Year: 1876

date. There are some who say that
knowledge is power. There are others
who say that will is power, l am not
willing to say which of the two opinions
appears to be the better. But this / can
say: that Governor Tilden combines both
the power of knowledge and the power
of will. He knows what is right in prin-
ciple. and he has the courage and skill to
carry it out in practice And if the YIN
dication of great idea or a correct prin-
ciple should require him to antagonize
personal friends or powerful sentiment
in his own party, he has shown that he
possesses the nerve to do 30. Being sure
that he is right, he does not hesitate to 60
ahead, giving out as the order of the day
the sentiment of his dispatch to st. Louis:
"Make no compromise with any body"


We know it was Samuel ]. Tilden who
secured the conviction of Boss Tweed
We know that it was Governor Tilden
who overthlew the powerful Canal Ring
in his State. We know that as Governor
of New York he has accomplished re-
duCtion Of taxes unparalleled in these
days of extravagant administration. AS
reformer he is not man of empty
words and high-sounding deClamations,
but a living reality, dreaded by evil-doers,
while reassuring to the honest sentiment
of the country.


1t is said now that he did all these
things for his own personal aggrandize-
ment, and not for the public good. | do
not care for the psychological inquiry
lChy he did them, or by what motives he
was actuated when he did them; all | care
for lies in the fact that he did do them.-
You can not say this Of great number
of our public men. Between the mega
lively good man, VINO means well, and
whose motives are of angelic unselfsh-
ness, but who does or attempts nothing
in the right direction-between the pure
motived man who has never smashed a
"Ring", and never made himself obnox-
ious to the managers of rings, on one side,
and the ambitious man on the other,
who does the right thing aggressively,
stops extravaganza, cuts down taxation,
exposes corruption and brings political
criminals to justice because he wants to
make a great name and carve out great
future for himself, give me the man who
does the thing, no matter what his mo-
tives are. The Republican party drives
its ring breakers out of the Cabinet, and
defeats them in its Conventions; but you
have had the good sense and the pluck
to nominate your ring. breaker for THE
Presidency. If Mr.. Tilden will do in the
Government of the United States what
he has done as Governor New York, l
solemnly undertake to say that the peo-
pie will never enter into metaphysical
investigation whether his motive was
simply, purely and exclusively the pro-
motion of the public welfare, or whether
he also had in view the fame, reputation
and glory of Samuel Tilden. If what
he has done was. done for effect merely,
let us have the man who will do these
things for effect. 1t is the very kind of
a man we wanti in the Presidential chair


Mr., Tilden's services as public man
and statesman were not confined to his
functions as Governor of New York. He
has done more. He has taken hold o.
his own Tarty, and lifted it out of the
slough of despond and Indifference, anC
put it on the track of future usefulness
and efficiency. His powerful grasp has
rescued it from impending dissolution
and restored it to vitality and the hope
and prospect of efficacy. He brought il
back to the ideas and principles which
had always been sealed by the approval
of the American people whenever its
judgement upon them was properly in.
voked. He has changed the political
situation, as with an enChanter's wand
Jefersonian Democracy had slept, like
Barbarossa in the Kiffhauser Mountain
but Tilden's bugle-blast has broken the
spell of its enchanted sleep. Once more
the battle between the Jeffersonian and
the Hamiltonian theory of Government
will be ablaZe. Once more we shall dis
cuss the true purposes and limits of Gov
ernment and taxation. Once more the
question will be tested whether Govern
ments are made for the benefit of man,
or for the benefit of those who govern
them. Once more we shall appeal to the
people whether the many shall be taxed
for the benefit of the few. Those who
think on these questions as / do have at
last found home. On the slavery ques-
ton, and all questions affecting the
Union and equal rights, l was Repub-
lican. But these questions being perma-
nently settled and disposed of, stand
where had stood long before there ives
Republican party-on the fundamental
principles laid down by the author of the
Declaration of Independence.


And now, Mr.. President, l shall give
way to the far ADLER gentlemen who will
follow me. l do not claim to speak for
any body but myself. do not represent
any thing but my own convictions and
opinions. 1 do not control any political
element but what you see before you un-
der this coat. I carry no mans vote in
my pocket but my own. But that indi-
vidual vote shall be cast in undying op-
position to the paternal or interference
theory ofgovernment, and, consequently,
at the approaching election it shall be
cast for individual liberty, unfettered in
dustry, unshackled commerce, free trade
hard money and Samuel ]. Tilden.