Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-08-18
LETTER oF ACCEPTANCE.
The following is Governor Tilden's lette
of acceptance

The following is Governor Tilden's letter
of acceptance:
ALBANY, July 81, 1876.
GENTLEMEN when [ had the honor
to receive a personal delivery Of your let
ter on behalf of the Democratic National
Convention, held on the Goth of June, at
St. Louis, advising me of my nomination
as the candidate Of the constituency REP
resented by that body for the office of
President of the United States, answered
that at my earliest convenience, and in
conformity with usage. [ would prepare
and transmit to you formal acceptance.
l now avail myself OF the first interval in
unavoidable occupations to fulfill that en-
gagement. TIE Convention, before making
it's nominations, adopted declaration Of
principles which, as a whole, seem to me a
wise exposition of the necessities of our
country, and of the reforms needed to
bring back the government to it's true
functions, to restore purity of administra-
ton and to renew the prosperity Of the
people, But some of the reforms are SO
urgent that they claim more than passing
approval.
The necessity of a reform in the scale of
public expense, Federal, State and municl-
pal, in the modes of Federal taxation, jus
tifies all the prominence given to it in the
declaration of the st. Louis Convention.
The present depression in all the bushes
and industries of the people, which is de-
priving labor of its employment and carry
ing Want into so many homes, has it's prin-
cipal cause in excessive governmental con-
sumption under the illusions of a specious
prosperity engendered by the false policies
of the Federal Government. A waste of
capital has been going on ever since tie
peace of 1865, which could only end in uni
versal disaster. 1t was aggravated,
moreover, by a financial policy which tend
ed to diminish the energy. skill and econ
omy of production, and the frugality of
private consumption, and induced miScal-
culatiOn in business and an unremunera-
tive use of capital and labor. Even in
prosperous times the daily wants of indus
t1ious communities press closely upon their
daily earnings. The margin of possible
national savings is at best d small percent
age of national earnings. Yet now for
these eleven years governmental consump-
ton has been a larger portion of the ma
tional earnings than the whole people can
possibly save even in prosperous times for
all new investments. The consequences
Of these errors are now a present public
calamity, but they we're never doubtful,
never ll.visible; they were necessary and
inevitable, and were foreseen and depicted
when the waves of that fictitious prosper
ity ran highest. In speech made by me
On the oath Of September, 1868, it was said
of these tax s They bear heavily upon
every mans income, upon every industry
and evey business in the country, and
year by year they are destined to press still
more heavily unless we arrest the system
that gives rise to them. It was compare
lively easy when values were doubling
under repeated issues of legal tender paper
money to pay out of the froth of our grow
ing and apparent wealth these taxes, but
when values recede and sink toward their
natural scale, the tax gatherer takes from
us not only our income, not only our prof
its, bnt also portion of our capital. I do
not wish TO eXaggerate or alarm. | simply
Say that we cannot afford the costly and
ruinous policy of the radical majority of
Congress. We cannot afford that policy
toward the South. We cannot afford the
magnificent and oppressive centralism into
which our Government is being converted
We cannot afford the present magnificent
scale of taxation" To the Secretary of
the Treasury l said, early in 1865, There
is no royal road for a government more
than for an individual or a corporation.
What You want to do now is to cut down
your expenses and live within your in.
come" l would give Ill the legerdemain
OF finance and fnanciering; l would give
the whole of it for the old home maxim,
Tive within your income.' This reform
will be resisted at every step. but it must