Year: 1876

production experimentally, and to sup
ply as it was wanted, six hundred tons,
at price that could not yield much
profit. This onerous, but patriotic duty
was undertaken by an establishment in
which Mr.. Tilden was then director
and large stockholder, and to accom-
plish it they stopped other highly re-
munerative work, thereby sacrificing
hundreds of thousands of dollars, the
price, as it turned out, being too low to
cover the cost of production. But
neither he nor any of his associates have
ever set up or even intimated desire to
make any claim for indemnity, as
learned in Washington last winter.
Neither has he for they asked the Gov
ernment to receive the balance of iron
undelivered under the contract, although
not more than two-thirds of it had been
called for when the war closed, at which
time, owing TO the sudden fall of prices,
the profits on the residue would have
been very large but the Government no
longer needed the iron, and its credit
was stretched to the utmost to provide
for war debts. Mr.. Tilden and his
friends therefore forbore to make any
claim to the large amount they might
justly have asked in this matter.


On previous occasion, when great
emergency arose, the Governmentcalled
upon the same gentlemen for aid it
asked them to construct large number
of ponderous wrought iron machines,
each weighing many tons, and known in
military engineering as mortar beds, and
to accomplish the object in less than one
quarter of the time which the Ordnance
Department and engineers of eminence
had declared indispensable.


Reposing confidence in the patriotism
of these gentlemen, it was explained to
them, that large number of these huge,
unwieldy structures had suddenly been
called for by General Grant, and not one
was to be found in our arsenals; that
they were necessary to complete the
armament of gunboats, required for the
most important military campaign to be
made in the West that winter (1S62),
the advance up the Tennessee and the
Cumberland Rivers, to capture Fort
Henry and Donaldson, and to destroy the
Confederate army there gathering, and
that a failure to supply these beds
promptly, would greatly embarrass the
expedition, and might defeat it alto
gether, by delaying until the waters of
these rivers fell too low for navigation by
gunboats.


Nobly did these gentlemen respond to
the confidence reposed in them by the
Government. Money to carry on this
work could not then be advanced, for the
Treasury had none to spare, it was so far
in arrears for soldiers pay, and the ex-
penses of enlisting and organizing troops.
But these gentlemen did not hesitate.
They opened their own purses, and, as if
by magic, summoned into instant &C
tivity multitude of skilled workmen in
different shops and towns, situated in
three different States, no singl lie establish
ment or city being able to support the
number of artisans and tools, and the
different kinds of material with the
premptness and celerity necessary to
meet the emergency. 1t will crafty you
to learn that this, under the circum
stances, almost Impossible task was ac-
complished considerably within the time
limited, and so enabled General Grant to
complete the armament of the expedi-
tion before the day appointed. This Won
derful performance was only achieved
through the matchless executive skill of
Abram S. Hewitt, who organized and
directed the work, and who was one of
Mr.. Tilden's associates in the Trenton
Iron Company, and like Mr.. Tilden, has,
in many ways, and at different times
rendered great and loving service to his
country, but never paraded his well-do-
ing, or sought to make of it political or
other merchandise.


The account made out against the
government for performing this great
feat of mechanical construction, em
braced no charge for proGt, interest,
agency, personal service, use of shops.
use of tools, or anything else, but the
actual money disbursed for materials and
labor.


After the account was approved and a
voucher issued, they had to wait many
months before the Treasury could pay
them; greenbacks, meanwhile, were de-
preciating every day, so that the money
in which they were repaid was worth
much less than the money they disbursed
This depreciation, together with interest,
use of tools and shops, and the value of
personal services rendered, would make
a very large loss, or patriotic offering,
which ever you choose to call it, i'll this
single matter, for which they asked no
indemnity, then or since, and never COM
planned that the government could not
use them better.


Such patriotic liberality on the part
of Mr.. Tilden and his associates of the
Trenton Iron Company, you may safely
believe, was emulated by none of the
men who now are so loud in his detrac-
ton. 1t would, l think, be difficult to
find one of them who in the essential
attributes of good citizenship is worthy
to unloose the latchet of his shoe.


If it were necessary l could 60 on
multiplying instances and evidence in
support of my averment to you, that on
my personal knowledge the charge of
disloyalty against Mr.. Tilden is untrue;
and have no doubt that all the other
charges made against him are equally
untrue, for they are inconsistent with
the high character which he has borne
through long and very active business
life, and with the cordial fellowship and
esteem of so many good men, who would
scorn instead of respecting him if he
were the calculating villain which his
political enemies paint.


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