Letters and Literary Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden, v. 1

by Samuel J. Tilden

TILDEN TO FRANKLIN PIERCE

"Harrisburg, Feb. 23d, 1853.
"Confidential.

"My dear Sir,—A little matter of business, which called me here for a day, has brought me again in contact with Gov. Bigler, and his impressions are so strong on a point I casually mentioned to you in New York that I think it not improper to repeat his suggestion more formally. It is that, in case you have decided to take Mr. Campbell[20] into your cabinet, you should, if practicable, put him in the Interior or Navy, rather than the Post-Office. The Gov. says the Catholics are very numerous in this State—enough to make it probable that, in many instances, they may become candidates for appointment as postmasters—and enough to awaken little neighborhood jealousies respecting them. He deems it undesirable that Mr. C., as the head of the department, should be called upon officially to decide on these cases, and be exposed to the suspicion of appointing from religious partiality, or to the necessity of doing injustice in order to avoid that imputation. It is worth considering whether these views have not more force than your own observation in the different condition of things existing in New England would induce you at first to give them. In expressing them, the Gov. can have no motive but the welfare of your administration and of the party here, and his observation of the state of opinion here is entitled to a consideration. He seems to entertain these ideas so strongly, and so much to desire that they shall be presented to you, that I take the liberty of drawing your attention once more to them;—not to press them upon you, but that your mind may pause upon them and take their exact measure before you conclude the question.

"I am not sure that my engagements will permit me to be in Washington at the inauguration; but I hope, at any rate, to have the pleasure of seeing you soon after.

"With great respect,
"I remain, truly,
"Your friend."
"His Exy. Franklin Pierce."

We have here a continuation of suggestions which Mr. Tilden felt called upon to present to President Pierce to guide him in his dispensation of his patronage in the State of New York. It makes one sad to think what an opportunity was lost by this President, and through him by the country, from his failure to see the wisdom of this advice and to adopt it. Had Mr. Pierce respected the public opinion of the State of New York and properly recognized the political sentiments and sympathies of the majority there, as he did in the Southern States, the presumption is that the Nullification party would have been as effectually disarmed under his administration as it was by President Jackson a quarter of a century before. Franklin Pierce, however, was a different man from Andrew Jackson, and the conditions under which he received his nomination did not leave him a free agent.

It was only at this stage of Pierce's administration that Tilden began to indulge in the deplorable error of walking by sight and not by faith. He did not believe, nor did he ever again seem to comprehend, that in the slave States all other questions even the Constitution of our government and the integrity of our territory, were subordinate throughout the South to the preservation and extension of slavery; that every person who ventured publicly to express a doubt of the wisdom of allowing slavery to extend to the free Territories was pronounced there a suspect, and was proscribed as a person who tainted every one who associated with him politically. The Nullifiers saw, and saw correctly, that the anti-slavery sentiment could only be resisted in America as heresy was resisted by Louis XIV. in France—by crushing the heretics or driving them from the country. To reason with Pierce in favor of dispensing his patronage in the State of New York in accordance with the public opinion of the State, was as idle as the lambs reasoning with the wolf in the fable.

The following notes, though without address, were without doubt prepared by Tilden and addressed to Pierce or to some one for his perusal. By the paging of the MS., it appears that thirteen pages, which have not been found, preceded those which are here submitted to the reader.

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE ALLOTMENT
[OF OFFICES UNDER THE PIERCE ADMINISTRATION]

"The Collectorship, the Sub-Treasuryship, and in a less degree the Naval Office, have State as well as city aspects. I have therefore set down the Secretary of State and the foreign missions in connection with them.

"Considered in a State aspect, see how much more the Hunkers (Hard and Soft) get, in every view of this allotment, than the Barnburners, who are more than equal in numbers and power to both of them united.

"Considering the Collectorship singly in that aspect, the same result is obvious.

"Be not misled by the apparent predominance of the Hunkers in the city. Up to the moment of the schism in 1848, the Radicals had five-sixths of the masses and nearly the whole party organization. Their old associates have been returning to them ever since. In 1851 the Radicals had a majority of the delegates to the State convention, and there was but a small majority against them in the General Committee of that year. At the last election of General Committee in 1852, they carried a majority; and at the last trial in the Tammany Society their majority was five to one. I grant that a large majority of the party went for Cass in 1848, but I do not think a majority are now in the leadership of Schell, Sickles, etc., or included in the distinctive class of Hards. I entertain no doubt whatever, if the appointments are such as not to affect the question anyway, the Radicals will remain in permanent possession of the organization. The truth is that four-fifths of the rank and file follow the organization, by whichever leaders it is wielded. All this, however, is matter of opinion; I do not claim for it the assent of your judgment, although I have never been known hitherto to over-calculate the strength of those among whom I belong.

"But permit me to say that this point is below the importance and dignity of the general question before you. The most controlling aspects of the case are State aspects and general aspects. If you vest the most powerful and influential trust in the State of New York in a politician of the most vulgar sort—or narrow views, prospective in all save the promise by which that trust is secured, a schemer for personal ends by desperate and fraudulent means, that almost revolted the party at the last election—nay, if you fail to take most ample and certain guaranty against the predominance of any such influence, in the known, tried, and elevated character of the man you select, your appointment cannot fail to be discreditable and disastrous in its results. You should rest that corner of your administration on the sense and moral power of the community, by an appointment which should appeal to them, and draw approval from all disinterested persons. Do this, and you will rise above the altitude of mere politicians; and no disaffection which their disappointments will create can raise a ripple on the surface.

"There is one other consideration. I have recounted to you on a former occasion the series of surrenders by the Radicals to the Softs through which the Union movement of the New York Democracy has been thus far carried on. I could not adequately express to you the painful personal embarrassments by which its recent steps have been marked—the embroiling of old personal relations—and the difficulties with which it has been achieved. These were our main motives to ask in the selection of a Cabinet officer from New York some recognition of the radicals. Again they yielded, and they have looked forward to the most prominent local appointment in the State as a case in which what they felt to be justice—long deferred—would be accorded to them. The impression—whether well or ill founded—has existed that such would be the course of things. I confess that I have shared in that impression. Instead of there being any cause for shrinking or hesitation, I think the occasion ought to be desired to fulfil an expectation so right and reasonable. I clearly think that it is needed. I know I speak the sentiments of the strong men among the radicals when I say that the personal interests, desires, or gratification of Gen. Dix, or any other man whom they have honored, are as dust in the balance in the true gravity of this question. I believe Gen. Dix is the last man who would dissent from this opinion. At any rate, I take the responsibility of expressing it in the name of all his supporters.

"A clear, conspicuous recognition, in a case in reference to which expectation has [been] excited, and which concerns more than the gratification of a single individual, is what is needed. The controlling men of the radicals in all parts of the State are independent men—in condition as in character. They are weary with debating questions of their own equality with the rest of their party. They have not proposed to proscribe anybody. The question has constantly been whether they should be proscribed. They do not rely on instructions contrary to the disposition and whole anterior conduct of the individual intrusted with the power. Such reliance would be an illusion inconsistent with all ordinary experience; and a choice which should imply it will utterly fail of inspiring confidence or producing any valuable effect.

"The programme should be accomplished to this actual condition of facts and sentiments.

"It is with a clear sense and earnest feeling outrunning my power of adequate expression, in the haste in which I write, that I put you in possession of these ideas. I do so only because I think I comprehend the case better than can easily be done from a distance; and because I deem it important that you should be appraised of the sentiments of a powerful class on which the success of the administration, so far as New York is concerned, largely depends. A desire that you should do what is wise for it and for yourself is not less my motive than a desire that you should be just to the class to which I myself belong. I confide entirely in your disposition to do what is fair and right to all; and have a grateful sense of the kindness and consideration with which you have treated me personally. These very sentiments impel me to address you with earnest frankness in respect to a matter, a mistake in which cannot, in my judgment, be easily, if at all, retrieved.

"Very truly,
"Your friend,
"S. J. Tilden."