"Altogether, it may be said that the Albany conference only brought to the front the men who have always been recognized as Governor Tilden's enemies and rivals, and who, from their peculiar positions, could not be his friends, not because they are not personally good men, but because a reform movement cannot be carried on in New York without hurting their allies and adherents. And if we go outside the State we find the anti-Tilden sentiment confined to the Western inflationists and communists, who hate every man that believes in a dollar, and are perfectly frank in the declaration of their sentiments. Now, as we have said before, the Democratic party is not so poor that it can name no one for the Presidency whose fitness is not so marked as Mr. Tilden's; but if he is to be thrown overboard the country has a right to insist that the reasons for his rejection shall be made quite clear; otherwise it is sure to draw unpleasant conclusions. The Democratic candidate, whoever he may be, must be a man whom repudiators, canal thieves, and the relics of the old Tammany cannot support."
THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL CONFERENCE OF 1876
[From the "Sun," April 7, 1900.]
"A man with half a memory writes a long letter to the Evening Post of this city recalling the circumstances of the once-famous Fifth Avenue Hotel Conference of May, 1876. He thinks the political situation is ripe for another such demonstration on the part of eminent citizens who do not want to vote for McKinley again, yet view with apprehension the probability that Bryan will be the alternative choice. There is as much time now before the two great nominating conventions, he points out, as there was when Carl Schurz and others met in the Fifth Avenue Hotel to save the country. A quarter of a century has considerably idealized his mental picture of that conference and its results. This is his description of it now:
"'It was a gathering of the foremost patriots in the nation, regardless of party affiliations, to discuss the political situation and suggest to the country a programme for the Presidential canvass which was soon to begin. There were philosophers and scholars of the first rank, eminent lawyers, and brilliant editors, and men who had won renown in many a fierce campaign as "practical" politicians and popular leaders. The call which brought them together distinctly disavowed the idea of nominating a candidate or framing a platform, except, possibly, in the barest outlines. The whole purpose of the conference was to end at one stroke some of the false conditions against which the conscience and intelligence of the country were in revolt, but not to pull down anything for which it was not prepared to offer something better as a substitute.'
"This conference to which the writer in the Evening Post refers in terms of reverence, amounting almost to awe, met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on May 16, 1876, in response to a call signed by Mr. Schurz and a few others. There were present about two hundred gentlemen, mostly of the type which afterward came to be known as the Mugwump; that is to say, the type addicted to proclaiming its superior intelligence and conscience in political affairs. As might be expected, the Hon. Carl Schurz, the Flying Dutchman of American politics, was the most conspicuous figure. He made the principal speech, and he was chairman of the committee which prepared and reported a pretentious 'address to the country.' This address to the country constituted the sole fruit of the conference's deliberations.
"Let us supplement the half-memory of the man who wants another such demonstration of the foremost patriots, philosophers, and scholars, under the leadership once more, as we assume from the tone of his letter, of the Hon. Carl Schurz. At the time the conference met there was nothing murky in the political situation. On the Republican side the nomination of Governor Hayes, of Ohio, was clearly indicated. The Sun had predicted it long before the patriots and philosophers assembled. Mr. Blaine was an aggressive candidate, and there was some third-term talk about Gen. Grant; but the Conkling-Blaine feud and the Bristow disaffection already rendered practically certain the nomination of a compromise candidate not identified with either faction, and the logic of the situation pointed directly to Governor Hayes. On the other side everything was shaping towards the event which occurred at St. Louis six weeks later, the nomination on the second ballot, by far more than the required two-thirds majority, of Samuel J. Tilden, a statesman and reformer representing with singular closeness the ideal which was declared to be in the minds of Mr. Carl Schurz and his associates.
"That celebrated address which Mr. Schurz drafted, with the assistance of the intelligence and conscience of the country, could scarcely have called more pointedly for Tilden and barred out Hayes as the President desired by the foremost patriots, philosophers, and scholars, had it mentioned their names. We quote from Mr. Carl Schurz's address to the country:
"'We shall support no candidate who, however favorably judged by his nearest friends, is not publicly known to possess those qualities of mind and character which the stern task of genuine reform requires, for the American people cannot now afford to risk the future of the republic in experiments on merely supposed virtue or rumored ability to be trusted on the strength of private recommendations.
"'The man to be intrusted with the Presidency this year must have deserved not only the confidence of honest men, but also the fear and hatred of the thieves.