the rescue and preservation of this machinery from the perversions that make it the instrument of conspiracy, fraud, and crime against the most sacred rights and interests of the people. For fifty years, as a private citizen never contemplating an official career, I have devoted at least as much thought and effort to the duty of influencing aright the action of the gov ernmental institutions of my country as to all other objects. I have never accepted official service except for a brief period, 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 to which, as a private citizen, I had given three years of my life. I accepted the nomination for the Presidency in 1876 because of the general conviction that my candidacy would best present the issue of reform which the Democratic majority of the people desired to have worked out in the Federal Government as it had been in the government of the State of New York. I believed that I had strength enough then to renovate the administration of the 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 duty. In reply to the address of 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; but I did not withhold the entire consecration of my powers to the public service. Twenty years of continuous mal-administration, under the demoralizing influences of intestine war and of bad finance, have infected the whole governmental 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 moral 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 of experience in the endeavor to reform the municipal government of the city of New York, and two years of 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 ought 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 fulfil the just expectations of the people, would indeed warrant, as they could alone compensate, the sacrifices which the undertaking would involve. But in my condition of advancing years and declining strength I feel no assurance of my ability to accomplish those objects. I am therefore constrained to say definitively that I cannot now assume the 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, I am consoled by the reflection that neither the Democratic party nor the Republic for whose future that party is the best guaranty is now, or ever can be, dependent 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 labors as their welfare now demands, I but submit to the will of God in deeming my public career forever closed. SAMUEL J. TILDEN. LXIX. THE Democratic National Convention held at Chicago in the month of July, 1884, which nominated Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks as candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, signalized its deliberations by inserting in its platform the following tribute to Mr. Tilden : "With profound regret we have been apprised by the venerable statesman through whose person was struck that blow at the vital principle of republics, acquiescence in the will of the majority, -that he cannot permit us again to place in his hands the leadership of the Democratic hosts, for the reason that the achievement of reform in the administration of the Federal Government is an undertaking now too heavy for his age and failing strength. Rejoicing that his life has been prolonged until the general judg ment of our fellow-countrymen is united in the wish that that wrong were righted in his person, for the Democracy of the United States we offer to him in his withdrawal from public cares, not only our respectful sympathy and esteem, but also that best homage of freemen, -the pledge of our devotion to the principles and the cause now inseparable in the history of this Republic from the labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden." The Convention also unanimously adopted the following "Resolved, That this Convention has read with profound regret and intense admiration the statesmanlike and patriotic letter of Samuel J. Tilden, expressing the overpowering and providential necessity which constrains him to decline a nomination for the highest office in the gift of the American people. "Resolved, That though fraud, force, and violence deprived Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks of the offices conferred upon them by the Democratic party of the nation in 1876, they yet live, and ever will, first in the hearts of the Democracy of the country. "Resolved, That this Convention expresses a nation's regret that this same lofty patriotism and splendid executive and administrative ability which cleansed and purified the city and State governments of the great Empire State cannot now be turned upon the Augean stable of National fraud and corruption so long and successfully maintained by the Republican party at the National Capitol. "Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be suitably engrossed, and that the Chairman of the Convention appoint a committee whose duty it shall be, in the name of the Convention, to forward or present the same to the Honorable Samuel J. Tilden and the Honorable Thomas A. Hendricks." The Chairman of the Convention designated the following gentlemen as the committee to execute the instructions given in the last of these Resolutions. HON. E. W. PETTUS. HON. T. P. FENLON. HON. PAYSON TUCKER. HON. J. G. ABBOTT. HON. A. P. SWINEFORD. HON. M. DORAN. HON. R. H. HENRY. HON. JOHN O'DAY. HON. J. STERLING MORTON. HON. D. E. MCCARTHY. |