Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-06-19
TILDEN
Declines the Presidency.
Declaration From His
Own Hand.

NEW YORK, June 1.-THE following
communication from Samuel ]. Tilden
has been given to the press:
"NEw YORK, June 10, 1884.
ITO DANIEL MANNING, Chairman of
the Democratic State Committee of
New York: In my letter of June IS,
1880, addressed to the delegate from the
State of New York to the Democratic
National Convention, said:
"Having now borne faithfully my
full share of labor and care in the public
service, and wearing the marks of the
burdens, desire nothing so much as an
honorable discharge. | wish to lay
down to the honors and tolls of even
quasi party leadership, and to seek the
repose of private life. In renouncing a
denomination for the Presidency, l do
so with no doubt in my mind as to the
vote of the State of New York or of the
United States, but because | believe
that it is a remuneration of reelection
to the Presidency. To those who think
my denomination and reelection in
dispensable to an effectual vindicatiOn
of the right of the people to elect their
rulers, violated in my person, / have
accorded as long reserve of my decis-
ion as possible; but can not overcome
| my, rapuuponna tn aptar into n ,,oy,, on =
gagement, which involves four years of
ceaseless toll.
"'The dignity of the Presidential
office is above a merely personal ambi-
ton; but it creates in me no illusion.
Its value is as great power for good to
the country. said four years ago, in
accepting the nomination: "'Knowing,
as do, therefore, from fresh experience,
how great the difference is between
gliding through an official routine and
working out the form of systems and
policies, it is impossible for me to con-
template what needs to be done in the
Federal Administration without an
anxious sense of the difficulties of the
undertaking. If summond by the suf-
frages of my countrymen to attempt
this work, shall endeavor, with Gods
help, to be the efficient instrument of
their will. Such work of renovation,
after many years of misrule-such re-
form of systems and policies-to which
l would cheerfully have sacrificed all
that remains to me of health and life, is
now, l fear, beyond my strength"
"My purpose to withdraw from fur
ther public service, and the grounds of
it, We're at that time we'll known to you
and others; and when at Cincinnati,
though respecting my wishes yourself,
you communicated to me an appeal
from many valued friends to relinquish
that purpose, reiterated my determine
ton unconditionally. In the fouryears
which have since elapsed nothing has
occurred to weaken, but every thing to
strengthen, the considerations which in
duced my withdraw from public life.
To all who have addressed me on the
subject my intention has been frankly
communicated. Several of my most
confidential friends, under the sanction
of their own names, have publicly
stated my determination to be irrevoca-
BILE. That have occasion now to con-
slider the question is an event for which
1 have no responsibility.
"The appeal made to me by the
Democratic masses, with apparent
unanimity, to serve them once more is
entitled to the most deferential con-
sideration, and would inspire a dis
position to do any thing desired of me
if it were consistent with my judgment
of duty. believe there is no instru-
mentality in human society so potential
in its influence upon mankind, for good
or evil, as the Governmental machinery
for administering justice and for max
ing and executing the laws. Notall the
eleemosynary institutions of private
benevolence to which philanthropists
may devote their lives are so fruitful in
benefits as the rescue and preservation
of this machinery from the perversions
that make it the instrument of con-
spiracy, fraud and crime against the
most sacred rights and interests of the
people.
"For fifty years, as private citizen,
never contemplating an official career,
l have devoted at least as much thought
and effort to the duty of Governmental
institutions of my country as to all
other objects. I have never accepted
official service except for brief period
for special purpose, and only when
the occasion seemed to require from me
that sacrifice of private preferences to
the public welfare, l undertook the
State administration of New York be-
cause it was supposed that in that way
only could the, executive power be
arfayed on tile side of the reforms to
which, as a private citizen, had given
three years of my life.
~ accepted the nomination for the
Presidency in 1876 because of the
general conviction that my candidacy
would best present the issue of reform,
which the Democratic majority of the
| people desired to have worked ont in