Mr. Tilden spent the summer of 1877 in Europe. On his return he was serenaded by the Young Men's Democratic Club, on which occasion he made a brief speech, in the course of which he said, according to the New York Tribune of October 26, 1877:
"The increase of power in the Federal government during the last twenty years, the creation of a vast office-holding class, with its numerous dependents, and the growth of the means of corrupt influence, have well nigh destroyed the balance of our complex system. It was my judgment in 1876 that public opinion, demanding a change of administration, needed to embrace two-thirds of the people at the beginning of the canvass, in order to cast a majority of the votes at the election. If this tendency is not arrested its inevitable result will be the practical destruction of our system. Let the Federal government grasp power over the great corporations of our country and acquire the means of addressing their interests and their fears; let it take jurisdiction of riots which it is the duty of the State to suppress; let it find pretexts for increasing the army, and soon those in possession of the government will have a power with which no opposition can successfully compete. The experience of France under the Third Napoleon shows that, with elective forms and universal suffrage, despotism can be established and maintained. In the canvass of 1876 the Federal government embarked in the contest with unscrupulous activity. A member of the Cabinet was the head of a partisan committee. Agents stood at the doors of the pay offices to exact contributions from official subordinates. The whole office-holding class were made to exhaust their power. Even the army, for the first time, to the disgust of the soldiers and many of the officers, was moved about the country as an electioneering instrument. All this was done under the eye of the beneficiary of it, who was making the air vocal with professions of civil service reform, to be begun after he had himself exhausted all the immoral advantages of civil service abuses. Public opinion in some States was overdone by corrupt influences and by fraud. But so strong was the desire for reform that the Democratic candidates received 4,300,000 suffrages. This was a majority of the popular vote of about 300,000, and of 1,250,000 of the white citizens. It was a vote of 700,000 larger than General Grant received in 1872, and 1,300,000 larger than he received in 1868. For all that, the rightfully elected candidates of the Democratic party were counted out, and a great fraud triumphed, which the American people have not condoned and will never condone. [Prolonged applause and cheers.] Yes, the crime will never be condoned, and it never should be. I do not denounce the fraud as affecting my personal interests, but because it stabbed the very foundations of free government. [Loud cheers.] I swear in the presence of you all, and I call upon you to bear witness to the oath, to watch, during the remainder of my life, over the rights of the citizens of our country with a jealous care. Such a usurpation must never occur again, and I call upon you to unite with me in the defence of our sacred and precious inheritance. The government of the people must not be suffered to become only an empty name." [Loud applause.]
The remainder of Mr. Tilden's address was as follows:
"The step, from an extreme degree of corrupt abuses in the elections to a subversion of the elective system itself, is natural. No sooner was the election over than the whole power of the office-holding class, led by a Cabinet minister, was exhorted to procure, and did procure, from the State canvassers of two States, illegal and fraudulent certificates, which were made a pretext for a false count of the electoral votes. To enable these officers to exercise the immoral courage necessary to the parts assigned to them, and to relieve them from the timidity which God has implanted in the human bosom as a limit to criminal audacity, detachments of the army were sent to afford them shelter. The expedients by which the votes of the electors chosen by the people of these two States were rejected, and the votes of the electors having the illegal and fraudulent certificates were counted, and the menace of usurpation by the President of the Senate of dictatorial power over all the questions in controversy, and the menace of the enforcement of his pretended authority by the army and navy, the terrorism of the business classes and the kindred measures by which the false count was consummated, are known. The result is the establishment of a precedent destructive of our whole elective system. [Applause.] The temptation to those in possession of the government to perpetuate their own power by similar methods will always exist, and if the example shall be sanctioned by success, the succession of government in this country will come to be determined by fraud or force, as it has been in almost every other country; and the experience will be reproduced here which has led to the general adoption of the hereditary system in order to avoid confusion and civil war. The magnitude of a political crime must be measured by its natural and necessary consequences. Our great Republic has been the only example in the world of a regular and orderly transfer of governmental succession by the elective system. To destroy the habit of traditionary respect for the will of the people, as declared through the electoral forms, and to exhibit our institutions as a failure, is the greatest possible wrong to our own country. It is also a heavy blow to the hopes of patriots struggling to establish self-government in other countries. It is a greater crime against mankind than the usurpation of December 2, 1851, depicted by the illustrious pen of Victor Hugo. The American people will not condone it under any pretext or for any purpose. [Cheers.] Young men! in the order of nature, we who have guarded the sacred traditions of our free government will soon leave that work to you. Within the life of most who hear me, the Republic will embrace 100,000,000 of people. Whether its institutions shall be preserved in substance and in spirit, as well as in barren forms, and will continue to be a blessing to the toiling millions here and a good example to mankind, now everywhere seeking a larger share in the management of their own affairs, will depend on you. Will you accomplish that duty and mark these wrong-doers of 1876, with the indignation of a betrayed, wronged, and sacrificed people? [A voice—'You bet we will.' Laughter.] I have no personal feeling, but thinking how surely that example will be followed if condoned, I can do no better than to stand among you, and do battle for the maintenance of free government. I avail myself of the occasion to thank you, and to thank all in our State and country who have accorded to me their support, not personal to myself, but for the cause I have represented, and which has embraced the largest and holiest interests of humanity." [Continued applause.]
SOME OF THE SPECIFIC TEMPTATIONS BY WHICH THE ELECTORS OF LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA WERE DEBAUCHED
[From the New York "Sun."]
LOUISIANA
MEN CONNECTED WITH THE RETURNING BOARD.
| Names. | Political Employment in 1876. | Office Held Now. |
| J. Madison Wells | President Returning Board | Surveyor Port of New Orleans |
| Thos. C. Anderson | Member Returning Board | Deputy Collector Port of New Orleans |
| L. M. Kenner | Member Returning Board | Deputy Naval Officer |
| G. Casanave | Member Returning Board | Brother of U. S. Storekeeper, N. O. |
| Chas. S. Abell | Secretary Returning Board | Inspector Custom House |
| York A. Woodward | Clerk Returning Board | Clerk Custom House |
| W. M. Green | Clerk Returning Board | Clerk Custom House |
| B. P. Blanchard | Clerk Returning Board | Clerk Custom House |
| G. P. Davis | Clerk Returning Board | Clerk Custom House |
| Chas. Hill | Clerk Returning Board | Clerk Custom House |
| Geo. Grindley | Clerk Returning Board | Clerk Custom House |
| Jno. Ray | Counsel for Returning Board | Special Agent Treasury Department and Counsel for Mr. Sherman |
| S. S. Wells | Son of J. Madison Wells | Inspector Custom House |
| A. C. Wells | Son of J. Madison Wells | Special Deputy Surveyor, N. O. |
| F. A. Woolfley | Affidavit Taker | United States Commissioner |
| R. M. J. Kenner | Brother Returning Board Kenner | Clerk Naval Office |
STATE OFFICERS AND MANAGERS.
| Names. | Political Employment in 1876. | Office Held Now. |
| Michal Hahn | State Registrar | Superintendent Mint |
| A. J. Dumont | Chairman Republican State Com. | Inspector Custom House |
| J. P. McArdie | Clerk to Republican State Com. | Clerk Custom House |
| W. P. Kellogg | Governor | United States Senate |
| L. J. Souer | Kellogg's Agent to Buy Mem. of Leg. | Appraiser Custom House |
| W. G. Lane | Kellogg's Agent to Buy Mem. of Leg. | U. S. Commissioner Circuit Court, La. |
| S. B. Packard | Candidate for Governor | Consul to Liverpool |
| Geo. L. Smith | Candidate for Congress | Collector New Orleans |
| James Lewis | Police Commissioner, N. O. | Naval Officer |
| Jack Wharton | Adjutant-General of Louisiana | United States Marshal |
| A. S. Badger | General of State Militia | Postmaster, N. O., $3500; now Collec. |
| H. S. Campbell | Chief of Affidavit Factory | United States Attorney, Wyoming |
| H. Conquest Clark | Kellogg's Secretary (knew of forgery of Electoral Certificates) | Private Secretary to Commissioner Internal Revenue |
| Wm. F. Loan | Chief of Police and Supervisor of Fifteenth Ward, N. O. | Inspector Tobacco Internal Revenue |
| W. L. McMillan | Canvassed State for Hayes | Pension Agent New Orleans, now Postmaster |