Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1884 — TILDEN SPEAKS, [ARTICLE]

TILDEN SPEAKS,

And Announces His “ Irreversible Determination” Hot to Be a - Candidate. His Advanced Age and Infirmities the Reason for His Withdrawal. The following communication from Samuel J. Tilden has been given to the Associated Press: New Yobe, June 10. To Daniel Manning, Chairman of the Democratic State Committee of New York: In my letter of June 16, 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 the labor and care in the nubile 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 the renomination for the Presidency, I do so with no doubt in my mind as to the vote bf the State of New York, or of the United States, but because I believe that it is a nomination of re-election to the Presidency. To those Who think my renomination and reelection indispensable to an effectual vindication of the right of the people to elect their rulers, violated to 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 the 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 im- | possible for me to contemplate what needs to be i done in the Federal administration without an ; anxious ..sense of the difficulties of the under- ' taking. If summoned by the suffrages of my : countrymen to attempt this work I shall en- ' deavor, with God’s help, to be the efficient to- ■ strument of their will’ Such a work of reno- ; vation, after many years of misrule, such a re* i form of systems and policies, to which I would i 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 J service, and the grounds of itjrwe.ro at that time • well known to you and to others, and when, at : Cincinnati, though respecting my wishes your- ! self, you communicated to me an appeal from ‘ m?nv valued friends to relinquish that purpose, I 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. Sc’Tral of my ! most confidential friends, under the sanction of their own names, have publicly stated my i ! determination to be Irreversible. That I have occasion now to consider the question is an event for which I have no responsibility, j | The appeal made to me by the Democratic I masses, with apparent unanimity, to serve them : once more is entitled to the most deferential consideration, and would inspire a disposition I to do anything desired of me, it it were consistent with my judgment of duty. I believe that there is no instrumentality in human society so potential in its Influences upon mankinU for good or evil as the governmental machinery for administering justice and for making and exej cuting laws. Not all the elementary instity- ' tlons of private benevolence to which philanj thropists mav devote their lives are so frult- ' ful in benefits as the rescue and preservation i ' of this machinery from the perversions that ; make it the instrument of conspiracy, fraud, ; and crime against the most sacred rights and 1 Interests of the people. For fifty years, as a . ■ private citizen, never contemplating an official 1 career, I have devoted at least as much thought i and effort to the duty of influencing aright the i action of the governmental institutions of my 1 I country as to all other object-s. I have never ac» : cepted official service except for a brief period, ' I 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 toowhich, as a private citizen, I had given three years of my life. I 1 accepted the nomination for the Presidency ! in 1876 because of the general convictljn that i my candidacy would best present the issue of reform which the Democratic majority of the people desired to have worked out, in the Fedi eral Government, as it had been in the State of New York I believed that I had strength enough then to renovate the administration of ♦he 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 xluty. In reply to 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; blit I did not withhold the entire consecration of my power to the public service. Twenty years of continuous malad- ! ministration, under the demoralizing influences of intestine war and of bad finance, have infected the whole gcvermental 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 mot al 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’ experience in the en- ' deavor to reform the municipal government of the city of New Yotk, and two years’ 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 have become imperative. I blight 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 fulflll the great expectations. Ot the people, would indeed warrant, as they could alone compensate, the sacrifices wh ch the undertaking would involve; but. in my condition of advancing yearsand declining strength, I feel no assurance of my ability to accomplish these objects. I am, therefore, constrained to say definitely that 1 cannot now assume trie labors of an administration, or of a canvass. Undervaluing in no wise 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-countrymen who would assign such a beneficent function to me—l am consoled by the reflection t hat neither the Democratic party nor the republic, for whose future that party is the best guarantee, is now or ever can be .'ependent 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 laibors as their welfare now demands, I but submit to the will of God to deeming my public career forever closed. Samuel J. Tilden.