Year: 1877

Speeches of Messrs. Tilden and


Hendricks before the Manhattan


Club, New York, June II, 1877:


GOV. TILDEN's SPEECH.


Everybody knows that after the


recent election the men who We're


elected by the people President and
! Nice-PreSident of the United States


were counted out, and the men who


were not elected were counted in
and seated. / disdain any thought


of personal wrong involved i'm this


transaction. Not by any act or


word of mine shall that be dwarfed


or degraded into a personal griev-


ance which is, in truth, the greatest


wrong that has stained our national


annals. To every man of the four


and quarter millions who are de-


frauded of the fruits of their cleo
tive franchise it is as great wrong


as it is to me, and no less to every


man of the minority will the ulti-


mate consequences extend. Evils


in government grow by success and


by impunity; they do not arrest


their own progress; they can never


be limited except by external for


ces. If the men in possession of


the government can in one instance


maintain themselves in power


against an adverse decision at an


election, such an example will be


cOndOned. But temptation exists


always, and devices to give color of


law and false pretenses on which to


ground fraudulent decisions will not


be wanting, and the wrong will


grow into practice if once condOned.


In the worlds history changes in


the succession of governments have


usually been the result of fraud or


force. 1t has been our faith and


our pride that we had established


Il mode of peaceful change to be


worked out by the agency of the


ballot-bOX. The question now is,
whether our elective system, in its
substance as well as its form, is to


be maintained? This is the ques-
ton Of questions, and until it is
finally settled there can be no poll
tics founded on the inferior rights
of the people. 1t involves the elec-
tive principle it involves the whole
system of a popular government.
The people must signally condemn
the great wrong which has been
done to them; they must strip the
example of everything that can at
tract imitators; they must refuse a
prosperous immunity to crime.
This is not all. The people will not
be able to trust authors or beneficial
ries of wrong to devise remedies, |
but when those who condemn the |
wrong shall have power they must |
devise such measures which shall |
render repetition of wrong forever
impossible. If my voice could |
reach throughout the country and |
be heard in its remotest hamlet, l |
would say, be of good cheer the re-
public will live; the institutions of |
our fathers are not to expire in |
shame; the sovereignty of the peO-
pie shall be rescued from this evil
and be re-established successful |
wrong never appears so trium-
phantly as on the very eve of its |
fall. Seven years ago a corrupt dy-
nasty eliminated in its power over
the million of people who live in the
city of New York. 1t had con-
quered or bribed or flattered, and
won almost everybody into acqui-
escence. 1t appeared to be inevita-
BILE and invincible. A year or two
later its members were in the peni-
tentiaries or in exile. History
abounds in similar examples. We
must believe in the right and in the
future. A great nation will nOtsever
its political from its moral life.


GOVERNOR HENDRICKS SPEECH.


GENTLEMEN-It thank you for the
honor you do me. / appreciate it
in part as an expression of personal
respect and confidence, but more as
a declaration and assurance Of your
Of the principles and politics
of which, in honorable association
with your distinguished citizen,
was made a representative i'm the
political contest of last year. i beg
to assure you that appreciate the
honor you show me, the more high
ly because of your devotion to the
political principles which expert
ence has shown to be essential to
the preservation of good and pure
government and the prosperity of
the people. Very earnestly the
Democrats of this great city and
State and of Indiana, as also of other
States, contended for and demanded
the restoration of local self-govern-
ment in all the States where it had
been denied. They insisted upon
reduction throughout the entire
public service in expenditures not
by hundreds nor by thousands, but
by many millions annually. There
in was involved also a great reduc-
tiOn of vast army Of Ofiice-hOlders
and the substitution of honest for
dishonest administration. Contend
ing for results so notably right and
their cause was grand
and their victory glorious. / will
not disturb the pleasure Of this Oc-
casion by undertaking to recount
the means whereby the will and
Judgment of the people were de-
feated. The result as declared in
Louisiana and in Florida and at
Washington, is not and can not be
made satisfactory to the country, for
the obvious reason that ii was not
true. A great and sincere people
will rest their final judgment only
upon truth, and never upon fraud
successful through technieality, even
should the President and his cabinet
adopt part or the whole OF the
politics and purposes for which the
Democratic party has been contend
ing for many years, and which be-
came so distinctly defined last year;
even that cannot remove or quiet