"_Confidential._
"_Feby. 13/85._
"DEAR MR. WEED,--I understand from you that Mr. Manning
hesitates about accepting the Treasury. You may tell him for me that
I do not think he is quite a free agent in the matter.
"Mr. Manning will recollect before the State convention, and when
he wanted my aid in carrying the delegation, he went to New York,
and got Mr. Bigelow and came up to see me. He stated to me and
to Mr. Bigelow that he came at the request of Mr. Cleveland, and
was authorized to give to me any assurance which he might deem
necessary. He said that in case of Mr. Cleveland's election, I
should have a practical influence in the selection of the cabinet,
and particularly should name a member from the State of New York.
The only qualification was that the men should be of good cabinet
material, and he instanced Mr. Bigelow as a specimen and type of the
sort of man to be recommended.[33]
[33] While knowing nothing of this correspondence, Mr. Tilden asked
me one day while it proves to have been going on, "how the office of
Secretary of Treasury would suit me, or rather how I would like it."
I replied very promptly that I would not like it at all, nor would
I accept it under any imaginable conditions; that I was principled
against accepting any station, private or public, that I did not
believe I could fill creditably, and that I did not feel competent
to fill that office creditably; nor would I take it if I did, for
its duties would be, from the beginning to the end, absolutely
uncongenial to me.
"My friends had particularly wished that I should not publish my
letter of declension until after my name had been presented by the
State convention; they wished this as a matter of delicacy, and
also as a matter of feeling. My letter had been written with that
view. Mr. Manning stated that Mr. Cleveland thought it would do
him good to have my letter published in advance. I had no personal
interest in the nomination, but a desire for the success of the
Democratic party and for Mr. Cleveland's administration; that his
success would be of real value to the country, and that the local
chieftains who had reorganized the Democratic party on a reform
basis, and renovated its moral power before the country, should be
cherished and continued as instruments of public good. I acceded
to Mr. Cleveland's wish, sacrificed the preference and pride of my
friends, and gave my letter to the press immediately. I also aided
what I could at so late a period, in selecting delegates to the
State convention.
"Mr. Manning came again to me prior to the national convention, and
asked for authority to communicate my judgment and wishes to friends
from other States. It is well known that most of the delegates
had been elected either with express instructions, or with the
understanding that they were to vote for my nomination, and it was
not doubted that if I did nothing, the nomination would have been
conferred on me without dissent.
"The circumstances lent weight to my advice as to who should be
nominated. I authorized Mr. Manning to communicate to my friends
from other States that, while I could not assume to dictate to
the Democratic party, my judgment was in favor of nominating Mr.
Cleveland. Mr. Manning said this intimation would be sufficient.
"He communicated it to many of my friends among the delegates
from other States. In addition to this, he gave assurances, in
behalf of Mr. Cleveland to the delegates from several States, that
the administration should be made up from those who had been my
supporters, and who transferred their adhesion to Mr. Cleveland.
"If now the cabinet should be made up largely, and almost
exclusively, from men who were hostile to Mr. Cleveland's
nomination, and unfriendly to the veterans in all the localities
who had created a new success for the Democratic party a cabinet of
rivals of Mr. Cleveland, self-seekers who would be devoted to their
own schemes instead of building up Mr. Cleveland's administration,
it would not only weaken the administration, but chill the masses
with a sense that their leaders had turned their back upon their
followers to whom they were indebted for everything.
"Mr. Manning cannot afford, by any act of omission or commission, to
be responsible for such a result. Unless he accepts the Treasury, I
am not mistaken in the belief that the veterans will have no true
and reliable friend among the advisers of Mr. Cleveland.
"On public ground, also, the Secretary of the Treasury ought to be
taken from the State of New York. He ought to be in communication
with the most intelligent and experienced men in the centre of
finance and commerce. He ought to be a man who can command ready
access to, and have confidential relations not with speculators and
gamblers, but with the solid men of property and business.
"Next to Mr. Manning, if he should refuse--which, I think, he
has no right to do--Mr. Bigelow is the best substitute. He is an
accomplished man, accustomed to deal with great public questions,
utterly unselfish and unambitious, without any tendency to inferior
associations, and would command the confidence and support of the
financial classes.
"But I still adhere to the opinion that Mr. Manning cannot avoid
accepting the trust which sacrifice, duty, and honor toward the
Democratic masses demands at his hands.
"In discussing thus frankly this subject, I serve no interest
personal to myself. My career is completely ended. If the new
administration should drift out of relations to those who have given
me special support during the last ten years, I should be liberated
from all care and trouble, should escape generating discontent
among any portion of the Democracy, and should preserve the almost
unanimous favor enjoyed by me when I retired from public life. To
invite the antagonisms of active politics without the power to
submerge them by shaping a policy which should appeal overwhelmingly
to the people, would be to impair the repose and comfort for which I
have surrendered all public honors. I cannot be induced to meddle at
all, even in the way of private advice or opinion, except under the
influence of patriotic and friendly motives.
"You may read this letter to Mr. Manning, but keep it and return it
to me.
"Yours truly."