New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-05-19

l
health, 1t has been inadvertently done, and
through unfavorable circumstances Many would
doubtless tell how confidently they predicted the
result I could tell them, II they were right In
| that II was not because they were not wrong In
| the PREMISES 1t resulted from circumstances
| which they could not possibly have taken into
! account and the existence Of which ola not
| know
| This chronic ill-heath brought about state OF
things almost without example. Most men VINO
| have amassed great wealth would testIy 'ha'
| they only accomplished 1heir aims by s'ric'
| attention TO business Tildens habits were ex-
| acnv the reverse 'He seemed" writes MS
| biographer ito have appropriated to hmseii Inc
| prerogatiye in regard to time which the common
law only confers on kings, and To he unner Tue I'M
presson that In the long run the woriu o'"'" '"sn
| nothing by waiting on him." Clients WI" went '"
| his office by appointment waited lo' nuns w
went away without the desired advice, while he
| discussed politics with an acquaintance met ny
chance In the street, This habit was apparently
| mot ana aeauired late IN life, when wealth had
oonferred ON him the privilege of being indifferent
| 7, was characteristic ~ him from me ilfsl'
| uoutine hs fejl % be destructive W MIN no pro-
| ,aeted himself from n ~ the outset ana rVn'
| ansrva,d lnstine,iyey, The operation was prob
abiv oniy IA mart n wafA ~ consciousness Ito
fsl, unabu IA buay himself abou, ihlhes IA when
Ia ,ooh little of 10 interest The result hiH
blosrapber says was an utter nbrerce OF ine'hou'
nven IN the days VI his most active practice u "
said that he never Indofscd or hlcd away any
law INNER or made mn entry In his register III
bis Younger days this want OF order must nav"
beon made up by the extraordinary grasp ana
tenaclty of hia memory. In later times. OF course
he could dcpute NIL care OF papers ana the IKE
IA clerks After his employee had u trial or Two
of his temper they took precautions thnt no'mnS
ever likely TO be asked for should De oh' 81 "'
mace. n they could help IT, His own expressions
| attest that he had the same disgust OF the rou-
fine of official life To carry out an idca was his
notion of political power. To mix that up with
attention to irrelevant details he accepted "s uh-
avoidable but his acceptance was hampered by
a mental protest which sooner or later became
audible This indifference. which amounted TO
actual incapacty to deal with things that did not
absorb his attention. was perfectly consistent with
the bestowal Of time and labor without sum- Oh
tasks that really interested him. He applied 10
thern not the acuteness of the ordinary man OF
affairs, but the profounder methods OF the STU
dent This gave an air of originality to his law
cases to his financial operations and to his poh'-
zeal manoeuvres which they would not nave hau
II they had been exploited merely as theories IN
a monograph by some laborious professor accus-
TONED to study his subject on all sides but never
to put conclusions into practice. HIS genius Is
defined by the fact that with only fragmentary
training in colleges. he should have seized the
scholarly method and should have applied 1t I'M
err,nrlv to the practical affairs Of life. How lit
tie he was understood shown In the contra
dctory criticisms passed upon his operations
Because he did not fix instantly upon course OF
action in every conjuncture he was accused OF
indecsion Because his financial devices were In
scrutable from the point Of view OF ordinary
business he was said to be rash. Whether either
Of these censures was correct Is not matter oi
discussion here. But 1t is plain that both couid
not be true The testimony OF his biographer is
that he showed trace OF indecision when MS
mind was made up, but that he utterly refused
perhaps was incapable of. action until his nina
was made up. In financial operations few men, II
Is said took less risk He ventured only where
exhaustive study of possibilities in which neither
labor nor expense was spared had given GER
tainty of success. Hence he denied with more or
less heat that he speculated. The denial was
apparently put on moral grounds; but 1t is not
out of place to observe that his method was one
which would never have been successful In specu-
lation His disavowal might just we'll have
been a case Of compromising for sins he was in
cned to by damning those he had no mind TO as
of superior honesty. In that case he would not
have been the first man who mistook indifference
to certain forms Of temptation for moral excel
lence.
1t is little strange that with his slowness OF
volition he should have cherished the thought
that nature really intended him for military
life. and that one OF his personal idols should
have been the figure Of Napoleon. His biog-
rapher has no difficulty in believing that he
might have made Il place for him among the
| great generals Of the world. Few will be found
to share this extremely fiatterin, view OF TIL
| denis versatility To give an example. Napo-
Icons first campaign beginning with the battle
OF Montenotte and ending with that of the
| Tagamento, lasted almos. precisely year. In
that time he crossed both the Alps and the APP
pennies won fifteen pitched battles defeated sew
eral hostile armies captured all Italy and forced
Austria into captulation that was almost
surrender. 1t is no exaggeraton to say that In
these twelve months circumstances demanded Of
Napoleon more numerous acts Of the will in the
mids. Of uncertainty than were required OF TIL
den in the course Of his whole life. which over
spanned the allotted period OF threescore years
and ten. The single campaign Of Washington
which comprised Trenton ana Princeton, or
Greene's in the Carolinds or Scotts In Mexico.
or Grants preface to the siege OF Vicksburg.
would have more than exhausted the volitional
activity of Tilden as exhibited In far longer
periods What resources he had In the way
Of will power which he did not exhibit cannot
be estimated. but what lie did exhibit would not
have suffced for general Another point to De
| considered Is that in the only affair where gen.
eralship Of a high order was required ne 1aiied
This must be acknowledged even by those VINO
insist that he had the right Of it in the electoral
fof1S 4 c frtra az
| that political forces not all under the con-
| troll of a party leader in the same degree that
the forces of an army under the control OF its
| general" But 1t is the necessity Of military
genius that it shall not only plan campaigns. but
! carry them out. Tilden succeeded sometimes be-
yond all expectations in the State Of New-York
| hui here q lifelong political activity had given