Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1879 — THE CASE OF MR. TILDEN. [ARTICLE]

THE CASE OF MR. TILDEN.

A scene of intense dramatic interest was witnessed at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Saturday. In a low, dark room, excessively hot and densely packed, f.he whole world sat at the reporters’ tables, or crowded close with note-book in hand, to catch the faint whispers that fell from a worn and haggard old man. With the look of a corpse except in moments of excitement, with slow, far-away voice and slow, painful movements, drooping left eyelid, parchment-like cheeks, and auivering "hand, Mr. Tilden repeated his statement, evidently'prepared with great-care, in a voice much of the time hardly audible four feet away. His manner showed intense aud increasing nervous excitement, by great effort restrained ; the body rose and fell in the seat incessantly, as if he were trying ingrain to rise, and the seemingly half useless left arm shook like a leaf. Then tho excitement burst restraint, the face flushed almost purple, the lip quivered, the right arm repeatedly smote the table with great force and passion, and the voice rang through the room .with painful intensity, like the shriek of a drowning man. After every such effort, the sentence died away, as if the voico were stopped by closing waters. The effect was almost that of a death-bed declaration. Had the matter thereof equalled in force the solemnity of manner, this declaration would have had a great effect. Not, indeed, that the people would have been more ready to lift to the Presidency a man so broken, and so manifestly living only in bitter and torturing memories. But the matter was by no moans equal to the manner in impressiveness, nor could any unprejudiced hearer avoid contrasting the declarations of Mr. Tilden with his own admitted conduct toward men whose deeds fill a dark page in the history of the country. Mr. Tilden’s testimony was doubtless as strong as, after four months of preparation aud consultation, it was possible to make it. That it was not exceedingly strong was due to the inherent and insuperable difficulties of his position. It was not possible for him to state that, iu respect to Weed, Marble, Woolley, Coyle or Pelton, either in watching their doings, knowing their character as he did, or in reprobating their acts when they became known to him, his conduct was consistent with the spotless virtue and unwavering purpose which he professed. It was not possible for bim wholly to conceal that low moral tone which half excused Pelton for trying to buy votes, because he was swift to believe without evidence that others had done or attempted the same thing. His only intense feeling was uot wrath because of crimes committed, but wrath because of 1 088 sustained. Pelton was tolerated and kept when he was known to have dono wrong. Years afterward he was disowned with indignation only when the public had found him out. Air. Tilden’s declaration of his ignorance of corrupt negotiations seems as broad, full aud emphatic as it could be. If there were mental reservations, as it now appears there were in his published card of October last, of such character that an exact statement of truth had the public effect of a statement that was false, they do not yet appear. He claims to have bagno knowledge that Pelton was - communicating An cipher with the Democratic agents at the South ; no knowledge that Weed had gone to South Carolina, until he returned; no knowledge that Woolley had gone to Florida, or Patrick to Oregon; no knowledge of any corrupt proposal as to South Carolina, until it was arrested by Mayor Cooper’s refusal to provide mouey for it, and no knowledge even then or afterward of the true nature of the negotiations in that State or the others. These assertions, if fully believed, acquit Mr. Tilden of one charge only to convict him of auother quite as fatal to his position as a Presidential candidate. For they are to he compared with certain facts now fully established: m „ , I. Mr. Tilden-knew W. T. Pelton thoroughly. Democratic newspapers, by way of preparing the scapegoat for the wilderness, aro accumulating pfifoof that Pelton’s conduct, especially in regard to mouey matters, had been such that no confidence could be placed in his integrity, and these doings were, best known to Governor Tilden, who had suffered by them. Yet at a most critical aud delicate time, w*hen “ the air was full of rumors of corrup- “ tion,” as Air. Tilden himself testifies, he did suffer Pelton to conduct tho confidential communication between New-York and tfio Democratic agents at the South. He knew that corrupt proposals must reach such a man. A word from him to Air. Hewitt, Mr. Cooper, or Mr. Pelton himself, would have stopped such'communication, and caused all proper agents of the party at the South to be warned to communicate only with-Air. Hewitt. If he had ever said, “ Pelton is indiscreet, and may make scandal,” or “ Pelton is corrupt, and may bpy or promise to “ buy,’’ there would have been, an end. Mr. Tilden admits, aud the world knows, that he did not speak that word. Why uot 1 11. Air. 'Tilden kuew Weed, Woolley, Coyle and Marble. He had seen under the veneering, and kuew Alarble for the Joseph Surface of the age. He had been the chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 1808, and necessarily kuew of Air. Woolley’s partin the impeachment of Johnson. He had been Governor, and necessarily knew the proclivities of the most skilled lobbyist at Albany. It was bis duty to know whether such meu represented the Democratic National Committee, at the veryi points where corruption was most probable. ill. It Is absolutely impossible that Samuel J. Tilden was ignorant of all thfe>eipher telegrams which came from the South, unless he made au effort to be ignorant. It was his habit and his very nature to give extraordinary attention to the detals of political contests. If it is true that he did not get constant reports from the men sent South, it cau only be because be suddenly made an extraordinary effort to suppress natural anxiety and impatience, and to put behind bun tho habits of a

lifetime, in order not to know who was telegraphing, and to whom, and what about. T hat Colonel Pelton had been in charge of correspondeuce.not Decause he was trusted by thcconuuittee, but because he was thought to represent Mr. Tilden. ” r necessity known to Air. Tilden from the angry attacks of Democratic papers upon the Bureau of Nincompoops.” If Mr. Tilden did not find out what his nephew was doing, it waa because he was determined not to kuow. _ „ , „ IV. Confronted with the fact that Colonel Pelton had asked aid in crime from Air. Cooper, it was not possible for Mr. Tilden to let the b ar 8 ; j} 1 P r J?“ ®? without making it his own, in the eyes of Messrs. Cooper and Hewitt. But when Pelton was recalled, whvdid Mr. Tilden atk no queetiontt He swears "it was not necessary!” Yet Pelton remained as before in charge of telegraphic correspondence ot the Committee. Mr. Tilden, even then, did not stop that, nor try to stop it, nor make the slightest effort to know what had been done, or would be done during tho weeks that still remained. All idis scandal proves tho falsity of the answer, it was " not necessary ”to ask. Had he asked at that time, November 21, and stopped the telegraphing, or caused Mr. Hewitt to see tho telegrams, the i end job in South Carolina, and all the jobs in r lorida, Oregon and Louisiana, would have beep prevented. He did not ask nor utter a word to prevent them. Why? ~ , V. At that time, about November 21, it became known to Air. Tilden what Smith Weed had been doing. He now swears that he “ took Weed to task “ for taking part in such transactions,” after Weed a return. But after that the second job in South Carolina was arranged by Weed himself, by telegram from New-York. AfteT that, and as late as December 4, the extraordinary legal dispatch was sent, to South Carolina—" Important judgment on quo war- “ rauto be obtained Thursday. If order to de- “ liver paper appurtenance to office be disobeyed, “ immediately commit for contempt, or if the rignt- “ ful electors attempt tho exercise of authority Dy “ meeting, attach for contempt, Prepare before- “ hand and enforce immediately would be appro“priate. Would he humane to imprison them sCp- “ aratoly during Wednesday. All probably de- “ pends on your State. Leave nothing undone. Verily, ’-t-the voice is Jacob’s voioe, but the bauds “ are the hands of Esau.” , , . . , VI. Air. Tilden claims that it was safe to let Pelton alone because he could get no money. Hut tins is palpably untrue. Pelton did get money to send to Oregon, and’from a bank in which Air. liluen was especially well known. There were hundreds of unscrupulous Democrats who have given larger sums than Pelton needed, for much smaller victories. If there were no others, there was John Alorrissey and the Democratic gamblers who bad at stake over *1,200,000. Did Mr. Tilden reason, “ Pelton will no longer dare to go to Cooper, or to “ come to. me: therefore other luoney.not by candi- “ date or committee, will be found, aud 1 snail know “ nothing about it” 1 Did he reflect, “Then I can “prove that 1 denounced and stopped.the at- “ tempt” t If that was not his reasoning, why did lie never inquire, interfere and stop Pelton s charge of correspondence through his apparent representation of Air. Tihlen himself. , • . , , VII. After the act for which Mr. Tilden took Weed “to tusk,’’ lie retained that person as his manager of-forces iu a Democratic convention. After Marble had said that votes were for sale in Florida, Air. Tilden took caro to ask no more, hut continued on intimate terms with him. After 1 elton's journey to Baltimore to meet Weed, and for more than a year after the full public exposure of the Oregon business, Pelton remained in Air. lilden’s house. This treatment of men known to be guilty will, by the public, be held conclusive proof that Air. Tilden’s profession of absolute and unswerving hostility to bribery is not true. He was hostile to any bribery that could bo traced to him, aud particularly hostile to any bribery that was found out, and destroyed hi 3 own prospects. No other form of moral indignation has been shown in his conduot. But he virtually placed W. T. Pelton in a position where he was sure to have opportunity to buy votes, knowing well that he was ai man who would buy votes if ho could, and that lie could find the mouey; in that- position he held Pelton by carefully retraining from auy word of natural caution or protest; and ho took extraordinary pains for weeks not to find out anything about the use Pelton was making of his peculiar poweis. This is Air. Tilden’s record, upon his own testimony. What rise will appear, when the dispatches seuttoG. W, Smith shall have been traced to the person who actually received aud opened them, we shall probably see. The Louisiana matter has uot yet been brought to light.