Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-02-20
The Case of Mr.. Tilden.

witnessed at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Sat-
urday. In low, dark room, excessively hot
and densely packed, the whole world sat at
the reporters tables, or crowded close with
note book in hand, to catch the faint whispers
that fell from worn and haggard old man.
With the look of corpse except in moments
of excitement, with slow, far-away voice, and
slow, painful movements, dropping left eye
lid, parchment-like cheeks, and quivering
hand, Mr.. Tilden repeated his statement, evil
IDENTIFY prepared with great care, in voice
much of the time hardly audible four feet
away. His manner showed intense and in
creasing nervous excitement, by great effort
restrained the body rose and fell in the seat
necessarily, as if he were trying in vain to
rise, and the seemingly half-useless left arm
sheok like leaf Then the excitement burst
restraint, the face flushed almost purple, the
lip quivered, the right 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 DEATH
bed declaration. Had the matter thereof
this declaration would have bad great effect.
Not, indeed, that the people would have been
more ready to lift to the Presidency man SO
broken, and so manifestly living only in bitter
~ t1t tho m yre 6
by no means equal to the manner in impress
siveness, nor could any unprejudiced hearer
avoid contrasting the declarations of Mr.. I'll
den with his own admitted conduct toward
men whose deeds fill dark page in the his
tory. of the country.
Mr., rilden's testimony was doubtless as
strong as, after four months of preparation
and consultation. it was possible to make it.
That it was not exceedingly strong it was due
to the inherent and insuperable difficulties OF
his position. 1t was not possible for him to
state that, in respect to Weed, Marble, Wool
ley, Coyle or 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 unwavering pur
pose which he professed. 1t was not possible
for him wholly TO conceal that low moral tone
which half excused Pelton for trying to buy
out evidence that others had done or attempt.
ed the same thing. His only intense feeling
was not wrath because of crimes committed,
but wrath because of loss sustained. Pelton
was tolerated and kept when he was known
to have done wrong. Years afterward he was
disowned with indignation only when the
public had found him out.
Mr. 1ildens declaration of his ignorance
of corrupt negotiations seems as broad, full
and emphatic as it could be. If there were
mental reservations, rs 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 statement that
was false, they do not yet appear. He claims
to have had no knowledge that Pelton was
communicating in cipher with the Democratic
agents at the South no knowledge that Weed
had gone to South Carolina, until he returned;
no knowledge that Woolley had gone to Flo
rida, or Patrick to Oregon; no knowledge of
any corrupt proposal as to South Carolina,
until it was arrested by Mayor Cooper's re-
fusal to provide money for it, and no knowl-
edge even then or afterward of the true nature
of the negotiations in that State or the others
These assertions, if fully believed, acquit Mr..
Tilden of one charge only to convict him of
another quite as fatal to his position as a
Presidential candidate. For they are to be
compared with certain facts now fully estab-
lished
l. Mr.. Tilden knew w. 7. Pelton thor
oughIy. Democratic newspapers, by way of
preparing the scapegoat for the wilderness,
are accumulating proof that Pelton's conduct,
especially in regard to money matters, had
been such that no confidence could be placed
in his integrity, and these doings were best
known to Governor Tilden, who had suffered
by them. Yet at most critical and delicate
time, when ''the air was full of rumors of
corruptions," as Mr.. Tiidcn himself testifies,
he did suffer Pelton to conduct the confden-
tial communication between New York and
the Democratic agents at the South. He
knew that corrupt proposals must reach such
q man. a word from him to Mr.. Hewitt,
Mr.. Cooper, or Mr.. Pelton himself, would
have stopped such communication, and caused
all proper agents of the party at the South to
be warned to communicate only with Mr..
Hewitt. II he had ever said, "Peltou is in
discreet, and may make scandal or ''Pellon
Is corrupt, and may buy or promise TO buy"
there would have been an end. Mr.. Tilden
admits, and the world knows, that he did not
speak that word. Why not
.s1eisssia ss- -