The life and public services of Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, Democratic nominee for president of the United States

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PRESENTEn m'

THE

Chapter I. Ancestry, Birth, 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 pilgrims 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 1G22. His uncle John had held the office in 1585 and IGOO. Nathaniel was succeeded by his cousin John. Kent was a county of farmers. It was divdded into small estates, which were inherited equally among the children of the family, Kent refusing to acce^^t the law of primogeniture. It was a kingdom by itself under the Saxon heptarchy, and it maintained its independence in a remarkable degree.

Nathaniel Tilden had sent his brother Thomas to America in the ship Ann in 1623, and in 1628 had received a deed of land in Scituate, the first recorded in that place, and desciibing the land conveyed as bounded by other land already owned by him. In 1634 he removed his family, consisting of a wife, seven children, and as many servants, to Scituate. 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 1

Tilden's deatli his ■wiclowAvedded 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 relatives of the Governor in that town was Colonel Daniel Tilde.n, 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 Massachusetts. He returned from that expedition, and was foremost in the movement which led, that same year, to the enrollment of the Connecticut militia for the war. This was months before the Declaration of Independence. Under this organization Israel Putnam received his commission as brigadier-general, while Daniel Tilden enlisted under him and entered the Revolutionary service as a captain. At the battle of Trenton he commanded the company in which James Mon? roe 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 campaigns.

Lebanon was the lieadquarters of the patriots in Connecticut 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 Trumbull, 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 aU their hearts, and meaning to achieve the blessing they sought by taking advantage of all the blunders and follies of their enemies. Every male relative of Mr. Tilden, on the father's and on the mother's side, of age for military service at the time, shared in the efforts and perils of the American Revolution.

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In 1790 Governor Tilden's grandfather, John Tilden, removed to the State of New York, and made his home in 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. Wide differences of opinion exist with regard to the Protector and his followers, but nobody disputes their courage. The fearless nature of these men was reproduced in some of their families — certainly in this remote descendant of Governor William Jones with Avhom 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 eqi;ality 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 fearlessness.

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.

i 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 possible 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 Kinderhook 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 Regency had been in existence some thirteen years. The Regency may be described as an honest ring, which sought the promotion of worthy ends through the power of party discipline. 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 forecasting public opinion, brought about results with almost unerring 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 (1831) to the United States Senate ; reelected 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 resigned that office and took an appointment as minister to England. The Senate refused to confirm him, and he returned 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 3^oung. He had no difficulty, therefore, in comprehending the political situation. The State of New York, always debatable ground, was more evenly divided than usual. The opponents of the Administration, under the name of National Republicans, had formed a coalition with the Antimasonic organization. This last-named partj^, 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 Batavia. 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, Monroe, Livingston, Orleans, and Niagara, in face of both the existing parties. At the election of 1828 the Antimasona cast 33,345 votes for Solomon Southwick for Governor ; if they could have united that vote with the vote of the National Republicans, it would have defeated Mr.

Van Buren. In 1830 such a coalition was arranged ; Francis Granger became the Antimasonic, National Republican candidate for Governor, and was opposed by Enos T. Throop, the Democratic 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 Rei^ublicans, 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 inability of the Antimasons and National Republicans to improve on their coalition of two years before, and imite in one sohd column all who opposed masonry and all who opposed Jackson. With this object in view, the Antimasonic Convention assembled on the 21st of June, 1832, and renominated 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 undei'standing 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

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j)ro and C07i. He was particularly struck witla the clear and forcible statement of the c.ase put forth by an uncle who was staying at his father's house at the time. Big with the subject, 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 presenting 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 Antimasons ready to do that ? If it assisted Mr. Wirt, it must hurt Mr. Clay. Were the National Republicans who professed such boundless love for the Kentucky statesmen willing to become parties to such a plot ?

At every point the address was vigorous, logical, and marvelously 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 reading 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 Si^rings. He v/as 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 tlie age of the author. He accepted him off-hand as one worthy to think for the party. At Mr. Yan Buren's sugg-estion 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 tliat the Albany Evening Journal charged the authorship of it upon Martin Van Buren, and accepted it as the supreme effort of the Democrats to break the coalition of tlieir 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 examination for admission to Yale College.

Chapter II

COLLEGE CAREER — EARLY SUCCESSES AS A POLITICAL WRITER A>fD SPEAKER — 1834-'38.

Mr. Tilden's career at Yale College presents no otlier point of interest than that he was a member of the class of 1837, to which William M. Evarts, Chief- Justice Waite, Edwards 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 conferred 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 subsequent 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 absolute 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 TEE LIFE OF SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

whose office he had already decided to read law. At the university he gave careful attention to his various studies, but his mind was largely occupied with the consideration of political toj^ics. In the summer of 1837, just before he graduated, he won a second conspicuous success as writer on public affairs. To understand the scope of his work it is necessary to review briefly the political situation at that time :

About the lOth of May, 1837, two months after Mr. Van Buren's inauguration, the banks in the city of New York suspended 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 Govermnent 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 iised 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 h-eight. Partly to check it, and partly to protect the Government 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.* The speculation did not cease, but the heavy drafts on the banks tended to exliaust 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 distributed 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 comj^licated 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

' Hammond's " Political History of New York," vol. ii., p. 463.

EARLY SUCCESSES AS A FOLITICAL WRITER. H

national funds in any bank which did not on demand redeem its notes in specie. -By the act of 1816 United States oiEcers 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 conditiop of the Government. He showed the necessity of some action, and then proceeded to discuss the various possible plans of deliverance. He had pledged himself to oppose the chartering 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, ^tas to be done ? In obedience 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 concei'ns of the banks.'

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-holders. Congress straightway divided on the question, and not party-wise. Mr. N. P. Tallmadge, who was then a Democratic 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

* Eammond, vol. ii., p. 4*75.

bill passed the Senate, however, but in the House a sufl&cient number of Consei-vatives joined with the Whigs to defeat it. So Congress adjourned without doing anything except to authorize tlie issue of a limited amount of Treasury notes.

Tlie 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 " appeared 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 emanated 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 nuniber of papers, to which he attached the signature " Crino." They produced an immediate effect. They were written in an admirably terse and correct style, and they evinced such comprehensive knowledge 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 sus2:)ected tliat they came from a young fellow who had not yet completed his college education. The_^ 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 lOl 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 interested in politics, played a conspicuous part in the campaign as a participant in a well-remembered debate. It happened in this way : Tlie 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 brilliant young man in their ranks, William H. Seward, who at that time was only thirty-eight years old. The so-called Conservatives, 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 Sewai'd. Senator Tallmadge, not only b}'' 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 w^as advertised to address the citizens of Columbia County. The meeting was very fully attended, and was composed in about equal parts of Democrats and Whigs. The Democrats had come, not to be " converted," 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 himselv/ 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 w^ere pleased, and the Democrats were correspondingly 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 TEE 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, echoed the cry of " Tilden ! " So Mr. Tilden came forward and mounted the platform. Mr. Tallmadge looked with undisguised 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 eiFectively. 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 principles, and they met the same oj^ponents 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 j-ears 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 articles 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 TOLITICAL WRITER. I5

almost equal skill in debate. He finished with a fine appeal to the Democrats to stand by their candidates and their principles, and as he sat down three hearty cheers were given, in which many of the Whigs joined. It did not occur to anybody that he had been overmatched in tlie debate.

CHAPTER HI.

MR. TILDEX AND THB WOEKIXG-ilEN. 1838.

Before participating in the debate with Senator Tallmadge, 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 relative strength of the two great parties ; and, in the critical condition of affairs which followed the agitation of the Independent 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 Mechanics 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 exclusive work of Mr. Tilden, and, as might have been expected, were enthusiastically received. Meetings for political purposes 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-]y[EN. 17

8. Besolced, That we require in banking, no moi'e than in government, a monarch and a privileged nobility to regiilate our affairs ; that an application to finance of the jsrinciple of equal libeety, 80 long successfully applied by the American people to politics, is imperatively required — a liberty, not of unlimited license, which possessed 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 efficiency to these natural restraints, and in exacting additional securities.