"_Oct. 11/83._
"DEAR MR. BUTLER,--You are right in supposing that I do not
fail to appreciate the motives of your suggestion in respect to the
law school, but I am not prepared to say anything on the subject.
"Very truly yours,
"S. J. TILDEN."
M. W. FULLER[29] TO W. H. BARNUM, CHAIRMAN OF NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC
COMMITTEE
[29] Present Chief Justice of the United States; appointed in April,
1888.
"CHICAGO, _December 23, 1883_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--It is clear to demonstration that Mr.
Tilden should be our nominee, and if he would consent to run, that
he would be again elected, this time by an overwhelming electoral
as well as popular majority. From the moment of the nomination to
the close of the polls, the canvass would be a triumphal progress.
We should be obliged to do some hard fighting, but always under
the influence of assured victory by fighting. The nomination and
election would not simply vindicate Mr. Tilden, but the right
of the people to elect their own officers. Nor is this all. If
Mr. Tilden would accept the nomination, that would relieve the
Democracy of all jealousy and heart-burning--all controversy between
rival candidates, all difficulty in the convention or after the
convention. Again, the platform could be carefully drawn before the
meeting of the convention, and ought to be by Mr. Tilden himself.
Since the days of Jefferson and Franklin, this country has not had
a statesman whose pen could delineate so accurately and so simply a
principle, a policy, or a line of conduct. What the people need is
somebody who can tell them with accuracy and simplicity just what
they themselves think. This is the secret of Mr. Tilden's great
popularity with the masses, the existence of which eminent jackasses
in our party have often denied, and do not seem to comprehend now
that they are beginning to be driven to concede it. There are always
political prophets (I don't mean to speak irreverently) looking
for power in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, instead of
the still, small voice. Now, the question of Mr. Tilden's health
presents itself about which I know absolutely nothing. His age is
no objection. Cato learned Greek at eighty, and Goethe completed
'Faust' after he had passed eighty. Taney and Shaw delivered
judgments when nearly ninety. Look at John Quincy Adams and
Gladstone and 'old Palm.' Why, Lord Palmerston at the age of eighty
saved his administration by a masterly practical speech delivered
without a note in the early hours of the morning. And, speaking of
him, McCarthy, in his _History of Our Own Times_, commences the
chapter on the death of Lord Palmerston with the quotation, 'Unarm,
Eros, the long day's task is done and we must sleep.' Mr. Tilden's
day has not been so long by eleven years. Is his task done? The
unfinished window in Aladdin's tower must not remain unfinished. The
art of prolonging life lies in an object to be attained. I admit
that various things are to be taken into consideration as assisting
in sustaining health, and in that way prolonging mere existence;
but all these, while mere adjuncts to vegetation, really amount
to nothing if there be not a sufficient object for living outside
of keeping one's self on this side of the river. I can conceive of
no higher object than the attainment of the Chief Magistracy with
the view of benefiting the people of this Republic. Here I do Mr.
Tilden justice. He is now at an age when he doubtless feels that
merely being President is in itself vanity. That doll is stuffed
with saw-dust, just as all other dolls are found to be by all men,
children of a larger growth. But if he can, by being President,
benefit this people by saving their institutions, now in utmost
peril, by reforming the methods of administration, by teaching
both the great parties, and, in an especial degree, his own,
that adherence to principle is as desirable in a party as in an
individual, &c., &c., is that not an object worthy the attainment of
any man? And is it not an object that would prolong life, and not
bring it to termination? I am very much mistaken if renomination,
and election, and administration would not do Mr. Tilden good. Of
course, as the returns came pouring in, there might be some hours
of excitement which possibly would lead to a reaction; but I think
not, as what is to be done would still lie ahead. The election would
simply give him the certificate, but his duty would commence after
the 4th of March. And here consider that what hurried Harrison
into his grave was probably office-seeking; but that a man who
could lug Roman consuls into his inaugural address probably thought
it necessary to listen to every tide-waiter--a kindly but fatal
error. I have seen a suggestion in the papers which, by the way,
might have come from Mr. Tilden himself, which assigned to others
selected by the President the burden of administrative detail.
Certainly, in such particulars, my opinion is that Mr. Tilden knows
who to choose to carry out his ideas. The difference between one
man and another lies a good deal in the ability to do work through
others, and the sagacity to select them. So far as the canvass or
the administration is concerned, Mr. Tilden would be benefited by
both, and injured by neither. As to the second place on the ticket,
I think it should be given Governor Hendricks. Napoleon said,
'Imagination rules the world,' and you may depend upon it that
sentiment cuts no inconsiderable part in all elections. It must be
taken in solution, it is true, but it is a necessary ingredient.
Apart from the necessity of the 'old ticket,' it has great strength
because it _is_ the old ticket. There is a certain sense of justice
that has gone unsatisfied since March, 1877, and you blunt its edge
if you change the ticket. Undoubtedly Mr. Hendricks made a great
mistake in 1880, but such mistakes are often inevitable, and ought
never to be irretrievable. That he should now be in favor of the old
ticket simply shows that he wishes to reattain his old position in
politics. His error threw him out of the line, as everybody knew it
would. That he should desire to get back again is natural enough.
I thought yesterday you were entirely wrong in attributing another
motive entirely foreign to his character. Assuming that the old
ticket is to be nominated, and by acclamation, as it would be, this
would as readily happen at Chicago as anywhere else. It is much
better to have it done here than in any Eastern city. The only doubt
is, would it not be better, partly as a matter of sentiment, to
select St. Louis, and have the same temporary chairman, committees,
and so on, as in 1876, and the same platform, corrected by Mr.
Tilden so as to adapt it to the changes produced by lapse of time,
and to shape it on the subject of the defeat of the people's will
in 1876-7? So far as any other ticket is concerned, Chicago is the
place, and so far as the old ticket is concerned, it is the place,
except upon the ground above indicated.
"I have but little doubt that Mr. Tilden could carry this State. It
would need a good State ticket to ensure it. But if it were known
that the old ticket was to run, I think we should get a good local
ticket.
"Excuse the length of this letter and, if you can write me, I wish
you would.
"The compliments of the season to you and yours.
"Very truly yours,
"M. W. FULLER."