The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-11-28
ON TILDEN's LETTER.

leading Republican Journals Views Upon 1t
His Past Career In Fighting knaVerJ Marks
the Nan,
It was difficult for any one acquainted
with Mr.. Tilden personally, or who had
observed his public life, to suppose that
he had been at all concerned in these
nefarious intrigues. His reputation for
sagacity, to say nothing of his integrity,
to which many of our best citizens bore
willing witness, rendered it extremely
improbable that he should engage in an
enterprise which was at once so wicked
and bunglingIy conducted, If the elect
ors of Florida or South Carolina were
purchasable, as it was commonly believ-
ed they were, a man of the eslightest pru'
dence would not have trusted the nego
tations with them to the uncertain and
hazardous method of telegraphic dispat-
ches-dispatches, too, that were to pass
through the hands of his political enc
mics; and which, however disguised
they may have been by the intricacies
of cipher, were yet with little ingenu'
ity and diligence, as the event has prov.
ed, translatable. He would have sent
single adroit agent to treat with the
scoundrels in person, with the requisite
money in his pocket, and without third
party to overlook and perhaps betray
the odious bargain. None but fools as
we'll as knaves would have undertaken
this thing in the way it was done, and
fools as we'll as knaves they show them
selves to be.
But Mr.. Tilden was never regarded as
a fool and his career up to this time has
not shown him to be knave. In pri,
vate he was always scrnpulously upright
and so far as his public life has been
marked, he had associated with the best
elements of his party. He had strug.
gled against corruption, in this city and
State, with a zeal and vgor that won the
praise of fierce political opponents. His
fight ag inst Tweed, and subsequently
against the banded robbers of the canal,
was an open, honest, manly fight to the
end, and the courage and skill displayed
in it were gladly recognized by all who
desired an honest government. Now,
that one who had gained 30 honorable a
fame, in such exalted fields of exertion,
should be willing to hazard it, and his
good name for life in final act Of gi.
gantic dishonor and crime-gigantic in
its ends but petty in its MEANS only
to be credited on the most direct, posi-
tive and unimpeachabIe testimony. No
such testimony has been given. and OF
that which has been adduCed, and which
only constructively reflects upon him,
Mr.. Tilden now sOlemnly AYERS, in the
broadest and most unqualified terms, he
knew absolutely nothing. Whatever
was done in his behalf was done without
his advice, private or public. He would
not have approved 1t, he adds, if he had
known Of it, but on the contrary, arrest
ed and rebuked it on the spot.
We are glad that Mr.. Tilden is able to
make this denial in phrases so compre
hensive and positive, not for his own
sake only, but for the sake of public
The charges preferred against
him, if sustained, were almost as dis
graceful to the country as to himself.
This would have demonstrated degree
of corruption in the highest as well as
The lowest quarters, that would have ev
eryman of patriotic feelings hang his head
with shame. They would have shown
hat in the very year-the hundredth
of her existence-in which
,he Republic had invited the world to
display of her progress, her growth in
material wealth, and the arts of Civiliza-
ion was accompanied by more prodig-
ous growth in venality and corruption.
A people claiming to be among the fore.
most on the globe in intelligence, culture
md sense of justice, and superior to all
,thers in their political and social theo.
les, would have been convicted in prac.
ice of a baseness only paralleled by that
# the degenerate Romans who sold the |
mpire to the highest bidder. N Y. EU'
nina Post