There has beeen a great deal of talk about whether Al Gore will be able to make another run at the Presidency in 2004, since he appears to have won the popular vote. I know Tildon won the popular vote but lost to Rutherford B. Hayes, so what happened to him? Did he run 4 years later? I know Hayes only ran one time, so did Tildon run but lose to whoever ran against him?
Just as an aside, let’s not turn this into a discussion of whether Gore will run in 2004. That’s for IMHO.
It’s spelled Tilden. After the 1876 election, Samuel Tilden retired to Yonkers, N.Y. He was urged to run in 1880 and 1884, but he refused. He died in 1886. After his death, a large part of his estate went toward the establishment of the New York Public Library.,
It matters not what Tilden did after the election.
What matters is that Hayes was promptly blown out of water in the next election.
By Grover Cleveland, I believe.
Didn’t anyone study the fascinating history of the Gilded Age in school?
Hayes agreed to serve only one term. In the next election, James Garfield, a Republican, narrowly edged Winfield Scott Hancock. The Democrats didn’t take over until Cleveland defeated James Blaine in the 1884 election.
Tilden wasn’t in the best of health in 1876 and he was in even worse shape in 1880. The Democrats didn’t think he would be an effective candidate in 1880 and Hancock was a Civil War hero, which would help the Democrats to offset the Republicans’ plan of “Waving the Bloody Shirt of Rebellion” in the election.
However, Hancock wasn’t much of a candidate.
Hayes had always said he would only have one term, and he did. Where did you hear that he was blown out of the water? Or did you make a decision that that is what you want to believe?
What ever happened to “Old Usufruct,” as Sam Tilden was called?
Well one of the most fascinating things was that he died… and therein lies a fascinating tale. (My thanks to historian David Hammack who relayed this story to me in an interview.)
Tilden was one of the shrewdest railroad lawyers of his day, amassing great wealth (and thus garnering his nickname). Tilden, who was not married, and thus had no children (and is rumored to have been gay… but that’s another story entirely), intended to bequeeth (sp?) his vast fortune toward the creation of a great NYC public library which would be established after he died. So he had his will drafted to that effect.
But once Sam kicked the bucket, his closest relatives (nieces and nephews, I believe) challenged the will on the grounds that you could not leave your money to an institution that did not already exist! The courts ruled in favor of the relatives.
But one or more of the relatives felt that it would be unfair to ignore their uncle’s wishes entirely, so they eventually ponied up some money (around $2 mil, IIRC) to go toward financing the library. To make up the shortfall, the Lenox Trust and Astor Foundation were convinced to pool with the Tilden bequest to create today’s great New York Public Library.
A fascinating upshot of all this is that, afterwards, the Tilden executors lobbied the NYS legislature to change the law, thereby allowing the creation of post-mortem foundations and such. It has be argued that the change in the law made New York the most philanthropy-friendly state, and, in turn, THE center of non-profit/foundation activity in the US.