"NEW YORK, _May 19, '76_.
"GOVERNOR TILDEN,--We ended our work on the commission last
Tuesday.
"I regret that I could not see you and say farewell, and wish you
God-speed in the work with which you are so prominently identified.
"I leave in the faith that fearless honesty will place its heel
on fraud and corruption, and that you will be the standard-bearer
selected at St. Louis and surely prove victorious in November next.
"The best men of each party are beginning to see the necessity for
just such action, and you are daily receiving numerous recruits.
"Don't give way an inch.
"Very respectfully, your friend,
"A. E. ORR."
"MR. TILDEN AND THE DEMOCRATS
[_From the New York "Tribune" (Republican) of May 27, 1876._]
"Mr. Tilden is by no means the only Democrat at the East whom good
citizens might rejoice to see nominated for the Presidency. His name
would undoubtedly do honor to the ticket to be made at St. Louis;
but it is not essential to the credit of the party, and if some
of his own political brethren are bitterly opposed to him, that
is, in one sense, a family affair, over which the outside world
need not greatly vex itself. As an indication of the tendencies
of the Democratic party, however, the causes of the hostility to
Tilden becomes a matter of national concern. The first serious
manifestation of enmity came from Tammany Hall, and it finds
expression in the columns of the _Express_, where it is alleged that
Gov. Tilden has made use of his position to organize a personal
party. But this is such a strange complaint to come from the Tammany
Hall autocracy that there must be something more behind it. The
_World_, whose change of proprietorship is generally interpreted as
a blow at Mr. Tilden's pretensions, has not a word to say against
the Governor; it only insists, with good sense and good temper, that
there are other eminent Democrats whose merits and whose chances are
entitled to consideration. But on Wednesday a conference of leading
Democratic politicians was held at Albany to consider how Mr. Tilden
could be most conveniently thrown overboard, and from them it
would seem that we ought to obtain some light upon the interesting
question which neither the _World_, nor the _Express_, nor Tammany
has seen fit to answer. There were present at this conference
Chief-Justice Church and Justice Allen, ex-Lieut.-Gov. Beach,
ex-Gov. Hoffman, ex-Speaker Littlejohn, and other well-known men,
and the judgment of the meeting is understood to have been unanimous
that Mr. Tilden, having alienated a large faction of the Democracy,
is not the man for St. Louis.
"We mean no reflection upon the integrity of any of these estimable
gentlemen, but it is a significant fact that pretty nearly all the
most reputable Democrats whose names have been, either rightly or
wrongly, connected with the Tweed and Canal Rings, were found on
Wednesday in their company. It was probably not the fault of Judge
Church and Judge Allen that the Canal Ring and what was left of the
old Tammany Ring united in 1874 to run them both against Tilden,
first one and then the other, in the canvass for the nomination; but
it was certainly their misfortune. That fight of the Rings against
Tilden was a matter of notoriety, and the nomination of our present
Governor, instead of Judge Church or his cousin, Judge Allen, was
generally recognized throughout the State as a triumph of the better
elements of the Democracy over the thieves and corruptionists. It
seems to be the same fight that is renewed now. Judge Allen is
known as the author of the much-criticised decision of the Court of
Appeals which released Tweed from Blackwell's Island. Mr. Beach is
remembered as the gentleman who made such a strange exhibition of
himself last Summer by publishing a card in which he intemperately
denounced a report of the canal investigating commission as
"unfounded in every particular," and who then, being subpoenaed by
the commission, swallowed his card and convicted himself of official
neglect out of his own mouth. The history and affiliations of
ex-Gov. Hoffman are well enough known.
"Altogether, it may be said that the Albany conference only brought
to the front the men who have always been recognized as Governor
Tilden's enemies and rivals, and who, from their peculiar positions,
could not be his friends, not because they are not personally good
men, but because a reform movement cannot be carried on in New York
without hurting their allies and adherents. And if we go outside
the State we find the anti-Tilden sentiment confined to the Western
inflationists and communists, who hate every man that believes
in a dollar, and are perfectly frank in the declaration of their
sentiments. Now, as we have said before, the Democratic party
is not so poor that it can name no one for the Presidency whose
fitness is not so marked as Mr. Tilden's; but if he is to be thrown
overboard the country has a right to insist that the reasons for his
rejection shall be made quite clear; otherwise it is sure to draw
unpleasant conclusions. The Democratic candidate, whoever he may be,
must be a man whom repudiators, canal thieves, and the relics of the
old Tammany cannot support."