedy is 
 not in a wider license to a limited number of individuals, but in a 
 more effectual restraint upon all : not in exempting banking from the 
 competition and personal responsibility which alone prevent intolerable 
 abuses in other kinds of business, but in giving greater practical effi 
 ciency to these natural restraints, and in exacting additional securities. 
 
 4. Itesolvcd, That a general banking law, constructed on these ob 
 vious principles, ought to be enacted ; it will close up the most fruit 
 ful source of legislative intrigue and corruption ; it will prevent the 
 frauds and favoritism practised in the distribution of stock ; it will 
 remove a monopoly, which, to the amount of the extra profit it con 
 fers, levies an indirect tax upon the unprivileged mass, for the bene 
 fit of a few, uncompensated by any public advantage ; it will put an 
 end to arbitrary and unnatural distributions of banking capital; 
 and it will alleviate these fluctuations in the currency which subvert 
 contracts, cause a general insecurity of property, render uncertain the 
 wages of labor, and convert the pursuits of regular industry into a 
 pernicious species of gambling. 
 
 5. Resolved, That the measure now before Congress, for effecting 
 a separation of the Government from the banks, receives our entire 
 and cordial approval ; it will enable the Government to command 
 with certainty its revenues amid the varying exigencies of peace and 
 war ; it will prevent a combination of capitalists from " shutting up 
 the Treasury," in order to advance their mercenary schemes through 
 the general embarrassment and confusion ; it will diminish Executive 
 patronage and legislative corruption, by disconnecting the Govern 
 ment from powerful moneyed institutions, having the strongest in 
 ducements to solicit Executive favor, and to introduce into legislation 
 " influences the most subtle, founded on interests the most selfish ; " 
 and it will cause the ordinary financial action of the Government to 
 exert upon the currency and business of the country a far greater 
 
18 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 sanative power than any complicated system of regulations which 
 has ever been devised. 
 
 The address was more elaborate and ambitious than were 
 the resolutions; it sets forth the conflict of antagonistic prin 
 ciples with uncommon vigor and clearness. It says : 
 
 Such are the deductions of reason ; let us test them by experience. 
 For fifty vears our mint establishment has been conducted on this 
 system; and, although it has generally involved the custody of as 
 large an amount as need be deposited in any one sub-treasury, not a 
 single dollar has ever been lost. Fellow-citizens, we appeal to your 
 common-sense. Tell us, are their own officers less worthy of the 
 confidence of the people than the agents of banks ? Cannot the Gov 
 ernment, regulating the public funds with sole reference to security, 
 make them as safe as banks, wielding them for the purposes of gain? 
 And what is the character of the argument by which these common- 
 sense views of the subject are opposed ? Exaggerated accounts of 
 official peculations are paraded before the public view, and for what? 
 As arguments in favor of the system under which they occurred, and 
 against a system under which they did not occur ! In a time of 
 peace, and with a large surplus revenue, the financial operations of 
 the Government are suddenly suspended ; an extraordinary convoca 
 tion of Congress is rendered necessary ; the Government, unable to 
 command a dollar of its own resources, is compelled to borrow money 
 to meet its current expenses. Under such circumstances it is that 
 the delinquent depositaries of your revenue tell you that your future 
 collections will not be safe, locked in your own vaults, and guarded 
 by your own officers, but must be intrusted to them to be loaned out 
 to traders and speculators ! We will not argue so plain a case. 
 
 An extraordinary concurrence of events has called the people to 
 decide the question of a separation of the financial affairs of the 
 Government from those of private individuals and corporations. 
 Such a separation, considered merely as a measure of public policy, 
 has our cordial and earnest approval. We entertain the firmest con 
 viction that it will increase the safety of the public moneys. Govern 
 ment can provide vaults as strong, and can find officers as trust 
 worthy, as those of banks ; it can exact securities as ample, and it can 
 enforce an accountability to itself more direct, immediate, and effec 
 tive. In a change of system the loss of the corporate responsibility 
 
MR. TILDEN AND THE WORKING-MEN. 19 
 
 of banking companies is more than compensated by an exemption 
 from the hazards of their business operations. A system which pro 
 hibits the use of the public moneys is less exposed to defalcation 
 than one which, allowing their use, can be secure only in their suc 
 cessful employment ; a system which relies on fidelity to public trust 
 is safer than one which relies on mere pecuniary responsibility ; men 
 are less ready to commit a felony than incur a debt. 
 
 When the address proceeds to discuss the general ques 
 tions growing out of the Treasury issue, Mr. Tilden- shows 
 himself a master of many weapons. He says : 
 
 The histpry of every nation which has enjoyed any portion of 
 freedom is a record of the incessant struggles of the few to establish 
 dominion over the many. In the earlier ages and less enlightened 
 nations, the spirit of aristocracy maintained its ascendency by brute 
 force or through superstition. As mankind advanced in intelligence 
 and political information, it assumed a form more adapted to the 
 character of the age. Banding together the rich by the strong liga 
 ment of mutual interest ; arraying them in an organized class which 
 acts in phalanx and operates through all the ramifications in society ; 
 concentrating property by monopolies and perpetuities, and binding 
 to it political power, it has established an aristocracy more potent, 
 more permanent, and more oppressive, than any other which has ever 
 existed. Such is the dynasty of associated and privileged wealth, 
 which at this moment is practically the ruling power in nearly every 
 civilized nation. 
 
 The effect on human happiness of the union of moneyed and politi 
 cal power is not a matter of conjecture. The condition of the indus 
 trious masses in those countries in which it exists is a living com 
 mentary on the system. In France, the suffrage for that branch of 
 the Government which pretends to be popular is limited by a prop 
 erty qualification, so high as to exclude all but the richest one of 
 every two hundred individuals. A natural result of legislation so 
 controlled is that, of a population of thirty-two millions, seven and a 
 half are forced to live on twenty dollars, and twenty-three millions 
 on less than thirty dollars a year each ; while all the rest of the prod 
 ucts of their incessant and severe toil goes to , enrich the privileged 
 few. 
 
 England also has based government on property. Even the popu- 
 
20 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 lar branch of her Legislature is wholly controlled by the moneyed in 
 terest. The wealthy few alone are eligible to the House of Commons, 
 or possess the elective franchise ; and the inequalities in the repre 
 sentations and the influence of mighty combinations of money in 
 the elections render the supremacy of wealth complete and absolute. 
 The capitalists and landed proprietors wield the whole political power 
 of the state for their own benefit. Property is kept in large masses 
 in the hands of the few, by the law of primogeniture and the system 
 of entails. Monopolies overspread the land, paralyzing individual 
 effort, and exhausting the life-blood of the body politic. The burden 
 of the gigantic machinery of state, the Church establishment, a 
 pauper system, and the national debt, crushes the laboring-classes, on 
 whom exclusively it is made to fall. In fine, all the institutions of 
 the country and the whole course of her legislation tend to transfer 
 the property of the many to the few ; and the results are, on the one 
 hand, individuals with annual incomes of a million, and on the other 
 the mass of the people receiving only the most scanty and miserable 
 subsistence, and a fifteenth of them supported by public charity. 
 
 A tendency to a union of political and moneyed power can be dis 
 tinctly recognized in the politics of this country. It has characterized 
 the entire policy of one of the great parties which have divided the 
 republic from its foundation. In the convention which formed our 
 present Constitution, this party endeavored to give to our Government 
 an aristocratic bias. Failing to accomplish its object directly, it natu 
 rally sought to impress that character upon the practical administra 
 tion of the Government. Its leader, Alexander Hamilton, who had 
 advocated in the convention a President and a Senate for life, ori 
 ginated a funding system and a national bank. The obvious tendency 
 of a public debt to array the rich, whose property is invested in it, 
 in support of the Government., was the origin of the Federal heresy 
 that "a national debt is a national blessing;" and a mammoth bank 
 was a nucleus, around which to concentrate and consolidate the money 
 power, and an appropriate engine to wield its influence. . . . 
 
 Assiduous efforts are making to terrify the public mind with appre 
 hensions of social disorder, to represent the great measure of reiorm 
 which is now presented to you as " disorganizing," and to stigmatize 
 its supporters as " destructives " and " agrarians." We, who now 
 address you, have been the peculiar objects of these imputations ; we 
 pause, therefore, for a moment to repel them. We entertain no senti 
 ments adverse to social order. We seek not to destroy, but to pre- 
 
MR. TILDEN AND THE WORKING-MEN. 21 
 
 serve in their purity, the institutions of our country. We are not hos 
 tile to trade, or its legitimate operations, or its necessary institutions. 
 We desire to introduce into banking the great principle of equal lib 
 erty, where application to business has, in every instance, produced 
 the most beneficial results. We seek to arrest a system of monopoly, 
 special legislation, and governmental interference, as disastrous to 
 business as its tendency is fatal to our whole social and political fab 
 ric. We do not assail property ; we merely deny to it political power. 
 We excite no prejudice against wealth ; we merely refuse to it exclu 
 sive privileges, either in business or in politics. We claim an equality, 
 not of social conditions, but of political rights. Our motto is, equal 
 protection to all, special favors to none. These are our sentiments. 
 They accord with the immutable principles of rectitude. We rely 
 for their support on the intelligent judgment of our countrymen. 
 
 Nor has our country any reason to fear social disorder. Anarchy 
 is but a state of transition. It cannot exist as a permanent condition 
 of things. The very nature of man renders social order inevitable. 
 Even temporary confusion can occur only as a consequence to a pre 
 vious infringement of the true principles of society. All the laws of 
 Nature harmonize, and it is only when some of them are violated that 
 convulsion ensues. If human regulations did not produce artificial 
 and unjust distributions of property, a state of things could never 
 exist in which property would be endangered. Where the avaricious 
 few have so controlled legislation as to concentrate and perpetuate 
 property in themselves, it is natural that they should seek to exclude 
 from political power all who have no " stake in society," and that 
 they should regard the plundered masses as hostile to such " rights 
 of property " and such a " social order." It is natural that they 
 should distrust all whose sense of justice is not subdued by a partici 
 pation in the spoil, and that they should tremble for their iniquitous 
 possessions and the system which upholds them. But where society 
 is constructed on just principles such apprehensions are visionary and 
 absurd. Convulsion is the struggle of Nature with disease in the body 
 politic, and can never occur when the system is in health. Human 
 experience has not presented a solitary exception to these principles. 
 The masses never were prone to disorder. All history repels the 
 calumny. Still more absurd is it to suppose them disloyal to our pe 
 culiar institutions. Our social system is the only one which has ever 
 secured their rights, and cannot be changed except at their expense. 
 In European society the few hold the state ; in ours the many. 
 
22 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The real danger to which our institutions are exposed is in the 
 abandonment in legislation, of the principles on which they are 
 founded. And we ask if a strong tendency of this character has not 
 developed itself in our politics ? Has not the whole course of an in 
 fluential party aimed at a union of political with moneyed power ? Has 
 not that party sought to confine the elective franchise to the rich ? 
 Has not one of its great leaders declared that " Government ought to 
 be founded on property ? " Has it not at a general meeting in this 
 city proclaimed that "the possession of property is the proof of 
 merit ? " Has it not attempted virtually to rob the working-classes 
 of the right of suffrage, by driving them from employment, unless 
 they would surrender this dearest birthright of freemen to the dicta 
 tion of those who by means of their wealth possess an accidental 
 power over them ? And is it not now struggling to enthrone a great 
 moneyed monopoly in absolute dominion over the currency and busi 
 ness of the country? Ask yourselves, fellow- citizens, if the establish 
 ment of such a supremacy be not a giant stride in a career fatal to our 
 institutions ? And, if you yield to this encroachment, where will you 
 pause ? Eesist, then, upon the threshold the attempt to depart from 
 the principles on which our political system is founded. Adhere to 
 that basis, and it can never be endangered. 
 
 The immediate effect of this address was noteworthy. 
 It armed the Democrats in the city with a clearer argument 
 than they had before possessed. It was printed in full in the 
 New York Evening Post and other Democratic city news 
 papers of that day, and was copied into the Albany Argus 
 and the Washington Globe, thus gaining a circulation not 
 often awarded to an address adopted at a public meeting. 
 In the previous year, at the charter election of 1837, under 
 the depressing influence of hard times, the city had under 
 gone a political revolution, and was carried by the Whigs by 
 a majority rising above three thousand. They also secured 
 a very large majority in both branches of the Common Coun 
 cil. In 1838 the hard times had not abated, and, by charging 
 upon the Democratic administration of the Federal Govern 
 ment all the evils from which the people suffered, the Whigs 
 hoped to repeat their triumph and augment their strength. 
 In this last hope they were disappointed. They carried the 
 
MR. TILDEN AND THE WORKING-MEN. 23 
 
 city, but their majority in the Common Council was reduced 
 to one ; and, after a spirited struggle, they succeeded in re- 
 electing their mayor, Hon. Aaron Clark, by a bare majority 
 of ninety-nine. It was the working-men who effected this 
 change in the vote ; and it was Mr. Tilden who furnished 
 them their arguments. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840 ME. TILDEN s SPEECH OX FINANCE. 
 
 AFTER completing his academic career, Mr. Tilden marked 
 out for himself a comprehensive course of study preparatory 
 to his admission to the bar. He pursued this course faith 
 fully, but leisurely. He not only held his place as student 
 in Judge Edmonds s office, but he also became a pupil at the 
 law-school of the New York University. Among the lectur 
 ers of that institution were President Van Buren, Attorney- 
 General Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, and Judge Wil 
 liam Kent. Under such masters of the law he laid deep the 
 foundations of his legal fame. 
 
 Meantime he devoted a good share of his attention to 
 politics. The memorable presidential canvass of 1840 aroused 
 his deepest interest. He was a warm personal friend of Mr. 
 Van Buren, and, what was of more importance, he was a 
 zealous and intelligent supporter of the President s policy. 
 Finding the man and the policy both imperiled by wide 
 spread errors and persistent misrepresentations on questions 
 of finance, Mr. Tilden prepared an elaborate speech in de 
 fense of the Democracy, which he delivered at his native 
 town of New Lebanon on the evening of the 3d of October, 
 1840. 
 
 The subject of the speech was " Currency, Prices, and 
 Wages." It involved such a patient investigation of intri 
 cate points that it seems wonderful that any man could have 
 written it during the wild excitement that prevailed in that 
 particular year. The youthful champion of the Democracy 
 wasted no word on the froth of the campaign. He confined 
 
-THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 25 
 
 himself to the solid and serious questions which divided par 
 ties. . He took issue with the representative leaders of Whig- 
 gery with Webster and Clay and proved himself, at the 
 age of twenty-six, a foeman worthy of their steel. 
 
 Some parts of this speech are as interesting to-day as 
 when they were delivered. The following history of the 
 United States Bank possesses sufficient historical value to 
 warrant its reproduction in these pages : 
 
 HOW A NATIONAL BANK REGULATED THE CURRENCY. 
 
 How could a large bank, constituted on essentially the same prin 
 ciples, be expected to regulate beneficially the lesser banks? Has 
 enlarged power been found to be less liable to abuse than limited 
 power? Has concentrated power been found less liable to abuse 
 than distributed power ? 
 
 If any entertained an exception so contrary to all human experi 
 ence, the experience ought to satisfy them of its fallacy. 
 
 The United States Bank commenced its operations in January, 
 1817. Although a nominal resumption of specie payments by the 
 State banks took place, the currency was dangerously extended. The 
 bank urged its notes into circulation with unprecedented rapidity ; 
 and, the excess causing a constant exportation of specie, it sought to 
 counteract that effect, not by reducing the currency to its proper 
 amount, but by forced importations of specie, which it made to the 
 extent of seven millions, and at a great loss. It continued these 
 operations till July, 1818, when its circulation amounted to nine 
 millions and its loans to forty-nine millions. A revulsion then com 
 menced, and the bank began a rapid contraction. But its affairs 
 grew every day worse. In February ^ 1819, Mr. Jones, its president, 
 resigned, and Mr. Cheves, of South Carolina, was appointed in his 
 place. In an exposition made several years after to the stockhold 
 ers, that gentleman states that, as he was about to commence his 
 journey to Philadelphia, he was apprised that the bank would soon 
 be obliged to stop payment ; and when he " reached Washington he 
 received hourly proofs of the probability of this event ; " that " in 
 Philadelphia it was generally expected." He also states that on the 
 1st of April the specie in its vaults was reduced to seventy -nine 
 thousand dollars, while its balances to the Philadelphia banks were 
 one hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars. By a rigorous contrac- 
 2 
 
26 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEX. 
 
 tion of its issues and the cutting off of all its exchange business, by 
 the whole aid of the Government and a loan in Europe, it barely 
 weathered the storm, but was for years in a sickly condition. The 
 prostration of business and prices during this period was without a 
 parallel, and the bank was universally regarded as the main agent of 
 the mischief. The reduction of the whole currency from the height 
 of the expansion to the 1st of January, 1820, was one-third; that of 
 the circulation of the bank was nearly two-thirds. 
 
 The next great crisis was in the fall of 1825. Mr. Biddle, in his 
 testimony before a committee of Congress, describes it as " the most 
 disastrous period in the financial history of England," when the " wild 
 speculations in American mines and wilder speculations in American 
 cotton recoiled upon England, and spread over it extensive ruin," 
 and says, that " the very same storm passed over this country a few 
 weeks before," and " was on the eve of producing precisely the same 
 results." He also states that this "panic, which would have been 
 fatal to the country," was averted by his hurrying to New York and 
 prevailing on a gentleman to accept drafts, " who was preparing to 
 draw specie from the banks of Philadelphia " to establish a bank in 
 New Orleans. It has been intimated that Mr. Biddle s private night- 
 journey was occasioned by an emergency more peculiar to his own 
 institution than he would have the public suppose ; but he admits 
 enough. He shows how near,- even on the most favorable account of 
 the matter, the whole system of currency, with its regulator, came 
 to a total overthrow, and by how slight and common a circumstance 
 it was alternately jeoparded and saved. Turn now from the account 
 of this hair s-breadth escape, to what Mr. Biddle did not so frankly re 
 late the source of the peril. The returns of the bank show that its 
 circulation increased in the two years previous to July, 1825, more 
 than 105 per cent., and in the six months previous to that time more 
 than 57 per cent. ! I have not the means of ascertaining the increase 
 in the circulation of the State banks during this period, but there is 
 abundant reason to believe that it was in nothing like the same 
 proportion. The subsequent reduction fell mainly upon them, the 
 United States Bank succeeding in substituting, to a considerable ex 
 tent, its notes for theirs. Its success, however, in the competition 
 for private profit was a poor consolation to the public, who were 
 victims to the process. Mr. McCulloch states that, during the same 
 two years, the country banks of England extended their circulation 
 50 per cent., and he exclaims against such an increase, as " extrava- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. . 27 
 
 gant and unprincipled" an increase less than half as great as that 
 of our " regulator! " 
 
 A revulsion rather less severe occurred in the commencement of 
 1832. The United States Bank was greatly embarrassed. It pro 
 cured the payment of the 3 per cents., for which the Government 
 had provided the means, to be postponed ; and, when the time to 
 which it had been postponed approached, it sent a confidential direc 
 tor abroad to make an arrangement with the holders of the stocks 
 not to present them for payment, while it held and used the money 
 Government had provided for their redemption ! The form in which 
 the transaction was first attempted the bank was obliged to disavow, 
 as constituting a violation of its charter, that in which it was con 
 summated being merely a breach of trust ! The increase of its circu 
 lation during the two years previous to the 1st of January, 1832, was 
 64 per cent., and its reduction the summer after about 20 per cent. 
 The circulation of the New York banks increased during the same 
 period 29 per cent. ; that of the Pennsylvania banks from February, 
 1829, to November, 1831, about 21 per cent. It is difficult to procure 
 returns from the banks sufficiently near the dates to afford a just 
 comparison, but such as are procured show that the average increase, 
 even if it were larger than that of the New York banks, was very far 
 short of that of the United States Bank. 
 
 In the fall of 1833 the removal of the deposits was made, and the 
 panic of 1834 followed. The bank, by October, 1834, had contracted 
 its circulation nearly 20 per cent., and its loans more than fourteen 
 millions, as it alleged, in consequence of that measure. When its 
 attempt to coerce a restoration of the deposits and a renewal of its 
 charter failed, it commenced an expansion; and by July, 1835, ex 
 tended its circulation 62 per cent., and its loans nineteen millions, or 
 five millions more than all the reduction which it pretended it had 
 been forced to make by the removal of the deposits ; and that, when 
 its charter had but eight months longer to run ! The great expansion 
 which produced the disastrous excesses of 1835 and 1836 occurred 
 mainly in the former year; and the whole enlargement of the "cur 
 rency during that year was 34 per cent., or, if we take the net circu 
 lation, 31 per cent. ; and, during that year and the next, less than 44 
 per cent., and, if we take the net circulation, 36 per cent. The ratio 
 of expansion of its net circulation by the United States Bank to 
 July, 1835, was from November, 1834, 62 per cent.; from January, 
 1635, when the currency had reached at least a level, 46 per cent. ; 
 
28 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 and from its last return previous to the removal of the deposits, 37 
 per cent. The bank is justly responsible for the whole amount of its 
 expansion from the lowest point of contraction in 1834 ; for it had 
 made that contraction under the pretense that such a diminution of 
 its business was rendered necessary by the removal of the deposits ; 
 and the vacuum in the circulation being created under favorable ex 
 changes, was necessarily filled by the notes of other institutions, and 
 the subsequent addition to the currency was as inexcusable as it was 
 dangerous. Such an addition could not fail to create a most injuri 
 ous excitement in banking and trade, and, with a tithe of the power 
 which its friends claimed for this bank over the smaller institutions, 
 to stimulate them to the utmost extravagance. And, when the time 
 of this expansion is considered, no fair-minded man can doubt that it 
 communicated the main impulse to the disastrous excesses which fol 
 lowed. 
 
 "We have thus seen this institution, which was established to 
 " regulate " the others, twice, according to the statements of its own 
 presidents, on the very verge of bankruptcy, and a third time extri 
 cating itself from its embarrassments by a breach of trust which 
 would subject an individual to a criminal punishment ; and, looking 
 at its returns, we find each of these occasions preceded by an exten 
 sion of its business, unparalleled in any similar institution. We have 
 seen that, in every great expansion of the currency which has occurred 
 during the whole period of its existence, it increased its circulation 
 in a far larger ratio than the expansion of the whole currency. And 
 these successive expansions, and the revulsions which followed them 
 with short intervening seasons of quietude, have filled the whole his 
 tory of business during that period. The extraordinary powers of 
 this bank and its freedom from competition, while organized on the 
 same principles and therefore subject to the same impulses as other 
 institutions, have only encouraged it to embark on the most hazard 
 ous adventures to extend the profits of its business ; from which it 
 has been repeatedly extricated only by the credit of the Government 
 or the direct assistance of the Treasury. 
 
 Such was the manner in which the United States Bank " regu 
 lated " the currency while it was a national institution. For the 
 benefit of those who think the loss of such services the cause of the 
 recent commercial disorders, and their restoration by the establish 
 ment of a similar institution the sovereign panacea, I pursue its sub 
 sequent history. 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 29 
 
 On the 20th of Febuary, 1836, Mr. Biddle presented a meeting of 
 the stockholders with the new charter from the State of Pennsylva 
 nia, congratulating them on the dissolution of their connection with 
 the General Government, which he pronounced to he an unnatural 
 connection, beneficial neither to " the Bank nor the Government," and 
 declaring that the hank was now "SAFER, STRONGER, and more pros 
 perous, than it ever was." 
 
 On the llth of November, 1836, in a letter to Mr. Adams, Mr. 
 Biddle declared that the revulsion which had then become severe was 
 owing to the " mere mismanagement " of the Government ; denied 
 that " the country has overtraded that the banks have over-issued, 
 and that the purchasers of public lands have been very extravagant;" 
 and concluded his long argument to sustain these positions thus tri 
 umphantly : " Exchange with all the world is in favor of New York. 
 How, then, can New York be an overtrader ? Her merchants have 
 sold goods to the merchants of the interior, who are willing to pay, 
 and, under ordinary circumstances, able to pay, but, ly the mere fault 
 of the Government as obvious as if an earthquake had swallowed them 
 up, their debtors are disabled from making immediate payment. IT is 
 
 NOT THAT THE ATLANTIC MERCHANTS HAVE SOLD TOO MANY GOODS, l)Ut 
 
 that the Government prevents their receiving pay for any." 
 
 And this in the face of sales of public lands during that year to 
 the amount of twenty-four millions of dollars, an<l an excess of im 
 ports over exports of sixty-one millions! But even this great finan 
 cier, who was competent of himself to regulate all the business of 
 the country, could, at last, be made to learn what every man of com 
 mon-sense had known long before. 
 
 On May 13, 1837, two days after his bank had suspended, in a 
 second letter to Mr. Adams, Mr. Biddle said : " We owe a debt to 
 foreigners by no means large for our resources, but disproportioned 
 to our present means of payment. We have worn, and eaten, and 
 drunk, the produce of their industry too much of all, perhaps, ~but 
 that is our fault, not theirs." Ko doubt ! But when had we done 
 so ? Even Mr. Biddle would not say that it was after the writing of 
 his previous letter. 
 
 He also said that, "had the bank consulted merely its own 
 strength, it would have continued its payments without reserve." 
 Certainly ! He suspended for the sake of the other banks, just as he 
 made his night-journey in 1825, and his fraudulent arrangement as 
 to the three per cents, in 1832, for their sake. These facts all rest 
 
30 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 upon the same testimony ! He promised also to " take the lead in an 
 early resumption of specie payments." 
 
 In the fall of 1837, when a convention was proposed to bring 
 about a general resumption, the United States Bank at first refused to 
 join in it ; and afterward sent delegates, who opposed resumption, 
 and succeeded in voting down the measure through its associates and 
 dependents. And when the New York banks were about to resume 
 alone, on April 5, 1838, in a third letter to Mr. Adams, Mr. Biddle 
 argued at great length that the resumption then was "premature," 
 threatening them in an insolent tone with the consequences of the 
 attempt, and told them to appeal to the Legislature "to rectify their 
 mistake," and legalize a further suspension ! The New York banks 
 resumed about the 1st of May, but the United States Bank remained 
 suspended until the latter part of the year, when it nominally re 
 sumed by substituting post-notes for its ordinary circulation ; or, in 
 other words, notes bearing on their face a promise of payment a 
 year after date for notes bearing on their face a promise of payment 
 on demand. 
 
 In the spring of 1839 Mr. Biddle resigned the presidency of the 
 bank, announcing that, having brought it safely through all the diffi 
 culties, and leaving it in a sound and prosperous condition, he could 
 now retire from its management. Through the summer it struggled 
 with the embarrassments daily thickening upon it, and in October it 
 failed, inflicting upon the commercial affairs of the country the ex 
 tensive mischief under which they have been suffering for the year 
 past, but from which, thanks to the beneficent regulation of the laws 
 of trade, they are now rapidly recovering. 
 
 The speech contains one error in political economy, viz., 
 that prices are governed by the volume of the currency ; but, 
 although this is laid down as a principle, there are passages 
 in the speech which indicate that even then some doubt of 
 its truth was forming in Mr. Tilden s mind. It remained for 
 him in his last annual message to the Legislature of New- 
 York to refute the fallacy which he had once entertained, and 
 which is still accepted by many would-be teachers of finance. 
 
 In reproducing that portion of the speech which deals 
 with the wages of labor, it is proper to say that allowance 
 should be made for the marked changes which have taken 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 31 
 
 place in many foreign countries during the past thirty-six 
 years. 
 
 THE WAGES OF LABOE. 
 
 "Wages are estimated in two modes the one in money, when they 
 are called money or nominal wages ; and the other by the amount ot 
 the necessaries and comforts of life which they will purchase, when 
 they are called real wages. 
 
 FLUCTUATION" IN ^MONET-WAGES INJUEIOUS TO THE MECHANIC AND 
 * LABOEEB. 
 
 Fluctuations in the currency produce the same fluctuations in 
 money-wages as in money-prices. They subject the mechanic and 
 the laborer to the same uncertainty, miscalculation and disappoint 
 ment in business, that fluctuations in prices do the farmer, the mer 
 chant, and the manufacturer. Not only this. Wages do not always 
 rise and fall in exact proportion to prices ; and it usually happens 
 that, when prices are high, the mechanic and the laborer find their 
 command over the means of subsistence diminished ; and that, when 
 prices are low, they are often, especially if congregated in large estab 
 lishments, deprived of their accustomed employment. On the whole, 
 then, they suffer more by the vicissitudes in the currency and business 
 than any other class, and have, consequently, a greater interest than 
 any other in the establishment of a stable currency. I have already 
 sufficiently shown that the measures before the country, advocated 
 by either party, cannot perceptibly increase or diminish the perma 
 nent amount of the currency or the average of prices, but only make 
 both the currency and prices fluctuate more or less ; and I trust that 
 I have also shown that the tendency of the Democratic measures is to 
 diminish, and that of the Whig measures to increase, these fluctuations. 
 The general principle applies equally to prices and wages. 
 
 ALL PEODUCEE-S INTERESTED IN EEAL WAGES. 
 
 I design to consider the subject of wages in its widest sense as 
 the remuneration of labor. For that purpose I shall take real wages, 
 or wages estimated by the amount of necessaries and comforts which 
 they will purchase, as the true standard ; and I shall regard every 
 industrious man of whatever calling as a recipient of wages. 
 
 The farmer receives wages. After he has deducted from his gross 
 income the expenses of his farm, excluding his own and his family s 
 
32 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 support, the residue is divided into two parts : the first, profits on the 
 capital invested in his farm, stock, and utensils ; and the second, wages 
 for his personal labor, skill, and responsibility in their management. 
 Allowing for the low rate of profits which attends desirable invest 
 ments, and the high rate of wages which attends the exercise of skill 
 and responsibility, as well as mere labor, and regarding the fact that 
 farms are mainly worked by their owners and their families, it can 
 not be doubted that far the larger share of all the farmer receives and 
 applies to the support of himself and his family, or accumulates, is in 
 the nature of wages. The mechanic lives mainly, and the laborer ex 
 clusively, upon wages. It is unnecessary, however, further to dis 
 tinguish the two parts which make up the net income of the indus 
 trious classes; for both parts are in practice affected alike by the 
 general laws to which I am about to refer. This net income of the 
 producers, or the amount of value which can be applied to the pur 
 poses of support and accumulation, is evidently the real test of their 
 prosperity. 
 
 CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH DETEEMINE THE EEMUNEEATION OF LABOB. 
 
 I now proceed- to inquire into the circumstances which affect the 
 remuneration of industry in different countries. Suppose that two 
 communities exist, each composed of the same number of laborers ; 
 and that one of these communities, by greater industry, superior 
 skill, or better implements, should produce twice as much as the 
 other of the necessaries and comforts of life. If an equal division 
 of the products of each community among its members were made, 
 an individual in the first would receive twice as much in remunera 
 tion of his labor as an individual in the second community ; in other 
 words, his real wages would be twice as large. This would be equally 
 the case, whether all the individuals in these communities were la 
 borers, or whether they united the characters of capitalist and laborer, 
 or whether they were divided into separate classes of employers and 
 workmen. For, under free and equal laws, the division between 
 these classes of the whole proceeds of industry would be equitably 
 adjusted, and the positive amount received by the laborer would de 
 pend upon the amount to be divided ; or, in other words, the real 
 wages of labor would depend upon its productiveness. And the 
 actual rate of real wages in every country does in fact depend upon 
 the productiveness of its industry, except so far as the whole pro- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 33 
 
 ceeds are diminished by the consumption of the Government, or 
 changed from their natural distribution by unequal legislation. 
 
 The connection between the remuneration and the productiveness 
 of labor is everywhere obvious. The return of agricultural produce, ac 
 cording to Baron Ilumboldt, is in Germany, where wages are low, not 
 over fourfold the seed ; and there is reason to believe that it is not more 
 in the larger part of Europe. The produce of wheat in the principal 
 grain-exporting regions near Odessa and the Baltic does not exceed 
 three* or four times the seed ; and the labor of a man will not obtain 
 one-eighth the quantity it would in Illinois. Arthur Young said that ag 
 ricultural labor in England at double price was cheaper than in Ireland. 
 It was stated in evidence before the factory commission in England 
 that, although labor is twice as high in the English factories as in 
 those of many other parts of Europe, it accomplishes more than twice 
 as much, and, if measured by that standard, is really cheaper ; and 
 the fact has been repeatedly verified. The United States fear the 
 competition, not of India, where labor is lowest, but of England, 
 where it is next highest to our own. England fears most the com 
 petition of this country, where labor is the highest in the world. 
 
 The principal causes connected with political institutions which 
 affect the productiveness of industry are : first, security of property ; 
 and, secondly, freedom of industry. 
 
 Security of property, in its most comprehensive and just sense, 
 includes not only security to the capitalist in the possession of prop 
 erty rightfully acquired, but also security to the laborer in the imme 
 diate results of his toil. The motive to labor is the enjoyment of 
 its fruits, and just in proportion as the prospect of that enjoyment is 
 increased or diminished will the motive be strengthened or weak 
 ened and industry flourish or languish. Insecurity, whether pro 
 ceeding from open violence, from oppressive taxation, or from un 
 equal legislation, exerts a deleterious influence upon industry. It di 
 minishes the tendency of capital to increase and invest itself in labor- 
 saving machinery and works of public utility, and it lessens the dili 
 gence and efficiency of labor. 
 
 In India and Turkey, and most despotic countries, insecurity of 
 person and property exists in every form and to an aggravated ex 
 tent. Even in France, the people, until recently, have been so sub 
 ject to invasions and civil dissensions that private capital does not 
 hazard investment in mills, bridges, canals, or railroads, which would 
 have been exposed by such events to destruction ; the peasantry live 
 
34 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 grouped in villages, compelled to go daily several miles to their little 
 patches of land, and to raise their heaviest crops on the nearest land 
 to save the expense of transportation, and after all subjected to great 
 expense in cultivation ; taxation is heavy, and unequal legislation 
 prevails. In England the capitalist is secure ; but the earnings of the 
 laborer are largely consumed by taxation, or transferred to the privi 
 leged classes. I was recently told by an intelligent English manu 
 facturer that most of the operatives were improvident and reckless. 
 How should it be otherwise? "What rational hope have they of per 
 manently improving their situation ? All experience has proved that 
 the goad of necessity will not make the laborer diligent or efficient 
 as the hope of bettering his condition. 
 
 Freedom of industry is indispensable to the productiveness of 
 labor. If no artificial obstacle exists, every man will naturally devote 
 himself to the kind of business to which .he is most adapted, and 
 which will therefore be most profitable to himself, and the largest 
 possible amount will thus be produced. Every restriction on business 
 and every monopoly tends directly to force a misapplication of labor, 
 and thus to lessen its productiveness. In most countries, scarcely 
 any business can be engaged in without a long apprenticeship or a 
 special license ; or prosecuted except under a multitude of restrictions 
 which frequently interpose an absolute barrier to improvement. Ex 
 clusive privileges to follow particular trades or branches of mechani 
 cal or manufacturing or other business abound. The prices of mo 
 nopolized products are invariably enhanced ; and, while a part of the 
 difference goes to increase the profits of the monopolist, the rest is 
 totally lost in ttie misapplication of labor, or in the diminished econ 
 omy which exemption from competition always occasions. 
 
 I have already remarked that the actual remuneration of labor in 
 a country does not depend exclusively upon its productiveness, but 
 is also affected by taxation and unequal legislation. Taxation not 
 only discourages production, but it consumes a portion of what is 
 produced, and, if, as in most countries, it is unequally imposed, it 
 diminishes still more the share assigned to the laborers. Unequal 
 legislation, monopolies, and exclusive privileges of every description, 
 not only lessen production, but alter the distribution of what is pro 
 duced, invariably to the injury of the laboring-classes. These causes 
 and those which have been already referred to, will, I believe, satis 
 factorily account for the difference in the reward of labor and in the 
 condition of the industrious masses im various countries. I shall con- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 35 
 
 fine my illustrations to a single instance ; and I select ^England, be 
 cause the evils to which. I have alluded exist there in a less degree 
 than in most countries, and especially because the system of policy 
 which a powerful interest is now seeking to fasten upon this coun 
 try is derived from her, and its tendencies are best exemplified in 
 her condition. 
 
 EXAMPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 In England, restrictions upon the freedom of industry and mo 
 nopolies are very numerous. The exchange of domestic productions 
 is embarrassed by excise, and the regulations prescribed to secure 
 the revenue from evasion frequently prevent improvements in manu 
 facture. But I pass over the minor monopolies which exist more or 
 less in- all kinds of business, to a few of a general and important char 
 acter. The corn laws impose an annual tax upon the country esti 
 mated by high authorities to be at least one hundred and twenty mill 
 ion dollars, one-fourth of which is supposed to enhance the profits 
 of the great landed capitalists, while the other three-fourths are lost 
 in forcing the cultivation of grain upon soils fit, at best, only for 
 pasturage. And this tax, being laid upon an article of necessity 
 which is consumed in nearly an equal proportion by the poor and 
 rich, operates as a capitation tax, and its burden falls mainly upon 
 the laboring-classes. The other monopolies of articles of food and 
 necessity are estimated by the Westminster Review to impose a tax, 
 falling also upon the same classes, of seventy million dollars, and 
 that of the products of the colonies thirty millions. The -annual cost 
 of the established Church, to which three-fifths of the people are dis 
 senters, is forty millions, and that of the pauper system is thirty -Jive 
 millions. The annual charge for th,e national debt is one hundred 
 and forty millions, and that for the ordinary expenditures of the Gov 
 ernment one hundred and ten millions. These two hundred and fifty 
 millions " the makers of the laws have contrived " to assess, says Sir 
 Henry Pownell, "first by the^ .selection of the taxes imposed, and 
 secondly by the selection of taxes repealed," so that only thirty mill 
 ions of it falls upon the landlords, while the remaining two hundred 
 and twenty millions falls upon the industrious classes. The aggre 
 gate of the items which I have enumerated is an annual burden upon 
 the labor of England of Jive hundred and forty-five million dollars, 
 and most of which is taken directly from that portion of the pro 
 ceeds of industry which is assigned to the laborers as the reward of 
 their toil. * 
 
36 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Mr. Pitt said, years ago, that u three-fifths of the price of lahor 
 is said to come into the Exchequer. Mr. Bulwer has recently esti 
 mated that " every working-man is taxed to the amount of one-third 
 of his wages." The monopolies have the same influence as taxa 
 tion, and must still further reduce the amount finally left to the 
 laborer of his own earnings. The whole effect of either is not ex 
 hibited by the money-price of labor, nor until the laborer purchases 
 with his wages the means of subsistence at enhanced prices. 
 
 Is it wonderful that the laboring-classes of England are plunged 
 in poverty and wretchedness, and that, when under the vibrations of 
 a monopoly banking system, deprived of their accustomed pittance, 
 they are subjected to absolute starvation ? Is it wonderful that, ac 
 cording to the Foreign Quarterly Review, one-sixth of the whole popu 
 lation are paupers ? 
 
 ME. WEBSTER ON WAGES. 
 
 Mr. Webster, in a recent speech, narrates at length his observa 
 tions in England, as to the wages of labor, and argues that the Inde 
 pendent Treasury will reduce wages in this country to the same con 
 dition. 
 
 He is equally unfortunate in his reasonings and in his illustrations. 
 Is he so ignorant of the first principles of the science of currency as 
 to suppose that the Independent Treasury can alter in the least the 
 average amount of the whole currency, or affect it at all, further 
 than to substitute specie for paper in the small part of it used in 
 Government transactions ? Does he not know that the whole system 
 of a currency such as ours rests upon the principle that it cannot 
 permanently vary, in its amount, from the specie which would have 
 circulated if it had not been displaced by paper ? and that a specie 
 currency differs from a paper currency not in its average amount, but 
 only in its comparative steadiness and uniformity ? that if we had a 
 specie currency, of which there is not the least possible danger, the 
 average price of labor would be the same as under a paper currency ? 
 
 Mr. Webster talks of the evil of a contracted currency. Does he 
 think that a metallic currency is necessarily small ? Is he not aware 
 that the specie currency of France is twice as large, in proportion 
 to population, as ours of paper and specie both ? that her low wages 
 depend upon entirely different causes from a scanty currency ? 
 
 In referring to the effect of a specie currency on wages, is he un- 
 ? nf ormed of facts as well as of principles ? Does he not know that 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 37 
 
 the condition of laborers in Russia where the currency is nearly all 
 paper is worse than in almost any other country in Europe ? that 
 in Austria where the currency is half paper their condition is 
 worse and their wages lower than in France? that in Cuba to 
 which he specially refers and where the currency is all specie wages 
 are very high ? Does he not know that, in the countries which hap 
 pen to have both, the low wages are no more owing to the specie 
 currency than to the fertile soil or genial climate which some of them 
 have also, but which oppression has rendered unavailing ? In the 
 inquiries which he tells us he made while in Europe, into the condi 
 tion of the laboring-classes, did he not learn, as the cause of their 
 degradation, that they are misgoverned ? Did he not find that, even 
 in the least misgoverned countries, the burden upon labor of public 
 debts, taxation, and monopolies, by consuming its earnings and les 
 sening production, exceeds every year twice the whole amount of 
 their currencies, whether paper or specie, and fifty times the annual 
 interest of that amount ? 
 
 Mr. Webster takes all his illustrations from the condition of 
 the laborers of England. What has that to do with the measufes 
 whose effects he is endeavoring to show ? Has England an Indepen 
 dent Treasury, or even a specie currency ? On the contrary, has she 
 not that very union of the Government with a central bank which 
 Mr. Webster seeks to bring about in this country ? Has she not a 
 half paper currency, "regulated" by a monopoly, which has been 
 twenty-five of the last fifty years suspended, was again on the verge 
 of failure in 1825, and has been twice in danger in the last four 
 years ? and which, although somewhat restrained by the specie part 
 of the circulation, is still able to produce such fluctuations in the 
 currency as to add to the other miseries of the laborers uncertainty 
 in obtaining even their scanty pittance ? 
 
 In all Mr. Webster s investigations into the condition of the labor 
 ing-classes of England, he could discover not one of the institutions 
 against which he seeks, by his reference to it, to excite a^ senseless 
 clamor. But he could have seen if his eye could discern such things 
 the natural results of a Government which is founded, as he said 
 all governments ought to be, "upon property." He might have 
 seen the effects of the spirit of monopoly, which he so cherishes in 
 this country, written in the suffering of millions of human beings. 
 
 I believe, gentlemen, that I express a sentiment common to us all, 
 and which struggles indignantly for utterance, when I say that the 
 
38 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 
 
 man who could witness what Mr. Webster describes, and, returning 
 to our happy land, could compare the condition of that oppressed 
 people with ours not to warn us against the system which caused 
 their degradation, but to urge the establishment of a great moneyed 
 monopoly, in absolute supremacy over the business interests of this 
 country can have little appreciation of the causes of our prosperity, 
 and little sympathy with the principle of equal liberty, on which that 
 prosperity is founded. He may be the appropriate agent of the stock 
 jobbing interests, seeking the partial and unjust advantages which 
 they possess elsewhere ; but he is unfit to guide, as he will do if his 
 present efforts are successful, the administration of a free Govern 
 ment 
 
 CAUSES OF THE LAEGE EEWAED OF INDUSTBY IN THIS COUNTBY. 
 
 The sources of the prosperity of our own country are obvious. 
 The security of all classes in their property causes the most rapid 
 growth and the most useful investment of capital, and increases the 
 diligence and efficiency of labor. The general freedom of industry 
 enables all to apply their labor to the utmost advantage. The strongest 
 inducements and the widest competition stimulate to rapid improve 
 ment. Our industry, in its infant energies, has become, tra the whole, 
 more productive than that of any other nation. But a small portion 
 of its proceeds has been consumed by public debts and taxation, 
 and but few monopolies have existed to change their natural distri 
 bution. The reward of labor is, consequently, greater than in any 
 other part of the world. Our social order is based upon equal liberty. 
 Its fruits are prosperity, happiness, and virtue. This is our genuine 
 American system, and the only one that deserves the name. 
 
 ABSURDITY OF THE CEY " AGEAEIA^ISM." 
 
 I am aware that an effort has been made, in a widely-circulated 
 pamphlet, called " The Crisis," to excite alarm for the security of 
 property. The attempt originates in an entire ignorance of the prin 
 ciples which distinguish our system from the European. There, where 
 unjust legislation has withdrawn property from the masses who have 
 earned it, to concentrate it in the few, the plunderers may well fear 
 lest their booty be reclaimed lest the physical power from which 
 they have wrested it shall, sooner or later, rise to avenge the wrong. 
 But here, where property diffuses itself through the masses who have 
 produced it, and will do so more and more if its natural tendency is 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. 39 
 
 not counteracted by unequal legislation, property is united with the 
 physical power of society, and rests upon the opinion and the interests 
 of the whole people. As Mr. Jefferson said, Government is the 
 strongest, he might have added, property is the most secure, in this 
 country of any in the world. The eccentricities of individual opinion 
 can never endanger either. The cant cry of " agrarianism " comes, in 
 other countries, from those who are themselves practising that worse 
 species of it, which takes by force or fraud from those who have 
 little, to give to those who have much. And, in this country, it in 
 variably comes from those who are seeking to establish some scheme 
 of unequal legislation or special privilege. But here it. is not merely 
 hypocritical, it is absurd 
 
 The foregoing excerpts show to some extent the scope 
 and purpose of the speech ; but not fully. It was designed 
 not only as an affirmative argument, but as an answer to the 
 various arguments made by the Whigs, and it covered the 
 whole ground. The following brief passage may be profitably 
 read and pondered by the influential class to whom it is ad 
 dressed : 
 
 An unstable currency, producing instability in business and prices, 
 is peculiarly injurious to the farmer. Neither his education nor his 
 disposition accustoms him to watch the barometer of the exchange. 
 When he has conducted his business with prudence and skill, with a 
 familiar knowledge and sagacious estimate of all the circumstances 
 that belong to it, he ought to be safe. He ought not to be subject to 
 the tremendous agency of an unseen cause which may disappoint his 
 wisest calculations and overwhelm him. in sudden ruin. He ought to 
 be secure, in the tranquillity of his fireside, from the curse of an un 
 stable and fluctuating currency. 
 
 This speech brought Mr. Tilden into friendly relations 
 with the leading financial writers of the country. Azariah C. 
 Flagg, who was publishing at that time, in Albany, a cam 
 paign paper called the Rough-Hewer, printed the speech as 
 an " extra " to his paper, and caused it to be distributed far 
 and wide. It survived the overwhelming defeat of Mr. Van 
 Buren and the Democratic party. On the 21st of December, 
 1840, Cond6 Raguet, of.Philadelphia, the distinguished politi- 
 
40 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Cal economist and author of several standard works on bank 
 ing, currency, and free trade, wrote to William Cullen Bry 
 ant, saying : " If you can give me the address (by mail) of 
 Mr. Tilden, who delivered an address last October at New 
 Lebanon in your State, you will oblige me. I wish a copy 
 of this most masterly production to send to a friend in Eng 
 land, who knows how to appreciate the truths of political 
 economy." On the 19th of January, 1841, Mr. Raguet wrote to 
 Mr. Tilden, acknowledging the receipt of twelve copies of the 
 speech which, he says, " will be distributed among gentlemen 
 who know how to appreciate the worth of sound doctrine set 
 forth in clear and intelligible language." He adds : "There 
 is in this city (Philadelphia) a small club of gentlemen who 
 study political economy as a science, and who intermeddle 
 with politics only so far as to withhold their suffrages from 
 those who are identified with false views of banking and cur 
 rency and the freedom of trade, and from three or four of 
 them I have heard the remark, which corresponds with my 
 own opinion, that your speech is the clearest exposition of 
 the subjects to which it relates that has yet appeared in that 
 department of composition." William M. Gouge, of Wash 
 ington, also wrote to Mr. Tilden in regard to the speech, and 
 said, among other things : " Henry Lee, Esq., of Waltham, 
 Massachusetts (formerly of Boston), has had his attention 
 attracted to it by an extract in the Globe. He wishes to 
 procure a copy of the speech, but says he does not know 
 where to address you. You will oblige me by sending him a 
 copy if you have one to spare. Mr. Lee was selected by the 
 Nullifiers as their candidate for Vice-President. He is a man 
 of great intelligence and respectability." 
 
 Such compliments from such sources come rarely to a 
 young man who essays to be a teacher of political economy. 
 It was not he whom they praised but his work, and to that 
 work they applied the test of critical rules based on extensive 
 knowledge. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS LAW-OFFICE. HIS ACQUAINTANCE. SILAS WEIGHT AND 
 
 OTHERS. HE ESTABLISHES A PAPER, HELPS TO ELECT A 
 PRESIDENT, AND DECLINES THE NAVAL OFFICE. 1841- 45. 
 
 AFTER Mr. Tilden s admission to the bar, in 1841, he 
 opened an office for the practice of his profession in Pine Street, 
 in the city of New York. There came to him clients in moder 
 ate numbers, attracted by the growing reputation of the wise 
 young counselor. Such as intrusted their business into his 
 hands were more than satisfied with the result. They found 
 him patient, painstaking, and almost always successful. He 
 made himself the master of a case before he undertook to 
 prosecute or defend it. All possible points or objections 
 which might arise in the trial of a cause presented them 
 selves, first of all, to his mind, and he was therefore prepared 
 to meet them. No client in those early days or later found 
 fault with him, but one and all became his eulogists, and 
 helped to extend the lines of his professional pursuits. 
 
 But he did not devote himself exclusively to the law. 
 His office was visited more frequently by thinkers than by 
 clients. Thither came editors and writers, political econo 
 mists and free-traders, politicians and statesmen. The trim 
 figure of Martin Van Buren might sometimes be seen ascend 
 ing the steps. He went to draw inspiration from the fresh 
 and vigorous mind of his young friend. William Cullen 
 Bryant, then in the prime of his useful life, was also an occa 
 sional visitor. He had faith in the soundness of Mr. Tilden s 
 opinions, and, though they have often differed since on politi 
 cal subjects, the strong bond of personal friendship existing 
 
43 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 between them has never been broken or wrenched. John 
 Van Buren brilliant, lovable, erratic Prince John delighted 
 in the old Pine Street office. He could talk sense or nonsense 
 by the hour, and he never wearied of either. To the end of 
 his days he looked up to Mr. Tilden as his best adviser and 
 one of his dearest friends. There also came John Bigelow, 
 then a young 1 lawyer just admitted to practice, but destined 
 to win a name in the fields of journalism, statesmanship, and 
 literature ; and Parke Godwin, his friend and brother-in-law, 
 who early developed a tendency to independent and vigorous 
 thinking. There was one other visitor, who came rarely, but 
 who was even more welcome than those friends whom I have 
 enumerated. His name was Silas Wright. He was at that 
 time a Senator in Congress. He was in the fullness of his fame, 
 between forty and fifty years of age a large man, mentally 
 and physically, tall and broad-shouldered, with a Websterian 
 head, and with a power greater far than Webster possessed of 
 awakening the enthusiasm and admiration of his personal fol 
 lowers. He holds to-day no very high place on the scroll of 
 fame. He is known by the rising generation in the State of 
 New York as a Senator and Governor, who won his victories 
 and sustained his one great defeat and that is almost all. 
 In his native State of Massachusetts his name is hardly known 
 by those who have grown up since he died. He was elo 
 quent, but the traditions which keep alive the eloquence of 
 Henry, Otis, and Adams, of Randolph, Webster, and Clay, do 
 not exist in regard to Wright, or, at least, are confined to a 
 narrow circle. He was successful, but his success, by his own 
 deliberate act of self-sacrificing friendship, stopped short of 
 the goal of the average American statesman s ambition the 
 presidency and left him to be enrolled in the more numer 
 ous company of Senators who come and go and are forgotten. 
 He might have been the candidate of the Democratic party 
 for President in 1844, but he peremptorily refused to permit 
 his name to be used in a convention which had slaughtered 
 his friend Martin Van Buren, lest it should appear that .per- 
 
ESTABLISHES THE MORNING NEWS. 43 
 
 sonal ambition had cooled the ardor of his devotion. He was 
 nominated for Vice-President, without his knowledge, by that 
 same convention, but declined to run. But, though his elo 
 quence may be forgotten, and his defeat rather than his suc 
 cesses remembered, yet the influence of his life has left its 
 impress on the hearts of many men, and on none deeper than 
 on Samuel J. Tilden s. Tilden loved him. He saw in him the 
 embodiment of those virtues which ennoble the public ser 
 vice. In age, in personal appearance, in habit of thought, 
 and in mental endowments, the two men differed widely; but 
 a strong sympathy, which even- death could not sever, at 
 tached Mr. Tilden to Silas Wright. So it came to pass that 
 he was the most welcome of all the visitors at the Pine Street 
 office. 
 
 In 1844 the Democrats desired to establish a morning 
 newspaper in the city of New York, with a special view to 
 influencing the presidential election of that year. Mr. Tilden 
 was approached on the subject, and offered to subscribe lib 
 erally, considering his limited means at that time, to further 
 the project. But the leading men of the party in the city 
 and State demanded more of him they wished him to assume 
 the management and editorship of the paper. They knew 
 he was a ready writer, and they did not doubt that he would 
 succeed in any business he undertook. It was the first real 
 sacrifice for the party which he had been called upon to make, 
 and it was no small sacrifice. He was treading his wav slowly 
 to fame and fortune in the most exacting of the professions, 
 and to abandon it temporarily was to endanger if not destroy 
 his practice. He had entered upon the law with the fixed de 
 termination of making it the business of his life, and no prom 
 ise of success in other fields could divert him from it. But 
 he accepted the counsels of his party as the demand of duty, 
 and consented to assume the management of the Morning 
 News. Mr. Tilden was always loath to place himself under 
 pecuniary obligations to others, and, fearing lest the venture 
 should prove a failure, he furnished most of the capital. He 
 
44 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 associated with himself in business Mr. John L. O Sullivan, a 
 brilliant writer and sometimes impetuous man, who afterward 
 acquired distinction in the consular service of the United 
 States and as the editor of the Democratic JReview. 
 
 The News was successful from the beginning, not only as 
 a business enterprise, but as a political power. There never 
 was a time in the history of the Democratic party when dis 
 cretion, vitalized by courage, was more essential to journal 
 istic success than during the canvass of 1844. Mr. Folk s 
 nomination for the presidency, and the defeat of Mr. Van 
 Buren, made New York the battle-field of the contest. To 
 promote harmony, and to attest the fidelity of Van Buren s 
 friends, Silas Wright consented to leave the Senate of the 
 United States, and to accept a nomination for Governor.. But, 
 notwithstanding the unselfish course adopted by Van Buren 
 and Wright, the Whigs were hopeful of securing a sufficient 
 number of votes from disaffected Democrats to carry the State 
 of New York for Clay in which event they felt that his elec 
 tion was assured. The Whigs also counted on other divisions 
 to aid them, and foremost among those divisions was that 
 produced by the " Native American " movement. This germ 
 of Knownothingism sprang into existence, gathered strength, 
 and took form, just before the charter election, in April, 1844. 
 The Democrats had nominated Mr. Coddington, and the Whigs 
 Mr. Franklin, for Mayor, when the Natives held a meeting 
 and nominated Mr. Harper, of the well-known publishing firm 
 of Harper & Brothers. Mr. Harper was elected over the can 
 didates of both the great parties by the surprising majority 
 of 4,316. The Native Americans professed to occupy neutral 
 ground between the Whigs and Democrats, and declared that 
 their organization had no other purpose in view than to pre 
 vent adopted citizens from monopolizing the local offices. As 
 a majority of these adopted citizens would naturally affiliate 
 with the Democracy the party which came into existence on 
 the question of the repeal of the Alien and Sedition laws a bold 
 effort was made to unite the Native Americans in support of the 
 
HELPS TO ELECT A FKESIDENT. 45 
 
 Whig candidates. If that effort had succeeded, the Whigs 
 would have carried New York, and Mr. Clay would have been 
 President, for the Natives had recruited their strength almost 
 as largely from the Democratic as from the Whig ranks. To 
 defeat the scheme, and to win back to the Democratic party 
 the voters who had gone off on this side-issue, was the work 
 to which Mr. Tilden particularly devoted himself through the 
 columns of the Morning JVews. The " American mechanics," 
 as they delighted to call themselves, constituted a class among 
 whom he was no stranger. Long before this " Native " ques 
 tion had arisen, he had endeared himself to them by the reso 
 lution and address previously referred to, and through the 
 publication of which they had gained important political rec 
 ognition. They were more tolerant, therefore, of his advice 
 than of that of almost any other Democrat. The result of the 
 election in the city showed that he had worked to some pur 
 pose. Mr. Polk secured a majority of 1,734, and Mr. Wright 
 a majority of 3,386, while the Native Americans elected their 
 candidates for the Assembly, the State Senate, and Congress. 
 Mr. Polk carried the State by a plurality approximating 5,100, 
 while Governor Wright was elected by 10,033 majority over 
 Millard Fillmore, the Whig candidate for Governor. 
 
 After the election, Mr. Tilden brought his journalistic 
 career to a sudden close. He presented his entire interest in 
 the Daily N~ews which had come to be a valuable piece of 
 property to his partner, Mr. O Sullivan, and returned to the 
 practice of the law. 
 
 In the spring of 1845, after Mr. Folk s inauguration, Mr. 
 Tilden visited Washington in the interest of sonue of his 
 friends who were candidates for positions under the Govern 
 ment. He found there the usual crowd of applicants for 
 places, but as he wanted nothing for himself he was accorded 
 a readier hearing than others. After an interview with Mr. 
 Polk, and with some members of the cabinet, he staid to 
 abide the development of events. He was surprised at the 
 cordial reception which awaited him on all sides, but he had 
 
46 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 no suspicion of the cause of it till Governor Marcy, who bad 
 just been appointed Secretary of War, met him one day, and, 
 seizing his hand, exclaimed : " I congratulate you most heart 
 ily. They have decided after all to give it to you." 
 
 " To give what to me?" asked Mr. Tilden. 
 
 " The New York Naval Office. We talked it over in the 
 cabinet to-day, and the President has decided upon it." 
 
 To most men this would have been a tempting offer. 
 Mr. Tilden had just completed his thirty-first year, and he 
 had his fortune to make. The New York Naval Office was 
 considered one of the best places in the President s gift. A 
 dozen years later the office was sought and held by a distin 
 guished statesman who had been a Senator in Congress, Gen 
 eral John A. Dix. But Mr. Tilden did not hesitate for a 
 moment. He promptly replied : " I won t take the place. I 
 came here to help others, and not to push myself. Moreover, 
 I resolved when I was admitted to the bar that I would never 
 hold an office on account of its pecuniary reward. If I take 
 any position, at any time, it must be in the line of my profes 
 sion, or a post of honor, but at present I will take nothing." 
 
 To the resolution expressed at that time, Mr. Tilden has 
 always steadfastly and strictly adhered. 
 
CHAPTER VT. 
 
 IN THE ASSEMBLY AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1846. 
 
 IN the autumn of 1845 Mr. Tilden accepted a nomination 
 for the New York Assembly, and was elected. He took the 
 place because Governor Wright greatly desired that he should. 
 He had neglected his own affairs so much in the public ser 
 vice since he came to man s estate always without fee or the 
 hope of reward that his lessening income warned him that 
 he must devote himself to his profession if he wished to es 
 cape the inconvenience of poverty. But Governor Wright s 
 wishes were law to him, and it was, indeed, a time when the 
 Governor stood in sore need of the active exertions of all his 
 friends. It is not perhaps desirable unless by way of warn 
 ing to revive the memory of old feuds in the Democratic 
 party, but it is necessary, briefly, to recount the situation of 
 public affairs at the time. Mr. Tilden served in the Assem 
 bly, because that situation, and the events which grew out 
 of it, had a very marked effect on Mr. Tilden s subsequent 
 life. 
 
 On the 1st of Januar} , 1845, when Governor Wright was 
 inaugurated, the future of the party was full of bright promise. 
 The Hunkers and Radicals had"buried (or otherwise concealed) 
 their hatchets, Mr. Polk was triumphantly elected to the 
 presidency, and Mr. Wright to the governorship, while the 
 people everywhere in the State had shown a disposition to 
 discourage or ignore the faction-fights of their leaders. But 
 the bright promise was soon broken, and the future quickly 
 clouded. Within a few days of the assembling of the Legis 
 lature the leaders of the factions were at loggerheads again, 
 
48 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 first over the choice of a Speaker of the Assembly, then over 
 the election of a Senator in Congress, and finally, and more 
 fiercely, over the policy of calling a constitutional convention, 
 and over a bill appropriating money for building the Genesee 
 Valley Canal, for which the Hunkers voted, and which the 
 Governor vetoed. Added to all this was the prospect of a 
 growing coolness between the Administration of Mr. Polk and 
 the friends of Governor Wright. In "Washington it was 
 feared that Wright was being worked up into a presidential 
 candidate for 1848, and in Albany it was charged that no sense 
 of gratitude was shown by the President toward those who 
 had done so much to compass his election. Notwithstanding 
 these feuds, however, the Democrats carried the State by a 
 reasonably large majority in the fall of 1845, secured both 
 branches of the Legislature, and seemed tolerably strong at 
 the beginning of 1846. Governor Wright had taken care to 
 have more of his personal friends in the law-making body 
 than were there the previous year. The most discreet, and 
 therefore the most effective, of these friends was Mr. Tilden. 
 The result was, that Governor Wright grew stronger, and at 
 the end of the session appeared to have regained his old su 
 premacy in the State. 
 
 The general business of the session was not important, 
 but on all questions relating to finance, to the saving of the 
 people s money, to the remission of taxes, and to the enlarge 
 ment of personal liberty, Mr. Tilden showed the spirit and 
 capacity of a leader. On the day before the final adjourn 
 ment (the 12th of Ma^, 1846), the news reached Albany 
 that war had been declared between the United States and 
 Mexico. A joint resolution was immediately introduced, 
 which Mr. Tilden warmly favored, authorizing the Governor 
 to enroll fifty thousand men to meet the emergency, and ap 
 propriating one hundred thousand dollars for that purpose. 
 He opposed the annexation of Texas, but he urged the vigor 
 ous prosecution of the war waged against those who had in 
 sulted the flag of our love and commemoration. 
 
IN THE ASSEMBLY AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 49 
 
 While serving in the Assembly, Mr. Tilden was elected a 
 member of the Constitutional Convention of 1846. In that 
 body he played a distinguished part. It was the desire of 
 the president of the convention to place him on the Judiciary 
 Committee, and the place was congenial to his tastes. But 
 Governor Wright said this to him : " Don t do it. The 
 framing of a really satisfactory judiciary article is an impossi 
 ble task, either now or hereafter. If the members of the com 
 mittee reach any agreement among themselves, I shall be 
 greatly surprised. If the work of any of them meets the ap 
 proval of the convention, I shall be more surprised. The ar 
 ticle which will be adopted in the end will be made up in 
 committee or convention of concessions and compromises. 
 Go where you can make yourself more useful." This advice, 
 which covered a very noteworthy because a very accurate 
 prophecy, was followed by Mr. Tilden, who took the second 
 place on the Committee on Canals and Finance, of which 
 committee Michael Hoffman was chairman. This committee 
 reported the following articles, on the power of the Legis 
 lature to create debt, which were adopted : 
 
 1. No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursu 
 ance of a law specifically appropriating the same, and designating the 
 object to which it is to be applied. 
 
 2. The credit of the State shall never be loaned. 
 
 3. The State may borrow, to meet contingencies, moneys, which 
 in the aggregate shall not exceed one million dollars, and the moneys 
 so borrowed shall be applied to the purpose for which they were ob 
 tained, and no other. 
 
 4. This restriction not to apply to money which it may be neces 
 sary to raise to repel invasion or suppress insurrection. 
 
 5. Except the debts specified in the third and fourth sections of 
 this article, no debt shall be created without at the same time laying 
 a direct annual tax, sufficient to pay the interest and redeem the prin 
 cipal in eighteen years; but no such law shall take effect until it 
 shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and 
 have received a majority of the votes cast at such election. 
 
 If modifications of these stern doctrines had not been 
 3 
 
50 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 urged and adopted, the financial system of the State of New 
 York would have been as near perfection as human enact 
 ments are apt to go. To Mr. Tilden is due, in a large degree, 
 the credit of this work. Michael Hoffman, who was an able 
 financier, accepted Mr. Tilden s suggestions, and sought his 
 counsels. The portion of the work to which Mr. Hoffman 
 more exclusively devoted himself was that relating to the 
 canals ; this threw the question of the State debt on Mr. Til- 
 den, but he in turn was greatly aided in carrying it through 
 the convention by the intelligent zeal and earnest eloquence 
 of Mr. Hoffman. Together these men accomplished a vast 
 labor for the State. 
 
 On the 9th of October, 1846, the Constitutional Conven 
 tion adjourned, and Mr. Tilden was released from those public 
 duties which had occupied his time since the assembling of 
 the Legislature in January. But he could not return to his 
 profession, for on the first day of the same month Silas 
 Wright had been nominated to the office of Governor by an 
 overwhelming majority in the Democratic Convention. A 
 week earlier, the Whigs had placed John Young in nomina 
 tion. A feeling prevailed that the election was to decide the 
 fate of Wright. If he triumphed, he would be the next Pres 
 ident of the United States. If he failed, he might never 
 again rise to prominence in politics. Mr. Tilden felt this, 
 and he worked for him with all the devotion which love in 
 spires. Nevertheless, Silas Wright was defeated, and defeated, 
 too, by more than 11,000 majority. He went to his home in 
 St. Lawrence County, resumed his business as a farmer, gave 
 no outward sign of suffering, but in nine months he died. 
 
 After the defeat of Governor Wright, Mr. Tilden renewed 
 his resolve to return to the practice of his profession, and not 
 again to be diverted into accepting nominations for office. He 
 kept this resolution in spirit, if not in letter. He attended 
 the Buffalo Convention in 1848, as a delegate and a friend of 
 Mr. Van Buren ; but he took no very active part in the can 
 vass. One other departure from this rule forms the subject 
 of the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SUMPTUARY LEGISLATION". 
 
 IN 1855 Mr. Tilden was nominated for Attorney-General 
 of the State of New York by that portion of the Democratic 
 party which had acquired the name of " Soft Shells." The 
 political situation was peculiar. At the election of the pre 
 vious year (1854) Governor Seymour, who had been renomi- 
 nated by the Democrats, was defeated by a vote of 156,495 
 for Seymour, and 156,804 for his successful competitor, Myron 
 H. Clark. At the same election the Know-nothings cast a 
 vote of 122,282, and the "Hard-Shell" Democrats polled 
 33,850 votes. The canvass was very exciting, and the excite 
 ment grew chiefly out of the fact that, during the previous 
 winter, the Legislature passed a prohibitory liquor law which 
 Governor Seymour vetoed. He based his veto on the broad 
 ground that the act was unconstitutional (the ground sub 
 sequently taken by the Court of Appeals), but none the less 
 he was fiercely attacked in various quarters. The Prohibi 
 tionists united in the support of Myron H. Clark, who was 
 also adopted by the Republican party, which was then in the 
 first year of its existence with an unperfected organization. 
 The divisions in the Democratic ranks, and the large vote 
 drawn off by the native Americans, contributed to Governor 
 Clark s success. His election was hailed by the Prohibitionists 
 as a triumph of their principles. What was commonly called 
 the Maine Liquor Law passed the Legislature of 1855, and 
 was signed by the Governor. Under the stimulus of success 
 the Prohibitionists grew somewhat intemperate in their zeal, 
 and threatened to drive into private life those officials, includ- 
 
52 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ing judges, who questioned the propriety or legality of their 
 acts. 
 
 This, then, was the situation when Mr. Tilden was nomi 
 nated for Attorney-General. The Prohibitionists were in 
 power ; the Know-nothings were steadily gaining strength, 
 and the Democrats were divided and appeared to be losing 
 ground rapidly. But Mr. Tilden s fine and growing fame as 
 a lawyer would have made him a great accession to the ranks 
 of any party. The Know-nothings would gladly have adopted 
 him if he had even consented to hold his peace on the doctrines 
 which they advocated. But he took most emphatic ground 
 against their proscriptive policy, and boldly championed the 
 rights of adopted citizens. The Prohibitionists would have 
 enrolled him in their ranks, notwithstanding his Democratic 
 antecedents, if he had met them half-way. It seemed, at 
 least, to be the part of prudence that he should keep quiet on 
 the issue of prohibition during the canvass. But prudence of 
 that sort was never an element of his nature. Pending the 
 canvass a note was addressed to each of the four candidates 
 for Attorney-General (for the Prohibitionists, the Know-noth 
 ings, and the " Hard " and " Soft " Democrats had all nomi 
 nated tickets), asking his opinion on the question of the pro 
 hibition act. Mr. Tilden s reply to that note was as follows : 
 
 NEW YORK, October 3, 1855. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : Your letter asking my opinion as to the law recently 
 enacted in this State, and entitled " An Act for the Prevention of 
 Intemperance, Pauperism and Crime," has been received. 
 
 The question relates to the functions of the office for which I have 
 been nominated, and may reasonably, and does, in fact, largely occupy 
 the attention of the electors. Under the circumstances, I have no 
 hesitation in stating to you opinions which have been expressed to so 
 man^ persons and for so long a period as to protect me from the sus 
 picion of shaping them to the present exigency, and which accord en 
 tirely with the rules for construing our State and federative constitu 
 tions, the principles of political economy, and the convictions as to 
 the proper sphere of government by which my political action has 
 been hitherto invariably guided. 
 
SUMPTUARY LEGISLATION. 53 
 
 The design of the law to which yon refer is to stop the use of all 
 distilled spirits, wines, ales, and beers, except for manufacturing, 
 medicinal, and sacramental purposes, by disabling all individuals from 
 obtaining these articles, unless from certain quasi public officers in 
 vested with legal power to judge, in their own absolute discretion, 
 as to the probable nature of the use intended by the purchaser. It 
 is not strange that the authors of an act which aims at controlling 
 the tastes and habits of three and a half millions of people, in a mat 
 ter which each individual must regard as peculiarly, if not exclusive 
 ly, personal to himself which aims at working, by a legislative fiat, 
 an instantaneous revolution in the traditional customs of large classes, 
 in a particular in respect to which all men are apt to be most tena 
 cious should deem it necessary to invoke the aid of a novel and 
 extraordinary legal machinery. Intent on such an object, they nat 
 urally saw what it required, rather than what the constitution al 
 lows. They devised and incorporated into this law a special criminal 
 procedure, on which they obviously relied for the enforcement of its 
 prohibitions and penalties. That procedure is wanting in the char 
 acteristic features and essential elements of the common-law proced 
 ure applicable to such cases, as it has been immemorially practised 
 in this State, and as it has been defined, expounded, and upheld, by 
 an unbroken series of our judicial decisions, as well as by the courts 
 of our sister States, of the Federal Government, and of that country 
 from which the common law itself was derived. Nor does the act 
 stop here. Eeversing a fundamental rule of evidence, which is 
 founded in reason and natural equity, and has been for ages the 
 shield of individual rights and personal safety, it presumes guilt 
 instead of innocence. It declares a delivery to be presumptive evi 
 dence of a sale, and the sale to be sufficient proof of an unlawful 
 intent. Conceding certain uses to be so proper and necessary that 
 the sale cannot be wholly forbidden, it makes the seller an inquisitor 
 into the secret purpose of the buyer ; it then distrusts its own agent 
 and assumes to deal with the intent with which he does an act au 
 thorized by it as lawful ; and, shrinking from itself attempting to 
 prove the true nature of that intent, it pronounces him guilty unless 
 he acquit himself by proof of an equally difficult character. It is 
 but fair to add that the act applies the same code to every citizen 
 who delivers a bottle of wine or a glass of ale for the most useful or 
 humane purpose. Another of its provisions passes sentence of out 
 lawry upon certain property, and abrogates all remedies for its re- 
 
54 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 covery, even as against a thief or robber, unless upon the impracti 
 cable condition that the true owner shall first prove affirmatively 
 the absence from his own mind of the intent to sell. Another totally 
 perverts an ancient and well-settled legal definition, in order to at 
 tach the incidents of a nuisance to property, under circumstances 
 that bear no analogy to that character. And, in many respects, the 
 act works sweeping legislative confiscations of private property. 
 
 It is, in my judgment, against precisely such legislation as this that 
 our State constitution intends to protect every citizen, when it de 
 clares that no person shall " be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
 without due process of law" These latter words are an early legal 
 paraphrase of the words " law of the land," in Magna Charta, which 
 are also adopted from it into another provision of our State constitu 
 tion. The restraints they create were originally imposed on the 
 executive power. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, jealous in behalf of 
 the common law, often invoked their protection, not merely against 
 the arbitrary acts of the sovereign, but against his attempt to intro 
 duce novel processes, similar to that adopted in this act, and borrowed 
 from the same source. Brought to this country with other sacred 
 traditions of ancient freedom, they were inserted in our American 
 written constitutions as restraints on the legislative power in favor 
 of individual rights. In this State the language of the restriction 
 has received a well-settled judicial interpretation. It has been held 
 to restrain the Legislature from itself usurping judicial power over 
 life, liberty, or property, and from creating any new process for the 
 forfeiture of these great rights which should substantially depart 
 from the customary procedure of the common law. This established 
 construction must have been familiar to the able and learned lawyers 
 who shared in the discussion of this part of the constitution in the 
 convention of 1846. In the exact words which had received such a 
 construction, the clause was adopted by that body, and was ratified 
 as the deliberate and permanent will of the people, expressed in the 
 fundamental law of the State. In the same sense, it is now binding 
 on their legislative agents and on the judicial tribunals. I am of 
 opinion, therefore, that the prohibitory act, in the provisions which 
 form its distinguishing characteristics are interwoven with its whole 
 structure, and supply the means on which it relies to effect its pur 
 pose is unconstitutional and void. 
 
 Such legislation springs from a misconception of the proper 
 sphere of government. It is no part of the duty of the State to 
 
SUMPTUARY LEGISLATION. 55 
 
 coerce the individual man except so far as his conduct may affect 
 others not remotely and consequentially but by violating rights 
 which legislation can recognize and undertake to protect. The op 
 posite principle leaves no room for individual reason and conscience, 
 trusts nothing to self-culture, and substitutes the wisdom of the Sen 
 ate and Assembly for the plan of moral government ordained by- 
 Providence. The whole progress of society consists in learning how 
 to attain, by the independent action or voluntary association of indi 
 viduals, those objects which are at first attempted only through the 
 agency of government, and in lessening the sphere of legislation and 
 enlarging that of the individual reason and conscience. Our Amer 
 ican institutions have recognized this idea more completely than 
 others, and the Democratic party has generally been the faithful 
 guardian of its progressive development In most of the great 
 practical questions of our time, it has opposed the interference of 
 Government even for the best objects, and, because it was solicitous 
 for those objects, has preferred to trust them to wiser, safer, and 
 more efficient agencies. Devoted to the rights of our American in 
 dustry, which is now beginning to fill the world with the renown 
 of its achievements, it has refused to direct its application by pro 
 hibitory or protective tariffs ; preferring that each man should judge 
 how he can make his own labor most productive, and trusting for 
 the aggregate result to those natural laws which enable every one 
 of our million of city population to daily choose his food, and yet 
 "furnish buyers for everything that has been provided beforehand. 
 Claiming a good currency for the people, and well-regulated ex 
 changes, it has discarded a national bank, and seeks to put these 
 great interests under the guardianship of the laws of trade. Friendly 
 to the modern machinery of travel and transport, which, by cheap 
 ening the interchange of products of different soils and climates, 
 has in effect added fertility to th e one and geniality to the other, it 
 has opposed internal improvements by the General Government, and 
 prohibited loans of State credit and money in aid of railroads. As 
 serting the freedom of voluntary association, it has refused special 
 charters, and established general laws of incorporation. On all 
 these questions, which have largely occupied the public attention for 
 a generation, because the Democratic party has favored the ends, it 
 has rejected the means by which large parties and many good men 
 have erroneously sought to promote them. To-day, while it is in 
 favor of sobriety and good morals, it disowns a system of coercive 
 
56 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 legislation which cannot produce them, but must create many seri 
 ous evils which violates constitutional guarantees and sound prin 
 ciples of legislation invades the rightful domain of the individual 
 judgment and conscience and takes a step backward toward that 
 barbarian age when the wages of labor, the prices of commodities, 
 a man s food and clothing, were dictated to him by a government 
 calling itself paternal. I need not add that in this conclusion, as 
 well as in the general course of the Democratic party on these former 
 occasions, I entirely concur. 
 
 With great respect, gentlemen, I remain yours, etc., 
 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 To Hon. JOHN TAYLOR and ANDREW KIRK, Esq 
 
 It will be seen that this opinion covers the whole ground. 
 It deals with prohibition as a question of law, a question of 
 statesmanship, and a question of morals. The explicit, straight 
 forward style of its author leaves no room to doubt his posi 
 tion on the issue of sumptuary legislation. I submitted the 
 letter not long ago to the most ultra-prohibitionist of my ac 
 quaintance. He said : " I differ from every proposition con 
 tained in that opinion. But if I were not going to vote for 
 General Smith " (I hope it is unnecessary to explain that 
 General Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, is the prohibitionist 
 candidate for President of the United States this year), " I 
 would vote for Tilden. I have respect for an outspoken oppo 
 nent of our cause, but those miserable politicians who profess 
 to be the friends of prohibition, and who beguile away our 
 votes and destroy our strength, are my utter detestation. 
 Governor Tilden isn t with us, but he is the next best thing, 
 he is an honest enemy." I do not know how many pro 
 hibitionists share this opinion ; but I believe that Mr. Tilden s 
 liberal views on the subject of sumptuary legislation will com 
 mend him to the liberty-loving citizens of the United States. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ME. T1LDEN AS A LAWYER THE FLAGG CASE. 
 
 ME. TILDEN S reputation as a lawyer rests on a secure 
 foundation. He won no marked triumphs in early life as an 
 advocate ; he never sought to convince a jury against their 
 own better judgment by the mere force of eloquence ; and he 
 never gained a case by a quibble or a resort to sharp practice. 
 His "success was the legitimate result of intelligent labor. To 
 estimate his character or to understand his life it is necessary 
 that the reader should follow him through some of the famous 
 law cases with which he has been connected. And, first among 
 these, the Flagg contested election case, in New York City, in 
 1856, claims attention. 
 
 This case came up in the days of Know-nothingism, when 
 a nondescript alliance of political elements styling itself the 
 Native American party, and keeping its policy and member 
 ship bound to the dictates of a secret conclave, had made a 
 brilliant but short-lived success. The political principles of 
 the Know-nothings were averse to the election of any but 
 native Americans to public office. When inquiry was made 
 of any of their number about their party policy the invariable 
 evasion was, " I don t know," from which their opponents 
 quickly manufactured the name by which they are known 
 in political history. In the year 1855 the Know-nothings 
 achieved a partial victory in the State of New York. They 
 elected a Secretary of State by nearly 12,000 majority, five 
 judges of the Supreme Court, and a strong minority in the 
 Legislature. In the city of New York they had exerted 
 themselves to their utmost to elect Giles, who had been nom- 
 
58 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 inated for the office of Comptroller, and who was regarded as 
 a strong candidate chiefly on account of his obscurity. Mr. 
 Giles s opponent, the regular nominee of the Democratic party, 
 was Azariah C. Flagg, whose long connection with the Albany 
 Regency, and whose distinguished services as Comptroller of 
 the State, have already been adverted to. Mr. Flagg was a 
 life-long friend of Mr. Tilden s, and a follower of the same po 
 litical school. 
 
 When the election-returns were counted, it was found that 
 Mr. Flagg had a small majority, the vote standing 20,313 for 
 Flagg, and 20,134 for Giles. The seekers after profitable 
 jobs from the public had counted with the utmost certainty 
 upon Giles s election. They knew perfectly well that, if Mr. 
 Flagg went into office, the fraudulent bills which they had 
 presented would not be audited. They found the cheering 
 prospect of a fortune dissipated by so trivial a matter as 179 
 votes. A defeat which came so close to victory was more 
 than humiliating it was exasperating. They finally hit upon 
 the idea of disputing the legality of Mr. Flagg s election. 
 They resolved to continue the fight in court. The small 
 Democratic majority seemed to Mr. Giles and his friends 10 
 afford opportunity for a contest. They accordingly began to 
 prosecute a quo warranto to test Mr. Flagg s title to the 
 office. The case came before Judge Emott, in the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 In the Nineteenth Ward it was certified that the returns 
 gave Mr. Flagg 316 votes and Mr. Giles 186. Mr. Giles s 
 friends asserted that this vote was illegally recorded, as there 
 had been a clerical error, the 316 votes having been credited 
 to Mr. Flagg, when they should have been given for Mr. 
 Giles, and the 186 were really deposited for Mr. Flagg. In 
 proof of this, Mr. Giles s attorney produced one of the inspect 
 ors of the election a trustworthy man, according to public 
 repute who swore to the returns corresponding to the altered 
 tally-sheets. Another inspector partially supported this tes 
 timony, while it was proved by other evidence that the third 
 
MR. TILDEN AS A LAWYER THE FLAGG CASE. 59 
 
 inspector was intoxicated at the time the election-returns were 
 made. A clerk of the poll was also produced, who sustained 
 the foregoing testimony. Several other witnesses testified to 
 being present when the result of the election was proclaimed, 
 and made a memorandum of it in their note-books, which cor 
 responded to the facts sworn to by the first election-inspector. 
 Thus the contestant s attorney seemed to have secured all the 
 testimony possible in the case, and to have made it useful 
 only on his side ; while the defense was left without proof, or 
 the advantage of weak testimony, when it came to cross- 
 examination. 
 
 To aggravate this condition of the testimony available in 
 the case, it appeared that the tally of the regular votes had 
 disappeared, or at least could not be produced in court, and 
 so this had to be supplied by recollection and collateral tallies. 
 The tally of split votes, which comprised three foolscap sheets, 
 showed the original canvass of split votes and transfers from 
 the tally of the regular vote, giving the aggregate and the 
 number of votes each candidate had received. These split 
 tallies and the transfers of the regular tally corroborated the 
 testimony of the witnesses for the contestant, leaving the case 
 destitute of the barest shadow of evidence upon which the 
 defense might build an argument. 
 
 Such was the situation when Mr, Tilden opened the defense 
 for Mr. Flagg. He determined to employ the testimony of 
 the prosecution for the defense. He compared the tallies and 
 the transfers, and devised fr,om this comparison a means of 
 reconstructing the regular tallies that were lost. His line of 
 reasoning was this : There being twelve officers to vote for, 
 whenever a regular candidate had received a vote on the 
 regular ticket the other eleven must have received the same 
 vote. With this fundamental idea he went through the com 
 binations, the results of which appeared partially on the split 
 tallies and the transfers. By means of these combinations, 
 eighty-four in number, Mr. Tilden succeeded in reproducing 
 the missing tallies. These results completely overthrew the 
 
60 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 basis of the argument of the prosecution, and demonstrated 
 that the testimony of their witnesses was based upon a for 
 gery. Mr. Tilden produced printed copies of his reconstructed 
 tallies, and went over them in thorough review before the 
 court and the jury, until he had convinced them of the impos 
 sibility of the transfers alleged in the returns, and had shown 
 them that the case for the prosecution had been based upon a 
 fabrication. 
 
 In fifteen minutes after the case was given to the jury, 
 they returned with a verdict in favor of Mr. Tilden s client. 
 
 The original, bold, and sure principle by which Mr. Tilden 
 won this case was set forth in his address to the court and 
 jury : 
 
 Tf, by a violent blow (lie said), I should break out the corner of 
 tins table, split a piece off, the fractured and abraded fibres of the 
 wood would be left in forms so peculiar that though all human in 
 genuity might be employed to fashion a piece that would fit in the 
 place from which the fragment had been broken, it could not be 
 done. These things that are the work of God are so much superior 
 in texture to anything we can do, that when they are broken up our 
 ingenuity cannot restore them. 
 
 There is doubtless some difficulty, occasionally, in interpreting 
 this sort of evidence, or rather in ascertaining enough of the asso 
 ciated facts to found your reasoning upon. And, when you think you 
 have to meet a fabricated testimony, what you have to do is to study 
 all the other facts and all their relations to the particular facts in 
 question, so that you can spread out a full map of the fabricated tes 
 timony in equal detail. If, after all this has been done, patiently and 
 thoroughly, if the lie escape the ordeal, I shall believe that the God 
 of justice and truth has not well constructed the work of his hands. 
 
 The great issues at stake in this case made the success of 
 such a bold but resolute course to rest altogether upon the 
 courage and insight of the man who could plan and undertake 
 it. If Mr. Tilden had lost the case, the supporters of Mr. 
 Giles intended to secure the auditing of a vast amount of 
 fraudulent bills which Mr. Flagg had refused to audit. The 
 
MR. TILDEN AS A LAWYER THE FLAGG CASE. 61 
 
 conspiracy to keep Mr. Flagg from the office of Comptroller 
 was indicative of the corrupt practices that would have been 
 imposed upon the government of the city had the case been 
 gained for Mr. Giles. 
 
 The ingenuity, courage, and strength, shown by Mr. Tilden 
 in this case placed him at once at the height of legal distinc 
 tion. Mr. Charles O Conor said of Mr. Tilden s participation 
 in this case that it was the most remarkable intellectual effort 
 he had ever witnessed. That Mr. Tilden rendered this ser 
 vice for Mr. Flagg gratuitously, only enhances the value of 
 the legal distinction which he gained in the case. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BUEDELL CASE. 
 
 A CASE requiring* greater legal skill and a more profound 
 insight into the relations of different phases of truth than the 
 Flagg case was the famous Cunningham-Burdell case, in 
 which Mr. Tilden participated as leading attorney for the 
 contestants. The case at the time aroused great excitement, 
 and, although, when Mr. Tilden and his colleagues plunged 
 into the facts pertaining to it, there seemed to be an over 
 whelming mass of testimony against them, the final adjudica 
 tion of the affair was in accord with popular opinion. 
 
 Dr. Harvey Burdell, a dentist living in his own house 
 at No. 31 Bond Street, New York City, was murdered on the 
 1st of February, 1857. A coroner s inquest was held, and it 
 was found that the deceased came to his death by murder, 
 but committed by whom it was impossible to determine. 
 The preparations for the burial were consummated, when, to 
 the great surprise of all who had been interested or excited, 
 a woman, up to that time supposed to be no more than a 
 middle-aged, dashing widow, by the name of Cunningham, 
 was sprung upon the startled, grief-stricken friends and rela 
 tives as the wife of Dr. Burdell by a secret marriage. 
 
 This surprise created some consternation, but soon resulted 
 in a sober reaction that set measures on foot to repel the fond 
 insinuations and wifely claims of Mrs. Cunningham. 
 
 This woman, Emma Augusta Cunningham, was a buxom, 
 well-preserved woman, in her thirty -fifth year, the mother of 
 a large family, among whom were her two full-grown daugh 
 ters, Helen and Augusta, who were principal witnesses in the 
 
THE BURDELL CASE. 63 
 
 trial which ensued. Mrs. Cunningham was a woman of doubt 
 ful friendships, giv-en to intrigues and deceits, but adroit and 
 resolute withal, so that, once given the proper invitation, she 
 could easily cast so strong and fine a net about the victim of 
 her charms that he would fall a prey to her wishes. She was 
 considered rich and attractive, and was well received in cer 
 tain society, for the graces of her person and the agreeable- 
 ness of her conversation. Her moral character was more for 
 tunate in public esteem than in actual conduct ; but, whatever 
 her amours while a respectable widow and the mother of two 
 lovely daughters old enough to go into society, they were 
 never offensively open, and appear to have been so secret that 
 they never afforded any delight to gossips or eavesdroppers. 
 
 Dr. Burdell was a man between forty and fifty years of 
 age, a bachelor, considered rich, and proud of such a reputa 
 tion. He seems to have been a man of indecisive purpose, 
 unfortunate in his pledges and uncertain in their fulfillment, 
 not particularly immaculate in his social tendencies, and yet 
 well received in society, not as a hypocrite, but simply as a 
 man of peculiarities and pardonable eccentricities. He was 
 anxious to gain money, and niggardly in his efforts to hoard 
 it. 
 
 Dr. Burdell s house had been occupied by a Mrs. Jones, 
 who was the landlady of a genteel boarding-house. Mrs. Cun 
 ningham took Mrs. Jones s place and made the usual agree 
 ment of a tenant with a landlord, and rented a portion of 
 his house at eight hundred.. dollars a year. Their relations 
 to all outward observation were always those of a bachelor 
 and a widow, a landlord and a tenant. No one had the slight 
 est ground for suspecting that they were man and wife until 
 one was murdered and the other put on the weeds and habili 
 ments of deep affliction. 
 
 Mr. Tilden s connection with the affair was after the trial 
 of Mrs. Cunningham and her daughters for the murder of Dr. 
 Burdell. They were found " not guilty " upon a lack of proof 
 against them, rather than for plausible proof that they could 
 
64 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEX. 
 
 be innocent. When Mr. Tilden assumed the defense of Dr. 
 BurdeH s relations and next of kin to resist Mrs. Cunning 
 ham s application for letters of administration and her widow s 
 third, the premises were full of doubt. All the affirmative 
 testimony, by the minister who officiated at the marriage 
 ceremony, the marriage certificate, the daughter of Mrs. Cun 
 ningham, and the servants of the house, seemed to be invin 
 cible. The negative could do but little else than stagger un 
 der the burden of proof. They had no testimony that could 
 be adduced to any effect. The only issue of the matter 
 seemed to be a futile effort to repudiate the claims of Mrs. 
 Cunningham, and then witness her unimpeded triumph at law 
 and enjoyment of the property to which her title at best was 
 darkly clouded. 
 
 A great lawyer is not only learned in the law, so that 
 when the facts are laid before him he may take up the dry, 
 tough problem, putting this fact with that, multiplying and 
 dividing as the law lays down the rule, and demonstrating 
 with mathematical precision the legal conclusion of which the 
 facts are the premises ; but the great lawyer is able also to 
 create, to make order where only chaos has reigned hitherto, 
 to lay down the principles that prove the symmetry and har 
 mony of truth, to be himself the tribunal which puts good 
 with good, true with true, and the false with false. Such a 
 lawyer is Mr. Tilden. His plan of action in the Cunningham- 
 Burdell suit was one that is rarely adopted by the legal pro 
 fession. The circumstantial probabilities of the whole matter 
 indicated to his own mind that Mrs. Cunningham was not only 
 not the wife of Dr. Burdell by any marriage, public or private, 
 but that she was guilty of his murder. This opinion he vent 
 ured to express in his conduct of the defense. Such was the 
 corroborative appearance of the testimony for the claimant, 
 that there was no hope for any successful effort to break it 
 down by negative testimony alone there was none upon the 
 vital points of the case. There were really the appearance and 
 conviction of every proof necessary to establish a case for the 
 
THE BURDELL CASE. 65 
 
 claimant. The only way to defeat her was to strike at the 
 vulnerable points of her evidence, and throw her assertions 
 into confusion. Mr. Tilden determined to make a complete 
 and thorough concordance of every statement and fact intro 
 duced into the case, and this he did, relying upon the affinity 
 between different fragments of truth. With extraordinary 
 skill and deftness he traced lines of testimony into the deep 
 est, most complicated, and perplexed phases of fabrication, 
 and gradually, with a lawyer s patience, unwove the texture 
 of falsehood and pretense, until the truth came to light, and 
 the case was won for the defense. 
 
 Rev. Uriah Marvin was so positive that the man whom he 
 married to Mrs. Cunningham, at his residence, No. 732 Green 
 wich Street, in the evening of October 28, 1856, and the body 
 of Dr. Burdell were identical, that he gave his testimony 
 several times substantially unmodified, and compelled belief 
 in the truth of his statements. Miss Augusta Cunningham, 
 who was the only witness of the alleged marriage, was evi 
 dently most innocently sincere in the belief that her mother 
 had been married secretly to Dr. Burdell. To her there was 
 not a single question of doubt. All the details of the wed 
 ding gloves, ring, side-whiskers, conversation, dress, under 
 clothes, demeanor, conduct, and the innumerable other inci 
 dentals of the occasion were indelibly fixed in her mind, 
 and her testimony under cross-examination found her recol 
 lection of them impregnable. Other trustworthy witnesses 
 testified to seeing Dr. Burdell and two ladies, presumably 
 Mrs. Cunningham and her daughter Augusta, on the streets 
 the night of the alleged marriage, and that they were ap 
 parently destined for Greenwich Street ; that both the doctor 
 and Mrs. Cunningham mentioned their marriage to friends 
 under promise of secrecy ; that he was kind to her at times, 
 and again rude ; that they cohabited as man and wife ; in 
 tended to go to Europe the following summer; and other 
 points, more or less essential. 
 
 In the face of this testimony Mr. Tilden carefully picked 
 
(56 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 out and assorted the various facts given in evidence, and con 
 structed from them a general theory of what the actual rela 
 tions of these facts were. From this it was found that a 
 personation was made of Dr. Burdell, and that this persona 
 tion, in company with the daughter Augusta, was party to 
 the marriage performed by Rev. Uriat Marvin ; that Dr. Bur- 
 dell was in Herkimer, N. Y., on the 27th of October, the day 
 before the wedding, when, according to the claimant s testi 
 mony, he was in New York City, and on the evening of the 
 28th was in the city of Brooklyn ; that in the three months 
 subsequent to the alleged marriage Dr. Burdell renewed 
 abandoned lawsuits against Mrs. Cunningham with fresh 
 energy, declaring that she must get out of his house, for she 
 was an indecent, unprincipled woman, and he would shelter 
 her no longer; and that he made all necessary writings to 
 lease his house to another woman. 
 
 One hundred and fifty-two witnesses were examined, and, 
 when the testimony had all passed through Mr. Tilden s as 
 similating process, there was not a shred of presumption in 
 favor of the claimant. Mr. Tilden began to sum up the argu 
 ment of the case, at six in the evening, and continued till ten 
 o clock; resumed on the following morning at ten, and con 
 cluded at two in the afternoon. The surrogate s decision, 
 which was a most careful and just one, it is hardly required 
 to say, gave Mr. Tilden s clients the case, and Mrs. Cunning 
 ham not only did not receive letters of administration, but 
 lost every pretext to widowhood under the name of Burdell. 
 
 No law-case with which Mr. Tilden has been associated 
 ever brought his name so prominently before the public as 
 this. The intense interest which was felt in the trial of Mrs. 
 Cunningham, and the mystery which enveloped the Bond 
 Street tragedy, combined to make the lawyers engaged in 
 the case known throughout the country. Mr. Tilden s success 
 gave rise to the belief that, had he conducted the case for the 
 prosecution when Mrs. Cunningham was under indictment for 
 murder, she would undoubtedly have been convicted. It is at 
 
THE BURDELL CASE. 67 
 
 least certain that none of Mr. Tilden s previous cases had 
 called for the exercise of such rare metaphysical powers, or 
 for such deep penetration of character. His defense was a 
 creation. Yet while he exhibited transcendent professional 
 ability, he did not win this case, nor has he ever won any of 
 the great cases with which his name has since been associated, 
 merely as a lawyer. It is because his professional endowments 
 represent such a limited proportion of his greatness, that the 
 public seldom thinks of him as a lawyer. One who knows 
 him says : 
 
 Mr. Tilden won these suits by the happy combination and exer 
 cise of qualities which are not the exclusive or peculiar property of 
 any particular profession; he is a political economist; he is a logi 
 cian ; he is a politician ; he is a man of the world. He is, besides, a 
 great lawyer. In a trial, therefore, Mr. Tilden brings many resources 
 which are far from common, even among the most eminent lawyers. 
 It was this superiority and breadth of development which early in 
 his professional career made his office tbe favorite resort of large 
 numbers of the great railway corporations of the country, which for 
 some years immediately preceding the war were beset with the trou 
 bles consequent upon a management more or less corrupt or indis 
 creet. His success in all these great cases was due, not so much to a 
 knowledge and appreciation of the principles of law, as to his famil 
 iarity with those broader principles of the science of government, 
 legislation, and finance, of which he is a master. He dealt with all 
 such questions like a statesman rather than like a lawyer. In no case 
 that specially engaged his attention did he fail to show originality in 
 his treatment, and a fertility of resource which rendered him meas 
 urably independent of precedents and authorities. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE Flagg case and the Burdell-Cunningham case attest 
 Mr. Tildeti s greatness as a lawyer of mathematical precision 
 and deep penetration of character. Another great case re 
 mains to show his faith in the alliance and unity of all truth ; 
 that of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company against the 
 Pennsylvania Coal Company. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Coal Company had a contract with the 
 Delaware & Hudson Canal Company to transport their coal 
 on the canal of the latter company. Among other things in 
 the agreement it was provided by the Canal Company that 
 the Coal Company should pay extra toll for the use of their 
 canal, in case they should enlarge it and reduce the expense 
 of transportation. The Canal Company in due time presented 
 their claim for extra toll, which was met by the denial of the 
 Coal Company that the enlargement of the canal had, in any 
 measure, reduced the expense of transportation. The Canal 
 Company insisted upon their right under the contract to an 
 increase in tolls to correspond to the increased facility of 
 transportation. The Coal Company remained fixed in the 
 opinion that the enlargement of the canal had done them no 
 good, and refused to accept the claim. After a long corre 
 spondence that yielded no advantage or comfort to either side 
 of the controversy, the Canal Company brought suit against 
 the Coal Company. Mr. Tilden was retained for the defense, 
 and the suit was tried before Judge Hogeboom of the Su 
 preme Court, sitting as referee. The plaintiffs presented an 
 
THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY S CASE. 69 
 
 encyclopaedia of evidence that occupied the attorneys and the 
 judge more than two months in hearing. 
 
 The point at issue in the trial was, whether the enlarge 
 ment of the canal had rendered transportation cheaper than it 
 had been prior to its enlargement. This question involved a 
 comparison of the efficiency of the enlarged canal and the 
 smaller one previous to the enlargement, and the settlement 
 of the greater economy of one or the other. The many com 
 plex questions of canal transportation, that harass all calcula 
 tion upon the subject, abounded in this case. The variety 
 and sizes of coals, the different amount of burden, the lading 
 and unlading, the wash of the canal, the amount of water 
 such questions confused the principle and facts of the case, 
 and called forth a host of witnesses. 
 
 Mr. Tilden s plan of action in the case took court and 
 counsel by surprise, and demolished the testimony of the plain 
 tiffs. It was simple enough in the idea, but unheard of in 
 practice. He took careful statistics of a single trip on the 
 canal as an integer by which to test the claims of the plain 
 tiffs. It required a resolute and courageous man to undertake 
 such a course, for it involved a great outlay of time and money 
 on the part of the defense in a venture that would have been 
 utterly lost if it had demonstrated the validity of the plain 
 tiffs claim as effectually as it did the soundness of the defend 
 ants denial. To more fully explain the theory and practice 
 of this course, a passage from Mr. Tilden s recapitulation is 
 given : 
 
 At quite a late stage, comparatively, in this case, when I inter 
 vened and undertook to ascertain the relative time of the trip, I did, 
 as I always would, if possible, in such a case I endeavored to sim 
 plify the controversy by applying a test which made all this part and 
 many other parts of the discussion unnecessary. I took a simple 
 integer with which to compare the time of the trip upon the old 
 canal and the time of a trip upon the enlarged canal. The number 
 of trips a boat would make during a season of navigation was sub 
 ject to be varied by causes affecting the length of the seasons by 
 
70 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 the question whether navigation was for 179, or 185, or any other 
 number of days. It was also subject to be affected by the question 
 whether the boat was all the season in use upon the canal, or was 
 part of the season running upon the river. It was subject to other 
 elements of disturbance and irregularity. I discarded it and took a 
 single trip as the integer, and made my computations, as later in the 
 day I shall endeavor to show your honor, upon the time of the trip 
 considered singly causing to be examined and computed every trip 
 made by the plaintiffs boats in a period of four years upon the old 
 canal, and a period of four years upon the enlarged canal, every trip 
 of which the books of the plaintiffs give a complete record and 
 from them deduced an average time which I computed as the time of 
 a single trip and made my integer. I was therefore enabled to dis 
 miss altogether from my investigation the question whether this par 
 ticular canal-boat No. 1 was upon the canal the whole season, or six 
 months, or three months, or one month, or for how long a period it 
 was upon the river. I got as my result what that boat did while 
 and whenever it was actually upon the canal. 
 
 It may have been unfortunate that this mode of treating the 
 question did not receive earlier and more general attention ; for the 
 habit formed of talking about the small number of trips made by 
 the boats on the enlarged canal as resulting from the employment 
 of the boat for certain days, or certain parts of the season, upon 
 the river and not upon the canal, has survived all necessity for the 
 discussion of any such facts. 
 
 I advised our clients to tabulate and ascertain the time of the 
 trips of all the boats during the entire period between the notifica 
 tion of the completion of the enlargement and the commencement 
 of this suit, taking the navigation seasons in which these events hap 
 pened as complete seasons, and having a fraction before and after 
 these two dates, and to make a similar tabulation in respect to the 
 boats on the small canal for an equal period. 
 
 It certainly took all the influence I had and pretty nearly ex 
 hausted it to get this done, because it was a pretty large job. You 
 have, sir, in these tables equal to at least twelve years of the labor 
 of a single man. You can read and perceive results here, in five 
 minutes, which, if the whole thirty-two volumes of the plaintiffs 
 books were brought into court, and your honor should spend the 
 next twelve years in examining them, you would scarcely discover. 
 
THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL COMPANY S CASE. 71 
 
 That was a laborious and costly process. Perhaps it might appear 
 now to be unnecessary. It was intended to be decisive. It is, I 
 think, decisive. 
 
 I remember an anecdote which ex-President Van Buren once told 
 me of John Randolph. Somebody was speaking to him in a com 
 plimentary vein in reference to a debate in the House of Represent 
 atives, and told him that a speech of his had not been answered. 
 " Answered, sir ! " said he ; " it was not made to be answered." And 
 so, sir, these tables were not made to be confuted. They are made 
 according to the best process of scientific analysis, proved step by 
 step from the records of the plaintiffs themselves, and are introduced 
 here in strict conformity to the rules of evidence. 
 
 They will establish and do establish the proposition they were in 
 tended to determine when I did not know, and nobody knew, what 
 the result of the investigation would be. Never, sir, anywhere, or 
 on any other occasion, was there such a body of evidence upon any 
 such question involved in litigation. 
 
 Mr. Tilden established from these tables the details of 
 transportation on the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company s 
 canal. Among them the most important was that of the dura 
 tion of a single trip, and of the length of the boating season. 
 These he fixed beyond the possibility of" doubt, from the 
 books and tables of the Canal Company itself. The principle 
 at stake in the premises of the case being established, he de 
 duced the intermediate chain of reasoning. He showed that 
 the round trip on the enlarged canal took forty per cent, 
 more time than the small boats on the unenlarged canal, and 
 that, by diminishing the whole amount of labor during a given 
 time, the real cost of transportation was enhanced. This 
 proved that the Coal Company, instead of reaping an advan 
 tage from the enlargement of the canal, had suffered loss. The 
 verdict was accordingly rendered in favor of the Pennsylvania 
 Coal Company. 
 
 The amount at stake in the trial was no small one. The 
 Canal Company claimed twenty cents a ton on^an annual 
 transportation of six hundred thousand tons a year for nearly 
 ten years, and a royalty of the same amount per ton annually 
 
72 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 for the future. The claim would have been a disastrous one 
 to the Coal Company if it had been sustained, and it thrust 
 the crisis of their business career entirely upon their ability 
 to prove an intricate and difficult proposition. The course of 
 action resorted to by Mr. Tilden saved them from disaster, and 
 established justice in the controversy. Mr. Tilden s success 
 in this case, as in those already narrated, was the result of his 
 faith in the almost mathematical consistency of truth and his 
 insight into its relations, and courage in planting himself and 
 his cause upon its steadfastness. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE TEHEE HAUTE, ALTON & ST. LOUIS RAILROAD CASE. 
 
 Mr. Tilden s long and extensive law-practice it 
 was his rare good fortune to gain and retain the confidence 
 of every person who became his client. Certain rules gov 
 erned his professional life. He never took a fee which his 
 client was unable or unwilling to pay ; he never took a con 
 tingent fee that is, a fee depending on the amount which he 
 might recover ; he never sued a client for "services rendered. 
 It may be truthfully added that in almost all cases his clients 
 pronounced his fees too small, and, in more than one instance, 
 they urged him to accept more than he had charged a thing 
 which he, being a pensioner on nobody s bounty, invariably 
 refused to do. 
 
 It is safe to say that no other lawyer in the United States 
 possesses a cleaner and purer professional record than Mr. 
 Tilden. Yet, strangely enough, almost the only personal 
 charge preferred against him, in the heat of an exciting can 
 vass, rests on the perversion of a case in which he was retained 
 as a lawyer the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railroad 
 case. His conduct of that case was as honorable and honest 
 as the most exacting critic could desire. Nay, more, in his 
 dealings with that road he displayed a spirit of generosity, of 
 self-sacrifice, of consideration for the welfare of others, which 
 is not often fojmd among those trained to strict professional 
 rules. But let the whole history of the case be told, and the 
 reader may be left to judge whether or not Mr. Tilden requires 
 any defense at the hands of his friends. 
 
 In 1859, when Mr. Tilden was practising law in the city 
 4 
 
7^ THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 of New York, very many insolvent corporations sought his 
 services in the confident belief that he could evolve order out 
 of the chaos into which mismanagement had hurled them. 
 Among these insolvent corporations was the Terre Haute, 
 Alton & St. Louis Railroad. A suit against Mr. Tilden and 
 others was recently instituted by a company bearing the same 
 name, but deriving its title from a different source, as will be 
 seen by the following brief history . 
 
 1. Mr. Tilden was induced to take charge of the case in behalf of 
 the first and second mortgage bondholders. These bondholders asso 
 ciated themselves together for the protection of their own interests, 
 and appointed a committee consisting of Robert Bayard, Charles 
 Butler, Russell Sage, and Samuel J. Tilden. This committee was 
 known as the " Purchasing Committee," because one* of the main 
 objects of their appointment was to purchase the railroad at a fore 
 closure sale. The objects of the association were defined in a written 
 agreement which was printed, published, and freely distributed. All 
 the first and second mortgage bondholders were invited to join the 
 association, and all who sought admission were admitted. 
 
 At this point it is to be observed that the committee were the 
 agents of the bondholders who entered into the agreement, and of 
 nobody else. In regard to all others they occupied the position of an 
 adversary rather than of a representative. They were not agents of 
 the remaining bondholders. They were not agents of the other cred 
 itors or of the stockholders of the old company. Still less were they 
 the agents of the present company, which was formed three years 
 afterward, which they dealt with and which dealt with them as inde 
 pendent and even adversary parties. 
 
 The Purchasing Committee bought the railroad of the insolvent 
 corporation at a mortgage sale under a decree of the Circuit Courts 
 of the United States. They made the purchase in their individual 
 capacity. They gave their individual obligations for the purchase- 
 money and satisfied those obligations. They were bound by their 
 contract to deliver to the bondholders who had Centered into the 
 agreement certain new securities, which they delivered. They were 
 bound to pay into court, for the benefit of bondholders who were 
 not parties to the agreement, the cash to which these bondholders 
 were entitled under the sale, which they did. 
 
 The time within which bondholders could avail themselves of 
 
THE TERRE HAUTE, ALTON & ST. LOUIS RAILROAD. 75 
 
 the privileges of the agreement was limited by the agreement itself 
 to a period of sixty days after May 1, 1861. At that time, and at 
 the time of the sale, a large interest had not become parties to the 
 agreement. But finding that those who had entered into it were to 
 profit by it they applied for admission, and the purchasers in a spirit 
 of the most liberal equity admitted them. They admitted some as 
 late as the year 1868, seven years after the limitation had expired; 
 they have never excluded any ; and even now a few of the bonds 
 have never appeared. 
 
 2. The title of the present company of the Terre Haute, Alton 
 & St. Louis Railroad is derived from a deed to them by the pur 
 chasers in June, 1862, more than fourteen years ago. All the bonds 
 and stock of the present company which ever came into the hands 
 of the Purchasing Committee were delivered to them absolutely, in 
 their own right, as the consideration for the railroad and property 
 conveyed to the present company. This absolute delivery is recited 
 and declared in the deed, and the deed is recorded in every county 
 of Illinois and Indiana through which the road passes. Every class 
 of securities issued by the road its first-mortgage bonds, its second- 
 mortgage bonds, its preferred stock, and common stock contains a 
 recital of the securities thus delivered. Moreover, every person to 
 whom bonds or stocks were issued as to an original holder executed 
 at the time of such delivery a formal ratification of this arrange 
 ment, and a final settlement, and a full and absolute release to the 
 Purchasing Committee. 
 
 3. The Purchasing Committee have never received any compen 
 sation for their services except by such resulting surplus of assets 
 as may remain after all settlements are completed and all liabilities 
 against the committee are satisfied. 
 
 Mr. Tilden was employed as Counsel of the first-mortgage bond 
 holders, of the second-mortgage trustees, who were in actual pos 
 session of the railroad, and for the receivers appointed by the Cir 
 cuit Courts of the United States for Indiana and Illinois. His ser 
 vices in these capacities occupied a large share of his time for three 
 and a half years. He was engaged in many complicated and difficult 
 negotiations with adverse parties. He made repeated journeys to 
 the West, to Terre Haute, to Indianapolis, to Alton, to Springfield, 
 and to St. Louis. He conducted the foreclosure suits in the Circuit 
 Court of the United States for Indiana, and in the Circuit Court of 
 the United States for the Southern District of Illinois ; obtained the 
 
76 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 decrees of sale ; attended at Alton on the sale ; argued at Springfield 
 a motion for an injunction to stop the sale ; obtained its dissolution, 
 and completed the sale. He also drew the laws necessary to be 
 passed in Indiana and Illinois, to carry out the objects of the fore 
 closure. Mr. Tilden also procured from the United States courts 
 in Indiana and Illinois, whither he went for that purpose, decrees 
 clothing the trustees in possession with the character and rights of 
 receivers. 
 
 These services extended over a period of three years and a half, 
 and occupied a large part of Mr. Tilden s time. He received from 
 the first-mortgage bondholders $10,000, and from the second-mort 
 gage bondholders $10,000. Considering the extent of this profes 
 sional work the compensation was extremely low. 
 
 The Purchasing Committee assumed under a written contract a 
 very laborious, troublesome, and onerous work. They performed it 
 so satisfactorily that not one of the bondholders for whom they acted 
 has ever found fault with them, but, on the contrary, all have united 
 in expressions of gratitude. They found the first-mortgage bonds on 
 the road of the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Eailroad Company 
 selling at about forty-five cents upon the dollar of their principal, 
 with twenty-one to thirty-odd per cent, of overdue interest, and they 
 delivered, in exchange, bonds then worth nearly par of principal and 
 interest, and now commanding a premium. The second-mortgage 
 bonds were sold at eighteen cents on their par value bearing a larger 
 amount- of overdue interest than their market price. The securities 
 issued in exchange (funding the overdue interest) would, at their 
 present market value, pay more than 125 on the par of the old bonds. 
 They found the inferior securities, discredited by years of default, 
 selling at a small fraction of the value of those they delivered in ex 
 change, and at not more than a quarter or an eighth of what these 
 new securities now bring, notwithstanding the disastrous competition 
 of new lines, to which the company has been so peculiarly sub 
 jected, and notwithstanding the present unusual depression in rail 
 road investments. They admitted to the equal benefit of their 
 agreement those who, through fear or ignorance, had failed to avail 
 themselves of the privilege within the prescribed time. They took 
 an insolvent road and raised its value from less than two millions 
 to more than six millions. If there be any surplus in their hands 
 it has resulted from their care, skill, and wisdom, in the adminis 
 tration of their assets through a series of years. It could never 
 
THE TERRE HAUTE, ALTON & ST. LOUIS RAILROAD. 77 
 
 have been expected that they would incur such large personal lia 
 bility, risk, and trouble, without some indemnity and some compen 
 sation, and they had a perfect right, so that they kept their obliga 
 tions to everybody, to allow compensation to themselves in formal 
 manner, or to use or apply the resulting balance as a compensation. 
 Whatever that surplus may be, is a matter between the committee 
 and the parties for whom they acted, under written agreements. 
 The adversary party, to whom the committee sold the property and 
 took securities in payment, fourteen years ago, has no shadow of claim 
 in law, equity, or good morals, to those remaining assets, or to an 
 account for their use or disposal. It is excluded from any such 
 claim by its own repeated and solemn acts and agreements, by its for 
 mal deeds and its public records. 
 
 It remains to be told that during eleven years from 1862 
 to 1873 Mr. Tilden acted as counsel for the present corpora 
 tion of the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railroad. These 
 services were of the very greatest value, for on more than 
 one occasion they saved the road from insolvency. But Mr. 
 Tilden never asked nor received a dollar for all the work he 
 performed for the company during those eleven years. 
 
 If I have made my readers understand this case, they will 
 find no difficulty in disposing of any other calumnies which 
 may be heaped upon Mr. Tilden s head in connection with his 
 professional career. 
 
 A week before his nomination for the presidency he 
 showed to a friend three letters which he had received within 
 a few days, each from a different person, but all alike in sub 
 stance. They were demands for money, and each demand 
 was accompanied with a threat to commence a suit at law if 
 the money was not forthcoming, on some alleged wrong in 
 directly sustained in cases in which Mr. Tilden had been re 
 tained on the other side. And all the threats were empha 
 sized with the words, " You cannot afford to be sued at this 
 time." 
 
 " What shall I do with these letters ? " he asked. 
 
 " Turn them over to the press for publication as specimen 
 strikes. " 
 
78 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. T.TLDEN. 
 
 "No, no," said Mr. Tilden, half sadly. "Let the poor 
 fellows go. If they were not strangers to me, they would 
 know they could not frighten me ; and, if they are as poor as 
 they say, I could not resist their appeals if they did not ap 
 proach me in such a despicable way." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HIS POSITION DURING THE WAR. 
 
 MR. TILDEX, although he had withdrawn himself from 
 active participation in politics, was a close observer of events 
 in 1860. He was not a delegate at Charleston, but he went 
 to Baltimore as a delegate, striving in vain to avert the dis 
 ruption of the Democratic party. After the election of Mr. 
 Lincoln, and before the result was officially announced, South 
 Carolina prepared to secede from the Union. The doctrine 
 that a State had power to break its compact with the Federal 
 Government was a doctrine which Mr. Tilden held in abhor 
 rence. He had been trained in the school of Andrew Jack 
 son. His earliest intellectual energy was directed against 
 nullification, whereof secession was the ripened fruit. He 
 had studied the question diligently, and his opinions were 
 deeply fixed long before the crisis came. He knew that 
 secession meant war, and he knew better than some hotter 
 heads what war meant. He loved the Union, not with the 
 narrow love of the sectionalist, but with the broad love of 
 the patriot. He sought, therefore, to avert the impending 
 calamity the calamity which a Republican statesman who 
 stands to-day very high in the counsels of his party unfeel 
 ingly denominated "a little bloodletting." Beyond the 
 " little bloodletting " he saw the crimson tide swelling and 
 surging, engulfing the best lives in the land and the treasure 
 of the people. Peace on the basis of the Union, and on 
 no other basis, was what he sought. 
 
 During the winter of 1860- 61, he attended a meeting of 
 the leading men of both parties in the city of New York to 
 
80 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 consider what measures were necessary and practicable to 
 avert an armed collision between what were then termed the 
 free and the slave States. To the North he urged reconcilia 
 tion and forbearance, appreciating as he did more clearly than 
 most of those around him the fearful and disastrous conse 
 quences of a civil war, whatever might prove its ultimate re 
 sult. To the South he urged a deference to the will of the 
 majority, and a respect for the provisions of the Federal Con 
 stitution, within which they would be sure of adequate pro 
 tection for themselves and for their property ; but he warned 
 them that outside of the Constitution they could expect pro 
 tection for neither. He was heard to warn an eminent 
 Southern statesman that if the South expected Northern 
 Democrats to hold the Government while they whipped the 
 North it was mistaken ; if war came, Northern Democrats 
 would support the Government. 
 
 The actual outbreak of hostilities produced a deep feeling 
 through all the North. Mr. Tilden met the event in no 
 craven spirit. To a Republican who put the rather impudent 
 question, " You are with us, ain t you ? " he answered, 
 " I will go as far to sustain Abraham Lincoln as I would to 
 sustain Andrew Jackson in his efforts to preserve the Union. * 
 Immediately after Mr. Lincoln s first call for 75,000 men, a 
 meeting was held at the house of General Dix, at which Mr. 
 Tilden was present. He declared his belief that the Presi 
 dent had made a mistake ; that instead of calling for 75,000 
 troops, he should have called for 500,000. They could have 
 been more easily obtained in the first flush of patriotic excite 
 ment than at any other time. One half of the soldiers should 
 have been used for immediate service, and the other half put 
 in camps of instruction for impending exigencies. The 
 South, seeing what preparations for a gigantic war the North 
 was making, would have hesitated before all was lost. The 
 States in which a Union sentiment still existed would have 
 been immediately reclaimed. The force of numbers would 
 have overpowered the remainder. This was Mr. Tilden s 
 
HIS POSITION DURING THE WAR. 81 
 
 view of the matter in 1861, but his advice was not heeded 
 then. Nevertheless, it was good advice. 
 
 Mr. Tilden was present at the great war-meeting in Union 
 Square, April, 18G1. He was told that his name would be 
 used as one of the vice-presidents of the meeting, and con 
 sented to its use. For some reason, best known to those who 
 had the list in charge, it was omitted. Two days later he 
 took part in a war-meeting held by the members of the bar. 
 He contributed freely of his means toward defraying the ex 
 penses of the regiments which were sent from the city. To 
 one of those regiments he presented a flag on the occasion of 
 its departure for the seat of war. During the spring and 
 early summer of 1861 he made several journeys to Washing 
 ton in behalf of the soldiers who sought his influence with 
 the authorities. 
 
 Mr. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, sent for Mr. 
 Tilden in 1862, and sought his advice. What that advice 
 was every reader might guess. He urged that the war might 
 be carried on under a system of sound finance, which he did 
 not doubt that the people would sustain if the Government 
 would have the courage to propose it. What he said to Mr. 
 Chase, in a more definite form he incorporated into his first 
 annual message, as follows : 
 
 Governments, in times of public danger, cannot be expected al 
 ways to adhere to the maxims of economical science; the few who 
 would firmly trust to the wisest policy will be often overborne by 
 the advocates of popular expedients dictated by general alarm ; if 
 the Federal Government had paid out Treasury notes, not made a 
 legal tender, in its own transactions whenever it was convenient, and 
 redeemed them by the proceeds of loans and taxes on their presen 
 tation at a central point of commerce, and meanwhile had borrowed 
 at the market rates for its bonds, secured by ample sinking-funds, 
 founded on taxation, and had supplemented such loans by all neces 
 sary taxes, the sacrifices would not have been half that required by 
 the false system adopted ; perhaps the cost of the war would not have 
 been half what it became. 
 
 When Mr. Stanton was appointed to the War Depart- 
 
82 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ment, he, too, sought Mr. Tilden s advice. The two had been 
 friends in other years, and the Secretary reposed great faith 
 in Mr. Tilden s wisdom. 
 He said to Stanton : 
 
 You have no right to expect a great military genius to come to 
 your assistance. They only appear once in two or three centuries. 
 You will probably have to depend upon the average military talent 
 of the country. Under such circumstances your only course is to 
 avail yourself of your numerical strength, and your superior military 
 resources resulting from your greater progress in industrial arts and 
 your greater producing capacities. You must have reserves, and 
 concentrate your forces on decisive points, and overwhelm your ad 
 versaries by disproportionate numbers and reserves. 
 
 A year later the Secretary told him that he constantly re 
 gretted his inability to secure the adoption of Mr. Tilden s 
 policy. 
 
 In the summer of 1862 Mr. Tilden was in frequent com 
 munication with Horatio Seymour. After the nomination of 
 the latter to the office of Governor of New York, he spent 
 considerable time at Mr. Tilden s house ; and it was after 
 consultation with him that he prepared the famous speech 
 delivered at the Academy of Music, in which was made a 
 more urgent demand for the vigorous prosecution of the war 
 than had before emanated from the Democracy. 
 
 In 1864, to his own surprise, Mr. Tilden found himself 
 elected a delegate to the Chicago Convention. He was 
 named as a member of the Committee on Resolutions. In 
 that committee he made a speech, of which the following is 
 a brief synopsis : 
 
 1. Opposition to any declaration in favor of an armistice. He 
 insisted that, from the nature of things, the Executive Government 
 alone could be informed of the military situation at any given mo 
 ment, or could appreciate the effect of a temporary cessation of arms 
 at any given time. He, therefore, condemned any attempt to inter 
 fere with the Administration, or even to advise it on a question of 
 that nature. 
 
 2. He insisted that the adjustment of the controversy pending 
 
HIS POSITION DURING THE WAR. 83 
 
 between the North and the South, on any other basis than the resto 
 ration of the Union, was manifestly impossible ; that the questions 
 about which parties differed, and which had led to a collision, might 
 be compromised, postponed, or left "without any affirmative action 
 while all the parties to the controversy remained in the Union ; but, 
 the moment either went out of the Union, the question of difference 
 became immediately and inevitably incapable of solution, except by 
 war. He illustrated this truth by reference to the Territories. Many 
 expedients in regard to them to avert or postpone controversy were 
 possible inside the Union ; nothing but complete, absolute, and final 
 disposal of them was possible in case of separation. Questions of 
 still greater difficulty which would not arise within the Union had 
 been created by separation, and never could be solved but by the 
 dread arbitrament of war. He, therefore, maintained, if we could 
 not live together peacefully in the Union, war was the only alterna 
 tive. 
 
 The resolution (always misquoted by our Republican 
 friends), in which reference is made to the four years failure 
 to restore the Union by the experiment of war, did not please 
 Mr. Tilden, and he fought it in the committee to the end. 
 Finding his protest unavailing, he sent a message to Gen 
 eral McClellan, the nominee for President, advising him to 
 kick that plank of the platform from under his feet, which 
 General McClellan did, 
 
 I have passed as briefly as possible over these events. 
 Eleven years have elapsed since the war closed. The deep 
 scars are healing, and the sad memories are passing away. 
 The desire for reconciliation and brotherhood grows apace. 
 It was for this that Sumner pleaded, Greeley died, and Chase 
 labored, and many other brave Republicans dared the jeers 
 of the coward crowd, who sought to fill their purses or 
 gratify their unhallowed ambition, by raking in the ashes of 
 burned-out passions for embers of the old strife which might 
 be stirred to flame. Northerner and Southerner, Federalist 
 and Confederate, we are one people to-day, and no good can 
 come from reviving reminiscences of the evil years when we 
 stood divided by war s " bloody chasm." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE TAMMANY PJNG ITS MEMBERS. 
 
 BEFOEE entering on that chapter in Mr. Tilden s life which 
 describes the rise, progress, and overthrow of the Tweed con 
 spiracy, it is desirable to sketch the characters of the men 
 who constituted the " Ring." 
 
 I think Tweed owed his success more to his physical than 
 to his mental resources. His bulky figure conveyed at first 
 sight an impression of fat weakness, of flabbiness, which im 
 pression was modified by his firm, swift gait, and altogether 
 dissipated by his keen, piercing eyes, his sharp nose, and his 
 implacable lips. He never looked or acted as if he were tired. 
 He would come up as fresh at midnight as at noon. At his 
 office in Duane Street, a private office where he w r as seldom 
 at home to politicians, and where a dingy sign bore the in 
 scription " William M. Tweed, Attorney-at-law," he might be 
 found often when the crowd thought he was out of town. 
 There sometimes word would be brought to him that trouble 
 was brewing at a distant point, somewhere, perhaps, in the 
 Nineteenth or Twenty-second W^rd, miles away from his office. 
 Within an hour or two he was at the scene of the alleged re 
 volt against his power. His sinister smile, his shrewd glance, 
 his omnipresence frightened and subdued the enemies who 
 were of his own class. His untiring activity enabled him to 
 learn their plans, to cope with them successfully, to frustrate 
 and tame them. If he had been a lazy man he could not 
 have been " the Boss." That title, " the Boss," was the one 
 which tickled his large and low vanity most perfectly. On 
 the day that he returned to Albany from New York in the 
 
THE TAMMANY "RING" ITS MEMBERS. 85 
 
 spring of 1870, after the Young Democracy had been barred 
 out of Tammany Hall, he stood talking in the corridor of the 
 Capitol to a knot of politicians. He grew excited, and, raising 
 his brawny right arm high above his head, he shouted, " By 
 
 I ll show them that the Boss still lives!" With his 
 
 cape-overcoat and theatrical posture, he looked like a gro 
 tesque caricature on an old Roman senator. But those who 
 saw and heard him felt the irresistible force of the man s phys 
 ical power, which like faith may remove mountains or hand 
 cuffs. 
 
 Tweed entered politics through the engine-house. His 
 position as foreman of "Big Six," a company of the old 
 Volunteer Fire Department, brought into full play the strong 
 points of his character, and enabled him to exert an influence 
 on his immediate associates and neighbors. He utilized his 
 popularity by securing an election to the Board of Aldermen 
 in 1851. At that time he was only twenty-nine years old. 
 The next year he was elected to Congress, but the office on 
 the whole was distasteful to him. He was too thoroughly iden 
 tified with New York City to find any pleasure in Washington. 
 While serving as representative, he held on to his place as 
 alderman, and was also elected school commissioner. He 
 had learned the trade of a chair-maker, but abandoned it for 
 that of a " statesman," which he declared was his occupation 
 when he entered Blackwell s Island. In 1857 he took his seat as 
 supervisor, a place which he never abandoned till the "Ring" 
 was overthrown. Up to this time it is only fair to assume 
 that he did not mean to get rich by stealing, that he was as 
 honest as the average politician, honester, perhaps, than those 
 Christian statesmen of Credit Mobilier memory whose wrecked 
 reputations cumber the coast of our political sea. In 1861 he 
 received the Tammany nomination for sheriff, and was defeated. 
 He threw into the canvass every cent that he possessed. 
 He used to say that he spent a hundred thousand dollars, but 
 he probably exaggerated the amount. He ascribed his defeat 
 not to his lack of character, ability, or popularity what beaten 
 
86 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 candidate ever did ? but to the treachery of pretended friends* 
 He felt withal that he had a grudge to gratify against the com 
 munity which had preferred another to him. During that 
 winter of 1861- 62 Tweed found it difficult to pay his rent 
 and grocer s bill. It was then that he resolved to get rich, 
 honestly or dishonestly. He was indifferent as to the means, 
 but clear as to the end. It was about this time that he re 
 ceived his appointment as deputy street commissioner. The 
 next five years of his life were devoted to working up his 
 local strength and to lining his purse. In 1867 he was elected 
 to the State Senate by a majority so large that it was hardly 
 considered worth while to count the votes of his opponent, 
 and perhaps they were not counted ! Tweed appreciated the 
 value of combinations. He knew his own weak points ; his 
 ignorance of books and of law, his quick temper, and his in 
 clination to boast. He sought the cooperation of a man who 
 differed essentially from him in all these respects. That man 
 was Peter B. Sweeney, a well-read and well-bred lawyer. 
 
 Sweeney had been District Attorney of New York, and 
 was chamberlain (custodian of the funds) of the city when he 
 entered into league with Tweed. He possessed a good prop 
 erty before the " Ring " operations. began, and he did not want 
 to endanger that property by violating the law. He was a rare 
 bird among the politicians. He did not cultivate the rabble, 
 nor appear in the character of a hale fellow well met with 
 anybody. He walked the streets looking straight in front of 
 him, turning neither to the right nor to the left, and seldom 
 recognizing those whom he knew. In the caricatures which 
 flooded the country after the overthrow of the " Ring," Sweeney 
 appeared to the poorest advantage of any of the conspirators. 
 His low forehead, his overhanging eyebrows, and his thick 
 lips, could easily be tortured into a villainous look. But he 
 was in reality the most quiet, unobtrusive, and cultured man 
 in the " Ring." He was a ready writer, with a keen and usually 
 correct appreciation of political problems, and he was a safe 
 counselor on subjects not affecting his personal interests. 
 
THE TAMMANY "RING" ITS MEMBERS. 87 
 
 The dependents of the " Ring " were always on terms of easy 
 familiarity with Tweed, but never with the " Squire," as they 
 called Sweeney. They credited him with greater knowledge 
 than he possessed and his acquirements were of no mean 
 order and held him in respect approaching awe. They be 
 lieved that he knew their inmost secrets, and they were not 
 far out of the way in that. An incident may be given to 
 illustrate his character : On one of the last nights of the 
 session of 1869, a bill passed the Legislature incorporating 
 the Twenty-third Street Railroad. The persons who were 
 opposing the measure, finding themselves beaten, hired one 
 of the engrossing clerks to destroy the bill before it reached 
 the Executive Chamber. Their idea was that the Legislature 
 would adjourn before the loss was discovered, and that no 
 copy of the act could be legally substituted for the original. 
 Fifteen minutes after this sharp game was played, Peter B. 
 Sweeney came into the room where the engrossing clerks 
 were at work, and, walking straight up to the man who had 
 destroyed the bill, he said "in a subdued but emphatic tone : 
 " I came to see about the Twenty-third Street Railroad Bill. 
 It was placed in your hands this evening after it passed the 
 
 Legislature, and you burned it. You received dollars " 
 
 (naming the exact amount), " from " (naming the man). 
 
 " Now, within fifteen minutes I want that bill reengrossed. I 
 will be in after it. You understand ? " 
 
 The startled engrosser understood, and the bill was ready 
 within the allotted time. 
 
 The third member of the " Ring " was Richard B. Connolly, 
 an Irishman by birth and a skeptic in religion. He was the 
 only adopted citizen in the famous quartet, and he had lived 
 from his youth in Philadelphia and New York, learning the 
 ways of the natives. He was a good book-keeper, but was 
 otherwise an ignorant man. In 1866 he was nominated for 
 Comptroller on the Tammany ticket, and was elected. He 
 had been long enough out of politics (serving as a clerk in a 
 bank) to acquire an air of quasi respectability. Pending the 
 
88 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 canvass his old sobriquet of " Slippery Dick " was revived, 
 whereupon he wrote a most plausible note to the newspapers 
 setting forth that there must be some mistake in the minds 
 of the editors as to his identity ; that he was not " Slippery 
 Dick," but a hard-working and faithful bank-officer, a stranger 
 to politics, etc., etc. He backed his assertions with a recom 
 mendation signed by a number of leading citizens who always 
 seemed to hold themselves in readiness to subscribe to any 
 paper which was presented to them. Connolly affected a full 
 suit of black broadcloth, wore little jewelry, and with his 
 close-shaven face, his high, narrow forehead, his sandy-gray 
 hair, and his studied deportment, he passed, as far as personal 
 appearance went, for a model figure of a financier. He was a 
 timid man, but greedy. His timidity amused his confederates, 
 who really believed that there was not power enough in the 
 State to shake their hold on the city ; but his greed exasper 
 ated them, for they were greedy also, and they claimed that 
 he did not " put up " his share toward satisfying the army of 
 " strikers " who served as satellites to the " Ring." Connolly 
 is credited with inventing that quadruple entry-system of 
 book-keeping, whereby stupendous frauds were temporarily 
 concealed from public view. He contributed to the "Ring" 
 an abundance of low cunning, and a mannerism which passed 
 for dignity among certain eminently respectable tax-payers. 
 Sweeney furnished the brains and the requisite force of 
 character. Tweed supplied the muscle, the audacity, and the 
 ability, to control large bodies of men by bringing himself into 
 direct contact with them. But the combination needed a 
 figure-head a man willing to accept in preference to money 
 such honors as the others had to offer a nimble-witted man. 
 They found such in the person of Mr. A. Oakey Hall. 
 
 Tweed never feared the Republican party. In the New 
 York City elections he wanted it to keep up its organization 
 and run its regular candidates, and he contributed more than 
 anybody else toward paying its expenses. He did not fear 
 the Democracy of the rural regions, for he made it a point 
 
THE TAMMANY "RING" ITS MEMBERS. 89 
 
 seldom to interfere in the State politics .in an offensive way. 
 He did not greatly fear the newspapers, for he trusted to the 
 ignorance of some, and to the cupidity of others. The one 
 power that he feared above all others was Samuel J. Tilden. 
 The cordiality of his hatred toward Mr. Tilden is perfectly 
 well known to every man who knew Tweed. He avoided 
 him when he could, but vented his wrath on him in private 
 and public places. To a friend of Governor Seymour Tweed 
 said, one day, in the height of his evil power, " What does 
 Horatio Seymour want?" It was mildly suggested that 
 Horatio Seymour didn t want anything. " Well, then, what 
 makes him twin with old Sam Tilden ? " asked Tweed. In 
 reply, it was hinted that Seymour and Tilden were friends of 
 long standing, and that they had many opinions in common. 
 Finally, the question was propounded, l< What does Tilden 
 want ? " Tweed, who was standing at the time in the large 
 hall of the Delavan House, in Albany, answered it in the fol 
 lowing comprehensive style : 
 
 " Sam Tilden wants to overthrow Tammany Hall. He 
 wants to drive me out of politics. He wants to stop the pick 
 ings, starve out the boys, and run the government of the city 
 as if twas a blanked little country store up in New Lebanon. 
 He wants to bring the hay-loft and cheese-press down to the 
 city, and crush out the machine. He wants to get a crowd 
 of canting reformers in the Legislature, who will talk about 
 the centrifugal force of the Government, and cut down the 
 tax-levy below a living rate; "and then, when he gets every 
 thing all fixed to suit him, he wants to go to the United 
 States Senate." 
 
 This was Tweed s opinion of Tilden in 1869. His hatred 
 of him grew mtenser after his opposition to the charter of 
 1870. 
 
 It is alleged that the Tammany " Ring " perpetrated frauds 
 in the election of 1868, and it is vaguely charged that, because 
 Mr. Tilden was chairman of the State Committee, he must 
 have been a party to these frauds. But let us look at the 
 
90 THE LIFE OF SAMOEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 facts. Mr. Tilden, as chairman of the State Committee, had 
 no more to do with the election in the city of New York than 
 he had with the election in the city of Buffalo. If any frauds 
 were perpetrated, they were perpetrated by the inspectors 
 and canvassers of election, or with their connivance and con 
 sent. These inspectors and canvassers were all appointed by 
 the Republican Board of Police Commissioners, who derived 
 their authority from the Republican Legislature in Albany. 
 That Tweed exercised an undue influence over these commis 
 sioners is quite probable ; but it is absolutely certain that Tilden 
 possessed no power at all with them. It is true that, on the 
 eve of the election, the " Ring " put forth a circular, of doubtful 
 import, to which the name of Samuel J. Tilden was attached. 
 But it was proved before the Republican Congressional In 
 vestigating Committee, which visited New York in 1869, both 
 by the confession of those who issued the circular, and by the 
 positive testimony of Mr. Tilden himself, that the signature 
 was a forgery; that it was used without his knowledge or 
 consent, and that it. was repudiated by him as soon as it came 
 to light. 
 
 From 1869 to 1871 the Tweed " Ring" enjoyed a season 
 of wicked prosperity. Tweed s policy was to buy off with 
 offices all the powerful opponents whom he could not bully 
 or bribe into submission. It was surprising how many men 
 yielded to his threats or his persuasions. But he knew from 
 the first that Mr. Tilden could not be bought off, or cajoled 
 into acquiescence. This knowledge exasperated " the Boss." 
 There was another man in a very different sphere of life 
 whom Tweed also feared. That man was Mr. James O Brien, 
 who had been Sheriff of New York from 1867 to 1870. 
 O Brien had a larger personal following than any other city 
 politician, with the possible exception of " the Big Judge," 
 the late Michael Connolly. He distributed his money freely 
 while he was Sheriff, and retired from an office said to be 
 worth $100,000 a year as poor as he entered it. He then 
 presented a claim against the city for $200,000. The " Ring " 
 
THE TAMMANY "RING" ITS MEMBERS. 91 
 
 Board of Audit refused to allow this claim. The question 
 of its justice did not enter into their deliberations. The ma 
 jority rejected the claim because, as they expressed it, they 
 were not afraid of O Brien. He was out of office, and they 
 felt secure against him. In this opinion Tweed did not con 
 cur. He knew O Brien better than his associates, and was 
 in favor of paying him, but he was overruled. O Brien, sus 
 pecting that some big stealing would follow the adoption of 
 the " Ring " charter, secured the services of a clerk in Comp 
 troller Connolly s office, who made an accurate transcript of 
 those bogus accounts by which an enormous sum of money 
 was credited to the New Court-House. With this weapon 
 in his hand, O Brien again demanded the payment of his 
 claim, and was again refused. So confident were the con 
 spirators of their strength, that they did not believe that the 
 publication of the accounts would hurt them. But, when the 
 publication was made, they discovered that it would have 
 bten better for them if they had followed Tweed s advice 
 and not exasperated O Brien. But the " Ring s " belief in its 
 invincibility rested on some substantial ground. Usually, 
 when it wanted a man, it stretched forth its hand and he 
 came. For instance, near the close of the legislative session 
 of 1869, three Republican Senators were needed to insure 
 the passage of what was known as the New York tax levy. 
 The bill was under debate until late in the evening, with the 
 general understanding that "negotiations" were pending. 
 Tweed, Connolly, and Sweeney were gathered in a room. To 
 them came a well-known lobbyist. He said : " I think five 
 horses apiece will draw em ; I know that six will." A 
 "horse," in their parlance, meant $5,000. "Put on six 
 horses," said Tweed. Within an hour the sum of $30,000 
 was paid to each of the three Senators, and they went back 
 to the Senate-Chamber and voted for the tax levy. With 
 such means at their command, and with such corruptible ele 
 ments surrounding them, is it surprising that Tweed and his 
 associates grew to have boundless faith in themselves ? 
 
92 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEX. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the vulgar splendor which 
 reigned in Albany, during the legislative session, when the 
 " Ring " was at its height. Tweed s hotel bill, for a hundred 
 days, was $13,000. His satellites fared almost as sumptu 
 ously as he. Obsequious servants awaited the beck and nod 
 of shoulder-strikers, resplendent in diamonds, who only lately 
 dealt out bad whiskey from corner groceries. The " mem 
 ber " was bowled up the State-House hill, to his easy duties, 
 in a luxurious carriage drawn by swift horses. The member s 
 next friend, and go-between, paid for all the champagne 
 which the most insatiable taste could crave. If mere physi 
 cal, sensual pleasure were the sum of human happiness (and 
 they thought it was), these men ought to have been the hap 
 piest creatures on earth. But a face haunted them the 
 fact of a quiet, determined man, who always accomplished 
 what he undertook ; whose principles were not for sale ; who 
 held to the traditions of the fathers ; whose own life was 
 blameless ; who could not be turned by threats, nor moved 
 by promises. And the face that haunted them was the face 
 of Samuel J. Tilden. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MR. TTLDEN S HISTORY OF THE OVERTHROW OF THE TAM- 
 MAXY "RING." 
 
 THE account of the overthrow of the Tammany "Ring," 
 which is herewith given, is from the pen of Mr. Tilden him 
 self. It was written in January, 1873, and was called forth 
 by a number of scurrilous articles which appeared in the 
 columns of the New York Times. Mr. Tilden submitted his 
 answer to these attacks to the Times^ but that journal re 
 fused to publish what he had written. A more complete, 
 comprehensive, and succinct account of the overthrow of the 
 " Ring," it would be difficult to imagine. Although Mr. Til 
 den explains, in his opening paragraph, that in replying to a 
 newspaper article he departs from his established custom 
 through life, it must nevertheless be counted a piece of good 
 fortune that in this instance he broke from his rule. No one 
 else could have told the story so well as he. It leaves no 
 ground for doubt as to the position which Mr. Tilden occu 
 pied toward Tweed and his confederates. 
 
 Omitting some prefatory matter, the history of the over 
 throw of the Tammany "Ring" is as follows : 
 
 OEIGIN OF THE " BING." 
 
 The Ring " had its origin in the Board of Supervisors. That 
 body was created by an act passed in 1857, in connection with the 
 charter of that year. The act provided that but six persons should 
 be voted for by each elector and twelve should be chosen. In other 
 words, the nominees of the Republican and Democratic party cau 
 cuses should be elected. At the next session, the term was extended 
 
94 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 to six years. So, we had a body, composed of six Republicans and 
 six Democrats, to change a majority of which you must control the 
 primaries of both the great national and State parties for four years 
 in succession. Not an easy job, certainly ! The individual man has 
 little enough of influence when you allow him some chance of deter 
 mining between two parties, some possibility of converting the mi 
 nority into a majority. This scheme took away that little. It also 
 invited the managers of the primaries to do as badly as possible by 
 removing all restraints. 
 
 It is but just to say that the Democracy are not responsible for 
 this sort of statesmanship, which considers the equal division of 
 official emoluments more important than the administration of official 
 trusts or the well-being of the governed. In the Assembly of 1857, 
 of one hundred and twenty-eight members, the Democracy had but 
 thirty-seven ; of thirty -two Senators, it had but four ; and had not 
 the Governor. In the thirteen years, from 1857 to 1869, it never 
 had a majority in the Senate ; in the Assembly but once ; and had 
 the Governor but once up to 1869. The Republicans had the legisla 
 tive power of the State in all that period, as they and their Whig pred 
 ecessors had possessed it for the previous ten years. 
 
 The " Ring " was doubly a " Ring." It was a ring between the six 
 Republican and the six Democratic Supervisors. It soon grew to a 
 ring between the Republican majority in Albany and the half-and- 
 half Supervisors, and a few Democratic officials of this city. 
 
 The very definition of a "Ring" is that it encircles enough influ 
 ential men in the organization of each party to control the action of 
 both party machines ; men who in public push to extremes the ab 
 stract ideas of their respective parties, while they secretly join their 
 hands in schemes for personal power and profit. 
 
 The Republican partners had the superior power. They could 
 create such institutions as the Board of Supervisors, and could abolish 
 them at will. They could extinguish offices, and substitute others ; 
 change the laws which fix their duration, functions, and responsibili 
 ties, and nearly always could invoke the Executive power of removal. 
 The Democratic members, who in some city offices represented the 
 firm to the supposed prejudices of a local Democratic majority, were 
 under the necessity of submitting to whatever terms the Albany leg 
 islators imposed ; and, at length, found out by experience what 
 they had not intellect to foresee that all real power was in Albany. 
 They began to go there in person to share it. The lucrative city 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 95 
 
 offices subordinate appointments, which each head of department 
 could create at pleasure, with salaries, in his discretion, distributed 
 among the friends of the legislators contracts money contributed 
 by city officials, assessed on their subordinates, raised by jobs under 
 the departments, and sometimes taken from the city treasury were 
 the pabulum of corrupt influence which shaped and controlled all 
 legislation. Every year the system grew worse as a governmental 
 institution, and became more powerful and more corrupt. The exec 
 utive departments gradually swallowed up all local powers, and them 
 selves were mere deputies of legislators at Albany, on whom alone 
 they were dependent. The mayor and Common Council ceased to 
 have much legal authority and lost all practical influence. There was 
 nobody to represent the people of the city there was no discussion- 
 there was no publicity. Cunning and deceptive provisions of law- 
 concocted in the secrecy of the departments, commissions and bu 
 reausagreed upon in the lobbies at Albany, between the city officials 
 and the legislators or their go-betweens appeared on the statute- 
 book after every session. In this manner all institutions of govern 
 ment, all taxation, all appropriations of money for our million of 
 people, were formed. For many years there was no time when a 
 vote at a city election would in any practical degree or manner, 
 affect the city government. 
 
 PEEIOD OF " KING " POWEE. 
 
 The "Ring "became completely organized and matured on the 
 1st of January, 1869, when Mr. A. Oakey Hall became mayor. Mr. 
 Connolly was Comptroller two years earlier. 
 
 Its power had already become great, but was as nothing com 
 pared with what it acquired on .the Jrth of April, 1870, bj^ an jict 
 which was a mere legislative grant of the offices, giving the powers 
 of local government to individuals of the " Ring " for long periods, 
 and &eed from all accountability, as if their names had been men 
 tioned as. grantees in the bill. 
 
 Its duration was through 1869, 1870, and 1871, until its overthrow 
 at the election of November, when it lost most of the Senators and 
 Assemblymen from this city, and was shaken in its hold on the legis 
 lative power of the State. 
 
 It will be noticed that the first date in the list of county warrants 
 bearing indications of fraud, published by the Times in the last of 
 July, 1871, is January 11, 1869. Of the $11,250,000 embraced in 
 
96 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 these accounts, $3,800,000 were in 1869 ; $880,000 in 1870, before 
 April 5th; $6,250,000 in 1870, after that date ; and $323,000 in 1871.; 
 The thorough investigation made by Mr. Taintor, at my instance, 
 shows the aggregate vastly larger, but does not much alter the pro 
 portions, except in 1871. The periods of power and plunder are co 
 incident in time and magnitude. 
 
 FORMATIVE PEEIOD. 
 
 Even before the "Ring" came into organized existence the antag 
 onism between those who afterward became its most leading mem 
 bers and myself was sharply defined and public. It originated in no 
 motive of a personal nature on my part, but in the incompatibility 
 of their and my ideas of public duty. I distrusted them. They knew 
 that they could not deceive or seduce me into any deviation from my 
 principles of action. As early as 1863 some of them became deeply 
 embittered, because, being summoned by Governor Seymour to a 
 consultation about the Broadway Railroad bill, I advised him to 
 veto it. 
 
 Some years afterward I accepted the lead of the Democratic State 
 organization. I did so with extreme reluctance, and only after hav 
 ing in vain tried to place it in hands in which I could have confidence. 
 I had seen the fearful decay of civic morals incident to the fluctuating 
 values of paper-money and civil war. I had heard and believed that 
 the influence of the Republican party organization had been habit 
 ually sold in the lobbies sometimes in the guise of counsel-fees, and 
 sometimes without any affectation of decency. I had left the Assem 
 bly and Constitutional Convention in 1846, when corruption, in the 
 legislative bodies of the State, was totally unknown, and now was 
 convinced that it had become almost universal. I desired to save 
 from degradation the great party whose principles and traditions 
 were mine by inheritance and conviction, and to make it an instru 
 ment of a reaction in the community which alone could save free 
 government. Holding wearily the end of a rope, because I feared 
 where it might go if I dropped it, I kept the State organization in 
 absolute independence. I never took a favor of any sort from these 
 men, or from any man I distrusted. I had not much power in the 
 Legislature on questions which interested private cupidity, but in a 
 State Convention, where the best men in society and business would 
 go, because it was for but a day or two, those with whom I acted 
 generally had the majority. 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 97 
 
 1869. 
 
 I had no more knowledge or grounds of suspicion of the frauds/\ 
 W 1869, as they were discovered three years afterward, than the \ 
 Times or the general public/ But I had no faith in the men who be 
 came known as the "King," and they feared me. I had no personal 
 animosity ; but I never conciliated them, and I never turned from 
 what I thought right, to avoid a collision. 
 
 The first impulse of their growing ambition and increased power 
 was, to get- rid of me and possess themselves of the Democratic State 
 organization. Their intrigue for this purpose was conceived and 
 agreed upon in the winter, at Albany ; I knew it, but I did nothing 
 till August. Then I accepted the issue ; and they were defeated by 
 seven-eighths of the convention. The country papers of the Republi 
 can party were full of the subject. The files of the Times show that 
 the contest attracted public attention. That these men and I were 
 not in accord was known wherever in the United States there was 
 the least information on such subjects. 
 
 This year was marked by the saturnalia of injunctions and re 
 ceiverships. 
 
 In April and May, in speeches in the Circuit Court of the United 
 States, I denounced the orders granted by Barnard to Fisk against 
 the Pacific Railroad Company, as perversions of the instruments of 
 justice, bearing on their face bad faith. I had reason to believe that 
 Tweed was a partner in this freebooting speculation; and his son 
 was Barnard s receiver. The contest excited universal attention. 
 My motive in taking the case, with great inconvenience to more im 
 portant business, was the abhorrence I felt of the prostitution of 
 judicial power which touched the rights and interests and honor of 
 every man in the community ; and the consideration that, on being 
 applied to by the company in its extremity, I had advised that the 
 orders in Barnard s court, for the seven months previous, were nulli 
 ties, and the acceptance of that advice seemed to impose on me the 
 obligation to maintain it, as was done successfully. 
 
 I declined retainers from Fisk in matters involving no scandal, 
 
 but in which he had not my sympathy, after he had informed me 
 
 that he had paid a counsel, during the year, many times the largest 
 
 fee* I had ever received ; adding, u We don t want anybody else we 
 
 want you." 
 
 My open denunciations of the judicial abuses, so frequent at this 
 time, and the general support I had received from the country dele- 
 5 
 
98 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 gates, I have always believed to be the origin of tbe reaction by 
 which, instead of a third subject for impeachment, Judge Brady was 
 nominated. 
 
 In December, I signed the call for the meeting at which the Bar 
 Association was formed. At that meeting, on the first of February, 
 1870, upon being called on, I gave utterance to my unpremeditated 
 thoughts, in words which stand, without any change, as they were 
 reported in the official proceedings of that body. They were gen 
 erally deemed to breathe a tone of defiant independence. Among 
 those thoughts were these : 
 
 If the bar is to become merely a mode of making money, making 
 it in the most convenient way possible, but making it at all hazards, 
 then the bar is degraded. (Applause.) If the bar is to be merely 
 an institution that seeks to win causes, and win them by back-door 
 access to the judiciary, then it is not only degraded, but it is corrupt. 
 (Great applause.) 
 
 Sir, I am as peaceable a man as my friend Nicoll, yet I confess 
 that his words of peace sounded a little too strong in my ears. The 
 bar, if it is to continue to exist, if it would restore itself to the dig 
 nity and honor which it once possessed, must be bold in aggression. 
 (Great applause.) If it will do its duty to itself, if it will do its 
 duty to the profession which it follows, and to which it is devoted, 
 the bar can do everything else. It can have reformed constitutions, 
 it can have a reformed judiciary -, it can have the administration of 
 justice made pure and honorable, and can restore both the judiciary 
 and the bar, until it shall be once more, as it formerly was, an honor 
 able and elevated calling. (Applause.) 
 
 I may mention in passing that at this time judicial reform, of 
 which the Times was last year so useful a champion, had not then 
 interested it enough to bring into its columns a full report of that 
 important meeting. 
 
 CONTEST OF 18TO. 
 
 For the first time in four-and-twenty years, the Democrats had, 
 in 1870, the law-making power. They had in the Senate just one 
 vote, and in the Assembly seven votes, more than were* necessary to 
 pass a bill, if so rare a thing should happen as that every member 
 was present and all should agree. 
 
 This result brought more dismay than joy to the " King." They 
 had intrenched themselves against the people of this city in the 
 legislative bodies. But the Democratic party was bound, by count 
 less pledges, to restore local government to the voting power of the 
 people of the city. The "Ring" could trade in the lobbies at 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 99 
 
 Albany, or with the half-and-half supervisors in the mysterious 
 chambers of that board. They might even risk a popular vote on 
 mayor, if secure in the departments which had all the patronage, 
 and could usually elect their own candidate. But they had no stom 
 ach for a free fight, over the whole government, at a separate election. 
 Their motives were obvious, on a general view of their human 
 nature. None but the "King" then knew that, in the secret re 
 cesses of the supervisors, and other similar bureaus, were hid ten 
 millions of bills largely fraudulent, and that, in the perspective, were 
 eighteen other millions, nearly all fraudulent. 
 
 TIIE SHAM. 
 
 ^Ajhamwas necessary to the u Eing." Moral support was neces 
 sary to sustain their imposture. None of the "King" ever came 
 near inTT^^T^^N atEaniel Sands often called to talk over city re 
 form. He sometimes brought my honored and esteemed friend Mr. 
 Peter CooperA They were convinced that the "King" had become 
 conservative were not ambitious of more wealth were on the 
 side of the tax-payers. There was thought to be great peril as to 
 who might come in, in case the " Ring " should be turned out!) 
 
 I told Mr. Sands I would shelter no sham. I would cooperate 
 with anybody for a good charter. The light and air of heaven must 
 be let in upon the stagnant darkness of the city administration. The 
 men to come into office must enter after a vote of the people. I did 
 not believe the " Ring " would agree to that. I would agree to 
 nothing else. 
 
 The "Ring" did not want any conference with me. They tried 
 their own plan. It failed ignominiously. After it was defeated, 
 none were so poor as to do it reverence. 
 
 It never had the slightest chance of revival without a general 
 support of the Republicans. Not only were three Democratic city 
 Senators against it, but enough Democratic Senators from the coun 
 try would vote against it if their votes could be made effective. 
 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 During the lull, I had conferences with Mr. Jackson S. Schultz, 
 then President of the Union League Club ; Mr. Nordhoff, of the 
 Post ; Mr. Greeley, of the Tribune ; Mr. Marble, of the World, and 
 many others. I entered into no alliance with the "Young De- 
 
100 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 mocracy" for future political power, and for weeks was ignorant 
 even of their meetings. I did accept from Mr. Marble two invita 
 tions to attend consultations on a draft of a charter ; and certain 
 fundamental ideas, on which he and I insisted, were conceded. 
 These were a separate municipal election in each spring, a new elec 
 tion hefore the executive offices should be filled, the subjection of all 
 officers to a practical responsibility, and terms of office which should 
 preserve to each successive mayor his supervisory powers over the 
 government of which he is the head. These ideas were concurred 
 in by the Union League Club, and by the other gentlemen I have 
 mentioned. 
 
 THE CONFLICT. 
 
 Suddenly a charter was sprung by Mr. Tweed, and rushed for 
 ward very fast. 
 
 I wa# convinced it would pass. A clerk in one of the public 
 offices came privately to tell me " the stuff had been sent up." There 
 was a movement to resist it. Mr. Schultz, Mr. Bailey, and others, 
 were in motion. The Union League Club appointed a committee of 
 fifteen to go to Albany to remonstrate. My cooperation was asked. 
 I had little hope. I expected a large Republican support of Mr. 
 Tweed s scheme. But I thought it right to do the utmost for those 
 who were willing to make an effort. I felt more scorn than I ever 
 remember to have felt for the pusillanimity which characterized the 
 hour. I had no objections to hang up my solitary protest against 
 the crime about to be committed. I made a speech before Mr. 
 Tweed and his committee of the Senate. An unrevised report was 
 published at the time. It contains the following passages : 
 
 By the first appointment of these various offices, self-government 
 in the people of the city of New York is in abeyance for from four 
 to eight years. Sir, by that bill the appointment of all these offices 
 is to be made by a gentleman now in office. It is precisely as if in 
 the bill it had read: Not that the mayor shall make these appoint 
 ments, but the INDIVIDUAL who to-day fills that office. . . . The 
 act proceeds in the same way in which the acts creating commissions 
 have done. A gentleman is designated who makes these appoint 
 ments. To all practical intents and purposes THEY ABE COMMISSIONS 
 just as under the old, system. . . . Under the Republican system 
 of commissioners, the Street Department and the Croton Board 
 have been reserved to the control of the city authorities. They 
 stand, as under the old system, anterior to the time .when these com 
 missions began to be formed. . . . The mayor has no power over 
 these functionaries, except to impeach them, and all experience has 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 101 
 
 shown that that is a dilatory and insufficient resource, not to be 
 relied on in the ordinary administration of the Government. . . . 
 On December 31st, by the provisions of this bill, the term of (the 
 mayor s) office will expire. Then, sir, what will be the situation of 
 his successor ? For two years he will have no power whatever over 
 the administration of the Government of which he is the nominal 
 head. All these functionaries survive him. Their terms go beyond 
 his term, and he has not the power to remove them, not the power to 
 enforce any practical responsibility as against them. He is a mere 
 cipher. Then, sir, at the end of two years another election takes 
 place, another mayor is elected. Still these officers extend their 
 terms clear beyond his, the shortest of them being for four years, and 
 the longest of them for eight years, many of them for five. . . . 
 This charter is defective in another respect, in that it makes the elec 
 tion of charter officers coincident with that of the State and Federal 
 officers. The municipal election of a million of people is of sufficient 
 importance to be dealt with by itself, and by so doing you avoid mix 
 ing of municipal interests with State and national interests. . . . 
 What I object to in this bill is that you have a mayor without any 
 executive power ; you have a Legislature WITHOUT LEGISLATIVE POWEE ; 
 you have elections without ANY power in the people to AFFECT the 
 Government for the period during which these officers are appointed. 
 It is not a popular Government, it is not a responsible Government ; 
 it is a Government beyond the control and independent of the will of 
 the people. That the mayor should have real and substantial power 
 is the theory we have been discussing for the last four or five years. 
 It is the theory upon which we have carried on our controversies 
 against our adversaries, and are now here. . . . After a period of 
 twenty years, for the first time, the party to which I belong possesses 
 all the powers of the Government. I have a strong and anxious 
 desire that it should make for the city of New York a Government 
 popular in its form. Mr. Chairman, I am not afraid of the stormy 
 sea of popular liberty. I still trust the people. We, no doubt, have 
 fallen upon evil times. We, no doubt, have had many occasions for 
 distrust and alarm ; but I still believe that, in the activity generated by 
 the effectual participation of the people in the administration of the 
 Government, you would have MOEE PUEITY and MOKE SAFETY than 
 under the system to which we have been accustomed. It is in the stagna 
 tion of BUKEATIS and COMMISSIONS that evils and abuses are generated. 
 The storms that disturb the atmosphere clear and purify it. It will 
 be so in politics and municipal administrations if we will only trust 
 the people. 
 
 The bill passed. An intenser animosity than was excited against 
 me in the men who thus grasped an irresponsible despotism over this 
 city cannot be imagined. Mr. Tweed threatened to Lieutenant- 
 Governor Beach that they would depose me from the State Commit 
 tee, and met the answer, u You had better try it." 
 
102 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 EEAL NATURE OF THE LAW. 
 
 Let us pause a moment to consider the real character of that law, 
 fraudulently called a city charter. Mr. Tweed s case will illustrate 
 its operation. He had never been able to become Street Commis 
 sioner. Charles G. Cornell was appointed to that office by a Republi 
 can mayor, and Mr. Tweed made deputy. When the office became 
 vacant, Mayor Hoffman could not be induced to appoint Mr. Tweed. 
 George W. McLean was appointed, and Mr. Tweed remained deputy. 
 He had now been turned out as deputy, and could not get back. On 
 the loss of his office, all his political power turned to dust and ashes. 
 
 The Tweed charter vacated the office of Street Commissioner and 
 of the functionaries of the Croton Department, within five days, vest 
 ing all their powers in a Commissioner of Public Works, and required 
 Mr. A. Oakey Hall to appoint that commissioner. It was known to 
 everybody that Mr. Tweed was to be appointed. The act passed on 
 the 5th, and on the 9th Mr. Tweed was appointed. His term was 
 four years. The power of the Governor to remove him on charges 
 was repealed, and all powers of removal by the city government. 
 Impeachment was restricted by the condition that the mayor alone 
 could prefer charges, and trial could only be had if every one of the 
 six judges of the Common Pleas was present. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 In ancient times offices were conferred by grant from the sover 
 eign. This was conferred by grant from the State. 
 Let us suppose the act had run in these words : 
 
 " We, the People of the State of New York, represented in Senate 
 and Assembly, do, by our Supreme Legislative authority, hereby grant 
 to William M. Tweed the office of Commissioner of Public Works ; 
 and annex thereto, in addition to the powers heretofore held by the 
 Street Commissioner, all the powers heretofore held by the various 
 officers of the Croton Department, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the same 
 for four years, with the privilege of extending the term by surrender 
 ing any remnant thereof, and receiving a reappointment for a further 
 new term of four years ; which office shall be free and discharged of 
 the power of the Governor to remove for cause on charges, as in the 
 case of sheriffs, and of all powder of removal by the city government; 
 and absolutely of all accountability whatsoever, unless Mayor Hall, or 
 some successor, shall choose to prefer articles of impeachment to the 
 Court of Common Pleas, and unless all the six judges shall attend to 
 try such articles." 
 
 I aver that such was exactly the operation of that act. The legal 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 103 
 
 effect and the practical working of the act were identically the same 
 as if it had been expressed in these words. 
 
 THE " KING " ENTHRONED OVER THE CITY. 
 
 In like manner, the offices of three of the five heads of the parks 
 were granted for five years to Peter B. Sweeney, Thomas 0. Fields, 
 and Henry Hilton, giving them the control of the Central Park and 
 every park in the city, and of the boulevards ; suppressing Mr. 
 Green, and removing Messrs. Stebbins, Russell, and Blatchford. The 
 office of Chamberlain was granted to Mr. John J. Bradley. The 
 Department of Police was granted for from five to eight years to 
 Messrs. Henry Smith , B. F. Manierre, Bosworth, and Brennan. The 
 Departments of Health, Fire, Excise, Charities, Docks, and Build 
 ings, were granted to others. By an amendment passed twenty 
 days later, Mr. Connolly and Mr. O Gorman were brought into the 
 same category. 
 
 Such a concentration of powers over this city was never before 
 held by any set of men or any party as was thus vested in the 
 " Ring." 
 
 The true character of this fraudulent measure was at once fully 
 exposed. The issue was made by Messrs. Schultz, Bailey, Varnum, 
 Greeley, and others, and by the Union League Club. All the feat 
 ures of the act were pointed out in their resolutions and remon 
 strated against. They were discussed, condemned, and denounced, 
 in my speech published at the time. They were ably exposed by the 
 World, the Evening Post, the Sun, and the Tribune. 
 
 THE MEANS. 
 
 It would seem incredible that such a violation of the rights of 
 the people, and of all just ideas of government, even if these ex 
 traordinary grants had been to the best men in the community, could 
 be passed. No such thing would have been even excusable, unless 
 for a short time as a temporary dictatorship in a public extremity. 
 It was adopted as a permanent measure ; and the grant was to men 
 who were the objects of suspicion ; who, in little more than a year 
 afterward, were hunted from human society, as well as from office 
 some of whom were or are in exile and others of whom are now 
 arraigned by the State in civil and criminal actions. 
 
 The air was full of rumors of corruption. The great public 
 trusts, involving the interests, safety, and honor of a million of peo- 
 
104 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 pie, had been divided up as bribes. It was everywhere said that the 
 crime had taken a grosser form ; and that Senators and Assembly 
 men had been bought with money to vote for this iniquity. A year 
 later it was stated in the newspapers, on the authority of Judge 
 Noah Davis, as derived from a well-known member of the lobby, 
 that the price paid to six leading Republican Senators was to each 
 ten thousand dollars for the charter, and five thousand for the kin 
 dred bills of the session, and five thousand for similar services next 
 year. 
 
 Shortly after this revelation, while the revolt of forty thousand 
 Democrats in this city was taking its representation away from the 
 " Ring," the Republicans of the interior were re electing five of these 
 six Senators as their contribution, with many other similar charac 
 ters, to the " Reform " Legislature. Those five Senators now sit in 
 the highest seats of the Grant Republican Sanhedrim at Albany. 
 
 The Times has for a long while been as " still as a mouse " about 
 them. 
 
 WHO BETRAYED THE CITY ? 
 
 There have been two great battles against the " Ring." The first 
 was in Albany in April, 1870. That was to prevent the " Ring," 
 while only objects of suspicion, from being enthroned in absolute 
 dominion over the people of this city. The loss of that battle made 
 no change possible until the Senate could be changed. The election 
 for Senators did not come until November, 1871. Then was the sec 
 ond great battle made necessary by the loss of the first. 
 
 Who was responsible for that disastrous day, when the beginning 
 of the crimes afterward discovered was shrouded in darkness and 
 their larger development made possible ? Was it Mr. Tilden ? Mr. 
 O Conor ? Mr. Hewitt? Did their " respectability cover the Ring s 
 rascality," as the Times charges? 
 
 The Times itself shall answer. 
 
 On the 6th of April, 1870, the day after the passage of the act 
 granting New York City to the "Ring," the Times, in an article 
 headed "Municipal Reform," hailed this measure as a reform; de 
 rided the Union League Club and Mr. Greeley with their " entire 
 lack of influence," in that "so pronounced an expression" against 
 the charter had not " been heeded l)y at least one Republican Senator," 
 and said that 
 
 "If it shall be put in operation by Mayor Hall, with that regard 
 to the general welfare which we have reason to anticipate, we feel 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 105 
 
 sure our citizens will have reason to count yesterday s work in the 
 Legislature as most important and salutary " 
 
 On the 8th it declared : 
 
 " Senator Tweed is in a fair way to distinguish himself as a re 
 former ;" that "he had put the people of Manhattan Island under 
 great obligations," etc. ... " We trust that Senator Tweed will 
 manifest the same energy in the advocacy of this last reform which 
 marked his action in regard to the charter" 
 
 On the llth it published Mayor Hall s instrument, dated the 9th, 
 making the appointments to all the municipal offices. Among them 
 were the following : 
 
 Department of Public Works, William M. Tweed. 
 
 C Peter B. Sweeney, 
 
 " Parks, ] Thomas C. Fields, 
 
 ( Henry Hilton. 
 
 Police \ Henry Smith R K Manierre > 
 
 \ Bosworth, and Brennan. 
 
 Chamberlain John J. Bradley. 
 
 And so on. 
 
 On the 12th it jeered the Union League Club, Mr. Greeley, and 
 Mr. Tilden. It commented on a remark in Mayor Hall s paper mak 
 ing the appointments, in which he said he would have been politi 
 cally justified in conferring them all on Democrats ; and replied 
 " that the Republicans were rather useful to the authors of the new 
 charter in the recent contest;" that, "but for the Republicans, the 
 Young Democracy might to-day be at the top of the tree ; " that 
 "Mayor Hall and his associates will doubtless show a proper appre 
 ciation, of the assistance rendered them ly the Republicans when the 
 enemy were crying war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt." 
 
 I On the 13th it said: "As a whole, the appointments of the heads 
 of the various departments of the city government which have been 
 announced by the mayor, are far above the average in point of per 
 sonal fitness, and should be satisfactory. We feel inclined to be 
 tliaiikful, if not entirely satisfied with the result." 
 
 It also asserted that .the charter and election law " could not have 
 been secured without the help of the Republicans in the Legislature^ 
 and hence, THE CREDIT is AS MUCH THEIRS as it is of the TWEED 
 Democracy." 
 
 The "Ring" having possession of the Tammany Society, in which 
 Mr. Tilden had not set his foot, during their ascendency, at the elec- 
 
106 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN". 
 
 tion of April 18th, put up a sham ticket on which they placed the 
 names of persons whom they hated, and gave it a few of their own 
 votes to exhibit the appearance of a contest. 
 
 On the 19th the Times, under a flaming notice headed " Now is 
 the triumph of Tweed complete," exulted over the prostrate Tilden, 
 
 A. H. Green, and others, " heroes of the O Brien faction." 
 
 On the 21st of May it had a commendatory notice of Mr. Peter 
 
 B. Sweeney, presiding over a meeting of the Commissioners of Pub 
 lic Parks, and added, " that lie will ~be faithful to his wor$ the meet 
 ing yesterday afforded &fresli guarantee" 
 
 IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 The 5th of May was a day destined to be famous in our municipal 
 annals. Some mysterious and insensible influence seemed to debili 
 tate the tone of the Times in its utterance that morning. It spoke 
 feebly of " reforms made possible by the recent legislation at Albany." 
 Was the atmosphere dark and murky with what was going on in the 
 New Oourt-House at the same moment ? 
 
 There the single meeting of the Board of Special Audit was being 
 held. Hall, and Tweed, and Connolly, were making the order for the 
 payment of the $6,312,500, of which scarcely ten per cent, in value 
 was realized by the city. Tweed got twenty-four per cent., and his 
 agent, Woodward, seven. The brother of Sweeney, ten; Watson, 
 seven ; twenty went to parties not yet named in the forms of legal 
 proof ; thirty-three went to the mechanics who furnished the bills, 
 but their share had to suffer many abatements. Garvey had advanced, 
 March 30, $10,000 to go to Albany; and again, April 17, $40,000, 
 making $50,000. Ingersoll also had to send $50,000 ; Keyser, $25,- 
 000; Miller, $25,000; Hall, $25,000; and others their quotas; and 
 then they had to do work on city houses and country houses, and 
 make furniture, and to paint, to supply safes, and perform miscella 
 neous services out of their third. 
 
 As the time advanced, the percentages of theft mixed in the bills 
 grew. Moderate in 1869, they reach sixty-six per cent, in 1870, and 
 later eighty-five per cent. The aggregate of fraudulent bills, after 
 April 5, 1870, was, in the rest of that year, about $12,250,000, and in 
 1874 $3,400,000. Nearly fifteen millions and three-quarters of fraudu 
 lent bills were the booty grasped on the 5th of April, 1870. Four 
 teen, perhaps fifteen millions of it were sheer plunder. 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 107 
 
 The victory of the 5th of April enabled the "Ring " to cover up 
 what had been already stolen, and to go forward on a far larger scale, 
 and commit these enormous robberies. 
 
 THE SUMMER OF 1870. 
 
 The Times is in error in saying that its " daily, incessant attacks 
 on Tammany began in the summer of 1870." There is not a. word of 
 that kind in its editorials in all that summer. Until the 20th of Sep 
 tember, it kept " still as a mouse," as it says Mr. Tilden did. Then 
 it first touched the subject incidentally to an article on the Demo 
 cratic State Convention held the next day. 
 
 The stillness of Mr. Tilden left ringing in the ears of the people 
 his unavailing protest and his denunciation. 
 
 The stillness of the Times left echoing in the public ear its boast 
 that "the credit" of the "Ring" supremacy belonged "as much to 
 the Republicans as to the Tweed Democracy" 
 
 Three days later, it began a series of elaborate attacks, not really 
 upon the "Ring," but upon their foe, Mr. Tilden. It accused him 
 of " going to Rochester to preside over Tweed s convention ; " and it 
 has repeated the statement many times lately. The truth is, he did 
 not preside, and it was not Tweed s convention. 
 
 It was my official duty to move the appointment of the temporary 
 chairman, and it was customary to precede the motion by an address 
 upon national or State politics. That I did. The convention was a 
 body of honorable and respected gentlemen, except a few members 
 of the " Ring," who got in as delegates by means of the power and 
 prestige the Times had helped them to acquire, and in whom it had 
 expressed its confidence after their then recent public assumption of 
 the municipal offices. 
 
 I had not even the benefit of its first beginning of retraction. 
 That happened after I had gone to the convention, and was not com 
 municated to me by telegraph. 
 
 To have staid away would have been to abandon my watch and 
 guard. True men, in the intervals of battle, rest on their arms. 
 They do not run away. 
 
 But the Times complains that I did not denounce the "Ring" in 
 my speech. Neither they nor their doings were at issue. There was 
 no new suspicion of them after they had been accepted as rulers of 
 the metropolis by the nearly unanimous vote of both Houses of the 
 Legislature, aided by the Times. The general public had acquiesced 
 
108 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 in the disposition to try them again. The whole press assenteo!. 
 Nearly everybody began to make relations with them. I did.rtot. 
 I jstood aloof. The Kepublican State Convention had been held two 
 weeks before. Senator Conkling, Mr. George William Curtis, and 
 others, addressed it; but not one of them had a word to say about 
 the surrender of the metropolis to an autocracy ; or of the character 
 of the men to whom this ignominious betrayal had been made. How 
 could they? The " credit " of it was "as much due" to " the Re 
 publicans as to the^Tw eBd Democracy." t fi}lS T 
 Nothing was left me to do but to await the issue of the porten 
 tous experiment. As to their frauds at election, I had no means of 
 knowledge more than other citizens ; but I had sent to Albany a care 
 fully prepared election law, which had been examined and approved 
 by leading Republicans of this city. The Republican Senators re 
 jected it, and took Tweed s election law with Tweed s charter. 
 The Times boasted over this election law as "by far the more sub 
 stantial reform of the two." I feel scarcely able to enter into the 
 comparison of the relative merits of the two measures. The " sub 
 stantial reform " known as the election law was the means by which 
 Mayor Hall acquired such immense power over the inspectors and 
 canvassers, and all the machinery of the elections, that the "Ring" 
 began to think they could get along without the voters. It sup 
 pressed the opposition of the practical politicians in the wards, who 
 saw how it was capable of being worked. In the contest of 1871 it 
 discouraged them from joining us more than any other power wielded 
 by the " Ring." In some districts, men of great local influence open 
 ly said it was of no use to run a ticket so long as that power could 
 be exercised against them. The Reformers were generally appalled 
 by it. U had confidence because I counted on the intensity of the 
 popularMerment as likely to permeate and weaken all the agencies 
 of the "Ring," and to swell the wave of opposition until it should 
 V sweep over all artificial obstructions. ) 
 
 If the value of a thing is to be measured by what it costs, we are 
 thrown back to a statement made to Judge Davis of the price paid 
 to the leading Republican Senators. Five thousand dollars for the 
 election law, and for section 4 of the tax levy, under which the 
 $6,000,000 of the special audit were acquired, was perhaps as cheap 
 as $10,000 for the charter. The agents of the Citizen^ Association 
 cost only a few offices. The Times threw itself in gratuitously^ My 
 defense, if I need one, for not stopping the " Ring " from cheating 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 109 
 
 at elections, is that I tried to do so but could not. I was beaten by 
 the Eepublican Senators and the Times. \ 
 
 COURT OF APPEALS. 
 
 Soon after the disastrous failure to secure self-government for our 
 people, a lawyer of this city came to me and said that the best thing 
 for me to do was, to endeavor to secure a good Court of Appeals. 
 My recollection is, that the general term for this department, two of 
 the three members of which have since been expelled for corruptio n, 
 had, at that time, just been constituted. I felt that to make civil 
 rights safe in the second and last appeal was of great value, and set 
 about the work. In the mean time, a distinguished gentleman from 
 the interior came to propose to me to run as Chief Judge of the new 
 court, and to assure me of a support which I understood would 
 carry with it the. State administration and everything, jealous of or 
 hostile to me throughout the State. It was evident that I was con 
 sidered less dangerous at the head of the court than at the head of 
 the State Committee. I answered that I thought I should not be 
 dependent on any such help if I desired the nomination ; but that it 
 was not in accord with my plan of life to desire or take the office. 
 I did issue a private appeal for the formation of a good c*ourt to 
 nearly all the Democratic lawyers of the State, and to other promi 
 nent men. Many of the foremost members of the bar came to the 
 convention, and we nominated and elected five of the seven mem 
 bers of a court which has the complete confidence of the bar and 
 the people. After the judicial election I went on business into dis 
 tant States until late in the summer. 
 
 WINTER OF 1871. 
 
 y I did not set my foot in Albany during the session of 1871. The 
 Times frequently said, " Such men as Mr. Samuel Tilden have no real 
 influence." If the Times meant no influence in what was then the 
 political and legislative Sodom of the State, there is no exaggeration in 
 the assertion. Men who are bought on great questions are in no 
 situation to disobey on inferior matters which are really insisted on. 
 \Mr. Tweed was never so supreme over nearly the whole body of the 
 Republican members, and, with their aid, could despise or suppress 
 and punish every revolt on the Democratic side. \ And he had acquired 
 the prestige of successful power. The Democrats had not in either 
 
IK) TIH-: UKK OK SAMUKI, .1. TILDKN. 
 
 House one vote l.o spare from the number neeessnry to pjiHH a bill. 
 lillt. Mr. Tweed WHS no worse oil" Mini, lie W.MH completely dependent 
 on his alliances \villi the Republicans. Nearly every had measure 
 P.I .| vviMioiil, any opposition, or with only n. Hliuin opposition. The 
 TYfttM) on olio OOOft0iOD| OOmpluinod Mint the root of the evil WUH in 
 the apathy Of the BepubUoan party of the city. Them WHS force iii 
 the statement. The .piv jii l ieeM, the party passions, the interests of 
 ambitious men, make the opposition tin- nuturul organ of the discon 
 tents of society with the ascendant power, which ut thin time liud 
 Ome pretext for culling ilHulf Deinocrutic, though, in truth, it \\nsn 
 41 RiiiK" of both partieH. The coniliiiuition hn<l nuch control ove.rtlio 
 Republloani nt Albany mid in this city, Mint n, revolution in the 
 Republican party wan necessary to crcntc an opposition; mid, with 
 out mi opposition, diHHcnting Deinoeruts were powerless. In ntiin- 
 alati&g the party nniiuoHity of th licpublicans, even though by 
 vague appenlH, or if for merely partisan ends, the 7 hncn rendered 
 vnluublo Nurvioo in ft propurution for the fulur<\ Hut. rime wns no- 
 
 oeuary. 
 
 It is wholly untrue that at nny nionuMit. I was timid, or Hellinhly 
 roHorvod, or nhrniik from any roH|>onsibility. 
 
 I niik tiot a newspaper whose biisiiu^s it is to address (lie public. 
 every day ; wboso recurring want more than meat or bread is a topic, ; 
 and to whom invective, even if without facts or evidence, provided 
 it makes a sensation, is money nioiv money in circulation and adver 
 tisements. Men not of the editorial avocation have to turn from 
 their ordinary duties and habits when they appear before the public, 
 and it is only on few occasions that they find the forum or the oppor 
 tunity or the leisure. How many times did Mr. William A. Booth, 
 who is mentioned with commendation by the / iinc.t, and is truly an 
 excellent cit i/.en, or Mr. .Ine.kson Sehull/,, <>r even Mr. Kvurts, appear 
 luiiu" this period { I \\ill not ask ahuul the chairman of the !> < 
 publican State Committee. It is safe lo conjecture that he was run- 
 niii! 1 , of eri. iiul:) for some branch of the " Ring," and serving around 
 the legislative halls for what arc daintily termed counsel lees. 
 
 I would have had a perfect right to wait until that ll Ring " domin 
 ion ovor our million of people, which the / iini .t boasted was " ns 
 much" tho Work of "the Republicans" as of the "Tweed Democra 
 cy," had matured its falal fruits, before 1 should again renew Mie 
 battle which had been once betrayed and lost. Hut, nevertheless, on 
 some occasions I did intervene. 
 
OVERTHROW OF TIIU TAMMANY " RIN<J." ]|| 
 
 HCIIOOI, HYKTICM. 
 
 The revolution of tin- school system, in tho winter of 1871, wiw 
 the favorite scheme of the master spirit of the u Ring." I publicly 
 
 oondemndd it. 
 
 CO HI . AMKM>MKNT. 
 
 The |)rovisioii of the Code Amendment, hill which conferred on 
 tho judges n, transcendent authority to punish for what they might, 
 choose to consider ;is contempts, was the measure which was to :ip 
 ply coercion l,o the press mid (,o speakers who should attack the 
 " King." What the I wo millions :i. year of advertisements, open to 
 ho given or recalled ut the will of Mayor Null, should fail to win, thin 
 nummary power -sinco nndei stood to h;ive heen devised liy Ourdozo, 
 ftlld (U Ni fned to he wielded hy him iind r.;irn;ird W. is t,o COIKJIMM . 
 It w. is snid I know not with wluit truth to he speci;dl_y ninied jit, 
 (Jie Tiini-n. Trohuhly ni;inv :iu :irlie|e of th;if joiini;il in the spring 
 of IH7I, which Hcenied to MIC. public t<> be \;iv;ne :md w. intin; ; in 
 dolinito facts, h:id point nnii;, li l the men who knew they had 
 Htolen fourteen millions since it helped them into power. At any 
 rato, this scheme was (he desperate resource of a domination, hold 
 and blind, as it was ripening for n l ;dl. In if were eoncentnited tho 
 fe.-irs , ind ho|ies of the " iJin 1 ;." If was pussed without a dissenting 
 voice, in either House. Kvery Kepiihlicaii member voted for it or 
 Ktiiid a.way. The chnirimin of the committee of conference, who 
 miinuMivred it, through, was a, Kepiiblicnn Sen;itor, who a,dmittc(l 
 last year tho "borrowing" in one instance of $10,000 from Mr. 
 Tweed, which had not heen repaid. 
 
 One evening in May, when I was temporarily confined to my 
 house, by illness, Mr. Kandolph Kobinson called to ask me to be 
 chairman of a committee of the l>ar Association lo go to Alhany and 
 ronio nst, rate with (Jovernor lloll man against, his signing this hill. I 
 declined to bo chairman, but assented that, the me. -I in- mi:-;lit put, me 
 on Ihe commitlee, if it, chose to do Ho, with the knowledge I, hat, I 
 could not go; and said that I would write, a. letter against the bill. 
 
 On .second t, bought, a, hurried note was addressed to Mr. Kvarls, 
 who was chairman, I hat, it, might be. sure, of publication. It was 
 paraded in Ihe foreground of the controversy. It and its writer 
 were constantly cited by the. Tinn H. An issue was publicly declared 
 from which everybody knew I would not retire. If tho bill bad not 
 heen vetoed, an open collision must have spread all over the. State. 
 
112 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 After I had taken my position, I received assurances of cooperation, 
 in such a controversy, from Francis Kernan and others. 
 
 THE CONTEST OF 1871. 
 
 The 7th of November, 1871$ was the first day when a vote of the 
 people could even indirectly retrieve the results of the legislation of 
 April 5, 1870. 
 
 STRONG POSITION OF THE " KING " IN THE CITY. 
 
 Mr. Tweed was in his office until April, 1874; Connolly until 1875, 
 and Sweeney until 1875. They, with the mayor, were vested with 
 the exclusive legal power of appropriating all moneys raised by 
 taxes or by loans, and an indefinite authority to borrow. Practically, 
 they held all power of municipal legislation, and all power of ex 
 pending as well as of appropriating moneys. They had filled the de 
 partments with their dependents for terms equally long. 
 
 They wielded the enormous patronage of offices and contracts. 
 They swayed all the institutions of local government the local judi 
 ciary the unhappily-localized portion of the State judiciary, which 
 includes the Circuit Courts, the Oyer and Terminers, the Special 
 Terms and the General Terms; in a word, everything below the 
 Court of Appeals. They also controlled the whole machinery of 
 elections. New York City with its million of people with its 
 concentration of vast interests of individuals in other States and in 
 foreign countries with its conspicuous position before the world 
 had practically no power of self-government. It was ruled, and was 
 to be ruled, so long as the terms of these offices continued from 
 four to eight years as if it were a conquered province. The central 
 source of all this power was Albany. The system emanated from 
 Albany. It could only be changed at Albany. 
 
 In my speech at the Cooper Institute, in 1871, I said : 
 
 " They stripped every legislative power and every executive power, 
 and all the powers of government, from us, and vested them in half 
 a dozen men for a period of from four to eight years, who held, and 
 were to hold, supreme dominion over the people of this city. 
 
 "I heard my friend Mr. Choate say that the men in power had 
 been elected by your suffrage. I am sure that was a slip of the 
 tongue. The men in power were elected by no man s suffrage. 
 They never could have been elected by any man s suffrage. Jjjey 
 .were put in power by the act of the Senate and Assembly of the 
 State of New York, without consulting us or any of us. The ground 
 that I had taken is that, as the State had put f /n-w men o/< //. , Hie 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." H3 
 
 State mmt TAKE THEM OFF. That is the reason I differ from my 
 Democratic friends of the rural districts, who say : 
 
 " What, will you carry a local controversy into the State Conven 
 tion? Will you carry it into the politics of the State, and distract 
 and disorganize the Democratic party ? 
 
 "I answered: It is too late to consider that question. For ten 
 years the Democratic party has pledged itself to give back to New 
 York the rights of self-government, and when it came into power 
 it betrayed that pledge and violated that duty. 
 
 "Alone I went to the city of Albany, and recorded my protest 
 against the outrage. . . . The plan was cunningly contrived and 
 skillfully executed, but owed its success to a disregard of all moral 
 obligations and all restraints of honor or principle. How was it 
 accomplished? By taking a million dollars, stolen from the tax 
 payers, and buying in the shambles a majority in the two Houses of 
 the Legislature. 
 
 " When I spoke against this charter before a committee of the 
 Senate, Mr. Tweed sitting in the chair, I already knew that not more 
 than one vote of the Democrats, and not more than one vote of the 
 Republicans, would be cast against it ; but I felt it to be my duty to 
 the people of New York, and to the Democratic party, to record my 
 protest against what I then deemed a crime against us, and a be 
 trayal of our principles." 
 
 The officers composing the "Ring" government of this city could 
 not be removed, or their power curtailed or limited, except by new 
 legislation. Such legislation could only be made by the concurrent 
 action of the Assembly, Senate, and Governor. J 
 
 If they could hold enough of the Senators to defeat the passage 
 of a bill changing this state of things, they could resist public opinion, 
 and defy the vote of the people of this city, which might spend it 
 self, without results, upon aldermen and assistants, totally without 
 power ; and on a mayor, having little legal authority, and capable of 
 being nothing more than a subordinate instrument of the executive 
 departments. 
 
 CEISIS OF THE CONTEST. 
 
 The Senators who had voted on the 5th of April, 1870, with but 
 two dissenting voices, to create this state of things, did not come 
 within the reach of the people until the election of the 7th of No 
 vember, 1871, when their successors were to be chosen. 
 
 The 5th of April, 1870, and the 7th of November, 1871, wena 
 the two days of battle. The intervening time was but the interval 
 between two battles. The period which preceded the election of the 
 7th of November, 1871, was important and valuable only as a time 
 of preparation. 
 
114 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 PIVOT OF THE CONTEST. 
 
 The objective point of the battle was the legislative power of the 
 State the Senators and Assemblymen. 
 
 "KING" PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 The "King" saw that. Early there came to me prominent gen 
 tlemen from the interior to propose that I should name all ie dele 
 gates to the State Convention to be sent by the Tammany organiza 
 tion ; and so have no contest. The object of the " Ring " was to 
 retain the prestige of " regularity " in aid of the election of their 
 nominees as Senators and Assemblymen. If they could hold the 
 five Senators from this city, they had no misgivings about holding 
 the Republican Senators from the country. At last, when I consent 
 ed to have a conference with one of them on the basis of a resigna 
 tion of all city offices, and a withdrawal from the Democratic city 
 organization, and all political leadership, the surrender on my terms 
 was refused ; and their reliance on holding the Senate, BY MEANS OF 
 EIGHT REPUBLICAN SENATORS already secured to Mr. Tweed, was 
 avowed. 
 
 A passage of my speech at the Cooper Institute is reported as 
 follows : 
 
 " Mr. Tweed s plan is to carry the senatorial representation from 
 this city, and then to reelect eight, and, if possible, twelve of the 
 Republican Senators from the rural districts whom he bought and 
 paid for last year, and to control all the legislation that might be pre 
 sented there in your behalf ; and it was lecause I had some misgiv 
 ings that this might ~be done that I thought it was my duty personally 
 to take the field and help you in this conflict. (Applause.) 
 
 " If I had felt that the Republicans could have carried the thing 
 of themselves, it would have been pleasanter and easier for me to have 
 stepped aside and let them do it. I felt it to be my duty to .the honest 
 masses of the Democracy, and still more to the people for party is 
 of no value unless it can serve the people faithfully and effectually 
 to take my stand with the advanced columns of reform and good 
 government to take my place there, and stand or fall with those 
 who gather round me." (Applause.) 
 
 MY PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 My plan of the campaign was in a single idea. It was to take 
 away from the " Ring " the Senators and Assemblymen from this 
 city. That was to storm the central stronghold on which their lines 
 rested, while they were extending their operations over the whole 
 State. 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." H5 
 
 Their allies throughout the State in both parties would be ren 
 dered powerless, or be dispersed. I feared most their allies in the 
 Republican party. As it was, the Assembly was largely made up of 
 men who had got themselves nominated by the Republicans in the 
 expectation that Tweed would come back and such golden, or 
 rather greenback showers, as he had scattered during the two previ 
 ous sessions, would descend upon them. 
 
 Offers of a surrender of all part in the State Convention and 
 in the State organization were continually made in every form ; 
 and weighty pressure was brought on me from powerful men all 
 over the State to accept it, and so " save the party." I uniformly 
 asked, " Who is to have the five Senators and twenty-one Assembly 
 men ? " In a speech at the State Convention I made this issue. I 
 said that the object of endeavoring to get a recognition of the or 
 ganization then controlled by the "Ring," or of avoiding its direct 
 repudiation, was "to go lack and nominate twenty -one members of 
 Assembly and five Senators, and then to say to the uprising masses 
 of the best intellect and moral worth of the people, " If you do 
 not vote this ticket you are out of the Democratic party." I denied 
 that the system of organization then in use in the city had any moral 
 right to be considered regular, or to bind the Democratic masses. I 
 avowed before the convention that I would not vote for any one of 
 its nominees as Assemblymen or Senators. 
 
 In my speech at Cooper Institute I said: "A great many times 
 that offer was repeated, and everything was tendered me except the 
 Senate and Assembly of the State of New York; but I said that 
 everything else was of no value for them to give, and of no value for me 
 to take ; that the legislation which should be made in respect to the 
 city government, whatever else I would compromise, that I could not 
 compromise, and I WOULD NOT. ^Applause.) I told the State Con 
 vention being the nominal head of the Democratic party of this 
 State for the sake of perfect frankness and distinctness, and in order 
 that I might not be misunderstood I told them that I felt it to be 
 my duty to oppose any man who would not. go for making the govern 
 ment of this city tchat it ought to be, at whatever cost, at whatever 
 sacrifice. If they did not deem that regular, I would resign as 
 chairman of the State Committee, and take my place in the ranks of 
 my plundered fellow-citizens, and help them to FIGHT THEIR BATTLE 
 
 OF EMANCIPATION." 
 
 On this issue I staked my political existence and all my party re- 
 
116 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 lations throughout the State. I threw myself into the breach, in 
 order to inspire courage in the Democratic masses of the city to break 
 away from the prestige of a pretended but sham "regularity." 
 
 HOW TO OVERTHROW THE " RING " IN THE POPULAE VOTE OF THE 
 
 CITY. 
 
 There was a Democratic majority in the city of at least 40,000 or 
 50,000, if all the honest, and only the honest, votes should be polled. 
 The party organization in the city, which had been accepted by the 
 State Convention for years, in preference to the other organizations 
 that had competed with it, had fallen into the complete possession 
 of the "Ring," and had been made a close corporation, within which 
 no contest could be waged against them, so long as they held so vast 
 official power and patronage. All rival organizations, and nearly all 
 spirit of opposition, had been crushed out under the operation of the 
 enormous centralized dominion derived from Albany. 
 
 The despondency and disbelief in the possibility of carrying the 
 election in the city against the nominees who would be in the interest 
 of the "Ring" were deep, almost universal, and hopeless. 
 
 It is seldom that ten per cent, of any party scratch the regular 
 ticket. 
 
 To the Democratic masses it was said, not only that the accused 
 persons were innocent, but that, even if they were guilty, a great 
 organization ought not to be destroyed for the wrong of a few indi 
 viduals ; that the party was not responsible for them, and that the 
 particular nominees were good men. 
 
 How were the votes of twenty, or thirty, or forty, thousand rank- 
 and-file Democrats to be detached? 
 
 Nothing short of an organized revolt of the Democratic masses, 
 under the best Democratic lead, wjth the most effective measures, 
 and with some good fortune, could accomplish so difficult a work 
 against such extraordinary powers as were combined to uphold the 
 existing system. 
 
 The rst measure necessary was to break the prestige ofjthe or 
 ganization which the " Ring " controlled as the representative of _flie 
 party in the eyes of its masses. ; to do this by the act of the State 
 Convention. 
 
 That was no easy matter. To able men who sympathized with 
 me it seemed impossible. It proved even more difficult than I ex 
 pected. A party in power is naturally disposed to risk the continu- 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "KING." 117 
 
 ance of abuses rather than to hazard the extreme remedy of " cutting 
 them out bj the roots." The executive power of the State and all 
 its recently-enlarged official patronage were exerted against such a 
 policy. And since the contest of 1869 the " Ring " had studied to 
 extend its influence on the rural districts, and- had showered legisla 
 tive favors as rf they were ordinary patronage. Without having, or 
 having had for years, the power to give an office in city or State, I 
 stood on the traditions of the older leaders, and the moral sense of 
 the honest masses of the Democratic party. 
 
 THE TIME WHEN I ACTED. 
 
 The publication by the Times of what is called the " Secret Ac 
 counts " was completed on the 29th of July. They consisted of 
 copies, made by a clerk, of entries in a book kept in the office of the 
 Comptroller. They showed the dates and amounts of certain pay 
 ments made by the Comptroller, with a brief description of the ob 
 jects, and the names of the persons to whom the payments were 
 made. 
 
 The enormous amounts, compared with the times and purposes, 
 and the recurrence of the same names, created a moral conviction of 
 gross frauds, though, of course, not amounting to judicial proof 
 against anybody, on which a criminal or civil action would lie, or dis 
 closing the real principals in the fraudulent transactions. 
 
 I soon became satisfied of the substantial truth of these state 
 ments, by the futility of the answers on behalf of the city officers,, 
 and by cross-examining a financial gentleman who came to me with 
 a letter from a distinguished citizen, and the form of a call for a pub 
 lic meeting which he wished me to head. The statements made me 
 believe that municipal frauds had been committed, immeasurably 
 transcending anything I had ever suspected ; and they furnished a sort 
 of evidence capable of acting strongly upon the popular mind. \I am, 
 a believer in the potency of definite facts in making an impression on 
 the public! For that purpose, I had rather have one fact than a col 
 umn of rhetoric. The publication was made just as I was going into 
 the country. In two or three days there, I formed my programme. 
 
 ME. KEENAX. 
 
 For so difficult a movement in the State Convention cooperation 
 was necessary. The first man I sought was Mr. Francis Kernan. 
 His freedom from all entanglements whether personal or political 
 
118 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 with corrupt interests or corrupt men ; his high standard of public 
 duty ; his disinterestedness and independence ; his tact and eloquence 
 in debate ; his general popularity and the readiness of his district to 
 send him as a delegate made him my necessary ally in the State 
 Convention. After much telegraphing I found he was in Albany on 
 professional business. I went there, and passed a day with him. 
 
 It was, I believe, the 4th of August, 1871. That was within six 
 days of the time when the publication of the " Secret Accounts " 
 was completed. It was a month before the 4th of September when 
 the meeting was held, at which the Committee of Seventy was cre 
 ated. It was three weeks earlier than I had moved, in 1869, when 
 my own fortunes were involved in a contest with the " King." It 
 was earlier than a political campaign in reference to the November 
 election usually opens. It was more than three months before the 
 election. So far from the " battle " being over, it was scarcely be 
 gun. So far from the " Ring " being " down " as the Times alleges, 
 it was confident of holding its own for months afterward. 
 
 The programme then submitted to Mr. Kernan embraced every 
 thing which has been done since, except the impeachment of the 
 judges. He was about to go to the sea-shore with a sick relative, 
 and, while his concurrence was given, particular measures were left 
 for his consideration until his return. Ten days afterward I joined 
 him at Albany went with him to Utica and received the assurance 
 of his cooperation ; and had consultations with Governor Seymour, 
 who was also in full ^ympathy with us. Mr. Kernan will recall the 
 fact that at that first interview contemplating the difficulty of the 
 conflict I said and he agreed that we ought to make the contest, 
 even if we should fall in it. 
 
 On my way home, I stopped a few days at Saratoga. There I 
 met Mr. George Jones, of the Times. I had known him twenty 
 years. He spoke freely to me. I saw no indication that he thought 
 the battle was over. He seemed rather to feel its stress. I told 
 him I should appear in the field at the proper time. Often after 
 ward, when I met him, he referred to that casual interview with ap 
 parent satisfaction. 
 
 Some five or six weeks later after Mr. Green was in as sub 
 stitute for Mr. Connolly I went into the Comptroller s office. 
 There sat Mr. Jennings and Mr. Jones. The former said, " We want 
 an interview with you." Mr. Green kindly gave us a room in the 
 basement. When we had arrived there, and were seated, Mr. Jen- 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." H9 
 
 nings said, "Do you see any daylight?" and went on to say, in 
 words which I may not be able literally to repeat, that the contest 
 was too exhausting to be continued very long. I stretched out my 
 hand to him and said : " Be of good cheer ! We shall win this fight." 
 
 ME. OSWALD OTTENDOEFEE. 
 
 At Utica I had seen some gentlemen who professed to represent 
 Mr. Ottendorfer s views. I hastened to see him as soon as I arrived 
 at New York. He had accompanied me to Albany the year before, 
 when I made the speech against the Tweed charter. He was a very 
 important element in the contemplated movement. His purity and 
 elevation of purpose made me think he would join us, notwithstand 
 ing the great efforts which were made to prevent it. He did so. 
 
 ME. O CONOE. 
 
 Averse to engaging personally in politics ; at an eminence in pro 
 fessional renown, in social consideration, and in personal character, 
 which lifted him above rivalries, and disposed everybody to defer to 
 him, so long as he abstained from fresh collision ; entitled to consult 
 his ease and the comfort of tranquillity, Mr. O Oonor was, neverthe 
 less, in complete sympathy with the right. I had often communed 
 with him over evils which there seemed to be at the time no means 
 of redress. I went out to Washington Heights to see him. I told 
 him the hour had come. He said he would help according to his 
 view of what he was best adapted to, and of what was most fit for 
 him to undertake. 
 
 There were great legal difficulties in the way of getting investiga 
 tion or redress. 
 
 The aldermen, who were vested with a statutory power of com 
 pelling disclosure, were allies of the "King." The Legislature was 
 not in session. For a long time there was no grand-jury capable of 
 making the traditionary inquest, which had not been packed. 
 
 The local authorities which had power to order civil actions, if 
 such would lie in their behalf, were in complicity with the wrong 
 doers. The officials who would conduct such actions were their ap 
 pointees ; the juries would be selected in their interest, and the judges 
 who dominated in the courts were their instruments. 
 
 Criminal proceedings were equally hampered. 
 
 Well might the mayor say to Garvey as the latter has recently 
 testified" Who is to sue ? " 
 
120 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 As early as August I had discussed with Mr. O Conor the right of 
 the State by the Attorney-General to sue ; but even that resource was 
 unavailable, because we could not then count on the cooperation of 
 that officer. 
 
 When I suggested a new law appointing one or three commis 
 sioners ; conferring on them full powers of compelling disclosure ; 
 vesting them with the right to sue ; enabling them to lay the venue 
 outside of this county ; giving preference to their actions ; with 
 other provisions to render the remedy speedy and efficacious, Mr. 
 O Conor said he would take the head of such a commission. 
 
 It was these conferences which led Mr. Kernan and myself to vote 
 for Mr. O Oonor, without his knowledge, as Attorney-General. To 
 the gentleman who was nominated I sent a message advising him .of 
 the necessity that he should satisfy the people of New York that he 
 would exert the powers of his office in their behalf. He came to my 
 house on the Sunday morning of October 15th, with a letter dated 
 the 14th, which was published on the 16th, containing such an as 
 surance; and said he would authorize any suit Mr. O Conor or I 
 should advise. He had returned to Albany and communicated this 
 agreement to Governor Hoffman, before the delegates of the Commit 
 tee of Seventy had their interview on the afternoon of the 17th, at 
 which Mr. Champlain announced his purpose to depute Mr. O Conor. 
 
 With characteristic disinterestedness and public spirit, that trust 
 was undertaken by Mr. O Conor, with the declaration that he would 
 accept no compensation for his professional work; and ever since 
 he has given his time and his great abilities and acquirements to the 
 service of the people. 
 
 OTHER PREPARATIONS. 
 
 These conferences were in August, and before the Committee of 
 Seventy was appointed. They did not wait for or depend upon any 
 cooperation. They contemplated independent action. Other prep 
 arations for the State Convention were made. I accepted an ar 
 rangement to be upon the floor as the representative of my native 
 district, which had always during the Ring ascendency provided 
 me that opportunity. I asked a few other gentlemen to come, but 
 had not time to look after delegates in detail.( I did, however, early 
 in September, issue a letter to twenty-six thousand Democrats, re 
 viewing the situation, and calling upon them to " take a knife and cut 
 the cancer out by the roots." j 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 121 
 
 SUBSTITUTION OF ME. GREEN FOR MR. CONNOLLY IN THE COMP- 
 TEOLLERSHIP. 
 
 Meantime an important event happened which could not have 
 been foreseen. 
 
 On the 14th of September Mr. Connolly applied to me through a 
 friend for an interview. Without knowing its object, I gave it on the 
 morning on the 15th. The most artful members of the "Ring" 
 plotted to save themselves, to come in as parts of a new system, even 
 as reformers, with added power upon Connolly s ruin. In his dis 
 trust of them, and fears for himself, he sought advice. 
 
 I began by telling him that I could not be his counsel or assume 
 any fiduciary relations toward him ; that he and all the others must 
 surrender all office and all local party leadership, and recognize the 
 fact that their careers were ended. 
 
 To this he assented, but still wanted my advice. I counseled him 
 that he had no right to resign his office into the hands of his confed 
 erates ; that such an act would be a new wrong against the public. 
 
 To his inquiry whether if he remained he could get money to 
 carry on the government, I told him I would consult Mr. Havemeyer, 
 and we would meet him again that evening. 
 
 Mr. Havemeyer came, but Connolly did not. After consultation, 
 Mr. Havemeyer went to Connolly s house, found him in bed, sick, 
 encouraged him, appointed a meeting at my house for the next morn 
 ing at ten, and requested, as I had desired, that Connolly s counsel 
 should come with him. 
 
 Meantime I had examined the law, and found a singular enactment 
 by which the Comptroller was authorized to appoint a deputy, and 
 confer upon him, for a definite period, all his own official powers. 
 Mr. Havemeyer must have been informed of this, and consulted about 
 the proposed action under it before he went to Connolly s, for he had 
 agreed to assume the responsibility of public advice to Connolly to 
 stay in, as Mr. Green could only hold as his deputy. Besides Mr. 
 Havemeyer and Mr. Green, the only human being who had any inti 
 mation of the purpose was Judge Swayne, of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, who passed the evening with me, to whom I con 
 fided the matter, with whom I discussed the question of the right of 
 the State to sue in such cases under the general rules of jurisprudence, 
 and, in the intervals of conversation, with whom I prepared some of 
 the papers. 
 
 6 
 
122 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 In the morning, Mr. Havemeyer an,d Mr. Connolly and his counsel 
 came. I pressed Mr. Connolly to surrender the office into the hands 
 of the Eeformers by deputing Mr. Green to exercise all its powers ; 
 that he had less to fear from the public than from his confederates ; 
 that if he threw himself upon the mercy of the public, and evinced a 
 disposition to aid the right, the storm would pass him and beat upon 
 the others. His counsel said it was a personal question. One of 
 them stated the opposite view taken by some of Mr. Connolly s 
 friends. It was that, if he would resign, a man should be put in his 
 place who would have character enough to assume the whole duty of 
 investigation, and would exclude the committee of which Mr. Booth 
 was chairman, and that Mr. Connolly should be protected. It was 
 disclosed that the counsel who presented this view had come fresh 
 from an interview with Mr. Sweeney. 
 
 At length Mr. Connolly consented, the papers were executed, Mr. 
 Green sworn in, and they left my house only to go to the office of the 
 Comptroller and put Mr. Green in possession. 
 
 The Times seems to consider the acquisition of this office by the 
 Eeformers at that stage of the contest as of little value. That was not 
 its opinion at the time. It is not my opinion. 
 
 The possession of the comptrollership by the Reformers was a fatal 
 embarrassment to the " Ring." It involved a publicity of all the ex 
 penditures of the departments, and was a restraint on those expendi 
 tures. It created doubt and dismay in all their actions. It was an 
 obstacle to such modes of raising money as had brought the charter 
 through in 1870, and to the hope of reimbursing advances for such 
 purposes. It protected the records on which all civil and criminal 
 actions must be founded, from such destruction as was attempted in 
 the burning of the vouchers. Every investigation, including that of 
 Mr. Booth s committee, was a fruit of that possession. So also was 
 the discovery of judicial proofs, in the Broadway Bank; and the col 
 lection of such proofs which continued for eight months afterward, 
 with important results which have not even yet become public. It 
 divided the influence of the city government in the elections, and 
 broke the prestige of the " Ring." 
 
 EFFOETS OF THE " KING " TO EEOOVEE POSSESSION. 
 
 Then began a struggle on the part of the "Ring" to force Mr. 
 Connolly to resign, in order that Mr. Green s powers might cease. 
 On the 18th the mayor treated Mr. Connolly s deputation of Mr. 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY 
 
 Green as a resignation ; and then, with singular inconsistency, as 
 sumed to remove Mr. Connolly, though he had lately declared he had 
 no power of removal. The vacancy thus alleged to exist, he, on two 
 incompatible theories, each totally unfounded, proceeded to fill. 
 
 Early that morning I sought Mr. O Conor. The freedom from 
 doubt of the law was no security. The moral support of his great 
 legal name, affirming the validity of Mr. Green s possession, was neces 
 sary. He examined the statutes, and had no doubt. He consented to 
 reduce his opinion to writing, saying that he would not take a fee, 
 and inserting the explanation that the opinion was given at my re 
 quest. It appeared in the Evening Post of that afternoon. 
 
 An attempt, under color of judicial process, to forcibly eject Mr. 
 Green, was anticipated. A carriage was waiting to take me to Judge 
 Brady. If a judge could be found to vacate fraudulent orders, as fast 
 as they could be granted, it was well. If not, I had resolved. the next 
 day to open an issue, in advance of the election of the new Legislature 
 a convention to revise the judiciary. 
 
 Mr. O Gonor s opinion saved that day. Mr. O Gorman, evading 
 the legal question, advised the mayor, as a matter of expediency, to 
 acquiesce in Mr. O Conor s opinion. The plot fell to pieces. 
 
 But there were men behind the mayor who would not yet give up 
 the struggle. When Keyser alleged that his name on the warrants 
 was forged, the effort was renewed. It was in resisting it that I 
 struck on the clew which led to the revelations of the Broadway 
 Bank. 
 
 STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 The contest in the State Convention quickly followed. It is but 
 fair to admit that what I asked the convention to do was more than 
 any party was ever found able to venture upon. It was to totally 
 cut off and cast out from party association a local organization which 
 held the influence growing out of the employment of twelve thousand 
 persons, and the disbursement of thirty millions a year, which had 
 possession of all the machinery of local government, dominated the 
 judiciary and police, and swayed the officers of the election. I still 
 think that, on such an occasion, the greatest audacity in the right 
 would have been the highest wisdom, and, in the long-run, the most 
 consummate prudence. If the convention could not reach that 
 breadth and elevation of action, it nevertheless did help to break the 
 prestige by which the organization expected to enthrall the local 
 masses. For myself, I at no time hesitated to avow, as my conviction 
 
124 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 of duty and my rule of action, that a million of people were not to be 
 given over to pillage to serve any party expediency, or to advance 
 any views of State or national politics. 
 
 OTHEE ACTION. 
 
 For more than three months I devoted myself to this contest. 
 Whatever seemed, on a general survey of the whole field, necessary 
 to be done, I endeavored to find the best men and best methods to 
 do, and at all events to have that thing accomplished. I addressed 
 the Democratic masses. I constantly pointed out to the public the 
 legislative bodies as the turning-point of the controversy. I entered 
 into an arrangement with Mr. O Conor and Mr. Evarts to go to the 
 Legislature ; and, when events afterward induced them to abandon 
 the intention, I went alone. I invited the meeting at which the re 
 form delegation to the State Convention was originated, and helped 
 to form that delegation. 
 
 On the eve of the election, when Mr. Wickham, who was 
 chairman of the newly-extemporized Democratic Reform organiza 
 tion, came to me to say that they could not supply booths or ballots 
 without $10,000 beyond what they were able to raise, I agreed to 
 provide it, and did so. With the aid of Mr. Edward Cooper, I raised 
 from personal friends, including my own contributions, for the legiti 
 mate purposes of the contest, about the same sum which I understand 
 the Committee of Seventy collected from the whole community for 
 similar purposes. 
 
 BEOADWAY BANK INVESTIGATIONS. 
 
 These investigations furnished the first, and, for a long time, the 
 only judicial proof of the frauds. They occupied me and some four 
 or five clerks and assistants, about ten days. The analysis of the re 
 sults, and their application as proof, were made by myself, as well 
 as the original discovery of the relation of the numbers which was 
 the clew to all the revelations. 
 
 The Times seems to ascribe the collection of judicial proof to Mr. 
 Booth s commi ttee. This is an entire error. Nothing of the kind 
 was attempted by that committee. The value of their report was in 
 its exhibition of the accounts of payments from the Comptroller s 
 office. It did not trace any share of the money to any public officer. 
 That Mr. Booth was allowed to inspect the accounts was due to the 
 possession of the Comptroller s office by Mr. Green. 
 
OVERTHROW OF TEE TAMMANY "RING." 125 
 
 This information obtained from the Broadway Bank established 
 the fact that but one-third of the nominal amount of the bills had 
 ever reached the persons who pretended to be entitled to the pay 
 ments, and that two-thirds had been divided among public officers 
 and their accomplices ; and it traced the dividends into the actual 
 possession of some of the accused parties. It converted a strong sus 
 picion into mathematical certainty, and it furnishes judicial proof 
 against the guilty parties. On this evidence, and on my affidavits 
 verifying it, the action by the Attorney-General was founded. 
 
 SPEECH AT COOPEE INSTITUTE. 
 
 At the great " Reform " meeting at the Cooper Institute, I made a 
 speech advocating a union of all the elements opposed to the "Ring," 
 without reference to State or national politics. This was done while 
 I was the official head of the State organization of the Democratic 
 party. My action was regarded as questionable by some good men 
 who judged it by the ordinary standard of political parties. All the 
 secret allies of the " Ring " throughout the State were employed, aided 
 by most of the Executive patronage, in accusing me of sacrificing the 
 success of the State ticket and the supremacy of the Democratic party 
 in the State to .my effort to overthrow the " Ring." Complaints 
 were inspired from high quarters that I had not kept back the Broad 
 way Bank disclosures and deferred the action by the Attorney-General 
 until after the election. This was the basis of an organized move 
 ment against me in the Assembly, continued and renewed for a whole 
 year throughout the State. My own opinion was, and is, that the 
 most vigorous and effective measures were necessary to overthrow 
 the corrupt dominion over this city ; that if they had not been taken 
 with boldness, the immense power which has been created by the 
 legislation of 1870 the whole local government machinery with its 
 expenditure and patronage, and its employment of at least twelve 
 thousand persons, and its possession of the police, its influence on 
 the judiciary, its control of the inspectors and canvassers of the elec 
 tions, would have enabled the "Ring " to hold a majority in the city, 
 and would have defeated all adverse legislation at Albany. 
 
 And while I never hesitated to avow that the emancipation of our 
 million of people was not to be made secondary to any other object 
 by a citizen and elector of this city, I thought and still think the 
 timid and false policy I was assailed for not adopting if I know 
 aright the many high-minded and independent gentlemen of the in- 
 
126 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 terior who would not have brooked any compromise with wrong 
 would have been far more disastrous to the State ticket in that elec 
 tion, a,nd would have permanently compromised the Democratic 
 party. It is to the eternal honor of the Democratic masses of this 
 State that, on the issues thus made with me successively for a whole 
 year, they gave me an overwhelming support. \ 
 
 DEMOCRATIC KEFOKM VOTE IN THE CITY. 
 
 \f How largely the redemption of the city was due to the Democratic 
 I masses is easily shown. The vote for "Willers, the Democratic can 
 didate for Secretary of State, was 83,326. His majority was 29,189. 
 The vote for Sigel, the Union Reform candidate for Register, was 
 \ 82,565. His majority was 28,117. Willers s vote was nearly 1,000, 
 and his majority more than 1,000 the larger. 
 
 It follows that 28,653 Democrats who voted for "Willers, also voted 
 for Sigel. Even that does not show the whole Democratic contribu- 
 fl tion to the Reform victory. For at least 10,000 or 12,000 Democrats 
 u dissatisfied that the State Convention had not gone further than it 
 I did voted the Republican State ticket. The whole Democratic vote 
 j:Castfor Sigel was little short of 40,000, against the 42,500 he received 
 I from all other sources. The result so much more overwhelming 
 , than was expected by the public not only changed the city represen- 
 1 fcation in the legislative bodies of the State, but, in its moral effect, 
 Crashed the "Ring." 
 
 So far from true is it that the "battle " was " over," as the Times 
 alleges when I entered it, the battle was not over till the polls closed. 
 Even to the night before the election, general despondency prevailed. 
 All through the contest, it was difficult to inspire the local politicians 
 with confidence in our chances of success. Many, whose sympathies, 
 interests, and resentments, were with us, held back, and some aban 
 doned us at a late period. The Republicans in the city had little 
 hope. 
 
 The belief was general in the city and State, and among all parties, 
 even to the election, that we should fail, and that the "Ring" would 
 hold a majority. 
 
 FUETHEB COLLECTION OF PEOOFS. 
 
 After the election, it was urged by Mr. O Conor, Mr. Havemeyer, 
 and Mr. Green, that I ought to continue the investigations by which 
 the judicial evidence of the frauds should be collected and preserved ; 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 127 
 
 that this work was more important than even the preparation of leg 
 islation. In deference to their views, I gave my time to the work, 
 during all the six weeks, until the legislative session commenced, 
 and in every interval at my command for many months afterward. 
 When the investigations commenced, there were no means by which 
 disclosure could be compelled, that were not in the hands of the ac 
 cused parties, except a grand-jury, whose sessions were prolonged for 
 several months. A vast mass of accurate information has been col 
 lected and preserved, which is the basis of nearly all judicial proofs 
 that have been obtained. 
 
 JUDICIAL KEFOEM. 
 
 It was the opinion of our best men, as it was my own, that a re 
 form in the administration of justice, as it was carried on in this 
 judicial department of the Supreme Court, was not only intrinsically 
 the most important to the welfare, safety, and honor of our commu 
 nity, but was a measure without which every other reform would 
 prove nugatory; and that the opportunity of effecting it at the last 
 session could not be allowed to pass unimproyed without leaving us 
 for an indefinite period subject to the intolerable evils and scandals 
 which had recently grown up, and to the world-wide disrepute they 
 had occasioned. As a citizen and a lawyer trained amid better 
 standards I had seen the descent of the bench and the bar with in 
 expressible concern. I had often questioned, with Mr. O Conor, 
 whether those of us at the bar who had ceased to be dependent for a 
 livelihood upon professional earnings, ought not to feel ourselves 
 under a Providential call, on the first opportunity, to open to the 
 younger members of the profession a better future than that which 
 was closing in upon them a future in which personal and profes 
 sional honor would not be incompatible with pecuniary success. I 
 had advised a son of Francis Kernan, who came here to begin a ca 
 reer, to return to Utica rather than confront the degrading competi 
 tion to which a young man would be exposed. In the heat of an 
 extemporaneous speech, at the Cooper Institute, I had become com 
 mitted to this cause. 
 
 It seemed to me a paramount duty to press a movement for that 
 object with all the concentration and persistence requisite to success ; 
 and there never was a moment, by day or night, during all the ses 
 sion, when any thing which it was possible to do could be safely 
 
128 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 omitted. There were several periods of general despondency, and 
 frequent crises in which the cause had to be rescued. 
 
 It early came to the knowledge of Mr. Peckham, Mr. O Conor, 
 and myself, that a large fund was attempted to be raised for the pur 
 pose of corrupting the committee and the Assembly, in the interest 
 of the accused judges. Even after the impeachment was adopted by 
 the Assembly when general despair was felt at the choice of man 
 agers the lost ground was promptly recovered by a measure initiated 
 by myself. It was an arrangement by which the selection of counsel 
 was to be satisfactory to the Bar Association. 
 
 Attention to the completion of this object, to the conduct of the 
 suits which had been commenced, to the gathering in of the fruits 
 of the investigations, and to other accessory work necessary to finish 
 the original undertakings, occupied most of the summer. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 On the whole, I have given sixteen months of time to these public 
 objects, with as incessant and earnest effort as I ever applied to any 
 purpose. The total surrender of my professional business during 
 that period, the nearly absolute withdrawal of attention from my 
 private affairs, and from all enterprises in which I am interested, 
 have cost me a loss of actual income, which, with the expenditures 
 and contributions the contest has required, would be a respectable 
 endowment of a public charity. The surrender of two summers, 
 after I had shaped all my engagements to take my fir.st vacation in 
 many years, was a serious sacrifice. 
 
 I do not speak of these things to regret them. In my opinion, no 
 instrumentality in human society is so potential in its influence on 
 the well-being of mankind as the governmental machinery which ad 
 ministers justice and makes and executes laws. No benefaction of 
 private benevolence could be so fruitful in benefits as the rescue of 
 this machinery from the perversion which had made it a means of 
 conspiracy, fraud, and crime, against the rights and the most sacred 
 interests of a great community. 
 
 The cancer which reached a head in the municipal government of 
 the metropolis, gathered its virus from the corrupted blood which 
 pervades our whole country. Everywhere there are violated public 
 and private trusts. The carpet-bagger governments are cancers on 
 the body politic, even more virulent than the New York " Ring.") 
 
 I felt impelled to deal Avith the evil here, because an offense 
 
OVERTHROW OF THE TAMMANY "RING." 129 
 
 which is directly before one s eyes is doubly an offense, and be 
 cause it was within our reach ; while to renovate government through 
 out the United States is a work of great difficulty, taking time, large 
 hope of the future, and long-continued efforts toward reformation. 
 If the world cannot be changed, it is something to make one s own 
 home fitter to live in. 
 
 A reaction must begin somewhere. I have not lost hope that 
 free government upon this continent may yet be saved. I remem 
 ber that nations have experienced great changes for the better, in 
 manners and in morals, after long periods of decay. There are some 
 good signs in our own horizon. Last month, when a gigantic con 
 troversy of the stock-market reached the courts, none of the jour 
 nals inquired, " Which side owns the judge ? " At any time within 
 the last three years that would have been the only theme. 
 
 The money-articles have ceased to treat their readers to admiring 
 discussions of the relative dexterity with which men of colossal cap 
 itals first citizens of the metropolis representatives of its moneyed 
 aristocracy contend with each other in feats which have a moral 
 aspect about like cheating at cards. Since the swell of the paper- 
 money afflatus in 1863, the absence of such discussions is a refresh 
 ing novelty at our breakfasts. Even on the cheek of a member of 
 Congress begins to rise a delicate hue of doubt in being discovered 
 to have had a pecuniary interest in a public question on which he 
 has voted. Amid Hie blackness of successful wrong which over 
 spreads the whole heavens, are these little gleams of a revival of the 
 public conscience. If its growth shall be as steady, as rapid, and as 
 persistent as has been its decay during the last ten years, everywhere 
 throughout the country will come revolutions of measures and of men. 
 
 If the w r ork to which I have given so freely, according to the 
 measure of my abilities, shall stand, I will not compete for its hon 
 ors, nor care for falsehood or calumny concerning the part I have 
 borne in it. 
 
 If it is to fail once more if the people of this metropolis if 
 the Eepublican citizens of culture and property, whose interests are 
 deeply involved in a good municipal government, and who are now 
 to show whether they will stand against bad measures in their own 
 party shall shamefully consent to a repetition of the fraudulent de 
 vices of the Tweed charter of 1870 theirs, not mine, will be the re 
 sponsibility. S. J. TILDEF. 
 
 NEW YOKK. January 27, 1873. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 1874. 
 
 BRIEF reference is made in Mr. Tilden s account of the 
 overthrow of the Tammany " Ring" to his services in the Legis 
 lature of New York in 1872. In a speech before the Bar 
 Association on the 28th of May in that year he alluded to 
 the subject as follows : 
 
 "While what has been done toward purifying the judiciary is just 
 cause of congratulation, you will appreciate the difficulties through 
 which it has been obtained if you reflect that everything else in the 
 way of reform has failed. It is known to you that when I consented 
 to go to the Assembly it was with a view to the judicial reform, and 
 to certain other measures more particularly interesting the people of 
 this city ; and that, in that work, I expected the cooperation in the 
 Legislature of Mr. O Oonor and Mr. Evarts. This arrangement was 
 defeated by subsequent events. L believed that it was necessary to 
 concentrate myself upon a very few measures in order to accomplish 
 anything. 
 
 The general demoralization growing out of the civil war and paper- 
 money had produced wide-spread effects. The corrupt power which 
 had just been overthrown in this city had its origin in a partnership 
 of plunder between men nominally of different politics, but, in fact, 
 of no politics at all ; and had established extensive affiliations through 
 out the State in both parties and in both branches of the dominant 
 party, which now possessed three-quarters of the Legislature. It 
 had been necessary to the system that the Capitol should be sur 
 rounded by an atmosphere of corruption. The ambition of some 
 had been tempted; the interests of more had been addressed by 
 making legislative business profitable, and the golden showers had 
 sprinkled benefits in every direction. Some, even, who would not 
 take an actual part in the saturnalia, were content to be silent spec- 
 
ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 131 
 
 tators or consenting witnesses. I never for a moment supposed that 
 the knife and the cautery would be agreeable remedies, or that the 
 silent partners of prosperous criminals would fall in love with those 
 whose duty it is to detect and punish. I knew, therefore, that ob 
 structions, under every pretext, were to be met at every step, and to 
 be overcome. 
 
 To this a word may be added. The Legislature of 1872 
 was either a very weak or a corrupt body. The notorious 
 Thomas C. Fields, now a fugitive from justice, was a member 
 thereof. He was awarded a higher place in the committees, 
 and received much more consideration at the hands of the 
 Republican majority, than Mr. Tilden. In the Senate sat five 
 of those six men who, according to Judge Noah Davis (who 
 sentenced Tweed), had received ten thousand dollars apiece 
 from Tweed himself. A lobbyist who ought, to know says 
 that votes were never before so cheap nor members so greedy 
 as they were that year. Several legislative scandals were un 
 earthed by the newspapers, but none by either House of its 
 own free-will. Tweed was a member of the Senate that year, 
 but did not take his seat. Months elapsed before any ear 
 nest effort was made to expunge his name from the roll, and 
 then he resigned. The busybodies have discovered that, 
 during the session, Mr. Tilden missed more roll-calls than he 
 attended. But they neglect to add that he was engaged in 
 his work the purification of the judiciary against tremen 
 dous odds. If those who attended the roll-calls had been 
 equally faithful to their duties, it would have been well. 
 
 During the summer of 1873, Mr. Tilden made a trip to Eu 
 rope. It was the first rest that he had enjoyed for twenty years. 
 During his absence, the Democratic Convention assembled, 
 and again made him chairman of the State Committee, an 
 unexpected arid unsought compliment to one who had an 
 nounced that he should be away from the country during the 
 canvass. 
 
 In 1874, when the Democrats were casting about for a 
 candidate for Governor, some zealous friends of administrative 
 
132 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 reform suggested the name of Mr. Tilden. He was so entirely 
 out of the line of office-holders that, though he was not a 
 young man, he was a new man. Two questions arose : The 
 timid asked, " Can he carry the State with his record of ugly, 
 aggressive honesty ? Will not the remnants of the old Tam 
 many Ring prove strong enough to defeat him ? " Braver 
 souls simply inquired, " Will he accept a nomination ? " This 
 was really the matter of doubt. He had been working with 
 unflagging industry for thirty years, and had acquired fortune 
 and fame, and a high and honorable name. He was the trusted 
 counselor of many men who were themselves the favorites 
 of the people. In his comparative retiracy he could enjoy 
 such comfort and peace as never fall to the share of a public 
 official, and, at the same time, he could exercise a strong and 
 potent influence on affairs. It was the beguilement of per 
 sonal comfort which held him back, and the whip of duty 
 which drove him on. And he consented to become the candi 
 date of the party. 
 
 The professional politicians were a good deal astonished 
 as the canvass, preceding the convention, advanced. Here 
 was a man past middle age, who had never sought an office 
 in his life, who was not supposed to have any personal follow 
 ing, who lacked the quality which men call magnetism, who 
 could not or did not stir the multitude by appeals to their pas 
 sions, and who had made enemies in every quarter by speak 
 ing his thoughts, when silence seemed the discreet if not the 
 manly policy. As one county after another wheeled into line 
 and instructed its delegates to vote for Mr. Tilden, the aston 
 ishment of the politicians increased. They thought some oc 
 cult influence was at work in his favor that his friends were 
 practising a sort of legerdemain. They wanted him to with 
 draw, that they might " harmonize " on somebody else. They 
 began to get frightened. . 
 
 The convention assembled at Syracuse, on the 16th of Sep 
 tember, 1874. Under a rule adopted the previous year, each 
 Assembly district sent three delegates instead of one, as had 
 
ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 133 
 
 been the custom. The convention was, therefore, the largest 
 ever held by the Democrats in the State of New York. When 
 the time came for the presentation of candidates, Horatio Sey 
 mour rose on the floor of the convention, and, in a brief but 
 very forcible and eloquent speech, named Samuel J. Til den 
 for Governor of New York. Loud cheers followed the an 
 nouncement of the name, and, in continued applause, the dele 
 gates and audience sought to express their appreciation of the 
 coming candidate, and of the distinguished statesman who had 
 nominated him. Judge Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, was also 
 named for Governor. He had been the candidate of the party 
 in 1856, and again in 1858. He enjoyed the personal respect 
 of all the delegates, but he seemed to stand as the representa 
 tive of the more timid section of the party, and courage was 
 the duty of the hour. Mr. Tilden swept the convention by a 
 vote of more than two to one. 
 
 On the evening of his nomination he was tendered a sere 
 nade, and in response he made the following speech : 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS : I thank yon for the honor you do me in the 
 midst of this storm. . I know it is the cause, more than its repre 
 sentative, that calls out this manifestation of interest and enthusiasm. 
 "Well may it. 
 
 A peaceful revolution in all government within the United States 
 is going on to a sure consummation. Ideas of change pervade the 
 political atmosphere. They spring up from the convictions of the 
 people. The supporters of the Administration have lost confidence 
 in it and in themselves. The opposition become more intense in 
 their convictions and in their action. Multitudes pass over from sup 
 port to opposition, or sink into silent discontent. 
 
 Are we asked the causes? The answer is found in the condition 
 of our country. The fruits of a false and delusive system of govern 
 ment finances are everywhere around us. All business is in a dry 
 rot. In every industry, it is hard to make the two ends meet. In 
 comes are shrinking away ; and many hitherto affluent are becoming 
 anxious about their means of livelihood. Working-men are out of 
 employment. The poor cannot look out upon the light or air of 
 heaven but they see the wolf at the door. 
 
134 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Inflation no longer inflates. Even while paper-money is swelling 
 out a new emission, values sink. Bankers balances in the monetary 
 centres are increased, and call loans are cheaper ; but those who need 
 more capital can neither buy nor borrow any of the forty-four millions 
 of new greenbacks. The truth is, that our body politic has been over- 
 drugged with stimulants. New stimulants no longer lift up the lan 
 guid parts to a healthy activity. They merely carry more blood to 
 the congested centres. 
 
 One thing only remains in its integrity ; that is our taxes. Amid 
 general decay, TAXATION puts out new sprouts and grows luxuriantly. 
 
 "It seats itself " if I may borrow a figure from the greatest of 
 our American poets 
 
 "... upon the sepulchre 
 And of the triumphs of its ghastly foe, 
 Makes its own nourishment." 
 
 National taxes State taxes county taxes town taxes muni 
 cipal taxes. The collector is as inevitable as the grim messenger of 
 death. Incomes, profits, wages ; all these fall, but taxes rise. 
 
 Six years ago, I had occasion to say that while values were ascend 
 ing, and for some time after, it might be easy to pay these taxes out 
 of the froth of our apparent wealth ; but that, when the reaction of 
 an unsound system of government finance should set in, the enor 
 mous taxation which that system had created would consume not 
 only our incomes and profits, but trench upon our capital. What 
 was then prediction is now experience. 
 
 KETKENCHMENT in public expenditure ; reform in public admin 
 istration ; simplification and reduction of tariffs and taxes ; ACCOUNT 
 ABILITY of public officers, enforced by better civil and criminal rem 
 edies. The people must have these measures of present relief meas 
 ures of security for the future. 
 
 The Federal Government is drifting into greater DANGEKS and 
 greater EVILS. It is rushing onward in a career of centralism, ab 
 sorbing all governmental powers, and assuming to manage all the 
 affairs of human society. It undertakes to direct the business of indi 
 viduals by tariffs not intended for legitimate taxation, granting special 
 privileges and fostering monopolies at the expense of the people. It 
 has acquired control of all banks ; it has threatened to seize on all the 
 telegraphs; it is claiming jurisdiction of all the railroad corporations 
 chartered by the States, and amenable to the just authority of the 
 States. It is going on to usurp control of all our schools and col- 
 
ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 135 
 
 leges, stretching its drag-net over the whole country, and forcing edi 
 tors and publishers away from their distant homes into the courts of 
 the District of Columbia. It is subjecting the free press of the whole 
 United States, for the criticism of the Administration, to trial by the 
 creatures of the Administration, acting under the eye of the Admin 
 istration. It dared to enforce this tyranny against a free man of the 
 metropolis of our State. 
 
 These tendencies must be stopped, or, before we know it, the 
 whole character of our Government will be changed. The simple 
 and free institutions of our fathers will have become the worst Gov 
 ernment that has ever ruled over a civilized people. 
 
 It will be the most ignorant. A distinguished Eepublican states 
 man (I mean Senator Oonkling) lately told me that more than 5,000 
 bills were before Congress at its last session. In a little time, as we 
 are now going on, there will be 20,000. Nobody can know what is 
 in them. 
 
 We have a country eighteen times as large as France, with a pop 
 ulation of 43,000,000, doubling every thirty years, and full of activi 
 ties and interests. A centralized Government, meddling with every 
 thing and attempting to manage every thing, could not know the 
 wants or wishes of the people of the different localities, and would 
 be felt only in its blunders and its wrongs. 
 
 It would be the most irresponsible, and therefore not only the 
 most oppressive, but the most corrupt with which any people have 
 been cursed. 
 
 To-day the advances which we have made toward this system are 
 maturing their fatal fruits. The Federal Administration is tainted 
 with abuses, with jobbery, and with corruption. In the dominion 
 which it maintains over the reconstructed Southern States, organized 
 pillage on a scale tenfold larger than that of the Tweed " Ring " is 
 the scandal and shame of the country. 
 
 Civil liberty is endangered. It is now certain that President 
 Grant nourishes the bad ambition of a third term. 
 
 If the sacred tradition established by Washington, Jefferson, Mad 
 ison, and Jackson can be broken, the President may be reflected in 
 definitely, and, wielding from the centre the immense patronage which 
 will grow out of such vast usurpation of authorities by the Federal 
 Government, he would grasp the means of corrupt influence by which 
 to carry the elections. There will be no organized thing in the 
 country of sufficient power to compete with him or to resist him. 
 
136 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The forms of free government may remain, but the spirit and sub 
 stance will be changed. An elective personal despotism will have 
 been established. Roman history in the person of Augustus Caesar 
 will be repeated. 
 
 Thoughtful men are turning their minds to the means of escape 
 from the overshadowing evils. The Republican party cannot save 
 the country. Ideas of governmental meddling and centralism domi 
 nate over it. Class interests hold it firmly to evil courses. Throngs 
 of office-holders, contractors, and jobbers, who have grown up in 
 fourteen years of its administration in four years of war and during 
 an era of paper-money are too strong in the machinery of the party 
 for the honest and well-intending masses of the Republicans. The 
 Republican party could contribute largely to maintain the Union dur 
 ing the civil war. It cannot reconstruct civil liberty and free institu 
 tions after the peace. 
 
 A change of men is necessary to secure a change of measures. The 
 opposition is being matured and educated to take the Administration. 
 The Democracy, with the traditions of its best days, will form the 
 nucleus of the opposition. It embraces vastly the larger body of men 
 of sound ideas and sound practices in political life. It must remove 
 every taint which has touched it in evil times. It must become a com 
 pact and homogeneous mass. It must gather to its alliance all who 
 think the same things concerning the interests of our republic. It is 
 becoming an adequate and effective instrument to reform the Admin 
 istration and to save the country. 
 
 It reformed itself in order that it might reform the country, and 
 now, in your name and in the name of the five hundred thousand 
 voters whom you represent, we declare that in this great work we 
 will tread no step backward. Come weal or come woe, we will not 
 lower our flag. "We will go forward until a political revolution will 
 be worked out and the principles of Jefferson and Jackson shall rule 
 in the Administration of the Federal Government. 
 
 Let us obey the patriotic maxim of old Rome, " Never to despair 
 of our country." Actual evils can be mitigated. Bad tendencies can 
 be turned aside. The burdens of government can be diminished. 
 Productive industry will be renewed, and frugality will repair the 
 waste of our resources. Then shall the golden days of the republic 
 once more return, and the people become prosperous and happy. 
 
 A- week later, on the 23d of September, the Republican 
 

 ELECTED GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 137 
 
 Convention assembled at Utica, and with perfect unanimity 
 renorainated General Dix for Governor. He had been elected 
 in 1872 by a majority of 55,451. He had seemed to gain 
 rather than to lose in popularity during his term. He had ad 
 ministered his office well, so far as its ordinary or routine 
 duties were concerned. He was a man of venerable age and 
 extended experience. As early as 1830 Mr. Hammond, in 
 his " Political History of New York," wrote of him as fol 
 lows : " When the office of Adjutant-General became vacant 
 by the death of General Beck, Governor Throop appointed 
 Major John A. Dix, of Cooperstown, who had been one of 
 the aides of General Jacob Brown. Mr. Dix was, I believe, a 
 native of New Hampshire. He had been regularly educated 
 at one of the Eastern colleges, and is justly distinguished for 
 his classical knowledge and literary attainments. He is an 
 accomplished and able writer. He was at Washington, in 
 the family of General Brown, in 1824- 25, and, so long as 
 Mr. Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency, Mr. Dix, in 
 common with most of the gentlemen of the Army, was his 
 zealous friend and supporter. Not long after the election of 
 Mr. Adams he married the daughter of a wealthy and re 
 spectable citizen of New York, and came to reside in this 
 State. Soon after he came here he manifested a determina 
 tion to support the party then in the majority in the State, 
 and has ever since acted zealously with that party." During 
 his long subsequent career General Dix had done nothing to 
 forfeit this high opinion of a distinguished writer, and he 
 was justly held in esteem by those with whom he had acted 
 politically. 
 
 Most of the Republicans, and some Democrats, affected 
 to believe, or did believe, that the Democratic party had 
 made a mistake in placing Mr. Tilden in nomination. No 
 body questioned either his honesty or his talents. The dis 
 cussion turned, as it had turned before the convention, on 
 the question of his availability. The general excellence of 
 Governor Dix s administration was enlarged upon by the Re- 
 
138 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 publican press, and apparently with effect. But weeks be 
 fore the election came, early in the month of October, the 
 Democrats began to gather hope, they hardly knew why nor 
 from -where. The feeling grew through the State, reaching 
 out beyond the limits of the party to which he belonged, 
 that Mr. Tilden was a safe leader that he could effect cer 
 tain reforms in administration which had been too long neg 
 lected. Moreover, the Democrats showed signs of strength 
 elsewhere. Their victory in Ohio, in October, was particu 
 larly cheering to their brethren in New York. It was not, 
 therefore, a surprise to the people when it was announced on 
 the morning after the election that Mr. Tilden had been 
 chosen Governor of the State of New York. But the mag 
 nitude of his majority astonished everybody. He received 
 416,391 votes, while Dix received 366,074, showing a plural 
 ity for Tilden of 50,317. 
 
 Governor Tilden was inaugurated on the first day of Janu 
 ary, 1875. Before taking the oath of office Governor Dix 
 made a short address, to which Mr. Tilden briefly responded. 
 In the course of his remarks he alluded in a feeling manner 
 to the friendship which had existed between him and Silas 
 Wright. He might have added that, up to the time of Gov 
 ernor Wright s death, General Dix was also among his most 
 active supporters. It was Dix who read, at Saratoga Springs, 
 the agricultural address on which Silas Wright was engaged 
 the night before he died. 
 
CHAPTER XVT. 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 THE Legislature of New York in 1875 was divided politi 
 cally between the two parties. The Republicans had a ma 
 jority in the Senate and the Democrats a majority in the 
 Assembly. It was certain, therefore, from the first that no 
 strictly party measure could pass. Either House could act as 
 a check upon the other, so far as politics went. Over the 
 action of both, the Governor would exercise considerable in 
 fluence by reason of the enlarged powers conferred upon him 
 under the amended constitution in respect to the vetoing of 
 items in appropriation bills. This power brought with it a 
 heavy responsibility, for it made him ultimately responsible 
 for any extravagance into which the State might fall. 
 
 Mr. Tilden s first annual message was eagerly looked for. 
 He had been elected on the issue of reform. What recom 
 mendations would he make ? Would he justify the high 
 faith of his friends, or lay himself open to the criticism of his 
 enemies ? He was to meet a hostile Senate. Would he 
 prove himself a partisan or a statesman ? He was supposed 
 to entertain extreme views on the question of municipal gov 
 ernment. Would he incorporate those views into his message, 
 and, if he did, how would they be received by the Legisla 
 ture ? These and many similar questions engrossed the pub 
 lic mind for several days before the message was communi 
 cated to the Legislature. It is appended in full because it is 
 one of the state papers on which Mr. Tilden s reputation must 
 hereafter rest. 
 
140 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ) 
 ALBANY, January 5, 1875. ) 
 
 To the Legislature : 
 
 At the advent of a new year, when the public bodies assemble, to 
 consult in respect to the affairs, and to transact the business of the 
 State, our first thought should be, to offer up devout thanksgiving to 
 the Supreme Disposer of events, for the blessings which we have 
 enjoyed during the year now closed. Our great Commonwealth 
 comprises a population of more than four and a half millions large 
 ly exceeding that of the whole United States at the formation of the 
 Federal Government and embracing vastly more extensive and diver 
 sified interests and activities. Our sense of duty ought to be com 
 mensurate with the magnitude of the trust conferred upon us by the 
 people. Forming, as our State does, so important a part of the 
 American Union, the benefits of an improved polity, of wise legisla 
 tion, and of good administration, are not confined to our own citi 
 zens, but are felt directly, and by their example, in our sister States, 
 and in our national reputation throughout the world. Mindful, with 
 you, of these considerations, I proceed to perform the duty enjoined 
 by the constitution upon the Governor, to " communicate, by mes 
 sage to the Legislature," " the condition of the State," and to " rec 
 ommend such matters to them as he shall deem expedient." 
 
 EKCEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES. 
 
 The receipts into and payments from the Treasury, on account of 
 all the funds, except the Canal and Common-School Funds, for the 
 fiscal year ending September 30, 1874, were as follows : 
 
 Keceipts $26,465,370 43 
 
 Payments 19,636,308 36 
 
 Balance in the Treasury September 30, 1874.. $6,829,062 07 
 The available balance amounted to $6,494,881 44 
 
 the difference being made up by the defalcation in the State Treas 
 ury in 1873, of $304,957.91, and the sum of $29,222.72, being an old 
 balance due from the Bank of Sing Sing. 
 
 STATE DEBT. 
 
 On the 30th September, 1873, the total funded debt was $36,530,- 
 406.40, classified as follows : 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 141 
 
 General Fund $3,988,526 40 
 
 Contingent (stock issued to the Long Island Rail 
 road Company) 68,000 00 
 
 Canal 11,352,880 00 
 
 Bounty 21,121,000 00 
 
 $36,530,406 40 
 
 During the months of August and September, 1873, stocks of the 
 Bounty Loan were purchased to the amount of $306,000, but not 
 canceled until after September 30, 1873. Deducting this sum, the 
 bounty debt amounted to $20,815,100, and the total debt to $36,224,- 
 406.40. 
 
 On the 30th September, 1874, the total funded debt was $30,199,- 
 456.40, classified as follows : 
 
 General Fund $3,988,526 40 
 
 Contingent 68,000 00 
 
 Canal 10,230,430 00 
 
 Bounty 15,912,500 00 
 
 $30,199,456 40 
 
 The actual reduction of the State debt during the fiscal year end 
 ing September 30, 1874, by cancellation of matured stocks, and by 
 the purchase of $4,902,500 of Bounty Loan 7 s of 1877, for the 
 Bounty Debt Sinking-Fund, is $6,024,950. 
 
 In addition to the $4,902,500 of Bounty Stock, purchased for the 
 Bounty Debt Sinking-Fund during the last fiscal year, and canceled, 
 there have been investments for that sinking-fund, since the date of 
 the last report to the present time, in State securities and Govern 
 ment registered bonds, to the amount of $4,381,500, at a cost of 
 $4,972,091.35 ; add $327,283.88 premium and $3,210 commissions on 
 Bounty Loan Stock purchased and canceled, and $1,421,584, interest 
 on Bounty Debt, makes a total of $11,626,667.23 paid on account of 
 this sinking-fund since the date of last report to the present time. 
 The securities, now held in trust for this sinking-fund, amount, at 
 their par value, to $6,802,944.09, which could be disposed of, at the 
 present market rates, at an average premium of over twelve per cent. 
 
 The following statement shows the amount of the State debt on 
 the 30th September, 1874, after deducting the unapplied balances of 
 the sinking-funds at that date : 
 
142 
 
 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 DEBT. 
 
 Debt on September 
 
 30, 1874. 
 
 Balance of Sinking- 
 Funds on September 
 30, 18T4. 
 
 Balance of Debt 
 after applying 
 Sinking-funds. 
 
 General Fund 
 
 $3 988 526 40 
 
 $4 142 693 84 
 
 
 Contingent 
 
 68 000 00 
 
 32 823 49 
 
 $35,176 51 
 
 Canal . 
 
 10 230 430 00 
 
 1 561 018 99 
 
 8 669411 01 
 
 Bounty 
 
 15,912,500 00 
 
 1 7 125 278 20 
 
 8,787,221 80 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 $30 199 456 40 
 
 $12 861 814 52 
 
 $17 491 809 32 
 
 
 
 
 
 The State debt on the 30th September, 1873, after 
 deducting the unapplied balances of the sinking- 
 funds, amounted to $21,191,379 34 
 
 On the 30th September, 1874, to. . 17,491 ,809 32 
 
 Showing a reduction of $3,699,570 02 
 
 TAXES. 
 
 The State tax levy for the current year amounted to seven and 
 one-fourth mills. 
 
 The total amount of the tax will be $15,727,482.08, about $900,000 
 in excess of the amount levied during the preceding fiscal year. 
 
 OTHEE DEPARTMENTS OF THE STATE. 
 
 Summary statements in respect to the banks, savings-banks, trust, 
 loan and indemnity companies, insurance companies, quarantine, the 
 emigration commission, common schools, colleges and academies, the 
 State Library and Museum, the National Guard, the soldiers of the 
 War of 1812, the war claims against the United States, the salt- 
 springs, and the State-prisons, are appended. The full reports of the 
 public officers and boards, charged with the special care of these sub 
 jects, will be transmitted as soon as their preparation is completed. 
 Your attention is invited to them, and especially to the report of the 
 Comptroller, which will be submitted at the opening of the session. 
 
 STATE CENSUS. 
 
 The constitution provides that an enumeration of the inhabitants 
 of the State shall be taken, under the direction of the Legislature, in 
 the year 1855, and at the end of every ten years thereafter. 
 
 Chapters 64 and 181 of the laws of 1855, and Chapter 34 of the 
 
 Deducting interest accrued to October 1, 1874, payable January 1, 1875. 
 

 FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 143 
 
 laws of 1865, which remain in full force, prescribe the manner of 
 taking the enumeration. 
 
 These acts require the Secretary of State to prepare uniform blank 
 returns and abstracts, for the purpose of taking the enumeration and 
 obtaining statistical information as to population and social statistics, 
 the resources and interests of the State, individual and associated in 
 dustry, agriculture, the mechanic arts, commerce and manufactures, 
 .education, and other information of great value to the statistician and 
 all classes of citizens, and will probably require little or no modifica 
 tion. 
 
 It will be necessary for the Legislature to make an appropriation 
 to enable the Secretary of State to carry into effect the provisions of 
 the constitution and statutes above referred to. A sum equal to the 
 amount appropriated in 1865 for that purpose, by Chapter 598 of the 
 laws of that year, will probably be sufficient. 
 
 The Secretary of State has taken preliminary steps toward taking 
 the enumeration, and looks to the Legislature for an early appropri 
 ation, to enable him to go forward with the work. 
 
 PATJPEEISM. 
 
 The annual report of the State Board of Charities will be laid 
 before the Legislature, and I commend it to your attention. It will 
 contain the results of a special examination in respect to the condi 
 tion of children in the poor-houses, and the subjects of out-door relief 
 and alien paupers. The laws relating to pauperism need revision and 
 amendment. The growth of the State in wealth and population has 
 brought with it more complex relations between capital and labor, 
 which should be carefully studied, in order that legislation may be 
 adapted to their requirements. I suggest whether it is not advisable 
 that a commission be appointed to investigate and report upon the 
 management and relief of the poor, and to propose such legislation as 
 will tend to relieve the industry of the State from the evils which 
 result from poor-laws, vicious or inadequate in conception, or defec 
 tive in execution. 
 
 CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 
 
 The celebration of the centennial anniversary of American Inde 
 pendence will occur in the year 1876. Under the auspices of the 
 General Government an international exhibition of arts, manufactures, 
 and natural products, will be held in the city of Philadelphia. Pro- 
 
144 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 vision has already been made for the appointment of a board of five 
 commissioners to represent this State, who are to serve without com 
 pensation. I recommend a moderate appropriation of money, which 
 will be required to defray the necessary expenses of the commission, 
 and enable this State to take such part in the exhibition as will testify 
 our sense of the greatness of the event commemorated, and is suit 
 able to the dignity of our commonwealth. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 
 
 The adoption of the recent amendments to the constitution ren 
 ders necessary some important legislation in order to carry them into 
 full effect. The changes made in Article II. require corresponding 
 changes in the election laws, with respect to challenges and the oaths 
 thereupon, and the enactment at the present session of a law " ex 
 cluding from the right of suffrage all persons convicted of bribery or 
 of any infamous crime." 
 
 The amendment of section 4 of Article VIII. of the constitution 
 requires the enactment of a " general law conforming all charters of 
 savings-banks, or institutions for savings, to a uniformity of powers, 
 rights, and liabilities." 
 
 The addition of Article XV. necessitates the passage of an act pre 
 scribing the punishment for the offense of bribery created in sections 
 1 and 2. Some legislation may be necessary in consequence of the 
 change in the mode of compensating members of the Legislature, and 
 in some other matters which will readily occur to you. 
 
 The section added to Article III. as section 18 requires the pas 
 sage of general laws, providing for the cases in which special legisla 
 tion is prohibited by that section. Many of these cases are within 
 existing general laws, and, with respect to several others, no imme 
 diate legislation seems to be required. Doubtless, however, some 
 legislation is expedient, either in the way of enacting statutes provid 
 ing for the cases to which the existing statutes do not apply, or in 
 the way of amendments to existing statutes. 
 
 The provision prohibiting special legislation in the cases specified 
 is the amendment from which the largest benefits have been antici 
 pated. In framing the general laws which are to provide for these 
 cases great caution will be necessary. The part I took in the con 
 vention of 1846, and even before the enactment of the general bank 
 ing law of 1838, in advocating the principle of general laws in its 
 application to the creation of corporate bodies which have been prac- 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 145 
 
 tical monopolies, and to other cases where it seemed to be safely ap 
 plicable, may justify me in suggesting some qualification of the ad 
 vantages to be derived from the change, unless it be accompanied by 
 especial foresight and wisdom. 
 
 It will doubtless be an unavoidable necessity to modify existing 
 general laws, and to shape new ones to be enacted with reference to 
 special and peculiar cases. It is quite possible to give a general form 
 to the phraseology of every enactment intended to apply to a special 
 case, and to operate as a special grant of powers. 
 
 The benefit intended to be secured by the prohibition may thus 
 be defeated. Even greater mischiefs than those which existed under 
 the old system may be created. 
 
 The parties interested in promoting a law intended to obtain 
 special powers for a particular case cannot be relied on to guard 
 against the possible operation of the general provision in the other 
 cases to which it may be applied. The legislators, who could meas 
 ure the whole consequences of an act limited in its terms to a special 
 instance, cannot foresee the possible cases to which a general law 
 adapted to the instance present to his mind may be found capable 
 of applying, or what operation it may have. There will, therefore, 
 be great danger of vague, loose, and hasty legislation in contemplation 
 of one object, but capable of workipg in numerous cases results neither 
 foreseen nor intended. 
 
 The new legislation called for by this provision should be framed 
 with more than ordinary care. 
 
 FEAUDS AND MALVERSATION BY PUBLIC OFFICERS. 
 
 It will be the first and most imperative of our duties to revise the 
 laws which are intended to provide criminal punishment and civil 
 remedies for frauds by public officers, and by persons acting in com 
 plicity with them. The condition of- our existing statutes and of our 
 unwritten law, as its provisions for such cases have been construed 
 and declared by recent decisions of the court of final resort, discloses 
 grave defects. The practical evils resulting from these defects are 
 greatly increased by the recent frequency and magnitude of violations 
 of official trust. 
 
 IMPERFECTION OF CRIMINAL LAWS. 
 
 The statutes punishing embezzlement are held not to apply to 
 such offenses when committed by public officers. The statutes relat- 
 7 
 
146 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ing to larcenies are deemed to be of questionable application to a 
 fraudulent acquisition of public funds, existing in the form of credits 
 inscribed on the books of a bank, and known in the language of com 
 merce as deposits. The statutes in regard to obtaining money or 
 property by false pretenses are not free from technical embarrass 
 ments in their application to public frauds. Without assenting to 
 the conclusion that these statutes are wholly unavailable in such cases, 
 it cannot be doubted that they are inadequate, unfit for the exigencies 
 of the times, and that they abound in needless technical questions 
 which tend to the defeat of public justice. 
 
 No illustration of these defects can be so impressive as cer 
 tain facts of recent experience. A public officer designated by 
 statute of the State, and authorized, with two others, to audit the 
 then existing liabilities against the county of New York, fraudu 
 lently made an audit, or certified to an audit not made, of fictitious 
 claims to the amount of six millions of dollars, and instantly received 
 a million and a half of the money paid on such audits, through a 
 common agent between himself and the pretended owners of the 
 claims. For this flagrant crime, accompanied by many circumstances 
 of aggravation, the eminent counsel who represented the people 
 deemed it prudent to seek convictions only for misdemeanors in neg 
 lect of official duty, the punishment for each of which is imprison 
 ment in the penitentiary for a term not exceeding one year, and a 
 fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars. "When we consider 
 that a person, who, under the temptation of pressing want, steals 
 property of the value of over twenty-five dollars, is liable to im 
 prisonment in the State-prison for a term of five years, and that the 
 other offense^ against private property are punishable with corre 
 sponding severity, the inadequacy of the law applicable to great pub 
 lic delinquents, betraying the highest trusts, and plundering the peo 
 ple on a grand scale, is revolting to all just notions of morality and 
 justice. 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 * 
 
 I recommend the enactment of a statute which shall clearly em 
 brace such offenses, and impose penalties upon them proportionate 
 to their moral turpitude and to the mischief which they inflict upon 
 society. It can apply only to future cases ; but it may be expected 
 to do something toward preventing a recurrence of such evils. 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 CIVIL EEMEDIES. 
 
 The existing civil remedies applicable to such cases are no less 
 inadequate. For the last three years the spectacle has been ex 
 hibited, on the conspicuous theatre of our great metropolis, of fraudu 
 lent officials remaining in quiet possession and making unobstructed 
 dispositions of great wealth, which we are morally certain was de 
 rived from their spoliation of public trusts, notwithstanding legal 
 proof of the most conclusive nature exists of their guilt. In the 
 mean time, civil actions have been dragging their slow length along, 
 as in ordinary cases of disputed rights, while the "law s del-ay" has 
 been maintained by the use of the vast fund abstracted from the 
 public, and no process has been found in our laws by which it could 
 be attached and preserved pending the litigation, or its disposition 
 interfered with before final judgment. 
 
 RECOMMENDATION. 
 
 A bill to extend to such cases the remedy of attachment as in case 
 of foreign corporations, or non-resident, absconding, or concealed 
 defendants, has been heretofore submitted to the Legislature. I 
 trust that such a measure will be speedily adopted. I recommend, 
 further, that preference be given to such cases in the courts, who 
 ever may be the party plaintiff. 
 
 A GEEAT DEFECT IN OUE JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 A still more serious defect exists in our jurisprudence. 
 
 Where a wrong is committed, which affects the treasury of a city, 
 county, town, or village, the officers who would be the proper plain 
 tiffs in any suit for redress, or who possess exclusively the power to 
 institute or conduct such suits, may be themselves the wrong-doers, 
 or be in complicity with the wrong-doers. In every such case, the 
 remedy must, of course, be very much embarrassed, if not wholly 
 unavailing. The unfaithful incumbents may be entitled to serve for 
 a long term, or they may possess great facilities for gaining the favor 
 of their successors. While the remedy is thus delayed perhaps for 
 years the proofs may be lost ; or the depredators may make away 
 with their property, and withdraw their persons from the reach of 
 process ; or they may, through the lapse of time, become discharged 
 from liability by the statute of limitations. As the offense becomes 
 stale, the public sentiment, which inspires voluntary efforts of patri- 
 
148 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 otic citizens in behalf of the people to seek redress, is wearied and 
 weakened. On the other hand, temptations are strengthened and 
 developed into actual crimes by the prospect of impunity, which 
 grows out of tardiness and uncertainty in the remedial law. 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO EEMEDY THAT DEFECT. 
 
 The frequent occurrence of malversation in local governing offi 
 cials has. stimulated ingenuity to devise some judicial remedy. At 
 first it was conceived that the injured tax-payers or inhabitants 
 might, in their own names, invoke judicial aid. An analogy was set 
 up to the case of a private corporation in which a corporator, on the 
 omission of the directors to sue, might bring an action, in behalf of 
 himself and his associates, making the corporate body a defendant. 
 The idea received much favor from the courts in the judicial district 
 which comprises the city of New York. 
 
 But the Court of Appeals in Roosevelt vs. Draper, and in Doolittle 
 vs. Supervisors of Broome County, decided that the individual tax 
 payer had no special interest distinct from that of the public, which 
 would enable him to sustain an action, in person, for the redress of a 
 public wrong of the nature involved in those cases. In the former 
 case, the intimation was made that the true " remedial process against 
 an abuse of administrative power tending to taxation is furnished 
 by our elective system, or by a proceeding in behalf of the State " 
 in the latter, that " for wrongs against the public, the remedy^ 
 whether civil or criminal, is by a prosecution instituted by the State 
 in its politieal character, or by some officer authorized by law to act 
 in its behalf." 
 
 The whole reasoning of the court proceeded upon this ground, 
 nor does it seem to have been questioned by the counsel on either 
 side. The remedy intimated in these decisions has been recognized 
 as established law in Great Britain, from which we inherit our equity 
 jurisprudence, by a series of great precedents. It has been applied 
 to populous municipalities like Liverpool, and to corporate funds 
 derived from taxation, and applicable to general municipal purposes. 
 It is a natural deduction from the historic origin and the expansive 
 philosophy of the equity system, whose proud boast has ever been 
 that it leaves no wrong without a remedy. 
 
 On the discovery in 1871 of the frauds committed by the govern 
 ing officials of the municipality of New York, the Attorney-General, 
 acting on these intimations of our own courts, and on the English 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 149 
 
 precedents, instituted actions against the parties inculpated by posi 
 tive proofs. "Within the last year the Court of Appeals, in the cases 
 of The People vs. Tweed, Ingersoll et al., and of The People vs. Fields, 
 has decided that the State cannot maintain those actions. The result 
 is at last arrived at, that neither the tax-payer, nor the State in his 
 behalf, can seek redress ; that, in all the long interval, nobody has 
 been competent to sue or conduct a suit, except some corporation 
 counsel who was an appointee of the accused parties. This is a 
 state of our jurisprudence which calls for new legislation. 
 
 NEW LEGISLATION. 
 
 In choosing between the two expedients of vesting the right to 
 sue in the individual tax-payer or in the State, it is obvious that the 
 latter should bo preferred. The existing statutes intended to confer 
 some limited rights on the individual tax-payer, are practically nuga 
 tory. The reasoning of the Court of Appeals, in the cases denying 
 him the right under our customary jurisprudence or the common 
 law, argues with cogency the inconveniences which might attend 
 the possession of such a power by every member of so multitudinous 
 a body. The wiser alternative is to vest the power in the people of 
 the State, acting by their Attorney-General. It will be analogous to 
 the authority which exists in respect to private corporations and in 
 cases of nuisances, and of quo warranto, and will be in conformity 
 to the safe methods and traditional usages of equity jurisprudence. 
 
 LOCAL 6ELF-GOVEENMENT. 
 
 The establishment of such a remedy for the injured tax-payer or 
 citizen will not detract from, but will make possible, and will found 
 on a durable basis, local self-government. Human society will strug 
 gle, like everything that lives, to preserve its own existence. When 
 abuses become intolerable, to escape them it will often surrender its 
 dearest rights. 
 
 All the invasions of the rights of the people of the city of New 
 York to choose their own rulers and to manage their own affairs 
 which have been a practical denial of self-government for the last 
 twenty years have been ventured upon in the name of reform, un 
 der a public opinion created by abuses and wrongs of local adminis 
 tration, that found no redress. When the injured tax-payer could 
 discover no mode of removing a delinquent official, and no way of 
 holding him to account in the courts, he assented to an appeal to the 
 
150 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 legislative power at Albany ; and an act was passed whereby one 
 functionary was expelled, and by some device the substitute selected 
 was put in office. Differing in politics as the city and State did, and 
 with all the temptations to individual selfishness and ambition to 
 grasp patronage and power, the great municipal trusts soon came to 
 be the traffic of the lobbies. It is long since the people of the city 
 of New York have elected any mayor who has had the appointment, 
 after his election, of the important municipal officers. Under the 
 charter of 1870, and again under the charter of 1873, the power of 
 appointment was conferred on a mayor already in office. There has 
 not been an election in many years in which the elective power of 
 the people was effective to produce any practical results, in respect 
 to the heads of departments in which the actual governing power 
 really resides. 
 
 A new disposition of the great municipal trusts has been gener 
 ally worked out by new legislation. The arrangements were made in 
 secret. Public opinion had no opportunity to act in discussion, and 
 no power to influence results. Inferior offices, contracts, and some 
 times money, were means of competition, from which those who could 
 not use these weapons were excluded. 
 
 Whatever defects may sometimes have been visible in a system of 
 local self-government, under elections by the people, they are infinite 
 ly loss than the evils of such a system, which insures bad government 
 of the city, and tends to corrupt the legislative bodies of the State. 
 
 A popular election invokes publicity discussion by the contend 
 ing parties opportunity for new party combinations, and all the 
 methods in which public opinion works out results. 
 
 OFFICIAL ACCOUNTABILITY A CONDITION OF MUNICIPAL INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 No part of the civic history of this State is more instructive than 
 the recorded debates of the convention of 1821, on the question of 
 electing, by the voters of the counties, the sheriff, who is the execu 
 tive arm of the State. It was thoughtfully considered by our fore 
 most statesmen. Its solution embraced the two ideas the selection 
 by the locality, and the removal for cause by the State. The conven 
 tion of 1846 carried its dispersion of the power of choosing local offi 
 cers much further, on the same system. That system is to distin 
 guish between the power of electing or appointing the officer and 
 the power to hold him to account. It is, while dispersing the one to 
 the localities, to reserve the other to the State, acting by its general 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 151 
 
 representatives, and as a unit ; to retain in the collective State a 
 supervisory power of removal, in addition to whatever other account 
 ability may result to the voters or authorities of the locality, from 
 the power to change the officer at the expiration of his term, or from 
 special provisions of law. 
 
 The two ideas are not incompatible. On the contrary, each is the 
 complement of the other. Such dispersion of the appointing power 
 has become possible, only because these devices have been invented 
 to preserve accountability to the State. 
 
 The right of the State, by its general representatives, to remove, 
 is capable of being made to destroy the local election or appointment. 
 The right of the State to sue is not. It is less in conflict with the 
 local power of election and appointment. Official accountability is 
 not complete if there is no remedy for official wrongs but removal. 
 That remedy needs to be supplemented by accountability in the courts 
 on the appeal of a tax-payer or citizen of the locality. If a right to 
 that appeal is denied, the appeal will continue to be made, on often- 
 recurring occasions, to the legislative power, and the system of the 
 last twenty years will be perpetuated. 
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The problem of municipal government is agitating the intellect of 
 all civilized peoples. In our own State it is the more interesting and 
 important because it involves the half of all our population, which 
 lives in cities or large villages. 
 
 The framework of the system which we should adopt must be 
 intrenched in the fundamental law, and protected, by constitutional 
 restrictions, from arbitrary and capricious changes by legislation. 
 This problem failed of any solution in the recent amendments to the 
 constitution. It is worthy of long-continued thought and debate. 
 Time and discussion will at last mature a safe and wise result. 
 
 THE ERIE CANAL AND THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM. 
 
 The State of NQW York, not denying the general unfitness of Gov 
 ernment to own, construct, or manage the works which afford the 
 means of transportation, saw an exception in the situation, and in 
 the nature of the canals, which are trunk communications between 
 the Hudson and the great inland seas of the North and West. They 
 connect vast navigable public waters, and themselves assume some 
 thing of a public character. 
 
152 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 THE NATUEAL PASS OF OOMMEECE. 
 
 The voyage from Europe to America, even if destined to Southern 
 ports, is deflected by the ocean currents so as to pass closely by the 
 gates of our commercial metropolis. That capacious harbor is open 
 the whole year, accessible in all prevailing winds, is sheltered, safe, 
 and tranquil. From it the smooth waters of the Hudson give transit 
 to the lightest hull, carrying the largest cargo, which the skill of man 
 has brought into use. The head of navigation on the Hudson touches 
 the natural pass of commerce, opened up in the geographical config 
 uration of this continent, where the Alleghanies are cloven down to 
 their base, and travel and traffic are allowed to flow across on a level 
 and by the narrowest isthmus, to the lake-ports, which connect with 
 all that great system of inland water communication and interior 
 commerce, the most remarkable, in its character and extent, and ac 
 cessories, that exists in any part of the globe. 
 
 THE NOETHWEST. 
 
 Tributary to the Yfestern centres of lake commerce, such as Chi 
 cago and Milwaukee, are vast areas of fertile soils, which stretch to 
 and partly include the valley of the Upper Mississippi. Open prai 
 ries, easily brought into cultivation, fitted for the use of agricultural 
 machinery, adapted to the cheap construction of railways, and pe 
 culiarly dependent on their use as a means of intercourse and traffic, 
 have been opened to settlers at nominal prices. They have been 
 rapidly filled by a young, intelligent, and energetic population, trained 
 in the arts and industries of an older civilization, and applying them 
 to natural advantages which have been found elsewhere only in con 
 junction with the social barbarism of an uninhabited wilderness. 
 They are now covered with a network of railways, which connect 
 myriads of little centres with the lake-ports and with the trunk rail 
 ways, that bring them into practical contiguity to our great Eastern 
 centres of population, capital, commerce, and manufactures. 
 
 New York, without arrogating to itself an undue share in these 
 achievements, may contemplate with proud satisfaction its contribu 
 tion to results so magnificent. Important as are the advantages 
 which have accrued to itself, it has not sought to monopolize the 
 benefits of its policy. The price of such cereals and other products 
 of agriculture as are exported in considerable quantities is mainly 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 153 
 
 fixed by the competitions of the foreign markets, even for our own 
 consumption. The cheapening of the cost of transit, therefore, 
 chiefly profits the producer. This consideration illustrates how large 
 and liberal, in the main, is the policy adopted by the State a policy 
 which I had the satisfaction of advocating in 1846 and in 1867 of 
 treating these great works as a trust for the million, and not seeking 
 to make revenue or profit for the sovereign out of the right of way. 
 In consonance with the same policy was the action of the State in 
 1851, in permitting the transit free of tolls upon a railway whioh it 
 allowed to be constructed between the termini of the Erie Canal and 
 along its bank. It had originally undertaken the construction and 
 administration of the canal in order to create a facile and cheap trans 
 portation demanded by the interests of the people, and not otherwise 
 possible to be attained. It did not forget the motive for which it had 
 acted, and remember only its selfish interests as a proprietor. It, 
 therefore, by an act which anticipated the necessity afterward to 
 arise by the construction of rival routes, repealed all restraints on the 
 carriage of property, and opened to free competition every mode of 
 transit, oven in rivalry to its own works, for the products of the West 
 and for the manufactures and merchandise of the East. 
 
 NOT TO BE ABANDONED. 
 
 The Erie Canal remains an important and valuable instrument of 
 transport, not only by its direct services, but by its regulating power 
 in competition with other methods of transportation. The State, so 
 far as we can now foresee, ought to preserve it, and not contemplate 
 its abandonment. 
 
 DUTIES OF THE STATE. 
 
 If the State accepts the view which commands it to abstain as a 
 proprietor from making profit out of the canal, but .to deal with it as 
 a trust, it still has great duties to perform. It is bound, as a faithful 
 trustee, to protect this great work, not only from a spoliation of its 
 revenues and from maladministration, but from empirical changes, 
 proposed in the seductive form of specious improvements that would 
 destroy its usefulness while charging it with new incumbrances, and 
 from an improvident tampering with its incomes that would dissipate 
 its means of effecting real improvements. 
 
 These are its ever-recurring and its greatest perils. 
 
154 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 LAKE AND CANAL NAVIGATION CANNOT BE ASSIMILATED. 
 
 The nine hundred and twenty-five miles of lake navigation from 
 Chicago to Buffalo, and the four hundred and ninety-five miles of 
 canal and river navigation from Buffalo to New York, and the three 
 thousand miles of ocean navigation from New York to the Old 
 World, cannot be made homogeneous or even assimilated; each is 
 subject to physical conditions which are unchangeable, and.to which 
 the vehicle of transportation must be adapted. 
 
 LAKE-BOATS UNFIT AS CANAL-BOATS. 
 
 The rough and stormy lakes require a strong vessel, made sea 
 worthy by its deep keel, fully manned, and of a form intended for 
 speed in an unlimited expanse of water. The canal admits of a light 
 keel, and a shape which will carry a larger proportional cargo ; for 
 the boat moves safely in a tranquil channel of water, closely confined 
 by physical boundaries on the bottom and sides, and cannot but sub 
 mit to a slow movement. 
 
 The propeller of the lakes tends to grow in dimensions. A recent 
 one carries 70,000 bushels of wheat, or 2,100 tons. A barge, to be 
 towed by each propeller, is a system now being tried with fair pros 
 pects of success. 
 
 The lake-craft of the average size carries less cargo in proportion 
 to the vessel than the canal-boat, and it costs twice and a half or 
 three times as much as the canal-boat per ton of capacity. 
 
 If the canal were made large enough to pass the lake-craft, the 
 transporter could not afford to use the lake-craft on the canal. It 
 carries too little cargo it is too costly it would have to reduce its 
 rate of motion from about eight miles per hour on the lake to less 
 than three miles per hour, which is the highest aim of the canal- 
 boats that now make only 1 T 4 ^- miles per hour. 
 
 Such a vehicle of transport would not be adapted to the water- 
 channel it must move in, and would not be economical. Tranship 
 ment at Buffalo, with modern machinery, would cost little, compared 
 with the loss incident to using an unfit and illy-adapted instrument. 
 
 To enlarge the Erie Canal to dimensions adapted to the move 
 ment of such a vessel, at the rate of less than three miles per hour, 
 would be so inconvenient to the traffic that it would be easier and 
 cheaper to construct an independent work. That would probably 
 cost a principal sum the annual interest on which would be greater 
 than the entire amount now received by the carrier for his services, 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 155 
 
 and by the State for its tolls on all the existing business. A shorter 
 route would be likely to be preferred. The Hudson Kiver, from Troy 
 to deep water, would need a similar reconstruction. 
 
 ENLARGED LOCKS AND UNENLARGED WATER-WAY. 
 
 A project often urged within the last ten years is the enlargement 
 of the locks and other structures of the Erie Canal, without a pro 
 portionate enlargement of the water-way. That plan exhibits a sin 
 gular union of injurious costliness and fatal parsimony. It is founded* 
 on the fallacy that the use of a large boat, without reference to its 
 adaptation to the water-way in which it is to move, would be eco 
 nomical. It is supported by an estimate of the State Engineer in 
 1864, that the cost of transportation would be reduced one-half. His 
 opinion has been repeated on all occasions until the present time. 
 
 But that estimate, when analyzed, is found to omit all the wages 
 and support of the crew during the return-trip, and during the time 
 occupied in loading and unloading, and to allow for the use of the 
 boat about half its real cost. In other respects, it was utterly un 
 worthy of trust. 
 
 ECONOMY FROM THE BEST GROUP OF ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 The truth is, the boat is but one part of the whole machine of 
 transportation ; economy in the service depends upon getting the best 
 adaptation of all the various parts the boat the motive power 
 the canal, with its structures and its water-way ; the best group of 
 adaptations which adjustments and compromises of each can work 
 out and combine ; and the resultant of the greatest economies which 
 can be obtained in conjunction. 
 
 A larger boat, in a water-way which now needs to be itself en 
 larged and improved to give a good transit to the present boat, would 
 be an unmixed damage to the economy of the service, attained at 
 immense cost. 
 
 PERFECTING THE CANAL THE WISE POLICY. 
 
 The Erie Canal was planned in view of the best science and 
 experience then possessed. It has excellent adaptations. It is a 
 superior instrument of transportation. It should not be fundament 
 ally changed in its character and conditions without great considera 
 tion. It should be perfected, and so made available to every practi 
 cable extent, for facilitating and cheapening the exchanges of com 
 modities between the East and the "West. 
 
156 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ITS CAPACITY ITS ECONOMY. 
 
 The two questions concerning it are : first, its capacity to do an 
 aggregate business during a given period ; secondly, the economy per 
 ton per mile of the transportation it affords. These questions are 
 generally confused in all discussions. They are completely distinct. 
 They depend upon wholly different conditions. 
 
 ITS CAPACITY AMPLE. 
 
 Capacity to accommodate an aggregate tonnage during a day, a 
 month, or a season of navigation, depends on the number of boats of 
 the normal size which the locks are able to pass during the period. 
 Boats can be multiplied indefinitely. The limit to their use is in the 
 number to which the locks can give transit. The time occupied in a 
 lockage is the test. But it is unnecessary to apply that, for the actual 
 results of experience set at rest every doubt. 
 
 Of the seventy-two locks which intervene between the waters of 
 Lake Erie and the waters of the Hudson, all but a few have been 
 doubled for many years. In 1867, when the subject was discussed in 
 the Constitutional Convention, thirteen remained single. For the 
 first time, on the opening of navigation next spring, double locks will 
 be brought into use throughout the entire canal. That will nearly 
 double the capacity of the canal to make lockages. The largest 
 delivery of the Erie Canal at tide- water was in 1862. It amounted 
 to 2,917,094 tons, in cargoes averaging 167 tons. The lockages both 
 ways, and" including rafts which pass only one way, at Alexander s, 
 which is in the throat of the canal, three miles west of Schenectady, 
 was 84,977. In 1873 the deliveries were 2,585,355 tons, in cargoes 
 averaging 213 tons, and the lockages were 24,960. 
 
 The theoretical capacity of the canal will be three or four times 
 the largest tonnage it has ever reached. There is no doubt it can 
 conveniently and easily do double the business which has ever existed, 
 even though the locks bo not manned and worked with the highest 
 efficiency. The subject of capacity may, therefore, be dismissed from 
 this discussion. 
 
 ECONOMY PER TON PEE MILE. 
 
 The question really worthy of our attention is how we can perfect 
 the canal so as to reduce the cost per ton per mile of the transporta 
 tion it affords. 
 
 Quickening the movement of the boat increases the service it ren 
 ders in a given period. It lessens every element in the cost of that 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 157 
 
 service. It enlarges the number of tons carried in the given time, 
 and, by enlarging the divisor of the same expenses, it reduces the rate 
 of cost per ton per mile. 
 
 TO BE INCKEASED BY PEEFEGTING WATEK-WAY. 
 
 The economy in the transit of the boat must be made, not in the 
 locks, but in the water-way. The seventy-two locks in the three 
 hundred and forty-five miles between Buffalo and West Troy, if each 
 takes five minutes, would occupy exactly six hours. 
 
 In October, 1873, seventy-six boats were timed, and their average 
 passage down, with average cargoes of two hundred and twenty-seven 
 tons, was ten days, two hours, and forty^-six minutes, or nearly two 
 hundred and forty-three hours. If we double the time taken in the 
 locks, the time occupied on the levels between them would still be 
 over ninety-five per cent, of the whole time of the voyage. It is 
 clear, therefore, that the saving of time must be made in the ninety- 
 five per cent, and not in the five per cent. Economy per ton per mile 
 in the transportation, so far as it depends on the structure of the 
 canal, is to be found in the relation which the water-way bears to 
 the boat. 
 
 The movement of the boat through water confined in an artificial 
 channel narrow and shallow is, at best, very slow. The engineers, 
 in 1835, planned the Erie Canal and the boat with such relations to 
 each other as to give the greatest economy of power and facility of 
 transit. The boat has inclined to grow rather large and too square. 
 The water-way was practically never excavated in every part to its 
 proper dimensions. Time, the action of the elements, and neglect 
 of administration, all tend to fill it by deposits. I may be excused 
 for repeating here what I said in,.the Constitutional Convention eight 
 years ago : 
 
 " "What the Erie Canal wants is more water in the prism more 
 water in the water-way. A great deal of it is not much more than 
 six feet, and boats drag along over a little skim of water ; whereas it 
 ought to have a body of water larger and deeper even than was in 
 tended in the original project. Bring it up to seven feet honest 
 seven feet and on all the levels, wherever you can, bottom it out ; 
 throw the excavation upon the banks ; increase that seven feet tow 
 ard eight feet, as you can do so, progressively and economically- 
 You may also take out the bench-walls." 
 
 EECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 I recommend that such measures be taken as your wisdom, aided 
 
158 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 by such information as can be had from the proper administrative 
 officers, may devise, to put in good condition and to improve the 
 water-way of the Erie Canal ; and that provision be made by law to 
 enable the State Engineer, soon after navigation is opened, to meas 
 ure the depth of water in the canal by cross-sections as often as every 
 four rods of its length, and on the upper and lower mitre-sill of each 
 lock. 
 
 FUTTJKE INVENTIONS AND ECONOMIES. 
 
 Such a policy, if properly executed, will give a better and more 
 economical transit to the boats if they continue to be towed by 
 horses. It will also facilitate the use of steam canal-boats, and the 
 full realization of the advantages they may be expected to give as to 
 economy of transportation. The obstacle to their use in 1867 was 
 that the machinery, in its then state, displaced too much cargo to be 
 economical, and was, in other respects, imperfect. The progress of 
 invention since seems to promise more beneficial results. If the 
 movement of the boat can be expedited from 1-j-^j- to 3 miles per 
 hour, including the time consumed in the lockages, the improvement 
 will be of great importance and value. The estimate of the able 
 engineer of the Commission on Steam Canal Navigation is that the 
 cost of carriage of a bushel of wheat from Buffalo to New York 
 will be reduced from eight to four cents. It is not to be supposed 
 that the inventive genius applied to this interesting subject is ex 
 hausted, and, if these results shall in any degree fail to be realized by 
 the present experiments, we may, nevertheless, anticipate more com 
 plete success in the future. 
 
 INCOME AND OUTGO. 
 
 It will be seen that on the Erie Canal alone the surplus of income 
 over expenditures is about 37 per cent, of the gross income. If the 
 three other canals, which are to be retained by the State as a part of 
 the system, be included, the surplus is but llf per cent. 
 
 TOLLS. 
 
 The present tolls on wheat are 3 T ^ cents, and on corn 3 cents per 
 bushel, from Buffalo to Troy 345 miles. They were reduced in 
 1870 those on wheat from 6^, or one-half; and those on corn 
 from 4y s o^- to 3 cents, or about 38 per cent. 
 
 One cent per bushel taken off the present tolls, and the same pro 
 portion on other articles, would annihilate nearly all the net income 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 159 
 
 of the Erie Canal, considered alone, and would make a deficiency, in 
 respect to the four canals retained, of half a million of dollars a 
 year, if future expenditure should be the same as in these three 
 years. 
 
 The construction of the details of the toll- sheet belongs to the 
 Canal Board, and adjustments from time to time may be necessary. 
 Doubtless suggestions on that subject will always receive due consider 
 ation. But in the present condition of things to embark hastily and 
 unadvisedly upon a general reduction of tolls might well be considered 
 as improvident, even in respect to the canals themselves. To confiscate 
 the surplus of one cent, or one-half a cent per bushel, which alone 
 gives the means of making the improvements expected to realize a 
 reduction of four cents in the cost of transportation, would not seem 
 a wise execution of the trust, even disregarding other considerations 
 which cannot be wholly overlooked. 
 
 NO EASH INNOVATIONS. 
 
 The question of altering the gates of the locks, or otherwise 
 lengthening the chambers, may be safely deferred until we can be 
 more sure of its utility. The fact that, on the Delaware & Raritan 
 Canal, which admits of long boats, the proportions which exist in 
 those now used on the Erie Canal are preferred, is against that alter 
 ation, as is also the judgment of excellent canal-engineers. Holding 
 ourselves ready to accept improvements which have been subjected 
 to trial and scrutiny, until they are practically assured of success, we 
 ought to exercise the same caution, in respect to rash or crude inno 
 vations, which ordinarily governs men in private business. 
 
 FINANCIAL RESULTS OF THE LAST THEEE TEARS. 
 
 The financial results of the fiscal years ending September 30, 
 1874, 1873, and 1872, for the Erie Canal, and for the Champlain, the 
 Oswego, and the Cayuga & Seneca, are as follows : 
 
 ERIE. 
 
 Year ending T 
 Sept. 30. Income - 
 
 1872 $2,760,147 50 \ 
 1873 2 710601 49 
 
 Ordinary Extraordinary Total 
 Repairs. Repairs. Expenditure. 
 11,025,079 09 $661,942 02 $1,687,021 11 
 749 977 03 967 175 39 1 717 152 42 
 
 1874 2,672,787 22 
 
 701,340 81 973,548 96 1,674,889 77 
 
 $8,143,536. 21 $5,079,063 30 
 
 Income in excess of disbursements $3,064,472 91 
 
 Average for each year $1,021,490 97 
 
160 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 CHAMPLAIN. 
 
 1872 $150,64428 $236,21147 $251,87161 $488,08308 
 
 1873 158,41786 234,67737 562,78295 797,46032 
 
 1874 123,70354 203,13790 242,21643 445,35433 
 
 $427,765 68 $1,7.30,897 73 
 
 Excess of expenditure over income $1,303,132 05 
 
 Average for each year $434,377 35 
 
 OSWEGO. 
 
 1872 $90,79657 $171,79482 $141,67394 $313,46876 
 
 1873 88,42813 93,93881 78,88058 172,81939 
 
 1874 70,11959 107,93821 75,56129 183,49950 
 
 $249,344 29 $669,787 65 
 
 Excess of expenditure over income $420,443 36 
 
 Average for each year $140,147 78 
 
 CAYUGA & SENECA." 
 
 1872 $17,88258 $38,26723 $26,31900 $64,58623 
 
 1873 22,481 11 27,143 48 6,921 06 34,064 54 
 
 1874 19,31147 28,93408 28,51704 57,45112 
 
 $59,675 16 $156,101 89 
 
 Excess of expenditure over income $96,426 73 
 
 Average for each year $32,142 24 
 
 RECAPITULATION FOR THREE YEARS. 
 
 Income, over Expenditure. 
 Eric $3,064,472 91 
 
 Excess of Expenditure over Income. 
 
 Champlain $1,303,132 05 
 
 Oswego 420,443 36 
 
 Cayuga & Seneca 96,426 73 
 
 1,820,002 14 
 
 Each year $414,823 59 
 
 THE PAYING CANALS. 
 
 It will be seen that during the last three years the income of the 
 Erie Canal, considered alone, has been $8,143,536.21, and its expenses 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 161 
 
 $5,079,063.30, yielding a surplus of $3,064,472.91. or an average for 
 each year of $1,021,490.97. The excess of expenditure over income 
 of the three other canals which are to be retained by the State has 
 been $1,820,002.14, or three-fifths of the surplus produced by the Erie. 
 Considering the four as a system collectively, the surplus has been 
 $1,244,470.77, or an average for each year of $414,823.59. 
 
 THE NON-PAYING CANALS. 
 
 During the same three years the five other canals to which the 
 constitutional amendment applies have given an income of $119,864.- 
 45, or for each year of $39,954.81, against an expenditure of $1,596,- 
 499.74, or for each year of $532,166.59. They have consumed all the 
 net income of the paying canals and have charged the State with a 
 loss of $232,164.52, or for each year $77,388.17. In addition to this 
 annual loss, the whole burden of the sinking-fund to pay the canal 
 debt is thrown upon the State. 
 
 INCEEASE INCOME BEFOEE DISCAEDING INCOME. 
 
 A careful investigation whether the net incomes of the canals re 
 tained cannot be increased, ought to precede a surrender of what 
 little now exists. Ordinary repairs should be scrutinized with a view 
 to retrenching their cost, and to obtaining the largest possible results 
 from the outlay. Extraordinary repairs include much which so regu 
 larly recurs in different forms, that they must be considered a part of 
 the maintenance of the works. No doubt they also include improve 
 ments which are of the nature of new capital. These and all im 
 provements should be governed by a plan and purpose leading to 
 definite results ; and, instead of scattering expenditures on imperfect 
 constructions, should aim to complete and make available the specific 
 parts undertaken. Unity of administration and of system, both in 
 respect to repairs and improvements, should be established, even if 
 only by the voluntary consultation and cooperation of officers having 
 authority over separate portions of a single work. It is worthy of 
 consideration whether any legislation can aid in securing the unity 
 in this respect which existed under our former constitution. 
 
 NEW YOEK THE TRUSTEE FOE THE INTEEEST8 OF ALL. 
 
 The State, hearing all parties interested in the use of the canals, 
 will remember that itself, as an arbiter and trustee, must look equita 
 bly to the interests of all. This it will do in a wise, liberal, and just 
 spirit. To the last degree possible it will cheapen facilities to trade. 
 
162 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 It will aim to preserve for its metropolis its position as tlie carrier, 
 merchant, and banker of the New World. 
 
 CHIEF FUNCTION OF THE CANAL SYSTEM NEW TOEK CITY. 
 
 Inevitable changes must be recognized as the results of modern 
 inventions and improvements in the machinery of transportation. 
 When water-routes alone existed, products came to New York for 
 distribution to points which are now more easily and cheaply reached 
 directly by rail. Railroads covering the country like a network 
 touch so many points that they are a more perfect and complete 
 agency for the reception and distribution of produce than a water 
 communication connecting a few principal points; and where the 
 transit from the producer to the consumer requires the use of the rail 
 to reach the water, or after leaving the water, or both, the all-rail 
 route will often be preferred. New routes will acquire the business 
 which is naturally tributary to them, and take besides some portion 
 of the general business. The main transportation of Western agri 
 cultural products is for local consumption in the East. What comes to 
 us for our own consumption cannot be diverted. What goes for con 
 sumption elsewhere cannot be acquired. The exports of agricultural 
 products to foreign countries are but a small part of the whole pro 
 duction. In those, New York will easily continue to maintain her 
 preeminence. 
 
 The Ohamplain and Oswego Canals are, as well as the Erie, in 
 some sense, trunk-canals ; and the Cayuga & Seneca Canal connects 
 our interior lakes. It is a noteworthy fact that Mr. Flagg, who so 
 long and honorably conducted the State finances when the Canal De 
 partment was a bureau in his office, always insisted that with the four 
 canals now to be retained the system was complete. Those it is now 
 proposed to abandon are not fruits of his policy. 
 
 DISPOSITION OF THE NON-PAYING CANALS. 
 
 The adoption of the constitutional amendment removing the pro 
 hibition against " selling, leasing, or otherwise disposing of " the 
 canals owned by the State in respect to all except the Erie, the Os 
 wego, the Champlain, and the Cayuga & Seneca Canals, undoubtedly 
 contemplates such action on your part as will disencumber the reve 
 nues of the canals retained by the State, and disembarrass the Treas 
 ury of the State from the unproductive works in respect to which the 
 prohibition is withdrawn. It cannot have been supposed possible to 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 163 
 
 " sell or lease" those works on conditions which require the pur 
 chaser to maintain and operate them. To " otherwise dispose of " 
 v them amounts to a practical abandonment. 
 
 USE AS FEEDEES. 
 
 Even to deal with them thus involves many important questions 
 of a business character. Those portions of them which descend 
 toward the Erie Canal act as feeders to supply water to that canal. 
 The supply cannot be safely diminished, and might be judiciously in 
 creased. The improvement of the water-way contemplated will call 
 for more water. The consideration of what must be done to retain 
 as feeders portions of these canals not hereafter to be maintained by 
 the State for navigation, or what other provision for a supply of 
 water shall be substituted, is important. To make the change con 
 templated by the amendment with as little harm as possible to pri 
 vate interests, and to consider and provide for cases of possible 
 damage which may be caused by the works when falling into disuse, 
 need careful study of the facts of the situation. It is also to be 
 ascertained what portion, if any, of the property of the State con 
 nected with these works can be wisely sold. 
 
 A SPECIAL COMMISSION EECOMMENDED. 
 
 The best suggestion which occurs to me on this subject is to im 
 pose the duty of considering and reporting on these questions upon 
 a special commission consisting of four persons. In the mean time, 
 no expenditures should be made upon those works which are not 
 strictly necessary in view of their probable future. 
 
 THE INTEEEST OF NEW TOEK IN- THE FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 The State of New York receives nearly seven-tenths of all the 
 imports, and sends abroad nearly half of all the exports of the whole 
 United States. In its commercial metropolis a much larger share of 
 our dealings with foreign nations in securities and money is trans 
 acted, and, as at a common mart, the exchanges are largely made 
 between the people of the United States in domestic manufactures 
 aud products, and in public and corporate securities and stocks. 
 More than one-half of the revenues of the Federal Government is 
 collected within its borders ; and at least one-fifth of all Federal tax 
 ation falls upon its citizens. 
 
 Since the Federal Government has assumed to provide a currency 
 
164 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 for the whole country, directly by the issue of its own notes, or in 
 directly by bank-notes, which are secured upon bonds of the United 
 States, and, in case of default by the issuer, are to be paid, before re 
 sorting to the securities, by the United States ; since it has incident 
 ally absorbed the regulation of the business of banking ; since it has 
 largely increased its taxation, and imposes that taxation in forms 
 which affect the courses of industry and the application of capital 
 and labor, it is impossible to exclude these vast operations, and the 
 administrative policy and the legislation connected with them, from a 
 review of " the condition of the State," which it is the constitutional 
 duty of the Governor to communicate, with such recommendations 
 "as ho shall judge expedient," "to the Legislature at every session." 
 
 CAN MOKE CURRENCY REVIVE PROSPERITY? 
 
 The illusion is too common that an additional issue of currency in 
 legal tenders or bank-notes would alleviate the distress now felt in 
 business, cause a general rise of prices, and revive a seeming, if not a 
 real, prosperity. Thus many are tempted to desire or to acquiesce in 
 a demand upon the Federal Government to put out new promises to 
 pay, while it is yet in a long-continued default as to those heretofore 
 made ; and to do so after ten years of peace, while having no better 
 excuse for its present default than lack of skill in applying its abun 
 dant resources to the restoration of the public faith. 
 
 The hope of benefits to any class from such an unsound policy 
 would prove to be completely fallacious. It would prolong and in 
 tensify the evils sought to be alleviated. This conclusion is clear upon 
 principle, and in our own experience. In order distinctly to see its 
 truth, it is only necessary to analyze that function in the business of 
 society which is performed by the circulatory credits known as cur 
 rency. 
 
 CURRENCY BUT A PART OF CIRCULATING CREDITS. 
 
 To economize the use of metallic money, which had become tho 
 common instrument of exchange, personal credit, in the form of book 
 accounts, was introduced. For example, the farmer delivered to the 
 country merchant his grain when ready for the market, and tho mer 
 chant delivered his goods at the times when th ey were wanted by the 
 farmer for consumption ; each delivery was entered in a running ac 
 count, until a balance was struck, and even then the settlement gen 
 erally took place without the intervention of money, which neither 
 party had the capital to own for each transaction, or to pay the ulti- 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 165 
 
 mate balance. Next came the note of hand, and, when the transac 
 tion was between parties doing business at different places, drafts and 
 bills of exchange. At last the most refined tool of commerce became 
 perfected. The bank-note, promising to pay coin on demand, to 
 bearer, in an even and convenient amount, engraved and authenti 
 cated when issued by an institution or individual of established gen 
 eral credit was voluntarily accepted by everybody in place of coin. 
 It is the currency used in payment by those who do not keep bank 
 accounts, and, in petty transactions, by those who do keep bank ac 
 counts. A credit inscribed on the books of the bank, known in the 
 language of commerce as a deposit, and transferred by check, is the 
 preferred medium of payment, in all save petty transactions, by those 
 who keep bank accounts. It is preferred because a check may rep 
 resent a large and uneven amount, which in notes would be incon 
 venient in the counting, handling, and custody ; and a check payable 
 to order is safer, and is itself an evidence of the payment. In dense 
 communities, where the bank is near the customers, checks are mostly 
 used. In sparse communities, where the bank is remote from the 
 dealers and holders, bank-notes are mostly used. 
 
 These two tools of trade and mediums of payment are, in their 
 general functions, perfectly identical. 
 
 BANK-NOTES AND CHECKS THE SAME IN EFFECT AND NATURE. 
 
 Their real nature is, that they are a provision for expected pay 
 ments, and a reserve for possible payments. On deposits, the holder 
 submits to a partial or total loss of interest, for some banks allow in 
 terest, at low rates, on deposits ; on bank-notes, the holder submits 
 to a total loss of interest. To each holder the motive is ever present, 
 to reduce his non-interest-bearing reserve to the lowest necessary 
 amount, by investing it, if it be his own, or by returning it, if it be 
 borrowed. 
 
 THEIR AMOUNT VAEIED BY PEOPLE S WANTS, IF PAYABLE IN COIN. 
 
 If the currency be redeemable, the wants of the community, and 
 not the wishes of the banks, will determine the amount which will 
 remain outstanding. All that Government ought to do toward fixing 
 that amount is, to provide methods to enforce payment by the issuers 
 of such notes as the holders, not wishing to use, return to the issuers 
 for redemption. 
 
166 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 AMOUNT FLUCTUATES WITH THE TIMES. 
 
 It is true that, in times of speculation, the currency increases. 
 Transactions hecome more numerous. Higher prices cause the same 
 transactions to absorb more of the medium of payment. There is 
 greater disposition to provide for contemplated or possible opera 
 tions. There is less care to economize the loss of interest on the 
 amount kept on hand. In times of depression, all these conditions 
 are reversed. During the long period of downward tendencies, from 
 1837 to 1842, the currency fell, of itself, to about one-half its amount 
 at the beginning of the period. 
 
 THE RELATION OF CURRENCY TO PRICES. 
 
 In the ordinary and regular relations between a redeemable cur 
 rency and prices, the fluctuations in the currency follow, instead of 
 preceding, changes in general prices. The notes in the hands of the 
 public, less the reserve kept for their redemption, form a part of the 
 loan-fund of a bank, but that amount is not capable of being in 
 creased at the will of the bank, until a speculation has arisen, and 
 higher prices or more transactions have resulted. 
 
 Even then, the increase of currency merely provides for the prior 
 increase of prices or of transactions. It may be said that the in 
 crease of currency is a condition without which the increase of prices 
 or transactions could not happen, but that is not true, unless it be 
 shown that no other tool of credit than bank-notes could be used. 
 
 In cases where a bank originates a speculation by enlarging its 
 loans, it must do so at the expense of its customary reserve. 
 
 It is only by artificial changes in the currency generally made by 
 Government that the currency itself becomes the primal source of 
 speculation. In fact, it nearly always happens that speculative pur 
 chases are originally made on personal credit, evidenced by open ac 
 counts or notes of hand. The banks are applied to only at the expi 
 ration of the original credit; "and then what is wanted is not a con 
 tinued use of bank-notes, but a loan of capital. Bank-notes are one 
 of the wheels in the machinery of credit. They have no quality 
 peculiar in its action on prices, or different in its action on prices 
 from any other part of the machinery of credit. The currency, at 
 its present amount of bank-notes and legal tenders, is less than the 
 deposits, and is but a small fraction of the whole existing mass 
 of credits, including book accounts, notes of hand, drafts, and bills of. 
 exchange. And new forms of credit machinery are capable of being 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 167 
 
 invented indefinitely as when, in September, 1873, the New York 
 Associated Banks created a currency of twenty millions of certifi 
 cates, to be used in the exchanges between themselves. 
 
 BUT CUEEENOY ONLY SMALL PAET OF CIECULATOKY CEEDITS. 
 
 It is idle to pronounce the machinery of credit a maniac, dangerous 
 to the community, and then to put only its little finger in a strait 
 jacket. 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The experiment of regulating the note circulation only has been 
 completely tried in Great Britain. In 1844, when, on the recharter 
 of the Bank of England, the bank-note circulation of that country 
 was subjected to rules which were supposed to make it fluctuate ex 
 actly as if it were coin, it was thought, by all but a few great think 
 ers, that there would ever after be stability of prices and stability of 
 business. But in 1847, in 1857, and in 1866, commercial revulsions of 
 undiminished severity demonstrated the fallacy of these hopes, and 
 of the system on which they were founded. While the note circula 
 tion has ever since been confined by law to a nearly constant amount, 
 the deposit circulation has increased many fold. The vicissitudes of 
 credit are as violent as ever. It is apparent that whenever a foreign 
 demand for coin arises, not caused by domestic overtrading, the sys 
 tem creates an artificial scarcity of an important instrument of com 
 merce, and subjects all business to an unnecessary perturbation ; that, 
 whenever a panic destroys the credit of inferior dealers, and the in 
 terposition of the highest credit is called for to supply the vacuum 
 and revive confidence, the system breaks down the law limiting the 
 issues of bank-notes is suspended with the approval of the ministry, 
 and with a promise to appeal to Parliament for an act of indemnity. 
 
 WHY AND nOW INCONVERTIBLE OUEEENCY DEPRECIATES. 
 
 The depreciation of a currency, not convertible into coin, repre 
 sents the interests and risk, as estimated by the judgment of investors, 
 on a loan payable at the will of the Government, without interest 
 subject to such temporary fluctuations as are induced by the varia 
 tions in the supply and demand of coin in which that loan is ulti 
 mate^ payable. 
 
 THUS INFLATING PEICES. 
 
 There is no doubt that the issue of legal tenders during the civil 
 war hastened and greatly increased that inflation of prices which 
 
1G8 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 naturally resulted from the increased consumption and tlio waste 
 caused by military operations, and from the diminished production 
 occasioned by so large a withdrawal of workers from their ordinary 
 industries. 
 
 It is the nature of credit to be voluntary. It is founded on con 
 fidence. Credit on compulsion is a solecism. So that a forced loan 
 of capital from all existing private creditors cannot but be costly. 
 
 LEGAL-TENDEK FINANCING. 
 
 It was made, in this instance, on a security which bore no inter 
 est, and interest on which could only be represented in discount from 
 its par value. It gave to the lender an agreement to pay, which, 
 being instantly due on demand, started in its career a broken and 
 dishonored promise. Every successive holder was left to conjecture 
 when it would be redeemed by the issuer how far it might be ab 
 sorbed in the Treasury receipts whether it could still be paid out to 
 some private creditor at what loss it could be passed away in new 
 purchases, on a market advancing rapidly and irregularly. Every 
 body was advised that the Federal Government unwisely distrust 
 ing the intelligence and patriotism of the people shrank from exer 
 cising its borrowing power, supplemented by its taxing power ; that 
 instead of resorting at once to the whole capital of the country capa 
 ble of being loaned, which forms a vast fund perhaps thirty or forty 
 times as large as the then existing currency, it chose to begin by 
 debasing that comparatively insignificant part of circulating credits, 
 creating fictitious prices for the commodities and services for which 
 it was next to exchange its bonds, in an expenditure ten times as 
 large as the whole amount of the legal tenders it ventured to put 
 afloat, No man could know how often or how much of legal tenders 
 might be issued, under possible exigencies of the future. It could 
 not be wholly forgotten that such issues, made by our ancestors to 
 sustain the victorious war for national independence, were never 
 redeemed, while the public loans made for the same purposes were 
 all paid. It was remembered that history affords other warning ex 
 amples to the same effect. These elements of distrust were needlessly 
 invoked. But the system stopped short of the logical completeness 
 of the expedients of the French Convention in 1793. While it com 
 pelled the existing private creditor, or anybody who should grant a 
 new credit, to accept payment in legal tenders, it did not assume to 
 regulate the prices of commodities. The seller, therefore, gradually 
 
FIKST ANNUAL MESSAGE; 169 
 
 learned to represent the depreciation of the currency in the price of 
 the article he exchanged for it. As compared with gold, the currency, 
 during all the last year of the war was depreciated to between forty 
 and fifty cents on the dollar, touching at its lowest point thirty-five 
 cents on the dollar. 
 
 HOW IT RAISED PRICES BY PROVOKING SPECULATION. 
 
 It was not alone by the direct effect of the depreciation of the cur 
 rency that prices were acted upon ; speculation was engendered. Po 
 litical economy takes little account of the emotional and imaginative 
 nature of man. In long periods, with numerous instances, the aver 
 age, deduced as a law, may perhaps discard that element. B.ut in a 
 particular instance, or at a particular time, it is often very potent, 
 and must be estimated in any calculation which aims at accuracy. 
 
 After a period of rest when the disposition to activity begins to 
 revive a slight circumstance often excites a speculation that becomes 
 general. The opening of a new market, an apprehended deficiency 
 in the supply of a commodity, any one of a thousand circumstances, 
 may, in a certain state of the public mind, be a spark to kindle a 
 blaze of speculation throughout the commercial world. How much 
 more, then, might it have been expected that such a govermental 
 policy would inspire and inflame the spirit of speculation ! The effect 
 was greatest during the process of a new issue of currency, or while 
 it was anticipated. After the issue was completed there was gener 
 ally a subsidence, or a reaction 
 
 AND NEEDLESSLY DOUBLED THE BURDEN OF THE WAR. 
 
 The Government consumption during the war was mostly of our 
 domestic products. As soon as the channels of traffic could be 
 adapted to the new points of consumption, and the new classes of 
 consumers, there was no more difficulty in the transfer of these prod 
 ucts from producers to consumers than in the ordinary operations of 
 commerce during peace. 
 
 Governments, in times of public danger, cannot be expected al 
 ways to adhere to the maxims of economical science ; the few, who 
 would firmly trust to the wisest policy, will be often overborne by 
 the advocates of popular expedients dictated by general alarm. If 
 the Federal Government had paid out Treasury notes, not made a 
 legal tender, in its own transactions, whenever it was convenient, 
 and redeemed them by the proceeds of loans and taxes on their pre- 
 
170 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 sentation at a central point of commerce, and meanwhile had bor 
 rowed at the market rates for its bonds, secured by ample sinking- 
 funds, founded on taxation, and had supplemented such loans by all 
 necessary taxes, the sacrifice would not have been half that required 
 by the false system adopted ; perhaps the cost of the war would not 
 have been half what it became. 
 
 This analysis of the process, by which the changes in the currency 
 operated to produce the effect on prices witnessed by the people, is 
 necessary, in order to intelligently discuss the problem now pressed 
 upon us. For the fallacy lurks in many minds that the quantity of 
 the currency, even when it has become stationary and quiescent, cre 
 ates by. its direct action a state of prices proportionate to that in 
 quantity. 
 
 BELATION OF THE QUANTITY OF GUEEENCY TO THE RANGE OF PEJCES. 
 
 But this fallacy is confuted by our own experience. The pre 
 mium on gold fell from 185 in July, 1864, to 29 in May, 1865 ; or 
 rather the currency rose from 35 cents to 77 cents in gold value, 
 while the amount of the currency remained undiminished. The 
 quantity of the currency in the hands of the public taking the ag 
 gregate of the legal tenders and the bank-notes, and excluding all of 
 both which are held by the Treasury or by the banks is now larger 
 than at any former period. The existence of such a quantity has 
 not arrested the tendency to a general fall of prices. The present 
 inconveniences in business, which it is proposed to remedy by a new 
 issue of currency, have originated and gone on to their maturity, 
 while the currency was being distended to its greatest volume. 
 
 EXCESS OF CUEEENCY, YET FALLING PEICES. 
 
 An excess beyond what is capable of being used for the business 
 of society is now, for the first time, distinctly indicated. The move 
 ment of the crops in the last autumn which required something like 
 one-tenth addition to the ordinary amount created no stringency. 
 The banks have voluntarily withdrawn some millions of their circu 
 lation. It is probable that the amount capable of being absorbed by 
 the business of the country will continue to fall for a long period. 
 
 WHEN INFLATION CANNOT INFLATE. 
 
 In such a condition of business, of credit, and of the public tem 
 per, a new issue of currency would not cause a rise of prices, unless 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 171 
 
 it were so excessive as to occasion speculative depreciation, or dis 
 trust of ultimate redemption. It could not reanimate the dead 
 corpse of exhausted speculation. A period of quiescence must or 
 dinarily precede a renewal of the spirit of adventurous enterprise. . 
 
 DISTEESS FEOM FALLING VALUES AND LACKING CAPITAL. 
 
 The distress now felt is incident to the continued fall of values, 
 which is the descending part of the cycle through which they must 
 pass after being farced up to an unnatural elevation. The want felt 
 is a want of capital which the party does not own, and has not the 
 credit to borrow, not a lack of currency. It is caused by invest 
 ments in enterprises which have turned out to be wholly or partially 
 bad, or which give slower returns than were anticipated by too 
 much conversion of circulating capital into fixed capital by excessive 
 undertakings or engagements, induced by a reliance on a credit that 
 was transient. In a period of falling prices, good property becomes 
 less convertible. It loses its circulatory quality. It almost ceases to 
 be a resource to obtain money. 
 
 HOW DISTRESS CANNOT BE CUBED. 
 
 These inconveniences would not be removed, if the Government 
 should put out legal tenders and take in a corresponding amount of 
 bonds, or if a bank should deposit bonds and receive notes in ex 
 change. Still the individual distressed for the want of capital would 
 have no additional means to buy or borrow these new issues, which 
 the new owner would obtain only by paying for them. A diminu 
 tion of the Government bonds outstanding is a condition of the in 
 crease of legal tenders or bank-notes. If an embarrassed person 
 could obtain the Government bonds surrendered or deposited, he 
 would be as much relieved by his power to dispose of them as he 
 would by a power to dispose of the legal tenders or bank-notes. His 
 difficulty is that he is equally unable to obtain either. He has not 
 the means to buy or the credit to borrow them. . What he wants is 
 something to make his bad investments good his slow investments 
 current; something to make his property convertible to impart to 
 it a circulating quality, as when there is a general rise of values 
 under a speculative excitement, and everybody is disposed to buy, 
 and everything finds a ready market. 
 
 INOEEASE OF CUEEENCT CANNOT CUBE DISTEESS. 
 
 He wants something to create in others a disposition to buy, in 
 
172 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 order that he may be able to sell. This is what, in the present state 
 of things, an increase of the currency will not do. It would not act 
 mechanically on prices. It does not operate by physical means. It 
 simply influences the minds of men. It induces them to buy, and, in 
 the effort to do so, they bid up prices. It is only when the minds of 
 men are disposed to receive an impulse toward buying that such an 
 effect is produced. "When speculators go into the market to influence 
 others to buy, in order that they may sell, the conference usually 
 ends in a fall. Even when speculators go into the market to sell on 
 an event expected to cause a rise, the result is commonly a fall. 
 Everybody cannot get out at once at the expense of others. 
 
 CHANGING FOEMS AND VAETING VOLUME OF CIRCULATORY CREDITS. 
 
 The amount of currency required by the needs of business is not 
 to be decided by former experience. There is no doubt that, on the 
 first issue of legal tenders, they were largely substituted for other 
 forms of credit. A single case will illustrate : The sudden rise in 
 prices enabled the farmer to become the owner of the floating capital 
 on which his next year s dealings with the country merchants were 
 to be carried on. The habits of business change to adapt themselves 
 to new conditions. It is possible that the Government might cau 
 tiously follow the tendencies of trade, and retire each clearly-ascer 
 tained surplus without doing any harm. But a withdrawal of any 
 considerable portion of the amount required, at the season of the 
 year which creates the largest demand, would produce serious and 
 unnecessary distress. The adoption of a system which should threat 
 en such a result would be very mischievous. The Federal Govern 
 ment is bound to redeem every portion of its issues which the public 
 do not wish to use. Having assumed to monopolize the supply of 
 currency, and enacted exclusions against everybody else, if is bound 
 to furnish all which the wants of business require. The case is, as if 
 the Government should undertake to monopolize the supply of lake- 
 propellers or canal-boats to bring grain to market. If it should not 
 furnish enough, the derangement of business and the distress of pro 
 ducers and consumers would be intolerable. While securing redemp 
 tion, the Government should organize a system which passively 
 allows the volume of circulating credits to ebb .and flow, according to 
 the ever-changing wants of business. It should imitate, as closely as 
 possible, the natural laws of trade, which it has superseded by artifi 
 cial contrivances. 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 173 
 
 EASY CONDITIONS OF RESUMING SPECIE PAYMENTS. 
 
 The ability of the Federal Government to resume specie payments 
 is thus simply a question of its command of resources to pay such 
 portions of the circulating credits it has issued as the public, not 
 wishing to use, may return upon it for redemption. The amount to 
 be paid cannot be considered large, in comparison with its financial 
 operations. It has the taxing power, and by reducing its expenditure 
 could accumulate an adequate surplus. It has the borrowing power 
 and good credit. It can niake permanent loans and pay the Treasury- 
 notes which are returned for redemption. It can convert them or 
 fund them into interest-bearing securities. In that case, they would 
 cease to be currency, and w r ould take their place among investments 
 Jike national, State, municipal, railroad, or other corporate bonds, or 
 any of the numerous forms of moneyed securities, of which many 
 thousand millions are held in our country. The circulatory quality, 
 in securities of equal general credit, is chiefly a question of the rate 
 of interest they bear. 
 
 The amount of coin necessary for. resumption is, first, an adequate 
 reserve to meet the demand for exportation, for w r hich the Treasury 
 would become the universal reservoir ; and, second, a surplus suffi 
 cient fully to assure the people that the Treasury supply would not 
 be exhausted. The power to command coin as the owner of foreign 
 bills of exchange, or in other forms, would, to a large extent, be 
 equivalent to possessing coin. Beyond such an amount of coin, the 
 question is simply a question of capital. 
 
 The exact time of actual resumption, the process, the specific 
 measures, the discreet preparations these are business questions to 
 be dealt with, in view of the state 1 of trade and of credit operations 
 in our own country, the course of foreign commerce and the condi 
 tion of the exchanges with other nations, the currents of the pre 
 cious metals, and the stocks from which a supply would flow with 
 out undue disturbance of the markets of other countries. These are 
 matters of detail, to be studied on the facts and figures. They be 
 long to the domain of practical administrative statesmanship. 
 
 EESUMPTION LESS COSTLY THAN PRESENT IMPOLICY. 
 
 It is quite clear that the problem ought to be worked out, with 
 out costing the country anything like -such disturbance in its busi 
 ness and industries as the operations of the Federal Government 
 during the last ten years have repeatedly created. The natural 
 
174 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 causes which affect trade may be foreseen, and all dealers can calcu 
 late them with equal advantages in everything, except their own dif 
 ferences in intelligence and judgment. But the action of an official, 
 conducting the largest financial operations in the country, and exer 
 cising dominion over the circulatory credits that are part of the ma- 
 chinery by which the mass of private transactions are carried on, 
 cannot but tend to create, in all industries, uncertainty, confusion, and 
 miscalculation. 
 
 HOW PKESENT IMPOLICY HARASSES ALL BUSIXE3S-MEX. 
 
 It was said, after the revulsion of 1837, that the barometer of the 
 money market of America hung up in the parlor of the Bank of 
 England. The barometer which hangs up in the Treasury Depart 
 ment at Washington does not merely indicate conditions and changes 
 of the financial atmosphere; it creates them. Its stormy vicissitudes 
 harass the business of the whole country. 
 
 The partial cessation of productive industries, and the partial want 
 of employment which now exists, are chiefly produced by the fear 
 of the employers that, if they carry on their works, they may pro 
 duce at a loss. The abstinence from purchase by all those classes of 
 dealers who buy and get up stocks to provide for future consumption 
 is chiefly caused by the fear of a further decline of prices. Under 
 these apprehensions the demand is much less than the ordinary con 
 sumption. The instant manufacturers or merchants are convinced 
 that prices have reached the bottom, even for the period of an ordi 
 nary business operation, they will begin to resume their function in 
 the economy of trade. The wheels of our complex industries will 
 move, workmen will find employment, and, with revived confidence 
 in the future, prosperity will be renewed in its sources. Nothing 
 could be more unwise, more mischievous in its ultimate results, than 
 to interrupt the healing process of Nature by expedients which will 
 fail of affording any real relief, and will be certain to accumulate new 
 materials for another catastrophe. 
 
 It has seemed to me fit that, on this occasion, the opinions of the 
 great Commonwealth we represent, which is so largely interested in 
 these questions, should be declared on the side of sound finance, pub 
 lic integrity, and national honor ; and, in making this communication 
 the medium of an authentic expression on the subject, I follow the 
 example, on similar occasions, of several of the most illustrious of 
 my predecessors. 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. - 175 
 
 EESULTS DUEING TEN TEAES OF PEACE. 
 
 It is now almost ten years since the civil war ceased. That period 
 ought .to have sufficed to renew our productive industries, to repair 
 the wastes of our accumulated capital, and to restore to our people 
 a sound and durable prosperity. But an indispensable condition of 
 such results was energy, skill, and economy in production, and fru 
 gality in public and private consumption. 
 
 MISUSED POWEES OF FEDEEAL GOVEENMENT. 
 
 The Federal Government has all the while been the greatest sin 
 gle power in the country to influence results, not only by its own vast 
 fiscal operations, its dominion over the currency and the business of 
 banking, and the effect of its transactions on investments of capital, 
 and on the temporary conditions of the money market, but by the 
 ascendency it acquired during a period of public danger over public 
 opinion and over the conduct of individuals. It is to. be deplored 
 that this great capacity for controlling action and for leadership has 
 not conducted us to better results. . * 
 
 The period has been characterized by unsound public finance, an 
 uncertain policy in respect to the currency, a series of speculative 
 excitements tending to unproductive enterprises and unremunerative 
 investments of capital, and terminating in distressing reactions in 
 credit and business ; a want of efficiency and economy in production, 
 extravagance in public and private expenditure, enormous taxation 
 and complicated systems of revenue which have increased the cost 
 and wasted the fruits of that taxation, and rendered capital and labor 
 less productive and frequent spoliation of private and public trusts. 
 
 GOVEENMENTS TOO COSTLY. 
 
 In the decade beginning July 1, 1865, the people will have paid 
 in taxes, computed in currency, seven thousand million dollars. 
 Three-fifths were for the use of the Federal Government, and two- 
 fifths for the State and municipal governments. It is doubtless true 
 that some portions of the municipal expenditures were for objects 
 not strictly governmental. But it cannot -be questioned that much 
 too large a portion of the whole net earnings of industry, and of the 
 whole net income of society, is taken for the purpose of carrying on 
 government in this country. The burden could more easily be borne 
 when values were high, and were ascending. As they recede toward 
 their former level, the taxes consume a larger quantity of the prod- 
 
176 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ucts which have to be sold in order to pay them. They weigh with 
 . a constantly-increasing severity upon all business and upon all classes. 
 They shrivel up more and more the earnings of labor This condi 
 tion of things ought to admonish us, in our respective spheres, to bo 
 as abstinent as possible in appropriations for public expenditures. If 
 the cost of government in our country were reduced, as it ought to 
 be, one-third, it would still be larger than a few years ago, taking 
 account of the prices of the products, which, in order to pay that 
 cost, we are compelled to convert into money. 
 
 TAXATION TOO BUKDENSOME. THE PROSTKATION OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 The people are less able to bear such taxation by reason of the 
 want of efficiency and economy in production, and the want of fru 
 gality in consumption, generated by the causes already indicated, and 
 also by reason of the failure to completely renew the productive 
 energies and activities of the States of the South, which furnish about 
 half of the exportable commodities of the country, other than spe 
 cie; which are large consumers of our manufactures and produc 
 tions, and which make us their carriers, merchants, and bankers in. 
 all their domestic and foreign transactions, . 
 
 It has been proudly ascribed to the humanity of our age that, 
 .since the surrender at Apppmattox, not one life has been sacrificed 
 to the policy of the victorious Government. It is to be wished that 
 we were equally free from the criticism that the retribution visited 
 upon our former adversaries merely conforms to the higher modern 
 estimate of property, as compared with life ; that exercising a moral 
 coercion, invigorated by a standing menace of . military force, v?& 
 have held those communities bound in withes, to be plundered by 
 rulers destitute of support in their public opinion, and without title . 
 to our own respect or trust. 
 
 FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF AMENDMENTS TO FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Such has been our course, after and in spite of the fact tha.t these 
 our kindred in a common ancestry, a common heritage, and a common 
 future, had joined at national conventions in the nomination of can 
 didates, and in the declaration of principles and purposes, which 
 form an authentic acceptance of the results of the war, embodied in 
 the last three amendments to the organic law of the Federal Union, 
 and that they had by the suffrages of all their voters, at Ihe last 
 national election, completed the proof that now they only seek to 
 share with us and to maintain the common rights of American local 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 177 
 
 self-government, in a fraternal union, under the old flag with " one 
 Constitution and one destiny." 
 
 There should be no misunderstanding as to this position of our 
 Southern brethren, or of any portion of our fellow-citizens. The 
 questions settled by the war are never to be reopened. 
 
 The adoption of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend 
 ments to the Federal Constitution closed one great era in our politics. 
 It marked the end forever of the system of human slavery, and of 
 the struggles that grew out of that system. These amendments have 
 been conclusively adopted, and they have been accepted in good faith 
 by all political organizations, and the people of all sections. They 
 close the chapter, they are and must be final; all parties* -hereafter 
 must accept and stand upon them, and henceforth our politics are to 
 turn upon questions of the present and the future, not upon those of 
 the settled and final past. 
 
 THE PEOPLE MUST AGAIN ATTEND TO PUBLIC AFFAIES. 
 
 The nobler motives of humanity concur with our interests in 
 making us hail, with heart-felt congratulations, a real and durable 
 peace between populations unnaturally estranged. The time is ripe 
 to discard all memories of buried strifes, except as a warning 
 against their renewal ; to join all together to build anew the solid 
 foundations of American self-government. For nearly a generation 
 the controversies which led to fratricidal conflict have drawn away 
 the attention of the people from the questions of administration 
 which involve every interest and. duty of good government. The 
 culture, the training, and the practice of our people in the ordinary 
 conduct of public affairs, have been falling into disuse. Meanwhile 
 the primitive simplicity of institutions and of society, in which gov 
 ernment was little felt, and could be neglected with comparative im 
 punity, has been passing away. If public necessities must wring so 
 much from the earnings of individuals, taxation must become scien 
 tific. In our new condition all the problems of administration have 
 become more difficult. They call for more intellect and more knowl 
 edge of the experience of other countries. They need to become the 
 engrossing theme of the public thought in the discussions of the 
 press and in the competition of parties, which is the process of free 
 institutions. The people must once more give their minds to ques 
 tions that concern the ordinary conduct of government, if they 
 would have our country to start afresh in a career of prosperity and 
 renown. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 . 
 
 THE LOUISIANA OUTRAGE. 
 
 AT the time when the whole country was excited over the 
 Louisiana outrage, Governor Tilden addressed a manly com 
 munication to the Legislature of New York, setting forth, 
 with characteristic clearness, the details of that disgraceful 
 usurpation of power by the Federal Government. It has 
 been thought advisable to reproduce that communication in 
 this connection. It is a statesmanlike view of the whole diffi 
 culty in Louisiana, and displays at once a full knowledge of 
 the case, and an honest indignation at the insult which had 
 been offered the people of a sister State. Pricking through 
 the gauzy pretext which was held up as an excuse for this act 
 of military despotism, Mr. Tilden shows that it was not only 
 unlawful, but that it was without the color of legality. He 
 shows, moreover, that the astonishing proposition of General 
 Sheridan, to consider a certain, number of citizens as banditti, 
 without even describing who should be embraced under that 
 head, was as preposterous as it was unconstitutional. And 
 yet it was in reply to this proposition that the late Secretary 
 of War, William W. Belknap, sent back the telegraphic dis 
 patch, " The President and all of us have full confidence in 
 and thoroughly approve your course." 
 
 Governor Tilden s sense of justice impelled him to give an 
 expression of his views on this question. It may be remarked 
 that the message to the Legislature was received by the peo 
 ple of the State of New York, irrespective of party affiliations, 
 as a wise and manly document. 
 
THE LOUISIANA OUTRAGE. 179 
 
 The message, which was dated January 12, 1875, reads as 
 .follows : 
 
 On your reassembling, I deem it to be my duty to invite your at 
 tention to the grave events which have happened in our sister State 
 of Louisiana. The interval of your adjournment has offered you an 
 opportunity to receive the statements of the parties concerned in those 
 occurrences, particularly that of Lieutenant-General Sheridan, in his 
 official report to the Secretary of War, dated January 8, 1875. You 
 are now enabled to know with certainty all the facts necessary to 
 form a just and deliberate judgment as to the nature of the principal 
 acts which have created so much public excitement. 
 
 According to the official report of Lieutenant-General Sheridan, 
 the United States soldiers entered the House of Eepresentatives of 
 the State of Louisiana, while that body was in session, and removed 
 from it five of its members. 
 
 The pretexts of this act are : 
 
 1. That it was done under directions from the Governor of the 
 State, recognized by the President. 
 
 2. That the persons removed " had been illegally seated," and 
 " had no legal right to be there." 
 
 3. That a fear existed in the mind of Lieutenant-General Sheridan 
 that, in some undefined contingency, violence might happen. 
 
 With respect to the first and second of these pretexts, it is a de 
 cisive answer that the Louisiana House of Eepresentatives had, by 
 the constitution of that State, the exclusive judgment as to the right 
 of these members to seats ; that its judgment is subject to no review 
 by any judicial authority, still less a review by the Governor or by any 
 officer of the United States Army; that its judgment in favor of 
 these members thus forcibly removed is binding in law, and conclusive 
 upon the Governor and Lieutenant-General Sheridan, and upon every 
 other person. 
 
 In respect to the third pretext, the fear in the mind of Lieutenant- 
 General Sheridan of possible future violence, when no violence really 
 existed, is not only no lawful occasion, but not even an excuse for an 
 invasion of the right of the House of Representatives of Louisiana to 
 judge for itself of the title to seats of its own members. 
 
 Interference by United States soldiers was not only unlawful, but 
 it was without the color of legality. It was an act of naked physical 
 force in violation of the laws and the constitution of Louisiana, and of 
 
180 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J.- TILDEN. 
 
 the laws and Constitution of the United States. There is a case of a 
 disputed seat in the Senate of this State now pending. Another was 
 determined at the last session. The transaction in Louisiana is as if, 
 at the. instance of the Governor of this State, General Hancock, com 
 manding in this department, or an officer specially deputed by the 
 President, should send a file of Federal soldiers and remove the in 
 cumbent to whom the seat had been adjudged by the Senate. That 
 disorders had formerly existed in Louisiana makes no difference. 
 For the laws to which the President and Congress are parties-^ 
 recognize the complete restoration of her autonomy. . The right of 
 her legislative bodies to determine the title of their members is as 
 perfect and as absolute as the right of the Assembly or the Senate of 
 New York; . 
 
 The animus of the transaction, as indicated by the correspondence 
 between Lieutenant-General Sheridan and the Secretary of War, is 
 infinitely worse than the transaction itself. On the day after the 
 event, Lieutenant-General Sheridan sent a dispatch proposing that a 
 class of citizens, indefinite in number and description, should be de 
 clared, either by act of Congress or by proclamation of the President, 
 to be banditti ; and then indicates his purpose to try them and exe 
 cute them by military commission. On the next day, General Bel- 
 knap, the Secretary of War, telegraphed to General Sheridan that 
 " the President and all of us have full confidence in and thoroughly 
 approve your course." 
 
 The nature of the acts thus proposed by the oificer second in 
 command of the army of the United States, and thus adopted and 
 sanctioned by the President and his constitutional advisers, is plainly 
 declared by the common law. 
 
 In the recent case of the Queen vs. Nelson and Brand, the present 
 Lord Chief -Justice of England, in delivering the charge to the grand- 
 jury, declared that "supposing that there is no jurisdiction at all, 
 that the whole proceeding is coram nonjudice, that the judicial func 
 tions are exercised by persons who have no judicial authority or power, 
 and a man s life is taken, that is murder ; for murder is putting a 
 man to death without a justification, or without any of those miti 
 gating circumstances which reduce the crime of murder to one of a 
 lower degree. Thus, in the case put by Lord Coke of a lieutenant 
 having a commission of martial law in times of peace, that, says Lord 
 Coke, is murder." 
 
 Such are the established doctrines of the jurists and courts of this 
 
THE LOUISIANA OUTRAGE. 181 
 
 country and of England. Such is the voice of common law glorious 
 jurisprudence of freedom ! birthright of every American citizen ! 
 Its stern logic declares that such an execution of any human being, 
 as was proposed and sanctioned in this correspondence, would be 
 murder by our laws ; and that every functionary civil or military 
 who should instigate it, aid or abet it, or become, in any manner; a 
 party to it before the fact, would be guilty as a principal in that 
 crime. 
 
 The patriot statesmen who achieved our national independence, 
 end formed our institutions of free government, foreboded, if we 
 should ever fall in intestine strife, that the ideas it would inspire in 
 military minds of insubordination to the laws and of uncivic ambi 
 tion and the habit it would generate in the people, of acquiescence 
 in acts of unlawful military violence would imperil, if not destroy, 
 civil liberty. Events compelled us to a manly choice of confronting 
 these dangers in a struggle to save our country from dismemberment, 
 and to vindicate the just rights of the Federal Union. Having tri 
 umphed in that struggle, now forever closed, we are made sensible of 
 the wise foresight of the founders of our freedom in their warning 
 of the opposite dangers which would attend our success. Those 
 dangers come to. us in acts of illegal military violence, committed in 
 times of peace in the usurpation by the soldiery of a power to de 
 cide the membership of our legislative assemblies, whose right to 
 judge exclusively in such cases has ever been guarded with peculiar 
 jealousy by our race in the proposal, made and accepted by our 
 highest civiland military functionaries, to subject our citizens to 
 tribunals in which a military officer will decide, without appeal, what 
 persons, happening to be found^.in the locality, shall be sent to them 
 for trial will appoint the members of the court will review and 
 confirm or change the judgment and sentence and may order in 
 stant executions, and in which the accused will be tried in secret, and 
 without counsel for his defense. This proposition is thus made, and 
 thus sanctioned, notwithstanding that, for similar acts, our English 
 ancestors sent the first Charles to the scaffold and expelled the sec 
 ond James from the throne ; and pur own forefathers exiled by 
 kindred tyrannies and planting freedom in the wilderness were 
 careful to insert in our Constitution positive prohibitions against the 
 application to any but military persons of such tribunals. 
 
 Unless such a proposition, so made and so sanctioned, shall be 
 condemned by a public reprobation which shall make it memorable 
 
182 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 as a warning to all future officers of the State and the army, the de 
 cay of the jealous spirit of freedom, the loss of our ancestral tradi 
 tions of liberty, acquired through ages of conflict and sacrifice, the 
 education of the present generation to servile acquiescence in the 
 maxims and the practices of tyranny, will have realized the fears of 
 Washington and Jay and Clinton and their compatriots. 
 
 New York, first of the Commonwealths of the American Union, 
 in population, in resources, and in military power, should declare 
 her sentiments on this occasion, with a distinctness, a dignity, and a 
 solemn emphasis^ which will command the thoughtful attention of 
 Congress, of her sister States, and of the people of our- whole coun 
 try. With the same unanimity with which she upheld the arms of 
 the Union in the past conflict, she should now address herself .to tlie 
 great and most sacred duty of reestablishing civil liberty and the 
 personal rights of individuals, of restoring the ideas and habits of 
 freedom, and of reasserting the supremacy of the civil authority over 
 the military power throughout the republic. 
 
 , Notwithstanding the vigorous denunciation which this 
 message contained, it was admitted on all sides to be free 
 from undue partisanship, and able in its treatment of a per 
 plexing question. The abuse which called it forth was so 
 flagrant that its denunciatory tone was applauded even by 
 those who were not in sympathy with the Governor. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 THE "CANAL KING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 
 
 IT is not to be denied that when Governor Tildeii entered 
 upon the duties of his office there was a large number of 
 persons, including some prominent politicians, who held him 
 in more fear than love. These were the gentry who- consti 
 tuted the " Canal Ring." The " Canal Ring " was composed 
 of men about equally divided between the two parties, who 
 gained their wealth by plundering the State through fraudu 
 lent contracts for repairing the canals. Outside the " Ring," 
 but connected with it by stronger bonds than mere sympathy, 
 was another set of men who were the recipients of the 
 " Ring s " political favors, and occasionally received dividends 
 from its spoils. The inner " Ring " was small, and centred 
 around one firm of contractors in Syracuse known as Deni- 
 son & Belden, but embracing more members than those names 
 imply. H. D. Denison, who was everywhere known as 
 " Doc " Denison, was a good-natured, roistering man, who 
 was educated, I believe, to the .medical profession, and who 
 had served for some years as a member of the Democratic 
 State Committee. His partner, James J. Belden, was a man 
 of strict business habits, who abstained wholly from the use 
 of liquor, and was a church-goer. In the height of his power 
 he was nominated by the Republicans for Mayor of Syracuse. 
 It used to be said of the firm that Denison furnished the rum 
 and Democracy, and Belden the hypocrisy and Republicanism. 
 The power which these men exercised in Onondaga County 
 was very great. They not only employed large numbers of 
 workmen, but they were in the habit of doing financial favors 
 on easy terms to influential citizens who stood in need of 
 
184 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 such relief. It was never certain at any time who was under 
 obligations to them, but almost always the caucuses went 
 their way. Jarvis Lord, of Monroe County, and his son 
 George D. Lord (who is now under conviction for bribery), 
 were also contractors, and were more or less "intimately con 
 nected with Denison & Belden. Jarvis Lord, at the time the 
 " Canal Ring " was broken, was a State Senator. His son 
 had previously occupied a seat in the Assembly. Willard 
 Johnson, another canal contractor, was also a member of the 
 Legislature. 
 
 Soon after Governor Tilden s inauguration a rumor gained 
 currency that he contemplated the destruction of the " Canal 
 Ring." The members of that body and their next .friends 
 haunted the vicinity of the Executive Chamber, hoping to 
 discover by mere propinquity what was going on. As time 
 passed and nothing occurred, they grew bolder. They even 
 went so far as to patronize the Governor, to seek his presence, 
 to assert their friendship for him, to enlarge on the fact that 
 the region which the " Ring " was supposed to infect had 
 given an unusually large Democratic vote, and to assume, in 
 an easy, off-hand way, that he would do nothing to " weaken 
 the party " in that locality. As other Weeks rolled on and no 
 action was taken, they became confident -that they were safe, 
 that the Governor was a weak man, and that they had won 
 him over to their side by blandishments and compliments. 
 All this time, however, the shadow of a great fear hung 
 around them. The memory of Tweed s fate, of the over 
 throw of the " Tammany Ring," of Tilden s reputation as a 
 reformer, could not be banished from their minds. They 
 greedily seized upon and circulated an absurd story that he 
 had been paralyzed, that -his health was failing, that he was 
 threatened with softening of the brain. 
 
 At last the blow fell. On the 19th of March the Gov 
 ernor s private secretary delivered to both Houses of the 
 Legislature a plain, business-like document, in the form of a 
 special message on canal matters. 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 185 
 
 THE MESSAGE. 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, j 
 ALBANY, March 19, 1875. J 
 
 To tlie Legislature: 
 
 I have received a petition from forwarders, boatmen, and others 
 engaged in transportation on the canals of this State, representing 
 that the depressed state of their business calls for legislation, and 
 necessitates a reduction of tolls ; and requesting me to look into the 
 condition of the canal commerce, and to make such recommendations 
 to the Legislature as will lead to measures of relief. 
 
 Respectful consideration is due to so large and important a class 
 of our business-men. They are proprietors of about six thousand 
 boats, which are said to give employment directly to thirty thousand 
 persons, and indirectly to twenty thousand others. They are in the 
 peculiar relation of partners of the State in a vast internal com 
 merce", owning and managing the equipment, while the State owns 
 and manages the body of the canals. The State, therefore, not only 
 has a common interest in the preservation of the joint business, but 
 has a distinct and special interest in the ability of its partners to con 
 tinue to perform their functions, without which the joint business 
 could not be transacted. It cannot afford to suffer the equipment 
 of the canals to be broken up ; to allow a dispersion of the traffic 
 which, if once lost, will not be easily regained ; or to omit any 
 measures of retrenchment in expenditure or economy of administra 
 tion which will enable, it and its partners to meet successfully the 
 increasing competition of the railways with each other and with 
 water-transportation. 
 
 Impressed with the considerations which induce a liberal policy 
 on the part of the State toward its partners in the internal commerce 
 it has seen fit to undertake, I am, on the one hand, predisposed to 
 every practical and just measure for enfranchising trade and indus 
 try, and cheapening the interchange of commodities, and, on the 
 other, to listen to the rightful complaints of our people against thD 
 extreme burden of our present taxation and the prodigal and waste 
 ful expenditure in Connection with the canals, which is one of the 
 main causes of such taxation. 
 
 I have, therefore, felt it my duty to devote the intervals of time I 
 could command to a personal investigation of the subject, in order to 
 be able to recommend to you such specific measures as the exigency 
 seems to requite, in the direction indicated in the following passage 
 
186 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 of the message I had the honor to communicate at the beginning of 
 your session : 
 
 "A careful investigation whether the net incomes of the canals 
 retained cannot be increased, ought to precede a surrender of what 
 little now exist. Ordinary repairs should be scrutinized with a view 
 to retrenching their cost, and to obtaining the largest possible results 
 from the outlay. . . . All improvements should be governed by a 
 plan and purpose, leading to definite results ; and, instead of scatter- 
 tering expenditures on imperfect constructions, should aim to com 
 plete and make available the specific parts undertaken. Unity of 
 administration and of system, both in respect to repairs and im 
 provements, should be established." 
 
 PEOBABLE INCOME OF THE CANALS. 
 
 Exhibit A is a comparative monthly statement of the tolls on all 
 the canals for the years 1873 and 1874. It shows that, during the 
 months of October and November and a few days of December, 
 which fall within the present fiscal year, in, which period about one- 
 quarter of the tolls of the year were collected, the decrease of tolls 
 is from $836,123.27 to $638,132.96, or $197,990.31. The decrease is 
 about one-fourth of that portion of the tolls. A corresponding de 
 crease for the months of May, June, July, August, and September, 
 1875, as compared with the same months of 1874, would amount to 
 $600,000. That would leave the tolls for the fiscal year of 1875 at 
 $2,037,000. 
 
 Assuming them to realize $2,250,000, we are next to find the 
 probable effect of the reduction in rates which is now proposed. 
 
 Exhibit B is a statement of the effect of the reduction in the rates 
 proposed computed on the tolls of the calendar year of 1874. 
 
 If a similar computation be made on $2,250,000, instead of $2,- 
 637,070, the reduction of receipts to be produced by the lowering 
 of the rates would be $534,832. The gross tolls accruing from all 
 the canals for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1875, would be 
 $1,715,168. 
 
 This diminution of tolls presents in a strong light not only the 
 general depression of commerce, but particularly that of the special 
 business of the boatmen and forwarders. 
 
 TAXATION FOE CANAL PUEPOSES, 
 
 During Five Years from October 1, 1869, to September 30, 1874. 
 The public mind is apt to be confused by the various methods in 
 which the complex accounts of the State are kept. A careful analy- 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 187 
 
 sis and comparison of those accounts enable the following results to 
 be stated in a simple form : 
 
 The total amount of the tolls on all the canals dur 
 ing the five fiscal years ending September 30, 
 1874, was $15,058,361 75 
 
 The aggregate of ordinary expenses" and ordinary 
 
 repairs during the same period was 9,202,434 23 
 
 The apparent surplus was $5,855,927 52 
 
 The aggregate of extraordinary repairs during the 
 
 same five years was $10,960,624 -84 
 
 Deduct the apparent surplus 5,855,927 52 
 
 Real deficiency, being exces.3 of repairs, ordinary 
 
 and extraordinary, over the whole tolls. . . . $5,104,697 32 
 
 Other payments were : 
 
 Interest $2,908,617 46 
 
 Cost of premium on gold 703,468 35 
 
 Cost of premium on stock pur 
 chased ... 31,736 00 
 
 Transfer expenses, etc 21,238 49 
 
 3,665,060 30 
 
 Actual cost, exclusive of reduction of debt $8,769,757 62 
 
 Payment of debt : 
 
 Canal debt $2,334,350 00 
 
 General Fund debt, over the re 
 duction of moneys in sinking- 
 funds 2,552,13228 
 
 4,886,482 28 
 
 Contribution to General Fund 200,000 00 
 
 $13,856,239 90 
 
 The taxes levied for these purposes during the 
 
 same period were $14,789.848 25 
 
 All these payments are directly for canal purposes, except $2,552,- 
 132.28, which, is in reduction of the General Fund debt, and $200,000 
 which was supplied to the General Fund. 
 
 These two payments also are indirectly of the same character. 
 
188 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 They but replace fresh advances made by the General Fund to the, 
 canals. 
 
 In the five years anterior to the period under consideration, from 
 October 1, 1864, to September 30, 1869, the taxes levied to meet de 
 ficiencies in the Sinking-Fund were $1,873,030.54, and the taxes levied 
 for extraordinary repairs, awards, etc., were $6,322,632.52, making 
 $8,195,663.06. 
 
 The constitution (Art. VII.. section 5) provides that " every con 
 tribution or advance to the canals or their debt from any source other 
 than their direct revenues shall, with quarterly interest, at the rates 
 then current, be repaid into the Treasury, for the use of the State, 
 out of the canal revenues as soon as it can be done consistently with 
 the just rights of the creditors holding the said canal debt." 
 
 In citing this mandate of the constitution, it is not intended to 
 revive the illusion that even the most recent advances of the State 
 for the use of the canals will ever be restored to the Treasury. There 
 is little probability that they can be regarded as investments capable 
 of producing a reliable income. So far as these enormous outlays 
 have been usefully expended, the State will have to find its compen 
 sation for the taxes it has imposed upon the people in the indirect 
 benefits of its efforts to cheapen the interchange of commodities. 
 
 Exhibit shows the expenditures for extraordinary repairs, etc., 
 for each of the five years. 
 
 Exhibit D shows the expenditures from taxation for the sinking- 
 funds during the same period. 
 
 Exhibit E shows the specific application of the surplus of tolls 
 over ordinary expenses and repairs. 
 
 CHAEACTEE OF THE EXPENDITUEE. 
 
 Some items of the outlay attract attention. On the canals which 
 the amendment of the constitution authorizes -the Legislature to 
 abandon, there was -expended for: 
 
 Extension of the Chenango Canal $676,158 68 
 
 Black River Improvement 15,400 00 
 
 Oneida Lake 100,000 00 
 
 Extraordinary repairs 899,852 82 
 
 Awards, etc 969,875 57 
 
 $2,661,287 07 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 189 
 
 If the inability of these canals to- meet their ordinary expenses, 
 or indeed to make any respectable contribution toward that purpose, 
 shall compel their abandonment, this great expenditure will be a total 
 waste of money wrung from the people by taxation. 
 
 On the Erie Canal the following are two specimens : 
 
 Work up to February 1, 1875, on contract of section 
 
 1 of Erie Canal, contracted at $74,183 40 $458,114 72 
 
 Work in Black Rock and Buffalo har 
 bors, expended $717,333 00 
 
 Engineering expenses estimated.. ... . 71,733 00 
 
 Additional appropriations unexpended 170,000 00 
 
 959,06600 
 
 $1,417,180 72 
 
 Total.. $4,078,467 79 
 
 This constitutes four millions of the eleven millions expended and 
 the twelve millions appropriated for canal improvements within the 
 last five years. 
 
 In the mean time, the whole expenditure at rates 
 far too costly on the Erie Canal for doubling 
 locks was $718,984 23 
 
 For taking out the wall-benches 1,013,870 25 
 
 $1,732,854 48 
 
 It is impossible, in the limited time which the exigency allows, to 
 thoroughly investigate the vast mass of various outlays which have 
 cost the people eleven millions of dollars. But the necessity of de 
 termining at once the tolls and appropriations, a sense of how small 
 a share of this burdensome taxation has attained any real utility, and 
 how much of it has been wasted in unnecessary work, or in the ex 
 travagant execution of improvements in themselves useful, and a clear 
 perception of the main sources of the evils of administration, and of 
 reforms attainable by legislation without a change of the constitution, 
 make it my duty now to recommend specific and affirmative meas 
 ures of redress. 
 
 CAUSES. 
 
 It is not merely in the general laxity and demoralization of official 
 and political life that we are to look for the causes of these evils. 
 
190 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The interest which fattens on abuses of public expenditure is intel 
 ligent, energetic, and persistent. Acting as a unit, it takes part 
 through its members in the organization and the doings of both 
 political parties ; seeks to control nominations ; rewards friends 
 and punishes enemies; and it begins to operate by every form of 
 seductive and coercive influence upon public officers as soon aa 
 they are elected. 
 
 APPROPRIATIONS FOB ORDINARY EXPENSES AND REPAIRS. 
 
 I renew the recommendation in respect to the canals which the 
 recent amendments of the constitution empowered the Legislature to 
 " sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of," that, while the manner of their 
 disposition remains undetermined, " no expenditures should be made 
 on those works not strictly necessary in view of their probable fu 
 ture." In order to carry out this policy, the appropriations for ordi 
 nary expenses and repairs upon them should be specified, separated 
 from the provisions for the canals which the constitution requires 
 to be retained ; and should be reduced to the lowest practicable 
 amount. 
 
 In respect to ordinary expenses and repairs to the canals which 
 are to be retained as the property of the State, I recur to the sugges 
 tion which I had the honor to submit in the annual message : 
 
 " Ordinary repairs should be scrutinized with a view to retrench 
 ing their costs, and to obtaining the largest possible results from the 
 outlay." 
 
 In the present state of the prices of materials and the wages of 
 labor, if the .public officers can be inspired with a resolute purpose to 
 make every expenditure for these objects effective, there ought to be 
 no difficulty in reducing the appropriations from one-quarter to one- 
 third below the amount provided for last year. 
 
 The present standard of repair and efficiency must be fully main 
 tained. 
 
 Everything of good administration consists in the selection of 
 the most necessary and useful objects of expenditure, and in securing 
 the greatest effectiveness in the application of labor and the most ad 
 vantageous purchase of materials. 
 
 If a determination to accomplish this result and a sense of ac 
 countability can be diffused throughout the agents employed in the 
 public service, this object will be easily and certainly attained. 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 191 
 
 AP.PEOPEIATIOXS FOE- EXTEAOEDINAEY -EEPAIES. 
 
 The wisdom of abstaining from all new work, except that which 
 is not only useful but absolutely necessary, is obvious. Every item 
 should be scrutinized with jealous care. 
 
 The aggregate ought to be kept within half a million ; and as 
 much below that maximum as possible. A thorough retrenchment 
 in ordinary and extraordinary repairs will enable the State to remit 
 for the present year, as compared with the last, to the boatmen and 
 transporters, from five to six hundred thousand dollars of tolls, and 
 at the same time to give relief to our overburdened taxpayers, in a 
 reduction of taxes, to the extent of more than a million and three 
 quarters of dollars. 
 
 If the restoring the Erie Canal to its proper dimensions and the 
 deepening of its water-way, which is by far the most useful improve 
 ment contemplated, can be deferred, till next year, after its present 
 condition shall be accurately ascertained, and then be proceeded with 
 gradually, there is little else which cannot wait. 
 
 Justice to the people and to the canals demands that all extraordi 
 nary repairs, beyond what- are clearly necessary to efficient naviga 
 tion, should be suspended until a thorough investigation shall show 
 that every improvement proposed is really necessary ; and that the 
 work is to be conducted under fair lettings and contracts, and is to 
 be faithfully executed. 
 
 EEIE CANAL. 
 
 At the opening of navigation the present season, the double locks 
 will be completed. The capacity of the Erie Canal to do an aggre 
 gate business will be several times the requirements of the largest 
 tonnage it has ever had. 
 
 The removal of the wall-benches will be so nearly completed that 
 the advantages of that change will be practically secured. 
 
 On September 30, 1874, there remained of wall-benches 24^^ 
 miles on the towing-path side, of which 12 T 2 ^ miles are contracted 
 to be removed; and 46 T yg- on the berme side, of which VyVVare 
 contracted to be removed; leaving 12 T \ 3 Q- miles on the towing-path 
 side, and 39 T \V miles on the berme side, where the obstruction is 
 much less important ; or equivalent in all to 26 miles on both 
 sides. That is, less than V per cent, of the whole length of the 
 canal. 
 
192 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The engineer s estimate of the cost of removing the remaining 
 wall-benches was, in January, 1874, $711,140; and an appropriation 
 of $360,000 was made by the Legislature of 1874, which will be avail 
 able for expenditure during the present year. 
 
 As the only effect of the wall-benches now remaining is that they 
 contract the jcanal at its bottom from fifty-six to forty-two feet, and, 
 in that proportion, the lower part of the prism, forming a section 
 four feet above the bottom of the water-way thus lessening the body 
 of water in which the boat moves for a fourteenth part of the length 
 of the channel, and but one-fifth of that on the towing-path side the 
 inconvenience of their existence, to this limited extent, is not very 
 great or emergent. 
 
 In my judgment, a far more important improvement of the Erie 
 canal would be effected by a thorough system of ordinary repairs, 
 which should give the water-way its proper and lawful dimensions ; 
 and by progressively deepening it, wherever reasonably practicable, 
 from seven to eight feet. As the object would be merely to enable 
 the submerged section of the boat to move in a larger area of water, 
 so that the displaced fluid could pass the boat in a larger space, it 
 would not be. necessary to- alter the culverts or other structures, or to 
 carry the walls of the canal below the present bottom ; and the bene 
 fit would be realized in each portion of the canal improved, without ref 
 erence to any other part of the channel which should remain unchanged. 
 In facilitating the movements of the boat, and quickening its speed, 
 it would increase the amount of service rendered in a given time, and 
 would thereby diminish every element of the cost of transportation. 
 It would benefit the boatmen and carriers more, even, than one cent 
 a bushel remission of tolls. It would be of more real utility to navi- 
 gatipn than five or ten times its cost expended in the average manner 
 of so-called improvements on the public works. But it is too simple, 
 too practically useful, to enlist the imagination of projectors who 
 seek the fame of magnificent constructions, and of engineers who 
 build monuments for exhibition to their rivals, or to awaken the 
 rapacity of cormorants who fatten on jobs. 
 
 I renew the recommendation of my annual message upon this 
 subject ; and particularly " that provisions be made by law to en 
 able the State Engineer, soon after navigation is opened, to measure 
 the depth of water in the canal by cross-sections as often as. every 
 four rods of its length, and on the upper and lower mitre-sill of each 
 lock." 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 193 
 
 V 
 
 CANAL LETTIXGS. 
 
 The constitution of the State provides that " all contracts for 
 or materials on any canal shall ~be made with the person who 
 shall offer to do or provide the same at the lowest price, with adequate 
 security for their performance." 1 " 1 This requirement was intended to 
 protect the State from extravagant contracts ; but by artful bids, 
 and in some cases by fraudulent combinations, it is made an instru 
 ment to defeat the very end had in view by its authors. I have ex 
 amined more than one hundred contracts, and I find that most are 
 so contrived that not only does the State in the end pay from two 
 to four times the amount of the contract, but that the work is not 
 given to the lowest bidder in fact, although it may be in form. This 
 result is brought about by the following contrivance : 
 
 When a contract is to be let, the engineer makes out an estimate 
 of the quantity and kinds of work to be done. Those who make 
 bids state at what prices they will do each kind of work, or furnish 
 each kind of material. These prices are footed up, and the bid 
 which amounts to the smallest sum is accepted. The sums thus 
 agreed upon average but little more than one-half the amounts esti 
 mated by the engineer, and apparently the State makes advantageous 
 contracts. On examination, it will be found that the prices for the 
 several items bear no relation to their real value. Jn some instances 
 excavation of earth is put at one cent per cubic yard, and in others 
 eighty-five cents are asked. Excavation of rock blasted at one cent 
 in some cases, and two dollars in others. Slope-wall is bid for in 
 some cases at twenty cents, and in others at two dollars. Hemlock 
 timber, which is worth at least ..twelve dollars per thousand, is in 
 some contracts put at less than three dollars per thousand, and in 
 others at thirty dollars per thousand. Oak-timber in one instance is 
 put at one dollar per thousand, and in others at seventy dollars. 
 Some items are absurdly low, others unreasonably high. 
 
 In some instances, a contractor will put in proposals on the same 
 day for different jobs, but the prices for the same kind of work or 
 materials will vary in his several proposals several hundred per cent. 
 
 It is clear upon the face of such proposals that some fraud is de 
 signed, but the commissioners have been in the habit of accepting 
 them. I am happy to say that Commissioner Thayer at a recent let 
 ting rejected this class of proposals, which are known as " unbalanced 
 bids." Heretofore they have been accepted, and not only has the 
 State paid unreasonable prices, but more than one-half of the work 
 
194 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 s 
 
 on large contracts has been done and paid for without being adver 
 tised or offered to the lowest bidders. 
 
 The contractor gains these results by the following strategy : 
 
 "When the engineer s estimate of quantities and kinds of material 
 is published by the commissioners, the contractor will find out by 
 collusion, or in some other way, what quantities of each kind of 
 work or material will, in fact, be required, or he will see what in 
 fluence he can exert to change the contract after it is made. If it is 
 changed, no new letting is had, but he claims the job as his right. 
 
 He then puts in his bid, offering to do such work or to furnish 
 such material as he finds will not be required at all, or in small quan 
 tities, at absurdly low prices, at a quarter or in some instances at a 
 twentieth part of its cost. The items which will be required in full, 
 and probably in extra quantities, he will put at unreasonably high 
 rates, and it turns out that what the contractor offers at low prices 
 is called for in small quantities, if at all, while those which are put at 
 high prices are not only required in full, but in most cases in extraor 
 dinary quantities. 
 
 An example will more clearly illustrate how the State is defrauded 
 by these devices. 
 
 The engineer having estimated certain work and materials as 
 follows : 
 
 ] 00 cubic yards of vertical wall, at $3 $300 00 
 
 3,855 " slope-wall at, $1 50 5,78250 
 
 2,400 feet B. M. white-oak, at $50 120 00 
 
 60,000 " hemlock, at $15 900 00 
 
 Total estimate $7,102 50 
 
 A. s bid for the job at these rates amounted to $7,102.50. 
 B. s bid for the same was for, 
 
 100 cubic yards of vertical wall, at $6 $600 00 
 
 3,855 " slope-wall, at 30 cents 1,156 50 
 
 2,400 feet B. M. white-oak, at $70 168 00 
 
 60,000 " hemlock, at $3 18000 
 
 And aggregated $2,104 50 
 
 The proposal of B., apparently so advantageous to the State, was 
 accepted, and the contract awarded to him as the " lowest bidder." 
 But afterward, by some influence, it was decided to make only ver 
 tical, and no slope wall, and to use only oak and no hemlock timber. 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 
 
 195 
 
 There was no reletting, although the agreement had been in fact re 
 vamped into a new and different contract, which enabled B. to collect 
 from the State for 
 
 3,955 cubic yards of vertical wall, at $6, 
 62,400 feet B. M. white-oak, at $70 
 
 The sum of. 
 
 $23,730 00 
 4,368 00 
 
 00 
 
 It will be seen that in such transactions and they are numerous 
 in violation of the constitution, the contractor gets the work with 
 out there having been in fact any public letting, or any chance for 
 competition by others. 
 
 For the purpose of showing the actual results of this system, I 
 state the following ten cases, which give the amount the State has 
 paid on certain contracts in comparison with the sum for which the 
 contractor agreed to do the work at the lettings made by the com 
 missioners : 
 
 CONTKACT. 
 
 Amount of contract 
 upon exhibited quan 
 tities at contract 
 prices. 
 
 Amount actually paid 
 by the State up to 
 February 1, 1875. 
 
 No. 1 
 
 $74,183 40 
 
 $458,114 72 
 
 2 
 
 29,431 00 
 
 56,845 68 
 
 3 
 
 37,871 00 
 
 110,320 13 
 
 4 
 
 10,617 00 
 
 49,936 30 
 
 5 . 
 
 14,397 00 
 
 78,967 20 
 
 6 
 
 85,562 50 
 
 220,614 58 
 
 7 . 
 
 31,286 00 
 
 130,317 45 
 
 8 
 
 86,584 00 
 
 222,610 68 
 
 9 
 
 9,504 00 
 
 41,127 55 
 
 10 
 
 45,300 OtJ 
 
 191,915 55 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 $424,735 90 
 
 $1,560,769 84 
 
 
 
 
 These show that the State has already paid nearly four times the 
 amount which was involved by the terms of the contracts, and, though 
 this excess amounts to more than a million of dollars, some of the ex 
 penditures are still going on with no prospect of completion. It also 
 appears that of the expenditures of $1,560,769.84 only $424,735.91 
 less than one-third was submitted to a public letting. 
 
 By manoeuvres of this character the costs of public works are run 
 np to extravagant sums. Appropriations are absorbed, deficiencies 
 
196 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 are created, to be paid by new appropriations, and the people are 
 loaded down by taxes. 
 
 EEMEDIAL MEASTJEES. 
 
 Desiring to cooperate with you in a reform of existing abuses, and 
 of the systems which have conduced to them, I submit to your con 
 sideration such suggestions for new legislation as seem to me adapted 
 to meet the wishes and protect the interests of our common con 
 stituents. 
 
 ENGINEEES ESTIMATES. 
 
 Methods ought to be devised to make the estimates of the kinds 
 and quantities of work, exhibited on the quantity-sheet for lettings 
 of contracts, to conform to the actual work to be done. On a change 
 of the plan or specifications of a contract, the work under the old 
 contract should be closed, and a new letting should take place. 
 
 BIDDINGS. 
 
 The law authorizes the Canal Board to make regulations as to the 
 biddings, and one of those regulations provided for discarding bids 
 which show bad faith upon their face. 
 
 As the officers who let the contracts have not enforced this regu 
 lation, except in a recent case, a law should be passed defining their 
 rights and duties in this respect. 
 
 I recommend that hereafter the bids be opened, and the awards 
 of contracts be made by the Canal Board. It is a larger body, and 
 contains the officer who is charged with the fiscal administration of 
 the State, and also the State Engineer. It was formerly vested with 
 these duties, and the change was only made to serve a temporary 
 party object. 
 
 OFFICIAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 
 
 In the organization of governmental powers two conditions seem 
 essential to the well-working of the machinery of administration: 
 1. While undue concentration of powers should be avoided, and 
 checks and balances, in the requirement of the concurrent action of 
 several persons, are preserved, a certain unity of function and of 
 organization is necessary to enable the people to enforce any real 
 responsibility. 
 
 An issue in regard to the conduct of public officers, or in regard 
 to a policy of administration, should be submitted to the people with 
 the simplicity of an issue to a jury at common law. The million of 
 voters in the State cannot resolve themselves into a committee of 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 197 
 
 investigation to hunt out by long and tedious search the particular 
 wrong-doer. They cannot convert themselves into a court to go 
 through a complicated and protracted trial. Amid the numerous and 
 changing objects of interest which attract their attention they cannot 
 devote themselves to a single specific measure of ordinary importance 
 for three successive years. All schemes of administration which in 
 volve such impracticable demands for cooperation of such vast num 
 bers of individuals, discard the idea of representation in government. 
 They compel the whole voting mass to conduct the complex affairs 
 of human society in person. They are snares invented to destroy 
 the power of the people in their own government, to neutralize the 
 elective principle, and to create official irresponsibility. 
 
 The members of the Canal Board, other than the Canal Commis 
 sioners and the Lieutenant-Governor, are all chosen at one election. 
 The elective power of the people is effectual to make a change of per 
 sons or policy. But the Canal Commissioners are elected one each 
 year, and it takes three years to make a complete change. They 
 have practically ceased to act as a board. Each one carries on his 
 administration over his division of the canals as if he were a totally 
 independent authority. They make three separate reports. Each 
 one prepares a separate annual estimate for future expenditures. 
 They formerly sat as members of a Board of Canal Commissioners, 
 who consulted, decided, and acted as one integral body. Their most 
 important functions were performed as members of the Canal Board, 
 or in concert with the Canal Board, which embraced the great officers 
 of the State, including its fiscal representative, who is under an ever- 
 active pressure to make both- ends meet in the financial affairs of the 
 State. They were practically subordinate to the fiscal members of 
 the administration. 
 
 2. It is fundamental that the spending officers must be subject to 
 the influence and control of the officers whose duty is to provide the 
 ways and means. No great corporate business, no private affairs 
 could be conducted successfully on any other plan. The experience 
 of the State, under a system in which the officers who initiate ex 
 penditure and control the application of the public money, and the 
 execution of public work, have been independent and practically 
 irresponsible, has been fruitful of irregularities, extravagance, waste, 
 and corruption. There have been several futile impeachments, but 
 no real remedy. 
 
 It does not seem expedient to wait for a change which involves 
 
198 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 an amendment of the constitution, and will, therefore, take several 
 years. There are measures within the competency of the Legislature 
 which can be put into immediate operation, and which will have 
 great efficiency to remedy the evils. 
 
 Among these, the suggestion has occurred to me, that an Inspect 
 or of Public Works can be created by law, who shall be invested 
 with full powers of investigation, and shall report to the Governor 
 and Legislature ; and who shall derive his appointment from a source 
 completely independent of the canal officers. 
 
 Another expedient worthy of your consideration is to enforce the 
 accountability of the officers charged with the disbursement of the 
 public money, by a liability to summary removal or suspension. 
 
 The constitution (Art. X., section 7) commands : 
 
 " Provision shall be made by law for the removal for misconduct 
 or malversation in office of all officers (except judicial) whose powers 
 and duties are not local or legislative, and who shall be elected at 
 general elections, and also for supplying vacancies created by such 
 removal." 
 
 At the close of the session of the convention of 1846, on the day 
 before its final adjournment, it was discovered that, except in the 
 case of the Treasurer, no provision had been made for the removal 
 of State officers having charge of public funds, who had been made 
 elective by the people of the whole State. The convention, not 
 undertaking at so late a period to devise a system, devolved that duty 
 on the Legislature. This power has remained twenty-nine years 
 unexecuted. 
 
 It is a duty of the Legislature which ought no longer to remain 
 unperformed. Applied to the Canal Commissioners, who are agents 
 not only in the application, but in the custody and disbursement of 
 the public moneys, and to the State Engineer, who, with his subor 
 dinates, exercises great power over the expenditure by his estimate 
 of the cost and certificates of the performance of work, it would be 
 an improvement upon our administrative system, in accord with the 
 intention of the constitution, with sound principles of government, 
 and with the indications of experience. 
 
 Provision ought also to be made by law for regulating the for 
 mation of the annual estimate for future expenditures. It ought not 
 only to be the result of consultation between the Canal Commission 
 ers, but should have the written approval of the State Engineer as to 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 199 
 
 the necessity and cost of the work ; and of the Comptroller as to its 
 propriety, considered in connection with the financial administration. 
 It would doubtless be a valuable improvement to create a pay 
 master, appointed by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, who 
 should be accountable to the Auditor, and should make all payments 
 on the certificates of the Canal Commissioners and State Engineer. 
 With these provisions the control of the State Engineer over his 
 subordinates might properly be enlarged. 
 
 OTHER MATTEES TO BE LOOKED INTO. 
 
 I have deemed it my duty to look beyond the abuses practised in 
 the letting of contracts, and to see if the materials have been de 
 livered, and the work has been done, for which so many millions 
 have been paid out by the State, and also to Team if the locks, walls, 
 and other structures have been built in a faithful way, and in com 
 pliance with the contracts. I am satisfied, from information I have 
 already gained, that there should be an investigation of these subjects. 
 It is my purpose, with the aid of the members of the Canal Board, to 
 have an examination made of our public works, and to learn their 
 condition. It may be too late to detect all frauds, but many may be 
 exposed and punished, and a check put upon practices so destructive 
 to morals, as well as to the public interests of the people of the State. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 It is clear that under the present system of canal management the 
 people will not be relieved from taxation, the boatmen from high 
 tolls, or the needed improvements of the Erie and Champlain Canals 
 be finished. It is in our power to gain these great objects by a 
 wise and honest policy of retrenchment, reform, and official respon 
 sibility. Unfortunately, the abuses now practised against our canals 
 and their commerce are exciting strong prejudices against these 
 great public works rather than against the wrong-doers and the 
 wrong-doing which tend to destroy them. 
 
 Our duty is clear. Let us cut off the expenses which divert reve 
 nues from general improvement of the canals to local or individual 
 purposes, make every official, every employe, every contractor feel 
 that the laws you have just passed against fraud will be enforced, 
 and our canals will be finished, their commerce revived, and taxation 
 will be lessened not only as it oppresses the boatmen, but also all 
 other classes of our citizens. 
 
00 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 There is no real antagonism between the boatmen and forwarders 
 who seek a fair compensation for their services, the public who desire 
 cheap transportation, and the people who justly claim some relief 
 from the present intolerable pressure of taxation. Their interests 
 are joint. Whenever these classes are brought into a false position 
 of apparent hostility, it is sure proof either of a bad state of laws, or 
 of an unfaithful performance of official duties. Whoever, for illicit 
 gain, despoils or wastes the resources applicable to these objects, is 
 the common enemy of the boatmen and the tax-payers, who must 
 unite to enforce measures of reform and redress. 
 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The effect of thi$ message cannot be described. A thou 
 sand times the people of New York had been told that they 
 were paying tribute to the " Canal Ring." But never before 
 was the matter put in so plain a light that, at a moment s 
 glance, they could see the operation of the game by which 
 they were swindled. The message was listened to with an 
 attention not often paid to public documents. Then the 
 implicated members rushed out to telegraph to their impli 
 cated friends that " lightning had struck." Within a won 
 derfully short space of time nearly every member of the 
 " Canal Ring " and all counselors and advisers were gathered 
 in Albany. The first point th at they attempted to put for 
 ward in their own defense was that the message contained 
 nothing new. What it contained, of course, was not new 
 to them. It was a simple recital of their methods of doing 
 business. But it struck the people -of the State as a star 
 tling exposure. Their next point was that the Governor, in 
 making his attack, had been controlled by personal ambition 
 by a desire to distinguish himself above all his predeces* 
 sors. But this point was impertinent to the question at 
 issue, which was whether or not the frauds had been com 
 mitted in the manner described. 
 
 The tide of public opinion never rose higher than on the 
 appearance of the message. It was simply irresistible. The 
 newspapers, which were in the habit of abusing the Governor 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 201 
 
 for everything that he did, could not withstand the pressure, 
 for the time being, but turned in and praised him. The 
 Legislature, which contained its full quota of jobbers from 
 the ranks of both parties, acceded to the Governor s request, 
 and authorized him to appoint the commission which he had 
 recommended. He named as members of this commission 
 John Bigelow, our former minister to France ; Daniel Ma- 
 gone, Jr., a practising lawyer from St. Lawrence County ; 
 Alexander E. Orr, a Brooklyn merchant ; and John D. Van 
 Buren, Jr., a civil engineer who had been an instructor at 
 the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The com 
 mission as constituted was non-partisan. Messrs. Bigelow 
 and Orr had acted with the Republican party from the date 
 of its organization, while Messrs. Magone and Van Buren 
 were Democrats. The commission sat through the summer 
 and fall of 1875, and put forth a series of reports in which 
 the more flagrant of the fraudulent contracts were thoroughly 
 examined. The amount of work actually done was duly cred 
 ited, and the stealings were specified. 
 
 In August, 1875, Governor Tilden paid a visit to Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Dorsheimer, at the home of the latter, in 
 Buffalo. While there the Governor was made the recipient 
 of many marks of favor at the hands of the people. He was 
 invited to deliver an address before the Buffalo Board of 
 Trade, and accepted the invitation. The members, regard 
 less of political affiliations, welcomed him most heartily, and 
 listened with every sign of approval to the following speech : 
 
 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR TILDEN BEFORE THE BUFFALO 
 BOARD OF TRADE, August 10, 1875. 
 
 ME. HIBBAED, ME. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE BOAED 
 OF TEADE : I recognize in you, not the members of an important 
 commercial body, not the business-men of the noble city of Buffalo, 
 but the representatives of that great system of intercommunication 
 by which the products of the fertile and distant West and the popu 
 lous East are exchanged the common agents of those great com- 
 
202 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 inanities which occupy the northern section of our continent. The 
 expense of conveying food to the consumer is often greater than the 
 original cost of raising it. Whatever, therefore, cheapens trans 
 portation, adds to the productiveness of human lahor as much as in 
 creased fertility of the soil or increased geniality of the climate. 
 Standing here in Buffalo, and turning the eye into the far West, wo 
 behold a series of lakes, forming the finest inland navigation that 
 ministers to the wants of man ; which, if stretched out in a line ? 
 would extend more than half the voyage from New York to Liver 
 pool. On the East, hy the Erie Canal and the placid waters of the 
 Hudson, the system is extended five hundred miles to the harbor of 
 New York. On the West, it is connected by a complicated system 
 of railways, with every minute part of that most magnificent area 
 of virgin soils, which have been the theatre of the arts and indus 
 tries of civilized life ; a region in which Nature has poured out her 
 blessings with boundless prodigality, and which is destined to be 
 the seat of many millions of prosperous and happy people. Taken 
 together, this system is as long in its whole extent as the track 
 across the ocean the ocean from the Old World to the New. Con 
 sider, my fellow-citizens, on what a grand scale the interests and 
 business of our country are organized. Shall we protect the Erie 
 Canal, which forms one of the most important lines of this system, 
 from spoliation? That is the question for the business-men of 
 Buffalo to consider. [Applause.] You came down to Albany last 
 winter and asked for a reduction of tolls. Ever anxious to cheapen 
 the cost of transportation and transit, when I came to look into the 
 question, with a desire to carry out your wishes, I found you were 
 confronted by a body more numerous and more powerful than 
 yourselves the tax- payers of the rural districts of this State, not 
 immediately benefited by the canals, in respect to whom the bur 
 dens of taxation had become nearly unendurable, and were bearing 
 with more oppressive severity every day. I ventured, therefore, 
 gentlemen, in my special message of March 18th, to suggest a plan 
 which I thought would harmonize the various interests at stake. 
 I found there were abuses and maladministration, frauds and pecu 
 lation, which not only consumed the entire surplus revenues of the 
 Erie Canal, but burdened our tax-payers with more than two millions 
 a year, levied by taxes, under pretense of improving the public 
 works. I proposed, therefore, that we should, on the one hand, re 
 duce the tolls to the extent of five or six hundred thousand dollars, 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 203 
 
 and on the other remit a million and three-quarters of taxes. Six 
 months have elapsed, and the fruits of that controversy have secured 
 you the reduction of the tolls you asked for, and remitted to the 
 tax-payers two and three-quarter millions of the burdens imposed on 
 them last year. 
 
 I propose to you to-day, gentlemen, that we should continue this 
 policy. [Applause.] If the people of this State will send to the 
 next session of the legislative bodies representatives who will hon 
 estly cooperate in this great work, I here to-day promise them and 
 promise you that whereas we reduced the taxes last year from seven 
 and one quarter to six mills, next year we will put them down to four 
 and a half and even four mills. Afterward they can be reduced still 
 lower. You commercial men of Buffalo have not only the common 
 interest which every tax-payer has, but the special advantage of fur 
 ther enfranchising trade, and improving the means by which it is 
 carried on. We will save a fund large enough to answer every object 
 of this description, and go forward and make this great and noble 
 State and its institutions all that it has a right and is destined by 
 Providence to become, [Applause.] I know, gentlemen, that at 
 tempts have been made to discourage the people in this great work. 
 We have been told that nothing has been accomplished ; that nothing 
 can be, and that the people are to remain bound with withes, to be 
 the prey of those who consume the fruits of taxation. In answer I 
 point to the practical results of six months of reform. What are 
 they? 
 
 First, we have wounded and crushed a system of abuse, malad 
 ministration, fraud, and peculation, that has fattened upon the public 
 works, the transporter, the consumer, and the tax-payer. [Ap 
 plause.] And if the people of this State are true to themselves, that 
 system, once broken, will never be revived. In the second place, 
 there has been enacted a series of laws to bring to account the public 
 agents and official persons, and punish their malversations, the effi 
 cacy of which, if faithfully administered by the courts, will soon be 
 seen. In the third place, we have reduced the tolls and remitted 
 the taxes to the large extent I have mentioned. In the fourth place, 
 measures have been instituted to hold to account the public plun 
 derers. These measures have been taken as early and as rapidly as 
 possible, and are going on to consummation. I am glad, myself, to 
 be reproached for being too slow. I have been as fast as I could, 
 and have given all my time to your service ; but I rejoice to be 
 
THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 reproached for being too slow, because it indicates to me that the 
 people are impatient to consummate the great reform. [Applause.] 
 
 Fifth, and lastly, gentlemen, there is something higher, more im 
 portant, more noble, more deeply concerning human society than 
 even these material advantages. We have lifted the standard of 
 public and official morality in the country; we have awakened a 
 sense of justice and duty in the people, and are rousing public opinion 
 to demand better government and purer administration everywhere. 
 [Applause.] Gentlemen, the cause will not fail. In the last session 
 it was often betrayed, sometimes defeated, and generally obstructed, 
 but it will go on to a complete triumph, which will be a blessing to 
 the whole of these five millions of people who live within the juris 
 diction of this State. [Applause.] Whoever shall dare to obstruct 
 or oppose it, or stand in its way, will fall, not to rise again. I know 
 there are men of selfish interests who have not yet learned that the 
 old age has gone out, and the new age has come in. [Applause.] 
 There are public men seeking popular favor who still think that the 
 way to success and honor is to combine selfish interest to pile " Canal 
 Ring " upon " Tweed Ring," and so rule the people of this free State. 
 According to the measure of my ability, I humbly represent the com 
 mon-sense of the people of this State the farmers, the mechanics, the 
 laborers, the men of business the moral sense and purpose of the 
 community against its selfish and fraudulent interests. Now, men of 
 Buffalo, I ask you to-day to consider what is to be your part in this 
 work. While about your various callings and industries, you leave 
 the government to take care of itself, and men who mean to make 
 money by .plundering you give their nights and days to study out the 
 methods ; they are always at conventions and caucuses ; they go to 
 the Legislature, and, while you are reposing in fancied safety, are 
 plotting against your interest and rights. If you will permit me to 
 offer a suggestion I do not assume to advise I only say that when 
 bad men combine, good men should unite. [Applause.] And if you will 
 be as earnest, and determined and persistent, in demanding that the 
 right shall be done, politicians will court your favor, and not the favor 
 of the " Canal Ring," or any other "Ring." What concern have you 
 by what name a man is called who goes to Albany to misrepresent your 
 interests and duties ? Is it any satisfaction to a Republican that that 
 man is called a Republican, or to a Democrat that he is called a Demo 
 crat? Does it make any difference what livery he wears to serve 
 the devil in? [Laughter and applause.] I say you have but to assert 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 205 
 
 your rights and they will be respected ; and when the parties to which 
 you belong come to make their nominations, if there be on the tickets 
 any one not true to you, you have but to exercise the reserved rights 
 of the American citizen, to vote for somebody else. [Cheers.] 
 
 Gentlemen, I avail myself of this occasion to thank the Board of 
 Trade for their kind invitation, and the citizens of Buffalo generally 
 for the prodigal hospitalities that have been bestowed on me during 
 the two days I have been visiting my friend Lieutenant-Governor 
 Dorsheimer (cheers), who is about to take up his temporary residence 
 in Albany. I thank you for your kindness to me, which I ascribe 
 not so much to myself personally as to the cause which I serve. 
 
 The next day Governor Tilden left Buffalo, and it was an 
 nounced that he would spend the night at Syracuse. It was 
 a bold movement thus to seek the headquarters of the " Canal 
 Ring." It was not exactly " bearding the lion in his den," but 
 might be likened rather to hunting the vultures in their nest. 
 The general belief was expressed that Mr. Tilden would meet 
 with a cold reception at the home of Denison and Belden. 
 But those who indulged in such forebodings were doomed to 
 disappointment. Such a crowd as gathered in the evening to 
 welcome him was never before seen in Syracuse. The square 
 in front of the hotel in ^hich he staid was literally packed 
 with people. The neighboring piles of lumber, the canal- 
 bridges, the roofs of the houses, all places within and beyond 
 the sound of his voice, wer.e filled with those who sought to 
 hear the words of the man who had broken tie power of 
 a combination which they had learned to look upon as invinci 
 ble. He came forward on the upper balcony of the hotel, in 
 response to the calls of the multitude, and made the speech 
 which is appended: 
 
 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR TILDEN AT SYRACUSE, 
 August 11, 1875. 
 
 CITIZENS OF SYEACUSE AND THE COUNTY OF ONONDAGA : If I had 
 anticipated that I should be called upon to-night to speak to such a 
 vast assemblage of people as I see before me, I should have been more 
 economical of conversation on the cars. I am glad, however, to 
 
206 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 meet you. I am glad to see that the question of reform in the ad 
 ministration of public affairs in this State is awakening a deep inter 
 est in the minds of the people. [Applause.] 
 
 It is not necessary for me to draw your attention in detail to the 
 particular abuses in regard to the canals of this State. You have 
 become, alas! too familiar with the situation. Here, under your own 
 eyes, and your own observation, these transactions have been carried 
 on in open day by a combination that have sought to rule the State. 
 I am sure, by your coming here to-night, that you are determined 
 there shall be thorough and effectual reform in these matters. Fel 
 low-citizens, so far as depends upon me, your first official representa 
 tive, I wish to say to you that nothing shall be withheld. [A voice, 
 u Good ! "] Your cause will be carried forward and onward, all the 
 force of the law will be exercised to procure for you your rights, and 
 to punish those who have violated them. 
 
 I was called on this morning to speak some words of encourage 
 ment and hope to four hundred little boys in the Western House of 
 Eefuge. During all my journey I have been frequently followed by 
 persons, asking for their friends and for those in whom they were in 
 terested a pardon from the penitentiaries and State-prisons. I have 
 been compelled to look into such cases and see who are the inmates 
 of these institutions, and of what they have been accused, to see 
 what it is that constitutes the wrongs to society of which they have 
 been convicted. When I have compared their offenses, in their na 
 ture, temptations, and circumstances, with the crimes of great public 
 delinquents who claim to stand among your best society, and are 
 confessedly prominent among their fellow-citizens, crimes repeated 
 and continued year after year, I am appalled at the inequality of hu 
 man justice. [Great applause.] The effort to give you redress has 
 been, for the last three months, derided and scoffed at. We have 
 been told that nothing would come of it ; that the people would fail ; 
 that their rights would not be maintained, and particularly that these 
 great, rich, and powerful culprits would prevail ; would escape the 
 meshes of the law and the punishment of their crimes ; that their 
 palaces, built with the moneys drawn from the sweat and toil of our 
 honest, industrious, hard-working citizens, would continue to rise 
 like exhalations and shame public morality and public honor. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I say to you to-night as I said on the 4th of No 
 vember, 1871, now nearly four years ago when I took a share in 
 the great contest in New York City in your cause I will " follow 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 207 
 
 where any shall dare to lead, or lead where any shall dare to fol 
 low ! " [Tremendous applause.] The cause will not fail. Whoever 
 shall venture to stand against it will fall to rise no more. I have no 
 apprehensions that the law will fail of its efficacy. But I will speak 
 a word of encouragement to those who are less hopeful. You can 
 send, if needful, to the legislative bodies men who will make new 
 . and better laws to punish these wrongs and to bring the wrong-doers 
 to justice, and the people, by the exercise of their sovereign authority, 
 may, if need be, in convention assembled, redress all defects and 
 failures of public justice. If our legislative bodies and public officers 
 fall short of their duty, the people can recall the powers they have 
 delegated can renovate the administration of justice until those 
 eyes represented in Roman statuary as blind, will be made to see sub 
 stantial right and genuine law. [Great cheering.] 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I know you do not expect me to address this vast 
 audience beyond a reasonable exercise of my voice. I will then refer 
 you to what I have said on a late occasion before the Buffalo Board 
 of Trade, and every word said there I repeat to you to-night. I 
 assure you that, so far as the administration of the law is concerned, 
 nothing shall be spared to protect and enforce your rights with im 
 partial justice. I say this in no spirit of vengeance " With malice 
 toward none, with charity for all" but with a firm devotion to 
 the rights and interests of the people, the work of reform shall 
 and must go forward. [Cheers.] 
 
 Thanking you for your kind attention and the distinguished 
 honor of addressing on such a topic so vast an assemblage of all 
 parties and classes, I bid you good-night. 
 
 Nobody doubted to whom he referred when he said, " I 
 am appalled at the inequality of human justice." The ap 
 plause which greeted the sentiment conveyed a warning to 
 the members of the " Ring " which they were not slow to heed. 
 A lawyer, representing one of their leaders, called on the 
 Governor the next morning to inquire on what terms his 
 clients could settle with the State. He received no encour 
 agement for a settlement which did not cover the absolute 
 surrender of moneys fraudulently obtained. 
 
 The Governor proceeded to Utica on the afternoon of the 
 llth, and became the guest of Senator Francis Kernan, who 
 
208 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 has been and is one of his ablest public supporters and warm 
 est personal friends. Here also he met with an enthusiastic 
 reception and delivered an acceptable- address. But later in 
 the season he gave in Utica a more elaborate address, which 
 is herewith presented : 
 
 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR TILDEN AT THE CENTRAL NEW 
 YORK FAIR, September 30, 1875. 
 
 NEW YOEK AQEICULTUEE. 
 
 ME. PEOCTOE, GENTLEMEN or THE FAIE, AND CITIZENS OF OENTEAL 
 NEW YOEK : I felicitate myself that I have to-day an opportunity to 
 witness the magnificent display of your industries, and, what is more 
 magnificent, this mass of farmers and citizens. New York is fore 
 most of all the States of the American Union in its agriculture. It 
 embraces the largest number of farmers. It has more invested in 
 the value of its farms and agricultural implements, and every year 
 yields a larger product of its agricultural industry, than any of the 
 American Commonwealths. True it is that New York is transcendent 
 in commerce. It exceeds in manufacturing and mechanical industries 
 all of the States of the American Union. But with these great 
 achievements in the industrial arts it still maintains its front rank in 
 agriculture. 
 
 THE GOVEENOE S AGEICULTUEAL LINEAGE. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, farmers of Central New York I know that in 
 addressing you I have to encounter a dangerous rivalry. Here among 
 you is the illustrious dairyman of Deerfield, farmer Horatio Seymour 
 [applause and laughter] and I have to compete with the ornate 
 oratory of Roscoe Conkling, and with the fervid eloquence of Francis 
 Kernan, two famous husbandmen of Utica [applause] but I venture 
 to assert some claim to an audience among the farmers of this county 
 and this part of the State. At any rate, if I have not done much in 
 my own day and generation in agriculture, at least I can claim a long 
 line of ancestors devoted to the tillage of the soil. [Applause.] Two 
 hundred and forty years ago the ancestor whose name I bear came to 
 this country. At that time a man was not allowed to emigrate unless 
 he was certified to by the public authorities, and they certified my 
 ancestor as a yeoman of Saxon and Kentish England, which had pre 
 served its free customs and immemorial liberties during all the con 
 vulsions of the feudal ages. I therefore assert my patent of nobility 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 209 
 
 in the descent from a yeoman in whose race for many centuries there 
 had never been any submission to arbitrary power. [Applause.] 
 
 Fellow-citizens, as I grew up I lived among farmers, not in a city 
 like this of Utica, not in a village, but in a hamlet, where almost 
 every man I met was a tiller of the soil. I believe that I learned to 
 understand their temper, their character, and their interests ; and 
 ever since through life I have been mindful of them in the humble 
 part I have taken in the conduct of public affairs. And I consider 
 myself invited to-day, by the remarks made by the president of your 
 society, to say to you a few words in regard to the interest of the 
 farmers of the State of New York in the present condition of our pub 
 lic affairs. I have no word of a partisan character to utter. I have 
 nothing to say to you ^hat an American citizen should not say to every 
 other American citizen, of whatever political party or whatever po 
 litical opinions. 
 
 FARMERS AND TAXES. 
 
 My proposition, then, gentlemen, is that the farmer, more perhaps 
 than any other class, is interested in the question of taxation, which 
 has been adverted to by the president of your association. The gains 
 of the farmer come slowly and with difficulty. No fortunate specu 
 lations, no turn of the markets, no exercise of his wits, fill his little 
 treasury. It is toil honest, patient, industrious toil -to which alone 
 he can look for his scanty surplus, which at the end of the year ena 
 bles him to fill his little store, and to meet the constantly-recurring 
 demands of the tax-gatherer. I say, therefore, that he more than any 
 other citizen of our community is interested in this question. Now, my 
 fellow- citizens, what are the facts in respect to this matter ? Our fore 
 fathers fought that they might establish on this continent an associa 
 tion of equal American citizens, who should be able to conduct their 
 public affairs by a simple government, attending to a few common 
 objects, maintaining justice, protecting the citizen, and leaving the 
 mass of his earnings in his pocket, to be disbursed according to his 
 taste or desire. They fled to this country from the oppression and 
 the burden of European government, and established a free common 
 wealth of American citizens, in the hope that through all the future 
 their institutions might be preserved at small cost, with justice to all, 
 with frugality of administration. Now, my fellow-citizens, if you 
 will look at the census of 1870 you will find that the taxes of that 
 year were fivefold what they were in 1860. It was five years after 
 the close of the war, and yet the taxes were not only not reduced to 
 
210 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 their former amount, not to once and a half, not to twice, not to three, 
 not to four times, but they remained five times their former amount, 
 and to-day they are very little reduced. I will not undertake to say 
 here whose fault this is ; I suppose in some degree it is everybody s 
 fault. It will be your own fault if you don t correct it. [Applause.] 
 
 A FEW STARTLING FIGURES. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I had occasion at the beginning of the legislative 
 session last winter to state to the legislative bodies and to the people 
 that the taxes in the United States for the ten years following the war 
 had been $7,000,000,000, 700,000,000 a year on the average for each 
 of the ten years. Now, I submit to you whether this is not too large a 
 proportion of all you can earn to be appropriated to such purposes. 
 Think of it. Your national debt is but the amount of three years tax 
 ation. Think of it ! You have built in the last forty years 76,000 
 miles of railroad. The nominal amount of their stocks and bonds 
 might be something near $4,000,000,000, and in actual cost about 
 $2,500,000,000. Fellow-citizens, the whole of this vast sum expended 
 for these purposes is less than three and a half years of taxes. Try 
 another illustration. You are very proud that you are the greatest 
 gold and silver producing nation of the world. You boast that on 
 your broad areas of fertile soil you raise crops to send abroad, to eke 
 out the supply necessary to feed the populations of the Old World. 
 You send forward your grain, gathered from every part of the Unit 
 ed States. You send meat, you send cheese, you send other products 
 of the farm. You send vast quantities of petroleum, and then you 
 have one-crop the most of which is exported, the largest that any 
 nation in the world ever contributes to the exchanges of mankind. 
 I mean the cotton-crop, which yields from $200,000,000 to $280,000,- 
 000 a year to foreign exports. 
 
 WHAT A BURDEN TAXATION IS. 
 
 Now, my fellow-citizens, what is the result? When you have 
 sent forward your gold and your silver, when you have sent forward 
 your petroleum, when yon have sent forward your wheat, and your 
 corn, and your cheese, and your meat, and your products of every 
 kind ; when you have sent forward your cotton ; when you have 
 raked and scraped this continent from the Lakes to the Gulf, from 
 the Atlantic to the remote interior, what have you done ? When 
 you have gathered together all these products and paid the cost of 
 
THE "CANAL KING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 211 
 
 carrying them to the seaboard a cost often larger than the original 
 cost of raising the products what have you done ? Why, with every 
 exportable commodity of this continent arrived at our Atlantic ports 
 and delivered into the vessels of foreigners, you have paid ten months 
 of one year s taxes. 
 
 INKOADS OF THE TIMES ON CAPITAL. 
 
 I use these illustrations to present in as clear a manner as possi 
 ble to your mind the burden of the system to which you are sub 
 jected. In a speech which I made seven years ago, I pointed out 
 this condition of things, and I said that while you could pay what 
 you do pay during the swelling of values, out of the froth of appar 
 ent and illusory wealth, when prices should come to settle to their 
 ordinary condition, as they were sure to do, and nothing could pre 
 vent .them from doing, then it would take not merely your earnings, 
 it would take not merely your income, but it would trench upon your 
 capital itself to pay such taxation. And now, gentlemen, while at 
 that time it was difficult to get an audience, or find ears willing to 
 listen, that change has come. It is upon you. No human contriv 
 ance, no act of government, can prevent the reaction that has grown 
 out of a fictitious condition of values. When it disappears and prices 
 recede, then there settles around you, like a dark cloud, this weight 
 of taxation, which you should have foreseen and avoided years ago. 
 
 WHAT IS TO BE DONE. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I appeal to you, without reference to your party 
 character or party affiliations, to join, each man for himself, in the 
 great object of repressing and retrenching these evils. If you are a 
 Republican, see to it that no Republican goes to the legislative halls 
 except he represents you faithfully on this subject. If a Democrat, 
 see that no man goes to represent you in the legislative bodies who 
 will not do his entire duty to the labor and industry of the country 
 in this respect. You have but to will it. The farmers, though they 
 have ceased to govern the State of New York as completely and as 
 exclusively as they did thirty and forty years ago, when they formed 
 two-thirds at least, perhaps three-fourths, of the whole mass of voters, 
 to-day exercise such a vast power that they control the result, if 
 they will but determine to do it. They are interested in a peculiar 
 degree in State taxation. In the city of New York, in all the cities 
 of the State, the heaviest burden of taxation is from the municipal 
 
212 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 taxes. But among the farmers in the rural districts the State taxes 
 are about one-half, and the town and county taxes the other half of 
 what the farmer has to pay. It is within your power to control the 
 town taxes. It is within your power to control the county taxes. 
 You have only to send men to Albany who will faithfully represent 
 you, and you can control also the State taxes. 
 
 THE WOEK ALEEADY BEGUN. 
 
 We began last winter. It made great conflict and turmoil, of 
 which you have heard. We began to cleave off the fungus-growth 
 that had sprung up all over and all around our State institutions, and 
 was smothering out their vitality. We have reduced already your 
 taxes from seven and a quarter to six mills in the present year, and, 
 if you will send next winter to the legislative bodies men who will 
 join in this object, you can reduce the rate of taxation to four mills. 
 
 AN APPEAL FOE ACTION. 
 
 I present to you this object to-day. I invoke the attention of the 
 farmer to this interesting subject. I call upon him to do his duty to 
 himself, and his duty to all other citizens of this great Common 
 wealth. Fellow-citizens, I don t propose to detain you to-day by a 
 lengthened address. I speak to you in plain and homely language, 
 directly, as man to man, in regard to your practical interests. 1 know 
 perfectly well, understand perfectly well, the sentiments and inter 
 ests, and the characteristics of your class. I lived among them so 
 long, I saw them so intimately, individually, and in their social rela 
 tions, that I believe I have little to learn in respect to them, and I 
 commit to their fidelity, to their patriotism, to their devotion to the 
 great interests of the country, the cause which I to-day advocate be 
 fore yoti. It is not alone the saving of dollars and cents, but you 
 cannot preserve your system of government unless you purify ad 
 ministration and purify legislation. The evils of corrupt government 
 are not confined to the money that is taken from the pockets of the 
 people to enrich those who are not entitled to its enjoyment ; but the 
 growth of such a system saps all public virtue and public morality, 
 and at last governments of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people, will cease to exist, as other republics in ancient times have 
 perished, from the general demoralization and corruption of the peo 
 ple. I put this subject to you to-day in simple and plain language, 
 and I leave it in your hands in undoubting confidence that, so far as 
 
TEE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 213 
 
 you can depend upon the great agricultural masses of Central New 
 York, they will do their duty, and their whole duty, to themselves 
 and to the State. 
 
 Bellow-citizens, thanking you for your kind and patient attention, 
 and promising to myself an opportunity to see the products of your 
 farming industries, yet to be exhibited at this fair, so far as I can do 
 so by devoting the rest of the day to it, I bid you good-afternoon. 
 
 The effect of the Governor s journey and speeches was 
 noteworthy. It showed such a feeling in favor of his reform 
 policy, existing throughout the State, and exhibiting itself 
 most strongly in unexpected quarters, that the Republican 
 leaders became frightened. They set to work to counteract 
 his influence. The newspapers which had praised him in the 
 spring, fell to criticising him with more vigor than ever. 
 Several leading Republicans, finding what excellent work the 
 Canal Investigating Commission had done, waited on Mr. 
 Bigelow, the chairman of that commission, and asked him to 
 accept a place on their State ticket. He courteously but 
 firmly declined. He told them frankly that he was in hearty 
 sympathy with Governor Tilden, and that the battle of re 
 form, if it was won at all, would be won through him, after 
 which they did not press Mr. Bigelow so strenuously as be 
 fore. 
 
 When the Democratic State Convention assembled at 
 Syracuse in September, 1875, it was the opinion of the ma 
 jority of the party that the issue of administrative reform 
 should be made so clear and distinct that nobody could mis 
 take its meaning. With great unanimity, Mr. Bigelow, who 
 was a true representative of the independent voter, was nom 
 inated for Secretary of State less, however, on account of 
 his independence than because of his manly and masterly 
 service in the work of investigation. Mr. Van Buren, another 
 member of the commission, was named for State Engineer. 
 Mr. Charles J. Fairchild, who, as Deputy Attorney-General, 
 had instituted suits against the " Canal Ring," was nominated 
 for Attorney-General. Mr. Daniel Magone, Jr., of the com- 
 
14 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 mission, was chosen chairman of the State Committee. The 
 ticket was framed not less in the interest of good govern 
 ment than in a spirit of bold and uncompromising hostility to 
 the " Canal Ring*." It encountered all the opposition it sought, 
 and perhaps more. Every member of the " Ring," and every 
 voter that each member could control, worked openly and se 
 cretly to compass its defeat. That was to be expected. But 
 some honest Democrats were misled by dishonest representa 
 tives, and lost their interest in the canvass which was not to 
 be expected. The Republicans, finding that they were mak 
 ing some headway, worked with remarkable vigor, and, 
 cheered by successes in other States, they came to believe 
 that they would carry New York. Nevertheless, the Demo 
 cratic State ticket was elected by an average plurality ap 
 proximating twenty thousand. The Republicans, however, 
 increased their majority in the Senate, and secured control of 
 the Assembly. 
 
 When the Legislature convened, on the 4th of January, 
 1876, it showed a disposition to find fault with all the Gov 
 ernor had done in the way of canal reform. The Senate 
 adopted a resolution of inquiry which is quoted in the fol 
 lowing curt answer from the Governor : 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, [ 
 
 ALBANY, January 18, 1876. 
 To the Senate : 
 
 In answer to the resolution of the Senate requesting the Governor 
 " at the earliest possible day, consistent with the public service, to 
 communicate to the Legislature the results of the investigation thus 
 far obtained by the commission, with the testimony thereto pertain 
 ing, and the titles and objects of the actions now pending, with the 
 progress thereon made, and the names of the official charged with 
 complicity or connivance as aforesaid, in order that the Legislature 
 may, in view of the information thus furnished, determine what ap 
 propriation, if any, or other measures of legislation, may be neces 
 sary " 
 
 I have the honor respectfully to state : 
 
 1. That the concurrent resolution, authorizing the Governor to 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 215 
 
 appoint a commission to investigate canal affairs, passed in 1875, 
 requires the said commission to report the testimony they shall take, 
 together with such recommendations in respect to the same as they 
 shall deem warranted by the facts, to the Governor and to the Legis 
 lature at the opening of the next session. 
 
 The commission have made a series of reports to the Governor, 
 twelve in number, on special cases, and, I understand, are preparing 
 with all diligence a general report to the Legislature in compliance 
 with the concurrent resolution, which will embrace " all the results 
 thus far obtained by the commission." 
 
 2. The several reports of the commission to the Governor have 
 been, from time to time, transmitted to the office of the Attorney- 
 General for his consideration as to what legal remedies in behalf of 
 the State should be instituted. The conduct of such action is de 
 volved by law upon the Attorney-General. The present incumbent, 
 as the Senate is doubtless aware, from the day of his taking office 
 was engaged at the Oyer and Terminer of Erie County in the trial of 
 one of the cases arising out of a report of the commission until a 
 week after the adoption of your resolution. For particular informa 
 tion on the subject of this part of your inquiry, I respectfully refer 
 you to that officer. 
 
 In the passage of my annual message referred to by your resolu 
 tion, I expressed the opinion that the object of primary and tran 
 scendent importance in the measures connected with the administra 
 tion of canals is "to reform the system and to establish every pos 
 sible security against the recurrence of the evils." 
 
 This object is to be attained by an exposure of the wrongs, by 
 appropriate measures of legislation to prevent and punish similar 
 wrongs hereafter by the enforcement of existing laws imposing pen 
 alties upon the wrong-doers, and, as far as possible, by compelling 
 restitution. Even in the narrow sense of pecuniary advantage to the, 
 people, infinitely more is accomplished by breaking up the system 
 than can be hoped to be recovered in civil action. If adequate proofs 
 could always be had, complete restitution cannot always be effected; 
 still less full damages for wastes committed to enable the illicit prof 
 its to be gained which are often much larger than those profits. The 
 expenditures in jobs connected with the canals have averaged from 
 two to three millions of dollars annually. Nearly the whole of this 
 amount can be saved to the Treasury or left in the pockets of the 
 tax-payers without detriment to any public interest. For the pres- 
 
216 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ent fiscal year that saving has been accomplished irrespective of any 
 litigations in the courts. There is no reason why the same saving 
 should not be effected hereafter. 
 
 The indictment, trial, and conviction of persons who have com 
 mitted criminal offenses under existing laws have for their object the 
 general purpose of remedial justice by deterring in the future from 
 the commission of similar offenses. Civil actions by the State, while 
 they have an incidental effect of the same nature, have the further 
 and their main object of compelling restitution of the public money 
 unlawfully taken. 
 
 Indictments since the law of 18Y3 can be found at any time 
 within five years of the time of the commission of the offense. 
 
 Civil actions by the State for the recovery of money in such cases 
 can, under the laws of 1875, be brought at any time within ten years 
 after the cause of action occurred. 
 
 The investigations of the commission, faithful and laborious as 
 they have been, leave unexplored far more than has been brought to 
 light. 
 
 Official bodies like the Canal Board and the Commissioners of the 
 Canal Fund ought to be clothed, as permanent standing authorities, 
 with full powers of investigation, in their respective spheres, as to 
 all wrongs done in respect to public moneys or property. The Comp 
 troller, as the general fiscal representative of the State, and perhaps 
 other public officers, ought to be vested with similar powers. 
 
 It is quite manifest that it would overtask the powers of any one 
 man to conduct the criminal and civil actions that have been and 
 ought to be instituted for these objects. Vast sums stolen from the 
 Treasury will be, as in similar cases they have been, employed in 
 securing extraordinary service in legal ability, in professional experts, 
 and in indefatigable activity to defend, by every technical artifice, 
 the unjust possession. There is no force of detectives connected 
 with the office of the Attorney-General, neither are the district 
 attorneys his subordinates. 
 
 The Attorney- General of the United States, on the other hand, 
 has all of the district attorneys and all of the marshals and deputy- 
 marshals, besides a large number of skilled experts, perfectly at his 
 command ; and Congress every year makes a sufficient appropriation 
 to meet whatever expenses may be necessary in the preparation of 
 suits for trial. 
 
 The actions growing out of canal frauds involve the examination 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 217 
 
 of complicated facts relating to construction and the quality and util 
 ity and value of the work, and they cannot be properly prepared or 
 tried without the assistance of experts. 
 
 It has been usual to make a small annual appropriation to enable 
 the Attorney-General to employ counsel to assist him in the discharge 
 of his official duties. The suggestion in my annual message, that the 
 ordinary appropriation would be insufficient, but that a "special" 
 appropriation would be necessary to enable him to enforce the rights 
 of the State and to meet the just expectations of the people, had ref 
 erence to the expenses necessary for preparing these suits for trial, 
 and for conducting these trials. 
 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 
 The Senate, finding the Governor so ready to answer its 
 questions, hesitated about propounding any more. But, later 
 in the session, he communicated to both Houses of the Legis 
 lature the following succinct statement of the general results 
 of the investigations : 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ) 
 ALBANY, March 24, 1876. [ 
 
 To the Legislature : 
 
 The results of the investigations ordered at the last session into 
 the work on the Erie and other canals, purporting to be improve 
 ments, and known in the language of our legislation as "extraordi 
 nary repairs," have been submitted to you. They establish these 
 conclusions : 
 
 1. The expenditures for these purposes, during the last five years, 
 were, directly, about $11,000,000, and indirectly about $3,000,000, 
 making $14,000,000, and involved taxation amounting to nearly $15,- 
 000,000. This is in addition to vast sums expended in former years. 
 
 2. The mass of the work for which these expenditures were 
 made was of no real utility to the public. The waste in construction 
 which furnished jobs to contractors, but was of no value to the 
 State has been even larger than the illicit and fraudulent gains. 
 
 3. Most of the contracts were obtained by the system of unbal 
 anced bids and other dishonest devices. 
 
 4. Much of the work was executed in violation of the contracts, 
 and is worthless. 
 
 The advantages to the State of the investigations have not been 
 10 
 
218 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 limited to the discovery of the particular frauds ; nor even to the 
 destruction of a system involving a vast annual loss to the tax-payers 
 demoralizing to the public service and corrupting to all govern 
 mental life. 
 
 Incidentally, in arresting these practices, a fund has been rescued 
 from spoliation out of which a real, important, and valuable improve 
 ment can be effected in the main trunks of the canals. 
 
 On the first of last month, there remained, as nearly as I can 
 ascertain, of the funds applicable to extraordinary repairs and new 
 work : . ; ; 
 
 Unappropriated to specific objects $633,000 
 
 Existing appropriations for objects not under contracts. 360,000 
 Estimated as necessary to settle existing, contracts : 
 
 Erie Canal $347,000 
 
 Champlain Canal. 30,000 
 
 Oneida Lake Canal 6,000 
 
 $383,000 
 
 Balance after selling contracts as proposed 300,000 
 
 Sum available for new work on Champlain Canal enlarge 
 ment 270,000 
 
 Oneida Lake 41,000 
 
 $1,604,000 
 
 While this branch of the subject is under consideration, 
 it is desirable that the reader should understand how large a 
 saving has been effected in the State of New York by a wise 
 administration of affairs. For this I append : 
 
 MEMORANDA FILED WITH TAX-BILL BY GOVERNOR TIL- 
 . DEN IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, 
 
 1876. 
 
 ASSEMBLY BILL No. 274, entitled " An act to authorize a tax of 
 three-tenths of a mill per dollar of valuation to provide for deficiency 
 in the sinking-fund under section 3 of Article VII. of the constitu 
 tion." 
 
 Not approved. 
 
 This bill authorizes a tax of three-tenths of one mill to meet the 
 deficiencies in the canal sinking : fund in obedience to section 3 of 
 Article VII. of the constitution. The valuation, as nearly as can 
 
THE CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 219 
 
 now be ascertained from the reports of the assessors in the Comp- 
 troller s fc office, is $2,390,803,696. The produce of this tax, computed 
 on that valuation, would be $717,241. 
 
 This bill came into the Executive chamber on the 27th day of 
 April. It is rendered unnecessary by a subsequent act, which came 
 into the Executive chamber on the 4th of May the day after the ad 
 journmentand which provides for paying these deficiencies without 
 a tax. This latter bill, in accordance with my special message of 
 March 24, 1876, in relation to the canals, provides for the completion 
 or cancellation of pending contracts for extraordinary repairs, and 
 for the application of $1,600,000 of money, yet unexpended, which 
 had been reclaimed from the folly, waste, and fraud incident to those 
 expenditures. 
 
 It contained two appropriations for real improvements to the Erie 
 Canal. The one was $400,000 for bottoming it out an d restoring it 
 to the lawful depth of seven feet. The other was the subsequent 
 use of $800,000 to go on with like improvements in the water-way, 
 which would facilitate and quicken the transit of the boat by deepen 
 ing the volume of water through which it should move on the levels. 
 No doubt a measure so practical, so simple and economical, would 
 lessen the cost of transportation, and would be of more real service 
 to the navigation than ten millions expended in the usual manner. 
 
 At the very close of the session, the chairman of the Canal Com 
 mittee of the Assembly, who had supported such improvements on 
 the Erie Canal as well as on the Champlain, came to me with the in 
 formation that the latter appropriation of $800,000 for the Erie would 
 fail in the Senate, which had manifested opposition to these measures. 
 The next best use of the rescued moneys seemed to be to pay debts 
 and remit taxes. An amendment was prepared making that change. 
 It was adopted fifteen minutes before the close of the legislative 
 session. I have signed that bill, and now reject this. 
 
 TAXES FOE 18H AND 1876. 
 
 The taxes for 1874 were 7 mills on a valuation of $2,169,307,873. 
 They amounted to $15,727,482. 
 
 The taxes for 1876 will be 3 mills on a valuation likely to be, 
 as nearly as can now be ascertained, $2,390,803,696. That would 
 produce $8,268,196. 
 
 This result approximates to the ideal proposed in my last annual 
 message of reducing the taxes for 1876 to one-half those of 1874. 
 
220 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. , 
 
 It has been worked out, notwithstanding an increase of $276,869 
 in the tax for schools, caused by an increase of valuation applied to 
 a system which makes the assessors the real arbiters of the amount 
 of the tax, and which has increased it a million in the last few years. 
 And, also, notwithstanding $200,000 is included for the Commission 
 ers of Emigration, which is, in effect, a loan. 
 
 DEBTS PAID IN 1874 AND 1876. 
 
 In 1874 the appropriations for sinking-funds were: 
 
 Bounty debt sinking-fund $4,260,000 
 
 Canal floating debt sinking-fund 198,888 
 
 Total in 1874 $4,458,888 
 
 In 1876, the appropriations to the bounty debt sinking-fund were: 
 
 Proceeds of one-third mill tax $796,934 
 
 Surplus of tax last year unappro 
 priated till now 475,560 
 
 Premium actually realized thus far by 
 
 Mr. Robinson s conversions 750,207 
 
 Making - - $2,022,701 
 
 The appropriations for the canal debt sinking-fund were : 
 From moneys reclaimed from extraor 
 dinary repair-fund for principal. . .$630,325 
 
 For interest 93,032 
 
 , 723,357 
 
 Total in 1876 2,746,058 
 
 Less applied to sinking-funds in 1876 than 1874 $1,712,830 
 
 In round sums, a million and three-quarters less has been absorbed 
 into the sinking-funds in 1876 than in 1874; but of the two millions 
 and three-quarters, which have been or are to be so absorbed in 1876, 
 two millions come from savings and economies, and the tax for the 
 sinking-fund in 1876 is thereby reduced to three-quarters of one . 
 million. 
 
 ITEMS OF SAYIXGS. 
 
 Of this two millions of savings, the item of $475,000, carried 
 over from the taxes of last year and now first appropriated, and the 
 item of $723,000 now rescued from the extraordinary canal wastes, 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 221 
 
 have been explained. The other item, $750,000 of realized pre 
 miums, remains to be explained. 
 
 In the report of Comptroller Hopkins, dated January 4, 1876, it 
 was estimated that the balance of interest to be paid by the bounty 
 debt sinking-fund over that to be received by it would be $893,767, 
 but that the premium on the securities held by the sinking-fund 
 would amount to $1,200,000, and a surplus over the balance of in-. 
 terest would remain, amounting to $306,233. 
 
 These premiums were nearly all on long stocks of the State and 
 United States, payable in gold. On the resumption of specie-pay 
 ments, or the approach of that result, or a general public expectation 
 of it, most of those premiums would vanish. A loss of one-quarter 
 of them would extinguish all the surplus beyond the adverse balance 
 of the interest account. Successful financiering in private or public 
 affairs depends largely upon the disposition to seize the opportune 
 moment for converting favorable possibilities into certainties. I vent 
 ured in the last annual message to suggest the application of the 
 sinking-fund to the payment of the debts. 
 
 This suggestion, and the more explicit reasons now disclosed, 
 would probably have gone for nothing if Mr. Comptroller Eobinson 
 had not come into the charge of the State finances. His own notions 
 of sound finance dictated a policy which he has, as far as has been 
 practicable, executed with rare sagacity, judgment, and skill. In four 
 months, he has bought in $4,625,900 of the bounty debt by exchanges 
 and by conversions of assets and purchase of State liabilities. He 
 has realized $750,207 of these premiums, being $255,631 in excess 
 of the estimated value of the assets, converted after deducting the 
 premiums on the debts bought in. 
 
 SOURCES OF ECONOMIES CAUSING THE KEDTICTION OF TAXES. 
 
 The whole saving in 1876, as compared with 1874, allowing for 
 the excess of the appropriation for schools of $276,869, and the loan 
 of $200,000 to the Commissioners of Emigration, is $7,936,155. Of 
 that sum $1,712,830 is in the diminished payments on debts. All 
 the residue, $6,223,325, is in real economies. 
 
 SAVINGS. 
 
 The application of savings, from former taxes and from the ex 
 penditures for which they were levied in the particulars mentioned, 
 furnishes $1,949,004. 
 
222 THE LJ FE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 CANAL EXPENDITURES. 
 
 The diminution of certain canal expenditures furnishes $2,372,680. 
 The taxes for these purposes were in 
 
 1874. 1876. 
 
 Extraordinary repairs $1,898,144 None. 
 
 Awards and outlays in excess of appropriations, 474,536 None. 
 
 $2,372,680 
 all of which was saved. 
 
 GENEEAL EXPENSES 
 
 (including Capitol and asylums and reformatories, and excluding 
 increase of tax for schools and advances to Emigrant Commission) : 
 
 1874 $6,007,620 
 
 1876 4,005,887 
 
 Saving .- $2,001,733 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Saving applied $1,949,204 
 
 Canal retrenchments 2,372,680 
 
 General retrenchments 2,001,733" 
 
 Total $6,353,617 
 
 It thus appears that nearly eighty per cent, of the reduction of 
 eight millions in State taxes was directly produced by these economies. 
 
 OTHER RETRENCHMENTS. 
 
 Expenses paid out of the revenues and funds of the State, though 
 they do not in the first instance affect the taxes, ultimately come to 
 that result when they have to be replaced. They are, therefore, 
 equally worthy of attention. 
 
 ORDINARY CANAL-REPAIRS. 
 
 1874. 1876. Saving. 
 
 Current $1,424,510 $1,120,600 $303,910 
 
 Deficiencies 250,000 156,879 93,121 
 
 Total saving $397,031 
 
 RE APPROPRIATIONS. 
 
 These are paid out of cash in the Treasury : 
 
 1874. 1876. Saving. 
 
 $917,379 None. $917,379 
 
THE "CANAL RING" AND ITS OVERTHROW. 223 
 
 EECLAMATIONS. 
 
 The reclamations of moneys in the Treasury from unexpended 
 appropriations for extraordinary repairs amount to $1,604,000. A 
 considerable sum in addition may be expected. 
 
 SEDUCTIONS IN 1875 AS COMPAEED WITH 1874. 
 
 Extraordinary repairs $1,898,144 
 
 Ordinary repairs 415,360 
 
 Awards and outlays hi excess of appropriations 40,674 
 
 Reappropriations 677,240 
 
 $2,931,413 
 EEDTICTIONS IN 1876 AS COMPAEED WITH 1874. 
 
 Extraordinary repairs $1,898,144 
 
 Ordinary repairs 397,031 
 
 Awards and outlays in excess of appropria 
 tions 474,536 
 
 Reappropriations _l 1 .!f!! $3 ,687,090 
 
 This is besides the reclamation of money realized to the extent of 
 $1,600,000, .and likely to reach $2,000,000. 
 
 In the mean time, no interest of the State has been injured or 
 neglected. The appropriation for the new Capitol for the present 
 year, of $800,000, will yield more means to pay for new work than 
 the usual appropriation of $1,000,000 ; for the fresh construction will 
 start without any of the arrears which have heretofore encumbered 
 its progress. The appropriation of nearly $500,000, for continuing 
 the construction of asylums and reformatories, is made more effective 
 by being carefully applied to the completion of specific portions to be 
 brought into use. 
 
 The people may have the satisfaction of feeling that, while half of 
 their State taxes are remitted $8,000,000 out of $16,000,000 it is 
 accomplished without improvidence of the future or -temporary re 
 trenchment which cannot be maintained ; and that the appropria 
 tions have been kept clearly without the means provided by the taxes 
 levied ; so that no temporary floating debt will be created, or inva 
 sion of the sinking-funds made, as has often, and to a large extent, 
 happened hitherto, in disobedience to the express commands of the 
 constitution, and in violation of the whole scheme and policy of that 
 instrument, in reepect to the State finances. 
 
224: THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 This saving of one-half the taxes in the State of New 
 York is the final outcome of that system of administrative 
 reform which was fairly instituted when Governor Tilden de 
 clared war against the " Canal Ring." On the 19th of March, 
 1875, the " Ring " was in the fulness of its power. The Legis 
 lature was preparing to appropriate the usual sum for extraor 
 dinary repairs. There appeared to be no inclination to re 
 trench the expenditures in any direction. Many of the New 
 York law-givers concurred in the opinion expressed more re 
 cently by the Republican Senators in Congress, that economy 
 could not be practised without " crippling the Government." 
 Mr. Tilden thought otherwise. He struck blow after blow at 
 the system of corruption and extravagance, till the whole rot 
 ten fabric fell to the ground. 
 
 The " Canal Ring " is destroyed. One of its members is a 
 convicted felon, and over the heads of half a dozen others in 
 dictments hang. The enormous sum which it annually secured 
 for fraudulent contracts is wrested from the people no more. 
 Its destruction has led to a general overhauling of other ex 
 penditures, and to the substitution of better methods of finan 
 cial administration. If this same good system were extended 
 over the area of the Federal Government, would not the re 
 sult be desirable ? 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 
 
 ON the llth of May, 1875, Governor Tilden submitted to 
 the Legislature a special message on the question of municipal 
 government. It is a subject to which he has given much 
 thought and attention. Born and reared in a country town, 
 he went to New York as a young man, and, for a long period 
 of years, he has watched the dangers against which he warns 
 others, and considered the remedies which he recommends. 
 The subject of the message is of such general interest, and 
 the treatment of it is so philosophical and exhaustive, that it 
 is herewith reproduced. 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ) 
 ALBANY, May 11, 1875. j 
 
 To the Legislature : 
 
 The constitution (Article VIII., section 9) declares that 
 
 " It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide for the organi 
 zation of cities and incorporated villages, and to restrict their powers 
 of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts, and 
 loaning their credit, so as to prevent abuses in assessments, and in 
 contracting debt by such municipal corporations." 
 
 The convention of 1846, having exhausted its sessions in the con 
 sideration .of questions upon which it acted, and finding itself unable 
 to deal adequately with, the problem of municipal government, on 
 the day before its adjournment, charged that duty upon the Legisla 
 ture. Its primary object was to protect tax-payers in the municipali 
 ties against abuses on the part of local governing officials, in taxation 
 for local administration, in assessments for local improvements, in 
 the contraction of municipal debts, and in the loaning of municipal 
 credit. 
 
 Those evils had already attracted attention, though they were at 
 that time but in the beginning of the monstrous growth to which 
 
226 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 they have now attained. In the twenty-nine years which have 
 elapsed the increase of population in this State has been chiefly in 
 the cities and incorporated villages, until, at the census of 1870, those 
 organizations embraced more than two millions, and now about two 
 millions and four hundred thousand of our people. The course of 
 legislation, so far from obeying the injunction of the constitution, 
 has been mainly in the opposite direction. 
 
 Every annual statute-book has been largely occupied with enact 
 ments favoring the growth of municipal expenditure, involving taxa 
 tion,, assessments, the contraction of debt, and the loaning of credit. 
 The result, so far as the cities of the State are concerned, is shown 
 by an abstract of- reports from the twenty-four cities, which have 
 been furnished to me by the local officials, and which .1 herewith 
 transmit to your honorable body. 
 
 MUNICIPAL TAXATION. 
 
 The aggregate valuation of property in these .cities, subject to 
 taxation in 1874, was $1,569,535,074. 
 
 The aggregate of city taxation was $30,439,121. 
 
 The aggregate county and State taxation was $13,990,487. 
 
 The aggregate of taxation was $50,429,609. 
 
 The aggregate debt of these cities was $175,657,267. 
 
 Computing the taxation and debt on the population of 1870, add 
 ing twenty per cent, for subsequent growth, the city taxation was 
 $15.57, the county and State taxation $5.98, and the aggregate was 
 $21.55 for each inhabitant. The city debt was, for each inhabitant, 
 $75.80. 
 
 It .must be borne in mind that the proportion of the assessed valu 
 ation of real estate to its actual value is fixed in these reports accord 
 ing to a standard from which there is now a large reduction. The 
 average of the assessment is 55.43 per cent, of the true value. 
 
 If the recent fall in marketable values be estimated at one-third, 
 the rate of the assessed valuation would be eighty per cent, of the 
 actual value. 
 
 It may be presumed that the values stated in these reports have 
 reference to real property. No allowance is made for the undervalu 
 ation of personal property. 
 
 It is probable that, in many instances, the taxation imposed upon 
 property in cities has been from one-quarter to one-third, and by the 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 227 
 
 decline of rents is now one-third, and sometimes reaches one-half the 
 income of real estate. 
 
 In 1853, when the population of the United States numbered 
 twenty-five millions, the whole cost of its Government was under 
 $55,000,000. It will be seen that less than two millions and a half 
 of inhabitants of the cities of New York pay nearly as much taxa 
 tion as was imposed on twenty -five millions, about twenty years ago, 
 for the cost of the army, navy, Indian treaties, and all other ex 
 penses of the General Government. 
 
 As I remarked in my annual message : "In the decade beginning 
 July 1, 1865, the people will have paid in taxes, computed in cur 
 rency, seven thousand millions of dollars. Three-fifths were for the 
 use of the Federal Government, and two-fifths for the State and 
 municipal governments. It is doubtless true that some portions of 
 the municipal expenditures were for objects not strictly govern 
 mental. But it cannot be questioned that much too large a portion 
 of the whole net earnings of industry, and of the whole net income 
 of society, is taken for the purpose of carrying on government in 
 this country. The burden could more easily be borne when values 
 were high, and were ascending. As they recede toward their former 
 level, the taxes consume a larger quantity of the products which have 
 to be sold in order to pay them. They weigh with a constantly-in 
 creasing severity upon all business and upon all classes. They shrivel 
 up more and more the earnings of labor. This condition of things 
 ought to admonish us, in our respective spheres, to be as abstinent 
 as possible in appropriations for public expenditures. If the cost of 
 government in our country were reduced, as it ought to be, one-third, 
 it would still be larger than a few years ago, taking account of the 
 prices of the products, which, in order to pay that cost, we are com 
 pelled to convert into money." 
 
 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 The burdens upon tax-payers in cities are exhibited in various 
 ways : bills for relief by the temporary funding of floating debts ; 
 bills authorizing loans to carry on or complete permanent improve 
 ments; frequent appeals from tax-payers against the measures of 
 local officials, so numerous that it is quite impossible to arbitrate intel 
 ligently between the contending parties, are among the incidents of 
 the times. 
 
 The choice, between the opposite evils which such cases present, 
 
22S THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 is often difficult and the result unsatisfactory. Works by the locali 
 ties, as by the State, which ought not to have been undertaken, or 
 which are on a scale too expensive or extravagant, are advanced so 
 near to completion that it is not expedient to refuse the means, to 
 finish them, or not proper to overrule the local officials without a 
 more intelligent and assured personal judgment than is possible. It 
 will not do to enforce the rule that loans for permanent improve 
 ments shall be accompanied by a sinking-fund in many cases where 
 there was no notice. But I have refused to sanction a bill diverting 
 funds, raised by permanent loan and not needed for its original pur 
 pose, to current expenses, and I have insisted that, in funding floating 
 debts, the loans should be but temporary until the deficiency could 
 be provided for by taxation. 
 
 It has been impracticable to at once inaugurate a better system. 
 The whole subject requires a careful and thorough investigation, and 
 the adoption of a fixed policy which shall be known to the people, 
 and to which they shall conform. 
 
 
 JUDICIAL REMEDIES. 
 
 It is but just to the present Legislature to say that the three 
 bills which it adopted with great unanimity, providing judicial reme 
 dies against frauds, affecting the public moneys or property, are of 
 more value for the repression of the evils of municipal government 
 than all the legislation which has taken place during the twenty-nine 
 years in which the mandate of the constitution, in respect to munici 
 pal administration, has remained unexecuted. 
 
 It is true they reach abuses only when extravagance and improvi 
 dence degenerate into bad faith or fraud, but they apply to every 
 official of every city, as well as to all State, county, and town func 
 tionaries. 
 
 They apply to every case in which a city official shall, with intent 
 to defraud, wrongfully obtain, receive, convert, pay out, or dispose 
 of, any public moneys, funds, credits, or property. They apply to 
 every case in which such an official shall, with like intent, by will 
 fully paying, allowing, or auditing any false or unjust claim, or in 
 any other manner or way whatever, aid or abet any other person in 
 wrongfully obtaining, receiving, converting, paying out, or disposing 
 of any public money, funds, credits, or property. They apply also to 
 every person who, dealing with any official, shall, with intent to de 
 fraud, wrongfully obtain, receive, convert, pay out, or dispose of, any 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 229 
 
 such money, funds, credits, or property. They sweep away the 
 complicated technicalities by which conviction for such offenses has 
 hitherto been embarrassed or defeated. 
 
 One of these acts provides for every such offense penalties ade 
 quate to its enormity, in imprisonment in the State-prison for not 
 less than three nor more than ten years, and a fine not exceeding 
 five times the amount of the. loss resulting from the fraudulent act. 
 Another provides for the arrest of the person and the attachment 
 of the property of the wrong-doer. 
 
 The third of these acts provides for the contingency that the 
 local governing officials shall be able to exercise influence over the 
 officer whose duty it would be to order an action for redress of such 
 a wrong, or whose duty it would be to conduct the suit ; OF, where 
 a local influence might be exercised upon the judiciary ; and enables 
 the injured tax-payer to appeal to the State for relief, and gives a 
 method of procedure both rapid and effective. 
 
 These laws, when they come to be generally known to the people, 
 cannot fail to exercise a very salutary restraint upon all official per 
 sons. They afford a system of remedies hitherto unknown in our 
 jurisprudence, which for their special purposes may well be deemed 
 comprehensive, complete, and effective. 
 
 ADDITIONAL MEASUEES. 
 
 Additional measures of remedy and restraint can no doubt be 
 devised in the legislation for local government. The tax-payers 
 should be invested with powers of association and organization for 
 the purpose of investigating the doings of their local officials and 
 enforcing publicity, and for the purpose of instituting suits in the 
 courts to restrain and redress public wrongs, without having recourse 
 to the ultimate resort designed for great cases, in an action by the 
 State. They might also be endowed with capacity to take and exe 
 cute contracts for public work, under the supervision of and on the 
 plans fixed by the municipal officers. There is no reason, for in 
 stance, why the persons taxable for the improvement of a street 
 should not be allowed to associate, and by their own agents execute 
 the work for which they pay. 
 
 Even then a still broader field opens for measures of reform. To 
 define the powers of the local governing officials in matters of ex 
 penditure, taxation, assessment, and to create an effectual responsi 
 bility of those officials to the voters of the locality, to establish 
 
230 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 official accountability on their part, to adopt the machinery most 
 favorable to good administration these are the objects which con 
 cern 2,400,000 of our people more deeply,, perhaps, than any other 
 question of administration that invites the public attention. 
 
 DUTY OF THE STATE. 
 
 The duty of the State to establish constitutional provisions and 
 to enact laws protecting, as far as practicable, the inhabitants of 
 cities from abuses of maladministration committed by the local 
 governing officials, and preserving the rights of individual citizens 
 and of the minority as against the majority, is undeniable. That 
 obligation results from the relations which exist between the State 
 in its collective capacity and the local divisions of the State, and be 
 tween the State and the local officers. In the theory of our civil 
 polity, the sovereignty of the State, subject only to the grants it has 
 made to the Union, resides in the aggregate people of the whole 
 State. All powers vested in the cities and incorporated villages, 
 and in the municipal officers, and all powers vested in county and 
 town officers, are theoretically delegations from the people, made by 
 the constitution or by laws authorized by and in pursuance of the 
 constitution. At the same time their utility for the purposes of 
 local administration is so recognized by the sentiments of our people 
 that it has come to be jnstly considered as an obligation to make 
 them and a right to receive them. 
 
 The powers intrusted by the State to the local officials are admin 
 istrative, special, and for local objects. In the most completely de 
 veloped municipality they embrace the care of police, health, schools, 
 street-cleaning, prevention of fires, supplying water and gas, and 
 similar matters most conveniently attended to in partnership by per 
 sons living together in a dense community, and the expenditure and 
 taxation money for these objects. The right of persons, property, 
 and the judicial systems instituted for their preservation general 
 legislation government in its proper sense these are vast domains 
 which the functions of municipal corporations and municipal officers 
 do not touch. 
 
 PEOGBESS OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The first constitution of this State, formed in 1777, provided for 
 the appointment and removal of all local officers by a council com 
 posed of the Governor and four Senators chosen every year by four 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF .MUNICIPALITIES. 231 
 
 subdivisions of the Assembly. The system continued until it involved 
 .the selection of fifteen thousand officers civil and military when 
 our population was but one-third of its present magnitude. Every 
 year assembled in Albany, from all parts of the State, candidates and 
 their friends, for a general scramble. The strifes of parties were in 
 tensified by personal selfishness, and aggregated in a single centre. 
 The evils of the system contributed to the calling of a convention 
 which formed the constitution of 1821. 
 
 That instrument substituted election by the people of the locali 
 ties or appointment by the local authorities, in respect to a large 
 share of the local officers. The question of how to disperse the ap 
 pointing power, and yet preserve accountability to the State, was 
 very thoughtfully considered by the foremost statesmen. Its solu 
 tion was found in a device proposed by Daniel D. Tompkins, which 
 was to separate the power of appointment from the power of re 
 moval. The case of the sheriff excited the most solicitude and was 
 elaborately discussed. It was disposed of by giving the election to 
 the people of the county, but reserving to the State the power of re 
 moval for cause, to be exercised by the Governor. The same method 
 was applied to county clerks. 
 
 The constitution of 1846 extended the system to district attor 
 neys and coroners. It has been applied by constitutional provision 
 or by statute to many other cases, and is now in operation as to the 
 principal officers of the counties, probably embracing five hundred 
 in number. A procedure has grown up in the nature of a summary 
 trial. 
 
 The convention of 1846 carried much further its dispersion of the 
 power of choosing local officers. It even allowed an election by dis 
 tricts of judges of the Supreme Court having general State jurisdic 
 tion, but it provided that they should be removable by impeachment, 
 and also by the two Houses of the Legislature. County judges, sur 
 rogates, and all other judicial officers elected within the county, and 
 all commissioned, officers of the militia who are elective, were made 
 removable by- the Governor and Senate. Indeed, it is a characteris 
 tic peculiarity of the present constitution to distinguish between the 
 power of electing or appointing an officer and the power of holding 
 him to an account. In the words of my annual message: "It is 
 while dispersing the one to the localities, to reserve the other to the 
 State, acting by its general representatives and as a unit ; to retain in 
 the collective State a supervisory pow-er of removal, in addition to 
 
233 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 whatever other accountability may result to the voters or authorities 
 of the locality from the power to change the officer at the expiration 
 of his term, or from special provisions of law. The two ideas are not 
 incompatible; on the contrary, each is the complement of the other. 
 Such dispersion of the appointing power has become possible only 
 because these devices have been invented to preserve accountability 
 to the State." 
 
 Through all our constitutional history the tendency has been to 
 enlarge the power of localities in the management of such local 
 affairs as are usually intrusted to their administration. 
 
 This policy has been developed not merely by conferring the power 
 of local election, or of appointment by local authority of the officers 
 on whom the duties of local administration are conferred, but also by 
 the gradual enlargement of those duties. 
 
 ITS PRINCIPLE. 
 
 The political philosophy which has inspired this policy is founded 
 on the theory that the individual is the best judge of whatever con 
 cerns himself exclusively. It aims to enlarge the domain of the indi 
 vidual conscience and judgment as much as practicable, and to limit 
 and simplify the action of the government in the affairs of individu 
 als. A deduction from this philosophy is that, where individuals are 
 associated in a city, or incorporated village, or even in those subdi 
 visions of the State that are termed in the law quasi corporations, 
 there are certain powers of administration, mainly concerning the in 
 dividuals so associated, which may be safely intrusted to their man 
 agement under a proper organism, and in which they will be the best 
 judges of the measures most wise and most adapted to their actual 
 condition. The development of this system belongs to the sphere of 
 practical government, and is to be worked out progressively. 
 
 Of the general truth of the theory and of the wisdom of this 
 system, I entertain no doubt; and I have always endeavored to pro 
 mote its wise application, and to try, by its principles, the measures 
 which have been presented in its name. 
 
 ITS CONDITIONS. 
 
 The essential conditions of local self-government or home-rule in 
 respect to those powers of administration which are intrusted to the 
 locality are : 
 
 1. That there be an organism under which the elective power of 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 233 
 
 the people can act conveniently and effectively, and can exercise an 
 actual control at one election over those who represent it in the local 
 administration. 
 
 . 2. That, in voting upon the administration of local affairs, the 
 po pular attention and the popular will be freed, as far as possible, 
 from disturbing elements, especially from complications with State 
 and national politics. 
 
 The ancient system which exists in the country, and worked well 
 in New York for a generation, by which municipal elections were 
 held at a time intermediate of the annual State and national elections, 
 has always commended itself to my judgment as of great utility and 
 value. 
 
 3. That the -popular will, as declared at the elections, should be 
 protected, as far as possible, from the effects of undue concentration 
 of power, patronage, and the means of corrupt influence. 
 
 4. That while the responsibility of public officers to the voting 
 citizens be made effective, and they be made amenable to the tax 
 payers of the locality through the courts, accountability to the 
 State be preserved through regular methods, so that the existence of 
 such appeal of the minority and of individuals against the wrongs 
 of governing officials will render unnecessary and inexcusable the 
 frequent legislative interventions which have practically destroyed 
 all self-government, created more local mischief than they have 
 remedied, and have grown to be prolific of abuse and corruption in 
 the legislative bodies. 
 
 So far from official accountability in regular forms being an 
 abridgment of local self-government, it is the foundation on which 
 this system can alone be built up. Arbitrary or irresponsible power 
 finds no place in our popular system of government. The public 
 officers are the trustees of the people. The majority are trustees for 
 the whole, for the minority, and for each individual. 
 
 At the present time the Senate and Assembly, and the Governor, 
 are largely occupied by attention to measures which are in the nature 
 of appeals from the local administrative officials. Legislation is daily 
 asked for, not merely for the purpose of enlarging or modifying the 
 powers of those officials according to the local wants, but for over 
 ruling their judgment, correcting their errors, and redressing their 
 wrongs. The granting or refusing of such legislation often involves 
 questions of extreme difficulty, to investigate and decide the merits 
 of which is quite beyond the power of the legislative bodies, or the 
 
234 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Governor, especially in the multitude of topics that accumulate in 
 the closing weeks of the session. 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF THE METROPOLIS. 
 
 The most instructive chapter on the subject of municipal govern 
 ment which is to be found in our civic history, is the experience of 
 our great metropolis, which stands so conspicuous, not only in this 
 State but throughout the Union and before the world. 
 
 As great cities are rapidly growing up in other parts of the State, 
 we may study that experience with advantage. Anterior to the 
 constitution of 1846 the practical governing population of this State 
 was agricultural. Comparatively little attention had been paid to 
 municipal government. In that instrument, while county and town 
 systems received comparative protection, the charters of cities and 
 incorporated villages were left almost absolutely within the control 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 CHARTER OF 1830. 
 
 The city of New York had gone on under a simple, popular gov 
 ernment which had many elements of great value. Substantially, the 
 administration was conducted by the mayor, and two boards of the 
 Common Council, their committees, and the officers appointed by them. 
 The elections were separate, in the spring of the year, and were an 
 nual. Popular opinion easily became effectual in controlling the 
 policy of government. A political revolution was frequently pro 
 duced by the charge of excessive expenditure on the part of the city 
 government. The liability to change, the exposure to publicity, made 
 any elaborate and prolonged plans of plunder unsafe, if not impos 
 sible. 
 
 It is not meant that the deterioration that afterward ensued is to 
 be ascribed wholly to the new methods of government adopted. 
 
 INJURIOUS CHANGES. 
 
 Doubtless important changes have -occurred in the conditions under 
 which the municipal government is carried on. Changes in the popu 
 lationa loss of the habit of acting in city affairs, resulting from the 
 inability to act with effect during twenty years in which the elective 
 power of the people has been nugatory decay of civic training, 
 forced exclusion and voluntary withdrawal from participation in 
 local government for a generation the absorption of the public at- 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 235 
 
 
 
 tention in the controversies of national politics, leading to an almost 
 total neglect of the questions of administration on which the compe 
 titions of politics formerly turned the vast disproportion in the 
 numerical strength of parties formed on sectional questions : these 
 are causes which make the machinery of popular government work 
 less favorably than before. 
 
 But it cannot be doubted that various changes, originating in a 
 false theory of government and continuing through a series of years, 
 by which the legislative power was very much weakened, and the 
 spending officers became not only exempt from any regulation by the 
 legislative bodies and practically irresponsible, but by means of their 
 patronage acquired practical control in the government, and a com 
 plexity of system by which the elective power of the people became 
 ineffectual were steps in a downward progress. 
 
 INTERFERENCE WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The abuses and wrongs of the local administration which found 
 no redress generated a public opinion under which appeals were 
 made, in the name of reform, for relief to the legislative power at 
 Albany ; and it was found that an act could be easily contrived 
 whereby one official could be expelled from office, and, by some de 
 vice, a substitute put in his place. It was found likewise that the 
 powers of an office could be withdrawn and vested in a different 
 officer or in a commission, the selection of which could be dictated 
 from the State capital. 
 
 It is the experience of human government that abuses of power 
 follow power wherever it goes,. What was at first done, apparently 
 at least, to protect the rights of the minority or of individuals, what 
 was first done for the sake of good government, came in a little time 
 to be done for the purposes of interested individuals or cliques. Dif 
 fering in politics as city and State did, party selfishness and ambition 
 grasped at patronage and power, and the great municipal trust came 
 to be the traffic of the lobbies. Institutions wholly unfit to answer 
 any use or object of government in a civilized community, and by 
 virtue of their structure capable of nothing but abuses growing into 
 crimes against the communities in which they existed, such as the 
 board of supervisors, erected in 1857, came into existence under the 
 motive power of the division of the spoils which they partitioned 
 between their contrivers, combining equal numbers from both par 
 ties. 
 
236 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 4 
 
 CHAETEE OF 1870. 
 
 The consummation of this deceptive system was in the charter of 
 1870, which was enacted in the name and under the pretense of re 
 storing local self-government. It was a long document, full of minute 
 regulations, copied from preceding laws; but its vital force and real 
 object resided in a few sentences. It totally stripped the elective 
 councils of all legislative power, and covered up that design by sev 
 eral pages, in which it enumerated ordinances the councils had, from 
 time immemorial, power to establish, but which had. never been 
 thought worthy of mention in any previous act of legislation. 
 
 It practically vested all legislative power in the Mayor, Comptroller, 
 Commissioner of Public Works and the Commissioner of Parks. It 
 vacated the offices of the existing incumbents at the end of five days, 
 and. provided for the appointment of their successors by the then 
 existing mayor, who was one of the quartet. Every device to make 
 these four officers totally irresponsible was carefully adopted. The 
 existing law, which had stood for many years, by which the mayor, 
 Comptroller and Street Commissioner had been removable by the Gov 
 ernor, as in the case of sheriffs, was repealed. A restoration of that 
 power of removal, as regards the mayor, was demanded in the follow 
 ing year, and in 1873 was accorded, with the unanimous consent of 
 both political parties. 
 
 This charter, which practically put in abeyance the elective power 
 of the people of the city of New York for years, and set up an 
 oligarchy of four persons, who, aided by a subsequent amendment, 
 had all powers of expenditure and taxation of legislation and admin 
 istration over a million people was enacted under the pretense of 
 restoring local self-government. It was objected at the time that 
 those officers so appointed were, to all practical intents and purposes, 
 a commission, just as under the system which was to be abolished ; 
 that they were in effect as much appointed by the State Legislature as 
 as if their names had been inserted in the law ; and that the elective 
 power of the people was annulled, and rulers set over them without 
 their consent. 
 
 How unanimously that charter passed by what barter of the 
 municipal -trusts and corrupt use of municipal money and how, 
 within a. month, the officers placed by a legislative act, without the 
 intervention of a new election, in supreme dominion over a million of 
 our people, divided up four millions of a pretended audit of six 
 millions are now matters of history. These were the fruits, not of 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 237 
 
 a popular election, not of local self-government, but of the culmina 
 tion of a system under which the governing officials had been practi 
 cally appointed by legislative acts of the State. The device of creat 
 ing a special appointing power to do what was desired by a clique or 
 party, or was agreed upon beforehand, was not perfectly new. It 
 had been frequently used in a smaller way. 
 
 The contagion of such practices threatens to extend to other cities. 
 If public opinion and the state of the constitution and laws allow it, 
 the temptation to transfer the contest for offices from the local elec 
 tions to the legislative halls will arise as often as aspirants are de 
 feated and can expect to recover there what they have lost at home. 
 There is no remedy but in the refusal to give to such devices the 
 sanction of law, until constitutional provisions shall give permanency 
 to the methods of appointment and removal in municipal governments. 
 
 1873. 
 
 The charter of 1878, while it contains many provisions that are 
 valuable, still leaves to the heads of departments the power to create 
 officers and fix their salaries, which no one has ever thought of con 
 ferring on the Governor or the Comptroller of the State, who are 
 properly subject to the specific and minute regulations of law ; and it 
 leaves all the power of levying taxes, spending money, contracting 
 debt to a large extent, and all the powers of legislation in the hands 
 of the Mayor, Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen and 
 the President of the Department of Taxes. 
 
 In the hands of every one of the present incumbents, we have the 
 satisfaction to believe that the interests of the people are perfectly 
 secure; but we ought to consider what manner of institutions shall 
 be formed for the long future, with its varied changes of official per 
 sons whether we will continue such vast powers having no parallel 
 in any government. 
 
 The charter of 1873 sought to shun the defect of the charter of 
 1870 in respect to removal. It restored the power of the removal of 
 the mayor by the Governor. It provided for the removal of heads 
 of departments by the mayor, subject to the written approval of the 
 Governor, thus establishing an artificial check upon an artificial sys 
 tem ; aiming to secure independence except in case of official miscon 
 duct on the part of the members of the body on which it conferred 
 such extraordinary powers ; and shrinking from converting an oligar 
 chical into a despotic system. 
 
238 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 At the present session, various propositions have been introduced, 
 and others have been suggested, for changing the powers and patron 
 age of the city government. None of them have come before me for 
 official action. No comprehensive or well-considered system has 
 been proposed. Hasty and partial changes by law, which, however 
 plausible on their face, cannot be judged of except through an ac 
 quaintance with the whole mass of preceding legislation upon which 
 they operate, and likely to produce results not foreseen by their au 
 thors, were not desirable. 
 
 In the better times of government and legislation in this State, 
 when the traditions of popular rights were respected, the formation 
 of a charter for a great city was a matter of deliberation. The people 
 to be affected were fully consulted. Generally a convention of their 
 representatives was held to consider the matter, full opportunity was 
 given to discuss and perfect so important an instrument. The people 
 were allowed to elect their chief officers with a knowledge before 
 hand of the substantial nature of the powers these officers would ex 
 ercise. The idea of working a total revolution in the depositaries- of 
 governmental powers, by a legislative act, without the intervention 
 of an election that should allow the people to say on whom new and 
 vast powers should be conferred, would have been treated as a gross 
 invasion of the rights of the people. 
 
 Even in restoring the legislative power to a legislative department 
 of the city government, the new Legislature ought to be formed ac 
 cording to the best traditions and the best experience of American 
 government ; and the people ought to be allowed to choose it at a 
 fresh election, and in contemplation of the new powers conferred 
 which amount to a new creation. 
 
 I am not inclined to tamper by inconsiderate and fragmentary 
 legislation with the government of the metropolis, or of the other 
 great cities of the State, but I feel profoundly the necessity of atten 
 tion to the structure, power, and duties of those governments ; and 
 when we do constitute a new system I am anxious that it should an 
 swer the just expectations of the people. .There is no subject which 
 to-day interests them more deeply ; no subject more complicated or 
 more difficult of solution ; none which requires more thoughtful at 
 tention, more thorough discussion, to mature results with which we 
 shall be satisfied in future years. There is no case in which it is 
 more your duty and mine to say to those who seek changes : " You 
 must found your claim to the advantages of political and official 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES. 239 
 
 power upon the best promise of good government in the nature of 
 the institutions you propose. You must accept official accountability 
 as a condition of official trust." 
 
 I have set forth some of the evils which have followed the viola 
 tion of sound principles of government in the city of New York, not 
 only to show the wrongs to which the people of that municipality 
 have been subjected, but also to illustrate the dangers which threaten 
 other cities, unjess we can fix sound principles in the minds of our 
 people and make them operative in the legislative bodies or intrench 
 them in the constitution. 
 
 The people comprised in the cities of the State, exclusive of New 
 York, are to-day more numerous than the inhabitants of the metropo 
 lis. They form a larger portion of the population of the State. 
 This is exclusive of the incorporated villages. 
 
 If local self-government or home-rule is to be secured to them, 
 and they are to be protected from the abuses which naturally hap 
 pened earlier in New York, it must be done by the establishment 
 of a general system, which shall be respected by the people and by 
 their representatives. The Legislature is burdened by numerous ap 
 plications for changes in local laws, the operation of which on the 
 preexisting mass of legislation cannot be easily ascertained. This 
 obscurity is often a cover under which the objects of selfish indi 
 viduals-- or cliques, or partisan purposes, are concealed. Every revo 
 lution of politics in the locality or in the State is followed by efforts 
 to change the governing power or to effect a new disposal of offices 
 and patronage in the locality. Such demoralizing efforts could not 
 be readily effectual if well-defined principles of government pervaded 
 all municipal charters. Diversities will no doubt continue to be un 
 avoidable, but the advantages of general laws over special legislation, 
 now recognized in our political theories and maxims, should be ex 
 tended, as far as practicable, to our city governments. Whatever 
 can be accomplished by legislation to correct the evils growing out of 
 the discordant charters which now exist, and to infuse into them 
 general principles that shall become a guide to future legislation, 
 ought to be done. But the only effectual remedy is in amendment 
 of the constitution fixing the general plan of municipal government, 
 especially in respect to the appointing power, and at the same time 
 establishing on a durable basis official accountability. 
 
 With a view of calling public attention to this subject and of lay 
 ing the foundation of a plan of legislation and of constitutional 
 
240 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 amendment I recommend the appointment of a commission who 
 shall report to the next Legislature the forms of such laws or consti 
 tutional amendments as are required. If you do not think it advisa 
 ble to constitute such a commission, the revisers of the statutes might 
 be instructed to collate and report upon the condition of the laws 
 relating to the cities in aid of future action by legislation or constitu 
 tional amendment. 
 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The commission which the Governor recommended was 
 duly authorized and appointed. It embraces some of the 
 leading men of both parties in the State of New York. Its 
 preliminary report indicates that its final work will be of 
 large value not only to the people of the State but of the 
 whole country, for the problems which it seeks to solve en 
 gage the attention of all States. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 1876. 
 
 ATTENTION has already been directed to the fact that both 
 branches of the New York Legislature in 1876 were under 
 the control of the Republicans, and that many leading repre 
 sentatives of the majority were not at all inclined to treat him 
 in a friendly spirit. His annual message was looked for with 
 even more interest than in the preceding year. It treats 
 largely of national questions, and, in dealing with affairs in 
 the State of New York, it conveys much information of gen 
 eral interest. It was communicated to the Legislature on 
 January 4th, and is herewith appended : 
 
 STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ) 
 ALBANY, January 4, 1876. j 
 
 To the Legislature : 
 
 The annual meeting of the Legislative Assemblies, at the beginning 
 of the new year, finds the people of this Commonwealth in the enjoy 
 ment of blessings which ought to fill us with reverent thankfulness 
 to Him from whom cometh every good and perfect gift. Whatever 
 the earth could yield to the labor of man, under the fructifying and 
 genial forces of Nature, we have garnered. Health, peace, and do 
 mestic tranquillity have been ours. Capacities to produce in. largest 
 abundance and with least sacrifice, or to acquire by exchange through 
 the best natural and artificial machinery of transport and travel, all 
 things which minister to material well-being, to the prosperity and 
 wealth of a State, and to the comfort and felicity of its individual 
 members, have been and are subject to our use. 
 
 It was early discovered that New York possessed within her ter 
 ritory the natural passes of military operations, which, in the wars 
 for colonial existence and for national independence, cross-tracked 
 11 
 
243 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 our soil with fire and blood. Our territory was also found, on the 
 later development of the national growth, to occupy the natural thor 
 oughfares of -travel and traffic. It touches the ocean with a harbor 
 ever open, accessible, and safe, close by whose gates the ocean-cur 
 rents compel to pass nearly all transatlantic navigation to and from 
 this country. It connects that harbor and the tranquil Hudson on 
 the north with Lake Champlain and the Canadas ; and on the west, 
 by a level crossing the bases of the mountain-ranges that traverse the 
 continent, with Lake Erie and its chain of great inland seas, bordered 
 by rising commonwealths, which are the marvels of modern times. 
 
 We are, with our fellow-citizens of the other States, joint inher 
 itors of a system of government the selected product of the oldest 
 existing civilization formed according to the best ideals evolved 
 from human experience, but freed from the overgrowth of habits and 
 interests elsewhere incident to such experience ; and planted in the 
 virgin soil of an unoccupied continent, abounding in all the gifts of 
 Nature. Our population, by the census just taken, is near four and 
 three-quarter millions. Our annual product of agriculture is still 
 greater than that of any of our young rivals, whom we contemplate 
 with admiring pride as in part the creations of our policy and the 
 swarming homes of our own children. Our domestic manufactures are 
 larger than those of any other State. Our foreign commerce is once 
 and a half that of all the rest of the Union. 
 
 Common-schools, in which are taught a million of youths, and 
 seminaries of higher learning, are training our successors to improve 
 on whatever they can inherit from the present generation. Institu 
 tions of charity dispense everywhere their benefactions ; and the sur 
 face of our whole domain is dotted thickly by edifices whose spires 
 point to heaven. 
 
 If, on this fair picture, there are spots that indicate a recent 
 prevalence of private waste or folly, or that disclose evils or wrongs 
 by government, resulting in much temporary distress, let us remem 
 ber with humility that we have been in part the authors of what we 
 deplore, or, at least, consenting witnesses ; and let us be grateful that 
 we can reform what is amiss ; and that, to our hands, under God, is 
 committed our own future. 
 
 DEBTS OF THE STATE. 
 
 The nominal amount of the debts of the State, as they appear on 
 the books of the Comptroller, without deducting the sinking-funds 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 243 
 
 applicable to their payment on the 30th of September, 1875, the close 
 of the last fiscal year, was $28,328,686.40, classified as follows : 
 
 General fund $3,119,526 40 
 
 Contingent 68,000 00 
 
 Canal 10,086,66000 
 
 Bounty 15,054,500 00 
 
 Total $28,328,686 40 
 
 THE SINKING-FUNDS. 
 
 The amount of those debts, on the 30th of September, 1875, after 
 deducting the assets in the sinking-funds at that time applicable to 
 their payment, is exhibited by the following statement, furnished by 
 the Comptroller : 
 
 DEBT. SINKING-FUND. BALANCE. 
 
 September 30, 18T5. September 30, 1ST5. 
 
 General fund.... .$3,119,526 40 $3,029,50570 $89,92070 
 
 Contingent 68,000 00 36,677 64 31,322 36 
 
 Canal 10,086,66000 1,448,34551 8,638,31459 
 
 Bounty 15,054,50000 1 9,066,753 29 5,987,74671 
 
 Totals ; . $28,328,686 40- $13,581,382 14 $14,747,304 26 
 
 The actual reduction, during the year, of the debts by cancellation 
 of matured stocks, and by the purchase of $858,000 of the bounty 
 loan for the sinking-fund, is $1,870,770. 
 
 The diminution, during the year, of the debt, after deducting the 
 assets of the sinking-fund, is $2 ,744,505.06. 
 
 THE BOUNTY DEBT. 
 
 But even this exhibit does not completely show the situation of 
 the sinking-funds as we are to deal with them in the legislation of 
 your present session. The appropriations made at the last session be 
 came operative on the 1st of October, 1875. The taxies levied for the 
 fiscal year, beginning on that day, are in process of collection. 
 
 The appropriation for the bounty debt sinking-fund was $4,260,- 
 000. If that sum be deducted from the balance of $5,987,746.71, as 
 shown in the table for the 30th September, 1875, there would remain 
 but $1,727,746.71 to be provided for by your legislation. 
 
 1 Deducting interest accrued to October 1, 1875, payable January 1, 1876. 
 
244 . THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 The near approach of the extinction of the bounty debt suggests 
 a retrospect. If it had been a necessary condition to a restored 
 Union, our people would not count its cost. But it was essentially an 
 after-war adjustment, and, if the criticism of the Comptroller, in his 
 report of 1875, be just, that though created " nominally to pay boun 
 ties to the volunteer soldiers, who enlisted in the service of the 
 United States during the rebellion, but only an inconsiderable part of 
 this sum is supposed to have reached the soldiers, who were actually 
 engaged in the contest," the experience would be chiefly useful in il 
 lustrating the magnificent costliness of improvident debt. The appro 
 priation for it in the last ten years amounts to $39,983,862.97, and 
 interest .would swell the present cost, to at least $50,000,000. When 
 the appropriation of the present year shall be added, the people of 
 this State may be congratulated on its extinction. 
 
 CANAL DEBT. 
 
 The appropriation at the last session, for that portion of the canal 
 debt known as the floating canal debt, was $266,000, which will 
 complete its payment and leave a small surplus in the sinking-fund. 
 
 On the other hand, the sinking-fund for the canal debt proper 
 will fail to derive from the revenues of the canals the whole amount 
 of the installment required, and a deficiency of $625,610.70 will 
 have to be supplied. 
 
 WHOLE AMOUNT OF DEBTS. 
 
 The application of the sums appropriated from taxes, now in 
 process of collection, would reduce the State debts to about ten and 
 one-quarter millions of dollars, exclusive of accruing interest. 
 
 Another observation ought to be made in respect to the sinking- 
 funds. Nearly $1,200,000 of the assets consist of premiums on its. 
 stocks at cost or at present market rates. 
 
 It is clear that the operations of the sinking-funds should be re 
 vised. The best investment, certainly the safest, for a State as for an 
 individual, is in the payment of its own debts,- if that be possible on 
 reasonable terms. Individuals seldom find easy credit anything but 
 a snare ; States never. A large mass of cash on hand, even if in 
 sinking-funds, tempts to improvident expenditure and to illegitimate 
 use. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL EESTEICTIONS ON PUBLIC DEBTS. 
 
 Thirty years ago, in June, the convention sat which formed our 
 present constitution. It was called into being chiefly to impose re- 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. . 45 
 
 straints on the power of the government of this State to contract 
 debts. The purpose of the people to establish these guards against 
 their agents was the result of years of animated discussion. The 
 restraints were carefully devised. They have been useful, and, in the 
 main, effectual. In 1846 our State debts were nearly $24,000,000. 
 In 1876 they will be reduced to $10,250,000. 
 
 The convention considered plans for applying such restrictions to 
 all municipal bodies and local governing officials. They did not feel 
 able, in the period of their session, to mature satisfactory provisions. 
 They devolved the duty on the Legislature, commanding its per 
 formance. Their injunction has been unexecuted, and in 1876 the 
 city of New York has a debt of $122,000,000, after deducting its 
 sinking-funds, against a debt of less than $14,000,000 in 1846. The 
 other cities of the State owe $60,000,000, and many counties and 
 towns are also largely burdened. 
 
 Sole surviving member of the committee which prepared the 
 constitutional restrictions on the creation of State debts, I might be 
 permitted, in honor of the illustrious dead, to trace the moral our 
 experience has since proved of the utility of their work; but I have 
 recounted the results to show that the policy was then, and is now, 
 absolutely necessary to the safety of the people in all State and local 
 governments. 
 
 TAXES FOE STATE PURPOSES IN 1874. 
 
 The taxes levied by the Legislature of 1874 were 7J mills on a 
 valuation of $2,169,307,873. Their produce, when all realized, is 
 
 $15,727,482.08. 
 
 IN 1875. 
 
 The taxes levied by the Legislature of 1875 were 6 mills. They 
 were computed in the Comptroller s office and in the legislative 
 committees on the valuation of the previous year. On that basis 
 their produce would have been $13,015,847.24. 
 
 THE SEDUCTION. 
 
 The reduction would have been $2,711,634.84. But the valua 
 tion was increased to $2,367,780,102. The produce of a six-mills 
 tax on that amount is $14,206,680.61. The increase of the valuation 
 gives an excess over the estimated amount of $1,190,833.37. The 
 reduction actually effected is $1,520,801.47. 
 
 APPEOPEIATIONS OF 1875. 
 
 A reduction of taxes, without reduction in appropriations, would 
 
246 
 
 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 but create a deficiency and a floating debt. These would have to be 
 paid by a subsequent increase of taxes. The appropriation bills were 
 framed to correspond with the lower valuation, and much effort was 
 made to keep down the appropriations. The result is shown in the 
 following table : 
 
 APPEOPEIATIONS AND TAXES OF 1875 COMPAEED. 
 
 
 i 
 
 Appropriations 
 of 1875. 
 
 Tax computed 
 on Valuation 
 of 1874. 
 
 Tax computed 
 on Valuation 
 of 1875. 
 
 EXCESS. 
 
 Schools 
 
 11 
 
 $0712000 00 
 
 $2 711 634 84 
 
 $2 950 7 ?5 is 
 
 $ 7 4S090 20 
 
 Bounty debt 
 
 9, 
 
 4.260,000 00 
 
 4.338 615 75 
 
 4 735 560 20 
 
 396944 45 
 
 Capitol 
 
 Canal floating debt 
 Canal awards 
 
 ! 
 
 1,000,000 00 
 266,000 00 
 422 766 90 
 
 1,084,653 94 
 271,163 48 
 433 861 57 
 
 1,183,890 05 
 295,972 51 
 473 556 
 
 99,236 11 
 24,809 03 
 30 694 45 
 
 General purposes 
 Deficiency and asylums. . 
 
 i| 
 Hi 
 
 2,986,825 00 
 1,525,213 53 
 
 2.982,71)8 83 
 1,193,119 33 
 
 3,255,697 64 
 1,302,279 06 
 
 272,899 31 
 109,159 73 
 
 Total 
 
 
 $13,172,805 43 
 
 $13,015,847 24 
 
 $14,206,680 61 
 
 $1,190,833 37 
 
 Excess of appropriations over tax, computed on valuation of 1874 $156,958 19 
 
 Excess of tax, computed on the valuation of 1875, over tax computed on valu 
 ation of 1874 $1,190,833 37 
 
 Excess of tax, computed on the valuation of 1875, over appropriations of 1875. $1,033,875 18 
 
 The reduction in the appropriations of 1875, below the taxes of 
 1874 counting, at its true construction, one item about which there 
 may be some doubt is $2,554,677.05. This leaves the sum of 
 $1,033,875.18 applicable to the reduction of taxes for the coming 
 fiscal year. 
 
 REDUCTION OF APPROPRIATIONS FROM CANAL REVENUES OE FUNDS. 
 
 The appropriations for ordinary expenses and repairs of the canals 
 made at the last session for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 18-75, 
 were $1,109,150, and for the current fiscal year a special contingent 
 provision of $150,000, making $1,259,150. The like appropriations 
 made at the session of 1874 were $1,424,510, and a provision for 
 the then current year for deficiencies of $250,000. The reduction in 
 1875, as compared with 1874, is $415,360. 
 
 The canal reappropriation bill in 1874 reappropriated $917,319.63 ; 
 that of 1875 reappropriated $340,079.19. The diminution is $577,- 
 240.44. 
 
 The amount raised by former taxes reclaimed into the Treasury, 
 by striking out items in the reappropriation bill of 1875, is $67,- 
 765.69. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 247 
 
 ITEMS OF EEDFCTIOX OF TAXES. 
 
 The objects in respect to which a reduction of taxes was effected, 
 
 were : 
 
 
 18T4. 
 
 1875. 
 
 REDUCTION. 
 
 Extraordinary canal-repairs 
 Asylums and reformatory 
 
 $1,898,144 39 
 813,490 45 
 
 None. 
 $479,800 00 
 
 $1,898,144 39 
 333,690 45 
 
 General purposes 
 
 4 189475 84 
 
 3,696 117* 66 
 
 493 358 18 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 $2,725,193 02 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. In respect to the first item, the memorandum assigning reasons 
 for withholding the Executive sanction from the bill making appro 
 priations for extraordinary repairs to the canals, contains the follow 
 ing observations : 
 
 "The budget for extraordinary repairs, as originally prepared, 
 proposed- an expenditure of $1,400,000. In the ordinary course of 
 things, the additions, which would have been made to it during its 
 passage through the two Houses, by the friends of local objects able 
 to influence those bodies, would probably have swollen it to as great 
 a magnitude as the bill of last year for the same purpose, which 
 amounted in tax to nearly $1,900,000. 
 
 "It was in this condition of things, when the routine, which had 
 become so firmly established, was likely to_ bring for my action bills 
 which could not be totally rejected, and perhaps could not be effect 
 ually altered, and which would practically continue the existing sys 
 tems of canal expenditure, against which I had objected in my annual 
 message and invoked retrenchment and reform, that I felt it my duty 
 to enter upon the investigation which resulted in the special message 
 of March 19, 1875. 
 
 " The discussion which ensued, generated a spirit in the legislative 
 bodies, and among the people, that triumphed over and broke up the 
 routine, hitherto dominating, and which, like an enchanted ship, 
 moving onward in its course without a crew, was drifting us into a 
 repetition of all improvidences, abuses, and frauds, so long infesting 
 this department of the public administration. 
 
 " The results of this discussion will be found in a reduction of the 
 appropriations for the expenses of collection, superintendence, and 
 ordinary repairs, and in the extinction of expenditures for extraordi 
 nary repairs." 
 
 2. The reduction in the second item was the result of a policy 
 adopted by the finance committees of the two Houses, with my con 
 currence, of confining the appropriations to such sums as would make 
 
248 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 available and bring into use the portions most nearly approaching 
 completion of the asylums and reformatory, now in the course of con 
 struction. The appropriations allowed to pass conform, in the main, 
 to that plan. 
 
 3. The memorandum assigning reasons for withholding the Exec 
 utive sanction from certain items of the supply bill, expressed the be 
 lief that "with the reductions made in the legislative bodies, and by 
 the refusal of the Executive sanction to items -and bills passed by the 
 Legislature, the Expenditures and appropriations ought not to exceed 
 the taxes levied, and the reduction of taxes will be a clear saving to 
 the people." It added that " the failure of sundry items and bills to 
 receive the Executive sanction will reduce the appropriations as fol 
 lows." And it enumerates such items to be paid by taxes amount 
 ing to $332,169 
 
 And items stricken out which reclaim cash to the 
 
 Treasury ; 67,7(55 
 
 $399,934 
 And items to be paid out of canal revenue $365,940 
 
 The failure to keep the appropriations down to the taxes levied, 
 on former occasions, has led to deficiencies in the Treasury and float 
 ing debts which are forbidden by the constitution, and to violations 
 of the sinking-funds. We cannot too vigilantly guard against a re 
 currence of these evils, or insist too inflexibly that no appropriation 
 shall be made until the means of paying it shall have been provided. 
 
 REDUCTION OF STATE TAXES FOE 1874 TO ONE-HALF THE TAXES 
 
 OF 1876. 
 
 The taxes for State purposes in 1874 were 7 mills on a 
 
 valuation of $2,169,307,873, producing $15,727,482 08 
 
 The taxes for State purposes in 1876, if reduced to 3-$$fr 
 mills on the valuation of 1874, or 3-ffifo mills on the 
 valuation of 1875, which is $2,367,780,102, would yield $7,863,741 04 
 
 After a careful consideration of the elements of the question, I 
 have arrived at the conclusion that a reduction, substantially of this 
 extent, can be effected without detriment to the public interests, if 
 there exist no deficiencies yet undiscovered in the public accounts, 
 and if no extraordinary necessity for new appropriations shall arise. 
 
 It may be proper to indicate some of the chief particulars in 
 which this reduction can be made. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 249 
 
 1. Payments on debts of the State : 
 
 Appropria tions 
 
 in 18T4. Necessary in 1S76. 
 
 For bounty debt $4,260,000 00 $1,727,746 00 
 
 For canal debt 198,888 00 625,610 70 
 
 $,458,888 00 $2,353,356 70 
 Reduction $2,105,531 30 
 
 2. Canal expenditures : 
 
 18T4. 18T6. 
 
 For extraordinary repairs $1,898,144 39 None. 
 
 For awards. 474,53610 $172,68049 
 
 $2,372,680 49 
 Reduction which, as to canal awards, is estimated $2,200,000 00 
 
 3. Reduction by means of surplus of taxes in 1875 $1,033,875 18 
 
 4. The taxes provided for general purposes 
 
 in 1875 were less than those of 1874 by $493,358 18 
 The excess of appropriations over taxes 
 
 computed on the old valuation was .... 156,958 19 
 
 Balance $336,399 99 
 
 Counting on the same appropriation this 
 
 year, there will be a reduction of $336,399 99 
 
 5. The tax for new asylums and reformatory 
 
 in 1874 was .$813,490 45 
 
 The appropriation for 1875 was 479,800 00 
 
 Balance $333,690 45 
 
 If the same appropriations were made in 
 
 1876 as in 1874, the reduction would be $333,690 45 
 
 The .reductions effected in these it*ms would be $6,009,496 92 
 
 In order to effect the diminution of taxes one-half, there 
 would remain to be effected out of. the other appropri 
 ations a further. reduction of $1,854,244 12 
 
 The other taxes in 1875, as appropriated, were : 
 
 For new Capitol $1,000,000 00 
 
 For asylums and reformatory 479,800 00 
 
 Remainder of taxes appropriated for general purposes, 1874 3,696,117 66 
 
 Taxes appropriated for schools, 1874 ....... 2,660,000 00 
 
 Total $7,835,917 66 
 
 A quarter of that would be $1,958,979 41 
 
 The balance of the reduction proposed is $1,854,244 12 
 
#50 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Three-quarters of the reduction contemplated will have been 
 effected out of half the taxes in the items mentioned. There would 
 seem to be no difficulty out of the remaining half of the taxes to 
 make the remaining quarter of the proposed reduction. The subject 
 will be further discussed when the principal objects of the expendi 
 tures are separately considered. 
 
 THE PERMANENT EESULT. 
 
 It is not intended to insist on positive exactness of results. In 
 the exigencies of a great State, unforeseen necessities may arise. 
 But, in private business, and in the administration of those great cor 
 porate bodies which are the growth of modern times, and some of 
 which receive and disburse larger sums than the Treasury of the 
 State, it is found to be wise and even necessary to work up to a 
 systematic plan. The State ought to do the same. It is one of the 
 evils of unsystematic legislation and administration that results are 
 never certain ; that expenditures exceed appropriations, and appro 
 priations exceed taxes. A floating debt is thus created by some sub 
 ordinate officer or authority, which the constitution expressly pro 
 hibits the law-making powers of the government from -creating, 
 except to the extent of $1,000,000. 
 
 But there seems to be no reason to doubt that, on the scale of 
 our present population and our present policy, the remission of taxes 
 may be permanent. 
 
 In 1877 the million and three-quarters required this year for the 
 bounty debt will be unnecessary. It is possible, if the canals are 
 well managed, that the demand from them on the Treasury may be 
 somewhat reduced. .The State-prisons, the quarantine, and the salt 
 works, all afford scope for retrenchments. They now share the fate 
 of all other business and speculations which the State undertakes. A 
 decay of income and a growth of expenditures indicate the incompe 
 tence of the State in its sleepy indifference to compete with the ever- 
 vigilant and earnest activity of private interests. The deficiency in 
 the State-prisons for the year is nearly five hundred and fifty thou 
 sand dollars, and of the quarantine about sixty-two thousand dollars, . 
 making $612,000. This sum and the last installment of the bounty 
 debt, amounting to a million and three-quarters, which is a charge 
 on this year, and the deficiency in the canal sinking-fund, amount in 
 the aggregate to $2,960,000. 
 
 The result, expressed in round numbers, is that, after you have 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 251 
 
 reduced the taxes for State purposes from sixteen millions to eight 
 millions, three of the eight millions remaining are or ought to be for 
 exceptional expenditures. That amount, therefore, ought to form a 
 fund adequate, after this year, to meet the exceptional expenditures 
 of the State for improving the main trunks of the canals, and finish 
 ing all public buildings that ought to be finished, and for an ultimate 
 further remission of taxes. 
 
 I have made this explicit exposition of the subject, at the opening 
 of your session, in order that in all the formative stages of legislation 
 involving expenditures, appropriations, and taxation, the considera 
 tions suggested may be present to your minds. The amendment to 
 the constitution, first brought into operation at the last session, im 
 posing on the Governor the obligation to revise every item of appro 
 priation, works a change in official practice amounting to a revolu 
 tion. Hitherto, as the appropriations were embraced in bills that 
 had to be accepted or rejected, as a whole, the items have been, in 
 effect, withdrawn from the action of the Governor. The responsi 
 bility now devolved on him is very laborious and difficult. It tends, 
 perhaps, to work some change in the customary relations of the de 
 partments. In ordinary legislation, it is stretching the function of 
 the executive veto too far, to apply it to every case in which the 
 Governor, if a member of the Senate or Assembly, would vote against 
 a bill. There seems to be a disposition to hold the Executive to the 
 extreme of accountability in respect to appropriations. This ten 
 dency may be carried so far as to disturb the constitutional equilib 
 rium of the executive and legislative forces. Not desiring to am 
 plify my official powers, nor disposed to shrink from any just re 
 sponsibility, the occasion seems fit to invite a frank understanding, to 
 avow my own wish for, and to seek from you, a cordial cooperation 
 on this subject, for the good of our common constituents. I have 
 endeavored to narrate the financial condition, prospects, and possi 
 bilities of the State in plain language, divested of the technical forms 
 of complicated accounts, which render financial statements capable 
 of being analyzed only by experts, and incapable of being under 
 stood by anybody, without explanations which they do not contain. 
 
 POLICY OF THE STATE AS TO THE EEIE CANAL. 
 
 In my annual message of last year, I entered into a full discus 
 sion of the policy of the State in respect to the construction, owner 
 ship, management, and improvement of the Erie CanaL 
 
252 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 In my special message of March 19, 1875,.! opened a discussion as 
 to the improvidence, waste, and corruption which have infested the 
 administration of the canal system. Inviting your attention to those 
 documents, I confine myself on this occasion to a brief summary of 
 the policy of the State as it may be deemed now to be settled : 
 
 . 1. Not denying the general unfitness of government to construct, 
 own, or manage the works which offer the means of transportation, 
 the State of New York saw an exception in the situation and in the 
 nature of the canals which are trunk connections between the Hud 
 son Kiver and the great inland seas on the north and west. Con 
 necting vast navigable public waters, they assume" something of a 
 public character. They are a link of 350 miles in a system which, 
 on the one hand by 1,500 miles of the waters of the great lakes, and 
 on the other hand by 3,150 miles of the waters of the Hudson River 
 and the Atlantic Ocean, connects the crowded populations of Europe 
 with the fertile prairies of the Northwest, covered with their net 
 work of tributary railways. 
 
 2. The Erie Canal remains an important and valuable instrument 
 of transport, not only by its direct uses, but by,its regulating power 
 in competition with the trunk railways between the East and the 
 West. 
 
 3. The Erie Canal has a capacity to accommodate an aggregate 
 tonnage at least twice as large as has ever offered. It is capable of 
 being made an instrument of the cheapest transportation per ton, 
 per mile, which artificial navigation, in existing geographical and 
 physical conditions, can attain ; not by changing its essential char 
 acter, but by perfecting it and giving it the highest efficiency. 
 
 4. The policy upon which the State appears to have decided, and 
 that which I had the honor to advocate in the Constitutional Con 
 ventions of 1846 and 1867, and which is set forth in my messages of 
 the last year, is to keep these great public works as a trust .for the 
 million, not seeking to make revenue or profit to the sovereign out of 
 the right of way. 
 
 The State originally undertook the construction and administra- 
 tion of the public works in order to secure a facile and cheap trans 
 portation, to which private enterprise was then and long afterward 
 inadequate. 
 
 It early opened to free competition every mode of transit, even in 
 rivalry to its own works, for the interchange of the agricultural 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 253 
 
 products of the "West and of the manufactures and merchandise of 
 the East. 
 
 It has not exacted from the trust a full return of its advances ; 
 but in expenditures in excess of the revenues and defrayed by taxes, 
 and in remission of tolls, it has made large sacrifices to cheapen the 
 cost of transportation. 
 
 It has not sought to limit the advantages of its policy to its own 
 citizens ; nor has it paused because the prices (even for our own con 
 sumption) of exported cereals and other agricultural products are 
 fixed by foreign markets, so that the benefits of a reduced cost of 
 conveying them to the seaboard accrue chiefly to the Western pro 
 ducers. 
 
 SITUATION AT THE LAST SESSION". 
 
 In the progress of the last session it became obvious that the re 
 trenchment in the ordinary expenses of the canals, and in the out 
 lays for new work recommended in the message, were not likely to 
 be in any degree realized. The appropriations for ordinary repairs, 
 as passed by the Assembly and by the Canal Committee, were nearly 
 equal to those of the previous year. The appropriations for new 
 work, as called for by the budget submitted by the Canal Commis 
 sioners to the committees of the Legislature, were at least as large as 
 the similar estimates of the year before. 
 
 In the mean time the canal revenues for the months of September 
 and October, which are in the then current fiscal year, were falling 
 off one-quarter of their former amounts ; and the forwarders, boat 
 men, and others engaged in transportation, were appealing for a re 
 duction in the tolls, in opder to enable them to continue their busi 
 ness. 
 
 On an investigation, induced by this emergency, it was found 
 that in the preceding five years the State had levied taxes of between 
 eleven and twelve million dollars for extraordinary repairs besides 
 deficiencies in the sinking-fund, thereby imposing a burden of almost 
 three millions a year upon the tax -payers. 
 
 And upon inquiry as to how these vast sums had been expended, 
 it appeared that much had been for objects of no real utility, that 
 many of the contracts had been obtained by sham biddings in eva 
 sion of the law, and there was reason for suspicion as to the dura 
 bility and value of the work. 
 
254 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 EEFOEM. 
 
 In this condition of things, I proposed a reconciliation between 
 the discontented tax-payers and the distressed transporters by a 
 thorough reform in the service and the system, which should remit 
 taxes, reduce tolls, and increase the efficiency of the canals. 
 
 INVESTIGATING COMMISSION. 
 
 The first step was to obtain the information necessary to enable 
 remedies to be devised and wisely applied. The commission ap 
 pointed under the joint resolution and statute, consisting of Messrs. 
 John Bigelow, Daniel Magone, Jr., Alexander E. Orr, and John D. 
 Van Buren, Jr., immediately after their organization made such per 
 sonal inspection of the most important parts of the canals as was 
 possible before the water was let in for navigation ; and after that 
 was done they proceeded to investigate many of the contracts for 
 work on the canals and the transactions connected with them. 
 
 I shall not outrun the public sense of the great and onerous ser 
 vice which these gentlemen have given to the State when I say that 
 they have executed the trust reposed in them with unswerving and 
 impartial fidelity, and with distinguished intelligence and ability. 
 
 The frauds are not the simple case of embezzlement of public 
 money, or a cheat in the payment of taxes, but are to be traced 
 through the complicated work of construction, and are sheltered by 
 the complicity or connivance of officials whose duty it is to protect 
 the State. The truth has to be discovered and the proof obtained 
 from unwilling and sometimes unscrupulous witnesses. 
 
 The primary object is to reform the system and establish every 
 possible security against a recurrence of the evils. While security 
 for the future is of transcendent importance, indemnity for the past 
 is to be sought. Civil and criminal redress is to be enforced. 
 
 If it is a matter of toil and difficulty to make the investigations 
 effectual, it is infinitely more so to conduct the actions in the courts 
 to their conclusion, in cases so numerous and complicated. It will 
 be necessary for you to make a special appropriation for aid to the 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 INCOME AND EXPENSES OF CANALS. 
 
 The income and expenses of the canals for the fiscal year ending 
 September 30, 1875, are shown by the following table : 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 255 
 
 ii 
 
 rl 
 
 ill 
 l^| 
 
 Extraordinary 
 Repairs and 
 New Work. 
 
 Tf o o 05 co eo 
 co <N o o t- o o 
 
 
 OOiOt T-*IO 
 OO5CST-tOlQ 
 
 OsOOO^ 
 
 oocot- 
 
 Wl 05 t 1 
 
 co i- o o 
 
 T- I O 
 
 < oo 
 
 O f-C3 55 -^ 
 
 "iO~co "r-rs<ft^ cf ; 
 
 !4i: : : iilfS 
 
 
 1 A< 
 
 illiiiilll 
 
256 THE LIFE OP SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 EEAL INCOME. 
 
 It will be seen that the income is stated at $1,902,990.04, and the 
 explanation is made at the Auditor s office that, as the receipts are a 
 month later than the earnings, the computation includes the receipts 
 of September, 1874, and excludes those of September, 1875. As the 
 former month yielded $166,341.10 more than the latter, except for 
 this mode of computation the result would be $1,736,651. The esti 
 mate in my special message of March 19th, founded on the data there 
 given, was $1,715,168. The calendar year 1875 gives only $1,584,018. 
 
 COMPARATIVE STATEMENT, 1874 AND 1875. 
 
 The following is a comparative statement of the revenues and 
 expenses for the fiscal years 1874 and 1875, furnished at the Audi 
 tor s office : 
 
 Statement showing the Aggregate Receipts and Payments on Account of the 
 Ordinary Expenses of the Canals for the last Two Years. 
 
 1874. 1875, 
 
 Receipts from tolls, etc $2,947,972 91 $1,925,995 63 
 
 Payments to superintendents and repair con 
 tractors $1,1 76,021 46 $985,105 10 
 
 Payments by Canal Commissioners for repairs 121,694 91 279,616 69 
 
 Payments to collectors and their assistants. . 84,83344 75,85741 
 
 Payments to weighmasters and their assistants 12,846 39 12,118 09 
 
 Refunding tolls, salaries of officers, etc 74,070 63 61,759 65" 
 
 Reserve balance of appropriation for con 
 creting the sixteen locks and retrunking 
 
 the Upper and Lower Mohawk Aqueducts 52,859 01 
 
 Total expenses for the year. $1,469,466 83 $1,467,315 95 
 
 Net receipts 1,478,506 08 458,679 68 
 
 This statement shows a falling off in the toll receipts of the last 
 fiscal year, as compared with those of 1874, of $1,021,977.28, de 
 crease in payments of $2,150.88, and a loss in net receipts of $1,019,- 
 826.40 the net revenue being $625,610.70 short of the requirements 
 of the sinking-fund under Art. VII., section 3, of the constitution ; 
 the amount required being as follows : 
 
 Interest in coin. . . . . . $634,290 38 
 
 For sinking-fund . . . . t . 450,000 00 
 
 $1,084,290 38 
 Actual surplus 458,679 68 
 
 Deficiency $625,610 70 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 57 
 
 EXPLANATOEY COMMENT. 
 
 It is to be noted that the expenses during all the present year, ex 
 cept the last two months of navigation that is, up to September 30, 
 1875 were under the appropriations of 1874. The reductions effect 
 ed, at the last session do not begin to operate until October 1, 1875. 
 
 The diminution in business caused by the bad condition of our 
 domestic trade, the growing diversion by the completion of railways, 
 and the reduction of tolls, all operated from the beginning of navi 
 gation, or five months out of the seven of the season earlier than the 
 reduction of expenses. 
 
 The falling off of income in the last two months of 1875, as com 
 pared with the last two months of 1874, is less than the reduction in 
 ordinary expenses and repairs for the fiscal year commencing October 
 1, 1875. 
 
 FUTUKE MEASUEES. 
 
 In this state of things it is obvious that our first measure should 
 . be to ascertain completely, and without unnecessary delay, the finan 
 cial condition of the canals : the state of the contracts yet outstand 
 ing for extraordinary work, in order to determine what ought to be 
 stopped or abandoned and what ought to be continued, and the means 
 applicable to any expenditure they may require. 
 
 A second measure is the careful and thorough investigation of or 
 dinary expenses and repairs, for the purpose of keeping them down 
 to the lowest point consistent with the efficiency of the canals. 
 
 A third measure relates to the disposition of such laterals as are 
 not necessary as feeders. It will be recollected that at the last session, 
 in view of the complicated questions incident to this subject, requir 
 ing legal engineering and business skill, and much devotion of time 
 and attention, I recommended its reference to a special commission. 
 The Legislature, however, preferred to charge the Canal Commission 
 ers and State Engineer and Surveyor with the additional duty. I am 
 not advised what report they will make on the subject. 
 
 A fourth measure is a radical change in the system of administra 
 tion. The present machinery is chaotic, and, except with something 
 of the unity which existed in practice in the Canal Board under the 
 old constitution, is incapable of acting with efficiency or economy. 
 The abuses, perversions of law and morals, improvidence and waste 
 which cling around it, are the growth of years. When a man of 
 average well-meaning and average ability comes singly into one of 
 these administrative offices, the graft develops, not its own nature, 
 
258 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 but the nature of the parent stem. It is difficult to carry out reform 
 by instruments that are incurably averse to reform ; whose indo 
 lence, comfort, associations, habits, assistants, and advisers, are all 
 naturally opposed to what they are expected to do. Every step of 
 progress is not only through an enemy s country, but beset by unex 
 pected betrayals. 
 
 A constitutional amendment, changing the system of administer 
 ing the canals, was unanimously passed by both Houses at the last 
 session. Your attention is respectfully called to the importance of 
 an early consideration of the subject. 
 
 A fifth measure is the continuance for the present year of the 
 reduction in the tolls made for last year. 
 
 A sixth measure is to subject all the work called extraordinary 
 repairs to a systematic and thorough scrutiny, and discard everything 
 that is not clearly and certainly necessary. When the debris of the 
 old rotten system shall be cleared away, there is a work of real util 
 ity and small cost, which will claim an early attention, and for which 
 the people would be willing to provide the means. On this topic I 
 repeat the remarks contained in the special Canal Message of March 
 19, 1875 : 
 
 " In my judgment a far more important improvement of the Erie 
 Canal would be effected by a thorough system of ordinary repairs, 
 which should give the water-way its proper and lawful dimensions ; 
 and by progressively deepening it, wherever reasonably practicable, 
 from seven to eight feet. As the object would be merely to enable the 
 submerged section of the boat to move in a larger area of water, so 
 that the displaced fluid could pass the boat in a larger space, it would 
 not be necessary to alter the culverts or other structures, or to carry 
 the walls below the present bottom ; and the benefit would be real 
 ized in each portion of the canal improved, without reference to any 
 other part of the channel which should remain unchanged. In facili 
 tating the movement of the boat, and quickening its speed, it would 
 increase the amount of service rendered in a given time, and would 
 thereby diminish every element of the cost of transportation. It 
 would benefit the boatmen and carriers more, even, than one cent a 
 bushel remission of tolls. It would be of more real utility to naviga 
 tion than five or ten times its cost expended in the average manner 
 of so-called improvements on the public works. But it is too sim 
 ple, too practically useful, to enlist the imagination of projectors 
 who seek the fame of magnificent constructions, and of engineers 
 who build monuments for exhibition to their rivals, or to awaken the 
 rapacity of cormorants who fatten on jobs." 
 
 I have thus briefly sketched the outline of a policy which is the 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 259 
 
 best method to promote cheap transportation, not only so far as the 
 Erie Canal is concerned, but in its general effect upon all methods of 
 transportation. 
 
 It seems to me that these measures are entitled to the effective 
 support of the forwarders, boatmen, transporters, as well as to that 
 of the tax-payers, and all who desire to rescue our public works from 
 spoliation. 
 
 THE NEW CAPITOL. 
 
 The following statement shows the payments for this object from 
 the State Treasury, including purchase of lands, etc., to June 20, 1875 : 
 
 To September 30, 1863 $51,593 66 
 
 " " " 1864 9,45355 
 
 " " " 1865 10,86008 
 
 " " " 1866 (Congress Hall block). . , . . . 65,250 00 
 
 " " 1867 10,00000 
 
 " " " 1868 50,00000 
 
 " " " 1869 451,21563 
 
 " " 1870 1,223,59773 
 
 " " " 1871 482,94237 
 
 " " " 1872 856,10698 
 
 " " " 1873 1,175,60000 
 
 " " " 1874 610,27516 
 
 From October 1, 1874, to June 20, 1875 1,000,600 00 
 
 Total $5,997,495 16 
 
 A statement from the clerk of the present commission, which was 
 organized on the 29th of June, 1875, is as follows : 
 
 Amount paid on account of expenditures prior to 
 
 January 1, 1875 $263,659 95 
 
 Amount expended in construction since June 29th. . . 491,349 95 
 
 Estimated liabilities on January 1, 1876 65,542 22 
 
 The memorandum attached to the supply bill signed on the 21st 
 of June contains the following observations on 
 
 THE APPEOPEIATION FOE THE NEW CAPITOL. 
 
 " Of the million provided for this purpose, more than $200,000 will 
 be consumed in the payment of arrears now existing in the nature of 
 a floating debt, and less than $800,000 will be applicable to new con 
 struction. 
 
 " It is with reluctance that I assent to this appropriation. Nearly 
 $6,000,000 has already been expended upon this edifice. Although 
 
260 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. , 
 
 the general plan has been determined, the details have not been 
 worked out with such thoroughness and such certainty as to afford 
 any guide as to the amount which will probably be- required for the 
 completion of the building. If it were an original question I should 
 have no hesitation in condemning and discarding a work of such un 
 necessary cost ; but it cannot be now abandoned without losing all 
 that has been thus far expended. In deciding on the wisdom of com 
 pleting it, we are to consider only whether it will be worth the future 
 outlay for its completion. What that cost will be ought to be ascer 
 tained with all the certainty attainable. I doubted whether the work 
 ought not to be suspended until the plans of future construction 
 should be settled, and full assurance . had that the annual expenditure 
 should be made usefully in furtherance of those plans. In the mean 
 time I favored a reduction of this appropriation below the amount 
 adopted by the Legislature." 
 
 The new commission consists of the Lieutenant-Governor, the 
 Auditor of the Canal Department, and the Attorney-General. 
 
 The act provides that, before any portion, exceeding $50,000, of 
 the sum appropriated for the construction of the new Capitol should 
 be expended, full details, plans, and specifications of the story of said 
 building containing the legislative halls, should be made and approved 
 by the said commissioners. This requirement of the law was com 
 plied with, and the work of construction was prosecuted through the. 
 summer and autumn. 
 
 The act further provides that " not more than one-half of the said 
 appropriation shall be expended before full details, plans, and specifi 
 cations of the whole of the remainder of said building shall be made 
 and approved in writing," by the commissioners. This requirement 
 has not, as yet, been complied with, and the work upon the Capitol 
 has been suspended. The plans and specifications have been prepared 
 by the architect, and were submitted to the commissioners on the 
 15th day of December, 1875, but they have not, as yet, been approved 
 by the commissioners. 
 
 The determination of all the details of so extensive a building will 
 require much careful consideration. 
 
 It is the intention of the commissioners, before approving the 
 plans for the. completion of the new Capitol, to ascertain and report 
 to the Legislature the cost of execution; they are now, as I am in 
 formed, engaged in this very necessary preliminary work. 
 
 IXSANE ASYLUMS AND KEFOKMATOfcY. 
 
 Four State institutions are in process of construction three asy 
 lums for the insane and a reformatory. It might have been supposed 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 261 
 
 that such, an extensive provision for the insane as is contemplated in 
 these three institutions could not become necessary on the instant, 
 and that common prudence would have dictated that one institution 
 should be completed before another was begun. But, unfortunately, 
 not even the sacred influences of charity could save these works from 
 the spirit of legislative log-rolling, or the rapacity of local expendi 
 ture. 
 
 The policy of beginning everything and finishing nothing has pre 
 vailed. Construction has been on a scale of costly extravagance. 
 
 At the last session $2,750,000, raised by taxes, had been expended 
 on these four institutions, and about $450,000 raised by taxes and 
 appropriated remained unexpended, and yet no considerable part of 
 these works had been made available. 
 
 The plan was adopted. at that session of confining the appropria 
 tions for . the year to such sums as would make available and bring 
 into use the portions of the structures most nearly approaching com 
 pletion. 
 
 The construction of the other portions of those buildings, if they 
 are to be completed according to the present plans, may be deferred 
 until after the extinction of the bounty debt in 1877. 
 
 The interval will afford an opportunity to revise the whole policy 
 of the State in respect to these institutions, and to reconsider the 
 plans and methods of their construction. The expenditures thus far 
 are as follows : 
 
 Hudson River Asylum : 
 
 Total expenditure to December 20, 1875 .$1,337,978 52 
 
 Buffalo Asylum : 
 
 Total expenditure to December 20, 1875 767,351 91 
 
 Middletown Asylum : 
 
 Total expenditure to December 20, 1875 454,099 38 
 
 . Elmira "Reformatory : 
 
 Total expenditure to December 20, 1875 760,117 98 
 
 Total ; $3,319,547 79 
 
 The cost of completing these buildings is as yet a matter of con 
 jecture ; it probably would exceed what has already been expended. 
 
 It is quite clear that an outlay of $5,000 per inmate, for the pur 
 pose of providing shelter for the unfortunate objects of public char 
 ity, is unreasonable and extravagant. That would be equal to $25,- 
 000 for five persons, which compose the average family in this State. 
 
262 
 
 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 How many families of laborious and thrifty producers can afford to 
 live in a house costing $25,000? 
 
 In 1865, less than one-sixtieth of the houses of this State were of 
 stone, and their value was about $10,000 each, or $2,000 for each 
 inmate. Those of brick, which are about one-eighth of the whole 
 number, were valued at $6,000, or $1,200 for each inmate. Those of 
 wood, which are three-fourths of the whole number, were valued at 
 $1,100, or $220 for each inmate. 
 
 I deny that there is any sound public policy in erecting palaces 
 for criminals, for paupers, or for the insane. A style of architecture 
 simple, and fitted to the nature of its object, would reconcile artistic 
 taste with justice toward the industrious producers, on whom falls 
 the burden of providing for the unfortunate. Waste in such edifices 
 is not only a . wrong to the tax-payers, but by just so much it con 
 sumes the fund which the State is able to provide for the objects of 
 its charity. 
 
 Nor does the mischief stop with the completion of costly dwell 
 ings. The State still has to provide annually for the support of their 
 inmates. By an inevitable association of ideas in men s minds, mag 
 nificent homes lead to magnificent current expenditure. The pride 
 of officers and managers, and of local admirers, and the zeal of benev 
 olence, are freely indulged where they are gratified without expense 
 to those who are swayed by them. 
 
 It is to be remembered that, after all, the burden of taxation is 
 chiefly not upon accumulated wealth, but upon the current earnings 
 of the million who carry on their productive industries in frugal 
 homes. They ought not to be the only class disfavored by the policy 
 of the State. 
 
 STATE-PEISONS. 
 
 The following statement shows the expenditures and earnings of 
 each of the prisons for the year ending September 30, 1875 : 
 
 
 
 Advances from 
 the Treasury. 
 
 Eeceived from 
 Earnings. 
 
 Excess of 
 Expenditures. 
 
 Auburn 
 
 
 $208 719 35 
 
 $76,935 62 
 
 $131,783 73 
 
 
 
 328,638 13 
 
 133,446 25 
 
 195,191 88 
 
 Sin" Sinsr 
 
 
 341 826 20 
 
 158,596 64 
 
 183 229 56 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 distributed, 
 144.50 for 
 
 expenditures not 
 including $28,- 
 transportation of 
 
 35,344 50 
 
 
 35,344 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 
 $914 528 18 
 
 $368 978 51 
 
 $545,549 67 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 263 
 
 The excess of advances from the Treasury over receipts from 
 earnings is as follows: 
 
 In 1867 it was $366,874 79 
 
 In 1868 it was 512,547 74 
 
 In 1869 it was 595,77445 
 
 In 1870 it was 461,304 99 
 
 In 1871 it was 470,309 23 
 
 In 1872 it was -. 465,881 84 
 
 In 1873 it was; 597,289 06 
 
 In 1874 it was , - 588,537 42 
 
 In 1875 it was 545,549 67 
 
 The number of convicts in each of the prisons, September 30, 
 1873, 1874, and 1875, was as follows : 
 
 
 1873. 
 
 18T4. 
 
 1875. 
 
 Auburn .... 
 
 1 104 
 
 1 202 
 
 1 312 
 
 Clinton : 
 
 567 
 
 552 
 
 553 
 
 Sine Sin- 
 
 1 354 
 
 1 306 
 
 1 616 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 3 025 
 
 3 060 
 
 3 481 
 
 
 
 
 
 Although the burden imposed upon the tax-payers of the State by 
 these institutions has been slightly decreased within the last three 
 years, I think the people ought not to be satisfied with the present 
 exhibit. 
 
 Under a proper system, and with proper management, the prisons 
 of the State, filled for the most part with able-bodied men, ought to 
 be self-supporting, if, indeed, they ought not to produce a consider 
 able revenue to the State. Other institutions of a like character, and 
 possessing in some respects less advantages, impose no burden upon 
 the people, and one conspicuous institution in this city affords a sur 
 plus to. the county. 
 
 I recommend that a thorough inquiry be made with respect to the 
 management of the State-prisons in such manner as the Legislature 
 may think best, to the end that such reforms, both in legislation and 
 in administration, may be accomplished as are necessary to produce 
 the desired result. 
 
 I also recommend to your adoption the resolution passed at the 
 last -session, and which requires your concurrence, for submitting to 
 
264 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEX. 
 
 the people the constitutional amendment therein contained relating 
 to the State-prisons. 
 
 SALT SrRINGS. 
 
 The quantity of salt, from the Onondaga Salt-Springs, inspected 
 during the last fiscal year was 6,589,676 bushels, less by 4,515 bush 
 els than the production of the preceding year. 
 
 The net revenue from this source was $5,148.32, showing a falling 
 off as compared with the preceding year of $5,193.35. 
 
 It is represented by the Superintendent that a considerable outlay 
 will soon.be necessary for repairing and renewing the machinery con 
 nected with the works, and for completing the sinking of new wells. 
 
 I recommend that an investigation be had with respect to the ne 
 cessity of such expenditure, the best method of operating the works, 
 and the general management of the concern. 
 
 QUARANTINE. 
 
 The payments from the State Treasury for this object during the 
 fiscal year ending September 30, 1875, were : 
 
 Advances to commissioners for maintenance of Quarantine es 
 tablishment $48,000 00 
 
 Salaries of commissioners. . . . 7,500 00 
 
 Commissioners appointed to confer with the authorities of New 
 
 Jersey on jurisdiction 3,000 00 
 
 Pay of police ; . 3,953 18 
 
 $62,453 18 
 
 It seems to me that this establishment ought to be made self- 
 supporting. To that end, I commend the subject to your considera 
 tion. 
 
 THE NATIONAL GUAKD. 
 
 The National Guard of this State consists of eight -divisions, 
 eighteen brigades, one regiment, and ten separate troops of cavalry, 
 eleven separate battalions of artillery, and twenty-five regiments, 
 twelve battalions, and seven separate companies of artillery. They 
 comprise 1,505 commissioned officers- and 17,908 non-commissioned 
 officers, musicians, and privates. The aggregate force is 19,413. 
 
 The condition of the guard, as respects organization and discipline, 
 is eminently satisfactory. 
 
 The cost of armories and the charge for the rent. of such as were 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 265 
 
 occupied under leases in the city of New York had become a serious 
 burden and a gross abuse. Contracts marked with extravagance and 
 improvidence, with favoritism and corruption, had been made. They 
 had become the subject of litigation, and were generally held by the 
 courts to be illegal and void. The rentals claimed are about $275,000 
 per annum. The claims for arrears of rent amount to about $700,000 ; 
 and the rent to accrue, if the leases should be retained until their 
 terms expire, would be an additional $1,000,000. 
 
 The fair rent of an armory, where property is so valuable as in 
 the city of New York, is so considerable that regiments which are 
 reduced to mere skeletons cannot be kept in existence without in 
 justice to the tax- payers of the city. For this reason six of the six 
 teen regiments and battalions of the first division, which consists of 
 the city of New York, have been disbanded. As the city owns four 
 armories, there will be but six instead of twelve regiments to be 
 provided for. It is hoped that the charge on the city treasury can 
 be reduced to less than a quarter of its former amount. This neces 
 sary measure could not be executed without inflicting some wounds 
 in particular cases ; and I share the sense of sacrifice of personal 
 associations and patriotic memories. 
 
 COLLEGES AJSTD ACADEMIES HIGHER EDUCATION. 
 
 The reports to the Eegents of the University from the colleges of 
 the State show a gratifying increase of numbers both of students and 
 graduates. Many of the colleges have received from private liberality 
 additions to their endowments which place them in a condition of 
 comparative independence. The character of instruction is elevated 
 and strengthened, the courses are more comprehensive and better 
 adapted to the demands of the age. 
 
 The attendance on the academies and high-schools does not much 
 vary from that of the preceding year. These institutions, occupying 
 an intermediate place between the colleges and the common schools, 
 provide for the wants of those who desire more than the latter can 
 furnish, and who are not able to meet the expenses or to give the 
 time required by the courses of the former. 
 
 The State Library and the State Cabinet of Natural History have 
 received valuable additions. Their condition will be exhibited in the 
 reports of the trustees soon to be presented. 
 
 12 
 
266 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 COMMON-SCHOOL STATISTICS FOE THE YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 
 
 30, 1875. 
 Total receipts, including balance on hand September 30, 
 
 1874 $12,516,362 96 
 
 Total expenditures 11,365,377 79 
 
 Amount paid for teachers wages 7,843,231 67 
 
 Amount paid for school-houses, repairs, furniture, etc 1,844,347 20 
 
 Estimated value of school-houses and sites 36,393,190 00 
 
 Number of school-houses 11,787 
 
 Number of school-districts, exclusive of cities 11,289 
 
 Number of teachers employed for the legal term of school 19,157 
 
 Number of teachers employed during any portion of the year 29,977 
 
 Number of children attending public schools 1,058,846 
 
 Number of persons attending normal schools 6,207 
 
 Number of children of school age in private schools 135,093 
 
 Number of volumes in school-district libraries , 812,655 
 
 Number of persons in the State between the ages of five and 
 
 twenty-one years 1,579,504 
 
 STATE TAXES IN AID OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 The following statement shows the amount produced annually by 
 the f mill tax for the support of common schools, as provided by 
 Chapter 180, laws of 1856 : 
 
 1858 . . - - 
 
 1,053,680 74 
 
 1859 
 
 ,053,873 04 
 
 
 ,064,473 14 
 
 
 1,081,325 14 
 
 1862 
 
 ,086,977 96 
 
 
 1,090,841 11 
 
 1864 
 
 1,125,749 90 
 
 
 1,163,159 76 
 
 1866.. 
 
 1,148,422 22 
 
 The following shows the amounts produced by the 1 mill tax for 
 this object, as provided by section 3, Chapter 406, laws o 1867 : 
 1 86 7 $2,080,134 65 
 
 1868"!.". 2,207,611 42 
 
 1 869 2,325,150 96 
 
 187o! . . 2,458,751 48 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 267 
 
 1871 $2,565,672 37 
 
 1872 2,610,784 31 
 
 1873 2,662,032 98 
 
 1874 2,711,634 84 
 
 1875 2,959,725 13 
 
 NOTE. The amount raised "by State tax for the support of common 
 schools, prior to the act of 1856, was $800,000 annually. 
 See section 1, Chapter 180, laws of 1856. 
 
 THE METHOD OF APPEOPKIATIO2T. 
 
 A standing appropriation, such as used to exist before 1846, is 
 prohibited by the constitution, which requires a revision of old ap 
 propriations at the expiration of every two years. The system of 
 making formal appropriations in obedience to a standing law is 
 liable to the objection that it practically defeats the policy of this 
 constitutional provision. The Legislature does not, in fact, recon 
 sider each time how much ought to be appropriated to the object, 
 but mechanically conforms to the standing law, which fixes the rate. 
 The assessors become in effect the power that determines the taxes. 
 It cannot be supposed that the real value of property subject to tax 
 ation has increased during the period when nearly a million has been 
 added to this item of them by nominal enlargements of the- valuation. 
 Nor can it be doubted that, in all business, equal services can now 
 be obtained at less prices than in 1867. The appropriation ought to 
 be for a specific sum, and the taxes adjusted to provide that amount. 
 
 STATE "CEKTIFICATES. 
 
 An act amendatory (Chapter 567) of the general school law was 
 passed at the close of the last session, and became a law by receiving 
 the Executive signature on the 9th of June, 1875. The fifth section 
 of that act made a material change in the law regulating the granting 
 by the State Superintendent of certificates of qualification to teach. 
 That officer was authorized by section 15 of the general school 
 act, passed May 2, 1864, to grant certificates on the recommenda 
 tion of any school commissioner or on other evidence satisfactory to 
 him." 
 
 A clause authorizing the State Superintendent to issue, " in his 
 discretion," certificates of qualification to graduates of any seminary 
 of a private corporation, known as the Sisterhood of Grey Nuns, on 
 their filing with him their diplomas, appears in an amendment of the 
 
268 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEK 
 
 charter, by Chapter 353 of the laws of 1875, which became a law on 
 the 15th of May. This provision did not purport to make a person 
 having such diploma a qualified teacher like a person having a 
 diploma of a State Normal School, but merely vested the State 
 Superintendent with a discretion to grant to such person a cer 
 tificate of qualification. That power the Superintendent had before, 
 and has had for the previous eleven years. The provision had no real 
 effect ; it conferred no new power on the Superintendent ; it added 
 nothing to his existing power ; but it bore the appearance of a special 
 grant of a privilege to one corporation, which may be presumed to 
 have escaped attention, for the bill passed the Assembly once and the 
 Senate twice by the affirmative vote of every member present. But 
 the discretionary power of the Superintendent, under the law of 1864 
 and under this act, was afterward completely abrogated by the law 
 of the 9th of June. He was prohibited from granting any certificates 
 except on public examination. The law of the 9th of June was later 
 than the Grey Nuns act, and repealed the clause of that act which 
 authorized the Superintendent, in his discretion, to grant certificates 
 to graduates of the seminaries of the Grey Nuns corporation. It 
 went further. It repealed the power which he had under the law of 
 1864 to do the same thing. If the Grey Nuns corporation derived 
 any special privilege from the act of the 15th of May, that privilege 
 was destroyed by the law of the 9th of June. A uniform rule is now 
 made applicable to all. 
 
 This result is in accordance with the policy of this State as estab 
 lished by the recent constitutional amendment relating to the public 
 schools, which had been and is to be obeyed and executed in good 
 faith. 
 
 PAUPERISM. 
 
 The report .of the State Board of Charities will be presented to 
 the Legislature, and I commend it to your earnest attention. 
 
 The question, as to the proper mode of providing for the chronic 
 poor, is addressed not only to the conscience and the feelings, but to 
 the reason and the judgment. It is a question not so much of philan 
 thropy as of political economy. The members of the board bring to 
 its discussion great zeal, large experience, and rare intelligence. With 
 out committing myself to the support of all their recommendations, I 
 ask your thoughtful consideration of their suggestions. 
 
 The act of 1875, providing for the separation of pauper and desti 
 tute children from the adults of the same class, has been put in gen- 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 2G9 
 
 eral operation, but years must elapse before its beneficial results will 
 be fully apparent. This legislation has met with warm approval in 
 other States, and will, no doubt, be followed by many of them at 
 an early day. It remains in this State to secure the separation of 
 children convicted of petty offenses from older offenders, while con 
 fined in our penal institutions. 
 
 The subject of providing work for paupers, especially of the class 
 styled "tramps," is commended to your consideration. Even if their 
 earnings were small, the fact that this class of persons were com 
 pelled to labor in return for their subsistence would, doubtless, less 
 en the number of applicants for admission into our poorhouses, and 
 for outside relief, and would induce many of them to apply them 
 selves to regular employments. 
 
 I renew the recommendation made in my last annual message, 
 for a thorough revision of the poor-laws. 
 
 THE STATE CENSUS. 
 
 The census taken during the last summer makes the population 
 of the State 4,705,208. The utility of the information it collects, 
 aside from the primary object of providing the means for a reappor- 
 tionment of the representation in the Legislature, depends largely 
 upon the promptness with which the compilations are made and 
 furnished to the public. I recommend that provision be made to 
 complete the work as early as the first of next December, and that 
 the requisite appropriation for that purpose be made. 
 
 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 A commission to consider this important and interesting subject 
 has been appointed under the joint resolution of the last session, and 
 is organized and holding its sittings. The restrictions necessary to 
 arrest the creation of municipal debts, which has become a grave 
 evil, affecting one-half of the people of this State, and calling urgent 
 ly for redress, may well command the attention of the commission 
 and of the Legislature, independently of the complicated questions 
 involved in the structural organization of municipal government and 
 the distribution of its powers. 
 
 CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 
 
 A State Centennial Board for New York has been appointed, 
 under Chapter 525 of the laws of 1875, to represent this State, in 
 
270 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEtf. 
 
 cooperation with the Centennial Commission appointed by the Presi 
 dent of the United States, in the preparations for and at the inter 
 national exhibition, to be held at Philadelphia in commemoration of 
 the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 
 The event not only appeals to the people of the whole United States 
 by the patriotic associations which attend it, but it will be an occa 
 sion of unprecedented interest in the opportunity it affords to all 
 our citizens of a personal inspection of the progress and state of the 
 industrial arts in all the countries of the civilized world. 
 
 BANKS. 
 
 Eighty-four banks were doing business under the laws of this 
 State on the first of October last. Eight banks organized and com 
 menced business during the fiscal year ending October 1st. During 
 the same time one bank failed, and three were converted into nation 
 al banks. 
 
 Circulating notes to the amount of $9,314 were destroyed by the 
 Bank Department, and forty-four banks were credited with lost cir 
 culation during the year to the amount of $246,649, the time for 
 redeeming the same, after the usual legal notice, having expired. 
 The amount of circulation outstanding was, on the first day of Octo 
 ber last, $849,226.50. Of this amount, the sum of $218,528 was 
 secured by deposits of cash, stocks, or stocks and mortgages. The 
 balance, $630,698.50, is not secured, it having been issued by banks 
 chartered previous to the passage of the free banking law. There 
 remain but twenty-three of these banks that have not taken steps to 
 finally redeem their notes. 
 
 SAVINGS-BANKS. 
 
 There were one hundred and sixty savings-banks on the first day 
 of July last. Of these five were in process of closing their business. 
 Five have since closed, three by reason of insolvency. The new gen 
 eral law for the regulation of savings-banks does not require them to 
 report in July, as they have formerly done. The aggregate of assets 
 of these institutions, as appeared from informal reports made to the 
 Bank Department for the first of July last, was $336,308,236.43. 
 Their deposits amounted to $316,335,617.82, belonging to 891,992 
 depositors as represented by the number of open accounts on that 
 date. The increase in deposits during the six months ending July 1st, 
 last, was upward of twelve millions of dollars, and the number of de- 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 271 
 
 positors or open accounts increased, during the same time, 19,494. 
 The total increase in deposits during the year 1874 was $18,415,564, 
 and, in the number of depositors, 33,026. The aggregate of assets as 
 shown above, for July last, was not made up in the same manner as 
 that for January 1st, last, therefore such aggregate cannot be used for 
 the purpose of comparison. The estimated amount of such assets, on 
 the first of July last, may, however, be stated at three hundred and 
 forty millions of dollars. 
 
 KECOMMENDATION AS TO SAVINGS-BANKS. 
 
 It will be observed that the number of depositors in the savings- 
 banks in this State is larger than the number of electors who have 
 ever voted at an election ; and that the aggregate of their deposits is 
 more than one-eighth of the assessed valuation of all real and per 
 sonal property. 
 
 In view of the fact that these are the savings of the industrious 
 poor, who are less able to assert and protect their own interests than 
 any other class of holders of such vast amounts of property, it is an 
 especial duty in our legislation to shield them from injustice. The 
 absolute safety of their deposits is an incentive to make savings, 
 which is an important object of public policy. 
 
 Frequent reports by these institutions should be required. The 
 provisions regulating the character of their investments should be 
 revised with a view to secure greater safety. New guards should be 
 instituted against the tendency of administration to fall into favorit 
 ism toward the officers, sure to prove dangerous to the trust ; and it 
 should be inquired, in view of -the recent and numerous failures, what 
 defects may be shown to exist in the present law, and whether further 
 penalties, in respect to maladministration, can be provided. 
 
 I commend the subject to your consideration. 
 
 TEUST, LOAN, AND INDEMNITY COMPANIES. 
 
 There were eleven trust, loan, and indemnity companies reporting 
 to the Bank Department, July 1st, last, one having closed its business 
 during the year preceding. A new trust company began business 
 September 1, 1875, whose capital is not included in the summary. 
 The aggregate capital of these corporations, paid in, as shown by 
 their reports, was $11,584,475. The total amount of their assets was 
 $69,654,948, and the amount due from them to their depositors was 
 $50,365,569. 
 
 The estimated amount of assets, held July 1st, by banks, savings- 
 
THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 banks, trust, loan, and indemnity companies, was $520,000,000. The 
 amount due to their depositors was, approximately, $432,000,000 ; 
 and their profits, including surplus fund, may be estimated at $89,- 
 000,000. 
 
 INSUEANCE COMPANIES. 
 
 The number of insurance companies subject to the supervision of 
 the Insurance Department, on the 19th day of -November, 1875, was 
 281, as follows : 
 
 New York Joint Stock Fire Insurance Companies 102 
 
 New York Mutual Fire Insurance Companies 8 
 
 New York Marine Insurance Companies 9 
 
 New York Life Insurance Companies 22 
 
 New York Plate-Glass Insurance Company 1 
 
 Fire Insurance Companies of other States 91 
 
 Marine Insurance Companies of other States 1 
 
 Life Insurance Companies of other States 25 
 
 Casualty Insurance Companies of other States 4 
 
 Canadian Fire Insurance Companies 3 
 
 Foreign Fire Insurance Companies 11 
 
 Foreign Marine Insurance Companies 4 
 
 Total 281 
 
 The total amount of stocks and mortgages held by the Insurance 
 Department for the protection of policy-holders of fire, life, and 
 casualty insurance companies of this State, and of foreign insurance 
 companies doing business within it, was $11,036,053, as follows : 
 For protection of policy-holders in fire insurance companies of 
 
 this State $400,000 
 
 For protection of policy-holders generally in life insurance com 
 panies of this State 3,790,091 
 
 For protection of registered policy-holders exclusively 3,184,542 
 
 For protection of casualty policy-holders exclusively 1,000 
 
 For protection of plate-glass policy-holders exclusively 50,000 
 
 For protection of fire policy-holders in insurance companies of 
 
 other States 60,000. 
 
 For protection of fire policy-holders in insurance companies of 
 
 Canada 643,120 
 
 For protection of fire policy-holders in foreign insurance com 
 panies 2,604,300 
 
 For protection of life policy-holders in foreign insurance com 
 panies 303,000 
 
 Total deposit $11 ,036,053 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 273 
 
 The assets of the life insurance companies of this State amount 
 to nearly two hundred millions of dollars, the amount insured by 
 them to one thousand millions, and their annual receipts to more than 
 sixty millions. The magnitude of these sums, and the duration and 
 fiduciary character of the engagements of these corporations, make it 
 specially important that the interests of the policy-holders should be 
 guarded with jealous care. 
 
 DEPKESSWN IN BUSINESS. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that large classes of our people are suffering 
 great inconvenience from the present state of trade and of manu 
 facturing and mechanical industry, and from the decay of numerous 
 enterprises. Few kinds of business have been recently carried on at 
 a profit. Labor finds scanty employment even at reduced wages. 
 Incomes are lessened or fail altogether. Many investments have be 
 come wholly or partially unremunerative. Property is shrinking, 
 losing for the time its circulatory character, and becoming unavaila 
 ble as a resource to pay debts or to raise money. It is not a con 
 vulsion, but a partial paralysis. There is nothing of what is called a 
 pressure for money ; there is no panic ; but a fear to lend except on 
 certain security; and a timidity in borrowing for new undertakings 
 by most persons of prudence or credit. 
 
 CAUSES. 
 
 It is to be hoped that, amid these evils, the germs of a better 
 future are springing up, to renew in their origin the elements of indi 
 vidual and social prosperity ; but in the mean time attention is natu 
 rally drawn to the causes of a state of things which inflicts so much 
 distress. Such seasons have recurred at intervals in the experience 
 of this and other countries. They have usually been produced 
 through the destruction of large masses of capital by wars, revolu 
 tions, conflagrations, or failure of crops, or by a temporary mania 
 for bad investments, or by violent reactions of credit. The known 
 facts of our recent business history leave no doubt as to the origin of 
 the state of things we are -now experiencing. 
 
 WASTE OF NATIONAL CAPITAL BY EXCESSIVE GOVEKNMENTAL 
 CONSUMPTION. 
 
 Eleven years ago our country emerged from a vast civil conflict, 
 in which its aggregate wealth had been impaired to the extent of 
 probably two thousand millions of dollars by a governmental con- 
 
274 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 sumption exceeding the whole net income of the people ; to say noth 
 ing of the destruction of property, industries, and productive capaci 
 ties incident to military operations. 
 
 Never was it more necessary that peace should bring healing on 
 its wings. 
 
 To replace the capital destroyed, to restore the elements of future 
 natural growth, should have been the object of our policy. A prompt 
 reduction of the enormous governmental expenditure was the first 
 condition. A renewal of the industries of the great communities of 
 the South, which produce so large a share of our exports and raw 
 material, was of great importance. Energy, skill, and economy in 
 production, and frugality in private consumption, the wise conduct 
 of business, and a judicious application of capital and labor, were 
 essential. These chief elements of private prosperity were depend 
 ent upon public conditions. They were to be promoted by sound 
 government finance, by good methods of revenue, not unduly swell 
 ing the cost of taxes to those who pay them beyond their produce to 
 the Treasury ; by a discreet management of our vast fiscal operations, 
 and of the currency and of the banking system ; by a sober and 
 stable governmental policy, not stimulating to speculative adventures, 
 not inciting miscalculations in business, not enhancing charges for 
 services and risks in commercial transactions. 
 
 How completely these conditions have been reversed during the 
 eleven years since the war, appears in a retrospect of the actual 
 events of that period. 
 
 PRESENT SCALE OF GOVERNMENTAL EXPENDITURE. 
 
 The extravagance of our governmental consumption is illustrated 
 by a comparison of the public expenditures of 1870 five years after 
 the close of the war with those of 1860 and 1850 : 
 
 TAXES IN" THE UNITED STATES*. 
 
 1850 1860 1870 
 
 Gold. Gold. Currency. 
 
 Federal $40,000,000 $60.010,112 $450,000,000 
 
 State, county, city, 
 
 and town 43,000,000 94,186,746 280,591,521 
 
 $83,000,000 $154,196,858 $730,591,521 
 Population 23,191,876 31,443,321 38,558,371 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 TAXES TEE HEAD. 
 
 1850, 1860. 1870. 
 
 Federal $1.72 $1.91 $11.67 
 
 Local 1.85 2.99 7.24 
 
 $3.57 $4.90 $18.91 
 
 AGGEEGATE TAXATION OF ELEVEN YEAES. 
 
 The aggregate Federal taxation of the eleven years now closing, 
 computed, in currency, from the official statements, is more than 
 $4,500,000,000. The local taxation, assuming the census statement 
 for 1870 as an average, is more than $3,000,000,000. The aggregate 
 taxation exceeds $7,500,000,000. 
 
 ITS EELATION TO NATIONAL SAVINGS. 
 
 The daily wants of the masses of mankind, even in the most pro 
 ductive and prosperous countries, press closely upon their daily earn 
 ings. It is only a small portion of their current income which they 
 are able to save and to accumulate. 
 
 In Great Britain and Ireland, despite the wealth which their peo 
 ple have long been storing up, especially in machinery and moneyed 
 capital ; despite the yearly influx of one hundred and fifty million 
 dollars from interest on investments in other countries, the annual 
 growth of wealth from the savings of all their people is not deemed 
 by the best authorities to exceed six or seven hundred million dol 
 lars. 
 
 The accumulated wealth of the United States is the result of a 
 shorter period of growth, ancl is less in amount. We have to pay to 
 foreign creditors annually, in coin, more than $100,000,000. We 
 are richer in the natural powers of the soil ; and our labor is, on the 
 whole, more efficient. We earn more, but have less disposition to 
 save, and less of the habit of saving. 
 
 SUCH CONSUMPTION GEEATLT EXCESSIVE. 
 
 A governmental consumption in every year, in bad as well as 
 good years, must be considered greatly excessive when it amounts to 
 a share of the national earnings larger than the whole people are 
 able to save in prosperous times for all new investments ; for erect 
 ing dwellings and other buildings ; for improving farms, increasing 
 the stock of live animals and of agricultural implements; for all 
 manufacturing and mechanical constructions and machinery; for all 
 
2 70 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEX. 
 
 warehouses and stores, and increased supplies of merchandise ; for 
 ships and steamers, and telegraphs, and railroads, and their equip 
 ments ; for all objects which individual and corporate enterprise pro 
 vide for the future, in the progress of a populous and rapidly-growing 
 community. 
 
 INCIDENTAL EVILS. 
 
 Such taxation is in itself a monstrous evil ; and its incidents ag 
 gravate its direct injuries. When the exaction from the people was, 
 as in 1860, one-quarter of its present amount per head, even if it 
 were unscientific and unskillful in the levy, the mischief was compara 
 tively inconsiderable. But with the quadruplication of the exaction, 
 the difficulty of obtaining good methods of imposing it is greatly 
 increased, and the mischiefs of bad methods become wellnigh intol 
 erable. 
 
 When governments take from the people, for official expenditure, 
 nearly all the surplus earnings of individuals, science and skill in the 
 art of taxation become necessary necessary to preserve and enlarge 
 the revenue necessary to gild the infliction to the tax-payers. Our 
 present situation is that we have more than European burdens, as 
 seen in the most costly governments of the richest of modern nations, 
 supporting immense navies and armies and public debts ; and to these 
 burdens we have conjoined an ignorance and incompetency in dealing 
 with them which is peculiarly our own. We have not yet acquired 
 the arts belonging to a system which the founders of American Gov 
 ernment warned us against, and fondly believed would never exist in 
 this country. 
 
 
 
 SACRIFICE CAUSED BY UNSKILLFUL MODES OF TAXATION. 
 
 The consequence is, that the pecuniary sacrifices of the people are 
 not to be measured by the receipts into the Treasury. They are vastly 
 greater. A tax that starts in its career by disturbing the natural 
 courses of private industry, and impairing the productive power of 
 labor, and then comes to the consumer, distended by profits of suc 
 cessive intermediaries, and by insurance against the risks of a fickle 
 or uncertain governmental policy, and of a fluctuating governmental 
 standard of value blights human well-being at every step. When 
 it reaches the hapless child of toil, who buys his bread by the single 
 loaf, and his fuel by the basket, it devours his earnings and inflicts 
 starvation. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 277 
 
 A. GOVERNMENTAL CLASS OF TAX-CONSUMERS. 
 
 Another evil of such a system of excessive taxation is, that it 
 creates and nourishes a governmental class witU tendencies to lessen 
 services and to enlarge compensation, to multiply retainers, to invent 
 jobs and foster all forms of expenditure tendencies unrestrained by 
 the watchful eye and firm hand of personal interest, which alone ena 
 ble private business to be carried on successfully. In other countries 
 such a class has found itself able, sometimes by its own influence and 
 sometimes in alliance with the army, to rule the unorganized masses. 
 
 In our country it has become a great power, acting on the elections 
 by all the methods of organization, of propagating opinion, of influ 
 ence and of corruption. The system, like every living thing, strug 
 gles to perpetuate its own existence. 
 
 Every useful and necessary governmental service, at a proper cost, 
 is productive labor. Every excess beyond that, so far as it is saved 
 by the official, merely transfers to Mm what belongs to the people. 
 So far as such excess is consumed, it is a waste of capital, as absolute 
 as if wheat of equal value were destroyed by fire or gold were sunk 
 in the ocean. 
 
 WASTE LARGER THAN NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 Probably such waste by govermental expenditure in the eleven 
 years since the war amounts to, at least, as much as our present na 
 tional debt. 
 
 MISGOVERNMENT IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that the systematic and extreme misgovern- 
 ment imposed on the States of the South has greatly detracted from 
 our national prosperity. In those impoverished communities it has 
 not stopped with the ordinary effects of ignorant and dishonest ad 
 ministration. It has inflicted upon them enormous issues of fraudu 
 lent bonds, the scanty avails of which were wasted or stolen, and the 
 existence of which is a public discredit, tending to bankruptcy or 
 repudiation. Its taxes, generally oppressive, in some instances have 
 confiscated the entire income of property, and totally destroyed the 
 marketable value. 
 
 ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 In a region five times as large as the British Isles and three times 
 as large as France, abounding in all the elements of natural wealth, it 
 has destroyed confidence and credit in all transactions, diffused un- 
 
278 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 certainty and distrust everywhere, and consumed existing capital, 
 while retarding production and paralyzing the enterprise by which 
 such waste might be repaired and future growth assured. 
 
 HOW IT IS MAINTAINED. 
 
 This system, after its character became known to us as well as to 
 those directly affected, abhorred by all the intellect and virtue of the 
 communities in which it exists, and by their public opinion, has been 
 maintained through long years by the favor and patronage of the 
 Federal Government by the moral coercion of its prestige by the 
 standing menace and occasional exercise of its military power. 
 
 ESTJUEY TO OUE OWN PEOSPEEITY. 
 
 It is impossible that such wrongs should not react upon us. The 
 immediate sufferers by it are the producers of four-tenths of the ex 
 ported commodities, excluding specie, of our whole forty millions of 
 people, and of the most important raw materials of our own domestic 
 manufactures. They are agricultural communities, which, more than 
 any others, sell what they produce and buy what they consume. 
 They are our most valuable customers for the products of our own 
 industries and for our merchandise ; and they make us factors in all 
 their transactions. The State of New York, which contains the com 
 mercial metropolis, receives the largest injury ; but its consequences 
 extend throughout the whole country. 
 
 EXCESSIVE SPECULATION. 
 
 Other influences have been at work to deteriorate the financial 
 condition of our people. The period has been full of tendencies to 
 unsoundness in the management of private business, and in the habits 
 of families and individuals. 
 
 A series of speculative excitements has incited to enterprises 
 which have turned out to be unremunerative, and to investments 
 which fail to yield revenue and have lost their salable value. The 
 capital embarked in such undertakings is destroyed. Large classes find 
 their incomes diminished, and their convertible property reduced. 
 
 OVEETEADING. 
 
 Even the operations of regular business partook of the spirit of 
 the times, and became too much expanded. Profits which came in 
 part from the swelling of nominal prices, tempted those who were 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 279 
 
 unexpectedly enriched to count on their continuance, and to enlarge 
 their undertakings or engagements under that illusion. 
 
 One who had half his capital invested in land, and buildings, and 
 machinery, which is called fixed capital and half invested in raw 
 materials and funds to employ workmen, which is called circulating 
 capital, and was doing a safe and easy business was induced, for the 
 purpose of enlarging that business, to double his investment in fixed 
 forms. He, therefore, needed double the circulating capital ; and, 
 instead of owning it all, had to borrow it all. The turn of the times 
 disabled him from selling an enlarged product, or perhaps even an 
 equal product, or of selling without loss ; and, when he needed loans 
 to double the amount of his former floating capital, in order to carry 
 on his business, and more in order to hold his product for a revival 
 of the market, he found that lenders had become timid. 
 
 Another discovered that an enterprise which may be good takes 
 longer to bring returns than he anticipated. 
 
 Another began when credit was easy, and failed to foresee how 
 changeable that condition is; and, even though his hopes of profit 
 were undiminished, found it difficult to carry his loans. 
 
 EFFECTS GEXEEAL. 
 
 When large classes suffer under the effects of these miscalculations, 
 the influence will extend, more or less, to nearly all the community. 
 
 A period of falling prices following a period of rising prices gen 
 erates such results. Great fluctuations in the hopes and opinion of. 
 the public, creating vicissitudes of credit, are the secondary cause, as 
 they are themselves the results of some primary cause. 
 
 EXAGGEEATED COST OF MIDDLEMEN. 
 
 An outgrowth of the same morbid condition is the unusual and 
 unreasonable disparity now existing between the wholesale price 
 which the producer receives, and the retail price which the consumer 
 pays. No doubt prolonged fluctuation in prices tends, during the up 
 ward movement, to increase the charges of middlemen, and to enlarge 
 the class. But the root of the evil is the uncertainty and instability. 
 The importer adds to the price of every article he imports, the ex 
 porter reduces the price he pays for every article he exports, as insur 
 ance against the possible variation in the value of greenbacks when 
 converted into the money of the world, and against the possible 
 changes of governmental policy at Washington. 
 
280 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Nor can it be doubted that the condition of things has been un 
 favorable to economy and efficiency in the management of business 
 to frugality in private expenditure, and to energy in production. 
 
 Such are the immediate causes which have occasioned excessive 
 and unnatural consumption of our national capital, and which have 
 retarded the natural processes of repair and growth during the last 
 eleven years. 
 
 What are the ultimate causes, and what are the remedies? 
 
 NEW YORK S INTEREST IN THESE QUESTIONS. 
 
 To the people of this State these are interesting inquiries. In 
 1874 our State tax was nearly $16,000,000. Our local taxes were 
 over $42,000,000. Our share of the taxes of the Federal Government, 
 on the average of eleven years, if computed on population, would 
 exceed $50,000,000, or if computed on consumption, according to the 
 estimate of the Finance Committee of the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1867, would for the year exceed $80,000,000. 
 
 ACTION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THE ULTIMATE CAUSE. 
 
 The Federal Government has the direct and exclusive responsibili 
 ty for its own immense expenditure, and for its calamitous policy in 
 respect to the great producing States of the South. 
 
 It has likewise controlled the currency and the banking of the 
 country. It has been the principal dealer in the precious metals. It 
 has conducted vast fiscal transactions. Its financial Secretary has 
 held in his hand from day to day the supply and the rates of the 
 loan-market in the centre of capital and commerce, the terms of our 
 foreign exchanges, the prices of exports and imports, the quality of 
 the circulating medium, the fluctuating standard of values recognized 
 by law as the rule in all dealings and all contracts. 
 
 By the force of its example, by its ascendency over opinion ac 
 quired in a period of public danger, during which the people formed 
 the habit of following its leadership, by its means of propagating the 
 ideas according to which its own operations were conducted, by all 
 these as well as by the direct effects of its action, its measures, and its 
 policy, the Federal Government has, therefore, practically dominated 
 over all business and all industries, and created conditions which 
 shape the conduct of individuals in their production and consumption, 
 and of local governments in their expenditures, taxation, and creation 
 of debt. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 281 
 
 FALSE EEMEDIES. 
 
 It is natural that such a condition of men s business affairs should 
 be prolific of illusory and mischievous schemes for relief. A vague 
 notion is extensively entertained that a new issue of legal-tender 
 notes would afford an effectual remedy. This fallacy is largely due to 
 the false theory pervading nearly all the literature of political economy 
 as to the agency which the quantity of the currency, even when 
 equivalent to coin, has in causing cycles of high and low prices. 
 
 EEEONEOUS TIIEOEY. 
 
 As high prices and expanded currency, and low prices and con 
 tracted currency, have been usually found together, the effect has 
 been mistaken for the cause. It is often assumed that the banks, 
 even when redeeming their notes in coin, can expand their issues in 
 excess of the needs of the community, and thereby originate and con 
 summate a general and prolonged rise of prices. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE FACTS. 
 
 An analysis of the function of the convertible bank-note, or of the 
 processes by which cycles of high prices occur, will equally confute 
 this opinion. A study of the order of the events which have hap 
 pened in periods of rising prices in England and the United States, 
 under a convertible currency, shows that usually the speculative 
 movement at all stages precedes the increase of bank-notes. 
 
 BANK-NOTES AN INSIGNIFICANT PAKT OF CEEDIT MACIIINEEY. 
 
 The convertible bank-note is but a small portion of the instru 
 ments of credit used in a commercial country. It is adapted to the 
 wants of persons who do not keep bank accounts, and the wants, in 
 petty transactions, of those who do keep bank accounts. It bears no 
 interest ; and the holder has a motive to keep on hand only so much 
 as he thinks he may require for expected or possible purchases or 
 payments, and to invest or lend the surplus so that it will become 
 productive. 
 
 If a bank lends its note to a borrower to make a payment or a 
 purchase, the use for that purpose is but for an instant. Unless the 
 note is received by or passed to some person who detains it for a 
 future purpose, it immediately goes back to the issuer through the 
 exchanges with other banks. It has to be redeemed by reducing 
 other loans, or by a temporary loss of a portion of the usual reserve 
 
282 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 of the issuer. The life of a bank-note is made up of a succession of 
 instantaneous uses, alternating with a succession of prolonged deten 
 tions. 
 
 The quantity that will stay out at any given time depends mainly 
 on the expectancy of individuals as to future transactions, and, in a 
 lesser degree, on the state of prices, which vary the amount used in 
 the same transaction. In times of rising speculation the wants of 
 the community absorb a larger quantity. Each transaction employs 
 an amount enlarged in proportion to the enhanced prices ; transactions 
 become more frequent, and the detentions of the means of future 
 transactions are increased by a greater disposition to make them, and 
 less care to economize interest. 
 
 It is the competition of buyers which puts up prices in a period 
 of speculation. Bank-notes have infinitely less to do with originating 
 speculation, or even furnishing the means whereby it can be sus 
 tained, than the other parts of the machinery of credit. 
 
 Bank-notes, or currency as they are called, are but an insignifi 
 cant portion of the means of purchase or payment. The transac 
 tions effected by check, operating to transfer bank deposits, in the 
 city of New York amount now in every eight days and some years 
 ago amounted in every five days to as large a sum as all the legal 
 tenders and bank-notes in the hands of the people of the whole 
 United States. The payments effected at the London Clearing- 
 House amount in every two days to as much as the whole circulat 
 ing medium of the United Kingdom. The other instruments of 
 credit by which business is carried on such as book accounts, notes 
 of hand, bills of exchange, drafts, checks on bank deposit are thus 
 many times the volume of bank-notes. 
 
 OTHEE INSTRUMENTS OF CEEDIT PEEFEEEED. 
 
 Speculative purchases are nearly always initiated by the use of 
 personal credit. In such times confidence is high ; credit is freely 
 given and readily accepted. The transactions are generally made on 
 book accounts or notes of hand. These are at the command of the 
 buyers in unlimited amount, and without delay or inconvenience. 
 Bank credits, called deposits like bank-notes can be obtained 
 only by borrowing. For such purposes bank-notes are only used in 
 small transactions, and to a comparatively insignificant extent. 
 
 BANK-NOTES SLOW AND DIFFICULT OF INCEEASB. 
 
 The issue of bank-notes, if not limited to a fixed amount, is gen- 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 283 
 
 erally restrained by laws which require a deposit of securities with 
 the Government ; and the process of issue is so slow and inconven 
 ient that a sudden and large increase is not possible. Those that are 
 in the hands of the public cannot easily be collected in large amounts, 
 but are scattered in small sums among millions of holders through 
 out a continent. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 On the whole, then, it is demonstrable that bank-notes, or cur 
 rency, when convertible, have less agency in originating or facilitat 
 ing a general speculation than any other portion of the vast machin 
 ery of credit of which they form so inconsiderable a part. The false 
 theory that they are the master-cause of prices and fluctuations of 
 prices, and that a governmental regulation of their volume will avert 
 the tremendous vicissitudes in business to which commercial coun 
 tries, carrying on vast credit transactions, are periodically subject, was 
 the basis of the plan adopted in 1844, on the recharter of the Bank of 
 England. The theory was then seen, by a few of the best thinkers, 
 to be destitute of truth. It has since been completely refuted by 
 experience. 
 
 A PROLIFIC FALLACY. 
 
 In the infancy of the very modern science of political economy, a 
 metaphor was accepted as an axiom. It was said that, if purchasers 
 should suddenly find two gold-coins for one in their pockets, they 
 would pay double price for commodities. The proposition has no 
 truth in it, except by assuming as a condition the result to be proved. 
 It would not be true of any one buyer. It could not be true of all 
 collectively, unless a fall in the value of gold had previously hap 
 pened. The increased quantity could exist only as a consequence of 
 an increased demand at the same value, or of a decline in the cost 
 of production. In modern times, the increase in wealth and com 
 merce is many fold the increase of population. The medium of ex 
 change required is vastly larger than the accumulation of the precious 
 metals, and an increased extension of credit machinery has become 
 necessary. Bank-notes, or other circulating credits, cost as much to 
 all save the issuer as an equal value in coin. They have to be paid 
 for by all who use them. 
 
 If individuals prefer to use coin to even a small proportion of 
 their ability, or to hold their savings or reserves in coin ; if traders, 
 commercial companies, and governments increase their reserved stocks 
 
284 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEK 
 
 of bullion to even a small percentage of the extension of their opera 
 tions, the absorption would outrun the production of the precious 
 metals, taking no account of the insatiable demand of the Asiatic 
 nations. 
 
 PRICE NOT A EATIO TO QUANTITY. 
 
 The fact is, that price is not a mathematical ratio to be computed 
 like a logarithm. The variations of the market are estimated by 
 reasoning beings on the best judgment they can form of the happen 
 ing and the effect of future events. The laws of market or temporary 
 price are different in every case. An excess of oranges which perish 
 in a few days, or of artificial flowers which go out of fashion, is 
 worthless. An excess of gold, which is indestructible, and easy, cheap 
 and safe to hold, involves a loss of interest, at the lowest rate, for the 
 period it is likely to remain on hand. 
 
 LAW OF DEPRECIATION OF INCONVERTIBLE CURRENCY. 
 
 The depreciation of our legal-tender Treasury notes is not to be 
 measured by any arithmetical formula. The law which governs it is 
 the discount for interest until the probable time of payment, and for 
 insurance against ris, as those two elements are estimated by the 
 general judgment of investors. To create a demand for it, by re 
 ceiving it in government transactions, or to reduce its supply below 
 the demands created by law from individuals for use as legal tenders, 
 is for the Government to make an artificial market, which operates, 
 so far forth, as a practical redemption. 
 
 HOW ISSUES OF LEGAL TENDERS INFLATED PRICES. 
 
 It is consistent with this reasoning to admit and assert that the 
 issue of legal-tender Treasury notes, during the late civil war, exerted 
 great power over prices. It acted on the public imagination in re 
 spect to future values. It excited great distrust that the Government, 
 instead of having recourse for its means of war expenditure to the 
 vast mass of our national wealth by loans and taxes, resorted to a 
 debasement of the comparatively insignificant fund of circulating 
 credits with which private business is carried on. It excited a grave 
 sense of doubt how often, and to what extent, it might recur to so 
 dangerous an expedient ; great misgiving as to the time and the cer 
 tainty of ultimate redemption. Under these influences, in the vicis 
 situdes of military operations, the discount became large touching, 
 at its extreme point, sixty-five per cent, on the par value of the issues. 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 285 
 
 INFLUENCE OF OPINION AND IMAGINATION. 
 
 The human imagination seldom fails to exaggerate any desired or 
 dreaded reality to which it looks forward, and it acts a great part in 
 those cycles of ascending prices and descending prices which happen 
 in highly-commercial countries. The origin is, in some event creat 
 ing an anticipation of a rise in the market value of one or more 
 commodities, which extends as by contagion to others or in an ex 
 pectation of a general rise of prices. The upward movement some 
 times continues for several years. The excitement begins with deal 
 ers for profit or speculation. The instruments of credit first brought 
 into requisition, are those which are commonly used by these classes. 
 The small consumers are the last reached. Then bank-notes are ex 
 panded ; and they generally continue to increase for some time after 
 the downward turn of the speculation. 
 
 EEAOTION. 
 
 The reaction would take place by the mere exhaustion of the 
 speculative impulse. Sometimes it does happen without any other 
 cause. A speculative movement, when it ceases to go upward, can 
 but fall. But often some special cause intervenes to precipitate the 
 catastrophe. 
 
 CAUSES OF PRESENT EEAOTION. 
 
 In our present case, the most important cause of reaction is the 
 immense waste of our capital, which has gone on in all the modes 
 described, and especially by excessive governmental consumption. An 
 accessory cause is the fall in prices of many of our staples, which 
 are now produced in excess of the capacity of private consumption 
 by an impoverished people. There are also moral causes acting on 
 the public mind. A popular error existed that prices would not fall 
 so long as the volume of legal tenders and bank-notes continued un- 
 diminished. Many made their business calculations on that theory, 
 and are disappointed, and their confidence in their own opinions un 
 settled. 
 
 These special causes, in addition to the natural exhaustion of a 
 fictitious excitement, broke the public illusions, which had been gen 
 erated by false systems and false theories. A great change ensued in 
 the opinion and feeling of the people in confidence and credit, in the 
 voluntary machinery of business, which expands and contracts ac 
 cording to the fluctuating temper and purposes of individuals. A 
 corresponding fall of prices resulted. 
 
286 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 CURRENCY EXPANSION FAILED TO STOP REACTION. 
 
 But the quantity of legal tenders and bank-notes in the hands of 
 the public had not been diminished. The quantity, excluding those 
 held by the Treasury and the banks, was larger at the crisis in Sep 
 tember and October, 1873, than at any previous time. Yet the con 
 tinuance of the volume of the currency the enlargement of it did 
 not inflate prices did not even stay the fall of prices. 
 
 MODERATE ISSUE FUTILE. 
 
 In such a state of facts, it is obvious how utterly futile to arrest, 
 how more than futile to reverse, the operation of these potent causes 
 would be a new issue of any moderate quantity of legal tenders. 
 
 A sudden and unexpected deficiency of currency sometimes hap 
 pens ; and, before business can be adapted to the new condition, or 
 can find a substitute in some other instrument of exchange, much 
 temporary inconvenience may be felt. 
 
 Such a state of things to which a new issue might be adapted 
 does not exist. On the contrary, there is assuredly an adequate 
 supply of currency for the wants of business and even a surplus. 
 In eight years out of ten, the demand for from five to ten per cent, 
 additional currency in the autumn, to move the crops, creates what is 
 called a "fall pinch." There was none in 1875. The surplus cur 
 rency previously on hand more than provided for that special tempo 
 rary demand. The banks continued to lend their balances on call at 
 low rates. The tendency to reduce the circulation because of the 
 lack of profitable employment is still manifest. The New York City 
 banks reduced their outstanding notes, between 1873 and 1875, from 
 $28,000,000 to less than $18,000,000. 
 
 WOULD NOT RELIEVE EMBARRASSMENT. 
 
 NOT would such an additional issue of legal tenders give any di 
 rect relief to embarrassed persons. The notes issued would have to 
 be paid for. The difficulty with embarrassed persons is, that they 
 have not available property to convert into currency. If they had, 
 the conversion could be as well effected with the existing mass of 
 currency as after such a new issue. 
 
 Nor would any moderate issue of legal tenders have the least 
 power to revive the condition of business through which we have 
 passed ; the condition of high and rising prices of universal dispo 
 sition to enlarge operations, undertake new enterprises, and enter 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 287 
 
 into new speculations of unsound confidence and reckless use of 
 credit ; a condition which imparted an apparent but fictitious pros 
 perity to everything and everybody, and furnished an unnatural 
 market for all property. Experience shows that, after such a state 
 of business, a period follows in which the opposite ideas and feelings 
 prevail. Such is the case now. With all the agencies having real 
 power to create such a condition of business, operating strongly in 
 the contrary direction, the effort to reproduce that condition, by an 
 agency never capable of much effect} would be perfectly futile. If 
 the Treasury should pay out a moderate additional quantity of legal 
 tenders, they would not go into circulation or act on prices. They 
 would merely accumulate in the money centres and reduce the rate 
 of call loans of bankers balances. 
 
 INDEFINITE ISSUE WOULD, MODEEATE ISSUE MIGHT, CAUSE DISASTER. 
 
 It would be only by a large issue, or the menace of a large or 
 indefinite issue, that a decided effect on prices could be produced. 
 That would create alarm of such an impending depreciation as to 
 threaten creditors with a confiscation of their debts, and holders 
 of currency with its loss ; and they would hasten to exchange it for 
 property. Any issue, which should act on the imagination, inciting 
 wild estimates or wild fears of the future, might induce a speculative 
 depreciation of the price of the currency and inflation of the prices 
 of property. 
 
 The evil, even of a moderate issue, when the currency already 
 exceeds the wants of business, and the increase cannot be pretended 
 to be for any legitimate purpose, especially if the object of removing 
 individual distress by creating fictitious prices be avowed, is that it 
 strikes at the root of all confidence and all credit. If the principle 
 be once adopted, everybody will inquire how often such an expedient 
 may be repeated, how far it may be carried. 
 
 An attempted expansion of the petty volume of the currency, 
 under circumstances which cause a real contraction of the whole 
 vaster volume of credit machinery, which fill all lenders with dismay, 
 and which destroy public confidence, hope, and faith, that are the 
 basis of credit systems and credit operations, is self-destructive. It 
 can be prolific of nothing but general disaster. 
 
 SOUND FINANCE DEMANDED. 
 
 The temper which now predominates among the people revolts 
 at financial quackery. It is -no longer susceptible to flattering illu- 
 
288 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 sions which have exploded amid the wrecks of individual fortunes 
 and private prosperity. It is excessively incredulous. It demands 
 sound measures, such as commend themselves to the judgment of the 
 best intellects and the best experience. 
 
 SPECIE PAYMENTS WITHOUT CONVULSION". 
 
 After eleven years of convulsion without a restoration of specie 
 payments, it now claims a restoration of specie payments without a 
 convulsion. The problem does not seem difficult. Resumption by 
 the Government will accomplish completely resumption by the banks. 
 The Treasury has only, by gradual and prudent measures, to provide 
 for the payment of such portion of the outstanding Treasury notes 
 as the public, not wishing to retain for use, will return upon it for 
 redemption. The sum required in coin, if the preparations be wisely 
 conducted so as to secure public confidence, will be what is necessary 
 to replace the fractional currency and to supply such individuals as 
 prefer coin to paper for their little stores of money ; and also what is 
 necessary to constitute a central reservoir of reserves against the 
 fluctuations of international balances and for the banks. To amass a 
 sufficient quantity by intercepting from the current of precious metals 
 flowing out of this country, and by acquiring from the stocks which 
 exist abroad without disturbing the equilibrium of foreign money- 
 markets, is a result to be worked out by a study of all the conditions, 
 and the elements to fulfill those conditions, and by the execution of the 
 plan adopted, with practical skill and judgment. Redemption, beyond 
 this provision of coin, can be effected as other business payments are 
 effected ; or in any method which converts investments without in 
 terest into investments upon interest, on terms the holder will ac 
 cept ; and by such measures as would keep the aggregate amount of 
 the currency self-adjusting during all the process, without creating, 
 at any time, an artificial scarcity, and without exciting the public 
 imagination with alarm which impair confidence, contract the whole 
 large machinery of credit and disturb the natural operations of busi 
 ness. The best resource for redemption is that furnished by public 
 economies ; for it creates no new charge upon the people ; and a 
 stronger public credit is certain to result from sounder finance, and 
 will reduce the annual cost of the national debt. 
 
 EXAMPLE OF FRANCE. 
 
 These opinions, deduced from reason, are confirmed, in a recent 
 example, by experience. France, in her ten months contest with 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 289 
 
 Germany, incurred a war expenditure of one thousand millions of 
 dollars in specie values; and, in the twenty-eight months following 
 the peace, paid an indemnity of one thousand million, of dollars in 
 specie, or its equivalent, to a foreign country. These great opera 
 tions were carried ofl without causing a depreciation of the currency 
 beyond two and one-half per cent, at its extreme point, and without 
 disturbing the general business or industry of the people. 
 
 OUE GREAT NECESSITY. 
 
 What is most needed now is, that the public mind be reassured by 
 a wise, safe, and healing policy. The dread of imaginary evils as 
 cribed to the methods assumed to be necessary to restore specie pay 
 ments is more mischievous than the reality, wisely pursued, ought to 
 be. As soon as the apprehension of an impending fall of values is 
 removed, manufacturing and mechanical industries will start anew, 
 dealers will buy for future consumption, enterprises that commend 
 themselves to the sober judgment of investors will be undertaken, 
 and capital, which now accepts any low rate of interest, where there 
 is no risk, but is withheld from operations of average character, will 
 be lent on reasonable conditions. 
 
 TEUE EEMEDIES. 
 
 But the remedies for the evils now felt by the people in their 
 business and industries must extend beyond any measures merely re 
 lating to the currency. They must be broader and deeper. They 
 must begin with a prompt and large reduction in governmental ex 
 penditures and taxation, which shall leave in the hands that earn it a 
 larger share of the result of labor. They must proceed by with 
 drawing, as much as possible, governmental interferences that cripple 
 the industries of the people. They must be consummated with an 
 increased efficiency and economy in the conduct of business and in 
 the processes of production, and by a more rigorous frugality in pri 
 vate consumption. A period of self-denial will replace what has 
 been wasted. 
 
 We must build up a new prosperity upon the old foundations of 
 American self-government; carry back our political systems toward 
 the ideals of their authors ; make governmental institutions simple, 
 frugal meddling little with the private concerns of individuals 
 aiming at fraternity among ourselves and peace abroad and trusting 
 to the people to work out their own prosperity and happiness. All 
 the elements of national growth and private felicity exist in our 
 13 
 
290 THE LIFE OF SlMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 country in an abundance which Providence has vouchsafed to no 
 other people. What we need to do is to rescue them from govern 
 mental folly and rapacity. 
 
 It is due to the Republican majority to- say that the mes 
 sage was well received by the better class of their representa 
 tives. Before the end of the session several earnest partisans, 
 who had set out to oppose the Governor, discovered that they 
 could better serve the State and their constituents by follow 
 ing his advice. Some who were his bitter enemies became 
 his friends. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE VETO OF THE PAUPER-LABOR BILL. 1876. 
 
 THROUGHOUT his whole career, Governor Tilden has 
 evinced a determination to protect, so far as lay in his power, 
 the working-men in their just rights. The Legislature of 1876 
 enacted a law which was particularly objectionable to the 
 working-classes in New York City, inasmuch as it threatened 
 to bring them into competition with all the paupers and con 
 victs iii charge of the authorities, at a time when general dis 
 aster had overtaken business, and work at any price was diffi 
 cult to obtain. The Governor vetoed the bill in the following 
 message : 
 
 STATE OF NEW YOEK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, j 
 ALBANY, March 14, 1876. ) 
 
 To the Assembly : 
 
 I herewith return, without my signature, Assembly Bill No. 12, 
 entitled " An act to provide fo;r the employment of convicts and pau- 
 pera under the control of the Commissioners of Public Charities and 
 Correction of the City and County of New York." 
 
 This bill commands the Commissioners of Charities and Correc 
 tion for the City of New York to furnish employment to " every able- 
 bodied convict or pauper confined in the institutions under their care " 
 who cannot be employed " to advantage or profit " in getting out 
 stone, cultivating ground, or manufacturing for the use of the said 
 departments, with such mechanical or ether labor as " will yield the 
 greatest revenue to the departments," and enable him to be kept con 
 stantly employed during the term of his imprisonment. 
 
 This provision does not merely confer authority on the commis 
 sioners. It is mandatory. It contains no qualification. It allows no 
 discretion. The rule in respect to the choice of industries in which 
 the convicts and paupers are to be employed is absolute. The work 
 
292 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 to i>e carried on is that which will " yield the greatest revenue." 
 The theoretical principle of political economy in respect to private 
 business, which, to the honor of humanity, is qualified and tempered 
 in practice remorseless competition for the greatest profit is en- 
 "acted as the law in the selection of the industries to be followed. 
 Unless the legal effect of this enactment is qualified by the last clause 
 of the same section, any intentional deviation, any conscious devia 
 tion from this rule by the commissioners, would be itself a misde 
 meanor. It would expose the commissioners to a liability to take 
 their places with the convict portion of the persons under their care. 
 
 It is true that an amendment was added to this section by the 
 Senate, making it also the duty of the commissioners, " so far as in 
 tJieir judgment 1 1 may be "practically and advantageously" done, to 
 take those industries and such a diversity of them as may " tend 
 least to conflict with the interest of free industries and trades in the 
 said city and county." 
 
 Under the established principle of construing the parts of a stat 
 ute so that they will all stand together, it is probable that this clause 
 would be ineffectual to modify the operation of the rule laid down in 
 the former part of the section. Even the authority to prefer the in 
 dustries which " tend least to conflict " is limited to cases in which it 
 may be "advantageously" done. Could it be deemed "advanta 
 geous " to choose industries which would yield less profit than others ? 
 Nor does this provision apply in favor of the industries of Brooklyn 
 or any other part of the State than the city of New York. The 
 chief significance of this clause is its apparent expression of distrust 
 by the Legislature, and of a disposition to qualify the main provision 
 of the section. 
 
 The second section of the bill appears to be intended to enlarge 
 the powers of the commissioners to embark in manufacturing on ac 
 count of the city corporation, which is itself a questionable experi 
 ment in view of the results of all business enterprises heretofore un 
 dertaken by the public authorities, and is only to be sanctioned after 
 the greatest consideration, and with the most careful guards against 
 the mischiefs which have been engendered in similar cases. 
 
 Other provisions of the bill are imperfect, uncertain, and improvi 
 dent. For instance, the clause prohibiting the commissioners from 
 entering into any " contract by which they shall in any manner re 
 linquish the control, support, and discipline of the said paupers and 
 convicts " though probably not intended to have such an effect-:- 
 
THE VETO OF THE PAUPER-LABOR BILL. 293 
 
 may conflict with the humane provisions of the act of last year " for 
 the better care of pauper and destitute children." 
 
 It is desirable to make the prisons and almshouses of the city of 
 New York contribute as much to their own support as they can con 
 sistently with their objects and with the welfare of all classes of our 
 citizens ; and no doubt the occupation of their inmates in work tends 
 to discipline, to health, and to reformation. The problem is, how to 
 attain these salutary ends without injuring the interests or wounding 
 the just self-esteem or the honorable sentiments of the skilled arti 
 sans and working-men who are the strength of a state ; who have 
 made American labor, on the whole, more efficient than any otlrer in 
 the processes of production, and conferred on our country the re 
 nown of its achievements. The best solution of this problem is 
 worthy of the most patient and considerate thought and of continu 
 ous effort. A constitutional amendment changing the system of ad 
 ministration of the State-prisons passed both Houses last year, and is 
 now pending. The State Board of Charities are addressing their best 
 faculties to their beneficent work. A special investigation of the 
 subject of pauperism was recommended in my annual message, and 
 is under your consideration. In the present depressed state of busi 
 ness when scarcely any industry is remunerative, even with the ad 
 vantages of being long established, and of having private supervision 
 and management it is not likely that any new business enterprise 
 or speculation carried on by the public officers would have immediate 
 results in profits to the Treasury. 
 
 Nor is it to be overlooked .that unexampled distress from the want 
 of remunerative employment now exists among the mechanics and 
 working-men of the city of New York. 
 
 If government may maintain an organized system of relief for 
 paupers, it may at least exercise forbearance, in a period of business 
 disaster, toward those who are struggling with difficulties that tend 
 to swell the class to which such relief is given. It can abstain, not 
 only from actual injury, but from holding up to their imagination the 
 spectre of a new governmental competition ; from rash or experi 
 mental changes in the system and laws to which the people are ac 
 customed ; from inconsiderate or imperfect measures, the effects of 
 which cannot be foreseen or completely understood. In the mean 
 time, a real and vast reduction of the burden of taxation can be se 
 cured in other methods, for the support of which all classes and in 
 terest may be expected to cooperate. The reform of the canal ex- 
 
294 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 penditures of itself will save more than a million of dollars a year to 
 the tax-payers of the metropolis. That measure is an example of a 
 liberal policy toward the hoatmen and transporters in a reduction of 
 tolls made coincidently with a far larger remission of taxes, and an 
 harmonious cooperation of both classes to secure the reform. The 
 policy which I had the honor to recommend to the Legislature in my 
 message at the opening of the present session, if adopted and faith 
 fully carried out, will secure to the tax-payers of the city of New 
 York a remission of taxes in 1876 as compared with 1874 of four 
 millions of dollars, or about one-half of the entire taxes of the city 
 for State purposes. In such prospects of being themselves relieved 
 and in such necessity of general cooperation, the tax-payers of a com 
 munity like the city of New York cannot afford to turn only the 
 sacrificial side of public retrenchments to the mechanics and work 
 ing-men, who really bear in indirect forms their full share of the 
 taxes, but who, because they do not pay directly, too often fail to 
 recognize the full benefits to themselves of the policy which reduces 
 such burdens. 
 
 (Signed) SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 It is to be observed that the Governor bases his veto on 
 substantial and sufficient constitutional grounds ; but it can 
 hardly be doubted that his sympathies prompted him to scru 
 tinize the act more closely than he would have done if it had 
 proposed to institute no objectionable, policy. After the veto 
 of this bill the working-men of New York held a well-attended 
 mass-meeting, at which the Governor s course was emphati 
 cally approved. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE PEELIMINAKY CANVASS FOE THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 IT is an undeniable fact that few men who make a busi 
 ness of politics are able to interpret the will of the people. 
 They believe oftentimes that the people have no will that 
 what is called " public sentiment " is created to order either 
 by the devices of demagogism or the tricks of the newspaper 
 press. " The government of the people, by the people, for 
 the people," they look upon us as a popular delusion, to be 
 praised in public a^id- sneered at in private. This cynicism, 
 which seems to prevail among seven-eighths of the office-hold 
 ing class, was never shared by Mr. Tilden. His faith in the 
 people is unwavering. Very many times during the past 
 thirty years, when those around him were filled with doubts 
 and fears, he has said, " If we can only reach the voters and 
 learn their opinions we cannot go astray." When he was at 
 the head of the New York Democratic State Committee his 
 plan of conducting a canvass was to put himself in com 
 munication with as many Democrats as possible, that he might 
 learn from them the drift of sentiment. Some years he re 
 ceived as many as ten thousand letters relating to politics. 
 He measured his own intelligence by the amount of infor 
 mation thus acquired from farmers, mechanics, lawyers, doc 
 tors, working-men, and all classes of citizens. 
 
 Mr. Tilden s confidence in the people was fully met by 
 their faith in him. In his long struggle with the Tammany 
 conspirators, in his brilliant fight against the " Canal Ring," in 
 all the achievements -of his public life, he has been sustained 
 by a power which was irresistible the power of the people. 
 
296 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 That the professional politicians did not comprehend this 
 power was evident in the preliminary canvass for the presi 
 dency. They could not understand why the voters from 
 Maine to California should direct their attention, by a com 
 mon impulse, to the unpretentious man in Albany who had 
 found time, amid the routine duties of his office as Governor 
 of New York, to stop the stealing and reduce the taxes. It 
 was commonplace sort of work from the. standpoint of these 
 people " work fitter for a detective than for a gentleman " 
 one of them remarked but none the less it appeared to be 
 work that was appreciated. 
 
 Mr. Tilden was not counted among the orators of the 
 country. He had not traveled over that road lined with 
 offices which is supposed to lead to the presidency, but which 
 has oftener led to humiliating disappointment and defeat. 
 He was not within the charmed circle from which it was 
 thought that the candidate must be taken. The Republicans 
 did not want him to be the Democratic nominee. The lead 
 ers heard some of their followers say that if he were nomi 
 nated they might vote for him for the homely reason that he 
 had reduced the taxes. It was too hard to answer that sort 
 of an argument, and they therefore preferred a different man. 
 Many of the Democratic politicians, particularly those who 
 abide in Washington during the winter, were convinced that 
 he possessed no strength . Washington creates an atmos 
 phere of its own, in which light things appear heavy and 
 heavy things have no weight. It is not until the Congress 
 man returns to his constituents and breathes the purer air of 
 his home that he discovers the mistakes he has made in re 
 gard to public opinion. 
 
 As Governor Tilden s strength began to increase and the 
 probability of his nomination to grow greater, the attacks 
 upon him became more bitter every day. He was charged 
 with " stealing a railroad " a polite way of referring to his 
 connection with the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis road, 
 which is made the subject of a chapter elsewhere. He was 
 
THE PRELIMINARY CANVASS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 297 
 
 also charged with being a secessionist, and to that accusation 
 some notice is given in the proper place. Among the miscel 
 laneous slanders was. one which is still repeated, to the effect 
 that Mr. Tilden conspired with Tweed to perpetrate election 
 frauds in 1868. The charge is based on a forged letter, of 
 which the following is a copy : 
 
 ROOMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE COMMITTEE, ) 
 October 27, 1868. J 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : Please at once to communicate with some reliable 
 person, in three or four principal towns and in each city of your 
 county, and request him (expenses duly arranged for this end) to 
 telegraph to William M. Tweed, Tammany Hall, at the minute ot 
 closing the polls, not waiting for the count, such person s estimate of 
 the vote. Let the telegraph be as follows : " This town will show a 
 
 Democratic gain [or loss] over last year of [number] ; " or this 
 
 one, if sufficiently certain: "This town will give a Republican [or 
 
 Democratic] majority of ." There is, of course, an important 
 
 object to be attained by a simultaneous transmission at the hour of 
 closing the polls, but not longer waiting. Opportunity can be taken 
 of the usual half-hour lull in telegraphic communication over lines 
 before actual results begin to be declared, and before the Associated 
 Press absorb the telegraph with returns and interfere with individual 
 messages, and give orders to watch carefully the count. Very truly 
 yours, SAMUEL J. TILDEST, Chairman. 
 
 This document was printed in the New York Evening 
 Post on the 3d of November, 1868, and its authenticity ques 
 tioned. The next day appeared the following : 
 
 CARD FROM MR. TILDES. 
 
 To the Editor of the Evening Post. 
 
 SIR : My attention has been called to an article in your journal of 
 last evening containing a circular to which my name is appended. I 
 hasten to assure you that you will not lose your reputation as critics 
 by assuming, on internal evidence, as you have correctly done, that 
 no such paper was ever written, signed, issued, or authorized by me, 
 or with any participation or knowledge on my part. I have read it 
 for the first time in your columns ;" but I have no reason to believe 
 that it had any such evil purpose as you suspect. For myself, I re- 
 
298 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 fused in 1844 to sign the famous "secret circular" relating to Texas, 
 which is celebrated in the history of the Evening Post, though I 
 might have been tempted by the illustrious association in which I 
 should have found myself. Neither before that, nor since, have I 
 ever been concerned in any circular marked " secret," "confidential," 
 or " private ; " nor shall I be, unless I should adopt that device for 
 the purpose of getting some valuable truth, disguised in such a form, 
 secured a wide publicity in the Evening Post and all the Republican 
 newspapers. Very truly yours, 
 
 S. J. TILDEN. 
 NEW YORK, November 4, 1868. 
 
 If the foregoing card does not form a sufficient answer to 
 the charge, perhaps the following lucid explanation which Mr. 
 Tilden offered to the New York Times in 1873 will serve the 
 required purpose : 
 
 THE ELECTION OF 1S68. 
 {Times Editorial, February 10, 1873.] 
 
 And while Mr. Tilden is about it, will he explain to the public 
 how he, in company with William M. Tweed, swindled the people 
 and stuffed the ballot-boxes in 1808, so that it was made to appear 
 that Seymour and Hoffman carried this State over Grant and Gris- 
 wold ? No one knows better than Samuel J. Tilden what a farce 
 and a fraud that election was, and Mr. Tilden knows just as well 
 that it was in his power to have given the people a fair election. . . . 
 
 Mr. Tilden was Tweed s partner in the shameless trickery of 
 1868. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to reply that there is not a particle of 
 truth in any of these statements. They are total fictions. 
 
 Nobody ever pretended, as a matter of fact, that Mr. Tilden had 
 any knowledge of, agency in, or gave any aid or countenance to any 
 frauds, in that or any other election. Nobody could so pretend with 
 out utter falsehood. 
 
 In the winter of 1868- 69 a congressional committee made an 
 elaborate and protracted investigation into the alleged frauds at the 
 then recent election. The evidence, incidentally developed for no 
 body professed to charge, or even suspect, any complicity on the 
 part of Mr. Tilden showed facts and relations which proved the 
 contrary. 
 
 The argument, or inference, that he must have acquired knowl 
 edge of such frauds as chairman of the State Committee, or had 
 
THE PRELIMINARY CANVASS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 290 
 
 power to prevent them, is without any foundation. What were the 
 relations between Mr. Tilden and the men accused of those frauds 
 and receiving the benefit of them, and where the power to prevent 
 such frauds really resided, will now be shown. 
 
 As stated on page 13 of the letter, in the passage respecting the 
 " formative period " of the " Ring," the antagonism between those 
 who became its leading members and Mr. Tilden was "sharply de 
 fined and public." This antagonism had begun as early as 1863. 
 
 In the State Convention of September, 1868, there was an open 
 contest. Mr. Allen 0. Beach was nominated chiefly by the efforts 
 of Mr. Tilden for Lieutenant- Governor by a large majority. The 
 result was described in the Times as a triumph over Tammany. In 
 August, an elaborate attack on Mr. Tilden by one of the journals 
 of tbe " Ring " was copied into the Leader, edited by Mayor Hall. 
 
 Mr. Tilden was about the last man in the State to whom these 
 persons would have intrusted any of their secrets or plans. Still 
 less would they expose to him any illegal or fraudulent schemes of 
 theirs. 
 
 The State Committee had no function in respect to the conduct 
 of the election in this city. Mr. Tilden did not belong to the Gen 
 eral Committee of the city, and, during the years of the ascendency 
 of the " Ring " in the city organizations, had no connection with 
 those organizations no voice in local nominations and never asked 
 or accepted any appointment for a friend. At that time he had 
 about as much relation to the ruling powers of Tammany as Mayor 
 Havemeyer may be supposed to have to the clique now controlling 
 the local Republican organization, whom he has lately described 
 with so much picturesque effect. 
 
 The State Committee was an object of jealousy and fear to these 
 men. It was at all times perfectly independent of them, and re 
 ceived very little aid in contributions toward its moderate and neces 
 sary expenses and often none from the whole office-holding class 
 of the city. 
 
 In the election of 1868 the " Ring " were playing their own per 
 sonal game. Even in 1864 it had been suspected that the leading 
 persons w T ho afterward formed the " Ring " were untrue to Horatio 
 Seymour, the Democratic candidate for Governor, as well as to Gen 
 eral McClellan. They never forgave Governor Seymour for vetoing 
 the Broadway Railroad Bill, in 1863, in which they, with their Re 
 publican allies, had become largely interested. 
 
300 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 In 1868 it was believed before the election that they had plotted 
 a scheme to keep Horatio Seymour, the Democratic candidate for 
 President, behind his ticket. They did, in fact, withhold from him 
 all the votes they could without detection, and bargained with the 
 corrupt Republicans with whom they were in partnership, at his ex 
 pense. Their constant study was to pervert to their own selfish 
 gain the efforts and sacrifices of 4,000,000 Democratic voters in 
 the country, and 450,000 in this State. They never hesitated to sac 
 rifice or to sell the general objects of the Democratic party, its prin 
 ciples or its ^measures. They never contributed to its advancement, 
 except so far as was necessarily incidental to their own purposes of 
 holding power in the municipal government. 
 
 Their object Mr. Tilden never had any sympathy with, or any 
 disposition to promote. At the time of the election in 1868, the 
 presidential contest had already been lost in the October elections, 
 and he had only to fulfill his duty toward the Democracy of the 
 State and Union. It appeared, in the congressional investigations, 
 that not only did he have no connection with the naturalizations, 
 but he did not even know who were the naturalization committee of 
 either party, or where they had their offices. The first-fruit of the 
 success of the " King " in gaining increased influence at Albany, by 
 that election, was a scheme immediately concocted to depose Mr. 
 Tilden from the State Committee. 
 
 The power of the " King " in this city had been derived from 
 Republican legislation, and the corrupt means by which they had 
 obtained that legislation were a division of the city offices, contracts, 
 jobs and bribery. In 1868j and for three years previous, the Mayor, 
 Comptroller and Street Commissioner, were removable by the Gov 
 ernor ; half the supervisors were Republicans, and nearly all the 
 commissions, embracing vast patronage, were Republican. 
 
 The inspectors of election the canvassers who counted the 
 votes the clerks of the polls and the registers were all appointed 
 by the Board of Police Commissioners. Half of the members of this 
 board and all its chief officers were Republicans. Thomas C. Acton 
 was its president ; Seth C. Hawley its chief clerk ; S. C. Hawley, Jr., 
 secretary ; and John A. Kennedy, Superintendent of Police. 
 
 It would have been impossible to credit beforehand that, under 
 these circumstances, at a hotly-contested presidential election, when 
 the Republican party was watchful, and straining itself to the ut 
 most systematic frauds in voting and canvassing could be perpe- 
 
THE PRELIMINARY CANVASS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 301 
 
 trated without the complicity of the leading representatives of the 
 Republican party in the city ; nor is it easy now to see how that was 
 possible. 
 
 The idea of imputing to Mr. Tilden responsibility for election 
 frauds, of which he had no knowledge beforehand, with which he 
 was in no manner connected and which he in no wise aided or 
 abetted on the assumption that "it was in his power to have given 
 the people a fair election, when he had no voice in shaping the 
 election laws or appointing the election officers which laws had 
 been made by the Republicans, and which officers were practically 
 appointed by the Republicans is too absurd to need discussion. 
 
 The Assembly chosen at that election was, by a large majority, 
 Republican. The Senate was Republican. It was in their power to 
 alter the election laws, and the mode of appointing officers of the 
 election. They did not. At the next session, when there was a 
 Democratic majority, Mr. Tilden endeavored to do so ; but his elec 
 tion law was beaten, and the election law under which Mayor Hall 
 got the practical control of all these officers passedevery Republi 
 can Senator voting for it, and the Times filling the air with its lauda 
 tions. The one element of good which that law contained " watch 
 ers " of the canvass, to be appointed by the candidates, was taken 
 from Mr. Tilden s bill. 
 
 The truth is, that frauds at elections are usually the work of men 
 having a special and often a pecuniary interest in the local results. 
 Fanatics who commit crimes to advance their abstract ideas of na 
 tional or State politics are rare exceptions to the ordinary course of 
 human nature. If a " Ring " had not already been formed embrac 
 ing the wire-workers of both party machines such frauds as are 
 alleged of the election of 1868 could not have been possible. 
 
 It is proper to add that at a time when Horace Greeley 
 labored under the impression that Mr. Tilden might, by the 
 simple strength of his name, prevent all frauds at elections, 
 he addressed to him a letter on the subject, of which the fol 
 lowing is J;he opening paragraph : 
 
 LETTEE TO A POLITICIAN. 
 
 To SAMUEL J. TILDEN, Chairman Democratic State Committee. 
 
 SIE : You and I are growing old. We came here young men 
 from the country, and have lived and struggled side by side for nearly 
 
302 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 forty years. We have participated ardently in many political strug 
 gles, always on different sides. You were the pupil and protege of 
 Van Buren and Silas "Wright ; I a disciple and follower of Henry 
 Clay. But this I will say for you, that I am confident you have never 
 sought to enrich yourself by politics, or at the expense of the public 
 that whatever of wealth you may have acquired or enjoyed was earned 
 in your profession as a lawyer and that your instincts and your 
 influences, partisanship apart, have generally been felt on the side of 
 economy in public expenditure and uprightness in the conduct of 
 public affairs. Of my course in these respects you are welcome to 
 say whatever you think true. 
 
 The effect of the various charges of which notice has been 
 taken herein "was, to concentrate public attention on Mr. 
 Tilden. The opposition of the few brought out the positive 
 and even aggressive friendship of the many. Governor Hen- 
 dricks, Senator Bayard, General Hancock, Governor Parker, 
 and other distinguished Democrats, were thrown in the back 
 ground, not so much by the positive popularity of Governor 
 Tilden as by the folly of his indiscreet enemies in continually 
 denouncing him. Back of the candidate was his record the 
 record of reform and behind that was the feeling, wide-spread 
 and almost universal, that in that sign we conquer. 
 
 Under such circumstances the Democratic National Con 
 vention assembled at St. Louis on the 27th of June, 1876. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 
 
 THE convention came together in the great hall of the 
 Board of Trade in St. Louis at noon, on the 27th of June. 
 The building is especially adapted to the purposes of such an 
 assemblage. Its double tiers of windows, seventy in all, 
 make the interior light and cheerful. The hall itself is two 
 hundred and twenty-two feet long and ninety-two and a half 
 feet wide. The frescoed ceiling stretches across sixty feet 
 from the floor, while more than half-way up runs a light, nar 
 row gallery encircling the hall between the two stories of 
 windows. There is nothing to break the simple harmony of the 
 architecture, which is impressive from its very plainness. The 
 hall will hold fully five thousand people. During the conven 
 tion the interior was decorated in sympathy with the spirit 
 of the occasion. The escutcheons of the States were hung 
 from the gallery, each bound with a sheaf of wheat, and joined 
 to its neighbor by a silken tie in the national hues. On the 
 long platform for distinguished guests, erected opposite the 
 main entrance, were thickets of creeping vines and flowers, 
 while in the centre, also decorated with plants and shrubs 
 and flowers, was the dark, handsome rostrum made of black- 
 walnut. In front of this the delegates to the convention sat 
 in a great semicircle, covering almost the whole breadth of 
 the hallj but leaving at the sides spaces where sat an intelli 
 gent and sympathetic audience, whose eager enthusiasm had 
 often to be restrained that the business of the convention 
 
304 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 might proceed. The platform, therefore, looked across the 
 hall and not down its length, so that the voices of the speak 
 ers could readily be heard by every delegate. 
 
 Stress of public business at Washington, where so many 
 prominent and able Democrats were striving to reduce expen 
 diture of the people s money and oppressive taxation, kept 
 many away from the convention who would gladly have been 
 present. They were compelled to remain at their posts to 
 watch and to foil the efforts of a Republican Senate in the 
 direction of extravagant appropriations sought for personal 
 emolument and for use in the presidential campaign. Never 
 theless, many able and distinguished Democrats were present, 
 most of them as delegates. From Alabama there were General 
 Pope Walker, who was Secretary of War under the Confed 
 eracy, and who is now as faithful to the Union as he once was 
 to the South ; and Colonel Shaster, who was in Congress 
 thirty years ago, a Democrat then and a Democrat now. From 
 California there was " Duke " Gwin, once a Senator of the 
 United States ; from Connecticut, Senator William H. Bar- 
 num, the Hon. R. D. Hubbard, General W. B. Franklin, and 
 C. M. Ingersoll ; from Delaware, ex-Congressman William G. 
 Whitele} r , and ex-Governor Saulsbury ; from Florida, C. W. 
 Yulee ; from Georgia, Governor James M. Smith, and Congress 
 man Pierre M. B. Young ; from Illinois, General John A. 
 McClernand, ex-Governor Gustav A. Koerner, Perry H. Smith, 
 and Herman Lieb ; from Indiana, Senator McDonald, Daniel 
 W. Voorhees, B. W. Hanna, and D. S. Williams ; from Ken 
 tucky, Henry Watterson, editor of the Louisville Courier- Jour 
 nal, W. C. P. Breckinridge, ex-United States Senator W. B. 
 Machin, John M. Rice ; from Louisiana, R. A. Marr ; from 
 Maryland, ex-Congressman Stevenson Archer ; from Massa 
 chusetts, Congressman Josiah G. Abbott, George W. Gill, 
 Frank W. Bird, Sumner s life-long friend, and Richard. Froth- 
 ingham ; from Missouri, Governor Charles H. Hardin and ex- 
 Governor Silas Woodson ; from Nebraska, George L. Miller ; 
 from New Jersey, ex -United States Senator J. P. Stockton, 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 305 
 
 Congressman Miles Ross, and State Senator Leon Abbett. 
 The New York delegation contained a remarkable array of 
 names : Senator Kernan, Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer, 
 Congressman Abram S. Hewitt, Hon. Henry C. Murphy, Gen 
 eral Roger A. Pryor, John Kelly, John C. Jacobs, Samuel S. 
 Cox, August Belmont, Oswald Ottendorfer, Manton Marble, 
 Edward Cooper, Mayor Wickham, Augustus Schell, Congress 
 man George M. Beebe, and ex-Lieutenant-Governor Beach. 
 North Carolina sent ex-Senator T. C. Clingman ; Ohio, Gen 
 erals Thomas Ewing, G. W. Morgan, and J. B. Steadman ; 
 Pennsylvania, Senator Wallace, Heister Clymer, and Malcolm 
 Hay ; Texas, ex-Congressman Herndon ; Virginia, Fitzhugh 
 Lee and ex-Governor Gilbert C. Walker ; West Virginia, J. 
 J. Davis ; and Wisconsin, ex-Senator Doolittle, Alexander 
 Mitchell, and G. B. Smith. 
 
 The convention was called to order by Augustus Schell, 
 chairman of the National Democratic Committee, and so long 
 and honorably identified with the history of national Democ 
 racy. The first words of his speech showed how thoroughly 
 united the party was on the issue which Governor Tilden chiefly 
 represented, though as in the case of this very speaker Govern 
 or Tilden might not be the first choice as a candidate. Mr. 
 Schell struck the key-note *of the convention and the campaign 
 when he declared the need of the times to be administrative 
 reform. Almost every speaker who followed him enlarged 
 upon the theme which he had suggested, and the platform set 
 it before the people as the one living and enduring issue which 
 no false issue could overthrow, and from which demagogues 
 could not divert the attention of the people. Mr. Schell 
 said that the need of the times was administrative reform, 
 and that the Administration must not be left in the hands of 
 those who have stained it. The next issue of importance was . 
 the currency issue. He denied that the Democracy was the 
 soft-money party, and pointed to the legislation and decisions 
 of the past to prove that the Republican party was the paper- 
 money party, since it originated and has perpetuated it. He 
 
306 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 charged the present business depression on the acts of the 
 Republican party, and said : 
 
 How is it to be remedied? The Democratic party, with its inter 
 ests, will see that the remedy is applied of frugal and economical 
 government and a diminution of taxation. It cannot be brought 
 about by forced contraction. It should not be by additional inflation ; 
 but we take the country as it stands. We are called upon to apply 
 the remedy, and one remedy which commends itself to every honest 
 man and to every reasonable Democrat is to demand the repeal of 
 the resumption act. Kepeal that act, put the Government in the 
 power of the Democratic party, and let them pursue the course which 
 they will pursue, of an economical administration of that Govern 
 ment, and I assure you that the time is not far distant when specie 
 payments will be resumed, the prosperity of the country be restored, 
 and the American people be happy once more.. 
 
 At the conclusion of his remarks, Mr. Schell announced 
 the temporary chairman of the convention, Mr. Henry Wat- 
 terson, editor of the Louisville Courier- Journal. The an 
 nouncement was received with an enthusiasm which showed 
 that Mr. Watterson s liberal tendencies had not cost him the 
 political friendship of his fellow-Democrats. Though coming 
 from a border State with strong Southern sympathies, whose 
 Democracy, intrenched in an overwhelming and invariable 
 majority, was always conservative and sometimes backward, 
 Mr. Watterson s work had always been for progress and lib 
 eralism. For this reason he warmly urged the indorsement 
 of the nomination of Horace Greeley in 1872, believing that it 
 would best express the national demand for amnesty to the 
 South, and for this reason he was warmly in favor of the 
 nomination of the great reform Governor of New York, seeing 
 that the times demanded of the party a full devotion to the 
 work of reform. His selection was no less a triumph of the 
 best elements in the party than a personal compliment to a 
 brilliant soldier in the Democratic ranks. 
 
 Mr. Watterson was escorted to the chair by Senator Bar- 
 num, of Connecticut, and Senator Ransom, of North Carolina, 
 and spoke as follows : 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 307 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : We are called together to de 
 termine by our wisdom whether honest government, administered by 
 honest men, shall be restored to the American people, or to decide 
 by our folly that it is the destiny of this country to pursue -an endless, 
 ever-revolving circle of partisan passion and corruption, until, with 
 the loss of our material well-being, we lose the poor man s last hope 
 civil liberty itself. Every citizen of the republic, be he of one 
 party or the other, feels, and has felt for many a day, the depressing 
 influence of what are called hard times. We look about us and we 
 see neglected fields and vacant houses. The factories are closed, and 
 the furnace-door is shut. There are myriads of idle hands. The 
 happy activity of prosperous life is nowhere to be found. Loyalists 
 fatten while honest men starve. Empty the mart, and shipless the 
 bay. What is it? what has wrought so great a change in a land that 
 under the rule of an intelligent, progressive, constitutional party ad 
 vanced, within half a century, from the condition of a huddle of 
 petty and squalid provincial sovereignties to a foremost place among 
 the nations of the earth ? The reason of men must answer partisan 
 misrule and sectional misdirection. 
 
 The ^Republicans, my friends, are not alone responsible. With 
 them rest the disgraces, with us the follies. These twin agents of 
 national mischance, working under the miserable rule of contraries, 
 have kept the people of the North and South aside, and have supplied 
 sustenance to corruption. They have disturbed values, they have 
 unsettled prices, they have made our whole financial system a cheat 
 and snare. They have driven- the best elements of political society 
 into exile, and have organized charlatanism into a sort of public 
 polity, enabling the rogue to get a cheap advantage of his dupe, and 
 sacrificing every popular interest to the lust of that oligarchy which 
 has become so incrusted with power as to believe itself entitled to 
 rule by the sheer force of its own wrong-doing. So much let us set 
 down to the convenient pretext of war ; so much to the long account 
 of damages between the North and South. It is for you to say 
 whether the same conflict, with consequences multiplied and magni 
 fied, shall by any act of yours be inaugurated between the East and 
 West. 
 
 I shall not undertake on an occasion of this kind, and in a pres 
 ence so imposing, to enforce the familiar lesson of mutual forbear 
 ance. Nobody doubts our capacity to make battle among ourselves. 
 Entreating you to direct your energies to the common enemy, I ask 
 
308 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 indulgence only on my own behalf. You have called me- to a place 
 not merely of distinction, but of difficulty ; to a place which requires 
 the best training of a better man than I am ; and, in taking it, I trust 
 to your confidence, good-nature, and hearts incapable of an unmanly 
 or unfair act. The work before us should relate to ideas rather than 
 to individuals ; it is the issue, not the man, that should engage us. 
 We have come here to make the people s, not onr fight, for a free no 
 less than for an honest Government ; fof the reform of the public 
 service and the regeneration of public morals; for administrative 
 relief from administrative nihilism, embraced in the simple creed of 
 home-rule, reduced taxes, and a living chance for the South as well 
 as for the North, for both the East and the West. If anything comes 
 of our proceedings, it must spring from the spirit of association and 
 fellowship when warmed. The followers of Andrew Jackson and 
 Silas Wright, of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and their political 
 descendants, meet together on common ground at last to wrest the 
 government of their affairs from the clutch of rings and robbers, 
 Federal, State, and municipal, and mean to extirpate these wherever 
 they are found, and whether they are Republican or Democratic. 
 
 Frederick O. Prince, of Massachusetts, was made tempo 
 rary secretary, and T. O. Walker, of Iowa, and H. K. Doniphan, 
 of Ohio, assistants, and Daniel Able, of Missouri, sergeant-at- 
 arms. The rules of the last National Convention were 
 adopted, including the two-thirds rule against which Gov 
 ernor Tilden s friends made no demonstration, as it was sup 
 posed they might. They were too strong to need resort to 
 such measures. 
 
 The following was the Committee on Platform : 
 
 Alabama Leroy P. Walker. 
 Arkansas L. V. Maguire. 
 California John S. Hager. 
 Colorado F. J. Marshall. 
 Connecticut R. D. Hubbard. 
 Delaware George Gray. 
 Florida John Westcott. 
 Georgia E. P. Ho well. 
 Illinois J. A. McClernand. 
 Indiana D. W. Voorhees. 
 
 Iowa H. II. Trimble. 
 Kansas Thomas L. Davis. 
 Kentucky Alvin Duval. 
 Louisiana R. H. Marr. 
 Maine D. R. Hastings. 
 Maryland George Freaner. 
 Massachusetts E. Avery. 
 Michigan W. L. Bancroft. 
 Minnesota Daniel Buck. 
 Mississippi A. M. Clayton. 
 
THE ST. LOxJIS CONVEiNTION. 309 
 
 Missouri-r-0. H. Hardin. 
 Nebraska George L. Miller. 
 Nevada A. 0. Ellis. 
 New Hampshire E. 0. Barley. 
 New Jersey Joseph W. Yates. t 
 New York W. Dorsheimer. 
 North Carolina T. L. Olingman. 
 Ohio Thomas Ewing. 
 Oregon M. V. Brown. 
 
 Pennsylvania Malcolm Hay. 
 
 Ehode Island W. B. Beach. 
 
 South Carolina Sam. McGowan. 
 
 Tennessee John C. Brown. 
 
 Texas Ashbel Smith. 
 
 Vermont James H. Williams. 
 
 Virginia John A. Meredith. 
 
 West Virginia John J. Davis. 
 
 Wisconsin Alexander Mitchell. 
 The permanent chairman of the convention, named at the 
 afternoon session of that day, was General John A. McClernand, 
 of Illinois, who was escorted to the chair by a committee con 
 sisting of Manton Marble, of New York, Thomas S. Bocock, 
 of Virginia, and Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana the two 
 former being appointed in place of General Fitzhugh Lee, of 
 Virginia, and Lieutenant-Governor William Dorsheimer, of 
 New York, who were absent. General McClernand spoke 
 as follows : 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : I thank 
 you for the distinguished honor which you have done me in directing 
 me to preside over your deliberations. You are the delegates of the 
 Democracy of the whole Union ; of thirty-seven States, once unnat 
 urally estranged, but now forever united in one indivisible republic. 
 Brethren of one political family, with the same heritage of liberty un 
 der equal law, and heirs of one destiny, shall we preserve and trans 
 mit that great heritage? Shall we make that destiny the most 
 glorious in the history of free peoples ? If your deliberations, fellow- 
 Democrats, to-day shall be wise ; if your perception of the necessities 
 of our time, our country, our politics, shall be just and sagacious; if 
 your sympathy shall be quick with the hearts of a great people, then, 
 beyond all peradventure, we shall transmit to our children and our 
 children s children unimpaired this priceless heritage. Yours will 
 be a better renown than the renown most prized by Romans, condi 
 tores imperiorium, for greater than the founders of empires are the 
 preservers of republics. 
 
 There are no enemies of the Union to-day on this continent except 
 that administrative centralism which is congesting at the Capitol the 
 vital currents which ought to flow out through every part, giving life 
 to the farthest extremities of the body politic, and energy to all its 
 
310 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 members ; except that corruption which is the curse that centralism 
 has never failed in age or land to entail upon any government. Cen 
 tralism and corruption have imposed upon ten States the rapacious 
 tyrannies of carpet-bag rule, and- since the peace have added $200,- 
 000,000 to their debts. They have infected the governments of our 
 Northern States and Northern cities with the same disease of extrav 
 agance and fraud. They have debauched the Federal Government 
 itself, and made the names of scores of its high officers and public 
 men our public scandal, our open shame. 
 
 The record is one of horrible incapacity, venality, waste, and 
 fraud; and the party which has been powerless to head down and 
 trample under foot its corruptionists, with stupendous effrontery 
 pledges itself to a reform of which it has become incapable. That 
 party pledged itself to restore specie payments, every year taking 
 us further from, specie payments ; it pledged itself to civil service 
 reform, and then dropped and mocked its reformers ; it pledged itself 
 to protect American labor, and with its monstrous custom-house tax 
 ation on over three thousand articles it has impoverished American 
 labor. A few score monopolists, a few thousand corruptionists have 
 been enriched, but capital in the hands of those that earned it by in 
 dustry and saved it by frugality is everywhere distrustful and rusts 
 unused, while honest labor goes about the streets begging bread. 
 
 Is this, then, the final outcome of a century of republican self- 
 government? God forbid it, gracious God! But we have wandered 
 far from right paths ; we must return to the constitutional principles, 
 the frugal expenditures, and the administrative purity of the founders 
 of the republic. This is the first, the most imperious necessity of our 
 day and nation ; this is the appeal we have to make to our fellow- 
 citizens of every former political affiliation; this is the one supreme, 
 commanding issue to which all others are inferior, all others trivial : 
 Keform ! Eeform ! Eeform ! If you shall recognize this imperious 
 necessity; if you shall guarantee in your platform the successful 
 achievement of this arduous work of national regeneration ; if you 
 shall select standard-bearers true to your own high purpose and 
 faithful to your pledge, victory in the November, victory in the Oc 
 tober contests are already yours. Incorporate the vital issues of re 
 form in candidate and platform, and the States that have hon 
 ored Douglas and Lincoln, the States that to-day honor Hendricks 
 and Thurman, Hancock and Parker, Bayard and Tilden, these States, 
 with all of their vast population, will rise, like the woods and the 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 3H 
 
 winds that followed the fluting Orpheus, and follow you to vic 
 tory. 
 
 Owing to the inability of the Committee on Platform to 
 report that afternoon, the convention adjourned until the next 
 day. Before this, however, Mr. August Belmoiit, of New 
 York, addressed the convention as follows : 
 
 ME. CHAIRMAN : I hold in my hands a resolution, for which I 
 claim the consideration of the convention. The campaign upon 
 which we are about to enter is of vital importance to the destinies 
 of the American people more vital than any presidential election 
 which has been held heretofore. The great question before us is, 
 whether we will set aside the corrupt Administration which is leading 
 the country on to ruin, every section of it, and give to our country 
 an industry and prosperity beyond what the country has ever seen 
 before. [Applause.] The question is, whether the iron heel of mal 
 administration shall be upon this country, or whether the Demo 
 cratic party may once more hold the reins of government and restore 
 the country to union and prosperity. [Applause.] The Republican 
 leaders, scheming, unscrupulous, and oppressive as ever, have by 
 their speeches in Congress and the teachings of a partisan press, by 
 their platforms in their State and National Conventions, tried to 
 divide and divert the attention of the American people from their 
 misdeeds ; and they appeal to the worst passions of the people, and 
 endeavor to sow the seeds of discord between the North and the 
 South this Centennial year of national rejoicing, when the hallowed 
 memories of the past admonish us to draw close together in the 
 strongest bonds of fraternity and union. We have seen the soldiers 
 of South Carolina arm-in-arm with the soldiers of Massachusetts 
 upon Bunker Hill. [Applause.] We have seen the veterans of New 
 England adorn with flowers the graves of the Confederate soldiers : a 
 tribute from the brave to the brave. [Cheers.] 
 
 The politicians of the Administration party, bent only upon their 
 own selfish ends, attempt to stir up the worst passions of human 
 nature, and, not satisfied with the miseries of the day, are willing to 
 leave our children an inheritance of suspicion, prejudice, and hatred. 
 They have played the same nefarious game before, and, encouraged 
 by the timorous policy of our leaders in former conventions, they 
 hope to achieve another victory through our fears, which made us 
 
312 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 resort to expedients and injudicious nominations outside of the 
 Democratic party. Experience has shown the fallacy of such a policy, 
 for every Republican vote which we gained, or hoped to gain, we 
 lost the votes of thousands of our own people. 
 
 But the lessons of the past serve as warnings at this juncture. 
 This is a struggle between the Democracy, representing union, prog 
 ress, and prosperity, and the Republicans, representing sectional 
 strife, religious intolerance, and a continuation of financial and in 
 dustrial prostration. In such a contest victory must be ours, if we 
 adopt a strong and unequivocal platform on all of the cardinal ques 
 tions which agitate the people, and place upon it a national Demo 
 crat whose private character and public record will infuse that en 
 thusiasm and that confidence into our ranks which alone can insure 
 success. The Republicans have unce more unfurled the bloody shirt, 
 that piratical flag with which they hope to capture the liberties of 
 the people. Let us march against them under the broad banner of 
 the Union, that flag which has .never known and will never know- 
 defeat either from domestic or foreign foes. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I offer the following resolution, which, with the 
 consent of this convention, I move be referred to the Committee on 
 Resolutions : 
 
 JResolved, That we appeal to the honor and manhood of the Amer 
 ican people to begin this second century of American union and in 
 dependence by trampling under foot, and extinguishing forevefc-, the 
 smouldering ashes-of distrust, rancor, and animosity, between the* two 
 great sections of our country. We denounce with indignation the 
 calculating malignity with which the leaders of the Republican party 
 have labored to keep alive, during eleven years of peace, the worst 
 passions of civil war. The Machiavellian motto of the Republican 
 party has been and is, "Divide the people and we shall rule tbem." 
 For the Democratic party we reply, " Unite the people and make 
 them free." We denounce the Republican party on this great issue 
 as a party of false pretenses. It is a false pretense to assume the 
 character of a national party, and at the same time to exist only by sec 
 tional divisions. It is a false pretense to assume the name of Union 
 party, and at the same time to be an obstacle to national unity. It 
 is a false pretense to assume the name of Liberal party, and at the 
 same time to appeal to the religious prejudices of the people. It is 
 a false pretense to claim the title of a progressive party, and at the 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 313 
 
 same time to turn the people back from peace and the future to war 
 and the past. 
 
 During this whole day of preliminaries, and the night 
 which followed, the work of Governor Tilden s opponents 
 went steadily on. Delegations were visited by committees 
 of speakers, circulars and addresses were issued and scat 
 tered about on every hand, combinations were sought with 
 out success, arid no means was left untried to break his ranks. 
 The point of assault, both for the Governor s friends and op 
 ponents, was the South, whose delegations had come to the 
 convention agreeing to forego all personal preferences for 
 candidates, and to accept any man whom the Northern and 
 Western States thought most likely to lead the Democratic 
 party to victory and lift from the neck of the South the yoke 
 of Grantism. The unanimity of the Southern Democrats in 
 this resolve was remarkable. Ardent as their preferences 
 were for certain candidates, they sternly refused to give way 
 to them, and sought only to discover what was best for the 
 party and the country. It was their evident sincerity and their 
 evident determination to follow out their convictions that 
 made both sides to this controversy for the discussion of 
 nominations had in reality simmered down to a controversy 
 over Tilden so hopeful of bringing them to their views. The 
 representations of Governor Tilden s opponents, however, 
 had little apparent effect. The Southern delegations had 
 been largely of the opinion that Governor Tilden was the 
 man for the time, and they seemed to be equally of that opin 
 ion still. 
 
 The morning of the second day opened bright with 
 promise for the nomination of Governor Tilden, although his 
 friends were by no means sure of an easy victory, and his 
 opponents had not given up their hopes of successful 
 strategy and combination. 
 
 Meantime the financial question engaged the attention of 
 the Committee on Resolutions. General Thomas Ewing, of 
 Ohio, and Hon. Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana, distinguished 
 14 
 
314 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 representatives of the greenback doctrine, were awarded 
 places on that committee; and a determined attempt was 
 evidently to be made, first in the committee, and then, if 
 necessary, in the convention, to commit the party to their 
 ideas. They pushed the question in the committee, which 
 lasted nearly all night, and renewed it at the adjourned meet 
 ing the next morning ; but on every vote which they pro 
 posed they were beaten by an overwhelming majority. They 
 therefore resolved to make their appeal to the convention. 
 
 The convention met in the forenoon, but adjourned till 
 two o clock, to give the Committee on Resolutions time to 
 finish their work. At the hour of reassembling the great 
 hall, from floor to gallery, was crowded. 
 
 Judge Meredith, of Virginia, who had been elected chair 
 man of the Committee on Platform, announced that the reso 
 lutions would be read by Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer, 
 who was received with cordial applause. His rendering of 
 the platform was unique. Instead of the monotonous, busi 
 ness-like tone into which platform-readers usually fall, Mr. 
 Dorsheimer s voice was the voice of oratory, and his gestures 
 the gestures of a giant. He read the platform with wonder 
 ful effect, giving to it all the inflection and emphasis of a 
 great oration. When he moved back from his place at the 
 side of the president s desk, General Ewing stepped prompt 
 ly forward, his classic face rigid with determination and 
 paler than usual with excitement. When the cheers that 
 greeted him had subsided, he read the following minority 
 report : 
 
 The undersigned members of the/ committee recommend that the 
 following clause "in the resolutions reported by the committee be 
 stricken out : " As such hinderance we denounce the resumption 
 clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal." [Cheers.] 
 And they recommend that there be substituted for that clause the 
 following : u The law for the resumption of specie payments on the 
 1st of January, 1879, having been enacted by the Kepublican party 
 without deliberation in Congress or discussion before the people, and 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 315 
 
 being both ineffective to secure its objects and highly injurious to the 
 business of the country, ought to be forthwith repealed." 
 
 T. EWING, Ohio. II. H. TEIMBLE, Iowa. 
 
 D. W. VOOEHEES, Indiana. J. J. DAVIS, West Virginia. 
 
 J. 0. BEOWN, Tennessee. T. L. DAVIS, Kansas. 
 
 MALCOLM HAY, Pennsylvania. E. H. HAEDIN, Missouri. 
 
 General Ewing then explained the position of the minor 
 ity as follows : 
 
 I desire to briefly state the objection to the clause which we 
 propose to have stricken out. It denounces only the clause of the 
 specie-resumption law fixing the time for the resumption of specie 
 payments, leaving the rest of the act to stand unobjected to, and, by 
 implication, approving it. It objects to that clause because it is a 
 hinderance to specie payment. The construction will be given; and 
 with some degree of plausibility at least, that the Democratic party 
 want resumption earlier than the date fixed. By inference the bal 
 ance of the law is approved; and what does that committee say 
 about it ? It commits us to issuing gold bonds to take up the cost 
 less fractional currency. It commits us to the reduction of the legal- 
 tender money by having bank-paper take its place, thus increasing 
 the power of an already dangerous monopoly a monopoly that is 
 thoroughly hated by the mass of the Democracy of this country. It 
 commits us to the perpetuation of the national bank system, for if 
 we have no objection to the iaw except the date of resumption we 
 approve then the provisions for the raising up of two or three thou 
 sand great monopolies to control the currency of this country in 
 addition to the two thousand we already have. It leaves the Secre 
 tary of the Treasury with perhaps the power to issue gold and lock 
 it up idly in the Treasury, awaiting for the day of resumption, a 
 policy to which the Democracy my friends of the West, I am sure 
 are almost unanimously opposed. This law is purely a Republican 
 measure, and the -sum of the financial villainies of the Republican 
 party. 
 
 At this point General Ewing was interrupted with cries 
 of " Time j time ! " which completely drowned his voice. 
 Mr. Williams, of Indiana, moved at once to extend the gen 
 eral s time fifteen minutes, but this proposition was greeted 
 
316 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 with cries of " No ! no ! " A scene of great confusion en 
 sued. Mr. Collins, of Massachusetts, objected to the exten 
 sion of time, but withdrew his objection when requested to 
 do so by Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer, and when the re 
 quest was seconded by Mr. Kernan, who said that General 
 Kwing ought to be allowed further time, inasmuch as he rep 
 resented a portion of the committee. But the courtesy was 
 of no avail. The point was raised that under the rules of 
 the convention the motion to suspend the rules could not be 
 entertained, and a series of questions, objections, and appeals 
 followed in the midst of so much earnest protest against ex 
 tending the time and infringing upon the rules which the 
 convention had adopted, that General Ewing finally declined 
 to ask the further indulgence of the convention, and grace 
 fully withdrew. 
 
 Then came the pivotal point of the contest the most 
 stirring scene of the convention. Lieutenant-Governor 
 Dorsheimer stepped forward and faced the convention. He 
 seemed to fit the place and the occasion, his bearing was so 
 impressive, his form so colossal. He said : 
 
 ME. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : I do not 
 propose to speak upon this matter at length. [He rose to his utmost 
 height and his clarion-voice rang out all over the great hall.] I pro 
 pose here to make a straight issue between soft money and hard 
 money. [And with that a great burst of cheering went up that 
 lasted several minutes]. By that we stand or we fall. [Again three 
 cheers rose from the convention.] If you want soft money give 
 your votes to the resolution offered by the most distinguished soft- 
 money advocate in the United States. [Cheers and hisses.] -But if 
 you want to leave to the hard-money men some chance to carry their 
 States, then stand by the report of the committee [cheers], which 
 was a compromise so great that a protest has been here signed by 
 every one of the Eastern Democratic States, and to which I have put 
 my own signature, [Cheers.] There is a middle ground which, does 
 leave some hope. But if you declare, in the language of the gentle 
 man from Ohio (General Ewing), for a repeal forthwith, then aban 
 don all your hopes. [Cheers.] I make this issue fair. [A voice : 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 317 
 
 " You will get enough of it! "] As I said, we will stand to that, and 
 now, Mr. President, I demand a vote by the States. [Cheers, hisses, 
 and applause.] 
 
 Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana, was the next speaker. 
 He made a skillful plea, but Mr. Dorsheimer s bold and hon 
 est denunciation of the minority report had placed the 
 issue nakedly before the convention in such a way that soph 
 istry could not again disguise it. He said : 
 
 The issue that is stated by the gentleman from New York is a 
 false issue so far as this platform is concerned. There are issues 
 raised here as between hard money and soft, so called. The platform 
 to which the minority agree contains repeated stipulations that we 
 are in favor at as early a period as practicable of specie payments. 
 "We are all in favor of that. I am in favor of a resumption of specie 
 payment as soon as the true and healthful interests of this country 
 will permit. He who desires specie resumption at an earlier day 
 than that desires it for some private and far from patriotic motive. 
 Men of New York sitting here before you have at this moment de 
 clared in favor of a resumption of specie payment on the 1st .day of 
 January, 1879. We are two years farther from a gold basis to-day 
 than we were when it was enacted. The Government currency is 
 not as near unto a fair basis by two per cent, as it was before this 
 miserable, bungling law was enacted upon the statute-books. I 
 stand for a growth of the country to specie payments; I stand for 
 that aid to specie payment which comes by a return of wealth and 
 prosperity. "We can all remember a time when our paper was w^orth 
 only forty cents on a dollar in gold. It had grown to be worth 
 ninety cents before that law was passed. "When it has risen by the 
 natural laws of trade, by laws of God s growth and prosperity, re 
 turning to the country fifty cents on the dollar in the course of eight 
 years, let us trust that the gap of only about ten or twelve per - cent. 
 remaining will be closed up, by the same great laws, in a very short 
 time in the future. My friends, something was said by the gentle 
 man from New York about the effect in his State and other States. 
 
 I stand here surrounded by ten States who have a right to be 
 heard on this subject West Virginia, Ohio, my own grand Demo 
 cratic State of Indiana ; Missouri, on whoso bosom we are holding 
 this convention ; Tennessee, that contains the Hermitage and the 
 
318 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ashes of Jackson and Polk ; Iowa, and Kansas. Are they not to he 
 considered ? Do they amount to nothing ? I will say, with all re 
 spect to the gentleman from New York who has just sat down, that 
 we have followed the lead of New York for twelve long years, and 
 each time to disaster. And I for one assert the West, the mighty 
 West, with its teeming population ; I assert the power of this Missis 
 sippi Valley with its mighty interests and its great resources. 
 
 At the close of Mr. Voorhees s speech Mr. Watterson spoke 
 briefly, taking the ground that the convention had delegated 
 the duty of preparing a platform to a committee, and com 
 mon-sense dictated acquiescence in the work of a large ma 
 jority of that committee. 
 
 Another scene of great confusion ensued, many delegates 
 asking to be heard, and one from Pennsylvania bitterly de 
 nouncing the gag law, and insisting on the freedom of de 
 bate. 
 
 Mr. Abbett, of New Jersey, asked, a division of the ques 
 tion. He was in favor of the motion to strike out, but was 
 opposed to inserting what was proposed, for he was for hard 
 money. 
 
 The previous question was seconded. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle made a few remarks amid much disorder, in 
 which he said victory or death depended on the question now 
 before the convention, and he desired to move an amendment 
 to the pending amendment. 
 
 Mr. Cox, of New York, demanded a vote by States on 
 the main question, which, having been divided, was first 
 stated on the motion to strike out. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle moved to adjourn. Lost. 
 
 An attempt was made to call the roll, but the disorder 
 was so great that delegates could not hear enough to under 
 stand the question. 
 
 A Texas delegate moved to clear the galleries. As the 
 chair did not put the question, he evidently did not under 
 stand it. The excitement was long-continued, with increasing 
 force and violence, a dozen gentlemen speaking at once. 
 
 Pennsylvania retired for consultation. 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 319 
 
 Mr. Burch, of Tennessee, wanted to know whether, if 
 the vote to strike out should prevail, and the convention 
 failed to insert the proposed substitute, the effect would be 
 to leave the resumption act to stand as it is. 
 
 The chair answered in the affirmative. 
 
 Mr. Burch wanted to know then whether any parliamen 
 tary legerdemain could then cheat the convention out of the 
 opportunity to have a square vote on the minority report. 
 
 After this excited discussion had somewhat subsided the 
 roll-call of States was begun. Alabama gave 20 votes for 
 the hard-money report, Arkansas gave 12, California gave 12, 
 Colorado gave 6, Connecticut 12, Delaware 6, Florida 8, and 
 Georgia 22. So far nearly a hundred votes had been cast for 
 the hard-money report, and not one State had given a single 
 vote against it. All the fears of the hard-money men, if there 
 had been any, were swept away in a great, happy cheer. Illi 
 nois was the first divided State, giving 18 votes for the amend 
 ment and 22 against it. Indiana voted her 30 votes. solidly 
 for the amendment, and so did Kentucky, which voted under 
 a unit rule, and was in the hands of a greenback majority. 
 Now came another line of hard-money States. Louisiana 
 gave 16 votes against the amendment, Maine 14, Maryland 
 16, Massachusetts 26, Michigan 17, Minnesota 10, Mississippi 
 16, Nebraska 6, Nevada 6, New Hampshire 10, New Jersey 
 18, New York 70, and North Carolina 20. The vote of New 
 York was greeted with a cheer that meant Tilden as well as 
 hard money, and was as significant as it was hearty. The 
 defeat of the amendment was already overwhelming, but it 
 was not yet finished. Five of the Michigan votes had gone 
 over to the minority, with 9 of the 30 cast by Missouri, but 
 18 of the 44 votes of Ohio were cast in General E wing s teeth 
 for the majority report. Tennessee and West Virginia joined 
 themselves to the amendment, but Wisconsin gave all her 20 
 votes the other way. Pennsylvania had retired for consultation 
 and now returned, announcing through Senator Wallace, the 
 chairman, that the whole vote of the delegation was to be given, 
 under the unit rule, to the minority report. The cheering at 
 
320 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 this juncture drowned the explanation that 23 of the 58 votes 
 had been cast in the meeting of the delegation for the hard- 
 money report. The announcement of the totals of the vote 
 was awaited with eager interest, and when the clerks called 
 out that 219 votes had been cast for the minority report, and 
 515 for the majority report, the convention cheered and 
 cheered again, the galleries cheered, arid word ran down the 
 crowded halls and stairways that the hard-money victory was 
 complete and overwhelming. This ended all doubts as to the 
 integrity of the platform or the ticket. " Hard money " had 
 been inscribed upon the banners of the Democracy, and the 
 one name that could best head the platform of hard money 
 and thorough reform was on the lips of all. Tilden s nomina 
 tion was now inevitable. 
 
 Before the naming of candidates was begun, Mr. Doolittle 
 moved to reconsider the vote by which the report was adopted, 
 in order to incorporate a proposition which he read, in favor 
 of silver as legal tender, as well as gold, and the restoration . 
 of a double standard of gold and silver at a just and respec 
 tive valuation. This was followed by his former proposition 
 in favor of gradual resumption only. 
 
 Mr. McLane, of Maryland, moved that the motion to re 
 consider should be placed on the table, and, in the midst of 
 calls for a vote by States, the chair announced it carried. 
 
 Mr. Hutchings moved that the vote in favor of the plat 
 form be made unanimous, and assigned his five minutes for 
 debate to Mr. Cox, of New York, who, however, was inter 
 rupted by calls of order, and amid great confusion was com 
 pelled to take his seat unheard. 
 
 The convention now proceeded to the work of nomination. 
 First, the candidates were presented in response to a call of 
 the States. Delaware named her truly favorite son, Thomas 
 Francis Bayard, the worthy occupant of the senatorial chair 
 filled by three Bayards before him. Ex-Congressman William 
 G. Whitney presented his name in an eloquent speech. 
 
 Mr. Williams, of Illinois, presented the name of Governor 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana. [Great applause.] He 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 321 
 
 said there was no. fire in his rear. With him they would 
 carry Indiana by 20,000 majority. 
 
 Mr. Fuller, of Indiana, seconded Hendricks s nomination 
 . eloquently and forcibly. Mr. Campbell, of Tennessee, by in 
 struction of its convention, also seconded the nomination of 
 Governor Hendricks, under- whose lead Tennessee felt more 
 confident of success than under any other. 
 
 Then there was an interesting little blunder. By an error 
 of the printer, New York was printed on the roll of States 
 before New Jersey, and the secretary, in running rapidly 
 down the list, called New York almost without knowing it. 
 But the convention caught at it on the instant, and broke out 
 in prolonged cheering, waving of handkerchiefs and fans, and 
 applause that could not be checked for a considerable interval. 
 Then the convention sat down again, and had a quiet smile 
 over its premature outbreak of enthusiasm. It had been 
 New Jersey s turn all the time. This steadfast Democratic 
 State presented the name of its war Governor, Joel Parker, 
 who earned Lincoln s commendation for his services to the 
 General Government, and who had his troops in Pennsylvania, 
 when the territory of that State was invaded, within forty- 
 eight hours after the call was made from Washington. State 
 Senator Leon Abbett made a ringing speech in his favor. 
 
 Then came New York. Francis Kernan, the Democratic 
 Senator from the Empire State, came forward to speak ; and, 
 as the convention recognized his stern Roman face, fringed 
 with silver hair, there was a hearty cheer. He spoke admir 
 ingly of the candidates who had been already named, while 
 avowing his preference for the Governor of his own State. 
 He said : 
 
 The great issue upon which this election will be lost or won is 
 that question of needed administrative reform; and, in selecting our 
 candidates, if we had a man that had been so fortunate as to be placed 
 in a public position, who ha.d laid his hand on dishonest officials, no 
 matter to what party they belonged, or had rooted out abuses in the 
 discharge of his duty, who had shown himself willing and able to 
 bring down taxation and inaugurate reform, if we are wise men and 
 
322 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 have such a man, it is no disparagement to any other candidate to 
 say that this is the man that will command the confidence of 
 men who have not been always with the Democracy, and make our 
 claim strong, so that it will sweep all over this Union a triumphant 
 party vote. Governor Tilden was selected as Governor of our State; 
 he came into office January 1, 1875. The direct taxes collected from 
 our tax-ridden people in the tax levy of 1874 were over $15,000,000. 
 [Applause.] He has be.en in office eighteen months, and the tax levy 
 for the State Treasury in this year, 1876, is only $8,000,000. [Cheers.] 
 If you go among our farming people, among our men who find busi 
 ness coming down and their produce bringing low prices, you will 
 find that they have faith in the man who has reduced taxation, in the 
 State of New York, one-half in eighteen months [applause] ; and you 
 will hear .the honest men throughout the country say that they want 
 the man who will do at Washington what has been done in the State 
 of New York. [Cheers.] Now, do not misunderstand me. We 
 have other worthy men and good in the State of New York who, if 
 they had had the chance to be elected, and had had a chance to dis 
 cover the frauds in our State administration, among our canals, 
 which were thus depleting our people, would .have done the work 
 faithfully. I doubt not but it so happened that Samuel J. Tilden 
 that the great Democratic party of the State of New York reaped 
 this great benefit for our people, and this great honor for our party, 
 because they elected Samuel J. Tilden. 
 
 John Kelly, of New York, next took the platform, but an 
 attempt was made to hiss him down. [A delegate " There 
 seem to be some geese in the hall." Cries of " Clear the 
 galleries ! "] But with Kelly s first sentence complete order 
 was restored until some one made a point that he was out of 
 order unless he intended to second Mr. Tilden s nomination, 
 when ensued a scene of confusion, with hisses and calls for 
 " Kelly ! Kelly ! " 
 
 Mr. Hut chins, of Missouri, insisted upon order. He ex- 
 pe6ted to vote for Tilden, but Kelly was entitled to be heard. 
 
 A delegate from Kansas demanded the " scotching of 
 vipers who hiss." [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Kernan, of New York, urged the respectful hearing 
 of Kelly, and finally cries for Kelly were overwhelming. 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 323 
 
 Mr. Kelly finally proceeded, urging that the nomination 
 of a Western candidate for President will secure Indiana and 
 Ohio in October ; but, if they lose those States, then it would 
 be impossible to save New York in November. 
 
 Some one on the platform interrupting with a call for 
 three cheers for Tilden, a delegate demanded that the ser- 
 geant-at-arms proceed to eject him from his seat. 
 
 Mr. Kelly persisted in his right to the floor until he had 
 finished, despite efforts to interrupt him by calls of " Time ! " 
 and the failure of the chair to enforce order. 
 
 Mr. Tilden s nomination was seconded by Colonel Flour- 
 ney, of Virginia, and ex-Congressman Herndon, of Texas, 
 who promised Tilden a majority of 100,000. The other nomi 
 nations followed in quick succession. General Ewing present 
 ed the name of the farmer-statesman of Ohio, William Allen. 
 Heister Clymer, of Pennsylvania, presented the gallant sol 
 dier and law-respecting officer, General Winfield Scott Han 
 cock ; and General Brente, of Louisiana, and Mr. Sexton, 
 of Texas, seconded the nomination. Two delegates from 
 Wisconsin -closed the list of speeches, George B. Smith 
 pledging the electoral vote of that State to Tilden ; and ex- 
 Senator Doolittle urging the nomination of Governor Hen- 
 dricks, on the ground that New York could not be carried in 
 November unless Indiana was carried in October, 
 
 The first ballot began. Alabama led off with 13 of its 20 
 votes for Tilden. Arkansas and California threw their whole 
 vote for Tilden. Colorado complimented Governor Hendricks 
 for personal reasons. Florida was all for Tilden ; but Georgia, 
 that had been counted on for a pretty large vote, gave him 
 but 5. Illinois, too, showed a little failing, giving him but 19 
 votes. Kentucky gave him all her 24, and Louisiana 9. The 
 five States that followed gave him 75 more votes, and his ex 
 pected strength remained with him to the end of the list. It 
 was not long before it was known that Tilden had more than 
 400 votes, and there was a wild cheer of delight. This was 
 the first ballot: 
 
324 
 
 THE LIFE QF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 STATES. 
 
 1 
 H 
 
 aj 
 
 1 
 
 W 
 
 Parker. 
 
 t 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 New York 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Illinois 
 
 19 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 California . .... 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maine 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 "12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Colorado 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alabama ... 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Indiana 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kansas 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Georgia 
 
 5 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Virginia 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 West Virginia. ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 Texas 
 
 104 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Vermont 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Missouri .... 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 AVisconsin .... 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Ten nessee . . .... 
 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mississippi. . . 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Oregon. 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ohio. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maryland 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nevada 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nebraska . 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Michigan 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals . . 
 
 403* 
 
 1334 
 
 77 
 
 18 
 
 31 
 
 56 
 
 19 
 
 Whole vote 713 
 
 Necessary for a choice. . . 476 
 
 For Governor Tilden 403 
 
 For Governor Hendricks. 133^ 
 For Broadhead 
 
 For General Hancock 75 
 
 For ex-Governor Allen 56 
 
 For Senator Bayard. ..... 27 
 
 For ex-Governor Parker ... 18 
 . 19 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 325 
 
 Before the vote was announced, however, the Tilden wave 
 began already to run higher. Mr. Hutchins, of Missouri, asked 
 if it was in order to change votes, and, on being informed 
 that it was, changed 14 of the votes for Broadhead to 7 
 for Hendricks and 7 for Tilden. This was the first break, 
 and all hope of defeating Tilden by a stampede to another 
 candidate was gone. 
 
 The second ballot was like the pouring of a flood. Ala 
 bama cast all her 20 votes for Tilden, and Colorado gave him 
 the 6 which Hendricks had received before. In Georgia he 
 made a solid gain of 10, in Illinois of 4, in Iowa and Kansas 
 of 2 each. The only question now was, whether he would be 
 nominated on this or the following ballot. When the vote 
 of Wisconsin had been cast, Tilden had 467 votes, 25 short 
 of the requisite two-thirds. But the convention was in no 
 mood for a third ballot. They were so anxious to nominate 
 Tilden that they wanted to make sure of him at once . Iowa 
 made her vote unanimous, giving him four more. Illinois 
 gave 29, or two more than before. Finally, Missouri gave 20 
 votes, and then, almost before the change had been recorded, 
 28 votes for Tilden. At this the clamor and babel of thou 
 sands of men on their feet, shouting, appealing to the chair, 
 calling for order and for the vote, and a great many other 
 things they could not get, btoke into one great triumphant 
 roar of applause. By one of those flashes of intelligence that 
 run like lightning through an excited crowd, the news had 
 sped without words that Tilden was nominated. While the 
 band was playing, the great gathering was shouting itself 
 hoarse, men were leaping upon desks and chairs, and cheer 
 ing again and again. The secretaries were seen to be calling 
 out something they could not be heard. At last they held 
 up two fingers Tilden needed two more votes. There were 
 changes to Tilden and from him, but Delaware gave the two 
 needed votes, and tl^e universal joy broke out again. The 
 appended table gives the vote of each State on the second 
 ballot : 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 V OF 
 
326 
 
 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 STATES. 
 
 1 
 
 Hendricks. 
 
 Hancock. 
 
 Parker. 
 
 Thurman. 
 
 ! 
 
 n 
 
 d 
 
 S 
 <1 
 
 Texas 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Michigan 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 New York 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ohio 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 
 Khode Island . . 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Illinois 
 
 26 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Indiana 
 
 
 80 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Iowa 
 
 20 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kansas . . . 
 
 2 " 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kentucky t 
 
 94 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maine 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maryland . . . 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Minnesota . 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Missouri 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nebraska . 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nevada 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alabama 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arkansas. . i ........ 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 California 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Colorado 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Delaware 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Florida 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Georgia 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 
 9,4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vermont 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Virginia . 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 ^Vlsconsin . . 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals . . 
 
 508 
 
 75 
 
 60 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 54 
 
 Other changes followed, and the vote which made Samuel 
 J. Tilden the choice of the Democratic- National Convention 
 was finally announced as follows : 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 327 
 
 Whole vote 738 
 
 Necessary for a choice.. . 492 
 
 For Thden 535 
 
 For Hendricks.*. 60 
 
 For Allen 54 
 
 For Parker 18 
 
 For Hancock 59 
 
 For Bayard 11 
 
 For Thurman 2 
 
 Pennsylvania moved to make the nomination unanimous, 
 and, Indiana seconding the motion, this was done. It was 
 now twenty minutes past eight o clock, and the convention 
 adjourned until the next morning, the delegates passing out 
 slowly to exchange joyful congratulations, and meeting out 
 side the enthusiastic demonstrations of the people. 
 
 The session of the convention the next day was brief. 
 Various names had been thought of as candidates for the 
 office of Vice-President, among them those of Henry B. Payne, 
 of Ohio, and William R. Morrison, of Illinois, chairman of 
 the Committee on Ways and Means of the House. The senti 
 ment, however, was so overwhelming in favor of the nomina 
 tion of Governor Hendricks that his nomination was soon 
 seen to be inevitable. He received 730 out of 738 votes on 
 the first and only ballot, and his nomination was made unani 
 mous amid the greatest enthusiasm. It was known that he 
 was unwilling to take the place, and the Indiana delegation, 
 through its spokesmen, expressly disavowed all responsibility 
 in connection with the nomination ; but it was believed that 
 Governor Hendricks could not and would not disregard the 
 unanimous wish of the party so enthusiastically expressed. 
 In that belief he was chosen without a voice of dissent. 
 
 The last act of importance was the passage by the con 
 vention of a resolution directing that conventions be requested 
 to instruct delegates to the next National Convention as to 
 the propriety of abolishing the two-thirds rule. 
 
 Thus closed the National Democratic Convention of 1876. 
 It had nominated its ablest candidate and most successful re 
 former; it had placed him on a platform which demanded a 
 revolution of reform, and it had settled the vexed financial 
 question amicably, and therefore satisfactorily. Its work was 
 well done. 
 
328 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 THE PLATFORM. 
 
 KEFOKM A PATEIOTIO DUTY. 
 
 We, tlie delegates of the Democratic party of the United 
 States in National Convention assembled, do hereby declare 
 the administration of the Federal Government to be in urgent 
 need of immediate reform ; do hereby enjoin upon the nomi 
 nees of this convention, and of the Democratic party in each 
 State, a zealous effort and cooperation to this end ; and do 
 hereby appeal to our fellow-citizens, of every former political 
 connection, to undertake with us. this first and most pressing 
 patriotic duty. 
 
 THE UNION AND CONSTITUTION. 
 
 For the Democracy of the whole country, we do hereby 
 reaffirm our faith in the permanence of the Federal Union, 
 our devotion to the Constitution of the United States with its 
 amendments universally accepted as a final settlement of the 
 controversies that engendered civil war, and do here record 
 our steadfast confidence in the perpetuity of republican self- 
 government. 
 
 MOEAL PEODUCTS OF A HUNDEED TEAES. 
 
 In absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority the 
 vital principle of republics ; 
 
 In the supremacy of the civil over the military authority ; 
 
 In the total separation of Church and State, for the sake 
 alike of civil and religious freedom ; 
 
 In the equality of all citizens before just laws of their own 
 enactment ; 
 
 In the liberty of individual conduct, unvexed by sumptu 
 ary laws ; 
 
 In the faithful education of the rising generation, that 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 329 
 
 they may preserve, enjoy, and transmit these best conditions 
 of human happiness and hope 
 
 We behold the noblest products of a hundred years of 
 changeful history. 
 
 But, while upholding the bond of our Union and great 
 charter of these our best rights, it behooves a free people to 
 practise also that eternal vigilance which is the price of 
 liberty. 
 
 MISKTTLE AND HAED TIMES. 
 
 Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish, in the hearts 
 of the whole people, the Union, eleven years ago happily 
 rescued from the danger of a secession of States ; but now to 
 be saved from a corrupt centralism which, after inflicting 
 upon ten States the rapacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has 
 honey-combed the offices of the Federal Government itself 
 with incapacity, waste, and fraud ; infected States and mu 
 nicipalities with the contagion of misrule, and locked fast the 
 prosperity of an industrious people in the paralysis of " hard 
 times." 
 
 HAED MONEY. 
 
 Reform is necessary to establish a sound currency, restore 
 the public credit, and maintain the national honor. 
 
 We denounce the failure of all these eleven years of peace 
 to make good the promise of the legal-tender notes, which 
 are a changing standard of value in the hands of the people, 
 and the non-payment of which is a disregard of the plighted 
 faith of the nation. 
 
 We denounce the improvidence which, in eleven years of 
 peace, has taken from the people, in Federal taxes, thirteen 
 times the whole amount of the legal-tender notes, and squan 
 dered four times their sum in useless expense, without accu 
 mulating any reserve for their redemption. 
 
 EETEENCHMENT AND EESUMPTION. 
 
 We denounce the financial imbecility and immorality of 
 that party which, during eleven years of peace, has made no 
 
330 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 advance toward resumption, no preparation for resumption, 
 but instead has obstructed resumption, by wasting our re 
 sources and exhausting all our surplus income ; and, while 
 annually professing to intend a speedy return to specie pay 
 ments, has annually enacted fresh hinderances thereto. As 
 such a hinderance we denounce the resumption clause of the 
 act of 1875, and demand its repeal. 
 
 We demand a judicious system of preparation by public 
 economies, by official retrenchments, and by wise finance, 
 which shall enable the nation soon to assure the whole world 
 of its perfect ability and its perfect readiness to meet any of 
 its promises at the call of the creditor entitled to pay 
 ment. 
 
 We believe such a system, well devised, and, above all* 
 intrusted to competent hands for execution, creating at no 
 time an artificial scarcity of currency, and at no time alarm 
 ing the public mind into a withdrawal of that vaster machinery 
 of credit by which ninety-five per cent, of all business trans 
 actions are performed a system open, public, and inspiring 
 general confidence, would from the day of its adoption bring 
 healing on its wings to all our harassed industries, set in mo 
 tion the wheels of commerce, manufactures, and the mechanic 
 arts, restore employment to labor, and renew in all its natural 
 sources the prosperity of the people. 
 
 BEFOEM IN FEDEEAL TAXATION. 
 
 JReform is necessary in the sum and modes of Federal 
 taxation, to the end that capital may be set free from dis 
 trust, and labor lightly burdened. 
 
 We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four 
 thousand articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, 
 and false pretense. 
 
 It yields a dwindling, not a yearly rising revenue. 
 
 It has impoverished many industries to subsidize a few. 
 
 It prohibits imports that might purchase the produce of 
 American labor. 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 331 
 
 It has degraded American commerce from the first to an 
 inferior rank on the high-seas. 
 
 It has cut down the sales of American manufactures at 
 home and abroad, and depleted the returns of American agri 
 culture an industry followed by half our people. 
 
 It costs the people five times more than it produces to the 
 Treasury, obstructs the processes of production, and wastes 
 the fruits of labor. 
 
 It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest 
 officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. 
 
 We demand that all custom-house taxation shall be only 
 for revenue. 
 
 KEFOEM IN PUBLIC EXPENSES. 
 
 Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense Fed 
 eral, State, and municipal. Our Federal taxation has swollen 
 from 60 millions gold, in 1860, to 450 millions currency in 
 1870 ; our aggregate taxation from 154 millions gold in 1860, 
 to 730 millions currency in 1870 ; or, in one decade, from less 
 than $5 per head to more than $18 per head. 
 
 Since the peace, the people have paid to their tax-gatherers 
 more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and more than 
 twice that sum for the Federal Government alone. 
 
 We demand a rigorous frugality in every department, and 
 from every officer of the Government. 
 
 THE PEOFLIGATE WASTE OF PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 Reform is necessary to put a stop to the profligate waste 
 of public lands and their diversion from actual settlers by the 
 party in power, which has squandered 200 millions of acres 
 upon railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggre 
 gate has disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers of the 
 soil. 
 
 THE SHIELD OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republi 
 can Congress, and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy 
 
332 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 which have stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth and 
 kindred race, recrossing the Atlantic, of the shield of Ameri 
 can citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific 
 coast to the incursions of a race not sprung from the same 
 great parent stock, and in fact now by law denied citizenship 
 through naturalization as being neither accustomed to the 
 traditions of a progressive civilization nor exercised in liberty 
 under equal laws. 
 
 We denounce the policy which thus discards the liberty- 
 loving German and tolerates the revival of the coolie trade in 
 Mongolian women imported for immoral purposes, and Mon 
 golian men hired to perform servile-labor contracts, and de 
 mand such a modification of the treaty with the Chinese 
 empire, or such legislation by Congress within constitutional 
 limitations, as shall prevent the further importation or immi 
 gration of the Mongolian race. 
 
 SECTARIAN STRIFE AND SECTIONAL HATE. 
 
 Reform is necessary and can never be effected but by 
 making it the controlling issue of the elections, and lifting it 
 above the two false issues with which the office-holding class 
 and the party in power s-eek to smother it 
 
 1. The false issue with which they would enkindle sec 
 tarian strife in respect to the public schools, of which the es 
 tablishment and support belong exclusively to the several 
 States, and which the Democratic party has cherished from 
 their foundation, and is resolved to maintain without preju 
 dice or preference for any class, sect, or creed, and without 
 contributions from the Treasury to any. 
 
 2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the 
 dying embers of hate between kindred peoples once estranged, 
 but now reunited in one indivisible republic and a common 
 destiny. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE. 
 
 Reform is necessary in the civil service. Experience 
 proves that efficient, economical conduct of the governmental 
 
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 333 
 
 business is not possible if its civil service be subject to change 
 at every election, be a prize fought for at the ballot-box, be a 
 brief reward of party zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned 
 for proved competency, and held for fidelity in the public 
 employ ; that the dispensing of patronage should neither be 
 a tax upon the time of all our public men, nor the instrument 
 of their ambition. Here, again, promises falsified in the per 
 formance attest that the party in power can work out no 
 practical or salutary reform. 
 
 OFFICIAL CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOKS. 
 
 Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of 
 the public service. President, Vice-President,. Judges, Sena 
 tors, Representatives, cabinet officers, these and all others in 
 authority are the people s servants. Their offices are not a 
 private perquisite ; they are a public trust. 
 
 When the annals of this republic show the disgrace and 
 censure of a Vice-President ; 
 
 A late Speaker of the House of Representatives marketing 
 his rulings as a presiding officer ; 
 
 Three Senators profiting secretly by their votes as law 
 makers ; 
 
 Five chairmen of the leading committees of the late House 
 of Representatives exposed in jobbery ; 
 
 A late Secretary of the Treasury forcing balances in the 
 public accounts ; 
 
 A late Attorney-General misappropriating public funds ; 
 
 A Secretary of the Navy enriched or enriching friends, by 
 percentages levied off the profits of contracts with his depart 
 ment ; 
 
 An embassador to England censured in a dishonorable 
 speculation ; 
 
 The President s private secretary barely escaping con 
 viction upon trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the 
 revenue ; . 
 
334 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 A Secretary of War impeached for high crimes and mis 
 demeanors 
 
 The demonstration is complete, that the first step in reform 
 must be the people s choice of honest men from another party, 
 lest the disease of one political organization infect the body 
 politic, and lest by making no change of men or parties we 
 get no change of measures and no real reform. 
 
 REPUBLICAN EEFOBM IMPOSSIBLE. 
 
 All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes, the product of six 
 teen years ascendency of the Republican party, create a 
 necessity for reform confessed by the Republicans themselves ; 
 but their reformers are voted down in convention and dis 
 placed from the cabinet. The party s mass of honest voters 
 is powerless to resist the eighty thousand office-holders, its 
 leaders and guides. 
 
 A CIVIC EEVOLUTION NECESSAEY. 
 
 Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. 
 We demand a change of system, a change of Administra 
 tion, a change of parties, that we may have A CHANGE OF 
 
 MEASUEES AND OF MEN. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 ON the evening of the llth of July, the committee ap 
 pointed by the Democratic National Convention waited upon 
 Governor Tilden, at his residence in New York City, to 
 officially inform him of his nomination. General McClernand 
 addressed the Governor, and outlined the work of the con 
 vention. He said : 
 
 It was august in character, patriotic in sentiment, and met at a 
 time when the civil authority was exposed to fresh encroachments 
 from the military ; when hard money was dishonored and virtually 
 banished from circulation by vicious legislation ; when peculation 
 and corruption were sapping the foundations of the Government. 
 The convention determined to save the country, and chose for stand 
 ard-bearers tried, true, and trusted rnen. 
 
 General McClernand then read the address of the com 
 mittee, conveying official information of the nomination of 
 Governor Tilden, as follows : 
 
 ADDKESS OF THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, July 11, 1876. 
 Governor SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 SIK : The undersigned, a committee of the National Democratic 
 Convention, which met at the city of St. Louis,. Missouri, on the 27th 
 ultimo, consisting of its president and of one delegate from each 
 State of the Federal Union, have been intrusted with the pleasant 
 duty of waiting upon and informing you of your nomination .by that 
 body as the candidate of the Democratic party for the presidency of 
 the United States at the ensuing election. 
 
 It is a source of great satisfaction to us, who but reflect the opin- 
 
336 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ions of the members of the convention, that a gentleman entertaining 
 and boldly advancing as you do, and have done, those great measures 
 of national and State reform which are an absolute necessity for the 
 restoration of the national honor, prosperity, and credit, should have 
 been selected as our standard-bearer in the approaching contest. 
 Your name is identified with the all-absorbing question of reform, 
 reduction of taxes, and the maintenance of the rights of the laboring 
 masses. The Democracy, in designating you as their chosen leader, 
 do not feel that they are relying merely upon your pledges or prom 
 ises of what you will do in the event of your election ; your record 
 of the past is our guarantee of your future course. " Having been 
 faithful over a few things, we will make you a ruler over many 
 things." 
 
 Accompanying this letter of notification, we also present you with 
 the declaration of principles adopted by the convention. We have 
 no doubt that you will recognize in this declaration measures of po 
 litical policy which immediately concern the happiness and welfare 
 of the entire people of this country, and we feel that your election 
 to the presidency will be a guarantee of their success, and it will be 
 as much your pleasure to enforce and maintain them, if elected, as it 
 is ours to give them the stamp of national representative approbation 
 and approval in their adoption. Entertaining the hope that you will 
 signify to us your acceptance of the nomination which we have ten 
 dered you, and that you concur with the convention in their declara 
 tion of principle, we are, dear sir, your very obedient servants, 
 Signed by 
 
 JOHN A. McCLEENAND, Chairman, 
 and all the members of the National Committee. 
 
 General McClernand was followed by Hon. W. B. Hanna, 
 of Indiana, who spoke eloquently in behalf of the Demo 
 cratic party of his State, pledging the united, entire, and 
 hearty support of Indiana to Tilden and Hendricks. 
 
 GOVEENOR TILDEN S EEPLY. 
 The following reply was then made by Governor Tilden : 
 
 GENERAL MCCLEBNAND AND GENTLEMEN -OF THE COMMITTEE : I 
 shall, at my earliest convenience, prepare and transmit to you a for 
 mal acceptance of the nomination which you now tender to me in 
 
SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE. 337 
 
 behalf of the Democratic National Convention, and I do not desire 
 on this occasion to anticipate any topic which might he appropriate 
 to that communication. It may, however, be permitted to me to say 
 that my nomination was not a mere personal preference between citi 
 zens and statesmen of this republic who might very well have been 
 chosen for so distinguished an honor, and for so august a duty. It 
 was rather a~ declaration of that august body, in whose behalf you 
 speak, in favor of administrative reform, with which events had 
 associated me in the public mind. The strength, the universality, 
 and the efficiency of the demand for administrative reform in all gov 
 ernments, and especially in the administration of the Federal Govern 
 ment, with which the Democratic masses everywhere we re instinct, 
 have led to a series of surprises in the popular assemblages, and per 
 haps in the convention itself. It would be unnatural, gentlemen, if 
 a popular movement, so genuine and so powerful, should stop with 
 three million five hundred thousand Democrats ; that it should not 
 extend by contagion to that large mass of independent voters who 
 stand between parties in our country, and even to a moderate portion 
 of the party under whose administration the evils to be corrected 
 have grown up. And, perhaps, in what we have witnessed there 
 may be an augury in respect to what we may witness in the election 
 about to take place throughout our country; at least let us hope so 
 and believe so. I am not without experience of the difficulty and the 
 labor of effecting administrative reform when it requires a revolution 
 in policies and in measures long established in government. If I were 
 to judge in the year and a half in which I have been in the State 
 government, I should say that the routine duties of the trust I have 
 had imposed on me are a small burden compared with that created by 
 the attempt to change the policy of the government of which I have 
 been the Executive head. Especially is this so where the reform is to 
 be worked out with more or less of the cooperation of public officers, 
 who either have been tainted with the evils to be redressed, or who 
 have been incapacitated by habit, or toleration of the wrongs to be 
 corrected, to which they have been consenting witnesses. I, there 
 fore, if your choice should be ratified by the people at the election, 
 should enter upon the great duties which would fall upon me not as 
 a holiday recreation, but very much in that spirit of consecration 
 in which the soldier enters battle. [Applause.] But let us believe, 
 as I do believe, that we now see the dawn of a better day for our 
 country, and that, difficult as is the work to which the Democratic 
 15 
 
338 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 party, with many of the ajlies and former members of other parties, 
 has addressed itself, the republic is yet to be renovated, to live in all 
 the future, and to be transmitted to future generations, as Jefferson 
 contributed to form it in his day, and which it has been ever since, 
 until a recent period, a blessing to the whole people. [Applause.] 
 Gentlemen, I thank you for the very kind terms in which you have 
 made your communication, and I extend to you collectively and indi 
 vidually a most cordial greeting. 
 
 This brief speech of Governor Tilden produced a marked 
 effect upon the minds of very many who read it. It was so 
 earnest, and even solemn in its tone, and yet so full of faith 
 and high hope, that it was read and reread all over the coun 
 try. But in these swift times it is demanded that one event 
 shall follow another with rapidity. After the speech was 
 digested, Governor Tilden s letter of acceptance was called 
 for. He took his time in responding to this call. More 
 than a month elapsed after the convention adjourned before 
 the letter appeared. But when it appeared its perusal 
 rewarded those who had waited. It is submitted without 
 comment in the following chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 ALBANY, July 31, 1876. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : When I had the honor to receive a personal 
 delivery of your letter on behalf of the Democratic National 
 Convention, held on the 28th of June at St. Louis, advising 
 me of my nomination as the candidate of the constituency 
 represented by that body for the office of President of the 
 United States, I answered that at my earliest convenience, 
 and in conformity with usage, I would prepare and transmit 
 to you a formal acceptance. I now avail myself of the first 
 interval in unavoidable occupations to fulfill that engage 
 ment. 
 
 The convention, before making its nominations, adopted 
 a declaration of principles, which, as a whole, seems to me a 
 wise exposition of the necessities of our country, and of the 
 reforms needed to bring back the Government to its true 
 functions, to restore purity of administration, and to renew 
 the prosperity of the people. But some of these reforms are 
 so urgent that they claim more than a passing approval. 
 
 The necessity of a reform " in the scale of public expense 
 Federal, State, and municipal " and " in the modes of 
 Federal taxation," justifies all the prominence given to it in 
 the declaration of the St. Louis Convention. 
 
 NATIONAL EXPENSES TOO GKEAT. 
 
 The present depression in all the business and industries 
 of the people, which is depriving labor of its employment and 
 carrying want into so many homes, has its principal cause in 
 excessive governmental consumption. Under the illusions of 
 
340 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 a specious prosperity engendered by the false policies of the 
 Federal Government, a waste of capital has been going on 
 ever since the peace of 1865, which could only end in uni 
 versal disaster. The Federal taxes of the last eleven years 
 reach the gigantic sum of $4,500,000,000. Local taxation has 
 amounted to two-thirds as much more. The vast aggregate 
 is not less than $7,500,000,000. This enormous taxation fol 
 lowed a civil conflict that had greatly impaired our aggregate 
 wealth, and had made a prompt reduction of expenses indis 
 pensable. 
 
 It was aggravated by most unscientific and ill-adjusted 
 methods of taxation that increased the sacrifices of the people 
 far beyond the receipts of the Treasury. It was aggravated, 
 moreover, by a financial policy which tended to diminish the 
 energy, skill, and economy of production, and the frugality of 
 private consumption, and induced miscalculation in business, 
 and an unremunerative use of capital and labor. 
 
 Even in prosperous times the daily wants of industrious 
 communities press closely upon their daily earnings. The 
 margin of possible national savings is at best a small percent 
 age of national earnings. Yet now for these eleven years 
 governmental consumption has been a larger portion of the 
 national earnings than the whole people can possibly save 
 even in prosperous times for all new investments. 
 
 The consequences of these errors are now a present public 
 calamity. But they were never doubtful, never invisible. 
 They were necessary and inevitable, and were foreseen and 
 depicted when the waves of that fictitious prosperity ran 
 highest. In a speech made by me on the 24th of September, 
 1868, it was said of these taxes : 
 
 " They bear heavily upon every man s income, upon every 
 industry and every business in the country, and year by year 
 they are destined to press still more heavily, unless we arrest 
 the system that gives rise to them. It was comparatively 
 easy when values were doubling under repeated issues of legal- 
 tender paper-money, to pay out of the froth of our growing 
 and apparent wealth these taxes, but when values recede and 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 341 
 
 sink toward their natural scale, the tax-gatherer takes from 
 us not only our income, not only our profits, but also a portion 
 of our capital. ... I do not wish to exaggerate or alarm ; I 
 simply say that we cannot afford the costly and ruinous policy 
 of the radical majority of Congress. We cannot afford that 
 policy toward the South. We cannot afford the magnificent 
 and oppressive centralism into which our Government is being 
 converted. We cannot afford the present magnificent scale 
 of taxation." 
 
 To the Secretary of the Treasury I said early in 1865 : 
 
 " There is no royal road for a government more than for an 
 individual or a corporation. What you want to do now is to 
 cut down your expenses and live within your income. I would 
 give all the legerdemain of finance and financeering, I would 
 give the whole of it for the old, homely maxim, Live within 
 your income. : 
 
 EEFOEM IN APPEOPEIATIOXS. 
 
 This reform will be resisted at every step, but it must be 
 pressed persistently. We see to-day the immediate represent 
 atives of the people in one branch of Congress, while strug 
 gling to reduce expenditures, compelled to confront the men 
 ace of the Senate and the Executive, that, unless the objec 
 tionable appropriations be consented to, the operations of the 
 Government thereunder shall suffer detriment or cease. In 
 my judgment, an amendment of the Constitution ought to be 
 devised separating in distinct bills the appropriations for the 
 various departments of the public service, and excluding from 
 each bill all appropriations for other objects, and all inde 
 pendent legislation. In that way alone can the revisory 
 power of each of the two Houses and of the Executive be 
 preserved and exempted from the moral duress which often 
 compels assent to objectionable appropriations rather than 
 stop the wheels of the Government. 
 
 MISGOVEENMENT IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 An accessory cause enhancing the distress in business is 
 to be found in the systematic and insupportable misgovern- 
 
342 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 ment imposed on the States of the South. Besides the ordi 
 nary effects of ignorant and dishonest administration, it has 
 inflicted upon them enormous issues of fraudulent bonds, the 
 scanty avails of which were wasted or stolen, and the exist 
 ence of which is a public discredit, tending to bankruptcy or 
 repudiation. Taxes, generally oppressive, in some instances 
 have confiscated the entire income of property, and totally 
 destroyed its marketable value. It is impossible that these 
 evils should not react upon the prosperity of the whole 
 country. 
 
 The nobler motives of humanity concur with the material 
 interests of all in requiring that every obstacle be removed to 
 a complete and durable reconciliation between kindred popu 
 lations once unnaturally estranged, on the basis recognized 
 by the St. Louis platform, of the " Constitution of the United 
 States, with its amendments universally accepted as a final 
 settlement of the controversies which engendered civil war." 
 
 But, in aid of a result so beneficent, the moral influence 
 of every good citizen, as well as every governmental authori 
 ty, ought to be exerted, not alone to maintain their just 
 equality before the law, but likewise to establish a cordial 
 fraternity and good-will among citizens, whatever their race 
 or color, who are now united in the one destiny of a common 
 self-government. If the duty shall be assigned to me, I 
 should not fail to exercise the powers with which the laws 
 and the Constitution of our country clothe its chief magistrate 
 to protect all its citizens, whatever their former condition in 
 every political and personal right. 
 
 SPECIE PAYMENTS. 
 
 " Reform is necessary," declares the St. Louis Convention, 
 " to establish a sound currency, restore the public credit, and 
 maintain the national honor ; " and it goes on to " demand a 
 judicious system of preparation by public economies, by official 
 retrenchments, and by wise finance, which will enable the na 
 tion soon to assure the whole world of its perfect ability and 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 343 
 
 its perfect readiness to meet any of its promises at the call 
 of the creditor entitled to payment." 
 
 The object demanded by the convention is a resumption 
 of specie payments on the legal-tender notes of the United 
 States. That would not only " restore the public credit " 
 and "maintain the national honor," but it would " establish 
 a sound currency " for the people. The methods by which 
 this object is to be pursued and the means by which it is to 
 be attained are disclosed by what the convention demanded 
 for the future and by what it denounced in the past. 
 
 BANK-NOTE EESUMPTION. 
 
 Resumption of specie payments by the Government of the 
 United States on its legal-tender notes would establish specie 
 payments by all the banks on all their notes. The official 
 statement, made on the 12th of May, shows that the amount 
 of the bank-notes was $300,000,000, less $20,000,000 held by 
 themselves. Against these $280,000,000 of notes the banks 
 held $141,000,000 of legal-tender notes, or a little more than 
 fifty per cent, of their amount. But they also held on de 
 posit in the Federal Treasury, as security for these notes, 
 bonds of the United States worth in gold about $360,000,000, 
 available and current in all the foreign money-markets. In 
 resuming, the banks, even if it were possible for all their 
 notes to be presented for payment, would have $500,000,000 
 of specie funds to pay $280,000,000 of notes, without con 
 tracting their loans to their customers, or calling on any pri 
 vate debtor for payment. Suspended banks undertaking to 
 resume have usually been obliged to collect from needy bor 
 rowers the means to redeem excessive issues, and to provide 
 reserves. A vague idea of distress is, therefore, often asso 
 ciated with the process of resumption. But the conditions 
 which caused distress in those former instances do not now 
 exist. The Government has only to make good its own 
 promises, and the banks can take care of themselves without 
 distressing anybody. The Government is, therefore, the sole 
 delinquent. 
 
344 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 LEGAL-TENDEB EESUMPTION. 
 
 The amount of legal-tender notes of the United States 
 now outstanding is less than $370,000,000, besides $34,000,000 
 of fractional currency. How shall the Government make 
 these notes at all times as good as specie ? It has to provide, 
 in reference to the mass which would be kept in use by the 
 wants of business, a central reservoir of coin, adequate to the 
 adjustment of the temporary fluctuations of international bal 
 ances, and as a guarantee against transient drains artificially 
 created by panic or by speculation. It has also to provide 
 for the payment in coin of such fractional currency as may be 
 presented for redemption, and such inconsiderable portions of 
 the legal tenders as individuals may, from time to time, desire 
 to convert for special use, or in order to lay by in coin their 
 little stores of money. 
 
 KESUMPTION NOT DIFFICULT. 
 
 To make the coin in the Treasury available for the objects 
 of this reserve, to gradually strengthen and enlarge that re 
 serve, and to provide for such other exceptional demands for 
 coin as may arise, does not seem to me a work of difficulty. 
 If wisely planned and discreetly pursued, it ought not to cost 
 any sacrifice to the business of the country. It should tend, 
 on the contrary, to a revival of hope and confidence. The 
 coin in the Treasury on the 30th of June, including what is 
 held against coin certificates, amounted to nearly $74,000,000. 
 The current of precious metals which has flowed out of our 
 country for the eleven years from July 1, 1865, to June 30, 
 1876, averaging nearly $76,000,000 a year, was $832,000,000 
 in the whole period, of which $617,000,000 was the product 
 of our own mines. To amass the requisite quantitj 7 , by inter 
 cepting from the current flowing out of the country, and by 
 acquiring from the stocks which exist abroad without disturb 
 ing the equilibrium of foreign money-markets, is a result to 
 be easily worked out by practical knowledge and judgment. 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 345 
 
 With respect to whatever surplus of legal tenders the 
 wants of business may fail to keep in use, and which, in order 
 to save interest, will be returned for redemption, they can 
 either be paid or they can be funded. Whether they continue 
 as currency, or be absorbed into the vast mass of securities 
 held as investments, is merely a question of the rate of inter 
 est they draw. Even if they were to remain in their present 
 form, and the Government were to agree to pay on them a 
 rate of interest making them desirable as investments, they 
 would cease to circulate and take their place with Govern 
 ment, State, municipal, and other corporate and private bonds, 
 of which thousands of millions exist among us. In the per 
 fect ease with which they can be changed from currency into 
 investments lies the only danger to be guarded against in the 
 adoption of general measures intended to remove a clearly- 
 ascertained surplus, that is, the withdrawal of any which are 
 not a permanent excess beyond the wants of business. 
 
 Even more mischievous would be any measure which af 
 fects the public imagination with the fear of an apprehended 
 scarcity. In a community where credit is so much used, fluc 
 tuations of values and vicissitudes in business are largely 
 caused by the temporary beliefs of men even before those be 
 liefs can conform to ascertained realities. 
 
 THE WANTS OF TEADE. 
 
 The amount of the necessary currency, at a given time, 
 cannot be determined arbitrarily, and should not be assumed 
 on conjecture. The amount is subject to both permanent and 
 temporary changes. An enlargement of it, which seemed to 
 be durable, happened at the beginning of the civil war by a 
 substituted use of currency in place of individual credits. It 
 varies with certain states of business. It fluctuates, with con 
 siderable regularity, at different seasons of the year. In the 
 autumn, for instance, when buyers of grain and other agricult 
 ural products begin their operations, they usually need to 
 borrow capital or circulating credits by which to make their 
 
346 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 purchases, and want these funds in currency capable of being 
 distributed in small sums among numerous sellers. The addi 
 tional need of currency at such times is five or more per cent, 
 of the whole volume, and, if a surplus beyond what is required 
 for ordinary use does not happen to have been on hand at the 
 money centres, a scarcity of currency ensues, and also .a strin 
 gency in the loan-market. 
 
 It was in reference to such experiences that, in a discus 
 sion of this subject, in my annual message to the New York 
 Legislature of January 5, 1875, the suggestion was made 
 that 
 
 " The Federal Government is bound to redeem every por 
 tion of its issues which the public do not wish to use. Hav 
 ing assumed to monopolize the supply of currency and enact 
 ed exclusions against everybody else, it is bound to furnish all 
 which the wants of business require. . . . The system should 
 passively allow the volume of circulating credits to ebb and 
 flow, according to the ever-changing wants of business. It 
 should imitate, as closely as possible, the natural laws of 
 trade, which it has superseded by artificial contrivances." 
 
 And in a similar discussion in my message of January 4, 
 1876, it was said that resumption should be effected "by such 
 measures as would keep the aggregate amount of the currency 
 self-adjusting during all the process, without creating at any 
 time an artificial scarcity, and without exciting the public 
 imagination with alarms which impair confidence, contract the 
 whole large machinery of credit, and disturb the natural op 
 erations of business." 
 
 THE EOAD TO EESUMPTION. 
 
 " Public economies, official retrenchments, and wise fi 
 nance " are the means which the St. Louis Convention indi 
 cates as provision for reserves and redemptions. The best 
 resource is a reduction of the expenses of the Government 
 below its income, for that imposes no new charge on the peo 
 ple. If, however, the improvidence and waste which have 
 conducted us to a period of falling revenues oblige us to sup- 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 347 
 
 plement the results of economies and retrenchments by some 
 resorts to loans, we should not hesitate. The Government 
 ought not to speculate on its own dishonor, in order to save 
 interest on its broken promises, which it still compels private 
 dealers to accept at a fictitious par. The highest national 
 honor is not only right, but would prove profitable. Of the 
 public debt, $985,000,000 bear interest at six percent, in gold, 
 and $712,000,000 at five per cent, in gold. The average inter 
 est is 5.58 per cent. 
 
 A financial policy which should secure the highest credit, 
 wisely availed of, ought gradually to obtain a reduction of 
 one per cent, in the interest on most of the loans. A saving 
 of one per cent, on the average would be $17,000,000 a year 
 in gold. That saving regularly invested at four and a half 
 per cent, would, in less than thirty-eight years, extinguish the 
 principal. The whole $1,700,000,000 of funded debt might be 
 paid by this saving alone, without cost to the people. 
 
 The proper time for resumption is the time when wise 
 preparations shall have ripened into a perfect ability to ac 
 complish the object with a certainty and ease that will inspire 
 confidence, and encourage the reviving of business. The 
 earliest time in which such a result can be brought about is 
 the best. Even when the preparations shall have been ma 
 tured, the exact date would have to be chosen with reference 
 to the then existing state of trade and credit operations in 
 our own country, the course of foreign commerce, and the 
 condition of the exchanges with other nations. The specific 
 measures and the actual date are matters of detail having 
 reference to ever-changing conditions. They belong to the 
 domain of practical administrative statesmanship. The cap 
 tain of a steamer about starting from New York to Liverpool 
 does not assemble a council over his ocean-chart and fix an 
 angle by which to lash the rudder for the whole voyage. A 
 human intelligence must be at the helm to discern the shift 
 ing forces of the waters and the winds. A human hand must 
 be on the helm to feel the elements day by day, and guide to 
 o, mastery over them. 
 
348 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 Such preparations are everything. Without them, a leg 
 islative command fixing a day, an official promise fixing a day, 
 are shams. They are worse, they are a snare and a delusion 
 to all who trust them. They destroy all confidence among 
 thoughtful men whose judgment will at last sway public 
 opinion. An attempt to act on such a command or such a 
 promise, without preparation, would end in a new suspension. 
 It would be a fresh calamity, prolific of confusion, distrust and 
 distress. 
 
 THE ACT OF 1875 A BAEEEN PEOMISE. 
 
 The act of Congress of the 14th of January, 1875, enact 
 ed that on and after the 1st of January, 1879, the Secretary 
 of the Treasury shall redeem in coin the legal-tender notes 
 of the United States on presentation at the office of the 
 Assistant Treasurer in the city of New York. It authorized 
 the Secretary " to prepare and provide for " such resumption 
 of specie payments by the use of any surplus revenues not 
 otherwise appropriated ; and by issuing, in his discretion, 
 certain classes of bonds. 
 
 More than one and a half of the four years has passed. 
 Congress and the President have continued ever since to unite 
 in acts which have legislated out of existence every possible 
 surplus applicable to this purpose. The coin in the Treasury 
 claimed to belong to the Government had, on the 30th of June, 
 fallen to less than $45,000,000, against $59,000,000 on the 1st 
 of January, 1875, and the availability of a part of that sum is 
 said to be questionable. The revenues are falling faster than 
 appropriations and expenditures are reduced, leaving the 
 Treasury with diminishing resources. The Secretary has 
 done nothing under his power to issue bonds. 
 
 The legislative command, the official promise fixing a day 
 for resumption have thus far been barren. No practical 
 preparations toward resumption have been made. There has 
 been no progress. There have been steps backward. There 
 is no necromancy in the operations of government. The 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 349 
 
 homely maxims of every-day life are the best standards of 
 its conduct. A debtor who should promise to pay a loan out 
 of a surplus income, yet be seen every day spending all he 
 could lay his hands on in riotous living, would lose all char 
 acter for honesty and veracity. His offer of a new promise 
 or his profession as to the value of the old promise would 
 alike provoke derision. 
 
 The St. Louis platform denounces the failure for eleven 
 years to make good the promise of the legal-tender notes. 
 It denounces the omission to accumulate " any reserve for 
 their redemption." It denounces the conduct " which, dur 
 ing eleven years of peace, has made no advances toward re 
 sumption, no preparations for resumption, but instead has 
 obstructed resumption by wasting our resources and exhaust 
 ing all our surplus income ; and, while professing to intend a 
 speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh 
 hinderances thereto." And, having first denounced the bar 
 renness of the promise of a day of resumption, it next de 
 nounces that barren promise as "a hinderance " to resump 
 tion. It then demands its repeal, and also demands the 
 establishment of " a judicious system of preparation " for 
 resumption. It cannot be doubted that the substitution of 
 " a system of preparation " without the promise of a day, 
 for the worthless promise of a day without " a system of 
 preparation," would be the gain of the substance of resump 
 tion in exchange for its shadow. 
 
 Nor is the denunciation unmerited of that improvidence 
 which, in the eleven years since the peace, has consumed $4,- 
 500,000,000, and yet could not afford to give the people a 
 sound and stable currency. Two and a half per cent, on the 
 expenditures of these eleven years, or even less, would have 
 provided all the additional coin needful to resumption. 
 
 THE EVILS OF UNCERTAINTY. 
 
 The distress now felt by the people in all their business 
 and industries, though it has its principal cause in the enor- 
 
350 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 mous waste of capital occasioned by the false policies of our 
 Government, has been greatly aggravated by the mismanage 
 ment of the currency. Uncertainty is the prolific parent of 
 mischiefs in all business. Never were its evils more felt than 
 now. Men do nothing because they are unable to make any 
 calculations on which they can safely rely. They undertake 
 nothing because they fear a loss in everything they would 
 attempt. They stop and wait. The merchant dares not buy 
 for the future consumption of his customers. The manufact 
 urer dares not make fabrics which may not refund his outlay. 
 He shuts his factory and discharges his workmen. Capital 
 ists cannot lend on security they consider safe, and their 
 funds lie almost, without interest. Men of enterprise who 
 have credit, or securities to pledge, will not borrow. Con 
 sumption has fallen below the natural limits of a reasonable 
 economy. Prices of many things are under their range in 
 frugal, specie-paying times before the civil war. Vast masses 
 of currency lie in the banks unused. A year and a half ago 
 the legal tenders were at their largest volume, and the $12,- 
 000,000 since retired have been replaced by fresh issues of 
 $15,000,000 of bank-notes. In the mean time the banks have 
 been surrendering about $4,000,000 a month, because they 
 cannot find a profitable use for so many of their notes. 
 
 The public mind will no longer accept shams. It has suf 
 fered enough from illusions. An insincere policy increases 
 distrust. An unstable policy increases uncertainty. The 
 people need to know that the Government is moving in the 
 direction of ultimate safety and prosperity, and that it is 
 doing so through prudent, safe, and conservative methods, 
 which will be sure to inflict no new sacrifice on the business 
 of the country. Then the inspiration of new hope and well- 
 founded confidence will hasten the restoring- processes of 
 nature, and prosperity will begin to return. 
 
 The St. Louis Convention concludes its expression in 
 regard to the currency by a declaration of its convictions as 
 to the practical results of the system of preparations it de- 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 351 
 
 mands. It says : " We believe such a system, well devised, 
 and, above all, intrusted to competent hands for execution, 
 creating 1 at no time an artificial scarcity of currency, and at 
 no time alarming 1 the public mind into a withdrawal of that 
 vaster machinery of credit by which ninety-five per cent, of 
 all business transactions are performed a system open, pub 
 lic, and inspiring general confidence would, from the day of 
 its adoption, bring healing on its wings to all our harassed 
 industries, set in motion the wheels of commerce, manufact 
 ures, and the mechanic arts, restore employment to labor, 
 and renew in all its natural sources the prosperity of the 
 people." 
 
 The Government of the United States, in my opinion, can 
 advance to a resumption of specie payments on its legal- 
 tender notes by gradual and safe processes tending to relieve 
 the present business distress. If charged by the people with 
 the administration of the Executive office, I should deem it a 
 duty so to exercise the powers with which it has been or may 
 be invested by Congress as best and soonest to conduct the 
 country to that beneficent result. 
 
 A BAD CIVIL SEEVICE. 
 
 The convention justly affirms that reform is necessary in 
 the civil service, necessary to its purification, necessary to its 
 economy and efficiency, necessary in order that the ordinary 
 employment of the public business may not be " a prize fought 
 for at the ballot-box, a brief reward of party zeal instead of 
 posts of honor assigned for proved competency, and held for 
 fidelity in the public employ." The convention wisely added 
 that " reform is necessary even more in the higher grades 
 of the public service. Presidents, Vice-Presidents, judges, 
 Senators, Representatives, cabinet officers, these and all 
 others in authority are the people s servants. Their offices 
 are not a private perquisite ; they are a public trust." 
 
 Two evils infest the official service of the Federal Govern 
 ment. One is the prevalent and demoralizing notion that the 
 
352 THE LIFE OF SAMUE^ J. TILDEN. 
 
 public service exists not for the business and benefit of the 
 whole people, but for the interest of the office-holders, who 
 are in truth but the servants of the people. Under the influ 
 ence of this pernicious error public employments have been 
 multiplied ; the numbers of those gathered into the ranks of 
 office-holders have been steadily increased beyond any possi 
 ble requirement of the public business, while inefficiency, 
 peculation, fraud, and malversation of the public funds, from 
 the high places of power to the lowest, have overspread the 
 whole service like a leprosy. 
 
 The other evil is the organization of the official class into 
 a body of political mercenaries, governing the caucuses and 
 dictating the nominations of their own party, and attempting 
 to carry the elections of the people by undue influence, and 
 by immense corruption funds systematically collected from 
 the salaries or fees of office-holders. The official class in 
 other countries, sometimes by its own weight and sometimes 
 in alliance with the army, has been able to rule the unorgan 
 ized masses even under universal suffrage. Here, it has 
 already grown into a gigantic power, capable of stifling the 
 inspirations of a sound public opinion, and of resisting an 
 easy change of administration, until misgovernment becomes 
 intolerable, and public spirit has been stung to the pitch of a 
 civic revolution. 
 
 ONE TEEM, AND OTHEE EEFOEMS. 
 
 The first step in reform is the elevation of the standard 
 by which the appointing power selects agents to execute offi 
 cial trusts. Next in importance is a conscientious fidelity in 
 the exercise of the authority to hold to account and displace 
 untrustworthy or incapable subordinates. The public interest 
 in an honest, skillful performance of official trust must not be 
 sacrificed to the usufruct of the incumbents. 
 
 After these immediate steps, which will insure the exhibi 
 tion of better examples, we may wisely go on to the abolition 
 of unnecessary offices, and, finally, to the patient, careful or- 
 
GOVERNOR TILDEN S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 353 
 
 ganization of a better civil-service system, under the tests, 
 wherever practicable, of proved competency and fidelity. 
 
 While much may be accomplished by these methods, it 
 might encourage delusive expectations if I withheld here the 
 expression of my conviction that no reform of the civil service 
 in this country will be complete and permanent until its chief 
 magistrate is constitutionally disqualified for reelection, ex 
 perience having repeatedly exposed the futility of self-im 
 posed restrictions by candidates or incumbents. Through 
 this solemnity only can he be effectually delivered from his 
 greatest temptation to misuse the power and patronage with 
 which the Executive is necessarily charged. 
 
 Educated in the belief that it is the first duty of a citizen 
 of the republic to take his fair allotment of care and trouble 
 in public affairs, I have for forty years, as a private citizen, 
 fulfilled that duty. Though occupied in an unusual degree 
 during all that period with the concerns of government, I 
 have never acquired the habit of official life. When, a year 
 and a half ago, I entered upon my present trust, it was in 
 order to consummate reforms to which I had already devoted 
 several of the best years of my life. Knowing as I do, there 
 fore, from fresh experience, how great the difference is be 
 tween gliding through an official routine and working out a 
 reform of systems and policies, it is impossible for me to con 
 template what needs to be done in the Federal Administration 
 without an anxious sense of the difficulties of the undertaking. 
 If summoned by the suffrages of my countrymen to attempt 
 this work, I shall endeavor, with God s help, to be the effi 
 cient instrument of their will. 
 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 To General John A. McClernand, Chairman ; General W. B. Frank 
 lin, the Hon. J. J. Abbott, the Hon. H. J. Spannhorst, the Hon. 
 H. J. Eedfield, the Hon. F. S. Lyon, and others, committee, etc. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE power of the man lies in his ability to concentrate 
 his mind upon his work. Where others vaporize he crystal 
 lizes. The realm of speculative philosophy has no attraction 
 for him. He reduces statesmanship to one of the exact sci 
 ences. He treats a problem in government as he would a 
 problem in mathematics ; he takes all the factors, discovers 
 their relative value, and then uses them. Glittering gener 
 alities are his abhorrence. Facts are his friends and figures 
 his delight. 
 
 Out of this power of concentration spring two anomalous 
 characteristics absolute fearlessness linked to great caution. 
 Nobody who knows Mr. Tilden ever dreamed of frightening 
 him. He is impervious to threats. He dislikes those who 
 take counsel of their apprehensions. But he never moves 
 till he has provided against every possible contingency. He 
 vindicates his courage in his designs and displays his caution 
 in the execution thereof. He did a bold thing in the sum 
 mer of 1875, when, as Governor of New York, he promised 
 the people in his speeches at Buffalo, Syracuse, and Utica, 
 that their taxes should be reduced by six million dollars. 
 But he did a cautious thing when he fixed the sum at six 
 millions while he was paving the way for a reduction of eight 
 millions which was effected. 
 
 The defects in his character appear to be surface faults, but 
 they are ineradicable inasmuch as they all grow out of his con 
 centration of mind. When he has leisure to be agreeable, few 
 
A STUDY OF MR. TILDEN S CHARACTER. 355 
 
 men are brighter or more sparkling than he. On rare occa 
 sions he gives rein to his wit and his imagination, which are 
 the more brilliant perhaps on account of their infrequent use. 
 But when he is busy he is not companionable. He never 
 stops in his work to utter the meaningless phrases of the 
 average politician. He cannot feign any delight at the sight 
 of persons concerning whom he is indifferent. But he some 
 times wounds the sensibilities of those whom he really loves 
 if they happen to approach him at a time when his mind 
 is occupied on a question which absorbs all his power of 
 thought. They have only to meet him when the perplexities 
 of duty weigh less heavily upon him, to discover what social 
 resources he holds in reserve. When he has finished, to his 
 own satisfaction, any piece of work on which he has been 
 engaged, he is as happy as a boy just released from school. 
 The troubled look in his eyes passes away, the wrinkled brow 
 grows smooth, and his face beams with the sunshine of good 
 nature. This humor lasts till some new problem demands 
 solution, and then to that he surrenders all his powers. 
 
 Mr. Tilden is no sentimentalist, but he possesses a great 
 deal of sentiment. Friendship means more to him than to 
 the poets who sing its praises, or to the weak creatures who 
 yearn for it without understanding the possibilities of sacrifice 
 which it involves. When he was past forty years of age, he 
 voluntarily took upon himself pecuniary obligations equal to 
 all the money he had earned by twenty years of laborious ef 
 forts, that those who were bound to him by the ties of rela 
 tionship might escape a threatened reverse of fortune, and 
 that the declining years of his aged mother might be full of 
 peace and free from sorrow. This is not the place to repeat 
 the story of his benefactions to others. My knowledge of his 
 generous deeds is not derived from him. It is a subject 
 on which he never talks, and on which he will not per 
 mit others to talk in his presence. The late Judge Mar 
 tin Grover, of the New York Court of Appeals, who was 
 one of the wisest jurists and closest observers of character 
 
356 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 that the country has produced, was speaking of Mr. Tilden 
 one- day, long before his nomination for Governor, and re 
 marked : " That man has given away more money, and made 
 less fuss about it, than any other man in the State of New 
 York. He doesn t give on any abstract theory of philan 
 thropy, but because his friends get themselves into trouble, 
 and he can t resist the temptation to help em out." Mr. Til- 
 den was very busily engaged in the preparation of a public 
 paper in Albany when the report was brought to him that 
 Charles O Conor was lying so seriously ill that the hope of 
 his recovery had been abandoned. He did not utter a word. 
 He dropped his pen, and, hiding his face from observation, he 
 sat for full five minutes lost in deep, sad thought. His work 
 was not resumed. He journeyed to New York that day, that 
 he might be near to his old friend in the hour of his extremity. 
 To him no other duty was so imperative as that which sum 
 moned him to the bedside of the man he loved. Fortunately, 
 Mr. O Conor recovered. Mr. Tilden returned to Albany, and 
 went to work. Those who saw him grappling with the 
 finances of the State in an effort to reduce the taxes, would 
 not imagine that his abstracted and sometimes petulant man 
 ner concealed such fountains of deep feeling. 
 
 He is a shy man. He does not readily reveal himself even 
 to those who think they have known him for years. His oc 
 casional efforts to appear wholly at his ease in the presence 
 of strangers are amusing rather than successful. It is almost 
 impossible to sound the depths of his nature. His intellectual 
 resources are inexhaustible. But his shyness his unwilling 
 ness to make any display either of his learning or his wisdom 
 makes him appear commonplace enough to many who see 
 him for the first time. He has lived in New York City for 
 forty years, mingling in the best society of the metropolis ; but 
 the manner of the student is upon him still. The great prob 
 lem which he seeks to solve, the hard lessons which he has 
 set himself to learn the problems which have eluded the ef 
 forts of other statesmen, the lessons which must be rightly 
 
A STUDY OF MR. TILDEN S CHARACTER. 357 
 
 read, if the welfare of the people is to be preserved, will en 
 gage his attention while he lives. 
 
 His home-life is comfortable and pleasant. His house 
 in New York, in Gramercy Square, is a large brown-stone 
 front, the lot extending back to the next street. It is sub 
 stantially furnished, contains a vast number of books, a few 
 good pieces of statuary, and plenty of pictures. But the first 
 thing that strikes the visitor is the absolute freedom from 
 ostentatious display. All that refined taste can suggest is 
 there ; but refined taste is severe in its simplicity. Mr. Til- 
 den s sister, Mrs. Pelton, a gracious gentlewoman, of charm 
 ing manners, presides over his household. Her son, Colonel 
 Pelton, and his wife and daughter, complete the family circle. 
 
 At his own table, Mr. Tilden is the best of hosts, because 
 the least obtrusive in his hospitalit} . Children always take 
 to him. He is fond of them and they of him. Soon after his 
 nomination, a little girl in Georgia sent him a letter of con 
 gratulation. She was only eight years old, and she had 
 printed out the words with laborious effort. None the less 
 they had the freshness and sweetness of childish prattle. 
 She closed her letter by saying : " I did not have any middle 
 name, and ma said I might take one. So I took your name 
 because I like Tilden best of all. Do you care ? " He did 
 care. He cared so much that all other business was laid aside 
 for five minutes, while he wrote a pleasant answer to his little 
 friend in Georgia. Some of the letters which he receives are 
 amusing, and he enjoys them as much as anybody. He em 
 ploys a plain matter-of-fact clerk, who indorses on the back 
 of each epistle the substance of its contents. He was running 
 over a pile of these letters one day, reading the indorsements 
 aloud, when he came to one over which he paused a moment, 
 and then read : " Invokes the blessing of God upon you, and 
 wants you to marry a Massachusetts widow." A quizzical 
 smile beamed in his face, and, utilizing an expression which 
 he is charged with using pretty often, he remarked, " I will 
 see her later." He prizes at its full value the relaxation and 
 
358 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 comfort which his home-life affords him, but the larger share 
 of his time for forty years has been devoted to work, and he 
 could not if he would release himself from those habits of in 
 dustry which are woven into the warp and woof of his nature. 
 Martin Van Buren said of Samuel J. Tilden, twenty years 
 ago, " He is the most unambitious man I ever knew." Mr. 
 Van Buren viewed Mr. Tilden from his own standpoint, of 
 course the standpoint of one who had sacrificed much to the 
 attainment of political honors, and who, after holding all the 
 highest offices in the country, found himself disappointed and 
 defeated at the last. His acquaintance with Tilden s boy 
 hood, his appreciation of his talents, and his knowledge of the 
 opportunities for advancement which he had rejected, led him 
 to make the remark. He could not understand how a man 
 might gratify a certain sort of ambition by attending strictly 
 to his professional pursuits, winning the confidence of those 
 around him, and discharging faithfully his duties as a citizen. 
 Yet that sphere of life filled the measure of Mr. Tilden s am 
 bition, and would fill it to-day if he had not been driven for 
 ward by circumstances stronger than he could control. He 
 has been charged with overweening ambition, and yet he 
 never sought a public position in his life. He has been ac 
 cused of working for his own advancement. He has worked 
 for the advancement of a cause which he believes to be essen 
 tial to the preservation of republican institutions, but he is no 
 self-seeker. If he could have found his alter ego some man 
 who possessed the courage, the energy, the intelligence, and 
 the desire to bring about the reforms which he sought and 
 which the country needed he would have supported that 
 man for the presidency, and gladly have remained in retire 
 ment himself. But the man was not to be found. Mr. Tilden 
 told Secretary Stanton, in 1862, that a great military genius 
 rose only once in two or three centuries. A great political 
 reformer rises hardly as often as a military genius. The civic 
 hero s task is more difficult, his labor more thankless, and his 
 reward less certain. If it be ambition which induces any man 
 
A STUDY OF MR. TILDEN S CHARACTER. 359 
 
 to grapple with fat, sleek thieves, well intrenched in power, 
 then it is that sort of ambition which prompts a soldier to 
 volunteer to lead a forlorn hope in battle. Sometimes the 
 leader of a forlorn hope survives, and great is his glory. Of- 
 tener he is slain and forgotten. The chances are so much 
 against him that his very existence demonstrates his unself 
 ishness. 
 
 The enthusiasm which Mr. Tilden arouses is not of the 
 frothy sort. It is based on the judgment of men, not on 
 their impulses, and is therefore enduring. If the Democratic 
 party had not been convinced that he was the best represent 
 ative of its best ideas, he would not have been nominated. 
 From the first there was a feeling of safety under his leader 
 ship. This feeling of safety begets confidence ; confidence 
 begets buoyancy, and buoyancy begets enthusiasm which 
 sweeps down barriers and^nakes heroes of us all. 
 
 He is the best financier in the United States. He never 
 made a mistake on a question of finance. These are broad 
 assertions, but they are fully justified by the facts. His coun 
 sel has been sought for twenty years by the safe and conserv 
 ative capitalists of the country, and not by the stock-jobbers 
 and reckless speculators, for with them he refused to have 
 any dealings. His financial ability is one of the elements of 
 his strength. Is it not true, if the finances of the Govern 
 ment were wisely and economically managed by an experi 
 enced hand, that the currency problems which trouble the 
 theorists would solve themselves ? 
 
 The love which Mr. Tilden inspires in the hearts of his 
 personal friends is very deep. Almost any man who knows 
 him well would willingly take the risk of death in his behalf 
 with a tolerable feeling of confidence, however, that Mr. 
 Tilden would step in at the last moment and save him. But 
 confidence alone does not make love. One secret of his 
 hold on the affection of those who are near him is that he 
 never patronizes anybody. There is not in his nature one 
 atom or trace of that vanity which gratifies itself by the con- 
 
360 THE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN. 
 
 templation of a position superior to that of others. He meets 
 everybody on a plane of perfect equality, not with an affecta 
 tion of equality, but with a manner which makes the visitor 
 forget in a moment that he is in the presence of the Governor 
 of New York, and remember only that he is talking to a plain, 
 sensible, and wise man. 
 
 Governor Tilden is five feet ten inches in height, with 
 spare figure, light complexion, and blue eyes. His head .is 
 large and round. His hair, originally chestnut, is now plen 
 tifully sprinkled with gray, but is still of abundant growth. 
 He has entered his sixty-third year, but retains his strength 
 and vigor in a remarkable degree. He comes of a long-lived 
 family. The record is preserved of fourteen of his ancestors 
 on his father s and mother s side, in a direct line, and it shows 
 that their average age was upward of seventy-nine years. 
 
 If Samuel J. Tilden should be called to the presidency, he 
 would, in his own words, enter upon the great duties that 
 would fall upon him, " not as one entering upon a holiday 
 recreation, but very much in that spirit of consecration in 
 which a soldier enters battle." He has drunk deep at the 
 fountains of patriotism. He gives to his country that love 
 which others yield to wife and children. He is whole in him 
 self, possessing firmness without obstinacy, courage without 
 bravado, religion without cant. The traditions of the fathers 
 are his inspiration. He has no personal ends to serve, no 
 other ambition than to save the land of our love and com 
 memoration from the canker of corruption which ate out the 
 heart of every republic of ancient times. That the purpose 
 to which he has consecrated himself may be attained, through 
 him or through others, is surely the prayer of every patriotic 
 American. 
 
A SKETCH OE THE LIEE 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. THOMAS A. HENDKICKS 
 
 16 
 
OF THE 
 
 SITY 
 
a/7 
 
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 EON, THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER. 
 
 THOMAS A. HEKDRICKS was born in Muskingum County, 
 Ohio, on the 7th day of September, 1819. Three years later 
 his father removed to Shelby County, Indiana, and there took 
 up his abode. The Hendricks family was possessed of a mod 
 erate fortune, and Thomas was afforded the advantages of a 
 thorough education. As a boy he evinced many of those at 
 tributes which in after-life made him famous. He was intelli 
 gent, kind-hearted, and sympathetic. His condition enabled 
 him to render material assistance to many of his poorer com 
 panions, and the opportunity to do a generous act w r as never 
 slighted. His genial nature and warm heart, not less than 
 his intelligence and ready wit, made him a favorite with all 
 who knew him. When eighteen years old he entered Han 
 over College, from which institution he graduated in 1841. 
 His college-life was very much like the school-boy life which 
 had preceded it. He w r as a good student and equally popu 
 lar with his classmates and instructors. 
 
 Leaving college, Hendricks, who was then twenty-two 
 years old, went to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he be 
 gan the study of law. In 1843 he was admitted to the bar, 
 and immediately after returned to Indiana, where he entered 
 upon the practice of his profession. His success was rapid and 
 well deserved. He won the confidence of all with whom he 
 
364 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 was thrown into contact, and, from the very outset of his 
 professional career, gave evidences of superior legal attain 
 ments and solid worth of character. He entered with an 
 honest zeal into every case which engaged his attention, and 
 never slighted any detail, however seemingly unimportant, 
 which might strengthen the cause of a client. His industry 
 reaped its own reward. He became distinguished at the bar 
 both for his wide knowledge of the law and for the subtilty 
 and soundness of his arguments. Men trusted him because 
 they knew that his opinions were correct, and his convictions 
 honest. Habitually cautious and courteous, there were still 
 times when he threw aside these attributes, and became 
 strongly aggressive. But his aggression was always against 
 what he believed to be wrong. Under all circumstances he was 
 a dangerous opponent. It has often been said, in speaking of 
 Mr. Hendricks s early success as a lawyer, that, while many 
 of his rivals were more apt to win their cases before a jury, 
 he invariably carried his point with a judge. 
 
 Like Mr. Tilden, Mr. Hendricks has achieved distinction in 
 his profession, and his reputation as a lawyer rests upon a 
 solid foundation. Yet, like Mr. Tilden also, he is seldom 
 thought of merely as a lawyer. His political career has made 
 him famous, and what he has achieved at the bar is forgotten 
 in the more illustrious record which he has made in public 
 life. That record dates back to the year 1845, at which time 
 he was elected a member of the State Legislature of Indiana. 
 This was only two years after he had entered upon the prac 
 tice of his profession. He took his seat in the Legislature at 
 the age of twenty-six, and did such excellent service that 
 when the State Constitutional Convention was called, in 
 1850, he was chosen a member of that body. During these 
 five years Mr. Hendricks had made rapid progress, and was 
 looked upon as one of the most promising young men in the 
 State. It is no matter of surprise, therefore, that he should 
 have been chosen to represent the Indianapolis district in 
 Congress, a position which he continued to fill from 1851 until 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 365 
 
 1856. His record in Congress was alike honorable to him 
 self and satisfactory to his constituents. During the four 
 years which followed after his retirement from the House, 
 and which preceded his nomination for Governor, Mr. Hen- 
 dricks held the position of Commissioner of the General 
 Land-Office. Up to this period (1860), although he had been 
 actively engaged in political affairs, he had not neglected 
 his professional duties. He had gained a strong hold upon 
 the Democracy of Indiana, while his personal popularity and 
 upright life had won for him the respect of his political op; 
 ponents. 
 
 In the memorable campaign of 1860, Henry S. Lane was 
 nominated on the Republican ticket for the governorship of 
 Indiana. Two years before, the Democrats had elected a 
 Secretary of State by 2,581 majority. The man who was con 
 sidered the strongest opponent to Lane was Thomas A. Hen- 
 dricks, and he was accordingly nominated by the Democratic 
 Convention. The campaign of that year was an exciting one, 
 but it resulted in the defeat of Mr. Hendricks. This was ow 
 ing not so much to the strength of Lane, as to the political 
 revolution which extended throughout all the Northern States. 
 The Republican party, headed by Abraham Lincoln, was car 
 ried into sudden power. Indiana fell into the general line> 
 and gave a Republican majority of 9,757. 
 
 Immediately after Mr. Lane s inauguration as Governor, 
 he was chosen United States Senator, and at once resigned 
 the gubernatorial chair, in order to take his seat in Congress. 
 His successor was Oliver P. Morton. When the election of 
 1862 came about, Indiana was counted certain for the Repub 
 lican party, but surprised the political prophets by electing a 
 Democratic Legislature. This victory had a broader signifi 
 cance than the mere confines of the State. It was that year 
 when a Senator in Congress was to be chosen, and it gave to 
 the Democratic majority in the Legislature the power of select 
 ing an able and upright man to represent Indiana in the Sen 
 ate, at a time when ability and uprightness were more than 
 
366 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 ever needed. The choice of the Democrats wisely fell upon Mr. 
 Hendricks. His past career recommended him so highly to 
 the members of the Legislature, that his election to the high 
 office of Senator was held to be only a just and proper recog 
 nition of the fidelity with which he had discharged all public 
 duties. He was chosen for the term ending in March, 1869. 
 
 Mr. Hendricks s record in the Senate is in all respects 
 praiseworthy and honorable. He served in the Committees 
 on Claims, Public Buildings, the Judiciary, Public Lands, and 
 Naval Affairs, and in all these positions he did his duty man 
 fully and well. It is to be remembered that at this period 
 the Democratic party was represented in the Senate only by 
 a weak minority. Nothing was possible save an able protest 
 against the various reconstruction measures adopted, and even 
 this was to be made in the face of strong popular prejudice 
 throughout the country, as well as bitter opposition in the 
 Senate-chamber. Mr. Hendricks had no sooner taken his seat 
 in the Senate than he was recognized as a leader among the 
 Democratic members, and in a very short time he had achieved 
 for himself a national reputation. He was strongly opposed 
 to the plan of reconstruction as advocated by the Republican 
 party, and upheld, most earnestly, the policy first advanced 
 by Abraham Lincoln, and which Andrew Johnson afterward 
 sought to carry out. He held it as a part of his political faith 
 that the prosperity of the white people of the South, even 
 though they had been rebels, was a matter of more impor 
 tance than the prosperity of the negroes. He believed that 
 the natural supremacy of the white race was a sufficient guar 
 antee for the safety of all. Shaping his political conduct 
 upon this theory, he naturally opposed the exalting of the 
 freedmen into a governing class, while the white people were 
 to be disfranchised. Such a course he believed to be no less 
 an evil than slavery itself. The arguments which Mr. Hen 
 dricks presented at that time have been adopted as the au 
 thoritative statement of Democratic opinion, in the summaries 
 of congressional debates. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 367 
 
 It has been charged, and that not unfrequently since his 
 nomination for the vice-presidency, that Mr. Hendricks is a 
 timid and over-cautions man. He may be cautious, and in 
 some instances even timid ; but neither his caution nor his 
 timidity ever smacks of cowardice. When the clash of a 
 personal encounter once kindles the latent fire of his nature, 
 he is bold, vigorous, and aggressive. Those who believe him 
 to be lacking in force of character, or depth of conviction-, 
 need only read his record while in the Senate. While they 
 may not agree with all his opinions, they will be struck with 
 the frankness and boldness with which he maintained his 
 views. During the discussion of the reconstruction meas 
 ures Mr. Hendricks took a determined stand, and held it 
 against all the attacks of his opponents. His objections to 
 the proposed amendments of the Constitution he stated 
 clearly and concisely. These objections were based upon 
 the belief that during the war, or so soon after its close 
 as not to allow the passions of the country time to cool, 
 the foundations of government ought not to be disturbed. 
 An examination of his senatorial career will show that he 
 voted for and supported those measures which were neces 
 sary to maintain the vigorous prosecution of the war ; that 
 he favored by his voice and vote the appropriation of 1864, 
 which carried the rebellion to its close ; and that he pro 
 posed and advocated an amendment to that bill, allowing an 
 increase of fifty per cent, upon the soldiers pay, because of 
 the depreciation of the currency in which they were paid. 
 If Mr. Hendricks is a cautious man, his caution is the out 
 growth of his sound sense ; if he be timid, he is still brave 
 enough to stand unflinchingly by his principles, and to follow 
 the line of duty, no matter where it leads. 
 
 In the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson Mr. Hen 
 dricks played an active and important part, and added not a 
 little to his reputation as a shrewd and able lawyer. Per 
 haps no better proof of his ability and success in the Senate 
 can be adduced than that before the close of a single term he 
 
368 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 had placed himself among the foremost men of his party, and 
 had come to be regarded as a prominent candidate for the 
 presidency. In the Democratic National Convention of 1868, 
 which assembled in Tammany Hall, in the city of New York, 
 Mr. Hendricks s name was brought forward and received an 
 enthusiastic greeting. There were eighteen candidates in 
 the field that year, and twenty -two ballots were taken before 
 the convention made its choice. On the twenty-first ballot 
 Mr. Hendricks received 132 votes, which was ahead of any of 
 the other candidates except General Hancock, who received 
 135i. When the roll was called for the final ballot Mr. Hen 
 dricks was gaining rapidly, until Ohio named Horatio Sey 
 mour, and the convention unanimously agreed upon that 
 distinguished statesman. Forgetting all personal ambition, 
 Mr. Hendricks gave his earnest support to the nominee of 
 the party, and did excellent work during the campaign which 
 followed. 
 
 Mr. Hendricks s term in the Senate expired in 1869. He 
 returned immediately to his home in Indianapolis, and once 
 more took up the practice of his profession. But, while he 
 devoted himself to the law, he was not permitted to remain 
 silent on the political issues of the day. Men came to him 
 for advice on all important matters, and his wisdom and ex 
 perience gave weight to his counsels. 
 
 As illustrating the view which Mr. Hendricks took of the 
 Southern question after his retirement from the Senate, the 
 appended extract from a speech delivered in New Orleans, 
 February 12, 1870, is given. This speech was received with 
 the utmost enthusiasm, and reflects the sentiments of a very 
 large class of the Democratic party : 
 
 EXTRACT FROM GOVERNOR HENDRICKS S SPEECH HADE 
 AT NEW ORLEANS, FEBRUARY 12, 1870. 
 
 You will allow me to speak of one other question, which is some 
 what local and peculiar to yourselves a question with which we of the 
 State of Indiana shall have to deal, but not to the extent to which 
 you have to deal with it. In one way or other the radicals of 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 369 
 
 Washington intend to have it a fixed fact that the fifteenth amend- 
 mend to the Constitution has been adopted. Eight or wrong, they 
 intend it shall be declared adopted as a part of the Constitution of 
 the United States. Under that provision, then, when it shall have 
 been declared to have been adopted, the colored people of the whole 
 country become voters ; they become clothed with political rights, as 
 they have been before by congressional action, as far as Congress 
 could do it, clothed with civil rights. It is a question for you to con 
 sider very carefully what attitude you men of the South shall occupy 
 toward the colored population. There is a deliberate purpose on the 
 part of adventurers from the North a class of men who are de 
 scribed as "carpet-baggers" [laughter] to appropriate the entire 
 colored vote of the South to their cause. And what is their cause ? 
 It is not your cause ; it is not the colored men s cause [assent] ; it is 
 the cause of plunder [cheers]. And the question presents itself in 
 this form : Are you, men of the South, willing that these adventurers 
 shall appropriate that large vote in some -of the Southern States a 
 majority of the entire vote? Are you willing that this vote shall be 
 appropriated for such a purpose ? [A voice : " Not if we can help 
 it ! " Laughter and applause.] How can we help it ? Simply 
 enough. It is a question simply of personal influence between you, 
 men of the South, " to the manner born," and those who have set 
 tled here, on the one side, and these hap-hazard adventurers of the 
 North on the other side. That is the way the question stands. New 
 relations have come to exist between you and the colored people of 
 the South. How will you place yourselves in regard to these new re 
 lations ? They have not been of your seeking, and they may, peH 
 haps, not have been sought by the negro ; but he is a voter in LouisiA 
 ana, as he will be in Indiana, if the fifteenth amendment is declared \ 
 adopted ; and it is not worth your while, nor is it worth my while, 
 to go back on the fixed fact. That traveler in the mountain-pass is 
 not wise, when he overtakes the storm, to be casting his eyes back / 
 upon the plain which he has left. It is his business to consider the 
 dangers which menace him at the time, and to save himself from the 
 threatened peril. How can you do it ? These new relations are upon 
 you. How are you to conduct yourselves toward the colored people ? 
 They were your friends. There were social relations between you 
 the relations of master and servant. They had your confidence, and 
 you had theirs. Is it possible that the stranger can now come in and 
 make these ancient servants of yours his servants and your enemies ? 
 
370 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 [Applause.] There is no occasion, in these new relations which were 
 forced upon you, that you should entertain sentiments of dislike to 
 the negro because of it. It is not of bis seeking ; he did not pro 
 duce this change of relations. The altered condition of tbings.has 
 been forced on the country and on you, not by the colored man, but 
 by ambitious politicians, North and South, who wish to make capital 
 out of it. [" That s so," and cheers.] I hope to see Southern men 
 taking this weapon, which is placed in their hands, and using it for 
 their country s good. [Applause.] You have no cause to entertain 
 prejudice against the colored people. ["We don t do it!"] When 
 your young men were far off in the field, and even your aged men 
 many of them were absent during the four years of the war you 
 left these colored men at your homes, where they stood sentinels at 
 the doors, and your wives and your children were safe under their 
 protection. They labored and cultivated your lands, and raised those 
 products which supported the armies in the fields. And now is it 
 possible that the foreigner I speak not of the foreigner as a man of 
 another country, but men foreign to your interests, men of other sec 
 tions of the country is it possible that they shall come in and make 
 these colored men to hate you, and destroy you ? Your interests are 
 the interests of the colored men. 
 
 A few colored men may be brought around the lobbies of the 
 Legislature ; they may be temporarily invested with a few offices : 
 but you go to work and persuade the colored men that their interests 
 are claimed by just laws alone, and that these apparent benefits which 
 are conferred on a few of their number do not go to make up the 
 benefits of the great body of them. Give them to understand that 
 the offices which are conferred on the colored men here and the col 
 ored men there work a positive injustice to the people at large. Let 
 them understand that, with regard to their civil rights, you are will 
 ing to give them just laws. The negro, of his own motion, is not 
 going to ask for social equality or social rights. It is the Northern 
 adventurer only who is trying to agitate that question, to make it a 
 groundwork of ill-feeling between you and the colored man. In 
 1867, Senator Wilson, addressing an audience in this square, declared 
 this true doctrine that no law in any land could open any man s 
 parlor to him, and no law could open his parlor to any other man. 
 The social rights, the social position of a man, depend upon himself. 
 They are not regulated by law, and the man that insists that there 
 will be social relations between the whites and the blacks incon 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 371 
 
 sistcnt with the proper relations of those two races is the friend of 
 neither. He is the enemy of both races. [Applause.] In my judg 
 ment, the colored people will be satisfied if you assure them that you 
 will give them just laws, fairly administered. Do this, and then the 
 outside adventurer cannot turn their votes against you. Let the col 
 ored man understand that the legislation of your State is being car 
 ried on to make a few men rich at the expense of the great body of 
 the people. Appeal to the colored man to stand by you in your fight 
 for honesty, for justice, for integrity, and for equal laws ; and that 
 appeal will reach his heart as readily as it reaches the heart of the 
 great body of the white people. I don t want you to consider what 
 I have said as the expression of a man who is well informed on the 
 subject. I have never been brought into close contact with colored 
 men to any considerable extent. I don t know much of their habits ; 
 I don t know much of the influence brought to bear upon them ; but I 
 do believe that the men who have known them from childhood up the 
 men who have been their friends in times past may, by a proper 
 course, restore that influence in themselves which will enable them 
 to secure the colored vote for the good of your State and for the 
 good of the country. Let the consolidated sentiment of the men of 
 Louisiana be brought to bear upon the Legislature and for the right. 
 You ask nothing that is wrong ; you ask that you may be taxed only 
 for the public good, and that the corrupt tide of special legislation 
 shall be stopped. We have much to accomplish. "What is it we in 
 tend ? That this Union shall be perpetual ; that it shall rest on the 
 Constitution; and that all the rights, privileges, and prerogatives of 
 the State shall be maintained forever under that Government ; and 
 that the national Union, thus supported by States clothed with all 
 their rights, will be the temple in which freemen shall worship for 
 ever together. [Cheers.] 
 
 What do we wish to accomplish ? Nothing that is wrong every 
 thing that is right. We wish to establish in the United States equal 
 laws and just taxation. These we must have. This plunder of the 
 State and national Treasury is becoming universal. There must be a 
 return to a spirit of honesty in the public service, both national and 
 State. There is a power greater than that of law. Daniel Webster, 
 in one of his beautiful orations, when the question was agitating the 
 heart of the world what treatment Russia would extend to Kossuth, 
 and whether Russia would demand the return of that patriot when 
 he was under the protection of Turkey, said there was a power 
 
372 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 mightier than the earthquake, more terrible than the rumbling of the 
 storm the judgment of mankind. [Cheers.] 
 
 Let us, North and South, unite now for the purpose of maintaining 
 the institutions of our country in the spirit in which they were estab 
 lished by the great men who founded this government. 
 
 I thank you for the attention you have given me. I thank you 
 for this welcome. It is my first visit to the Southern country. I 
 thought that I kneAV some of your institutions. I thought I would 
 come and see if I was mistaken. I am satisfied that the course which 
 I felt it my duty to take in regard to the question of reconstruction 
 was right. I thought it was right at the time. Now I doubt it not. 
 I know I was right. [Cheers.] I have seen you face to face. I have 
 heard your gentlemen talk on this subject. I know how you feel. 
 The past is the past to you. The future is coming with its weighty 
 interests and responsibilities. Let us rise to meet the future. Let us 
 welcome it; and let us be sure that "liberty for all and oppression 
 for none" is the watchword of that future. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 In 1872, when Horace Greeley was made the presidential 
 candidate of the Democratic party, and when the fusion of 
 the so-called Liberal Republicans postponed the day of am 
 bition, Mr. Hendricks, although the movement was in opposi 
 tion to his own views, acquiesced in what appeared to be the 
 popular will, and gave his hearty approval to the new de 
 parture. During that eventful campaign he was not allowed 
 to remain idle. The Democracy of Indiana felt the need of a 
 strong and popular man to become its standard-bearer. Such 
 a man was found in Thomas A. Hendricks. In face of his 
 earnest protest he was, therefore, again nominated for the 
 governorship. The result of the campaign of 1872 need not 
 be repeated here. It was wellnigh disastrous to the Demo 
 cratic party throughout the country; and Indiana, although it 
 did better than many other States, had little to brag about. 
 The Republicans carried the Legislature, and elected all of 
 their State ticket except the Governor and Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction. Grant s majority was 21,090; but so 
 great was the personal popularity of Mr. Hendricks that he 
 overcame these sweeping figures, and was elected by a ma- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 373 
 
 jority of 1,148 over the Republican candidate, Thomas M. 
 Brown. 
 
 Governor Hendricks s administration has been distin 
 guished from the first for its honesty and ability. When it 
 has become his duty to take an active part in the discussion 
 of the issues of the day, he has done so in a wise and manly 
 way. He has maintained his opinions with firmness and 
 effect, albeit he has sometimes adopted a conciliatory tone. 
 At the Democratic State Convention held at Indianapolis in 
 July, 1874, Mr. Hendricks was made permanent chairman, and 
 in his address delivered on that occasion he argued that gold 
 and silver were the true basis of our currency, and that the 
 proper method of returning to specie payments was through 
 the gro wing-up process the development of the resources 
 of the South, the increase of production, and the retrench 
 ment of public and private expenditures. The platform 
 adopted at the Indianapolis Convention, so far as its treat 
 ment of the financial question was concerned, differed essen 
 tially from the views held by Governor Hendricks. In the 
 canvass which ensued he took occasion to define distinctly 
 the points of difference between the doctrines of the platform 
 and his own opinions. In illustration of Mr. Hendricks s 
 teachings at this time, an extract from his address to the 
 convention is given. After arguing against the hasty con 
 traction of our paper circulation, checking labor and paralyz 
 ing enterprise on the one hand, and against undue inflation, 
 which would lead to depreciation and a reckless spirit of 
 speculation and adventure on the other, he said : 
 
 We desire a return to specie payments. It is a serious evil when 
 there are commercial mediums of different values; when one descrip 
 tion of our money is for one class and purpose, and another for a 
 different class and purpose. We cannot too strongly express the im 
 portance of the policy that shall restore uniformity of value to all the 
 money of the country, so that it shall be always and readily converti 
 ble. That gold and silver are the real standard of value is a cherished 
 Democratic sentiment, not now nor hereafter to be abandoned. But 
 I do not look to any arbitrary enactment of Congress for a restora- 
 
374 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 tion of specie payments. Such an effort now would probably pro 
 duce wide-spread commercial disaster. A congressional declaration 
 cannot make the paper currency equal to gold in value. It cannot 
 make a bank-note equal to your dollar. The business of the country 
 alone can do that. When we find the coin of the country increasing, 
 then we may know that we are moving in the direction of specie 
 payments. The important financial question is, How can we in 
 crease and make permanent our supply of gold? The reliable solu 
 tion is by increasing our productions and thereby reducing our pur 
 chases and increasing our sales abroad. He can really obtain money 
 who produces more than he consumes of articles that are wanted in 
 the market, and I suppose that is also true of communities and na 
 tions. How can the Eepublican party atone to the people for its 
 evil policies which have driven gold from the country, and rendered 
 a return to specie payment more difficult, and made its postponement 
 inevitable ? 
 
 Those who are in any degree familiar with Governor 
 Hendricks s views know perfectly well that he is and always 
 has been in favor of hard money. His opinion with respect 
 to resumption may have differed from others of his party, but 
 he has invariably argued that gold and silver are the only 
 basis of our currency, and holding to that belief he cannot be 
 said to represent other than a sound financial doctrine. His 
 action in going into the Ohio canvass in 1875 in support of 
 Mr. Allen was based upon the desire for the success of the 
 Democracy. He deemed the triumph of the party in that 
 State essential, and threw himself into the canvass, heartily 
 holding that the financial issue was not the overshadowing 
 one. The great thing to gain was victory, no matter whether 
 some of the men in the same rank agreed with him on all 
 points in politics or not. 
 
 Governor Hendricks s personal appearance is most pre 
 possessing. Of medium height, erect, active, and vigorous, 
 with a manly, handsome face, and large, expressive features, 
 he wins the good opinion of all who meet him. His face is a 
 blending of mildness and determination. The eyes are soft 
 and blue, and the chin dimpled, with an expression of good- 
 humor about the mouth ; but the high brow and heavy jaw 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER. 375 
 
 indicate wisdom and resolution. His complexion is florid, 
 and his hair and side-whiskers are yet untouched with gray. 
 He looks like a man who has lived a happy life, and who, 
 through the turmoil of a public career, has never lost his love 
 for the refining influences of home. To acquaintances he is 
 affable and easy, to close friends warm and lovable, to politi 
 cal partisans courteous but cautious. He would rather con 
 ciliate an enemy than oblige an ally. His habits are such 
 that he found $5,000 a year ample for his expenditures during 
 his senatorial term at Washington. He has always trusted 
 to doing the work which he had in hand well as the highest 
 recommendation in the long-run before the people, and the 
 many honors which have come to him seem to have been con 
 quered without great effort. Mr. Hendricks is married to a 
 woman of great culture and force of character, who has been 
 a constant helpmate to him through life. 
 
 Governor Hendricks possesses the quality described as 
 magnetism in a wonderful degree. Those who once fall under 
 the bewitching influence of his voice, who feel the warm grasp 
 of his hand, and look into his honest face, are henceforth his 
 friends. With the exception of Horatio Seymour, it is doubt 
 ful if any other man in America can exert as great an influence 
 over a popular assemblage as Mr. Hendricks. And all the 
 power that he possesses over men in mass he possesses over 
 them individually. He has a temper so sweet and sunny that 
 no adverse circumstances can disturb it. In 1868 he was 
 the favorite candidate of his State for the presidency. In 
 1872 he would probably have been the nominee of the 
 party but for the Liberal alliance. In 1876 he would 
 have been at the head of the ticket if Governor Tilden 
 had not come to the front. But he has met all these 
 disappointments (if disappointments they were) in such a 
 spirit of philosophical good-humor that his genial face gives 
 no sign of any inward strife. He enjoys not only the love of 
 unnumbered friends, but the respect of the country. He has 
 already won his place in the first rank of living statesmen, 
 and the end is not yet. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 
 
 DUKING the campaign of 1874 Governor Hendricks made 
 a number of stirring speeches, none of which, perhaps, were 
 received with greater favor than was that delivered at Indian 
 apolis on the evening of Monday, September 14th. As illus 
 trative of Mr. Hendricks s opinion on many important issues, 
 it has been deemed advisable to reproduce that speech in 
 full. 
 
 GOVERNOR HENDRICK&S SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 
 
 The fortunes of the Republican party had become so desperate at 
 the late adjournment of Congress, that it was found necessary to ap 
 peal to the people in a congressional address, to stand by the leaders. 
 The address was signed by thirty-nine members, constituting the 
 congressional committee. General John Ooburn, of this State, was 
 one of the thirty-nine. They ask to be continued in power, and their 
 army of eighty thousand office-holders to be perpetuated on the pay 
 rolls, because they are good and the Democrats are bad. And they 
 go back thirty years before the war to prove the latter. I think no 
 Indianian had a right to sign a paper saying that from 1830 to 1860 
 there is hardly a memory left connected with the control of public 
 affairs "at which the nation should not blush." During that thirty 
 years our population increased from twelve to thirty-one millions, and 
 the wealth and commerce of the country correspondingly advanced. 
 The resources were gradually but steadily developed. The people 
 were prosperous, contented, and happy. You know that bad gov 
 ernment could not bear sucli fruit. That period included the greater 
 part of Jackson s Administration, which is yet distinguished for in 
 tegrity, firmness, and statesmanship, and which strengthened the 
 confidence of the world in free and republican institutions. During 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 377 
 
 that period Texas was annexed, a country large enough for three 
 great States ; and now, after the public lands under the control of 
 Congress have heen so largely granted away, no portion of our coun 
 try offers greater advantages to our people, who need and seek cheap 
 homes and farms, than Texas. That period includes the administra 
 tion of the Treasury by James Guthrie, of Kentucky, a great man who 
 did not suffer the loss of one dollar of the people s money. That 
 generation has passed away, but it has left many names illustrious 
 for patriotic devotion to country and elevated statesmanship. "What 
 think you of Jackson, of Benton, and Oass, and Silas Wright, of 
 Marcy and Woodbury, and of Douglas ? Did they not always and 
 everywhere vindicate their country s right and honor ; and in the 
 great contests with the giants of the Whig party were they not able 
 with dignity and credit to maintain themselves, their party, and their 
 cause? Over them, their works and their achievements, this con 
 gressional committee of thirty-nine, moved by the spirit of modest 
 virtue, and like the sons of Noah going backward, would throw the 
 mantle of forgetfulness. Who are the committee of thirty -nine, good 
 souls and pure, who are so ashamed and would have the country blush 
 for what our fathers did ? I will not name them all ; that would be 
 too much. So much excellence and virtue would overcome you as an 
 excess of light would blind you. Chandler, Cameron, Conover, of 
 Florida; Mitchell, of Oregon ; Cobb, of Kansas; some delegates from 
 the Territories ; and Stewart, of Nevada. 
 
 The meeting of the committee for a last reading of the address 
 must have presented a scene of thrilling interest. The delicate sen 
 sibilities of Chandler were thoroughly aroused by the sentiment that 
 he lived in times of such elevated purity, and that he was not ex 
 posed to the corrupt influence of association with Andrew Jackson. 
 
 At first Mr. Cameron was disturbed by some obscure reference 
 to official integrity, which was hinted at as proper, for it suggested 
 the disagreeable memory of the resolution of the House of Repre 
 sentatives during the war, which made it necessary for him to abdi 
 cate the War Department ; but when he perceived the blow struck 
 at the men of the past he was comforted, for they hit that granite 
 man, William L. Marcy, who set an example of illiberality and un- 
 kindness in that office in his conduct of the Mexican War, in not 
 allowing his friends and partisans to grow rich off of the army and 
 the people. 
 
 Mitchell, of Oregon, had been a little unfortunate in coming into 
 
378 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 the Senate with a very disagreeable odor about his character, so 
 much so, indeed, that others were restless in sitting in the cham 
 ber with him ; but that was past, fumigatory explanations had been 
 made, and they had become accustomed to it, as indeed they have 
 lately become accustomed to a good many new things ; but his dis 
 tress on that account was forgotten in the abasement which he felt 
 in contemplating so much above him the sublime faith of Stephen 
 A. Douglas in man s right and capacity for self-government. 
 
 Senator Clayton, of Arkansas, could properly sign such an ad 
 dress, because he had been investigated and whitewashed, but I could 
 not tell why the gentle delegates, political eunuchs, from Colorado, 
 New Mexico, and Arizona, should display so much passion toward 
 the men of the past. But upon reflection I knew it was because 
 they had seen so much of the Indian service out there, and so appre 
 ciated its purity, its justice to the white man, and its care for the 
 Indian, that they could not endure the stern and positive way in which 
 Jackson made the Indian obey the authority of the country, and the 
 white man respect the rights of the Indian. 
 
 True, the service has been unfortunate of late ; it costs about 
 $7,000,000 for the supplies and maintenance, whereas it used to cost, 
 when the number was far greater, but $3,000,000. And if we in 
 clude the military government and control, the cost must be many 
 times greater ; and the misfortune is, that the Indian is becoming 
 worse, and the borders more insecure. 
 
 But if I am mistaken in supposing that it was the Indian service 
 which so moved the pure minds of these delegates, then it must be 
 their long residence in the city of Washington, and their observation 
 of the highest development of their party in the government and 
 improvement of the District of Columbia. True, a terrible and 
 crushing debt has been created, reaching nearly $30,000,000, which 
 Congress will probably pay out of the Treasury; and corruption 
 bore sway, so that even the form of republican government was 
 abandoned, and a Eoman triumvirate was established and rules the 
 capital of the nation. But what care these delegates for all that ? 
 They see the grandeur and the splendor of the city, rivaling the seats 
 of monarchy in the Old World, and they look with contempt upon 
 the cheap and plain style that prevailed during the thirty years 
 which they denounce. It may have been this feeling that caused 
 them to unite with General Coburn and the others in this sentiment 
 taken from the address: "It has been loudly vaunted that those 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 379 
 
 were cheap Administrations. Compared with the expenditures of 
 these times, they were cheap, very cheap. Compared with their 
 worth to the country, they were probably the most profligate the 
 world ever saw. They cost the people from $50,000,000 to $75,000,- 
 000 per annum. Those millions maintained for us the empty pageant 
 we called government. It was the worst pageant that could be con 
 trived. It was not even showy ; it was vulgar." 
 
 That, it seems, is clear enough. The simple and unostentatious 
 style of the past is to be held in contempt as vulgar. Then men la 
 bored faithfully and accounted truly in every public trust ; then taxes 
 were low ; and the laws were plain and easily understood ; then in 
 fluence and respectability were sought and won because of official 
 integrity. Some old men yet live who recollect those times. But 
 now government is to be made a pageant. A glittering, gaudy, pre 
 tentious, and parvenu? aristocracy is to take the place of a despised 
 and crushed Democracy. The people are to be made contented by 
 brilliant and costly show, and the display of power. By such a 
 course Louis Napoleon maintained himself for a while upon the 
 throne of France, but his failure and disgrace came upon him and 
 his people when the hollow structure of his authority was brought 
 against the real power of a solid people. 
 
 Let us look at some of the specific charges in the address against 
 Democratic rule. "We bullied Austria out of a Hungarian refugee." 
 That was the case of Martin Koszta, a Hungarian by birth, who had 
 emigrated to this country, had lived in New York one year and 
 eleven months, and in proper form, according to our laws, had de 
 clared his intention to become a citizen of the United States. In 
 1853 he went to Europe on business, carrying an authenticated copy 
 of his declaration, and intending soon to return. While at Smyrna, 
 he was seized by the emissaries of Austria and forcibly taken on board 
 the Hussar, an Austrian brig-of-war, and held in close confinement, 
 to be carried back for punishment by that cruel government because 
 of his aspirations for liberty. 
 
 Captain Ingraham, of our navy, was then in command of the 
 sloop-of-war St. Louis, in the Mediterranean, and, coming to anchor 
 at Smyrna, was told by our consul what had taken place. After con 
 sulting our representative at Constantinople, he demanded of the 
 Austrian commander the surrender of Koszta, with the assurance 
 that he would bo taken if not surrendered. He was surrendered, 
 and placed under the protection of the French consul, and returned 
 
380 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 to the United States, and Austria never laid her iron hand upon him 
 again. For his gallant and noble conduct, Congress voted Captain 
 Ingrabam a medal. Mr. Marcy, as Secretary of State, in a corre 
 spondence of extraordinary ability, maintained and vindicated our 
 country s position and conduct, and established public judgment in 
 our favor. Do you regret that Koszta was not left an Austrian pris 
 oner ? If not, what think you of this charge against the Democracy 
 by the Eepublican Congressmen ? 
 
 The next charge is in these words: "We despoiled Mexico of a 
 portion of her territory." By treaty, at the close of the Mexican 
 War, we acquired New Mexico and California ; we hold them still. 
 From the latter we have realized untold wealth. But is it true that 
 the acquisition was not the result of legitimate war and fair treaty ? 
 that it was the act of force by the strong over the weak ? that it 
 was robbery ? and that the officers and soldiers in that war were 
 despoilers ? If that be so, then, however proud the people have 
 been of the achievements of the soldiers, and of the magnificence of 
 the acquisition, ought not the country to be restored? No; the 
 question was long since settled. It is ours by legitimate and proper 
 war and fair treaty, and the demand made that we should blush 
 because of that war and its results, only shows their inability to 
 find real fault in Democratic Administrations. 
 
 They also charge, "We demolished Greytown." That is true. 
 It was in 1854. It was on the line of travel and commerce between 
 the Atlantic States and California, and after that the semi-barbari 
 ans and half-clothed savages of that locality no more interrupted 
 our commerce, or murdered our people. 
 
 KEGTJLATION OF TEANSPOETATION. 
 
 By what authority and in what manner our internal commerce 
 shall be regulated is a question of present and deep interest, and 
 party managers who ask an indefinite extension of power should 
 declare their policy in unmistakable terms. In their addresses the 
 members of Congress evade it, except to say that, whatever may or 
 may not be expedient to be done, " only the Eepublican party can be 
 relied upon to do it." Why so ? Has that party not been in power, 
 both State and national, long enough to have done something, if its 
 leaders were really in favor of anything ? 
 
 In respect to the proposition that Congress shall build a double- 
 track railway from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, the congressional 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 381 
 
 address says, " This is worthy of careful consideration." And in 
 respect to the proposed expenditure of $20,000,000 per year by Con 
 gress to open or enlarge several water-channels over the country, 
 they say, "We invite your earnest and careful consideration of that 
 proposal." Can you tell what they are in favor of? 
 
 But their utterances are yet more confused in respect to the regu 
 lation of fares and freights. .Shall it be under the control of the 
 States or of the companies? They say that the objections to State 
 control " are so serious that it should not be embraced if a better 
 one can be found ; " that it would drive capital from us. They add, 
 " It is now a mooted question whether that price (fare and freight) 
 shall be named by the company or by the people." ... " It is 
 manifest that if the company be allowed to fix the price, they may 
 demand too much. Venders of all commodities are very apt to want 
 all they can get. On the contrary, if the people or their agents fix 
 the price they may set it too low. Purchasers are very apt to want 
 commodities as cheap as they can be had. It is not probable that 
 either party to the transaction would always hit upon the exact 
 equivalent. The consequences of a mistake would probably be found 
 most injurious if made by the people. If the company makes the 
 mistake and charges too much, no one is obliged to employ it. The 
 producer does his own carrying before the railway is built. He has 
 the perfect right to do so after it is built." ..." Under favor 
 able conditions, indeed, the carrier may demand and receive more 
 than a fair share of the profits of production. Where such is the 
 case, when the State finds the producer makes but ten per cent, while 
 the carrier makes fifteen or twenty per cent., it is very easy and per 
 fectly legitimate for it to say to the company : * The work you do can 
 be done for less money ; we will pay you for your road what it will 
 cost to build such another, or you may keep your road and we will 
 build another. So the people are not helpless against exorbitant 
 charges. On the contrary, if the people set the price, and set it too 
 low, the consequence may be graver." 
 
 From the address I have read thus fully because it is a careful 
 ly-prepared appeal to the people, and speaks with authority for the 
 party. And now I ask, "What are they for ? What are they against? 
 Is it a grand government railroad, or water-lines of communication ? 
 "Worthy your careful consideration," is the answer. This alone 
 appears clear, that they oppose the regulation of fares and freights 
 by public authority, and favor leaving their regulation to the com- 
 
382 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 panies. Whatever you think of the position, the reasons given are 
 vicious. " If the people fix the rates they are likely to be too low, 
 and capital will be driven off." Why so ? Intelligent legislation 
 would regard railroads as important public agencies to be protected, 
 if not encouraged. But they add : u If the company makes the mis 
 take and charges too much, no one is obliged to employ it. The 
 producer does his own carrying before the railway is built. He has 
 the perfect right to do so after it is built." That language in the 
 mouth of the company itself would be justly offensive. It does not 
 correctly state the relations between the companies and society. The 
 companies are created by law, as artificial persons, and clothed with 
 important privileges, because of the benefits the construction and 
 maintenance of their roads will be to the community. Except for that, 
 they would not exist. Except for that, they would not be clothed 
 by law with that quality of sovereignty which enables them, like the 
 State, to appropriate private property. But for the fact that they 
 are public, and for the public, and not private, they could not enter 
 upon, condemn, and appropriate the lands and timber of the citizen. 
 This view is in accordance with legislation, judicial decisions, and 
 public policy. And the companies cannot, say to the producers, nor 
 can these members of Congress say for them, "If the fares and 
 freights are too high, you can carry your own produce to market as 
 you used to do." The public corporation must serve the public at 
 reasonable charges. That is the purpose of its existence, and- the 
 advantage of the members is but an incident. Highways, whether 
 rail or gravel, might be made by the State directly, and in every 
 respect would be under State control. The public corporation, created 
 to build and maintain such highway, stands, in respect to its powers 
 and its duties, in the place of the State. It is a creature of the State, 
 endowed with a part of its powers, to serve the public. And if such 
 a corporation refuses to serve the public at reasonable rates, the State 
 may compel such service. I suppose the rule in respect to a private 
 corporation would be different. In this I do not refer to the case in 
 which the State may have expressly relinquished the control to the 
 corporation itself. In this State, the power is expressly reserved to 
 amend the general laws under which railroad companies have been 
 organized since 1853. 
 
 If possible, the other remedy against exorbitant charges, suggest 
 ed by the congressional address, is more objectionable. It is, that the 
 State shall buy the road from the company, or build another road by 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 383 
 
 its side. It is not probable that the people of Indiana will ever again 
 permit the State to enter npon the hazardous work of constructing or 
 managing works of internal improvements. The reliable remedy is 
 to be found in the wise and prudent exercise of the powers which the 
 State has over her own institutions. 
 
 Under the pretext of regulating commerce among the States, the 
 dangerous scheme has been devised of congressional intervention and 
 control over State corporations. The real purpose is to strengthen 
 Federal authority, and promote the concentration of poAver. Can 
 you conceive a scheme of greater danger to the reserved rights of the 
 States and of the people ? These corporations exist by State author 
 ity, and their powers are defined by State laws, which Congress has 
 no right to modify. Should Congress, by commissioners to be ap 
 pointed by the President, take the management of railroads and lines 
 of telegraph, every person in the employment of the companies will, 
 to some extent, be made dependent upon this new power, and made 
 to do its bidding. Give this new power, this enormous patronage to 
 the President, and the problem of the nomination for the third term is 
 settled. Can you estimate the corruption it would produce ? Sena 
 tors Morton and Pratt both advocate the appointment of commission 
 ers with power to fix the fares and freights. They concede that the 
 same rates cannot be adopted for all the roads ; that they must be 
 adjusted according to cost of construction and repairs, and amount of 
 business, etc. Who will be the commissioners with such powers to 
 regulate rates as between the companies themselves and between 
 them and the people? With tne President s capacity for bringing 
 into office men not known to the country, we might expect a new 
 Sanborn, an unheard-of Eichardson, a Tennessee Murphy, a Sawyer, 
 and a Shepherd. 
 
 Their brilliant passage from road to road in the palace-cars of the 
 companies, as they inspect, and judge, and adjust the rates, will never 
 be forgotten by the people. The scenes will be gay and festive, for 
 the officers of the companies will know that millions will depend upon 
 the decisions. And when they come to decide between the interests 
 of the corporations on the one hand and the modest rights of the farm 
 ers on the other, how do you think the case will go ? It will be no 
 case at all. The Credit Mobilier was a modest .and retiring cyprian 
 compared with this brazen-faced harlot. It was a strange coinci 
 dence that the Credit Mobilier overcame men of only one class, with 
 but a single exception. They were good men, and to be trusted, and 
 
384 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 not like the Democrats, bad. The people are nearly done with such 
 trash and deception. 
 
 To secure a fair management of railroads and a just rate of trans 
 portation, are the farmers and mechanics not safer in the hands of their 
 immediate representatives in the State Legislature than in the hands 
 of Congress, or of such commissioners? The responsibilitj of the 
 people is more direct, and the representatives are more in your sym 
 pathy, and corrupting influences are less powerful. The Credit Mobi- 
 lier grew out of a congressional enterprise. Within the past three 
 years the Pennsylvania Railroad was able in Congress to make its own 
 selections of extensive and valuable ground in the city of "Washington 
 over a powerful opposition. The Central Pacific Railroad came very 
 near carrying through Congress a grant of an island of immense value 
 in the harbor of San Francisco, although it was of the highest impor 
 tance to the Government for military purposes, and was so reported 
 by the army engineers. Home interests are safest under home man 
 agement. The proceeding to regulate the relations between the rail 
 road corporations and the producers by Washington City commission 
 ers would present the spectacle of the jury eating and drinking in 
 the dining-hall of the rich defendant, while the poorer suitor, in his 
 humble home, bewails his unequal fortune. 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 The expression in favor of a return to specie payments is very 
 general, but the real question is, When and how can that be accom 
 plished ? So long as the supply of coin is so small as compared with 
 the paper-money, it is impossible. The effort now would probably 
 result in commercial disaster. The people so believe. No sentiment 
 attributed to Mr. Greeley in 1872 was more hurtful to his political 
 fortunes than the demand for immediate specie payments. To render 
 it possible, without hurt to the country, coin and paper must come 
 nearer together in quantity.. They will then be nearer, if not uni 
 form, in value. How shall that be brought about ? By reducing the 
 paper currency ? With the present burden of national, State, and lo 
 cal taxation, and the large volume of other indebtedness to be pro 
 vided for, that cannot be borne. It would cramp business and par 
 alyze labor. No one desires a return to specie payments more ear 
 nestly than myself, for I believe gold and silver are the real standard 
 of values, universal and permanent. As I had occasion once before 
 to say, the existence of commercial mediums of different values, one 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS 385 
 
 description of money for one class and purpose, and another for a dif 
 ferent class and purpose, is too serious an evil to be long endured. 
 All the money of the country should be of uniform value and readily 
 convertible. But we are not in that condition. Our paper-money 
 exceeds the coin by nearly five dollars to one. How shall we bring 
 them nearer together in quantity, that they may approach and meet 
 in value ? Shall we commence at the top and tear down, or at the 
 bottom and build up ? Business, enterprise, and labor, every impor 
 tant interest of the country, demand that the volume of the currency 
 be maintained to meet their requirements ; but every interest will be 
 strengthened by increasing the supply of coin. How is that to be 
 accomplished ? By encouraging an increased production of our great 
 staples that command the foreign market ; by reducing our expendi 
 tures in foreign purchases ; and by reversing the fatal policy which 
 has sought to make our debt a foreign debt. When we purchase less 
 of foreign goods and sell more of our productions abroad, and cease 
 to pay so much of the interest on our debt abroad and pay it to our 
 own citizens, the current of gold will turn toward our shores ; and 
 then specie payments will be certain, natural, and permanent, and 
 will become the basis of an enduring prosperity. 
 
 The declaration in our State platform, that the five-twenty bonds 
 should be paid in Treasury notes, has attracted much attention. The 
 subject, for some years, has not been considered by the people. In 
 1868, when it was a living and a practical question, I thought, and so 
 attempted to maintain, that the laws under which the bonds and 
 greenbacks were issued allowed the payment in the latter. I have no 
 doubt the laws admitted that construction ; that it was the proper 
 construction. And I think no subsequent legislation should have 
 changed the mode of payment. But by the first act which President 
 Grant signed in 1869 the faith and honor of the country are pledged 
 to the payment in gold. That was an act not required by any cir 
 cumstances in the condition of our affairs ; it was a special favor to 
 the holders of the bonds, to which they were not entitled ; and it was 
 a corresponding wrong to the tax-payers. Under it many millions of 
 premium have been paid which the contract did not authorize. But 
 the present question is, What is the effect of the act of 1869, pledging 
 payment in gold ? Upon that question I have no doubts. Congress 
 passed it, and the President approved and signed it. They had the 
 constitutional power. The people had elected them upon an equivo 
 cal platform, and their acts within the sphere of their power bind the 
 17 
 
386 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 people. Millions of the bonds have since been sold, and the pur 
 chasers must be paid in accordance with the pledge given. If my 
 neighbor holds my note for money to which I have a complete defense 
 in law, as that it was given without any consideration, or that it was 
 obtained by fraud, and I say to another neighbor who contemplates 
 purchasing it, that it is right and will be paid, and, relying upon that 
 statement, he does purchase it, I cannot withdraw that statement. It 
 binds me, into whatever hands the note may subsequently pass. It 
 is because my assurance induced him to buy the note, and it would 
 be a fraud upon the holder to allow me to set up any defense which 
 existed at the time I made it. A lower standard cannot be set up 
 for the Government than that which measures the rights and liabili 
 ties of individuals. It is because the act of 1869 is thus binding that 
 it was so grievous a wrong upon the people. The party which did it 
 should be held politically responsible. This question is rapidly losing 
 practical importance, for the bonds have been converted in large 
 quantities and are now being converted into five per cents., carrying 
 the promise of payment in gold upon their face. That is one of the 
 wrongs resulting from the act of 1869. 
 
 THE CIVIL-EIGHTS BILL. 
 
 We had been led to hope that the questions and controversies be 
 tween the white and black races had been finally and definitely set 
 tled. By law they had been placed upon terms of equality in respect 
 to personal and political rights, and it was supposed that control of 
 the social relations would not be undertaken, but we were mistaken. 
 Tnere is pending in the House a Senate bill, which assumes the right 
 to regulate the schools, public conveyances, etc., in the States, and to 
 declare by whom and upon what terms they shall be enjoyed. These 
 have always been held to* be domestic institutions and subject only to 
 State control. This is another effort to concentrate power. 
 
 If Congress, upon any pretense, may prescribe who shall be ad 
 mitted to the schools, may it not, on the same pretense, go further 
 and prescribe the terms and regulate the treatment of the scholars 
 in the schools, and do whatever may be desired to preserve a sup 
 posed equality? And the pretense under which Congress compels 
 admission to hotels and places of amusement will go further, and 
 regulate the treatment after being admitted, for equality may require 
 that too. Thus we will have a usurpation of power in Congress to 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 387 
 
 regulate the most interesting and delicate of our domestic affairs. It 
 is an assumption a usurpation. There is no such power. Our con 
 stitutional amendments do not confer it. Our common schools, in 
 their control and management, should be kept as near to the families 
 as possible. This movement is another and dangerous effort to con 
 centrate power. It can do neither race any good, and will probably^ 
 harm both. The races are not alike, and their amalgamation is un- \ 
 natural and offensive to the better classes of both. I suppose, if left \ 
 to their own judgment and wish, the colored people would be con 
 tent to associate together. Are they not willing that their children J 
 shall go to school together ? Why not? "Full and sufficient provision 
 should be made for their education, as ample as for the whites. It 
 is so now in all our cities, I believe, and will soon be so throughout 
 the State. Let us protect free education throughout the country 
 from this dangerous blow. Our Senators supported the measure. 
 Mr. Pratt now seeks a reelection. To show you the spirit influencing 
 him, I will read an extract from his speech made in the Senate the 
 20th of last May : 
 
 " It has seemed to me a most surprising thing that people who 
 declaim against what they call negro equality are never heard to I 
 start any objection to admission to fullest rights of citizenship of 
 the foreigner, though he be ignorant to the last degree, a pauper, or j 
 a criminal, unacquainted with our laws and not capable even of speak- I 
 ing our language. More than the third of a million of immigrants \ 
 from every country of Europe annually land upon our shores and are/ 
 -heartily welcomed to the privileges of citizenship, with whom it is 1 
 not unfair to say the negro population of this country will bear 
 favorable comparison in all the elements that go to make useful 
 citizens." 
 
 SOUTIIEEN TEOTIBLES. 
 
 It is now so noticeable a fact that no one can fail to see it, that 
 immediately preceding the important elections troubles are excited 
 between the whites and blacks in the South. It has two effects. It 
 is made the pretext for sending troops into the Southern States and 
 controlling the elections for the radicals; and it is used in the North 
 to arouse radical passion, and thus carry the elections there. Now, 
 as these are the only results that can follow, who does it? The emis 
 saries of the party that makes a gain by it. 
 
 My countrymen, we must look squarely and honestly at this ques 
 tion of the strife between the two races. 
 
388 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 During the war, when the Southern men were off in the field, 
 there were no insurrections. The colored people preserved the peace 
 at home. After the close of the war there was harmony between 
 the races until your unfortunate policy of reconstruction was started. 
 In that you undertook to base the machinery of society upon one 
 element, and to exclude intelligence. You stripped the white man of 
 political privileges, and clothed the negro with political power. The 
 races had been harmonious ; but at once, and for a purpose, you 
 placed them in hostile attitude. You left many of the hangers-on of 
 the army in the South ; men who went not to fight, but to plunder. 
 They were your emissaries ; they organized the negroes into a politi 
 cal party. In every neighborhood they formed them into oath-bound 
 secret societies, called Loyal Leagues. They were sworn to stand to 
 gether. In these societies, from which the Southern white man was 
 excluded, they were taught to regard the white men as their enemies, 
 and that they would soon receive their property. Thus they were 
 arrayed in antagonism to the whites. The work was done thorough 
 ly, and by it you held political power in many States. But those 
 States are crushed and ruined now. We cannot, we must not, go on 
 in this direction. The welfare of our country calls for a change. 
 Men must be placed in power who will relieve society from these 
 dangerous influences ; who will stand honestly between the two races, 
 and see to it that each is fairly and fully protected in its rights ; who 
 will see that harmony, based upon justice, is restored, so that labor 
 shall be secure, and capital shall not be afraid. 
 
 The South is now being covered with troops. If General Grant 
 would investigate for himself, I would not fear the result. In many 
 respects I admire him. He is a man of great ability, and does not 
 hate people merely because they oppose his corrupt party. Two 
 years ago I said that we were fighting the " King " that controlled him 
 more" than the President himself, and now we have to fear the bad 
 influences that surround him. He will not investigate. He will take 
 his information from the most malignant man in the country, the At 
 torney-General. The men who are maintaining such baleful authority 
 in the South crawl into the office of the Attorney-General, and do their 
 work. It is a dreadful thing that our army must be used to perpetu 
 ate a rule so hurtful to the whole country, such as prevails in South 
 Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Whole communities 
 and the business and production of the country are being played upon 
 for political results. The welfare of the country calls for a change. 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 389 
 
 Let the sentiment be felt everywhere, from the palace of the capital 
 ist to the cabin of the negro, that complete and exact justice shall 
 prevail, and then all will once more bow to public authority. It was 
 so once ; it may be so again. The party in power has failed. Let 
 us not be led by hate to utter ruin. 
 
 PUBLIC LANDS, FOKEIGN POSTAGE, ETC. 
 
 The congressional address says, " Since the advent of the Bepub- 
 lican party, the finishing touches have been given to our land system." 
 That is nearly true. There may not be much more to grant. But 
 Senator Pratt claims for his party the credit of the homestead policy. 
 That measure was not carried by the votes of either party ; it was 
 supported by men of both parties. But Andrew Johnson, whom 
 they sought to impeach, was the real author of the measure. He 
 was its earliest and persistent advocate in Congress before the birth 
 of the Kepublican party. I understand that Senator Pratt also claims 
 for his party the credit of securing the full right of naturalization 
 and its recognition by European countries, and also the credit of 
 cheap foreign postage. 
 
 How can he make such a claim ? These important and valuable 
 measures were not secured by legislation, but by treaties and the 
 leading treaties were negotiated by Andrew Johnson, at a time when 
 he was opposed by the party ; when the party hatred of him was so 
 great that it pursued him by wicked impeachment. I voted to ratify 
 the important treaties of that class. Senator Pratt was not then in 
 the Senate. 
 
 FKATJDTJLENT APPOINTMENT. 
 
 I will ask your attention to some questions more immediately af 
 fecting our State. At a special session of the Legislature of 1872, an 
 unjust and wicked law was passed dividing the State into senatorial 
 and representative districts. It was done to enable the party to hold 
 political power in the Legislature against the majority of the people. 
 Governor Baker would not sign it. No man ought to have voted for 
 it. They now propose to appropriate and use the advantages of the 
 crime by securing the reelection of Senator Pratt. The history of 
 such nefarious efforts has generally been that they turn against the 
 guilty party. How shall it be now ? "Will the people of Indiana be 
 come a direct party to it by so voting as to give them the benefit of 
 the wrong ? Let us see. 
 
 That my motives may not be misunderstood in what it is my duty 
 
390 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HEND RICKS. 
 
 to say upon this subject, I wish to assure you that in no event can I 
 have any personal interest in it. I am not and will not be a candi 
 date for the United States Senate. I did not want to be a candidate 
 for Governor, as many of you know, but I have accepted the office, and 
 intend to hold it during the term. 
 
 As we all have to obey the laws, it is fair and right, and by all hon 
 orable men recognized as fair and right, that we shall have an equal 
 voice in making the laws. But deeming it possible that, for party 
 gains, some men might reject this sentiment of justice and right, our 
 constitution has provided that the apportionment of senators and rep 
 resentatives among the counties shall be according to the numbers of 
 the voting population, to be ascertained by an enumeration every 
 sixth year. 
 
 The oath of the legislator to obey the constitution is, in this re 
 spect, only to do what is just and right. 
 
 The enumeration next before the passage of this law made the 
 voting population of the State to be 379,088. The entire vote in Oc 
 tober, 1872, just before the law passed, was 377,819. The difference 
 between the enumeration and the vote was only 1,269. I will test 
 the law by a comparison of the apportionment to the counties, with 
 their vote. 
 
 The entire vote of the State, 377,819, apportioned among one hun 
 dred representatives and fifty senators, would give one representative 
 to 3,778, and one senator to 7,556 voters. 
 
 Lake County, with a vote of 2,444, which is 1,324 below the rep 
 resentative ratio, has one representative. 
 
 Porter, with a vote of 2,977, which is 801 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
 Steuben, with a vote of 2,793, which is 985 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
 Lagrange, with a vote of 2,867, which is 911 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
 Jennings, with a vote of 3,434, which is 333 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
 Yermilion, with a voteof 2,245, which is 1,533 below the ratio, 
 has one representative. 
 
 Warren, with a vote of 2,490, which is 1,288 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
 Lawrence, with a vote of 3,569, which is 209 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 391 
 
 Monroe, with a vote of 3,216, which is 562 below the ratio, has 
 one representative. 
 
 And Benton and Newton together, with a vote of 2,935, which is 
 843 below the ratio, have one representative. 
 
 These eleven counties are strongly Republican, giving an aggregate 
 Republican majority of 4,592, but they lack 8,799 votes to entitle 
 them to the ten representatives given them. 
 
 There are seven other counties which fall below the ratio in their 
 vote, and are allowed each a representative, but the aggregate defi 
 ciency is less than one representative apportionment. 
 
 Bartholomew is a Democratic county, with a population of 4,761, 
 which was 983 more than enough for a representative, but she was 
 allowed none. Brown County is Democratic, with a total vote of 
 1,633. She was allowed no representative ; but she and Bartholomew 
 constitute one representative district, with an entire vote of 6,394, 
 being an excess of 2,616 over the ratio of representation, and such 
 excess being more than the entire vote of either Lake, Vermilion, or 
 Warren, each of which has a representative. 
 
 Bartholomew is denied a separate representation, while Lawrence, 
 with 1,192 less votes, Monroe, with 1,545 less votes, Vermilion, with 
 2,516 less votes. Warren, with 2,671 less votes, Lake, with 2,317 less 
 votes, Porter, with 1,784 less votes, Lagrange, with 1,894 less votes, 
 and Steuben, with 1,968 less votes, have each a representative ; and 
 Jennings, an adjoining county, with 1,327 less, has a separate repre 
 sentative and a representative j-ointly with Jefferson and Scott ; Deca- 
 tur, with 355 less, and Rush, with 692 less, and Ripley, with 455 less 
 votes, have each a representative and one jointly ; Grant, with 408 less, 
 has one representative and one jointly with Blackford ; Delaware, 
 with 461 less votes, has one representative and one jointly with Jay ; 
 and Hamilton, with but five more votes, has one representative and 
 one jointly with Tipton. 
 
 Wells, a Democratic county, has 3,006 votes, being 554 more than 
 Lake, 210 more than Steuben, 755 more than Vermilion, and 513 
 more than Warren, is allowed no separate representative, while each 
 of the others has one. Wells and Adams, Democratic counties, are 
 joined for one representative. Their aggregate vote is 5,137, being 
 1,400 more than the representative ratio. Brown and Bartholomew, 
 with 6,214 votes, and Lake, with 2,444, have the same representation, 
 which gives two men in Lake more than the vote and political power 
 of five men in either Bartholomew or Brown. It is so also in Ver- 
 
392 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 milion and Warren, and nearly so in Porter, Steuben, and La- 
 grange. 
 
 The wrong is equally great in the Senate. Posey and Gibson, 
 with 8,177 voters, have one senator, and Lake and Porter, with 5,421 
 voters, have a senator. 
 
 Dearborn and Franklin, strongly Democratic, with 9,404, have a 
 senator, and Elkhart, with but 5,892 voters, has a senator. 
 
 Jefferson, with but 5,405, has a senator, while Clark and Floyd 
 together, with 10,278 voters, have but one. Shelby and Johnson, 
 with 9,024 voters, have a senator, and Parke and Vermilion, with 
 but 6,164, have one senator. 
 
 Adams and Wells, with unequal representation in the House, have 
 no senator, except with Allen in a district of 14,989. 
 
 Randolph, with but 5,014, has one senator, and Putnam and Hen- 
 dricks, with 9,357, have one, which is controlled by the Republican 
 majority of Hendricks. Bartholomew and Brown, with 6,394 votes, 
 have one representative and one senator, while Lake and Porter, 
 with but 5,421 votes, have two representatives and one senator. 
 Why should one voter in Lake, Vermilion, Steuben, or Lagrange, 
 have a voice in making the laws more than equal to two in Brown, 
 Bartholomew, Adams, or Wells? Why shall these counties have so 
 much more voice in proportion to numbers than Shelby or Johnson, 
 Dearborn or Franklin? Is it because that same year Bartholomew 
 was taxed upon more than nine million, Johnson more than ten and 
 one half million, and Shelby more than ten and a quarter million, 
 and Dearborn and Franklin each more than eight million dollars; 
 while Lake was but three million six hundred thousand ; Vermilion 
 four million four hundred thousand ; and Steuben loss than three 
 million ? 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as saying that this apportionment 
 may be changed by the next Legislature. I think it is a grave ques 
 tion Whether it must not stand until another enumeration is made at 
 the expiration of six years from the last, as required by the consti 
 tution. But the people may and should rebuke the outrage as a blow 
 at popular representation and republican government. They should 
 rebuke it by defeating its purpose, by preventing the misrepresenta 
 tion intended. It is a gratification to me that, in my first address to 
 the people as a candidate in 1872, in the expectation that the Legis 
 lature would be Democratic, I said: " It will be the duty of the Leg 
 islature to redistrict the State for legislative and congressional pur- 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 393 
 
 poses. Not only the constitution, but just and honest representation, 
 requires that the apportionment shall be made among the counties 
 according to their .voting population. It is a" shame if the people 
 allow the adjustment of representation to be made upon any other 
 basis. It is an aggravated fraud if some counties be allowed more, 
 and other counties less, than their proportion of senators and repre 
 sentatives because of the political opinions of their people. The 
 apportionment of 1867 was thus tainted. Should the men who sup 
 port me this year have the control of the Legislature, I hope they 
 will be governed by the -constitution and justice only in making the 
 new apportionment, for it is right, and it will prove politically expe 
 dient and wise. For that my labor and my influence shall be given." 
 I think you know that the corrupting sentiment has been growing, 
 that unfair advantages are right in politics, and that private gain may 
 be made of political success. I think you know that from that senti 
 ment the corruption has come which is undermining our institutions. 
 Then, need I specify the large sums of money of which the people 
 were defrauded by the Sanborn contracts, by the Credit Mobilier, by 
 the New York Custom-House frauds, so hurtful to our commerce, and 
 so wrong to the merchants? Need I speak of the great fortunes 
 built upon the District of Columbia corruption, and of the scores of 
 investigations which the clamor of an outraged people compelled ? 
 . Need I mention that for all these none of the guilty parties have been 
 punished save only one old man expelled from the House ; while 
 others have been rewarded by and now hold high and lucrative 
 office? Why is it not enough to- turn to this unparalleled legislative 
 fraud in our own State? Would you again trust a man who would 
 corruptly wrong even an enemy ? Would you employ him in your 
 store, or office, or shop, or on your farm ? Then how can you trust 
 the affairs of Government in the hands of a party which requires its 
 legislators to despoil a part of the people of their rights, and to be 
 stow them upon others ? Do they not all equally pay taxes, and 
 bear the public burdens? Why, then, shall some be robbed of their 
 rights as citizens ? The industries and resources of the country will 
 restore the millions lost by the frauds and corruptions to which I have 
 referred ; but who shall restore to the people of many counties their 
 lost privilege and right of an equal voice in making the laws which 
 all must obey ? 
 
 LEGISLATIVE EXPENSES. 
 
 I will detain you to speak only of one other characteristic of the 
 
394 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 last Legislature. I speak of its own extravagance in the use of the 
 public money. The general and special sessions continued one hun 
 dred and one days, and the expenses were $19,9,563.32, as appears 
 by the report of Mr. Glover, as Treasurer of the State, page 10. That 
 includes only legislative expenses. It was at the rate of $1,976 per 
 day. The Legislature of 1871 was in session only fifty-three days. 
 The important measures and business of the session were defeated by 
 the resignation of Eepublicans in the House, so as to destroy the 
 quorum, and thus stop business. The breaking up of the Legislature 
 was revolutionary in its character, and not justified by any public 
 consideration, or sufficient reason in the- condition t of its business. 
 That proceeding made the session of 1871 only fifty-three days, and 
 the expenses were $82,520, as appears by Mr. Ryan s report, page 9. 
 That was at the rate of $1,557 per day, and was $419 less per day 
 than the expenses of the Legislature of 1873. But it is proper to 
 add that the pay of members of the Legislature was increased at the 
 special session from five to eight dollars per day. That increase of 
 three dollars per day, for one hundred representatives and fifty 
 senators, was $450 per day, but applied only to the regular session 
 of sixty-one days. It amounted to $27,450, and, deducting that from 
 the $199,563, leaves $172,113 as the expenses of the one hundred and 
 one days, excluding increased pay, or $1,704 per day, which was $147 
 per day, excluding increased pay, more than the Democratic Legisla- . 
 ture two years before. 
 
 TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 
 
 I think the Democracy on the 13th of October are expected to 
 declare in plain terms what legislation you approve in regard to the 
 sale of intoxicating liquors. My official duty places me in a respon 
 sible relation to this subject. I signed the law now in force known as 
 the Baxter bill, though -I thought some of its provisions unwise and 
 impolitic. Before signing the bill, I examined it with all the care the 
 time allowed would permit. I called to my assistance two of the 
 ablest lawyers of the State, and I came to the conclusion that its pro 
 visions were not in violation of the constitution. It was not a case 
 of hasty or inconsiderate legislation. It was deliberately considered 
 in both branches of the Legislature. Believing the bill to be con- 
 stitutional, and that it expressed the deliberate judgment and will of 
 the Legislature, it was my duty to sign it. I believe the veto-power 
 is conferred to arrest unconstitutional and hasty legislation, and leg- 
 
SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 395 
 
 islation in derogation of fundamental and essential rights, such as the 
 equality of representation, and not to enable the Governor to oppose 
 his opinions to those of the people s immediate representatives upon 
 questions of mere policy or police regulation. That law has not 
 received the popular support necessary to make it efficient. It has 
 encountered determined hostility on the part of those engaged in the 
 liquor-business ; and for many months extreme temperance people, 
 in a very extraordinary manner, have shown an unwillingness to 
 abide by its provisions. 
 
 Propositions will be brought before the next Legislature for the 
 material modification or repeal of the law. "What legislation shall 
 take its place ? Our Supreme Court has declared absolute prohibi 
 tion to be unconstitutional, and experience, I believe, has shown it 
 to be impracticable. It then only remains to regulate the traffic. 
 
 Any useful law must rest upon the proposition that there are 
 serious evils to society and to individuals connected with the traffic 
 in intoxicating liquors which it is the province of the law to restrain 
 and prevent. Sales should not be made to boys, and, if necessary 
 to prevent it, the boy who misrepresents or conceals his age to obtain 
 liquor should be punished as well as the party who knowingly sells 
 to him. Drunkenness should be punished as well as selling to the 
 intoxicated. All sales should be forbidden when the public peace 
 or safety requires it, and, like other pursuits, it should be suspended 
 in the night-time. Perhaps the hour now fixed is unnecessarily and 
 inconveniently early, but society should be protected from the dis 
 turbances and bloodshed incident 4 to the traffic in the middle of the 
 night. 
 
 I think it might properly be considered whether a difference in 
 regulation could not safely be made for the sale of vinous and malt 
 liquors, and the stronger and more intoxicating drinks. There is 
 certainly a great difference in the evils that result from their use. 
 
 THE LICENSE SYSTEM. 
 
 With these and such other provisions as may seem reasonable and 
 necessary, I think experience justifies the adoption of the license 
 system. The amount required for the license in each case should bo 
 greater than heretofore. It should be sufficient to make the party 
 selling feel that his interest is identified with that of society in pre- 
 serving order and good conduct at his place of business, and avoiding 
 all violations of law. This policy will bring a large revenue into the 
 
396 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 school-fund, and will prove more efficient in suppressing the evils of 
 intemperance than the present system. I cannot appreciate the ob 
 jection that, by receiving a license-fe, society uses money received 
 from an improper source. Under the present law the State grants 
 a permit, and deelares the business lawful. Under a policy which we 
 have long maintained, every violation of our criminal law that is 
 punished by fines adds to the school-fund. No law upon this subject 
 can be useful unless supported by public opinion in its favor. The 
 wise legislator considers the weakness as well as the strength, the 
 follies as well as the wisdom of man, and adapts the laws to his real 
 wants and necessities. 
 
 OQNCLUSIOlSr. 
 
 We hear no more of the foolish cry that the Democratic party is 
 dead. Stanch, strong, and earnest, it has its work to do, the pleas 
 ing work of restoring good government, wholesome and equal laws, 
 and universal harmony to a great people. It is cheered forward by 
 the increasing respect and confidence of the people, as shown in the 
 elections as they come on. When the day of complete triumph shall 
 come, and the burdens and responsibilities of government shall rest 
 upon its broad shoulders, Heaven forbid that the people shall be dis 
 appointed in their just expectations ! 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SPEECH A^ ZANESVILLE. 
 
 REFEEEISTCE has already been made to Governor Hen- 
 dricks s support of William Allen in 1875. He went into 
 Ohio to work for the Democratic ticket, believing that the 
 success of the party was of greater importance than the mere 
 differences of factions. On the evening of September 3, 
 1875, the Governor spoke at Zanesville before a large and 
 enthusiastic audience. His address on that occasion was as 
 follows : 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS : I think the reelection of Governor Allen very 
 important, and therefore, upon the invitation of your State Execu 
 tive Committee, I stand before you to-day. I understand that it is 
 quite customary to confer upon your Governors, whose administra 
 tions are acceptable to the people, the honor of a reelection. Such 
 a custom seems to be consistent with the public interest. The official 
 term is so short that within its limit an important policy, or work, 
 can hardly be established or completed. The honor of a reelection 
 was conferred upon Governor Hayes. Why shall it be denied to 
 Governor Allen ? I think I am safe in saying that his administra 
 tion is acceptable to the people. It has been true and faithful to 
 them. And toward its political opponents it has Been liberal, if 
 not generous. Avoiding their spirit and practice of proscription and 
 partisan hatred, it has not treated them as unworthy citizens and 
 unfit to be trusted, but has allowed them to share in the responsibil 
 ities and honors, as they do in the burdens, of the public service. 
 Does Governor Allen not possess the personal qualities which you 
 admire ? Is he not clear in his judgment to discern the right, and 
 sincere to approve it, and strong and bold to maintain it ? Do you 
 not know and feel that he is a fit representative of the giant great 
 ness of your State, as he is of the stalwart statesmen in whose asso- 
 
398 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 elation most of his public life was spent ? You distrust neither hia 
 judgment nor the purity of his motives. Why, then, shall he not 
 receive the honor, and the State the benefit, of his reelection ? There 
 is but one answer. The Republican leaders cannot afford it. It 
 will endanger their hold upon power, and will loosen the grasp of 
 the eighty thousand office-holders upon their rich emoluments. Al 
 ready, from every quarter, they are upon you. Did you not see the 
 circular address of Mr. Edmunds, the postmaster at Washington 
 City, to the office-holders throughout the land for money ? I sup 
 pose the congressional committee did not expect it to become public. 
 The sums thus realized are enormous. A levy upon eighty regiments 
 of office-holders will fill the party coffers to overflowing. To what 
 uses is it to be applied? No national contest calls for universal 
 bribery. Ohio is the object of attack, because she is powerful and 
 influential, and will stand almost alone in October. To the full ex 
 tent of the influence which your election will exert, you are in the 
 midst of the national contest. So this question is precipitated upon 
 you. Is it for the good and welfare of the people to continue the 
 managers of the Eepublican party in uninterrupted and permanent 
 control ? For many years they have held absolute control. In the 
 spirit of cruel proscription they have excluded Democrats and Lib 
 erals from all participation. They have had their own way absolute 
 ly. And, according to all fair judgment, they carry the entire re 
 sponsibility for our present condition. Our country is unsurpassed, 
 if not imequaled, in material resources in the elements of great 
 wealth. Our people are, in an eminent degree, energetic, intelligent, 
 and industrious. Yet every interest languishes, and the people suffer. 
 Frightened capital is concealed,- and labor stands upon the street- 
 corners begging employment. Month by month the shadows grow 
 and darken over the land. 
 
 When evils become intolerable, the remedy of the people is in a 
 change of administration. That is your policy, even in private life. 
 You do not continue an agent under whose management your capital 
 disappears and your debts increase. And even when you do not see 
 the causes, and cannot locate the fault, you will organize a change 
 before your ruin is complete. Your physician is not continued, al 
 though he may have had your confidence, after you see that he is 
 not prepared to contend with the calamities that threaten your fam 
 ily. You will not sacrifice all your little flock to a former devotion. 
 
 Of course, you know that the leaders propose no reforms. The 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESVILLE, 399 
 
 present policies and conduct of public affairs, in their judgment, 
 reach the summit of human wisdom, and General Grant s Administra 
 tion furnishes the world and coming generations the model to be imi 
 tated and the example to be followed. In their speeches this year 
 they say that, in respect to its efforts to promote the purity of the 
 public service, it eclipses all Democratic administrations, and that no 
 President has come out of the office clearer than General Grant. If 
 so, it is plain that no change should be made. In their State plat 
 form they declare to you that "because of the distinguished success 
 of his Administration," President Grant is entitled to the gratitude 
 of his countrymen. If, indeed, that be sincerely stated, and you real 
 ly regard his Administration as separated from all others by its supe 
 rior qualities and extraordinary excellence, then, as true men, you 
 want no change in the conduct of public affairs, but you desire that 
 as this Administration is, so its successor shall be. 
 
 EEPUBLICAN FINANCIAL POLICY. 
 
 But, before striking a blow at Governor Allen only to perpetuate 
 the present conduct and policies, will you not carefully consider the 
 same, and decide whether that be your real judgment ? Upon finance, 
 what do you want your vote to mean ? Do you wish it to be an ap 
 proval and indorsement of the policy of the Republican party on that 
 subject? That policy is found in the act of the 14th of last January. 
 Governor Morton informed the people of Ohio that it was the result 
 of consultation and compromise, and that every Eepublican Senator, 
 save one, voted for it, as did all the Republicans in the House, except 
 a few from the Eastern States. No Democrat in the Senate voted* 
 for it, and I am not aware that it received any Democrat s support in 
 the House. In the speech at Marion, Mr. Senator Sherman declared" 
 that he reported the measure, advocated and voted for it, and hearti 
 ly defends and approves it ; that it was the result of the most careful 
 deliberation ; that it definitely declares a public policy ; and that it is 
 the fixed policy of the Republican party, " and no step backward." 
 And now, as that act declares the deliberate purpose and fixed policy 
 of that party upon a most important question, it should be accurate 
 ly and generally understood. The first section provides for the sub 
 stitution of silver coin for the fractional currency. The silver is not 
 in the Treasury, and must be purchased. The special dispatch to the 
 Cincinnati Commercial of the 14th of last month, says that the Secre 
 tary of the Treasury will be obliged to sell between thirty and forty 
 
400 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HESDRICKS. 
 
 millions of five per cent, bonds for that purpose. The direct effect is 
 to increase our interest-bearing debt about forty millions, and the 
 annual interest two millions in other words, it is the conversion of 
 a domestic debt, which bears no interest, into a foreign debt bearing 
 interest. The silver coin, when so issued, will not be a legal tender 
 beyond five dollars, and its depreciation below gold will be nearly, if 
 not quite, as great as that of the currency which it is to displace. 
 
 The second section repeals the law which allows a charge for 
 coining bullion, and is proper. The third and remaining section 
 removes legal restrictions and limitations, so as to allow free bank 
 ing. It also provides that, upon the issue of bank-bills to the banks, 
 the Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem legal-tender Treasury 
 notes to the extent of eighty per cent, of the bank-bills so issued, 
 until the volume of the legal-tender Treasury notes outstanding shall 
 be reduced to three hundred million dollars. The effect of that pro 
 vision is to substitute national-bank paper for legal-tender notes to 
 the extent of about eighty-two million dollars of the latter. The 
 section then provides that " on and after the first day of January, 
 Anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, the Secretary of 
 the Treasury shall redeem in coin the United States legal-tender notes 
 then outstanding, on their presentation for redemption at the office 
 of the Assistant Treasurer of the United States, in the city of New 
 York, in sums of not less than fifty dollars." Thus, by the process 
 of redemption and substitution, all the legal-tender notes are to be 
 taken from circulation, and the currency of the country is to be coin 
 and bank-bills. In other words, it was intended to give the na 
 tional banks the entire field, notwithstanding the same Congress, in 
 the month of June before, had given the country the assurance that 
 the legal-tender circulation should remain at three hundred and 
 eighty-two millions. Such was the construction given to the act of 
 June, 1874, while it was pending in the Senate. I have given you 
 the language of that provision of the act requiring the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, on the first day of January, 1879, and thereafter, to 
 redeem the legal-tender notes " then outstanding," because it had 
 been stated to the people of Ohio that " the bill provided that the 
 greenbacks should not be retired so as to leave less than three hun 
 dred millions in circulation." From the language of the law you 
 will perceive that all the legal-tender notes that are not displaced by 
 bank-bills are to be redeemed and taken out of circulation. Do you 
 wish your vote to approve this measure and fasten it upon the coun- 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESVILLE. 401 
 
 try ? I was called upon to preside over the Democratic Convention 
 of Indiana last year. In my address to that body, upon this subject, 
 I said : " Our paper currency consists of Treasury notes, declared by 
 Congress to be lawful money, and national-bank notes. I am not in 
 favor of the policy that proposes to retire the Treasury notes to make 
 room for an increase of national banks and their paper. The Treas 
 ury notes are the cheaper currency to the people, and command pub 
 lic confidence. They are not irredeemable. For their value they 
 rest upon the pledge and conscience of the country. The relation 
 between the holder and the Government is direct. The people are 
 not required to pay interest upon national bonds deposited as the 
 basis of their security and value, as in the case of bank-notes. Pass 
 ing everywhere, and without question, they are the favorite and pop 
 ular currency." 
 
 I ask your very careful consideration of the last provision of the 
 act. It would have been idle, as well as vicious, for Congress to 
 direct the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the legal tenders in 
 coin without making provision for the same. To meet the necessity 
 the act provides : " And to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to 
 prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or re 
 quired, he is authorized to use any surplus revenues from time to 
 time in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to issue, sell, 
 and dispose of, at not less than par, in coin, either of the descriptions 
 of bonds of the United States described in the act of Congress ap 
 proved July 14, 1870, entitled An act to authorize the refunding of 
 the public debt, with like qualities, privileges, and exemptions, to 
 the extent necessary to carry this act into full effect, and to use the 
 proceeds thereof for the purpose aforesaid. And all provisions of 
 law inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby re 
 pealed." At the passage of this act, there was outstanding, as I 
 suppose, $382,000,000 of legal-tender notes, as provided in the act 
 of June, 1874. Should the $82,000,000 be retired by the substitu 
 tion of bank-notes under the first section, then there will remain 
 $300,000,000 to be redeemed with gold. It is not probable that the 
 $82,000,000 will be entirely displaced by bank-notes. If not, an ex 
 cess of the $300,000,000 will remain for redemption in gold. That 
 excess will probably equal the surplus revenues in gold that the 
 Secretary will find available for the purposes of the act. I suppose 
 it may, therefore, be assumed that the Secretary will be required to 
 sell five per cent, bonds to meet $300,000,000 of Treasury notes. The 
 
402 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 immediate and direct effect of the measure will be to increase our 
 debt-bearing interest $300,000,000, and an annual interest of $15,000,- 
 000 in gold. If we add the $40,000,000 of bonds that must be sold to 
 buy silver to displace the fractional currency, we have, in this meas 
 ure, an increase of the interest-bearing debt of $340,000,000, and of 
 the annual interest of $17,000,000 in gold. The bonds will be sold 
 in Europe. This Administration conducts all such transactions through 
 a European syndicate, or combination of banks. Thus the debt will 
 be a foreign one, and will add $17,000,000 to the enormous annual 
 exportation of gold to meet interest. What consideration of obliga 
 tion or of good policy can support this measure ? In the mids t of a 
 financial crisis so serious as to disturb the foundations of our pros 
 perity, we are to add this large sum to our foreign debt. Why is it 
 done ? The $382,000,000 of Treasury notes are held exclusively by 
 our own people. It is a domestic debt. The holders are not asking 
 its redemption. For the present they want it to remain circulating 
 among them as " lawful money." The Treasury notes were issued as 
 legal tenders at a time when they were supposed to be essential to 
 the maintenance of the public credit. It was deemed expedient to 
 issue a portion of the Government s credit in the form of currency ; 
 and, therefore, the Treasury notes bear a double character. They are 
 at once the evidence of a Government debt and are a medium of 
 commerce, a debt to be paid and legal tenders to be used. They were 
 so issued by the Government and so accepted by the people. No time 
 was fixed for their redemption. The people received them, leaving 
 that to the pleasure and conscience of the Government. In the mean 
 time they have been used as money. Then, in accordance with the 
 purpose of their issue, should they be withdrawn so as to injure busi 
 ness or labor until as good or a better currency can take their place ? 
 Every obligation of the Government must be met and discharged. 
 "Whoever questions the fidelity of the Democracy to the country s 
 honor in that respect speaks without regard to truth. I full recog 
 nize the obligation for the redemption of the Treasury notes, but I can 
 not feel that it must be discharged at a time when it may seriously 
 add to our embarrassments and when the people who hold them do 
 not desire it. In our present condition, any addition to our foreign 
 gold obligations is a calamity. Will you vote to convert this domes 
 tic, non-interest-bearing debt into a foreign, interest-bearing gold 
 debt? In this statement I have made no estimate for the sale of bonds 
 and increase of interest debt, which may be necessary to enable the 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESVILLE. 403 
 
 Secretary to redeem the $82,000,000 legal tenders, which are to be 
 displaced as bank-bills issue. 
 
 It is now my duty to call your attention to other probable conse 
 quences of this measure, more frightful than those which I have ex 
 posed. As the time for the redemption of the Treasury notes in gold 
 approaches, and the Secretary prepares for their redemption by the 
 sale of bonds and the accumulation of gold in the Treasury, they will 
 rapidly advance in value. During the period of two years before the 
 redemption commences, persons who are able to hold money out of 
 active use will accumulate and retire the Treasury notes for the 
 profit of their increasing value. The banks are permitted by law to 
 redeem their bills in Treasury notes. So long as the bills and notes 
 are about the same value, the bills are not presented to the banks for 
 payment. But as soon as the Treasury notes advance in value they 
 will be presented for payment. The banks will anticipate that prob 
 able result, and will prepare for it by hoarding the Treasury notes for 
 the redemption of their paper. The probable consequence will be, 
 that under these influences the Treasury notes will, for a consider 
 able period of time, be withdrawn from circulation, and our currency 
 will be contracted to nearly one-half its quantity. As rapidly as the 
 Treasury notes are used in the redemption and retirement of the 
 bank-bills they will be presented at the Treasury for redemption in 
 gold, and will disappear forever. I know it is said that, as soon as 
 it is established that they are redeemable in gold, they will not be 
 presented, as they will then be as- good as gold. To some extent that 
 would be true in a time of established composure and confidence, but 
 that will not be the condition of our country while this law is being 
 executed. Do you not present your negotiable paper at maturity, 
 merely because you have confidence in the ability and willingness of 
 your debtor ? How long do you think the gold paid out in the re 
 demption of the Treasury notes will remain in the country ? Will it 
 pass along the veins and arteries of business, and give life and en 
 ergy? In a time of general confidence it might be so, but not while 
 this law is being executed. Public confidence and financial stability 
 cannot be made to rest upon borrowed gold. This measure will in 
 crease our gold obligations abroad, and, because of contraction, will 
 reduce production at home. This flow of gold abroad will continue, 
 and the borrowed gold will soon be gone. 
 
 In this presentation of the subject I have not considered the pos 
 sibility of any extraordinary foreign demand. Any great, financial 
 
404 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDEICKS. 
 
 crisis abroad, or disturbance of the peace of Europe, would cause our 
 bonds to be thrown upon our market in large quantities, and a cor 
 responding draft upon our supply of gold. I do not believe we can 
 rely upon this measure for any supply of gold to our domestic cur 
 rency that will be permanent or useful. Substantially our reliance 
 for a currency must be upon the banks. Will they be in a condition 
 to supply it ? The retirement of the Treasury notes will leave them 
 under the obligation to redeem in gold only. Can they meet that 
 obligation? And, with the known uncertainty in the supply of gold, 
 will they venture to throw their paper upon the currents of trade in 
 quantities at all adequate to the demands of legitimate business? 
 The act permits free banking, and the bills are yet redeemable in 
 Treasury notes. What has been the result ? The statement of the 
 Comptroller, made on the 6th of July, shows that since the passage 
 of the law, January 14, 1875, to the 1st of July, nearly half a year, 
 the increase of bank currency is but seven thousand five hundred and 
 fifty-eight dollars. Does this statement justify the opinion that, after 
 the Treasury notes have ceased to be available for redemption, the 
 banks will venture their paper upon the disturbed currents of busi 
 ness? I believe the financial policy of this Administration, and of 
 the party which supports it, as expressed in this act of Congress, will 
 so contract the currency as to paralyze all legitimate business, and 
 leave labor in rags begging for employment. I know the opinion is 
 entertained for I have heard it expressed by many that the law is 
 so clearly impolitic that its execution will not be attempted. 
 
 Did the President, in his first inaugural, not say that all laws should 
 be executed, whether they met his approval or not? But the law is 
 now being executed. Many millions of dollars of the bonds have 
 already been sold to provide the means for the retirement of the out 
 standing currency. Is this terrible blow to fall upon the industries 
 of the country ? Ohio stands in the van. She should make her great 
 strength so felt that even Senator Sherman, who reported the meas 
 ure, will respect it in a movement for repeal. If Governor Allen be 
 elected, I believe it will be repealed, so great is the power of the peo 
 ple. But Senators Sherman and Morton, in their key-note speeches, 
 declared to the people of Ohio that this is the party policy to be 
 approved and stood by. May it not well be claimed that Governor 
 Allen s defeat is its approval and indorsement by the people? Will 
 you, then, expect the Senate to consent to its repeal? However 
 earnest we may be for a return to specie payments, we cannot wish 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESV1LLE. 405 
 
 to reach it through universal bankruptcy and a frightful increase 
 of our foreign public debt. Because of my strong belief that this 
 measure is fraught with calamity to the commercial interests, to the 
 industrial pursuits, and to the labor of the country, I have responded 
 to the committee s invitation, without reference to many other ques 
 tions that may be discussed among you. Have you considered the 
 reasons which Senator Sherman says controlled his party in passing 
 this law ? He himself wanted another measure, whether better or 
 worse than this I need not consider. He wished to fund the Treasury 
 notes until the residue should be at par with gold. By how great a 
 contraction neither he nor I can say. How destructive to business 
 no one can say. Probably the country would become strewed with 
 broken fortunes, and the highways filled with wretched men seeking 
 employment. His party friends would not agree to it. He says they 
 had gone into the canvass of last year with divided counsels, and the 
 result was defeat. When they met last winter they were taught by 
 the defeat that the party in power must agree upon some measure, 
 and the result was the passage of this law. It is a strange statement 
 confession, I may say that a law affecting every interest of the 
 people was the child of party necessity. Will you adopt it, and rear 
 it, that it may destroy you ? Your decision will be in your vote. 
 
 SPECIE PAYMENTS. 
 
 Having stated my objections to the last-developed financial policy 
 of the Administration and its party, I ask your permission to read 
 what I said to the people of Indiana last year in respect to specie 
 payments: "The expression in favor of a return to specie payments 
 is very general, but the real question is, When and how can that be 
 accomplished ? So long as the supply of coin is so small, as com 
 pared with the paper-money, it is impossible. The effort now would 
 probably result in commercial disaster. The people so believe. No 
 sentiment attributed to Mr. Greeley in 1872 was more hurtful to his 
 political fortunes than the demand for immediate specie payments. 
 To render it possible, without hurt to the country, coin and paper 
 must come nearer together in quantity. They will then be nearer, 
 if not uniform, in value. How shall that be brought about? By 
 reducing the paper currency? With the present burden of national, 
 State, and local taxation, and the large volume of other indebtedness 
 to be provided for, that cannot be borne. It would cramp business 
 and paralyze labor. No one desires a return to specie payments 
 
406 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 more earnestly than myself, for I believe gold and silver are the real 
 standard of values, universal and permanent. As I had occasion 
 once before to say, the existence of commercial mediums of different 
 values one description of money for one class and purpose, and an 
 other for a different class and purpose is too serious an evil to be 
 long endured. All the money of the country should be of uniform 
 value, and readily convertible. But we are not in that condition. 
 Our paper-money exceeds the coin by nearly five dollars to one. 
 How shall we bring them nearer together in quantity, that they may 
 approach and meet in value ? Shall we commence at the top and tear 
 down, or at the bottom and build up? Business, enterprise, and 
 labor, every important interest of the country, demand that the vol 
 ume of the currency be maintained to meet their requirements ; but 
 every interest will be strengthened by increasing the supply of coin. 
 How is that to be accomplished? By encouraging an increased pro 
 duction of our great staples that command the foreign market; by 
 reducing our expenditures in foreign purchases ; and by reversing 
 the fatal policy which has sought to make our debt a foreign debt. 
 "When we purchase less of foreign goods, and sell more of our pro 
 ductions abroad, and cease to pay so much of the interest on our 
 debt abroad, and pay it to our own citizens, the current of gold will 
 turn toward our shores, and then specie payments will be certain, 
 natural, and permanent, and will become the basis of an enduring 
 prosperity. As soon as the business of the country and the condi 
 tion of our European trade will justify the opinion that gold is ac 
 cumulating, and is likely to remain, Congress may safely fix the time 
 and provide for the redemption of the Treasury notes. 
 
 When I addressed these sentiments to my fellow-citizens of In 
 diana a year ago, it did not occur to me that there was a statesman 
 ship beyond and above all I had thought to be found simply in bor 
 rowing gold, increasing our national debt, and the ever-recurring 
 payment of interest abroad. I had supposed that our ability at all 
 times to redeem the paper currency in gold depended upon a perma 
 nent as well as a sufficient supply. I had thought that gold brought 
 into the country, under the influences of increased production and 
 commerce, would remain, but that borrowed gold would not stay. 
 My confidence is in the development of the resources of the country, 
 in its increasing and extended productions, and in the stable laws 
 that regulate trade and commerce, rather than in temporary and 
 arbitrary devices by Congress. More than once during the war, 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESVILLE. 407 
 
 under tho lead of Senator Sherman, Congress undertook to regulate 
 transactions in gold, with a view to controlling its price, and you 
 recollect how foolish and abortive all such attempts proved to be. 
 
 KEPUBLICAN OBSTEUOTION8 TO EESUMPTION. 
 
 . The party that now seeks continued power is responsible for the 
 two great impediments in the way of resumption. By strange and 
 questionable devices, they have sought to make our debt a foreign in 
 stead of a domestic debt. The consequence is, that every pay-day 
 large sums in gold are sent abroad to pay interest-coupons. The red 
 blood flows from the veins and arteries of the country. Ireland was 
 impoverished by her landlords, who expended their rents abroad. 
 Cheap Chinese labor eats at the vitals of our prosperity on the Pacific 
 coast, so long as their wages are sent back in gold to China. The 
 farmer grows poorer every year who returns no nourishment to his 
 fields. To our State Convention last year I made this statement of 
 the second impediment: "Cotton and tobacco are the most impor 
 tant staples in our exports, at some times exceeding all other com 
 modities. Since the close of the war it has been the suggestion of 
 wisdom to encourage their production in the largest possible quanti 
 ties, as it had been the dictate of humanity, Christianity, and patri 
 otism, to promote reconciliation and harmony between the sections. 
 But political and partisan interests have been made paramount to 
 humanity and the welfare of the country. Bad governments have 
 been established, and as far as possible maintained, in the South. 
 Intelligence and virtue have been placed under the dominion and ser 
 vitude of ignorance and vice. Corruption has borne sway; public 
 indebtedness has become frightful, and taxes too heavy to carry, and 
 development crushed, and enterprise manacled. In a word, it has 
 been the government of hatred J and all this, that party might bear 
 rule." They have nourished the noxious plants of corruption, vio 
 lence, and fraud in Louisiana, and other States, rather than the cot 
 ton-plant and sugar-cane. Agriculture cannot flourish under bad 
 laws, corrupt administration, and cruel taxation. 
 
 I suppose it is entirely clear to your observation that, had State 
 authority been respected in accordance with the Constitution, and the 
 people been left in the control of their domestic affairs, without prej 
 udice or denial of right to any class, in accordance with the Consti 
 tution, greater harmony would have prevailed between the races, 
 prosperity would have returned to those communities more rapidly, 
 
408 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 and the production of the great staples would have been much 
 more abundant. Then our valuable materials of export would have 
 been in larger supply, and, as a consequence, our supply of gold more 
 reliable and permanent, and specie payments nearer a possibility. 
 Individual happiness and the general interests of the country have 
 been sacrificed to party policy. Harmony based upon justice, and 
 the protection of the rights of all classes, must be restored. Pros 
 perity will follow, as pure water flows from a pure fountain. 
 
 The general paralysis of business and employment, and the dis 
 trust of useful investments because of shrinkage in values, as well as 
 the condition of our currency, have brought about differences of 
 opinion among Democrats. I think these differences may be ad 
 justed. I have heretofore expressed the opinion that a wise states 
 manship may avoid the extremes of a contracted currency, cramping 
 enterprise and labor, on the one hand, and of an inflated and depreci 
 ated currency on the other ; that they are the extremes of gluttony 
 and starvation, and that health and strength will come of neither. 
 I have an unshaken confidence that the national council of our party 
 will so adjust these differences as to maintain our ancient doctrine in 
 favor of a sound and stable currency, and of policies in accordance 
 therewith, and with a return to specie payments always in view, and 
 at the same time avoiding the disasters which would inevitably fol 
 low contraction. 
 
 EXTRAVAGANT EXPENDITURES. 
 
 As connected with and having a very important influence upon 
 the business and financial condition of the country, it is my duty to 
 call your attention to the extravagant expenditure of money by the 
 General Government. The last report of the Secretary of the Treas 
 ury shows that for the year ending June 30, 1874, the " net ordinary 
 expenditures, exclusive of the public debt," amounted to $285,738,- 
 800.21. The interest paid that year on the public debt was $107,- 
 119,815.21 ; the amount paid on pensions, $29,038,414.66, making 
 together $136,158,229.87. Deduct the interest and pensions from 
 the net expenditures, and there remains $149,580,571.34. That sum 
 represents the ordinary payments for one year, after deducting 
 everything that resulted from the war. I have seen it stated that 
 the expenditure for the same purposes during the last year amounted 
 to about $145,000,000, but I am not able to speak accurately, as the 
 Secretary has made no report of that year. Before the war the 
 ordinary expenditures were from fifty to sixty millions, sometimes 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESVILLE. 409 
 
 going above that, because of extraordinary demands. Do you not 
 think two dollars for one, or about one hundred millions, ought to be 
 sufficient ? Yet they now require nearly three to one. Favoritism 
 always costs the people heavily, but- it seems strange how pretexts 
 can be found for $150,000,000. Will you vote to indorse such expen 
 ditures ? 
 
 VICES IN THE PUBLIC SEEVICE. 
 
 Closely connected with the extravagance is the immorality 
 which pervades the public service. This, too, calls for your attentive 
 consideration and your sincere efforts at reform. It impairs your 
 revenues and disturbs public confidence. Need I particularize ? It 
 is known to you, at least in part. What department is free from 
 taint ? In the Post-Office Department it extends from the conspir 
 acy to defraud the Government in the mail-lettings, involving im 
 mense sums, down to the petty pilfering in the repair of mail-bags 
 in the neighborhood of the post-office at Indianapolis. The Treas 
 ury Department has been singularly unfortunate. During the four 
 years in which Mr. Guthrie was at its head there were no defaults 
 and there was no money lost ; but of late years long lists of default 
 ing officers have been published, and recently large ^numbers of 
 officers in the Internal Revenue Service- have been detected in com 
 plicated, and enormous frauds. The Department of Justice, under 
 the management of the late Attorney-General, became the instru 
 ment of injustice. Cruel in its political prosecutions and unscrupu 
 lous in the use of the public money for political purposes, it became 
 the object of general suspicion and distrust. Arkansas and North 
 Carolina were the scenes of its most audacious misappropriation of 
 money. Will it be proper for me to speak of the Interior Depart 
 ment? An Ohio man is at its head. I will speak of the Indian 
 service only. In former Administrations the entire cost of that ser 
 vice was but about $3,000,000, when the Indians were more numer 
 ous than now. During Mr. Lincoln s Administration that was about 
 the cost of the service. In his message of December, 1863, he says 
 that for the prior year the payment on account of pensions and Indi 
 ans amounted to $4,216,520.79. I suppose the pension list was then 
 something above one million, leaving the Indian -expenditures three 
 millions. The last official report shows the expenditure for the In 
 dian service alone $6,692,462.09. It has more than doubled. For 
 improved administration you would pay more money, but where are 
 the fruits of the large expenditure ? Both the Government and the 
 18 
 
410 .. THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 Indians are cheated in the quality and quantity of clothing and food 
 furnished, and in the false accounts that are allowed and paid. An 
 army-officer stationed last winter at the Ked Cloud agency thus de 
 scribes the situation and scene: "The Indians are all quiet now. 
 The poor wretches have been several times this winter on the verge 
 of starvation through the rascality of the Indian ring. They have 
 been compelled to eat dogs, wolves, and ponies." Did you read the 
 description of the dramatic scene in the Interior Department on the 
 first day of last June, as given in the dispatches ? It illustrates the 
 policy and style of the department. They wanted the Black Hills 
 country. The Indians were brought in for negotiation. On that day 
 they were in the Secretary s room. The Secretary was there A bishop 
 was -by his side. The Indian Commissioner was there also. Twenty- 
 five thousand dollars were offered them for the Black Hills. They 
 did not want to leave that hunting-ground. They were reminded of 
 the desire of the whites for the country, and of the difficulty of keep 
 ing them out. The Secretary then told them that if they did not take 
 the $25,000. in thirty days, they might not get it at all. In the agony 
 of his soul the chief, Ked Cloud, cried out: "Great Spirit, hear 
 me I have njercy upon me, pity me!" Was ever such a prayer 
 uttered within those walls before? In these years of Indian mis 
 management, too corrupt and cruel to be described, the Indians are 
 "becoming more treacherous and the borders more insecure. What say 
 you, my countrymen, to a return to such a policy as Jackson main 
 tained, when the Indian was made to obey the authority of the country 
 and the white man to respect the rights of the Indian ? I will only 
 refer to the late shame brought upon the departments by the de-- 
 veloped frauds connected with the Marine Corps. These are all 
 recent transactions. They yet remain for congressional investigation. 
 
 THE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 I will not weary you even by a reference to the notorious and 
 enormous frauds that have been investigated during the past few 
 years, except that in the. District of Columbia. That cannot be 
 omitted, because it was in our national capital, and brought special 
 disgrace upon the whole people, and because, in respect to it, the 
 party has entered a plea of guilty. In 1871, the District of Colum 
 bia was placed under a new form of government. The Governor and 
 many officers, and one branch of the Legislature, were appointed by 
 the President, and the other branch was chosen by the people. The 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESYILLE. 411 
 
 opportunity to maintain good government was most favorable. It 
 was immediately under the eye of the President and his cabinet, with 
 a party so strong as to exclude all opposition. They had their way, 
 and developed their tendency. Corruption and .favoritism soon had 
 sway, and in three years the debt of the District exceeded $20,000,- 
 000. The burden became too great for the party. Before the world 
 it was admitted that, with officers appointed by the President and 
 elected by the party, they could not maintain free and pure govern 
 ment. They abandoned it, and, in the spirit of Home s government 
 of her conquered provinces, they placed the District of Columbia 
 under the control of three commissioners chosen from distant parts 
 of the. country. Free and representative government fell before cor 
 ruption in the capital of our country, and it stands as an humiliating 
 admission to the world. What answer is made to the people when 
 they complain of this most extraordinary condition of the service ? 
 Will this plea for the party be received, that,. considering the magni 
 tude of the service, there " never has been a period in the history of 
 the Government when there has been less fraud or peculation, or as 
 little as now? " There are old gentlemen who hear me to-day, whose 
 memories go back to a better time; to a period -when there was such 
 pure statesmanship, and such exalted official integrity, as inspired the 
 world with a higher confidence in free republican institutions ; to a 
 period when one single case of default aroused the indignation of the 
 whole country, and precipitated the downfall of an Administration. 
 
 What say you to the oft-repeated apology that they are active and 
 zealous in detecting, pursuing, and punishing criminal officials ? Their 
 zeal and activity may be admitted, for there is so much to do. But, 
 when they suppress fraud in one quarter, it breaks out in another. 
 In that respect, the body politic, under their treatment, 4 seems to be 
 like the body of a man whose follies and vices have brought upon 
 him disease which pervades his whole system. If, by the skill of the 
 physician, it be subdued in one part, it soon appears in another. But 
 the statement that they punish their guilty must be denied. Who 
 has been punished ? There was the case of a paymaster at Washing 
 ton City, who, for the embezzlement of above $400,000 of the public 
 money, was tried by court-martial and sentenced to the penitentiary, 
 but President Grant pardoned him within a year, and the money was 
 never returned. On the contrary, how many partisans, implicated 
 in transactions which the people have condemned, have been pro 
 moted to high offices? The Tweed defense has served them well. It 
 
412 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 matters not how many official criminals there may be, Tweed is set 
 off against each. Tweed s mantle has fallen over and covered from 
 sight more crimes than any mantle that ever fell from human shoul 
 ders. Are you, honest gentlemen, not tired of that trick ? Why not 
 let every man, rogue or s#int as he may be, stand in his own shoes 
 and be judged by his own conduct ? 
 
 CHANGE THE ONLY KEMEDY. 
 
 Do you not perceive, my fellow-citizens, that for all public evils 
 your only remedy is in a change of Administration ? This you know, 
 that when a party has been long in power and controls great patron 
 age and large sums of money, all adventurers and those who seek to 
 make money out of politics work their way, not only within its ranks, 
 but into positions of influence and party control. Naturally enough, 
 they become active managers, giving their money liberally, and by- 
 taking charge of primary elections and conventions they control, in 
 many instances, the nominations. Their hold is hard to break, and 
 it becomes the interest .of politicians to conciliate rather than to fight 
 them. That is the reason, as I suppose, why it is so difficult, if not 
 impossible, for a party to. correct abuses and evils within its own 
 organization.. 
 
 That you are convinced there should be a change of national Ad 
 ministration, I cannot question. Such changes are made upon assur 
 ances of better conduct, and of measures more consistent with. the 
 interests of the people. You may be misled, but in all efforts at re 
 form we must trust each other somewhat. Deceived, disappointed, 
 and dissatisfied, will you avail yourselves of your only remedy ? I 
 appreciate the fact that former convictions, prejudices, and associa 
 tions, stand in the way of thousands of good men, whose sympathies 
 are with the Democracy and Liberals upon the pending questions. I 
 cannot doubt that their present convictions in respect to the welfare 
 of the country will control their action. They know that, even in 
 times of the most bitter conflict, they respect many of the sentiments 
 of our party, especially those in earnest sympathy with the interests 
 of the masses of the people. They cannot and will not remain sepa 
 rate from the organized body of men that will give these sentiments 
 practical force and meaning. They know that our principles will 
 endure and bring practical results. May I quote myself in saying 
 that "organizations maybe broken and pass away, but Democracy 
 cannot die. It is endowed with the immortality of truth and right. 
 
SPEECH AT ZANESVILLE. 413 
 
 "Wherever, in all lands, men aspire to higher, freer, better govern 
 ment, and purer liberty ; wherever there is the sentiment that govern 
 ment is made for man, and not man for government, there is the spirit 
 of Democracy that will endure and yet achieve man s enfranchise 
 ment and elevation." He was a great man who said, " There can be 
 no free government without a democratical branch in the constitu 
 tion." May I not add, " There can be no free policies or adminis 
 trative measures, promoting popular rights, without the democratical 
 element and sentiment ? " 
 
 On all questions of state policy, Mr. Hendricks, during 
 his public career, has shown a thorough and masterly knowl 
 edge. There is perhaps no one matter upon which he has 
 been more solicitous than the school-system of Indiana. As 
 a member of the Constitutional Convention, he was active in 
 securing ample provision for popular education, and placing 
 its support beyond the vicissitudes of politics. Impressed 
 with the value of the work then accomplished, he has since 
 repeatedly insisted upon the most anxious watchfulness over 
 the growth and perfection of the system, and relaxed in its 
 favor hi s Democratic prejudices toward strict construction and 
 economy. This subject Mr. Hendricks touches upon in his 
 letter of acceptance, and sets forth his views in a statesman 
 like manner. 
 
 Of THE 
 * 
 OF 
 
 "RHyfe! 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 the fall of 1875 Governor Hendricks accepted an 
 invitation to speak in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the 
 Americus Club. His address was delivered on the evening of 
 Friday, October 22d. It was a superior effort, and won for 
 the Indiana statesman many warm admirers in the City of 
 Brotherly Love. The speech is appended : 
 
 ME. PEESIDENT AND FELLOW^ CITIZENS : In my visit to your great 
 city, I had no purpose of participating in the political contest that 
 is in progress in your State. 1 came here upon the invitation of the 
 merchants of your city, to see what progress had been made in the 
 preparations for the great celebration which is to take place next 
 year. From the time that Congress announced the fact that next 
 year would be celebrated as the one-hundredth of our independence 
 and establishment as a nation, my interest in the success of your 
 celebration has been most sincere and heart-felt; and when a dele 
 gation from a portion of the country from which I come prepared 
 to visit you with a view to ascertaining whether that celebration was 
 likely to prove a great success, I cheerfully joined them, and appeared 
 in your city, not for the purpose of discussing politics, but in order 
 that I might give any help of which I might be capable toward the 
 celebration of the great event which is to commemorate the estab 
 lishment of free government in America. [Great applause.] In In 
 diana, we, who have been very earnestly in favor of the success of 
 the celebration, have encountered one serious difficulty, and I allude 
 to it in this connection, inasmuch as it has a direct application to 
 your city. On the part of some of the people of the West, there 
 has been a sense of distrust and apprehension lest the Exhibition 
 would not be honestly managed in the city of Philadelphia. And 
 why? Because it has been understood out in our part of the world 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. . 415 
 
 that in the city of Philadelphia there was no longer honesty in pub 
 lic affairs, and especially was it understood that there was no longer 
 honesty in your elections ; and so it has" come to be an injury to 
 Philadelphia, that in respect to her elections she should be known as 
 a city in which the manipulation of the ballot-box, rather than the 
 comparative merits of opposing candidates, decides the result. Phil 
 adelphia should vindicate her right to recognition as a city of hon 
 est government, because she had her birth under influences of the 
 most exemplary character, and such as were calculated : to insure in 
 tegrity in respect to every public matter. A society preeminent for 
 integrity of purpose and uprightness of character laid the foundations 
 of Philadelphia s greatness, and I deem it to be the paramount duty 
 of the Democracy and the Conservative men of Philadelphia to re 
 establish for this great city a reputation for integrity in everything 
 that affects the public welfare. [Cheers.] Allow me to say one 
 thing further on this subject. The character of Philadelphia in re 
 spect to the integrity of her elections is not a matter which con 
 cerns Philadelphia alone ; this great city reaches out in, her influence 
 and in her commerce, clear to the distant State from which I come. 
 You have your commercial and business relations with the Great 
 West ; and throughout the Great West we have a pride and an interest 
 in the honor and fair fame of this mighty municipality ; and now, 
 when the main effort of the Democracy is to restore honesty in 
 all the departments of the public service, city, State, and national, it 
 seems to me proper that I should suggest this consideration in intro 
 ducing my remarks. I am gratified now to believe, as I do, that the 
 Centennial celebration is in honest hands, wholly separate from cor 
 rupt influences, and that it merits public confidence. 
 
 For the first time in the history of our country, a political party 
 has dared openly to avow its purpose of carrying the elections by the 
 use of money. All of you have doubtless seen in print the letter is 
 sued by Mr. Edmunds, the Postmaster of Washington City, who is 
 also the. Secretary of the National Republican Executive Committee, 
 in which that official calls upon all the office-holders of the United 
 States to contribute money for political purposes. Eighty thousand 
 office-holders have been called upon, and I dare say have responded 
 to the call. Indeed, that their responses were promptly made will 
 not be doubted, when it is reflected that that call meant "your office 
 or your money." It is almost identical with the highwayman s de 
 mand, " Your money or your life," and so the money was contributed. 
 
416 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 Primarily it was to be used in the mighty State of Oliip. It was 
 used there, and with what result is known to all of us. The tremen 
 dous contest shook the Great West, for it was a contest between free 
 men and money. [Long-continued cheers.] Money won it by four 
 thousand, but it is the last victory it will ever achieve in the West. 
 [Boisterous approbation.] And how is it to be in Pennsylvania in 
 this great State ? Is money or truth the stronger ? The Democracy 
 rely upon the force of truth ; the opposition upon organization, upon 
 the influence .and power of office, but more especially upon the power 
 of money. We read that centuries ago an Eastern monarch decided 
 a debate that took place before him by awarding the reward of the 
 victor to him who contended that of the three great controlling in 
 fluences, money, woman, and truth, the last mentioned was the 
 strongest. That was far back in the world s history, and now, when 
 under the refulgent light of the nineteenth century we olaim to be 
 living in a higher civilization, how is the same controversy to be 
 determined ? Is money or truth the stronger in this free land of 
 ours? 
 
 How does this debate stand before the people of Pennsylvania ? 
 For many years a great and powerful political party has held the 
 control of national and State affairs. In the Congress of the United 
 States it had a majority which defied the presidential veto and de 
 fied the influence of the vote of the Democrats. They have controlled 
 and fashioned politics in this State, where they controlled the public 
 appropriations. How is it, then, when they come before the intelli 
 gent people of Pennsylvania? Shall they continue in this power? 
 Or shall they render an account of their exercise of it in the past? 
 Who says the Democracy are on the defensive in this great argument? 
 We have not been in power, and. could not control the public policy. 
 They have ; and for whatever consequences have followed from their 
 policy they are chargeable. A few years ago they claimed that their 
 policy was beneficial; that the currency was. good in all parts of the 
 country ; that high wages prevailed and labor was productive ; that 
 everything was prosperous, and that they were entitled to the credit. 
 This was the result, they said, of Republican government and admin 
 istration. But as they claimed the reward for prosperity then, so 
 now, when we are surrounded, not by prosperity, but by adversity, 
 they must, by all fair reasoning, be held responsible. And let them 
 account for the condition in which we find ourselves. Why. is it 
 that labor seeks employment instead of employment seeking labor ? 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 417 
 
 Why is it that the products of the country seek a market instead of 
 the market seeking the products ? "Why is it that in every part of 
 this great country hard times are pressing close upon every family 
 except in particular classes ? And this, too, in a country such as no 
 other people can boast, when every acre of soil is productive, when 
 we ought to be all prosperous. Why are we not prosperous? Let 
 the Republican managers who ask a continuance in power answer 
 that question. Before they can take another step in advance, they 
 must satisfy the people that they have honestly and fairly cared for 
 the prosperity of the country. Have they made that answer ? In 
 the city, State, and nation, have they shown their responsibility for 
 the expenses being so great, ay, enormous why it is that taxation 
 is so burdensome, the earnings of labor so contracted? Let them 
 answer that question before they demand a continuance of power. 
 
 There are some questions which should be answered now not as 
 if the Democracy occupied in this controversy a defensive position, 
 but upon the fair argument that the party which has had the power 
 must respond to the people for the manner in which that power 
 has been exercised. 
 
 In respect to the finances of the country, I have a little to say to 
 you to-night, not with reference to any policy of the Democratic 
 party when that party comes into power it will be its mission to pro 
 mote business and enterprise by a good currency, sufficient for the 
 country s business [applause], ~by a good currency [cheers] ; but the 
 question to-night is, What is the policy of the Republican party in 
 respect to the finances of the country? and that policy, in my judg 
 ment, is found in two acts of Congress. The first of these, passed 
 on the 14th day of June, 1867, provided for free banking ; but at the 
 same time it provided that the greenback currency should remain at 
 three hundred and eighty-two millions of dollars ($382,000,000). 
 When the debate upon that bill was progressing, a distinguished Sena 
 tor announced to the Senate that the fair construction of the measure 
 would be, that there was to be no reduction of the greenback cur 
 rency below $382,000,000 ; and that statement was made by a Sena 
 tor from my own State a Republican Senator. They passed the 
 bill, and the country acquiesced in it, in the belief that that law, 
 especially for the time, did fix the greenback currency at $382,000,- 
 000. But before eight months rolled around a new measure was 
 introduced into the Congress of the United States a measure con 
 trary to the policy of the act of 1874. I speak now of the act of the 
 
418 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 14th day of January, 1875, commonly known as the resumption law 
 a law providing for a return to specie payments. I have a little to 
 say to you in respect to that law. It received the vote of .every Re 
 publican Senator except one. Every Democrat in the Senate voted 
 against it, and I believe every Democrat in the House also voted 
 against it. It was a square party issue. And why, I ask you, was 
 it adopted ? We find the answer in a speech that was made in the 
 State of Ohio, very recently, by Mr. Senator Sherman, chairman of 
 the Finance Committee of the Senate. He stated in his speech, in 
 opening the canvass in Ohio, that the act of January last was passed 
 because the fortunes of the Republican party required it. He stated 
 in that speech that a year ago the Republican party went into the 
 contest in all the elections in the country without any policy upon 
 the finances, and that they were beaten all along the line, and that, 
 when they met in Congress the following session, they had been 
 taught by those defeats the necessity of having a policy, and so they 
 decided upon this bill as the policy of the Republican party ; and Mr. 
 Sherman, in the speech to which I refer, stated to the people of Ohio 
 that that bill made a fixed policy, and that there was no step back 
 ward. My opinion is, that from that bill there will be " a step back 
 ward." [Deafening cheers.] It is rather extraordinary that a lead 
 ing member of a great political party should say to the people that a 
 bill has been passed to establish a party policy ; and yet the chairman 
 of the Finance Committee of the United States Senate says to the 
 -people of the country, " The Republican party needed a policy, and 
 therefore we passed the finance bill of January, 1875." Now, what 
 is that bill ? The first section of the bill directs the Secretary of the 
 Treasury to redeem the fractional currency of the country and sup 
 ply its place with silver coin. The last section of the bill directs that 
 he shall redeem on the first day of January, 1879, all the outstanding 
 legal-tender notes with gold. Now, the fractional currency last 
 month, according to the report of the Treasury Department, was 
 about $41,000,000, and the legal tenders amounted to $373,000,000. 
 So this resumption law of last winter requires that with coin the 
 currency of the country shall be taken up and redeemed to a sum 
 amounting to more than $400,000,000. The question recurs to each 
 one of .you, How is the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the cur 
 rency of the country with coin? There is no gold in the Treasury 
 for that purpose ; there is no silver in the Treasury for the purpose 
 of redeeming the fractional currency. That very question presented 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 419 
 
 itself to Congress as it presents itself to your minds to-night ; and 
 therefore, in the last section of the bill, Congress provides that -the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, in order to redeem with coin, shall sell 
 United States bonds in such quantity as shall be sufficient to enable 
 him to do this. In order to raise the gold and the silver with which 
 to take up the fractional currency and the legal-tender notes, the 
 Secretary of the Treasury will probably be required to sell United 
 States five per cent, bonds amounting to $400,000,000 ; and the 
 direct effect of this bill is to Increase the national debt in gold-bear 
 ing bonds, at the interest of five per cent., to the extent of $400,000,- 
 000, and to increase the annual interest in gold at the rate of $20,- 
 000,000. In my statement on a former occasion I estimated it at 
 about $17,000,000, but the Treasury report made in September au 
 thorizes the conclusion that it will require a sale of bonds exceeding 
 $400,000,000, and the increase of our annual interest about $20,000,- 
 000. Are you prepared for that, my countrymen ? Are the men of 
 Pennsylvania prepared to add to the gold debt of the country the 
 enormous sum of $400,000,000 for the purpose of taking up the legal- 
 tender and fractional currency of the country ? It is an important 
 question; but a, very material inquiry in connection with it is this: 
 " Where are these bonds sold ? " Of the bonds already sold I suppose 
 that up to this time not one single bond has been sold in the United 
 States. It has been the policy of this Administration to negotiate 
 the sale of- our bonds abroad. That negotiation takes place through 
 a combination of banks called, the syndicate ; and the bonds are not 
 sent to Philadelphia, they are not sent to New York, they are not 
 sent to Indianapolis, inviting the people of this country to purchase 
 them, but they are sent directly to England and sold to foreigners ; 
 and the effect is to add to our foreign debt $400,000,000, and to our 
 annual interest abroad $20,000,000. Are you prepared for this? 
 Some men talk about the Democracy not being true to the public 
 credit. I say that the man who unnecessarily proposes to increase 
 the national debt the interest-bearing, the gold-bearing debt .of the 
 country abroad is, of all men, the man who endangers the public 
 credit. [Series of cheers.] 
 
 Who, I ask, wants the legal-tenders all to be redeemed, when by 
 so doing you bring about such an increase of our national debt and 
 such an increase of our annual interest abroad ? Have the people 
 asked this ? You have, perhaps, in your pocket a legal tender. Have 
 you asked Congress to make provision for borrowing gold for the 
 
420 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 redemption of that legal tender ? Are you not satisfied with the 
 legal tender as a currency? I would rejoice if all the paper currency 
 were equal to gold, and I look forward to the time when all the 
 money of the country shall .be of equal value with gold. [Cheers.] 
 But I do not look for the attainment of that desirable result through 
 the borrowing of gold. I do not believe that a permanent, sure, and 
 reliable return to specie payment can be accomplished upon borrowed 
 gold. I think that before we return to specie payment we must have 
 gold that will remain in the country. [Applause.] Four hundred 
 millions of increase to our debt for the purpose of taking up the legal 
 tenders ! The legal tenders will be made par with gold when we 
 shall have restored the industries of this country, and returned to 
 economy in all expenditures, public and private, so that the tendency 
 of gold shall be toward our own shores and not from us. [Applause.] 
 For the present, what objection have you to the legal tenders? The 
 only objection is, that they are not on a par with gold. Have not the 
 legal tenders been the active and faithful servants of the people ? 
 Have you stopped to consider the circumstances under which they 
 were issued? It was in 1862 that the first legal .tenders were pro 
 vided for. At that time there was not sufficient gold in the country 
 to meet the requirements of the public service. The soldiers upon the 
 line of battle could not be paid in" gold, because the Government 
 could not obtain gold in sufficient quantity ; and to meet that exi 
 gency of the public service the act of February, 1862, was passed, 
 authorizing the issue of the legal tenders, and" they were issued. 
 Upon their face there is the promise of the Government to pay ; upon 
 the back of them is stamped the quality of money, that they shall be 
 a legal tender ; and the act of Congress declares them to be lawful 
 money. "Why was that done ? Because the soldier receiving his 
 money down upon the line of battle needed to send it home to his 
 wife that she might pay off his debts, that it might meet the necessi 
 ties of the family ; and so it became. necessary, in order to promote 
 the public service, that upon these bills should be stamped the quality 
 of money, that it should pass as money ; and it paid the soldier, paid 
 the soldier s debts, and from that time to this it has been the active ser 
 vant of the people. From pocket to pocket it has gone, and oh ! how 
 many stories this bill could tell if it only had ears to hear and a mouth 
 to speak ! [Laughter and cheers.] How many debts it has paid off; 
 how much property it has purchased ; but it has never been stopped 
 nor questioned until now. Eight now, when the country is in the midst 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 421 
 
 of a panic when all industry is stagnant now it is proposed to de 
 clare this to be bad money, questionable money ; and even, it is said? 
 the Government must increase our national debt in order to redeem 
 it. I would be glad if that bill were equal in value with gold, but, 
 with great respect to Congress, I do not believe that it is within the 
 power of the Congress of the United States to make my dollar bill 
 equal to your gold dollar, unless the laws of trade and commerce give 
 it that value. [Tumultuous enthusiasm, culminating in a series of 
 cheers.] 
 
 And when any political party tell you that that can be accomplished 
 by an arbitrary edict of Congress, they mislead the people. There 
 is a higher power than Congress it is the power of the trade and 
 commerce of the country. But let us look at some of the other con 
 sequences of this bill. In the first place, in my judgment, it is to 
 produce a contraction of the currency of the country, wjiich the 
 business of the country cannot endure. As the first day of January, 
 1879, the time for the redemption of greenbacks, shall approach, what 
 will be the natural effect of the law ? Every man who has money 
 that he wishes to lay aside and keep out of active employment and 
 industry, will put that money into greenbacks, so that he may have 
 the benefit of the advancing value, and thus the banks, that have to 
 redeem their currency in gold or in legal tenders, will put away the 
 greenbacks to meet the exigency when gold alone remains available 
 for redemption. The effect of the bill is to retire the legal-tender 
 currency of the country, and to .reduce the currency, upon which the 
 business and enterprise of the country are carried on, from one-third to 
 one-half at least. What is the advantage of it ? What has been the 
 effect of it up to to this time ? I believe that, when this bill was passed, 
 gold was about ten or eleven cents. It is to-day, as I understand, fif 
 teen cents. This policy of the Republican party in Congress, which 
 was intended to bring gold and paper nearer together, has had the ef 
 fect to increase the distance bet ween the two, and the present premium 
 on gold is one evidence of the results of the Eepublican policy that 
 proposes to give stability to our currency and firmness to our business. 
 Without contraction and without inflation, I believe the business and 
 enterprise of the country should be allowed to recover their impaired 
 strength. 
 
 To the business-men of Philadelphia I put the question : Can you 
 trust a party that introduced and enacted a measure so illy considered 
 as this which disturbs the whole business of the people ? 
 
432 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. . 
 
 Now, my countrymen, I will tell you wljen we can return to 
 specie payment, as I think. It will be when we have a policy that 
 promotes production, when our sales abroad shall exceed our pur 
 chases abroad ; when the gold comes to us instead of going from us. 
 "When these things have come to pass, we will then soon see a return 
 to specie payment. [Long-contimied cheering.] It would be a 
 gratification if I could tell you to-night that at a certain time all the 
 currency of the country would be of equal value, but, in treating the 
 subject in a practical way, it is my duty to present to you the diffi 
 culties in the way of a return to specie payments. These difficulties, 
 in my judgment, are due to the impediments which have been placed 
 in the way of a return to specie payments by the policy of the party 
 at Washington City. 
 
 For some years the manifest purpose of the Republican party, as 
 represented by General Grant s Administration, has been to make our 
 debt a foreign debt. I do not say that the entire debt could have 
 been negotiated in the United States, but I do say that the primary 
 purpose and effort of the Administration should have been to nego 
 tiate our bonds at home. Our bonds have been sent to Europe and 
 sold there ; and the effect of this has been to make us as a nation a 
 debtor to foreign bankers and money-holders. I know of no policy 
 that could have been more disastrous to the country. It is the very 
 reverse of that which a wise statesmanship and prudent forethought 
 would have dictated. Instead of urging their purchase by foreign 
 capitalists, the primary purpose and effort should have been to inter 
 est the people of our own country you, the people of Philadelphia, 
 and the people of Indiana in the purchase of bonds, and to promote 
 the sale of a bond here and a bond there, and of quantities larger or 
 smaller at home. No such effort has been madej but on the contrary, 
 as I have said, all the efforts of the Administration have tended solely 
 to the sale of our bonds abroad ; and now every pay-day the interest 
 must be sent to foreign countries ; and to this extent the life-blood 
 is drawn from the veins and arteries of the business of the country. 
 [Applause.] An illustration of the evil influence of this policy Occurs 
 to me in the case of Ireland. That country might have been among 
 the richest. Her soil is good, her climate delightful and promotive 
 of health and strength ; but Ireland was impoverished, because her 
 lands were held in large quantities, and because the landlords ex 
 pended their rents in extravagant living in foreign parts. If the rents 
 of Ireland had been expended in Ireland, her prosperity would have 
 
SPEECH .AT PHILADELPHIA. . 423 
 
 been far greater than it has been. So on the Pacific coast to-day 
 we are feeling the effects of a similar influence. 
 
 The Chinaman there will labor at a much lower rate of wages 
 than will the American, but he lives at much cheaper rates, and the 
 gold that he can save from his earnings he sends off to China. This 
 is an influence that is very destructive to the prosperity and develop 
 ment of the Pacific coast. 
 
 Our Government, then, in so far as it could, negotiating our debt 
 altogether abroad, has followed a policy which, in the case of Ireland 
 and of our Pacific coast, has Developed such lamentable results. 
 [Enthusiasm.] England to-day owes, I believe, a larger debt than 
 that which we owe, but England scarcely feels the burden, because her 
 debt is held by Englishmen. The French debt is held by French 
 men, and so far as Germany has any debt it is held by Germans. 
 
 I Jbelieve the United States to-day stands alone as the only one 
 of the great powers of the world whose bonds are held nearly ex 
 clusively by foreigners. 
 
 Now, I have referred to this feature of party policy, as showing 
 one of the great impediments in the way of a return to specie pay 
 ments. But glance for a moment at the other side of the picture : 
 suppose that our bonds were held in our own country, then every 
 pay-day the interest would come to our own people, and pass at 
 once into the channels of trade, stimulating and encouraging the 
 business and enterprise of the country ; but, so long as the gold goes 
 from us, a return to specie payments is by that very influence ren 
 dered every year more difficult. Let me illustrate the possibility 
 of negotiating our loan among our own people. Perhaps I cannot 
 better do this than by repeating a statement which attracted my 
 notice very recently in respect to the State of Georgia. When, a 
 few years ago, the people of Georgia finally obtained control of their 
 own affairs, they found the State finances in a very disturbed condi 
 tion ; and, in order to provide for the payment of the interest on the 
 debt and for other pressing obligations, it was necessary for them to 
 borrow $1,000,000. The State authorities issued bonds to the amount 
 of $1,200,000, in the expectation that the Treasurer of the State 
 would be able to realize upon this amount, in the city of New York, 
 about $1,000,000. The Treasurer, upon attempting to negotiate the 
 bonds in New York, found that the credit of Georgia had been so 
 much impaired that he could not sell a bond. He returned home 
 with the bonds, and then it was decided to appeal to the people of 
 
424 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 Georgia ; the bonds were accordingly advertised among the people, 
 and the consequence was, that one man took one, and another man 
 took another, and this or that guardian or trustee with money to in 
 vest took a number of them, until finally the entire loan was taken 
 by the people of Georgia, notwithstanding that that people were 
 then comparatively very poor. I refer to this incident} simply as 
 showing what it is possible to accomplish, when an honest and ear 
 nest effort is made to interest the people of a country in the work of 
 carrying their own debt. [Great cheering.] The bonds thus sold to 
 the people of Georgia are held in that State to-day, and, as the state 
 ment to which I have alluded showed, cannot now be purchased of 
 their holders at par.- 
 
 In this connection I mnst speak of the policy of the leaders in 
 their treatment of the South. You may not realize the very intimate 
 connection that exists between that policy and an early return to 
 specie payments, and it is for that reason that I here refer to it. You 
 know from the reports of the Treasury Department that, of the sales 
 we make abroad, more than one-half in value is of cotton and to 
 bacco. We boast of our wheat-crop and of the productions of our 
 rich lands in the Northwest, and these are very great, and they serve 
 to make us a rich people, but with regard to all these products a 
 large market is found at home, while our great staples that control 
 the foreign markets are cotton and tobacco. Now, at the close of the 
 war, in view of our extraordinary situation, having an immense debt 
 to meet and an enormous taxation to carry, was it not the part of 
 statesmanship and wisdom to encourage the production of cotton and 
 tobacco, and rice and sugar, in the largest possible quantities. A 
 bale of cotton rolled from the ship on to the wharf at Liverpool is 
 gold, for the coin value of it comes back to us in the next steamer. 
 A package of tobacco landed at Havre, in France, is gold, for the 
 Government of France buys our tobacco, and, if desired, the gold for 
 it comes back in the next returning steamer. If we could only sell 
 two bales of cotton and two caddies of tobacco where now we sell 
 but one, how long, think you, would we be delayed in returning to 
 specie payments ? [An uproar of cheers, and cries of approbation.] 
 Now, my fellow-citizens, is it not very plain to you that the dictate 
 of statesmanship was to encourage the South by promoting good 
 government there, and thereby accelerating the production of these 
 great staples which control the gold-market, and ultimately turning 
 the current of gold once more in our own favor ? A great writer 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 425 
 
 once said that he was the truest friend of man who made two blades 
 of grass to grow where but one grew before ; and so, from the close 
 of the war up to this time, it has been the dictate of statesmanship to 
 have two bales, of cotton, if possible, where there was but one be 
 fore. But the Republican party declared we should have but half a 
 bale where before we had already one whole bale. [Here the Gov 
 ernor s voice was drowned in the plaudits with which the immense 
 audience ratified his assertion.] They said to the country, "It is 
 better to maintain the supremacy of the Republican party rule in the 
 South than it is to promote the great industries of the country." 
 They disregarded the fact, which is so well known to you, that the 
 cotton product is an element of national wealth which is as essential 
 to the credit of the North as of the South. Why, gentlemen, is not 
 the wheat that is grown upon the rich lands of Indiana a part of the 
 wealth of Philadelphia as well as the wheat that grows in Chester 
 County ? [Cheers.] Ah, gentlemen, it was the teaching of a wise 
 statesmanship to promote the industries of the South, and it was the 
 dictate of Christianity and of all religion that the past relations of 
 the two sections should be speedily restored. Every religious or 
 charitable consideration appealed to you and to me, and to all of us 
 whose ears were more open to the appeals of suffering humanity 
 than to the narrow-minded demands of party, to close up the breach, 
 and said to us: "The war is over, the winds of heaven have blown 
 away the smoke of the battle ; we are one people, one flag once more 
 floats over us all ; one Constitution establishes the framework of gov 
 ernment for us all, and one .destiny awaits us all. Let us in heart 
 and in hand, in sentiment, in affection, and fraternity, be again one 
 people." [Here the audience responded to the patriotic sentiments of 
 the speaker by rising tumnltuously, and waving hats and handker 
 chiefs, while making the hall ring with their fervid huzzas.] 
 
 I repeat that stern statesmanship and mild-eyed religion came to 
 us together with one message, saying, Restore the old relations of 
 amity and concord between all the parts of the distracted country, 
 and have prosperity in every portion thereof. [Applause.] But how 
 has it been with us ? Virginia several years ago was able to recover 
 her eel f -government; Georgia soon after resumed control of her own 
 affairs ; and finally North Carolina came in, and then Texas, and at 
 last Arkansas ; and, just as soon as self-government was restored to 
 all these States, it "seemed as if blessings literally rained down from 
 heaven upon the people. They once more built up their waste places ; 
 
426 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 the bramble was taken from their fields, and the cotton-plant, the 
 sugar-cane, the tobacco-plant, and the corn, placed in the ground, and 
 prosperity reappeared. [Cheers.] 
 
 How is it to-day in Mississippi where an outsider is the govern 
 ment ? [Merriment.] How is it to-day in the State of Louisiana, 
 where a man is the Governor whom the people never did elect [appro 
 bation], a man who is held in his position as Governor by the military 
 power of the nation ? The taxes in.Louisiana to-day exceed the rental 
 of the property. In the State of Georgia, since free government has 
 been restored there, the taxation, as I have seen it stated, is one-half of 
 one per cent, upon the value of the property. Our fathers discovered 
 the true theory of American government, and that was, that affairs 
 purely national and those connecting us with other nations should be 
 committed to the Federal authority, but that local matters of domestic 
 policy, and all those which reach to the home-life of the people, shall 
 be left to the States. [Applause.] And wherever we stand by that 
 doctrine it seems that Heaven blesses us and the earth gives forth her 
 fruits in most prolific abundance. Now, I know of no greater honor 
 than that which the people of Indiana did me three years ago that 
 great people when they selected me as the chief executive officer of 
 the State [great cheering, renewed again and again, as the Governor 
 attempted to proceed] ; but, on the other hand, I know no greater 
 humiliation that could bend my head down to the dust than the re 
 flection that in my official capacity I could ever appeal to General 
 Grant as the President of the United States for military force to keep 
 me in my office. [General renewal of the enthusiasm.] 
 
 Contrast the States which have been cursed by this Republican 
 policy with those which have escaped it. In Indiana to-day our taxa 
 tion for ordinary State purposes, not including pur schools, is thirteen 
 cents on the one hundred dollars ; in Louisiana the rate is six dollars 
 on the one hundred. In Indiana the people, according to the Amer 
 ican theory, control their own affairs, select the members of the 
 Legislature, who enact laws according to the pleasure of their con 
 stituents, and, if there be any dispute as to the right of a member to a 
 seat in the body in which he claims membership, the body settles the 
 question according to its sovereign will, and there is no violent inter 
 ference with that decision. But in Louisiana a foul breach was made 
 in the body of American institutions, and the blood of liberty did 
 flow when a military power went into the capital of the State, and at 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 427 
 
 the point of the bayonet excluded five members-elect, and substituted 
 five others in their stead who had not been elected. 
 
 Coming back to the proposition that this policy which interferes 
 with the production of the great staples of the South has been the 
 same which stood in the way of a return to specie payments, allow 
 me a passing allusion to another development of this Southern policy. 
 You are appealed to frequently about the interests of the colored man ; 
 but let me inquire, by way of giving you a suggestion, in what States 
 are there any allegations of trouble between the races ? Have you 
 heard of any trouble between the white man and the black man in 
 Virginia, in Texas, in Arkansas even, since she became free [laughter 
 and cheers], or in any of the States that, like her, haye governments 
 of their own choosing? But in Louisiana and in Mississippi there are 
 troubles all the while, because and I can conceive of no other reason 
 because it is to the interest of those who are not of the people there 
 to keep up a strife, that they may make political gain by it. [Applause.] 
 I say to you, my countrymen, that the two races in the South are 
 interested in the restoration and preservation of good government 
 there, and that the people of the North are directly interested in the 
 maintenance of good government there, and the promotion of all their 
 industries. Speculators may thrive under bad government, but the 
 life and support of agriculture, that original pursuit of man, depend 
 upon the fair administration of honest laws, and upon light taxation. 
 We must allow the people of the South to restore that kind of govern 
 ment, and then prosperity will come to that section as to ours. 
 
 To summarize briefly my views about a return to specie pay 
 ments, my fellow-citizens, they are that Congress cannot arbitrarily 
 bring it about ; but that, with the encouragement of the develop 
 ment of the agricultural resources of the South and North, the re 
 newal of all the industries of the country, specie payments will be 
 restored in exact harmony with the laws of trade and commerce. 
 Then the golden current will again flow toward our shores, not to be 
 checked; and we will have a permanent support for specie payments, 
 and a permanent basis of prosperity. Another hinderance in the 
 way of a return to specie payments, to which I might, with propri 
 ety, have alluded at some length, is attributable to the extravagant 
 expenditures of the national Government ; I shall not comment 
 upon the enormity of the amount that is collected from the people of 
 Philadelphia, or upon what on earth is done with it [laughter and 
 applause], but I must express something of the surprise I felt to-day 
 
428 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 . when- somebody told me that the taxation in Philadelphia amounted 
 to about $8,000,000 per year: I did not think that this could be 
 possible, and then I was further notified that the debt was being in 
 creased beyond that amount at a rate of $5,000,000 per year. I do 
 not know how that is [renewed merriment and applause], but indeed 
 you will need to be a very prosperous people if you are to long sup 
 port so costly a municipality. Why, our people in Indiana think 
 that the State administration is quite expensive enough when it costs 
 for ordinary purposes but a little less than $1,000,000. With a popu 
 lation of nearly 2,000,000 people, the aggregate expenditures for 
 our legislative, executive, and judicial departments foot up less than 
 $1,000,000, and the people of Indiana think that $1,000,000 per 
 year provides them a good government. Eated according to popu 
 lation, this would be about fifty cents per head, and I think myself 
 that, comparatively considered, it is at least a cheap government. 
 If, with a population of 750,000, you expend here in carrying on 
 your local government the enormous yearly aggregate of $8,000,000, 
 I have only to say that the rate of assessment is much higher than 
 that of fifty cents a head. 
 
 But if that suits the people of Philadelphia, it is their business, 
 not mine ; I have nothing to do with that, but with respect to the 
 manner in which General Grant and his 80,000 office-holders spend 
 the public money that is my question as well as yours. [Applause.] 
 Since the close of the war, in 1865, there has been collected by the 
 United States authorities each year, I believe, on an average, nearly 
 or quite $350,000,000 ; and that for ten years would make an aggre 
 gate of $3,500,000,000. Positively, it confuses me to express it an 
 amount nearly twice the present national debt. Now, before the 
 people . of Pennsylvania should consent to a continuance of this 
 power, it would be better that there should be an investigation and 
 an answer made as to what has been done with this enormous sum 
 of money. But coming down to the last year we find, according to 
 the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, that the entire expendi 
 tures for the year were above $300,000,000, while the account of 
 expenses for ordinary purposes footed up $285,000,000. Deducting 
 from that sum the appropriation for pensions, and the outlay on 
 account of the interest on the public debt, we will have left -for the 
 last year, $149,000,000. Now, tell me what was done with $149,- 
 000,000 last year. No part of it went to pay anything that was the 
 result of the war ; the pensions and the interest on the debt were all 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 429 
 
 provided for over and above the $149,000,000. " For ordinary ex 
 penditures of the Government, $149,000,000." Where did it go? 
 What has become of the $149,000,000 ? Before the war the national 
 expenditures for all purposes amounted to from $50,000,000 to 
 $60,000,000. 
 
 They are three dollars now for every one then. What becomes 
 of the money ? They have said they could not appropriate anything 
 for the Centennial they could not afford it ? [Laughter and ap 
 plause.] Ah ! there is much that they cannot afford, that they would 
 never leave unprovided for. [Renewed laughter.] 
 
 A few days ago I asked a friend of mine, who has been a member 
 of Congress for a number of years, one of the most attentive mem 
 bers, and one of the most careful in respect to the interests of the 
 people of the country, Judge Holman [applause] I asked him how 
 much of a reduction could be made in the public expenditures per 
 year without impairing the public service, but at the same time 
 maintaining it in a condition as efficient as that in which it now is. 
 He replied, " At least $40,000,000 per year." Think of it ! A sav 
 ing of $40,000,000 per year in the national expenditures ! W T hy, I 
 ask you, what length of time would be necessary to take us in the 
 direction of a return to specie payments if a policy such as that was 
 adopted ? [Great cheering.] - 
 
 Next in importance in this connection is the corruption that per 
 vades the public service. Let them tell the dark story, and give a 
 reason for it before they come before the people of Pennsylvania for 
 a renewal of their power. Shall we take the Interior Department 
 alone? Shall -we speak of the Indian service? Why, when your 
 worthy chairman, Judge Campbell, was a member of. one of the 
 purest cabinets that ever presided over American interests, when the 
 Indians were much more numerous than they are now, the Indian 
 expenditures were but about $2,500,000. In Mr. Lincoln s Adminis 
 tration, as you will see by his message of December, 1863, the In 
 dian expenditures were a little less than $3,000,000. In his message 
 he states the total expense for the Indians and the pensions at 
 $4,200,000, and that the pensions were above $1,000,000 at that time, 
 leaving the expenses of the Indians in Mr. Lincoln s Administration 
 at less than $3,000,000. The. last report from the department shows 
 "that the Indian service last year cost $6,692,000 nearly three dollars 
 for one as compared with Mr. Lincoln s Administration ; fully three 
 dollars for one as compared with President Pierce s Administration ? 
 
430 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 Where has the money gone ? Tell me, you good- men, you men who 
 may be afraid of the Pope [laughter] and some bad influences in that 
 direction tell me, where has the money gone ? [Applause.] A citi 
 zen of Philadelphia has told us something on this subject a Mr. 
 Welsh, not a Democrat, but, I believe from all I hear of him, a very 
 honest man [cheers] and there has been a committee whitewashing 
 the whole subject lately. They say it is not so bad as they expected ; 
 not so bad as Mr. Welsh thinks it is, and not so bad but what it 
 might be worse [prolonged merriment and applause] ; and they say 
 it was rather a mistake. [Renewed humor.] But there is no " mis 
 take " in this, that, when the Indians were more numerous than they 
 are now, it cost Mr. Lincoln less than $3,000,000, and it cost, under 
 the present corruption, more than $6,000,000. There is no "mis 
 take " about that ; and, when one Republican comes to another and 
 says, " Stand in line, stand with your toe upon the party line," let 
 him who is thus addressed ask the question, " What became of the 
 Indian money?" Mr. Welsh, in a statement made by .him, makes 
 an extract from a letter that was written last April by an army-officer 
 who had been stationed at the &ed Cloud Agency last winter. Out 
 there the Indians were supplied with blankets that were too short to 
 cover their poor bodies and too thin to keep the winds of heaven 
 from them ; and this army-officer s letter, from which Mr. Welsh 
 quotes, contains this ominous sentence I give you the substance, if 
 not the exact language " The Indians are quiet now." How pain 
 fully we are reminded of the circumstances which gave rise to that 
 other sententious saying, " Order reigns in Warsaw ! " This was ut 
 tered at a time when- the power of .the Russian Government had de 
 stroyed all liberty and all personal rights in poor Poland. u The In 
 dians are quiet now ! " And the letter goes on to state that during 
 the preceding winter many of them came very near starvation, be 
 cause of the intrigues and corruption of the "Indian Ring," and it 
 goes on to state that they were compelled to eat dogs and wolves 
 and ponies as their only subsistence. Ah, " the money was paid by 
 the Government! " Yes, two dollars for every one that was paid 
 before ; and yet these poor victims of the selfish avarice and corrup 
 tion of other men were obliged, in order to maintain life, to eat that 
 which was not fit for any human stomach. But we need not go out 
 to the Plains to understand this subject. You recollect last spring 
 there was a good deal of talk about the Black Hill country, and that 
 certain white people were determined to have that country; and so, 
 
SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 431 
 
 in May last, tliey sent out for the Indians to come in and make a 
 treaty for the sale of the Black Hill country to the white men. If 
 you will turn to the newspapers of the 1st or 2d day of June, 
 you will see an account of a very dramatic scene in the Interior De 
 partment at Washington City. On the 1st day of June last, Mr. 
 Delano, the Secretary of the Interior, was in his office. By his side 
 was a bishop, and with him the Commissioner of Indian Affairs the 
 telegraph gives this account and the Indians were brought up from 
 the tavern at which they were staying in Washington, and they were 
 told that the white men wanted their country, and that it was very 
 hard to keep the white men out of it. But the Indians replied that 
 they did not want to sell the Black Hill country, their favorite hunt 
 ing-ground. Just then, Mr. Delano told them, " If you don t take, 
 within the next thirty days, the $25,000 that I have offered you for 
 the Black Hill country, the probability is that you will not get any 
 thing for it." Here was this mighty people, of whom you constitute 
 a part, saying to these poor barbarians, " We are stronger than you, 
 and .you must take what we offer, or maybe we will give you noth 
 ing." And when that barbarous sentiment was uttered to the poor 
 Indian, old Bed Cloud, one of the chiefs, arose, and, lifting his hand 
 toward heaven, said, "Great Spirit, hear me, have mercy upon me, 
 pity me ! " Put side by side the pure prayer of that speech and the 
 intrigues of an American statesman ! [Tremendous applause.] I am 
 in favor of going back to the sentiment of Andrew Jackson (cheers], 
 which was this : The Indian must-be made to obey the authority of 
 the country, and the white man to respect the rights of the Indian. 
 [Cheers.] And that is the sentiment that will preserve peace upon 
 the border, and make the farmer upon the frontier, with his family, 
 secure in their little cabin. 
 
 My fellow-citizens, I would like to talk to you at greater length 
 about. the frauds that have pervaded the public service. They com 
 mence in the high places, and go down to the low places. They are 
 not any longer concealed ; they cannot be longer concealed. One 
 hundred and fifty millions ($150,000,000) expended for the ordinary 
 purposes of Government ! Where has the money gone ? That is the 
 question. Let them answer it. I know there are Republicans who 
 very much dislike to leave their party and join the Democrats and the 
 Liberals ; but then you have to come to it, you know. [Good-humor 
 and applause.] You may as well come now as at any time. [Laugh 
 ter and cheers.] You cannot stand it always ; you know your party 
 
432 THE LIFE OF THOMAS -A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 is in the wrong ; you know there ought to be a change ; so it is -a 
 good time to come now. [Renewed hilarity.] Ah, they have been 
 encouraged by the result of Ohio ! [Derisive laughter.] It is a great 
 encouragement indeed when, with all the power of party discipline 
 and the expenditure of enormous sums of money, a Republican 
 State, heretofore usually Republican by thirty thousand, could only 
 be saved to -their party by a poor four thousand votes. [Cheers.] 
 Now I say to these Republicans that their only remedy is to change ; 
 you cannot bring about reforms in your own party, and you have seen 
 the failure of the effort repeatedly. What has the indignant protest 
 of Mr. Welsh, of your city, amounted to ? When he. came out and 
 exposed corruption, a committee was appointed to cover up his ex 
 posure. What can he do ? The only remedy is to turn the party 
 out.. I do not claim that the one party is naturally more corrupt than 
 the other ; I suppose that if there were no parties in the country, 
 and you were to divide the country into two parties, there would be 
 as many scoundrels on the one side as on the other ; but if the one 
 gets in power and remains in power for a number of years, with the 
 control of large expenditures and vast patronage, do you not know 
 that all the adventurers and sharp fellows and scoundrels on the 
 other side would soon come across here ? Do you not know that 
 this class would soon usurp the places of influence and power that 
 they would soon control the primary conventions and meetings of 
 the party ? And do you not know that politicians would soon make 
 court to them instead of fighting them ? I repeat, the only remedy 
 is to turn out, and try a new set. It is the only remedy of the peo 
 ple, and I hope Pennsylvania will set the example. 
 
 Pennsylvania is a great State, powerful in every respect ; and if 
 she will only place herself this year upon the side of reform, econo- 
 .my, .and pure government, oh, what an influence it will have over the 
 whole country and the world ! [Applause.] You know how it is in 
 respect to your private affairs. If you have an agent in the con 
 trol of your affairs, and you find that your debts are increasing and 
 your property decreasing, even if you cannot find where the fault is, 
 you will inaugurate a change before you are entirely ruined. If you 
 find your favorite physician cannot cope with a disease that has come 
 into your family, you will call into that family a new physician, and 
 see if possibly some remedy cannot be found. So I appeal to you 
 now, as the only remedy left you, to bring about a change. This Re 
 publican party has been in power full too long for the good of the 
 
-SPEECH AT PHILADELPHIA. 433 
 
 country. Let a change be made ; and if that change.be not for the 
 better, then, when experience shall show us that there ought to be a 
 change the other way, I will trust to the intelligence and the integ 
 rity of the people again to change, and place public affairs where 
 they ought to be. [Long-continued enthusiasm and manifestations 
 of approbation, culminating, at the suggestion of several in the audi 
 ence, in three rounds of cheers for the next President Hon. Thos. 
 A. Hendricks, of Indiana.] 
 
 19 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 
 
 . GOVERNOR HENDRICKS has been frequently assailed by 
 his political opponents for his approval of what is commonly 
 known as "the Baxter law" an act passed by the State 
 Legislature in 1873. That his views on this question may 
 be fully understood, a brief summary of the case is herewith 
 given : 
 
 Both branches of the Indiana Legislature in 1873 were 
 Republican. It was this Legislature which, upon the recom 
 mendation of Governor Conrad Baker, Governor Hendricks s 
 immediate predecessor, passed the Baxter law. That law 
 was framed with a view to suppressing the use of intoxicat 
 ing liquors, and was both rigid in its provisions and severe in 
 its penalties. Six weeks after his inauguration, the bill was 
 presented to Governor Hendricks for his signature. It was 
 distasteful to him in every particular, yet he knew that, 
 whether he vetoed it or not, it would become a law. More- 
 over, in order to interpose the Executive veto, it was neces 
 sary to discover some constitutional objection to the bill. 
 His own judgment as a lawyer was to the effect that the law 
 was not in conflict with the constitution. On so important a 
 question as this, however, which had been thrust suddenly 
 upon him, Governor Hendricks was not willing to abide his 
 own conclusion. Accordingly, he invited a conference of able 
 lawyers, who, after a careful review of the proposed law, con 
 firmed the Governor in his judgment, that the Baxter bill 
 was, in its main features, a constitutional enactment. He 
 therefore signed the bill. 
 
HIS VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 435 
 
 An effort was made to create the impression that the 
 Supreme Court of Indiana decided the Baxter law to be un 
 constitutional. Such was not the case. Except as to one 
 unimportant section, the Supreme Court held that the law 
 was constitutional in every respect. It was saddled .upon 
 the people of Indiana by a Republican Legislature, arid 
 against the wishes of the people. Governor Hendricks was 
 anxious for its repeal, and desirous of substituting a judicious 
 license law. From the speech which he delivered at Indian 
 apolis before the Democratic State Convention in July, 1874, 
 the following extract, relating to the subject of temperance 
 legislation, is made : 
 
 I think the Democracy, on the 13th of October, are expected to 
 declare, in plain terms, what legislation you approve in regard to the 
 sale of intoxicating liquors. My official duty places me in a respon 
 sible relation to this subject. I signed the law now in force, known 
 as the Baxter bill, though I thought some of its provisions unwise 
 and impolitic. Before signing the bill I examined it with all the 
 care the time allowed would permit. I called to my assistance two 
 of the ablest lawyers of the State, and I came to the conclusion that 
 its provisions were not in violation of the constitution. It was not 
 a case of hasty or inconsiderate legislation. It was deliberately con 
 sidered in both branches of the Legislature. Believing the bill to be 
 constitutional, and that it expressed the deliberate judgment and will 
 of the Legislature, it was my duty to sign it. I believe the veto- 
 power is conferred to arrest unconstitutional and hasty legislation, 
 and legislation in derogation of fundamental and essential rights, such 
 as the equality of representation, and not to enable the Governor to 
 oppose his opinions to those of the people s immediate representatives 
 upon questions of mere policy or police regulation. That law has 
 not received the popular support necessary to make it efficient. It 
 has encountered determined hostility on the part of those engaged in 
 the liquor-business, and for many months* extreme temperance peo 
 ple, in a very extraordinary manner, have shown an unwillingness to 
 abide by its provisions. 
 
 Propositions will be brought before the next Legislature for the 
 material modification or repeal of the law. What legislation shall 
 take its place? Our Supreme Court has declared absolute prohibi- 
 
436 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 tion to be unconstitutional, and experience, I believe, has shown it 
 to be impracticable. It then only remains to regulate the traffic. 
 
 Any useful law must rest upon the proposition that there are 
 serious evils to society and to individuals connected with the traffic 
 in intoxicating liquors, which it is the province of the law to restrain 
 and prevent. Sales should not be made to boys ; and, if necessary to 
 prevent it, the boy who misrepresents or conceals his age to obtain 
 liquor should be punished as well as the party who knowingly sells 
 to him. Drunkenness should be punished as well as selling to the 
 intoxicated. All sales should be forbidden w 7 hen the public peace or 
 safety requires it; and, like other pursuits, it should be suspended in 
 the night-time. Perhaps the hour now fixed is unnecessarily and in 
 conveniently early, but society should be protected from the disturb 
 ances and bloodshed incident to the traffic in the middle of the 
 night. 
 
 I think it might properly be considered whether a difference in 
 regulation could not safely be made for the sale of vinous and malt 
 liquors, and the stronger and more intoxicating drinks. There is 
 certainly a great difference in the evils that result from their use. 
 
 "With these and such other provisions as may seem reasonable 
 and necessary, I think experience justifies the adoption of the license 
 system. The amount required for the license in each case should be 
 greater than heretofore. It should be sufficient to make the party 
 selling feel that his interest is identified with that of society in pre 
 serving order and good conduct at his place of business, and avoiding 
 all violations of law. This policy will bring a large revenue into the 
 school-fund, and will prove more efficient in suppressing the evils of 
 intemperance than the present system. I cannot appreciate the ob 
 jection that, by receiving a license-fee, society uses money received 
 from an improper source. Under the present law the State grants 
 the permit, and declares the business lawful. Under a policy which 
 we have long maintained, every violation of our criminal law that is 
 punished by fines adds to the school-fund. No law upon this subject 
 can be useful unless supported by public opinion in its favor. The 
 wise legislator considers the weakness as well as the strength, the 
 follies as well as the wisdom of man, and adapts the laws to his real 
 wants and necessities. 
 
 This speech was reiterated by all the Democratic speak 
 ers who canvassed Indiana during 1874. Governor Hendricks 
 
HIS VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 437 
 
 himself repeated the sentiment which it contained, and fol 
 lowed up his speeches by a forcible recommendation to the 
 Legislature, when that body assembled in January, 1875. In 
 his annual message he said : 
 
 The act of February 27, 1873, regulating the sale of intoxicating 
 liquors, has not accomplished the good that was expected by its ad 
 vocates. It has not been sufficiently in accord with public opinion to 
 be efficient or useful. It has been the cause of irritation without 
 remedying the evils it was intended to suppress. The duty rests 
 upon you to revise and reform that legislation. In the discharge of 
 that duty, you will assume that there are evils to society and to indi 
 viduals connected with the traffic in intoxicating liquors which it is 
 the province of law to restrain and prevent. Sales should not be 
 made to boys ; and drunkenness should be punished as well as selling 
 to the intoxicated ; and the minor who misrepresents or conceals his 
 age to obtain liquor should be punished as well as the person who 
 knowingly sells to him. Sales should be fordidden when the public 
 peace or safety requires it. Like other pursuits it should be suspend 
 ed after a reasonable hour in the night, so as to avoid the disturb 
 ances incident to the traffic at that time. It should be made unlawful 
 to buy whenever it is made unlawful to sell, and punishment should 
 be inflicted upon the purchaser as well as the seller. 
 
 I recommend that a reasonable tax, or license-fee, be imposed. 
 It should be higher than heretofore, and subject to forfeiture of the 
 license for disregard of the law. That policy will bring a large reve 
 nue into the school-fund, if so directed, and at the same time identify 
 the interest of the party selling ivith that of society, in preserving 
 order and good conduct at his place of business. 
 
 I suggest, for your consideration, whether it is not practicable to 
 make a difference of regulation in respect to the sale of vinous and 
 malt liquors and the stronger and more intoxicating drinks. There 
 is a great difference in the evils that result from their use. 
 
 It is perhaps proper to add that the license law has worked 
 most satisfactorily in Indiana, and has added hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars to the school revenues ; and the law, as 
 it now exists, was to a great extent the result of Governor 
 Hendricks s personal and official efforts. It has resulted in 
 abating the evil of intemperance, and is placing the legiti- 
 
438 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 mate traffic upon a permanent and satisfactory basis. The 
 assertion that the Germans of Indiana are hostile to Mr. Hen- 
 dricks, because of his official conduct in this matter, is wholly 
 without foundation in fact. The Germans who are Demo 
 crats are satisfied with his course, and will give him their 
 hearty support. 
 
 Governor Hendricks s letter, accepting the Democratic 
 nomination for the vice-presidency, was published simulta 
 neously with Governor Tilden s letter of acceptance. It reads 
 as follows : 
 
 GOVERNOR HENDRICKS 1 8 LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, July 24, 1876. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
 of your communication, in which you have formally notified 
 me of my nomination by the National Democratic Convention 
 at St. Louis as their candidate for the office of Vice-President 
 of the United States. It is a nomination which I had neither 
 expected nor desired ; and yet I recognize, and appreciate the 
 high honor done me by the convention. The choice of such a 
 body, pronounced with such unusual unanimity, and accom 
 panied with so generous an expression of esteem and confi 
 dence, ought to outweigh all merely personal desires and 
 preferences of my own. It is with . this feeling, and I trust 
 also from a deep sense of public duty, that I now accept the 
 nomination, and shall abide the judgment of my countrymen. 
 
 It would have been impossible for me to accept the nomi 
 nation if I could not heartily indorse the platform of the con 
 vention. I am gratified, therefore, to be able unequivocally 
 to declare that I agree in the principles, approve the policies, 
 and sympathize with the purposes enunciated in that plat 
 form. 
 
 The institutions of our country have been sorely tried by 
 the exigencies of civil war, and, since the peace, by a selfish 
 and corrupt management of public affairs, which has shamed 
 us before civilized mankind. By unwise and partial legisla- 
 
HIS VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 439 
 
 tion every industry and interest of the people have been made 
 to suffer ; and in the executive departments of the Govern 
 ment dishonesty, rapacity, and venality, have debauched the 
 public service. Men known to be unworthy have been pro 
 moted, while others have been degraded for fidelity to official 
 duty. Public office has been made the means of private 
 profit, and the country has been offended to see a class of 
 men who boast the friendship of the sworn protectors of the 
 state amassing fortunes by defrauding the public Treasury, 
 and by corrupting the servants of the people. In such a 
 crisis of the history of the country I rejoice that the conven 
 tion at St. Louis has so nobly raised the standard of reform. 
 Nothing can be well with us or with our aifairs until the pub 
 lic conscience, shocked by the enormous evils and abuses 
 which prevail, shall have demanded and compelled an unspar 
 ing reformation of our national Administration, " in its head 
 and in its members." In such a reformation the, removal of a 
 single officer, even the President, is comparatively a trifling 
 matter, if the system which he represents, and which has fos 
 tered him as he has fostered it, is suffered to remain. The 
 President alone must not be made the scape-goat for the enor 
 mities of the system which infects the public service and 
 threatens the destruction of our institutions. In some re 
 spects I hold that the present Executive has been the victim 
 rather than the author of that vicious system. Congressional 
 and party leaders have been stronger than the President. No 
 one man could have created it, and the removal of no one 
 man can amend it. It is thoroughly corrupt, and must be 
 swept remorselessly away by the selection of a Government 
 composed of elements entirely new and pledged to radical re 
 form. 
 
 The first work of reform must evidently be the restoration 
 of the normal operation of the Constitution of the United 
 States, with all its amendments. The necessities of war can 
 not be pleaded in a time of peace ; the right of local self- 
 government as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Union 
 
440 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRlCKS. 
 
 must be everywhere restored, and the centralized (almost per 
 sonal) imperialism which has been practised must be done 
 away, or the first principles of the republic will be lost. 
 
 EEPEAL OF THE EESUMPTIOX CLAUSE. 
 
 Our financial system of expedients must be reformed. 
 Gold and silver are the real standard of values, and our na 
 tional currency will not be a perfect medium of exchange 
 until it shall be convertible at the pleasure of the holder. As 
 I have heretofore said, no one desires a return to specie pay 
 ments more earnestly than I do ; but I do not believe that it 
 will or can be reached in harmony with the interests of the 
 people by artificial measures for the contraction of the cur 
 rency, any more than I believe that wealth or permanent pros 
 perity can be created by an inflation of the currency. The 
 laws of finance cannot b.e disregarded with impunity. The 
 financial policy of the Government, if indeed it deserves the 
 name of policy at all, has been in disregard of those laws, 
 and therefore has disturbed commercial and business confi 
 dence, as well as hindered a return to specie payments. One 
 feature of that policy was the resumption clause of the act of 
 1875, which has embarrassed the country by the anticipation 
 of a compulsory resumption, for which no preparation was 
 made, and without any assurance that it would be practicable. 
 The repeal of that clause is necessary, that the natural opera 
 tion of financial laws may be restored, that the business of 
 the country may be relieved from its disturbing and depress 
 ing influence, and that a return to specie payments may be 
 facilitated by the substitution of wiser and more prudent leg 
 islation, which shall mainly rely on a judicious system of pub 
 lic economies and official retrenchments, and, above all, on 
 the promotion of prosperity in all the industries of the 
 people. 
 
 I do not understand the repeal of the resumption clause 
 of the act of 1875 to be a backward step in our return to spe 
 cie payments, but the recovery of a false step ; and, although 
 
HIS VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 441 
 
 the repeal may for. a time be prevented, yet the determination 
 of the Democratic party on this subject has now been dis 
 tinctly declared. There should be no hinderances put in the 
 way of a return to specie payments. " As such a hinderance," 
 says the platform of the St. Louis Convention, " we denounce 
 the resumption clause of the act of 1875, and demand its re 
 peal." 
 
 I thoroughly believe that by public economy, by official 
 retrenchments, and by wise finance, enabling us to accumulate 
 the precious metals, resumption, at an early period, is possible 
 without producing an " artificial scarcity of currency," or dis 
 turbing public or commercial credit ; and that these reforms, 
 together with the restoration of pure government, will restore 
 general confidence, encourage the useful investment of capital, 
 furnish employment to labor, and relieve the country from the 
 " paralysis of hard times." 
 
 NEEDED KEFOKMS. 
 
 With the industries of the people there have been fre 
 quent interferences. Our platform truly says that many 
 industries have been impoverished to subsidize a few. Our 
 commerce has been degraded, to an inferior position on the 
 high-seas ; manufactures have been diminished ; agriculture 
 has been embarrassed ; and the distress of the industrial 
 classes demands that these things shall be reformed. 
 
 The burdens of the people must also be lightened by a 
 great change in our system of public expenses. The profligate 
 expenditure which increased taxation from five dollars per 
 capita in 1860 to eighteen dollars in 1870 tells its own story 
 of our need of fiscal reform. 
 
 Our treaties with foreign powers should also be revised 
 and amended, in so far as they leave citizens of foreign birth 
 in any particular less secure -in any country on earth than 
 they would be if they had been born upon our own soil ; and 
 the iniquitous coolie system, which, through the agency of 
 wealthy companies, imports Chinese bondmen, and establishes 
 
442 THE LIFE OF THOMAS A. IIENDRICKS. 
 
 a species of slavery, and interferes with, the just rewards of 
 labor on our Pacific coast, should be utterly abolished. 
 
 In the reform of our civil service, I most heartily indorse 
 that section of the platform which declares that the civil sei*- 
 vice ought not to be " subject to change at every election," 
 and that it ought not to be made " the brief reward of party 
 zeal," but ought to be awarded for proved competency, and 
 held for fidelity in the public employ. I hope never again to 
 see the cruel and remorseless proscription for political opin 
 ions which has digraced the Administration of the last eight 
 years. Bad as the civil service now is, as all know, it has 
 some men of tried integrity and proved ability. Such men, 
 and such men only, should be retained in office ; but no man 
 should be retained, on any consideration, who has prostituted 
 his office to the purposes of partisan intimidation of compul 
 sion, or who has furnished money to corrupt the elections. 
 This is done, and has been done, in almost every county of 
 the land. It is a blight upon the morals of the country, and 
 ought to be reformed. 
 
 THE SCHOOLS AND EQUAL EIGHTS. 
 
 Of sectional contentions and in respect to our common 
 schools I have only this to say : That, in my judgment, the 
 man or party that would involve our schools in political or 
 sectarian controversy is an enemy to the schools. The com 
 mon schools are safer under the protecting care of all the 
 people than under the control of any party or sect. They 
 must be neither sectarian nor partisan, and there must be 
 neither division nor misappropriation of the funds for their 
 support. Likewise I regard the man who would arouse or 
 foster sectional animosities and antagonisms among his coun 
 trymen as a dangerous enemy to his country. All the people 
 must be made to feel and know that once more there is estab 
 lished a purpose and policy under which all citizens of every 
 condition, race, and color, will be secure in the enjoyment of 
 whatever rights the Constitution and laws declare or recog- 
 
HIS VIEWS ON TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 443 
 
 nize ; and that in controversies that may arise the Government 
 is not a partisan, but within its constitutional authority the 
 just and powerful guardian of the rights and safety of all. 
 The strife between the sections and between races will cease 
 as soon as the power for evil is taken away from a party that 
 makes political gain out of scenes of violence and bloodshed, 
 and the constitutional authority is placed in the hands of men 
 whose political welfare requires that peace and good order 
 shall be preserved everywhere. 
 
 GOVEENOE TILDEN S PUBLIC SEEVICES. 
 
 It will be seen, gentlemen, that I am in entire accord with 
 the platform of the convention by w r hich I have been nomi 
 nated as a candidate for the office of Vice-President of the 
 United States. Permit me, in conclusion, to express my sat 
 isfaction at being associated with a candidate for the presi 
 dency who is first among his equals as a representative of the 
 spirit and of the achievements of reform. In his official career 
 as the Executive of the great State of New York, he has, in a 
 comparatively short period, reformed the public service and 
 reduced the public burdens, so as to have earned at once the 
 gratitude of his State and the admiration of the country. The 
 people know him to be thoroughly in earnest ; he has shown 
 himself to be possessed of powers and qualities which fit him 
 in an eminent degree for the great work of reformation which 
 this country now needs ; and if he shall be chosen by the 
 people to the high office of President of the United States, I 
 believe that the day of his inauguration will be the beginning 
 of a new era of peace, purity, and prosperity, in all depart 
 ments of our Government. I am, gentlemen, your obedient 
 servant, 
 
 THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
 
 To the Hon. John A. McClernand, chairman, and others of the Com 
 mittee of the National Democratic Convention. 
 
 THE END. 
 
A TEXT-BOOK FOE EVERY DEMOCRAT, 
 
 Democracy in the United 
 
 WHAT IT HAS DONE, WHAT IT IS DOING, 
 AND WHAT IT WILL DO. 
 
 Late Member of Congress and Registrar and Solicitor of the United States 
 Treasury Department. 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS ON STEEL OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 ANDREW JACKSON, AND HORATIO SEYMOUR. 
 
 ONE 12mo VOLUME, PRICE $1.75. 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 contrasted 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 1. Forms of Government. 
 
 2. Party Names. 
 
 8. Democratic Principles 
 
 with others 4 
 
 4. Washington s Administration 8 
 
 5. John Adams s Administration 8 
 
 6. Anti-DemocraticNaturalization Laws 11 
 
 7. The Political Revolution of 1800. .. 13 
 
 3. Attempt to deprive Mr. Jefferson of 
 
 his Election 14 
 
 9. Thomas Jefferson 15 
 
 10. Jefferson s Political Principles 18 
 
 11. Jefferson s First Term as President. 23 
 
 12. Jefferson s Acquisition of Louisiana . 24 
 
 13. Pirates and the Freedom of the Sea. 26 
 
 14. New England Clergymen preaching 
 
 Anti-Democratic Principles 27 
 
 15. Secession proposed by theAnti-Dem- 
 
 ocrats of New England 29 
 
 16. One of Nature s Noblemen 34 
 
 17. Proposition to impeach Mr. Jeffer 
 
 son 36 
 
 18. Why the Embargo was abandoned. 83 
 
 19. " Free Trade and Sailors Rights " . . 41 
 
 20. James Madison and his Political 
 
 Principles 45 
 
 21. The Declaration of War 47 
 
 22. The Anti-Democrats endeavored to 
 
 prevent Loans and Enlistments. . 50 
 
 23. The Navy and Naval Heroes 51 
 
 24. William Bainbridge 53 
 
 25. Charles Stewart 54 
 
 26. Stephen Decatur 55 
 
 27. Isaac Hull 56 
 
 28. Oliver Hazard Perry 67 
 
 29. John Rodgers 58 
 
 80. Thomas MacDonough 59 
 
 81 . James Lawrence 60 
 
 32. David Porter 61 
 
 33. The Army and its Officers 63 
 
 84. Zebulon Montgomery Pike 64 
 
 35. Alexander Macomb.. . . 65 
 
 86. John E. Wool 65 
 
 37. Jacob Brown 66 
 
 38. Andrew Jackson 67 
 
 39. Eleazar W. Ripley 69 
 
 40. Peter B. Porter 69 
 
 41. William J. Worth 70 
 
 42. The Principles and Intentions of the 
 
 Anti-Democratic Party during the 
 War of 1812 
 
 43. Daniel D. Tompkins 
 
 44. Burning Blue-Lights 
 
 45. Disunion proposed by the Federal 
 
 ists 
 
 46. The Hartford Convention of 1814.. 
 
 47. John Holmes s Description of the 
 
 Hartford Convention and its 
 Authors 
 
 48. Mr. Madison s Second Term 94 
 
 49. The Invasion, Sacking, and Burning 
 
 of Washington 95 
 
 50. The Battle of New Orleans 97 
 
 51. The Bank Bills of 1815 and 1816.. . 100 
 
 52. James Monroe, and his Election to 
 
 the Presidency 102 
 
 53. The Era of Good Feeling 104 
 
 54. The Monroe Doctrine 107 
 
 M 
 
Contents of Democracy in the United States. 
 
 55. Banks and Banking in New York . 108 
 
 56. The Acquisition of Florida 110 
 
 57. Eemarks on Mr. Monroe s Admin 
 
 istration Ill 
 
 58. The New York State Constitutions 
 
 of 1821 and 1846 112 
 
 59. TheNew York Electoral Law of 1824 116 
 
 60. Administration of John Quincy 
 
 Adams 118 
 
 61. Equality the only Honest Basis of 
 
 Legislation 121 
 
 62. William L. Marcy 126 
 
 63. Political Anti-Masonry 128 
 
 64. Internal Improvements by the Gov 
 
 ernment 132 
 
 65. Veto of the United States Bank ... 136 
 
 66. The Eemoval of the Deposits 140 
 
 67. Senatorial Condemnation of Gene 
 
 ral Jackson 148 
 
 68. Michael Hoffman 145 
 
 69. Eemovals from Office 147 
 
 70. "Terrible Distress of the Country 1 149 
 
 71. The Protective System 152 
 
 72. The Eevival of a Gold Currency. . . 156 
 
 73. Distribution of the Public Eevenue 159 
 
 74. The Specie Circular 163 
 
 75. Thomas H. Benton 166 
 
 76. Distribution of the Public Lands 
 
 and Land Sales 169 
 
 Disunion in its Early Stages 171 
 
 Washington s Farewell Address ... 173 
 
 77. 
 78. 
 79. Silas Wright 1 
 
 100. 
 
 101. 
 102. 
 
 Jackson s Farewell Address 183 
 
 Martin Van Buren 188 
 
 The Sub-Treasury 195 
 
 The Presidential Election of 1840.. 199 
 Tariff Duties on Foreign Importa 
 tions 202 
 
 John A. Dix 207 
 
 Internal Eevenue Taxes 212 
 
 The Force of Bad Precedents in 
 
 Legislation 215 
 
 Heman J. Eedfield 218 
 
 Congress responsible for the Ex 
 travagance of the National Gov 
 ernment 221 
 
 Administration of John Tyler 228 
 
 James K. Polk, his Election and 
 
 Political Principles 231 
 
 Mr. Folk s Administration 233 
 
 Zachary Taylor and his Adminis 
 tration 235 
 
 Millard Fillmore and his Adminis 
 tration 237 
 
 John Brown at Harper s Ferry 240 
 
 Azariah C. Flagg 242 
 
 Franklin Pierce and his Adminis 
 tration. 246 
 
 James Buchanan 248 
 
 Mr. Buchanan s Administration 251 
 
 The Tyranny of Majorities in Con 
 gress 257 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 259 
 
 Mr. Lincoln on his Way to Wash 
 ington 261 
 
 103. Mr. Lincoln s Inaugural Address 
 
 and its Consequences 264 
 
 104. Firing the First Gun 266 
 
 105. The Suspension of the Writ of Ha 
 
 beas Corpus 270 
 
 106. Spies and Secret-Service Agents . . 278 
 
 107. The Trial of Civilians by Military 
 
 Commissions 276 
 
 108. The Early Avowed Objects of the 
 
 War 279 
 
 109. Later Avowed Objects of the War. 282 
 
 110. Mr. Chase s Financial Plans and 
 
 their Consequences 286 
 
 111. Mr. Chase s Banking System 2S8 
 
 112. Why the War lasted so long 291 
 
 113. Congressional Fishing-Committees. 294 
 
 114. Mr. Lincoln s Plan of Beconstruc- 
 
 tion 297 
 
 115. The Injury inflicted upon the Ne 
 
 groes by the Eepublican Mode of 
 Manumission 299 
 
 116. Eepublican Struggle for Power and 
 
 the Spoils 801 
 
 117. The Eeorganization of Louisiana 
 
 and Arkansas, and what came of it 804 
 
 118. Congressional Caucuses 307 
 
 119. The Freedmen s Bureau 309 
 
 120. Mistakes of the American Clergy.. 313 
 
 121. The proposed Fourteenth Amend 
 
 ment to the Constitution 818 
 
 122. Later Phases of Congressional Ee- 
 
 construction 820 
 
 123. The American Press and the Tele 
 
 graph 328 
 
 124. The Secession States were never, in 
 
 Law, out of the Union 327 
 
 125. Andrew Johnson 333 
 
 126. Impeachment of President Johnson 837 
 
 127. Congress and the Supreme Court. . 844 
 128 Destruction of the Highes-t Court in 
 
 the District of Columbia 848 
 
 129. Exchange of Prisoners during the 
 
 War 349 
 
 180. What our Country was, is, and may 
 
 be 853 
 
 131. Dean Eichmond 357 
 
 132. Negro War-Services and Negro 
 
 Loyalty 860 
 
 183. President Johnson and Edwin M. 
 
 Stanton 862 
 
 184. Slander as Political Capital 866 
 
 135. What has the Country gained by 
 
 Eepublican Eule? 369 
 
 186. Are not all the States in Danger?. . 872 
 
 137. Issues to be tried by the People. . . 876 
 
 138. Expenses of the National Govern 
 
 ment 884 
 
 189. Our Public Debt 389 
 
 140. A New Department of the Govern 
 
 ment 392 
 
 141. The Sedition Laws of 1798 revived. 894 
 
 142. Conclusion 896 
 
 145. Appendix.- Constitution of the 
 
 United States . 
 
 146. Appendix No. 2. The Test Vote. 
 
 NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
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