Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-06-21
TlLDENB DECLINATlON.
A Patriotic Review OF Politics Fast mn,
oDspf

| SaniZed by choosing Daniel Manning chair
man and 5. B. Halliday secretary. Mr..
Peckham read the following letter from
Samuel J. Tilden
New YORK, June 1S.-7o the delegates
from the State Of Nem York to tic Demo-
crdt,c National COnrention Your first as
scmbling is an occasion on which it is
proper for me to state to you my relation
to the nomination for the presidency, which
you and your associates are commissioned
to make in behalf of the Democratic party
of the United States. Having passed my
early years in an atmosphere filled with
the traditions of the war which secured
our national independence, and Of strug-
giles which made our continental system
government for the people and by the
people, | learned to idolize the lnsti-
tutions of my country and was cdu-
Gated to believe II the duty of every citi-
zen of the republic to put his fair allot-
ment Of care and trouble to public affairs.
| | fulfilled that duty to the best of my
ability for forty years as u private citi-
zen. Although during all my life, giving
at least as much thought and effort to
public affairs as to all other objects, have
never accepted official service except for q
brief period and for 4 special purpose, and
| only when the occasion seemed to require
of me that sacrifice of private preferences
to public interests. My life has been sub
stantially that of 4 private citizen. 1t was,
presume, the success of efforts, in which
| as private citizen had shared, to over
| throw a corrupt combination then holding
| dominion in our metropolis and to purify
| the judiciary, which had become its tool,
that induced the Democracy of the state
| in 1874 to nominate me for governor. This
was done in spite of the protests of u
minority that the part l had
borne in those reforms had created
antagonisms fatal to me as Il can
didate. felt constrained to accept the
nomination as the most certain means of
putting the power of the gubernatoriai Of
| flee ON the side of reform and of removing
the impression, wherever it prevailed, that
the faithful discharge of ones duty as 4
citizen is fatal to his usefulness as 4
public servant. The breaking up of
the canal ring, the better management
Of our public works, the large reduction of
taxes and other reforms accomplished
during my administration doubtless
occasioned my nomination for the presi-
dency by the Democracy of the Union in
the hope that similar processes would be
applied to the federal government. From
the responsibilities of such an undertaking,
appalling as it seemed to me, l did not
feel at liberty to shrink. In the canvass
which enSued, the Democratic party
represented reform in the administration
of the federal government and a restOra-
tion of our complex political system to the
pure ideas of its founders. Upon these
issues the people Of the United States
Inv ifv Of than for
of a million chose majOrity of the electors
to cast their votes for the Democratic can
didates for president and vice president.
1t is my right and privilege here to say
that was nominated and elected to the
presidency absolutely free from any en-
gagement in respect to the exercise of the
powers or disposal of its patrOnages.
Through the whole period Of my relation
to the presidency did everything in my
power to elevate and nothing to lower the
moral standards in the competition of par
ties. BY what nefariOus means the basis
of false count was laid in several of the
states l need not recite. These are now
matters of history, about which whatever
diversity of opinion may have existed in
either of the great parties Of the country
at the time of their consummation has
since practically disappeared. refused
to ransom from the returning boards of
the southern states the documentary evil
dence by the suppression of which and by
the substitution of fraudulent and
forged papers pretext was made
for the preparation of a false count.
The constitutional duty of the two houses
of Congress to count the electoral votes as
cast, and to give effect to the will of the
people as expressed by their suffrages, was
never fulfilled. An electoral commission,
for the existence of which l have no re-
sponsibility, was formed, and to it the two
Houses of Congress abdicated their duty
to make the count by law enacting that
the count Of the commission should stand
as final, unless overruled by the concur
rent action of the two Houses. Its
false count was not Overruled, owing |
to the completely of a Republican Senate
with the Republican majority of the CON-
mission, controlled by its Republican ma
jority of eight to seven. The electoral
commission counted out the men elected
by the people and counted in the men
not elected by the people. That sub
issue for the decision of the peo-
pie Of the United States transcending
in importance al questions of administra-
ton. 1t involved vital principles of self
government through elections by the
people. The immense growth of the
means of corrupt influence over the ballot
box, which is at the disposal of the party
having possession of the executive admin
istratiOn. had already become present
evil, and great danger, tending to make
the election irresponsive to public opinion,
the power Of the people to
change their rule and enabling the men
holding the machinery of the government
to continue and perpetuate their power.
1t was my opinion in 1876 that the Opposi-
ton attempting to change the administra-
ton needed to include at least
two-thirds of the voters at the opening of
the canvass iu order to retain a majority at
the election. If, after such obstacles had
been overcome and a majority of the peo-
pie had voted to change the administration
Of the government, the men in Office could
still proceed to false count founded upon
frauds, perjury and forgeries furnishing a
pretext of documentary evidence on which
20 base that false count, and if such tran
'action were not only successful, but if
% it's contrivers, abettors and apologists by
he chief beneficiary of the transaction, it
vas condoned by the people, a practical
destruction of elections by the people
would have beer accomplished.
The failure TO install the candidate ,
chosen by the people, a contingency con-
equent upon no act or omission of mine
md beyond my control, has thus left me
or the last three years and until now,
when the Democratic party, by the dele '