TILDEN, SAMUEL JONES. 



817 



Wright's message which related to the settle- 

 ment of the anti-rent troubles ; and he wrote 

 the report, which was made the basis of sub- 

 sequent legislation, settled disputed points, 

 and took the whole subject out of politics. 



Mr. Tilden was chosen a delegate from New 

 York city to the Constitutional Convention of 

 1846; and he was especially active in securing 

 the reconsideration and final defeat of a pro- 

 vision for limiting the issue of bank-notes. In 

 May, 1848, he attended the Democratic Na- 

 tional Convention at Baltimore, going as one 

 of the thirty- six Free-Soil delegates chosen by 

 the Utica Convention of February 16, which 

 declared against the admission of slavery into 

 the Northwest Territories. There was a sharp 

 contest between the delegations of the rival 

 Democratic factions of New York at the Na- 

 tional Convention. They were first required 

 to pledge themselves to support the candidates 

 of the convention, whether they were ad- 

 mitted or not. The Free- Soil delegation re- 

 fused to make such a pledge, and when the 

 convention finally admitted both delegations 

 from New York, the Free-Soil delegates re- 

 fused to take seats. At the Free-soil State 

 Convention held in Utica June 22, 1848, the 

 whole subject was reviewed in a report pre- 

 pared by Mr. Tilden, and signed by the dele- 

 gates to the National Convention. The nomi- 

 nation of the Free-Soil ticket, Martin Van Bu- 

 ren and Charles Francis Adams, and the de- 

 feat of Cass and Butler, the Democratic candi- 

 dates, through this secession, followed. From 

 this point the political activity of Mr. Tilden 

 slackened for many years. In 1855 he was 

 the candidate of a Democratic faction for At- 

 torney-General being defeated, no doubt, 

 greatly to his own satisfaction. Coercive tem- 

 perance was the main issue of the canvass, and 

 in a letter dated October 3 he took strong 

 ground against the prohibitory act "for the 

 prevention of intemperance, pauperism, and 

 crime." 



In the mean while his success in his profession 

 andintheaccumulationof wealth had beenrapid. 

 In the contested election case of Giles against 

 F.lagg in 1855 he showed persistent industry in 

 the collection and grouping of facts; and by his 

 analysis of the vote cast for the various candi- 

 dates for Comptroller of New York city proved 

 that the claims of the former to the office were 

 without foundation. He exposed and baffled 

 the carefully prepared fraud by which Mrs. 

 Cunningham endeavored to get possession of 

 the estate of Dr. Harvey Burdell, whose mys- 

 terious murder was the sensation of the day. 

 In the case of the Cumberland Coal and Iron 

 Company against its directors, tried in 1858, 

 he made good the doctrine of trusts as applied 

 to the officers of corporations. But the most 

 substantial of his successes were not in the na- 

 ture of public triumphs. He had a rare faculty 

 for rescuing and reorganizing corporations in- 

 volved in litigation or in financial embarrass- 

 ment ; and during the business vicissitudes 

 VOL. xxvi. 52 A 



from 1855 to 1869 it is said that nearly every 

 railroad north of the Ohio, and between the 

 Hudson and the Missouri rivers, was at one 

 time or another among his clients. As lawyer 

 and speculator he heaped up an immense for- 

 tune in these transactions, becoming a large 

 stockholder in many railroads and in mining 

 companies. One of his latest and most nota- 

 ble enterprises was in building up the financial 

 prosperity of the elevated railroads in New 

 York and then selling out. In 1860 Mr. Til- 

 den was a delegate to the adjourned Baltimore 

 Convention, which nominated Stephen A. 

 Douglas for the presidency. On Oct. 26, 1860, 

 he published a long and carefully prepared let- 

 ter to the Hon. William Kent, discussing u The 

 Union its Dangers, and how they can bo 

 Averted." Touching the extension of slavery 

 he said that, while he had opposed the repeal 

 of the Missouri Compromise as unadvisable, he 

 thought the true system was non-interference 

 on the part of the Federal Government, that 

 slavery could not be restrained, but that its 

 growth would follow its natural bent south- 

 ward, without interfering with the spread of 

 Northern emigration. He defended himself 

 from the charge that this doctrine was incon- 

 sistent with his declaration in favor of " free 

 soil for free labor" in 1848. After the South- 

 ern States had seceded, Mr. Tilden favored a 

 compromise. He was of opinion that, if actual 

 collision could be avoided, there might be a, 

 chance for the growth of a Union party in the 

 Southern States; but, when war actually be- 

 gan, he took the ground that it was the duty 

 of the Government to fight it out. When the 

 first call for 75,000 troops was made, he indi- 

 cated a misapprehension of the nature of the 

 struggle, and advised calling for 500,000 men, 

 one half of them to be put in camps of instruc- 

 tion. When consulted by Secretary Stanton as 

 to the conduct of the war, he said : " You can 

 not count upon finding generals of great mili- 

 tary genius, such as the human race produces 

 but once in several centuries ; you must make 

 available the superiority of the North in popu- 

 lation and its vastly greater superiority in ma- 

 terial resources." He was strongly opposed to 

 the financial policy of Secretary Chase, which 

 long after the war he regarded as having doubled 

 its cost. And in regard to the policy of arbi- 

 trary arrests and the suppression of newspapers 

 he was also a critic of the Administration. But 

 he was more than once called into consultation 

 even by President Lincoln, and frequently pre- 

 pared for Democratic conventions a resolution 

 in favor of the prosecution of the war. On 

 Feb. 6, 1863, Mr. Tilden, in company with sev- 

 eral other gentlemen, met at Delmonico's, in 

 New York city, and formed a " Society for the 

 Diffusion of Political Knowledge." Their ac-r 

 tion provoked criticism, and in defense of it 

 Mr. Tilden addressed, Feb. T, 1863, a letter to 

 the "Evening Post." on "The Perils of the 

 Union, and the Limits of a Constitutional Op- 

 position." 



