"LINDENWALD, _October 24, '42_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--As you forgot my former commission, I trouble you by
way of revenge with one something like it. I owe the clever editor[3]
of the _Spirit of the Times_ the amount of the within check, which
I wish to have paid to him, and his paper discontinued. As this,
that is, the discontinuance, is at best an ungracious act, I wish
to have it performed in the most gracious way, and therefore commit
the matter to your hands. I am, doubtless to my shame, not much of a
sportsman. I have not, therefore, read his paper as attentively as
others, but I have seen enough of it to impress me most favorably, not
only in respect to the talents, but the just and honorable bearing of
the editor. It would, therefore, afford me pleasure to continue the
_Times_, if the number of political papers which I feel myself bound to
take did not render my expenses in that line too heavy for a farmer's
income. If there is an objection to discontinuing until the end of the
year I will, of course, take it till then.
"Excuse this trouble, and believe me to be
"Very sincerely, your friend,
"M. VAN BUREN."
RECOMMENDATION OF S. J. TILDEN FOR THE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY FOR THE CITY
AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK
"_To the Democratic Members of the Com. Council:_[4]
"The undersigned, members of the Bar, recommend Samuel J. Tilden for
appointment as Attorney to the Corporation. Mr. Tilden's services and
qualifications are such that in our opinion his appointment would give
the highest satisfaction to the Democratic party, the legal profession,
and the public generally.
"NEW YORK, _April_, _1843_.
"I sign the above most cheerfully:
LEWIS H. SANDFORD,
JOHN R. LIVINGSTON, JR.,
C. V. S. KANE,
CHAS. B. MOORE.,
L. ROBINSON,
SAMUEL A. CRAPO,
WILLIAM S. SEARS,
D. D. FIELD,
CHS. G. HAVENS,
JAMES J. ROOSEVELT,
C. MCLEAN,
THEODORE SEDGWICK,
HAWKS & SCOVILLE.
"I cheerfully concur in the foregoing recommendation:
THOS. R. LEE,
P. REYNOLDS,
LATHROP S. EDDY,
WM. MCMURRAY."
The nomination, election, and inauguration of Senator Wright as
Governor of New York State, in 1844, gave Mr. Tilden a greater
influence perhaps than was possessed by any other individual in the
dispensation of the patronage of the Executive at this time. His
friend, John W. Edmonds, in whose office he had studied his profession,
a native of the same county as himself, and a lawyer of considerable
ability, was anxious for the appointment of Surrogate of New York city.
Though he failed in this effort, he subsequently was appointed one
of the Justices of the Supreme Court, largely, not to say entirely,
through Mr. Tilden's influence.
By the spring elections of 1844 both the old parties were thrown into
confusion and driven from the field by the "Native American" party,
so called, which appeared with a suddenness and force of a tropical
cyclone and swept the country.
The friends of Mr. Van Buren in New York naturally looked to Mr. Van
Buren as their candidate for a renomination to the Presidency. He was
defeated, however, in the national convention, and James K. Polk, of
Tennessee, received the nomination. The following letter from Mr.
Tilden to his brother is the only account we have from his pen of his
experiences in that convention to which he was a delegate. Unhappily,
the manuscript is incomplete.