46 Facts About Samuel Tilden

Samuel Jones Tilden was an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election.

Samuel Tilden served in the New York State Assembly and helped launch Van Buren's third party, anti-slavery candidacy in the 1848 United States presidential election.

Samuel Tilden won election as Governor of New York in 1874, and in that office he helped break up the "Canal Ring".

Samuel Tilden was selected as the nominee on the second ballot of the 1876 Democratic National Convention.

Samuel Tilden focused his campaign on civil service reform, support for the gold standard, and opposition to high taxes, but many of his supporters were more concerned with ending Reconstruction in the Southern United States.

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Samuel Tilden was descended from Nathaniel Tilden, an early English settler who came to North America in 1634.

Samuel Tilden's father maintained relationships with many influential politicians, including President Martin Van Buren, who became Samuel Tilden's political idol.

Samuel Tilden was frequently in poor health during his youth, and he spent much of his time studying politics and reading works such as The Wealth of Nations.

Likely motivated by a family friendship with Benjamin Franklin Butler, then serving as a professor at New York University School of Law, Samuel Tilden enrolled there to resume his studies and continued to attend intermittently from 1838 to 1841.

Samuel Tilden was admitted to the bar in 1841 and became a skilled corporate lawyer.

Samuel Tilden affiliated with the Democratic Party and frequently campaigned on behalf of Van Buren and other Democratic candidates.

In 1843, Tilden was appointed as New York City's corporation counsel, a reward for his campaign work for Governor William C Bouck.

Samuel Tilden handled hundreds of cases on behalf of the city, but was forced out of office in 1844 after New York City elected a Whig mayor.

Samuel Tilden served as a delegate to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, which rejected Van Buren and nominated James K Polk for president.

Samuel Tilden became a key ally to Wright and helped end the Anti-Rent War by passing a compromise land bill that defused tensions between tenant farmers and their landlords.

Samuel Tilden was a leader of the "Barnburners", an anti-slavery faction of the New York Democratic Party that arose during the debate over the Wilmot Proviso.

Samuel Tilden helped organize the 1848 Free Soil Convention, which nominated Van Buren for president.

Unlike many other anti-slavery Democrats, Samuel Tilden did not join the Republican Party in the 1850s, but he did not have close relations with Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.

In 1855, Samuel Tilden was the unsuccessful state attorney general candidate of the "Soft" faction of Barnburners, which favored compromise and reconciliation with the Democratic Party.

Samuel Tilden warned that the election of Lincoln could lead to the secession of the South and a subsequent civil war.

Samuel Tilden initially opposed using force to prevent secession, but he supported the Union after the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Samuel Tilden was chosen as a delegate to that year's state constitutional convention.

Samuel Tilden served as Seymour's campaign chairman in the 1868 presidential election, but Seymour lost the election to Republican nominee Ulysses S Grant.

The Times subsequently began a public crusade against Tammany Hall, and Samuel Tilden launched an investigation into Tweed's bank records.

Samuel Tilden helped to break up the "Canal Ring, " a bipartisan group of state and local officials who had enriched themselves by overcharging for the maintenance of the New York State Canal System.

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Samuel Tilden was a skilled organizer whose canvassing system and field knowledge was so thorough that, months before the 1874 election, he had predicted his own winning margin accurately to within 300 votes.

Samuel Tilden further bolstered his presidential candidacy through a nationwide newspaper advertising campaign.

Samuel Tilden won the necessary two-thirds on the second presidential ballot, and the convention then voted to make his nomination unanimous.

Delegates unanimously chose Hendricks as Samuel Tilden's running mate, providing a balance between the hard money and soft money factions.

The Republican campaign established a major cash advantage, partly because Samuel Tilden refused to contribute much of his personal fortune to the campaign.

Samuel Tilden blamed high taxes and the Grant administration for the economic downturn, and, like Hayes, promised civil service reform and hard money policies.

Southern whites, who overwhelmingly favored Samuel Tilden, used violence and intimidation to suppress the turnout of Republican-leaning African-American voters.

Samuel Tilden worked to distance himself from violent encounters like the Hamburg massacre, in which disgruntled Southern whites clashed with the Republican-led government of South Carolina.

Ultimately, Hayes swept the West and won much of the North, but Samuel Tilden carried the closely contested Northern states of New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut, swept the border states, and carried most of the South.

Samuel Tilden had won a majority of the popular vote and tallied clear victories in seventeen states, leaving him one electoral vote short of a majority.

Samuel Tilden delivered the study to every sitting member of Congress, but congressional Republicans were not swayed by Tilden's argument that history supported the Democratic position on the election returns.

Samuel Tilden opposed the creation of the Electoral Commission because he still hoped to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives, but he was unable to prevent Democratic congressmen from voting for the establishment of the commission.

Some Democrats urged Samuel Tilden to reject the results and take the presidential oath of office, but Samuel Tilden declined to do so.

Samuel Tilden remains the only individual to lose a presidential election while winning an outright majority of the popular vote.

Samuel Tilden declined to run for another term as governor in 1879, focusing instead on building support for the 1880 presidential nomination.

Samuel Tilden's standing with the party slipped further following the Republican victory in the New York gubernatorial election in 1879.

Samuel Tilden hoped to be nominated, but only if he was the unanimous choice of the convention; if not, Manning was entrusted to make the contents of Samuel Tilden's letter available to the New York delegation.

Samuel Tilden endorsed New York Governor Grover Cleveland, who won the Democratic nomination and went on to defeat James G Blaine in the general election.

Samuel Tilden is buried at Cemetery of the Evergreens in New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York.

In 1895, the Samuel Tilden Trust was combined with the Astor and Lenox libraries to found the New York Public Library, and the building bears his name on its front.

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Samuel J Tilden Monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.