Daily Kennebec journal., 1878-10-22
From the New York Tribune oct. is.
Mr.. Tilden's Denial.

what enect, Tor he has SAID luSt what we
Yesterday predicted he would say. has
omitted Just what we yesterday declared
he would omit. His card is before the
public. We wish to speak of it with the
respect due TO the explicit. earnest utter
ance of man of great ability and recog-
nized position--a man whom half the peo-
pie In a nation of forty millions voted to
make their Chief Magistrate. and a citizen
of New York. whose character is part
of our civic wealth. What he says is
clear. broad, emphatic in terms. and meets
the case against him as far as a denial can
meet it. But has there ever been per-
son acquitted. in the teeth of strong evil
dence. upon his bare plea OF Not guilty?
That, thus far is Mr.. Tilden's sole reply.
Against very powerful evidence, which
fits marvellously in thousand details all
that is known of his legal habits. his
weakness of character, his fondness for
political ''still-hunts," his confidential re-
lations with the persons acting, and his
use to this day of peculiar ciphers in tele-
graphing--against all this he puts his ma
ked and unsupported word. The world
over. the denial of person accused of An
infamous deed has no weight whatever
with jury. judge, or public opinion. If
his character has not been such as to rem
der all the evidence against him incredible,
his word as against that evidence counts
for nothing 1t is merely plea of "Not
guilty." and does any man suppose that
he who is capable of a crime is incapable
of an untruth to escape the penalty of
crime?
With real regret, we are compelled to
tell Mr.. Tilden that, as matters stand, the
world will find it impossible to accept his
naked assertion as final. He has been
warned, not by this journal only, but iby
others which warmly supported him for the
Presidency. that the public will be unable
to suppose that Mr.. Tilden knew nothing
of correspondence by telegraph carried
on for four weeks between Mr.. Tilden's
own house, on Mr.. Tilden's own business,
in cipher familiar to and still used 5v
Mr.. Tilden. and involving the payment of
sums Of money In his behalf larger than
his nephew possessed. What sane and
unprejudiced person can believe this thing
of man so cautious as Mr.. Tilden. and so
noted for personal attention to the details
OF all his businessp But the denial in this
case will be held Incredible, because:
I. 1t comes too late If Samuel J. Til
den had absolutely no knowledge of this
cipher business, he would have told all the
world so on the very day that the first dis
patches appeared. If he had been too
pure and spotless to know anything of such
deeds under great temptation, he would
have been too honest and too indignant TO
suffer eight days to pass without a
word. His hot denial would have blazed
out before the sun had gone down once
upon the accusation.
II. II covers too much. No reasoning
man can credit the assertion that absolute
ly nothing was told him. by his trusted
nephew in daily intercourse in his own
house, of all the cipher dispatches which
were innocent in contents and gave only
news from his most trusted friends in dis
puted States. But if he was told of their
cipher dispatches up to the hour of crimi-
nal proposals, can any man believe that
the absence of any further advices or
plans from them passed, from that time
onward through all the critical days in
four States, without attracting Mr.. Til
den's attention.
III. 1t is fatty contradicted by his con.
duct. Even to this hour. w. T. Peton
shares Mr.. Tilden's house. Even to this
hour, Manton Marble is his intimate friend
and Smith NJ Weed led his adherents in
the last State Convention. Not thing
has happened to show that Mr.. Tilden
likes and trusts these men less than he did
in 1875. For months the Oregon Dispatch
es have been before NJ Tilden: for weeks
enough Of the Florida and South Carolina
dispatches to cause him to demand expla-
nations, if ignorant. Yet the actors in
all the schemes of bribery are to this hour
his trusted friends. 1t will be the verdict
of the world that an honest man-nay,
man caring TO seem honest, and not al
ready 10 the power of fthese friends-would
have publicly discarded them long ago.
~. 1t brings not a scrap of evidence.
Mr.. Tilden has about him the trusted
agents whose dispatches have been print
ed. II any of these dispatches are not
genuine, he could get in an hours time
sworn statements that they were forged
If any Of them are wrongly translated, he
could get in an hours :ime the true kew
and by producing 1t prove the error He
does neither. as to any one of all the
crime-laden dispatches printed If inno-
cent, he has the power is a skilled lawyer
and knows the necessity. He brings moth
ing to support his open denial, the world
will hold. because he is not innocent. and
can bring nothing.
An incident recently occurred in this city, which
illustrated the uncertainty which has been intro.