[33] While knowing nothing of this correspondence, Mr. Tilden asked me one day while it proves to have been going on, "how the office of Secretary of Treasury would suit me, or rather how I would like it." I replied very promptly that I would not like it at all, nor would I accept it under any imaginable conditions; that I was principled against accepting any station, private or public, that I did not believe I could fill creditably, and that I did not feel competent to fill that office creditably; nor would I take it if I did, for its duties would be, from the beginning to the end, absolutely uncongenial to me. "My friends had particularly wished that I should not publish my letter of declension until after my name had been presented by the State convention; they wished this as a matter of delicacy, and also as a matter of feeling. My letter had been written with that view. Mr. Manning stated that Mr. Cleveland thought it would do him good to have my letter published in advance. I had no personal interest in the nomination, but a desire for the success of the Democratic party and for Mr. Cleveland's administration; that his success would be of real value to the country, and that the local chieftains who had reorganized the Democratic party on a reform basis, and renovated its moral power before the country, should be cherished and continued as instruments of public good. I acceded to Mr. Cleveland's wish, sacrificed the preference and pride of my friends, and gave my letter to the press immediately. I also aided what I could at so late a period, in selecting delegates to the State convention. "Mr. Manning came again to me prior to the national convention, and asked for authority to communicate my judgment and wishes to friends from other States. It is well known that most of the delegates had been elected either with express instructions, or with the understanding that they were to vote for my nomination, and it was not doubted that if I did nothing, the nomination would have been conferred on me without dissent. "The circumstances lent weight to my advice as to who should be nominated. I authorized Mr. Manning to communicate to my friends from other States that, while I could not assume to dictate to the Democratic party, my judgment was in favor of nominating Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Manning said this intimation would be sufficient. "He communicated it to many of my friends among the delegates from other States. In addition to this, he gave assurances, in behalf of Mr. Cleveland to the delegates from several States, that the administration should be made up from those who had been my supporters, and who transferred their adhesion to Mr. Cleveland.