The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-09
CENTENARY OF THDEN. THE MAN WHO WAS ALMOST PRESIDENT.

So aong as the United States lasts, Its people will treasure and honor the names of those who have held the h1gh ofrice of president of the Re- pmbaBc. No other man evar came so near to gaining that 1rnnao1fality, only to have 1t elude him. than Samuel Vcnes TIr1en, the great statesman whose centenary will be celebrated <oday IT presidents of the United Btates were elected by direct vote. the name of THden would appear In the 1zst of chief executives instead Of that oe Rutherford B. Hayes. for Tilden'sa popular vote was 4s2S4.SS5 es agaanst .4vn98,s5O for Hayes, a pEura1fty of 16o, ,es5 for the Democratic candidate. Aeazn in 1888 Cleveland received a Eroa4er popular vote than Harrison, alehcush the latter was elected with a large ma5oziEy in the electora1 college.
 Samuel Jones TIIden was born one. hundred years ago today Feb g, 1s14, dn New Issbanon, N. r. h his youth he vsas weakly and often i'll, and on fhis account was prevented from com p1st1ng the course at Yale. He fin- dshed his studies at the University of
 
 jarnin F. Butler. He pract1ced law with marked success. and aaao enter ed the Journalistic field as the founder and editor of the New York Daily News. In 1866 he became chairman of the Democratic State Committee. He was the soul of the legal attacks on the notorious .Boss'' Tweed, and his ring He worked for the re- nova1 of the corrupt judges who were the agents of the ring, and in the course of the firing trials'' he demon strated the principle on which the di- vision of the spoils had been based.
 In 1874 Ti1den was elected gover- nor of New York by the Democrats. and at Albany he began another war on an infamous combination of graft CTS called the "cana1 ring.'' the mem bers of which had been making broke up that ring. too. and this. achievement made him loom up as a national figure.
 In 1876 Ti1den received the Demo cratic nomination for president, op- posing Rutherford B. Hayes, the Re- publican candidate The campaign was the most spirited since the civil war-in fact, in some places the can vass was so vehement as almost to amount. to civil war; After the cleo ton each party claimed the victory. In the electoral college 1S5 votes were necessary to a choice, and it was de- c1ded that MT. TiIden had 1s4 The dispute hinged on the votes in F1ori- da, South Carolina and Louisiana The Democrats had a majority in those States. but the returning board. by rejecting votes alleged to have been fraudu1entIy obtained, gave these States to the Republicans Two to Was1ington. As the constitution offered no remedy for this state of affairs, and as the intense excitement in many parts of the republic was assuming a. threatening aspect, Tilden ana Hayes consented to an extra-con- stftutiona1 electoral mission to de- eide disputed cases This commission, by deciding all the cases in favor of the Republicans. defeated TiIden, who received 1s4 electoral votes to 1s5 for Hayes.
 Following the election TIIden went into retirement at Greystone, his country seat near Yonkers, N Y, where he remained until his death on Aug. 4, 1886 He left a fortune of several million dollars, the bulk of which he desired used to found a great public library in New York. His will was successfully contested, and only part of his fortune went to the Tilden foundation of the New York