"I am persuaded that the rank and file of the Democracy are with you, and are eager and resolute, under your leadership, to vindicate their violated electoral rights and the sanction of the ballot-box.
"Lately I was in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, where I sought and conferred with a number of leading men, who assured me on my representation that the Northwest was almost, if not quite, unitedly in favor [of] your nomination; they would heartily co-operate to effect it, and, indeed, while I was in Texas, several districts passed instructions in favor of it.
"As to the 'Old Guard,' although its ranks are thinned and time has stricken it with age; although it can scarcely hope to survive much beyond the impending contest, yet its spirit is unbroken. It asks not office or emolument: it covets only the post of duty and danger. It never surrenders: it will stand by you whether for a nomination or an election--for both it will keep the faith to the end. Will you not lead it, as its tried, trusted, and honored chief, to deliverance from the humiliation of unceasing contumely and proscription?
"Upon the whole your refusal to lead the Democratic masses would fall on them as a stunning and bewildering blow. It would balk their welling expectations and overwhelm them with disappointment. Would it not provoke a reaction of feeling and opinion injurious-- seriously injurious--to both you and the country? I candidly think so.
"In conclusion, I assume, as I believe, that your nomination would be followed by your election.
In spite of the earnest and almost oppressive urgency of friends to whose counsels he was always anxious and usually ready to defer, Mr. Tilden's consciousness of his lack of strength for the work that would be expected of him if elected President and ought to be required of him, did not permit him to weaken in his purpose. It even hastened his official termination of these importunities before the meeting of the State convention, which had seemed to him the appropriate occasion for any announcement that the four preceding years had worked no change in the views previously expressed of retiring from public life. The circumstances which led him to anticipate by a few weeks what he regarded as the fit time for such an announcement, I hope I may be excused for giving, as I set them down at the time in my diary, premising that delegates from every part of the State to the national convention were already appointed with instructions, or with the understanding that they should support Mr. Tilden for the nomination.