New-York tribune., 1874-11-05
ELECTION EPILOGUES.

MR.. TILDEN INTERPRETS THE RESULT.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY UNEQUAL TO THE PROB.
LENS OF RECONCILIATION, RETRENcHMENT AND
FINANCIxI. PoLICY-A CHANGE OF DOCTORS FOR
SICK PATIENT-THE DANGEROUS TENDENCihS
OF THR ADMINISTRATION AVOIDED.
Governor-elect Tilden was called on yesterday by
. reporter of THE TRIBUNE and asked to give his
views as to the causes which led to so sweeping
Democratic victory in this city and State, and the
change Of front in nearly every other State 10 when
elections held on Tuesday. Mr.. Tilden replied
substantially as follows:
The people are beginning to think that il is time 10
have real peace in the United States 1t is now ten
years since the conflict of closed. but we still
have the financial system and the taxation which
grew out of the period Of war The Grant Admins
tratOn subsists upon the passions and hareds that
were enqendered by the war. 1t is perhaps human
nature but it is human nature in low phase to peg
petuate this State of things just long as the Ad-
ministration could thereby prolong its power. At
any rate it is unequal in every to devsing and
executing the measures which the situation OF tho
country now imperatively requires. The country
feels the waste of capital during the war; IT feels
the reaction, the false system Of finance,
the burdens of debt and the blight of excessive taxa
ton. Every business, every industry is distressed
The inevitable evils Of the situation increased
by the policy of the Government toward the States
of the South How paralyze the production
of those communities to which are indebted for
large share of exports, create uncertainty in
every business enterprise in those comnu-
nities hold the people of those States by
force and by terror under such q dominion as tho
"carpet-bag" governments maintain there the
most gigantic and audacious system of robbery ever
known among civilized people, and not expect that
these wrongs would react on our own prosperity
What we need is retrenchment in Government ex-
penditure reduction in tariff and taxes, economy
and frugality in private expenditure, until produce
ton may overtake consumption Healing couDsels
and healing measures are needed. The whole spirit
of the Government policy is founded on tho
illusion Of q false prosperity, which could
not but break and spread fragments
of ruin around Everything since the
war has been fictitious. The people were taught
after four years of havoc, in which millions of hui
man lives were lost aud at least five thousand mil
lions of dollars of property destroyed. that we had
been all the time growing richer. This tended to
satisfy the people with the existing policy of the
Government, and to keep in Office the men who held
the power. 1t dcluded the people into allowing
continuance Of public expenditures that was
unnecessary and extravagaut, fat jobs, distri-
button of plumber to favOrtes costly estab-
lshments which ought to have been cut off.
hordes Of Office-holders aud dependents, I'M
just and oppressive systems of taxation,
adapted not to raise revenue with the least sacrifice
to the people, but promote the selfish interests Of
favored classes. he waste of capital during the
ten years since the occasioncd by this policy
would be equal to years of the ravages of ac-i
tual war; The people are now waking from the
illusion. The sooner they confront the real situa-
ton the better The first step toward a remedy Of
the disease is to obtain true diagnosis Of the NAL
ady. The people must discard the political quacks
who cheated them into the belief that they
well when they sick, and who treated
them with nostrums that pleasant to
the taste but which hurt the patient.
At last the people are beginning to take q true
view of their situation. The meaning of tho cleo
tions is that the people are going to discard their
present political doctors, and try somebody else.
Christening brings wisdom. The people are all
likewise awakening to q sense Of the danger TO our
free institutions of the policy pursued by the Ad-
ministration, and they wish to recur to the ideas
under which the country long enjoyed unparal-
leled prosperity. The election in this city has been
carried against all the patronage of tho Federal,
State, and City Governments. The people have been
victorious here stripped of every office which they
are taxed to maintain under every government.