American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-02-28
4 Speech by Mr.. fildens

Turning over a pile of pamphlets,
long since accumulated and forgotten,
we come upon one which, after TIC
passage of n dozen years since it was
printed, presents matter of interest to-
day. 1t is speech by Samuel j. Til
den to his neighbors of Columbia Coun-
ty. and is entitled Taxation in the
United States-Its Enormous Burden
Upon the Productive Labor of Our
COuntry-Its Continuance Unnecessary
How the Evil May be Remedied by a
Change of Measures and of Men, 1t
was an appeal for the election of Sey-
mour over Grant, and we venture to say
that no appeal of that campaign pos
sessed greater weight than this.
Mr. Tilden said that while many illu-
sions that were personal had passed
from his mind in the course of years, he
still chung to the hope that this coun-
| try would remain free, self-governed
and interrupted, "as q man clings to
the only fresh and unbroken hope there
is in life. | trust,'' he continued, s'that
that, too, is not to. be disappointed. At
all events, whatever others may do, I
shall cling to it to the last. At the cost
of much sacrifice of time, business and
comfort, have once more taken the
HSIu " Hcip MY DculoCIdIIC lTlcHuS 10
carry out these principles which they
and were devoted to in our youth, and
which have endeav6red. and, with the
blessings of God, shall endeavor to press
forward unto success
Such was the spirit of this speech
and the prophecy of evil which was
made then in case of Grants elevation
to the Presidency, has been more than
fulfilled; and. yet again, at the end of
decade, full of shame and disaster. the
same issues are presented in the threat
ened candidacy of the same man.
Mr.. Tilden drew terrible picture of
the weight of taxation under which our
people were grooming, greater by far
than that of England or France; and of
the increasing extravaganza and cOrrup-
tions of government. He dwelt es-
pccially upon the enormous and I'M
necessary expense of maintaining a
large army, not to meet foreign agrees
sion, but to further designs Unknown or
unavowed; and he declared that the
only remedy consisted in cutting down
establishments. reducing expenditures,
and returning to the simplicity and
economy of better days.
''Shall you have peace throughout
the South,'' said he, shall you allow
it to help you pay the necessary taxes;
shall you disband your army, cut down
the hordes of unnecessary and corrupt
officials that charge you with these ex-
penses, and return to the simple and
pure system of your fathers, or shall
YOU go on till the tax gatberer shall
haunt you-the specter of a betrayed
and ruined country? The pretense is
that the South will go into another war.
Nothing was ever more ridiculous. L
tell you to-day that the South is so SUBJ
jugMed and SO exhausted that it will
submit to almost anything-that 1t will
submit to what no man ought tO-that
it will submit to what would have made
the blood of your fathers curdle in their
veins if they thought you yourselves
would consent to submit to tn
But the most notable passage of this
notable speech of twelve years ago was
the closing one, every word of which
might have been framed as warming
against the open and monstrous attack
upon our free institutions, which every
commonly intelligent man must see in
the present attempt to secure n third
term for that very soldier whom Mr..
Tilden then declared to be untitled,
both by education and association. for
the first one:
Let us go forward to the ballot box, and
with united action and with one voice put into
the great trusts of the Government men who
believe rs we do and who will give their efforts
to restore the Government to what It was in the
days of our fathers. Applause. A voice
God grant it'll Yes, as my friend in the
audience says, God grant itr There is no
prayer that would ascend to the throne of the
Eternal purer of all seliishness, full of more
devoted patriotism, full of more benevOlence
toward the masses of mankind here and in
other countries, and in all future ages, than
ence puts up: God grant it lCheers.l
Fellow citizens, / can imagine that from the
ethereal heights the men that made this Gov
ernment-your Washingtons, your jeff ersons,
your Madisons-look down to see whether this
generation lie to fail in transmitting to their
descendants the priceless iE hertanCe Of Con.
stituticnal government. Washington himself
his tall and peerless form Ienns over from
the midst Of those patriots and statemen of
the Revolution, to see to-day what we are
about to do. Shall we prove ourselves worthy
of the ancestry? Ifso then there will be tfope
not only for this country but for the oppressed
and down-trodden in every cline and in every
age"
Such was Mr. Tilden's appeal in. 1868,
before his warfare upon Tammany Hall
and the destruction of the Tweed Ring,
and before he went to Albany as Gov 4
ernor to grapple with the Canal Ring,
and to put in practice within the State
of New York some of the precepts he
then advanced.-M Y Sum.