Samuel Jones Tilden (February 9, 1814 – August 4, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 25th governor of New York and was the Democratic nominee in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election. Tilden was born in 1814 into a wealthy family in New Lebanon, New York. Attracted to politics at a young age, he became a protégé of Martin Van Buren. Wikipedia