"Such a work of renovation, after many years of misrule, such a reform of systems and policies, to which I would cheerfully have sacrificed all that remained to me of health and life, is now, I fear, beyond my strength.'"

My purpose to withdraw from further public service, and the grounds of it, were at that time well known to you and to others; and when, at Cincinnati, though respecting my wishes yourself, you communicated to me an appeal from many valued friends to relinquish that purpose, I reiterated my determination unconditionally.

In the four years which have since elapsed, nothing has occurred to weaken, but everything to strengthen, the considerations which induced my withdrawal from public life. To all who had addressed me on the subject, my intention has been frankly communicated. Several of my most confidential friends, under the sanction of their own names, have publicly stated my determination to be irreversible. That I have occasion now to consider the question is an event for which I have no responsibility. The appeal made to me by the Democratic masses, with apparent unanimity, to serve them once more is entitled to the most deferential consideration, and would inspire a disposition to do anything desired of me if it were consistent with my judgment of duty.

I believe that there is no instrumentality in human society so potential in its influence upon mankind for good or evil as the governmental machinery for administering justice and for making and executing laws. Not all the eleemosynary institutions or the private benevolence to which philanthropists may devote their lives are so fruitful in benefits, as the rescue and preservation of this machinery from the perversions that make it the instrument of conspiracy, fraud and crime against the most sacred rights and interests of the people.

For fifty years, as a private citizen, never contemplating an official career, I have devoted at least as much thought and effort to the duty of influencing aright the action of the governmental institutions of my country, as to all other objects. I have never accepted official service except for a brief period for a special purpose, and only where the occasion seemed to require from me that sacrifice of private preferences to the public welfare.

I undertook the State administration of New York because it was supposed that in that way only could the executive power be swayed on the side of the reforms to which, as a private citizen, I had given three years of my life.

I accepted the nomination for the Presidency in 1876 because of the general conviction that my candidacy would best present the issue of Reform, which the Democratic majority of the people desired to have worked out in the General Government, as it had been in that of the State of New York. I believed that I had strength enough then to renovate the administration of the Government of the United States, and at the close of my term to hand over the great trust to a successor faithful to the same policy.

Though anxious to seek the repose of private life, I nevertheless acted upon the idea that every power is a trust, and involves a duty. In reply to the address of the committee communicating my nomination, I depicted the difficulties of the undertaking, and likened my feelings in engaging in it to those of a soldier entering battle, but I did not withhold the entire consecration of my powers to the public service.

Twenty years of continuous mal-administration under the demoralizing influence of intestine war and of bad finance have infected the whole governmental system of the United States with the cancerous growth of false constructions and corrupt practices. Powerful classes have acquired pecuniary interests in official abuses, and the moral standards of the people have been impaired. To redress these evils is a work of great difficulty and labor, and cannot be accomplished without the most energetic, efficient and personal action on the part of the Chief Executive of the Republic.

The canvass and administration, which it is desired that I should undertake, would embrace a period of nearly five years. Nor can I admit any illusion as to their burdens. Three years of experience in the endeavor to reform the municipal government of the City of New York, and two years of experience in renovating the administration of the State of New York, have made me familiar with the requirements of such a work.

At the present time, the considerations which induced my action in 1880, have become imperative. I ought not to assume a task which I have not the physical strength to carry through. To reform the administration of the Federal Government; to realize my own ideal, and to fulfill the just expectations of the people, would indeed warrant, as they could alone compensate, the sacrifices which the undertaking would involve. But, in my condition of advancing years and declining strength, I feel no assurance of my ability to accomplish these objects. I am, therefore, constrained to say, definitely, that I cannot now assume the labors of an administration or of a canvass.

Undervaluing in no wise that best gift of heaven, the occasion and the power sometimes bestowed upon a mere individual to communicate an impulse for good; grateful beyond all words to my fellow countrymen who would assign such a beneficient function to me, I am consoled by the reflection that neither the Democratic party, nor the Republic for whose future that party is the best guarantee, is now, or ever can be, dependent upon any one man for their successful progrsss in the path of a noble destiny.

Having given to their welfare whatever of health and strength I possessed, or could borrow from the future, and having reached the term of my capacity for such labors as their welfare now demands, I but submit to the will of God in deeming my public career forever closed.

SAMUEL J. TILDEN.