"SPRINGFIELD, ILLS., _June 6th, 1884_.
"To His Excellency, SAMUEL J. TILDEN, President-Elect.
"DEAR SIR,--Respectfully reiterating everything I wrote
yesterday, I write again to-day to deprecate, if possible, still
more emphatically, but with all courtesy, any purpose on your part
to decline a renomination.
"I am aware that the question of acceptance has a personal, as well
as a political, aspect. I have given consideration to both, though
it may be not without prepossession. The wish is often father to
the thought. The grave matter of health has already received my
attention. Life, even comfort, may well challenge our solicitude and
care; still, I am of opinion that both may be dutifully staked upon
a transcendent issue involving the welfare of a people. _Dulce et
decorum est pro patria mori._
"What is the situation? The ruling party has overridden the voice
of the people, usurped their sovereignty, oppressed the laboring
classes by discriminating and unjust taxation, and that as a means
of perpetuating its domination and enriching political adventurers.
It would be worth the life of the greatest and best man in the land
to expel it from its ill-gotten and abused places of power.
"In saying this, I am not unmindful of the memories of the past: of
the shameful persecution which the same party wreaked on you, and of
its unhesitating readiness to return to its habitual vomit; nor of
the ungrateful return formerly made by recusant Democrats to your
steadfastness and devotion, but such has not unfrequently been the
lot of other public men of positive and decided qualities. Jefferson
and Jackson, your illustrious predecessors, did not escape it;
yet it is known and admitted that it detracted nothing from their
energy, usefulness, or merited renown. Persecution and ingratitude
are often the price paid for envied eminence and superiority. But
may I not say that the march of events and opinion has raised you
above the reach of harmful malice: that it has reformed the sin of
recusancy?
"I am persuaded that the rank and file of the Democracy are with
you, and are eager and resolute, under your leadership, to vindicate
their violated electoral rights and the sanction of the ballot-box.
"Lately I was in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, where I sought
and conferred with a number of leading men, who assured me on my
representation that the Northwest was almost, if not quite, unitedly
in favor [of] your nomination; they would heartily co-operate to
effect it, and, indeed, while I was in Texas, several districts
passed instructions in favor of it.
"As to the 'Old Guard,' although its ranks are thinned and time
has stricken it with age; although it can scarcely hope to survive
much beyond the impending contest, yet its spirit is unbroken. It
asks not office or emolument: it covets only the post of duty and
danger. It never surrenders: it will stand by you whether for a
nomination or an election--for both it will keep the faith to the
end. Will you not lead it, as its tried, trusted, and honored chief,
to deliverance from the humiliation of unceasing contumely and
proscription?
"Upon the whole your refusal to lead the Democratic masses would
fall on them as a stunning and bewildering blow. It would balk
their welling expectations and overwhelm them with disappointment.
Would it not provoke a reaction of feeling and opinion injurious--
seriously injurious--to both you and the country? I candidly think so.
"In conclusion, I assume, as I believe, that your nomination would
be followed by your election.
"Your obt. sert.,
"JOHN A. MCCLERNAND."
* * * * *
In spite of the earnest and almost oppressive urgency of friends to
whose counsels he was always anxious and usually ready to defer,
Mr. Tilden's consciousness of his lack of strength for the work
that would be expected of him if elected President and ought to be
required of him, did not permit him to weaken in his purpose. It
even hastened his official termination of these importunities before
the meeting of the State convention, which had seemed to him the
appropriate occasion for any announcement that the four preceding
years had worked no change in the views previously expressed of
retiring from public life. The circumstances which led him to
anticipate by a few weeks what he regarded as the fit time for such
an announcement, I hope I may be excused for giving, as I set them
down at the time in my diary, premising that delegates from every
part of the State to the national convention were already appointed
with instructions, or with the understanding that they should
support Mr. Tilden for the nomination.
D. MANNING'S APPEAL IN BEHALF OF CLEVELAND TO HAVE TILDEN FORMALLY
DECLINE BEING CONSIDERED A CANDIDATE IN 1884
"On or about the 8th day of June, 1884, Mr. Daniel Manning, chairman
of the New York Democratic State Committee, called at my house in
New York and asked me to accompany him to Greystone to see Mr.
Tilden. The motive he assigned for his visit there, and for wishing
me to accompany him, was to persuade Mr. Tilden, if persuasion
should be necessary, to no longer delay the formal announcement of
his intention, well known to Mr. Manning and myself, not to accept a
renomination to the Presidency.
"Mr. Manning said while there was a hope, but no certainty of Mr.
Tilden's consenting to run, his friends, embracing a large majority
of the Democratic party of the State, were getting divided as to
their second choice, and there was danger, when he came to withdraw,
that the party would be hopelessly distracted, and its influence
in the convention dissipated. He had been so impressed by a sense
of this danger, he said, that on the Sunday previous he called on
Governor Cleveland, laid the whole case before him, and pressed
upon his attention the necessity of doing something immediately to
prevent the friends of Mr. Tilden from getting pledged to other
candidates as their second choice.
"On the following day we repaired to Greystone. Mr. Manning then
repeated to Mr. Tilden substantially what he had said to me of his
interview with Governor Cleveland and of his mission, except that
in regard to the cabinet. I think he said, 'You can name any member
of the cabinet you please--an unobjectionable man, of course, like
----, for instance' (naming a gentleman whom he knew Mr. Tilden
would regard as such a man).
"Though the general import of the conversation was that the cabinet
would be selected in harmony with Mr. Tilden's wishes, I did not
hear him state distinctly to Mr. Tilden, as I understood him to
state to me in New York, that the cabinet in its entirety should
consist of men whose selection Mr. Tilden should approve of. During
that part of the conversation with Mr. Tilden which I overheard,
he said that Mr. Tilden might name any member of the cabinet he
pleased, which might mean many or only one. This statement was
reinforced by the remark that Governor Cleveland would do anything
that he (Manning) should advise him to do, for he was conscious that
his only hope now was from and through Mr. Tilden. The letter to Mr.
Manning declining a renomination appeared in the morning prints the
second or third day following the interview.
"He at the same time expressed his conviction that the only way of
securing the result was for Mr. Tilden to signify at once and before
the election of any more delegates to the State convention, which
were in the main to be chosen during that week, that he would not be
a candidate.
"Mr. Manning went on to say that Governor Cleveland promptly and
unhesitatingly authorized and expressed the desire that Mr. Manning
would go at once to Greystone, represent the situation to Mr.
Tilden, and give him any assurances he required in regard to the
naming of the cabinet, and of his disposition and purpose to regard
Mr. Tilden's friends as his friends, and, if elected, to have as
nearly as possible a thoroughly Tilden administration.
"I said that I approved entirely of an early publication of Mr.
Tilden's intention not to allow himself to be made a candidate.
I believed a manifesto to that effect was already written, but
was withheld partly out of deference to the wishes of some of
his friends in Washington, and partly for what seemed to be the
more obvious and appropriate occasion--the assembling of the
State convention that was to choose the delegates to the national
convention; and finally I promised to accompany him to Greystone."
TILDEN TO DANIEL MANNING (DECLINING A RENOMINATION FOR THE
PRESIDENCY)
"NEW YORK, _June 10th, 1884_.
"TO DANIEL MANNING,
"_Chairman of the Democratic State Committee of New York_.
"In my letter of June 18th, 1880, addressed to the delegates from
the State of New York to the Democratic national convention, I said:
"'Having now borne faithfully my full share of labor and care in
the public service, and wearing the marks of its burdens, I desire
nothing so much as an honorable discharge. I wish to lay down the
honors and toils of even _quasi_ party leadership, and to seek the
repose of private life.
"'In renouncing renomination for the Presidency, I do so with no
doubt in my mind as to the veto of the State of New York, or of the
United States, but because I believe that it is a renunciation of
re-election to the Presidency.
"'To those who think my renomination and re-election indispensable
to an effectual vindication of the right of the people to elect
their rulers--violated in my person--I have accorded as long a
reserve of my decision as possible, but I cannot overcome my
repugnance to enter into a new engagement which involves four years
of ceaseless toil.
"'The dignity of the Presidential office is above a merely personal
ambition, but it creates in me no illusion. Its value is as a great
power for good to the country. I said four years ago in accepting
nomination:
"'" Knowing as I do, therefore, from fresh experience, how great
the difference is between gliding through an official routine and
working out a reform of systems and policies, it is impossible
for me to contemplate what needs to be done in the Federal
administration without an anxious sense of the difficulties of
the undertaking. If summoned by the suffrages of my countrymen to
attempt this work, I shall endeavor, with God's help, to be the
efficient instrument of their will."
"'Such a work of renovation after many years of misrule, such a
reform of systems and policies, to which I would cheerfully have
sacrificed all that remained to me of health and life, is now, I
fear, beyond my strength.'
"My purpose to withdraw from further public service, and the
grounds of it, were at that time well known to you and to others;
and when, at Cincinnati, though respecting my wishes yourself, you
communicated to me an appeal from many valued friends, to relinquish
that purpose, I reiterated my determination unconditionally.
"In the four years which have since elapsed, nothing has occurred
to weaken, but everything to strengthen, the considerations which
induced my withdrawal from public life. To all who have addressed
me on the subject, my intention has been frankly communicated.
Several of my most confidential friends, under the sanction of their
own names, have publicly stated my determination to be irreversible.
That I have occasion now to consider the question is an event
for which I have no responsibility. The appeal made to me by the
Democratic masses, with apparent unanimity, to serve them once more,
is entitled to the most deferential consideration, and would inspire
a disposition to do anything desired of me, if it were consistent
with my judgment of duty.
"I believe that there is no instrumentality in human society so
potential in its influence upon mankind for good or evil, as the
governmental machinery for administering justice, and for making and
executing laws. Not all the eleemosynary institutions of private
benevolence to which philanthropists may devote their lives are
so fruitful in benefits as the rescue and preservation of this
machinery from the perversions that make it the instrument of
conspiracy and crime, against the most sacred rights and interests
of the people.
"For fifty years, as a private citizen, never contemplating an
official career, I have devoted at least as much thought and effort
to the duty of influencing aright the action of the governmental
institutions of my country, as to all other objects. I have never
accepted official service except for a brief period, for a special
purpose, and only when the occasion seemed to require from me that
sacrifice of private preferences to the public welfare.
"I undertook the State administration of New York because it was
supposed that in that way only could the executive power be arrayed
on the side of the reforms to which, as a private citizen, I had
given three years of my life.
"I accepted the nomination for the Presidency in 1876 because of the
general conviction that my candidacy would best present the issue
of reform which the Democratic majority of the people desired to
have worked out in the Federal government as it had been in that
of the State of New York. I believed that I had strength enough
then to renovate the administration of the government of the United
States, and at the close of my term to hand over the great trust to
a successor faithful to the same policy.
"Though anxious to seek the repose of private life, I nevertheless
acted upon the idea that every power is a trust, and involves a
duty. In reply to the address of the committee communicating my
nomination, I depicted the difficulties of the undertaking, and
likened my feelings in engaging in it to those of a soldier entering
battle; but I did not withhold the entire consecration of my powers
to the public service.
"Twenty years of continuous maladministration, under the
demoralizing influences of intestine war, and of bad finance, have
infected the whole governmental system of the United States with
the cancerous growths of false constructions and corrupt practices.
Powerful classes have acquired pecuniary interests in official
abuses, and the moral standards of the people have been impaired.
To redress these evils is a work of great difficulty and labor, and
cannot be accomplished without the most energetic and efficient
personal action on the part of the Chief Executive of the Republic.
"The canvass and administration which it is desired that I should
undertake would embrace a period of nearly five years. Nor can I
admit any illusion as to their burdens. Three years of experience
in the endeavor to reform the municipal government of the city
of New York, and two years of experience in renovating the
administration of the State of New York, have made me familiar with
the requirements of such a work.
"At the present time, the considerations which induced my action in
1880 having become imperative, I ought not to assume a task which
I have not the physical strength to carry through. To reform the
administration of the Federal government; to realize my own ideal,
and to fulfil the just expectations of the people, would indeed
warrant, as they could alone compensate, the sacrifices which
the undertaking would involve. But, in my condition of advancing
years and declining strength, I feel no assurance of my ability
to accomplish those objects. I am, therefore, constrained to say,
definitely, that I cannot now assume the labors of an administration
or of a canvass.
"Undervaluing in nowise that best gift of Heaven--the occasion
and the power sometimes bestowed upon a mere individual to
communicate an impulse for good; grateful beyond all words to my
fellow-countryman who would assign such a beneficent function to me,
I am consoled by the reflection that neither the Democratic party,
nor the Republic for whose future that party is the best guarantee,
is now, or ever can be, dependent upon any one man for their
successful progress in the path of a noble destiny.
"Having given to their welfare whatever of health and strength I
possessed, or could borrow from the future, and having reached the
term of my capacity for such labors as their welfare now demands, I
but submit to the will of God in deeming my public career forever
closed.
"SAMUEL J. TILDEN."
This letter of Mr. Tilden insured the nomination of Grover Cleveland
for the Presidency, and the adoption of the following resolutions by
the convention:
_Resolved_, That this convention has read with profound regret
and intense admiration the statesmanlike and patriotic letter of
Samuel J. Tilden expressing the overpowering and providential
necessity which constrains him to decline a nomination for the
highest office in the gift of the American people.
_Resolved_, That, though fraud, force, and violence deprived
Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks of the offices
conferred upon them by the Democratic party of the nation in
1876, they yet live, and ever will, first in the hearts of the
Democracy of the country.
_Resolved_, That this convention expresses a nation's regret
that this same lofty patriotism and splendid executive and
administrative ability which cleansed and purified the city
and State governments of the great Empire State, cannot now be
turned upon the Augean stable of national fraud and corruption
so long and successfully maintained by the Republican party at
the national capital.
_Resolved_, That copies of these resolutions be suitably
engrossed, and that the chairman of the convention appoint a
committee whose duty it shall be in the name of the convention
to forward or present the same to the Hon. Samuel J. Tilden and
the Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks.
When these resolutions were presented to Mr. Tilden by the committee
named for that purpose by the convention, Mr. Tilden sent them the
following reply:
"GREYSTONE, _Oct. 6, 1884_.
"_Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee_:
"I thank you for the kind terms in which you have communicated the
resolutions concerning me adopted by the late Democratic national
convention.
"I share your conviction that the reform in the administration
of the Federal government, which is our great national want, and
is indeed essential to the restoration and preservation of the
government itself, can only be achieved through the agency of the
Democratic party, and by installing its representative in the Chief
Magistracy of the United States.
"The noble historical traditions of the Democratic party, the
principles in which it was educated, and to which it has ever been
in the main faithful; its freedom from the corrupt influences which
grow up in the prolonged possession of power, and the nature of the
elements which constitute it, all contribute to qualify it for that
mission.
"The opposite characteristics and conditions which attach to the
Republican party make it hopeless to expect that that party will be
able to give better government than the debasing system of abuses
which, during its ascendancy, has infected official and political
life in this country.
"The Democratic party had its origin in the efforts of the more
advanced patriots of the Revolution to resist the perversion of our
government from the ideal contemplated by the people. Among its
conspicuous founders are Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson;
Samuel Adams and John Hancock, of Massachusetts; George Clinton
and Robert R. Livingston, of New York; and George Wythe and James
Madison, of Virginia. From the election of Mr. Jefferson as
President, in 1800, for sixty years the Democratic party mainly
directed our national policy. It extended the boundaries of the
Republic, and laid the foundations of all our national greatness,
while it preserved the limitations imposed by the Constitution and
maintained a simple and pure system of domestic administration.
"On the other hand, the Republican party has always been dominated
by principles which favor legislation for the benefit of particular
classes at the expense of the body of the people. It has become
deeply tainted with the abuses which naturally grow up during a long
possession of unchecked power, especially in a period of civil war
and false finance. The patriotic and virtuous elements in it are now
unable to emancipate it from the sway of selfish interests which
subordinate public duty to personal greed. The most hopeful of the
best citizens it contains despair of its amendment except through
its temporary expulsion from power.
"It has been boastingly asserted by a modern Massachusetts
statesman, struggling to reconcile himself and his followers to
their Presidential candidate, that the Republican party contains
a disproportionate share of the wealth, the culture, and the
intelligence of the country. The unprincipled Grafton, when taunted
by James the Second with his personal want of conscience, answered:
'_That is true, but I belong to a party that has a great deal of
conscience_.'
"Such reasoners forget that the same claim has been made in all ages
and countries by the defenders of old wrongs against new reforms.
It was alleged by the Tories of the American Revolution against
the patriots of that day. It was repeated against Jefferson and
afterwards against Jackson. It is alleged by the conservatives
against those who, in England, are now endeavoring to enlarge the
popular suffrage.
"All history shows that reforms in government must not be expected
from those who sit serenely on the social mountain-tops enjoying the
benefits of the existing order of things. Even the divine Author
of our religion found His followers not among the self-complacent
Pharisees, but among lowly minded fishermen.
"The Republican party is largely made up of those who live by their
wits, and who aspire in politics to advantages over the rest of
mankind, similar to those which their daily lives are devoted to
securing in private business.
"The Democratic party consists largely of those who live by the work
of their hands, and whose political action is governed by their
sentiments or imagination.
"It results that the Democratic party, more readily than the
Republican party, can be molded to the support of reform measures
which involve a sacrifice of selfish interests.
"The indispensable necessity of our times is a change of
administration in the great executive offices of the country. This,
in my judgment, can only be accomplished by the election of the
Democratic candidates for President and Vice-President.
"SAMUEL J. TILDEN.
"_To R. H. Henry, Chairman; B. B. Smalley, and others,
of the Special Committee of the Democratic National
Convention._"