Samuel Tilden (D-NY) tried to buy an Electoral Vote in the 1876 presidential election

Democrat vote fraud is nothing new.  Here is more information about my recent article, Hey, Slate.com!  Rutherford Hayes won his presidential election fair and square:

Samuel Tilden offered an Elector in Florida $50,000 for his vote, and other amounts to other Electors.  The offers were telegrammed from Tilden's own house, in Tilden's own code, and signed by his son-in-law/campaign manager.  The telegrams were leaked, and a math professor broke the code and newpapers published the results.  Busted!
 
This bribery angle is completely missing from most history books.  Wikipedia claims that a congressional investigation exhonerated Tilden, but the Republican-controlled Congress was content to just expose him and move on.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country.  Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision.  He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.  His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics.

Comments

[Michael Zak]

Tilden did not denounce Pelton until AFTER the bribery attempt was revealed. Also, the congressional investigation report showed Tilden was guilty:

"The evidence to show that Mr. Tilden was ignorant of these transactions is limited to the denials of Mr. Tilden and Colonel Pelton. That Colonel Pelton should endeavor to shield his uncle would be natural to a man of his character under such circumstances. His absolute dependence upon his uncle has only been increased by this disclosure. Before then Colonel Pelton had lived on his bounty and had done his work. Since then he can depend upon no one else. Hence his selection to bear the brunt of this occasion. Your committee cannot go over his testimony in detail. They can only express their judgment that his story of solitary responsibility is utterly inconsistent with itself, with his own statements, and with every proven fact in the case. The idea that this penniless man, living in the house and sitting at the very table of his wealthy uncle, Mr. Tilden, should have conducted negotiations involving such large sums without word or hint to the man most deeply interested, or to anybody else, cannot for . a moment be entertained by candid men. If Colonel Pelton's story be true, he must be removed from the category of knaves to that of fools. But the man who conducted the campaign of 1876 as acting secretary of the Democratic national committee was not a fool. Nor did Mr. Tilden, after election, center all his interests in the hands of a fool.

Mr. Tilden's denial was, of course, to be expected. Precisely what the arrangement was by which Mr. Tilden was kept posted as to the doings of his agents, and yet left in condition to make a general denial, if he was so left, we probably shall never know. How skillful Mr. Tilden is, in avoiding unpleasant facts, and in hiding meanings by words, we have an example in his letter of denial to the Tribune. No one who read that letter dreamed that he had the slightest knowledge of the South Carolina negotiations, and yet he knew all about them that he deemed it worth while to know.

Against these denials are set all the facts and circumstances of the case. The men who went South—Woolley, Marble, and Smith—were on terms of the closest political and personal intimacy with him. They were selected by his nephew, then residing in his house. They were furnished with a cipher which contained ample substitution words, fitted for the very transactions for which they were afterward used. One at least of them had an interview with Mr. Tilden before his departure. It was arranged that Woolley and Smith Weed, who were pretty well known, should send their telegrams to Havemeyer, while Mr. Marble, heretofore of good repute, should send to 15 Gramercy Park. It is true that Pelton says these dispatches were directed to be sent to another place; but no testimony is before us but his. Havemeyer is not called. The telegraph officials also are not called. It may be said that if Mr. Tilden had contemplated wrong he would not have had dispatches sent to his house. And yet if they were in a cipher known to tlie national committee, he would not want them to go to that body. His only fear would be, not that the dispatches would fall into the hands of those who could not read them, but into the hands of those who could..."

[Nikki Oldaker]

Mike - To say Tilden was responsible for the bribe is dead wrong. Yes you are right about the telegrams coming from his home because his private Secretary George Smith worked with there....Tilden did code his messagees to stop Republicans from intercepting them...Republicans did this too.

What you are missing is the fact that his, Col. William Pelton lived at his home as did his mother (Tilden's sister Mary) and Pelton's daughter in Gramercy Park estate. Pelton had easy access to send and receive telegrams without Tilden's knowledge which is what he did. He thought since the Republicans were playing dirty pool it would be ok for him to do this to save his uncle's Presidency.

Tilden was furious when he discovered what he did and booted him from the house. This caused a great rift with his sister, Pelton's mother because she was caught in the middle between her son and brother.

On the Congressional hearings...Tilden requested he be able to testify to clear his name in the matter...When he arrived at the hearing - people were shocked to see how much he aged and how sickly he was in just a few short years after the 1876 election, his voice so soft people could barely hear him. Republicans respected him...to say otherwise is wrong. That testimony, word for word is in Vol. 2 of the "The Life of Samuel J. Tilden" by John Bigelow. You can find it for free in Google Books.

To conclude...Tilden would never approve of what the Democratic party is today. He would have exposed the corruptors and taken them down the same as he did Boss William Tweed in Tammany Hall and the corrupt Canal Rings. He knew to make them worthy to serve in public office he had to take them apart and rebuild the party with honest politicians...his biggest fear was the corruption would spread nationwide...and it has in both parties.

Also, this is the description of Bourbons on Wiki -- Bourbon Democrats represented business interests, generally supporting the goals of banking and railroads but opposed to subsidies for them and unwilling to protect them from competition. Bourbon Democrats were promoters of laissez-faire capitalism (which included opposition to the protectionism that the Republicans were then advocating). They opposed imperialism and U.S. overseas expansion, fought for the gold standard, and opposed bimetallism. Strong supporters of reform movements such as the Civil Service Reform and opponents of the corrupt city bosses, Bourbons led the fight against the Tweed Ring. The anticorruption theme earned the votes of many Republican Mugwumps in 1884.

[Michael Zak]

Thank you for the comments. Rather than re-argue the entire debate, I'll just make a few points:

The bribe offers were sent from Tilden's own house, encoded in Tilden's own code.

As my book discusses, Tilden did indeed denounce any suggestions of using force to prevent Hayes from being inaugurated.

Tilden, being a New Yorker, was not a Bourbon Democrat, as that term referred to southern Democrats who, after the Civil War, wanted the plantation aristocracy to return to power, as the French nobility (Bourbons) had after Napoleon was ousted.

[Nikki Oldaker]

Your information is incorrect...Tilden never authorized the bribe...He found out about it after his nephew Col. William Pelton (one of his campaign managers) was willing to pay off the "Republican" offering it to him. When Tilden found out about it - he stopped Pelton and dis-owned him for the embarrassment.

If you look back in the history you will find that the Democrat candidate had to sue in the Florida Supreme court for a recount because the Republicans figured if they could steal Tilden's presidency they could also snag the Governor's seat...When the recount was done they found that the Democrat governor won.

It was too late for the votes to count for Tilden because a Special Commission had been set up in Congress for the Electoral Count...Reason being - Florida, LA and SC had sent to Congress 3 different sets of Electoral College votes. Congress didn't know which to count so they tossed all of them to the Special Commission.

I have studied and been writing about this election since 1994...Tilden was a very honorable man and had more integrity in him than any other politician we've had since. He won his Presidency by over 254,000 votes...It was a conspiracy set up by John C. Reid of the New York Times to steal his Presidency by Electoral College using the 3 states under Reconstruction and Republican control

I am currently writing the screenplay about it...but as much as I like Republicans today - I will not sit idly by and see Mr. Tilden's name tarnished - His reputation stayed in tact and even Hayes knew the scam and invited him to the White House. Tilden never conceded his Presidency but did not want to start a 2nd bloody Civil War over it...He prevented it from happening by ordering his supporters to stand down. He loved American and left his estate to build the New York Public Library so people would have free access to education

He also would have argued against all the Dem party is doing today...He was a Bourbon Democrat not a Progressive.