The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1876-09-08
rILDEN's DILEMMA.
HIS Private Secretary's Elk
PLANTATION TOO Thin.

den's two afndaV1 ts, directly contra
dieting each other. They declare it is
an outrage to accuse their candid ate
of perjury. But they forget that Mr..
Tilden himself is the accuser of Mr..
Tilden. On the Goth of December,
1868, he made q solemn oath that his
income from all sources during the
year 1865 was only $7,l1S. Since his
nomination for the Presidency, and
in order to clear himself in a suit
brought against him by the st Louis,
Alton and Terre Haute railroad COM
pany-that corporation alleging that
Tilden and his associates had defrauded
iG of a large sum of money-Mr. Tilden
makes affidavit that he received $780,
600 from that corporation, in the year
1862, for professional services.
There is the oath of 1863 and there
is the oath of 1875. They cannot be
reconciled. If the oath of 1876 is
false, Mr.. Tilden detrauded the St.
Louis, Alton and Terre Haute rail-
road company out of large sum of
m Oney. If it is true, he made false
return of his income for the year 1862,
and detrauded the Government. Let
him take whichever horn of the dilem-
ma he pleases, and his position is most
humiliating and disgracetul.
Only one explanation of this serious
charge has been made, on Gov. Tilden's
behalf, and that, coming from his
private Secretary. is doubtless his
personal statement. 1t was telegraph
ed TO the New York papers few days
GA lawyer might work for q long
tim e before he got his fee, and a con-
scientious man would of coarse con-
slider the work he had done from year
to year as a case progressed, and that
the fee, though received in one year,
was not his income for that year; it
had been in fact, earned each year
during the progress of the case. That
was all there was about the matter"
This explanation is entirely too thin.
The New York Tribune, a paper that
has steadily and earnestly maintained
that Gov. Tilden Is personally an
honest man, is compelled to say:
| ave have believed Governor Tilden
a thoroughly honest man, and have
witnessed the ridiculous overhauling
of old railroad transactions in which
he was counsel, in the effort to prove
him personally dishonest, with feel
ing of hearty disgust. But we beg to
say to the Governors Private Secreta-
ry that the above explanation OF the
| extraordinary statements about his
income tax is too thin. That sort OF
logic Is merely plea for universal
dishonesty. 1t would enable the rich
est man in the country to cipher down
his income in any particular year be-
low the possibility of government
taxation. The Private Secretary, anG
the astute gentleman who keeps the
Private Secretary, ought to under
stand that this is mere trifling with
a business which little more handling
of that sort may easily make very seri.
Gus. 1t is the first thing which has
really touched Gov. Tilden's character
for integrity. If the facts have beer
correctly reported-and we do moi
understand the Private Secretary. t.
: deny them-this does touch it-seem
/ to touch it vitally-and the Private
Secretary's explanation does not menC
the matter. We hobe there is better
one, and shall be glad to print it,"
The Washington correspondent o
the Chicago Tribune says that tn
Democrats VINO are managing TIN
Congressional Committee work mani
fest great uneasiness oyer this charge
and were anxiously looking tor al
: explanation from New York. Tn
explanation made by tn 10 Governor
3 Private Secretary, to the effect tina
? the railroad fees which were not enter
e ed in his income return for 1862, al
IEh yaA In, hot
D really earned in previous years, wa
[ not accepted by the Democrats i
: Washington, and some of them evel
\ questioned the authenticity of th
= dispatch from Albany, attributing s
thin an excuse to the Secretary. Blu
:, when Gov. Tilden's recognized Me-
York organ arrived with formal ed
torial defense based on the sam
grounds, it brought great trouble int
J, the camp, since all are shrewd enoug
O to see that such line of defense wi
}. not answer.
e The brevity of the charge, the ca;
n with which all classes OF voters cou
Il prehend it, and the convincing natuI
i of the few sentences of proof whiC
"a establish it are the elements of e.
o case which are causing so much troubl
= 1t is really the first charge again
in Washington real concern. The
have remained comparatively uncoI
- cerned over his other railroad compl
10 cations, believing that these cases we
J. too intricate for the ordinary voter
re- understand. But this they regard
D quite another thing, and as one whi'
is must Inevitably damage Tilden insi(
1t the ranks of his own party.
70 The only answer In this case tn
20 could be accepted as q conclusive vii
10 dication of Gov. Tilden would
'g proof that enc or the other of the tv
- affidavits were not made by him. Al
- such a defense, it seems, Mr.. Tild
cannot make. He Is compelled
W acknowledge that both affidaVits we
al made by him, because the originals
SO both are in existence. Hence t
c. conclusion is forced upon every imps
ce tial reader that Mr.. Tilden swOre falls
lt, ly in one case or the other.
n. The Chicago Tribune, commentiI
nd on the explanation of Gov. TIldeI
le. Private Secretary, sums up the wh'
n case very clearly in the fcllOwi
Al. statement:
y. "If this 1.-THE Private Secretary's G
10 planation,l is all that is to be said
explanation of Tilden's contradict
statement, it had better not have be
.eI said at all. The law required him
an return his actual income within
g. year-that is. the money received fr'
ks all sources,-aDd it had been decid
re-, by the Courts over and over again q
nd the law required Just this. Mr.. Tild
ly. lawyer himself, could not have bC
,se ignorant of it. Besides if he had b.
len earning this fee of $4,000 in previ,
he years, did he return any part of it
m his income before he received
ass He could scarcely have done this, as
an was not an income until 1t came i
~, his hands; but, If not, then there '
y part of his income on which he D
Ays no tax. That is exactly the POI
IAN He swindled the Government {
swore 10 B false return in order to
the so. Mr.. TildeA's s'defense" seems &
the to be based on the assumption that
TO the year 1862, when ha swore his
the come was only $7,llS, he recei
Gu nothing but the single fee of $2O,l