hich published and distributed "Copperhead"
literature.[993] He had not, however, been active in politics since
his defeat for attorney-general in 1855. It was during these years
that he began the accumulation of his large fortune. He acquired
easily. He seemed to know intuitively when to buy and when to sell,
and he profited by the rare opportunities offered during the great
depreciation in government bonds. Later, he dealt in railroads, his
private gains being so enormous that men thought his ambition for
wealth unscrupulously selfish.

[Footnote 988: Statement to Preston King in 1854. _Harper's Weekly_,
September 16, 1876.]

[Footnote 989: Letter to William Kent in October, 1860.]

[Footnote 990: Horace Greeley, _The American Conflict_, Vol. 1, pp.
388-394. William H. Russell's _Diary_, entry March 17, 1861, p. 20.]

[Footnote 991: _Harper's Weekly_, September 9, 1876.]

[Footnote 992: John Bigelow, _Life of Tilden_, Vol. 1, pp. 173-174.]

[Footnote 993: _Harper's Weekly_, September 9 and 27, 1876.]

But whatever may have been his sentiments respecting the war, Tilden
had little liking for Vallandigham in 1864, and after a bitter contest
finally defeated him for chairman of the committee on resolutions by a
vote of thirteen to eleven in favour of James Guthrie of Kentucky. He
also defeated a measure introduced by Washington Hunt suggesting an
armistice and a convention of States, and supported a positive
declaration that he thought sufficient to hold the war vote. However,
the dread of a split, such as had occurred at Charleston and Baltimore
in 1860, possessed the committee, and in the confusion of the last
moment, by a slight majority, the pivotal declaration pronouncing the
war a failure was accepted.[994]

[Footnote 994: "Never did men work harder than Messrs. Guthrie of
Kentucky and Tilden of New York. All they asked finally was that the
platform should not be so strong for peace that it would drive the war
vote from them."--New York _Herald_, September 5, 1864.

"Vallandigham wrote the second, the material resolution, of the
Chicago platform, and carried it through the sub-committee and the
general committee, in spite of the most desperate and persistent
opposition on the part of Tilden and his friends, Mr. Cassidy himself
in an adjoining room labouring to defeat it."--New York _News_,
October 22, 1864.

"The platform which declared the war a failure was jointly concocted
by Seymour and Vallandigham