"These observations, as applied to the two present parties of the country, would not, probably, be accepted without dissent; but they intimate a most important truth. This is that when a man comes to be the possessor of large property interests, these will, whatever may be his character, control his opinions in relation to any question affecting them. The great railroad interests of the country are conducted by men, I suppose, of as honorable character as can be found in any walk of life; but they will not, in the face of threatened disaster, keep the agreements they make with each other. They do not hesitate, when these interests are threatened by adverse legislation, to defend them by secret arts and practices--kept secret because they could not be avowed without a blush. Mr. Jay Gould, in some testimony drawn from him by a legislative committee, expressed the truth by saying that he was "sometimes a Democrat and sometimes a Republican, but always an Erie man." It must be admitted that the occasions are often fearfully trying. They sometimes impose a test which human nature is ill-fitted to bear. The individual who is subjected to them is called upon to defend, not only his own property, but that of others. A man may surrender his own interests, but what account is he to give of himself when he surrenders interests which have been intrusted to him for defence? I cannot help thinking that Governor Tilden possessed, on the whole, greater capabilities for usefulness in public life than any other man of his generation. I cannot find elsewhere such a union of the ability to discover true governmental policies with the firm and undeviating purpose to pursue them. This is not the universal estimate of him. A certain measure of distrust seems to have accompanied the general admiration of his talents. For this there never was any just foundation. I do not think any public man of his time was more faithful to his conceptions of truth. No impartial man could now well doubt this after going over the record of his services and reading his speeches and public papers. Indeed, it is hardly possible that so ardent a searcher after scientific truth could be otherwise than faithful to it. We can scarcely imagine Socrates and Newton to have been dishonest men. That Lord Bacon fell excites our wonder. And yet there must always be some ground for any widely extended impression. I think that in this instance the cause is manifest. His pre-eminence was in the intellectual rather than in the emotional powers. In order to achieve his purposes he preferred to appeal to the intellect rather than to the heart. Plain, blunt honesty is universally perceived and understood, and is admired and confided in, even when it blunders. But common men have so often been deceived by the sharp practices of those who are a little brighter than themselves, that they are apt to distrust intellectual superiority, and half suspect it to be a species of cunning.