SAMUEL J. TILDEN,

THE GREAT REFORM GOVERNOR.

N 1876, the great Centennial Year of the Republic, occurred an event unprecedented in our history, and so portentous and alarming that for a time it threatened civil war and the destruction of our government. This was the disputed presidential contest of Hayes against Tilden, which was finally settled by the Electoral Commission, which decided the election in favor of Mr. Hayes. Mr. Tilden had received a large majority of the popular vote, and he and his supporters sincerely believed that he was duly and legally elected; and it is not too much to say that his selfcommand and his patriotic efforts to quiet public excitement and promote acquiescence in the decision of the commission went far to save the country from anarchy and possible war.

Samuel Jones Tilden was born February 9, 1814, in Columbia county, New York,-one of the counties lying between the Hudson and the western border of Massachusetts. He was a born politician. From boyhood he took a keen interest in political and economic questions, studied them thoroughly, and discussed them eagerly. Near the home of his boyhood lived Martin Van Buren,-the "Sage of Kinderhook," as he was called, -the successor of Jackson, and one of the ablest political leaders of his time. For Van Buren young Tilden conceived a profound admiration, and throughout his whole career that shrewd statesman was his model. When only eighteen, he was so stirred by the political discussions of his elders, in the hot campaign of 1832, that he wrote an "Address to the People," a shrewd and forcible appeal on the pending issues, which so struck Mr. Van Buren that he advised that it should be published in the newspapers. This was done, and its ability was so marked that it was attributed to Van Buren himself, and he was at last obliged to deny being its author. Tilden, also, when only twenty-three, appeared suddenly one day on the platform to answer a speech of Senator Tallmadge, an old and practiced politician; and so effective was his impromptu reply that it was greeted with wild applause by friends and foes alike. His interest in politics, and his

ability both as a statesman and a practical campaign manager, continued and increased to the end of his life.

After completing his college course, Tilden studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1841, beginning a long career of uninterrupted success and growing fame. He was a "born lawyer," no less than a born politician. He had a genius for analysis, an insight into motives, an ability to untangle and make clear what was intricate or perplexed, which is possessed by very few. These qualities he exhibited in a high degree in the Flagg contested election case, in 1856. Flagg, the Democratic candidate for Comptroller of New York city, had 20,313 votes, and Giles, his opponent, had 20,134. Giles contested the election, and brought witnesses who swore that in one ward, which gave Flagg 316 votes and Giles 186, the numbers had been transposed on the return-sheet, and that the vote was really 186 for Flagg and 316 for Giles. The tally-sheet of "straight" votes had disappeared-conveniently for the prosecution; and the tally-sheets of split votes corroborated the testimony of their witnesses. There was no evidence to be had but that offered by the prosecution. The defence seemed to be absolutely helpless. But Tilden took the remaining tally-sheets, and spent the night in working over them; and by a process of reasoning from them and the "straight" ballots cast, he was able to actually reconstruct the missing tallies, with absolutely certain proof that the transposition claimed was impossible. In his opening speech he gave his astounded opponents the first notion of the evidence which he had built up, seemingly from nothing, to destroy their

case:

If, by a violent blow (he said), I should break out the corner of this table, and split a piece off, the fractured and abraded fibers of the wood would be left in forms so peculiar that, though all human ingenuity might be employed to fashion a piece that would fit in the place from which the fragment had been broken, it could not be done. Those things that are the work of God are so much superior in texture to anything we can do, that when they are broken up our ingenuity cannot restore them.

He then placed in the hands of the court and jury printed copies of his reconstructed tallies, and of all the regular tickets, and went over them step by step, by which process they were enabled to perceive and demonstrate, each for himself, the impossibility of the alleged transposition. Within fifteen minutes after the case was submitted to the jury, they returned with a verdict in his favor.

Mr. Tilden's wonderful powers of perception and analysis gave him great success in the management of legal business of great corporations, where intricate accounts and statistics, and the conflict of many different interests, hid and confused the real questions. So able was he in rescuing them from ruinous litigation, reorganizing their administration, and re-arranging their affairs, that it is said that more than half the great railway companies between the Hudson

and Missouri rivers have at some time been his clients. In this practice he acquired both extensive fame and a large fortune.

But it was as a reformer in politics that Mr. Tilden acquired his greatest

and most lasting fame. In 1869 the "Tweed ring" of thieves and adventurers had secured the absolute control of New York city. To illustrate their power over the city finances, it may be mentioned that at one meeting of the Board of Special Audit, three men ordered the payment of over six million dollars, hardly

ten per cent. of which in value was realized by the city. Nearly fifteen millions of dollars in fraudulent bills against the city were paid in a single day! The thieves had so securely intrenched themselves that they defied any one to dislodge them. "What are you going to do about it?" was Tweed's famous reply to criticism.

But there was one man who knew what to do about it. A combination of citizens was formed to attack the ring, and to this work Mr. Tilden gave his best powers. By obtaining from banks the checks which had been paid, and comparing them with accounts in the Comptroller's office, he was able to lay bare the details of the conspiracy. He proved that two-thirds of the whole amount

of bills audited had been divided among public officers and their accomplices, and was able to show what amount of public plunder was in the hands of each. With the proofs thus furnished the ring was at length broken up, its power destroyed, and the most prominent of the thieves brought to justice. Tweed fled to Europe, was brought back, and died miserably in prison.

In consequence largely of Tilden's good work in the overthrow of the Tweed ring, he was elected, in 1874, Governor of New York. In this position he soon found work ready to his hand in the exposure and overthrow of the "Canal ring," a body of corrupt men who had secured control of the Erie and Champlain canals, and by a system of immense expenditures and false accounts

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had robbed the State of large sums. Tilden's vigorous efforts resulted in overthrowing the ring, recovering large amounts of stolen money, and completely reforming the whole system of canal administration and management.

Tilden had now gained a most enviable position. By his great reforms he had overthrown two powerful "rings," had reduced State taxation nearly onehalf, and as Governor of the greatest State of the Union he stood at the head of the Democratic party, with a national fame as a reformer and a statesman. It was natural that, in 1876, all eyes should have turned to him as the man to head the Democratic ticket in the coming election. He was nominated by the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis in June, 1876, amid great enthusiasm.

The campaign of 1876 was most ably conducted. Mr. Tilden brought into the contest his unsurpassed sagacity and shrewdness as a political manager, and the result was astounding to his opponents. For some days after the election there seemed no doubt of his complete triumph. But soon it appeared that in the States of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, where the colored vote was a principal factor, the result was disputed. If the Republican candidate secured all of these three States it would give him 185 electoral votes, or just one more than Mr. Tilden would have. It soon became evident that there would be two sets of returns from these States, and then the question would be, Which set shall be received and counted? The Senate was Republican, the House Democratic. Either House could, by objecting to a return, put a stop to the count before Congress, and thus the country would drift on into anarchy. The excitement was intense. Finally, it was proposed to establish an Electoral Commission of fifteen members,-three Republican and two Democratic senators. three Democratic and two Republican representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court, two of whom should be Republican and two Democratic; and these fourteen members were to choose the fifteenth, who, it was expected, would be Judge David Davis, of Illinois, who was classed as an independent. Thus the commission would be evenly divided politically, and yet there could be no tie. To this commission was to be submitted the returns from any disputed State, and their decision was to be final.

In spite of opposition, the bill creating the commission was passed; and then occurred one of the trifling accidents which sometimes decide the fate of nations. Judge Davis was elected to the Senate, and resigned from the Supreme bench. He was thus disqualified to sit on the commission, and Justice Bradley, a Republican, was chosen the fifteenth member. In every case of dispute, the commission decided by a party vote-eight to seven-to count the Republican returns. The three doubtful States were thus all given to the Republican candidate. The count was completed only two days before March 4th; and thus, by the narrowest possible majority, Mr. Hayes was seated in the executive chair.