Samuel J. Tilden | |
|---|---|
%2c_by_Jos%25C3%25A9_Mar%25C3%25ADa_Mora%2c_c._1870.jpg) Portraitc. 1870 | |
| 25th Governor of New York | |
| In office January 1, 1875 – December 31, 1876 | |
| Lieutenant | William Dorsheimer |
| Preceded by | John Adams Dix |
| Succeeded by | Lucius Robinson |
| Member of theNew York State Assembly fromNew York County's 18th district | |
| In office January 1, 1872 – December 31, 1872 | |
| Preceded by | Leander Buck |
| Succeeded by | Barney Biglin |
| Chair of theNew York Democratic Party | |
| In office August 1866 – September 1874 | |
| Preceded by | Dean Richmond |
| Succeeded by | Allen C. Beach |
| Member of theNew York State Assembly fromNew York County | |
| In office January 1, 1846 – December 31, 1847 Serving with 13 others (Multi-member district) | |
| Corporation Counsel ofNew York City | |
| In office 1843–1844 | |
| Preceded by | Alexander W. Bradford |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Sammons |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Samuel Jones Tilden (1814-02-09)February 9, 1814 New Lebanon, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 4, 1886(1886-08-04) (aged 72) Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Gov. Samuel J. Tilden Monument, Cemetery of the Evergreens New Lebanon, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Other political affiliations | Free Soil (1848) |
| Education | Yale University New York University |
| Signature |  |
Samuel Jones Tilden (February 9, 1814 – August 4, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 25thgovernor of New York and was theDemocratic nominee in the disputed1876 United States presidential election.
Tilden was born in 1814 into a wealthy family inNew Lebanon, New York. Attracted to politics at a young age, he became a protégé ofMartin Van Buren. After studying atYale University andNew York University School of Law, Tilden began a legal career inNew York City, becoming a noted corporate lawyer. He served in theNew York State Assembly and helped launch Van Buren's candidacy in the1848 United States presidential election. AWar Democrat who opposed slavery, Tilden opposedAbraham Lincoln inthe 1860 presidential election, but later supported him andthe Union during theCivil War. Afterward, he became the chairman of theNew York State Democratic Committee and managedHoratio Seymour's campaign inthe 1868 presidential election.
Tilden initially cooperated with the state party'sTammany Hall faction, but he broke with them in 1871 due to bossWilliam M. Tweed's rampant corruption. Tildenwon election as governor of New York in 1874, and in that office, he helped break upthe Canal Ring. His battle against public corruption, along with his personal fortune and electoral success in New York, made him the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1876. Tilden wasselected as the party's nominee on the second ballot. In the general election, Tilden facedRepublican nomineeRutherford B. Hayes. Tilden focused his campaign on civil service reform, support for thegold standard, and opposition to high taxes, but many of his supporters were more concerned with endingReconstruction in theSouthern United States.
Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 votes. However, 20 electoral votes were in dispute, leaving both Tilden and Hayes without a majority of theelectoral vote.[1] As Tilden had won 184 electoral votes, one vote shy of a majority, a Hayes victory required that he sweep all of the disputed electoral votes. Against Tilden's wishes, Congress appointed the bipartisanElectoral Commission to settle the controversy. Republicans had a one-seat advantage on the Commission, and decided in a series of party-line rulings that Hayes had won all of the disputed electoral votes. In theCompromise of 1877, Democratic leaders agreed to accept Hayes as the victor in return for the end of Reconstruction. Tilden is the only presidential candidate to win an absolute majority of the popular vote while losing the election.[a] He subsequently left politics and died in 1886.
Tilden was born inNew Lebanon, New York, the youngest son of Elam Tilden and Polly Jones Tilden.[3] He was descended fromNathaniel Tilden, an earlyEnglish settler who came toNorth America in 1634.[4] His father and other family members were the makers ofpatent medicines includingTilden's Extract, a popular concoction of the 1800s and early 1900s that was derived fromcannabis.[5][6] Tilden's father maintained relationships with many influential New York politicians, including PresidentMartin Van Buren, who became Tilden's political idol.[7] Tilden was frequently in poor health during his youth, and he spent much of his time studying politics and reading works such asThe Wealth of Nations.[7] Tilden's health troubles prevented him from regularly attending school, and he dropped out ofWilliams Academy after three months andYale College after a single term in 1834–1835.[8]
Likely motivated by a family friendship withBenjamin Franklin Butler, then serving as a professor atNew York University School of Law, Tilden enrolled there to resume his studies and continued to attend intermittently from 1838 to 1841.[9] While studying at NYU, Tilden alsoread law in the office of attorneyJohn W. Edmonds.[10] He wasadmitted to the bar in 1841 and became a skilledcorporate lawyer.[11] Tilden affiliated with theDemocratic Party and frequently campaigned on behalf of Van Buren and other Democratic candidates.[12]
In 1843, Tilden was appointed as New York City's corporation counsel, a reward for his campaign work for GovernorWilliam C. Bouck.[13] Tilden handled hundreds of cases on behalf of the city, but was forced out of office in 1844 after New York City elected aWhig mayor.[14] He served as a delegate to the1844 Democratic National Convention, which rejected Van Buren and nominatedJames K. Polk for president.[14] At the urging of GovernorSilas Wright, Tilden won election to theNew York State Assembly.[15] He became a key ally to Wright and helped end theAnti-Rent War by passing a compromise land bill that defused tensions between tenant farmers and their landlords.[16] After serving as a delegate to the 1846New York State Constitutional Convention, Tilden left public office to focus on his legal practice, where he gained a national reputation as a "financial physician" for struggling railroads.[17] Tilden's successful legal practice, combined with shrewd investments, made him rich.[18] His success at money management and investing caused many of his friends, relatives, and political allies, including Van Buren, to allow Tilden to manage their finances.[19]
Tilden was a leader of the "Barnburners", an anti-slavery faction of the New York Democratic Party that arose during the debate over theWilmot Proviso.[20][21] Like other Barnburners, Tilden sought to prevent the spread of slavery into theland acquired from Mexico in theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.[22] He helped organize the 1848Free Soil Convention, which nominated Van Buren for president.[22] Van Buren's candidacy in the1848 presidential election drew votes from Democratic nomineeLewis Cass in New York, which played a role in the victory of Whig nomineeZachary Taylor.[22] Unlike many other anti-slavery Democrats, Tilden did not join theRepublican Party in the 1850s, but he did not have close relations with Democratic presidentsFranklin Pierce andJames Buchanan.[23] In1855, Tilden was the unsuccessfulstate attorney general candidate of the "Soft" faction of Barnburners, which favored compromise and reconciliation with the Democratic Party.[24] In1859, after he lost an election to serve as New York City's corporation counsel, Tilden announced that he was "out of politics."[25]
Inthe 1860 presidential election, Tilden strongly opposed the candidacy of Republican presidential nomineeAbraham Lincoln.[26] He warned that the election of Lincoln could lead to the secession of the South and a subsequent civil war.[27] Tilden initially opposed using force to prevent secession, but he supportedthe Union after the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War.[26] Tilden served as the manager ofHoratio Seymour's successful 1862 campaign for governor, and played a key role in securing the presidential nomination forGeorge B. McClellan at the1864 Democratic National Convention.[28]
In 1867, Tilden received thehonorary degree ofLL.D. fromNew York University.[29] He was also chosen as a delegate to that year'sstate constitutional convention.[30]
Following the end of the Civil War, Tilden won the election for chairman of theNew York State Democratic Committee.[31] He served as Seymour's campaign chairman in the1868 presidential election, but Seymour lost the election to Republican nomineeUlysses S. Grant.[32] After the election, Tilden broke withWilliam M. Tweed, the leader of theTammany Hallpolitical machine.[33] Through bribery, patronage, and control ofIrish-American voters, Tweed and his allies had become the dominant power in both New York City and the state of New York.[34] In 1871, former Tammany associateJames O'Brien leaked Tweed's account books to theNew York Times.[35] TheTimes subsequently began a public crusade against Tammany Hall, and Tilden launched an investigation into Tweed's bank records.[36] Tilden ran for the New York State Assembly as part of a slate of anti-Tammany Democrats; at the state party convention, he declared that it was "time to proclaim that whoever plunders the people, though he steal the livery of heaven to serve the devil in, is no Democrat."[35][b] The anti-Tammany Democrats, including Tilden, won a major victory in the1871 state elections, and Tweed was indicted on 120 counts of fraud and other violations.[38] After the election, Tweed fled the state, but he was eventually extradited back to New York, where he died in prison in 1878.[38]
Tilden's role in taking down Tweed bolstered his popularity, and he waselected governor of New York in 1874.[36] As governor, he continued to focus on rooting out corruption. He helped to break up the "Canal Ring," a bipartisan group of state and local officials who had enriched themselves by overcharging for the maintenance of theNew York State Canal System.[39] Tilden gained a national reputation as a reform governor, a valuable asset given thenumber of scandals that had come into public view during thepresidency of Ulysses S. Grant.[40]
In 1875, Tilden received an honorary LL.D. fromYale University.[41] At the same time, Yale also enrolled him as a graduate of the Class of 1837 and he received hisBachelor of Arts degree.[41]
By the time of the June1876 Democratic National Convention, Tilden had emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the1876 presidential election.[42] Tilden's appeal to the national party was based on his reputation for reform and his electoral success in the country's most populous state.[43] He was also a skilled organizer whose canvassing system and field knowledge were so thorough that, months before the 1874 election, he had predicted his own winning margin accurately to within 300 votes.[44] Tilden further bolstered his presidential candidacy through a nationwide newspaper advertising campaign.[45] As many Democrats expected that their party would win the presidency after four consecutive defeats, Tilden faced competition from some of the party's most prominent leaders, includingThomas F. Bayard,Allen G. Thurman,Thomas A. Hendricks, and GeneralWinfield Scott Hancock.[46]
During the difficult economic times of thePanic of 1873, the major ideological divide in the Democratic Party concerned the issue ofcurrency.[47] Many "soft money" Democrats wanted Congress to repeal theSpecie Payment Resumption Act and authorize the printing of moregreenbacks,banknotes that had first been printed during the Civil War.[47] The printing of more greenbacks would result ininflation and potentially benefit farmers by raising prices and helping them pay down their debts.[47] Like most Republicans and "hard money" members of the conservative business establishment, Tilden believed that the termination of greenback circulation (which would return the country to thegold standard) was the best way to solve the ongoing economic crisis.[47] Tilden's lieutenants at the Democratic National Convention emphasized Tilden's reform credentials above all else, but they also ensured that the party platform endorsed Tilden's hard money views.[48]
Tilden won a majority of the votes cast on the first presidential ballot of the convention (404.5), but fell short of the two-thirds majority (492) required to win the Democratic presidential nomination.[49] His closest rival was Hendricks, who had the support of New York party bossJohn Kelly and the soft money faction of Democrats.[49] Tilden won the necessary two-thirds on the second presidential ballot, and the convention then voted to make his nomination unanimous.[49] Delegates unanimously chose Hendricks as Tilden's running mate, providing a balance between the hard money and soft money factions.[50] Though the Republicans had nominated a ticket led byRutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, another governor who had established a reputation for honest governance, Tilden was widely regarded as the favorite in the general election.[51]
Per tradition, both Tilden and Hayes avoided publicly campaigning for president, leaving that task to their supporters; Tilden appointedAbram Hewitt to lead his campaign.[52] The Republican campaign established a major cash advantage, partly because Tilden refused to contribute much of his personal fortune to the campaign.[53] The Democrats campaigned on the theme of "retrenchment and reform" and attacked the "corrupt centralism" of the Grant administration.[54] Tilden blamed high taxes and the Grant administration for the economic downturn, and, like Hayes, promisedcivil service reform and hard money policies.[55] Meanwhile, Republicans focused on their party's identification with Lincoln and the Union cause in the Civil War; many Republicans still associated the Democratic Party with slavery and disunion.[54] Rebutting Republican charges, Tilden categorically denied that he had any intention of compensating the South for any slaves emancipated or losses suffered during the Civil War.[56] For their part, many Democrats cared little for Tilden's emphasis on reform, and were instead focused on ending sixteen years of Republican leadership. Southern Democrats especially hoped to endReconstruction and gain control of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, the last three "unredeemed" Southern states.[57] Southern whites, who overwhelmingly favored Tilden, used violence and intimidation to suppress the turnout of Republican-leaningAfrican-American voters.[58] Tilden worked to distance himself from violent encounters like theHamburg massacre, in which disgruntled Southern whites clashed with the Republican-led government of South Carolina.[59]
Both campaigns considered New York, Ohio, and Indiana to be the keyswing states, but the campaigns also focused on several smaller states, including the three unredeemed Southern states.[60] Ultimately, Hayes swept the West and won much of the North, but Tilden carried the closely contested Northern states of New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut, swept theborder states, and carried most of the South.[61] He had won a majority of the popular vote and tallied clear victories in seventeen states, leaving him oneelectoral vote short of a majority.[61] On November 6, the day after election day, most major newspapers reported that Tilden had won the election; however, Hayes still had a narrow path to victory if he could sweep the electoral votes of Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana.[62] Hayes refused to formally concede, but told members of the press that he was "of the opinion that the Democrats have carried the country and elected Tilden."[63] Tilden, meanwhile, urged his alarmed followers, many of whom believed that the Republicans were attempting to steal the election, to remain calm and refrain from violence.[64] Both parties feared the possibility that a dispute over the election would lead to armed conflict; Tilden discussed appointing GeneralGeorge B. McClellan as his military assistant, while President Grant ordered army and naval units to reinforce Washington.[65]
With the election in doubt, each party sent some of their most prominent leaders to monitor the election process in the three disputed Southern states.[66] Initial election returns showed that Hayes had carried South Carolina by several hundred votes,[67] but that Tilden had won Florida by 91 votes[68] and Louisiana by over 6,000.[69] Republicans controlled the bodies charged with determining the validity of election results in all three states.[70] On November 22, the South Carolina canvassing board adjourned after declaring that Hayes had won the state's electoral votes.[71] On December 4, the Louisiana canvassing board announced that it had thrown out 15,623 votes due to "systemic intimidation," leaving Hayes as the winner of all of the state's electoral votes.[72] Early on the morning of December 6, the day the Electoral College was scheduled to convene, the Florida canvassing board announced that Hayes had won the state by a margin of 924 votes.[73] Democrats challenged the results in all three contested Southern states. Meanwhile, another controversy had arisen in Oregon, where a Hayes elector, John Watts, resigned because his simultaneous service as a presidential elector and as a low-ranking official in thePost Office violated theUnited States Constitution. After Watts resigned, the state's Democratic governor appointed an elector to fill the vacancy, while, separately, the state's two remaining Hayes electors chose a third elector to fill the vacancy caused by Watts's resignation.[74]
On December 6, the members of the Electoral College met in Washington, D.C., but the disputes in four states prevented a conclusive vote for president.[75] With the Electoral College unable to select a president, the disputed election became an issue for Congress to settle; Republicans controlled the Senate, while Democrats controlled the House. The vague wording of the Constitution gave rise to further controversy, as Republicans held thatThomas W. Ferry, a Republican senator from Michigan and thepresident pro tempore of the United States Senate, could determine the validity of the disputed electoral votes. Democrats argued that Ferry could only count the votes that were not disputed; in such a scenario, neither candidate would have an electoral vote majority, necessitating acontingent election in theUnited States House of Representatives. Since Democrats controlled a majority of the state delegations in the House, they would be able to elect Tilden as president in a contingent election.[76] In response to the controversy, Tilden compiled his own study of electoral procedures in the previous 22 presidential elections. He delivered the study to every sitting member of Congress, but congressional Republicans were not swayed by Tilden's argument that history supported the Democratic position on the election returns.[77] He continued to call for calm, and rejected Abram Hewitt's suggestion that he ask his supporters to engage in mass public demonstrations.[78]
On January 26, both houses of Congress agreed to establish the 15-memberElectoral Commission to settle the dispute over the contested electoral votes. The commission consisted of five Democratic members of Congress, five Republican members of Congress, and five justices of theSupreme Court of the United States. Of the Supreme Court justices, two were to be Democrats, two were to be Republicans, and the fifth justice would be selected by the other four justices. Tilden opposed the creation of the Electoral Commission because he still hoped to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives, but he was unable to prevent Democratic congressmen from voting for the establishment of the commission. Most had expected that the fifth justice on the commission would be Associate JusticeDavid Davis, apolitical independent, but Davis refused to serve on the commission after he accepted election to the Senate. Another associate justice, RepublicanJoseph P. Bradley, was instead chosen as the fifth justice on the Electoral Commission.[79] In a series of 8-to-7, party-line decisions, the Electoral Commission voted to award all of the contested electoral votes to Hayes.[80]
Even after the Electoral Commission delivered its rulings, the House of Representatives could have blocked the inauguration of Hayes by refusing to certify the results.[81] Though some House Democrats hoped to do so, they were unable, as many House Democrats joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to accept.[82] During the proceedings of the Electoral Commission, high-ranking members of both parties had discussed the possibility of declaring Hayes the winner in exchange for the removal of all federal troops from the South. TheCompromise of 1877, as it became known, may have played a role in preventing the House from challenging the Electoral Commission's rulings, although author Roy Morris Jr. argues that the compromise "was more a mutual concession of the obvious than a device for controlling larger events."[83] Some other historians, includingC. Vann Woodward, have argued that the Compromise of 1877 played the decisive role in determining the outcome of the election.[84][85] On March 2, two days before the end of Grant's term, Congress declared Hayes the victor of the 1876 presidential election.[86] Hayes took office on March 4, and withdrew the last federal soldiers from the South in April 1877, bringing an end to the Reconstruction Era.[87]
Some Democrats urged Tilden to reject the results and take the presidentialoath of office, but Tilden declined to do so. On March 3, the House passed a resolution declaring Tilden the "duly elected President of the United States," but this had no legal effect.[88] Tilden himself stated that, "I can retire to private life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position in the gift of the people, without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office."[89] Tilden was the second individual, afterAndrew Jackson in 1824, to lose a presidential electiondespite winning at least a plurality of the popular vote.[90] Tilden remains the only individual to lose a presidential election while winning an outright majority of the popular vote.[91]
In 1878, Democratic CongressmanClarkson Nott Potter convinced the House of Representatives to create a committee to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption in the 1876 election. Potter was appointed as the head of the commission, which Democrats hoped would implicate Hayes and damage the Republican Party in the next presidential election.[92] Rather than produce conclusive evidence of Republican malfeasance, the committee uncovered conflicting evidence that reflected poorly on election and campaign officials of both parties. For ten months beginning in May 1878, the Potter Committee subpoenaed all telegrams sent by political operatives during the election dispute. 29,275 telegrams had been sent, but all save 641 had been routinely destroyed byWestern Union. The remaining telegrams were in cipher, as was common with business and political communication in the telegraph era.New York Herald Tribune editorWhitelaw Reid obtained and deciphered many of the telegrams and, in October 1878, he published the story of the Democratic efforts to sway election officials through bribery and other means. The revelation of the bribery attempts undercut the Democratic Party's argument that Tilden had been cheated out of the presidency.[93] A congressional committee's investigation into the Cipher Telegrams cleared Tilden of any personal wrongdoing, but the allegations damaged his national standing.[94]
After the controversy over the election of 1876, Tilden became the presumptive Democratic candidate in1880 presidential election. He declined to run for another term as governor in 1879, focusing instead on building support for the 1880 presidential nomination.[95] The revelations of the Potter Committee, along with Tilden's persistent health issues, both damaged Tilden's national standing, but his superior political organization and personal fortune ensured that he remained a serious contender for the Democratic nomination.[96] Tilden's standing with the party slipped further following the Republican victory in the1879 New York gubernatorial election, where a revitalized Tammany Hall organization split from the regular Democratic party in a patronage dispute with Tilden's faction.[97] In the months before the1880 Democratic National Convention, rumors about Tilden's intentions circulated wildly, but Tilden refused to definitively state whether or not he would seek the Democratic nomination.[98]
As the New York delegation left for the national convention in Cincinnati, Tilden gave a letter to one of his chief supporters,Daniel Manning, suggesting that his health might force him to decline the nomination.[99] Tilden hoped to be nominated, but only if he was the unanimous choice of the convention; if not, Manning was entrusted to make the contents of Tilden's letter available to the New York delegation.[100] The New York delegation interpreted the letter as a notice of withdrawal, and the delegates began looking for a new candidate, eventually settling on Speaker of the HouseSamuel J. Randall.[101] Ultimately, the party nominatedWinfield Scott Hancock, who lost the election toJames A Garfield.[100]: 108–109
Though many Democrats favored Tilden for the party's nomination inthe 1884 presidential election, Tilden once again declined to run due to poor health.[100]: 110 He endorsed New York GovernorGrover Cleveland, who won the Democratic nomination and went on to defeatJames G. Blaine in the general election.[102]
Tilden retired in the early 1880s, living as a near-recluse at his 110-acre (0.45 km2) estate, Greystone (now part ofUntermyer Park and Gardens) inYonkers, New York. He died abachelor at Greystone on August 4, 1886, at the age of 72.[103] He is buried at Cemetery of the Evergreens inNew Lebanon,Columbia County, New York.[104] In reference to the 1876 election, Tilden's gravestone bears the words, "I Still Trust The People".[105]
Of his fortune, estimated at $7 million (equivalent to $244.97 million in 2024), $4 million (equivalent to $139.99 million in 2024) was bequeathed for the establishment and maintenance of a free public library and reading-room in the City of New York; but, as the will was successfully contested by relatives, only about $3 million (equivalent to $104.99 million in 2024) was applied to its original purpose. In 1895, theTilden Trust was combined with theAstor andLenox libraries to found theNew York Public Library, and the building bears his name on its front.[106]
TheSamuel J. Tilden House at 15Gramercy Park South, which he owned from 1860 until his death, is now used by theNational Arts Club.[107] Tilden's Greystone property is now known asUntermyer Park; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[108] Several places have been named for Tilden, includingTilden, Wisconsin,[109]Tilden, Nebraska,[110]Tilden, Texas,[111]Tilden Township, Pennsylvania,[112] andGrove Park-Tilden Township, Minnesota.[113] TheGov. Samuel J. Tilden Monument was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 2006.[108] Other things named for Tilden includeSamuel J. Tilden High School,[114]Fort Tilden, New York,[115] and theRoot-Tilden-Kern Scholarship.[116]
Tilden used private suasion rather than public speech to calm his supporters, some of whom were willing to use force on his behalf.
Texts on Wikisource:| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Chair of theNew York Democratic Party 1866–1874 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of New York 1874 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democraticnominee forPresident of the United States 1876 | Succeeded by |
| New York State Assembly | ||
| Preceded by Leander Buck | Member of theNew York Assembly fromNew York County's 18th district 1872 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Governor of New York 1875–1876 | Succeeded by |
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