New-York tribune., 1880-06-22
MR.. TILDEN'S ASSERTIONS.

Inc l)PnDCIaIlt llDlll Il ClI'ini "''N
great many Democrats i'll less exciting sit
uations. who ought to bo cool enough ID know
better. are delighted with Mr.. 1Ildcus letter.
Those who did nOt wish to scr him nominated
orc pleased that he seems 80 willing to get out
of the way and those who belong to his faction
declare il is "thc ablcSt paper that ever came from
the hand Of man." II is indeed distinguished
by a great deal of Mr.. Tdcn's artiulncsS. Ii Is
Il smart paper, Of certain kind but no paper
of that kind can ever be remembered to the
credit of its author. As the statement It
political situation its strongest characteristic Is
untruthlulncss. It's assumptions are not only
at variance with fact but they defy notoricty.
Nobody who is familiar with the political history
of the past three years can read Mr.. 1lld"nS re-
view of the electoral dispute without wondering
Mt his audacty. And therefore, truth being
still entitled to some consideration III pubhc
affairs, Mr.. Tildcn'a letter cannot be called mn
able production.
Mr.. Tildcn asserts again, as lc has asserted
hundred times before, that he was elected IN
1876, and counted out because he would not
hrjbr certain Returning Boards to do their duty.
Tins is a bald assertion, never proved, and not
capablc of proof The fact proved 10y II public
investigation Is that the agents of Mr.. Illdrn
or of the Democratic party tried to brlhr these
Returning Boards to count him in. This dis
graceful transaction Is not Il matter of rulnor;
It has been established first by positive tcSti-
mony and then by the public confession Of
several of the guilty Instruments What can
we think OF man who complains to the
universe that he has been cOrruptly deprived
of the Presidency when a conspiracy to buy
tie Presidency for him has been cxposcd-a
conspiracy conducted under his own
roof by his own nephew and II
little party Of his confidential friends
Because it has not been shown that Mr. Tildcn
had n personal share in this plot Mr. 1Ildcn
acts as if he expected the world to forget that
any such plot existed. Because ho can spread
open his hands and declare that ho never SAW
the riuhcr dispatches he acts NJ If he expected
us to forget that his agents offered brIhe OF
$50, 600 in Florida, and another of TSO,OOO
in South Carolina. and Il thiId OF T2OOOO, nlS0
in South Carolina; that the corrupt proposals
made by the vOtc-brOkeGS at the South were
ratified mt GramclCy Park that III the Oregon
case n bribc of 5000 was actually paid, and
So. 900 was drawn from Mr.. TildcnS bank md
sent to Salem for the purchase of II Republican
electOr ami that Colonel Pt ltOn confessed To
the Potter Committee that all the birgains made
by him and his accOmpliccs with the Southern
Returning Boards were bona fide arrange
mrnts which thcy.-tho Democratic managers
fully intended to carry ont. Most remark
able of all Mr. Tidcn's exhibitions of rllrontcry
perhaps is tho GOODNESS with which he ignores
the fact that though this conspiracy WAS dis
closed to him by Mayor Cooper while the
rascally negotiations were in progress, the
pl0ttcrs were nevertheless retained in his con
iidcmtial employment and permitted still
under the shelter of his roof, to go on and
open new chapters of fraud
Judging the Democratic party from his own
standard of political morality MIR. Tidcn knew
that none of these considerations would
offend it. Almost the whole gang of ciDhercrs
and VOtc-buyCr5 are in Cincinnati to-day,
helping the Democratic Convention to select Il
candidate for the Presidency Of the United
States and no Democrat seems to question
that they are what Colonel PcltOn said they
were in his famous examination" as good
"mcn as there are in the party" PcltOn was
the only one who seemed to be ashamed of
himself when he was found out ; and PcltOn
il the only one who has been discarded.
Smith Weed is u prominent figure to-day ut
Smith to whom Weed sent word in cipher
that the "antagonism" Of the Florida Return
ing Board must be "pTcvented instanter at
"any cost,r is also in the crowd. Miller OF
Omaha, who started the Oregon operations, Is
delegate. Woollcy, living In Cincinnati, Is
within reach Wilkinson Call, whose name
appears in tho pher dispatches in connection
with the financial operations of Mr.. John F.COyle,
travels from Florida to Cincinnati, perhaps
to repeat the old inquiry, " How much material
e aid on sight 7" And another Of the best men
in the party now engaged in candidate
making is the mysterious agent whom Weed
and Pelton dispatched to Columbia to buy q
Legislature and get the Hayes electors locked
up IN Jail. Have these men lost standing on
account Of their conduct in 1S761 Not at ALL
They are counsellOrs as much regarded as