TILDEN TO HON. JOHN GANSON
"New York, Apl. 22nd, '70.
"My dear Sir,—I shall regret it extremely if you cannot extricate yourself from the embarrassments which you mention and I appreciate; and yet come to the convention, if not as a delegate, at least as an outsider. Such an occasion will not be likely to occur in your time or mine, and ought we not seize it to do something of real value to our four millions of people and to pay the debt which Lord Coke says a lawyer owes to his profession?
"I have often thought and talked of you as eminently suitable to take a part in the reconstructed court, but have heard that you were not ready to sacrifice the large gains of your professional career. You are over-modest in the suggestion of one or two friends desiring you to come to a different conclusion; for I have talked with a large number who looked to you, and whose motives cannot be imputed as mere friendship, but spring from a sense of public utility, in securing to the public service your abilities and independent integrity. Indeed, Grover told me some time ago that he would not be a candidate if you would be; and I think the same concession would have been generally made, at least at an earlier day.
"With respect to myself, I cannot reconcile myself to the idea of being tied up for a series of years. I prefer freedom and a period of relaxation to any honors which involve permanent and laborious duties. In December, and repeatedly since, the suggestion from Albany has been made to me that I might have a general support from that and this part of the State for chief, in which those not supposed to be the most friendly would concur, and a considerable number of similar tenders have come to me from other quarters; but to all, by letter and verbally, and among others to Cassidy, each, and Allen—and to Comstock, who is an affirmatively [sic] candidate, to Kernan and O'Conor—I have stated my purpose, and I have no disposition to change it. It is not that I undervalue these great trusts, but I am content that they go to those to whose more robust natures and physical vigor the same considerations which influence me are not applicable, and to those in whose peculiar condition they are an object of laudable ambition. If I can help to get a good selection, and then to elect the ticket, I shall consider myself as concentrating in a few days all the public service I could perform in the whole 14 years; and so having completely acquitted myself to my day and generation, become entitled to a play spell.
"Now, my dear sir, it is in just this matter that I regret to lose your co-operation. You, if present as a delegate or as an outsider, could help largely in the selection of members from all parts of the state. For this city—if the bar were to control as it now stands—they would unite on Rappallo, but whether he can get any political support or not remains to be seen. He has been one of Vanderbilt's counsel, but I have often put him with you when I have said that, with the best quality of men, that consideration could be wholly disregarded.
"Can you extricate yourself from the embarrassments to which you allude—or be neutral on that case—and come and help as to others?
"Remember that for your time as well as mine this occasion is not likely to recur.
"I sat down to say this, and must beg you to excuse me for the long letter I have poured out upon you.
"Very Truly,
"Yours, &c.,
"S. J. Tilden."
"I have omitted to speak of Church. If he becomes a candidate, as is probable, though not decided, he will be a strong one before the convention."
TILDEN TO GEORGE W. CASS
(JAY GOULD'S RETAINER)
"New York, June 2d, 1870.
"My dear Sir,—You will recollect that some time ago I requested you to give me a statement in respect to the circumstances attending an arrangement communicated to me by you in the winter of 1869, by which the Erie Railway Company paid me a retainer of $10,000 in connection with the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company, a majority of the stock of which was then owned by the Erie Railway Company. You deferred it, in consequence of the pressure upon time. I should now like to have you furnish me the statement.
"The reason I applied to you was that my original information as to the purposes of this retainer was derived exclusively from you; and that it was under this information, in no respect changed by anything derived from other sources, that I accepted the payment. The facts, so far as they are within my knowledge, are these: Early in 1869—I presume it must have been in January of that year—you asked me to consent to become a director of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company and a member of the executive committee of that company, holding the balance of power between the other two members in case of their disagreement. You stated the object to be to make an amiable arrangement between the parties then litigating in an Ohio court, whereby the railroad could be taken out of the possession of the receiver and restored to the management of the company; and that as a part of the same compromise you were to become a director with others who were to be agreed upon. You will remember that I replied that I was already burdened with work in the capacity of director in other companies, which consumed an inconvenient share of my time and thought, and without remuneration; that the tendency of such work was to become more encroaching; that I had entered upon it in every instance only under the influence of existing relations, and was desirous to relieve myself of such duties as I had already done in some cases; and that I was unwilling to take such a trust in respect to a company in which I had no interest, and had never had any relations. You and Mr. McCullough repeatedly pressed me not to positively refuse; and when I was elected it was without any assent on my part. One day you mentioned to me that Mr. Jay Gould had proposed that the Erie should pay me $10,000, the Cleveland and Pittsburg $5000, and the Fort Wayne $5000. I certainly understood that those payments were proposed to be made in respect to services or benefits expected in connected with the arrangement for the change in the condition and management of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Company, and nothing else. Your communication related to that matter and to that alone. You will remember that when you mentioned the proposal to me I made no comment, and manifested no interest in it or desire that it should be adopted. Afterwards, when Mr. Gould mentioned the matter to me he made no further or different explanation, but spoke of it as if it were a matter which I already completely understood. He subsequently, a second time, mentioned that he was going to send me a check, and about the last of February did send it. I never did or said anything about the matter except to accept and receipt for the check. The Cleveland and Pittsburg Company, at a meeting when I was not present, but believe you were, adopted a resolution appointing me their counsel, with a monthly salary at the rate of $5000 a year. I had supposed they would have put it in one payment, but they adopted such form as they pleased. The Fort Wayne never mentioned the subject to me, nor I to it. I had relations to it, but none to the Cleveland and Pittsburg or to the Erie. The proposition to make the payments by those two companies was purely their own; the amounts were fixed without any consultation with me, and on their own estimate of the utility of the arrangement to them. In expressing to you my repugnance to undertaking the services, I did not contemplate any condition as to pecuniary compensation. Nor can I now say that any such consideration was a principal inducement to my aiding in the trust. I could not foresee how much of labor or trouble I was to undertake. I did not desire more business, but less. I had during the two years before repeatedly declined retainers from the Erie and from its adversaries. The object of the arrangement was attained. The receivership was closed and the administration of the road was restored to the Cleveland and Pittsburg Company. I served out my term as director, as member of the executive committee, and as counsel of the company, and gave every necessary attention to those duties. When this was done I deemed that I had performed all I had undertaken, and that the C. and P. and the Erie had realized all they had contemplated in the arrangement which they had proposed, and in the payments which they had voluntarily made.
"It was not until in February last, when I was acting for the trustees of the bondholders of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company, that I learned with surprise that Mr. Gould entertained the idea that the implied engagement in accepting the retainer before mentioned extended beyond the affair of the Cleveland and Pittsburg, to which the arrangement exclusively related. I answered him at the time. But the circumstance that he did entertain such an idea induces me to address you this letter.
"With much respect,
"Yours very truly,
"S. J. Tilden."
"Hon. George W. Cass."