Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1912-09-27
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
A Presidential Candidates
Cryptic UtteranCe
BY Holland.

The late Abram S. Hewitt who ,n..
elected Mayor of New York chv IN
1886, defeating Henry George and
Theodore Roosevelt. and represento1
one of the New York CITY distric,s 4,
Congress in 1S71-1879 and 1SStetSee
was chairman Of the Democratic NJ
tional Committee in the camnaign %
1876 when Governor Samuel / Tildon
was the party's candidate for Presi.
dent.
Some twenty-three years after tina,
election | was chatting with Mavor
Hewitt upon various incidents in bia
political career and he told me the
story of Governor Tildens attitude
toward the Electoral Commission
whose finding was accepted by tho
House of Representatives when tho
meeting authorized by the Constihi-
-tion for the declaring Of the electrical
count for President was held in Feb
ruard, 1877. By that finding Govern
or Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio. was
declared to have been elected Presi-
dent by a majority of one vote in the
electoral college.
There has always been a misund.
erstanding of the attitude of Govern
or Tilden toward the Electoral Conn
mission" said Mayor Hewitt. II
think the common impression to this
day is that he rather reluctantly ac-
cepted the proposition that tribunal
should be created to pass upon the
| double set of returns received from
the three Southern States of South
| Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. One
set of returns. as you remember, gave
the majority vote from those states
to Hayes and another set to Tilden
At the time of the commissions crea-
ton a great many persons were con-
WINGED that Tilden did not favor its
appointment and was greatly put out
because some of the Democratic lead
ers in Congress advised the creation
Of the tribunal. Now I suppose / know
the real story of Tildens attitude to-
wards the commission better than
anyone else now living, and | do not
see any reason why l may not tell
Il TO you.
after the Democratic leaders in
Congress began strongly to favor the
appointment of an electoral commits
sion they decided to send two or three
leading Democrats to Governor Tilden
to get his opinion on the matter Il
was the understanding that if the
Governor strongly opposed the crea.
ton of such a tribunal, then the De-
mocracy would abandon the plan. On
the other hand, if he favored it. they
would, in co-opcratin with Republican
members of Congress, adopt a resolu.
ton creating it,
Senator Thomas f. Bayard of Del
aware went with me so see Tilden
The Governor asked us to outline tn
plan. He listened patiently to i
When we finished he asked us wha
we thought of a proposition to spbmi
to an outside tribunal, the vital cues
ton whether a candidate for the Pres
idency had or had not been elected
We told him we were strongly dispos
cd to favor il. Then he looked a
us sternly and for so long a time W
became visibly embarrassed. At las
- he asked us why we fovored the plat
1--WE told him that there was gray
danger Of an uprising followed b
violence. possibly by something lih
civil war and even revolution, unles
some tribunal OF the kind we had
hiAHh nhoulN pass uHpli inc QuNnliN
in dispute We said that we though
IL was better for the American pc,
pie to submit the matter to a comp
tent tribunal. with the UNDERESTIMATE
that its findings would be accepte
than to leave the matter in doubt
Governor Tiiden then said 10 II,
You speak of a possible revolution
That, I suppose, would mean the en-
ployment OF the army
I'm reply we said that might I
so
"Then Governor Tilden said to M
But an army can at any time su
render
That was ali the opinion we coul
get from him. We did not know the
and I do not know TO this day-whi
he meant when he said that an arm
can always surrender. We went ava
from the Governor greatly disappoin
ed. He would give us no couns
whatever; and so Senator Bayal
said to me that. as Governor Tide
refused to give any counsel, the Den
ocratic leaders in Congress must 70
low their own judgment. And so the
did
Had Tilden told us that he wa
strenuously opposed to the creatic
Of the Electoral Commission" COZ
cluded Mr. Hewitt. that body woul
never have been authorized by res,
luton of Congress"
Copyright, 1912, by f. J. Edward
All rights reserved.)