The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-23
TILDEN, PROFOUNDEST POLITICAL
THINKER OF HIS GENERATION
Savoyard Says He Was the Abest Practical States
man of His Time, and the Wisest Amer
can Since Jefferson.

was universal suspension of specie pay
ments 1t was Democracy stark-naked
then, and had the party never departed
from that preachment and all it implies,
it would have been saddled with an in
finitely lighter load of the tribulations of
defeat than it has lugged around for forty
years with the exception of eight years
when the Democratic leader was a sound
money pratform in the flesh.
Tilden stuuued law in New York City.
Benjamin f. Butler Jackson's Attorney
General, was one of his tutors He came
TO the bar, but he never lost interest in
politics. AS early as 1914 Manifest Des
tiny obtruded in our affairs. Texas was
knocking at the door of the Union for
admission, and would not be denied. Mr..
Van Buren was opposed to 1T, and that
fact destroyed him. The party had long
considered him the logical candidate, and
he had majority of the delegates, but
james X. Polk was nominted. But Polk
could not be elected without the support
of Van Buren,, and that aid was given.
New York was the pivotal State, and its
vote decisive of the result. Slias Wright
was induced to run for Governor If one
would be acquainted with a conspicuous
example of the pathos and the cruelty of
politics, let him read that lofty and mag
nanimous letter of Gov. Wright reciting
his aversion to accepting the office Never
did soldier go to battle with subimer
sense of duty than did Silas Wright enter
upon his canvass for Governor in 1874. He
was elected, and he pulled the national
ticket through by one half his own plu
| rality. Had David B. Hill only done that
forty-four years later
| No sooner was Polk in office than he
turned to the faction opposed to Van
| Buren,. Marcy was chosen Secretary OF
| War and controlled the New York patron
age. 1t split the party-Marcy headed
the ''Hunkers'' and Wright the Barn
barners." History repeated itself in 1880
-Conkling elected the Republican ticket,
and was treated as Wright had been, and
/ the party was split into ''Stalwarts' and
| Half breeds" The results were disas-
trous to the Democrats in 1874 and to the
Republicans in 1880. Tilden was a Barn
burner, and in 184S he supported Van
Buren,, who ran for President on the Free
Soil ticket Thurlow Weed has an eX-
cellent chapter on that campaign, and
one that will we'll repay the reading.
Had Clay been the Wing ca didate in
1S4S nothing would have induceo Van
Buren, to run. Some eX-Whig would have
been the Free Soil candidate, and New
York would have gone for Cass as she
went for Polk. That is why Weed strove
so earnestly for the nomination of Tay-
| Tor.
Tilden now abandoned politics and de-
voted himself to his legal practice. He
was the equal OF any lawyer in the coun-
try. His management of the contested
election case of Giles against Flagg
stamped him as one of the very first prac-
titioners of that or any other day. Soon
his matchless skill in the conduct of the
famous Burdell- Cunningham case put him
at the very head of the profession. AS a
cross-examiner be had no peer. His prac-
tice grew until it absorbed his whole time
and it is said that at one time or other
onehalf of the railroad corporations OF
the country were his clients. He made
the largest fortune at the bar that any one
individual ever accumulated. But Til
,
was lawyer OF all the men our coun
try has produced Samuel ]. Tilden would
have been the ablest Secretary of the
Treasury.
Tilden was opposed to the extension OF
slavery, and had his ideas prevailed slav
cry would have died a natural death He
saw that slavery could not exist without
more slave States. That was why he OPP
posed the annexation of Texas. But his
plan was to vote slavery to death. He
argued that slave labor would soon i'm
poverish slavery would die. He hoped
that the more populous North, REINFORCED
by the immigration from Europe, would
surely make every new State free. But
it was not to be. He opposed the Re
publican party because it was sectional
tand warned the people that any ticket
elected by Northern votes alone would
| bring war. But when the war came he
was for the Union and did great deal to
make the cause of the Union triumphant
Had Mr. Lincoln made him Secretary OF
the Treasury the war would have cost
about one-half what it did and would have
been brought to successful issue much
4 sooner
The war over, Tilden contended that the
seeded States had all the rights under
the Constitution the loyal States had. He
opposed reconstruction, and reOrganIzed
the Democratic party. J. was claimed
that be defeated the nomination OF Chase
by the Democrats in 1868. bat that he al
ways denied There is no doubt that Mrs
Sprague believed he forced the nomina
tion on Seymour, and there IS history FOL
it that it was Mrs. Sprague who lnfiu
enced Senator Conllling III the winter o.
1S76-1S77 to the extent that he rcfrained
from delivering a speech in the Senate
against the counting of the vote Of Lou
isiana for Hayes.
Tiden's fame as statesman of the
practical order is founded on his prose
cution of the Tweed ring in New York
City and the canal ring in New York
State. No other American statesman has
| lilo i,