page_title: Samuel J. Tilden
section_title: Early political career
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel J. Tilden / Early political career
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of New York Governor and U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
context_page_description: Samuel Jones Tilden was an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed election of 1876. Tilden is the only individual to win an outright majority of the popular vote in a United States presidential election but lose the election.
  Tilden was born into a wealthy family in New Lebanon, New York. Attracted to politics at a young age, he became a protégé of Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States. After studying at Yale University and New York University School of Law, Tilden began a legal career in New York City, becoming a noted corporate lawyer. He served in the New York State Assembly and helped launch Van Buren's third party, anti-slavery candidacy in the 1848 presidential election. Though he opposed the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Tilden supported the Union during the American Civil War. After the Civil War, Tilden was selected as the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, and he managed Democratic nominee Horatio Seymour's campaign in the 1868 presidential election.
context_section_description: In 1843, as a reward for campaign work on behalf of Governor William C. Bouck, Tilden was appointed as New York City's corporation counsel. Tilden handled hundreds of cases on behalf of the city, but was forced out of office in 1844 after New York City elected a Whig mayor. He served as a delegate to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, which rejected Van Buren and nominated James K. Polk for president. At the urging of Governor Silas Wright, Tilden won election to the New York State Assembly. He became a key ally to Wright and helped end the Anti-Rent War by passing a compromise land bill that defused tensions between tenant farmers and their landlords. After serving as a delegate to the 1846 New York State Constitutional Convention, Tilden left public office to focus on his legal practice, where he gained a national reputation as a "financial physician" for struggling railroads. Tilden's successful legal practice, combined with shrewd investments, made him rich. His success at money management and investing caused many of his friends, relatives, and political allies, including Van Buren, to allow Tilden to manage their finances.
  Tilden helped to found the "Barnburners", an anti-slavery faction of the New York Democratic Party that arose in the midst of the debate over the Wilmot Proviso. Like other Barnburners, Tilden sought to prevent the spread of slavery into the land acquired from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He helped organize the 1848 Free Soil Convention, which nominated Van Buren for president. Van Buren's candidacy in the 1848 presidential election may have played a role in the victory of Whig nominee Zachary Taylor over Democratic nominee Lewis Cass. Unlike many other anti-slavery Democrats, Tilden did not join the Republican Party in the 1850s, but he did not have close relations with Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. In 1855, Tilden was the unsuccessful state attorney general candidate of the "Soft" faction of Barnburners, which favored compromise and reconciliation with the Democratic Party. In 1859, after he lost an election to serve as New York City's corporation counsel, Tilden announced that he was "out of politics."
  In the 1860 presidential election, Tilden strongly opposed the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee Abraham Lincoln. He warned that the election of Lincoln could lead to the secession of the South and a subsequent civil war. Tilden initially opposed using force to prevent secession, but he supported the Union after the outbreak of the American Civil War. Tilden served as the manager of Horatio Seymour's successful 1862 campaign for governor, and played a key role in securing the nomination of George B. McClellan at the 1864 Democratic National Convention.
  In 1867, Tilden received the honorary degree of LL.D. from New York University. He was also chosen as a delegate to that year's state constitutional convention.
caption: Tilden was a protege of Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States.
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