Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1880 — REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE ? [ARTICLE]

REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE ?

A Letter from Mr. Tiltlen. 15 Gramebcy Park, ) New Yoek, Feb. 21,1560. f My Dear Sir: My engagements here will deny me the pleasure of being present at the dinner of the Democratic Association of Massachusetts on the anniversary of tlie birth of Washington. I need not say how much I should be delighted to meet tho company who will he assembled on that occasion. Nothing could he more fit at the present time than to commemorate that day. It was the Father of his Country, “ first in war, first in peace, and first in the hoarts of his countrymen,” who set the original example against a third term in the Presidential office, lie made tiiat momorablo precedent as a guide to all his successors, and as an unwritten law of the American people. He did so in tlie light of a prevalent fear in the minds of tho most ardent of the patriots who had achieved our national independence and created cur system of free Government, that indefinite re-eligibility would degenerate into practical life tenure. The vast newer acquired by the Federal Government over the elections by its officeholders, its patronage, tho money it levies, and its va‘rious forms of corrupt influence, have developed this daugor until it darkens the whole future of our country. In the choice between the republic and the empire, we must believe that trie people will bo true to their ancestry and to mankind. Tendering you assurances of my esteem, I

am respectfully yours,

SAMUEL J. TILDEN.

Henry Walker, Esq., Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Association of Massachusetts, Boston, Mass.