The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-01

ticket contaminated With even SuSpl-
cion of disloyalty to Madison. DIR.
Youngloye's wife, who was a remark
able woman, bought the letters and pa
pers of Thomas Jefferson when they were
first collected in print in 1929. She COW
cred the copy with tea-colored muslin,
and, as it was favorite study with her,
she circulated it among the younger
members Of the family. 81 read them
over" says Mr.. Tilden, "again and
again, and thus became thoroughly i'm
bued with Jeffersoniau political ideas. "
Mr.. Jefferson was his political
standard, and nowhere can there be
found a more clear, compact and com
prehersive statement of the obligations
of his country to jefferson than Mr..
Tilden gave in a letter to the New Haven
Jefferson club written four years be-
fore his death. He describes jefferson
as "am0ng the earliest, most resolute,
and most steadfast of the patriots who
upheld the popular rights in the incip-
lent struggles of our Revolution, when
the part he took required higher order
of courage, of self denial, and of genius
than were necessary at any subsequent
period of our history"
Mr.. Tilden's father, Elan Tilden, en-
j0yed the personal and political friend
ship of such Democrats as Silas Wright,
and Martin Van Buren,, and this relation
made his house the resort of the leading
public men of the State. To the CONVEX
sation of such men as these young Tilden
was one of the most patient and con-
scientious of listeners 1t is not strange
that under such auspices political life
should have seemed to HIM the ideal life,
and that all his thought, study, and
aspirations were fixed in that direction
at an age when most boys are satisfying
their ambitions with hoop or kite. He
went to Yale and other colleges, but ILL
health forced him to leave them all, but
ill health did not deter him as a boy
from taking deep interest in the public
questions of the day and in contributing
articles to the party press, which were
good enough to be attributed to
Martin Van Buren, by the opposition
press
Mr.. Tilden's first public service Of real
Importance was an address delivered at
home, Sept. 10Th, 1888, called to ratify
the nomination Of Van Buren, for the
Presidency. Jackson had vetoed the
bill to recharter the national bank, and
it was the signal for the most heated
and acrimonious political contest which
up to that time had been waged in the
country. The bank, with its army of
officers, debtors, dependents, with the
use of patronage, which was then po-
tential, waged a bitter contest against
Van Buren,. In his New Lebanon
speech, before he was old enough to vote,
Mr.. Tilden denounced the bank:
1st. For debauching the press.
I'd. For acquiring by its favors an I'M
due influence over the members of Con
gress.
Sd. For deliberately, and with malice
aforethought, deranging the currency
and disturbing the exchanges with
view of producing spread CONNER
cial embarrassment, in the hope thereby
to extort from the fears and necessities
of the people renewal Gifts charter.
4th. For refusing to submit its condi-
tons and operations to Congressional
investigation, upon the extraordinary
ground that it should not be required to
criminate itself.
He then considered the consequences
if it should succeed in securing rechar-
ter; how 1.-THE capitalist class had banded
together all over the world and organ
lied the modern dynasty of associated
wealth, which maintains an unques-
toned ascendency over most of the civil
lied portions of our race, and which is
now striving to extend it's dominion
over us, the United States Bank being
the Briareus with its hundred arms by
which this dominion is being established
in the United States.
All this sounds very much like speech
by Senator Morgan or Representative
Bryan in this year of grace 1895. 1t is
openly charged now, as Mr.. Tilden
charged then, that the money power de-
bauches the press, acquires by patronage
undue influence over members of Con-
gress, and that the panic was brought on
with malice aforethought" for selfish
ends. Then the President was in the
fight against the money power; now he
is the defender and mainstay of the
financial policy which is inveighed
against
Writing to his father in 1S35-he was
just twenty-one years old-he says:
wish you would write to Van Buren,
urging him to impress as much as he can
upon the President the necessity of
avoiding everything that may seem viO-
lent and high handed; to pursue the con.
trary course is to give his oppo-
nents decided advantage, and lin fact
just what they, who are plotting
his ruin, wish him to do.
Thew (the Senatorsl have the unoues-