Former NY Gov. Tilden, even in death, is slighted once more
Bronze wreath at memorial in Cemetery of Evergreens in New Lebanon is stolen
Even in death, 19th century New York Democratic Gov. Samuel J. Tilden can’t escape losing out.
Tilden was a single electoral college away from winning the 1876 presidential candidate when backroom political deals handed 20 electoral college votes and the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, governor of Ohio, with a 186-185 victory.
Now, for the second time in the last half century the 400-pound bronze wreath that adorned Tilden’s massive memorial at the Cemetery of the Evergreen has been stolen. The latest theft gives an additional poignant meaning.
“I still trust the people,” inscribed on Tilden’s memorial, may be his final words on winning the popular vote by more than 250,000 votes in the 1876 election.
Tilden’s loss may have been foretold when legendary New York politician Boss William Tweed had a pickpocket dip into Tilden’s pocket in revenge when the two New York political figures were fighting, said Jon Grinspan, curator of political history at the Smithson
ian’s National Museum of American History in Washington.
The demise of Tilden’s presidential aspirations resurfaces whenever a presidential election outcome is tight and precarious. The bronze theft is a footnote for Tilden’s story and it comes on the eve of the 2020 presidential faceoff between Republican President Donald J. Trump and Democratic opponent former Vice President Joseph Biden.
New Lebanon, where Tilden was born in 1814 and buried after his death in 1886, hasn’t forgotten what befell him
when the Electoral Commission gave Hayes the 20 electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon in a deal that ended Reconstruction former Confederacy states.
“It was a mess,” said Elizabeth Sheffer-winig, the New Lebanon town historian.
Tilden would have been Columbia County’s second president, following his political mentor former President Martin Van Buren into the White House.
“Samuel Tilden is an important fig
ure. He’s our most famous citizen,” ShefferWinig said. “His father was friends with Martin Van Buren. When Samuel became old enough Martin Van Buren became his mentor.”
Tilden earned a reputation as a reformer by gathering evidence that broke up the Tweed Ring in New York City where he worked as the city counsel and built his personal fortune as a railroad lawyer. Part of that fortune would go toward creating the New York Public Library.
Tilden enhanced his reform credentials by abolishing the canal ring after he was elected governor in 1874. Tilden was the first governor to reside in the Governor’s Mansion in Albany.
Nicknamed the “Sage of Gramercy,” Tilden lived in a mansion on Gramercy Park in New York. It seems difficult to believe that Tilden didn’t fight harder against the tide that swept victory in the 1876 presidential election away from him.
“He had a reputation for being really crafty and the most consummate of American politicians at the time,” Grinspan said.
Tilden was viewed as energizing and rebuilding the Democratic party in part by attracting young people to plant the seeds for future growth. But Tilden’s personality was atypical of a 19th century politician.
“He’s really crafty and cunning. He’s also a pretty strong recluse and a hypochondriac. He had no social life except the Democratic party. He’s not the kind of fellow you run into in a saloon,” Grinspan said.
As the final fight for the electoral votes was waged after each party in the disputed states submitted their own electors as victorious, Tilden was perfecting legal arguments about it, Grinspan said. Hayes, meanwhile, was campaigning hard.
The Electoral Commission was established by Congress to decide the contest for the presidency. The commission met for nine days in February 1877. The painting “The Florida Case Before The Electoral Commission” memorializes it in the
U.S. Senate.
Hayes emerged victorious as Tilden couldn’t capture the one electoral vote needed to back up his popular vote total.
Tilden’s legacy has faded ,as have most failed presidential candidates. An attempt to have his gravesite memorial named a state historic site was vetoed by Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1972 for failing to detail where funding would come to support it.
That came five years after the first theft of the monument’s 400-pound bronze wreath 53 years ago. The State Police recovered it. The second theft of the wreath was in April 2020 when thieves stole it from a cemetery vault where it was stored since 1967.
“They stole a historic artifact. We hope we get it back,” Cemetery of the Evergreens Superintendent Ed Godfroy said.
The wreath originally was bolted to the monument’s front. Godfroy points to the spots where the wreath was cut off in 1967 by three Nassau teenagers who used a truck to haul it away.
The State Police recovered the wreath in East Nassau in 1967 and arrested the three teens who sold pieces of it for scrap, according to reports in he Berkshire Eagle at that time.
Troop K is investigating the latest theft, said Trooper A.J. Hicks, a spokesman for the troop. Anyone with information about the theft or location of the wreath is asked to call investigators at 845-677-7300 and refer to case #9536323.
The cemetery stored the wreath for the last 53 years due to the expense of the repairs, Godfroy said. The cemetery restored the Tilden monument, spending $22,000 to protect it from water damage and resetting parts of it. The work was paid for through donations.