(INTERVIEW WITH "HERALD" REPORTER, NOV. 3, 1872)
"REPORTER.--Understanding that you had some agency in the nomination
of Francis Kernan as the Democratic and Liberal Republican candidate
for Governor, I have called to make some inquiries about it. Will Mr.
Kernan be elected?
"MR. TILDEN (smiling).--You remember the old adage which says, 'You
can't tell who is Governor till after the election'? But at the risk of
violating that, I will give you an opinion. I feel very certain that
Francis Kernan will be the next Governor of the State of New York.
"REPORTER.--Are you willing to state the motives for nominating Mr.
Kernan?
"MR. TILDEN.--I am perfectly willing to state _my_ motives, so far as
I had any agency in the nomination. Mr. Kernan will be 'the right man
in the right place.' It is scarcely possible to find a man to whom the
public interests can be so safely trusted. He is in the meridian of
life and the maturity of his powers. He has acknowledged abilities.
He has led a distinguished career as a lawyer. He possesses large
knowledge and experience of public affairs, while he scarcely ever
held office. He has inspired universal confidence in his most absolute
integrity, and enjoys the esteem and affection of the people of the
central portions of the State, and of all who know him everywhere else.
Every circumstance about him conspires to assure his single-minded
fidelity to the duties of his great trust.
"In the _first_ place, he has a high standard of public conduct. He
is imbued with the traditions of the best days of the Democracy. Like
Jefferson, he would not attempt to increase his fortune, even by
legitimate methods, while in public life. Like Silas Wright and Flagg
and Marcy, he would not only be pure himself, but would disdain to use
impure influence--impure methods or impure men for party objects. His
ideals are all lofty.
"In the _second_ place, he is not over-ambitious. He does not aim at
a permanent public life, but to serve out his term and return to the
congenial pursuit of his profession.
"In the _third_ place, he is totally free from all ambiguous
associations. He stands on no 'ring.' He owes nobody anything for
political favors.
"Here are reasons enough, and good ones, but not all.
"REPORTER.--What were the others? The Republican newspapers say that
one was that Mr. Kernan is a Catholic, and that you advised his
nomination on that account.
"MR. TILDEN.--There is not the slightest truth, or resemblance to
truth, in that story. But I will speak of that subject presently. The
other reason is the connection Mr. Kernan had with the reform movement
last year.
"_City Frauds._
"The discovery of frauds by certain city officials happened just as I
was about leaving the city to spend a week in the country. On the eve
of my departure I had an opportunity of cross-examining a gentleman who
had the confidence of the financial men and taxpayers of this city, and
who called on me with a letter from a distinguished philanthropist.
I became satisfied that the revelations were substantially true. My
week's reflections in the country resulted in a determination to
attempt to carry out that system of measures in which I have been ever
since engaged; but some co-operation was indispensable.
"_Kernan and O'Conor._
"The first man I sought was Francis Kernan. After much telegraphing
I found him attending court in Albany. I went there to meet him. It
was on the fourth day of August, 1871. He was about to leave for
the seashore to attend a sick relative. I gave him the documents. I
submitted to him my views as to what ought to be done, and arranged
for a further conference on his return. On that occasion he gave
me assurances of his full and cordial co-operation, which I ever
afterwards received. He was to me the one necessary man for a contest
in the State convention. His courage, his independence, his tact and
eloquence in debate, his popularity and weight of character were all
needed.
"I next sought Charles O'Conor. I desired his co-operation in a
different department. His great renown as a lawyer, his unmatched
resources in a professional controversy, his lofty independence, and
his high sense of public duty made him invaluable in many things which
were necessary in order to achieve an overthrow of the corrupt dynasty
which then ruled our great metropolis and to purify the administration
of justice.
"Now it so happened that both of these gentlemen are Americans, born
within this State; that they are both sons of exiles, for the sake of
liberty, from Ireland; that they are both of the Catholic religion.
Mr. Kernan's creed had nothing more to do with my desire for his
nomination for Governor than it had with my seeking his co-operation,
or Mr. O'Conor's co-operation in the reform measures. The only mode
in which the question of creed came to be discussed with reference
to Mr. Kernan's nomination was afterwards, when, notwithstanding his
eminent fitness was conceded, it was said that the Republicans would
attack him on account of his religious opinions. Every rogue in the
State became greatly troubled on the subject. Every member of a corrupt
ring, by interest, was opposed to him and thought that his nomination
would eliminate the Protestant vote. I think they could have forgiven
his religion if they could only have ceased to fear his honesty. For
one, I was not disposed to concede much to such an objection. I never
said anything about Mr. Kernan's religion except to defend him. I
should have been as much in favor of his nomination if he had been of a
different creed. Mr. Kernan is totally free from bigotry. His liberal
views on every subject of sectarian controversy are on record in his
speeches and in his conduct. In exercising the powers of an official
trust his just and equitable character would be an impassible barrier
against partiality towards any class to which he should himself belong.
Are you ready to adopt the principle that no man, however superior in
merits and qualifications, who is a Catholic, shall be eligible to high
public office in this great commonwealth of freemen and equals? Such a
"_Proscription_
is not only unjust, but it is _unwise_ and _self-destructive_, with
reference to the interests you wish to protect. If your apprehensions
were anything but imaginary, you direct them in the wrong quarter.
Ambitious politicians seek to win those classes with whom they have
no natural relations. It was not Southern men, like Washington and
Jefferson and Jackson, who conceded most to slavery; it was Northern
men, like Pierce and Buchanan. A Protestant American demagogue--and
particularly if he had once been a Know-nothing--would do things to
catch votes or win popularity among a class which a Kernan, an O'Conor,
or a John Kelly would reject with disdain.
"_City Reformers._
"New York is a cosmopolitan city. According to the census of 1865,
rather more than three-fifths of the voters were naturalized. In the
other two-fifths are included the sons of naturalized citizens. How
reform in municipal administration or good government in the city is to
be worked out by a moral proscription of the foreign voters or of the
religious belief of the most numerous class of them, it is not easy to
see. Every such effort is calculated to band them together in a compact
mass. Large numbers of them joined in the reform movement of 1871. If
among their classes, or among Americans descended from them, spring
up citizens foremost in all the community for talents and virtues and
devotion to our American ideas of government and society, I would not
challenge the honorable pride they awaken in those of common origin. I
share that pride in such men as Kernan and O'Conor. I would not weaken
any power of leadership which the natural sentiments of humanity may
give them in these numerous classes. I would rather see it stronger
than it is in men like these, who would never seek to create any class
influence, and would never abuse any influence, but rather exercise
every power as a trust for the public good. I had occasion, after the
election last year, in frequent addresses on municipal reform, to
lament the apathy of many of our citizens whose reproach it is that
while by pecuniary independence and leisure and all the legitimate
elements of a just and honorable public influence they selfishly
abdicate their power of leadership in the affairs of our great
metropolis. Wherever a man appears in the commonwealth who is without
venality or the inferior forms of ambition, but from an elevated sense
of his duty as a citizen of the commonwealth, he ought to be encouraged
and his natural elements of influence respected and cherished.
"It is too late in the day to revive the spirit of the native American
or Know-nothing parties. The only purely American stock which remains
on this continent is the whole population of the Southern States, who
are now under the carpet-bag governments, upheld by the banded masses
of rogues and the influence of the Federal governments and affiliated
with the Republican party. In the North we are one-third emigrants of
the last twenty-five years or their children. The great migration of
the last quarter of a century is the most remarkable in the world's
history. It has exercised a controlling power over every important
event of our national progress. In that period about seven millions of
people have come to our Northern States. I had occasion some years ago
to analyze the character of that immigration. I found that it contained
just about twice as many male persons between the ages of 15 and 40
as our resident population in 1860. In other words, it contained the
population of the virile age equal to that of fourteen millions of our
average people. It is that influx which has created our great cities,
which has built our railroads and furnished them business, and which
has produced the immense growth of our Northern States in population,
wealth, and prosperity. It is that influx which overturned the equality
of influence between the North and South in the Federal government,
and stimulated both sides to the measure that led to the Civil War. It
is that influx which would have given the North predominance if the
war had not happened, and which gave it the victory in the conflict
of arms, abolished slavery, and will at last fill the South with
communities like our own.
"This is the state of things. Who could alter it if he would? Who dare
say that, on the whole, he would alter it if he could?
"We must, then, avoid all those civil and social revolutions, work
out as best we may the problem of self-government formed on equal
and universal suffrage. We can only do so on the large, liberal
statesmanship on which we began, and never by going back toward the
dark night of proscription and bigotry."