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Tilden (SAMUEL JONES an American)

SAMUEL JONES, an American statesman; born in New Lebanon, N. Y., Feb. 9, 1814; was educated at the University of New York; studied law with Benjamin F. Butler, and was admitted to the bar in 1841; began practice in New York City, and became actively interested in politics; was elected to the State Assembly in 1845; and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1846. His most celebrated cases as a practising lawyer were the contest of the election of Azariah C. Flagg to the comptrollership of New York City; the opposition of the heirs of the murdered Dr. Burdell to a demand by Mrs. Cunningham for a power of administration over his estate, and the defense of the Pennsylvania Coal Company against a demand for the payment of extra tolls to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. During the Civil War he maintained that the struggle with the South could be terminated without resorting to acts not warranted by the Federal Constitution. Mr. Tilden became leader of the Democratic party in New York State in 1868, and in that capacity strenuously opposed the corrupt administration of the Tweed faction. In 1874 he was elected governor of New York, and during his term of office broke up the notorious "canal ring." In 1876 he was nominated for the presidency of the National Democratic Convention. In the election Hayes received 4,033,295 popular votes, and Tilden, 4,284,265. In 1877, on the finding of the Electoral Commission, the presidency was awarded to the Republican candidate by an electoral vote of 185 to 184. Mr. Tilden died in "Greystone," his country-seat, near Yonkers, N. Y., Aug. 4, 1886. The bulk of his fortune, which consisted of several million dollars, was bequeathed to trustees to be used for establishing a great public library in New York City, but his will was contested successfully. An heir relinquished her share of the estate and this became the nucleus and the beginning of the Tilden Foundation of the New York Public Library. See HAYES, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD; NEW YORK PUB- LIC LIBRARY.