The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-07-08
GheGatelIiasttfsr.
C;co. Alfred TOWnSends DiSSec'
zion OF TIIden's Character.

ton Of Tllden's CharacteF'
III, Letter in Tue Cincinnati Enquirer bClore IN
Nomination.
With pretty long experience in pub
lie manhood and career, am at a loss Z
understand mind like Tildens. He i
nj once thorough and cute, small an!
profound, mean and mighty. The ,worl
he had 10 do was often on great scale
and the processes he had 10 employ s
sinister, at times, as to deserve the nam
Of mastering. He lacked the dramati
quality and personal presence, and al
though ambitious from boyhood for pol
teal consideration, never received an
reward for much devotion and industr
except petty, unornamented places. Th
politicians Gsat down" upon him. Fl
gave many hint Of his wishes to receiV
the nomination for this or that office, bu
they made mule.rider and pack'sIav'
Of him, and grumbled even that III
should be kept Chairman Of the state
Committee Of the party, where he had e
do a huge amount Of iactotum work. IN
short he was TO New York polite! wha'
John q. Thompson is to Ohio politics..
almoner, MordeCai, bottle'WH1ef. sitI
ting in the receipt Of customs anu LF; .mII. =;
10 the coat.tail Of stateSmeh-" N'"u Vi
wheelbarrow 10 greatness. ooo
II cost Sammy Tilden SiS,oVV 70 Ge
olac,sJ IN The State Senate Of New York,
Ia,e IN Iife while other men could have
,ono for i've hundred or thousand
Hbey bIed him because they thought II
WIS loo much presumption, and he was
TOO ready for tie sacrifice. In the Legis-
isture he wanted to get an honorary vote
10 preside, and il was regarded as joke
This happened only four or five years ago.
| heard Husted, the bald.headed Speaker
Of the Assembly, say that Horace Gree.
lev and Sam. Tilden were good deal
alike, both secretly covetous Of honors,
and sullen because they were never con.
ferred. All this is singular, because Til.
den was willing TO spend money out Of
his large wealth TO receive political hon.
ors. Indeed the reason he never got NOM
mated nor honors was his want OF mas
culine, fraternal, political character.
Big.shouldered, hail.iellow, scramble
headed politicians looked upon him as a
little fellow hanging around, tolerable
sort Of useful nuisance, like house.ay
or an undertaken. He wasn't frank
enough; he didn't swear US We did in
Flanders; he insinuated too much that he
thought he was fit. II therefore came TO
pass that when Samuel j. Tilden, at a
pretty ripe age, received the nomination
Of Governor OF New York, it was given
to him like a barren scepter, foredoom-
ed defeat. The party had been complete
" routed in the metropolis and the State
by O'Brien's Tweed exposures through
the New York Times. Nobody wanted to
hold up the bespattered banner and add
his name to the SYNONYMOUS muster roll
of Tammany Hall. The honor went beg
ging. Judge Sanford L. Church was Of
iered 1t by reclamation and declined, and,
even in the absence OF a candidate, Til
den would have been refused the nomina.
ton had he not worked for it with une-
quail energy. II was his only chance. He
brought to bear all patience, entreaty,
and anxiety, and they said:
"For heavens sake let him get this and
be defeated, as he viii; so he won't poster
Ils any more"
The old chap took the nomination and
vent to work like q rat. He literally
crawled over the whole ground, working
night and day, with nearly sublime
patience. lie had u residence in New
York city, on. Grammercy Park, and
there were score, some say, OF clerks
and copyists, and Autograph presses, aud.
iting books, the census, an arithmetic and
a calculating machine employed there.
lie could take the square root Of Catta-
raugus county by holding a glass ofbran.
dy between his eye and the fire and reduc-
ing the opposition there to an equation,
He fought old Gen.. Dix, his opponent,
by algebraic squares, and exhausted him
logarithmically. Cunning as badger,
creeping us terrapin, Newtonian in his
range OF view, and ambitious as the devil,
this little old man, threatened with
paralysis, confronted with old age, with.
out domestic companion, and folding
his cold bones away in feather.bed4 TO
keep on the earth at all, fought Dix to the
wall, beat him by satisfaction, and was
inaugurated amid profound surprise. AS
do not expect to vote for him, and do
not mean 10 underrate him, l will suggest
TO Gov. Hayes that Tilden has already
beaten one high military reputation.
The question Of the day (suppOsing
him to be the nominee) is whether Tildeu
can or cannot extend his minute election
eering system over the breadth Of the
United States2 And will the American
people prefer President to be elected
in that way2 Also, We may ask, does
the Governor hold his former estimation
before the State ofNew York?
The latter question cannot answer,
From the experience have had with
the State folks, l do not expect perfect
probity Of motive as a necessary qualili'
cation to serve the country admirably,
As general rule, I prefer good pollti.
clan like Disraeli toa grabbed retormer
like Gladstone. The world is like milk
best preserved by not looking down on il
and ruined by too much thunder. We
do not want John Calvin to apply the
Golden Rule in his peculiar way 70 thu
Republic. The greyious curse Of oui
politics Is that OF which Mr.. Tilden has
been an exponent all hitlife, vigorous, re-
sentful party spirit and discipline. Al
the Grand Inquisitor Of the Albany Re
gency, Mr.. Tilden had no more conseien'
tious duty than TO see that Hoffman and
any other Democrat was counted in II
possible. He was as energetic to do this
rs to assail the Canal Ring afterward
To be Reformer, therefore, he must
adopt the figure OF Scripture, and
enter into the womb and be born
again, and use his old age to eat up his
maturer record. l do not know whether
the people OF the State have more critic
ally examined his recorduince they elect
ed him Governor in 1874. 1twould appear
from tho diminished votes his candidates
received last year, while he was in thu
height OF his performances against The
Canal Ring, that Mr.. Tilden Is not al
strong in New York now as when hi
made that almost hopeless race agains
Dix. But his character Is so quaint and
his art so fine that he will give the Dem
ocratic party what they have not had in
candidate for years-the element Of hui
NOR. He Is funny to look at, and funny
to vote for, and funnier as . reformel