RECOMMENDATION OF S. J. TILDEN FOR THE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY FOR THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK
"To the Democratic Members of the Com. Council:[4]
"The undersigned, members of the Bar, recommend Samuel J. Tilden for appointment as Attorney to the Corporation. Mr. Tilden's services and qualifications are such that in our opinion his appointment would give the highest satisfaction to the Democratic party, the legal profession, and the public generally.
"New York, April, 1843.
"I sign the above most cheerfully:
- Lewis H. Sandford,
- John R. Livingston, Jr.,
- C. V. S. Kane,
- Chas. B. Moore.,
- L. Robinson,
- Samuel A. Crapo,
- William S. Sears,
- D. D. Field,
- Chs. G. Havens,
- James J. Roosevelt,
- C. McLean,
- Theodore Sedgwick,
- Hawks & Scoville.
"I cheerfully concur in the foregoing recommendation:
- Thos. R. Lee,
- P. Reynolds,
- Lathrop S. Eddy,
- Wm. McMurray."
The nomination, election, and inauguration of Senator Wright as Governor of New York State, in 1844, gave Mr. Tilden a greater influence perhaps than was possessed by any other individual in the dispensation of the patronage of the Executive at this time. His friend, John W. Edmonds, in whose office he had studied his profession, a native of the same county as himself, and a lawyer of considerable ability, was anxious for the appointment of Surrogate of New York city. Though he failed in this effort, he subsequently was appointed one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, largely, not to say entirely, through Mr. Tilden's influence.
By the spring elections of 1844 both the old parties were thrown into confusion and driven from the field by the "Native American" party, so called, which appeared with a suddenness and force of a tropical cyclone and swept the country.
The friends of Mr. Van Buren in New York naturally looked to Mr. Van Buren as their candidate for a renomination to the Presidency. He was defeated, however, in the national convention, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, received the nomination. The following letter from Mr. Tilden to his brother is the only account we have from his pen of his experiences in that convention to which he was a delegate. Unhappily, the manuscript is incomplete.