A TALK WITH MR. TILDEN
[From a Special Correspondent of the "World," July 17, 18—]
"Sea Girt, N. J., July 16.
"Governor Tilden, as some time ago announced in the World, will sail in the Cunard steamer Scythia Wednesday, and is to be accompanied by Secretary of State Bigelow. The trip is purely for recreation, and the travellers will not return until the middle of October. Mr. Tilden, therefore, will be absent from the country and State during what is expected to be the interesting fall campaign. The fact that Mr. Bigelow is to accompany him will perhaps satisfy the politicians and set at rest the question of his renomination as Secretary of State. I have learned while here, authoritatively, that Mr. Bigelow is not and will not be a candidate before the approaching State convention of New York for a renomination.
"Mr. Tilden is looking remarkably well, and declares himself to be very much improved in health by his sojourn at this pleasant resort. He said to me that his trip has no connection whatever with any business enterprise or railroad scheme, as has been announced without authority in some of the papers. As to the events which have happened since the Presidential election and the numerous wild rumors circulated in reference to his political intentions, Mr. Tilden talked very freely. In regard to the electoral commission, he said that he had never had any real confidence in the arbitration of a question where there was so much at stake by a body of that kind. That settlement, he said, involved not only the Presidency, but all the patronage and power of the Federal administration, together with all the schemes, plans, and jobs connected with it. The Republican party and the men who had managed it in the past were too anxious to retain the administration to yield any point in an arbitration. The result of the electoral commission, therefore, was what might have been expected considering the power and influence brought to bear upon the political majority of that body as finally constituted.
He furthermore never liked the scheme as a matter of principle, believing that the true direction of a Democratic appeal was not away from 369 representatives of the people towards fifteen individuals, and still less from fifteen individuals towards one to be selected necessarily with a large element of chance, not to say of trick and device. He thought there should rather have been an appeal from the 369 representatives to the 8,000,000 of voters through a new election. He was distrustful of the secrecy, celerity, and improvidence with which the arrangement was carried through and ushered into being. But the proposition appealed to the hopes of the business classes, which were anxious above all things for a settlement of almost any kind, at almost any price, and as it was presented by the unanimous report of the joint committee, it become the representative, and the only representative, of the public desire for peace.
"The events which are now attracting so much public attention in New Orleans and the disclosures which, perhaps, may follow, Mr. Tilden seemed to consider only as the logical outcome of the revolutionary acts of last fall and winter. 'In a government like ours,' he said, 'such fraudulent practices as were reported from New Orleans last November sooner or later must come to the light, and the guilty parties with their practices must be made known. It was so with the ring frauds in New York; it has been the case to a certain extent in Washington, and a like result will follow in New Orleans. It is against the natural course of events that deeds of this kind should ultimately fail of being brought to light in all their enormities.' All this was said with philosophic calmness and without any heat whatever.
"In regard to his own political future, Mr. Tilden had nothing to say except that he could not see any possible contingency which could induce him to be a candidate for or to seek an election to a seat in the United States Senate. He felt entirely confident of the success of the Democratic party this fall in all the large central States, and especially in New York, by a very large majority, believing that events were all pointing in that direction. To the charge that he has been seeking to control the nominations of the next Democratic State convention of New York, he gave a direct denial, and added that he thought it unwise to interfere in any way as between the numerous friends who are seeking position on the State ticket. His absence abroad during the time for holding the convention and selecting the delegates would, he said, preclude any interference on his part. He thought, however, that the drift of public sentiment was towards a new ticket altogether, with none of the present incumbents upon it. He hoped that the ticket would be so made up as to be recognized as thoroughly able, strong, and upright. He appeared to be specially anxious that the Democracy should secure a majority in the next State Senate, in order that the evils which have been brought about by Republican control of that body might be corrected.
H. C."