The Life And Public Services of Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, Democratic Nominee For President of the United States to which is added a sketch of the life of Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, Democratic Nominee for Vice-President. By Cook, Theodore P. New York D. Appleton And Company 1876 First Edition. Original orange publisher's cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Some wear to head and tail of spine. A good copy. iv, 434pp. with frontis portrait of Tilden and a portrait of Hendricks. 8vo. Corners bumped and minor shelf wear. 1st fly page has an inked dedication, and a cracked hinge. . Otherwise clean, stong. Not ex library. Advertising of the publisher in the rear.
Throughout history, certain political movements have taken on such urgency that failure to join them would be tantamount to death for a politician. Reforming the corrupt political structure in New York City in the early 1870s was one such movement. Samuel J. Tilden spotted the movement before it gained prominence, and he was able to claim credit for being the major player in the movement. However, Tilden's motives in bringing about the downfall of the Tweed Ring in New York City represented a compromise between moral integrity and political expediency.
The political scene was ugly in 1876, when Tilden, a Democrat, ran for President against Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican. Eugene H. Roseboom of Ohio State University wrote in 1957:
Republican orators assailed Tilden's private character, charging that he was a railroad wrecker, a grasping penny pincher, an income-tax evader, a sham reformer, and...a dried-up, old bachelor, as bad as Buchanan.
Indeed, some Republicans made wild, outlandish statements about Tilden's character, political views and personal associates. One widely circulated Republican pamphlet, for instance, accused him of being a secessionist who "promotes treason," a "sham reformer" on the canals and Tammany Hall, a "swindler of labor" and a "wrecker of railroads."
But while many of the Republicans' allegations were untrue, one in particular was based on more than just a shred of truth: the charge that Tilden had acted with less than selfless intent in his attacks on Tammany Hall, the corrupt New York City Democratic political machine led by William M. Tweed. "Boss" Tweed and the Tweed Ring had swindled an estimated 75 million to 200 million dollars from the city between 1865 and 1871.
