The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-10-22

and Philadelphia, as partner under the
firm name of Tench Tilghman and
Company. Morris, upon whom had
fallen no small part of the burden of
financing the revolution, kept his Phil
adelphia interests as separate con-
Germs, however, and supervised their
management until a number of years
later when he went bankrupt and
ended in a debtors prison.
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Colonel Tilghman's closing years
found him pursuing an easy existence
at his home on Lombard street, near
Howard, situated opposite the Old
Friends Meeting House. His politi-
cal inactivity may have been in part
due to his contempt for the postwar
Government under the Articles of
Confederation, as shown in letter
written to his father-in-law early in
1786:
at is a melancholy truth, but so it
is that we are at this time the most
contemplate and abject nation on the
face of the earth. We have neither
reputation abroad nor union at home.
We hang together merely because it is
not the interest of any other power to
shake US to pieces, and not from any
well-cemented bond of our own. How
should it be otherwise? The best men
we have are all basking at home in
lucrative posts, and we send the scum
to represent us in the grand national
council. France has met US there on
equal terms. Instead of keeping a
imam of rank as minister at our court
she sends person in quality of
charge d'affaires who was but de-
gree above a domestic in the family
of our late minister. All joking apart,
I view our Federal affairs as in most
desperate straits. 1 have long been
convinced that we cannot exist as
republics. We have too great con-
trariety of interests ever to draw to-
gether. 1t will be a long time before
any one man will be hardy enough to
undertake the task of uniting under
one head. 1 do not wish to see the
time"
He did not. His health, undermined
by the hardships and privations OF
war, was failing rapidly even at the
time the letter was written. In Feb
ruary he recuperated slightly after a
severe attack of hepatic abscess, but
on April 10, 1856, he died at the age
of Al. He was inferred in the old
burial ground of st. Paul's, the body
later being removed to the cemetery
on Lombard street.
One sidelight on Tilghman's career
which perhaps has escaped general
recognition is the intimacy with which
he was associated with General Wash
ington, both officially and personally
and the high regard in which the
commander-in -chief held his young
aide. There are many instances OF
this on record, for the most part
cropping up in Westinghouse cor
respondence.
In May of 1881, for instance, at a
time when Congress was embroiled
with disputes over army commissions
and promotions, the general wrote to
a delegate as follows:
also wish, though it is
more matter of private than of pub
lie consideration, that the business
could be taken up on account of Mr..
Tilghman, whose appointment seems
to depend on it; for if there are men
in the army deserving of the commits
sions proposed for them, he is one of
them. This gentleman came out a
captain of one of the light infantry
companies of Philadelphia, and served
in the Flying Camp in 1776. In Au-
gust Of the same year he Joined my
family and has been in every action
in which the main army was con-
Icerned. He has been a jealous SER
want and slave of the public and faith
full assistant to me for nearly five
years, a great part of which time he
refused to receive pay. Honor and
gratitude interest me in his favor and
make me solicitous to obtain his COM
mission"
Incidentally, Tilghman showed a
"modesty and love concord" (the
words are Washington's) on this very
matter, by requesting that his COM
mission be post-dated April 1, 1777,
some nine months, actually, after he
had taken office. This unusual request
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