National Republican., 1876-10-09
The pambI.rs about Morrissev,s nool RON
Irving to Destroy the Records.

In 1865 James Parton published pamphlet
exposing the great Northwestern railroad ring,
of which Samuel J. Tilden was the originator
and head. We have had search made for q
copy of the book. Mr.. Parton informs US that
It is impossible for him to find one. We now
see it stated by the Chicago Tribune that Til
den had the book suppressed through an in
junction issued by ring judge. The same
paper, however, says that copy of the book
has been found in Chicago, and 1t has been re-
printed by the Illinois Republican State Com
mittee. The book was written eleven years
ago, before Tilden had ever dreamed of political
aspirations, and before he was made chairman
Of the State Democratic Committee.
While the Mississippi river was closed to
Western produce by the rebels Tilden's rail-
road ring advanced the price of freights as
follows:
Upon wheat, ~ per cent.
"Upon flour, II per cent.
"Upon lumber, IS per cent.
"Upon live stock, 73 per cent.
"Upon merchandise, SS per cent.
"Upon passengers fares, 2SL per cent"
Indignation meetings were held throughout
the Northwestern States. The Boards of
Trade of Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit pro-
tested. A convention of farmers expressed
their opinions in the following emphatic man
ner:
"Whereas, under the present system of rail-
road combinations and other freight monopo-
lies, the farmer and producer has no redress,
and is by the inadequate means of transporta-
tion compelled to give two thirds of his crop
to get the other one third to market; and
"Whereas we regard the present system of
transportation as little less than semi-legal-
lied system of plunder, by which a number of
capitalists are rearing Immense fortunes upon
ha r,,fr,o onft ha ;rkn ~
Northwest; therefore, resolved" &c.
1t was because of this oppression that the
Granger rebellion was inaugurated. 1t was
also out of the management of those roads by
Tilden's ring that Julius Wadsworth and others
brought suit against "Samuel J. Tilden and
his associates, to them unknown" for swim
ding them out of over S2, ,O0O, 900 of stocks,
which amount the ring were compelled to re-
fund. The decision was rendered July s, 1865,
by Judges Davis aud Treat, of the United
States Supreme Court. OF the suit the Chi
cago Republican of July 9, 1865, then edited by
Charles A. Dana, said:
"The United States Court Judges, Davis
and Treat, yesterday held, &C."
"They virtually, If not in fact, decided that
the consolidation was to stand, but that nom
consenting stockholders should be made whole
as to the value of the property on the day the
consideration took place"
Mr.. Parton also said:
"This was the first railroad conspiracy in
the United States"
Sin a manner now technically known as a
'ring.' The plan was first adopted, so far as
known, in the United States by lawyer of
We'll street, S. J. Tilden."
We are not surprised that Mr. Tilden should
have undertaken to suppress Mr.. Parton's
book. Its reproduction is, however, timely
thing-particularly in the Western States,
rbnrp TilIpn is hattar EnOwn han ho iS
But we are surprised that man with such
record dare face it, by asking men whom he
had swindled and wronged to make him Presi-
dent of Government which he had also de-
frauded. The Chicago Tribune recently said
of Tilden:
'This is Tflden's record in Michigan, State
which he dare not enter, lest he should become
amenable to legal proceedings upon numerous
judgments entered against him in the courts"
Governor Dix spoke of the same man at the
Cooper Institute, on Tuesday evening, as fol-
lows:
"Fellow-citizens, it would be an unhappy
day for him, as well as for the country, if he
were elevated to the Presidency; for if he were
disposed to do right, he has none of the quail
ties which fit man in great emergencies to
meet them with promptness and determine
tion. You are, no doubt, aware that
he is at this moment prosecuted by two rail-
road corporations for moneys which they ac-
cuSe nln OF 1rauQulenJly WJnnOlQlng from
them-ope suit for $40 900, and the other for
$4,000. These suits were brought long before
he was nominated for the Presidency, with no
sinister object, but with a confident belief on
the part of the directors of those corporations
that he had fraudulently appropriated to his
own use enormous sums to which he has no
title. 1t is the first time in our history that
the integrity of a candidate for the Presidency
has been thus impugned, and trust the result
Of the election will be so decisive that it will
be the last. There is another accusation of a
much graver character, which an abortive at
tempt has been made to eXplain-that of de-
frauding the Government by false return of
his income. l wish, for the honor of the coun-
try, that he could have shown it to be unfound-
ed. To his numberless disqualifications for the
high office to which he has been nominated it :
is deeply to be deplored that we could not have
been spared the modification, as American cit
izens, of seeing superadded the last act of dis
honesty with which he is charged. Intense
prejudice may blind political partisans, but
cannot conceive how any disinterested man
can give him vote"