The purpose of the advisers of President Polk to prostrate the political organization of which Mr. Van Buren and Governor Wright were the most conspicuous representatives was scarcely disguised in the appointment of Mr. Van Ness as Collector of the Port of New York. Their part in preventing the organization of five more slave States, with their ten pro-slavery Senators, instead of one State with but two pro-slavery Senators, was such an offence to the Nullifiers of the South that the President, a citizen of a slave State, was compelled very reluctantly to yield to it and use his patronage accordingly.

The effort was made to seduce Tilden from his allegiance to his friends in New York by the offer of the naval office, then a lucrative and honorable position. Tilden had but just completed the thirty-first year of his age; the emoluments of the office were some twenty thousand dollars a year; the labor and responsibility inconsiderable. Tilden was poor, and many years must elapse before he could hope for any such revenue from his profession. The offer, however tempting it was, he promptly declined, saying that he did not labor for the election of President Polk to push his private interests; that when he was admitted to the bar he resolved that he would hold no merely lucrative office, and that, if he took any, it must be in the line of his profession or a post of honor, but under the then existing circumstances he could accept of nothing from this administration.

From this time forth there were practically two Democratic parties, so called, in the State of New York: one led by William L. Marcy, and vulgarly known by their adversaries sometimes as "Hardshells," and sometimes as "Hunkers," who were either in favor of or not opposed to the extension of slavery into the free Territories from which it had been excluded by the ordinance of 1789; and the other led by Silas Wright while he lived, also vulgarly known sometimes as the "Softshells," and sometimes as "Barnburners," who were opposed to the extension of slavery into those Territories.

Though the division lines of these parties, like those of latitude and longitude, were not visible to the eye, nor the parties themselves sufficiently organized to occupy hostile camps, the ends towards which they were severally working were quite as distinct as if they were.

The following letter was probably addressed to William L. Marcy, who had allowed himself to be made the instrument of the pro-slavery contingent in New York, and had been on that account selected by the President as his Secretary of War.[8]

S. J. TILDEN TO——

"New York, 1845.

"I cannot give you in full detail the grounds of the almost universal odium with which Mr. Van Ness is regarded by the Democracy of this city and State, but will briefly allude to some of them.

"His appointment was not originally recognized as a Democratic one or received from a recognized Democratic President. He was personally and politically a stranger; did not occupy that proper representative relation to the party here to make his selection proper or acceptable, or to give him or entitle him to their confidence. On the contrary, all that was known of his private character and of his political tendencies was calculated to repel such confidence.

"His conduct since has confirmed and exacerbated the sentiments with which his original appointment was regarded. In his official action and his political influence he has been the mere representative and instrument of a miserable little faction, whose fortunes he has solved equally when it was in a state of partial alienation and open hostility to the Democratic party and its regular nominations. For months after Mr. Polk's nomination, for two-thirds of the whole canvass, he was an open and decided supporter of Mr. Tyler. All sorts of intrigue were employed by this little band of officeholders and their dependents to exact from the mass of the party a partial approval of Mr. Tyler's administration and an adoption of his appointments as a condition precedent to his withdrawal. Such had been the abuses and corruptions of his administration in the use of its patronage here—incredible to those who like yourself have looked upon them from a less central position—and shocking to the moral sense of honest men of all parties; such was the general disgust and hostility pervading the masses of the Democracy which had been for several years vexed by the abuses and corruptions of the government patronage employed for the purpose of distracting the party; so large was the number who had been the subject of exclusion and proscription because of their very political fidelity, and so large also the number who desired a new distribution of official favors, that such a concession as was demanded would have revolted public sentiment, in all probability have lost this city by a very large majority. Such was the conviction at the time of our soundest and most judicious men, who kindly and temperately but firmly resisted and defeated the project.

"The perilous crisis in our local politics you may form some idea of, if you will remember that there were then, delicately poised and uncertain to go for Clay or Polk until within a few weeks of the election, a body of men more than sufficient to have changed the result in this State. Mr. Polk has now to choose between the 19/20ths of the party and this faction; between the disinterested and honest who were true to his and the party's interest, and the venal gathered from all former parties into the common receptacle of Tylerism, who would have sacrificed both to their own mercenary objects. His choice between them will indicate the morale of his character and administration. Ever since Mr. Tyler's attempt in 1841 to become the Presidential candidate of the Democracy, the patronage of the government in this city has been assiduously employed to harass or control the party here. It was managed by Mr. Curtis, who was skilful in if not the originator of all the corrupt tactics of the Glentworth school; and since his removal, his machinery has been used by Mr. Van Ness [with] much more industry and zeal and with no less profligacy."

TILDEN TO WM. H. HAVEMEYER[9] (probably)

"Washington, March 4, 1845.

"My dear Sir,—I have received your letter of yesterday, which is much more acceptable than your personal presence. Indeed, I suppose that your intelligence from Albany would have changed the design, even if you had entertained it, of coming here. I did not expect you to start before Mon. morning.[10]

"As far as your personal position is concerned, it is sustained by your renewed declension—perhaps uttered, although that it did not need. For be assured that nothing has been done to bring in question the sincerity and reality of your declension, as well as the good faith of your grounds, but everything to satisfy both. It, however, does lessen our right, or apparent right, to complain of the precipitancy of Mr. Polk's action before the receipt of Mr. Van Buren's letter.

"I judge from your letter that every time the excitement of the particular motive operating on your mind for the moment to accept any department, subsides, your aversion returns and strengthens. This shows that it is the predominant and settled conviction, which ought not to be, without imperative necessity, disregarded, and applies even in the case of a recast. In this connection, I should add to the hasty view of the affair I yesterday gave you that Bancroft thinks that if you had accepted the War a recast could have been had, and intimates the possibility as if from the President. This may be so—others have thought so the whole time—but I doubt, for reasons I will explain when I see you.

"Last evening we had an interview with the President. Representations had been made to him which were repeated by us and which he said convinced him of his error, but it was now too late to retract if the Heavens and the Earth came together. He assured us that he had acted from misinformation, and with the best intentions—that he would do all he could to counteract the consequences of his error—that he should be President himself, although not coming in with the same personal strength as some of his predecessors, and would protect us from any malign influences—that in regard to the important appointments in N. Y. he would rely on his old friends and act with the concurrence of V. B. and W. He has repeatedly and to different persons pledged himself as to the Collector. His asseverations of attachment, fidelity, and fair dealing towards N. Y. were earnest and strong, almost passing dignity, yet with an air of sincerity which made a strong impression as to mere personal intentions.

"Still I have perhaps more fears than hopes. The administration is captured by the quasi-Van Buren men who went with us before Baltimore but deserted us there; who cannot risk the power of the government in those who understand and remember them; and confederate now against Wright. At least that seems to me the influence—which in spite of Polk's probable intentions—has shaped the Cabinet. Calhoun has no share. There will be no one in the Cabinet on whom N. Y. can rely. Buchanan you know. Walker has a strong will enough to predominate over all the rest. Marcy is taken by the same influence which selected Walker because while he answers some of the demands of decency towards N. Y. is least identified with Wright. Mason, Atty. Gen. (unlessto James) and R. Johnson. How can Bancroft stand up against all the others?

"Truly y'rs,
"S. J. Tilden."

NELSON J. WATERBURY TO TILDEN

"New York, March 8, 1845.

"Dear Sir,—I have seen Secor. He says that he only contemplated speaking to Langley, if you had no objection, but to go no further. That he did not suppose you understood or thought or expected him to transfer to anybody unless for a price. That he would write to you immediately.

"You will see Purdy is going ahead for Collector. He has been recommended by both of the Genl. Committees, various ward associations, and a German meeting. Secor tells me he also has a strong letter from Van Buren, and he went to Albany last night to get testimonials from there, I suppose. If he is appointed he will fill the Custom House with a laughable assortment—good, bad, and indifferent. I am inclined to believe that he will be more thorough in turning out than we expected. Of course you understand that all his recommendations are bargained for; places are to be given to the men who get them up. If he succeeds you may rely that the dissatisfaction which his appointment will excite will be excessive. There is one way to [head?] him. That is a merchants' memorial, asking that none but a commercial man be appointed. This would do, and Havemeyer could be made Collector and Purdy Postmaster. But nothing ought to be done unless Polk is entirely straight.

"Henry, my brother, is just down, has been at Albany. Our friends are very much dissatisfied. Polk's offers to Wright and Butler are not regarded as having been made in good faith. It is supposed that he has his eye on a second term. I incline to concur in the first partially—that is, they were mere compliments—not in the second. I think Polk is as weak as dish-water, but honest. If he is really so, and could or would be wise, he should send in Havemeyer's name forthwith. I do not believe that our friends north of this can be induced to urge it. By the way, Purdy's movements to get this office are, and his appointments would be, a second edition of Jesse Hoyt's. This is by far the most important thing to be seen to now.

"I suppose if Bancroft is confirmed you will get on finely with the Renshaw business. There will be nothing to call you home in some days.

"Yours truly,
"N. J. W.
"S. J. Tilden, Esq."

TILDEN TO——

"Hudson, March 17, 1845.

"My dear Sir,—An hour or so before I left Washington I learned of an act of my friend O'Sullivan which gave me some annoyance and which I intended at once to explain to you. I should have done so before except for a rapid current of business which hurried me here.

"You might, fairly enough, perhaps, suppose that O'S.'s act, although not instigated by me, was induced by his knowledge of my views. But such an inference would be unjust to me. I suppose the thing was suggested to him by two circumstances. First, his knowledge that Mr. Croswell had, in December, proposed it to me with some urgency, and, as (after casting about to discover his motive for a proposition which had until then never been presented to my own mind) I concluded to interest myself in behalf of Gov. Marcy for a Cabinet appointment, which I had at the time declined to do. Second, the arrival the night before of a gentleman from New York who said that my name had been discussed—in highly respectable quarters certainly—in reference to the Collectorship. In reply to some remarks of O'S. afterwards, I said that even if that idea had been seriously entertained I should not desire the place both from inadequacy to its physical labor and aversion to its hangman's duty at the present time. In that connection, the other place was spoken of as free from these objections and nearly as advantageous to me personally, and in reference to the political administration, as the Collectorship; but I said, that while the large value and light labor of it would be attractive, I should hesitate to take it, even if it were offered to me, which I certainly did not expect, from reluctance to hold a mere pecuniary, professional office, and to surrender or so far postpone my professional pursuits. I did not, I suppose, decide the question, because spoken of casually, as it was, I had no thought that it was, or was ever to become, a case to be decided.

"The moment I learned what O'S. had done, I told him that it was wrong—that you and Mr. V. B. ought, in no case, to make any recommendations until the Collectorship was settled and settled properly, because it might, on some pretence or claim of apportionment between the different sections of the party, embarrass that case. I should have written on my way back to that effect had not Gen. Dix, whom I saw just as I was starting, told me he had done so.

Aside from this, I considered the question a balanced one, which I could not decide in favor of acceptance without some consideration and advice. Under no circumstances which I now contemplate could I present myself as an applicant for a place of this description. I did not know that after what has occurred you and Mr. V. B. would intermeddle at all in such matters."

GOVERNOR WRIGHT TO TILDEN

"Albany, May 1, 1845.

"My dear Sir,—Your note of the 26. ult. was duly recd. and I will attempt to give you a brief reply to it.

"The pardon of Honoria Shepherd was granted upon the exclusive application of the Inspectors and Keepers of the Prison, upon the ground that she was effectually reformed, and that longer confinement would be injurious, and not beneficial. Miss Bruce, one of the Assistant Matrons of the prison, came up in person to get the pardon, and said her health compelled her to leave the prison, that she was about to go to Illinois to reside, and that she proposed to take Honoria with her, and keep her with her in Illinois.

"I have sent copies of all the papers in this case to Judge Edmonds, who was a leading person in the application, upon whom I principally relied, and he will show them to you, if you wish to look at them. He, too, will advise about any defence of men in this case.

"Thomas Henry was pardoned upon the recommendation of the Board of Inspectors of the prison, upon the ground that he was in a confirmed consumption, was a patient in the Hospital, a constant expense, and must remain so while he lived, and that he had friends who were willing to receive, nurse, and take care of him, if pardoned. This was a voluntary report of the Board of Inspectors, embracing the report of the Surgeon upon 13 permanent invalid Convicts, only two of whom were known to have friends able or willing to take and take care of them, and those the inspectors recommended for pardons, considering it inhumane to ask pardons for the others to turn them out sick and without home, or friends. I. Parsons of your city is the father-in-law of Henry, and takes him to take care of him. Parsons is a Ship joiner and Spar maker, and his daughter, the wife of Henry, who came for the pardon, has a highly respectable appearance.

"The pardon of George Potter was granted upon the application of William F. Godfrey of your City, who gave his address to me as No. 94 Grove Street. He brought a letter of introduction to Judge Edmonds, speaking of him as his neighbor, referring to his business and saying 'I beg to say that you can fully rely upon his representations in the matter.'

"Godfrey presented a petition numerous and respectably signed, representing Potter, though guilty, as the dupe of old offenders, the offence for which he was convicted as his first offence, and him as very penitent and subdued, and earnestly praying his pardon.

"Potter was arrested on fresh pursuit, on the charge of picking a pocket in Broadway, and the report of the testimony showed that he was one of 4 or 5 who must have committed the felony. One witness was very positive that Potter took the pocket book, but another witness testified that he arrested Potter, that he kept his eye upon him from the time he started to run, and that, upon search, no pocket book, or money, was found upon him. Yet that he was principal or accessory, there is no doubt.

"A letter from James M. Smith Jr., Attorney for Potter on his trial, says Potter always avowed that he did not pick the pocket, and expresses the belief that, though guilty, he was the dupe of others.

"A letter from the Keeper of the Prison says 'Potter has conducted very well, since he has been an inmate of this prison, and he appears to show deep contrition for his "crime" and degradation; but he is a man of peculiar temperament, which renders it extremely difficult to judge, with any degree of certainty, the true state of his feelings.'

"This is a brief sketch of the paper case presented. Mr. Godfrey assumed to speak of Potter from personal knowledge, and said he came to this country from England, some year and a half ago, a young man, with a wife and two or three children, and with $15,000 in cash; that he fell into the company of some English blacklegs in New York, who induced him to gamble, drink, and carouse with them, until they stripped him of his money, and vitiated his habits, and rendered him desperate from want, when they commenced to initiate him into the art and mysteries of picking pockets; that in his first attempt he was caught and convicted, while the real rogues and the booty escaped; that his friends in England had been kept in ignorance of his course and his fate; that they were wealthy and respectable; that friends in New York had sent his wife and children to them, instructing her not to tell of his condition; and that they were satisfied his disgrace and punishment had prepared him, if pardoned and sent to them, to pursue a different and an honest and respectable course, and they only asked a pardon conditioned that he should leave the country, never to return to it.

"Confiding in these representations of Mr. Godfrey, I granted the pardon with such a condition, and I now suppose Potter sailed for England either on the 15th or 20th of April.

"Since I have seen the strictures in the newspapers upon this case, I have been very fearful that I was imposed upon by Mr. Godfrey, and especially as he has not come forward either to justify, or excuse, my act. I did act principally upon his representations, under Mr. Edmond's endorsement of him, and I should, at the least, have required him to put those statements upon paper, and made them upon his oath. I did neither.

"Now as to the matter of explanation and defense, I have felt in no haste, because I am sensible that I may deserve some castigation for having been too yielding in the first and last of these cases, and I have endeavored to school myself neither to wince, nor to be made sour by fault finding, which I am conscious I deserve, but to try to be improved and made better by it. If I were to make a defence for myself I should make about the substance of these remarks and this Confession a preface to it, and yet it might not be either very graceful, or very wise.

"This matter of pardons is the most troublesome to me of anything I yet find connected with my troublesome office. The applications will, I think, average from 3 to 5 per day, from the day I took the oath of office. My predecessor left an enormous legacy of undecided cases, and several with promises of pardons after specific periods, which are occasionally falling in, and this has greatly increased my labor.

"I do not intend to exercise this fearful power carelessly, or loosely, and yet I feel daily that I am in danger of doing it. I find that Courts, and Judges, and Jurors, and District Attorneys, sign with some of the facility which attends applications for office, and that the officers of the prison are also sometimes under the influence of the amiable weakness, so that there is no standard by which I can govern my action, and it is probably impossible to avoid occasional impositions.

"I thank you most sincerely for your friendly care, manifested by your note, and will now leave these cases with you, and Mr. O'Sullivan, with whom I had a hasty verbal conversation about them yesterday.

"Will you do me the favor to read this hasty letter to my friend Judge Vanderpoel, and say to him that I should have written it to him, if I had not preferred to trouble you with it, that I thank him most earnestly for his letter to Mr. Van Buren, and have intended to write him daily, since I saw that letter, but have not been able to find the time; and that, while I will hold this as the necessary answer from me to the part of it touching pardons, I will soon write him a satisfactory reply to the personal portions of it, for which I also thank him, as he is one of the last men I would have intentionally wounded by a careless, and what was intended to be a jocose remark.

"I am Very Truly Y'rs,
"Silas Wright."

"Washington, May 31 (Sat.), 2:30 P.M., 1845.

"My Dear O'S.,—At the levee last evening which I attended for the purpose, I made an appointment with the Pres., and am now waiting in the War for the Cabinet to disperse.

"In the afternoon I had seen Ritchie for a few moments, and made an engagement with him. I had a considerable talk with Seth Barton at the levee and with Tom Green at breakfast. All of them introduced the subject of the Collectorship, and all of them especially warned me against imprudence or menace in the interview which they seem to assume I am to have with the Pres.—all tell me he is very sensitive to the idea of compulsion—and that the greatest obstacle we have is the indiscretion of some of us or of those who favor us. They all are exceedingly afraid that they may be thought to be afraid, which shows, I suppose, that they are only calmly conscious of their own courage. But only think of it—such admonitions to me! the very incarnation of Falstaffian valor!

"I replied to Ritchie's caution—which was the first I received; and which was given when I was talking with some decision, with great dignity. I ought to have thanked him for its good intention while I intimated that it was superfluous—I told him that I did not come here to forget what was due to Mr. Polk or what was due to myself; I had no design to obtrude upon the President; I had no personal interest in the question about Van Ness or any solicitude except as it should affect the party and the administration; my only doubt was whether I should seek an interview on the subject; I was willing to state facts, make explanations, expose the whole truth, if the President desired to hear it, respectfully but frankly; the administration was mainly interested in coming to a right decision. We had no idea of hostility to it if it was faithful to our principles—the only question was whether it was to assail us. All we asked of it was to let us alone. Our politics were now in excellent condition. We could take care of the Whigs and Conservatives together if the administration would not systematically embarrass us, and I rather thought we could if it did. But we thought we were entitled to an amnesty from our friends at least while we were so busy with our enemies. The old gentleman seemed greatly mystified, but I promised to explain hereafter.

"(Confidential.)

"Sund. Morn.

"I was not able to send my letter yesterday, and now add a word. I had an interview with the President yesterday. I ran over the case of Van Ness pretty freely. He replied at considerable length, ascribing the delay in his removal to the improper manner in which it had been demanded. He did not say, but implied that he had never intended not to remove him; made no defence or argument on the question of its propriety; merely excused the delay. Mr. Butler, he said, had written to him that it would do no harm to retain him until the year expired, if it were immediately announced that a particular man would then be appointed. He complained bitterly of the attempts to intimidate and coerce him—talking magnificently about being himself President and the locum tenen for nobody; said that in his own time, perhaps Monday, perhaps afterwards, Van Ness should be removed, but swore with that terrible oath, "if the heavens and the earth come together," by which Ritchie and Green and Barton had successively warned me he might refuse if a mischance word of mine should chafe his angry mood, that he would not appoint Coddington. He should select a man, he said, who would be received with applause throughout the State; on his own judgment, whom he knew and had served with. Who that man was he did not say and I did not inquire, though I did express myself with some freedom as to what the man should do. Probably the question may now be deemed settled; for you remember he employed the same planetary concussion to illustrate the fixed irrevocable fate by which Marcy was to represent New York in the Cabinet. His solemn form of fiat, I suppose, answers as the "By the Eternal" of the younger Hickory, and, being partly of earth and partly of heaven, is undoubtedly of an improved quality of imaginary thunder. Still it did not shake my nerves, as a lady's displeasure might. I took it quietly, and talked occasionally as I had a chance, not so fully on all points as I wished, or mean, if an opportunity comes unsought; but, although I was conscious of having exposed myself to a part of a very respectable performance for the benefit of the rebellious Butler, Dix, and O'Sullivan, in which, perhaps, I might lose a little when it came to be privately repeated to the Cabinet and confidants, I thought that, nevertheless, I should not be justified in converting farce into tragedy. So I behaved well and was myself well treated. I inquired what was the 'intimidation' and 'coercion' referred to, and I believe was not very definitely answered. The only specification I got was letters from three—not more, he said, than three persons, whose names, he said, he would not tell me—who might never know about it themselves, whom he could not answer without getting into a correspondence inconsistent with his dignity, who might not be aware of the expressions they had incautiously and rashly used. Your letter to Bancroft was distinctly alluded to as, among other offences, alleging 'violated pledges.' I expressed great doubts whether its contents had not been exaggerated, and when he said he had not seen it, and it was not intended for him, advised him to get it and read it. The warmth of these communications I vindicated as true representations of public feeling, expressed in honest freedom; though this part of the subject came up when the interview was forced to a close, and I could not do full justice. Some explanations, which it was not prudent to make in the danger of exoneration, I have since made to his intimates with kindness but clearness and coldness, and shall to him if circumstances solicit. Am not I a lucky fellow? Soothed all day by the fiery Southerns, and then sitting quietly, as in a summer shower, when the storm is beating fiercely on those imprudent young men, Butler, Dix, O'Sullivan—even, while refreshing myself, putting up my umbrella to protect them! I only talked treason.

"He felt deeply the warm letter of his old friend Hoffman—an honest man. He would swear by him, live by him, die by him. I added Mr. H. was a true-hearted man—he was the last man almost from whom I parted; I had a long conversation with him. He fully concurred in the indispensable necessity of removing Van Ness—in the earnest and strong convictions expressed by the others on that subject. The Pr. replied not. I think it was he that told me, and then that there had been letters saying that Hoffman would make his own acceptance conditional on V. N.'s removal. No, it was Cave Johnson afterwards.

"The President expressed great sorrow that he could not see Silas Wright for an hour and have his advice. As to what, I did not certainly understand."

JOHN A. DIX TO TILDEN

"Private.
East Hampton, June 21, 1845.

"My Dear Sir,—I wrote to you some time ago in relation to the N. Y. collectorship. Since then the matter has been disposed of; but in such a way that I naturally feel a curiosity to know, as far as it is proper that I should, the ground taken by the President in declining to appoint Mr. Coddington. I have seen a letter designed as a justification of the Cabinet in the matter; but there is no allusion in it to assurances given to others as well as myself that the appointment would be made in accordance with the wishes of Mr. Wright and his friends.

"My letter, I presume, reached you; but as I have heard nothing from you in relation to your visit to Washington, it has occurred to me that there might have been some mistake about it.

I am, Dr. Sir, Yours truly,
"John A. Dix."

TILDEN TO HON. CHARLES P. BROWN

"New York, October 13, 1845.
"Hon. Charles P. Brown.

"My Dear Sir,—Contrary to my expectations, I find my name among those from which your convention are about to select candidates for the Assembly. I had so uniformly expressed my strong repugnance to any nomination this fall, and the grounds of it, that I did not suppose any misapprehension could exist on the subject; but I am now compelled to ask you to lay this communication before the body over which you preside.

"If the present were an occasion of peculiar or unusual importance, and if I flattered myself that I was capable of rendering essential service on such an occasion—nothing, in my power and consistent with other obligations, would be withheld, or ever will be withheld, from the interest, the honor, or the wishes of the Democratic party. But I am not able to take any view of the time or of myself which does not allow me, in this political calm, to devote myself to professional and private business on which alone I rely for an independent livelihood, and which the more imperatively claims my attention now from the partial withdrawal of it during the great contest of last year. I, therefore, respectfully decline a nomination.

Truly Y'r Friend,
"S. J. Tilden."

As Mr. Wright had yielded very reluctantly, and more to Mr. Tilden's solicitations than probably to those of any other person, to leave the Federal Senate to be the Governor of New York, he had a right to insist upon Mr. Tilden's coming to the legislature, where his services were regarded by Mr. Wright as practically indispensable to him in the discharge of his executive duties. Mr. Tilden therefore did not press his objection to the nomination he had declined.

TILDEN TO——

"New York, November 4 (1 P.M.), 1845.

"My dear Sir,—I thank you for your two letters, tho' I have not before been able to reply to them.

"My opinion is that our whole Assembly ticket will be elected. Col. Stevenson may be in danger, and if the current opinion were reliable would be, but I think he will succeed. As to myself, the opposition at the country meeting was inconsiderable in point of numbers; but it was the only hostile organization not counteracted by a friendly one, and I am the only candidate left off from any of the pretendedly Democratic ballots. I expect to be scratched by some of those who were hostile to Mr. Van Buren, some of those who are hostile to Mr. Wright—the Tyler rowdies and the Walsh men."

CERTIFICATE OF MR. TILDEN'S ELECTION TO THE ASSEMBLY

"The Board of County Canvassers of the City and County of New York, having canvassed and estimated the votes given in the several election districts of said city and county at a general election held the fourth day of November, 1845, do hereby certify, determine, and declare that Alexander Stewart, Alexander Wells, Samuel J. Tilden, Jonathan D. Stevenson, John E. Develin, Gerardus Boyce, Joseph C. Albertson, Wilson Small, James H. Titus, Robert H. Ludlow, Joshua Fleet, Thomas Spofford, and John Townsend, by the greatest number of votes, were duly elected members of Assembly.

"And the said Board of County Canvassers do further certify, determine, and declare that Samuel Osgood, by the greatest number of votes, was duly elected Register of the City and County of New York.

"Dated New York, November 21, 1845.
"B. J. Meserole,
"Alex. H. Robertson, Chairman.
"Deputy County Clerk and Secretary."

JOHN A. DIX TO TILDEN

"Washington, December 19, 1845.

"My Dear Sir,—I sent you Fremont's report, which I presume you have ere this received.

"As to matters here, I really know as little as yourself—I mean of the views and intentions of the administration. My intercourse with the President is official; and the Secretary of the Treasury I have not yet seen. I came here with the determination of acquiescing in whatever should be desired in respect to organization. I have acted on this determination. In respect to measures, I consider myself free to act according to the dictates of my judgment. Happily, the President's recommendations I cordially approve, and I shall give them my zealous support. Where we shall land is doubtful. We have an able and adroit opposition; and advantage will be taken of the minutest error in our movements. We had abundant proof of this in the matter of Cass's resolutions. I never saw two cleverer cases of genteel sparring than that of Cass by Crittenden and Allen by Clayton.

"I wish to open a correspondence with Mr. Kittell. Will you put me in the way of it?

"There are a few measures I have much at heart—the warehouse system and the branch mint at N. Y.; the great measures, of course, take care of themselves.

"You know I shall always be happy to hear from you. I will write when I can. But I am a new member, have everything to learn, and not half time enough to learn it in.

"I cannot yet say whether there is any truth in the report as to Lawrence. His name is not yet before us. Indeed, we were in executive session yesterday for the first time, and I suppose the President has been waiting for us to organize before sending in the great mass of his nominations.

"Yours truly,
"John A. Dix."

TILDEN TO HON. N. P. TALLMAGE

"New York, December 25, 1845.

"My dear Sir,—A few days since I received a note from your brother requesting me to call and see him, and I was distressed to find that in the short interval since I had last met him his health had become so dangerously worse. He is anxious to obtain a consulship or some other place which will give him the benefit of a climate better adapted to a chronic pulmonary disease, and a reasonable support while subjecting himself to its remedial influence. I need not say I felt a strong sympathy for him; but I feel some disability for rendering him useful aid, which I will in part explain and which he and you will appreciate. Although he sustained the Democratic ticket at the late general election, and did service which I understand has been handsomely recognized by the President, his course was so little conspicuous that the impression left by his association with former events will naturally predominate in the minds of the party generals. If, therefore, the administration should regard the case in the light of mere party expediency, I do not think I could in candor towards them say what would be of much avail to him; especially as caution in my expressions being the more necessary lest I should expose myself to be quoted not merely as offering a particular instance in regard to which I should have no hesitation if it stood alone, but as contributing to and thus sanctioning a general distinction of local patronage which is objected to, in part on the same ground on which this might be exposed to unfriendly criticism, and which has prevailed here in the lesser appointments which most interest the mass of the party to an extent that excites very great dissatisfaction. Nor does it seem to me that formal recommendations can at all benefit your brother, nor anything which I might say in his behalf, unless the administration desired affirmatively to do something for him. If such be their real feeling—if they regard his case as one to be controlled by liberal considerations, if they recognize the strong appeal it makes to their humanity, and if they are nevertheless restrained by solicitude as to how the appointment would be received by their political friends here—it is possible that I may be of some little service to him, in the only contingency in which it seems to me any service can be efficient. The object of my letter is to assure you that if the administration take favorable views of the matter, as I hope and trust they may, I shall be ready to do what I can to cause the appointment to be well received by the party here; and that such, I believe, will be the general disposition of those of our friends to whom the circumstances are made known. The only hesitation I have in saying this is lest it may be assuming in me; but if you think it will do your brother any good, you may communicate it for that purpose. I did not venture to write to anybody other than yourself lest, in my ignorance of the state of feeling on which my letter might fall, and however guarded my language might be, I should unwittingly do harm, which, however frankly I may write to you, I shall avoid, even if I fail to do good.

"With the best wishes for the success of this object and your welfare,

Truly y'rs,
"S. J. Tilden."

The Albany Argus, since the election of President Polk, had become the organ and an extreme partisan of the so-called Hunker party and champion of the policy of the Slavery Extensionists. One of the consequences was the establishment of the Atlas at Albany by the friends of Van Buren and Wright. The Argus was conducted by Edwin Croswell, a then veteran journalist, and the Atlas by a Mr. Van Dyke, assisted by a very clever young man of Irish extraction named Cassidy. These two prints registered the stages of the ineffectual struggle of the Van Buren and Wright party with the administration at Washington, a specimen of which is disclosed in the following correspondence between Mr. Croswell, Mr. Tilden, and John Van Buren, a gifted son of the ex-President Van Buren, and then rapidly becoming a conspicuous figure in national politics.

E. CROSWELL TO TILDEN

"Albany, January 26, 1846.

"Dear Sir,—I am informed by a member of the Legislature, whose veracity I cannot question, that you stated to him that I had made a proposition in relation to a compromise of the questions of difference between the Argus and Atlas, which had been accepted by you or your friends, but which I had flown from or violated under the pretence of consulting my friends.

"Allow me to ask whether I am to understand you as having made such a declaration.

"Very respectfully,
"Yr. obt. servt.,
"E. Croswell."

TILDEN TO E. CROSWELL

"Albany, January 27, 1846.

"My dear Sir,—The inquiry which your favor of yesterday contains is so made up of statements and inferences—so very general in some respects, and so imperfect in others—that an answer to it which expresses neither more nor less than the truth must be more specific than you seem to ask.

"I understood from gentlemen whose veracity I could not question that on the Wednesday before the recent caucus you made to them a communication to this effect:

"You said that it would not do for you to make any further proposition relative to the union of the Argus and Atlas, but you invited a proposition to be made to you, the terms of which you specified as follows: That the Argus and Atlas should be united, at an appraised valuation; that the joint establishment should be owned by Messrs. French, Cassidy, and Sherman Croswell in three equal parts; that you should withdraw from the concern; that Messrs. Cassidy and Sherman Croswell should be candidates for State printers; and that the emoluments of that office, if it were conferred upon them, should belong to the joint establishment.

"This proposition, you said, would be entirely acceptable to yourself, and you expressed great confidence that you could induce your friends in the Senate to confirm it. In that event, the bill purporting to abolish the office of State Printer, of which you expressed decided disapprobation, would, you hoped, be postponed or greatly modified or defeated, and harmony, as you thought, restored to the Republican party. The result of your efforts was to be communicated to those from whom the proposition was in form to emanate before the assembling of the caucus. Your suggestion was in all respects adopted and followed by them.

"Deriving from these facts, as well as from the interviews which you had sought with me on the subject, strong hopes that an arrangement satisfactory to all parties, consistent with public duty, and conducive to the interests and the honor of the Democratic cause, would be effected; and having reason to believe that more of the radical Democrats of the Assembly and all those of the Senate would assent to the union of the two papers (being first convinced that the advocacy of sound Democratic doctrines would be essentially secured)—of which fact you were, after consultation with them, advised—you may imagine my surprise when, half an hour before the caucus met, I learned that, although twenty-four hours had elapsed, you had not even communicated with several of your prominent friends in the Senate; had not seen your partner and relative, who is a member of your own family; had failed to keep your appointments; and, when sent for, at my instance, who was still unwilling to impute a design to evade, were unprepared to close the negotiation, to make any definite arrangement, or even a proposition. Attended as this failure was by the forcing through the Senate, at an extra session, held in the mean time, by your friends, of the bill you disapproved, and followed, as it has since been by your advocacy in the Argus of that bill, I am forced, in the absence of all explanation, to entertain more distrust than I remember having expressed, or wish to express, of a negotiation in which I engaged at your solicitation.

"In regard to the particular language which your letter ascribes to me, I have no recollection of having used it, nor does it, in the way you have stated it, remind me of any conversation out of which the information you repeat to me may have originated. Nor does it seem to me in substance correct, so far as it may be construed to imply much of a direct personal communication between you and me after the first stage of the negotiation; or any effort to 'compromise the questions of difference between the Argus and Atlas,' further than to unite these two papers, which I was sincerely anxious to bring about, and after the intimations from you did actively recommend to my associate Democrats of the Assembly, while I left them and myself at perfect liberty to act according to our individual judgments and consciences on any questions of reform in regard to the office or the functions of the State Printer. But that I may not have adverted to the distinction, if there be any in substance, between your making a proposition and suggesting one to be made to you which you declared beforehand would be entirely acceptable to you, and may have spoken in general terms of the proposition as yours as well as that of those you represent, is very possible; and that I may have casually expressed the sentiments which the facts above stated necessarily excited, in regard to the part you bore in the transaction is possible, though I do not remember having done so, and I am sure if I have not the forbearance is to be imputed solely to reluctance with which I have put an unfavorable construction upon your conduct.

"If there is any explanation to be offered I should be glad to hear it, and to learn if I have even in thought done you the least injustice.

"With great respect, your obdt. servt.,
"S. J. Tilden."

JOHN VAN BUREN TO EDWIN CROSWELL

"(Circa January 21, 1846.)

"Dear Sir,—I have recd. your favor of the 26th inst. making certain inquiries of me, and I very cheerfully state my recollections in regard to them.

"On Wednesday, before the late caucus, I learned from gentlemen of undoubted veracity that you had made to them the following communication: You said that you would make no further propositions in reference to the union of the Argus and Atlas, but you invited a proposition to be made to you, which you said would be entirely acceptable to yourself, and expressed great confidence that your friends in the Senate would be induced by you to confirm it. In that event the bill to abolish the office of State Printer, pending in the Senate, of which you expressed your decided disapprobation, you hoped would be postponed and greatly modified or defeated, and harmony restored to the Republican party. The result of your efforts was to be communicated to those who were to make the proposition prior to the assembling of the caucus. The precise offer that you invited was made to you on Wedy. aftn.

"Hearing these facts, and having strong hopes that an amicable arrangement satisfactory to all parties would be brought about thro' your exertions, and having reason to believe that the great mass of the radical Democrats of the Assembly and all those in the Senate approved of the union of the two papers on the terms now suggested, which they thought secured the advocacy of sound principles, you may imagine my surprise on being informed, a half-hour before the caucus met, that altho' more than 24 hours had intervened, you had not even communicated with several of your personal friends in the Senate, had not been able to see your own partner and cousin, who is a member of your family, failed to keep yr. appointments, was found with difficulty, and was not prepared when found to make any definite arrangement or even proposition. Attended as this failure on your part was by the forcing thro' the Senate by your friends of the bill you disapproved, and followed by strong and indignant denunciations the next morning in the columns of the Argus of several leading Democrats in the Senate, and warm advocacy of the same bill, I was forced, in the absence of all explanation, to conclude that if you had not acted in bad faith you had certainly trifled in a most extraordinary manner with a subject I considered of great importance.

"Under these circumstances, I claim credit for myself in speaking of your conduct with great forbearance, and have no recollection of using the language you attribute to me in your note, tho', as I did not advert to the distinction (if there be any in substance) between your making a proposition and inviting one to be made to you, which you declared beforehand would be acceptable to you, I have doubtless spoken freely of the part you bore in the transaction as inexplicable and censurable.

"I shall be happy to hear any explanation you have to make, and glad to know if I have unintentionally, even in thought, done you injustice."

CERTIFICATE OF THE ELECTION OF MR. TILDEN AND OTHERS TO THE CONVENTION ORDERED TO REVISE THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK IN 1846

"The Board of County Canvassers of the City and County of New York, having canvassed and estimated the votes given in the several election districts of said city and county at a general election held the 14th day of April, 1846, do hereby certify, determine, and declare that Charles O'Connor, Henry Nicoll, Samuel J. Tilden, Benjamin F. Cornell, Campbell P. White, Alexander F. Vache, Lorenzo B. Shepard, John A. Kennedy, John L. Stephens, Robert H. Morris, William S. Conely, David R. Floyd Jones, Solomon Townsend, John H. Hunt, Stephen Allen, and George S. Mann, by the greatest number of votes, were duly elected 'Delegates to meet in convention for the purpose of considering the Constitution of this State, and to make such alterations in the same as the rights of the people demand and as they may deem proper, under an act of the Legislature of the State of New York, entitled, "An act recommending a convention of the people of this State." Passed May 13, 1845.'

"Dated May 11, 1846.
"Egbert Benson,
"Chairman.
"James Conner,
"County Clerk, Secretary."

N. J. WATERBURY TO TILDEN

"New York, August 28, 1846.

"My dear Sir,—Mr. Guion[11] visits Albany at my request to see you and Kennedy, and through you to consult with others for the purpose of finally ascertaining whether anything is to be done to sustain the News. If anything is to be done it has got to be made available for Monday. Unless some money is then obtained, that will be the last number of the paper issued. I have the same opinion as before expressed in relation to the great importance of sustaining the paper until after the election at least; and I have stated to you the only plan I know of for doing so. Gen. Spinner suggests that John G. Floyd be induced to take the paper. With $3000 we can sustain the paper until January 1st. With $2000 until November. If it should go down before the election it will injure us greatly. Mr. Guion goes up at my earnest request, and not that he has any further personal solicitude about the matter than you and me and all our friends feel.

"In haste, yours very truly,
"N. J. Waterbury."

"New York, Sep. 8, 1846.
"6 ½ O'clk. P.M.

"Dear Tilden,—The long agony is over—the Morning News is dead—dead; no time to say more.

"Truly y'rs,
"Clement Guion."

The public interest in the history of the Morning News, of which Mr. Tilden and John L. O'Sullivan were joint proprietors, may be said to have terminated with the execution of the document of which the following is a draft, found among Mr. Tilden's papers.

CONDITIONS ON WHICH TILDEN RETIRED FROM THE "MORNING NEWS"

"S. J. T. retires—surrenders all his interest—is indemnified against its outstanding liabilities.

"J. L. O'S. and H. G. L. (H. G. Langley) rearrange their proportion of ownership. Hereafter to own equally. The difference of capital to be equalled by credits to H. G. L., the necessary amount on his advances, existing or prospective.

"H. G. L. contracts to devote himself faithfully to the business and interests of the paper—to conduct with the utmost energy and fidelity the procuring of advertisers.

"Failing to do this, he is to retire, giving O'S. all reasonable facility to substitute some other persons on reasonable terms of sale. All disputes and differences of opinion as to these stipulations to be left to the decision of——"

The triumph of the pro-slavery party in the election of Mr. Polk resulted in the revolt of Texas from Mexico, her annexation to the United States, and a war with Mexico.

At the expiration of his term, Governor Wright was renominated almost unanimously. If elected, nothing in the future appeared more certain than that he would have been Mr. Polk's successor in the Presidency. The reversion of the Chief Magistracy to such a formidable opponent of slavery extension as Governor Wright, who could neither be corrupted nor cajoled, was then regarded at Washington as a peril, to avoid which no sacrifice was too great. The magnitude of the sacrifice of Mr. Wright was as correctly appreciated at Washington, and by the very men who were to offer it up as a propitiation to the demon of slavery, as at Albany; but to the short-sighted vision of the statesmen then in the ascendant at the national capital the political supremacy of the slave-holding States was to be maintained at any price.

The influence of the Federal government was, therefore, all turned against Mr. Wright at the Gubernatorial election in 1847, and it proved to be sufficient to give a majority of some eleven thousand to John Young, the candidate of the Whigs.

Mr. Wright, at the expiration of his term, returned to his home in St. Lawrence County, consoled by the reflection that the evil consequences of taking him from the Senate and making him a party to the faction fights in New York had resulted as he had predicted—in disaster to the party and in his own political destruction. He died within nine months from his retirement.

The annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico which ensued resulted in the acquisition of vast territories, sooner or later to be organized into States, to be consecrated to freedom or to slavery. To open these States to slavery and reinforce the slave representation in Congress, it had become necessary to paralyze the Democratic party in New York.

The first steps towards this end had been taken in the defeat of Mr. Van Buren's renomination for the Presidency, and putting a Southern man in his place. The second had been taken in the defeat of Governor Wright's re-election in 1847; the third, yet to be taken, was to deprive the Democracy of New York of its legitimate influence in Congress and the next Democratic national convention.

In this scheme the administration was entirely successful. At the commencement of President's Polk's administration the Democratic party was completely in the ascendant in New York. It had elected its Governor and Lieutenant-Governor; it had a majority in both branches of the Legislature, and a majority of the delegation in Congress. At the expiration of two years its Chief Magistrate was a Whig, and its Congressional delegation was reduced to a meagre minority. The following year the whole legislative power of the State was transferred to the Whigs by an overwhelming majority, and the schism in the party, encouraged by the bestowal of all the patronage of the Federal government upon the "Hunkers," had become irreparable.[12]

JOHN A. Dix[13] TO S. J. TILDEN

"Washington, January 2, 1847.

"My dear Sir,—Yours is received. I do not know whether I can have any influence in the matter referred to, but will bear your wishes in mind.

"Everything here is in miserable condition. I do not know whether Mexico will make peace, but I am sure she would not if she knew what a state we are in. Still I hope for the best. Mr. Polk is in a minority in both Houses. His most disinterested and reliable supporters are the friends of those he has treated worst. I am sick of the whole concern, and, most of all, of the miserable manoeuvring for high place, which is beginning to show itself.

"If we had a discreet and energetic leader in Mexico, I think we might bring the war to a close. But the lieutenant-general has been slain, and with him I think dies all prospect of success by arms or diplomacy. Our only chance is in luck, and Mr. Polk is so fortunate in getting out of scrapes just when he is most straitened that I am inclined to bet on him yet.

"Yours in haste,
"John A. Dix."

THE FIRST GUN FOR FREE SOIL

"April, 1848.

At the threshold of the Free-soil revolt of 1848, ex-President Van Buren, who was spending the winter in lodgings at Julian's Hotel in Washington Place, New York, said one day to Mr. Tilden, as he handed him a roll of manuscript: "If you wish to be immortal, take this home with you, complete it, revise it, put it into proper shape, and give it to the public."

Mr. Tilden replied that he had not the slightest wish to be immortal by any process that would impose upon him at that time any more labor; but he consented to take the manuscript down to the residence of the ex-President's son, John Van Buren, who then resided in White Street, and he agreed that if John would do half of the work he would do the other half. John did agree, and a few days after the interview referred to, Tilden and John met at the ex-President's lodgings to report.

Mr. Van Buren opened the subject by asking what they had done with Niagara Falls. This referred to a somewhat ambiguous metaphor which had found its way into the ex-President's manuscript. "We have struck that out," was the reply. He laughed, as if rather relieved at having an unpleasant duty discharged by other hands, while they went on to read the result of their joint labors.

After the address had received the combined approval of each party to its composition, the next question was how to get it before the public. After discussing various plans, they finally decided to issue it as an address of the Democratic members of the Legislature. Accordingly, on the 12th of April, Senator John G. Floyd, from the committee of Democratic members of the Legislature to prepare and report an address, read the paper to his colleagues, by whom it was unanimously adopted. This memorable and epochal document was given at length in the Public Writings and Speeches of Tilden, Vol. II., page 537. This address deserves to be regarded as the corner-stone of the "Free-soil" party, as distinguished from the party of unconditional abolition.

S. P. CHASE[14] TO JOHN VAN BUREN

"Columbus, June 19, 1848.

"My dear Sir,—Many of our Free-Territory men in this quarter are in doubt as to the course which the New York Democracy intend to pursue in reference to the Buffalo convention. Will they be represented in it? Will they concur in the nominations made by it? If Judge McLean can be induced to accept a nomination for the Vice-Presidency, in connection with Mr. Van Buren for the Presidency, will they cordially accept it? If the convention, on mature deliberation, should think it expedient to nominate Judge McLean for the Presidency and Col. Samuel Young or Bradford R. Wood or yourself for the Vice-Presidency, would the New York Democracy concur in that nomination? There is a strong disposition, also, in the West to drop the older politicians altogether and take younger men, who better represent the spirit of the time. One of the best and ablest Democrats in the State, I mean Edwin M. Stanton, said to me to-day that if John Van Buren should be the nominee of the Buffalo convention he would roll up his sleeves and go to work till the election for the ticket; and I am sure that to all the young Democrats and all the young Whigs in the State your name would be more acceptable than your father's. Suppose the convention should be animated by this spirit and nominate men of this generation, would the New York Democracy concur?

"I put these questions to indicate the various phases which the movement may assume. My own opinion is that, under existing circumstances, the best possible nomination for the Presidency has been made at Utica, provided the name of John McLean can be associated with it. Whether it can be is, as yet, in doubt, though I fear the doubt will be resolved against my wish. If it cannot be, we have no man in the West whose name on the ticket would be altogether unexceptionable. If Judge McLean should consent to allow his name to be used, the ticket would undoubtedly sweep Ohio, and would gain immense accessions of strength throughout the West. I firmly believe that the nominees may, in that event, be elected this year. It would be, to be sure, sacrificing a good deal on the part of Judge McLean, so long prominent in the regards of the people as a candidate for the first office, to accept a nomination for the second; and the bitterness with which he could be assailed by the slaveholders and their allies would exceed greatly that which is now manifested towards your father. Nothing but a strong sense of personal duty, and a deep interest in the success of the movement (and he avows that interest openly), will prevail on him to consent, and, I fear, he will not feel that duty absolutely requires the step. It is probable that he would regard an offer of a nomination for the first office differently. He would then be the recognized head or representative of the movement, and would feel the abuse directed against him, as levelled chiefly at the cause. And I think he would represent the movement almost exactly as Silas Wright would have done if living. I regard him as more nearly resembling Silas Wright in the general character of his views on public questions than any living public man. While, therefore, I repeat that if we can have Judge McLean's name for the Vice-Presidency I would rather take the ticket as it would then stand—Martin Van Buren and John McLean—than any other, you will not wonder that I regret that the action of the convention at Utica has interposed an obstacle to a different arrangement. Whether the obstacle is insuperable you are a far better judge than I am. If it be, then, we must take the Utica nomination, supply the Vice-Presidential vacancy and make the best fight we can.

"You will have observed the difficulty suggested by the National Era growing out of the expressions in your father's letter, in relation to slavery in the District of Columbia; and you are doubtless aware that all that part of the letter in reference to the course of his administration on the subject of slavery is very distasteful to almost all anti-slavery men, whether Whig, Democratic, or Liberty.

"I wish that part of the letter could have been omitted. It does no good to revive the past. Our business is with the present and the future. Your remarks in your speech at Genesee on the 20th of June are full of truth. The Free-Territories question, in discussion, must bring up the whole slavery question inevitably. Our contest is with the slave power, and it will break us down unless we break it down. The people will not stop with the exclusion of slavery from Territories: they will demand its complete denationalization. Now many understand Mr. Van Buren's letter, so far as it touches upon slavery in the District, as a reiteration of his pledge to veto a bill for the abolition of slavery there if enacted by Congress. I do not myself so understand it. I cannot believe that at the present day and under present circumstances, when a strong anti-slavery sentiment exists in Maryland and Virginia, which would be vastly strengthened by such a measure—so strengthened, indeed, that those States would by it be converted into free Territory States—that he would interpose the slightest obstacle to its adoption. I cannot doubt that, on the contrary, he would give it every favor consistent with the proper discharge of his function as President.

"So many, however, take a different view from mine that it is highly desirable, in the event that M. Van Buren is to be the nominee of the Buffalo convention, to have all doubt on this matter removed, so that he may be received and understood everywhere as a true representative of the movement.

"The uprising in this State exceeds all expectation, and if we only can present a proper ticket at Buffalo we shall have the best chance of carrying the State. But the effect of the movement is different here from its effect in New York. The question in this State will be between the independent nominee and Cass. Taylor is, with us, entirely out of the question. The people reject him, and the politicians support him, when they do at all, doubtingly and without enthusiasm. The Cass men are more active and with better hopes. In conversation with Judge Wood yesterday, or the day before, I remarked to him that I was a little surprised, after reading of the interview between himself, Cass, and the people at Cleveland, to hear of his advocating on the stump the claims of Cass, as a Wilmot proviso man. 'Oh,' says the judge, 'He is for the proviso as much as any of us.' 'Do you mean to say, then, that the Nicholson letter was designed to cheat the South and get the nomination?' I asked. 'D—n them,' said he, 'it is their turn to be cheated.' This is a common argument among the Cass men; and as there is something like retribution in kind indicated by it, it don't take very badly among the people.

"I shall be very glad to hear from you, and to be advised of the views of yourself and others, to whom you may show this, as to what is best to be done and the best mode of doing it.

Yours very truly,
"S. P. Chase."

"P. S.—Did you or Mr. Preston King receive a telegraphic despatch, at Utica, stating the action of our people's convention, which adjourned the day before your session commenced? We, Mr. Vaughan and myself, sent one on the evening of the 21st, and it should have reached you on the morning of the 22d at the latest. We shall be glad to know whether it reached you at all, and, if so, when."

TILDEN TO S. P. CHASE

"New York, July, 1848.

"My dear Sir,—Your letter came here in the absence of Mr. J. Van Buren, which still continues, and it has been handed to me by Mr. Bryant, with a request that I would answer it. I desire to do so with perfect candor, and with as much accuracy as I can in regard to questions which depend upon the concurring action of numerous individuals composing a large party.

"As to your inquiry whether the Barnburners of New York will be represented in the Buffalo convention, I can only say that so far as representation consists in the presence of persons who will be asked to consult with the members of that body and inform them of the views of the Democracy, there will be no want of it. But representation of the formal and authoritative character which is usual in the delegated conventions of organized parties will not be possible, either from the nature of the convention itself or the circumstances in which the Democracy of this State are placed. The convention professes to be merely a mass convention, and does not aim at the indispensable characteristics of a delegated body—among which is a proportionate representation of ascertained constituents, whose numbers and relations are already known; but it will be simply a voluntary assemblage of individuals, whose relations to each other are to be for the first time established. Nor is there any person to act authoritatively for the Democracy of this State, as an organized body, until the meeting of the Utica convention on the 13th of Sept.

"But all this is not deemed to be a matter of much consequence. The Buffalo convention must act with spontaneous harmony or it will fail of its objects, and the spirit of the people and the circumstances of the occasion will be likely to make it very independent of forms. If it acts with wisdom, the Utica convention will doubtless concur in its nomination for the Vice-Presidency.

"As to the Presidency, it will not, under any circumstances, be practicable to change the position of the Democracy of this State. Their convictions on this subject would be irresistible, whatever might be the desires of leading men. Nominated, as Mr. Van Buren was, against his wishes, and because he was believed to be the strongest candidate with nearly all to whom they had a right to look for support, and acquiescing, as he did, on the ground that his old companions and their descendants had a right to his name to strengthen them in maintaining their characters and cause amid the perils and difficulties which surrounded them, it would not be decent towards him, now that more than they at first hoped is sure to be accomplished, to seek another representative. A still stronger consideration would be the bad faith of such a procedure towards large numbers of men and influential presses which have been drawn into our support of Mr. V. B.'s name. Another would be the great impolicy of changing front on the eve of battle, when the public mind has adapted itself and individuals have found relations with reference to the candidate. And another would be the conviction that in this State at least his name is far the strongest that can be presented with reference to practicable accessions to the cause. Of course this may be assumed to be the fact among the Democrats from whom our strength must mainly come—and the aid we have derived from it has been very great—while those Whigs who are disposed to go with us prefer him to any other Democrat, if I may judge from their expressions to me and others before the convention of the 22d of June.

"The Democracy of this State supports the cause and Mr. Van Buren, an organized party having more than fifty presses, many of which are the longest established and most influential in the State, and are organs on which perhaps the contest turns."

GOVERNOR COLES TO M. VAN BUREN

"Philadelphia, October 12, 1848.

"My dear Sir,—Your very kind and flattering letter of the first instant would have been sooner acknowledged but for my having had the pleasure of having with me Mr. and Mrs. Singleton and Miss McDuffie, and also your son, the colonel, and Angelica, and since they left me I have been so unwell as to be incapable of writing. And I am still too much indisposed to do much more than to express the gratification I derived from its perusal and to receive your commendation of my letter to Mr. Richards, which gave me the more pleasure, as I found my letter would disappoint him and other friends from its treating on newspaper and common-place topics, accessible to all, instead of giving facts and anecdotes not generally known, and which had become particularly well known to me, from the deep interest I have long taken in the subject, from my residence in Illinois at the period when efforts were made to make it a slave-holding State, and from my intimate acquaintance with most of the great men of the country. But I was sensible of not being able to do justice to the information I possessed, without a reference to documents not accessible to me at Schooleys Mountain.

"Your son John having requested me to send him a copy of a letter written by Mr. Jefferson to me in August, 1814, on the subject of slavery, and also a communication made by me to the National Intelligencer, and published in that paper Feb. 14, 1838, in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, I have since my return home from my summer excursion enclosed them to him to 91 White Street, New York, and hope he has received them, as I think the republication of Mr. Jefferson's letter at this time will do much good.[15]

"In explanation of some parts of Mr. Jefferson's letter, I ought to add that it was written in reply to one from me, informing him of my repugnance to holding slaves, and my determination to leave Virginia unless I could see some prospect of abolishing slavery in the State, and urging him to step forward as the leader in the great work. He showed our correspondence to many persons, and urged them to associate with me and form what he called a phalanx for bringing forward the necessary measures to put an end to slavery. Seeing no prospect of success, I abandoned the State, restored to my slaves their liberty, and removed them to Illinois, where I have had the high gratification of seeing them free, happy, and prosperous.

"I have been too unwell to see and to deliver to our old friend, Mr. Short, your kind message. As soon as I am well enough to walk to his house I will do so. As I am now suffering a good deal from headache I must conclude, after repeating assurances of my great respect and sincere regard.

"Edward Coles.
"Martin Van Buren, ex-President U. S."

THOMAS VAN RENSSELAER TO MARTIN VAN BUREN

"New York, Oct. 16, 1848.
"Hon. Martin Van Buren.

"Respected Sir,—Under ordinary circumstances it would be out of place for such an humble individual as myself to address you, but I consider that a crisis has arrived in this country which calls for the untiring exertions of every good man to check the spread of slavery which threatens the very existence of the institutions of the country, and my apology may be found in the fact that I am identified with this proscribed class. You will recognize me as the conductor of a small newspaper in this city called the Ram's Horn, a few copies of which I have taken the liberty of mailing to your honor.

"The approaching election I look upon as one of considerable importance to the country, and altho my paper is not a political one, yet I have thought right under existing circumstances to advocate the nominees of the Buffalo convention,[16] and try to induce the few hundred of my colored brethren in this vicinity who have votes to cast them in favor of Free Soil. We have had several meetings, and, in fact, done all we could with our limited means, and I have consulted with the Free Soil men here what is our best course to pursue, and the conclusion is to continue publishing and operating as efficiently as we can among ourselves, and if we can obtain a little pecuniary assistance for a short time I think we can do considerable in the right direction. Can you put us in a way to have a little funds at our disposal, and thereby enable us to forward the good cause?

"Respectfully,
"Thos. Van Rensselaer."

M. VAN BUREN TO S. J. TILDEN

"Lindenwald, October 18th, '48.

"My dear Sir,—As you are the man of business, if not the only one in our ranks, you must not complain of the trouble I am about to give you. The enclosed has embarrassed me not a little. Having been pleased with the writer's very successful reply to Mr. Gerrit Smith, which I think we read together, I feel loath to slight him altogether, and yet I can neither do what he suggests without falsifying my position or open a correspondence with him without exposing the act to perversion. I wish, therefore, you would take the trouble to send for him and explain to him my situation upon the said point.

In haste, very truly yours,
"M. Van Buren."

TILDEN ON MR. GREELEY, THE LEGISLATOR, AND THE SLAVERY QUESTION[17]

[From the "Evening Post," Dec. 23, 1848.]

"When we wrote our former articles on the bill of Mr. Douglass we had not seen the letter from Mr. Greeley which was published in Saturday's Tribune (Dec. 16, 1848). The intimation contained in that letter of his sentiments and probable course in regard to that bill if presented in its original form, would not have been allowed to pass without the animadversion which its extraordinary nature calls for, and which we shall now briefly make, not upon the impersonality which edits the Tribune, but upon Mr. Greeley, the legislator, who represents in part the people of this city in the highest councils of the nation.

"When, after having professed to consider the extension of slavery to free Territories as the question of questions involved in the late election—after having for months exhorted all to treat it as far above the other objects of party association, and reproached those who did not so treat it as false to freedom—after having at first distrusted the noble band of Democrats who proclaimed their determination to maintain throughout the canvass and at the polls the sentiments which they had before professed, taunted them with the prediction that they would ultimately surrender principles to a slavish subserviency to party, and at length applauded their constancy when it could no longer be disputed; after having stigmatized as recreant to principle and duty all who should support a candidate for the Presidency not avowedly in favor of the Wilmot proviso; after having denounced General Taylor as identified in interest and association with the slave power, and probably unsound in principle on the greatest of issues; when, after having done all this, the editor of the Tribune, on the eve of election, announced his intention to support General Taylor, to vote for a man because he was available, whom he had denounced for that very reason when nominated as an available; to vote for a man because he would beat Gen. Cass, whom he had denounced when nominated on that express ground; to vote for a man whom, after three months of nice balancing, he found to be a shade less objectionable than another candidate, because it was necessary to make a choice of evils between the nominees of the two old party organizations, no matter how wrong and dangerous the principles of both might be; thus surrendering the great question of freedom in the Territories, in the same manner and for the same reasons, for which most of the supporters of Taylor and Cass at the North professed to surrender it, and uniting with them in presenting the miserable spectacle of a number of electors sufficient to choose the President, all voting for men not representing their sentiments on a question professedly regarded by them as the most important, because there was no chance of electing one who did represent those sentiments; when, in a word, after all his former professions, Mr. Greeley ended in doing precisely what the original Taylor men and the Cass men of the North did, and for precisely the same reasons, and addressed to others precisely the same arguments which had been so long addressed to him in vain, and which he had been so long refuting, he shook deeply—very deeply—the confidence in his sincerity which his apparent zeal in behalf of freedom had inspired. For our part, we were inclined to take a charitable view of his conduct. We thought we saw him struggling in the meshes of party association, and yielding not until he had half satisfied his own conscience that he could vote for Taylor as not so certainly declared as Cass, and therefore not quite so objectionable on the great issue, and at last reconciled to himself by the general sense that it was a little better that Taylor should be elected than Cass. We thought we saw a painful conflict with his self-respect and his sense of consistency—a consciousness that he had not chosen the nobler, even if the more expedient, part—that he was doing at best a doubtful act against which his better nature revolted. We are disposed always to respect, in silence, such manifestations, and not to reproach.

"But what shall we think, what shall we say, of the spirit exhibited and the sentiments expressed in the following passage of Mr. Greeley's letter, which we have read with astonishment and regret:

"'... And now to revert to the main question—the organization of the new Territories, and the allowance or disallowance of slavery therein—I have been confidently hoping for an early and peaceful adjustment of the whole vexation. The bills of which Mr. Douglass, in Senate, gave notice on reaching this city—to provide for the organization of California as a State and New Mexico as a Territory—were signs of promise. Upon the basis here suggested, it seemed to me practicable to settle the whole difficulty without farther excitement or peril. I thought we should ultimately agree to permit New Mexico, as well as California, to take the requisite steps for organizing as a State, and bring them both into the Union in the course of the next two years, leaving them free to frame their own institutions. This done, the North would be morally certain that slavery would not be tolerated in either State, and the South would save the point of honor by the almost certain defeat (in Senate) of the Wilmot proviso, which, to an established and admitted State, is confessedly inapplicable. And thus would close the grave of agitation with regard to slave territory.'

"And the letter then proceeds to say that 'the bright sky has been overcast' by the modification by which it is proposed to annex the portion of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande to Texas, which is stated as the only objection to the bill.

"The first remarkable thing in this letter is the spirit in which it speaks of the question of extending slavery to the Territories now free. If the only thing to be done was to get rid of a troublesome question, Mr. Greeley's mind would seem to be directed exactly to the object. If the writer were one of the conservatives of the Syracuse convention of 1847, who laid the Wilmot proviso on the table, or one of the Whig Dough Faces of the Philadelphia convention, who 'kicked it out' of that body, the terms in which the measure is spoken of would be very characteristic. To adjust 'the whole vexation'—'to settle the whole difficulty without farther excitement or peril'—'to close the grave of the agitation,' was precisely what they desired to do. But if there is something more to be done than to evade this great question in order to save party arrangements from embarrassment—if it is of any importance to make freedom in the Territories certain instead of leaving it to chance—if the opinion, which has been so frequently and earnestly maintained by Mr. Greeley, as well as all who profess to be friends of freedom, that for this purpose an express enactment by Congress ought to be made, be not an utter imposture and fraud, then we submit that the spirit manifested in this letter is not that in which this great question should be treated.

"The second remarkable thing in the letter—and by far the most remarkable—is the mode in which it purposes to adjust 'the whole vexation.' A Territory extensive enough to make thirteen States as large as New York has been acquired; it is wholly unoccupied, except by a small population in a few localities. The question is, shall slavery be allowed to be established in it during its territorial condition? Neither party to the controversy regards as of practical moment the territorial condition, except as it will influence and practically control the conditions, in this respect, of the States which are to be formed out of the Territory. And it is gravely proposed at once to declare this Territory, which is in no proper situation to be formed into States, and which nobody would think of forming into a State now except for the purpose of getting rid of the necessity of acting on this subject, to be a State. And this is called by Mr. Greeley 'settling,' instead of dodging, the question!

"Gen. Cass proposed, in his Nicholson letter, to leave to the scattered inhabitants who are to be found in some small portions of this vast region to decide the question by a territorial legislature. Mr. Greeley, in his letter, proposes to leave it to precisely the same individuals 'free to frame their own institutions' by a State legislature.

"What essential difference is there between the two plans, so far as the extension or restriction of slavery is concerned?

"Suppose that on the 3rd of March next, at the close of the session, Mr. Greeley's plan should be adopted; that on the 3rd of July a territorial legislature should be elected; and that on the 3rd of September it should meet and adjust the 'whole vexation.' Or suppose that on the 3rd of March Gen. Cass's plan should be adopted; that on the 3rd of July a State legislature should be elected; and that on the 3rd of September it should meet and decide the question.

"Would it be important whether the government were called 'State' or 'territorial,' so long as it had equal power to act on this subject, and constituents and representatives were the same, assumed their functions at the same time, in the one case as in the other? Would it affect in the slightest degree the actual extension or restriction of slavery which should be decreed by them?

"But Mr. Greeley evidently thinks that this little change of names gets him over the whole difficulty. And he touches what he obviously regards as the point of the case when he adds that 'the Wilmot proviso' is 'to an established and admitted State' confessedly inapplicable.

"Without discussing the authority of Congress to insert a restriction against slavery in the act of admission, which was done with most of the Northwestern States, it is true that after a State has been established and admitted the Federal legislation has no power to apply to that State the 'Wilmot proviso'; and that by the unconditional conversion of a territory into a State Congress divests itself of that power. But it is not easy for anybody—except Mr. Greeley—to see how the reference of the question, even when confessedly within its jurisdiction to a territorial legislature, as proposed by Gen. Cass, is more objectionable in a moral point of view than the voluntary divestment of that jurisdiction for the very purpose of shirking off the question upon the same legislature called by a different name. Gen. Cass's plan has some advantages over that adopted by Mr. Greeley.

"It is less evasive and more manly, frank, and honest.

"It may afford some chance that the fate of the various parts of this immense tract of unsettled lands shall be decided by the people who shall at some future period inhabit them after they shall be organized into distinct Territories, the more densely populated portions having been admitted as States; which might be somewhat better than leaving to a few thousand persons in Santa FÉ and San Francisco to fix the destinies of hundreds of thousands of square miles in which not one of these persons ever trod.

"Above all, it would not, in the miserable attempt to avoid the question of slavery in the Territories by admitting a State of boundless dimensions, incur the great and perilous mischiefs which we have pointed out in our two previous articles, to the safety and permanency of the confederacy, and incur these evils without the least necessity or any compensating benefit.

"But Mr. Greeley says that 'the North would be morally certain that slavery would not be tolerated' in the States to be formed. So said Gen. Cass in his Nicholson letter, when he proposed under a little different name to leave the question to be settled by exactly the same persons. So said Mr. Buchanan. So said Mr. Clayton. Yet nobody denounced their contrivances with more indignation than Mr. Greeley. Talk of the Cass 'juggle,' the Buchanan 'compromise,' the Clayton 'trap'—the Greeley and Douglass juggle is worse than any of them."

---

The prostration of the Democratic party—whether by the defeat of General Cass or by the conditions which procured his nomination, it is inopportune here to discuss—though a great disappointment to Mr. Tilden, was, like most disappointments, good-fortune in disguise. It gave him the opportunity and provocation to devote all his energies and talents for the succeeding quarter of a century to his profession, during which period of its service it rewarded him as the wisest of Israel's kings was rewarded for his obedience—with fame and fortune. In less time than he had spent in making himself a leader of his party in New York, he placed himself in the front rank of the American bar.

It was not until the year 1850 that Mr. Tilden leased his first office for professional purposes after his admission to the bar. It was on the third floor of what was then known as Jauncey Court, now replaced by majestic banking-houses, on the south side of Wall Street, a few doors west of William street. His landlord was Alexander Hamilton, Jr., one of the sons of President Washington's first Minister of Finance. Here is a copy of their agreement, followed by a bill of Tilden's personal taxes for the previous year:

"This is to certify that I have hired and taken from Alexander Hamilton, Jr., the office, consisting of two rooms, on the 3rd floor of the Jauncey Court Building, and marked on a plan of said building No. 1 (it being understood and agreed that if the above premises shall be rendered untenantable by fire, the rent shall cease during the interval occurring from the happening of said fire until the premises shall have been repaired), for the term of three years from the first day of May, 1850, at the yearly rent of four hundred and twenty-five dollars, payable on the usual quarter days.

"And I hereby promise, in consideration thereof, to make punctual payment of the rent in manner aforesaid, and quit and surrender the premises at the expiration of the said term, in as good state and condition as reasonable use and wear thereof will permit, damages by the elements excepted, and not to assign, let or underlet the whole or any part of the said premises, or occupy the same for any business deemed extra-hazardous on account of fire, without the written consent of the landlord, under the penalty of forfeiture and damages. And I do hereby, for the consideration of aforesaid, waive the benefit of the exemption specified in the first section of the act entitled 'An act to extend the exemption of household furniture and working tools from distress for rent and sale under execution,' passed April 11, 1842, and agree that the property thereby exempted shall be liable to distress for said rent; and also, that all property liable to distress for rent shall be so liable, whether on or off the said premises, wheresoever and whensoever the same may be found.

"Given under my hand and seal this day of February, 1850,
in the presence of
"Samuel J. Tilden." [Seal.]

This lease was renewed on the 12th of February, 1853, for three years, to end May 1, 1856, for $550 a year, an increase of $125 a year.

The rent paid for these two rooms by Mr. Tilden does not contrast more violently with the price of equal accommodations now, than his charges for his professional service during his first year contrasts with the rewards for similar work expected by his profession a half-century later, as appears by some of his bills, which follow, at that period:

The Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company,
To S. J. Tilden, Dr.
1850.
Jan. 12th.	To drawing bill to amend the charter of said company, and attending at various consultations and advising in reference thereto	$150
Chestnut Hill Iron Ore Company,
To S. J. Tilden, Dr.
1850.
Oct. 18-24.	Going to Lancaster, Pa., to attend sheriff's sale and attending negotiations in Philadelphia (6½)	$350
Dec. 12.	Drawing articles of association for the company	100
" 15.	Drawing conveyance from Mr. Sander to Mr. Pyne	10
	Drawing trust deed from Mr. Pyne to the trustees of the company	25
Jan. 8.	Examining and preparing	50
Aug. 1.	Drawing conveyance for P. R. Pyne to the corporation	10
	Release and conveyance of the trustees.	10
		$555
The Pequa Rail Road & Improvement Co.,
To S. J. Tilden, Dr.
1851.
Jan. 1.	Drawing articles of agreement for a union of the business of the Dauphin & Sus. Coal Co. and sundry consultations in respect thereto—proportion of Pequa Co.	$125
	Drawing bill for a union of the two companies and consultations in respect thereto—proportion of Pequa Co.	50
		$175
The Dauphin & Susquehanna Coal Co.,
To S. J. Tilden, Dr.
1851.
Jan. 1.	Drawing articles of agreement for a union of the business of this company with that of the Pequa Co. and sundry consultations in reference thereto—proportion of the D. & S. C. Co.	$125
	Drawing bill for a union of the two companies and consultations in reference thereto—proportion of the D. & S. C. Co.	50
		$175
The Pennsylvania Coal Co.,
To S. J. Tilden, Dr.
1851.
June 17.	To preparing another draft of the assignment of contract to obviate objections made to executing same	$15
" 28.	To preparing another draft of an assignment	20
	To preparing another draft of a new contract (36 folio)	25
Apr. 7.	To going to Albany in respect to water grants	100
Mar. 19.	To drawing power of attorney and agreement for the masters of the Wyoming Coal Association to accept stock of the Penn. C. C.	20
" 17.	To consultation in reference to	10
" 18.	Certain Coal contracts	10
	To advising in respect to the mode of transferring the property of the W. C. A. to the Penn. Coal Co., and attending numerous consultations in respect thereto, as well as the meeting of the stockholders	100
	To examining and revising conveyance of the Wyoming Coal Association to the Penn. C. C.	10
1851.
June 20.	To advising in respect to power to contract the same	$100
" 27.	To going to Philadelphia and conferring with Judge Malloy in respect to your loan	250
July 1.	To drawing resolutions and proceedings to be adopted by the board authorizing the loan of $600,000
	To drawing the trust mortgage to secure its repayments—the form of the bond and other necessary papers, and advising in respect to the various proceedings until the transaction was consummated	250
Sept. 3.	To attending and advising in respect to rights of company in purchase of water right at Williamsburg	10
" 5.	Ditto	10
	General counsel fee	250
		$1780

"Office of Receiver of Taxes, New City Hall, Park.

"New York, Dec. 1849.

"Mr. Saml. J. Tilden.
"To tax on personal estate, 11 Fifth Avenue.
"Valuation, 2000.
"Rate, 118.32.
"Tax, 23.66."

Mr. Tilden had already become interested in a small way in the establishment of the first balance dock ever provided for the New York harbor. His friends, O'Sullivan, Waterbury, and Secor, were also among the number interested with him. The following contract shows the nature and extent of Mr. O'Sullivan's interest. The venture did not prove very profitable to them, nor to have received much attention from Mr. Tilden.

DEPOSIT WITH MR. TILDEN TO SECURE A LOAN TO MR. O'SULLIVAN

"New York, Nov. 22, 1850.

"Whereas, I have this day drawn a draft at three months on C. A. Secor in favor of Messrs. Wright & Betts for about sixteen hundred and fifty dollars, and the same has been accepted by said C. A. Secor, I hereby authorize and request you to hold twenty shares given stock in the Balance Dock Company (out of the forty-two shares of which the certificate is in your hands, with my power of attorney to make transfers of the same dated March 14, 1850), as security for the payment of said draft; said twenty shares to be sold for payment of same unless satisfactory provision for its payment be made by me within one week prior to its maturity.

"To S. J. Tilden, by
"J. L. O'Sullivan."

"I hold a certificate of twenty shares of stock in the Balance Dock, with a power of attorney from J. L. O'Sullivan in regard to the same, which have been deposited with me by Messrs. O'S. and Secor, and I accept the trust so far as the said papers may enable me to carry it out.

"S. J. Tilden."
"New York, Nov. 22, 1850."

TILDEN TO MRS. CHASE[18]

"New York, Nov. 29th, 1850.

"My dear Madam,—Your letter of Oct. 13th, and that of Mr. Chase accompanying it, came at the commencement of an illness which disabled me for some time from making the inquiries which yours requested. Since my recovery I have been diligently seeking to learn something of the line of steamers destined to touch periodically at Vera Cruz and Tampico. Mr. Geo. Law, who is the principal man in the Chagres line, and Mr. Wetmore, an associate of his in that enterprise, inform me that nothing of the kind has been connected with their line; and they agree in thinking that, although such a proposition was before Congress, it did not pass. Mr. Brooks, who represents this district in the House of Rep., and who is conversant with such matters, is of the same opinion. Mr. Croswell, of Albany, not of this city, who is interested in the Chagres line, and whom I was fortunate enough to meet a few evenings since, has the same impression, but referred me to young Mr. Worth, of this city, as having something to do with a project for such a line. On inquiry of that gentleman I find that he is not aware of any action of Congress on the subject; that the project is purely commercial, and that it is so very immature that it can scarcely be deemed to have an existence. This was for a line between this city and Vera Cruz. The laws of the last session have not as yet been published, so that I could not examine them. I am thus particular, because one gentleman of whom I inquired had an impression that such a bill did pass. While there seemed to be very little definite knowledge, my conclusion is that no such line has been authorized, but I shall keep an eye to the matter, and communicate to you any information which may seem important.

"I found in a N. O. paper that the steamer Alabama will make trips at intervals of about 20 days from that place to Vera Cruz. The news that reached you may have originated partly in this circumstance and partly in the pendency of a proposition, such as you mention, in Cong.

"It would give me great pleasure to aid Mr. Chase, in the way you desire, so far as I may have power, if such a line should be established; though the thing is as yet so indefinite—and I am inclined to think will remain so—that I cannot estimate my ability to serve him.

"The friends of whom you inquire—Mr. Green, Miss Green, and Miss H.—are well and pursuing happiness ardently in their customary modes: each one pursuing his favorite phantom, the poet hath it, but I will not apply to them the association that rises in my memory. There are objects in life which are not phantoms—tho' little pursued, and not by many. I am tempted to seek for myself the gracious welcome that awaits the bearer of good-tidings by telling you that Miss. H. intends to leave here on a Southern tour in the latter part of Dec., and has some thoughts, even hopes, of persuading her father to prolong the excursion to Tampico. But do not flatter yourself too much. Wind and weather are not less uncertain on the Gulf than elsewhere, and even the steady purpose and persuasive power that characterize our friend may not prevail against every mischance.

"The change in the nat. adn. was as sudden and remarkable as you regard it. The policy of the gov. was a little modified by it, but on the whole it was most striking as illustrating how quietly our political machine works, even while the hands that seem—and seem only—to guide it are shifted. I do not share, to any considerable extent, the apprehensions entertained or professed by many as to a dissolution of our federative union. I would not needlessly put its bonds to the test. But I think they would prove stronger than is generally supposed; that danger would bring upon the theatre of public affairs a higher class of men than the holiday patriots who figure there in a season of peace—men who would represent the actual sentiments of the masses of our citizens, the serious, earnest purposes, now applied to private objects, that would be turned to the preservation of the Union as an important, practical means to great public ends. The idea of American nationality—progress and destiny—is the master-thought in the minds of our people, and creates a tendency to unity in the govt. quite strong enough. I have, too, a feeling—for it may be that, rather than a conclusion of reason—on this subject, which some may call superstitious. I believe that the gradual amelioration and culture of our race is in the inevitable order of Providence. I see elements which have been and are preparing our country to act a grander part than any has hitherto done in this great plan. That part is to be wrought out, not by an indolent repose on what our ancestors have ordained for us, but by trials and sacrifices and earnest efforts to solve the great social and civil questions which necessarily arise in the experiences of a nation. It seems to me—but here I may read the sacred oracles not aright—that the Union is an essential condition to the destiny we appear appointed to fulfil; and I believe it firm enough and strong enough to endure the conflict of social and political forces which is going on within its bosom. It will survive them all, working out what it can, and as far as it can, and casting off to a future period what it cannot now entirely work out.

"I resume my letter which has been in my portfolio unfinished for more than a week. A current of affairs suddenly struck me, and swept me on so incessantly that I have not before been able to return to it. You must not infer, however, that I affect any special industry, or that I am ordinarily so busy. My life has vibrated between a leisure in which I amused myself with books, and the greatest activity in pubic and private affairs; and, if the last few months have been as engrossingly occupied as any part of it with professional and personal business, I do not expect or desire it to be generally so hereafter. What has most exacted attention was temporary and occasional, and has, as yet, produced, and may produce nothing to me or to others, though lest such a confession excite too much pity for me I will add that in the mean time what has cost me comparatively little trouble has been sufficiently fruitful. My disposition is not to permit merely private business to engross me, nor to be in any of an unprofessional nature which creates anxiety. I have never been accustomed to surrender to it my inner life, or to allow its cares to fill those little interstices between actual occupation which are instinctively given to, and which characterize our ruling habits of thought and feeling. There no doubt is danger, as the relations of business multiply around us and our enthusiasm for public objects is qualified or weakened and our sympathies often come back upon us as the chilled blood returns from the extremities to the heart, that what furnishes occupation to our activity without the trouble of seeking it and without making us inquire whether we choose it, will grow too much upon our attention. But I desire to reserve something to better purpose—something to friends and to myself, and possibly, if hereafter I can recall the enthusiasm of early years, with a share of its former strength and steadiness, something to consecrate life by a sense that it has not been wholly given to objects so selfishly egotistical as are most of those which we pursue. It is time for me to stop; for I am moralizing, when I began merely to exclude a possible inference that I have not leisure to care for the wishes and interests of my friends, and to assure you that I am always happier if I can serve them, and glad to talk with them, as I now do, even if it be at such a frightful distance as, in this age of ocean steamers, railways, and telegraphs, to put a quarter of a year between question and answer.

"I wrote you a very long letter—I tremble to think I ever addressed such a missive to a lady—all full of finances and figures, on about the first of October. I mention it lest it may have miscarried. I should regret if you have failed to get the answer it attempted to your inquiries. I have hoped, and do hope, to hear from you in respect to it and its subject, if I can at all aid you. As a whole, it was not intended to be answered—as somebody said of his own speech—but I do look for a reply; I hope it may be an early and favorable reply—to some parts of it—as, for instance, that you are rapidly maturing your plan of changing your residence to this country, and that, at all events, you are coming over here next spring. If you should say that, you may take your own time for the statistics of the money-market and of money-making. Waiting patiently as I can for such an answer, and begging you to present my best respects to Mr. Chase, I remain,

"Very truly, your friend,
"S. J. Tilden."

COPY OF DRAFT-LETTER, FULL OF "FINANCE AND FIGURES," REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING LETTER

"There are, of course, the U. S. sixes, if you are content with so low a rate of interest. The New York stocks are about the same. There are others which are lower. If put to the choice myself, I should prefer bonds secured by mortgages on real estate, or, as we familiarly call them, b. and m. at 7 p. c., which, with care, can be had, even in the present plethora of money. There are also many varieties of bonds of private companies paying 6 or 7 p. c.; but, as a general rule, I should decidedly prefer bonds and mortgages on real estate.

"There are also stocks of private companies. Many of the banks are earning 7, 8, 10, or even more per cent. But these stocks are at considerable premiums, and have risen much recently. They cannot be always continuing on the ascending series. When a commercial depression shall occur these bonds will feel it more promptly and more deeply than that of most corporations; their dividends will be reduced, the premiums (which are equivalents for future, unearned, dividends) will fall off; and you may lose more by this decline than you have realized in the excess of the dividends over a fair interest. The same remark is applicable to the few railways which pay very large dividends, although they are not so sensitive to the fluctuations of commerce as the banks—in this as in the other case. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company—whose business is to produce and bring to market anthracite coal—has declared about 16 per cent. for the last four or five years. The premium on its stock is now 50 p. c. That is lower than it has been, because of special circumstances, while I think that the next year's business will be better. The dividend is over 10 p. c. on premium and all. I would rather risk the continuance of its high premium than in any other case of a railroad. I may say, any other similar case. There is a similar company which has just come into operation—a very solid concern—which we think will be at least as good; its stock at a premium of 15 p. c. It is not so well known or so promptly marketable, and its stock is in a rather complex form, which it is expected to simplify next winter. It would be idle to say that I have not great confidence in it, since I have transferred what I had in the other to it, and have put in it more than the sum you mention in your letter; but I should not like to have another person invest in it or any similar thing merely on my judgment; and, to do so on his own, he ought to have more detailed knowledge than could be communicated in this hasty letter. The claim is that its stock will not advance much for the next 3 months—perhaps not for the next 6 or 8 months.

"There are also classes of ins., to some of which I have great objection, but it would be futile now to discuss their merit.

"With respect to investments in private companies generally, I have some observations to make. A very large proportion of one's means should not be concentrated in one institution, especially without the most thorough familiarity with its affairs. A wise selection between them requires at any time special knowledge and individual judgment; and more so now than usually. The abundance of capital and low rates of interest causes high premiums to be given for the most productive stocks as well as the most so that it is scarcely possible to get them at prices [half a page is here utterly undecipherable] unless in special cases where the enterprise is comparatively new and unknown, or its real merits are not fully appreciated by the public, in which cases you rely upon what you suppose to be superior information or judgment.

"I ought to add, in qualification of those general views, that I do not mean that the market has reached its highest elevation. I think it probably has not; nor can I now see the particular time when, or the particular event by which a change is to take place. We are not in a state of high speculative excitement; we appear to be tending to such a state, though causes may occur to check the tendency. But we do know that—whether the present abundance of capital and prosperity of business shall, temporarily, increase or not—we cannot expect them to continue for a very long period, even to the present degree. It is desirable to make your investment at as low prices as possible, in order to enhance your interest and have greater security against possible contingencies; but even this consideration may be so modified by peculiar circumstances that it is difficult to state an absolute rule applicable to all cases.

"On the whole, your main interest is to find your money safe and available when you come here, and are able to make a permanent disposition of it on your own judgment. I am gratified to be able to believe that you have already secured an ample provision for the future—its reasonable tastes as well as its necessities—at a rate of productiveness which will give the greatest safety. Anything that you can hereafter add to your income or capital would be really of very slight importance to you, compared with what you now have. I do not undervalue your fortitude and energy, or concede to own to the impertinent advances of time, when I say that your chief care should be to avoid even the possibility of being compelled to begin anew the work of life—so far as the providing for its material wants can be called such—when, if the period most fitted for that purpose have not passed, the years which have been allotted to it cannot be recalled. The advantages of such skilful disposition of your means as are consistent with safety—and such advantages there are—will be to be enjoyed by you when you shall become—as I hope you soon may—a resident in our country. In the mean time, a deposit with the trust company seems to be as good a temporary arrangement as you can make at your distance from the scene or as I can suggest in my ignorance of your particular affairs, wishes, and future movements. I need not add that any aid which I can give you in making this or any other disposition of your remittances which you may prefer will be very cordially rendered. I shall be happy also to answer further inquiries and convey additional information, as far as can be done by correspondence; and shall hope to do so more promptly than I have been able this time, and more briefly; for without purpose to be veryI happen to have been visited by unusual concourse of people talking to me about all sorts of things and by a necessity ofmy talk with youvery rambling and diffuse. I have had theto read it over—with something of dismay that I should ever have written such a letter to a lady, and I must beg that it be communicated to Mr. Chase, to whom, in truth, it seems mainly to be addressed—and to all eyes but his remain forever a sealed book. It might ruin all my prospects with less forbearing fair ones if it were supposed there could be any risk of a similar epistle.

"If you should place a deposit, or otherwise temporarily dispose of such remittances as you may make through the winter, would not the true policy be for Mr. and Mrs. C. to come on here for a short time, next spring or summer, to make more permanent arrangements? The journey is not much, and might be more than repaid by the business results. If you could leave your affairs at home the trip might be useful in all respects. I have left myself little space for other topics. But I must find room to say, in reply to the friendly message of Mr. Chase, that I consider myself already, in some sort, acquainted with him, and to beg that he will not measure the little attentions I had the pleasure of rendering to a lady who interested me, as well by her personal qualities as by the situation in which I met her, by the disproportionate sense of them which she entertains.

"I fear the probability of my being able to visit Tampico at present is not sufficiently substantial to fabricate a dream of. My consolation must be the hope of meeting you here, in which I trust you will not disappoint me. The authority with which you commission me to 'say many kind things' to certain of your friends—if intended to be general—is too flattering in its conferment and too agreeable in its exercise to be renounced. And yet I fear I should not be the 'faithful agent' you hope if I did not candidly admit how little, in this respect, you need, or can be aided, by any service of mine.

"Hoping to hear from you shortly, and to see you at an early period, and wishing Mr. C. and you every prosperity and happiness, I remain,

"Very truly, your friend,
"——."

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