S. J. TILDEN TO HIS SISTER HENRIETTA
"New York, July 15, 1839.
"My dear Hetty,—Why don't you answer my letter? If the ring does not suit send it and I can easily change it; if it does, send it that I may have your name put in it—unless, indeed, you conclude to come with Pa, which I much wish you would, and, since you are not in school, I see nothing to prevent....
"I am uncomfortably situated in many respects. I perfectly abhor this mode of life. The social slavery of the family to any scapegrace, man or woman, the latter worse, who may choose to sojourn here is really intolerable. And the whole routine of such an upon-the-town life is opposed to every good habit and in favor of every bad habit. I did hope that when one family left, the burden would be lightened; but it has proved to be only a change of riders. These and other petty annoyances vex me more than they used to; perhaps my temper is at fault; but I assure you they are numerous. And it is unpleasant to me, as you can well understand, to see a disease so full of terror fastening itself gradually but surely upon J.; to see not one thing in the circumstances to which she is subjected that gives the least hope of counteraction; and to feel myself without power, in the slavish routine of the house, to remedy or prevent. I do not often speak of troubles when I have them, and would do so now only to you; so you must preserve my confidence.[1]
"As to myself, it is only the condition of things at home that prevents me, if I could make the necessary arrangements, from going abroad. It is the only thing to which I look with any confidence or much hope to act upon my own constitution; and would separate me from circumstances not calculated to lessen the weight of an inevitable misfortune to which I have been long subject.
"I think that if you are able to come now, your visit will be more pleasant than last year.
"Write to me.
"Aff. y'rs,
"S. J. Tilden."
JOHN M. NILES[2] to ELAM TILDEN
"Washington, December 12, 1840.
"MY DEAR SIR,—I have your letter of the 7th inst., and thank you for the copy of the excellent speech of your son, which for the facts it contains, and sound, practical views, is worth more than all the speeches Daniel Webster has delivered on the currency question. The principal article in the Globe on prices and the wages of labor was from my pen, and I am pleased to learn that it met your approbation.
"That measures will be adopted before Congress closes to reorganize the Democratic party and settle on the course of action for the future is so manifestly proper, not to say indispensable, that I cannot doubt it will be attended to.
"Arrangements should be adopted for obtaining the facts from every country, town, and precinct in the Union, in relation to the foul frauds practised in the late elections. The statements and certificates of these facts should be verified by oath when it could be done; and the whole ought to be published in a volume and put into the hands of every honest elector in the United States. This mass of information would be used by the Democratic papers as they might have occasion.
"It is true, as you say, that the battle is not yet really begun; the true issues which divide the Democracy and the Federalists cannot be presented before the country except the latter are in power. They are then forced to come out with their measures and disclose their principles.
"There will be a glorious fight for the next four years, the result of which, I confidently believe, will be highly auspicious to the Democratic cause and the preservation of our popular institutions.
"I am, respectfully,
"Y'r ob't ser't,
"John M. Niles."
"E. Tilden, Esqr.,
"New Lebanon,
"New York."
President Harrison died just one month after his inauguration, a casualty from which the Whig party never fully recovered. To the Congress which convened in extra session May 31, 1841, President Tyler intimated his desire that the members of that body should request a plan for a national bank from Mr. Ewing, then Secretary of the Treasury. In pursuance of the resolutions for this purpose adopted by both Houses, Mr. Ewing sent in a bill for the incorporation of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States," the essential features of which were framed in accordance with the President's suggestions. The bill passed Congress August 6, with a clause concerning branch banks differing from Mr. Ewing's, which was vetoed by the President. The letter from Mr. Tilden which follows was a criticism of this bill, and probably had something to do with its untimely fate.
It does not appear from the copy to whom this letter was addressed by Mr. Tilden, but it was probably to Senator Wright.
Congress subsequently passed another bill intended to meet the objections of President Tyler. He concluded he could not approve it without inconsistency, and therefore vetoed that bill also, by which act he alienated the United States Bank wing of the Whig party to such an extent as to make many friends among the party of the opposition. It is to that phase of that absorbing bank issue at Washington that Mr. Tilden refers in the succeeding letter to Mr. Nelson J. Waterbury, then a very earnest, active, and intelligent Democratic politician, a few years Mr. Tilden's junior.