The Columbus journal., 1879-03-19
THE CASE OF MR.. TILDEN.

LHb USE UT Mn. lILDEN.
scene of intense dramatic interest was wit
messed at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Saturday. Ii
low, dark room, excessively hot and densely
packed, the whole world sat at the reporters tables
or crowded close with notebook in hand to catch
the faint whispers that fell from a worn and hag,
gard old man. With the look of corpse except III
moments of excitement, with slow, far-away voice
and slow, painful movements dropping left eyelid,
parchment-like cheeks, and Guivering hand. Mr.,
1Ilden repeated his statement, evidently prepared
with great care i'll voice much of the time hardly
audible four feet away. His manner showed intense
and increasing nervous excitement, by great effort
restrained; the body rose and fell i'll the seat nces-
sanity as # he were irving in vain to rise and the
seemingly half useless left shook like leaf.
Then the excitement burst restraint, the face
1uShed almost purple, the lip qu1vered the rght
arm repeatedly smOte the table with great force and
passion, and the voice rang through the room with
painful intensity. like, the shrek of drowning
man. After every such effort, the sentence died
away, as If the voice were stopped by closing
waters. The effect was almost that of q death-bed
declaration. Had the matter thereof equalled in
force the s0lemnity of manner, this declaration
would have had great effect. Not. indeed, that the
people would have been more ready to lift TO the
Presidency man so broken, and SO manlfeStly llv
ing only III bitter and torturng memories. But the
matter was by no means equal to the manner III I'M
presslveness, nor could any unprejudiced heaTer
avoid contrasting the declarations of Mr.. Iilden
with his own admitted conduct toward men whose
deeds fill dark page in the history of the country.
MIR. Tilden's testimony was doubtless strong as,
after four months of preparation and consultation,
it was possible to make it. That 1t not exceed
inCly strong was due to the inherent and insupeT-
able difficulties of his position. 1t not possible
for hum to state that, i'll respect to Weed, Marble
Woolley, COyle PeltOn, either in watching their
doings, knowing their character as he did, or IN
reprObating their acts when they became known to
him, his conduct was consistent with the spOtless
virtue and unwayering purpose which he prOfessed.
II was not possible for him wholly to conceal that
low moral tone which half excused PeltOn for try
ing TO buy votes because he was swift to believe
without evidence that others had done attempted
the same thing. His only intense feeling was not
wrath because of crimes committed, but wrath be-
cause of Oss sustained. PetOn tolerated and
kept when he was known to have done wrong.
Years afterward he was dSOwned with Indignation
only when the public had found him out.
Mr.. 1iIden'S declaration of his ignorance of cor
rupt negotiations seems as broad, full and emphatic
as it could be. If there were mental reservations
as it now appears there were in his published card
of October last, of such character that an exact
statement of truth had the public effect of a state
ment tnat was false, they do not yet appear. He |
claims to have had no knowledge that PeltOn was |
i'll cipher with the Democratic
agents at the South; no knowledge that Weed had |
gone to South Carolina, until he returned: 10 |
knowledge that WOolley had gone 10 Florida, |
Or Patrick to Oregon; no knowledge of |
any corrupt proposal as to South Carolina. |
refusal to provide money for it, and no knowlelre
even then or afterward of the true nature of f6e
negotiations III that State or the others. These |
assertions. If fully believed acqut Mr. Tden of one
,harge only convict him of another quite as fatal
10 his position as a Presidential candidate For they
ire to be compared with certain facts now fully
established:
l. Mr. TIlden knew W. T. Pelton thoroupbIv |
Democratic newspapers by way of preparing the
for the wilderness are accumuIatinC |
proof that Petons conduct, especially in regard TO
money matters, had been such that no confidence
could be placed in his integrity, and these dnIngS
we're best known TO Governor 1llden, who had sni-
cred by them. Yet at a most critical and dehcate
ime, when g the air was full of rumOrs of corTUp
tiOn' as Mr.. liden himself tesifies he did suffer
'eltOn 10 conduct the confidential communication
between New-YOrk and the Democratic agents nj
he South, He knew that corrupt proposals must
each such man. word from him to Mr. Hewitt
lT. Cooper. or Mr.. PeltOn himself, would have
topped such communication and caused all proper
gents of the party ut the South to be warned to
only with Mr.. Hewitt. II he had eyer
aid, "peltOn Is lndIsCreet. and may max. scaudalD
Il " PeItOn is corrupt. and NAV buy or promise to
buy there would have been an end. Mr.. Tilden |
dmlts, and the world knows that he did not speak |
hat word. Why nOt3
III. Mr.. Tilden knew Weed, WOOley. Coyle and
iarble. lie had seen under the veneeTing and
new Marble for the Joseph Surface of the age. lie
ad been the chairman of the Democratic State
Committee in 1S6S, and necessarily knew of Mr.
NOOlley's part In the impeachment OF Johnson. He
ad been Governor, and necessarily knew the pro-
Invites OF the most skilled lobbyist at Albany 1t
7as his duty to know whether such men Tepre-
anted the Democratic National Committee. at tbe ,
cry points where corruption was most probable ,
Ill lt Is absolutely impossible that Samuel j.
llden was ignorant of all the cipher telegTams
-hich came from the South, unless he made an eff
Drt to be ignorant. Ii was his habit and his very ,
ature to give extraordinary attention to the details
political contests. If il is true that he did not
tt constant reports from the men South. it ;
an only be because he suddenly made an extTaOr-
atIeuce, aud to put behind hun the habits OF a .