Letters and Literary Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden, v. 1Tilden, Samuel J. (Samuel Jones)
History
Letters and Literary Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden, v. 1
Tilden, Samuel J. (Samuel Jones)
Tilden, Samuel J. (Samuel Jones), 1814-1886
"It is too late in the day to revive the spirit of the native American
or Know-nothing parties. The only purely American stock which remains
on this continent is the whole population of the Southern States, who
are now under the carpet-bag governments, upheld by the banded masses
of rogues and the influence of the Federal governments and affiliated
with the Republican party. In the North we are one-third emigrants of
the last twenty-five years or their children. The great migration of
the last quarter of a century is the most remarkable in the world's
history. It has exercised a controlling power over every important
event of our national progress. In that period about seven millions of
people have come to our Northern States. I had occasion some years ago
to analyze the character of that immigration. I found that it contained
just about twice as many male persons between the ages of 15 and 40
as our resident population in 1860. In other words, it contained the
population of the virile age equal to that of fourteen millions of our
average people. It is that influx which has created our great cities,
which has built our railroads and furnished them business, and which
has produced the immense growth of our Northern States in population,
wealth, and prosperity. It is that influx which overturned the equality
of influence between the North and South in the Federal government,
and stimulated both sides to the measure that led to the Civil War. It
is that influx which would have given the North predominance if the
war had not happened, and which gave it the victory in the conflict
of arms, abolished slavery, and will at last fill the South with
communities like our own.
"This is the state of things. Who could alter it if he would? Who dare
say that, on the whole, he would alter it if he could?
"We must, then, avoid all those civil and social revolutions, work
out as best we may the problem of self-government formed on equal
and universal suffrage. We can only do so on the large, liberal
statesmanship on which we began, and never by going back toward the
dark night of proscription and bigotry."
TILDEN TO MRS. CASSIDY
"NEW YORK, _Feb'y 22, 1873_.
"DEAR MRS. CASSIDY,--I regret that any delay should take place in
sending you a statement of the results of the investment made by me
for your benefit. But the computations were somewhat long, and needed
either help or instructions from me to enable Mr. Smith to complete
them, which, until now, I was not able to give.
"I had hoped before this time to see you and be able to say that, if
there is anything in your affairs in which I can offer you suggestion
or counsel for the benefit of yourself and your little ones, I shall be
glad to be of service to you.
"About the time--indeed, a little before I recd. the $10,000
remittance--when Mr. Cassidy had told me it would be sent I invested
some $15,000 for you. I sold enough the other day to pay the balance
due me for allowances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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