Born February 9, 1814
New Lebanon, New York

Died August 4, 1886
Yonkers, New York

Governor of New York, presidential candidate, and lawyer

Samuel J. Tilden. The Library of Congress.

"If my voice could reach throughout our country and be heard in its remotest hamlet I would say, 'Be of good cheer. The Republic will live. The institutions of our fathers are not to expire in shame. The sovereignty of the people shall be rescued from this peril and be reestablished.'"

Samuel J. Tilden was a popular national figure during the 1870s as he successfully fought against political corruption in New York and became the Democratic presidential candidate in the 1876 election. Tilden lost one of the most controversial presidential elections in American history. Despite finishing with 250,000 more popular votes than his opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893; served 1877–81; see entry), Tilden fell one electoral vote shy of becoming president...