"NEW YORK, _September 27, 1879_.
"GENTLEMEN,--I have received the letter of the Democratic
executive committee in the city of Baltimore inviting me to attend a
mass-meeting at the Maryland Institute on the 29th inst.
"It would give me great pleasure to meet so respectable a
representation of the Democracy of Maryland, but my engagements will
deprive me of that gratification.
"I concur with you in regarding the issue created by the subversion
of the election of 1876 as the most transcendent in our history. The
example of a reversal of the votes of the people after they have
been deposited in the ballot-box, if successful and followed by
prosperity to the wrong, would be fatal to the system of elective
government. _The hierarchy of office-holders would maintain their
possession indefinitely, and every effort of the people to change
the administration would be nullified. The government, elective in
form, would become imperial in substance precisely as did that of
Rome._[24] Such an issue, involving the very existence of our free
government, is not to be belittled into a personal grievance. It is
to be dealt with as a great public cause.
[24] The italics are the editor's.
"With assurances of my cordial esteem for yourself personally,
"I remain, very truly yours,
"(Signed) SAMUEL J. TILDEN."