Fifty years in Wall Street

by Henry Clews

Mr. Tilden saw the power which this committee, used as an instrument of recommendation, wielded, and he set his astute mind to avail himself of the reformatory advantages which it afforded. The committee was a reform body, and he saw his opportunity, as one of its counsel, to become a reformer also. He builded almost better than he knew, if I may be permitted to quote Scripture in this case, and he did not build on a sandy foundation either. He planted himself on the solid rock of reform principles, independent of politics or previous condition. It must be said, to his credit, that he used the material at his disposal with great tact and good judgment, and made an excellent reformer.

Whatever may have been said about him by political opponents, the late Sage of Greystone must be judged in this sinful world by the positions to which he honorably attained. He became a prominent and most estimable citizen of our great Republic, and had it not been for his age, and certain physical infirmities, the existence of which was a matter of dispute, he would have made a very good President, judging from his record as a Governor.

I have not intended to say anything especially disparaging or ill-natured about Mr. Tilden through any hostile feeling towards him, of which I never had any. My intention has been simply to show how easily a man can rise if he has the ability required to take passage on the tide of prosperity exactly at its flow, the magic point of embarkation which William Shakespeare has suggested.

So what I have stated about Mr. Tilden is in the main rather to his credit than otherwise.

For a man who attained such an elevated position of success by his own industry and brain power I have the highest respect and the deepest sympathy, knowing myself a good deal about the toil attendant upon climbing above the heads of the great majority of the “masses” with a strong contingent of the envious “classes” always using their best efforts to pull a man down who attempts to aspire above a certain level. In fact, Mr. Tilden not only deserved success and respect, but he commanded them. Such a man should always be accorded most graciously his well-earned deserts.

I can, therefore, conscientiously subscribe myself one of the great admirers of his successful career on the whole, bearing always in mind that human nature is not perfect, and that there are few, if any, who have not had some murky clouds cast over their fair fame.

Although on strict moral principles we should never do evil that good may come, yet the manner in which Tilden disposed of the greater portion of his fortune will, even in the eyes of straight-laced moralists, go far to cover a multitude of sins in the acquisition of his wealth. There are probably few, if any, churches in the land that would have refused a portion of the bequest, no matter how familiar their members or their clergy might have been with Mr. Tilden’s railroad methods.

In this imperfect sketch of the turning point of prosperity in Mr. Tilden’s career, I have desired to show how little it requires to change the entire current of a man’s apparent destiny. A man who attains such eminent success has his Creator to thank for endowing him in the first instance with the capacity to take advantage of the chances thrown in his way, and his own smartness for turning them to the best account.

I have taken Mr. Tilden up and devoted to his extraordinary career a few pages, from personal reminiscences, in this book, owing to the fact that he was identified with a number of railroads in the way which I have indicated above. His position in this respect naturally classifies him with some of our most prominent Wall Street speculators, investors and operators, and he thus naturally falls within the scope of the main subject of this book.

Mr. Tilden, in his will, ordered that if the will should be contested by any of the beneficiaries each and all of the contesting parties should be disinherited.