The Daily Gazette

Samuel J. Tilden
Now passes into history one more
name, to become classic and enduring
engraved in ineffaceable characters,
among the loftiest and most admirable
of American statesmen.
Of delicate physical mould, modest
and retiring in disposition, but endowed
with a mind intuitively bent on vast
subjects and grasping great public ques-
tions, Samuel J. Tilden pursued a pecu-
liar course. Second to none in his in-
terest in public affairs, he persistently
remained in private life until he saw
difficult and essential work to be accom-
plished, which no one else had the com-
bined intelligence and courage to en-
encounter.
We speak considerately when we say
that it required a much more uncommon
quality of moral courage to undertake
and conduct to success the warfare
against a corrupt bench, as accomplished
by Mr. Tilden, than is requisite for the
most daring achievements on the field of
battle. It is the courage of calm reflec-
tion and a self-sacrificing spirit; it comes
from a love of country and of justice
superior to all love of self.
Mr. Tilden had a hold upon the coun-
try possessed by no other man. He un-
doubtedly would have been renominated
had he not declined. We thought that
his declination ought to have been disre-
garded by the convention. We thought
that he should be put forward again as
the Candidate of the patriotic Democ-
racy, even if he died in harness in
consequence. But nearly every member
of the Convention knew that Mr. Til-
den's health was, temporarily at least,
greatly impaired. They were forbearing
towards one who had done so much
for the party and the country.
Then it seems that Gov. Tilden's full
and magnificent letter of declination
was supplemented at a very early hour
yesterday morning, before the
nomination was made, by the following
telegram:
June 2, 1880.
"Hon. Daniel Manning,
Grand Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio;
"Received your telegram and many
others containing like information. My
action was well considered, and is irre-
vocable. No friends must be allowed to
cast a doubt on my motives or my sin-
cerity.
SAMUEL J. TILDEN."
After this nothing was left but to
abide by Mr. Tilden's strongly expre-
ssed and reiterated wishes. The greatest,
the wisest, the best of men are mortal.
Mr. Tilden had given to his State and
his country so much of his physical
strength that it would have been an in-
considerate, if not a cruel act, to require
him to endure the burdens of another
Campaign.
Mr. Tilden's name, in future history,
will rank with the names of Washing-
ton, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson and
Lincoln. A truer and purer patriot is
not to be found among them all.
Mr. Tilden served this State in the
office of Governor as it has been the for-
tune of no other man since he was born
to serve it. He would have served the
country as President in the same way.
He was elected, but defrauded out of
the office. Having been elected, he
steadfastly and sturdily refused, upon
principle, all invited bribes to officers to
make true and correct returns.
Now, when there is no longer any ob-
ject to make sinister and libellous at-
tacks on Mr. Tilden, he will begin, for
the first time, to attain to the true honor
and fame which belong to him.
Few men so remarkable have been
born on the American continent-which
has given birth to some of the best men
of any country of all time.
Mr. Tilden passes-not to the grave,
but to a well served, recuperative rest. His
is the rarest of all fortune-to enjoy at
once the fame of the noble dead with
the zest, the glow, the enthusiasm of, we
trust, a long-continued life. The Ad-
ministration the nation, will yet seek
his counsels and profit by them. He has
richly earned his rich reward; and all
that loving troops of friends and a grate-
ful country can confer upon him will be
his.-N. Y. Sun.