Samuel
Tilden was born in New Lebanon on 9th February, 1814. He studied law
at Yale University and after being admitted
to the bar in 1841 became corporation counsel for New
York City. A member of the Democratic
Party, he was elected to the New York Assembly in 1846. During
the American Civil War he was politically
inactive but urged Democrats to remain loyal to Abraham
Lincoln, the elected president.
In 1866 Tilden became party chairman of New York's Democratic
Party. Tilden was criticized by Thomas
Nast of
Harper's
Weekly
for tolerating the corrupt activities of William
Tweed, the political boss of the city. Tilden was initially reluctant
to get involved in the campaign against Tweed but in 1871 he agreed
to established a committee to look into the matter. This eventually
led to Tweed being arrested and imprisoned for corruption.
In 1874 Tilden was elected governor of New York and two years later,
was the Democratic nominee for the
presidency. During the campaign, his former ally against Tweed, Thomas
Nast, produced a series of cartoons attacking him. This helped
to undermine the Democrats campaign but early returns suggested a
Tilden victory and the first Democratic president since the American
Civil War.
When the votes were counted Tilden (4,284,757) had won 51% of the
vote, against 48% for his Republican
opponent, Rutherford Hayes (4,033,950).
After
the election the Republican Party
challenged the validity of the voting in South Carolina, Florida and
Louisiana. These three southern states were still under post-war military
occupation, and over the next few days votes for Tilden were disqualified
shifting the majority to Hayes. Members of the Democratic Party were
furious and many refused to accept the new voting figures. Florida
sent two rival sets of electors to the electoral college and left
it to Congress to decide who should become president.
Congress was itself split with the Senate being controlled by Republicans
and the House of Representatives by the Democrats.
In an attempt to solve the problem both houses agreed to set up a
special Electoral Commission of 15 senators, representatives and supreme
court justices. In an attempt to produce a non-partisan decision,
it was agreed to appoint seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and one
independent justice to the commission. However, at the last moment
the independent justice was offered a senate seat in Illinois and
was replaced by a supporter of the Republican
Party.
During the investigation by the commission some voters claimed they
had been physically intimidated during the election. The committee
also discovered several cases of fraud including attempts to destroy
ballot papers. However, at the end of the investigation, all members
of the commission voted on party lines and Hayes was given the electoral
votes for all three states. Hayes was therefore elected with 185 electoral
votes to Tilden's 184.
Leaders
of the Democratic Party continued
to challenge the election result. Further negotiations took place
and it was eventually agreed that Samuel Tilden
would accept the result in return for federal troops being removed
from southern states. This decision enabled the whites to regain the
political control of the South that they had lost at the end of the
American Civil War. In most of these
states Black Codes were reintroduced
and a large percentage of African Americans lost the right to vote
in future elections.
Samuel Tilden died on 4th August, 1886. He left most of his $6 million
estate to help the establishment of a free public library in New
York City.
Thomas Nast, Samuel Tilden
Harper's Weekly (9th September,
1876)
(1)
Samuel Tilden, speech on the Republican
Party at a meeting of the Democratic
Party in New York (11th March, 1868)
A complete and harmonious
restoration of the revolted states would have been effected if the
Republican Party had not proved to be totally incapable of acting
in the case with any large, wise, or firm statesmanship.
A magnanimous policy would not only have completed the pacification
of the country but would have effected a reconciliation between the
Republican Party and the white race in the South. Every circumstance
favored such a result. The Republican Party possessed all the powers
of the government, and held sway over every motive of gratitude, fear,
or interest. The Southern people had become thoroughly weary of the
contest; more than half of them had been originally opposed to entering
into it, and had done so only when nothing was left to them but to
choose on which side they would fight.
All that was necessary to heal the bleeding wounds of the country
and to allow its languishing industries to revive, was that the Republican
Party - which boasts its great moral ideas and its philanthropy -
should rise to the moral elevation of an ordinary pugilist and cease
to strike its adversary after it was down.
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