1868-1871 (continued 2)

"2. That, if a sale and purchase of the property be made which operates to discharge their lien, with or without an agreement for reorganization, the title be taken by satisfactory agents for their security.

"That in the mean time the property be protected and further debts in priority to their rights be avoided.

"With these conditions observed, the first mortgage bondholders have every desire to preserve the best relations with the Erie, which is the natural and preferred connection. That is my advice. That is their disposition.

"If you wish any conference on the points on which differences have arisen as to the proposed lease, or as to the general relations of the two roads, I shall be happy to obtain an appointment for that purpose.

"In my judgment the faculties of the parties would be better employed in devising a complete and permanent harmony of interests than in litigation. I think, also, that to attempt to discard from the negotiations the divisional bonds which represent most of the value in the property is a practical mistake.

"Very respectfully, Yours, &c., "S. J. Tilden." "To Jay Gould, Esq."

JAY GOULD TO TILDEN

"New York, Feb. 21, 1870.

"Dr. Sir,—I am in receipt of your note on the subject of the retainer of $10,000 paid you by this Co. I can only say that it was understood and treated by the company as a general retainer, and the voucher so states. The only matters I have consulted you in reference to have been A. and G. W. matters. Knowing the pressure of your other engagements, I felt like troubling you as little as possible, and I therefore simply said to Mr. Lane to consult you if necessary, but to trouble you as little as possible. The reason I could not consent to Mr. McHenry giving you a retainer was the fear that his interests and ours would clash, as I did not have confidence in his schemes.

"Yours, "Jay Gould."

"P. S.—I shall be happy to meet the other parties on the subject of an arrangement at any time.

"J. G."

TILDEN—CIRCULAR OF THE STATE COMMITTEE

"New York, April 15th, 1870.

"My dear Sir,—The election of a chief judge and six associate judges of the Court of Appeals—which will take place on the 17th of May—and the nomination, at the Democratic State Convention to be held at Rochester on the 27th of April, of our candidates for the chief judge and four of the six associate judges, are events of great interest.

"The Democratic party has never hitherto failed to supply in the court of last resort judges of undoubted moral and official purity and integrity, who have commanded the confidence and reverence of the whole people, and who have, by their abilities and professional learning, illustrated the jurisprudence of our State and country.

"In the present tendency of our times—towards a weakening of the trust of the people in the judiciary—it is more than ever important that we hold our standard of character and qualifications high.

"A degradation of the administration of justice is the last calamity of a republic.

"Distrust or doubt in the public mind as to the administration of justice, even if unfounded, involves half the evils of an actual degradation.

"At this moment—when we are about to form our highest court, entirely anew, and for a long period—it is our duty to give attention to the subject, to withdraw ourselves for a little time from our private avocations in order to fulfil our highest obligations as citizens of a republic.

"First, special care ought to be exercised that our most wise, discreet, and disinterested men be chosen to, and be induced to attend, the nominating convention at Rochester on the 27th.

"They should come there to confer for the public good, in a spirit of harmony, conciliation, and surrender of all personal prejudices and all personal antipathies to the great object of forming absolutely the best ticket possible.

"Secondly, assuming—as we may, with confidence—that we shall so act at the convention as to start our canvass with the favorable opinion of the public and of the bar of the State, still in a special election held at an unusual time, and in so short a canvass, prompt and efficient measures should be taken in each county to organize a movement to bring out our vote and elect our ticket.

"I ask your co-operation for these objects.

"Very truly yours, "S. J. Tilden."

TILDEN TO HON. S. E. CHURCH

"Confidential. "New York, April 20, '70.

"My dear Sir,—My letter, which passed yours in the mails, if I recollect its contents aright, is, or implies a practical answer to your last, so far as we can see until we meet in Rochester. I have trusted to it for a day or two, while I am engrossed with measures not capable of being deferred, and which seem essential to the convention and election.

"As to candidates, I have carefully kept myself free; saying uniformly—in quite a number of cases where communications have been made to me personally or by letter—that I intended to be perfectly and absolutely open when opportunity should be had, at the convention and just before, for consultation with our friends to do what might seem best. I am not committed to Comstock, unless it be implied that I would not decide against him until that time, from such expressions made to him and to others.

"He, undoubtedly, has counted on the nomination as chief judge; has believed that Allen was for him, and only aimed to be associated with him.

"While I have kept more cautiously free than Kernan and others, I wish to treat Comstock with delicacy and kindness. Indeed, as I look upon my own future, totally void of any conscious desire for the most honorable of official labors, it seems to me I feel more difficulty in wounding—any more than I at last must—those who are capable of fixing strong affections on objects of an elevated ambition.

"I need not say how strong—and stronger than in other cases—is the personal interest I feel in promoting what shall be finally agreed to be best in respect to your future career, or how disposed I should be to give the prevailing weight to your own ideas on that subject.

"While it is not safe to assume the action of a convention, I should think that besides those who will go for you on public grounds and from personal regard, there will be an element which would like to remove you from the field of active politics. I thought, from December to very recently, this was visible in respect to me, and perhaps there may be even greater motive in respect to you in that you were more likely to become a rival to some existing powers.

"Before I had quite finished my note, which lay over from last evening, yours of yesterday came.

"You perhaps interpret it rather more strongly than I intended. I aimed only to suggest the topic, and naturally stated the cons rather than the pros.

"I will endeavor to see you, as you suggest, at Albion, before the convention, unless something happens to make this inadvisable.

"And letter-writing is so insufficient for such topics that I reserve the discussion till then.

"Meantime, consider what is the method of proceeding in nominating the four. Is that to be done singly, or on one ballot?

"In haste, "Yours truly, "S. J. Tilden." "Hon. S. E. Church.

"Make my special regards to Mrs. and Miss Church."

S. E. CHURCH TO TILDEN

"Albion, April 20, 1870.

"My dear Sir,—Your kind favor received. I infer that you are opposed to my taking a nomination for chief judge, and it is quite likely you are right about it; but I feel that there has been a great break in my life, and that it may be as well to start on a new track. My reputation is now fair, and on the bench I can keep it so, until I want to use it for my own benefit and that of my friends, and I think I can aid you politically as much as I can to remain as I am. I shall, of course, object to being regarded as 'shelved' by the operation, and yet such may be the result, and some people will doubtless favor my nomination for that reason. They may be awfully mistaken, but this is confidential.

"I shall not dare to go to Rochester next week, lest the excitement might produce a relapse; but you must come here and see me the day before the convention, which you can easily do, and then we can talk the whole thing up—as you say, it cannot be written. Don't fail to come.

"Truly yours, "S. E. Church."

"Mrs. C. and Nellie send regards."

TILDEN TO JOHN R. REID

"New York, Apl. 21, 1870.

"My dear Sir,—I am obliged by the kind terms of your note of yesterday, which were also repeated to me by Mr. Frost, who called on me. But I do not change the feelings with which I regard the nomination for the chief judge, and have regarded it since it was presented to my view in December, or weakened the settled preference I have for freedom and relaxation over even such an honorable distinction. Notwithstanding such a definitive purpose on my part, I hope that you will take care to send a good delegate, because you and I will probably never have another chance of doing so much service to the community in which we live, or to the profession to which we belong, as in securing the best possible selection for judge of the judicial court under a comparatively permanent tenure.

"Very Truly, "Yours, &c., S. J. Tilden."

TILDEN TO HON. JOHN GANSON

"New York, Apl. 22nd, '70.

"My dear Sir,—I shall regret it extremely if you cannot extricate yourself from the embarrassments which you mention and I appreciate; and yet come to the convention, if not as a delegate, at least as an outsider. Such an occasion will not be likely to occur in your time or mine, and ought we not seize it to do something of real value to our four millions of people and to pay the debt which Lord Coke says a lawyer owes to his profession?

"I have often thought and talked of you as eminently suitable to take a part in the reconstructed court, but have heard that you were not ready to sacrifice the large gains of your professional career. You are over-modest in the suggestion of one or two friends desiring you to come to a different conclusion; for I have talked with a large number who looked to you, and whose motives cannot be imputed as mere friendship, but spring from a sense of public utility, in securing to the public service your abilities and independent integrity. Indeed, Grover told me some time ago that he would not be a candidate if you would be; and I think the same concession would have been generally made, at least at an earlier day.

"With respect to myself, I cannot reconcile myself to the idea of being tied up for a series of years. I prefer freedom and a period of relaxation to any honors which involve permanent and laborious duties. In December, and repeatedly since, the suggestion from Albany has been made to me that I might have a general support from that and this part of the State for chief, in which those not supposed to be the most friendly would concur, and a considerable number of similar tenders have come to me from other quarters; but to all, by letter and verbally, and among others to Cassidy, each, and Allen—and to Comstock, who is an affirmatively [sic] candidate, to Kernan and O'Conor—I have stated my purpose, and I have no disposition to change it. It is not that I undervalue these great trusts, but I am content that they go to those to whose more robust natures and physical vigor the same considerations which influence me are not applicable, and to those in whose peculiar condition they are an object of laudable ambition. If I can help to get a good selection, and then to elect the ticket, I shall consider myself as concentrating in a few days all the public service I could perform in the whole 14 years; and so having completely acquitted myself to my day and generation, become entitled to a play spell.

"Now, my dear sir, it is in just this matter that I regret to lose your co-operation. You, if present as a delegate or as an outsider, could help largely in the selection of members from all parts of the state. For this city—if the bar were to control as it now stands—they would unite on Rappallo, but whether he can get any political support or not remains to be seen. He has been one of Vanderbilt's counsel, but I have often put him with you when I have said that, with the best quality of men, that consideration could be wholly disregarded.

"Can you extricate yourself from the embarrassments to which you allude—or be neutral on that case—and come and help as to others?

"Remember that for your time as well as mine this occasion is not likely to recur.

"I sat down to say this, and must beg you to excuse me for the long letter I have poured out upon you.

"Very Truly, "Yours, &c., "S. J. Tilden."

"I have omitted to speak of Church. If he becomes a candidate, as is probable, though not decided, he will be a strong one before the convention."

TILDEN TO GEORGE W. CASS (JAY GOULD'S RETAINER)

"New York, June 2d, 1870.

"My dear Sir,—You will recollect that some time ago I requested you to give me a statement in respect to the circumstances attending an arrangement communicated to me by you in the winter of 1869, by which the Erie Railway Company paid me a retainer of $10,000 in connection with the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company, a majority of the stock of which was then owned by the Erie Railway Company. You deferred it, in consequence of the pressure upon time. I should now like to have you furnish me the statement.

"The reason I applied to you was that my original information as to the purposes of this retainer was derived exclusively from you; and that it was under this information, in no respect changed by anything derived from other sources, that I accepted the payment. The facts, so far as they are within my knowledge, are these: Early in 1869—I presume it must have been in January of that year—you asked me to consent to become a director of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company and a member of the executive committee of that company, holding the balance of power between the other two members in case of their disagreement. You stated the object to be to make an amiable arrangement between the parties then litigating in an Ohio court, whereby the railroad could be taken out of the possession of the receiver and restored to the management of the company; and that as a part of the same compromise you were to become a director with others who were to be agreed upon. You will remember that I replied that I was already burdened with work in the capacity of director in other companies, which consumed an inconvenient share of my time and thought, and without remuneration; that the tendency of such work was to become more encroaching; that I had entered upon it in every instance only under the influence of existing relations, and was desirous to relieve myself of such duties as I had already done in some cases; and that I was unwilling to take such a trust in respect to a company in which I had no interest, and had never had any relations. You and Mr. McCullough repeatedly pressed me not to positively refuse; and when I was elected it was without any assent on my part. One day you mentioned to me that Mr. Jay Gould had proposed that the Erie should pay me $10,000, the Cleveland and Pittsburg $5000, and the Fort Wayne $5000. I certainly understood that those payments were proposed to be made in respect to services or benefits expected in connected with the arrangement for the change in the condition and management of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Company, and nothing else. Your communication related to that matter and to that alone. You will remember that when you mentioned the proposal to me I made no comment, and manifested no interest in it or desire that it should be adopted. Afterwards, when Mr. Gould mentioned the matter to me he made no further or different explanation, but spoke of it as if it were a matter which I already completely understood. He subsequently, a second time, mentioned that he was going to send me a check, and about the last of February did send it. I never did or said anything about the matter except to accept and receipt for the check. The Cleveland and Pittsburg Company, at a meeting when I was not present, but believe you were, adopted a resolution appointing me their counsel, with a monthly salary at the rate of $5000 a year. I had supposed they would have put it in one payment, but they adopted such form as they pleased. The Fort Wayne never mentioned the subject to me, nor I to it. I had relations to it, but none to the Cleveland and Pittsburg or to the Erie. The proposition to make the payments by those two companies was purely their own; the amounts were fixed without any consultation with me, and on their own estimate of the utility of the arrangement to them. In expressing to you my repugnance to undertaking the services, I did not contemplate any condition as to pecuniary compensation. Nor can I now say that any such consideration was a principal inducement to my aiding in the trust. I could not foresee how much of labor or trouble I was to undertake. I did not desire more business, but less. I had during the two years before repeatedly declined retainers from the Erie and from its adversaries. The object of the arrangement was attained. The receivership was closed and the administration of the road was restored to the Cleveland and Pittsburg Company. I served out my term as director, as member of the executive committee, and as counsel of the company, and gave every necessary attention to those duties. When this was done I deemed that I had performed all I had undertaken, and that the C. and P. and the Erie had realized all they had contemplated in the arrangement which they had proposed, and in the payments which they had voluntarily made.

"It was not until in February last, when I was acting for the trustees of the bondholders of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company, that I learned with surprise that Mr. Gould entertained the idea that the implied engagement in accepting the retainer before mentioned extended beyond the affair of the Cleveland and Pittsburg, to which the arrangement exclusively related. I answered him at the time. But the circumstance that he did entertain such an idea induces me to address you this letter.

"With much respect, "Yours very truly, "S. J. Tilden." "Hon. George W. Cass."

MR. TILDEN'S PURCHASE OF TOPIC

"June 10, '70.

"I have this day sold to Samuel J. Tilden a bay horse gelding called Topic, six years old, for fifteen hundred dollars; and I hereby warrant the said horse to be sound and serviceable in every particular, and to be kind and gentle in use under the saddle and in single and double harness; and I do further agree that such sale is made on the following special conditions: first, I agree that if the said horse, after he shall have been used, shall not in all respects suit the said Tilden, I will, upon notice at any time within one year from this date, take back the said horse Topic, and return the said purchase money, but without interest; secondly, if the said Tilden shall prefer I will give to him in exchange for Topic any horse which I may bring to New York for market within the year, on fair and reasonable terms of exchange, provided that the said horse Topic shall be fairly treated by the said Tilden in the mean time, and shall be also at the risk of the said Tilden in respect to accidental injuries, and that the delivery of the said horse Topic, in return or exchange, shall not be required before April first, 1871. In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal this 10th of June, 1870.

"Logan Railey. "Witness, Geo. W. Smith."

SAML. G. COURTNEY TO S. J. TILDEN

"Strictly private. "Sunday, 5½ P.M.

"My dear Tilden,—I regret to inform you that there is a great deal of bad feeling abroad among our friends respecting the arrest of Connolly,[55] and you and Mr. Havemeyer are blamed and denounced for it, and for deserting him in the hour of his need.

Of course, as far as you are concerned, the sentiment I speak of is baseless and unfounded, and I have endeavored to set you right, and I think have succeeded; but as to Mr.

H., there is but one feeling, and that of universal condemnation.

Mr. Connolly is still in duress, and I am afraid he cannot get the required bail. What's to be done?

I mean to stand by him and sustain him now, for under my advice (together with the urgent appeals of Mr. H.) he resigned, and the result is imprisonment; and as Mr. Peckham says on his affidavit, they were awaiting only his resignation to accomplish what has been done.

"I write this to you in strict confidence.

"I think you ought to know what is going on. I am your true friend, and do not intend to have you placed in a false position.

"I am going to New York Hotel (room 131), where Connolly is. Unless you see some insuperable objection, I think you ought to call this morning and see him.

"Truly yours, Saml. G. Courtney." "Hon. S. J. Tilden."

EVILS OF OUR TIMES (ENDORSED "DRAFT OF CIRCULAR," ALL IN TILDEN'S SCRIPT)

"Centralism in the government, and corruption in administration are the twin evils of our times. They threaten with swift destruction civil liberty and the whole fabric of our free institutions.

"National Government.

"The Democratic party was originally organized by Jefferson to oppose these evils. It ruled the country for fifty of the seventy years of the present century, and protected us from disunion on the one hand and from centralism on the other, and from corruption. Under twelve years of rule of the Republican party, the Federal government is rapidly usurping power from the localities and from individuals, and has become more corrupt than was ever imagined possible. The masses of the Republicans, like the masses of all parties, are honest. No doubt some allowance ought to be made for the effect of a great war. But the system of false finance which has corrupted us into a nation of gamblers was as unnecessary as corrupting. And the principle and measures of the Republican party, their centralism, tariffs not for revenue but to control the labor and capital of the people, legislative grants and jobs of all kinds tend to corruption. And the ideal standard of their statesmen is lower than any ever held by the followers of Jefferson and Jackson.

"State Government.

"In 1846, twenty-five years ago, I went to the Assembly to sustain the administration of Silas Wright. Not a man in either House was even suspected of corruption. The Democracy under Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, William L. Marcy, and Azariah C. Flagg had ruled the State during the life of the old Constitution from 1821 to 1846. They were all men not only of transcendent ability, but of personal purity. They gathered around them men of like character in all the counties. They wielded party power not only in favor of good measures, but in favor of good men. No corrupt Senator or Assemblyman could live in their atmosphere. The race ran out.

"From 1846 to 1870—23 years—the Democracy never had a majority in the Senate, and but twice a small majority in the Assembly. Those bodies became what the Republicans, and the party from which they sprang, have made them. When William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed came into power the character of the legislative bodies fell in an instant, and during all the 23 years of Republican ascendancy it continued to fall."

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