“5. I direct my executor to sell all my real estate as soon as practicable, and turn the same into personal property before the above division is made.
“6. I revoke all former wills and testaments and appoint my son Charles E. Stowe as executor of this will, and direct that he be required to give only the smallest bond as executor which the law will admit.
“In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal on this 3rd day of November a.d. 1885.
Will of Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel J. Tilden died August 4, 1886. The failure of the trust created by his will has been extensively commented on by the lay and legal journals of the United States.
By a decision of the New York Court of Appeals, in the case of Tilden v. Green, the trust provision was overthrown. The late Professor J. B. Ames remarked: “Melancholy the spectacle must always be when covetous relatives seek to convert to their own use the fortune which a testator has devoted to a great public benefaction.”
The learned author then, without quoting the exact provisions of the will creating what is known as the “Tilden Trust,” transcribes as substantially correct, the summary of the same made by a majority of the judges of the New York Court of Appeals in the case in which the will was overthrown: “I request you (the executors) to cause to be incorporated an institution to be called the ‘Tilden Trust,’ with capacity to maintain a free library and reading-room in the city of New York, and such other educational and scientific objects as you shall designate; and if you deem it expedient—that is, if you think it advisable and the fit and proper thing to do—convey to that institution all or such part of my residuary estate as you choose; and if you do not think that course advisable, then apply it to such charitable, educational, and scientific purposes as, in your judgment, will most substantially benefit mankind.” “The trustees,” continues the learned commentator, “procured the incorporation of the ‘Tilden Trust,’ and elected to convey the entire residue to that institution. An admirable will and willing trustees—and yet the bequest was not sustained. If the trustees had not elected to give the property to the ‘Tilden Trust,’ that institution would have had no claim, nor would there have been, under the law of New York, any means of compelling them to apply it to the alternative charitable purposes. Therefore, the Court of Appeals decided, the trustees could not dispose of the property in either of the two modes indicated in the will, and the entire residue, amounting to some $5,000,000, must be distributed among the heirs and next of kin.”
Will of Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, United States Senator and eighth President of the United States, was born at Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782, and died there on July 24, 1862. He attained eminence at the bar and as a politician was surpassed by few, if any, men of his day.