Division 
 
 E 697 .M14 v72 
 
 McElroy, Robert McNutt, 1871 
 -1959. 
 
 Grover Cleveland, the man 
 and the statesman 
 

 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/groverclevelandm02mcel_0 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 
 
 VOLUME TWO 
 


GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
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 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 
 
 An Authorized Biography 
 
 Robert Mcelroy, ph.d., ll.d., f.r.h.s. 
 
 EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
 
 VOLUME 
 
 II 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 MCMXXIII 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 
 
 Copyright, 1923 
 By Harper & Brothers 
 Printed in the U. S. A. 
 
 First Edition 
 
 K-X 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 VOLUME II 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The First Battle with Bryan—the Repeal of the 
 
 Sherman Law . i 
 
 II. Blocking “Manifest Destiny” in Hawaii ... 45 
 
 III. Breaking the Endless Chain—the Four Bond 
 
 Issues ....'. .74 
 
 IV. The Wilson-Gorman Tariff.107 
 
 V. The Pullman Strike of 1894.138 
 
 VI. The Venezuelan Affair.173 
 
 VII. The Warwick of 1896.203 
 
 VIII. The Four Lean Months.238 
 
 IX. Retires to Princeton.256 
 
 X. Watching the Game from the Side Lines . . . 271 
 
 XI. The Turn of the Tide.301 
 
 XII. The Election of 1904.321 
 
 XIII. Reorganizing the Equitable.350 
 
 XIV. Sunset Days. 365 
 
 Index .417 
 
/ 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 THE MAN AND THE STATESMAN 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _-___„ 
 
 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN—THE REPEAL OF THE 
 
 SHERMAN LAW 
 
 “Patriotism is no substitute for a sound currency.” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 T HE election of November, 1892, placed Grover 
 Cleveland in a position unique in American his¬ 
 tory. He was the only President ever re-elected after 
 a defeat. Furthermore, he was the first President-elect 
 since 1840 who was manifestly a greater political figure 
 than any man whom he could conceivably select for his 
 Cabinet 
 
 Harrison and Tyler had been outclassed by many 
 leaders in their own party. James K. Polk had his Wil¬ 
 liam L. Marcy, his Robert J. Walker, his George Ban¬ 
 croft; Zachary Taylor, his John M. Clayton, Reverdy 
 Johnson, and Thomas Ewing; Franklin Pierce, to his 
 own generation, looked small beside Marcy, Guthrie, and 
 Caleb Cushing; and James Buchanan was clearly 
 eclipsed by Lewis Cass. Lincoln started his presidential 
 career with both Seward and Chase to overshadow him. 
 Andrew Johnson was outclassed in the public mind by 
 most of the Cabinet which he inherited from Lincoln. 
 Grant, though eminent as a soldier, was politically of 
 small stature beside Elihu Washburn or Hamilton Fish. 
 Hayes was dwarfed by Evarts, Sherman, and Carl 
 
2 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Schurz. Blaine, as Secretary of State, completely over¬ 
 topped both Garfield and Arthur, while Cleveland him¬ 
 self in 1884 was far less eminent than either Tilden or 
 Thomas F. Bayard. But with Grover Cleveland’s resto¬ 
 ration, the older and better tradition was resumed, for, 
 with the single exception of Monroe’s first term, every 
 administration down to that of William Henry Harri¬ 
 son had begun with a President more eminent than any 
 of his advisers. 
 
 In addition to this personal prestige, Mr. Cleveland 
 returned to power with the added advantage of being 
 the first President since Pierce whose party was in a posi¬ 
 tion to control both Senate and Congress. During his 
 first term Congress had been Democratic; but the Re¬ 
 publicans had controlled the Senate, and from that strong¬ 
 hold had wrought havoc upon many of his cherished 
 plans. Now, however, for a brief but satisfying period, 
 he found himself riding the crest of the wave, his tri¬ 
 umphant party eagerly hailing him chief, and even the 
 Republicans admitting that he had “qualities.” 
 
 In the House of Representatives he was entitled to 
 expect the support of two hundred and nineteen out of a 
 membership of three hundred and fifty-five, with one 
 seat vacant. Out of a Senate of eighty-eight the Demo¬ 
 crats numbered forty-four, while the three seats yet to 
 be filled gave them hope of a majority, especially as the 
 five Populist Senators might reasonably be expected to 
 train with them. To all appearances, therefore, Mr. 
 Cleveland could count upon the support of both Houses, 
 and but for the break in his own party when the testing 
 time came, he might have commanded the storm for 
 many a day. 
 
 When ready to choose his Cabinet, Mr. Cleveland 
 felt it wise to select new men who would bring new points 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 3 
 
 of view and new suggestions to bear upon the problems 
 confronting the country. And so, while freely seeking 
 the personal advice of his old Cabinet associates, he per¬ 
 sistently looked elsewhere for official advisers. 
 
 On January 25, 1893, he wrote to L. Clarke Davis: 
 
 “Bayard came to me night before last and left this 
 morning. We had a very frank and unrestrained talk, 
 as we have always had, and so far as he can do so, he has, 
 like the good patriotic friend he is, left matters almost 
 entirely in my control. 
 
 “I am dreadfully perplexed and bothered. I cannot 
 get the men I want to help me, but strange to say, my 
 greatest trials come through those professing to be near 
 and attached friends, who expect things. 
 
 “I hope the skies will lighten by and by, but I have 
 never seen a day since I consented to drift with events 
 that I have not cursed myself for yielding; and in these 
 particular days I think I curse a little more heartily than 
 ever. This is strange talk and perhaps seems ungracious 
 and unappreciative. It is nothing of the kind. It pre¬ 
 sents only the personal side of the matter; and sometimes 
 when I feel that perhaps I may after all be the instru¬ 
 ment of doing good to the American people whom I know 
 I love, I am quite happy.” 
 
 That night he offered Bayard’s old post, the portfolio 
 of State, to Judge Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana, a man 
 who, except for the year 1864, when he had been unable 
 to go to the polls, had voted the Republican ticket at 
 every presidential election since the party was organized. 
 Gresham had served as Secretary of the Treasury for one 
 month during Arthur’s administration, and at the opening 
 of the campaign of 1892, had been in the minds of many 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 4 
 
 anti-Harrison leaders, a possible Republican nominee 
 for the Presidency. Indeed, according to the memoir pub¬ 
 lished by his widow, he had been actually asked to lead 
 the Republicans in a fight for the nomination, but had 
 answered: “I am out of politics, and have no political 
 aspirations.” The People’s party, too, had offered him 
 their nomination, and this also he had declined, declaring 
 to his son that he thought the thing for him to do was to 
 take the stump for Grover Cleveland, largely because of 
 the latter’s tariff views. Gresham’s support under such 
 circumstances had been of great value to the Democratic 
 ticket, but the offer of the leading place in the Cabinet 
 came as a surprise, and he at first declined. Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land met his objections with the assurance that “prior 
 political affiliations matter not a bit.” Whitney, Carlisle, 
 Henry Watterson, and other prominent Democrats added 
 their arguments, and Mr. Gresham finally accepted the 
 appointment. In acknowledging the acceptance, Mr. 
 Cleveland wrote: 
 
 Confidential . 
 
 Lakewood, N. J. 
 
 Hon. Walter Q. Gresham. Feby ' 9 > 1893 ‘ 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter of the 7th instant came to hand two or 
 three hours ago, and causes me the greatest satisfaction. 
 I know perfectly well that only considerations of patriot¬ 
 ism and duty have constrained you to accede to my wishes, 
 and I assure you this vastly increases my appreciation 
 of what you have done. . . . 
 
 I would certainly be exceedingly glad to have a chat 
 with you between now and the 4th of March, and hope 
 that your work will so close up as to enable you to come 
 to me. 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 5 
 
 I have settled, I think, on five members of the Cabi¬ 
 net. I mean to have Carlisle for the Treasury—Lamont 
 for War—Bissell (of Buffalo, one of my oldest friends 
 and former partner) for Postmaster General, and Hoke 
 Smith, of Georgia (a very able representative of the new 
 and progressive South), for Interior. This leaves Navy, 
 Attorney General and Agriculture still to be selected. I 
 want George Gray, Senator from Delaware, to accept 
 the Attorney General’s place, but he has thus far, 
 strangely enough, declined. If there was a first-rate man 
 in Alabama, Mississippi, or that neighborhood, I would 
 like to consider him. If not, I am prepared to take a 
 man from almost any quarter. 
 
 I offered Agriculture to Bliss of Iowa; but he and 
 his friends are reckoning on his making a successful 
 canvass for United States Senator next fall, and he de¬ 
 clined my invitation. The Navy ought not to be a very 
 hard place to fill, but I have not just the man in view yet. 
 It is barely possible that I may induce Senator Gray to 
 take the Attorney Generalship after all, but I hardly 
 expect it. 
 
 I would be very glad to receive any suggestions you 
 may make concerning incumbents for these vacant places. 
 Now that I have secured the head of my Cabinet, I feel 
 that it should be completed as soon as possible. 
 
 If your leisure and convenience permit, I hope you 
 will write to me. Please address me by letter or dispatch 
 at this place. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Disappointed in his hope of securing Senator Gray 
 as Attorney General, Mr. Cleveland appointed Richard 
 Olney, whom he had met but once, but whose qualifica- 
 
6 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 tions he had carefully investigated. Mr. Olney’s success 
 as counsel for the Eastern Railroad in 1875, during a 
 period of peculiar difficulty, had established his reputa¬ 
 tion as a lawyer, and he had ably sustained the reputa¬ 
 tion thus secured. 
 
 As Secretary of the Navy, Hilary A. Herbert, of Ala¬ 
 bama, was finally selected, while Julius Sterling Morton, 
 of Nebraska, accepted the post of Secretary of Agricul¬ 
 ture. Thus the Cabinet was complete, and of the men 
 chosen only Lamont had been associated with his first 
 administration. 
 
 In describing his Cabinet to Richard Watson Gilder, 
 the President-elect said of John G. Carlisle: “We are 
 just right for each other. He knows all I ought to know, 
 and I can bear all we have to bear.” And already his 
 daily mail showed many premonitory symptoms of what 
 he would have to bear. 
 
 Office seekers of every conceivable type once more 
 employed every means to impress upon him the duty of 
 a President with power to bestow. Some of these appeals 
 were pathetic, some patriotic; but the vast majority were 
 grotesque, almost illiterate pleas for pay for alleged party 
 service. 
 
 One bore the distressingly familiar ring, which had 
 called forth so many pension vetoes during his first term: 
 “I congratulate you with greetings of love. Forget not 
 the noble soldier. Procrastinate not. Strike at once. 
 Give pensions to all that fought.” 
 
 Another of equally well-known purport ran: “Please 
 send me immediately $1,000, to which you are indebted 
 to me, to say nothin about the pain and sufferin endured, 
 caused by a pure accident when celebratin your election.” 
 
 A third mingled his good wishes with a request for 
 $45, giving as his reason: “I had ben votin the Demo- 
 
I 
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 7 
 
 crat ticket ever sense the War, and I have never received 
 anything for my trouble, goin to the election whitch 
 some of the Republicans has been payed for votin there 
 own ticket.” 
 
 “A young lady aged 17 years old,” opened her epistle 
 with the words: “Thou ruler of the United, as such you 
 are and have a rite to be, bein Democratic.” And a 
 New Englander, less effusive but doubtless equally sin¬ 
 cere, modestly apologized for the form of his congratula¬ 
 tions in the words: “I am not very mutch on the writin 
 and spelin but then you will excuse I bein Born in 
 Maine.” 
 
 Thus again Mr. Cleveland knew what the psycholo¬ 
 gists call “the reality feeling.” The burden which he 
 had shifted to another Atlas in 1889 was his again, and 
 while grateful for the confidence of the people, he was 
 far from elated. “Every feeling of jubilation,” he wrote, 
 “and even my sense of gratitude is so tempered as to be 
 almost entirely obscured by the realization, nearly pain¬ 
 ful, of the responsibility I have assumed in the sight of 
 the American people.” 
 
 Although executive authority was not yet his, his sense 
 of responsibility drove him ruthlessly. At his office in 
 the Mills Building, New York, he received the brunt 
 of the office seekers’ attacks. At his retreat in Lakewood, 
 he welcomed his friends and those political leaders whose 
 advice and assistance he requested. But whether in New 
 York or in Lakewood, he avoided no obligation, and 
 worked at the people’s problems as though he were 
 already once more the people’s sworn servant. 
 
 “I have just been to see Mr. Cleveland at Lakewood,” 
 wrote Thomas F. Bayard to Judge Lambert Tree, “and 
 his self-abnegation and simple devotion to the great work 
 which confronts him touch and impress me greatly. No 
 
8 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 small purpose has any right to be brought into view 
 where he is concerned, and self-seeking should stand re¬ 
 buked in his presence.” 
 
 The month before inauguration Mr. Cleveland de¬ 
 voted largely to work upon his address, abandoning his 
 office hour at the Mills Building. Toward the end of 
 that period Dr. Wilton Merle Smith, pastor of a New 
 York church which Mr. Cleveland frequently attended, 
 paid a visit to Lakewood. 
 
 “Come into my den,” said Mr. Cleveland, “I want 
 to read you my inaugural speech.” When he had fin¬ 
 ished the final paragraph: “Above all I know there is 
 a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men, and whose 
 goodness and mercy have always followed the American 
 people, and I know He will not turn from us now if 
 we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid,” his 
 visitor remarked, “I like it immensely and its conclusion 
 best of all.” “I will never forget,” said Dr. Smith later, 
 “the way this strong man then paced up and down the 
 floor, and returned and returned, with these words, T 
 suppose at times you will not approve many things I 
 do, but I want you to know that I am trying to do what 
 is right. I have a hungry party behind me, and they say 
 I am not grateful. Sometimes the pressure is almost 
 overwhelming, and a President cannot always get at the 
 exact truth, but I want you to know, and all my friends 
 to know, that I am trying to do what is right—I am try¬ 
 ing to do what is right.’ ” 
 
 Shortly before the date fixed for Mr. Cleveland’s de¬ 
 parture for Washington, a number of his intimate friends 
 presented him with a watch. In his letter of thanks to 
 Mr. Gilder, he wrote: “I expected to see you this evening 
 and did not suspect any such conspiracy as was developed' 
 when the beautiful gift sent to me by yourself and your 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 9 
 
 ‘pals’ reached my hands. I don’t know what to say to 
 ‘you fellows’—and no wonder, for I never had so fine a 
 present before. 
 
 “I can only say that I am perfectly delighted, and that 
 this reminder of real friendliness comes to me at a time 
 when my surroundings do not indicate that all friendship 
 is sincere and disinterested. I thank you from the bottom 
 of my heart.” 
 
 Cleveland took his second oath as President with the 
 ground white with snow. Before him spread an audi¬ 
 ence in which appeared at points the glint of Indian 
 costumes, denoting not real red men but Tammany tigers. 
 Led by Richard Croker and other of Mr. Cleveland’s 
 ancient opponents, Tammany, for the moment, celebrated 
 Cleveland’s return. 
 
 As he faced the sea of upturned faces awaiting his 
 inaugural address, he boldly resumed the topic which 
 four years earlier had caused his defeat. “The verdict 
 of our voters which condemns the injustice of maintain¬ 
 ing protection for protection’s sake,” he declared, “en¬ 
 joins upon the people’s servants the duty of exposing 
 and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are the 
 unwholesome progeny of paternalism.” The fact that in 
 his message of 1887 he had doomed himself and his party 
 to defeat by a frank avowal of the same view, induced 
 no caution. To his mind, personal or party defeats were 
 merely incidents in the operation of great forces. It was 
 his intention to bring about a sweeping reform of the 
 tariff, and his method was to let the country know it 
 at the earliest possible moment. 
 
 To those Democrats who despite his previous utter¬ 
 ances still hoped that Grover Cleveland would promise 
 to “do something for silver,” he presented an uncompro¬ 
 mising front. And he as frankly disappointed those who 
 
IO 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 had ventured to suggest that he would “soft-pedal” when 
 touching questions of wastefulness, civil service, and pen¬ 
 sion reform. 
 
 His speech was a reiteration of his past speeches. 
 Four years’ relief from executive cares had altered none 
 of his fundamental conceptions. Simply, frankly, and 
 uncompromisingly, he declared not new views but old: 
 “Nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation . . . 
 than a sound and stable currency”; “the injustice of main¬ 
 taining protection for protection’s sake”; “a challenge 
 of wild and reckless pension expenditures”; “the waste 
 of public money is a crime”; “to secure the fitness and 
 competency of appointees to office and remove from po¬ 
 litical action the demoralizing madness of spoils”; “legit¬ 
 imate strife in business should not be superseded by an 
 enforced concession to the demands of combinations that 
 have the power to destroy.” 
 
 The address made a profound impression in Europe. 
 The President of the Paris Council caused extracts from 
 it to be printed for use in the public schools of France, 
 and the Papal Nuncio declared that it was: “One of the 
 grandest spectacles of modern times to see the head of 
 a great nation inculcate such lessons of morality and prac¬ 
 tical religion.” 
 
 No sooner was the ceremony of inauguration over 
 than Mr. Cleveland encountered, with regard to almost 
 every article of his creed, bitter and determined oppo¬ 
 sition, not only from the Republicans, but from his 
 own party as well. In the lower House, which had been 
 elected under the same popular inspiration which had 
 restored him, the adverse current remained within 
 bounds, thanks to the high-minded leadership of Mr. 
 Wilson, of West Virginia, and many of his efforts to 
 carry out the promises made to the people found a fair 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN II 
 
 degree of party support. But the Democratic contingent 
 of the Senate was controlled by men who hated Cleveland 
 and spared no pains to block his measures. To such 
 opposition the Republicans gave assistance, for to them 
 Grover Cleveland was only the first successful leader of 
 Democracy since the small years of the century, and 
 their business was to add party opposition to personal 
 opposition, that the days of his power might prove as 
 few as possible. 
 
 Thus the new President soon saw that his expected 
 majority in the Senate was not to be realized. He was, 
 in short, in the unenviable position of a leader deter¬ 
 mined to lead, at the head of a band of followers who 
 refused to follow, and this at a time when the situation 
 was most perplexing and difficult. 
 
 His party was pledged to tariff reform, but there 
 seemed little chance of securing it in the face of such a 
 combination. Civil service, too, was part of its promise 
 to the people, but the Democratic leaders, with reform 
 ardor cooled by victory, found satisfying absolution in 
 the fact that the Republicans had packed the federal 
 offices with their henchmen as rapidly as vacancies had 
 occurred, thus restoring the inequality which had pre¬ 
 vailed for a quarter of a century before Mr. Cleveland’s 
 coming. 
 
 To upset this iniquitous situation, so at variance with 
 the will of the people as expressed in the recent elec¬ 
 tions, they boldly declared a necessary preliminary to 
 real reform. They pointed out the fact that of the 
 200,000 employees in the civil service of the United States 
 only 43,000 were classified according to the rules of civil 
 service reform, and that of this 43,000 a large percentage 
 were but examples of how a defeated party can, in the 
 last few hours of its power, use civil service reform laws 
 
12 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 1 
 
 to furnish permanent berths for its members. Particu¬ 
 larly did they denounce Amended Postal Rule No. i, 
 signed by President Harrison two months before his re¬ 
 tirement, which brought some 7,500 federal employees 
 of the free delivery post-offices within the protection of 
 the civil service laws. 
 
 “This is perhaps the most important extension that 
 has ever taken place under the civil service law,” runs 
 the Commissioners’ annual report, signed by Theodore 
 Roosevelt and Charles Lyman. “ ... It is needless to 
 point out the very great benefit conferred upon the public 
 at large and upon the cause of decent politics by this 
 extension of the classified service.” 
 
 Doubtless Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Lyman were sin¬ 
 cere in this opinion, but the minority report signed by 
 the third Commissioner, George D. Johnston, gave a 
 different interpretation, and one more favorable to the 
 case of Democratic politicians desirous of removals. 
 Writing to President Cleveland, on November 21, 1893, 
 Johnston declared the action the very opposite of reform: 
 “The extension of the classified service does not of ne¬ 
 cessity mean civil service reform. . . . When such an 
 extension is ordered by an administration and goes into 
 effect shortly before the government is turned over to an¬ 
 other administration of different political faith and party 
 affiliation, known to be friendly to the cause of civil 
 service reform, it is difficult to reconcile it to fair-minded 
 men of all parties as a non-partisan measure.” 
 
 While inclined to accept the minority interpretation, 
 Mr. Cleveland showed his confidence in Theodore Roose¬ 
 velt by the announcement that he would be retained as 
 Civil Service Commissioner, and this decision was hailed 
 with enthusiasm by the reformers of both parties. Carl 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 13 
 
 Schurz declared it “A great event, and in itself a large 
 program for the next four years.” 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt fully agreed with the President’s view 
 that “public office is a public trust,” but, being far more 
 ardent in his desire to hold public office, was far more 
 active in seeking it. “He who has not wealth owes his 
 first duty to his family,” he once declared, “but he who 
 has means owes his to the State.” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, on the other hand, believed that a 
 citizen should not court public place. The Inter-Ocean, 
 of May 3, 1903, recalls a conversation between him and 
 Mr. Roosevelt shortly after the latter’s reappointment as 
 Civil Service Commissioner. To the question, “Do you 
 intend to remain active in politics?” Mr. Roosevelt re¬ 
 turned an instant affirmative. “I am sorry to hear it,” 
 Mr. Cleveland replied. “It is enough to be a good 
 citizen.” 
 
 But though anxious to retain Roosevelt’s services, 
 Mr. Cleveland had no intention of allowing any one ele¬ 
 ment, even the civil service reformers, to run the govern¬ 
 ment. He believed that the Democrats, as the victorious 
 party commissioned by the people, were entitled to con¬ 
 trol, and he did not scruple to appoint competent Demo¬ 
 crats, chiefly because they were Democrats. Nor did he 
 hesitate to appoint competent Republicans, whatever the 
 opposition, when the situation demanded it. Incompe¬ 
 tent candidates, whether Democrats or Republicans, he 
 stoutly refused to appoint, however great the political 
 pressure back of their applications. He was, moreover, 
 always ready to correct injustice when convinced that in¬ 
 justice had been done, as is shown by the following cor¬ 
 respondence between Mark Twain and the President’s 
 daughter Ruth, aged one. 
 
14 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 “My dear Ruth, 
 
 “I belong to the mugwumps, and one of the most 
 sacred rules of our order prevents us from asking favors 
 of officials or recommending men to office, but there is 
 no harm in writing a friendly letter to you and telling 
 you that an infernal outrage is about to be committed 
 by your father in turning out of office the best consul 
 I know [Captain Mason, Consul General at Frankfort] 
 (and I know a great many) just because he is a Republi¬ 
 can and a Democrat wants his place.” 
 
 Mr. Clemens then related what he knew of Captain 
 Mason and his official record, and continued: 
 
 “I can’t send any message to the President, but the 
 next time you have a talk with him concerning such mat¬ 
 ters, I wish you would tell him about Captain Mason 
 and what I think of a government that so treats its effi¬ 
 cient officials.” 
 
 Three or four weeks later Mr. Clemens received a 
 tiny envelope postmarked Washington, in which was a 
 note, written in President Cleveland’s own hand. It 
 read: 
 
 “Miss Ruth Cleveland begs to acknowledge the re¬ 
 ceipt of Mr. Twain’s letter, and to say that she took the 
 liberty of reading it to the President, who desires her to 
 thank Mr. Twain for his information and to say to him 
 that Captain Mason will not be disturbed in the Frank¬ 
 fort Consulate. The President also desires Miss Cleve¬ 
 land to say that if Mr. Twain knows of any other cases 
 of this kind he would be greatly obliged if he will write 
 him concerning them at his earliest convenience.” 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 15 
 
 But despite his readiness to accept advice from dis¬ 
 interested sources, Mr. Cleveland took every step possi¬ 
 ble to strip from Congressmen and Senators the harness 
 by which they were accustomed to draw the chariot of 
 the spoils system. To this end, and to the indignation 
 of Senators with expectant officials in tow, he issued the 
 following executive order: 
 
 Executive Mansion, 
 
 May 8 , 1893. 
 
 It has become apparent after two months’ experience 
 that the rules heretofore promulgated regulating inter¬ 
 views with the President have wholly failed in opera¬ 
 tion. The time which under those rules was set apart 
 for the reception of senators and representatives has been 
 spent almost entirely in listening to applications for office, 
 which have been bewildering in volume, perplexing and 
 exhausting in their iteration, and impossible of remem¬ 
 brance. 
 
 A due regard for public duty, which must be neg¬ 
 lected if present conditions continue, and an observance 
 of the limitations placed upon human endurance oblige 
 me to decline from and after this date all personal inter¬ 
 views with those seeking appointments to office, except 
 as I, on my own motion, may especially invite them. . . . 
 
 I earnestly request senators and representatives to aid 
 me in securing for them uninterrupted interviews by de¬ 
 clining to introduce their constituents and friends when 
 visiting the executive mansion during the hours desig¬ 
 nated for their reception. Applicants for office will only 
 prejudice their prospects by repeated importunities and 
 by remaining at Washington to await results. 
 
 This did not, of course, solve the problem, but it did 
 something to relieve the strain, leaving him a little freer 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 '16 
 
 to follow his conscience in matters which the Constitu¬ 
 tion had made his responsibility. 
 
 During the remainder of his term he worked slowly 
 toward the ideal of the reformers, and by the end the 
 42,950 classified officers mentioned in the Commissioners’ 
 tenth annual report had grown into 84,000, while only 100 
 civil servants at the National Capitol were outside the 
 graded service. 
 
 But the outstanding conflict of Mr. Cleveland’s first 
 year of restored power was not civil service but currency 
 reform, the state of the nation’s circulating medium when 
 President Harrison surrendered the reins of government 
 making prompt action imperative. The situation which 
 culminated in the panic of 1893 had begun, long before 
 Mr. Cleveland’s restoration, with a widespread business 
 prostration, the responsibility for which he laid at the 
 door of those who had yielded to the oft-repeated plea: 
 “Do something for silver.” During his first term he had 
 made clear his attitude toward what he called “the free 
 silver heresy,” and through his Secretary of the Treas¬ 
 ury, Daniel Manning, had devoted himself whole-heart¬ 
 edly to conserving the gold balance in the Treasury. He 
 had suspended for a time the bond purchases, discon¬ 
 tinued the issue of $1 and $2 greenbacks, in order to 
 increase the demand for silver certificates, and had sold 
 to New York City bankers $5,915,000 worth of subsidiary 
 silver coin, receiving gold in payment. These measures 
 he had taken by executive action alone, existing condi¬ 
 tions not being serious enough to justify an extra session 
 of Congress. 
 
 In his first message, he had denounced the existing 
 silver purchase law, the Bland-Allison Act in these 
 words: 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 17 
 
 “Since February, 1878, the government has under the 
 compulsory provisions of law purchased silver bullion 
 and coined the same at the rate of more than $2,000,000 
 every month. By this process up to the present date, 
 21 5,759,43 1 silver dollars have been coined. . . . Only 
 about 50,000,000 of the silver dollars so coined have actu¬ 
 ally found their way into circulation, leaving more than 
 165,000,000 in the possession of the government, the cus¬ 
 tody of which has entailed a considerable expense for the 
 construction of vaults for its deposit. Against this latter 
 amount there are outstanding silver certificates amount¬ 
 ing to about $93,000,000. 
 
 “Every month two millions of gold . . . are paid out 
 for two millions of silver dollars, to be added to the 
 idle mass already accumulated. 
 
 “If continued long enough, this operation will result 
 in the substitution of silver for all the gold the govern¬ 
 ment owns applicable to its general purposes. 
 
 “It will not do to rely upon the customs receipts of 
 the government to make good this drain of gold, because 
 the silver thus coined having been made legal tender for 
 all debts and dues, public and private, at times during 
 the last six months, 58% of the receipts for duties has 
 been in silver or silver certificates, while the average 
 within that period has been 20%. 
 
 “This proportion . . . will probably increase as time 
 goes on, for the reason that the nearer the period ap¬ 
 proaches when it will be obliged to offer silver in pay¬ 
 ment of its obligations, the greater inducement there will 
 be to hoard gold against depreciation in the value of 
 silver or for the purpose of speculating. 
 
 “This hoarding of gold has already begun. 
 
 “When the time comes that gold has been withdrawn 
 from circulation, then will be apparent the difference 
 
i8 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 between the real value of the silver dollar and a dollar 
 in gold, and the two coins will part company. Gold, still 
 the standard of value and necessary in our dealings with 
 other countries, will be at a premium over silver; banks 
 which have substituted gold for the deposits of their cus¬ 
 tomers may pay them with silver . . . thus making a 
 handsome profit; rich speculators will sell their hoarded 
 gold to their neighbors who need it to liquidate their 
 foreign debts, at a ruinous premium over silver, and the 
 laboring men and women of the land, most defenceless 
 of all, will find that the dollar received for the wages 
 of their toil has sadly shrunk in its purchasing power. 
 
 “If this silver coinage be continued, we may reason¬ 
 ably expect that gold and its equivalent will abandon 
 the field of circulation to silver alone. This, of course, 
 must produce a severe contraction of our circulating me¬ 
 dium, instead of adding to it. 
 
 “It will not be disputed that any attempt ... to 
 cause the circulation of silver dollars worth 80 cents side 
 by side with gold dollars worth ioo cents ... to be suc¬ 
 cessful must be seconded by the confidence of the people 
 that both coins will retain the same purchasing power 
 and be interchangeable at will.” 
 
 He was willing to concede that, with the concurrent 
 action of the other great nations, the problem of maintain¬ 
 ing a set ratio between gold and silver would present a dif¬ 
 ferent aspect; but all efforts in that direction had failed, 
 “and still we continue our coinage of silver at a ratio 
 different from that of any other nation. . . . Without an 
 ally or friend we battle upon the silver field in an illogi¬ 
 cal and losing contest.” 
 
 He reminded Congress that the five countries com¬ 
 posing the Latin Union had not only refused, as had the 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 19 
 
 leading countries of Europe, to join in a movement to 
 maintain a fixed ratio between gold and silver, but had 
 “just completed an agreement among themselves that no 
 more silver shall be coined by their respective govern¬ 
 ments and that such as has been already coined . . . 
 shall be redeemed in gold by the country of its coinage.” 
 
 Such conditions, he concluded, make it the duty of 
 the President to “recommend the suspension of the com¬ 
 pulsory coinage of silver dollars, directed by the law 
 passed in February, 1878.” This recommendation had, 
 however, not been heeded, and the mints had continued 
 to turn out silver dollars, a large percentage of whose 
 declared value was merely psychological. By Decem¬ 
 ber, 1886, there were in circulation 247,131,549 of these 
 dollars, worth barely seventy-eight cents each. 
 
 By 1890 Mr. Cleveland’s dire prophecies had begun 
 to be realized. Prosperity was giving place to hard 
 times. Cautious men were unloading securities, and 
 values had begun to shrivel in the hands of holders. Dur¬ 
 ing the first six months of 1890 the mortgages of over a 
 score of railroad companies were foreclosed, and the 
 Barings’s collapse in England later in the year caused 
 widespread consternation. 
 
 Then there had appeared again, with their customary 
 attendant disasters, two ancient heresies: the first, that 
 when business languishes the enactment of a high tariff 
 law will restore prosperity and bring financial stability. 
 But the McKinley tariff, with its unprecedented protec¬ 
 tive features, failed to accomplish this result. 
 
 The other delusion is to the effect that a sure remedy 
 for failing confidence and hard times may be found in 
 a sudden increase in the volume of money, irrespective 
 of the foundations upon which that volume rests. This 
 remedy was also applied in 1890 by the enactment of the 
 
20 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 so-called Sherman Act, which made it imperative for the 
 Treasury Department to purchase 4^ million ounces of 
 silver each month. But the business decline was not 
 stopped by the operation of the Sherman Act. On the 
 contrary, those monthly purchases of silver only added to 
 existing uncertainties the portentous question whether, if 
 the issues of the government against silver purchases were 
 continued, it would be possible to maintain the parity 
 between gold and silver which the law required. 
 
 When retiring from office, at the end of his first term, 
 Mr. Cleveland had turned over to Harrison a cash bal¬ 
 ance of $281,000,000 of which $196,689,614 was in gold. 
 From Harrison he received back in 1893 only $ II2 r 
 450,577 of which only $103,500,000 was in gold; and this 
 gold reserve would certainly have been below the $100,- 
 000,000 mark, the point fixed by the act of July 12, 1882, 
 as the danger point, had not Secretary Foster during 
 January and February, 1893, obtained several millions 
 in gold from greenbacks sold to New York bankers, with 
 the definite purpose of keeping the gold reserve secure, 
 at least until the end of his period of direct responsibility. 
 By such a makeshift, Foster had managed to keep the 
 gold reserve within the $100,000,000 limit, but, as Mr. 
 Cleveland clearly understood, now must come the deluge, 
 unless he could find some way to check the financial 
 forces which had so disturbed the last days of the Harri¬ 
 son administration. 
 
 Even before the repeal of the Sherman Law, far¬ 
 sighted financiers had foreseen the necessity of issuing 
 bonds in purchase of gold, if the gold standard was to 
 endure, for they felt certain that it was hopeless to look 
 to Congress for legislation sufficient to stem the tide 
 which was setting so hard toward the disaster of a silver 
 basis. 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 21 
 
 On February 28, 1893, August Belmont had written 
 to the President-elect: “I have cabled to London very 
 fully and hope for a reply which will enable me to bring 
 before you the basis of an actual plan. The more I think 
 the subject over, the more fully satisfied I am that not 
 only will it be best to sell $50 million of bds., but it is 
 essential that they should be sold abroad if they are to 
 serve the purpose at all. ... I am going to work to 
 sound the Bank Presidents. I have two supporters al¬ 
 ready. Of course I have betrayed nothing. 
 
 “The difficulty is there is not ‘anything in it’ so to 
 speak for the Banks in my plan.” 
 
 Inauguration day found the President still searching 
 a solution other than the issuance of bonds in time of 
 peace. 
 
 “In our effort to meet the emergency without an issue 
 of bonds,” he wrote in after years, “Secretary Carlisle 
 immediately applied to banks in different localities for 
 an exchange with the government of a portion of their 
 holdings of gold coin for other forms of currency. The 
 effect was so far successful that on the twenty-fifth of 
 March the gold reserve amounted to over $107,000,000, 
 notwithstanding the fact that considerable withdrawals 
 had been made in the interval. 
 
 “The slight betterment thus secured proved, however, 
 to be only temporary; for under the stress of continued 
 and augmented withdrawals, the gold reserve, on the 
 twenty-second day of April, 1893, for the first time since 
 its establishment, was reduced below the $100,000,000 
 limit—amounting on that day to about $97,000,000.” 
 
 While this fact, which a generation of financiers had 
 learned to couple with thoughts of inevitable financial 
 collapse, was not followed by any sudden and distinctly 
 new disaster, it had the effect of increasing the hoarding 
 
22 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 of gold and its exportation. Furthermore, gold almost 
 ceased to come into the Federal Treasury through cus¬ 
 toms and other revenue charges. 
 
 During the anxious weeks in which the President had 
 been seeking a remedy which would check these inroads 
 upon the gold reserve, and avert disaster, he had let it be 
 known that suggestions from men skilled in currency 
 questions would be welcome, and advice now came in 
 a deluge from men urging action, from men urging cau¬ 
 tion, from silver men, gold men, bimetallists, special 
 pleaders for every conceivable type of currency reform. 
 Henry Clews, an eminent figure in the world of finance, 
 called the President’s attention to the fact that “eighty- 
 three cents per ounce or thereabouts in New York and 
 thirty-eight pence in London is now recognized as the 
 world’s value for silver, being equal to in the neighbor¬ 
 hood of twenty-five silver to one gold,” and suggested 
 that if the government would recoin its silver, allowing 
 such a ratio, “silver certificates or silver coin dollars 
 will be of equal value to gold certificates or gold coin 
 dollars.” 
 
 Mr. Clews also contributed a summary of facts re¬ 
 garding the existing currency: “There are now outstand¬ 
 ing $346,000,000 of U. S. legal tender notes (called 
 greenbacks), $328,226,504 legal tender treasury notes 
 issued under the Bland Act, and $135,490,148 of notes 
 issued under the Sherman 1890 Act, making in all $809,- 
 716,652. All these notes are direct obligations of the 
 government, all possess the legal tender quality alike; 
 the three different acts authorizing their issue specify 
 that they are payable at the U. S. Treasury in coin. 
 
 “Since the resumption of gold payments these notes 
 have all been treated alike and have been redeemed in 
 gold coin, not silver. Now it is feared that Secretary Car- 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 2 J 
 
 lisle intends to change their present status into two classes 
 —the $346,000,000 greenbacks to remain as gold notes, 
 and the $328,226,504 Bland notes, together with the 
 $135,490,148 issued under the Sherman Act, to be recog¬ 
 nized as silver obligations.” 
 
 As the Sherman Act allowed the Secretary of the 
 Treasury to redeem the notes issued in payment of this 
 silver bullion “in gold or silver coin at his discretion,” 
 it would have been easy to establish the policy of pay¬ 
 ing them in silver, even to holders desiring gold, but 
 for the fact that the law declared it the established policy 
 of the United States to maintain the two metals at a 
 parity. 
 
 This clause, to quote Mr. Cleveland, “had the effect 
 of transferring the discretion of determining whether 
 these Treasury notes should be redeemed in gold or silver 
 from the Secretary of the Treasury to the holder of the 
 notes. Manifestly, in the face of this assertion of the 
 government’s intention, a demand for gold redemption 
 on the part of the holders of such notes could not be 
 refused, and the acceptance of silver dollars insisted 
 upon, without either subjecting to doubt the good faith 
 and honest intention of the government’s professions, or 
 creating a suspicion of our country’s solvency. The 
 parity . . . would be distinctly denied, if the Secretary 
 of the Treasury persisted in redeeming these notes, 
 against the will of the holders, in dollars of silver instead 
 of gold.” 
 
 At this point, the rumor was circulated that Secretary 
 Carlisle was nevertheless planning so to redeem them. 
 At once financial circles poured in upon the President a 
 flood of protest. 
 
 “The report . . . has created very grave alarm here,” 
 wrote L. Clarke Davis from Philadelphia. “I have just 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 24 
 
 received a letter from a leading banker, your friend Mr. 
 Drexel, who . . . says: ‘If the arrangement is made that 
 the silver notes will only be paid in silver the result will 
 be that all public dues will be gradually paid in those 
 notes, in which case where will the gold accrue from to 
 pay the gold interest on the public debt, as the receipts 
 of the Sub-Treasury will all be in silver? The feeling 
 here is (in which I cordially join) that it will be far bet¬ 
 ter to encroach upon the hundred million reserve if the 
 department is not willing to sell bonds abroad.’ ” 
 
 A few hours before this letter was received, Secre¬ 
 tary Carlisle issued a statement, designed but not calcu¬ 
 lated to relieve the public mind of doubt in this impor¬ 
 tant regard. It was so ambiguous as to increase rather 
 than to quiet public apprehension, and made it necessary 
 for the President himself to declare publicly that gold 
 payments would continue so long as he remained Presi¬ 
 dent. A letter from Andrew Carnegie, written two days 
 after Carlisle’s announcement, strongly urged this course: 
 
 “Let me assure you that in my opinion the decision 
 to pay notes in gold saved this country from panic and 
 entire confusion in its industrial interests. From my own 
 experience I can tell you that foreigners had taken alarm 
 and had begun to withdraw their capital in gold. Unless 
 all doubt is put to rest, there is still great danger of the 
 country being drained of its gold.” 
 
 He urged the President to make a public declaration. 
 “If I might suggest,” he said, “the announcement should 
 be somewhat like the following: ‘As long as I am Presi¬ 
 dent of the United States, the workingman is going to 
 be paid in as good dollars as the foreign banker is.’ ” 
 Such a statement would be “good politics,” he said, and 
 added: “I have spoken to many Republicans, and with¬ 
 out exception they agree that in standing for sound 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 25 
 
 money, and the parity of gold and silver, you will receive 
 almost the unanimous support of the Republican party.” 
 
 On April 2d the President’s public declaration 
 was issued, in the spirit though not in the words which 
 Mr. Carnegie had suggested: 
 
 “The inclination on the part of the public to accept 
 newspaper reports concerning the intentions of those 
 charged with the management of our national finances, 
 seems to justify my emphatic contradiction of the state¬ 
 ment that the redemption of any kind of Treasury notes, 
 except in gold, has at any time been determined upon 
 or contemplated by the Secretary of the Treasury or any 
 other member of the present Administration. 
 
 “The President and his Cabinet are absolutely har¬ 
 monious in the determination to exercise every power 
 conferred upon them to maintain the public credit, to 
 keep the public faith and to preserve the parity between 
 gold and silver and between all financial obligations of 
 the Government. . . 
 
 Such a declaration of executive intention, however, 
 the President knew to be vain unless Congress could be 
 induced to alter the laws responsible for the nation’s 
 financial plight, and the repeal of the Sherman Law thus 
 became the first item on his program. This meant, of 
 course, a special session of Congress, for which the sound 
 money men of both parties and the general public were 
 clamoring. 
 
 On May 12th, Carl Schurz wrote: “Before leaving 
 Washington I had a conversation with Secretary Carlisle 
 about the financial situation, in the course of which he 
 expressed himself as more and more inclined to think 
 that the earliest possible calling together of Congress— 
 
26 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 earlier than September—would be advisable. I am very 
 much of the same opinion. The financial situation of 
 the country is becoming more critical every day. The 
 failures and restrictions of credit which have already 
 occurred are only a premonitory symptom. Whatever 
 measures the Executive alone can take, will only be pal¬ 
 liatives, temporary makeshifts. I fear you take too great 
 a responsibility upon yourself for what may happen 
 if the meeting of Congress is put off unnecessarily 
 long.” 
 
 August Belmont warned him of confidential news 
 from England to the effect that the Indian mints were 
 about to be closed to silver. “The race between India 
 and the United States to get upon dry ground first,” he 
 said, “is all in favor of India, unless we act with the 
 greatest promptitude.” 
 
 Harvey Fisk and Sons issued a circular letter declar¬ 
 ing “the actual intrinsic value of our present silver dol¬ 
 lar is but fifty-three cents and growing less each day. 
 Still this great American nation is obliged to calmly face 
 inevitable ruin—the sweeping away of far more wealth 
 than was involved in the great war between the North 
 and the South, simply "because its representatives are not 
 called together, in accordance with the authority vested 
 in its Chief Executive, and forced to remove from the 
 Statute Books the law which is eating away the vitals 
 of American honesty.” 
 
 Hundreds of resolutions to the same effect were passed 
 by chambers of commerce, business men’s clubs, bankers’ 
 associations, churches, congresses of voters, mass meet¬ 
 ings, etc., and sent by telegram, by special messenger, by 
 solemn delegation. They warned, they coaxed, they 
 threatened; but they did not cause the President to act 
 hastily. 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 27 
 
 On June 4th, however, Mr. Cleveland intimated to 
 a representative of the United Press that Congress would 
 be speedily summoned and asked to stop the silver pur¬ 
 chases. Again his letter pouch jumped to twice its nor¬ 
 mal size. Again prophecies of calamity came from free 
 silver men, again gold men praised him for his sane finan¬ 
 cial views and clamored for the program of reform. 
 
 At this point, the President suddenly faced the ap¬ 
 palling discovery that a virulent growth in the roof of 
 his mouth menaced him with death unless an operation 
 were immediately performed. Dr. W. W. Keen gives 
 this account of the case: “On Sunday,-June 18, 1893, Dr. 
 R. M. O’Reilly—later Surgeon-General of the United 
 States Army—the official medical attendant on officers 
 of the government in Washington, examined a rough 
 place on the roof of Mr. Cleveland’s mouth. He found 
 an ulcer as large as a quarter of a dollar, extending from 
 the molar teeth to within one third of an inch of the 
 middle line, and encroaching slightly on the soft palate, 
 and some diseased bone.” 
 
 A small fragment was subjected to the scrutiny of a 
 pathologist and pronounced strongly indicative of ma¬ 
 lignancy. The President’s personal physician and inti¬ 
 mate friend, Dr. Joseph D. Bryant, was therefore sum¬ 
 moned to Washington and, after a careful examination 
 of the malignant area, urged an immediate operation. 
 The President accepted the verdict, but insisted that abso¬ 
 lute secrecy be observed, as he feared the effect which 
 an announcement of his peril might have upon the already 
 alarming financial situation. 
 
 With this in view, it was decided that the operation 
 should be performed on Commodore Benedict’s yacht, 
 the Oneida, in which Mr. Cleveland had already traveled 
 over fifty thousand miles, and which he could therefore 
 
28 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 board without arousing suspicion. As Dr. Bryant was 
 of the opinion that he ought to be in condition to return 
 to Washington within about five weeks after the opera¬ 
 tion, Mr. Cleveland prepared a proclamation summon¬ 
 ing Congress to meet in special session on August 7th, to 
 consider the repeal of the Sherman Law; and on the day 
 of its publication, June 30, 1893, with every precaution 
 for secrecy, he joined his surgeons on the Oneida in New 
 York Harbor. 
 
 “I reached New York City in the evening,” writes 
 Dr. Keen, “went to Pier A, and was taken over to the 
 yacht, which was lying at anchor at a considerable dis¬ 
 tance from the Battery. Dr. E. G. Janeway, of New 
 York; Dr. O’Reilly; Dr. John F. Erdmann, Dr. Bryant’s 
 assistant; and Dr. Hasbrouck had also secretly gone to 
 the yacht. The President, Dr. Bryant and Secretary La- 
 mont, at a later hour, arrived from Washington, and 
 openly drove to Pier A, whence they were taken to the 
 yacht. . . . On arriving on the yacht, the President 
 lighted a cigar, and we sat on deck smoking and chatting 
 until near midnight. Once he burst out with, ‘Oh, Doctor 
 Keen, those office seekers! Those office seekers! They 
 haunt me in my dreams!’ ” 
 
 For the time at least he was secure from their intru¬ 
 sion. Early the next morning, the Oneida weighed anchor 
 and proceeded at half speed up the East River, the Presi¬ 
 dent, under nitrous oxide, stretched upon the operating 
 table, the doctors performing the extremely delicate oper¬ 
 ation of removing “the entire left upper jaw . . . from 
 the first bicuspid tooth to just beyond the last molar, and 
 nearly up to the middle line. ... A small portion of 
 the soft palate was removed” also. 
 
 The operation was performed without external inci¬ 
 sion, and was completed at 1.55 P.M. “At 2.55 P.M. a 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 29 
 
 hypodermic of one sixth of a grain of morphine was 
 given—the only narcotic administered at any time.” 
 
 Five days later the Oneida dropped anchor at Gray 
 Gables, and the patient walked from the launch to his 
 residence with little apparent effort. 
 
 A second slight operation twelve days later, and the 
 surgical work was over. Dr. Kasson C. Gibson, of New 
 York, then fitted Mr. Cleveland with an artificial jaw 
 of vulcanized rubber and “when it was in place the Presi¬ 
 dent’s speech was excellent, even its quality not being 
 altered.” “He was,” concludes Dr. Keen’s interesting 
 monograph, “the most docile and courageous patient I 
 ever had the pleasure of attending.” 
 
 Upon this point there appears a difference of opinion. 
 In an intimate letter to Colonel Lamont, Dr. Bryant la¬ 
 ments the President’s tendency to disobey orders regard¬ 
 ing the medicines prescribed: “I . . . found him grunt¬ 
 ing as you know full well, suffering from an excess of 
 medicine rather than the lack of it. He always believes 
 that if a little will do some good, a bottle full must be 
 of great advantage indeed. On that theory he had se¬ 
 cured the full effects of the prescription I sent him, as 
 well as some after effects.” 
 
 To this we may add his wife’s view of his docility 
 as later expressed in a letter to Mrs. Joseph Jefferson: 
 “H e is hard at work on his letters. It is so dreadfully 
 hard to do anything with him. This morning when no 
 one noticed he got a peach and ate it. Wouldn’t you 
 think a child would have more sense after the narrow 
 escape he had?” 
 
 In memory of his insubordination, Commodore Bene¬ 
 dict sent him the following lines, which he greatly 
 enjoyed: 
 
30 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 “Friday sorry, yet defiant, 
 
 Next day, send for Doctor Bryant.” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, however, defended his defiance with 
 the words: “I am not so dreadfully heedless of the care 
 I owe myself (for others’ sake) as is suspected of me; 
 and touching the Doctor’s accusation of indiscretion, is 
 it not in the very nature of faithful, devoted, and anxious 
 medical ministrations to find patients indiscreet?” 
 
 At times also he expressed misgivings regarding the 
 science of healing. To Richard Watson Gilder he gave 
 the following enigmatical advice: “I hope that either 
 by following your Doctor’s directions or defiantly dis¬ 
 obeying them (the chances probably being even in both 
 contingencies), you will soon regain your very best estate 
 in the matter of health. Don’t forget at any time—what¬ 
 ever you do—that ‘good men are scarce.’ ” 
 
 But though the President’s docility is thus called into 
 question, none can doubt the justice of Dr. Keen’s second 
 attribute—that of courage. Terribly weakened by loss 
 of blood, and believing himself still under the shadow 
 of death, Mr. Cleveland strove to prepare a message 
 for the pending special session of Congress. For some 
 time after the operation he received no visitors, until, 
 in view of the menacing condition of national finances, 
 he admitted Secretary Olney, who in a brief memoran¬ 
 dum gives the story of his part in the preparation of Mr. 
 Cleveland’s silver message: 
 
 “After an interval of a fortnight, more or less, during 
 which I made frequent attempts to see Mr. Cleveland, 
 I succeeded in having an interview. He had changed 
 a good deal in appearance, and lost a good deal of flesh, 
 and his mouth was so stuffed with antiseptic wads that he 
 could hardly articulate. The first utterance that I un¬ 
 derstood was something like this: ‘My God, Olney, they 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 31 
 
 nearly killed me.’ He did not talk much, was very much 
 depressed, and at the same time acted, and I believe felt, 
 as if he did not expect to recover.” 
 
 After a painful attempt to discuss with Mr. Olney 
 the great issue to be laid before the coming session, Mr. 
 Cleveland produced the manuscript of the message upon 
 which he was spending his remaining strength. 
 
 “There were perhaps twenty or thirty lines,” writes 
 Mr. Olney, “forming the first two paragraphs of the mes¬ 
 sage as eventually sent to Congress. He was very de¬ 
 pressed about the progress he was making and com¬ 
 plained that his mind would not work, and, upon my 
 suggestion that I might perhaps be of assistance, was 
 evidently much relieved. In the course of two or three 
 days I went to Gray Gables with a draft of a message, 
 which was approved by Mr. Cleveland practically as 
 drawn. ... So far as I know, Mr. Carlisle was the only 
 member of the Cabinet who saw the message before it 
 was sent in.” 
 
 A comparison of Mr. Olney’s draft with the message 
 as finally sent to Congress shows that only fifty-three lines 
 out of one hundred and seventy-eight were adapted from 
 the Olney draft. The body of the argument is clearly 
 the President’s own work and proves beyond question 
 that, despite his forlorn appearance, he was still deter¬ 
 mined to write his own state papers. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland reached Washington on August 3th, 
 prepared to give his personal direction to the launching 
 of the movement to repeal the Sherman Law. Among 
 his papers is a poll of Congress, name by name, designed 
 to inform him of their attitude. It shows 114 silver men, 
 173 anti-silver men, and 69 marked doubtful, and bears 
 testimony to the fact that he understood the very difficult 
 task which awaited him. 
 
32 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 His special message was read to Congress on August 
 8, 1893, and demanded “the prompt repeal of the pro¬ 
 visions of the act passed July 14, 1890, authorizing the 
 purchase of silver bullion.” It is a document difficult 
 to condense or epitomize, for it is itself an epitome, the 
 compact argument of a singularly concrete mind. It is 
 the case against free silver compressed into two thousand 
 words. 
 
 “Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result of 
 untoward events, nor of conditions related to our natural 
 resources, nor is it traceable to any of the afflictions which 
 frequently check national growth and prosperity. With 
 plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunera¬ 
 tive production and manufacture, with unusual invita¬ 
 tion to safe investment, and with satisfactory assurance 
 to business enterprise, suddenly financial distrust and fear 
 have sprung up on every side. Numerous moneyed in¬ 
 stitutions have suspended because abundant assets were 
 not immediately available to meet the demands of fright¬ 
 ened depositors. . . . These things are principally 
 chargeable to Congressional legislation touching the pur¬ 
 chase and coinage of silver by the general Government. 
 
 “Undoubtedly the monthly purchases by the Govern¬ 
 ment of 4,500,000 ounces of silver, enforced under that 
 statute, were regarded by those interested in silver pro¬ 
 duction as a certain guarantee of its increase in price. 
 The result, however, has been entirely different, for im¬ 
 mediately following a spasmodic and slight rise, the price 
 of silver began to fall after the passage of the act, and 
 has since reached the lowest point ever known. This 
 disappointing result has led to renewed and persistent 
 effort in the direction of free silver coinage. 
 
 “The policy necessarily adopted of paying these silver 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 33 
 
 notes in gold has not spared the gold reserve of $100,- 
 000,000 long ago set aside by the Government for the 
 redemption of other notes. . . . Between the first day of 
 July, 1890, and the 15th day of July, 1893, the gold coin 
 and bullion in our Treasury decreased more than 132 
 million dollars, while during the same period the silver 
 coin and bullion . . . increased more than a hundred 
 and forty-seven million. Unless Government bonds are 
 to be constantly issued and sold to replenish our exhausted 
 gold, only to be again exhausted, it is apparent that the 
 operation of the silver purchase law now in force leads 
 in the direction of the entire substitution of silver for 
 gold in the Government Treasury, and that this must 
 be followed by the payment of all Government obliga¬ 
 tions in depreciated silver. . . . Our Government cannot 
 make its fiat equivalent to intrinsic value, nor keep in¬ 
 ferior money on a parity with superior money. . . . 
 
 “The people of the United States are entitled to a 
 sound and stable currency, and to money recognized as 
 such on every exchange and in every market of the world. 
 Their government has no right to injure them by finan¬ 
 cial experiments opposed to the policy and practice of 
 other civilized states.” 
 
 Confidently, almost imperiously, in the interest of the 
 whole nation, the message demanded the repeal of the 
 Act of July 14, 1890, “condemned by the ordeal of three 
 years’ disastrous experience.” 
 
 The appearance of this Cleveland-Olney message 
 marks the stage in the silver conflict which placed Mr. 
 Cleveland and Mr. Bryan squarely before the country 
 as leaders of opposing factions in the Democratic party. 
 Bryan was at that time a member of the lower house, 
 elected as a Democrat, and abundantly willing to defend 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 34 
 
 the position that free silver was a proper article in the 
 Democratic creed. Until after the launching of the 
 Cleveland boom of 1892, he had been a consistent Cleve¬ 
 land man; but a change had recently taken place in his 
 attitude toward his party chief. In a letter to Jesse D. 
 Carr, dated May 22, 1903, Mr. Bryan wrote: 
 
 “I was an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Cleveland 
 in 1884 and in 1888. But between ’88 and ’92 I began 
 to study the money question, and when I came to under¬ 
 stand its principles, I became an opponent of Cleveland’s 
 renomination, but it required his second administration 
 to fully enlighten me upon the designs and methods of 
 Wall Street. I have no doubt from my observation of 
 his course that the financiers put up the money that se¬ 
 cured his nomination in 1892, and I know they furnished 
 large sums of money to secure his election. His Com¬ 
 mittee spent $900,000 in the state of New York and 
 among the contributors to his campaign fund was the 
 Sugar Trust which gave $175,000. 
 
 “When he made up his Cabinet he deliberately 
 ignored the silver men who represented the majority of 
 the voters, and put gold men into the Cabinet. When he 
 called Congress together in extraordinary session, he used 
 all the patronage in his possession to corrupt members 
 and he used important positions in the foreign service 
 to reward men who had betrayed their constituents. He 
 was completely dominated by the banking influence in 
 New York City.” 
 
 That “the interests” contributed largely to Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s campaign of 1892 is unquestionably true, but the 
 innuendo that Mr. Cleveland sold himself to Wall Street 
 in order to win his way back to the White House is not 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 35 
 
 justified by a single line of evidence, and is most unques¬ 
 tionably untrue. 
 
 Though his own acts were often unfairly criticized, 
 Mr. Cleveland himself habitually refrained from ascrib¬ 
 ing unworthy motives to his political opponents. “Be¬ 
 cause . . . views are various and conflicting, some of 
 them must be wrong,” he once wrote, “and yet when they 
 are honestly held and advocated, they should provoke no 
 bitterness nor condemnation.” He did not doubt Mr. 
 Bryan’s loyalty to the country, but he did not think that 
 this excused Mr. Bryan’s financial heresies. As he him¬ 
 self expressed it: “Patriotism is no substitute for a sound 
 currency.” He acknowledged that free silver men could 
 be loyal Americans, but he emphatically denied that they 
 could be real Democrats, for he read into the Democratic 
 party the principle of devotion to a currency system which 
 would force no American to accept as a dollar that which 
 was not intrinsically worth a dollar. 
 
 On August nth, Congressman Wilson, of West Vir¬ 
 ginia,-presented a bill to repeal the Sherman Law. With 
 unfortunate lack of skill, if the aim was to rally Demo¬ 
 crats, it was drawn in close imitation of a bill which 
 Senator Sherman had presented to the Senate on July 
 14, 1892, a fact which made it easier for free silver Demo¬ 
 crats to deny that it embodied Democratic doctrines. 
 
 Taking advantage of this fact, the free silver leader, 
 Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, offered a substitute look¬ 
 ing toward the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a 
 fixed ratio; and over these rival measures, both Demo¬ 
 cratic in origin, there began at once a fierce debate, dur¬ 
 ing which it speedily became evident that all calculations 
 based upon titular party labels in the House were likely 
 to prove misleading. Democrats who had been counted 
 upon at the beginning of the administration to support 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 36 
 
 the President, openly scorned his leadership, and the 
 Populists sympathized with their insurgency. Most of the 
 Republicans, on the other hand, showed marked sym¬ 
 pathy with him. Thus party lines, already wavering and 
 uncertain when the debate opened, grew more uncertain 
 as it continued. If the question of the repeal of the silver 
 purchase clause transcended old party lines, why might 
 not the larger question of free silver be made the basis 
 of new party lines? 
 
 That such a thought had entered Mr. Bryan’s mind at 
 an earlier date appears likely, and when he rose to speak, 
 on August 16th, the thought of the fate of silver ob¬ 
 literated all thought of the fate of the Democratic party. 
 Twice he had been elected to Congress as a Democrat, 
 and had there won the right to regard himself as the 
 man best fitted to lead the hosts of free silver. Richard 
 P. Bland was manifestly too old to head a new movement; 
 Grover Cleveland, the titular Democratic leader, did not 
 count, for he, according to Mr. Bryan’s judgment, had 
 betrayed the party, deserted the people, and joined with 
 the Israelites of Wall Street in the sacrilegious worship 
 of the Golden Calf. 
 
 For almost three hours Mr. Bryan occupied the floor, 
 the one hour limit allotted to each speaker being, by 
 common consent, extended in his case. The magic of his 
 personality, the unrivaled beauty of his voice, and the 
 compelling eloquence, which were later to charm mil¬ 
 lions, were fully in evidence. The inspiration which Mr. 
 Cleveland’s message lacked breathed in every sentence 
 of Mr. Bryan’s impassioned speech. But the evidence 
 of patient study and searching thought, which appears 
 in every line of the President’s argument, is missing from 
 the Congressman’s appeal. The one instructed the mind, 
 the other played upon the emotions; the one appealed 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 37 
 
 to reason, the other to sentiment; the one dealt in specific 
 facts, the other in vague generalizations. 
 
 “Does any one believe,” asked Mr. Bryan, “that Mr. 
 Cleveland could have been elected President upon a plat¬ 
 form declaring in favor of the unconditional repeal of 
 the Sherman Law? Can we go back to our people and 
 tell them that, after denouncing for twenty years the 
 crime of 1873, we have at last accepted it as a blessing?” 
 The answer to the first of these questions must remain 
 purely speculative, although Mr. Cleveland’s entire rec¬ 
 ord had been a prophecy of the action which he was now 
 taking, and if the voters of America had re-elected him in 
 ignorance of his views on the Sherman Law, theirs was 
 the fault, not his. As to the second question, the vote of 
 the House, on August 28, 1893, repealing the debated 
 clause by a majority of 239 to 109, answered it fully, mak¬ 
 ing it necessary for every Congressman to return to his 
 constituency with the news that Congress had agreed with 
 Grover Cleveland that the “crime of 1873” had been 
 but an example of sound finance. 
 
 On account of his weakened condition Mr. Cleveland 
 had remained only five days in Washington, returning to 
 Gray Gables on August nth, weary, but confident of 
 victory. When Congressman Wilson’s telegram arrived 
 announcing the vote of the House, he wired in return: 
 “Please accept for yourself and associates in to-day’s 
 achievement my hearty congratulations and sincere 
 thanks.” 
 
 To those who had closely followed the situation, how¬ 
 ever, it was evident that the victory was the President’s 
 victory. “The country,” wrote Jacob H. Schiff, on August 
 29th, “is to be congratulated that you, Mr. President, 
 while others doubted and despaired, did not falter, and 
 succeeded in carrying the adoption of the only measure 
 
38 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 which will restore the confidence at home and abroad 
 which the country so sorely needs.” 
 
 To the extreme silverites, however, the President’s 
 victory was susceptible only of sinister interpretation, 
 and it goaded them to excesses of denunciation. The 
 Rocky Mountain News of August 29, 1893, declared the 
 repeal “John Bull’s Work,” its headlines announcing that 
 “British Gold and Federal Patronage” had been used 
 “to bribe the American Congress.” Beneath the head¬ 
 line appeared a cartoon representing “Grover and J. 
 Bull,” unsteadily dancing together, with hands clasped 
 and thick voices roaring the gin-house melody, “We won’t 
 go home till morning.” 
 
 As the repeal had still to pass the Senate they again 
 spread, with an energy worthy of a better cause, the story 
 that Grover Cleveland was the hired agent of unscrupu¬ 
 lous manipulators bent upon enslaving the masses of the 
 United States. 
 
 Up to this time the secret of the President’s operation 
 had been kept from the press. But at this point appeared 
 an announcement, fairly accurate in detail, as to what had 
 transpired upon the Oneida , and though every effort was 
 made by the President’s friends to convince the public 
 that it had no foundation in fact, the report soon spread 
 over the country and to foreign lands. 
 
 On September 2d, Ambassador Bayard wrote to his 
 daughter: 
 
 “I have been all along since I came abroad uneasy, 
 feeling that all was not right with Mr. Cleveland. I have 
 written to him, but neither expected nor desired that he 
 should increase his labors by writing to me—but yester¬ 
 day an English newspaper contained a statement from a 
 surgeon dentist Dr. Hasbrouck detailing the very serious 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 39 
 
 surgical operation which had been performed upon his 
 mouth. I confess I bent my head and wept when I 
 thought of the pain he had suffered & the danger to the 
 country. 
 
 “Few know so well as I do the devotion of this plain 
 true man to his great duties—what energies—what toil, 
 what anxieties have been his in the high performance of 
 his duties—and at last his natural force has abated— 
 and his weak link in the chain of vitality has been 
 found. 
 
 “Oh how ineffably base, mean, cruel & poor have been 
 the assaults upon him—such wretched suspicions & sur¬ 
 mises, when all the while he was struggling with disease 
 & fighting the good fight for the welfare & honor of his 
 country. Dear soul! how my heart goes out to him & 
 how much I feel my absence from his side* 
 
 “I have just written to him what I feel about him, but 
 I am deeply concerned & distressed. This pending 
 issue of the currency is fraught with the most profound 
 & farreaching results. You may remember how for years 
 I have dinned it into the ears of those around me & how 
 little it seemed to be comprehended. Now the poison¬ 
 ous effects have been felt of a false assertion of values— 
 & it is to be hoped that the costly experience of this sum¬ 
 mer will bring men to their sober senses.—Should this 
 struggle cost Mr. Cleveland his life, & also eventuate 
 in the vindication of his wisdom & devotion he will be 
 glorified in men’s memories, & generations yet unborn 
 will rise up & call him blessed.” 
 
 * 
 
 Upon receipt of the letter mentioned by Mr. Bayard, 
 the President sent his Ambassador the following charac¬ 
 teristic compound of politics and family affairs: 
 
40 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Private 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 Sept ii, 1893. 
 
 My dear Mr Bayard: 
 
 I received to-day your letter of Sept 1st and thank 
 you for it as well as for two or three preceding it and 
 thus far unacknowledged. I especially want to thank 
 you for the splendid picture of yourself you sent. I think 
 it is the best and most faithful likeness I have ever seen. 
 
 I can well believe how interested you are in the sub¬ 
 ject just now occupying the time of the Senate. The 
 action of the House was wonderfully gratifying and the 
 majority we secured was beyond our expectations and to 
 me was a demonstration that behind these direct repre¬ 
 sentatives of the people there was a sentiment that actu¬ 
 ally drove them to duty. 
 
 The Senate is making a shameful display, but no one 
 doubts that we have a good sound majority when the vote 
 comes. With this conceded by all, the result hangs on, 
 keeping back the day of better things. I shall not be 
 much surprised however if the break occurs and a vote 
 is reached sooner than the most of us expect. Isn’t it 
 queer that Voorhees and Gorman should be the leaders 
 in a cause in which I am so vitally interested? “Strange 
 bedfellows!” They are I believe both working well but 
 every day is an anxious one for me, fearing that some¬ 
 thing may occur to distract time and attention, from the 
 pending topic. . . . 
 
 Day before yesterday (the 9th) my wife presented 
 me with what is always called I believe “a fine baby.” 
 It’s a little girl and they do say it’s a healthy one. The 
 mother is as well as she can be and Ruth thus far seems 
 to think the newcomer’s advent is a great joke. You were 
 only one of many who were trapped by a fool of a news- 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 
 
 4 1 
 
 paper man into the premature expression of kind con¬ 
 gratulation. I laid yours away and applied it to the event 
 of last Saturday. 
 
 The report you saw regarding my health resulted 
 from a most astounding breach of professional duty on 
 the part of a medical man. I tell you this in strict confi¬ 
 dence for the policy here has been to deny and discredit 
 his story. I believe the American public and newspapers 
 are not speculating further on the subject. 
 
 The truth is, office seeking and office seekers came 
 very near putting a period to my public career. What¬ 
 ever else developed found its opportunity in the weakened 
 walls of a constitution that had long withstood fierce at¬ 
 tacks. I turned the corner to the stage of enforced care¬ 
 taking almost in a day. And this must be hereafter the 
 condition on which will depend my health and life. An¬ 
 other phase of the situation cannot be spoken of with 
 certainty but I believe the chances in my favor are at 
 least even. 
 
 I have learned how weak the strongest man is under 
 God’s decrees and I see in a new light the necessity of 
 doing my allotted work in the full apprehension of the 
 coming night. 
 
 You must understand that I am regarded here as a 
 perfectly well man and the story of an important surgical 
 operation is thoroughly discredited. 
 
 I think I never looked better and I am much stronger 
 than I have lately been. You have now more of the story 
 than any one else outside of the medical circle. 
 
 Mrs. Cleveland sends love to you and Mrs. Bayard 
 and with mine added in plenteous degree I am 
 
 Yours very sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. T. F. Bayard. 
 
42 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Meanwhile, free silver Senators were exhausting 
 every known parliamentary device to prevent action. 
 The entire machinery of obstruction, which in the hands 
 of a skillful and determined minority has proved fatal 
 to so many worthy measures, was called into play. With 
 equal skill, and backed by the consciousness of a stronger 
 following, sound money Senators worked for a speedy 
 trial of strength, and John Sherman worked with the 
 President’s friends. 
 
 In a spirit of compromise, Sherman had given his 
 name to the Sherman Bill, in order to prevent the enact¬ 
 ment of a more extreme free silver law, and he was as 
 eager as was the President himself to see it repealed. In 
 this, as in many previous currency conflicts, he merited 
 the praise which Mr. Cleveland bestowed upon him: 
 “No man in public life, certainly no Republican, has 
 rendered a greater service to sound finance than John 
 Sherman.” 
 
 These weeks of steady conflict and ceaseless anxiety 
 told heavily upon the impaired vitality of the President. 
 His letters breathe the spirit almost of despair, but in 
 them one looks in vain for the slightest sign of surrender. 
 “I know there is a God,” he wrote to Richard Watson 
 Gilder, on October 12th, “but I do not know his purposes, 
 nor when their results will appear. I know the clouds 
 will roll away, but I do not know who, before that time, 
 will be drowned in their floods.” And to L. Clarke 
 Davis, two days later, he said: “I am growing very tired 
 physically and if I did not believe in God I should be 
 sick at heart. 
 
 “I wonder if the good people of the Country will see 
 before it is too late the danger that threatens, not only 
 their financial well-being, but the very foundations upon 
 which their institutions rest. 
 
THE FIRST BATTLE WITH BRYAN 43 
 
 “I suppose it is wrong, but sometimes I feel very de¬ 
 spondent and very much deserted. I believe in the peo¬ 
 ple so fully, and things are often so forlorn here, that I 
 want to feel and hear my fellow Countrymen all the 
 time. Are they still about me? I think so often of Mar¬ 
 tin Luther’s ‘Here I stand—God help me.’ ” 
 
 Two weeks later, Ambassador Bayard wrote to Fred¬ 
 eric Emory: “Assuming that the miserable makeshift of 
 Sherman shall be wiped out, it seems to me there could 
 be no better time than now to recall the words of James 
 Russell Lowell, addressed to President Cleveland in his 
 oration at the 250th anniversary of Harvard, in Cam¬ 
 bridge:—The pilot of Seneca, ‘Oh! Neptune, you may 
 sink me, you may save me, but I will hold my rudder 
 true.’ 
 
 “Were I a painter, I should depict the scene of con¬ 
 fusion, insubordination, and selfishness on deck, and the 
 calm, steadfast pilot at the helm with his eye on the pole 
 star, keeping the ship in her unswerving course.” 
 
 Fortunately victory came before the President’s de¬ 
 pleted vitality had collapsed under the strain of keeping 
 his rudder true. On October 30th, repeal in the form 
 of a Senate substitute for the House bill passed the Sen¬ 
 ate by 43 to 32, 23 Republicans voting yea. Two days 
 later, by 194 to 94, the House accepted the Senate bill, 
 and Mr. Cleveland had won a truce over the increasing 
 hosts of free silver. 
 
 In the Atlantic Monthly of March, 1897, Woodrow 
 Wilson, then Professor of Jurisprudence in Princeton 
 University, thus interpreted the meaning of this Cleve¬ 
 land victory: 
 
 “It was the President’s victory that the law was at 
 last repealed, and everyone knew it. He had forced the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 44 
 
 consideration of the question; he had told Senators 
 plainly, almost passionately, when they approached him, 
 that he would accept no compromise,—that he would 
 veto anything less than absolute repeal, and let them face 
 the country as best they might afterwards. 
 
 “Until he came on the stage, both parties had dallied 
 and coquetted with the advocates of silver. Now he had 
 brought both to a parting of the ways. The silver men 
 were forced to separate themselves and look their situa¬ 
 tion in the face, choose which party they should plan to 
 bring under their will and policy, if they could, and no 
 longer camp in the tents of both. 
 
 “Such a stroke settled what the course of Congres¬ 
 sional politics should be throughout the four years of 
 Mr. Cleveland’s term, and made it certain that at the end 
 of that term he should either have won his party to him¬ 
 self or lost it altogether. It was evident that any party 
 that rejected the gold standard for the currency must look 
 upon him as its opponent.” 
 
 From the point of view of the peace and effectiveness 
 of the new administration, it was a costly victory. The 
 necessities of the conflict had forced the President to cut 
 across his own party and its Republican opponent, form¬ 
 ing thereby a temporary coalition, dangerous alike to 
 party discipline and party solidarity. He had, further¬ 
 more, admitted by his actions that the Republicans were 
 nearer to soundness upon the great question of the hour 
 than were the representatives of his own party. And 
 by these actions he had won the bitter and lasting resent¬ 
 ment of a vast body of Democrats who now denied, not 
 only that Grover Cleveland was a Democrat, but even 
 that he was an honest man, and who henceforth dedicated 
 themselves to the task of reading him out of the party. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 
 
 “I mistake the American people if they favor the odious 
 doctrine that there is no such thing as international morality; 
 that there is one law for a strong nation and another for a 
 weak one ." 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 F EW of Mr. Cleveland’s public actions have been more 
 bitterly denounced, more needlessly misunderstood, 
 or more deliberately misrepresented, than was his attitude 
 toward the Hawaiian situation. Yet in refusing to con¬ 
 nive at the annexation of Hawaii by methods sanctified 
 by long usage, he but sounded, in the nineteenth century, 
 the note which is the hope of the twentieth, the right of 
 men everywhere “to choose their own ways of life and of 
 obedience.” As in the case of Germany and Samoa, he 
 had uncompromisingly opposed a powerful nation in the 
 interests of a helpless one, so in the case of the United 
 States and Hawaii he took a ground no less just and im¬ 
 partial, although this time the aggressor was his own 
 nation. 
 
 It would have been easy, had he been fitted with a less 
 exacting conscience, for President Cleveland to allow the 
 process of Hawaiian annexation to go smoothly on to its 
 culmination. Instead, however, he invited conflict, which 
 he hated, solely in the interest of international justice, 
 solely that another weak and defenseless people might 
 remain free. It was not annexation that he opposed, but 
 conquest disguised as annexation. 
 
 45 
 
46 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 From the beginning of our contact with the Hawaiian 
 Islands, many Americans had felt that control by the 
 United States, perhaps annexation, was inevitable. But 
 until the days of President Harrison, the actions of Amer¬ 
 ican statesmen were in the main considerate of the sov¬ 
 ereign rights of the Hawaiian people. In 1851 a 
 menacing move on the part of France caused King 
 Kamehameha III. to deliver to Mr. Severance, American 
 Commissioner in Honolulu, an executed deed of gift, 
 granting the islands in full sovereignty to the United 
 States, and requesting him to take possession as soon as it 
 should become evident that the king could not resist the 
 French encroachments. 
 
 Instead of taking advantage of this situation to estab¬ 
 lish an American control over the islands, as he might 
 easily have done, our Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, 
 to the credit of the nation, directed that the deed be re¬ 
 turned to the Hawaiian government, and notified France 
 that it was the intention of the United States to keep her 
 “naval armament ... in the Pacific Ocean in such a 
 state of strength and preparation as shall be requisite 
 for the preservation of the honor and dignity of the 
 United States and the safety of the government of the 
 Hawaiian Islands.” 
 
 In 1854 President Pierce’s Secretary of State, Wil¬ 
 liam L. Marcy, marred this record by negotiating a treaty 
 providing for the annexation of the islands, but the death 
 of the Hawaiian king upset the scheme, and Hawaii was 
 still free. 
 
 Meanwhile, commercial connections between the two 
 countries grew rapidly. American merchants and 
 planters immigrated in considerable numbers, and, in 
 1875, the United States and Hawaii entered into a treaty 
 of commercial reciprocity. In this treaty appeared no 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 47 
 
 menace to Hawaiian independence, save the provision 
 which bound her not to alienate any of her territory to 
 nations other than the United States. In 1884 a supple¬ 
 mentary convention was negotiated by which Pearl Har¬ 
 bor was set aside for the exclusive use of the United States 
 and her commerce. 
 
 Owing to delay in ratification, this supplementary 
 convention was still pending when Mr. Cleveland first 
 became President; and, after carefully studying its pro¬ 
 visions, he strongly advised the Senate to approve it. 
 
 “I express my unhesitating conviction,” he declared 
 in his second annual message, “that the intimacy of our 
 relations with Hawaii should be emphasized. As a result 
 of the reciprocity treaty of 1875, those islands, on the 
 highway of Oriental and Australasian traffic, are vir¬ 
 tually an outpost of American commerce and a stepping- 
 stone to the growing trade of the Pacific. The Polynesian 
 island groups have been so absorbed by other and more 
 powerful governments that the Hawaiian Islands are left 
 almost alone in the enjoyment of their autonomy, which 
 it is important for us, should be preserved. Our treaty 
 is now terminable on one year’s notice, but propositions 
 to abrogate it would be, in my judgment, most ill-advised. 
 The paramount influence we have there acquired, once 
 relinquished, could only with difficulty be regained, and 
 a valuable ground of vantage for ourselves might be con¬ 
 verted into a stronghold for our commercial competitors. 
 I earnestly recommend that the existing treaty stipula¬ 
 tions be extended to a further term of seven years.” 
 
 The treaty was proclaimed on November 9, 1887, and 
 in the meantime the Bayonet revolution in Hawaii had 
 forced the Hawaiian king to consent to a liberal consti¬ 
 tution, enfranchising his numerous Western guests and 
 making of himself a limited monarch. The character 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 48 
 
 of this constitution was clearly the work of American 
 minds, and is evidence that the Republic of the West was 
 rapidly coming into control in Hawaii in the persons 
 of men bred to American law and American ideals of 
 government. 
 
 And so, when President Cleveland retired from office 
 in 1889, although the sovereignty of the Hawaiian 
 Islands was unimpaired, and her form of government 
 entitled her to be called a constitutional monarchy, the 
 process of peaceful penetration was well advanced, and 
 it was evident to all men trained in the arts of imperial¬ 
 istic expansion that the days of Hawaiian independence 
 were numbered. 
 
 Had the annexationists exercised patience, and re¬ 
 spected the sovereign rights of the Hawaiian people, 
 they might have reached their goal without the opposi¬ 
 tion which Grover Cleveland later accorded them. He 
 saw no crime in annexation, should it come to be the 
 free choice of the inhabitants of the islands, and while he 
 perhaps never definitely approved, there is no indication 
 that he ever disapproved the views of his Secretary of 
 State, Thomas F. Bayard, who later declared: “The 
 obvious course was to wait quietly and patiently, and let 
 the islands fill up with American planters and American 
 industries, until they should be wholly identified in busi¬ 
 ness interests and political sympathies with the United 
 States. It was simply a matter of waiting until the apple 
 should ripen and fall.” 
 
 Unfortunately, the administration which superseded 
 Mr. Cleveland had not Mr. Cleveland’s patience, and it 
 was not long before our Minister to Hawaii, John S. 
 Stevens, began consciously working by political means in 
 the direction of the annexation of the country to which he 
 was accredited, while the American Secretary of State 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 49 
 
 failed to rebuke, if he did not actually encourage, this 
 ambition. “The near future,” Minister Stevens wrote to 
 Secretary Blaine, on March 20, 1890, “is to show conclu¬ 
 sively that only the strong pressure and continual vigi¬ 
 lance of the United States can enable American men and 
 American ideas to hold ascendency here and make these 
 islands as prosperous and valuable to American com¬ 
 merce and to American marine supremacy in the north 
 Pacific as the isles of the Mediterranean have been and 
 are to its adjacent nations.” Eagerly Stevens awaited the 
 psychological moment for a brilliant stroke which would 
 land the islands in the lap of his own country—waited, 
 worked, and planned. 
 
 In 1891, King Kalakua died while on a visit to the 
 United States, and his sister, the Princess Liliuokalani, 
 ascended the throne by virtue of the twenty-second article 
 of the Hawaiian Constitution of 1887. The new queen, 
 imbued, as had been her late brother, with autocratic 
 theories and possessed of a despotic temperament, was 
 out of harmony with the liberal tendencies clearly mani¬ 
 fest in her kingdom and specifically embodied in the con¬ 
 stitution under which she reigned, and which she had 
 sworn to defend. 
 
 This constitution was too modern for Queen Liliu¬ 
 okalani, who hated the white intruders, hated the mis¬ 
 sionaries, hated all the paraphernalia of what the West 
 had labeled progress, and dreamed of reaction to the 
 dark old ways of primitive autocracy. What she and her 
 reactionary advisers longed for, was to be freed from the 
 shackles of the constitution theory. This done, it would 
 be easy to drive out the white man, confiscate his prop¬ 
 erty, if necessary take his life. 
 
 Within a month after her accession, the ill-advised 
 queen attempted to force the resignation of her ministers, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 50 
 
 and to select a cabinet composed of her tools. The opium 
 ring, the lottery ring, and other parasites that flourish 
 best upon autocracy, were pressing upon her plans, which 
 they knew would have scant shrift should the American 
 element gain control, and she was readily countenancing 
 their advances, conscious that she needed their sup¬ 
 port in her contemplated return to the ways of earlier 
 times. On January 14, 1893, professing to act under 
 pressure of popular demand, she declared her intention 
 to overthrow the constitution which had enfranchised the 
 hated foreigner, and to substitute another more in accord¬ 
 ance with her temperament and aspirations. But Hawaii 
 had progressed beyond the point at which a restoration of 
 autocracy was possible. The monarchy was a shell, ready 
 to crumble at a touch of opposition, and the Queen’s 
 action was at once interpreted by Stevens and the small 
 but powerful minority of annexationists as abdication, 
 an interpretation based on ideas purely Western. 
 
 As soon as Liliuokalani understood the interpretation 
 put upon her autocratic threat by her dangerous guest- 
 citizens and their fellow disciples of Western law, she 
 issued a recantation. But it was already too late. A com¬ 
 mittee of safety had been organized, and plans had been 
 made for arming those who resented her disloyalty to 
 the Constitution. It was revolution, and the days of 
 Hawaiian royalty were over. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that Minister Stevens was not 
 in Honolulu when the revolution broke. On January 4, 
 1893, he had sailed on the Boston for a cruise to Hilo, a 
 hundred miles away. It is still more interesting to dis¬ 
 cover that he returned just as the revolution needed the 
 support of American marines, and that, ten months before, 
 he had written to Secretary Blaine: “I have little doubt 
 the revolutionary attempt would have been made ere this 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 51 
 
 but for the presence here of the United States ship-of- 
 war. I still incline to the opinion that the revolutionary 
 attempt will not be made so long as there is a United 
 States force in the harbor of Honolulu.” 
 
 As soon as the Boston, with the American Minister 
 on board, re-entered the harbor, Mr. Stevens was asked 
 by the leaders of the revolution to land the marines, and 
 he at once complied. Admiral Skerrett later commented 
 that: “the American troops were well located if designed 
 to promote the movement for the Provisional Govern¬ 
 ment, and very improperly located if only intended to 
 protect American citizens in person and property.” 
 
 The revolution moved rapidly. Before the close of 
 the seventeenth of January, the monarchy was declared 
 at an end, Stevens had recognized the Provisional Gov¬ 
 ernment, and the latter had assumed full control “until 
 such time as terms of union with the United States, of 
 America should have been agreed on. Two weeks later, 
 at the request of President Dole of the Provisional Gov¬ 
 ernment, Stevens raised the American flag over the gov¬ 
 ernment buildings, and thus established a protectorate 
 pending annexation. 
 
 These facts furnish an excellent basis for what the 
 theologians term “argument from design.” They tally 
 also with the defense which Murat Halstead later made 
 of Stevens: “He was an American himself, with a par¬ 
 tiality for white folks, and, we presume, had the com¬ 
 mon American sentiment that the islands belonged to us, 
 and our title would be perfected some day,” and Stevens’ 
 own dispatches, both the published and the unpublished, 
 make it quite clear that he gloried in the belief that 
 manifest destiny had thus marked Hawaii as American 
 property. 
 
 Meanwhile the Provisional Government had dis- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 52 
 
 patched five commissioners, four Americans and one 
 Englishman, to request President Jdarrison to annex the 
 islands of the Hawaiians to the United States. They were 
 received, on February 4th, by Secretary of State Foster, 
 and eleven days later Harrison sent to the United States 
 Senate a treaty providing that: “the government of the 
 Hawaiian Islands hereby cedes . . . absolutely and with¬ 
 out reservation to the United States forever all rights of 
 sovereignty of whatever kind in and over the Hawaiian 
 Islands and their dependencies.’’ The document bore 
 six signatures—John W. Foster, Lorin A. Thurston, 
 William R. Castle, William C. Wilder, Charles L. Car¬ 
 ter, and Joseph Marsden. There was not one Polynesian 
 name on the list. 
 
 In his accompanying message President Harrison in¬ 
 formed the Senate that “the overthrow of the monarchy 
 was not in any way promoted by this Government,” and 
 this President Harrison unquestionably believed, having 
 been so informed by the promoters of “Manifest Des¬ 
 tiny,” that ancient altar piece which the annexationists 
 were employing to give sanctity to their plans and value 
 to their plantations. 
 
 As President Harrison’s term was drawing toward 
 its close, friend and foe of the pending annexation treaty 
 began to speculate what would be the policy of the re¬ 
 turning President, Grover Cleveland. But the latter, 
 while watching carefully the progress of the annexation 
 movement, scrupulously avoided any expression of opin¬ 
 ion upon the subject until the responsibility should again 
 become his. 
 
 In the absence of facts, the newspapers, of course, 
 published fiction. The day before the inauguration, the 
 Omaha Bee confidently assured its readers, upon the basis 
 of that most untrustworthy witness, “good authority,” 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 53 
 
 that Mr. Cleveland could be counted upon “to promote 
 as far as possible the ‘Manifest Destiny’ doctrine which 
 contemplates the ultimate extension of the United States 
 over the entire North American continent and the absorp¬ 
 tion of whatever ‘outposts’ it may be found expedient or 
 desirable to possess.” 
 
 This illusion was soon dispelled by the new Presi¬ 
 dent. Within a week after his inauguration, he sent to* 
 the Senate a curt message of five lines: “For the purpose 
 of re-examination I withdraw the treaty of annexation 
 between the United States and the Provisional Govern¬ 
 ment of the Hawaiian Islands now pending in the Senate, 
 which was signed on February 14, 1893, and transmitted 
 to the Senate on the 15th of the same month; and I there¬ 
 fore request that said treaty be returned to me. Grover 
 Cleveland.” 
 
 He was not content that Hawaii should be annexed 
 upon the mere assurance of annexationists that “the over¬ 
 throw of the monarchy was not in any way promoted by 
 this Government.” Beneath the insistent demand for 
 immediate annexation, in order that there might be, as 
 Harrison had expressed it, “decent administration of 
 civil affairs,” might lurk the ancient Anglo-Saxon thirst 
 for empire. Perhaps in Hawaii his own nation had been 
 guilty of the very sin which he was seeking to prevent 
 the German Imperial Chancellor from committing in the 
 Samoan Islands—the ruthless subversion of a weak and 
 helpless nation. 
 
 As he studied the documents in the State Department 
 he became increasingly suspicious. To annex the islands 
 in response to the free will of their population would be 
 entirely justifiable, but to annex them in response to the 
 desire of American officials would be something quite dif¬ 
 ferent. What he had learned of the history of Hawaii’s 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 54 
 
 recent past inclined him to give ear to an appeal lately 
 received from the dethroned queen herself, a passionate 
 appeal for justice, based upon the contention that the 
 revolution had been planned and carried out by Ameri¬ 
 cans, chief among whom was the American Minister: 
 
 To His Excellency 
 Grover Cleveland 
 President Elect of the 
 United States. 
 
 My great and good friend: 
 
 In the vicissitudes which happened in the Hawaiian 
 Islands and which affect my people, myself and my house 
 so seriously, I feel comforted the more that beside the 
 friendly relations of the United States, I have the boon of 
 Your personal friendship and good will. 
 
 The changes which occurred here need not be stated 
 in this letter. You will have, at the time at which it 
 reaches You the official information, but I have instructed 
 the Hon. Paul Neuman whom I have appointed my 
 representative at Washington, to submit to You a precis 
 of the facts and circumstances relating to the revolution 
 in Honolulu, and to supplement it by such statements 
 which you may please to elicit. 
 
 I beg that You will consider this matter in which 
 there is so much involved for my people, and that you 
 give us your friendly assistance in granting redress for 
 a wrong which we claim has been done to us under color 
 of the assistance of the naval forces of the United States 
 in a friendly port. 
 
 Believe me that I do not veil under this a request to 
 You the fulfillment of which could in the slightest degree 
 be contrary to Your position, and I leave our grievance 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 55 
 
 in Your hands confident that in so far as you deem it 
 proper we shall have Your sympathy and Your aid. 
 
 I am Your good friend 
 
 Liliuokalani. 
 
 Looking only upon the surface, it seemed reasonable to 
 accept the vociferous assurances of the annexationists that 
 Stevens had landed the marines only for the entirely 
 legal and proper task of protecting American lives and 
 American property. But in his study of the documents, 
 Mr. Cleveland soon became convinced that Stevens had 
 deliberately furthered the revolution in order the sooner 
 to make Hawaii American territory. “To a minister of 
 this temper, full of zeal for annexation,” he later in¬ 
 formed Congress, “there seemed to arise in January, 1893, 
 the precise opportunity for which he was watchfully 
 waiting . . . and we are quite prepared for the exultant 
 enthusiasm with which, in a letter to the State Depart¬ 
 ment dated February 1, 1893, he declares: ‘The Hawaiian 
 pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour for 
 the United States to pluck it.’ ” 
 
 Having withdrawn the treaty from the Senate, Presi¬ 
 dent Cleveland next sent the Honorable James H. Blount, 
 recently Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign 
 Affairs, as his special personal agent to Hawaii to dis¬ 
 cover the facts. In his testimony before the Senate Com¬ 
 mittee at a later date, Blount made under oath the state¬ 
 ment that President Cleveland never gave him the least 
 intimation as to what his own views regarding the situa¬ 
 tion in Hawaii were. “I was impressed,” he said, “with 
 the belief that he wanted information.” 
 
 Pending Blount’s report, the President of course re¬ 
 ceived information from Minister Stevens, whose new 
 dispatches presented the history of the revolution in the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 56 
 
 most favorable light, and made it quite clear that the 
 landing of troops, in Stevens’s opinion, had insured its 
 final success. 
 
 “The supporters of the Provisional Government,” he 
 wrote, on April 4, 1893, “having had little or no military 
 experience, an organized military force could not be 
 created at once. Time was absolutely necessary. The 
 presence of the few United States soldiers with their 
 country’s flag was of incalculable importance to the only 
 existing and the only possible government for Hawaii. 
 When the men of the Boston went to their ship April 1st, 
 the Provisional Government had at its command a mili¬ 
 tary force of four hundred men,—the most effective ever 
 known in the islands, and an organized police with a 
 tried and efficient man at the head. The remarkable 
 change accomplished in seventy-five days had been with¬ 
 out the loss of life or the destruction of property. Had 
 the United States Minister and the Naval Commander 
 not acted as they did, they would have deserved prompt 
 removal from their places and the just censure of the 
 friends of humanity and of civilization.” 
 
 Thus Stevens’s own dispatches justified the President’s 
 uneasy suspicions. But when Blount’s report of July 17th 
 reached him, it changed suspicion into a sense of cer¬ 
 tainty. After studying it and numerous items of docu¬ 
 mentary evidence furnished by his personal agent, Mr. 
 Cleveland reached a definite conclusion. Stevens 'and 
 certain American associates were the real authors of the 
 Hawaiian revolution, made with the express purpose of 
 annexation. “Mr. Stevens,” Blount boldly declared, 
 “consulted freely with the leaders of the revolutionary 
 movement from the evening of the 14th. These disclosed 
 to him all their plans. They feared arrest and punish¬ 
 ment. He promised them protection. They needed the 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 57 
 
 troops on shore to overawe the Queen’s supporters and 
 government. This he agreed to and did furnish. . . . 
 The leaders of the revolutionary movement would not 
 have undertaken it but for Mr. Stevens’s promise to pro¬ 
 tect them against any danger from the government. . . . 
 But for this no request to land troops would have been 
 made. Had the troops not been landed no measures for 
 the organization of a new government would have been 
 taken. 
 
 “The American Minister and the revolutionary 
 leaders had determined on a new addition to the United 
 States and had agreed on the part each was to act to the 
 very end.” 
 
 Blount’s report made it further evident that the revo¬ 
 lution rested little upon the wishes of the native 
 H awaiians. “If the votes of persons claiming allegiance 
 to foreign countries were excluded,” he confidently in¬ 
 formed Mr. Cleveland, “it (annexation) would be de¬ 
 feated by more than five to one.” And this view was 
 independently confirmed by Charles Nordhoff, a veteran 
 Washington correspondent, whom the New York Herald 
 sent to Honolulu to check up Blount’s statements and 
 report to the American people, and whom the Provi¬ 
 sional Government vainly tried to silence. 
 
 “No one unprejudiced,” declared the New York 
 Herald’s leading editorial of November 22, 1893, Ucan 
 read Mr. Blount’s report without the conviction that it 
 goes into the archives of the State Department at Wash¬ 
 ington as the darkest chapter in the diplomatic annals of 
 this country.” 
 
 The New York Times declared, editorially, that it 
 “reveals a conspiracy . . . which if not repudiated by 
 this nation, would sully the honor and blacken the fair 
 name of the United States.” 
 
58 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 “The people of this country,” said the Savannah 
 Morning News, “if they accept Mr. Blount’s report, 
 cannot do otherwise than sustain the position taken by 
 the President and his Cabinet. The only way to create a 
 sentiment against that position is to show that Mr. 
 Blount’s report is not correct.” 
 
 This suggestion the annexationists promptly adopted. 
 Blount was accused of working for a verdict against the 
 white “crusaders of Democracy,” and in favor of “the 
 lady who looks like the inside of a package of Arbuckle’s 
 coffee”; he had seen only the queen’s friends; he was 
 the man who had hauled down the American flag. But 
 Blount’s work had been conscientiously and intelligently 
 done, his facts were in the main identical with those 
 presented by Nordhoff and other disinterested spectators, 
 and the attempts of the annexationists to prove the con¬ 
 trary met with little success. 
 
 The Cleveland press challenged Stevens or ex-Presi- 
 dent Harrison, or any one else to point to a statement in 
 the report which was not true. “Mr. Stevens,” declared 
 the Chicago Herald, “was asked to show wherein Mr. 
 Blount has misstated facts. Mr. Stevens had a peremp¬ 
 tory engagement out of town for several days. . . . Ex- 
 President Harrison was also invited to show that Blount 
 erred in any statement of fact. The ex-President diplo¬ 
 matically avoided the issue.” 
 
 A few days later, however, Stevens sent forth from 
 his retreat in Maine an elaborate reply to Blount’s report; 
 and the Hawaiian Minister, Lorin A. Thurston, in col¬ 
 umns of argument, denounced what he termed Blount’s 
 “gross inaccuracies.” But Stevens was now in the posi¬ 
 tion of a deposed official, and Thurston was regarded as 
 merely a special pleader paid for the work. 
 
 The New York Tribune, in its issue of November 22, 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 59 
 
 1 893, ventured upon a psychological argument designed 
 to discredit Mr. Cleveland’s policy. “The secret springs 
 or motives are out of sight, hidden in personal relations,” 
 it impressively declared, “. . . In this, as in a great many 
 other things, the unwritten, personal factor is potential. 
 It is easily stated. The present Secretary of State (Mr. 
 Gresham) has been for many years the personal enemy 
 of ex-President Harrison, as he was also of the late Sec¬ 
 retary Blaine. . . . Minister Stevens was an intimate per¬ 
 sonal friend of Mr. Blaine. He was an appointee of 
 President Harrison. The policy he pursued in Hawaii 
 was approved by the Harrison administration.” 
 
 And so Grover Cleveland had faced his own nation 
 and thwarted a movement which strongly appeals always 
 to the strain of Anglo-Saxon blood, in order that Secre¬ 
 tary Gresham’s personal hatreds might be avenged. To 
 such strange lengths will party spirit go, even in great 
 affairs. And this is one of the dangers of democracies. 
 
 With little attention to disputes regarding his methods 
 or motives, President Cleveland now faced the difficult 
 question of action. One thing was clear to his mind: 
 Whatever the cost, he must see justice done to the sov¬ 
 ereignty of Hawaii. 
 
 In his search for a method by which the United States 
 could undo the wrong which had been done by men 
 serving in her name, the President suggested that Secre¬ 
 tary Gresham ask specific advice from the members of 
 the Cabinet. The opinion furnished by Attorney Gen¬ 
 eral Richard Olney anticipates in essential features the 
 plan finally adopted. After a convincing summary of 
 the American origin of what he terms “the Stevens Gov¬ 
 ernment,” Mr. Olney suggested: 
 
 “1. All the resources of diplomacy should be ex- 
 
6o 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 hausted to restore the status quo in Hawaii by peaceful 
 methods and without force. 
 
 “2. If, as a last resort, force is found to be necessary 
 . . . the matter must be submitted to Congress for its 
 action. 
 
 “3. In addition to providing for the security of the 
 queen’s person pending efforts to reinstate the queen’s 
 government . . . the United States should require of the 
 queen . . . authority to negotiate and bring about the 
 restoration of her government on such reasonable terms 
 and conditions as the United States may approve and 
 find to be practicable. 
 
 “Among such terms and conditions must be, I think, 
 full pardon and amnesty for all connected with the 
 Stevens government who might otherwise be liable to be 
 visited with the pains and penalties attending the crime 
 of treason.” 
 
 In the light of this and other opinions, Secretary 
 Gresham wrote to the President an elaborate summary of 
 the case. His recommendations were less specific than 
 Olney’s, but their general tenor was the same. And he 
 added a moral interpretation which he knew would strike 
 a responsive chord in the President’s heart: “Should 
 not the great wrong done to a feeble but independent state 
 by an abuse of the authority of the United States be 
 undone by restoring the legitimate government? Any¬ 
 thing short of that will not, I respectfully submit, satisfy 
 the demands of justice. . . .” 
 
 A consultation followed and that evening Secretary 
 Gresham wrote to inform the new Minister, Albert S. 
 Willis, of the President’s decision, and to give confiden¬ 
 tial instructions for his guidance: 
 
 “You will . . . inform the Queen that, when rein¬ 
 stated, the President expects that she will pursue a mag- 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 6l 
 
 nanimous course by granting full amnesty to all who 
 participated in the movement against her. . . . Having 
 secured the Queen’s agreement . . . you will then advise 
 the Executive of the Provisional Government and his 
 ministers of the President’s determination of the ques¬ 
 tion . . . and they are expected to promptly relinquish 
 to her her constitutional authority.” In case of failure 
 to accomplish a peaceful settlement by agreement, Willis 
 was ordered to report the facts and await further 
 directions. 
 
 From this and many subsequent letters, it is evident 
 that Mr. Cleveland had no idea of attempting by force 
 to restore the queen of Hawaii. On the contrary, on 
 December 3d, Secretary Gresham again wrote to Willis: 
 “Should the Queen ask whether if she accedes to condi¬ 
 tions, active steps will be taken by the United States to 
 effect her restoration or to maintain her authority there¬ 
 after, you will say that the President cannot use force 
 without the authority of Congress.” And Blount, in his 
 sworn testimony before the Morgan Committee, later de¬ 
 clared: “I never heard it [the idea of a restoration by 
 force] suggested until my return to the United States.” 
 
 A busy press had, however, already managed to inter¬ 
 pret the necessary operations of the navy as proof that 
 armed intervention in favor of Liliuokalani was the 
 President’s program. The Newport, R. I., Herald had 
 informed its readers, on November 16th, that “it is said 
 on good naval authority that as soon as the United States 
 ships, Ranger and Mohican . . . can be made ready for 
 sea the Secretary of the Navy will order their comman¬ 
 ders to proceed direct to Honolulu. . . . The combined 
 crews of the Ranger and Mohican would enable the land¬ 
 ing of a larger marine force than from the Philadelphia 
 (already there).” 
 
62 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Upon the basis of this evidence of heroic intent, the 
 enthusiastic colored citizens of Newport met and dis¬ 
 patched to the President a letter of congratulation that 
 in his blow for justice he had not regarded color, nor been 
 prejudiced by the fact that “the sun has blared heavily 
 upon the dark skin Queen’s ancestry.” 
 
 As it chanced, on that very sixteenth of November, 
 Minister Willis was preparing a dispatch containing the 
 discouraging details of his first interview with the de¬ 
 throned queen: “In the forenoon of Monday . . . [No¬ 
 vember 13th] the Queen, accompanied by the Royal 
 Chamberlain . . . called at the Legation. . . . After a 
 formal greeting, the Queen was informed that the Presi¬ 
 dent . . . had important communications to make to her, 
 and she was asked whether she was willing to receive 
 them alone and in confidence. . . . She answered in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 “I then made known to her the President’s sincere 
 regret that through the unauthorized intervention of the 
 United States, she had been obliged to surrender her sov¬ 
 ereignty, and his hope that with her consent and co-opera¬ 
 tion, the wrong done to her and her people might be 
 redressed. To this she bowed her acknowledgment. 
 
 “I then said to her: ‘The President expects and be¬ 
 lieves that when reinstated you will show forgiveness and 
 magnanimity.’ . . . To this she made no reply. 
 
 “After waiting a moment, I continued: ‘The Presi¬ 
 dent not only tenders you his sympathy but wishes to help 
 you. Before fully making known to you his purposes, I 
 desire to know whether you are willing to answer certain 
 questions which it is my duty to ask.’ She answered: ‘I 
 am willing.’ ” 
 
 The Minister then asked whether, if restored to her 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 63 
 
 throne, she would grant full amnesty to those concerned 
 in her overthrow. 
 
 “She hesitated for a moment and then slowly and 
 calmly answered: ‘There are certain laws of my govern¬ 
 ment by which I shall abide. My decision would be, as 
 the law directs, that such persons should be beheaded and 
 their property confiscated.’ ” 
 
 The Minister, dumbfounded at so frank a statement, 
 asked: “Do you fully understand the meaning of every 
 word which I have said to you, and of every word which 
 you have said to me?” The queen replied: “I have 
 understood and mean all I have said. . . . These people 
 were the cause of the revolution and Constitution of 1887. 
 There will never be any peace while they are here. . . .” 
 
 Immediately after this interview, Willis telegraphed 
 to Washington: “Views of first party so extreme as to 
 require further instructions.” 
 
 These facts were, of course, not made public and, 
 with the newspaper stories of a projected forcible restora¬ 
 tion of the queen in mind, the President’s annual message 
 was eagerly awaited. When, on December 4, 1893, it 
 came, it was disappointingly lacking in dramatic quality. 
 Simply, unimpassionedly, Mr. Cleveland informed Con¬ 
 gress that he was conscientiously seeking “to undo the 
 wrong that had been done by those representing us and 
 to restore, as far as practicable, the status existing at the 
 time of our forcible intervention.” More than that he was 
 not yet ready to say. 
 
 A fortnight later, the President received from Willis 
 a list of perplexing questions: . Assuming the resto¬ 
 
 ration of the Queen, with the temporary acquiescence of 
 the Provisional Government, what next? If left to itself 
 it would fall to pieces like a card house. Would it be 
 just to restore her and have another revolution at once— 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 64 
 
 which seems probable? If restored, would she not be 
 entitled to our protection until she was securely seated? 
 How long would this require, and what immediate an¬ 
 nouncement (after restoration) if any, should be made? 
 
 “Shall our Government suggest to the restored 
 queen (in the interest of peace and good government) 
 that the Constitution of 1887 should not be overturned 
 except as therein provided? Shall anything be said about 
 the opium license law and lottery law which have been 
 repealed by the Provisional Government and the passage 
 of which had as much to do with the late uprising as the 
 threat of the Queen to promulgate a new Constitution? 
 
 “In restoring the status ante shall men like Mr. Dole 
 be put back on the Supreme Bench? Shall vacancies (as 
 now intimated) be declared because of participation in 
 the Queen’s overthrow? . . . 
 
 “If the Queen should, while under our quasi protec¬ 
 tion, again promulgate a new Constitution, shall we make 
 no remonstrance? This question is uppermost in Ha¬ 
 waiian hearts.” 
 
 Such questions asked by the perplexed Minister 
 reached far beyond the realm which the Constitution had 
 assigned to the executive branch of the Government. The 
 President, therefore, decided to mass his evidence re¬ 
 garding the origin and meaning of the Hawaiian revolu¬ 
 tion into a special message to Congress, and thus force it 
 and the nation to face squarely and without the distraction 
 
 of other topics what he conceived to be a great moral 
 
 % 
 
 issue. On December 18th, this special Hawaiian mes¬ 
 sage was sent to Congress. It is a document of arraign¬ 
 ment, of denunciation, ballasted by carefully substanti¬ 
 ated facts. Never, not even in his suppressed message 
 concerning Germany’s secret intrigues against Samoan 
 independence, nor in his later and more famous arraign- 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 65 
 
 ment of what he believed to be the British disregard of 
 Venezuela’s sovereign rights, did he denounce a foreign 
 government more uncompromisingly than he here de¬ 
 nounced his own government. 
 
 It mattered not to him that expansion into the Pacific 
 was a popular policy; that the American public could 
 not easily be aroused to sympathy with a dethroned, dark- 
 skinned Oriental queen; that the wrong which he de¬ 
 nounced was an accomplished fact, and that it requires 
 more than courage and a good cause to set back the hands 
 of time. He poured his withering scorn upon a great and 
 powerful nation which will stoop to countenance intrigue 
 on the part of its own officials, that a few more acres of 
 soil, a few more harbors and clear lagoons may be added 
 to its vast estate. “The control of both sides of a bar¬ 
 gain,” such were his words, “. . . is called by a familiar 
 and unpleasant name when found in private transactions.” 
 
 In acknowledging his failure to secure justice to 
 Hawaii, although executive power had been employed 
 to the full, he laid before Congress his vision of a foreign 
 policy worthy of a great, powerful Christian nation. In 
 begging that justice be done, he urged upon them a stand¬ 
 ard than which no loftier has ever been presented to that 
 body, whether by President, Secretary, or duly elected 
 Senator or Representative: 
 
 “It has been the boast of our Government,” he said, 
 “that it seeks to do justice in all things, without regard to 
 the strength or weakness of those with whom it deals. I 
 mistake the American people if they favor the odious doc¬ 
 trine that there is no such thing as international morality; 
 that there is one law for a strong nation and another for 
 a weak one, and that even by indirection a strong power 
 may with impunity despoil a weak one of its territory. 
 . . . The law of nations is founded upon reason and jus- 
 
66 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 tice, and the rules of conduct governing individual rela¬ 
 tions between citizens or subjects of a civilized state are 
 equally applicable as between enlightened nations. 
 
 “The considerations that international law is without 
 a court for its enforcement and that obedience to its com¬ 
 mands practically depends upon good faith instead of 
 upon the mandate of a superior tribunal only give addi¬ 
 tional sanction to the law itself and brand any deliberate 
 infraction of it not merely as wrong, but as a disgrace. 
 A man of true honor protects the unwritten word which 
 binds his conscience more scrupulously, if possible, than 
 he does a bond a breach of which subjects him to legal 
 liabilities, and the United States, in aiming to maintain 
 itself as one of the most enlightened nations, would do its 
 citizens gross injustice if it applied to its international 
 relations any other than a high standard of honor and 
 morality. On that ground the United States cannot be 
 properly put in the position of countenancing a wrong 
 after its commission any more than of consenting to it in 
 advance. On that ground it cannot allow itself to refuse 
 to redress an injury inflicted through an abuse of power 
 by officers clothed with its authority and wearing its uni¬ 
 form; and on the same ground, if a feeble but friendly 
 state is in danger of being robbed of its independence and 
 its sovereignty by a misuse of the name and power of the 
 United States, the United States cannot fail to vindicate 
 its honor and its sense of justice by an earnest effort to 
 make all possible reparation.” 
 
 Henceforth, while diligently furnishing to Congress 
 all information which reached him, the President was no 
 longer the chief actor. As it chanced, on the very day 
 when his Hawaiian message was presented, Queen 
 Liliuokalani capitulated, sending to Mr. Willis a letter 
 which declared: “I must not feel vengeful to any of my 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 67 
 
 people. If I am restored by the United States, I must 
 forget myself, and remember only my dear people and 
 my country. . . .” With it she sent a solemn pledge 
 promising, in the event of her restoration, full pardon 
 and amnesty to all who had taken part in the revolution. 
 
 The same day brought to Minister Willis, from Presi¬ 
 dent Dole, the curt inquiry: “Will you inform me if 
 . . . you are acting in any way hostile to this govern¬ 
 ment?” Willis’s reply was a demand that the Provisional 
 Government restore to the queen the authority of Consti¬ 
 tutional Monarch of Hawaii, upon which the Provi¬ 
 sional Government declared that, even if the revolution 
 had been made possible by the assistance of American 
 troops and American officials, which was stoutly denied, 
 “the President was not thereby given the least right to 
 control the actions of the de facto government of 
 Hawaii,” a proposition which Mr. Cleveland would have 
 been the last to controvert. 
 
 Willis here ventured upon dangerous ground. In 
 order to test the courage of the Provisional Government 
 he resorted to the menace of violence, and in so doing 
 violated the whole spirit of his instructions. Taking ad¬ 
 vantage of the arrival of the revenue cutter, Corwin, with 
 dispatches from the State Department the nature of which 
 was of course unknown to the Provisional Government, 
 Willis had the troops drawn up on the decks of the 
 Adams and the Philadelphia, as though preparing to 
 land an attack. “He had the guns of our ships pointed 
 at the palace in Honolulu,” reported the San Francisco 
 Evening Bulletin of January 10, 1894, “but he did not 
 succeed in scaring anybody. . . . The Provisional Gov¬ 
 ernment did not come down. . . . President Dole . . . 
 knew just how far Willis dared go. It would have been 
 
68 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 as much as his official neck was worth to have done more 
 than beat the tom-tom.” 
 
 This incident served to give the enemies of the admin¬ 
 istration a shadowy pretext for circulating the report that 
 the President was invading the precincts of Congress, 
 by presuming to menace a friendly sovereign nation with 
 a war which Congress had never sanctioned. The cry of 
 impeachment was raised, was gravely re-echoed on the 
 floors of Congress, only to sink into deserved oblivion; 
 for those who knew the facts knew that the President had 
 never contemplated force in Hawaii, but only an hon¬ 
 orable settlement by mutual agreement. 
 
 Meanwhile, Congress, to whose wide discretion he 
 had committed the task, as too large for mere executive 
 control, was unsteadily but certainly yielding to “Mani¬ 
 fest Destiny.” The House of Representatives, while con¬ 
 demning the filibustering which had brought on the 
 Hawaiian revolution, and declining to sanction annexa¬ 
 tion under such conditions, was naturally unwilling to 
 take steps to restore the deposed queen by force; while 
 the Senate felt that the United States should let Hawaiian 
 affairs alone, insisting that other nations do the same. 
 This was equivalent to allowing the revolution to stand, 
 and annexation to await a more convenient season. 
 
 During the six months which followed, the Hawaiian 
 revolution developed into the Hawaiian Republic, which 
 was formally proclaimed on July 4, 1894. The stability 
 of this new government becoming clear, President Cleve¬ 
 land, before the end of the month, withdrew the Ameri¬ 
 can vessels from the harbor of Honolulu and, on August 
 7th, sent to President Dole a formal letter of recognition. 
 He thus accepted in its fullness the logic of the facts. 
 Dole and his fellow white men in Hawaii had succeeded 
 in establishing an orderly government, demonstrably able 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 69 
 
 to fulfil the obligations of statehood. They were, there¬ 
 fore, entitled to the legal recognition which alone could 
 make them responsible agents among the nations of the 
 world. 
 
 In recognizing the new republic President Cleveland 
 logically committed himself to the proposition that it was 
 able to speak with the voice of Hawaiian sovereignty. 
 His subsequent refusal to countenance annexation at its 
 request was, therefore, illogical and of doubtful wisdom. 
 Had he not thus refused, the revolt of 1895 might have 
 been avoided. As it was, the Royalists made a final effort 
 to re-enlist him in their now hopeless cause, soon to end 
 in a bloody defeat. They sent to Washington a commission 
 to plead for his assistance. But when the date set for 
 the audience arrived, Mr. Cleveland was ill in bed. He 
 therefore sent them the following address, with which 
 they were forced to depart: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 You must permit me to remind you that this inter¬ 
 view is not an official one, and that instead of receiving 
 you in any representative capacity, I meet you as indi¬ 
 viduals who have traveled a long distance for the pur¬ 
 pose of laying a certain matter before me. 
 
 You ask if there is any hope of my “doing anything 
 for the restoration of the Constitutional Government of 
 the Hawaiian Islands.” I suppose that this question is 
 largely prompted by the fact that soon after the over¬ 
 turning of the late Government of the Queen, I investi¬ 
 gated that transaction and was satisfied that there had 
 been such an unjustifiable interference in aid of that 
 movement, on the part of representatives of the Govern¬ 
 ment of the United States in its Diplomatic and Naval 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 70 
 
 service, as to call for correction, not only to rectify what 
 seemed to be a wrong done to others, but also through that 
 rectification to ward off what appeared to be a danger to 
 American honor and probity. 
 
 “Fully appreciating the constitutional limitations of 
 my Executive power and by no means unmindful of the 
 hindrances that might arise, I undertook the task. Hav¬ 
 ing failed in my plans, I committed the entire subject to 
 the Congress of the United States, which had abundant 
 power and authority in the premises. The Executive 
 branch of the Government was thereby discharged from 
 further duty and responsibility in the matter unless moved 
 thereto by Congressional command. The Congress has, 
 both by its action and its omission to act, signified that 
 nothing need be done touching American interference 
 with the overthrow of the Government of the Queen. 
 
 “Quite lately a government has been established in 
 Hawaii which is in full force and operation in all parts 
 of the Islands. It is maintaining its authority and dis¬ 
 charging all ordinary governmental functions. Upon 
 general principles and not losing sight of the special cir¬ 
 cumstances surrounding this case, the new government is 
 clearly entitled to our recognition without regard to any 
 of the incidents which accompanied or preceded its 
 inauguration. 
 
 “This recognition and the attitude of the Congress 
 concerning Hawaiian affairs of course lead to an absolute 
 denial of the least present or future aid or encouragement 
 on my part to an effort to restore any government hereto¬ 
 fore existing in the Hawaiian Islands.” 
 
 When the Republican platform of 1896 was sent 
 broadcast over the country, it contained these words: 
 “The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 71 
 
 United States.” No one could question the fact that 
 Hawaii was now in a condition quite different from that 
 of the days of the revolution. Her republic was firmly 
 established, her Constitution in effective operation, and 
 she had demonstrated her ability to preserve order at 
 home and to fulfil her obligations abroad. Furthermore, 
 the friends of annexation unhesitatingly urged two most 
 effective arguments, and urged them through the medium 
 of organized propaganda. These were first, commercial 
 interest, and second, fear of Japan. 
 
 Almost ninety-three per cent of Hawaii’s trade, de¬ 
 clared one of their propaganda leaflets, is with the United 
 States. China and Japan have only about two and a half 
 per cent, although they number in the islands over forty 
 thousand out of a total population of a hundred and ten 
 thousand. “We can prevent Chinese occupying our beau¬ 
 tiful country . . . but it is not so with Japan. . . . Japan 
 wants colonies and possessions. From the Japanese press 
 and from what her people say here, it is evident that 
 Japan intends to possess Hawaii. . . . While you are 
 maintaining your policy of ‘hands off’ and ‘let Hawaii 
 alone’ . . . the Japanese will quietly and peacefully pour 
 into Hawaii till they simply overwhelm us by their num¬ 
 bers. . . . When Hawaii is full of Japanese, of whom 
 many will be educated and just as intelligent and capable 
 of self-government as our present electors, can it be sup¬ 
 posed that we can prevent them from voting? Never! 
 and by a single election all will be changed. ... In 
 place of the beloved Stars and Stripes, our ports will be 
 filled with ships carrying the bright field and proud sun 
 flag of Japan.” 
 
 In response to such appeals President McKinley, on 
 June 16, 1897, submitted to the United States Senate a 
 new treaty of annexation. And three days later Mr. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 72 
 
 Cleveland wrote to Mr. Olney: “Did you ever see such a 
 preposterous thing as the Hawaiian business? The 
 papers I read are most strongly opposed to it and there 
 ought to be soberness and decency enough in the Senate 
 to save us from launching upon the dangerous policy 
 which is foreshadowed by the pending treaty; but I am 
 prepared for almost anything.” 
 
 For a time the opposition in the Senate proved 
 stronger than Mr. Cleveland had dared hope. The ex¬ 
 pected ratification failed to materialize, and on February 
 16, 1898, Mr. Cleveland, now a private citizen, wrote 
 confidently to Olney: “All the influence of this ad¬ 
 ministration appears unable thus far to bring to a suc¬ 
 cessful issue the Hawaiian monstrosity.” But the 
 annexationists bided their time, which now was not far 
 off. On April 25, 1898, came the declaration of war 
 against Spain, and for a time it seemed that the annexa¬ 
 tion question would have to wait upon more pressing 
 matters. “Hawaii,” wrote Mr. Olney to Mr. Cleveland, 
 with the intimacy of an old comrade in arms, “seems to 
 be in the soup.” 
 
 That “soup,” however, offered unforeseen advantages 
 to the cause of annexation, for the new government of 
 Hawaii soon won further favor in the United States by 
 openly violating international law in allowing American 
 ships of war to coal in Honolulu and to use the islands as 
 a sort of naval base, thus giving a graphic illustration of 
 the vastly increased importance of annexation, now that 
 American guns had made for us a Philippine problem. 
 
 About a month after Admiral Dewey’s victory at 
 Manila Bay (May 1, 1898), President McKinley re¬ 
 marked to Mr. Cortelyou: “We need Hawaii just as 
 much and a good deal more than we did California. It 
 is Manifest Destiny.” Two months later he signed a joint 
 
BLOCKING “MANIFEST DESTINY” IN HAWAII 73 
 
 resolution of both houses annexing the islands, and on 
 August 12th, the very American flag which Grover 
 Cleveland had caused to be hauled down was raised again 
 in token of American sovereignty. “Manifest Destiny” 
 had triumphed at last. 
 
 After reading the newspaper account of the closing 
 scene in the long drama, Mr. Cleveland sadly wrote to 
 Mr. Olney: “Hawaii is ours. As I look back upon the 
 first steps in this miserable business and as I contemplate 
 the means used to complete the outrage, I am ashamed 
 of the whole affair.” 
 
 The world’s past struggles toward liberty and equality 
 have had as their goal liberty and equality among those 
 of the white race. Its struggles to come lie along the 
 pathway that leads to liberty and equality among all peo¬ 
 ples, whether white or black, red, brown, or yellow. In 
 the Hawaiian affair Grover Cleveland made many minor 
 mistakes, but in holding that far-off goal before the eyes 
 of his fellow-citizens, he was, in a very real and a very 
 heroic sense, a world-pioneer. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN—THE FOUR BOND ISSUES 
 
 "There is a vast difference between a standard of value and 
 a currency for monetary use.” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 W HAT our nation needs—and sorely needs,” Mr. 
 
 Cleveland said, when speaking in honor of the 
 great American, Carl Schurz, “is more patriotism that 
 is born of moral courage—the courage that attacks abuses 
 and struggles for civic reforms, single-handed, without 
 counting opposing numbers or measuring opposing 
 forces.” 
 
 Had these words been written for Grover Cleveland 
 himself, they could not have better described his attitude 
 toward the duties which go with office. His public life 
 was a succession of such conflicts. Before one storm was 
 over, there always appeared on the political horizon 
 another cloud the size of a man’s hand, prophesying 
 another deluge. When thinking of his public life, he 
 instinctively thought of conflict, and his writing regard¬ 
 ing his two administrations deals wholly with the history 
 of major struggles in the interest of what he conceived to 
 be the honor of the Republic and the safety of its people. 
 
 Four years before his death, in outlining a course of 
 lectures regarding his second term, to be delivered at 
 Princeton University, he wrote: “The members of that 
 administration who still survive, in recalling the events 
 of this laborious service, cannot fail to fix upon the years 
 1894 and 1895 as the most troublous and anxious of their 
 incumbency.’ 1 He enumerated as the chief incidents of 
 
 74 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 75 
 
 that testing time the following leading conflicts: (i) 
 “Unhappy currency complications [which] compelled 
 executive resort to heroic treatment for the preservation 
 of our nation’s financial integrity, and forced upon the 
 administration a constant, unrelenting struggle for sound 
 money.” (2) “A long and persistent executive effort to 
 accomplish beneficent and satisfactory tariff reform.” 
 (3) “A very determined labor disturbance [which] broke 
 out in the City of Chicago.” (4) “Executive insistence 
 upon the Monroe Doctrine [which] culminated in a sit¬ 
 uation that gave birth to solemn thoughts of war.” 
 
 The first and most pressing of these questions was but 
 the recurrence, in a slightly different form, of the struggle 
 which had resulted in the repeal of the Sherman Law, 
 on November 1, 1893. Almost immediately after that 
 repeal it became apparent that the President had won 
 not a victory but an armistice, and that another trial of 
 strength was inevitable. This was precipitated neither 
 by Mr. Cleveland nor by his free silver opponents, but 
 by the operation of economic law, menacing the country 
 with the banishment of gold and the consequent estab¬ 
 lishment of a silver standard of value. 
 
 Despite the opposition which he offered to the free 
 coinage of silver, President Cleveland never objected to 
 the free use of silver as money. What he feared, and 
 fought, was the substitution of a silver basis of value for 
 our established gold standard, and the repeal of the Sher¬ 
 man Law had done little to quiet his fears. He was still 
 responsible for the impossible task of keeping the two 
 metals at a parity, which meant that still he must be ready 
 to pay a gold dollar whenever a Treasury note, repre¬ 
 senting only a deposit of about sixty cents worth of silver, 
 was presented with a demand for gold. 
 
 To do this it was essential that the gold reserve, de- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 76 
 
 signed to cover only greenbacks, be maintained at a 
 strength sufficient for this added strain upon it. But, 
 despite the fact that he had stopped the monthly increase 
 of Treasury notes by repealing the Sherman Law, his 
 gold reserve was melting away. The combined attack of 
 the outstanding $450,000,000 of United States notes and 
 greenbacks was working ruin, for, when redeemed for 
 gold, they had to be reissued, only to return and draw 
 out more gold. 
 
 Thus, in an endless chain, the paper money ran, drag¬ 
 ging the gold reserve ever downward, and bringing the 
 country ever nearer to the point where gold payment 
 must be refused. Gold, furthermore, was being exported 
 to an extent that added to the President’s alarm. As the 
 total amount of gold in the country was now only 
 $597,697,865, it was not difficult to foresee the end. 
 
 The only available means of replenishing the gold 
 reserve was through the issue of government bonds, as 
 authorized by an act of January 14, 1875. But the prac¬ 
 tical value of this method was greatly lessened by the fact 
 that such bonds could not be made payable in gold. To 
 persuade the public to buy for gold five per cent ten-year 
 bonds, four and a half per cent fifteen-year bonds, or four 
 per cent thirty-year bonds “payable in coin,” was certain 
 to prove difficult, as the purchaser must take the chance 
 of having them redeemed in depreciated silver at the end, 
 should the Treasury Department so order. 
 
 In forcing the repeal of the Sherman Law, President 
 Cleveland had, therefore, taken only the first step in his 
 monetary reform, and he now prepared for the second, 
 the issuing of bonds to secure the gold necessary to main¬ 
 tain the gold reserve. 
 
 At once the free silver men of both parties formed 
 plans to block the program. 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 77 
 
 Congressman William Jennings Bryan was especially 
 active in opposition. On January 5, 1894, Secretary Mor¬ 
 ton wrote to Henry T. Thurber, Private Secretary to the 
 President: 
 
 “Find herewith enclosed a Washington dispatch taken 
 from the Omaha Daily Bee of Tuesday, January 2. Mr. 
 Heath, who signs it, is rather a careful and conservative 
 man, and, I think, incapable of willing misrepresenta¬ 
 tion. Therefore, I send the article to you, that the Presi¬ 
 dent may see precisely how Mr. Bryan represents himself 
 to his people in Nebraska, upon the issuance of bonds, 
 which are vital to the good credit of our common country. 
 
 “Very truly yours, 
 
 “J. Sterling Morton.” 
 
 The enclosed clipping declared: “Bryan comes 
 uppermost. . . . Fate of the bond issue in his hands. 
 . . . Bryan, after all, appears to hold the whip hand upon 
 the administration, and will be heard from and felt in 
 such a way as to compel President Cleveland to respect 
 if not fear him. He is a member of the Ways and Means 
 Sub-committee having in charge the subject of the pub¬ 
 lic debt. To this sub-committee, composed also of 
 McMillin, of Tennessee, and Whiting, of Michigan, will 
 be referred the bond question. The administration is 
 very anxious for authority to issue $200,000,000 or more 
 of bonds, with which to meet current expenses, fill the 
 deficiency vacuum and replenish the gold reserve. Mr. 
 Bryan is opposed to a bond issue for any purpose, and so 
 are his two colleagues. . , . It looks as though a bond 
 issue may be defeated.” 
 
 A later paragraph throws light upon Mr. Bryan’s 
 political methods: “In view of Mr. Bryan’s new acces- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 78 
 
 sion of strength by virtue of the proposed bond issue, it 
 will create no surprise if he hereafter gets his full share 
 of the Nebraska federal patronage. He is now confident 
 of being able to name the postmaster at Lincoln. . . . 
 If the Morton-Castor combine cuts him out of this piece 
 of local patronage, it can confidently be expected that 
 Mr. Bryan will make the fur fly on the bond issue 
 problem.” 
 
 There is nothing to indicate that President Cleveland 
 ever contemplated the issue of $200,000,000 of bonds at 
 any one time, although the total amount of the bonds 
 actually issued by him, in his fight to preserve the gold 
 standard, greatly exceeded that amount, and the statement 
 that he designed to employ the proceeds of the bond issue 
 to meet current expenses was palpably untrue. The 
 Treasury Department had no authority to issue bonds for 
 such a purpose, and the President later assured Congress 
 that “at no time . . . has there been any consideration of 
 the question.” 
 
 By January 17th, the gold reserve stood at $70,000,000, 
 and the public was showing itself more and more dis¬ 
 trustful of the government’s will or ability to furnish 
 gold upon demand. The same day Secretary Carlisle 
 announced that $50,000,000 in ten-year five per cent 
 bonds, redeemable in “coin,” would be on sale for gold 
 until the first of the following February. But he warned 
 all prospective purchasers that no bid would be con¬ 
 sidered which did not offer a fraction over seventeen per 
 cent premium, thus reducing the yield to three per cent. 
 
 The bond sale worked far less smoothly than did the 
 endless chain. Buyers were so alarmingly few that the 
 President, fearful lest the issue fail, despatched Mr. Car¬ 
 lisle to New York to confer with a number of well-known 
 financiers, an unwelcome expedient for one who had 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 79 
 
 often declared that “the government ought not, regardless 
 of any public purpose, to identify itself with private 
 business or speculation.” The financiers, fully conscious 
 of the danger, rallied to the support of the government, 
 and “barely in time to prevent a disastrous failure of the 
 sale,” as Mr. Cleveland later explained. The gold 
 realized from this sale amounted to $58,660,917.63, thus 
 raising the reserve to $107,440,802, and the crisis was 
 over for the moment. 
 
 The President knew, however, that it was only for 
 the moment, and therefore toward the end of March he 
 sent to Congress a message which urged “the desirability 
 of granting to the Secretary of the Treasury a better 
 power than now exists to issue bonds to protect the gold 
 reserve.” In view of the composition of that body, pru¬ 
 dence demanded that, pending its answer, he should avoid 
 any action likely to lead to conflict. But, unfortunately, 
 such a course was impossible. The Seigniorage Bill 
 which Congress had just passed was waiting his signature, 
 and sign it he could not. 
 
 Seigniorage is the gain accruing to the government by 
 the purchase of bullion at a price less than the value 
 stamped on the metal when coined. It represents the 
 difference between a silver dollar and a dollar’s worth of 
 silver. The Seigniorage Bill provided for an addition to 
 the currency of approximately 50,000,000 silver dollars, 
 coined from the Seigniorage in the Treasury, and worth 
 intrinsically about fifty per cent, of their face value. 
 Congressman Bland of Missouri—“Silver Dick,” his 
 admirers called him—was its sponsor, and it was the 
 darling project of the free silver men, who regarded it 
 as the test to determine whether or not the President was 
 an irreconcilable enemy of silver. 
 
 The receipt of the Seigniorage Bill, therefore, placed 
 
So 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 the President in serious embarrassment. Many of his 
 sound money supporters assumed that he would veto it. 
 Carl Schurz wrote: “Put your heel on this seigniorage 
 humbug and save the country’s honor.” 
 
 On the other hand, many friends as ardently “sound 
 money” as Mr. Schurz, urged him to sign the bill, argu¬ 
 ing that the amount of silver was so small as to add little 
 to the danger of the situation, and that the enmity which 
 would be aroused by a veto would greatly weaken his 
 chance of being given the power needed for an effective 
 bond issue. Among these Secretary Gresham was con¬ 
 spicuous, and no one could question the fact that he was 
 the soundest of sound money men. Still others urged him 
 to sign the bill in the interest of party unity. “If you 
 veto it,” wrote David R. Francis, “the party will be so 
 irreparably divided and demoralized that defeat will 
 ensue.” 
 
 But the latter argument only angered the President. 
 He could not comprehend how sound money men could 
 hope to purchase party unity by consenting to an increase 
 of unsound money. By the terms of the bill, the seignior¬ 
 age was to be coined “into legal tender standard dollars,” 
 the fiat of the government being substituted for real value. 
 
 William Elroy Curtis, then Washington correspon¬ 
 dent for the Chicago Record, gives this account of an 
 interview in which the President expressed his views 
 upon the ethics of the situation: 
 
 “The president lost his temper yesterday while a party 
 of western and southern congressmen were trying to per¬ 
 suade him to sign the silver bill. . . . After discussing 
 the financial side of the question they brought up the 
 political end of it, and one of them told the president 
 that unless the bill became a law there was no hope for 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 
 
 8l 
 
 the democrats’ getting a majority in the next congress. 
 He added, by way of a clincher, that it would be scarcely 
 possible for him and several others of the gentlemen 
 present to be re-elected. 
 
 “Whereupon the president turned on him and re¬ 
 marked that he supposed that was the reason why the bill 
 got so many votes in the house, and proceeded to give his 
 opinion of members of congress who pandered to the de¬ 
 lusions of the people and voted for all sorts of legislation 
 in order to keep themselves in office. He said that the 
 credit of the government and the condition of the national 
 finances were too important to be treated from that point 
 of view, and that he had a decided contempt for anyone 
 who would ask him to aid in such legislation for such a 
 reason.” 
 
 Having considered the bill wholly upon its merits, 
 and with reference to the public interest, Mr. Cleveland 
 returned it to Congress with his veto, on March 29, 1894, 
 the very day when he asked Congress for “a better power 
 than now exists to issue bonds.” 
 
 Had it been possible, the President would doubtless 
 have swallowed his pride and his personal opinions and 
 signed, in order to win support for the demand for power 
 which he had just made upon Congress, but he consid¬ 
 ered the Seigniorage Bill a concession to dishonesty and 
 as such he could no* sign it. This his veto message made 
 perfectly plain: 
 
 “My strong desire to avoid disagreement with those 
 in both Houses of Congress who have supported this bill 
 would lead me to approve it if I could believe that the 
 public good would not be thereby endangered and that 
 such action on my part would be a proper discharge of 
 
82 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 official duty. Inasmuch, however, as I am unable to 
 satisfy myself that the proposed legislation is either wise 
 or opportune, my conception of the obligations and re¬ 
 sponsibilities attached to the great office I hold forbids 
 the indulgence of my personal desire and inexorably con¬ 
 fines me to that course which is dictated by my reason 
 and judgment, and pointed out by a sincere purpose to 
 protect and promote the general interests of our people.” 
 
 In the face of this veto Congress refused to grant the 
 extra powers for which the President had pleaded, and 
 the latter was forced to make shift to defend the gold 
 standard with the powers already possessed. For this 
 he saw no chance, save a succession of bond issues, likely 
 to give only temporary relief. 
 
 So hopeless was the situation that he at times indulged 
 the thought that he had made a mistake in consenting to 
 return to office. “I do not mind confessing to you,” he 
 wrote to one of his former New York law partners, How¬ 
 ard Van Sinderen, on April 6th, “that my position at 
 15 Broad Street was an easier one than I now occupy, 
 and I occasionally wonder if it was not quite as useful.” 
 
 Within three months of the close of the first bond 
 sales, the gold reserve stood at $78,693,267, and was still 
 sinking, while domestic hoarding and exportation of gold 
 were on the increase, and the customs revenues brought 
 practically no gold into the Treasury. The time had 
 come for another issue or a silver basis. 
 
 With state and congressional elections almost in sight, 
 this was a hard alternative, but Mr. Cleveland showed 
 no hesitation. “An obedient regard for official duty,” 
 he later explained, “made the right path exceedingly 
 plain.” 
 
 Unfortunately for the President, and for the party 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 83 
 
 which he led, this plain path of duty made plain also 
 the path of opportunity for Hill, Sheehan, and Murphy, 
 in New York, and for like-minded politicians throughout 
 the land. So sinister was the interpretation given by his 
 enemies to the bond issue and its approaching duplicate 
 that many of the President’s former supporters turned 
 against such of the party candidates as remained his 
 friends, and supported those who were openly antago¬ 
 nistic to him. The Democrats of New York assembled 
 in a rollicking convention at Saratoga on Monday, Sep¬ 
 tember 24th, and staged an anti-Cleveland scene which 
 recalls the description of Revolutionary Boston, as a place 
 where the King’s enemies went about in homespun and 
 his friends in tar and feathers. They nominated David 
 B. Hill for Governor and equally dear enemies for other 
 important state offices. 
 
 The folly of this course was soon evident. The Re¬ 
 form Democrats, revolting from Hill, nominated Everett 
 P. Wheeler for Governor, thus insuring the election of 
 Levi P. Morton, candidate of the Republicans and Inde¬ 
 pendent Republicans. William L. Strong, Republican 
 and Union Anti-Tammany candidate for Mayor of New 
 York, won an overwhelming victory, while, in the country 
 at large, there was a veritable landslide toward Republi¬ 
 canism. “The latest returns,” declared the New York 
 Tribune of November 8, 1894, “. . . show that there have 
 been elected to the next House of Representatives 234 
 Republicans, 117 Democrats and 3 Populists.” Even the 
 solid South was broken, not one but many Southern states 
 returning Republican Congressmen in considerable num¬ 
 bers: West Virginia 4, Maryland 3, Kentucky 4, Vir¬ 
 ginia 2, North Carolina 3, Tennessee 4, Missouri 7, 
 Delaware 1, and even Texas 1. 
 
8 4 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 On November 14th, eight days after the elections, the 
 second bond issue was announced, $50,000,000 of five per 
 cent bonds being again the proposition presented to the 
 public. But the public was no more disposed than for¬ 
 merly to part with gold in exchange for bonds. Once 
 more bidding was dishearteningly slow and insultingly 
 low. 
 
 At last came a bid “for all or none” from a combina¬ 
 tion of thirty-three banking institutions and financiers of 
 New York. Their offer being more advantageous to the 
 government than all previous bids, it was accepted, and 
 the President had the satisfaction of seeing $58,538,500 
 added to the gold reserve. 
 
 In view of the unkind and ungenerous interpretation 
 which has been so often put upon this transaction, it is 
 only fair to quote the words of Mr. Cleveland, written 
 ten years later: “The President . . . of the United States 
 Trust Company . . . rendered most useful and patriotic 
 service in making both this and the previous offer of bonds 
 successful. . . . He afterward testified under oath that 
 the accepted bid for ‘all or none,’ in which his company 
 was a large participant, proved unprofitable to the 
 bidders.” 
 
 In calmer days even the New York World acknowl¬ 
 edged that: “The first two bond issues by the Cleveland 
 administration . . . were made with full publicity and 
 entire propriety.” 
 
 When on December 3, 1894, Congress heard the 
 President’s annual message, it listened to no vague gen¬ 
 eralities written to conciliate hostile factions, or disarm 
 jubilant political opponents. He painted the financial 
 situation in somber colors, and suggested the cure in 
 specific terms. But neither his pleas, his arguments, nor 
 his lucid explanations produced the slightest effect upon 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 85 
 
 his enemies, who rejoiced at his discomfiture and declined 
 to give him the authority which he demanded. 
 
 In January, 1895, the gold withdrawals amounted to 
 $45,000,000, and again the end of gold payment was not 
 far off unless Congress would consent to act or the Presi¬ 
 dent should for the third time issue bonds. On the 28th, 
 he again appealed to Congress, but again his plea was 
 disregarded, and by February 8th the gold reserve was 
 less than fifty per cent of the traditional level of safety. 
 
 Meanwhile, many of his most trusted advisers were 
 eagerly urging him to invoke expert aid from Wall Street 
 again, but with little success. While bitterly resentful 
 toward Congress, he was disposed to blame the bankers 
 also, and declined to hold further conference with them. 
 Finally, however, less in concession to friendly advice 
 than because he had become convinced that the public 
 would not purchase more government bonds, he agreed 
 to see J. P. Morgan, though he was still firmly resolved 
 that any new issue of bonds should be first offered to pub¬ 
 lic subscription. In commenting upon this decision, a 
 prominent banker declared: “If a man needs beef, he 
 goes to a butcher; if he needs gold, he goes to a banker. 
 If he needs a great deal of beef, he goes to a big butcher; 
 if he requires a great deal of gold, he must go to a big 
 banker and pay his price for it.” 
 
 The story of the now famous interview between the 
 President and Mr. Morgan was later thus related by Mr. 
 Cleveland himself: 
 
 “On the evening of the seventh day of February, 1895, 
 an interview was held at the White House with J. P. 
 Morgan of New York. . . . Secretary Carlisle was pres¬ 
 ent nearly or quite all the time; Attorney General Olney 
 
86 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 was there a portion of the time, and Mr. Morgan and a 
 young man from his office and myself all the time. 
 
 “At the outset Mr. Morgan was inclined to complain 
 of the treatment he had received from Treasury officials 
 in the repudiation of the arrangement which he thought 
 he had been encouraged to perfect in connection with the 
 disposal of another issue of bonds. I said to Mr. Mor¬ 
 gan [that] whatever there might be in all this, another 
 offer of bonds for popular subscription, open to all bid¬ 
 ders, had been determined upon, and that there were two 
 questions I wanted to ask him which he ought to be able 
 to answer: one was whether the bonds to be so offered 
 would probably be taken at a good price on short notice; 
 and the other was whether, in case there should be immi¬ 
 nent danger of the disappearance of what remained of the 
 gold reserve, during the time that must elapse between 
 published notice and the opening of bids, a sufficient 
 amount of gold could be temporarily obtained from finan¬ 
 cial institutions in the City of New York to bridge over 
 the difficulty and save the reserve until the Government 
 could realize upon the sale of its bonds. 
 
 “Mr. Morgan replied that he had no doubt bonds 
 could be again sold on popular subscription at some price, 
 but he could not say what the price would be; and to the 
 second inquiry his answer was that, in his opinion, such 
 an advance of gold as might be required could be accom¬ 
 plished if the gold could be kept in the country, but that 
 there might be reluctance to make such an advance if it 
 was to be immediately withdrawn for shipment abroad, 
 leaving our financial condition substantially unimproved. 
 
 “After a little further discussion of the situation, he 
 suddenly asked me why we did not buy $100,000,000 in 
 gold at a fixed price and pay for it in bonds under Sec¬ 
 tion 3700 of the Revised Statutes. 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 87 
 
 “This was a proposition entirely new to me. I turned 
 to the Statutes and read the section he mentioned. Sec¬ 
 retary Carlisle confirmed me in the opinion that this law 
 abundantly authorized such a transaction, and agreed 
 that it might be expedient if favorable terms could be 
 made. 
 
 “The section of the Statute referred to reads as fol¬ 
 lows: ‘Section 3700. The Secretary of the Treasury may 
 purchase coin with any of the bonds or notes of the United 
 States, authorized by law, at such rates and upon such 
 terms as he may deem most advantageous to the public 
 interest.’ 
 
 “Mr. Morgan strongly urged that, if we proceeded 
 under this law, the amount of gold purchased should not 
 be less than $100,000,000; but he was at once informed 
 that in no event would more bonds be then issued than 
 would be sufficient to provide for adding to the reserve 
 about $60,000,000, the amount necessary to raise the fund 
 to $100,000,000. . . . 
 
 “The position of Mr. Morgan and other parties in 
 interest whom he represented was such in the business 
 world that they were abundantly able not only to furnish 
 the gold we needed, but to protect us . . . against its 
 immediate loss. Their willingness to undertake both 
 these services was developed during the discussion of the 
 plan proposed.” 
 
 Mr. Morgan also announced that he and his asso¬ 
 ciates would be glad to accept bonds bearing three per 
 cent instead of four per cent if they were made payable in 
 gold instead of in coin, but the power to authorize such a 
 transaction lay wholly with Congress, and the House of 
 Representatives had just declined to sanction such a 
 change. Mr. Morgan then suggested that ten days be 
 allowed in which to induce Congress to change its deci- 
 
88 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 sion, as the government could thus save $16,000,000. But 
 Mr. Cleveland knew that such a delay would avail noth¬ 
 ing, and so, again to quote his words: 
 
 “After careful consideration of every detail until a 
 late hour of the night, an agreement was made by which 
 J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York, for themselves and 
 for J. S. Morgan & Co., of London, August Belmont & 
 Co., of New York, for themselves and for N. M. Roths¬ 
 child & Sons, of London, were to sell and deliver to the 
 Government 3,500,000 ounces of standard gold coin of 
 the United States, to be paid for in bonds bearing annual 
 interest at the rate of 4 °/o per annum, and payable [in 
 coin] at the pleasure of the Government after thirty years 
 from their date, such bonds to be issued and delivered 
 from time to time as the gold coin to be furnished was 
 deposited by said parties in the Sub-Treasuries or other 
 depositories of the United States. 
 
 “At least one half of the [gold] coin so delivered was 
 to be obtained in Europe, and shipped from there in 
 amounts not less than 300,000 ounces per month, at the 
 expense and risk of the parties furnishing the same; and 
 so far as was in their power they were to ‘exert all finan¬ 
 cial influence and make all legitimate efforts to protect 
 the Treasury of the United States against the withdrawals 
 of gold pending the complete performance of the 
 contract.’ ” 
 
 “The conference lasted some hours,” writes John G. 
 Milburn, “under conditions so tense as to be almost in¬ 
 describable. I remember Mr. Morgan’s describing how 
 he held a large unlighted cigar in his hand, and at the 
 end of the conference he found it was gone, having been 
 unconsciously ground into powder under the excitement 
 of the occasion.” 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 
 
 89 
 
 But, despite this excitement, Mr. Morgan’s outward 
 appearance was quite calm, and Mr. Cleveland later com¬ 
 mented upon his “quiet, masterly way of coming to the 
 rescue.” 
 
 The conference over, the President retired to prepare 
 a message for the opening of the congressional session on 
 the morrow, leaving to Secretary Carlisle, Attorney 
 General Olney, and the bankers the task of reducing the 
 agreement to writing. 
 
 The Morgan-Cleveland bond contract was a bold 
 move; indeed it is doubtful whether a bolder could be 
 found in our financial history, and the message sent to 
 Congress the next day was not less bold. In barely one 
 thousand words, Mr. Cleveland explained, not a plan, but 
 an action. He informed Congress that, as they had failed 
 to grant him the power needed to defend the public credit, 
 he had acted “in pursuance of Section 3700 of the Revised 
 Statutes” and concluded an agreement “with parties 
 abundantly able to fulfill their undertaking.” 
 
 Five days later the President wrote to his British 
 Ambassador: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 Feby. 13 , 1895 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Bayard: 
 
 First of all I want to thank you, from the bottom of 
 my heart, for several very kind and very comforting let¬ 
 ters I have received from you. I have been dreadfully 
 forlorn these many months and sorely perplexed and 
 tried. 
 
 Think of it!! Not a man in the Senate with whom I 
 can be on terms of absolute confidence. Our Wisconsin 
 friend and former associate seems somehow to be cowed, 
 and our Delaware friend has only spasmodic self- 
 
90 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 assertion and generally is in doubt as to the correctness 
 of what I do or want to do. Not one of them comes to 
 me on public business unless sent for and then full of 
 reservations and doubt. We are very far apart in feeling 
 and, it seems to me, in purposes. I am on the whole glad 
 you are not among them. Your efforts to stem the tide 
 would only hurt and grieve you. And yet I must not 
 forget the opportunity you would have to add glory to 
 your patriotic career and raise the hopes and inspire the 
 faith of your Countrymen. I am sorry the malevolent 
 change in our public life since you and I worked together 
 here, has been made known to me. I am sure you cannot 
 fully realize it. 
 
 I have at my side a Cabinet composed of pure-minded, 
 patriotic and thoroughly loyal men. I sometimes feel 
 guilty when I recall the troubles I have induced them to 
 share with me. In our hand to hand conflict our triumphs 
 are many but I am afraid as we triumph our party loses 
 and the Country does not gain as it should; and yet what 
 would the condition be without us? 
 
 You may be surprised to learn that in all the dark¬ 
 ness I have never lost the feeling that the American peo¬ 
 ple and I have a perfectly fair understanding. 
 
 I do not believe you will think me vain and foolish 
 if I say to you that I ought to be and am profoundly 
 grateful for a guidance which has thus far kept me from 
 pitfalls. God knows I cannot bear mistakes now. 
 
 Our friends at the Capitol have blindly wandered into 
 a close trap on the financial question. To-day the House 
 Ways and Means Committee expect a bill for gold bonds, 
 and the Senate is thrashing about in a way that is pitiable. 
 In the meantime the administration is lightened from a 
 heavy load by our last arrangement for the procure¬ 
 ment of gold. I have not a doubt that we shall be free 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 91 
 
 from anxiety on that score for a good long breathing 
 spell. 
 
 That trouble over, another looms up. I do not see 
 how I can make myself responsible for such a departure 
 from our traditions as is involved in an appropriation in 
 the Diplomatic bill, for building a cable by the Govern¬ 
 ment to Hawaii. The Senate has thus amended the 
 House bill. The House will stubbornly oppose and resist 
 it and I hope it will be disposed of in conference and 
 rejected. If it is not, another conflict will be forced upon 
 me. I hear to-day that the claim is made that I have 
 heretofore expressed myself favorably towards such a 
 scheme. I suppose this claim is based upon references 
 to the usefulness of telegraph communication between us 
 and Hawaii in my annual messages of 1886 and 1888. 
 Whatever inferences are attempted to be drawn from 
 those expressions I do not believe we should in present 
 circumstances boom the annexation craze by entering 
 upon Government cable building. 
 
 I long for the 4th of March to come with no necessity 
 in sight for a special session. We shall not need it for 
 the purpose of making another effort to bridge or cure 
 financial troubles. 
 
 I need not say to you that I shall be delighted at all 
 times to hear from you. I am surprised to see how sen¬ 
 sibly the English papers treat our situation as manifested 
 by the clippings you sent me. 
 
 I trust you will be alert to discover any growing in¬ 
 clination in England to deal with the silver question inter¬ 
 nationally, and advise us if you see a propitious opening. 
 
 Mrs. Cleveland and the babies are well. God be 
 praised for that! I often think that if things should go 
 wrong in that end of the house, I should abandon the ship. 
 
 If she were not in bed and asleep, Mrs. Cleveland 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 92 
 
 would send her love to you and Mrs. Bayard. Mine 
 goes anyway. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. T. F. Bayard, 
 
 U. S. Embassy, 
 
 London, England. 
 
 As the opposition studied the situation created by the 
 Morgan contract and the President’s message, it saw how 
 cleverly Mr. Cleveland had chosen his position. There 
 now appeared no hope of defeating his main purpose, 
 for the bonds had been sold and $65,116,244.62 had been 
 thereby secured for the gold reserve. But the presenta¬ 
 tion of a joint resolution, designed to make the new bonds 
 specifically payable in gold, and known to be of executive 
 origin, offered them a chance to present their views, and 
 to balk him of complete success. Attack upon this joint 
 resolution was rendered easier by the fact that Congress 
 had rejected a similar proposition a few hours before the 
 Morgan-Cleveland interview. 
 
 In describing the debate, the New York Herald cor¬ 
 respondent wrote: “Mr. Bryan, of Nebraska, amused the 
 House by offering himself as a martyr to the cause of free 
 coinage and cheap dollars, declaring that he would will¬ 
 ingly give up his life to secure the defeat of the pending 
 resolution.” He declared that the President’s suggestion 
 to make the bonds payable in gold was the first instance in 
 which a bribe had been offered to our people by foreign 
 money lenders. “They come to us,” he said, “with the 
 insolent proposition, ‘We will give you $16,000,000, pay¬ 
 ing a proportionate amount each year, if the United States 
 will change its financial policy to suit us.’ ” 
 
 In this opposition Mr. Bryan was joined not only by 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 93 
 
 silver Democrats, silver Republicans, and Populists, but 
 also by some sound money men, who objected either to 
 the terms of the Morgan-Belmont-Rothschild contract 
 itself, or to the idea of such a contract, whatever its terms. 
 When the vote came, therefore, it was a crushing defeat 
 for the President’s policy, 94 Democrats, 63 Republi¬ 
 cans, and 10 Populists constituting the opposition in a 
 vote of 167 to 120. In consequence, the bonds of the 
 syndicate issue bore four per cent instead of three per 
 cent interest; though the premium allowed under the 
 contract made the interest, in effect, only three and three 
 quarters per cent, and the United States paid $549,159 a 
 year for thirty years, or a total of $16,474,770, as the price 
 of William Jennings Bryan’s first victory over Grover 
 Cleveland. 
 
 After consultation together, the President and the 
 Secretary of the Treasury decided not to insist upon the 
 literal fulfilment of the Morgan promise, that “at least 
 one half of the gold . . . be supplied from abroad”; “but 
 the remainder of the contract,” to quote Mr. Cleveland 
 himself, was “so well carried out . . . that during its 
 continuance the operation of ‘the endless chain’ . . . was 
 interrupted. No gold was, during that period, taken 
 from the Treasury to be used in the purchase of bonds, 
 as had previously been the case, nor was any withdrawn 
 for shipment abroad.” 
 
 As soon as the bonds came into the possession of their 
 purchasers, Morgan, Belmont, and the Rothschilds, the 
 lack of confidence which had forced the United States 
 Government to sell its second issue at a rate lower than 
 its first disappeared. Indeed, the public, confident that 
 the bonds were now secure of payment in gold, showed 
 an astonishing eagerness to purchase them. 
 
 The original syndicate formed a second syndicate, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 94 
 
 taking in certain other prominent banks, international 
 bankers, and gold importers. This second syndicate took 
 over the entire issue of bonds and, on February 20th, 
 offered them for public sale, the bidding beginning in 
 London and New York at the same hour. The scenes 
 recall the one in Philadelphia, when shares of the first 
 United States Bank were offered to the public by Secre¬ 
 tary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Men 
 crowded, cursed and struggled for a place in the line of 
 those eager to pay for bonds which their indiffer¬ 
 
 ence had forced their President to sell to the syndicate 
 at 104^ only a few days before. Mr. Morgan personally 
 supervised the bids at his office, and in twenty-two min¬ 
 utes gave the signal that the sale was over; but for hours 
 thereafter men held their places in the hope that they 
 might yet be able to purchase. In London a similar scene 
 was enacted, Rothschild & Sons receiving fifteen times 
 as many applications as they were able to fill. Thus the 
 bankers, as a result of the confidence which their confi¬ 
 dence had restored, reaped a full harvest. 
 
 These operations resulted, of course, in bitter denun¬ 
 ciations of the President, who was assailed as the friend 
 of robbers, enriching himself from the treasury of the 
 nation over which he was called upon to rule, and opening 
 its vaults to the sinister influence of the great unscrupu¬ 
 lous banking concerns of the world. His enemies seized 
 every item which could be distorted into a pretext for 
 abuse. His friendship with Commodore Benedict, of the 
 Chicago Gas Trust, was cited as a suspicious circum¬ 
 stance, and as wild tales spread throughout the land, 
 Populism grew in the West in exact proportion as they 
 were believed, Bryan’s spiritual kinsfolk whispering the 
 alarming rumor that Grover Cleveland was not a Demo- 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 95 
 
 crat, but a Republican, a rich spoilsman dividing the 
 spoil with the strong. 
 
 But the third issue of bonds could no more perma¬ 
 nently save the financial situation than had the second, 
 and soon the “endless chain” again began to work. In 
 his third annual message (December 2, 1895), therefore, 
 the President again pleaded with Congress for a law 
 which would make the gold standard safe, but he pleaded 
 in vain. 
 
 In his anxiety to find some way to restore public con¬ 
 fidence, he suggested: “The only thorough and practi¬ 
 cable remedy ... is found in the retirement and can¬ 
 cellation of our United States notes, commonly called 
 greenbacks, and the outstanding Treasury notes issued 
 by the Government in payment of silver purchases under 
 the [Sherman] Act of 1890. I believe this could be 
 readily accomplished by the exchange of these notes for 
 United States bonds, of small as well as large denomina¬ 
 tions, bearing a low rate of interest.” He urged also that 
 authority be “given to the Secretary of the Treasury to 
 dispose of the bonds abroad for gold if necessary to com¬ 
 plete the contemplated redemption and cancellation.” 
 
 As the cancellation of so large an amount of currency 
 would produce a dangerous financial stringency unless 
 its place were immediately filled by some other kind of 
 money, he suggested that “the currency withdrawn . . . 
 might be supplied by such gold as would be used on 
 their retirement or by an increase in the circulation of 
 our national banks.” And he added a suggestion, which 
 shows how little he objected to silver dollars as currency 
 or to the coining of the seigniorage under safe conditions: 
 “I do not overlook the fact that the cancellation of the 
 Treasury notes . . . would leave the Treasury in the 
 actual ownership of sufficient silver, including seigni- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 96 
 
 orage, to coin nearly $178,000,000 in standard dollars. 
 It is worthy of consideration whether this might not from 
 time to time be converted into dollars or fractional coin 
 and slowly put into circulation.” 
 
 The moment another bond issue was suggested, the 
 campaign of misrepresentation and recrimination began 
 again. Not satisfied with the vast proceeds of deals al¬ 
 ready made with the robber barons, his opponents 
 declared, he is now planning again to open the people’s 
 treasury to their exploitation. At this critical moment 
 the situation was suddenly rendered far more critical by 
 the Venezuelan crisis. On December 17, 1895, President 
 Cleveland’s startling Venezuelan message went to Con¬ 
 gress, and the menace of war accelerated the flight of 
 gold. 
 
 In view of the situation thus complicated almost be¬ 
 yond precedent, the President urged Congress not to take 
 a Christmas recess until they had done something to put 
 the country upon a solid financial basis. But the hour 
 for recess was at hand and, as Mr. Cleveland later scorn¬ 
 fully commented, “it should not have been expected that 
 members of Congress would permit troublesome thoughts 
 of the Government’s financial difficulties to disturb the 
 pleasant anticipations of their holiday recess.” Without 
 giving the least heed to the President’s plea, Congress dis¬ 
 persed for its brief Christmas recess, leaving him to cope 
 with the situation as best he could. 
 
 But Wall Street, less eager for vacation, worked while 
 Congress celebrated. On Monday, December 23d, Rob¬ 
 ert Bacon, of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., made a 
 trip to Washington, accompanied by the President’s late 
 law partner, Francis Lynde Stetson, to be joined within 
 a few hours by Mr. Morgan himself. 
 
 “During my visit,” Mr. Morgan later explained, 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 97 
 
 “. . . no negotiations for a loan were commenced or even 
 suggested, nor was there then or since any agreement or 
 request that I should take any steps preparatory to mak¬ 
 ing a contract. The result of my visit was that I came 
 to the following conclusions: 
 
 “First.—That the President and Secretary of the 
 Treasury were determined to use every power at their 
 command to restore and maintain the gold reserve. 
 
 “Second.—That no steps would be taken or even any 
 preparatory negotiations commenced until it was ascer¬ 
 tained what action, if any, Congress would be likely to 
 take in response to the appeal of the President for ade¬ 
 quate and improved means for making such restoration. 
 
 “Third.—That the Executive Department would pre¬ 
 fer, if possible, to secure $200,000,000 of gold in order 
 to avoid any probable necessity for similar negotiations 
 before the meeting of the new Congress in 1897. 
 
 “Fourth.—That it was absolutely certain that no ade¬ 
 quate relief could be obtained from Congress, and that no 
 bill could be passed through the Senate for the improve¬ 
 ment of the monetary system of the country. 
 
 “Upon my return, appreciating to the full the gravity 
 of the situation, and keenly alive to the fact that early 
 action was essential, and in order that I might be pre¬ 
 pared, if called upon to act promptly, I took steps to 
 ascertain to what extent it would be possible to secure 
 the co-operation of capitalists, institutions, and others in 
 forming a syndicate which would agree to sell to the 
 United States Government $200,000,000 of gold coin. 
 
 “In my efforts, while far from sanguine as to the 
 result, the ready acquiescence of James Stillman, Esq., 
 President of the National City Bank, New York, Edward 
 D. Adams, Esq., with full power representing the 
 Deutsche Bank of Berlin, Germany; John A. Stewart, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 98 
 
 Esq., President [of the] United States Trust Company, 
 Pliny Fisk, Esq., of Messrs. Harvey Fisk & Sons, and 
 others . . . encouraged me to proceed. 
 
 “The contract, as prepared and signed by the par¬ 
 ticipants, did not stipulate whether the purchase should 
 be by private contract or by public offer. The only pro¬ 
 viso (in addition to the important one that no gold should 
 be withdrawn from the Treasury) was that the minimum 
 amount of the contract should be $100,000,000 and the 
 maximum . . . not exceeding $200,000,000. ... At the 
 end of three or four days the total of $200,000,000 was 
 reached, and I had in my hands full authority which 
 would enable me, whenever and however the Executive 
 might decide to act, to secure that amount of gold for 
 the Treasury reserve in exchange for United States 
 Bonds. . . . 
 
 “The formation of the syndicate being completed, I 
 commenced negotiations for the permanent placing of a 
 portion of the loan by public issue in Europe, should a 
 contract with the Government be made.” 
 
 News of Mr. Morgan’s negotiations was soon abroad, 
 and was wrongly interpreted by many of the papers of the 
 country as evidence of a secret agreement between the 
 President and Wall Street. 
 
 The New York World of January 3, 1896, under the 
 heading, “Grover Cleveland’s Golden Opportunity, 
 Smash the Ring,” declared: “This bargain has been 
 made with a suspicious secrecy which has been guarded 
 by a picket line of falsehoods put forth for the mislead¬ 
 ing of the people. It is a bargain between yourself in 
 your official capacity and your near friends. It promises 
 to give princely millions of the people’s money to those 
 friends, and that without any need. . . . You must see, 
 Mr. Cleveland, that secrecy of negotiation under such cir- 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 
 
 99 
 
 cumstances is bound to excite suspicion. You must real¬ 
 ize that men are already saying things which the news¬ 
 papers as yet hesitate to print.” 
 
 The editorial further announced the World's readi¬ 
 ness to purchase one million of the bonds on a three per 
 cent basis, and ventured to assure the President that there 
 were thousands of others willing to take a similar course, 
 if given the opportunity. “Trust the People, Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land! Appeal to them! Smash the gold ring!” it urged. 
 
 This attitude of the World, far from helping matters, 
 made more difficult the task of accomplishing the pur¬ 
 poses of the Government, and the next day Mr. Morgan 
 addressed to the President the following letter, which 
 shows how far the World was from a knowledge of the 
 facts: 
 
 New York, 219 Madison Avenue. 
 
 January 4, 1896. 
 
 To the President, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Sir: 
 
 It is with great hesitation that I venture to address 
 you in relation to the present financial situation. 
 
 As you are doubtless aware financial affairs are ap¬ 
 proaching a serious crisis, and the tension today is 
 extreme, and, whilst no outward evidences have de¬ 
 veloped, we are likely at any moment to reach the point, 
 and consequences, which it will then be too late to remedy. 
 The gravity of the situation must be my excuse. 
 
 The most important step at the moment is the restora¬ 
 tion of Government credit, by placing the amount of 
 the gold reserve in the Treasury beyond question. This 
 once accomplished confidence both at home and abroad 
 in the stability of our currency will be restored. 
 
IOO 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 After my recent visit to Washington I became con¬ 
 vinced that any legislative action to improve the methods 
 at the disposal of the Executive was unlikely, in fact 
 impossible. I therefore took steps to ascertain whether 
 it would be possible to obtain the cooperation of parties 
 at home and abroad to an extent that would enable me 
 to negotiate a contract with the Government for the sale 
 of 11,500,000 ounces of gold approximating 200,000,000 
 of Dollars on about the basis of the contract of February 
 8th, 1895. In this effort I have been successful and am 
 now in a position to make such a contract for the full 
 amount. 
 
 I do not hesitate to affirm, in fact to urge, that such 
 a contract would in every way be for the best interests 
 of the Government and the people, and would be fol¬ 
 lowed by less derangement of the money market, of trade, 
 in fact of all interests, including foreign exchanges, which 
 until recently were in such an increasingly prosperous 
 condition, and I urge your serious consideration of such 
 a contract. 
 
 At the same time I recognize the effect of legislation 
 which has been proposed and the discussions thereupon in 
 both houses of Congress, all of which might lead you to 
 hesitate to make a private contract, and, consequently, in 
 view of the gravity of the situation, I feel bound to say, 
 that if after a conference, in which I can more fully lay 
 the matter before you, and without expressing any confi¬ 
 dence in such a mode of procedure in face of previous 
 failures of similar attempts, but recognizing as I do that 
 the responsibility of decision lies with you, I pledge to 
 you every influence and effort in my power to assist the 
 Government in its endeavor to make successful a negotia¬ 
 tion by public advertisement which shall result in the 
 sale to the Treasury of 11,500,000 ounces United States 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN IOI 
 
 gold coin ($200,000,000), and further, I will so far as I 
 possibly can, take such steps as will enable the Syndicate 
 which I represent to join in making the negotiation suc¬ 
 cessful to its full amount. 
 
 Awaiting the indication of your pleasure, I remain, 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 J. Pierpont Morgan. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Christmas recess over, Congressmen 
 and Senators returned to their seats, armed with copies 
 of the World's attack upon the President, and there began 
 a strange debate, a strife of words with a sensational news¬ 
 paper article as the chief arsenal from which was drawn 
 ammunition for both offense and defense. Senator Sher¬ 
 man declared that “while Congress has, perhaps too hast¬ 
 ily, but with entire unanimity, supported the President 
 in maintaining the interests and honor of our country in 
 the field of diplomacy, it has not and will not approve 
 his recommendations on the more important subject of 
 our financial policy, and especially of our currency. It 
 will not approve his secret bond syndicate contract.” 
 Senator Elkins, of West Virginia, introduced a resolu¬ 
 tion “directing the disposal of bonds by public sale to 
 the highest bidder,” his speech in defense of this insult 
 being frankly based upon hearsay and newspaper history. 
 Senator Hill, in defense of what he supposed to be the 
 intentions of the administration, questioned whether the 
 public would purchase the bonds if offered to them. 
 “There have been assertions,” he cried, “but assertions 
 are not backed with proof. Let these people who want 
 bonds come forward and say so. Where are they? The 
 sole person to come forward so far is Mr. Pulitzer of the 
 World . So far so good. Where are the persons to take 
 the other $49,000,000 of a loan?” This defense was 
 
102 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 gravely answered by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who 
 
 spoke World in hand, and without the thorough knowl- 
 
 * 
 
 edge of the facts which the country was entitled to expect 
 from this scholar-statesman. 
 
 After reading with astonishment the debates concern¬ 
 ing his reputed intentions, Mr. Cleveland sent to Senator 
 Caffery the following statement: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 Jan . 5 , 1896 . 
 
 My dear Senator: 
 
 I have read to-day in the Congressional Record the 
 debate in the Senate on Friday concerning the financial 
 situation and the bond issue. I am amazed at the intoler- . 
 ance that leads even excited partisanship to adopt as a 
 basis of attack the unfounded accusations and assertions 
 of a maliciously mendacious and sensational newspaper. 
 
 No banker or financier, nor any other human being, 
 has been invited to Washington for the purpose of ar¬ 
 ranging in any way or manner for the disposition of 
 bonds to meet the present or future needs of the gold 
 reserve. No arrangement of any kind has been made 
 for the disposition of such bonds to any syndicate or 
 through the agency of any syndicate. No assurance of 
 such a disposal of bonds has been directly or indirectly 
 given to any person. In point of fact, a decided leaning 
 toward a popular loan and advertising for bids has been 
 plainly exhibited on the part of the administration at 
 all times when the subject was under discussion. 
 
 Those charged with the responsibility of maintaining 
 our gold reserve, so far as legislation renders it possible, 
 have anxiously conferred with each other, and, as occa¬ 
 sion permitted, with those having knowledge of financial 
 affairs and present monetary conditions as to the best and 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN IO3 
 
 most favorable means of selling bonds for gold. The 
 unusual importance of a successful result, if the attempt 
 is again made, ought to be apparent to every American 
 citizen who bestows upon the subject a moment’s patriotic 
 thought. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury, from the first moment 
 that a necessity for the sale of another issue of bonds 
 seemed to be approaching, desired to offer them, if issued, 
 to the people, by public advertisement, if they could thus 
 be successfully disposed of. After full consideration he 
 came to the conclusion, with which I fully agree, that the 
 amount of gold in reserve, being now $20,000,000 more 
 than it was in February last, when a sale of bonds was 
 made to a syndicate, and other conditions differing from 
 those then existing, justify us in offering the bonds now 
 about to be issued for sale by popular subscription. This 
 is the entire matter, and all these particulars could have 
 been easily obtained by any member of the Senate by 
 simply inquiring. 
 
 If Mr. Morgan, or anyone else, reasoning from his 
 own standpoint, brought himself to the belief that the 
 government would at length be constrained to again sell 
 bonds to a syndicate, I suppose he would have a perfect 
 right, if he chose, to take such steps as seemed to him pru¬ 
 dent to put himself in condition to negotiate. 
 
 I expect an issue of bonds will be advertised for sale 
 to-morrow, and that bids will be invited, not only for 
 those now allowed by law, but for such other and differ¬ 
 ent bonds as Congress may authorize during the pendency 
 of the advertisement. 
 
 Not having had an opportunity to confer with you in 
 person since the present session of Congress began, and 
 noticing your participation in the debate of last Friday, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 104 
 
 I have thought it not amiss to put you in possession of 
 the facts and information herein contained. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 That same day the New York World sent 10,370 tele¬ 
 grams to leading bankers of America, asking whether 
 they would buy if the loan were thrown open to popular 
 subscription, and 5,300 replies were received, ranging 
 in length from 300 to 600 words each. They filled three 
 full pages of the World, printed in the finest type. Some 
 answered yes, some answered no, but the question re¬ 
 mained: Who will pay the highest price? And even the 
 New York World could not answer. 
 
 On January 6, 1896, Secretary Carlisle announced a 
 new thirty-year four per cent loan, not for $200,000,000 
 as Mr. Morgan expected, but for $100,000,000. This 
 made the syndicate contract available only to bid for all 
 or none, owing to the minimum therein set. Therefore 
 Mr. Morgan, “unwilling to make such a bid under pres¬ 
 ent circumstances,” as he told his associates, decided to 
 dissolve the syndicate. Feeling, however, that the knowl¬ 
 edge of its existence would tend to make this popular 
 loan a success, he did not actually effect the dissolution 
 until January 14th, when, as he informed the bankers con¬ 
 cerned, “the subscriptions by individuals and others, in¬ 
 cluding many of the syndicate whom I have encouraged 
 to subscribe, from present indications, will insure the 
 complete success of the issue.” 
 
 The test of public faith came, however, with the bid¬ 
 ding. A month was allowed for the process, during 
 which 4635 bids were received from forty-seven states 
 and territories. As the advertisements had promised, the 
 bonds were awarded to the highest bidders, but only 827 
 
BREAKING THE ENDLESS CHAIN 10$ 
 
 proved higher than J. Pierpont Morgan and Co. To 
 these accordingly was awarded $62,321,150 worth of 
 bonds. The rest of the issue went to Mr. Morgan and his 
 associates, not by the will of the President, but by the will 
 of the people who had failed to display the faith in the 
 nation’s bonds which the bankers displayed. Nor were 
 the gains of the bankers excessive, especially as, had the 
 gold standard failed, their bonds would have been paid 
 in silver, worth only fifty cents on the dollar. In subse¬ 
 quent hearings before a Congressional Committee, it was 
 shown that they made five per cent upon their actual 
 investment. 
 
 This transaction successfully ended one of the most 
 remarkable experiments in the history of finance. Had 
 the run on the Treasury continued one month longer, the 
 possibility of gold payments would have ceased. On the 
 last day of January, 1896, the gold reserve had dropped 
 below $50,000,000. At the end of February it stood at 
 $124,000,000. By a single issue of bonds $111,000,000 
 had been added to the gold reserve. 
 
 Thus, during that second term, which Senator Stew¬ 
 art, to the delight of his Populist friends, pronounced 
 probably the worst that ever occurred in this or any other 
 country, President Cleveland accomplished what he him¬ 
 self and most of his countrymen later considered his great- 
 est service to the American people, and the credit belongs 
 almost exclusively to him. Congress had refused help, 
 the Democratic and Populist parties had withheld sym¬ 
 pathy, and the Republicans had cynically avoided respon¬ 
 sibility. But by an ingenious interpretation of executive 
 power based upon laws which could not be repudiated, 
 Mr. Cleveland had, within two years, added all told 
 $293,000,000 of gold to the reserve fund by the creation 
 of a debt of only $262,000,000. 
 
io6 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 The fourth bond issue was the last ever made in time 
 of peace, for so thoroughly was the work accomplished 
 that even the panic which swept over the country during 
 the political crisis of the following summer could not 
 again drag the gold reserve to the danger point. The 
 endless chain was broken. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 
 
 "A tariff for any other purpose than public revenue is pub¬ 
 lic robbery” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 T HOUGH forced by circumstances to fight the first 
 great battle of his second administration in the in¬ 
 terest of sound money, Mr. Cleveland had not for a 
 moment lost sight of the fact that he had been restored 
 to power upon the basis of a definite pledge to overthrow 
 the McKinley tariff and substitute one built upon the 
 opposite principle. The very platform upon which he 
 had won his second term denounced protection as fraud, 
 and the McKinley tariff as “the culminating atrocity of 
 class legislation.” That this tariff had brought not pros¬ 
 perity but hard times, the President, in his first annual 
 message (December 4, 1893) attempted to prove, citing 
 the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury which fore¬ 
 cast a deficit of $28,000,000. 
 
 The Republicans, on the other hand, pointed with 
 pride to a surplus of over two and a quarter millions for 
 the year ending June 30, 1893, and attributed the failing 
 revenue and hard times to a general distrust of Demo¬ 
 cratic rule. They felt it wise also to await the results 
 of the repeal of the Sherman Law before complicating 
 the situation by “tinkering with the tariff.” Their pleas 
 for further delay, however, were discounted by the Presi¬ 
 dent as selfish attempts to continue the McKinley system 
 of special favors, despite the recent verdict of the people, 
 
 107 
 
io8 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 and in this same first annual message he squarely faced 
 the new Congress with a statement of its duty: 
 
 “If there is anything in the theory of a representa- 
 tion in public places,” he declared, . . if public offi¬ 
 cers are really the servants of the people . . . our failure 
 to give the relief so long awaited will be sheer recreancy. 
 Nothing should intervene to distract our attention or dis¬ 
 turb our effort until this reform is accomplished.” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was confident that sufficient revenue 
 could be collected under a tariff allowing free raw ma¬ 
 terials to American factories, and only the necessity of 
 revenue justified the imposition of tariff duties, according 
 to his economic creed. He argued that free raw materials 
 would mean cheaper necessities, greater regularity of em¬ 
 ployment, a wider market, and a settled prosperity, thus 
 enabling the people easily to supply the revenue needed 
 for an economical administration of the government. 
 
 “Even if the oft disproven assertion could be made 
 good that a lower rate of wages would result from free 
 raw materials and low tariff duties,” he said, “the intelli¬ 
 gence of our workmen leads them quickly to discover 
 that their steady employment, permitted by free raw ma¬ 
 terials, is the most important factor in their relation to 
 tariff legislation.” With his customary care for the strict 
 fulfillment of all governmental obligations, by whomso¬ 
 ever incurred, he warned Congress against such a revision 
 of the tariff as would suddenly endanger interests built 
 upon faith that protection would remain, and begged that 
 “unselfish counsel” and a “willingness to subordinate 
 personal desires and ambitions to the general good” might 
 prevail. 
 
 A tariff bill, designed to embody these ideas, and later 
 famous as the Wilson Bill, had been already prepared, in 
 consultation with the President, and was ready to be pre- 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 109 
 
 jented to Congress when the President’s message of De¬ 
 cember 4th was read. It was not a free trade measure, 
 but it was a step in that direction. Lumber, coal, iron, 
 and wool were placed on the free list, and sugar, both raw 
 and refined. The duty was cut down on woolens, linens, 
 and cottons, in the shape of manufactured goods. This 
 bill the President commended to the favorable attention 
 of Congress, declaring that it dealt with the subject of 
 tariff “consistently and as thoroughly as existing condi¬ 
 tions permit.” To the clause providing for “a small tax 
 upon incomes derived from certain corporate invest¬ 
 ments,” he had, however, given only a reluctant assent, as 
 necessary to provide against temporary deficiencies. 
 
 Forty-nine days after the repeal of the Sherman Law, 
 this bill was presented to the House of Representatives 
 by William L. Wilson, chairman of the Ways and 
 Means Committee, and, as he had expected, Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land found himself facing another major conflict. The 
 free wool item alienated the farmers, as it materially 
 reduced their profits from flocks of sheep. Free iron 
 ore offended the mine owners. Free refined sugar was 
 a blow at the sugar trust, to which the McKinley Bill 
 gave a subsidy, and which desired to keep the duty upon 
 refined sugar, while admitting raw sugar free. On the 
 other hand, the growers clamored for a duty on raw sugar 
 to protect their crops from the cheap products of foreign 
 countries, and so, by placing both classes of sugar on the 
 free list, the bill added both the sugar trust and the sugar 
 growers to the enemies created by the income tax clause 
 and other specific provisions. 
 
 As the discussion in the lower house proceeded, how¬ 
 ever, it became evident that even such a combination of 
 opponents could not defeat the Wilson Bill. Richard 
 Croker instructed the Tammany Congressmen to stand 
 
no 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 by the President’s policy, and to fight aggressively for the 
 bill. The President’s more regular supporters urged 
 upon their colleagues in Congress the expediency of keep¬ 
 ing the party’s pre-election pledges, and warned them of 
 the inevitable consequences incident to their betrayal. On 
 February i, 1894, the House passed the Wilson Bill by a 
 vote of 182 to 106, sixty-one Congressmen being absent 
 or otherwise avoiding the record, and cheers from the 
 Democratic side indicated the belief that victory for tariff 
 reform was in sight. 
 
 But the Senate was yet to act, and Mr. Cleveland knew 
 that there his plea for a “willingness to subordinate per¬ 
 sonal desires and ambitions to the general good” would 
 fall upon many deaf ears. There, as the President had 
 learned to his sorrow, the interests stood intrenched. 
 There, the administration majority was in effect non¬ 
 existent, and there was little in the Wilson Bill likely to 
 win supporters. 
 
 When the Populist Senators voted with the Demo¬ 
 crats, they could together muster a majority of nine. 
 When the Populist support went with the Republicans, 
 the Democrats were left with a bare majority of three. 
 But upon questions directly interesting the President, as 
 did this, there were certain to be serious Democratic de¬ 
 fections. The free silver Senators were still smarting 
 under their defeat in the repeal of the Sherman Law. 
 The spoilsmen hated him as the President who refused 
 to “divide the spoils,” and the Senators of special inter¬ 
 ests saw in him only a difficult person who could not 
 appreciate their arguments. 
 
 What the President saw in the Senate is indicated by 
 a story which went the rounds, doubtless invention but 
 fairly representing his opinion: One night Mr. Cleveland 
 was roused from a heavy sleep by his wife, who whis- 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 
 
 dll 
 
 pered, “Wake up, Mr. Cleveland, wake up, there are rob¬ 
 bers in the house.” “Oh, no, my dear,” replied the Presi¬ 
 dent, turning heavily, “I think you are mistaken. There 
 are no robbers in the House, but there are lots in the 
 Senate.” 
 
 To the Senate, indeed, the President’s plea for un¬ 
 selfish counsel was like a whisper in the teeth of a north 
 wind. Protection they understood; free trade they feared; 
 but unselfish counsel they ridiculed. Louisiana Senators 
 saw their duty through the sugar house; Maryland, West 
 Virginia, Alabama, and Pennsylvania Senators looked at 
 theirs from the mouth of the mine; Senator Hill felt that 
 his line of greatest political usefulness was in the defeat 
 of the income tax clause, which touched his constituency 
 most closely; while his colleague, Senator Murphy, de¬ 
 spite Tammany’s instructions, indulged in an enthusiasm 
 for high duties on collars and cuffs, the chief desire of the 
 leading political manipulators of his senatorial district. 
 Senators Gorman and Brice were open to conviction re¬ 
 garding the President’s tariff bill; but conviction waited 
 upon the assurance that the measure would be kind to 
 certain interests which had been kind to them. 
 
 “The truth is,” later declared the Republican Senator 
 Cullom, “we were all—Democrats as well as Republicans 
 —trying to get in amendments in the interest of protecting 
 the industries of our respective states.” 
 
 Thus did the United States Senate, whose glorious his¬ 
 tory had justified the claim that it was “the most august 
 deliberative body in the world,” approach the task of tariff 
 revision, not to subordinate personal desires and ambitions 
 to the general good, but to subordinate the general good 
 to personal desires and ambitions. In a spirit of live and 
 let live, each Senator was allowed his slice, and as a result 
 
112 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 the Wilson Bill lost its character so shamelessly as to be¬ 
 come almost unrecognizable. 
 
 The President watched, with consternation, the 
 process by which the Senate was writing “private” upon 
 a public measure, designed to fulfill a public pledge. 
 
 “When I came here,” he wrote to L. Clarke Davis on 
 February 25th, “I knew perfectly well that there were 
 schemes, ideas, policies, and men with which and with 
 whom I should be obliged to do battle, and hard and try¬ 
 ing battle. I thought the right must win and perhaps I 
 relied too sentimentally upon the right to win. I thought 
 the men who professed to be willing to fight with me were 
 sincere and earnest. 
 
 “I still believe that right will win but I do not now 
 believe that all the men who loudly proclaimed their 
 desire for better things were in earnest. 
 
 “At any rate not a few of them are doing excellent 
 service in the cause of the worst possible political methods 
 and are aiding in bringing about the worst and most dan¬ 
 gerous political situation.” 
 
 When at last on July 3d, the Wilson Bill passed the 
 Senate, by a vote of thirty-nine to thirty-four, with twelve 
 Senators silent, it carried back to the House and to its 
 indignant sponsors, 634 alterations, many of them funda¬ 
 mental in character. The free raw material idea, the very 
 essence of the President’s plan, had been well nigh anni¬ 
 hilated. Coal, sugar, and iron ore had been removed 
 from the free list, while wool, lumber, and copper were 
 left to grace alone. * 
 
 There followed the usual Committee of Conference 
 which, however, failed to agree; and when, on July 19th, 
 Mr. Wilson rose to report and repudiate that which he 
 had proudly called his own, he presented to Congress a 
 letter which the President had sent him just as he was 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 113 
 
 entering the conference, and which he requested the clerk 
 to read to the House. In it Mr. Cleveland boldly de¬ 
 nounced the Senate amendments, the basis of the confer¬ 
 ence, as indicative of party perfidy and party dishonor. 
 “Every true Democrat and every sincere tariff reformer,” 
 he declared, “knows that this bill in its present form and 
 as it will be submitted to the conference, falls far short of 
 the consummation for which we have long labored, and 
 for which we have suffered defeat without discourage¬ 
 ment.” And he warned the conferees of the dangers 
 which lay in the pathway of those guilty of “the aban¬ 
 donment of Democratic principles.” 
 
 There can be no doubt that by this letter Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land designed to aid the defeat of the Senate’s amend¬ 
 ments. Although his whole political philosophy was 
 opposed to executive interference in pending legislation, 
 he felt that his party in the Senate had entered into a con¬ 
 spiracy to violate a promise, made to the people, and that 
 it was his duty to thwart them, or at least to let the people 
 know that he had not connived with them. His disclaimer 
 was answered by Senators Gorman, Jones, and Vest, who 
 insisted in open Senate that the President had approved 
 the changes which the Senate had made in the bill. 
 
 In commenting on Senator Gorman’s defense of the 
 amendments, Mr. Dickinson wrote to the President on 
 July 23d: 
 
 “My dear Mr. President: 
 
 “The Gorman defense will carry the hangers-on . . . 
 but will not impress the strong men. . . . Summing it 
 up, it is a clever confession that the Senate bill is a sacri¬ 
 fice of principle and a surrender of everything we fought 
 for in 1892. He avoids [responsibility] by urging that a 
 compromise was necessary to pass any bill; but the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 114 
 
 country knows that, with the votes of his coterie, a bill in 
 entire harmony with the platform would have met with 
 the approval of the Senate months ago. A compromise 
 was only necessary because he stood in the way, and he is 
 the man who demanded the concessions which he deplores 
 in his argument. His witnesses on the other point—that 
 they did this thing because you approved it—remind one 
 of Tony Weller’s ‘halibi.’ Unspeakably weak, and un¬ 
 speakably infamous is his appeal to the lawless and the 
 unreflective on your action in the late labor troubles. 
 
 “Whatever the outcome at present, it remains that for 
 the sake of your supporters and friends, for the cause you 
 have led since 1884, for your own place in history, and 
 for your own fame, it was absolutely necessary for you 
 to make the record that you have made on the pending 
 measure.” 
 
 The outcome was far from satisfactory to Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land, however. The will of the Senate prevailed upon 
 every disputed point, the House yielding after long and 
 stubborn resistance. 
 
 As soon as the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, as it was 
 now called, reached the President’s desk, advice was 
 offered him from every side. The soundness of the bill, 
 its unspeakable unsoundness, and a hundred other contra¬ 
 dictory points were urged, and as he gave no public indi¬ 
 cation of his intentions regarding it, human ingenuity was 
 soon taxed to the utmost in an effort to show contempt. 
 Among other insults, he received ninety-odd letters sug¬ 
 gesting that he sign the tariff bill with the quill of a crow. 
 
 On August 23d Senator Palmer warned him: 
 
 “Your message of 1887 made Tariff reform the lead¬ 
 ing issue. . . . The present Tariff bill contains all that 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF Il£ 
 
 your true friends in Congress were able to obtain. . . . 
 If you . . . conclude to veto the bill, they can defend 
 you. ... If you sign the bill, you thereby retain the 
 leadership of the Democratic party. The party can de¬ 
 fend you and itself by comparing the measure with the 
 McKinley Bill. They can point to free wool, free lum¬ 
 ber, and the large reductions upon the woolen, cotton and 
 other schedules, and to the abolition of the sugar 
 bounty. „ . . 
 
 “If you allow the bill to become a law without your 
 signature, you abdicate the leadership of the Democratic 
 party on the issue that made you President. . . . The 
 commander of an army and the leader of a party must 
 alike share the fortunes of their followers. The present 
 Tariff bill is a Democratic measure.” 
 
 The President, however, did not agree with Mr. 
 Palmer. The day before the expiration of the ten days 
 allowed him by law for consideration of the bill, he sent 
 to Congressman Catchings the following analysis of the 
 problem as it appeared to him: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 
 August 27 th, 1894 . 
 
 Hon. T. C. Catchings, 
 
 My dear sir:— 
 
 Since the conversation I had with you and Mr. Clark 
 of Alabama a few days ago, in regard to my action upon 
 the tariff bill now before me, I have given the subject 
 further and most serious consideration. The result is I 
 am more settled than ever in the determination to allow 
 the bill to become a law without my signature. 
 
 When the formulation of legislation which it was 
 hoped would embody Democratic ideas of tariff reform 
 
116 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 was lately entered upon by Congress, nothing was further 
 from my anticipation than a result which I could not 
 promptly and enthusiastically endorse. 
 
 It is therefore with a feeling of the utmost disappoint¬ 
 ment that I submit to a denial of this privilege. 
 
 I do not claim to be better than the masses of my party, 
 nor do I wish to avoid any responsibility which, on ac¬ 
 count of the passage of this law, I ought to bear as a 
 member of the Democratic organization. Neither will I 
 permit myself to be separated from my party to such an 
 extent as might be implied by my veto of tariff legisla¬ 
 tion, which though disappointing, is still chargeable to 
 Democratic effort. But there are provisions in this bill 
 which are not in line with honest tariff reform, and it 
 contains inconsistencies and crudities which ought not to 
 appear in tariff laws or laws of any kind. 
 
 Besides, there were, as you and I well know, incidents 
 accompanying the passage of the bill through the Con¬ 
 gress, which made every sincere tariff reformer unhappy, 
 while influences surrounded it in its latter stages and inter¬ 
 fered with its final construction, which ought not to be 
 recognized or tolerated in Democratic tariff reform 
 counsels. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding all its vicissitudes and all 
 the bad treatment it received at the hands of pretended 
 friends, it presents a vast improvement to existing condi¬ 
 tions. It will certainly lighten many tariff burdens that 
 now rest heavily upon the people. It is not only a bar¬ 
 rier against the return of mad protection, but it furnishes 
 a vantage ground from which must be waged further 
 aggressive operations against protected monopoly and 
 governmental favoritism. 
 
 I take my place with the rank and file of the Demo¬ 
 cratic party who believe in tariff reform and who know 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 117 
 
 what it is, who refuse to accept the results embodied in 
 this bill as the close of the war, who are not blinded to the 
 fact that the livery of Democratic tariff reform has been 
 stolen and worn in the service of Republican protection, 
 and who have marked the places where the deadly blight 
 of treason has blasted the counsels of the brave in their 
 hour of might. 
 
 The trusts and combinations—the communism of pelf 
 —whose machinations have prevented us from reaching 
 the success we deserved, should not be forgotten nor for¬ 
 given. We shall recover from our astonishment at their 
 exhibition of power, and if then the question is forced 
 upon us whether they shall submit to the free legislative 
 will of the people’s representatives, or shall dictate the 
 laws which the people must obey, we will accept and 
 settle that issue as one involving the integrity and safety 
 of American institutions. 
 
 I love the principles of true Democracy because they 
 are founded in patriotism and upon justice and fairness 
 toward all interests. I am proud of my party organiza¬ 
 tion because it is conservatively sturdy and persistent in 
 the enforcement of its principles. Therefore I do not 
 despair of the efforts made by the House of Representa¬ 
 tives to supplement the bill already passed by further 
 legislation, and to have engrafted upon it such modifica¬ 
 tions as will more nearly meet Democratic hopes and 
 aspirations. 
 
 I cannot be mistaken as to the necessity of free raw 
 materials as the foundation of logical and sensible tariff 
 reform. The extent to which this is recognized in the 
 legislation already secured is one of its encouraging and 
 redeeming features; but it is vexatious to recall that 
 while free coal and iron ore have been denied us, a recent 
 letter of the Secretary of the Treasury discloses the fact 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 118 
 
 that both might have been made free by the annual sur¬ 
 render of only about seven hundred thousand dollars of 
 unnecessary revenue. 
 
 I am sure that there is a common habit of underesti¬ 
 mating the importance of free raw materials in tariff 
 legislation, and of regarding them as only related to con¬ 
 cessions to be made to our manufacturers. The truth is, 
 their influence is so far-reaching that if disregarded, a 
 complete and beneficent scheme of tariff reform cannot b$ 
 successfully inaugurated. 
 
 When we give to our manufacturers free raw ma¬ 
 terials we unshackle American enterprise and ingenuity, 
 and these will open the doors of foreign markets to the 
 reception of our wares and give opportunity for the con¬ 
 tinuous and remunerative employment of American labor. 
 
 With materials cheapened by their freedom from 
 tariff charges, the cost of their product must be corre¬ 
 spondingly cheapened. Thereupon justice and fairness 
 to the consumer would demand that the manufacturers be 
 obliged to submit to such a readjustment and modification 
 of the tariff upon their finished goods as would secure to 
 the people the benefit of the reduced cost of their manu¬ 
 facture, and shield the consumer against the exaction of 
 inordinate profits. 
 
 It will thus be seen that free raw materials and a just 
 and fearless regulation and reduction of the tariff to meet 
 the changed conditions, would carry to every humble 
 home in the land the blessings of increased comfort and 
 cheaper living. 
 
 The millions of our countrymen who have fought 
 bravely and well for tariff reform should be exhorted to 
 continue the struggle, boldly challenging to open war¬ 
 fare and constantly guarding against treachery and half¬ 
 heartedness in their camp. 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 119 
 
 Tariff reform will not be settled until it is honestly 
 and fairly settled in the interest and to the benefit of a 
 patient and long suffering people. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Within twenty-four hours after this letter was writ¬ 
 ten, the Wilson-Gorman Bill became a law (August 28, 
 1894), but without the signature of Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Writing in commendation of the President’s stand in 
 this matter, Wayne MacVeagh, formerly a member of the 
 Garfield-Arthur Cabinet, and a frequent critic of Mr. 
 Cleveland, said: 
 
 Personal Embassy of the United States, Rome. 
 
 September 10 , 1894 . 
 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I have just received your letter to Mr. Catchings by 
 today’s mail and I must at once thank you for every word 
 of it. 
 
 I sometimes wonder if you have any true conception 
 of the services you have been enabled to render to your 
 country. You have made, no doubt, many mistakes— 
 some perhaps grievous ones. You know how I regretted 
 the “Higgins” appointment in your former term, and 
 how I regretted your decision not to call the extra ses¬ 
 sion as soon as you were inaugurated this last time and 
 postpone as far as possible all questions of office until the 
 tariff was revised and the Sherman bill repealed. No 
 doubt I failed to see the arguments on the other side in 
 both instances and I only recall these differences of opin¬ 
 ion now as evidence that I have not been in the habit of 
 giving indiscriminate approval to whatever you did. 
 
 But I do wish you to appreciate, to some extent at 
 
120 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 least, what you have done for the country as a whole in 
 the last eighteen months—in spite of wholly unequaled 
 and wholly undeserved opposition in your own party—- 
 and what is far more weighty to my mind, in spite of the 
 inevitable opposition your ideas and standards of public 
 duty encounter in the Senate without regard to party. 
 There many men of both parties have persuaded them¬ 
 selves that they are at liberty to serve themselves before 
 their party, and their party before their country—while 
 you reverse this order. Then a good many Democrats 
 in the Senate—a great many indeed—had had their pride 
 as “practical politicians” sorely wounded by your re¬ 
 nomination and re-election against their well-known pre¬ 
 dictions and wishes. 
 
 Yet what have you not accomplished? You have put 
 the nation’s foreign affairs upon the sound basis of re¬ 
 spect for the rights of others while exacting from others 
 respect for our own—and criticism on that subject has 
 absolutely disappeared. 
 
 You have made every dollar circulating in the United 
 States as good as a gold dollar and, whoever may “fret 
 or fume,” that great work will never be undone. 
 
 You suppressed at almost no cost of blood and not 
 much in money, a hideous outbreak of lawlessness which 
 threatened to unsettle men’s minds as to the respect due 
 to law. Consider the value of that precedent alone in the 
 immediate future. 
 
 And now for the first time in an entire generation— 
 since 1861—you have turned a revision of the tariff away 
 from higher to lower duties. For the first time in that 
 long period trade is to be freer and the people’s burdens 
 less heavy. 
 
 And to crown all, you have written this last letter— 
 the bravest and best thing it seems to me you have yet 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 121 
 
 done. Those who were willing to misrepresent, were 
 able to distort the plain meaning of your allusions to the 
 sugar schedule in the letter to Mr. Wilson—but these last 
 words are incapable of such abuse. 
 
 And then it summons both the party and the country 
 to continue the inevitable struggle for still greater com¬ 
 mercial freedom and still fewer and less heavy taxes to 
 be levied by the protected interests upon their less favored 
 fellow citizens. In the long run—nay, even in a short 
 run— free wool means all raw materials free, 
 
 I know what discouragements you have encountered 
 and how dark and hopeless the path before you must often 
 have seemed; but if ever man did, you have served your 
 country not only well but effectively since March 4, 1893. 
 
 Don’t on any account answer this—get all the rest 
 you can. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Wayne MacVeagh. 
 
 To 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland. 
 
 A few weeks later Mr. Carnegie wrote: 
 
 New York, N. Y., 
 
 3 West 51st St., 
 December 14, 18Q4, 
 
 To His Excellency, 
 
 The President of the 
 United States. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I venture to address you, because a letter to the highest 
 official will attract most attention, and also because of my 
 respect for you personally. 
 
 There is great trouble in regard to the national 
 
122 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 finances owing to a serious falling off in the Govern¬ 
 ment’s revenues. Permit me to lay a suggestion before 
 you, which has nothing whatever to do with Free Trade 
 or Protection, and is not in any possible sense a party 
 question since neither party has ever acted upon the. 
 policy I am now about to suggest. 
 
 In 1892 the tariff duties were collected from foreign 
 imports of the luxuries of the rich as follows: 
 
 Wool manufactures. $34,293,609 
 
 Silk manufactures. 16,965,637 
 
 Cotton manufactures. 16,436,733 
 
 Flax manufactures. 10,066,636 
 
 Glass and china manufactures .... 10,339,000 
 
 Wines, liquors, etc. 8,935,000 
 
 Tobacco, cigars. 11,882,557 
 
 Here are $108,000,000 of revenues from seven classes 
 of luxuries; and here are a few others which netted over 
 six millions more—jewelry, artificial flowers, clocks, 
 brushes, paper, perfumeries, musical instruments, mak¬ 
 ing 114 millions, or two thirds of the total collected from 
 imports—174 millions. 
 
 Now Mr. President, you have only to enquire to find 
 that the masses of the people use none of these articles 
 to speak of. As far as silk and woolen cloths are con¬ 
 cerned, the home manufacturer supplies the masses. In 
 regard to linens, common grade tablecloths are imported, 
 but even in regard to these the poorer classes use cotton 
 tablecloths of domestic manufacture. 
 
 Under the present tariff law these articles have been 
 greatly reduced, and the main work of the Wilson Bill 
 is this reduction of the luxuries of the rich, which yield 
 two thirds of all the revenue collected. That the origina¬ 
 tors of the present tariff intended any such result, is not 
 to be believed. The movement against the tariff, begun 
 
1 
 
 THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 123 
 
 by you, was to meet the question of a surplus when re¬ 
 ductions were required to limit the exactions of revenue 
 from the people to the actual wants of the Govern¬ 
 ment. 
 
 When the “condition and not the theory which con¬ 
 fronts you” has changed, the statesman who regarded the 
 condition and not the theory, may be expected to leave the 
 theory to-day and deal with the new conditions. Such 
 would be consistency in the highest sense, although genius 
 cares little for consistency and is only concerned to do 
 what is best at the time. 
 
 My suggestion therefore is that a short bill be passed 
 increasing for two years the duties upon these articles de 
 luxe, used only by the extravagant few, at least 50 per cent. 
 I should go even beyond this, but this increase would 
 yield, say fifty millions of additional revenue, and not one 
 workingman or his family, nor a man upon a small salary 
 would be affected to the extent of one dollar. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that foreign imported 
 articles, which are really articles de luxe used by the rich, 
 can be either greatly diminished or greatly increased by a 
 change in duties, because cost is not the first consideration 
 with the purchasers, taste, fashion, being potent. But to 
 guard against the belief that these imported articles were 
 used to* any extent by the masses, the proposed additional 
 duty should be placed upon cloths of certain grades and 
 value. This would allow the masses to use these articles 
 upon as favorable terms as now, but believe me Sir, they 
 do not use imported articles at all. 
 
 You no doubt have it within your power to ascertain 
 whether this be true or not, may I beg you so to ascertain. 
 I believe you will agree with me that if this be true, you 
 have here the best remedy possible, and the easiest to 
 carry, for our present trouble. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 124 
 
 This is neither free Trade nor Protection, neither 
 party has ever treated these luxuries simply from a reve¬ 
 nue point of view, the Republican bills have been pro¬ 
 tective, and the Democratic bills in the direction of lower 
 duties. This is neither, but simply the best means of rais¬ 
 ing more revenue, and I submit for your consideration 
 that if this can be raised upon the extravagances of the 
 pleasure-loving luxurious-living few, and it is for the 
 best interests of the masses of the people that this should 
 be done. The Income Tax could readily be abandoned, 
 and yet the increased duties proposed would come as ex¬ 
 clusively as the Income Tax will from the few having 
 more than four-thousand dollars income per annum, and 
 require no increase of officials or entail additional cost; 
 besides these duties would yield double any estimate made 
 of the Income Tax revenue. 
 
 It is a new policy Mr. President, and I cannot but 
 think one worthy of you, and one which requires just such 
 a man to propose and establish. I am Mr. President, with 
 great respect 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Andrew Carnegie. 
 
 His Excellency, Grover Cleveland, President. 
 
 Executive Mansion, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 P. S. 
 
 People generally do not quite understand to what ex¬ 
 tent foreign textile articles are for the rich only. Take 
 wool, for instance: In 1890 the value of the home manu¬ 
 factured article was $338,000,000. The high-priced for¬ 
 eign fine woolens were imported to the value of only 
 $35,5 00 , 00 °, their value per yard being much greater than 
 that of the ordinary qualities produced at home; the num¬ 
 ber of yards probably was not beyond six or seven per 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 12$ 
 
 cent of the total consumption. We have a similar result 
 with cotton: The value of the home-manufactured prod¬ 
 uct in 1890 was $268,000,000, and the total amount im¬ 
 ported was valued at only $28,000,000. Even in regard 
 to silks imported, the manufactured product of American 
 mills in 1890 was valued at $69,000,000, the total im¬ 
 ported silk manufactures $31,000,000 only. These are 
 also of much higher value per yard than the home prod¬ 
 uct. Since 1890 the silk manufacturers of America have 
 gained greatly, and are constantly filling the home de¬ 
 mands more completely. 
 
 If the foreign woolens, silks, and linens were classified 
 as to fineness and value, it would be seen that goods of 
 common grades, such as the people generally use, were no 
 longer imported to any considerable extent, nor can they 
 be under the present bill. 
 
 By limiting the bill to two years and confining the in¬ 
 creased duties to the higher qualities, it could not be said 
 that the measure was framed in the interests of the 
 home manufacturer, because the finer qualities could 
 not be successfully produced to any great extent in 
 the short space of two years, and manufacturers would 
 not invest capital for the necessary special machinery, 
 etc. 
 
 The increased revenues thus obtainable with the de¬ 
 crease in pensions, and the natural increase of revenues 
 from increase of wealth and population would give the 
 last year of the Administration a splendid record, and 
 the President would pass into history as a Statesman who 
 met an emergency by a heroic and original measure. At 
 the same time, its close would be graced by a reduction 
 of duties by the expiration of the temporary act. 
 
 The Republican party, of course, could be relied upon 
 
126 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 to favor this measure, and surely a sufficient number of 
 the Democratic party would see its wisdom. 
 
 A. C. 
 
 Disappointed as they were in the final form of their 
 tariff bill, the Democrats were somewhat comforted by the 
 presence of the income tax clause, but their satisfaction 
 was of short duration, for Senator Hill of New York 
 promptly attacked the constitutionality of the latter, de¬ 
 nouncing it as a direct tax not based on population, and 
 quite beyond the power of the Federal Government. He 
 denounced it also as continuing in a period of peace 
 measures which had been accepted by the people only as 
 a stern war necessity. 
 
 In 1861 a three per cent tax had been imposed on 
 incomes over eight hundred dollars. In 1862 the rate had 
 been increased to five per cent on incomes between six 
 hundred and five thousand dollars, and to seven and a 
 half per cent on incomes between five thousand and ten 
 thousand dollars. Incomes over ten thousand a year had 
 been taxed ten per cent. In 1864 another change was 
 made, providing for the taxing at five per cent of all 
 incomes between six hundred and five thousand dollars, 
 all over five thousand being called upon to pay ten per 
 cent. But these war taxes had expired in 1872, and 
 Senator Hill protested against their re-enactment in time 
 of peace. He also denounced the exemption of four thou¬ 
 sand dollars as making the measure class legislation and 
 therefore contrary to the spirit of free government. He 
 pointed out indignantly that it was unjust and sectional 
 in its provisions, bearing more heavily upon the East 
 than upon the West and South. Despite protests, how¬ 
 ever, the Treasury sent out blanks and got ready for the 
 collection of the tax, while its opponents selected cases 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 127 
 
 which were sent to the Supreme Court, in order that the 
 question of constitutionality might be judicially de¬ 
 termined. 
 
 Pending a decision, Mr. Cleveland, while by no means 
 an enthusiastic supporter of the income tax, prepared to 
 meet the requirements of the law in his own case. “The 
 President,” reported a Washington dispatch, “has filed 
 his income tax returns and has included his salary, 
 although the law expressly stipulates that no act of Con¬ 
 gress shall increase or decrease the compensation of the 
 President of the United States during his term of office, 
 and the income tax certainly does decrease his salary to 
 the extent of $920 a year. There would be no question 
 concerning its application to the salary of his successor 
 in office, but he seems to have desired to set a good ex¬ 
 ample to the people by construing a doubtful question in 
 the law against himself and in favor of the government.” 
 He was, however, not called upon to pay the $920, as by 
 a decision of the Supreme Court on May 20th, the income 
 tax clause of the Wilson-Gorman bill was declared 
 unconstitutional. 
 
 This opinion was the more remarkable in view of the 
 fact that fifteen years earlier the Supreme Court had ren¬ 
 dered the opposite decision by unanimous consent. It 
 now reversed that decision by the narrow majority of one 
 vote, Associate-Justices Harlan, Brown, Jackson, and 
 White voting to uphold the law, Associate-Justices 
 Brewer, Field, Gray, Shiras, and Chief Justice Fuller 
 voting to declare it unconstitutional. 
 
 As a sequel to the defeat of Mr. Cleveland’s efforts to 
 keep faith with the people over tariff reform, we find two 
 incidents showing his breadth of vision and unusual mag¬ 
 nanimity of spirit. When the Wilson Bill left the House, 
 
128 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 sugar, both raw and refined, was upon the free list. In 
 the Senate, however, the sugar Senators secured protective 
 rates satisfactory to the Trust, and the question had been 
 not inappropriately raised as to how this protection of an 
 industry certainly in no sense “infant” was secured. Re¬ 
 criminations followed, and an investigation. 
 
 The investigating committee, composed of two Demo¬ 
 cratic Senators, two Republican Senators, and one Popu¬ 
 list, unearthed scandal enough to justify even the most 
 radical preachers against the trust evil. Henry O. Have- 
 meyer, President of the Sugar Trust, admitted on the 
 stand that the Trust regularly contributed to the cam¬ 
 paign chest of the party most likely to serve their interests 
 in any particular state, and concealed these under the 
 head of “expenses” on their books. He also admitted that 
 sugar lobbyists had been kept in Washington when the 
 Wilson Bill was pending, to influence the people’s repre¬ 
 sentatives in the interest of sugar. Senator Quay defiantly 
 admitted that while deliberating on the tariff on sugar, 
 he had been buying and selling sugar stock, and boldly 
 proclaimed his intention to continue to do so. 
 
 The Committee’s report, signed by every member, 
 deprecated the “pressure to which Congress and its mem¬ 
 bers are subjected by the representatives of great indus¬ 
 trial combinations whose enormous wealth tends to sug¬ 
 gest undue influence.” 
 
 Had there been anything vindictive in the President’s 
 nature, he would have been disposed to interpret every 
 subsequent case in a manner unfavorable to these sugar 
 barons. Instead, he was as scrupulously fair in inter¬ 
 preting the law when touching them as he was with refer¬ 
 ence to any other citizen, as is shown by the following 
 letter to Attorney-General Harmon: 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 129 
 
 Gray Gables, 
 
 Buzzard’s Bay, Mass. 
 
 July 31 , 1895 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Attorney General 
 
 ... I am a good deal annoyed by the situation of the 
 sugar bounty question and Comptroller Bowler’s position 
 in relation to it. 
 
 I have always expressed the opinion that in view of 
 the fact that the McKinley law provided that the bounty 
 should be paid for a certain number of years—in so many 
 words or in effect—that sugar producers had more than 
 an ordinary right to rely upon the payment of the bounty 
 during that time. Having relied upon the permanency 
 of the bounty to the extent provided by the limit fixed in 
 the law, it has always seemed to mejthat when the bounty 
 was swept away in the midst of the producing season and 
 after expense had been incurred on the faith of the prom¬ 
 ised bounty, equity and justice dictated some reimburse¬ 
 ment of the loss sustained by reliance upon the promise 
 of the Government. I don’t call this a bounty but a 
 reimbursement . I hold the belief that the money appro¬ 
 priated by way of such indemnification should be paid, 
 and I am very earnest in this belief and I think I am per¬ 
 fectly consistent in claiming at the same time to be one of 
 the strongest opponents of bounties in the Country. 
 
 I have no idea that there is any constitutional objec¬ 
 tion in the way of the Government’s doing a thing so 
 clearly in the line of equity and good conscience, as is 
 this indemnification to the sugar producers who have 
 incurred expense they would not have incurred except for 
 the Government’s invitation. 
 
 I thought the question all out before approving the 
 appropriation; and while I esteem Mr. Bowler as an ex¬ 
 cellent and careful officer, I do not think that in this case 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 130 
 
 he is called on to override the Congress and the President 
 on a question so entirely judicial as the constitutionality 
 of this provision. 
 
 Even if he should think it his duty to take up the judi¬ 
 cial question of constitutionality, I am by no means cer¬ 
 tain that he would find in the decision of the District 
 Court of Appeals justification for deciding against the 
 appropriation. Before he assumes such a responsibility 
 (if in any case he should assume it) he should have, it 
 seems to me, the judgment of the highest court upon the 
 exact point. He certainly has not the former and I do 
 not believe the judgment of the Court of Appeals covers 
 the phase of the bounty question now presented. 
 
 I cannot but feel the greatest anxiety on this subject; 
 for I have been an openly avowed advocate of this meas¬ 
 ure of restitution; and until I get new light, shall continue 
 my efforts to bring it about whoever withstands. 
 
 I am not at all adverse to Mr. Bowler’s knowing my 
 views. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Judson Harmon, 
 
 Attorney General, 
 
 Washington. 
 
 Even more surprising was his selection, in the heat of 
 the sugar conflict, of one of his strongest opponents, 
 Senator White, of Louisiana, to a vacant place upon the 
 Supreme Bench. That vacancy, caused by the death of 
 Associate Justice Samuel Blatchford, had already 
 brought the President much trouble, and not a little 
 humiliation. Soon after Mr. Blatchford’s death, Mr. 
 Cleveland had nominated William B. Hornblower, of 
 New York, a man admirably equipped for the post, but 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 131 
 
 unfortunately possessed of powerful political enemies, 
 chief among whom was the New York Senator, David B. 
 Hill. 
 
 Hill had not forgotten that Hornblower had been one 
 of the committee of nine, appointed by the Association 
 of the Bar of the City of New York to investigate the 
 conduct of Isaac H. Maynard, attorney and counsel for 
 the Board of State Canvassers, and accused of illegal 
 action in the senatorial count of 1891. At that time, May¬ 
 nard had been Deputy Attorney General of New York 
 State, acting under the general direction of Governor 
 Hill. The committee had reported that Maynard had 
 committed one of the gravest offenses known to the law, 
 that of falsifying election returns, and had recommended, 
 by unanimous consent of its nine members, Frederic R. 
 Coudert, James C. Carter, John E. Parsons, Clifford A. 
 Hand, Edmund Randolph Robinson, John L. Cadwala- 
 der, William B. Hornblower, Elihu Root, and Albert 
 Stickney, that: “A copy of this report be transmitted to 
 the Senate and Assembly, and that those bodies be re¬ 
 spectfully requested to consider whether the conduct of 
 Judge Isaac H. Maynard therein mentioned does not de¬ 
 mand an exercise of the power to remove judges vested by 
 the Constitution in the Legislature.” Hill’s resentment 
 against the committee was great, and against Hornblower 
 it was especially bitter, as the latter had been appointed 
 on the committee at the suggestion of Judge Maynard’s 
 counsel, and was therefore, according to Hill, Maynard’s 
 representative. His acquiescence in the verdict Hill 
 therefore regarded as treason. 
 
 When Mr. Hornblower’s nomination to the Supreme 
 Bench came before the Judiciary Committee of the 
 United States Senate, Hill, now a Senator from New 
 York and a member of the committee, marked it for 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 132 
 
 slaughter. He managed to delay action until the end of 
 the extra session during which the President had made the 
 nomination, and let it be understood that he would fight it 
 if presented during the regular session. Conscious of 
 Mr. Hill’s powerful opposition, and unwilling to em¬ 
 barrass the administration, Mr. Hornblower made known 
 his willingness to withdraw his name. Mr. Cleveland’s 
 reply was characteristic: “Tell Hornblower that his 
 name will go into the Senate the first day of the regular 
 session of Congress and will stay there until confirmed.” 
 
 Confirmation, however, proved impossible. The 
 Judiciary Committee reported the nomination to the 
 Senate, where it met determined opposition. Some of the 
 Senators resented the fact that Mr. Hornblower had 
 been nominated without previous consultation with the 
 Judiciary Committee; some felt that well established cus¬ 
 tom had been slighted by the President’s failure to dis¬ 
 cuss the question with the Senators from New York be¬ 
 fore presenting a New York man for so important a 
 position; some were eager to express their antagonism 
 against Mr. Cleveland in order to show their loyalty to 
 the Silverites. Others, but not enough, echoed the state¬ 
 ment of Senator Morgan: “I hate the ground that man 
 [Cleveland] walks on, but I do not believe in turning 
 down a good man for the Supreme Court for the purpose 
 of rebuking Cleveland.” When at last the vote was taken,, 
 Mr. Hornblower failed to secure the majority necessary 
 for confirmation. 
 
 After the defeat of Mr. Hornblower, the President 
 nominated Judge Wheeler H. Peckham, against whom 
 also Senator Hill turned his poisoned arrows. In his 
 eagerness to secure Peckham’s confirmation, Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land sent the following appeal to Joseph H. Choate, 
 recognized leader of the New York bar: 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 
 
 133 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 January 27,1894 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Choate, 
 
 You can do what I deem to be a great service to the 
 Country and add very much to the prospect of a high 
 honor coming to the Bar of New York if you will imme¬ 
 diately write a letter to Senator Hoar representing to him 
 the good things you know concerning Wheeler H. Peck- 
 ham’s fitness for a place on the bench of the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 You can hardly conceive what little and mean things 
 have been and will be resorted to in an effort to defeat 
 him. One pretext is that he has an infernally bad temper, 
 and there is an inclination in certain quarters to hide be¬ 
 hind this pretext. I suppose, of course, there is nothing 
 in this allegation. If I am right in this supposition I 
 wish you would negative the charges and speak of Mr. 
 P ’s ability in such a way as your knowledge of the man 
 justifies. 
 
 Let me suggest that it would be very well indeed if 
 you could convey to Senator Hoar, or have presented to 
 him, Mr. Evarts’ good opinion of Mr. Peckham, as well 
 as your own. I wish Mr. Carter would also write. 
 
 I desire Mr. Peckham’s confirmation, 
 
 1 st On account of his merits and fitness, and 
 
 2 nd Because I want the appointee to come from the 
 New York Bar and I have no names in reserve which 
 represent it . 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Joseph H. Choate, Esq., 
 
 New York City. 
 
 But nothing could save Mr. Peckham, in view of the 
 curse, called senatorial courtesy, which “Dave” Hill 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 134 
 
 wielded against him, and in view of the number of Mr. 
 Cleveland’s own senatorial enemies. The President next 
 urged Mr. Frederic R. Coudert to allow his name to be 
 sent in, but the latter declined on the grounds of personal 
 obligations to clients. Thus, long before the conflict over 
 the Wilson Bill was ended, the opposition Senators 
 boasted that President Cleveland could nominate no man 
 whom the Senate would confirm as Associate Justice. A 
 mocking phrase to that effect, by Senator Chandler of 
 New Hampshire, coming to Mr. Cleveland’s ears when 
 the debate upon the sugar sections of the Wilson Bill was 
 at its hottest, the latter remarked: “I’ll name a man 
 to-morrow whom the Senate will unanimously confirm, 
 and for whom that pestiferous wasp will himself be com¬ 
 pelled to vote.” 
 
 To those who watched the sugar debate in the Senate, 
 few names would have seemed less likely to be thus em¬ 
 ployed than that of Edward Douglas White, Senator from 
 Louisiana. Mr. White was a member of the Gorman- 
 Brice alliance, and through it was seeking to restore 
 duties upon sugar, iron ore, coal, and other raw materials 
 which the House had put on the free list. His standing 
 before the country, however, was not shaken by his 
 activities in the interest of his constituency, and it would 
 have been hard to find a representative man in any party 
 ready to credit against him the charge, so effective against 
 others, of being “Senator from Havemeyer.” 
 
 Although, of course, conscious of the high regard in 
 which he was held, Senator White did not suspect that the 
 President, whose cherished plans he was so effectively 
 opposing, was considering him in connection with the 
 much-discussed vacant Associate-Justiceship. Indeed it 
 is said that when he received a request to call at the White 
 House he remarked to a friend that this would probably 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 135 
 
 be his last call upon President Cleveland. To his aston¬ 
 ishment, instead of reproaches for his anti-administration 
 activities, he was offered the vacant seat on the Supreme 
 Bench, and at once accepted. The Senate unanimously 
 confirmed the appointment, on February 19, 1894, with¬ 
 out even the formality of a reference to a committee, and 
 America witnessed the remarkable sight of a soldier of 
 the lost cause, a man who had raised his hand against the 
 Stars and Stripes, first sitting with the Court in whose 
 hands lies the interpretation of the Constitution, and later 
 presiding over it as tfi£ universally loved, honored, and 
 trusted Chief Justice. 
 
 It is characteristic of Mr. Cleveland that when, 
 eighteen months later, Mr. Justice Jackson died, he again 
 contemplated a trial of strength with the Senate by the 
 nomination of Mr. Hornblower, but the following letter 
 rendered such a course impossible: 
 
 875 Madison Avenue, New York. 
 
 Nov . 9 / 95 . 
 
 Dear Mr. President, 
 
 I observe that the newspapers are again mentioning 
 my name as a possible nominee to succeed Mr. Justice 
 Jackson. I have been meaning for some time past to 
 write you, asking you to leave me out of the question, as 
 I have definitely made up my mind that in justice to my 
 family I ought not to make the pecuniary sacrifice in¬ 
 volved in giving up my professional income for a judicial 
 salary, and that I should therefore feel constrained to 
 decline a nomination, if tendered me, even if confirma¬ 
 tion by the Senate were certain to follow and without pro¬ 
 tracted delay. 
 
 I have hesitated to write, however, lest I should seem 
 
136 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 to assume—as of course I had no reason to assume—that 
 you were considering the possibility of my nomination. 
 
 When you named me two years ago to succeed Mr. 
 Justice Blatchford, I allowed the high honor of the ap¬ 
 pointment and the congeniality of judicial work to out¬ 
 weigh the consideration of pecuniary sacrifice; but 
 further reflection has led me to look upon the matter 
 differently. 
 
 With best regards, I remain, 
 
 Yrs very sincerely, 
 
 Wm. B. Hornblower. 
 
 To the 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
 
 Pres, of the U. S. 
 
 The President then turned again to Mr. Coudert, who 
 again refusing, he named Rufus W. Peckham, brother of 
 Wheeler H. Peckham and, in order to forestall hostile ac¬ 
 tion on the part of Senator Hill, sent the following letter: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 Nov. 18,1895. 
 
 My dear Senator: 
 
 Secretary Lamont has shown me your letter to him, 
 and I appreciate your willingness to come to Washington 
 to confer with me if thought desirable. There is only one 
 matter which I desired to talk with you about that I 
 think, to save you the trip here, and especially in view of 
 your expected absence from the opening of Congress, I 
 ought to write you about. All other things will as you 
 say “keep” until you arrive here. 
 
 I have been a good deal bothered about a nomination 
 to the U. S. Supreme Court—not because I have had 
 much personal doubt as to the best selection under all the 
 
THE WILSON-GORMAN TARIFF 137 
 
 circumstances, but on account of other considerations out¬ 
 side of absolute fitness. 
 
 Of course I want to nominate a New Yorker; and my 
 mind has been constantly drawn to Judge Peckham as 
 the best choice. It seemed to me a short time ago that 
 I ought to know whether or not he would accept the plan, 
 and I wrote to him asking the question. After some 
 reflection he replied in the affirmative. So you see I am 
 committed to the nomination. I think the place should 
 be filled by a confirmed nominee as early as practicable 
 and I want to send in the name as soon as the Senate 
 meets. 
 
 I suppose in your absence and with a lack of knowl¬ 
 edge on the part of the Committee as to your feeling in 
 the matter, it might and would be laid over until your 
 arrival. 
 
 Have you any desire as to the time of sending in the 
 nomination? 
 
 I think the court needs him and I would be glad to 
 have him qualified very early if you could find it con¬ 
 sistent and agreeable to pave the way for it in your 
 absence. 
 
 I need hardly say to you that this is entirely confiden¬ 
 tial except as you may see fit to confer with Judge Peck- 
 ham himself. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. David B. Hill, 
 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
 This time Senator Hill proved amenable, possibly 
 owing to the fact that another presidential year was at 
 hand, with Grover Cleveland at last out of the running. 
 The opposition was called off, and Mr. Peckham was 
 confirmed. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 
 
 “The real interests of labor are not promoted by a resort 
 to threats and violent manifestationsS' 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 I F some ingenious mind could invent a process by which 
 labor would instantly recognize its friends, the prob¬ 
 lems of the world would be immeasurably simplified. No 
 President was ever more vilified by labor than was Grover 
 Cleveland, and yet, in view of his public acts and private 
 papers, it is fair to say that no President ever sympathized 
 more sincerely with its every just and honorable ambition. 
 On the other hand, no President ever saw more clearly 
 the duties and obligations which belong to labor, and the 
 supreme necessity, in the interest of capital and labor 
 alike, of maintaining law and order as the only basis of 
 society. 
 
 To reconcile opposing positions, not to take sides with 
 one or the other of opposing factions, he felt to be the 
 line of promise in labor disputes. He therefore refused 
 to become the partisan of labor in order to conciliate the 
 labor vote, and was equally careful not to allow himself 
 to be branded with the mark of capital. In this way he 
 stood free to act for the nation when these two contended, 
 and, in consequence, he was especially loved by neither. 
 To-day, however, as we review his career from the 
 vantage point of a generation freed from the passions 
 engendered by his many conflicts, it is clear that his 
 paramount sympathy was for those who depend upon 
 their physical labor for the necessities of life, and that, 
 
 while fully conceding and loyally defending the legal 
 
 13s' 
 
139 
 
 THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 
 
 rights of capital, he felt himself, in a more special sense, 
 the champion of the majority. “The capitalist can protect 
 himself,” he often declared, “but the wage earner is prac¬ 
 tically defenseless.” 
 
 That reconciliation was necessary between these two 
 genii of the lantern, he attributed more to the sins of 
 capital than to the sins of labor, although he saw with 
 clear eyes the many sins of both. Communism, he said, is 
 “a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized 
 government”; but he added, “The Communism of com¬ 
 bined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening 
 cupidity and selfishness which assiduously undermines the 
 justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less danger¬ 
 ous than the Communism of oppressed poverty and toil 
 which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks 
 with wild disorder the citadel of misrule.” 
 
 He eagerly welcomed every suggestion which offered 
 a prospect of bridging the chasm between employer and 
 employee; and one of the reasons for his great admiration 
 for Andrew Carnegie was that the steel magnate showed 
 a zeal equal to his own in the search for the germ of 
 reconciliation. 
 
 In acknowledging an autograph copy of Mr. Car¬ 
 negie’s volume, The Gospel of Wealth, Mr. Cleveland 
 said: “I am by no means in a despairing mood; but I am 
 afraid that there is danger in the fact that you are nearly 
 the only man, able experimentally to preach the ‘Gospel 
 of Wealth,’ who is attempting to lessen a gulf by going 
 nearer to those who cannot hope to climb nearer to him.” 
 And in commenting upon a manuscript received from the 
 same friend, he wrote: 
 
 “I have thought for a long time that there must be a 
 way to so weld capital and labor together that the distress¬ 
 ing result of their quarrels and misunderstandings would 
 
140 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 be prevented; and now I am wondering if your address 
 does not point that way. 
 
 “Perhaps a plan could now be evolved from the theories 
 and facts you suggest, that would adjust itself to all con¬ 
 ditions; but you state the rule which must underlie any 
 effective remedy, when you say: ‘You must capture and 
 keep the heart of the original and supremely able man 
 before his brain can do its best’—but I am sure your own 
 experience justifies you in further saying: ‘You must 
 capture and keep the heart of any working man before his 
 hands will do their best.’ ” 
 
 This idea of reconciliation runs through his labor 
 discussions of every period. In accepting the nomination 
 as Governor of New York, and the first nomination as 
 President, in his first inaugural address, and in his earlier 
 presidential utterances, it appears and reappears. And 
 with it is seen, with ever increasing definiteness, his con¬ 
 viction that arbitration is the only sane method of recon¬ 
 ciliation. 
 
 “The proper theory upon which to proceed,” declared 
 his special message of April 22, 1886, “is that of voluntary 
 arbitration as a means of settling these difficulties. But I 
 suggest that instead of arbitrators chosen in the heat of 
 conflicting claims, and after each dispute shall arise, for 
 the purpose of determining the same, there shall be cre¬ 
 ated a Commission of Labor, consisting of three members, 
 who shall be regular officers of the Government, charged 
 among other duties with the consideration and settlement, 
 when possible, of all controversies between labor and 
 capital. ... In July, 1884, by a law of Congress, a 
 Bureau of Labor was established and placed in charge of 
 a Commissioner of Labor. . . . The Commission which 
 I suggest could easily be engrafted upon the bureau thus 
 already organized.” Out of this suggestion grew the 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 141 
 
 Springer Bill, which President Cleveland approved on 
 October 1, 1888, and which provided special federal 
 machinery for the arbitration of labor disputes. 
 
 Reconciliation, however, was not his supreme theory. 
 That place of honor belonged to the idea of enforcement 
 of law; and its testing was not far off. 
 
 Labor troubles had been brewing since the beginning 
 of Mr. Cleveland’s second term, due, he believed, chiefly 
 to the effects of the McKinley tariff and free silver legis¬ 
 lation. In the summer of 1893 the situation was rendered 
 more acute by the Columbian Exposition, which brought 
 12,000,000 people to Chicago, and tested to the utmost the 
 extraordinary railroad facilities of the country. 
 
 When the great event was over and the well-to-do 
 sightseers had departed, Chicago was left to deal with the 
 derelicts of many lands and of many tongues, who had 
 drifted to the scene of the world’s interest, and had not 
 been able to drift out again. Caught by the panic of 1893, 
 their plight was rendered far more desperate than it 
 would normally have been. Soup kitchens and charity 
 organizations of all kinds did their futile best to relieve 
 the distress; but such are only weak anaesthetics, able to 
 deaden pain for but a moment, and discontent grew apace. 
 
 Moreover, Chicago was but one center of a disease 
 which reached from ocean to ocean. A party rendered 
 careless by long power had sown the wind and another 
 party was called upon to reap the whirlwind. Such at 
 least was the President’s interpretation. Throughout the 
 country an army of discontent, the unemployed of a 
 nation, victims of circumstance, and products of vicious 
 habits, were facing that hard winter with a feeling that 
 government had failed. 
 
 By spring, discontent had hardened into purpose. 
 Dreaming of wealth by the operation of government 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 142 
 
 printing presses, shouting for an issue of five hundred 
 million dollars of unreal, inconvertible paper money, 
 with which to relieve their very real needs, Coxey, Kelly, 
 and Frye, generals of a horde gathered from all parts of 
 the country, marched on Washington. 
 
 On April 28th the “Army of the Commonwealth of 
 Christ,” led by Coxey, reached the city, a depleted, be¬ 
 draggled retinue of tramps, and, straggling across the 
 lawns of the Capitol, ended their glorious march in the 
 lock-up for having disregarded the sign: “Keep off the 
 grass.” But though the project ended ridiculously, it 
 indicated a dangerous failure of free government in 
 America. If jest, this great uprising was a solemn jest, 
 for so vast an army of unemployed is a real problem in any 
 age and in any land. There was, moreover, another army, 
 the greater army of the employed, preparing to exhibit a 
 similar spirit of discontent and protest against a free 
 government that had failed of full success. 
 
 The history of organized labor has been a short his¬ 
 tory, though sporadic attempts to combine in self-defense 
 have marked many ages in the world’s progress. Capital, 
 on the other hand, has long understood the art of combi¬ 
 nation for class protection. Indeed, it has usually contem¬ 
 plated far more than mere protection, effecting in addition 
 plans for the exploitation of labor. Thus these two, twin 
 brethren by nature, have too commonly faced one another 
 as enemies—alert, suspicious, and at frequent intervals 
 openly hostile. 
 
 Expedients labeled “welfare work,” “employer’s gen¬ 
 erosity,” or what not, have at times been used in the hope 
 of keeping labor content with an unfair division of the 
 common gains, but labor, though it has generally taken 
 what was offered, has done so sullenly, desiring not 
 gratuities, but partnership. 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 143 
 
 The Pullman Palace Car Company had gone the full 
 distance in its attempt to make labor physically com¬ 
 fortable. Its magnates had provided a village near Chi¬ 
 cago, with good cottages, well paved streets, excellent 
 sanitary arrangements, and beautiful parks. They had 
 acted with uncommon generosity, and they looked for 
 gratitude and contentment in the village. 
 
 But they looked in vain. “Happy Pullman Town” 
 was neither grateful nor satisfied; it was a seething mass 
 of discontent. And why? Partly, no doubt, because the 
 comforts which men’s hands had earned were handed out 
 to them as though they were gratuities, partly because 
 their rents were from twenty to twenty-five per cent higher 
 than corresponding rents in Chicago. Moreover, the ears 
 of employers were keen. Whispers of discontent or criti¬ 
 cism seemed in some mysterious way to connect with the 
 distant chambers where sat the owners of the company, in 
 whose eyes criticism was ingratitude and when discovered 
 meant for the workman the dusty road and the black list. 
 
 During the spring of 1894, four thousand of the 
 Pullman village residents joined the American Railway 
 Union, which had been organized the year before to 
 protect railway workers against the General Managers’ 
 Association, an organization representing forty-two rail¬ 
 roads, and aiming to control labor. The growth of this 
 union had been phenomenal. Between August, 1893, anc ^ 
 June, 1894, it had enrolled 150,000 members from all 
 classes of railway employees, and was, as Mr. Cleveland 
 later expressed it, “the most compact and effective organi¬ 
 zation of the kind ever attempted.” 
 
 In May, 1894, the Pullman Company declared a re¬ 
 duction of twenty per cent in the wages of their employees, 
 the denizens of the lovely village, and dismissed a number 
 of them as being no longer necessary in view of the state 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 144 
 
 of the market. At once a committee of the villagers called 
 on President Pullman, and requested that the wages be 
 restored to their original standard. This request was 
 refused, and soon after, three of the committee were dis¬ 
 charged, contrary to the promise given by Mr. Pullman. 
 At this point five sixths of the inhabitants of the village 
 struck, and they, too, were discharged, and with them the 
 one sixth who had not joined the strikers. 
 
 Had the lowering of wages been accompanied by a 
 corresponding lowering of dividends and of officers’ sal¬ 
 aries, the men would have had little cause for resentment; 
 but salaries and dividends remained unchanged, and, as 
 the Company refused to arbitrate, the cause of the strikers 
 was taken up by the Railway Union, which forbade its 
 members to operate trains with Pullman cars attached. 
 
 How far the leaders of the Union were from plans of 
 violence when the strike started is shown by the following 
 proclamation issued by Eugene V. Debs, its President: 
 
 “To all striking employees: 
 
 “In view of the report of disturbances in various local¬ 
 ities, I deem it my duty to caution you against being a 
 party to any violation of law—municipal, State or na¬ 
 tional—during the existing difficulties. We have repeat¬ 
 edly declared that we respect law and order, and our 
 conduct must conform to our profession. A man who 
 commits violence in any form, whether a member of our 
 order or not, should be promptly arrested and punished, 
 and we should be the first to apprehend the miscreant and 
 bring him to justice. 
 
 “We must triumph as law-abiding citizens or not at 
 all. Those who engage in force and violence are our real 
 enemies. We have it upon reliable authority that thugs 
 and toughs have been employed to create trouble, so as to 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 145 
 
 prejudice the public against our cause. The scoundrels 
 should be made in every case to pay the full penalty of 
 the law. 
 
 “I appeal to you to be men, orderly and law-abiding. 
 Our cause is just. The great public is with us, and we 
 have nothing to fear. Let it be borne in mind that if the 
 railroad companies can secure men to handle their trains, 
 they have that right. Our men have the right to quit, but 
 their right ends there. Other men have the right to take 
 their places, whatever the propriety of so doing may be. 
 Keep away from railroad yards or rights of way, or other 
 places where large crowds congregate. A safe plan is to 
 remain away entirely from places where there is any like¬ 
 lihood of being an outbreak. 
 
 “The railroad managers have sought to make it appear 
 that their trains do not move because of the interference 
 of the strikers. The statement is an unqualified falsehood, 
 and no one knows this better than the managers them¬ 
 selves. They make this falsehood serve their purpose of 
 calling out the troops. Respect the law, conduct your¬ 
 selves as becomes men, and our cause shall be crowned 
 with success.” 
 
 It was not long, however, before the strikers were 
 openly boasting that they would, if necessary, “tie up and 
 paralyze the operations of every railway in the United 
 States, and the business and industries dependent thereon,” 
 and were emphasizing their meaning by intimidation and 
 violence. Just when and at whose instigation violence 
 was begun, it is not easy to determine. Some writers have 
 concluded that the change was due to secret machinations 
 of the railway managers, who realized that thus would 
 the strikers weaken their own cause. Others have traced 
 it to the human driftwood whom the World’s Fair had 
 
 1 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 146 
 
 left stranded in Chicago, while many have laid the blame 
 at the door of President Debs himself. But there can be 
 no doubt that almost from the first the strikers were guilty 
 of what the courts later described as a “conspiracy to 
 prevent the railroad companies . . . from performing • 
 their duties as common carriers,” and that, early in the 
 strike, they succeeded in many sections of the country. 
 
 As early as June 28th, news reached Mr. Cleveland 
 that on the Southern Pacific system the mails were com¬ 
 pletely obstructed, and similar complaints poured in from 
 other sections of the West and South. To each in turn, at 
 his direction, the Attorney-General wired the message: 
 “See that the passage of the regular trains, carrying 
 United States mails in the usual and ordinary way ... is 
 not obstructed.” On June 30th the Superintendent of the 
 Railway Mail Service at Chicago telegraphed to his chief 
 at Washington: “No mails have accumulated at Chicago 
 so far. All regular maihtrains are running nearly on time 
 with a few slight exceptions.” But on the same day the 
 District Attorney for the Chicago District warned the 
 President that violent interference with transportation 
 was imminent, and urged that the marshal be instructed to 
 place special deputies upon all mail trains, with orders to 
 protect the mails. 
 
 The desired order was sent at once, with the addition, 
 “Action ought to be prompt and vigorous”; and the 
 Attorney-General followed it the next day by the appoint¬ 
 ment of Edwin Walker as special counsel for the United 
 States, and by the suggestion that an injunction be secured 
 from the Circuit Court of the District forbidding in ad¬ 
 vance those acts of violence which the government had 
 reason to fear. As yet, if we may accept the testimony of 
 Mr. Debs, later given under oath, there was no actual 
 violence anywhere; but Mr. Olney was convinced that 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 l 47 
 
 violence was at hand and the injunction was intended to 
 prevent it. 
 
 Such an injunction was clearly within the competency 
 of the Federal Courts under general principles of law, 
 and, in addition, the Constitution specifically places the 
 United States mails and Interstate Commerce under the 
 exclusive care of the federal government. Moreover, by 
 an act of July 2, 1890, Congress had provided that con¬ 
 spiracies in restraint of trade or commerce among the sev¬ 
 eral states were illegal, and had instructed the Circuit 
 Courts of the United States to prevent and restrain such 
 conspiracies. Furthermore, the law left no doubt of the 
 President’s power in the premises, section 5298 of the 
 Revised Statutes of the United States containing these 
 words: “Whenever by reason of unlawful obstructions, 
 combinations or assemblages of persons, or rebellion 
 against the authority of the United States, it shall become 
 impracticable in the judgment of the President to enforce, 
 by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, the laws 
 of the United States within any State or Territory, it shall 
 be lawful for the President to call forth the militia of any 
 or all of the States, and to employ such parts of the land or 
 naval forces of the United States as he may deem neces¬ 
 sary.” 
 
 Whether, however, it was wise, at such a time, to 
 invoke so unrestrained a power as a blanket injunction 
 which meant, if effective, the immediate end of the strike, 
 was even then questioned by farsighted men, some of 
 whom had themselves handled this two-edged sword to 
 their regret. On July 14, 1894, Henry M. Shepard, 
 Presiding Justice of the First District of the Illinois 
 Appellate Court, wrote to Judge Gresham: 
 
 “I don’t remember, if I ever knew, how you have, 
 when on the bench, ruled with reference to operating the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 148 
 
 Government through a writ of injunction . . . but I do 
 think some of the Judges have run wild over the question. 
 I did once, and I guess about the first, undertake to exe¬ 
 cute all the functions of government—Executive, Judicial, 
 and perhaps Legislative—in putting down a switchman’s 
 strike on the Lake Shore road, some eight or ten years 
 ago, by an injunction writ, and I am now pretty certain I 
 ought to have been impeached. I would have given a 
 hundred dollars to a fund for the employment of a lawyer 
 for the switchmen to present a motion to dissolve the 
 injunction within a week after I granted it (ex parte), 
 but no one came and I sent two poor devils to jail on the 
 theory in my own mind that so long as the order stood it 
 must be obeyed. It broke up the strike, or had a tendency 
 to do so, but I concluded I was exercising very dangerous 
 powers.” 
 
 The idea of an injunction was naturally resented by 
 the strikers, who saw that it would force them either to 
 abandon the strike or defy the court, and they regarded 
 the appointment of Walker as indicating that the federal 
 government was on the side of the railroads. Governor 
 Altgeld later summed up the objections to Walker in these 
 words: He was “one of the most prominent corporation 
 lawyers in the country . . . the hired attorney of one of 
 the railroads involved in the strike, and ... at the time 
 personally engaged in fighting strikers, and therefore had 
 an interest in the outcome. Yet this man was clothed with 
 all the powers of the government and he brought to the 
 use of himself and his clients, without expense to them, 
 the service of over 4,000 United States marshals, of a 
 specially picked United States Grand Jury, of several 
 United States judges, and of the United States army. 
 Never before were the United States government and the 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 149 
 
 corporations of the country so completely blended, all the 
 powers of the one being at the service of the other, and 
 never before was the goddess of justice made a mere hand¬ 
 maid for one of the combatants.” 
 
 The injunction was promptly prepared by the court, 
 to be ready for use when needed. It commanded “all 
 persons . . . absolutely to desist and refrain from in any 
 way or manner interfering with, hindering, obstructing, 
 or stopping any of the business of any of the following 
 named railroads [a list of which was inserted] as common 
 carriers of passengers and freight between or among any 
 States . . . and from in any way or manner interfering 
 with, hindering, obstructing or stopping any trains carry¬ 
 ing the mail.” 
 
 To ask Mr. Debs and his fellow leaders to bow to so 
 drastic an injunction at a moment when blood was hot, 
 and when victory seemed to them assured, was a stern test 
 of their sweet reasonableness. “The railway managers 
 were completely defeated,” Debs later explained. “Their 
 immediate resources were exhausted, their properties 
 were paralyzed, and they were unable to operate their 
 trains.” But to expect Grover Cleveland to demand less 
 than complete obedience to law was to ask the impossible, 
 in view of his oath of office, and of his conviction that he 
 must act in the interest of the public, which belonged 
 neither to the General Managers’ Association nor to the 
 American Railway Union. Their mail and their com¬ 
 merce were being hindered in lawful transit. Their lives 
 and their property were being jeopardized. Their Presi¬ 
 dent must interfere, cost what it might, offend whom it 
 might. 
 
 On July 2nd news reached the White House that the 
 injunction had been issued to restrain Debs and his fellow 
 officials, together with parties of names unknown, and 
 
150 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 that the writs would be served that same afternoon. The 
 President was, furthermore, warned that the temper of 
 the strikers was such as to indicate that troops might be 
 required, “if the United States mails were to be kept mov¬ 
 ing and the injunction respected.” 
 
 “If the United States mails were to be kept moving” 
 was a proposition which Mr. Cleveland never harbored. 
 H is method of reasoning on such a subject was not in con¬ 
 ditional clauses. There were no “ifs” or “buts” in his 
 attitude toward lawlessness. The United States mails 
 would be kept moving. Interstate commerce would be 
 kept open, whoever opposed. His special council had 
 appealed for troops, and troops he should have. Accord¬ 
 ingly General Nelson A. Miles, Commandant of the 
 Department of Missouri, was warned to “expect orders at 
 any time.” 
 
 This dispatch had scarcely touched the wires, when 
 startling news arrived: “When the injunction was 
 granted ... a mob of from two to three thousand held 
 possession of a point in the city near the crossing of the 
 Rock Island by other roads, where they had already 
 ditched a mail train, and prevented the passing of any 
 train, whether mail or otherwise. . . . I . . . believe that 
 no force less than the regular troops of the United States 
 can procure the passage of mail trains, or enforce the 
 orders of the courts.” The dispatch bore the signatures of 
 Edwin Walker, Thomas E. Milchrist, and Judge P. S. 
 Grosscup. 
 
 In reply District Attorney Milchrist was informed that 
 “While action should be prompt and decisive, it should of 
 course be kept within the limits provided by the Constitu¬ 
 tion and laws,” and orders were issued through the War 
 Department which brought Colonel Crofton’s regiment 
 to Chicago, where General Miles himself assumed com- 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 151 
 
 mand. The day, as it chanced, was July 4th. The outlook 
 was so alarming that before the day closed Miles re¬ 
 quested more troops for Fort Sheridan, and in reply the 
 War Department authorized him to draw six companies 
 from Fort Leavenworth and two from Fort Brady. 
 
 When Benjamin Franklin was informed of George 
 Ill’s intention of sending redcoats to Boston to put down 
 rebellion, he replied, “If sent they will not find a rebel¬ 
 lion, but they will create one.” This was a true prediction, 
 and a similar one might have been made regarding the 
 immediate effect of the arrival of federal troops in Chi¬ 
 cago. For the time at least, they bred not peace but war. 
 Governor Altgeld interpreted their presence as a threat 
 against local self-government, and his indiscreet utter¬ 
 ances deepened the resentment of the strikers and their 
 friends. General Miles reported an increase in the size 
 of the sullen mobs, a bolder series of lawless attacks upon 
 trains, mingled with occasional instances of outrages upon 
 persons or property. “The injunction of the United States 
 Court,” he declared, “is openly defied, and unless the 
 mobs are dispersed . . . more serious trouble may be 
 expected.” 
 
 Such was the state of affairs when Governor Altgeld 
 addressed to President Cleveland the following telegram 
 of protest: 
 
 Executive Office, State of Illinois. 
 July 5, 1894 . 
 
 The Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
 
 President of the United States, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I am advised that you have ordered federal troops to 
 go into service in the State of Illinois. Surely the facts 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 have not been correctlypresented to you in this case or you 
 would not have taken the step, for it is entirely unneces¬ 
 sary and, as it seems to me, unjustifiable. Waiving all 
 questions of courtesy, I will say that the State of Illinois 
 is not only able to take care of itself, but it stands ready 
 to-day to furnish the Federal Government any assistance 
 it may need elsewhere. Our military force is ample 
 and consists of as good soldiers as can be found in the 
 country. They have been ordered promptly whenever 
 and wherever they were needed. We have stationed in 
 Chicago alone three regiments of infantry, one battery 
 and one troop of cavalry, and no better soldiers can be 
 found. They have been ready every moment to go on 
 duty and have been and are now eager to go into service. 
 But they have not been ordered out because nobody in 
 Cook County, whether official or private citizen, asked to 
 have their assistance, or even intimated in any way that 
 their assistance was desired or necessary. 
 
 So far as I have been advised, the local officials have 
 been able to handle the situation. But if any assistance 
 were needed the State stood ready to furnish one hundred 
 men for every one man required, and stood ready to do so 
 at a moment’s notice. Notwithstanding these facts, the 
 Federal Government has been applied to by men who had 
 political and selfish motives for wanting to ignore the 
 State government. We have just gone through a long 
 coal strike, more extensive here than in any other state, 
 because our soft-coal field is larger than that of any other 
 state. We have now had ten days of the railroad strike, 
 and we have promptly furnished military aid wherever 
 the local officials needed it. 
 
 In two instances the United States Marshal for the 
 southern district of Illinois applied for assistance to 
 enable him to enforce the processes of the United States 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 x 53 
 
 courts, and troops were promptly furnished him, and he 
 was assisted in every way he desired. The law has been 
 thoroughly executed and every man guilty of violating it 
 during the strike has been brought to justice. If the 
 Marshal for the northern district of Illinois or the author¬ 
 ities of Cook County needed military assistance they had 
 but to ask for it in order to get it from the State. 
 
 At present some of our railroads are paralyzed, not 
 by reason of obstructions, but because they cannot get men 
 to operate their trains. For some reason they are anxious 
 to keep this fact from the public, and for this purpose are 
 making an outcry about obstructions in order to divert 
 attention. Now, I will cite to you two examples which 
 illustrate the situation: Some days ago I was advised 
 that the business of one of our railroads was obstructed at 
 two railroad centers, that there was a condition bordering 
 on anarchy there; and I was asked to furnish protection 
 so as to enable the employees of the road to operate the 
 trains. Troops were promptly ordered to both points. 
 Then it transpired that the company had not sufficient 
 men on its line to operate one train. All the old hands 
 were orderly, but refused to go. The company had large 
 shops in which work a number of men who did not belong 
 to the railway union and who could run an engine. They 
 were appealed to to run the train, but flatly refused. We 
 were obliged to hunt up soldiers who could run an engine 
 and operate a train. 
 
 Again, two days ago, appeals which were almost fran¬ 
 tic came from officials of another road, stating that at an 
 important point on their lines trains were forcibly ob¬ 
 structed, and that there was a reign of anarchy at that 
 place; and they asked for protection so that they could 
 move their trains. Troops were put on the ground in a 
 few hours’ time, when the officer in command telegraphed 
 
154 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 me that there was no trouble and had been none at that 
 point, but that the road seemed to have no men to run 
 trains; and the sheriff telegraphed that he did not need 
 troops, but would himself move every train if the com¬ 
 pany would only furnish an engineer. The result was 
 that the troops were there over twelve hours before a 
 single train was moved, although there was no attempt at 
 interference by anybody. It is true that in several in¬ 
 stances a road made efforts to work a few green men, and 
 a crowd standing around insulted them and tried to drive 
 them away; and in a few other places they cut off Pullman 
 sleepers from trains. But all these troubles were local in 
 character and could easily be handled by the State author¬ 
 ities. Illinois has more railroad men than any other state 
 in the Union, but as a rule they are orderly and well 
 behaved. This is shown by the fact that so very little 
 actual violence has been committed. Only a very small 
 per cent of these men have been guilty of any infractions 
 of the law. The newspaper accounts have in many cases 
 been pure fabrications, and in others, wild exaggerations. 
 
 I have gone thus into details to show that it is not 
 soldiers that the railroads need so much as it is men to 
 operate trains, and that the conditions do not exist here 
 which bring the cause within the Federal statutes, a 
 statute that was passed in 1881, and was in reality a war 
 measure. This statute authorized the use of Federal 
 troops in a state whenever it shall be impracticable to 
 enforce the laws of the United States within such states 
 by the ordinary judicial proceedings. Such a condition 
 does not exist in Illinois. There have been a few local 
 disturbances, but nothing that seriously interfered with 
 the administration of justice, or that could not be easily 
 controlled by the local or state authorities, for the Federal 
 troops can do nothing that the state troops cannot do. 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 155 
 
 I repeat that you have been imposed upon in this 
 matter, but even if by a forced construction it was held 
 that the condition here came within the letter of the 
 statute, then I submit that local self-government is a fun¬ 
 damental principle of our Constitution. Each community 
 shall govern itself so long as it can and is ready and able 
 to enforce the law, and it is in harmony with this funda¬ 
 mental principle that the statute authorizing the President 
 to send troops into states must be construed. Especially is 
 this so in matters relating to the exercise of police power 
 and the preservation of law and order. To absolutely 
 ignore a local government in matters of this kind, when 
 the local government is ready to furnish assistance needed 
 and is amply able to enforce the law, not only insults the 
 people of this state by imputing to them an inability to 
 govern themselves or an unwillingness to enforce the law, 
 but is in violation of a basic principle of our institutions. 
 The question of Federal supremacy is in no way involved 
 —no one disputes it for a moment—but under our Consti¬ 
 tution Federal supremacy and local self-government must 
 go hand in hand, and to ignore the latter is to do violence 
 to the Constitution. 
 
 As Governor of the State of Illinois, I protest against 
 this and ask immediate withdrawal of the Federal troops 
 from active duty in this State. Should the situation at 
 any time get so serious that we cannot control it with the 
 State forces, we will promptly and freely ask for Federal 
 assistance; but until such time I protest with all due 
 deference against this uncalled for reflection upon our 
 people, and again ask the immediate withdrawal of these 
 troops. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 John P. Altgeld, Governor of Illinois. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 156 
 
 This lengthy statement, Mr. Cleveland later declared, 
 “so far missed the actual condition as to appear irrelevant 
 and, in some parts, absolutely frivolous.” “It was prob¬ 
 ably a very fortunate circumstance that the presence of 
 United States soldiers in Chicago at that time did not 
 depend upon the request or desire of Governor Altgeld.” 
 
 The President’s reply was immediate and definite, but 
 its sure, unargumentative tone was calculated, though not 
 designed, to exasperate the Governor still more: 
 
 Washington, 
 
 July 5, 1894 . 
 
 Hon. John P. Altgeld, 
 
 Governor of Illinois, 
 
 Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 Federal troops were sent to Chicago in strict accord¬ 
 ance with the Constitution and laws of the United States 
 upon the demand of the Post Office Department that 
 obstruction of the mails should be removed, and upon the 
 representations of the judicial officers of the United States 
 that process of the Federal courts could not be executed 
 through the ordinary means, and upon abundant proof 
 that conspiracies existed against commerce between the 
 states. To meet these conditions, which are clearly within 
 the province of Federal authority, the presence of Federal 
 troops in the city of Chicago was deemed not only proper 
 but necessary, and there has been no intention of thereby 
 interfering with the plain duty of the local authorities to 
 preserve the peace of the city. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 As printed in the Chicago Times, the letter closed at 
 this point. An autograph copy found among the Lamont 
 papers, however, adds this postscript, which clearly shows 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 1 57 
 
 how far Mr. Cleveland was from serving the cause of the 
 railway management: 
 
 “Mr. McNaught should be informed that whatever 
 arrangement is made by the Company with its employees 
 must positively be made without relying upon the Govern¬ 
 ment for any guarantee whatever. The Military power 
 of the Government refuses to be drawn into any relation 
 with the details of railroad management. G. C ” 
 
 That Mr. Debs was even yet determined to avoid 
 violence is evident from the following paragraph from 
 his pen, printed in an anti-Debs Chicago newspaper on 
 July 5th: “We hold the position that we can win without 
 even the semblance of violence, and if we cannot I prefer 
 to lose rather than tolerate violence. Let me repeat: 
 There is but one well-defined estimate of the situation, 
 and that is, we hold the railroads cannot get men sufficient 
 to run their trains. On that proposition we win or lose. 
 We shall not interfere with any man who wants to work. 
 We have not done so and shall not. A man has a legal 
 right to quit work, and it is not the part of the troops or 
 the civil officers of the law to arrest them for so doing, 
 though I am informed such an arrest was made today. 
 The American Railway Union will protect its men from 
 the penalties of such arrests.” 
 
 It is only fair to add that Governor Altgeld sent out 
 many orders directing the sheriffs of the various counties 
 of Illinois to see that the traveling public was protected 
 and that trains were kept moving. It is also true that he 
 insisted that “the reports ... as to actual conditions in 
 Chicago during the strike were malicious libels upon the 
 city.” But he later admitted that from July 4th to July 
 14th $355,612 worth of property was destroyed. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 158 
 
 It was clearly the duty of both President Debs and 
 Governor Altgeld to continue to preach peace and obe¬ 
 dience to law, even in the face of the injunction; unfortu¬ 
 nately, however, they chose another course, and one which 
 compelled the hand that still held the olive branch to 
 change it for the sword. Debs now defiantly resisted the 
 injunction, and encouraged others to do likewise, while 
 Altgeld flayed it in the words: “A Federal judge, not 
 content with deciding controversies brought into his Court 
 . . . proceeds to legislate and then administer. He issues 
 a ukase which he calls an injunction forbidding whatever 
 he pleases . . . and he deprives men of the right of trial 
 by jury when the law guarantees this right, and he then 
 enforces this ukase in a summary and arbitrary manner by 
 imprisonment, throwing men into prison not for violating 
 a law, but for being guilty of a contempt of court in dis¬ 
 regarding one of these injunctions.” In the following 
 open telegram he added further fuel to the flame of law¬ 
 lessness : 
 
 [July 6, 18Q4] 
 
 The Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
 
 President of the United States, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 Your answer to my protest involves some startling 
 conclusions, and ignores and evades the question at issue, 
 that is, that the principle of local self-government is just 
 as fundamental in our institutions as is that of Federal 
 supremacy. 
 
 1. You calmly assume that the Executive has the legal 
 right to order Federal troops into any community of the 
 United States, in the first instance, whenever there is the 
 slightest disturbance, and that he can do this without any 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 159 
 
 regard to the question as to whether that community is 
 able to and ready to enforce the law itself. And inasmuch 
 as the Executive is the sole judge of the question as to 
 whether any disturbance exists or not in any part of the 
 country, this assumption means that the Executive can 
 send Federal troops into any community in the United 
 States at his pleasure and keep them there as long as he 
 chooses. 
 
 If this is the law, then the principle of local self- 
 government either never did exist in this country or 
 else has been destroyed, for no community can be said to 
 possess local self-government if the Executive can at his 
 pleasure send military forces to patrol its streets under 
 pretense of enforcing some law. The kind of local self- 
 government that could exist under these circumstances 
 can be found in any of the monarchies of Europe and is 
 not in harmony with the spirit of our institutions. 
 
 2. It is also a fundamental principle in our govern¬ 
 ment that except in times of war the military shall be 
 subordinate to the civil authority. In harmony with this 
 provision the state troops when ordered out act under and 
 with the civil authorities. The Federal troops you have 
 ordered to Chicago are not under the civil authorities, and 
 are in no way responsible to them for their conduct. They 
 are not even acting under the United States Marshal, or 
 under any Federal officer of the State, but are acting 
 directly under military orders issued from military head¬ 
 quarters at Washington, and in so far as these troops act 
 at all it is military government. 
 
 3. The statute authorizing Federal troops to be sent 
 into states in certain cases contemplates that the state 
 troops shall be taken first. This provision has been 
 ignored, and it is assumed that the Executive is not bound 
 by it. Federal interference with industrial disturbances 
 
I60 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 in the various states is certainly a new departure, and 
 opens up so large a field that it will require a very little 
 stretch of authority to absorb to itself all the details of 
 local government. 
 
 4. You say that the troops were ordered into Illinois 
 upon the demand of the Post Office Department and upon 
 representations of the judicial officers of the United States 
 that process of the courts could not be served and upon 
 proof that conspiracies existed. We will not discuss the 
 facts, but look for a moment at the principle involved in 
 your statement. All of these officers are appointed by the 
 Executive. Most of them can be removed by him at his 
 will. They are not only obliged to do his bidding, but 
 they are, in fact, a part of the Executive. If several of 
 them can apply for troops one alone can, so that under the 
 law, as you assume it to be, an Executive, through any one 
 of his appointees, can apply to himself to have the mili¬ 
 tary sent into any city or number of cities, and base his 
 application on such representations or showing as he sees 
 fit to make. In fact, it will be immaterial whether he 
 makes any showing or not, for the Executive is the sole 
 judge and nobody else has any right to interfere or even 
 inquire about it. Then the Executive can pass on his own 
 application. His will being the sole guide, he can hold 
 the application to be sufficient and order troops to as 
 many places as he wishes, and put them in command of 
 any one he chooses and have them act, not under the civil 
 officers, either Federal or State, but act directly under 
 military orders from Washington, and there is not in the 
 Constitution or laws of the land, whether written or un¬ 
 written, any limitation or restraint upon his power. His 
 judgment, that is, his will, is the sole guide, and it being 
 purely a matter of discretion, his decision can never be 
 examined or questioned. 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 161 
 
 This assumption as to the power of the Executive is 
 certainly new, and I respectfully submit that it is not the 
 law of the land. 
 
 The jurists have told us that this is a govern¬ 
 ment of law, and not a government by the caprice of 
 individuals; and, further, instead of being autocratic, 
 it was a government of limited power. Yet the autocratic 
 Russia could certainly not possess nor claim to possess 
 greater power than is possessed by the Executive of the 
 United States, if your assumption is correct. 
 
 5. The Executive has the command not only of the 
 regular forces of the United States, but of the military 
 forces of all the states, and can order them to any place he 
 sees fit, and as there are always more or less local dis¬ 
 turbances over the country, it would be an easy matter, 
 under your construction of the law, for an ambitious 
 Executive to order out the military forces of all the states 
 and establish at once a military government. The only 
 chance of failure in such a movement could come from 
 rebellion, and with such a vast military power at com¬ 
 mand this could be readily crushed, for, as a rule, soldiers 
 will obey orders. As for the situation in Illinois, that is 
 of no consequence now, when compared with the far- 
 reaching principle involved. True, according to my 
 advices, Federal troops have now been on duty for over 
 two days and, although the men were brave and the 
 officers valiant and able, yet their very presence proved 
 to be an irritant because it aroused the indignation of a 
 large class of people who, while upholding law and order, 
 had been taught to believe in local self-government and 
 therefore resented what they regarded as an unwarranted 
 interference. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Federal troops can do nothing but 
 what the state troops can do there, and believing that the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 162 
 
 state is amply able to take care of the situation and to 
 enforce the law, and believing that the ordering out of the 
 Federal troops was unwarranted, I again ask their with¬ 
 drawal. 
 
 John P. Altgeld. 
 
 At the same time, General Miles and other officers 
 and officials reported riotous assemblies, violent mobs, 
 and stealthy dealings in arson and murder. One of 
 General Miles’s telegrams declared: “Of the twenty-three 
 roads centering in Chicago only six are unobstructed in 
 freight, passenger and mail transportation. . . . Large 
 numbers of trains moving in and out of the city have been 
 stoned and fired upon by mobs, and one engineer killed. 
 There was a secret meeting to-day of Debs and the 
 representatives of labor unions considering the advisabil¬ 
 ity of a general strike of all labor unions. About one hun¬ 
 dred men were present at that meeting.” Miles later tele¬ 
 graphed : “Men who were in secret meeting last night say 
 that all labor union men will be called out Monday. In 
 meantime all labor men have been advised to get Win¬ 
 chester rifles and pistols. They hope to have one hundred 
 thousand men in this city. They decided to support . . . 
 strike in every way. ... I recommend immediate con¬ 
 centration of troops near Chicago ... to be ready any 
 emergency Monday.” 
 
 In view of such facts, and they were but representative 
 of many, the Governor’s “rather dreary discussion of the 
 importance of preserving the rights of the States,” as Mr. 
 Cleveland later described his lengthy telegram, only exas¬ 
 perated the President. “I confess,” he declared, “that my 
 patience was somewhat strained, when I quickly sent the 
 following dispatch . . 
 
163 
 
 THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 
 
 Washington, 
 
 July 6, 1894 . 
 
 Hon. John P. Altgeld, 
 
 Governor of Illinois, 
 
 Springfield, Ills. 
 
 While I am still persuaded that I have neither tran¬ 
 scended my authority or duty, in the emergency that con¬ 
 fronts us, it seems to me that in this hour of danger and 
 public distress discussion may well give way to active 
 effort on the part of all in authority to restore obedience to 
 law and to protect life and property. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Attorney-General Olney was equally contemptuous. 
 To the Washington Post he said: 
 
 “It is hardly worth while to discuss at length the false 
 premise and the illogical non-sequiturs of the Altgeld 
 manifesto. As a campaign platform, it is a safe prediction 
 that the author will be found to be the only person to 
 stand upon it. 
 
 “The soil of Illinois is the soil of the United States 
 and, for all United States purposes, the United States is 
 there with its courts, its marshals, and its troops, not by 
 license or comity, but as of right. The paramount duty 
 of the President of the United States is to see that the 
 laws of the United States are faithfully executed, and in 
 the discharge of that duty he is not hampered or crippled 
 by the necessity of consulting chief of police, Mayor, or 
 even Governor. In the present instance nothing has been 
 done and nothing ordered which the most captious critic 
 can condemn as any invasion of State rights. 
 
 “The action of the national executive has been simply 
 and exclusively directed to the enforcement of the United 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 164 
 
 States laws, the execution of the orders and processes of 
 the United States courts, and the prevention of any ob¬ 
 struction of the United States mails. 
 
 “The notion that the territory of any State is too sacred 
 to permit the exercise thereon, by the United States gov¬ 
 ernment, of any of its legitimate functions never had any 
 legal existence, and, as a rule of conduct, became prac¬ 
 tically extinct with the close of the civil war.” 
 
 Two days later, the President issued his famous Proc¬ 
 lamation of July 8, 1894: 
 
 “Proclamation 
 
 “By the President of the United States 
 “Whereas, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combina¬ 
 tions and assemblages of persons, it has become imprac¬ 
 ticable in the judgment of the President to enforce, by the 
 ordinary course of judicial proceedings, the laws of the 
 United States within the State of Illinois and especially in 
 the city of Chicago within said state j and, 
 
 “Whereas, for the purpose of enforcing the faithful 
 execution of the laws of the United States and protecting 
 its property and removing obstructions to the United 
 States mails in the state and city aforesaid, the President 
 has employed a part of the military forces of the United 
 States: 
 
 “Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of 
 the United States, do hereby admonish all good citizens 
 and all persons who may be or may come within the city 
 and state aforesaid, against aiding, countenancing, encour¬ 
 aging or taking any part in such unlawful obstructions, 
 combinations and assemblages; and I hereby warn all 
 persons engaged in or in any way connected with such 
 unlawful obstructions, combinations and assemblages to 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 165 
 
 disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes on 
 or before twelve o’clock noon on the ninth day of July 
 instant. 
 
 “Those who disregard this warning and persist in 
 taking part with a riotous mob in forcibly resisting and 
 obstructing the execution of the laws of the United States 
 or interfering with the functions of the Government and 
 destroying or attempting to destroy the property belong¬ 
 ing to the United States or under its protection cannot be 
 regarded otherwise than as public enemies. 
 
 “Troops employed against such a riotous mob, will act 
 with all the moderation and forbearance consistent with 
 the accomplishment of the desired end; but the stern 
 necessities that confront them will not certainly permit 
 discrimination between guilty participants and those who 
 are mingled with them from curiosity and without crimi¬ 
 nal intent. The only safe course therefore for those not 
 actually unlawfully participating is to abide at their 
 homes, or at least not to be found in the neighborhood of 
 riotous assemblages. 
 
 “While there will be no hesitation or vacillation in the 
 decisive treatment of the guilty, this warning is especially 
 intended to protect and save the innocent. 
 
 “In Testimony Whereof I have hereunto set my hand 
 and caused the seal of the United States to be hereto 
 affixed. 
 
 “Done at the city of Washington this eighth day of 
 July, A.D., in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight 
 Hundred and Ninety-four, and of the Independence of 
 the United States of America the One Hundred and 
 Eighteenth.” 
 
 Upon reading this proclamation, Mr. Debs declared it 
 “a plot to place Chicago under martial law at the instiga- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 166 
 
 tion of the railway companies in furtherance of the lat¬ 
 ter’s plan to destroy public sympathy. This cannot be 
 done. This meeting to-night will in all probability last 
 until daylight. I am certain that every union represented, 
 numbering over 100,000 laborers, will vote to strike to¬ 
 morrow.” 
 
 With the coming of the morrow, however, came new 
 evidence of the President’s determination. He issued a 
 second proclamation which recognized the conflict as 
 nation-wide, and warned the good people “at certain 
 points and places within the States of North Dakota, 
 Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, and 
 California, and the Territories of Utah and New Mexico, 
 and especially along the lines of such railways traversing 
 said States and Territories as are military roads and post 
 routes and are engaged in Interstate commerce and in 
 carrying United States mails,” to “retire peaceably to 
 their respective abodes on or before 3 o’clock in the after¬ 
 noon on the 10th day of July instant.” 
 
 These proclamations had the desired effect, though 
 indirectly. Debs and his associates having failed to “re¬ 
 tire peaceably,” at the command of the Court, were “in 
 contempt.” They were accordingly arrested on July 10th, 
 and their arrest ended the strike. 
 
 But Mr. Cleveland was not yet entirely satisfied. 
 Having carried into effect his primary policy—the en¬ 
 forcement of law—he announced the intention of appoint¬ 
 ing a commission to investigate the questions which had 
 caused the strike. Of this announcement Mr. Debs de¬ 
 clared : “We have no doubt that the board will be com¬ 
 posed of men of high character and ability, and that they 
 will be able to locate the right or wrong involved in the 
 existing controversy, by virtue of which a satisfactory 
 settlement will be reached. It is to be hoped that the 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 167 
 
 board will be promptly appointed and organized, that its 
 work will be prosecuted vigorously to the end of a speedy 
 settlement of the existing conflict. We are of course for 
 arbitration, and have been from the very beginning, and 
 had this principle been recognized this strike would have 
 been avoided.” 
 
 The next day, he and his fellow prisoners sent the 
 President the following telegram: 
 
 July 13, 1894 M 
 
 The Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
 
 President of the United States, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 We the undersigned beg to advise you that we have just 
 submitted the following proposition to the Railway Man¬ 
 agers, and if it meets with your approval we respectfully 
 request that you take such action as you may deem proper 
 to influence its acceptance:— 
 
 Chicago, Ill., July 13, 1894. 
 
 To the Railway Managers 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 The existing troubles growing out of the Pullman 
 strike having assumed continental proportions, and 
 there being no indication of relief from the wide¬ 
 spread business demoralization and distress incident 
 thereto, the Railway employees, through the Board 
 of Directors of the American Railway Union, re¬ 
 spectfully make the following proposition as basis of 
 settlement: They agree to return to work in a body 
 at once, provided they shall be restored to their 
 former positions without prejudice except in cases, if 
 any there be, where they have been convicted of crime 
 —this proposition looking to an immediate settle- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 ment of the existing strike on all lines of railway is 
 inspired by a purpose to subserve the public good. 
 The strike, small and comparatively unimportant in 
 its inception, has kindled in every direction until now 
 it involves or threatens not only every public interest 
 but the peace, security and prosperity of our common 
 country. The contest has waged fiercely. It has 
 extended far beyond the limits of interest originally 
 involved and has laid hold of a vast number of indus¬ 
 tries and enterprises in no wise responsible for the 
 differences and disagreements that led to the trouble. 
 Factory, mill, mine, and shop have been silenced. 
 Widespread demoralization has sway. The interests 
 of multiplied thousands of innocent people are suffer¬ 
 ing. The common welfare is seriously menaced. 
 The public peace and tranquillity are in peril. Grave 
 apprehension for the future prevails. This being 
 true, and the statement will not be controverted, we 
 conceive it to be our duty as citizens and as men to 
 make extraordinary efforts to end the existing strife 
 and avert approaching calamities whose shadows are 
 even now upon us. If ended now the contest, how¬ 
 ever serious in some of its consequences, will not have 
 been in vain. Sacrifices have been made but they 
 will have their compensations. Indeed, if lessons 
 shall be taught by experience the troubles now so 
 widely deplored will prove a blessing of inestimable 
 value in the months and years to come. The differ¬ 
 ences that led up to the present complications need 
 not now be discussed. At this supreme juncture every 
 consideration of duty and patriotism demands that a 
 remedy for existing troubles be found and applied. 
 The employees propose to do their part by meeting 
 their employers half-way. Let it be stated that they 
 
 * 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 169 
 
 do not impose any condition of settlement except that 
 they be returned to their former positions. They do 
 not ask the recognition of their organization or of any 
 organization. Believing this proposition to be fair, 
 reasonable and just, it is respectfully submitted with 
 the belief that its acceptance will result in the prompt 
 resumption of traffic, the revival of industry, and the 
 restoration of peace and order. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 Eugene V. Debs, President 
 Geo. W. Howard, Vice-President 
 Sylvester Koliher, Secty., 
 
 American Railway Union. 
 
 But Mr. Debs no longer had anything to offer. The 
 strike was over, and all that remained was for the courts 
 to decide upon the penalty. He and his associates refused 
 to give bail, scorning to wear the martyr’s crown without 
 bearing also the martyr’s cross, as their admirers claimed; 
 or, perhaps, as Mr. Cleveland less charitably suggested, 
 “intending by such an act of martyrdom either to revive 
 a waning cause, or to gain a plausible and justifying ex¬ 
 cuse for the collapse of their already foredoomed move¬ 
 ment.” 
 
 By July 22d Mr. Debs seems to have entirely changed 
 his attitude. From Cook County jail, Chicago, con¬ 
 temptuously christened by the pro-Pullman press “Head¬ 
 quarters of the American Railway Union,” he sent out 
 the following declaration: 
 
 “We propose to continue this strike against the Pull¬ 
 man Company through good and evil report and without 
 regard to consequences, until justice shall be done. We 
 will use every available means to press the contest. Dun- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 170 
 
 i 
 
 geons shall not daunt us. The struggle is for humanity 
 and against the most cruel tyranny, and, unless we are 
 dead to every impulse of mercy and fellow-feeling, must 
 be crowned with success.” 
 
 On July 26th, Mr. Cleveland announced his commis¬ 
 sion, Carroll D. Wright, John D. Kernan, and Nicholas 
 E. Worthington, and directed them to “visit the State of 
 Illinois and the city of Chicago and such other places in 
 the United States as may appear proper . . . make care¬ 
 ful inquiry into the causes of any pending dispute or ex¬ 
 isting controversy, and hear all persons interested 
 therein.” 
 
 While Mr. Debs and his fellow prisoners awaited 
 trial, this commission carried forward its investigations, 
 examining all told one hundred and nine witnesses. Ac¬ 
 cording to the testimony, the railroads lost in property 
 destroyed, hire of United States Deputy Marshals, and 
 incidental expenses, at least $685,308. The loss of earn¬ 
 ings to these roads was estimated at $4,672,916. As esti¬ 
 mated also, the 3,100 employees at Pullman lost $350,000 
 in wages, and the 100,000 employees upon the twenty-four 
 railroads centering in Chicago paid at least $1,389,143 
 for their part in the strike. The Commission found also 
 that during the strike the number shot and fatally 
 wounded was 12, number arrested by police, 515; number 
 arrested under United States statutes and against whom 
 indictments were found, 71. The arrests made by the 
 police were for murder, arson, burglary, assault, intim¬ 
 idation, riot, and lesser crimes. The cases passed upon by 
 the United States Grand Jury were for obstruction of the 
 mail, conspiracy in restraint of trade, and conspiracy to 
 injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate. It further found 
 that, “The conditions created at Pullman enable the man- 
 
THE PULLMAN STRIKE OF 1894 171 
 
 agement at all times to assert with great vigor its assumed 
 right to fix wages and rents absolutely, and to repress that 
 sort of independence which leads to labor organizations 
 and their attempts at mediation, arbitration, strikes, etc.” 
 
 On December io‘, 1894, the President transmitted the 
 full report to Congress. Four days later the Illinois Cir¬ 
 cuit Court decided that these facts did not justify 
 Mr. Debs and his companions in their course of resistance 
 to organized authority and defiance of a federal injunc¬ 
 tion. It sentenced Mr. Debs to six months’ imprisonment, 
 and his associates to three months each, “for contempt of 
 court.” The decision was based upon the Sherman Anti- 
 Trust Law of 1890, “an act to protect trade and commerce 
 against unlawful restraint and monopolies”—an interest¬ 
 ing development in view of the fact that the controversy 
 had proceeded from a strike of laboring men against the 
 unjust exactions of the Pullman Palace Car Company, 
 one of the most perfect monopolies ever devised, which 
 Mr. Debs hyperbolically characterized as “remorseless as 
 a man-eating tiger.” 
 
 An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, President 
 Debs and his fellows applying for a writ of habeas corpus 
 on the .ground that the facts found by the Circuit Court 
 did not constitute disobedience to the writs of injunction 
 served upon them. The case was argued on March 25 and 
 26, 1895, and on May 27th a decision was handed down, 
 sustaining the verdict of the Circuit Court and completely 
 vindicating the legality of President Cleveland’s course. 
 The decision declared: 
 
 “The United States may remove everything put upon 
 highways, natural or artificial, to obstruct the passage 
 of interstate commerce, or the carrying of the mails. . . . 
 It is equally within its competency to appeal to the civil 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 172 
 
 courts for an inquiry and determination as to the exist¬ 
 ence and the character of any of them, and if such are 
 found to exist or threaten to occur, to invoke the powers 
 of those courts to remove or restrain them, the jurisdic¬ 
 tion of the courts to interfere in such matters by injunction 
 being recognized from ancient times and by indubitable 
 authority. . . . 
 
 “The complaint filed in this case clearly shows an ex¬ 
 isting obstruction of the artificial highways for the pas¬ 
 sage of interstate commerce and the transmission of the 
 mails, not only temporarily existing, but threatening to 
 continue, and under it the Circuit Court had power to 
 issue its process of injunction. 
 
 “Such an injunction having been issued and served 
 upon the defendants, the Circuit Court had authority to 
 inquire whether its orders had been disobeyed, and when 
 it found that they had been disobeyed, to proceed under 
 Rev. Stat. § 725, and to enter the order of punishment 
 complained of.” 
 
 By this prompt and determined course, Mr. Cleveland 
 had made it clear, not only that law must be obeyed, but 
 that the nation is paramount and state lines only geo¬ 
 graphical expressions when the welfare of the country is 
 at stake. He prized the decision of the court, not because 
 it vindicated his dignity, but because, to quote his own 
 words, it established “in an absolutely authoritative man¬ 
 ner, and for all time, the power of the national govern¬ 
 ment to protect itself in the exercise of its functions.” 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 "The rules of conduct governing individual relations are 
 equally' applicable as between enlightened nations ” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 W HEN Grover Cleveland became President, few of 
 his contemporaries would have classed among the 
 most important of the great outstanding questions which 
 confronted him a boundary dispute which for almost 
 three quarters of a century had periodically caused fric¬ 
 tion between Venezuela and Great Britain. Yet such was 
 the case. 
 
 In 1814, Great Britain, by her treaty with the Nether¬ 
 lands, acquired the provinces of Essequibo, Demerara, 
 and Berbice, which under her rule came to be known as 
 British Guiana. In 1840 Mr. (later Sir) Robert Schom- 
 burgk, an English engineer, was sent by England to survey 
 and delimit its boundaries, as a preliminary measure, and 
 report to the British Government. He took particular 
 care to fortify himself with the history of the case, from 
 actual exploration and information obtained from the 
 Indians and from the evidence of local remains, and on 
 such data he based his report. 
 
 At Point Barima, where the remains of a Dutch fort 
 still existed, and at the mouth of the Amacura, he placed 
 two boundary posts. At the urgent entreaty of the Vene¬ 
 zuelan government these two posts were afterwards re¬ 
 moved, but the concession was made with the distinct 
 
 understanding that Great Britain did not thereby in any 
 
 173 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 174 
 
 way abandon her claim to that position. In fact the 
 Schomburgk line, as finally drawn, was a great reduction 
 of the boundary claimed by Great Britain as her right 
 and its proposal originated in a desire on her part to 
 come to a friendly arrangement with a weaker power 
 with whom she desired to remain in cordial relations. 
 
 As soon as Schomburgk’s report was submitted to the 
 Venezuelan government, the latter objected, with a state¬ 
 ment of her own claims—claims starting in such obsolete 
 grounds as the original discovery by Spain of the Ameri¬ 
 can continent, and supported by quotations more or less 
 vague from the writing of travelers and geographers. She 
 adduced no substantial evidence of actual conquest or 
 occupation of the territory claimed. 
 
 Lord Aberdeen, then Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, pointed out that it would be impossible to arrive 
 at any agreement if both sides brought forward preten¬ 
 sions of so extreme a character, and announced certain 
 concessions which Great Britain was prepared to make 
 “out of friendly regard to Venezuela,” on condition that 
 the Venezuelan government would agree that no part of 
 the territory proposed to be ceded should be alienated at 
 any time to a foreign power, and that the Indian tribes 
 residing in it should be protected from oppression. No 
 answer to this note was ever received from the Venezuelan 
 government, and in 1850 Her Majesty’s Government in¬ 
 formed the British Charge d’Affaires at Caracas that as 
 the proposal had remained for more than six years unac¬ 
 cepted, it must be considered as having lapsed, and in¬ 
 structed him to make a communication to the Venezuelan 
 government to that effect. 
 
 Venezuela subsequently permitted projects to be set on 
 foot for the occupation of Point Barima and certain other 
 disputed positions, and the British Charge d’Affaires was 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 175 
 
 instructed to inform the government of Venezuela “that, 
 whilst on the one hand Great Britain had no intention of 
 occupying or encroaching upon the disputed territory, she 
 would not, on the other hand, view with indifference 
 aggressions on that territory by Venezuela.” To which 
 the Venezuelan government replied that Venezuela had 
 no intention of occupying or encroaching upon any part 
 of the territory in dispute, and that orders would be issued 
 to the authorities in Guiana to abstain from taking any 
 steps contrary to this engagement. 
 
 For a generation thereafter the question received little 
 consideration, Venezuela being the victim of absorbing 
 revolutions; and when at the end of that time it began 
 again to be discussed, it had grown more difficult, owing 
 to the value of the gold fields lying between the admitted 
 dominions of the two contestants and claimed by both. 
 Venezuela protested that Great Britain had moved the 
 line of her pretensions westward, appropriating some 
 33,000 square miles of Venezuelan territory; and British 
 statesmen indignantly denied the accusation. 
 
 In 1876 Venezuela requested American intervention 
 in her behalf, and a few months later suggested to Great 
 Britain that the justice of the respective claims of the two 
 nations might readily be determined by the discussion of 
 historical proofs, or, if Great Britain preferred, that “a 
 conventional line fixed by mutual accord” might be 
 agreed upon. Neither idea, however, secured the desired 
 results. Our Secretary of State did not intervene; and 
 Venezuela refused to accept the line suggested by Lord 
 Salisbury. 
 
 After various other proposals, Venezuela requested 
 that the question be submitted to arbitration, but the reply 
 of Lord Granville, now Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, wholly disregarded the request, and further in- 
 
176 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 sistence met curt refusal at the hands of the British 
 ministry. 
 
 Early in the year 1885, it seemed that a settlement had 
 been provided by the negotiation of a general treaty be¬ 
 tween Great Britain and Venezuela, which specified that 
 all differences should be arbitrated, should the method of 
 friendly negotiation fail. But Lord Salisbury, who had 
 succeeded Lord Granville in the Foreign Office, re¬ 
 pudiated the treaty in a note of July 27, 1885. 
 
 In December of the following year, Secretary Bayard 
 offered the co-operation of our government to England, 
 to the end that the question might be decided by arbitra¬ 
 tion, but Lord Salisbury refused the offer. By February, 
 1887, the controversy had become so heated that Vene¬ 
 zuela, in protest against what she termed “acts of spolia¬ 
 tion,” suspended diplomatic relations with Great Britain. 
 Secretary Bayard, during the following year, called at¬ 
 tention to the fact that Great Britain had apparently en¬ 
 larged her boundary claims, thus committing the United 
 States to a position of sympathy with Venezuela; but no 
 action was taken. And so the affair stood until 1890, when 
 Lord Salisbury, to the astonishment of the Venezuelan 
 government, declared that, while Great Britain would 
 not waive her title to any of the territory comprised within 
 the Schomburgk line which, despite the objections of 
 Venezuela, she still believed to be correct, and within 
 which many English had now long been established, she 
 would be willing to refer to arbitration her claims to 
 certain territory west of that line. 
 
 Here matters rested for the remainder of President 
 Harrison’s term. Fifty-two years of intermittent contro¬ 
 versy had done nothing to settle the question. The United 
 States, when she had ventured to touch the matter at all, 
 had done so with so uncertain a hand as to produce results 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 177 
 
 negligible or worse. Fish, Evarts, Blaine, Frelinghuysen, 
 and Bayard, all able Secretaries of State, had considered 
 the subject. All had commented upon its relationship to 
 the Monroe Doctrine; but, with the exception of Secre¬ 
 tary Bayard’s offer of arbitration, no one of them had 
 made any definite contribution toward its solution. 
 
 England’s position, as later defined by Lord Kimber¬ 
 ley, was that the negotiations between the two countries 
 had led to no results because “Venezuela has insisted on 
 maintaining a claim extending beyond the River Esse- 
 quibo and including a large portion of long settled dis¬ 
 tricts of the Colony of British Guiana. On the other 
 hand, Great Britain has throughout been prepared to 
 make large abatements from her extreme claim although 
 Her Majesty’s Government has been continually accu¬ 
 mulating stronger documentary proofs of the correctness 
 of that extreme claim as being their inheritance from their 
 Dutch predecessors.” 
 
 Upon his return to power in 1893, Mr. Cleveland 
 faced the question in a new spirit, conscious that if further 
 neglected it might prove serious, in view of the tendency 
 of the nations of Europe to seek an extension of their ter¬ 
 ritory at the expense of weak and backward peoples, and 
 of the equally apparent tendency of South American 
 countries to use the name of the United States as a shield 
 against Europe in times of danger, while insisting upon 
 absolute freedom of action when no danger threatened. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was by nature disposed to suspect 
 strong nations of designs against weaker ones, a tendency 
 which his experiences with Germany in Samoa and the 
 United States in Hawaii had not lessened. He was also 
 a firm believer in arbitration as a means of settling inter¬ 
 national disputes; but, in the case of Venezuela, England 
 had shown little disposition to consider that method, and 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 178 
 
 he felt that the time had come when the question must be 
 settled, peacefully if possible, but settled. Secretary 
 Gresham was also an enthusiast for arbitration, while 
 Thomas F. Bayard, now Ambassador to the Court of St. 
 James, felt that America and Great Britain were commit¬ 
 ted to this principle. In the hands of these three men 
 rested the decision of America’s course regarding the 
 Venezuelan boundary. All three believed that powerless 
 nations are entitled to the same rights as are powerful na¬ 
 tions, and that it is the duty of the latter to see that these 
 rights are respected. All three believed in the special re¬ 
 sponsibility of the United States to see that the American 
 continent be left in the freest enjoyment of the right of 
 self-determination as guaranteed by the Monroe Doctrine. 
 If it were true, as Secretary Bayard had said, that the 
 United States had a moral right to protect the sovereign 
 independence of the distant, dark-skinned peoples of the 
 far Pacific, then was it more than a moral right, it was a 
 moral duty, to see that nations covered by the Monroe 
 Doctrine were similarly protected. 
 
 Shortly after Ambassador Bayard took up his post in 
 Condon, he wrote to Secretary Gresham that the time was 
 ripe for a settlement of the Venezuelan boundary dispute: 
 “Great Britain has just now her hands very full in other 
 quarters of the globe. The United States is the last nation 
 on earth with whom the British people or their rulers 
 desire to quarrel, and of this I have new proofs every day 
 in my intercourse with them. The other European na¬ 
 tions are watching each other like pugilists in the ring.” 
 To the diplomatic mind of our Ambassador, England’s 
 necessity was America’s opportunity, and the determina¬ 
 tion to force arbitration upon a hard-pressed, friendly 
 nation at a moment when she was considered not free to 
 refuse, was both ungenerous and unfair, especially in view 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 179 
 
 of the fact that Great Britain had as her Ambassador at 
 Washington Sir Julian Pauncefote, a man whom Secre¬ 
 tary Gresham himself described as candid, fair, and an 
 open fighter, although “a firm supporter of British inter¬ 
 ests.” 
 
 On December 1, 1894, Gresham instructed Bayard to 
 open the question by pointing out to the British govern¬ 
 ment that “England and America are fully committed to 
 the principle of arbitration and this Government will 
 gladly do what it can do to further a determination in that 
 sense.” As Bayard proceeded, the old difficulties reap¬ 
 peared. In a confidential dispatch of April 5, 1895, he 
 reported that Lord Kimberley had shown him a map of 
 the disputed territory “on which were delineated, in dif¬ 
 ferent colors, the three lines of delimitation. The line 
 coloured in pink was the Schomburgk line, one of the ter¬ 
 minal points of which was a short distance inside the 
 mouth of the Orinoco, and which His Lordship stated 
 was conclusively proven and established as a British pos¬ 
 session, and would not be submitted to arbitration, but 
 that the ownership of the territory intersected by the other 
 two lines, they would be willing to submit to arbitration.” 
 
 Upon the receipt of this dispatch, Gresham began the 
 preparation of a report for the guidance of the govern¬ 
 ment during the negotiations, but before the work was 
 completed, death intervened. His loss was a severe blow 
 to Mr. Cleveland, both personally and officially. On the 
 train in which the remains were taken to the widow’s 
 home in Chicago, he showed the depth of his grief. He 
 sat for a long time absorbed in thought. At length he 
 asked one of the members of his Cabinet to escort him 
 forward to the baggage car where the coffin was carried, 
 and, arriving there, indicated a wish to be left alone. An 
 hour or so later, as he had not returned to his stateroom, 
 
i8o 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 two members of the Cabinet went forward to the funeral 
 car, fearing that he had been overcome by the heat or that 
 some accident had happened. They found the President 
 on his knees by the bier of the dead Secretary, his arms 
 resting upon the coffin, his eyes full of tears. Apparently 
 he had no notion of the flight of time. He was assisted 
 to rise to his feet, and was then escorted back to his state¬ 
 room. In this apartment he remained during the remain¬ 
 der of the journey, and a servant who went to take the 
 President’s orders found him lying in his berth, his face 
 buried in the pillows. 
 
 Ten days later, Attorney-General Olney was made 
 Secretary of State. He spent the remainder of the month 
 in Washington, studying the documents upon which Sec¬ 
 retary Gresham had been intent at the time of his death. 
 As a result, early in July, he went to Gray Gables, and 
 left with the President the draft of a letter written to 
 Ambassador Bayard regarding the Venezuelan question. 
 It was a statement of startling boldness, which, after care¬ 
 ful consideration, Mr. Cleveland approved, conditionally, 
 in the following letter: 
 
 Gray Gables, 
 
 Buzzards Bay, Mass., 
 
 July 7, 1895. 
 
 My dear Mr. Olney, 
 
 About five hours ago our family was augmented by the 
 addition of a strong plump loud voiced little girl. Mother 
 and daughter doing well—also the “old man.” 
 
 I want to thank you for the rubber gloves which came 
 last night. If the blue fish will hang around here a little 
 while longer I will test their effectiveness. 
 
 I read your deliverance on Venezuelan affairs the day 
 you left it with me. It’s the best thing of the kind I have 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR l8l 
 
 ever read and it leads to a conclusion that one cannot 
 escape if he tries—that is if there is anything of the Mon¬ 
 roe Doctrine at all. You show there is a great deal of 
 that and place it I think on better and more defensible 
 ground than any of your predecessors —or mine . 
 
 Of course I have some suggestions to make. I always 
 have. Some of them are not of much account and some 
 of them propose a little more softened verbiage here and 
 there. 
 
 What day after Wednesday of this week can you come 
 and spend a few hours with me so that we can go over it 
 together? Mrs. Cleveland sends love to Mrs. Olney. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Richard Olney, 
 
 Falmouth, Mass. 
 
 After a conference between Olney, Herbert, Carlisle, 
 Harmon and Lamont, the letter was again revised, put on 
 official State Department paper, was dated the 20th, and 
 forwarded. The “verbiage” had been somewhat softened, 
 but was still far from soft. Indeed, so strong were its terse 
 paragraphs that Mr. Cleveland later christened it 
 “Olney’s twenty-inch gun.” 
 
 It followed the line of facts which Secretary Gresham 
 had worked out, but it did not follow his views regarding 
 procedure. To Isidore Straus, who suggested, “Mr. 
 Olney has stolen your husband’s thunder,” Mrs. Gresham 
 replied: “No, there was to be no ultimatum as my hus¬ 
 band had prepared it, and Mr. Olney and President 
 Cleveland are entitled to all the credit for such a state 
 paper.” That the credit was, or should be real, Mr. 
 Cleveland never doubted. Seven years before his death, 
 speaking in Princeton, he declared: “In no event will 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 182 
 
 the American principle [the Monroe Doctrine] ever be 
 better defined, better defended, or more bravely asserted 
 than was done by Mr. Olney in this dispatch.” 
 
 For several months, the British Foreign Office re¬ 
 mained silent, and when the time came for Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s third annual message, he had nothing new to report. 
 He, therefore, contented himself with the statement that 
 the general conclusions of the Olney dispatch “are in sub¬ 
 stance that the traditional and established policy of this 
 Government is firmly opposed to a forcible increase by 
 any European power of its territorial possessions on this 
 Continent . . .; that as a consequence the United States 
 is bound to protest against the enlargement of the area of 
 British Guiana in derogation of the rights and against the 
 will of Venezuela; that considering the disparity in 
 strength of Great Britain and Venezuela, the territorial 
 dispute between them can be reasonably settled only by 
 friendly and impartial arbitration.” In view of these 
 facts, he informed Congress, “the dispatch in question 
 called upon Great Britain for a definite answer to the 
 question, whether it would or would not submit the terri¬ 
 torial controversy ... in its entirety to impartial arbi¬ 
 tration.” 
 
 Clearly he did not regard his action as involving any 
 new principle. He was merely preparing to protect an¬ 
 other impotent sovereign power, menaced, he believed, 
 as had been Samoa and Hawaii, by a nation strong enough 
 to work her will if left unchallenged. Moreover, unlike 
 Samoa and Hawaii, Venezuela was within the area cov¬ 
 ered by the Monroe Doctrine, and he felt that any Euro¬ 
 pean nation, suspected of an attempt to control the desti¬ 
 nies of an American state, either by forcible invasion or 
 by the no less effective method of extending boundary 
 lines, should submit her course to the investigation of im- 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 183 
 
 partial arbiters. He felt also that it was entirely proper 
 to call upon her to do so. Whether or not she would con¬ 
 sent, he made no attempt to predict. 
 
 The message off his mind, he decided to pay a visit to 
 the wilderness where, free from the exactions of official 
 routine, he might think out alone a course of conduct to 
 be pursued when Lord Salisbury’s long delayed answer 
 should arrive. He therefore wrote to Olney: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 Dec . 3, 1895 . 
 
 Dear Mr. Olney, 
 
 I want very much to go away this week Thursday 
 and stay until next week—say Friday or some such matter. 
 
 Can I do so? I will have all the nominations to go in 
 signed and they can be sent in by instalments during my 
 absence. 
 
 The only thing I am hesitating about is the state of 
 some things in your Department. 
 
 You cannot receive anything from Bayard or Sir 
 Julian before the early part of next week. Why can you 
 not put the thing in your pocket, so that no one will know 
 you have heard it read or at least that you have it in pos¬ 
 session, until I return? In the meantime if its transmis¬ 
 sion should be accompanied by any particular message 
 you can, if you have time, be blocking it out. 
 
 If I were here I would not be hurried in the matter 
 even if the Congress should begin grinding again the 
 resolution-of-inquiry mill. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Richard Olney, 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 A few days later John Bassett Moore, a loyal sup¬ 
 porter of Mr. Cleveland’s, sent to Postmaster General 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 184 
 
 Wilson a twelve-page letter of protest against the Presi¬ 
 dent’s position. 
 
 “I am apprehensive,” he said, “that, unless great judg¬ 
 ment is exercised, the President’s announcement will 
 prove to have started us on a course that involves not only 
 the abandonment of all our traditions, but also our par¬ 
 ticipation in numberless quarrels. 
 
 “The statement that the question can be reasonably 
 settled only by such arbitration as Venezuela proposes, 
 certainly was not based on any examination of the merits 
 of the subject. 
 
 ' “The whole system of arbitration presupposes that 
 nations will be reasonable in their claims. The claim of 
 Venezuela to all territory west of the Essequibo is not a 
 scrupulous claim. . . . Instead of asserting that arbitra¬ 
 tion is the only reasonable way of settling the question, I 
 should say that it would be a very unsatisfactory way of 
 attempting it; and in so saying I do not forget that Lord 
 Granville once consented to lump boundary and all other 
 questions in a general arbitration. 
 
 “We have arbitrated boundary disputes and so has 
 Great Britain, but never, so far as I am informed, where a 
 line had not previously been agreed upon by direct nego¬ 
 tiation. Governments are not in the habit of resigning 
 their functions so completely into the hands of arbitrators 
 as to say, ‘We have no boundaries; make some for us.’ 
 . . . It would be at least unusual to leave it to arbitrators 
 to make a boundary. . . . 
 
 “. . . Boundaries in South America have almost uni¬ 
 versally been settled on the basis of the uti possidetis, as 
 the only practicable basis of peaceful adjustment.” 
 
 The opinion of Mr. Moore (and his is an opinion 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 185 
 
 which all nations will be disposed to treat with considera¬ 
 tion), was extremely unfavorable to Venezuela. 
 
 “For twenty years,” he continued, “Venezuela, instead 
 of settling her boundary dispute, has in various ways, 
 some of them obviously dishonest, been trying to drag the 
 United States into the dispute, and the United States has 
 progressed good-naturedly step by step, without exam¬ 
 ining the merits of the case, till at length with a sudden 
 impulse it leaps over the precipice blindly. And what is 
 the position we now hold ? It is substantially this: ‘When 
 a weak American republic asserts a claim to territory in 
 America as against a strong European occupant, and 
 offers to submit its claim to arbitration, the European 
 power, if it refuses the offer, is to be considered as holding 
 the territory by force, and as infringing the Monroe Doc¬ 
 trine.’ This is the sum and substance of our position. . . . 
 
 “We now address Venezuela substantially thus: ‘You 
 are an American republic, and in your claims against 
 European powers we back you. True you settled your 
 southern boundary directly, on the basis of the uti possi¬ 
 detis, but this principle, though applicable everywhere 
 else in South America, is inapplicable to your eastern 
 boundary. Even the great doctrine of prescription, recog¬ 
 nized by every publicist from the time of Grotius, and 
 the very foundation of the peace of nations, is not applica¬ 
 ble to that boundary. Claim what you will, and propose 
 arbitration of it, and I will step in and say that it shall 
 be settled in no other way. I know nothing of the merits 
 of the controversy. I am simply backing you. This is 
 according to the Monroe Doctrine.’ Of course, the Presi¬ 
 dent never intended to say any such thing, but when we 
 examine the facts', we find that it is precisely what he has 
 said.” 
 
 In concluding his letter, Mr. Moore expressed the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 186 
 
 belief that President Cleveland would “not be willing to 
 launch his country on a career as mad and as fatal as that 
 on which France was started by Louis XIV.” 
 
 But the President had definitely decided, before send¬ 
 ing the Olney dispatch, that light must be thrown upon 
 the British claims. Should the British Foreign Office 
 refuse to throw the light, he would be compelled to have 
 it thrown for her by the United States. This decided, he 
 “cut bait,” and waited. 
 
 While Mr. Cleveland pondered, Mr. Olney studied 
 two dispatches from Lord Salisbury, dated November 26, 
 1 895, which Sir Julian Pauncefote had delivered soon 
 after the President’s departure. In the first, while de¬ 
 claring that the Monroe Doctrine had “received the entire 
 sympathy of the English Government,” his Lordship 
 frankly declined to accept Mr. Olney’s interpretation of 
 that doctrine as applicable to the boundary dispute be¬ 
 tween Great Britain and Venezuela, “a controversy with 
 which the United States have no apparent practical con¬ 
 cern.” He emphatically denied our right to demand, 
 “that when a European power has a frontier difference 
 with a South American community, the European power 
 shall consent to refer that controversy to arbitration,” and 
 insisted that Secretary Olney had misapprehended the 
 meaning of America’s historic policy. 
 
 His second dispatch was an historical brief in justi¬ 
 fication of England’s course with reference to the Vene¬ 
 zuelan boundary line, from the conquest and military oc¬ 
 cupation of the Dutch settlements in 1796. In general 
 terms he designated the territory to which her Majesty’s 
 government was entitled as being embraced within the 
 lines of the claim which she had presented from the first, 
 and added : “A portion of that claim, however, they have 
 always been willing to waive altogether; in regard to 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 187 
 
 another portion they have been and continue to be per¬ 
 fectly ready to submit the question of their title to arbi¬ 
 tration. As regards the rest, that which lies within the 
 so-called Schomburgk line, they do not consider that the 
 rights of Great Britain are open to question. Even within 
 that line they have on various occasions offered to Vene¬ 
 zuela considerable concessions as a matter of friendship 
 and conciliation and for the purpose of securing an 
 amicable settlement of the dispute. If, as time has gone 
 on, the concessions thus offered have been withdrawn, this 
 has been the necessary consequence of the gradual spread 
 over the country of British settlements, which Her 
 Majesty’s Government cannot in justice to the inhabitants 
 offer to surrender to foreign rule.” 
 
 In conclusion Lord Salisbury asserted that his gov¬ 
 ernment had “repeatedly expressed their readiness to 
 submit to arbitration the conflicting claims of Great Brit¬ 
 ain and Venezuela to large tracts of territory which from 
 their auriferous nature are known to be of almost untold 
 value. But they cannot consent to entertain, or to submit 
 to the arbitration of another power or of foreign jurists 
 however eminent, claims based on the extravagant pre¬ 
 tensions of Spanish officials in the last century and involv¬ 
 ing the transfer of large numbers of British subjects, who 
 have for many years enjoyed the settled rule of a British 
 colony, to a nation of different race and language, whose 
 political system is subject to frequent disturbance, and 
 whose institutions as yet too often afford very inadequate 
 protection to life and property.” 
 
 In commenting on these dispatches, Mr. Bayard wrote 
 to the President on December 4th: “The replies of Lord 
 Salisbury to your Venezuelan instructions are in good 
 temper and moderate in tone. Our difficulty lies in the 
 wholly unreliable character of the Venezuelan rulers and 
 
188 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 people, and results in an almost undefinable, and there¬ 
 fore dangerous, responsibility for the conduct by them of 
 their own affairs. I believe, however, that your interpre¬ 
 tation of this boundary dispute will check efficiently the 
 tendency to ‘land grabbing’ in South America, which is 
 rather an Anglo-Saxon disposition everywhere.” 
 
 To Secretary Olney, however, Lord Salisbury’s dis¬ 
 patches were far from satisfactory, and by the time the 
 President returned to Washington Mr. Olney had formed 
 definite ideas as to the reply which should be sent and had 
 embodied them in a set of suggestions for a special mes¬ 
 sage to Congress as strong and unyielding as had been his 
 “twenty-inch gun.” He advised the President to ask for 
 an appropriation to meet the expenses of a commission to 
 determine what the true line between Venezuela and Brit¬ 
 ish Guiana should be, and added significantly: “When 
 such report is made and accepted, it will be the duty of 
 this Government to communicate to Great Britain the 
 boundary line thus ascertained and to give notice that any 
 appropriation of territory or exercise of jurisdiction by 
 Great Britain beyond that line (except with the consent 
 of Venezuela) will be regarded by this Government as a 
 wilful aggression upon the rights and interests of the 
 United States which this Government cannot suffer to go 
 undefended.” 
 
 Armed with this document, Mr. Olney met the re¬ 
 turning President, was closeted with him for a few hours, 
 and retired. Mr. Cleveland spent the remainder of the 
 night at his desk, and by dawn had the draft of a message 
 ready for the copyist. At ten o’clock he received a fair 
 copy, which he revised, and by noon his most famous 
 state paper was ready. 
 
 In the message as finally sent to Congress on December 
 17, 1 895, about ninety per cent of Mr. Olney’s sentences 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 189 
 
 were discarded; but his most menacing phrases were re¬ 
 tained, and explain the later contention that the Venezuela 
 Message was “a New England document, written by a 
 New Englander.” It was, however, Cleveland’s in the 
 same sense in which Monroe’s most famous message was 
 Monroe’s, although drafted by John Quincy Adams, and 
 as Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation was Wash¬ 
 ington’s, although showing traces of the pens of more 
 than one eminent man of the time. In each case the 
 responsibility rested upon the President, and upon him 
 alone. 
 
 The message itself was brief. It is summed up in the 
 words: 
 
 « 
 
 “The answer of the British Government . . . claims 
 that ... a new and strange extension and development 
 of this [the Monroe] doctrine is insisted on by the United 
 States; . . . that the reasons justifying an appeal to the 
 doctrine . . . are inapplicable. . . . 
 
 “If a Europeah power by an extension of its bound¬ 
 aries takes possession of the territory of one of our neigh¬ 
 boring republics against its will and in derogation of its 
 rights . . . this is the precise action which President 
 Monroe declared to be ‘dangerous to our peace and 
 safety,’ and it can make no difference whether the Euro¬ 
 pean system is extended by an advance of frontier or 
 otherwise. . . . 
 
 “The dispute has reached such a stage as to make it 
 now incumbent on the United States to take measures to 
 determine . . . the true division line between the Re¬ 
 public of Venezuela and British Guiana. . . . When 
 such report is made ... it will ... be the duty of the 
 United States to resist by every means in its power . . . 
 the appropriation by Great Britain of any lands . . . 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 190 
 
 which after investigation we have determined of right 
 belong to Venezuela. 
 
 “In making these recommendations I am fully alive 
 to the responsibility incurred and keenly realize all the 
 consequences that may follow. . . . There is no calamity 
 which a great nation can invite which equals that which 
 follows a supine submission to wrong. ...” 
 
 With the text of the message, the press received also 
 the texts of Secretary Olney’s note and of Lord Salisbury’s 
 two replies. There was no attempt to conceal from the 
 people the extreme gravity of the situation. 
 
 Thus was the issue squarely drawn between the United 
 States and Great Britain, and for once the President had 
 the practically unanimous approval of the members of 
 both houses of Congress, regardless of politics. 
 
 In his account of the reception of the message by Con¬ 
 gress, the New York Herald's Washington correspondent 
 telegraphed: “All the traditions of the Senate were cast 
 to the winds when the message was read in that body, for 
 the chamber rang with applause, in which the Republi¬ 
 cans seemed to take even a more hearty part than the 
 Democrats. In the House, the President’s vigorous ex¬ 
 pressions were cheered to the echo . . . Republicans 
 . . . as enthusiastic ... as their political opponents. 
 It is long since any President’s message has had such a 
 reception.” 
 
 The first British mail brought an anxious letter to the 
 President: 
 
 Personal 
 
 Embassy of the United States, London 
 
 Dec. 18, 1895. 
 
 Dear Mr. President: 
 
 With this note I send you the Times of this morn¬ 
 ing—in order that you may perceive the tone of average 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 191 
 
 British comment on your message to Congress and posi¬ 
 tion in relation to the Venezuelan-Guiana boundary dis¬ 
 pute and claim of right and duty under American policy 
 as laid down by President Monroe to insist upon a sub¬ 
 mission of questions, touching the territorial jurisdiction 
 of South American states to international arbitration— 
 I send to the Secretary of State fuller—or rather more 
 numerous—public expressions on the subject—which 
 while varying in phrase and tone—are entirely at one on 
 the main point, i.e., of opposition to the propositions laid 
 down in your message, and the instructions of the State 
 Department conveyed to this Embassy— 
 
 In my correspondence while I was Secretary of State 
 —also with Judge Gresham since I came here—and per¬ 
 sonally with you—my opinions have been genuinely 
 stated—and as the Venezuelan transactions and history 
 are unfolded I am not able to shake off a grave sense of 
 apprehension in allowing the interests and welfare of our 
 Country to be imperilled or complicated by such a gov¬ 
 ernment and people as those of Venezuela. 
 
 It is not needful that I should repeat these views—and 
 I now wish to study carefully and deliberately the situa¬ 
 tion as it exhibits itself under the light suddenly cast upon 
 this profoundly important question—which includes in its 
 principles and treatment every European claim of owner¬ 
 ship and control of soil in the western hemisphere— 
 May peace, happiness and health dwell in your home 
 —and throughout the country you have served so un¬ 
 selfishly and faithfully— 
 
 Sincerely yours 
 
 The President T. F. Bayard. 
 
 of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Bayard’s letter showed that he was mystified and 
 uncertain regarding the exact position of the President, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 192 
 
 whose views he was to interpret to the British government 
 and to the British people. Mr. Cleveland therefore sent 
 the following reply: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 December 2Q, 1895. 
 
 My dear Mr. Bayard: 
 
 I thank you sincerely for the hunting stool you kindly 
 sent me, and I hope I may have abundant occasion to re¬ 
 call by its use your thoughtfulness. 
 
 I am very sorry indeed that I cannot fully understand 
 your very apparent thought and feeling on the Vene¬ 
 zuelan question; and you must believe me to be entirely 
 sincere when I say that I think my want of understanding 
 on the subject is somehow my own fault. 
 
 You cannot fail to remember my inclination, during 
 my former incumbency of this office, to avoid a doctrine 
 which I knew to be troublesome and upon which I had 
 nothing like your clear conception and information. I 
 knew that your predecessors for many years, and you as 
 well, regarded the Monroe doctrine as important, and I 
 supposed that when it was frequently quoted by you and 
 them in treating of this very question of Venezuelan 
 boundary, it was so quoted because it was deemed to have 
 relation to that question. Not being able to perceive how 
 a doctrine could have any life or could do any good or 
 harm, unless it was applicable to a condition of facts that 
 might arise, and unless when applied all consequences 
 must be appreciated and awaited, I was quite willing if 
 possible within the limits of inexorable duty, to escape 
 its serious contemplation. 
 
 I remember too how kindly and considerately you 
 used to speak of and treat the people and the governments 
 of South America, though fully understanding their 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 193 
 
 weaknesses and faults, and how much, through your treat¬ 
 ment of them these countries became attached to the Ad¬ 
 ministration. Very few incidents attended my last com¬ 
 ing to Washington, more pleasing than the heartiness with 
 which the representatives of Central and South America 
 welcomed me. These considerations are not, however, of 
 importance since in an application of the Monroe doc¬ 
 trine, though another country may give the occasion f we 
 are I suppose not looking after its interests but our own. 
 
 Events accompanying the growth of this Venezuelan 
 question have recently forced a fuller examination of this 
 question upon me and have also compelled us to assume a 
 position in regard to it. 
 
 I am entirely clear that the doctrine is not obsolete, 
 and it should be defended and maintained for its value 
 and importance to our government and welfare, and that 
 its defense and maintenance involve its application when 
 a state of facts arises requiring it. 
 
 In this state of mind I am positive that I can never 
 be made to see why the extension of European systems, 
 territory, and jurisdiction, on our continent, may not be 
 effected as surely and as unwarrantably under the guise 
 of boundary claims as by invasion or any other means. 
 In 1888 you called Mr. Phelps’ attention to the apparent 
 enlargement of Great Britain’s boundary claims between 
 the years 1877 and 1887, and I think within a year you 
 have referred us to the same or other enlargements. I 
 have not failed to notice the stress laid by Lord Salisbury 
 upon the fact that settlements have been made by British 
 subjects whose allegiance might be disturbed if England’s 
 insistence was found to be incorrect. 
 
 We do not say, either that Great Britain’s boundary 
 claim is false, nor that the enlargement of her claims 
 toward the centre of Venezuela as now known, is unjusti- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 194 
 
 fiable beyond a doubt, nor that the settlements upon the 
 territory claimed by Venezuela, have been brought about 
 or encouraged while delay in settling the boundary has 
 been prompted or permitted; nor do we attach too much 
 prejudicial importance to other facts and considerations 
 within our view, but we do say that these things and others 
 furnished a controversy in which we were interested, that 
 this controversy was complicated by facts so disputed that 
 it presented a case which of all cases that can be imagined 
 should be subjected to the sifting and examination which 
 impartial arbitration affords. 
 
 The refusal to refer the question to such determina¬ 
 tion was intensely disappointing. 
 
 It was disappointing because we cannot see the force 
 of the reasons given for refusal. 
 
 After a little hesitation, just here, I shall mention an¬ 
 other reason for disappointment and chagrin, which I 
 believe to be entirely irrelevant to the case and which has 
 had absolutely nothing to do with any action I have 
 taken. It would have been exceedingly gratifying and a 
 very handsome thing for Great Britain to do, if, in the 
 midst of all this Administration has had to do in attempts 
 to stem the tide of “jingoism,” she had yielded or rather 
 conceded something (if she called it so, which I do not) 
 for our sake. In our relations with her we have been 
 open, honest and fair, except as to settling or providing 
 for the adjustment of claims for Behring Sea seizures. I 
 am ashamed of the conduct of Congress in that matter but 
 it is understood everywhere how persistent the Admin¬ 
 istration has been in efforts to have the right thing 
 done. 
 
 The insistence upon a principle or the assertion of a 
 right should be the same in the case of England as Chili; 
 and I do not see, the necessity actually arising, that former 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 195 
 
 relations or anything of that sort should prevent action or 
 change the course of action, except that good relations, 
 etc., might induce a nation to acquiesce in arbitration 
 when not obliged to do so, in aid of the ascertainment of 
 facts which a friendly power felt should be developed to 
 relieve it from embarrassment. 
 
 Great Britain says she has a flawless case. Our interest 
 in the question led us to ask her to exhibit that case 
 in a tribunal above all others recognized as a proper 
 one for that purpose; and this was done to avoid a 
 wrong procedure on our part in a matter we could not 
 pass by. 
 
 Great Britain has refused our request. What is to be 
 done? We certainly ought not, we certainly cannot aban¬ 
 don the case because she says she is right, nor because she 
 refuses arbitration. We do not threaten nor invite war 
 because she refuses—far from it. We do not propose to 
 proceed to extremities, leaving open any chance that can 
 be guarded against, of a mistake on our part as to the 
 facts. So instead of threatening war for nor arbitrating, 
 we simply say inasmuch as Great Britain will not aid us 
 in fixing the facts, we will not go to war but do the best we 
 can to discover the true state of facts for ourselves, with all 
 the facilities at our command. When with all this, we 
 become as certain as we can be, in default of Great Brit¬ 
 ain’s co-operation, that she has seized the territory and 
 superseded the jurisdiction of Venezuela—that is a dif¬ 
 ferent matter. 
 
 I feel that I would like you to know precisely what is 
 in my mind and therefore I have hastily written you, with¬ 
 out the least hint of it to any person whatever and with¬ 
 out the least consultation. 
 
 It seems as if all the troubles and perplexities that can 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 196 
 
 gather about the office I hold, were just at this time, mak¬ 
 ing a combined assault. 
 
 As ever 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. T. F. Bayard, 
 
 Ambassador, &c., &c., 
 
 London. 
 
 The President’s message fell like a crash of thunder 
 upon English ears, attuned to the precision of diplomatic 
 language, and made familiar by the history of “thin red 
 lines of heroes” with the meaning of war. The Annual 
 Register summed up its opinion in the following words: 
 “The President’s extraordinary proposal was believed to 
 have been made in view of the approaching Presidential 
 election, in which the American-Irish vote would be an 
 important factor; and this belief was strengthened by the 
 eagerness of Republicans and Democrats alike to asso¬ 
 ciate themselves with a policy which affected to appeal 
 to a sentiment of patriotism. For several days politicians 
 in the United States, with a few exceptions, gave them¬ 
 selves up to a delirium of jingoism, and had that feeling 
 continued and been reciprocated by the English press and 
 the English people, the two countries might really have 
 drifted into war.” 
 
 Englishmen of whatever party, however, restrained 
 their language, and hoped for an adjustment. In a speech 
 at Bristol, two days after the publication of the message, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as spokesman for the 
 British Cabinet, confidently and courteously predicted 
 that when the “case of Great Britain . . . was laid before 
 the people, either on this side of the Atlantic or on the 
 other, the result would be happy, peaceful, and honorable 
 to both parties.” 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 197 
 
 In contrast to such expressions from British statesmen, 
 the manners displayed in the American Congress left 
 much to be desired, needlessly complicating an already 
 delicate situation by language as uncalled for as it was 
 unparliamentary. Outside, in the street, the theater, and 
 the market place, men of even lesser minds caught the in¬ 
 fection. Jingoes shrieked for war; American yellow 
 journals fanned the flame, and one gallant orator, climb¬ 
 ing to the giddy peak of exaggerated patriotism, toppled 
 over with the impious prayer that he might live to “guide 
 center forward” against “my ancient enemy.” 
 
 In opposition to this senseless war clamor, the New 
 York World stood out conspicuously, earning the right 
 to public gratitude by cabling to certain leading men of 
 England for “a word of peace” with which to stem the 
 tide of war. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone replied: “I dare not interfere. Com¬ 
 mon sense only required. I cannot say more with advan¬ 
 tage.” 
 
 The Prince of Wales, disregarding the convention 
 which normally kept his name out of international dis¬ 
 putes, answered that both he and the Duke of York “ear¬ 
 nestly trust, and cannot but believe, that the present crisis 
 will be arranged in a manner satisfactory to both coun¬ 
 tries, and will be succeeded by the same warm feeling of 
 friendship which has existed between them for so many 
 years.” 
 
 John Redmond, on the other hand, sent a reply cal¬ 
 culated to fan the war flame, and to encourage his Irish 
 kinsmen across the sea: “You ask for an expression of 
 opinion from me, on the war crisis, as a representative of 
 British thought. In this, as in all other matters, I can 
 speak only as a representative of Irish opinion. If war 
 results from the reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine, Irish 
 
198 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 national sentiment will be solid on the side of America. 
 With Home Rule rejected, Ireland can have no feeling of 
 friendliness for Great Britain.” 
 
 Congress having authorized the appointment of the 
 commission “to determine . . . the true division line be¬ 
 tween the Republic of Venezuela and British Guiana,” 
 Mr. Cleveland selected the following distinguished citi¬ 
 zens to act as that commission: David J. Brewer, Asso¬ 
 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 Richard H. Alvey, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals 
 of the District of Columbia, Andrew D. White, ex-Presi- 
 dent of Cornell University and ex-Minister to Russia, 
 Frederic R. Coudert, one of the counsel for the United 
 States in the Behring Sea Arbitration, and Daniel C. Gil¬ 
 man, President of Johns Hopkins University. 
 
 Their appointment apparently had the effect of arous¬ 
 ing Great Britain to the need of a less dangerous method 
 of settlement, for a few days later Ambassador Bayard 
 sent the following cipher telegram to Secretary Olney, 
 containing the plan for an adjustment by which neither 
 Great Britain nor Venezuela would be called upon to 
 abandon long established settlements: 
 
 Translation of cipher telegram sent from the Embassy 
 January I J, I 8q6. 
 
 Olney, Secretary, Washington. 
 
 Lord Playfair, lately Liberal Cabinet Minister, came 
 confidentially yesterday to my residence, at the request of 
 Lord Salisbury and Secretary of State for Colonies, ex¬ 
 pressing earnest desire of both political parties here 
 Venezuela dispute should not be allowed to drift, but be 
 promptly settled by friendly co-operation. Suggests as 
 solution, United States should propose conference with 
 United States of European countries now having Colonies 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 199 
 
 in American Hemisphere—Great Britain, France, Spain, 
 Holland, to proclaim the Monroe Doctrine—that Euro¬ 
 pean Powers having interests in America, should not seem 
 to extend their influence in that Hemisphere. If the 
 United States would propose this, Great Britain would 
 accept Monroe Doctrine, and it would become interna¬ 
 tional law between countries named. Assuming from the 
 President’s Message, that any settlement of boundary 
 satisfactory to Venezuela, would be unobjectionable to 
 United States, friendly arbitration is suggested. There 
 being no Venezuelan settlements inside Schomburgk line, 
 and no British settlements beyond that line; therefore, 
 irrespective of that line, mutual condition be accepted, 
 that all British and all Venezuelan settlements be ex¬ 
 cluded from arbitration, but all country between the set¬ 
 tlements be settled by a Court of Arbitration drawing a 
 boundary line, which should be accepted by both coun¬ 
 tries. Such Court of Arbitration to consist of two or 
 three Commissioners from England, two or three from 
 Venezuela, and two or three from present United States 
 Commission, to represent knowledge they have acquired. 
 Under this principle, districts already settled by Vene¬ 
 zuela or British Government or people, would not be 
 referred to by arbitration, and there would be no diffi¬ 
 culty in settling line by friendly arbitration. I will write 
 you fully next Wednesday mail. But desire to express 
 positive judgment, that proclaimed recognition of Mon¬ 
 roe Doctrine as international law between Powers named 
 would make it binding, not only on them, but practically 
 on all other European Powers, and would end all con¬ 
 templated plans of future conquest, or intermeddling 
 alliances, in the Western Hemisphere, by European Pow¬ 
 ers, under any pretext. 
 
 Bayard. 
 
200 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 After carefully considering these suggestions, Mr. 
 Cleveland and Mr. Olney decided against calling a con¬ 
 ference of European powers to pass judgment on the 
 Monroe Doctrine, declaring that they preferred to deal 
 with Great Britain alone. To this Lord Salisbury readily 
 consented. 
 
 Meanwhile the American Commissioners continued 
 the work for which the President had appointed them. 
 Confident of the British sense of fair play, they applied to 
 the British government for aid, and on February nth, 
 the Honorable A. J. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, 
 and Conservative Leader of the House of Commons, re¬ 
 ported to Parliament: “We have promised to give them 
 all the information we are able to give at the earliest 
 possible moment.” (Cheers.) “No false pride or diplo¬ 
 matic punctilio will be allowed to stand in the way of a 
 settlement, as far as we are concerned. Whatever other 
 conclusions the Commission may arrive it, it will most 
 assuredly reach the conclusion that no desire to push be¬ 
 yond the due limit of the frontier of this empire has ever 
 been the animating cause which moved British diplomacy 
 in this long-drawn-out controversy.” Lord Salisbury fol¬ 
 lowed with the conciliatory announcement: “I do not 
 think that the invoking of the Monroe Doctrine was, con¬ 
 troversially, quite unnecessary,” and admitted that satis¬ 
 factory results would have come less rapidly had not the 
 United States interfered. “I have had an increasing be¬ 
 lief during the past few weeks that we shall . . . find 
 some satisfactory settlement, and all danger of a rupture 
 of relations between the two nations be entirely removed.” 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 By the middle of May both countries were intent upon 
 the preparation of plans, and on the 22nd Lord Salisbury 
 sent a definite proposal for the substance and form of a 
 
THE VENEZUELAN AFFAIR 
 
 201 
 
 treaty for the creation of the joint arbitration committee. 
 Seven weeks later Mr. Olney, acting in accordance with 
 England’s own suggestion to that effect, as expressed in 
 Bayard’s dispatch of January 13th, asked whether Great 
 Britain would consent to unrestricted arbitration of the 
 whole matter, “provided it were made the rule of the arbi¬ 
 tration that territory which had been in the exclusive, 
 notorious, and actual use and occupation of either party 
 for sixty years should be held to belong to such party.” 
 This suggestion, differing from that of the British pro¬ 
 posal only in that it specified the period of sixty years as 
 the term of occupancy, was accepted by Lord Salisbury. 
 
 And so, in his fourth annual message, Mr. Cleveland 
 was able to announce: “The Venezuelan boundary ques¬ 
 tion has ceased to be a matter of difference between Great 
 Britain and the United States, their respective Govern¬ 
 ments having agreed upon the substantial provisions of a 
 treaty between Great Britain and Venezuela submitting 
 the whole controversy to arbitration. The provisions of 
 the treaty are so eminently just and fair that the assent of 
 Venezuela thereto may confidently be anticipated.” 
 
 On February 2, 1897, one month before President 
 Cleveland’s retirement, such a treaty between Great Brit¬ 
 ain and Venezuela was signed at the State Department in 
 Washington. It was a strange, if not a unique instance of 
 treaty making, American State Department officials hav¬ 
 ing taken the leading part in the negotiations, although 
 Great Britain and Venezuela were the signatories. Ar¬ 
 ticles I and II provided for an arbitral tribunal to consist 
 of five jurists, two on the part of Great Britain, two on the 
 part of Venezuela (one named by President Cleveland 
 and one by the Justices of the United States Supreme 
 Court), and the fifth to be selected by these four. Article 
 III empowered the tribunal to “determine the boundary 
 
202 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 line between the Colony of British Guiana and the United 
 States of Venezuela”; while Article XIII bound the 
 signatory powers “to consider the result of the proceed¬ 
 ings of the tribunal of arbitration as a full, perfect, and 
 final settlement of all the questions referred to the arbi¬ 
 trators.” On October 3, 1899, the award was presented to 
 the British Parliament, and the controversy was at an end. 
 
 That an adjustment, honorable alike to both England 
 and America, was reached is to the credit of both; but the 
 biographers of Lord Salisbury may safely add to his many 
 achievements the fact that it was his proposal, transmitted 
 through Ambassador Bayard’s dispatch of January 13, 
 1893, which enabled American abandon her independent 
 study of the Venezuela boundary and opened the way to a 
 peaceful settlement. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE WARWICK OF 1896 
 
 “Our fealty to party rests upon something higher and 
 better than an instinct to blindly follow adventurous leader - 
 ership, regardless of consequences ” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 S OME time before the assembling of the National 
 Conventions of 1896, Mr. Euclid Martin, Chair¬ 
 man of the Nebraska State Central Committee, wrote to 
 President Cleveland from Omaha: “We held our pri¬ 
 maries day before yesterday in this city for the purpose of 
 selecting delegates to a Democratic State Convention. 
 The issues were many. Upon one side was Democracy 
 and the administration. Upon the other was Free Silver, 
 Populism, Bryanism, Strikism and a very large 
 sprinkling of Church. The ambition of those who oppose 
 the administration seemed to be to combine all of the 
 elements, and they were apparently successful. . . . The 
 Populists who wanted a Populist Governor were willing 
 to play upon the prejudices of the Catholic Church be¬ 
 cause the Republican nominee is supposed to be a mem¬ 
 ber of a secret organization antagonistic to their church, 
 and the Honorable William Jennings Bryan was in it for 
 all there was in sight for himself. . . . Circumstances 
 and treachery of those who should owe you allegiance, 
 without calling names further, played an important part 
 in the result. Add to this a craze for which I cannot ac¬ 
 count, and which I am pleased to say is abating to some 
 extent, for Mr. Bryan, and the results are before you.” 
 
 203 
 
204 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 At the same time William Lynde Stetson warned him 
 that the New York Democracy was in the hands of its 
 worst enemies, and that the silver men “are making plans 
 for 1896, when the silver party shall have swallowed the 
 Populists, as the Republicans did free silver.” Evidently, 
 despite Mr. Cleveland’s many battles in its behalf, the 
 gold standard was not yet safe and could be permanently 
 decided only by a national referendum in a presidential 
 election. To educate the people upon this question be¬ 
 fore it was too late, therefore, appeared to the President 
 the imperative need of the hour, and he began to urge 
 upon those still in sympathy with his views the necessity 
 of informing the public upon the dangers inherent in an 
 unsound currency. With this in mind he wrote to a group 
 of Chicago business men: 
 
 “If the sound money sentiment abroad in the land is 
 to save us from mischief and disaster, it must be crystal¬ 
 lized and combined and made immediately active. It is 
 dangerous to overlook the fact that a vast number of our 
 people, with scant opportunity thus far to examine the 
 question in all its aspects, have nevertheless been ingeni¬ 
 ously pressed with specious suggestions, which in this 
 time of misfortune and depression find willing listeners, 
 prepared to give credence to any scheme which is plaus¬ 
 ibly presented as a remedy for their unfortunate con¬ 
 dition. 
 
 “What is now needed more than anything else is a 
 plain and simple representation of the argument in favor 
 of sound money. In other words, it is time for the Amer¬ 
 ican people to reason together as members of a great 
 nation, which can promise them a continuance of protec¬ 
 tion and safety only so long as its solvency is unsuspected, 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 205 
 
 its honor unsullied, and the soundness of its money un¬ 
 questioned. These things are ill-exchanged for the illu¬ 
 sions of a debased currency and groundless hope of 
 advantages to be gained by a disregard of our financial 
 credit and commercial standing among the nations of the 
 world. 
 
 “If our people were isolated from all others and if 
 the question of our currency could be treated without 
 regard to our relations to other countries, its character 
 would be a matter of comparatively little importance. 
 If the American people were only concerned in the 
 maintenance of their physical life among themselves they 
 might return to the old days of barter, and in this primi¬ 
 tive manner acquire from each other the materials to 
 supply the wants of their existence. But if American 
 civilization were satisfied with this, it would abjectly fail 
 in its high and noble mission. 
 
 “In these restless days the farmer is tempted by the 
 assurance that though our currency may be debased, 
 redundant, and uncertain, such a situation will improve 
 the price of his products. Let us remind him that he 
 must buy as well as sell; that his dreams of plenty are 
 shaded by the certainty that if the price of the things he 
 has to sell is nominally enhanced, the cost of the things 
 he must buy will not remain stationary. . . . 
 
 “It ought not to be difficult to convince the wage 
 earner that if there were benefits arising from a degen¬ 
 erated currency they would reach him least of all and 
 last of all. In an unhealthy stimulation of prices an 
 increased cost of all the needs of his home must long be 
 his portion, while he is at the same time vexed with the 
 vanishing visions of increased wages and an easier lot. 
 The pages of history and experience are full of this lesson. 
 
206 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 “An insidious attempt is made to create a prejudice 
 against the advocates of a safe and sound currency by 
 the insinuation, more or less directly made, that they 
 belong to financial and business classes, and are therefore 
 not only out of sympathy with the common people of 
 the land, but for selfish and wicked purposes are willing 
 to sacrifice the interests of those outside their circle. 
 
 “I believe that capital and wealth, through combina¬ 
 tion and other means, sometimes gain an undue advan¬ 
 tage, and it must be conceded that the maintenance of a 
 sound currency may, in a sense, be invested with a greater 
 or less importance to individuals according to their con¬ 
 dition and circumstances. It is, however, only a differ¬ 
 ence in degree, since it is utterly impossible that anyone 
 in our broad land, rich or poor, whatever may be his 
 occupation, and whether dwelling in a center of finance 
 and commerce or in a remote corner of our domain, can 
 be really benefited by a financial scheme not alike bene¬ 
 ficial to all our people, or that anyone should be excluded 
 from a common and universal interest in the safe char¬ 
 acter and stable value of the currency of the country. . . . 
 
 “If reckless discontent and wild experiment should 
 sweep our currency from its safe support, the most de¬ 
 fenseless of all who suffer in that time of distress and 
 national discredit will be the poor, as they reckon the 
 loss in their scanty support, and the laborer or working¬ 
 man as he sees the money he has received for his toil 
 shrink and shrivel in his hand when he tenders it for the 
 necessaries to supply the humble home. Disguise it as 
 we may, the line of battle is drawn between the forces of 
 safe currency and those of silver monometalism.” 
 
 Two weeks later, he wrote to Governor Stone of 
 Mississippi: 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 
 
 20 7 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C. 
 
 April 26, 18Q5. 
 
 Honorable J. M. Stone, Governor 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 • • • • 
 
 If we, who profess fealty to the Democratic party, 
 are sincere in our devotion to its principles, and if we 
 are right in believing that the ascendency of those prin¬ 
 ciples is a guarantee of personal liberty, universal care 
 for the rights of all, non-sectional, American brotherhood 
 and manly trust in American citizenship in any part of 
 our land, we should study the effects upon our party and 
 consequently upon our country of a committal of the 
 national democracy to this silver aberration. 
 
 If there are Democrats who suppose that our party 
 can succeed upon a platform embodying such a doctrine, 
 either through its affirmative strength or through the 
 perplexity of our opponents upon the same proposition, 
 or if there are Democrats who are willing to turn their 
 backs upon their party associations in the hope that free, 
 unlimited and independent coinage of silver can win a 
 victory without the aid of either party organization, they 
 should deceive themselves no longer, nor longer refuse 
 to look in the face the results that will follow the defeat, 
 if not the disintegration of the Democratic party upon 
 the issue which tempts them from their allegiance. If 
 we should be forced away from our traditional doctrine 
 of sound and safe money our old antagonists will take the 
 field on the platform which we abandon, and neither the 
 votes of reckless Democrats nor reckless Republicans will 
 avail to stay their easy march to power. . . . 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
208 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 From that time until the assembling of the Demo¬ 
 cratic Convention, the warfare between the Free Silver 
 Democrats and the followers of Grover Cleveland grew 
 ever fiercer, each faction maneuvering for position in 
 the coming battle. From Bryanism in the West and 
 South, from Gormanism in Maryland, from Vest and 
 Jones, Bland and Voorhees, from New York’s Tammany- 
 ized Democracy, despite its normal sound money sym¬ 
 pathies, he knew that he and his sound money allies could 
 expect only vituperation and insult, despite the fact that 
 the end of his political career was close at hand. Even 
 had they not differed with him on this vital subject, they 
 and the myriad other enemies, bred of many conflicts, 
 were eager to send him forth at the end of his public 
 service repudiated, like the ancient Hebrew scapegoat 
 upon whose fleecy back the highpriest laid the sins of the 
 people. 
 
 Meanwhile the voice of the scandalmonger was again 
 heard in the land, fashioning ever new lies. Indignant 
 at the utter baseness of their attacks, Don M. Dickinson 
 wrote to the President: 
 
 666 Jefferson Avenue. 
 
 My dear Mr. President: 
 
 I want to thank you not only for your note of the 19th 
 inst., but also for your good letter of the 18th ulto., of 
 which I expected when in Washington, to have had an 
 opportunity to speak to you but did not. 
 
 No one has a clearer realization of the situation than 
 I, no one has seen what you have passed through with a 
 keener or more sensitive appreciation of the general 
 demoralization and prevailing madness, and of your 
 situation in the midst of it. History will set down your 
 four years as the most difficult period—war work 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 209 
 
 excepted—in the life of this government, for its Chief 
 Executive, and history will surely set down against the 
 epoch, that the Chief, standing alone, was great in his 
 place, equal to every occasion, a patriot always, and in 
 and of himself the bulwark that turned back the flood 
 of destruction. 
 
 Surely you hold up the only beacon. Outside and 
 around, God and Truth and Right and Honor seem a 
 dream. Self-sacrifice, bravery, loyalty, friendship, seem 
 to have left you alone on the field. Friendship! it sneaks 
 or whispers its professions in hiding. Friendship! in 
 public and in private, it listens to insult with lowered 
 eyes, or covertly smiles or winks at the enemy at the vilest 
 ribaldry at the expense of a friend. One is not to chal¬ 
 lenge any vile spawn from the mouth of “rank” (rank 
 save the mark) for fear of getting into the papers and 
 being lied about. Who stays the liars and the mouthers 
 • of billingsgate from saying and printing broadcast the 
 foulest screeds under the sanction of “high” official sta¬ 
 tion? A man who is so bound that he cannot move, so 
 held, that he cannot speak, is attacked by none of the 
 human race except the digger Indian. But he who stands 
 by and sees a digger Indian do it is meaner than the 
 digger. Democrats, yes, but they are among the rank 
 and file. I am glad I am among them. If I had been 
 in office in these times I would have fought myself back 
 to the ranks in some highly improper way, no doubt. 
 
 The people, not as Democrats or Republicans, but the 
 American people, a part of the great mind of the Infinite, 
 do understand and do appreciate, and will accord, not 
 mere justice, but reward of merit; of this I have no more 
 doubt than I have the sun shines. In the meantime I 
 can only emulate Smollett when he said: 
 
210 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 “Thy spirit, independence, let me share, 
 
 Lord of the lion heart and purpose high. 
 
 Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, 
 
 Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.” 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Don M. Dickinson. 
 
 Commodore Benedict wrote in the same strain, and 
 to him Mr. Cleveland replied: “ . . . Such expressions 
 are my only comfort, except my wife and babies, in these 
 troublous, perplexing days. The next week will be 
 especially harassing and anxious, and what will follow 
 may add to my burdens. Do you know, my dear Com¬ 
 modore, that I have never been so sure as now that there 
 is a high and unseen Power that guides and sustains the 
 weak efforts of man? I feel it all the time and some¬ 
 how I have come to expect that I shall find the path of 
 duty and right, if I honestly and patriotically go on my 
 way. I should be afraid to allow a bad, low motive to 
 find lodgment in my mind, for I know I should then 
 stumble and go astray.” 
 
 But though often discouraged, he kept up the fight for 
 popular enlightenment. On May 20th, he wrote to a 
 conference of New York Democratic newspaper editors: 
 
 “There is a temptation now vexing the people in dif¬ 
 ferent sections of the country which assumes the disguise 
 of Democratic party principle, inasmuch as it presents a 
 scheme which is claimed to be a remedy for agricultural 
 depression and such other hardships as afflict our fellow 
 citizens. Thus, because we are the friends of the people 
 and profess devotion to their interests, the help of the 
 members of our party is invoked in support of a plan to 
 
21 I 
 
 THE WARWICK OF 1896 
 
 revolutionize the monetary condition of the country and 
 embark upon an experiment which is discredited by all 
 reason and experience, which invites trouble and disaster 
 in every avenue of labor and enterprise, and which must 
 prove destructive to our national prestige and character. 
 
 “When a campaign is actively on foot to force the 
 free, unlimited and independent coinage of silver by the 
 government at a ratio which will add to our circulation 
 unrestrained millions of so-called dollars, intrinsically 
 worth but half the amount they purport to represent, with 
 no provision or resource to make good this deficiency in 
 value, and when it is claimed that such a proposition has 
 any relation to the principles of Democracy, it is time 
 for all who may in the least degree influence Democratic 
 thought to realize their responsibility. 
 
 “Our party is the party of the people, not because it 
 is wafted hither and thither by every sudden wave of 
 popular excitement and misconception, but because while 
 it tests every proposition by the doctrines which underlie 
 its organization, it insists that all interests should be de¬ 
 fended in the administration of the government without 
 especial favor or discrimination. 
 
 “Our party is the party of the people because in its 
 care for the welfare of all our countrymen it resists dan¬ 
 gerous schemes born of discontent, advocated by appeals 
 to sectional or class prejudices, and reinforced by the 
 insidious aid of private selfishness and cupidity. 
 
 “Above all our party is the party of the people when 
 it recognizes the fact that sound and absolutely safe 
 money is the life blood of our country’s strength and 
 prosperity, and when it teaches that none of our fellow 
 citizens, rich or poor, great or humble, can escape the 
 consequences of a degeneration of our currency.” 
 
212 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 In such letters, sent to leading Democrats throughout 
 the nation, President Cleveland sounded the call, before 
 the measure of his second term was more than half 
 accomplished. And it was this educational feature which 
 later made the campaign of 1896 unique in our history. 
 His alarm increased as the months passed, and his lan¬ 
 guage strengthened with his sense of danger. In July 
 he wrote to Dickinson: “The devils that were cast out 
 of the swine centuries ago have, I am afraid, obtained 
 possession of some so-called Democratic leaders. Good 
 times and justification of Democratic policy, with gifts 
 in their hands, are driven out from the Democratic camp. 
 If there was a penitentiary devoted to the incarceration 
 of those who commit crimes against the Democratic 
 party, how easily it could be filled just at this time.” 
 
 While such views more and more infuriated the silver 
 men, they created among sound money men of whatever 
 party the feeling that Grover Cleveland was the safest 
 man in public life. “The amount of third term feeling 
 that exists in New York is amazing,” wrote William 
 Elroy Curtis. “President Cleveland seems to be the only 
 man in the Democratic party, and although there is 
 general dissatisfaction with the financial and foreign 
 policies of the administration, the same people who con¬ 
 demn them predict that he will be the next candidate for 
 president. 
 
 “I sat the other day in a business house which is very 
 prominent in the South American trade, and where all 
 the five partners are Democrats, some of whom have 
 been very active in politics. They condemned the admin¬ 
 istration for revoking the reciprocity treaties, for pre¬ 
 venting the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, for per¬ 
 mitting Great Britain to blackmail Nicaragua, for not 
 interfering in the Cuban revolution, for the Venezuela 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 213 
 
 boundary dispute, for enforcing the payment of the 
 Mora claim, for permitting Chile to get the better of us 
 in the recent claims commission, and for almost every¬ 
 thing else that has been done or omitted in our foreign 
 relations, and declared the Cleveland administration had 
 done more to injure our foreign trade than years of care¬ 
 ful cultivation could correct Then when we began to 
 talk of the future every one of them declared his belief 
 that the President would be nominated for a third term 
 and would be the strongest candidate the Democrats 
 could offer to the country. 
 
 “Nor is this an exceptional instance. You hear the 
 same talk everywhere—at the hotels, at the clubs and 
 restaurants, in the banks and brokers’ offices and wherever 
 men who talk politics gather together.” 
 
 The more the third term idea gained in strength, the 
 more violent were the denunciations heaped upon the 
 President by political opponents. “I have never felt so 
 keenly as now the unjust accusations of political antago¬ 
 nists,” he wrote to Dickinson, on February 18, 1896, 
 “and the hatred and vindictiveness of ingrates and traitors 
 who wear the stolen livery of Democracy. . . . You 
 know my supreme faith in the American people. While 
 I believe them to be just now deluded, mistaken and 
 wickedly duped, they will certainly return to sound prin¬ 
 ciples and patriotic aspirations; and what I may suffer 
 in the period of aberration is not important. I have 
 studied laboriously to discover or imagine what, if any¬ 
 thing, is in the minds of those who assume the role of 
 Democratic leaders. Hatred of the administration seems 
 to be the only sentiment that pervades their counsels. 
 
 “It is absolutely certain that this issue [free silver] 
 will not wear during the campaign nor lead to success. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 214 
 
 It will be the irony of fate, if in the hour of defeat, thus 
 invited, the air is filled with democratic clamor accusing 
 me of destroying party prospects. And yet this is pre¬ 
 cisely what I expect. 
 
 “I have a consciousness within me, however, and an 
 experience behind me that will permit me to bear even 
 this injustice with resignation; and I will patiently wait 
 for the final verdict of my countrymen, which will 
 certainly in due time be returned. 
 
 “I cannot be mistaken in believing that if the Demo¬ 
 cratic party is to survive, its banner upon which shall be 
 inscribed its true principles and safe policies, must be 
 held aloft by sturdy hands which even though few, will 
 in the gloom of defeat, save it from the disgraceful clutch 
 of time-serving camp followers and knavish traitors.” 
 
 A few weeks later, he wrote again to Dickinson: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 March IQ, i8q6. 
 
 My dear Mr. Dickinson 
 
 I was made very happy yesterday by the receipt of 
 the painting you sent me of the duck hunter. It is a very 
 relieving picture to look at and every time my eye falls 
 on it in these dreadfully dark and trying days, I say to 
 myself, “I wish I was in that old fellow’s place.” 
 
 Two things I am longing for—the adjournment of 
 Congress and the 4th day of March, 1897. 
 
 I honestly believe the present Congress is a menace 
 to the good of the country if not to its actual safety. If 
 the Democratic party was in proper condition and in¬ 
 clined to half behave itself the wildness and recklessness 
 of this Republican Congress would turn many thousands 
 of recruits to our party; but every day develops more and 
 more plainly the seeming desperation and wickedness 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 215 
 
 of those in the Senate and House for whose conduct our 
 party will I suppose be held responsible. 
 
 I am positive there is but one chance for future 
 Democratic successes—a perfectly and unequivocal sound 
 money platform at Chicago. If this means the loss of 
 votes, present defeat, or even a party division, the seed 
 will be saved from which I believe Democratic successes 
 will grow in the future. 
 
 But I must not be morbid on this subject—all the 
 same it is outrageous that Democracy should be betrayed 
 “in its hour of might.” 
 
 Hoping that your short rest has done you good, I am 
 
 Yours very sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Don M. Dickinson, 
 
 Detroit, Mich. 
 
 Although determined that under no circumstances 
 would he consider the idea of a third term, his letters 
 of this period show a more eager interest in the coming 
 presidential campaign than he had shown regarding the 
 three contests in which he himself had figured as a candi¬ 
 date. Visions of disaster to his party, if seduced to error 
 by the growing free silver wing, haunted him, and he 
 eagerly watched the progress of state elections, those 
 gauges which indicate the direction of the winds of 
 politics. To Dickinson he wrote on May 1st: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 May I, l 8 g 6 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Dickinson 
 
 I steal a moment from working hours to write this, 
 because I feel that I cannot longer refrain from express¬ 
 ing my thanks as a citizens and a democrat, to you and. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 2 l6 
 
 those who worked with you, for the splendid achieve¬ 
 ment ... in Michigan. 
 
 Whatever else may be done before July 7th to save 
 the country and the party, the result of the Michigan 
 Democratic State Convention will be, must be, looked 
 upon as the most important incident of all that will crowd 
 the intervening time. I know you do not want the least 
 invidious mention, when so many have done so well, but 
 I must tell you how much prouder than ever I am of 
 your friendship, and how glad I am to know more of 
 the splendid material in Stevenson’s construction. No 
 two men in the country have better cause for self- 
 congratulation. 
 
 New York hangs fire and delays speaking, though she 
 can say but one thing, and though she now owes that 
 speech to the party and the cause. I am much humili¬ 
 ated and ashamed that she should be thus kept in the 
 background by the same dickering, petty, ignoble, 
 criminal figuring that will confront us “in our hour of 
 might” at Chicago. The treacherous cry of harmony 
 and the false pretense of compromise will still I fear be 
 in the path of those who may fight valiantly and well as 
 you have done. 
 
 Thanking and trusting you, and with sincere remem¬ 
 brances to Mr. Stevenson, I am 
 
 Yours very sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Don M. Dickinson. 
 
 President Cleveland was working for no mere tem¬ 
 porary party victory. He already distinguished “the true 
 Democracy” from the body of death which was slowly 
 donning its livery. “We can survive as a party without 
 immediate success at the polls,” he wrote to Dickinson, 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 21J 
 
 “but I do not think we can survive if we have fastened 
 upon us as an authoritative declaration of party policy, 
 the free coinage of silver.” 
 
 As the date of the Democratic National Convention 
 drew near, however, it became increasingly difficult for 
 him to believe that the Democrats would refuse the silver 
 bait. The party was unmistakably being prepared for 
 the transformation which would make of it the Free 
 Silver party, and Mr. Cleveland was compelled to face, 
 however reluctantly, the question, “What then?” He 
 knew that he could not serve a free silver party, even as 
 a private in the ranks. On the other hand, the Republi¬ 
 can party offered no allurements, even had he been able 
 to forget the McKinley tariff which had stamped it for¬ 
 ever, in his mind, as the party of the interests. More¬ 
 over, McKinley, though now the leading candidate for 
 the Republican nomination, had as yet recanted none of 
 his silver views, and the chance seemed not too remote 
 that the Republicans would sidestep the issue. 
 
 Under these circumstances he could but cling to the 
 hope that the Democratic National Convention might 
 after all be controlled by sound money men. “I am pray¬ 
 ing now,” he wrote to L. Clarke Davis, on May 14th, 
 “that the prevalent infection may pass away, leaving life 
 and hope of complete recovery. In the meantime, the 
 brood of liars and fools must have their carnival.” 
 Should the Democratic Convention declare for free 
 silver, the only chance for the gold standard lay in the 
 adoption by the Republicans of an uncompromisingly 
 sound money platform, for he still believed that there 
 were gold money men enough to elect a President if only 
 they could have a party through which to express their 
 views. 
 
 During the early months of the year, President Cleve- 
 
2 l8 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 land and Colonel Lamont had arranged to have the body 
 of the late Secretary of State removed to a place of honor 
 in Arlington Cemetery, and in May, Mrs. Gresham and 
 her son, Otto Gresham, accompanied the remains to the 
 new resting place. During his few days’ visit to Wash¬ 
 ington Mr. Otto Gresham had frequent talks with the 
 President on the currency question. “During these con¬ 
 versations,” writes Mr. Gresham, “the President confi¬ 
 dently declared that ‘if the Democrats should adopt a 
 free silver platform, that is silver at 16 to i, and the 
 Republicans straddle, silver would win, because no sound 
 money Democrat would vote for a silver Republican 
 for President, and the silver Republicans will vote for 
 16 to i.’ ” 
 
 Mr. Gresham left Washington convinced of the 
 soundness of this prophecy, and convinced also that the 
 President, too, would bolt the Democratic ticket if the 
 coming convention should father the free silver heresy. 
 On his way back to Chicago, he stopped at Indianapolis 
 to give the Indiana Democratic leaders the benefit fc of 
 Mr. Cleveland’s views, and sought out as well his father’s 
 old friends in the Republican camp. 
 
 According to his own account of his interviews, his 
 most fruitful conversation was with Charles W. Fair¬ 
 banks, who showed him the keynote speech which he had 
 prepared for the coming Republican National Conven¬ 
 tion, of which Mr. McKinley had asked him to be tem¬ 
 porary chairman. The speech was at best a straddle, 
 Mr. Gresham writes: “He quoted from McKinley’s 
 speeches in favor of the Bland-Allison act, and in sup¬ 
 port of silver propaganda looking to some measure to 
 take the place of the Bland-Allison act, as it was expiring 
 by limitation. After he had finished reading it, he asked 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 219 
 
 me what I thought of it. I told him it would not do 
 at all.” 
 
 For a time they argued the situation, Fairbanks, a 
 sound money man at heart, but planning a keynote speech 
 controlled by considerations of political expediency, and 
 Otto Gresham, a sound money enthusiast, filled with faith 
 in Cleveland’s prediction that a straddle on the part of 
 the Republicans would mean a free silver President. 
 “Mr. Cleveland,” finally declared Gresham, “is going 
 to bolt to your side, provided you give him something to 
 bolt to. The silver Republicans will leave you and go 
 to the silver Democrats if you straddle; the only chance 
 for you to win is to get on a sound money platform.” 
 After a few moments’ hesitation, Mr. Fairbanks replied: 
 “I see it. You are right. I will tear this speech up, and 
 write another one.” 
 
 This second speech, duly delivered at the opening of 
 the St. Louis Convention, gave notice that the Republican 
 party, so long complacent toward the free silver heresy, 
 was now ready to stand four-square for the gold standard. 
 “We protest,” it declared, “against lowering our standard 
 of commercial honor. We stand against the Democratic 
 attempt to degrade our currency to the low level of 
 Mexico, China, India and Japan. The present high 
 standard of our currency, our honor and our flag will 
 be protected and preserved by the Republican party.” 
 
 This change, in the opinion of Mr. Gresham, would 
 not have been made had Mr. Fairbanks not “learned Mr. 
 Cleveland’s opinion. . . . He had unbounded faith in 
 Mr. Cleveland’s (judgment and patriotism. ... I am 
 just as sure as I am of anything that I did not personally 
 participate in, that Fairbanks sent McKinley Grover 
 Cleveland’s views as I brought them.” “I have no 
 doubt,” he later declared, “that it was Grover Cleve- 
 
220 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 land’s views, financial and political, that switched Wil¬ 
 liam McKinley from . . . soft money to hard money 
 in 1896.” 
 
 While not too nearly akin to McKinley’s own ideas, 
 as interpreted by his past actions, these views were 
 identical with those of Mark Hanna, McKinley’s polit¬ 
 ical manager. Hanna, a “gold bug” from the beginning, 
 felt certain that McKinley could be nominated, but 
 wished to be equally sure that if nominated he would 
 stand upon an out-and-out gold platform. He therefore 
 allowed the Platform Committee to debate the silver 
 question for two days, and waited to be approached by 
 the gold men, whom he had purposely left in doubt as 
 to his position. At last they came, with an ultimatum. 
 He must within one hour side with the gold wing or they 
 would fight McKinley on the floor of the convention. 
 Within the limits of the hour, the gold plank which 
 Hanna had brought ready prepared with him to the con¬ 
 vention was in the hands of the triumphant gold men, 
 and William McKinley was secure of a place in history 
 as the leader of the sound money crusade of 1896. ,/ 
 
 Upon the adoption of the platform, as sound in its 
 financial plank as either Cleveland or Hanna could wish, 
 the silver Republicans fulfilled to the letter Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s prediction. Headed by Senators Teller, of Colo¬ 
 rado, DuBois, of Iowa, Pettigrew, of South Dakota, and 
 Cannon, of Utah, they marched, thirty-four strong, out 
 of the Republican house of gold to find honored places in 
 William Jennings Bryan’s Democratic house of silver. 
 
 Such is the strange story of the influence exerted by 
 a Democratic President upon a Republican campaign 
 program, as told by one who saw matters from the inside. 
 It is confessedly only a section of the picture, for, as 
 Mr. Gresham’s memorandum fully recognizes, many 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 221 
 
 other leaders had their parts in the work of writing sound 
 money principles into the Republican platform of 1896. 
 Thomas C. Platt, for example, has modestly confessed: 
 “In 1896 I scored what I regard as the greatest achieve¬ 
 ment of my political career. This was the insertion of 
 the gold plank in the St. Louis platform.” But Thomas 
 C. Platt has confessed other things, and still others have 
 been confessed for him, and therefore the world will not 
 accept his voice as the voice of Clio, the muse of history, 
 even though it accepts the fact that he played an im¬ 
 portant role in this drama, in company with a host of 
 others: Herrick, Payne, Morrison and Lodge, Reed, 
 Allison, Morton, Depew, and many more. Mr. Kohlsaat 
 and Senator Foraker has each blushingly confessed him¬ 
 self the deus ex machina, and their part none can ques¬ 
 tion. But the truth, while including them all, shows also 
 the dominant figure of Grover Cleveland, the man who 
 played in both companies in the interest of neither, but 
 that the people’s honor should be above reproach. 
 
 But though thus able to influence the Republican 
 National Convention, Mr. Cleveland knew how small 
 was his chance of changing the sentiments of the National 
 Convention of his own party. Four weeks before the 
 assembling of the latter he wrote to Dickinson: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 June 10, 1896 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Dickinson 
 
 I so fully approve of your suggestions concerning 
 delegations of sound and solid men to attend the conven- 
 tion as non-delegates with a view of exerting a whole¬ 
 some influence on delegate sentiment, that I immediately 
 began to agitate the subject in quarters where I thought 
 it would effect the best results. My ideas seemed to meet 
 
222 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 with approval and I had some assurances of co-operation, 
 though I am bound to say to you that they were even then 
 accompanied with that sort of reserved enthusiasm which 
 seems to have for the most part characterized all move¬ 
 ments in favor of sound financial policy. Since the re¬ 
 ceipt of your letter, however, events have occurred so 
 discouraging to the cause of sound finance, that I am 
 afraid the efforts promised will not be made. The fact 
 is, people whom I see here who believe with us, appear 
 to be thoroughly impressed with the idea that nothing 
 can be done to stem the tide of silverism at Chicago. 
 
 I believe I am by nature an undismayed and per¬ 
 sistent fighter and I do not believe in giving an inch until 
 we are obliged to; and yet it is hard to call on friends 
 to maintain a struggle which seems so hopeless. 
 
 It does not seem to me that there should be any 
 relaxation in the effort to prevent our party from entering 
 upon a course which means its retirement for many years 
 to come. If we cannot succeed in checking the desperate 
 rush, perhaps a demonstration can be made which will 
 indicate that a large section of the party is not infected. 
 I don’t know how this can best be done, but I very much 
 desire that we shall not all have to hang our heads when 
 our party is accused of free silverism. 
 
 Of course I have never seen anything like this craze 
 before, but my faith in the American people is so great 
 that I cannot believe they will cast themselves over the 
 precipice. 
 
 But there is our old party with all its glorious tra¬ 
 ditions and all its achievements in the way of safe and 
 conservative policies, and its exhibitions of indestructi¬ 
 bility. Is it to founder on the rocks? Will not sanity 
 return before we reach the final plunge? While I am 
 not completely discouraged, I confess the way looks dark. 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 223 
 
 The most astounding feature of all this matter is the 
 lethargy of our friends and the impossibility of stirring 
 them to action. Michigan seems to be the only state 
 whose work was needed and was forthcoming. 
 
 Events sometimes crowd closely upon each other and 
 much may be developed within even four weeks. 
 
 Yours sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Don M. Dickinson. 
 
 When the Democratic National Convention assem¬ 
 bled at Chicago on July 7th, it was at once apparent that 
 the free silver men would control. Senator Daniel was 
 chosen temporary chairman of the convention, to the 
 discomfort of David B. Hill, who was now prominent as 
 leader of the gold Democrats. Another ardent silver 
 leader, Senator White of California, was made perma¬ 
 nent chairman; and pending the report of a platform, 
 the convention listened entranced to eloquent proponents 
 of a currency reform guaranteed to save the nation. 
 
 The adoption of a platform demanding the free and 
 unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the ratio 
 of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid or consent of any 
 other nation; the rejection by a vote of 564 to 357 of a 
 resolution commendatory of the Cleveland administra¬ 
 tion, which David B. Hill introduced with the gleeful 
 consciousness that it would be overwhelmingly defeated, 
 and the nomination of William Jennings Bryan on the 
 fifth ballot made Mr. Cleveland’s dethronement com¬ 
 plete. “Never before in American history,” wrote a cor¬ 
 respondent who witnessed his eclipse, “has a President 
 sunk so low as Cleveland has fallen. Never has a Presi¬ 
 dent been so held in contempt by the people. No one 
 is interested enough to care what he does or says. . . . 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 224 
 
 Cleveland has been driven out of his party, and it was 
 Hill who closed the door and double locked it with his 
 resolution as Cleveland departed.” 
 
 It was here that Bryan made his “Crown of Thorns 
 and Cross of Gold” speech. Up to that time, Bland was 
 the leading Democratic candidate for President, and had 
 a majority of the delegates, but from the moment of the 
 “Cross and Crown” speech, state after state planted its 
 banner beside the Nebraska standard, until two thirds of 
 the convention were so represented. 
 
 It was felt by many of the onlookers that the sound 
 money men would bolt, but this conviction was not justi¬ 
 fied. Tammany Hall was apparently ready to depart, 
 but the counsels of Mr. Whitney, Governor Russell of 
 Massachusetts, and other sound money leaders prevailed, 
 and Tammany sat in silent protest as the platform was 
 adopted and Bryan was nominated. When the nomina¬ 
 tion was announced, Senator Vest remarked in a stage 
 whisper: “Now we are even with old Cleveland.” 
 
 In accepting the nomination, Mr. Bryan amplified 
 the protest, already made in the platform, against federal 
 interference in local affairs. Taking Article IV, Section 
 4, of the Federal Constitution as his warrant, he pledged 
 himself against such interference as that to which Presi¬ 
 dent Cleveland had resorted when he sent troops to 
 Chicago in 1894. 
 
 Nothing could have more graphically illustrated the 
 determination of the Bryanized Democracy to repudiate 
 the former chief, for it was the Honorable John W. 
 Daniel, of Virginia, president of the convention which 
 nominated Bryan, who had proposed the resolution 
 unanimously passed by the United States Senate on July 
 12, 1894, that: “The Senate indorses the prompt and 
 vigorous measures adopted by the President of the United 
 
225 
 
 THE WARWICK OF 1896 
 
 States and the members of his administration to repulse 
 and repress, by military force, the interference of lawless 
 men with the due process of the laws of the United States, 
 and with the transportation of the mails of the United 
 States, and with commerce among the States.” 
 
 In commenting upon the subject, the eminent Demo¬ 
 cratic leader, Judson Harmon, wrote: It is “a far more 
 serious matter than the money question or any of the other 
 questions before the people, grave as they all are. If a 
 candidate for President may properly pledge himself in 
 advance, as Mr. Bryan has done, to do nothing to protect 
 the property, maintain the authority, and enforce the laws 
 of the United States, unless and until the officers of an¬ 
 other government request or consent, then we really have 
 no Federal Government, for a government which is not en¬ 
 tirely free to use force to protect and maintain itself in the 
 discharge of its proper functions is no government at all.” 
 
 The results of the convention gave President Cleve¬ 
 land a new phrase. Instead of the “free silver heresy,” 
 his fight was henceforth against “Bryanism.” An abstract 
 idea which he abhorred had become incarnate. His in¬ 
 dignation at this conquest of an organization, this appro¬ 
 priation of an honored name, was boundless. While Hill 
 was content to follow the new banner, declaring, “I am 
 still a Democrat, very still,” Cleveland, acting upon his 
 own maxim, “a just cause is never lost,” prepared to bolt, 
 advising his friends, however, to hold their peace until 
 a definite plan of action could be agreed upon. 
 
 “I really do not see what I can properly do or say,” 
 he wrote to Colonel Lamont, a few days later. “Those 
 who controlled the convention displayed their hatred of 
 me and wholly repudiated me. Those who at the con¬ 
 vention differed from them, seem to have thought it wise 
 to ignore me in all consultation fearing probably that 
 
226 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 any connection with me would imperil success. I do 
 not say they were not right. I only say that events have 
 pushed me so much aside that I do not see how I can 
 be useful in harmonizing or smoothing matters. 
 
 “I have an idea, quite fixed and definite, that for the 
 present at least we should none of us say anything. I have 
 heard from Herbert to-day. He says he has declared he 
 will not support the ticket. I am sorry he has done so. 
 We have a right to be quiet—indeed I feel that I have 
 been invited to that course. I am not fretting except 
 about the future of the country and party, and the danger 
 that the latter is to be compromised as an organization. 
 
 “I suppose it has occurred to you that since the Chi¬ 
 cago Convention there cannot be a fool stupid enough 
 or malicious enough to attribute to the present adminis¬ 
 tration any calamity that may befall the organization of 
 the Democratic party. While I would be willing to 
 incur that accusation to save or benefit the party in a good 
 cause, what is the use of inviting such an accusation by 
 saying something which at this time can have no influence 
 for good? I feel well out of it by the condemnation I 
 have received at the hands of those who have managed 
 affairs, and by the nomination of men whose personal 
 hatred of me seemed to be a prerequisite for convention 
 honors. Others who fought on the other side were not 
 anxious to see me gain anything from the outcome, what¬ 
 ever it might be. 
 
 “I am receiving a good many letters from all sorts of 
 people, which confirm me in the belief that, whatever the 
 rest think they ought to do, I ought to keep silence—at 
 least until conditions change. 
 
 “In the meantime I am having some good fishing and 
 promptly attending to all official work sent me.” 
 
 But though fully conscious of his position in the party 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 227 
 
 at large, he believed that every member of his Cabinet 
 was with him. It was, therefore, a shock to receive from 
 Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior, the information 
 that he considered it his duty to support Mr. Bryan pub¬ 
 licly in his paper. This appeared to Cleveland almost 
 incredible. The Atlanta Journal had been regarded by 
 sound money men as one of their chief instruments for 
 presenting the gold cause to the South, and an elaborate 
 sound money supplement was ready for the press when 
 it was suddenly decided to swing the paper over to the 
 support of Bryan. The cause of the swing, as Secretary 
 Smith confessed in a letter to Mr. Cleveland, was local. 
 “I consider the protection of person and property in¬ 
 volved in the local Democratic success which can only 
 continue through Democratic organization. I would 
 strike my own people a severe blow if I repudiated a 
 nominee of a regular convention, thereby setting a prece¬ 
 dent for disorganization. While I shall not accept the 
 platform, I must support the nominee of the Chicago 
 Convention.” 
 
 After some delay the President sent the following 
 answer: 
 
 Gray Gables 
 Buzzards Bay, Mass. 
 
 August 4> 1896. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Smith. 
 
 I suppose I should have replied to your letter of July 
 20th before; but to tell you the truth I have delayed and 
 hesitated because I could not satisfy myself as to what 
 I should write. 
 
 I have determined to say to you frankly that I was 
 astonished and much disappointed by your course and 
 that I am by no means relieved by the reasons you present 
 in justification of it. 
 
/ 
 
 228 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 When you addressed the citizens of your state so 
 nobly and patriotically, you were discussing the silver 
 question alone; and when you assured them that you 
 intended to support the nominee of the National Conven¬ 
 tion you could certainly have intended no more than to 
 pledge yourself that in case you were overruled by the 
 convention in the question under discussion you would 
 accept your defeat and support the platform and candi- 
 * dates which represented that defeat. This—considering 
 your strong expressions on the silver question, your ear¬ 
 nest advocacy of sound money and your belief in its 
 transcendent importance—was going very far. 
 
 You surely could not have intended to promise sup¬ 
 port to a platform directly opposed not only to sound 
 money but to every other safe and conservative doctrine 
 or policy, and framed in every line and word in con¬ 
 demnation of all the acts and policies of an administration 
 of which you have from the first been a loyal, useful and 
 honorable member. You could not have intended a 
 promise to uphold candidates, not only pledged to the 
 support and advancement of this destructive and undemo¬ 
 cratic platform, but whose selection largely depended 
 upon the depth and virulence of their hatred to our ad¬ 
 ministration. I say “our” administration because I have 
 constantly in mind the work we have done, the patriotism 
 that has inspired our every act, the good we have accom¬ 
 plished and the evil we have averted in the face of the 
 opposition of the vicious forces that have temporarily 
 succeeded in their revolt against everything good and 
 glorious in Democratic faith and achievement. 
 
 It is due to our countrymen and to the safety of the 
 nation that such an administration should not be dis¬ 
 credited or stricken down. It belongs to them and should 
 be protected and defended, because it is their agency 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 229 
 
 devoted to their welfare and safety. None can defend 
 it better than those who constitute it, and know the sin¬ 
 gleness of purpose and absolute patriotism that have 
 inspired it. You say, “While I shall not accept the plat¬ 
 form, I must support the nominees of the Chicago Con¬ 
 vention.” I cannot see how this is to be done. It seems 
 to me like straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. 
 
 The vital importance of the issues involved in the 
 national campaign and my failure to appreciate the 
 inseparable relation between it and a state contest, prevent 
 me from realizing the force of your reference to the 
 “local situation.” I suppose much was said about the 
 “local situation” in i860. 
 
 I am perfectly satisfied that you have been influenced 
 in the position you have taken by the same desire to do 
 exactly right that has guided you in all your acts as a 
 member of the Cabinet. You know how free my asso¬ 
 ciation with my official family has been, from any at¬ 
 tempt to influence personal action, and how fully that 
 association has been characterized by perfect confidence 
 and a spirit of unreserved consultation and frankness. 
 
 In this spirit I now write. I have no personal griev¬ 
 ance that any one need feel called on to even notice. My 
 only personal desire is to make as good a President as 
 possible during the residue of my term, and then to find 
 retirement and peace; but I cannot believe that I will do 
 my duty to my countrymen or party—either as President 
 or citizen, by giving the least aid and comfort to the 
 nominees of the Chicago Convention or the ideas they 
 represent. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Hoke Smith, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
230 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Before this letter reached him, Mr. Smith wrote 
 again: 
 
 Department of the Interior, Washington, 
 
 August 5, 1896. 
 
 Mr. President: 
 
 I had the honor, on July 20th, of advising you that 
 I felt it to be my duty to support the nominee of the Na¬ 
 tional Democratic Convention, notwithstanding the dec¬ 
 laration by that Convention adverse to the views I 
 entertain on the financial question. 
 
 I felt then, as I do now, that, in view of the contrary 
 position assumed by some of the members of the Cabinet, 
 the proprieties of the occasion would be best subserved 
 by stating these conditions of embarrassment, and leaving 
 to your judgment any suggestion that would insure the 
 unanimity of counsel which you might desire. 
 
 To that communication I have received no reply. 
 
 I am constrained to infer that the embarrassments 
 suggested by my letter of the 20th ult. are recognized by 
 you as existing. 
 
 I therefore tender my resignation as Secretary of the 
 Interior. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Hoke Smith. 
 
 This letter crossed in transit Mr. Cleveland’s reply 
 to Secretary Smith’s first letter; and accordingly the 
 Secretary wrote again: 
 
 August 6, 1896 . 
 
 My dear Mr. President: 
 
 I was very much pleased to receive your letter of 
 this morning, which passed mine on the road. I must 
 admit that I was a little hurt by your continued silence, 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 231 
 
 for I can scarcely tell you how much I would feel the 
 loss of your confidence. 
 
 I can hardly expect you to see the situation as I do, 
 and I shall not undertake further to present it. I hope 
 to still contribute in part toward helping the people to 
 appreciate the great, patriotic work of your adminis¬ 
 tration, nor do I believe my opportunity to do so will be 
 lessened on account of the course which I pursue. My 
 New England and German blood do not fit me to show 
 feeling, but none the less my admiration for the President 
 has grown during the last three years into an attachment 
 scarcely less than that I have for my immediate family. 
 
 I hope I am sufficiently devoted to the nation, but in 
 i860 I should have gone with my state, and now I must 
 stand by it. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Hoke Smith. 
 
 For the Cleveland wing of the party, as for the Presi¬ 
 dent himself, neither Bryanism nor McKinleyism had 
 any appeal. Of the two they preferred the latter, al¬ 
 though McKinley’s enthusiasm for sound money had 
 come so late as to smack of opportunism. With no hope 
 but the election by indirection of the Republican candi¬ 
 date, they organized the National Democratic party, that 
 sound money and Clevelandism might not be without 
 witnesses in the coming campaign. 
 
 On September 2nd, this third party, belated but de¬ 
 termined, met in National Convention at Indianapolis. 
 “This convention,” declared their platform, “has assem¬ 
 bled to uphold the principles upon which depend the 
 honor and welfare of the American people, in order that 
 Democrats . . . may unite their patriotic efforts to avert 
 disaster from their country and ruin from their party.” 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 232 
 
 Denouncing the heresies of “protection and its ally, free 
 coinage of silver,” it reaffirmed the doctrines which the 
 Cleveland regime had striven to promote, and praised 
 “the fidelity, patriotism, and courage with which Presi¬ 
 dent Cleveland has fulfilled his great public trust, the 
 high character of his administration, its wisdom and 
 energy in the maintenance of civil order and the enforce¬ 
 ment of the laws, its equal regard for the rights of every 
 class and every section, its firm and dignified conduct 
 of foreign affairs, and its sturdy persistence in upholding 
 the credit and honor of the nation.” 
 
 Such praise at such a time was sweet even to so unego- 
 tistical a nature as the President’s, and its sincerity was 
 attested by the following telegram, which came the day 
 the platform was adopted: 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind., Sept . J, l8g6 . 
 To Hon. Grover Cleveland : 
 
 You will be nominated to-morrow unless you make 
 a definite refusal. Strongly urge that you communicate 
 privately to be used publicly if necessary with some 
 friend on the ground. Otherwise every indication you 
 will be nominated by acclamation. 
 
 D. G. Griffin. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland at once telegraphed in reply: 
 
 Buzzard’s Bay, Mass., Sept . 3 , l8g6.' 
 To Daniel G. Griffin, 
 
 Chairman New York Delegation, 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 My judgment and personal inclinations are so unal¬ 
 terably opposed to your suggestion that I cannot for a 
 moment entertain it. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 233 
 
 But his heart was with the Gold Democrats, although 
 his name was withheld; and when news came that on the 
 first ballot John M. Palmer had been nominated, the 
 President thus confided his approval to Colonel Lamont: 
 
 “I am delighted with the result of the Indianapolis 
 Convention. Its platform is the best possible statement 
 of the true doctrines of Democracy and makes all those 
 who believe in and love the grand old organization [feel] 
 that they still have a home. I am gratified to know that 
 you are willing to declare your sentiments and the 
 quicker and stronger you and any other member of the 
 Cabinet speak the better I shall like it. My notion is 
 that the tone should be, or at least one note of it, that the 
 Indianapolis platform and candidates are democratic and 
 the Chicago platform and candidates are not. 
 
 “I am perplexed concerning the course I should pur¬ 
 sue. My inclination, of course, is to join the chorus of 
 denunciation, but I am doubtful as to the wisdom of such 
 action, in the light of a chance that [it] might do more 
 harm than good. My position cannot be misunderstood 
 by any man, woman, or child in the country. I am Presi¬ 
 dent of all the people, good, bad, and indifferent, and, 
 as long as my opinions are known, ought perhaps to keep 
 myself out of their squabbles. I must attempt to co¬ 
 operate with Congress during another session in the inter¬ 
 est of needed legislation, and perhaps ought not to 
 unnecessarily further alienate that body and increase its 
 hatred of me, and if I take an active and affirmatively 
 aggressive position it may aid the cause we have not at 
 heart, in increasing the effectiveness of the cry of presi¬ 
 dential interference. In addition to all this, no one of 
 weight or judgment in political matters has advised me 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 234 
 
 to speak out—though I shall be surprised if Palmer does 
 not urge it soon. 
 
 “If you say anything, I do not care how plainly you 
 present the inference that I am in accord with your 
 views.” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s praise was for those who “loved the 
 principles of their party too well to follow its stolen 
 banners in an attack upon those national safeguards 
 which party as well as patriotism should at all times 
 defend.” But he was too shrewd to cherish the hope 
 that Palmer could be chosen. Thus he found himself, 
 a Democratic President of the United States, hoping to 
 see a Republican victory which would place McKinley 
 at the head of the nation. 
 
 Although determined to take no active part in the 
 coming campaign, he felt that he could, without vio¬ 
 lating this purpose, accept one invitation which reached 
 him in the early autumn. The College of New Jersey 
 was to celebrate on October 22d her Sesquicentennial, 
 and to mark the passage of one hundred and fifty years 
 of public service by taking the name of Princeton Uni¬ 
 versity. With the escort and dignity appropriate to his 
 high office and to the importance of the occasion, he 
 appeared at Princeton on the day appointed, and in the 
 presence of a company of scholars from many lands, and 
 of leading Americans from many sections, delivered one 
 of the most carefully prepared addresses of his life. The 
 glory of an educated citizenship; the duty of a college 
 or university toward the state; the dangers latent in 
 ignorance concerning the great natural laws upon which 
 organized society rest—these were his themes. He spoke 
 in terms suitable to a purely academic function; but 
 many of his carefully phrased sentences turned the minds 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 235 
 
 of his auditors, and of the millions who later read the 
 address, toward the question of the hour: “the free silver 
 heresy,” never once mentioned, but always implied. 
 
 “When popular discontent and passion,” he said, “are 
 stimulated by the arts of designing partisans to a pitch 
 perilously near to class hatred or sectional anger, I would 
 have our universities and colleges sound the alarm in the 
 name of American brotherhood and fraternal depend¬ 
 ence. When the attempt is made to delude the people 
 into the belief that their suffrage can change the operation 
 of natural laws, I would have our universities and col¬ 
 leges proclaim that those laws are inexorable and far 
 removed from political control. . . . When a design is 
 apparent to lure the people from their honest thoughts 
 and to blind their eyes to the sad plight of national dis¬ 
 honor and bad faith, I would have Princeton University, 
 panoplied in her patriotic traditions and glorious mem¬ 
 ories, and joined by all the other universities and colleges 
 of our land, cry out against the infliction of this treach¬ 
 erous and fatal wound.” 
 
 While the newspaper men sent his speech broadcast, 
 the President and Mrs. Cleveland gave themselves up 
 to the enjoyment of the students’ enthusiasm. Remember¬ 
 ing that whatever the result of the coming election, he 
 must seek a new home on the fourth of the coming 
 March, he observed Princeton with the eye of a pros¬ 
 pector, and the prospector became in spirit the intending 
 settler as he stood with his wife that evening on the steps 
 of Nassau Hall, where Washington had received the first 
 French Ambassador. 
 
 The hour of the scholar, the statesman, the savant 
 from many lands, had passed with the formal meetings. 
 This was the hour of the undergraduate. The students 
 had arranged a parade, dotted with illuminated trans- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 236 
 
 parencies, touched with the humor which is the ever¬ 
 present asset of student life the world over. As the 
 President and his beautiful wife gazed upon the passing 
 show, they got a glimpse of a transparency bearing the 
 inscription: “Grover, send your boys to Princeton.” At 
 that moment the Cleveland “jewels” consisted of three 
 daughters: Ruth, Esther, and Marion, born, one in New 
 York, one in the White House, and the third at the Presi¬ 
 dent’s summer home at Gray Gables on Buzzard’s Bay. 
 No son had appeared. But there was the transparency, 
 which, as they looked, moved forward and halted im¬ 
 mediately in front of them: “Grover, send your boys to 
 Princeton.” The President had entered Princeton an 
 admirer of the college. He left it a Princeton man, 
 although he had declined the honorary degree which was 
 offered him. 
 
 From the academic shades of the university he passed 
 again into the hot furnace of political strife. The cam¬ 
 paign was nearing its close. Mr. McKinley upon his 
 front porch at Canton, Ohio, and Mr. Bryan from an 
 hundred platforms throughout the land, had discussed 
 the issue, which was now about to be submitted to popu¬ 
 lar vote. 
 
 With election day came a landslide. Mr. Mc¬ 
 Kinley received over half a million more votes than Mr. 
 Bryan, with the comfortable assurance that he would 
 enter the Presidency with a Republican majority in both 
 House and Senate. The fight had been made for prin¬ 
 ciples that are too high for party property, and the fight 
 was won. With a courage that few men in his situation 
 have displayed, and a patriotism that will be honored in 
 all coming time, Mr. Cleveland had resisted a pressure 
 strong enough to have overwhelmed any man less ready 
 to sacrifice self in obedience to conviction. 
 
THE WARWICK OF 1896 237 
 
 Mr. Bryan summed up the cause of Democratic de¬ 
 feat in one sentence: “I have borne the sins of Grover 
 Cleveland.” But Mr. Bryan had not borne the sins of 
 Grover Cleveland. He had borne the sins of a funda¬ 
 mental financial heresy, in the making of which Grover 
 Cleveland had had no part nor lot. And Mr. Cleveland, 
 as he watched the celebrations of the triumphant gold- 
 bugs, knew that they were the rejoicings of sound money 
 men of all parties, and was satisfied that, like the strong 
 man, he had slain more in his last great effort than he 
 had slain in his life. His enemies were tireless in abuse, 
 but the noise and vaporings of the few were not the senti¬ 
 ment of the millions who were patriots before being 
 partisans. 
 
 “When the history of the present time comes to be 
 seriously written,” declared the Baltimore Evening 
 News of November 4, 1896, “the name of the hero of 
 this campaign will be that of a man who was not a can¬ 
 didate, not a manager, not an orator; the fight which has 
 just been won was made possible by the noble service of 
 one steadfast and heroic citizen, and the victory which 
 was achieved yesterday must be set down as the crowning 
 achievement of his great record. ... It is impossible to 
 overestimate the value of the service Grover Cleveland 
 has done through his twelve years of unswerving fidelity 
 to the cause of honest money. . . . This is Cleveland’s 
 day, the vindication of his course, and the abundant re¬ 
 ward of his steadfast adherence ... to that principle 
 of honor which he has held above self, above party, above 
 expediency.” 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 “I have done my duty as I saw' it. I feel that I need no 
 defense” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 I N the life of every President there comes at last the 
 trying period which, from the point of view of na¬ 
 tional leadership, might well be called the four lean 
 months. During this time, which the Constitution, in 
 obedience to former conditions of travel, allows for a 
 retiring President to stand aside, he is in effect a broken 
 vessel. If he has served the two terms fixed by custom 
 as the limit of an executive’s official days, he stands as 
 a “has been,” a leader who can no longer lead. If he 
 has served but one term and has. been defeated for re- 
 election, he is an Ichabod, whose glory has departed. 
 
 But of all our Presidents, Grover Cleveland alone 
 knew both these periods of political poverty. In 1888 he 
 was a defeated President. Now he was to have the still 
 more trying experience of a President repudiated by his 
 own party, which had itself been defeated, and which, 
 not without reason, blamed him for its defeat. And truly 
 but little power remained to him. Either he was no 
 longer a Democrat, or the Democratic party had shrunk 
 to strangely small dimensions, for he was determined to 
 acknowledge no kinship with William Jennings Bryan 
 or the infatuated crowd which hailed him with the cry, 
 “Bryan is our savior.” 
 
 1 
 
 Grimly he accepted his position of “splendid isola- 
 
 238 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 239 
 
 tion,” rejoicing in the conviction that he had remained 
 right, even when his party had gone wrong. He knew 
 that what he termed “The True Democracy” was com¬ 
 posed of his followers, not of the majority now wor¬ 
 shipping strange gods and who, as he expressed it, had 
 with “the blight of treason blasted the councils of the 
 brave.” Nor were Mr. Bryan and his friends less bitter. 
 They, in their turn, denounced the ex-President as one 
 who had used his party for his own selfish gain, and sold 
 it out to the enemy. 
 
 From time to time came rumors of impending maga¬ 
 zine articles planned to interpret to the world outstand¬ 
 ing incidents in his presidential career, but he viewed 
 them lightly. To Mr. Gilder, who wrote him an anxious 
 letter upon the subject, he replied: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 
 November 20 , l 8 () 6 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Gilder: 
 
 You are quite right. There are now three projects 
 on foot to serve me up and help people to breast or dark 
 meat, with or without stuffing. The one I have heard 
 the most of was, when I last got a sight of it, running 
 
 towards Professor-the man who made The Nation 
 
 at Princeton. I’ve forgotten his name. [Woodrow 
 Wilson.] 
 
 I don’t know in the shuffle what will become of me 
 and my poor old battered name, but I think perhaps I 
 ought to look after it a little. I shall probably avail my¬ 
 self of your kindness. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Mr. Gilder having offered his own brilliant pen in 
 defense of the “poor, old, battered name,” the President 
 
240 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 gratefully accepted the proffered service, despite his life¬ 
 long aversion to biographical work with himself as the 
 theme: 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington. 
 Dec . 27, 1896. 
 
 My dear Mr. Gilder: 
 
 I was very much touched to receive on Christmas day, 
 your beautiful and valuable gift, made more impressive 
 by the sentiment suggested on the card accompanying it.’ 
 Of all men in the world you know best that I do honestly 
 try to “keep the compass true,” and I am convinced that 
 you appreciate, better than others, how misleading the 
 fogs sometimes are. I frequently think what a glorious 
 boon omniscience would be to one charged with the 
 Chief Magistracy of our nation. 
 
 I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart, 
 for this last, of many, proofs of your friendship, and 
 assure you of the comfort and encouragement it has been 
 to me. I should be afflicted if my barometer ever indi¬ 
 cated anything but “clear weather” in our relations. 
 
 I have been afraid sometimes since I left you here 
 a week ago, that you might not feel like bothering us 
 too much in the preparation of the article you had in 
 proof. I want to say to you that you must draw on us 
 to any extent you desire, to make the article suit you. Of 
 course your magazine instinct fits you to judge as to the 
 items that will interest readers, but you must understand 
 that everything, personal or otherwise, that would be at 
 all suitable for such publication is at your disposal. 
 
 For example, I have been sometimes surprised and 
 irritated by the accusation or intimation that I lacked in 
 appreciation of friendship and did not recognize suffi¬ 
 ciently what others did for me. Of course this is as fa? 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 241 
 
 from the truth as it can be, and can only have its rise in 
 a refusal on my part to compensate friends by misap¬ 
 propriation from the trust funds of public duty. To this 
 I plead guilty on many charges; but no one is more de¬ 
 lighted than I when friendship and public duty travel 
 in the same way. Would it add a bit to the interest if 
 the reader was given a little more of a peep at the home 
 life and the sustaining influence of wife and children— 
 working in the remark I have many times made, in dark 
 and trying times of perplexing public affairs, in answer 
 to inquiries after the welfare of my family: “They are 
 as well as they can be. It is this end of the house that 
 troubles me. If things should go jvrong at the other end 
 I would feel like quitting the place for good”? Having 
 made these suggestions, I am so impressed that they are 
 useless and foolish that I feel like telling you to utterly 
 disregard them, except as they indicate my willingness 
 to do anything you wish in the premises. 
 
 A few days ago Mr. Gardiner Hubbard and Mr. 
 McClure (of McClure's Magazine) called on me and 
 said Carl Schurz was to write an article for that maga¬ 
 zine on the administration; and they wanted to know 
 if Mr. Cox could take some pictures, etc. Of course I 
 could not object, but the Century article was spoken of 
 and Professor Wilson’s too. They seemed to understand 
 or to know about both, and thought Mr. Schurz could 
 hold his own with anyone in the same field. I suppose 
 his article will be far removed from the track of yours. 
 
 I was delighted in my late interview with Mr. Schurz 
 to see that he had recovered from his Venezuelan scare 
 and was quite satisfied apparently with the civil service 
 reform situation. He is a good and useful man and I 
 am always pleased to have him friendly, but as I told him 
 once, he is “a hard master.” I only hope he will gain 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 242 
 
 the best information attainable and be just. I know he 
 will try to be. 
 
 This is a horribly long letter. Give my love to Mrs. 
 Gilder and believe me 
 
 Sincerely your friend 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 R. W. Gilder, Esq. 
 
 But conflicts awaited him which related to pending 
 questions and which perforce took precedence over mere 
 matters of his own place in history. From the beginning 
 of his troubled life as President, with its not infrequent 
 threats of war, some undoubtedly induced by his mas¬ 
 terful method of conducting foreign affairs, Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land had worked to secure the adoption of an arbitration 
 treaty between the United States and England. Mr. 
 Carnegie, already famous for his services to the cause of 
 arbitration, had pronounced him “as strong a supporter 
 of that policy as ever I met.” But the ceaseless disputes 
 about fisheries, which had raged with ever-increasing 
 bitterness since the Senate’s rejection of his treaty of 
 1888, had fostered emotions unfavorable to the project. 
 Now, however, beneath Secretary Olney’s guiding hand, 
 the irritating question, “What are the rights of American 
 fishermen?” had given place to the greater question: “Are 
 we willing to agree that all matters in difference between 
 the United States and Great Britain shall be settled by 
 friendly arbitration?” 
 
 On January 11, 1897, a treaty to that effect, negotiated 
 by Secretary Olney and Sir Julian Pauncefote, was sent 
 by Mr. Cleveland to the Senate. It bound the two na¬ 
 tions, for a period of five years, “to submit to arbitration, 
 in accordance with the provisions and subject to the 
 limitations of this treaty, all questions in difference be- 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 243 
 
 tween them which they may fail to adjust by diplomatic 
 negotiations/’ and provided for the appointment of 
 arbritrators. It was Mr. Cleveland’s hope that this treaty 
 might stand beside the pending Venezuelan treaty as his 
 last great act of service, not only to England and Amer¬ 
 ica, but to the general cause of peace. “Its ultimate ensu¬ 
 ing benefits,” he said, “are not likely to be limited to the 
 two countries immediately concerned. . . . The example 
 set and the lesson furnished by the successful operation 
 of this treaty are sure to be felt and taken to heart sooner 
 or later by other nations, and will thus mark the begin¬ 
 ning of a new epoch in civilization.” 
 
 The publication of the message, with an outline of the 
 treaty, was the signal for demonstrations of enthusiasm 
 in both countries. The New York Tribune, aftet a 
 canvass of the members of Congress, announced that: 
 “From each came expressions of cordial satisfaction. 
 There was not a discordant note.” The London Standard 
 declared that it was proof positive that the lessons of the 
 panic that followed the Venezuelan Message had not 
 been thrown away, and the London Times ventured to 
 predict that the Senate would not “defeat a policy that 
 has obtained a decided and unusual degree of approval 
 among the American people.” And indeed the whole 
 country recognized the treaty not only as the crowning 
 glory of Mr. Cleveland’s administration, but as a fitting 
 climax to the century of civilization that was drawing to 
 its close. Chambers of Commerce, boards of trade, 
 church congresses, and the leading newspapers through¬ 
 out the length and breadth of the land were urgently 
 insistent upon the ratification of this treaty of lasting 
 peace between the two greatest nations of the world. 
 
 On February 2d, Senator Sherman, Chairman of the 
 Committee on Foreign Relations, reported the treaty 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 244 
 
 favorably, five out of six Republican members of the 
 committee having voted in favor of such a report, while 
 three out of the four Democratic members had opposed it. 
 For six weeks thereafter it remained under debate in 
 executive session. Some Senators objected that such a 
 treaty, if ratified before the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 
 1850 was definitely abrogated, would amount to a sur¬ 
 render of the American dream of building and con¬ 
 trolling a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Others 
 devised amendments which brought on renewed discus¬ 
 sion, while still others talked for the sake of passing the 
 time. Toward the end of the session, the treaty was re¬ 
 ferred back to the committee, and in consequence the end 
 of the Cleveland administration saw it still in the pos¬ 
 session of that body, no vote having been taken in the 
 Senate itself. 
 
 On March 17th, when Sherman, now Secretary of 
 State, met the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 
 he was told that the Arbitration Treaty would be re¬ 
 ported favorably on the following day, and this was done; 
 but more discussion was the only immediate result. At 
 last, on May 5th, it came up for decision and was lost, 
 only forty-three votes being cast in favor of what re¬ 
 mained of it after months of senatorial amending had 
 left it a mere skeleton. 
 
 To Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Olney, now private cit¬ 
 izens, this outcome was a bitter disappointment. “The 
 treaty,” sarcastically declared the latter, “in getting itself 
 made by the sole act of the Executive, without leave of 
 the Senate first had and obtained, had committed the un¬ 
 pardonable sin. It must be either altogether defeated 
 or so altered as to bear an unmistakable Senate stamp— 
 and thus be the means both of humiliating the Executive 
 and of showing to the world the greatness of the Senate. 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 2 4 ^ 
 
 Hence, the treaty has been assailed from all quarters and 
 by Senators of all parties, and although the present 
 Executive advocated its ratification no less warmly than 
 his predecessor. The method of assault has been as 
 insidious as it has been deadly. . . . Before the treaty 
 came to a final vote, the Senate brand had been put upon 
 every part of it, and the original instrument had been 
 mutilated and distorted beyond all possibility of recog¬ 
 nition. The object of the Senate in dealing with the 
 treaty—the assertion of its own predominance—was thus 
 successfully accomplished and would have been even if 
 the treaty as amended had been ratified.” Its defeat was, 
 Olney declared, “a calamity, not merely of national but 
 of world-wide proportions.” 
 
 The other subject which disturbed the closing months 
 of Mr. Cleveland’s public life, was that of the revolution 
 in Cuba. In February, 1895, the Cubans had rebelled 
 against their Spanish masters, and on September 25th of 
 that year Secretary Olney had reported to the President: 
 “The situation of affairs in Cuba seems to me one calling 
 for the careful consideration of the Executive. The Span¬ 
 ish side is naturally the side of which I have heard, and 
 do hear, the most. It is, in substance, that the insurgents 
 belong to the lowest order of the population of the Island, 
 do not represent its property or its intelligence or its true 
 interests, are the ignorant and vicious and desperate 
 classes marshaled under the leadership of a few adven¬ 
 turers, and would be incapable of founding or maintain¬ 
 ing a decent government if their revolution against Spain 
 were to be successful. . . . There are, however, grounds 
 for questioning the correctness of this view. . . . The 
 Cuban insurgents are not to be regarded as the scum of 
 the earth ... In sympathy and feeling nine tenths of 
 the Cuban population are with them. . . . The property 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 246 
 
 class to a man is disgusted with Spanish misrule, with a 
 system which has burdened the Island with $300,000,000 
 of debt, whose impositions in the way of annual taxes 
 just stop short of prohibiting all industrial enterprise, 
 and which yet does not fulfill the primary functions of 
 government by insuring safety to life and security to 
 property.” 
 
 As an illustration of Spanish methods, he cited “the 
 short and effective way the government has of dealing 
 with non-combatant suspects. A file of soldiers visits 
 certain designated houses at night—the proscribed per¬ 
 sons are carried off—but, partly for the torture of the 
 thing, and partly because the noise of the firearms is to 
 be avoided, they are not shot but chopped to pieces 
 with the small axes that the Spaniards call machetes ” 
 He summed up his conclusions with the declaration that 
 the Cuban revolution was “just in itself, commanding the 
 sympathy, if not the open support, of the great bulk of 
 the population affected, and capable of issuing in an 
 established, constitutional government,” and expressed 
 the conviction that within a few months either Cuba 
 would be smothered in its own blood, or be “in the 
 market, for sale to the highest bidder,” as Spain would 
 never be able to suppress the rebellion. He warned the 
 President that American “politicians of all stripes, in¬ 
 cluding Congressmen,” were “setting their sails, or pre¬ 
 paring to set them, so as to catch the popular breeze,” 
 which blew in the direction of a recognition of Cuban 
 belligerency. 
 
 Since then the soundness of Mr. Olney’s observations 
 had been amply demonstrated. Spain’s weakness and 
 increasing cruelty, the unconquerable persistence of the 
 insurrectionists, and the drift of American public sym¬ 
 pathy, all had revealed themselves with unmistakable 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 247 
 
 clearness. Other dangers, too, had emerged. The rights 
 of American citizens in Cuba had become manifestly 
 unsafe, their lives manifestly in danger. 
 
 As these facts had appeared, Congress had shown an 
 increasing tendency to seize control, or as Ambassador 
 Bayard expressed it, had seemed “strangely inclined to 
 reverse the order of the Constitution, and . . . send mes¬ 
 sages and information to the Executive—not to receive 
 them from him.” This undoubted tendency Congress 
 had already expressed in a concurrent resolution declar¬ 
 ing that Cuban belligerent rights should be promptly 
 recognized, a resolution which Secretary Olney iron¬ 
 ically characterized as “an interesting expression of 
 opinion.” It had, however, apparently made not the 
 slightest impression either upon him or upon Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land, who insisted that the conduct of America’s foreign 
 affairs belonged by law to the Executive, and that while 
 Congress had the right to declare war, it was the Presi¬ 
 dent’s duty to maintain peace until war was declared. 
 
 The end of October brought developments which 
 made the task of preserving peace vastly more difficult. 
 On the 21 st of that month, Valeriano Weyler, the Spanish 
 Captain-General of Cuba, issued his order of reconcen¬ 
 tration, and with it the Spanish policy of suppression 
 became a policy of extermination. The simple peasants 
 from the outlying districts, most of whom had shown 
 sympathy for the rebellion, were driven into the fortified 
 towns and there subjected to treatment which called pes¬ 
 tilence to the aid of the sword for their destruction. Four 
 hundred thousand reconcentrados were soon kenneled in 
 these urban pens of disease and starvation, while the 
 world looked on in horror. The situation thus created 
 required firm and wise leadership, as a declaration of 
 war was inevitable unless some new solution could speed- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 248 
 
 ily be made effective. Such a solution Mr. Cleveland 
 believed to lie in the purchase of the island, though he 
 held the mailed fist ready, should this or other peaceful 
 methods fail to secure protection for American life and 
 property. 
 
 In his last annual message of December 7, 1896, he 
 made this fact clear, declaring that from thirty to fifty 
 million dollar's of American capital was involved in 
 the fate of Cuba, and that the revolution had virtually 
 ruined American trade in the island, and added: “It can¬ 
 not be reasonably assumed that the hitherto expectant 
 attitude of the United States will be indefinitely main¬ 
 tained. While we are anxious to accord all due respect to 
 the sovereignty of Spain, we cannot view the pending 
 conflict in all its features and properly apprehend our 
 inevitably close relations to it and its possible results 
 without considering that by the course of events we may 
 be drawn into such an unusual and unprecedented con¬ 
 dition as will fix a limit to our patient waiting for Spain 
 to end the contest, either alone and in her way or with 
 our friendly co-operation. 
 
 “When the inability of Spain to deal successfully 
 with the insurrection has become manifest, and it is 
 demonstrated that her sovereignty is extinct in Cuba for 
 all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a hope¬ 
 less struggle for its re-establishment has degenerated into 
 a strife which means nothing more than the useless sacri¬ 
 fice of human life and the utter destruction of the very 
 subject matter of the conflict, a situation will be pre¬ 
 sented in which our obligations to the sovereignty of 
 Spain will be superseded by higher obligations, which 
 we can hardly hesitate to recognize and discharge. 
 
 “Deferring the choice of ways and methods until the 
 time for. action arrives, we should make them depend 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 2.49 
 
 upon the precise conditions then existing, and they should 
 not be determined upon without giving careful heed to 
 every consideration involving our honor and interests, or 
 the international duty we owe to Spain. Until we face 
 the contingencies suggested, or the situation is by other 
 incidents imperatively changed, we should continue in 
 the line of conduct heretofore pursued, thus in all cir¬ 
 cumstances exhibiting our obedience to the requirements 
 of public law and our regard for the duty enjoined upon 
 us by the position we occupy in the family of nations. 
 
 “A contemplation of emergencies that may arise 
 should plainly lead us to avoid their creation, either 
 through a careless disregard of present duty or even an 
 undue stimulation and ill-timed expression of feeling. 
 But I have deemed it not amiss to remind the Congress 
 that a time may arrive when a correct policy and care 
 for our interests, as well as a regard for the interests of 
 other nations and their citizens, joined by considerations 
 of humanity and a desire to see a rich and fertile coun¬ 
 try, intimately related to us, saved from complete devas¬ 
 tation, will constrain our government to such action as 
 will subserve the interests thus involved, and at the same 
 time promise to Cuba and its inhabitants an opportunity 
 to enjoy the blessings of peace.” And he added this 
 phrase, characteristically Clevelandesque: “The United 
 States is not a country to which peace is necessary.” This 
 hint of possible intervention fanned the flame of public 
 opinion, and encouraged Congress to hope that it might 
 force the President’s hand. 
 
 “I was with the President at Woodley, near Wash¬ 
 ington, one Sunday afternoon,” says Mr. A. B. Farquhar, 
 “when some members of Congress came in and said, ‘Mr. 
 President, we wish to see you on an important matter.’ 
 I got up, but he motioned me to keep my seat. They said, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 250 
 
 ( We have about decided to declare war against Spain 
 over the Cuban question. Conditions are intolerable.’ 
 
 “Mr. Cleveland drew himself up and said, ‘There 
 will be no war with Spain over Cuba while I am 
 President.’ 
 
 “One of the members flushed up and said angrily, 
 ‘Mr. President, you seem to forget that the Constitution of 
 the United States gives Congress the right to declare war.’ 
 
 “He answered, ‘Yes, but it also makes me Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, and I will not mobilize the army. I 
 happen to know that we can buy the Island of Cuba from 
 Spain for $100,000,000, and a war will cost vastly more 
 than that and will entail another long list of pensioners. 
 It would be an outrage to declare war.’ ” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s belief that Spain might be induced 
 to sell Cuba for $100,000,000 doubtless rested in part 
 upon the information obtained in a letter kept among his 
 private papers, and written from London by H. Plasson 
 to Senator Call, of Florida. It is marked “the strictest 
 secrecy,” and declares that in 1892 a group of London 
 bankers had raised £20,000,000, with which to purchase 
 the independence of the island, provided Cuba would 
 assume the responsibility of the debt, and that a negotia¬ 
 tor had been sent to Madrid with this purpose in view. 
 Mr. Plasson was cabled to join this agent, but two days 
 before he reached the capital the Spanish Cabinet had 
 fallen. At the close of the letter Mr. Plasson suggested 
 to Senator Call: “If you think I can be of any use to 
 you ... I will undertake to group again the bankers 
 referred to.” 
 
 With the idea of purchase in mind, Mr. Cleveland 
 summoned the well-known international lawyer, Frederic 
 R. Coudert, in a note which shows that he had continued 
 his custom of late working hours: 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 2 . 5 1 
 
 Feb. 28, 1897. (Sunday) 
 
 My dear Mr. Coudert: 
 
 Can you not call on me at some hour this evening to 
 suit your convenience? Any time from 8 P. M. to 2 
 A. M. will do for me. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. F. R. Coudert, 
 
 Arlington Hotel. 
 
 When Mr. Coudert arrived, the President confided 
 to him his fear that war with Spain was imminent unless 
 an adjustment could be reached at once, and expressed 
 the belief that such a war would be the result of the 
 activities of Americans in Cuba. He mentioned the 
 American Consul General, General Fitzhugh Lee, as 
 their ringleader. He proposed that Mr. Coudert under¬ 
 take a mission to the Spanish authorities in Cuba, and 
 expressed the belief that, through his command of the 
 Spanish tongue and his unusual knowledge of Spain and 
 Cuba, war might yet be avoided. 
 
 Mr. Coudert objected that within a few days there 
 would be a new President of the United States, and a 
 new Cabinet, who would naturally wish to form their 
 own policies and choose their own personnel in the face 
 of the Cuban situation. To this the President replied 
 that in his opinion Mr. McKinley, as a high-minded and 
 patriotic American, would never enter an unnecessary 
 war, and that if Mr. Coudert would accept the appoint¬ 
 ment, he himself would take up the matter with the 
 incoming administration. Pressed at last to an immediate 
 decision, Mr. Coudert answered that his health was so 
 impaired that he would not dare to undertake so arduous 
 and difficult a mission. And so, when the fourth of 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 252 
 
 March came, the Cuban situation remained unsolved, 
 and with forebodings of impending conflict Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land was compelled to hand over this great responsibility 
 to the new administration, to be by it handled in the 
 interests of peace, and ultimately disposed of by the grim 
 methods of war. 
 
 The last official hours of President Cleveland were 
 spent in the same careful service to the public which he 
 had always given. Patiently he waded through the ac¬ 
 cumulation of official business, making the greatest elec¬ 
 tive office in the world ready for the leader of the 
 opposing party. He had known abuse, party treachery, 
 malicious personal slander, and scarcely veiled contempt 
 from many loyal Americans who should have recognized 
 his greatness. All that, however, was now history, and 
 as such did not concern him overmuch. 
 
 Three days before his retirement his friend, A. B. 
 Farquhar, wrote a defense of the President* and sent it 
 to the White House with the request that it be endorsed 
 for publication, and on March 4th, despite the excitement 
 incident to his last hours in office, Mr. Cleveland 
 answered: 
 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 In a few hours I will cease to be President. The 
 people seem to have deserted me, and I would advise you 
 to withhold this publication. Any defense of me will 
 only hurt you, and since I have done my duty as I saw it, I 
 feel that I need no defense. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 The paean of thanksgiving raised by the free silver 
 and the Populist press expressed a far different opinion. 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 253 
 
 Their denunciations are reminiscent of those with which 
 the extreme Democratic press greeted Washington’s 
 retirement in 1797. Human ingenuity for the coining 
 of billingsgate was taxed to the utmost to invent phrases 
 more insulting than those with which Benjamin Bache 
 and his fellow scribes had daubed their pages as parting 
 insults to the man who had made America. “Grover 
 Cleveland will go out,” declared the Atlanta Constitution 
 on March 4, 1897, “under a greater burden of popular 
 contempt than has ever been excited by a public man 
 since the foundation of the government.” “The Demo¬ 
 cratic party which he has deceived, betrayed and humili¬ 
 ated,” said the Kansas City Times of the same date, “long 
 ago stamped him as a political leper and cast him out as 
 one unclean. The reproaches and contumely of the entire 
 American people accompany him in his retirement.” A 
 Populist orator of Minnesota assured the Legislature of 
 that State that Grover Cleveland would leave the White 
 House “with the ignominious distinction that he is the 
 first President who ever accumulated millions during his 
 term of office.” To this slander Lamont replied with the 
 following statement: “The retiring President has prop¬ 
 erty amounting all told to $300,000 or $350,000 acquired 
 from salary during two terms, fees received during the 
 period of New York law practice, and about $100,000 of 
 profits from the purchase of real estate just outside 
 Washington.” 
 
 Before completing his arrangements for his final de¬ 
 parture, Mr. Cleveland called William and told him to 
 take the portrait by Eastman Johnson and put it in the 
 attic. He saw no good reason why the White House 
 should treasure his picture, and he had not vanity enough 
 to wish to see it left there. 
 
 At the hour appointed for the inauguration cere- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 254 
 
 monies, he joined the President-elect and drove with him 
 to the Capitol, and as he gravely greeted the crowds 
 which lined his pathway, or rather the pathway of the 
 President soon to be, he rejoiced in the thought that, 
 while his party had been defeated, his policies had won 
 a signal victory. Such also must have been his thoughts 
 as he stood a little behind his successor, with head bowed, 
 listening to the solemn oath of office administered by 
 Chief Justice Fuller. 
 
 It is doubtful whether a President and an ex-Presi- 
 dent of opposite political parties ever separated with such 
 cordial relations as did McKinley and Cleveland. 
 McKinley thanked the retiring President for all that 
 had been done to make things smooth for the new admin¬ 
 istration, and said: “Now, Mr. Cleveland, isn’t there 
 something you would like me to do for you?” “No, Mr. 
 President,” replied Mr. Cleveland, “there is nothing that 
 I want personally; but I beg you to remember that the 
 time may come again when it will be necessary to have 
 another union of the forces which supported honest 
 money against this accursed heresy; and for this reason 
 I ask you to use all your influence against such extreme 
 action as would prevent such a union.” 
 
 McKinley answered that he fully appreciated the 
 danger and the necessity, and that he had already begun 
 to act in that direction in the make-up of his Cabinet. 
 Both were much moved and both spoke with deep feel¬ 
 ing. Mr. "Cleveland expressed the hope that the new 
 President, when it came his turn to go out, would not 
 have so many reasons to be glad. To this Mr. McKinley 
 replied courteously that his [Mr, Cleveland’s] place in 
 history was assured. 
 
 The ceremony of handing over a nation being com¬ 
 plete, Grover Cleveland, not President but simple citizen, 
 
THE FOUR LEAN MONTHS 
 
 255 
 
 joined Admiral Evans, Captain Lamberton, and Leonard 
 Wood for a fortnight’s outing. “I remember him as he 
 came aboard the ship, immediately after the great 
 inaugural parade,” writes General Wood. “He was tired 
 and worn from weeks of hard work and the strain of the 
 long hard day, and as we were pulling off from the dock 
 . . . he sat down with a sigh of relief, glad that it was 
 all over. ‘I have had a long talk with President McKin¬ 
 ley,’ he said. ‘He is an honest, sincere, and serious man. 
 I feel that he is going to do his best to give the country 
 a good administration. He impressed me as a man who 
 will have the best interests of the people at heart.’ Then 
 he stopped and added, with a sigh: ‘I envy him to-day 
 only one thing, and that was the presence of his mother 
 at his inauguration.’ ” 
 
 For the next two weeks, by day in shooting boxes, by 
 night in the cozy cabin of the ship, he enjoyed his liberty 
 as only the true sportsman can enjoy it. “If he found 
 himself in a poor position for shooting,” said General 
 Wood, “he would always insist on staying there, never 
 permitting any of us to be displaced . . . nor would he 
 allow anything to be done for him which would seem to 
 give him an undue advantage.” He scorned special 
 privileges, and any suggestion of carrying his gun was 
 certain to be rejected with the words: “On this expedition, 
 every fellow does his own carrying.” 
 
 At the end of the trip, when the last of his companions, 
 Leonard Wood, left him on the platform of his home- 
 bound train, Mr. Cleveland suddenly realized that he was 
 alone, and again a free man. Waving his hand in fare¬ 
 well, he called gayly: “If you don’t mind, just ask the 
 conductor to roll me off at Princeton.” 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 RETIRES TO PRINCETON 
 
 "I feel like a locomotive hitched to a hoys express wagon" 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 W HEN the conductor “rolled him off at Princeton” 
 on March 18, 1897, his sixtieth birthday as it 
 chanced, Mr. Cleveland believed himself the most un¬ 
 popular man in America, and there was some justification 
 for the belief. The Bryanites hated him for having 
 caused the defeat of Their leader, while the triumphant 
 Republicans were not yet ready to give him any of the 
 credit for their success. Thus reviled by the one and 
 disregarded by the other, he was a man without a party. 
 
 He arrived in Princeton in a pouring rain and was 
 driven to his new home, “Westland,” a substantial colonial 
 mansion of stone covered with stucco and set in spacious 
 grounds dotted with fine old trees. As he had made the 
 purchase without seeing the property, he was eager to 
 inspect it, but the rain prevented. But though he chafed 
 under this enforced restraint, he weathered the storm as 
 he had weathered so many before it, and frankly luxuri¬ 
 ated in the unaccustomed freedom from pressing responsi¬ 
 bilities. “I am enjoying the first holiday of my life,” he 
 remarked to an inquisitive reporter. “I have worked 
 hard. Now I am entitled to rest. My mission in life has 
 been accomplished.” 
 
 Dropping at once into the spirit of the place, he 
 
 watched with interest the arrangement of his books, and 
 
 adjusted the angle of his desk with a critical eye to the 
 
 25$ 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 257 
 
 • 
 
 question of light. A careful survey of his accumulated 
 volumes convinced him that there were many which 
 would never interest him. There were books in unknown 
 tongues, sent by foreign admirers, ignorant of the fact 
 that Grover Cleveland’s reading was all done in his native 
 language. There were presentation copies of works on 
 science, works on art, works on music, medicine, and 
 mines, for which he saw no reason to provide house room. 
 He accordingly telephoned to the University Library that 
 if one of the librarians would come up he might choose 
 such of these books as the University wished. One of the 
 young assistants, Varnum Lansing Collins, later Secre¬ 
 tary of the University, was accordingly dispatched. He 
 found the ex-President friendly, cheerful, and of a dis¬ 
 posing mind. “Come in,” he said, “and take what you 
 want.” Then, selecting a large volume, gorgeously 
 bound in red leather and inscribed in gold, he remarked, 
 “This is the Bible in the language of Borneo. I seldom 
 read it. Could the Library make use of that?” 
 
 The transfers made, the remaining volumes arranged 
 according to his fancy, and the furniture adjusted to his 
 taste, he began summoning the elect. To Dean West he 
 wrote on March 23rd, “Unless I see you within a very 
 brief period, I shall pull up stakes and clear out.” To 
 Commodore Benedict, “I want to play cribbage with you. 
 We are settled enough to make you comfortable and I 
 suppose I might lend you a nightshirt again, though it 
 would probably be better for you to bring one.” To 
 Evans and Gilder, L. Clarke Davis and Dan Lamont, 
 Joe Jefferson and the rest, he sent invitations expressed in 
 terms of the kind of intimacy which he had with each. 
 Into his letters there had crept again the spirit of banter 
 which they had lacked of late. After the Commodore’s 
 visit he wrote: “I discovered after you left ... a perfect 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 258 
 
 wealth of fine cigars which you brought. I don’t think 
 you can afford that on $2 winnings.” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland intended to make his “at homes” dis¬ 
 tinctly exclusive affairs, open only to the elect, among 
 whom he included none of those priests of the limelight— 
 newspaper reporters. To one of the latter who eagerly 
 pleaded for an interview, on the ground that “a vast num¬ 
 ber of people are interested in knowing what you do,” he 
 replied, “Well, we’ll see how they get on without know¬ 
 ing.” He had no interest in headlines with his name as 
 the central theme. What he wanted was the privilege 
 of living his life as other men live theirs, the privilege of 
 privacy so long and at times so insolently denied him, 
 and above all the privilege of selecting his own com¬ 
 panions, and of meeting them upon a basis of personal 
 relations only. Long years of officialdom had made these 
 things loom large among the rights of man. 
 
 In dress he chose to be informal. A brown slouch 
 hat, loose clothes, not too fresh from the shop, and wide, 
 comfortable shoes added greatly to his new-born sense 
 of freedom. He studiously avoided everything calcu¬ 
 lated to make him resemble the traditional political 
 magnet, supremely content to be what Andrew Jackson 
 once declared Sam Houston: “A man made by God and ^ 
 not by a tailor.” 
 
 His manner of receiving such visitors as he chose to 
 see was bluff, hearty, sincere, and surprisingly informal; 
 but his natural dignity and self-restraint served to protect 
 him from undue familiarity, and he never lost the con¬ 
 sciousness of what was due to the office which he had 
 occupied. 
 
 Over all, however, and not to be shaken off, was the 
 disturbing feeling that he had lost the love and confidence 
 of the American people. It crept, unbidden, into his 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 
 
 259 
 
 conversations, and stood out in clear relief in his intimate 
 letters. Upon one occasion when Jesse Lynch Williams 
 was calling at “Westland,” his fine setter dog, excluded 
 at the door, searched for and found another entrance. 
 When he trotted triumphant into the drawing-room and 
 laid his cold muzzle on the ex-President’s hand, his 
 owner rose to expel him. “No, let him stay,” remarked 
 Mr. Cleveland. “He at least likes me.” 
 
 When asked why he did not use his leisure in the 
 preparation of an autobiography, Mr. Cleveland an¬ 
 swered : “There is no reason for my writing my autobiog¬ 
 raphy. My official acts and public career are public 
 property. There is nothing to say about them. What I 
 did is done and history must judge of its value, not I. 
 My private life has been so commonplace that there is 
 nothing to write about.” This idea he emphasized more 
 strongly one evening when Dean West interrupted a shot 
 at billiards to urge “at least a brief, dictated personal 
 memorandum.” “I tell you, I won’t do it,” replied Mr. 
 Cleveland, “and I’ll tell you why. The moment I began, 
 
 the newspapers would cry: ‘There goes the old fool 
 
 • ))) 
 again. 
 
 With freedom from conflict, there came more fully 
 to light the gentler qualities of his nature, among which 
 was his tender sympathy with children. One St. Valen¬ 
 tine’s Day his little daughters came home from school 
 with excited stories of the giving out of valentines to the 
 classes. “Isn’t it a shame,” remarked one, “that Jean was 
 the only child who did not get a valentine?” Mrs. Cleve¬ 
 land glanced at her husband and to her surprise saw the 
 tears coursing down his cheeks. He could not stand the 
 thought of the disappointment of the little girl who had 
 been inadvertently overlooked, and at once a messenger 
 was dispatched to carry her a valentine from Grover 
 
260 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Cleveland. Nor could he bear to attend the Christmas 
 tree celebrations held each year in the Princeton church 
 which he attended, because the voices of the children 
 singing Christmas carols always brought the tears to his 
 eyes. 
 
 He passed his days in reading, planning additions and 
 changes in his new house, and always, when opportunity 
 offered, in fishing. The diaries which he kept during his 
 later years are fuller of fishing entries than of all others 
 combined, and his personal letters show an almost equal 
 interest in duck hunting. “I am more deeply interested 
 in the plans for preserving the fish and game of this com¬ 
 munity,” he remarked to a friend, “than I ever was in 
 being President of the United States.” When such sports 
 were out of season, cribbage supplied the want. The 
 stakes were “shiners,” new dimes which changed hands 
 without material alteration in the relative financial posi¬ 
 tions of the contestants. The Benedict collection of 
 Cleveland letters is liberally supplied with these trophies, 
 which the Commodore never thought worth while to re¬ 
 move. The challenges sent by Mr. Cleveland were of 
 varied form, but always measurably insulting to the 
 Commodore’s pride of conflict: 
 
 Commodore: 
 
 I’ve got ten more shiners. If you will come up 
 to-night and can win them, you can put them in the con¬ 
 tribution box to-morrow. G. C. 
 
 My dear Commodore: 
 
 I was glad to hear that you had received and squan¬ 
 dered the ten dollars I sent you and that you had returned 
 to sobriety and decency. ... As far as cribbage is con¬ 
 cerned, I am prepared for the fray and think I have some 
 new dodges. G. C. 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 
 
 261 
 
 Upon one occasion, in the practice of these new 
 dodges, Mr. Cleveland won the Commodore’s yacht, the 
 Oneida, and, although this departure from the established 
 policy of shiners was entirely fictitious, from that day 
 Mr. Cleveland became “the Admiral” when the “Poverty 
 Club” was in action. In one letter to “the Commodore,” 
 “the Admiral” declared: “You may be sure, my dear 
 Commodore, that I shall not acquire the habit of aban¬ 
 doning old companionships, and means of transporta¬ 
 tion, in my journeys homeward from Gray Gables. I 
 like them both too well.” And suddenly remembering 
 that he was “Admiral,” he added: “Besides, the owner of 
 a yacht that pays for other travel is, as you often say, like 
 the man who keeps a cow and buys milk.” 
 
 The students’ sports furnished a never-failing source 
 of interest and at important games seats were always 
 reserved for the ex-President and Mrs. Cleveland. It 
 was not unusual at one of these games to hear a com¬ 
 motion in the grand stand, accompanied by good-natured 
 boos and cat-calls, and if a stranger inquired the cause 
 of the trouble his student neighbor would reply laconi¬ 
 cally: “Some guy got into Grover’s seat.” 
 
 The manner of his life had thus completely changed, 
 but his attitude toward Bryanism never altered, though 
 his enthusiasm for McKinley cooled rapidly. A few 
 weeks after his arrival in Princeton, he wrote to Mr. 
 Olney: “I have been a little amused at the cackling over 
 eggs that were substantially in the nest before we left the 
 scene, like the release of Americans in Cuba, etc., but have 
 been on the whole much gratified by the apparent con¬ 
 viction among the people, that the new administration 
 after all could find but little to amend. You know what 
 I hope will be the result of the Senate’s tomfoolery in the 
 arbitration treaty business. I am satisfied I can indulge 
 
262 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 in the hope I have expressed to you without the least 
 unpatriotic feeling, and I do want this Senate to get the 
 hot end of the poker as long as present influences con¬ 
 trol it.” 
 
 A week later he added: “Of course you and I are too 
 patriotic to gloat over the condition and you no doubt 
 feel as much humiliated as I do by the silly exhibition 
 our government is making in its conduct of foreign 
 affairs. I am willing, however, to confess to enough of 
 the ‘old Adam’ to feel a little bit of satisfaction in a situa¬ 
 tion that crowds this bitter dose down the throats of the 
 dirty liars who attempted so hard to decry and depreciate 
 your dignified, decent, and proper management of our 
 foreign relations. The present administration must soon 
 find that the Executive Department cannot drift through 
 public duty on the wave of public applause and adulation 
 and that the day comes when popular tickling and hum¬ 
 bug will not do.” 
 
 “The Dingley bill,” he wrote later, “has not done any¬ 
 thing for me yet, and therefore I am still ‘agin it.’ ” In¬ 
 deed, he gradually grew almost as much ‘agin the 
 Government’ as ‘agin’ the leaders of the Democratic 
 organization, which now composed the opposition. In 
 replying to an invitation from Mr. Fairchild to speak 
 at a dinner of the Reform Club, he wrote: 
 
 Westland, Princeton, N.J. 
 April 2, 1897 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Fairchild: 
 
 Yours of March 30th is received. I am perfectly 
 willing to say something at the dinner on the 24th if I 
 can do any good in that way. . . . But to tell you the 
 truth I am going to find it difficult, I am afraid, to be 
 prudent and say just what I would like to say. I am very 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 
 
 263 
 
 much disgusted with the silver Democratic leaders and 
 am not inclined to credit them with sincerity or convic¬ 
 tions. I am near the point of believing them to be con¬ 
 spirators and traitors and, in their relations with the 
 honest masses, as confidence sharks and swindlers. 
 
 I don’t suppose that the diners will all be Democrats 
 and so a man can’t cuss both parties as at present con¬ 
 trolled, and yet it is not perfectly easy to see how a Demo¬ 
 crat can condemn his party organization and steer clear 
 of being struck in the face with the suggestion that the 
 way out is to act with the Republican party. But we will 
 have to get along with it somehow. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Chas. S. Fairchild, 
 
 New York City. 
 
 When the hour arrived, however, he did “cuss both 
 parties,” unhesitatingly proclaiming his friends “the true 
 Democracy,” and denouncing his enemies, whether Re¬ 
 publicans or Democrats, as unprofitable servants. He 
 described the Bryan organization as “born of sordid greed 
 and maintained by selfish interest and partisan ambition,” 
 spending its energies in “inflaming those inclined to 
 be patient with tales of an ancient crime against their 
 rights, to be avenged by encouraging the restless and 
 turbulent with hints of greater license, and by offering 
 to the poor as a smooth road to wealth, and to those in 
 debt as a plan for easy payment, and to those who from 
 any cause are unfortunate and discouraged as a remedy 
 for all their ills . . . cheap money.” “It was a rude 
 awakening . . . when the bold promoters of this reckless 
 crusade captured the organization of a powerful political 
 party, and, seizing its banners, shouted defiance to the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 264 
 
 astonished conscience and conservatism of the country. 
 Hosts of honest men, in blind loyalty, gathered behind the 
 party flag they had been accustomed to follow, failing to 
 discover that their party legends had been effaced.” “Let 
 us . . . break through the influence of the mischievous 
 leadership,” he declared. “Let true Democrats meet the 
 passion and bitterness of their former associates who have 
 assumed the leadership of anti-Democratic wanderings, 
 with firm expostulations, reminding them that Demo¬ 
 cratic convictions and Democratic conscience cannot be 
 forced to follow false lights, however held aloft.” 
 
 His appeal was for a return to “true Democracy, a 
 party of noble origin and traditions, identified with the 
 counsels of the nation from its earliest days, and whose 
 glorious achievements are written on every page of our 
 country’s history. Always the people’s friend, seeking 
 to lighten their burdens and protect their rights, true 
 Democracy has constantly taught conservatism, American 
 fraternity, and obedience to law. ... It enjoins the 
 utmost personal liberty consistent with peace and order. 
 It defends the humble toiler against oppressive exactions 
 in his home, and invites him to the fullest enjoyment of 
 the fruits of industry, economy, and thrift. . . . True 
 Democracy declares that . . . there is a limit beyond 
 which the legitimate results and accumulations of effort 
 and enterprise should be denounced as intrinsically 
 ^criminal. . . . Above all things, true Democracy insists 
 jthat the money of the people should be sound and stable, 
 neither shriveling in purchasing power in the hands of 
 the poor, nor by its uncertain value driving enterprise 
 and productive energy into hiding.” 
 i Nor did he spare those who in obedience to their 
 fetish, party loyalty, had turned from the light to follow 
 'after darkness: “They are willfully wicked and stupid 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 
 
 265 
 
 who believe that disaster waits upon the ascendancy of 
 those forces, and yet turn away from the plain evidence 
 of their dangerous strength.” Defiantly, passionately, he 
 repudiated “adherence to a party organization merely 
 for the purpose of compassing governmental control,” 
 and declared that the only partisanship which could com¬ 
 mand his allegiance was “the support of certain principles 
 and theories of government, and a co-operation and asso¬ 
 ciation in political effort and activity with others who 
 believe in the same theories and principles.” “It is an 
 impeachment of the intelligence of the members of any 
 political association to say that party management and 
 discipline should at all times command implicit obedi¬ 
 ence, even when such obedience leads to the abandon¬ 
 ment or radical perversion of party principles.” 
 
 He scored the Republicans as men who, placed in 
 power by splendid Democratic patriotism, had “returned 
 in hot haste to their wallowing in the mire of extreme 
 protection, offending millions of voters by their exhibition 
 of a party’s bad faith, and disgusting millions more by 
 their unconcealed determination to repay partisan 
 support from the proceeds of increased burdens of taxa¬ 
 tion placed upon those already overladen.” 
 
 Upon his return to Princeton, Mr. Cleveland received 
 an intimation that the honorary degree which he had 
 declined as President was awaiting him as a private 
 citizen, and having accepted the offer, he turned his mind 
 to the pressing problem of his academic costume. On 
 June nth, he wrote to Mr. Gilder, in high glee: 
 
 “My gown and cap came to-day, and my wife says I 
 look very fine in them. I suppose your wife gave you a 
 like assurance. I shall look for you Wednesday morn¬ 
 ing and I mean to ask Professor West to-morrow if you 
 
266 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 won’t be obliged to wear your toggery too. The fox that 
 lost his tail tried to make all the other foxes believe that 
 short tails were the fashion.” 
 
 In similar vein, he wrote to Olney after the event: 
 “You needn’t put on any airs because you are settled on 
 Cape Cod. I’ll open up there myself in a few days— 
 and I’ve got a degree that I’m going to bring with me. 
 There may be others—I presume there are—but there 
 are no rivals of my gown, hood, and cap: and the Latin 
 investiture of the degree was to my certain knowledge 
 faultless. I wonder if Brad and Jim Jones ought not 
 to have some sort of a degree, so that you and I might 
 feel a little more at ease with them.” 
 
 His acknowledgment to President Patton who had 
 performed the Latin investiture was in different vein; 
 for as yet he did not understand how much his less formal 
 thoughts would have been appreciated by that supremely 
 humorous master of the Latin: 
 
 “I cannot forbear the expression of my profound 
 appreciation of the honor just conferred upon me, and 
 the assurance of my gratitude for the hearty welcome 
 which has greeted my admission to the brotherhood of 
 Princeton University. As I recall the commanding place 
 which Princeton holds among the universities of our land, 
 her glorious history, her venerable traditions, her bright 
 trophies won on the field of higher education, and her 
 sacred relation to the patriotic achievements which made 
 us a nation, I am proud of the honor which has come 
 to me through her grace and favor, and as I realize the 
 sincere and friendly comradeship attached to this new 
 honor, I cannot keep out of mind the feeling that an 
 additional tie has this day been created binding me with 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 267 
 
 closer affection and deeper delight to the home where I 
 hope to spend the remainder of my days.” 
 
 True to his promise, he took his degree to Buzzards 
 Bay soon after Commencement, and at once became in¬ 
 tent upon squeteague, tautog, and the fighting blue fish, 
 which he insisted upon catching with a rod and reel, 
 contrary to the custom of those who “do business in great 
 waters.” Automatically, Brad and Jim Jones, un¬ 
 doctored but unashamed, took the place vacated by Dean 
 West and President Patton in his daily scheme of social 
 intercourse, and his figuring concerned itself with boats 
 instead of libraries. The language of his letters, too, 
 became at times most unacademic, as valve trouble 
 dimmed the consciousness of what was due to his new 
 cap and gown. 
 
 “I am having the devil’s own time with my launch,” 
 he wrote to the Commodore. “I have not had but one 
 satisfactory time with her since I came and that was the 
 day after I arrived when Brad ran her. I get so cursed 
 mad every time I go out that I almost swear I’ll never 
 go in her again.” 
 
 Politics seemed a long way off in those gloriously 
 damp and salty days, and his letters, even to the men who 
 had fought by his side against a varied foe, touched rarely 
 upon public questions, save for occasional pointed thrusts 
 called out by passing incidents. On August 1st he wrote 
 to Colonel Lamont: “As far as I can see the tendency at 
 present is to enjoy being humbugged by the administra¬ 
 tion now in power and to forget or decry all that was done 
 by the last one. Of all weak, milksop things, it seems 
 to me the Democratic press so far as it comes under my 
 observation is a prize winner.” And to Harmon two days 
 later: “The administration seems at present to be so little 
 
268 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 in the minds of the people and its achievements appear 
 to be so nearly forgotten that I feel like apologizing to 
 all the good and true men who cast in their lot with 
 it. . . . It seems to me that in Ohio better than anywhere 
 else the Bogus Democracy has turned itself up for a sound 
 spanking. The thing that strikes me with amazement 
 is the gullibility of Democratic newspapers and men that 
 want to be sound and yet do not see the mischief and 
 humbug of the Maryland platform. When anything 
 straight, honest or truly democratic emanates from Mr. 
 Gorman, neither you nor I will be there to see.” “I am 
 such a political outcast these days,” he wrote to Don M. 
 Dickinson on October 20th, “that the role of looker-on 
 seems quite a natural one; and yet I feel that matters are 
 brewing that may bring decent men into activity again.” 
 
 On October 28th, Mr. Cleveland’s first son was born 
 at Westland, and at once the Princeton students, remem¬ 
 bering their transparency, “Grover, send your sons to 
 Princeton,” formally adopted him by posting on their 
 bulletin board this notice: “Grover Cleveland, Jr., arrived 
 today at twelve o’clock. Will enter Princeton with the 
 class of 1919, and will play center rush on the champion¬ 
 ship football teams of ’16, ’17, ’18 and ’19.” A deluge 
 of congratulations came from all parts of the land, and 
 from many lands, while the press cried “politics,” as 
 they had done at every great achievement of his life. 
 The Pittsburgh Leader presented a picture of the ex- 
 President, dramatically pointing his oratorical finger at 
 a tiny white bundle in an old-fashioned cradle, and 
 soliloquizing: “If this doesn’t mean a third term, nothing 
 does.” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s own comments seem meant to conceal 
 the emotion which he felt at the possession of a son. To 
 Olney he wrote: “I wish I could write something satis- 
 
RETIRES TO PRINCETON 269 
 
 factory to the ladies of your household, touching our new 
 boy. This I cannot do on my own responsibility, for I 
 agree with you that when they can count but two weeks 
 as the period of earthly experience, all babies are very 
 much alike, both as regards their looks and conduct. As 
 sort of second-hand information, however, I venture to say 
 that the female members of our household declare that 
 this particular child looks like his father, that he has 
 blue eyes, a finely shaped head, and bids fair to be a very 
 handsome and a very distinguished man. I have no 
 doubt this is all true, because a neighbor lady who was 
 to-day admitted to a private inspection of the specimen, 
 told me that he was ‘the loveliest thing’ she ever saw. 
 We have named him Richard Folsom—my father’s first 
 name and my wife’s father’s last name. Some good 
 friends thought we ought to call him Grover Jr., but so 
 many people have been bothered by the name Grover, 
 and it has been so knocked about that I thought it ought 
 to have a rest.” 
 
 So far as he himself was concerned, however, there 
 had already been rest enough, and he began to feel the 
 need of active employment. To one friend who asked 
 how he felt with no Senate to fight and no weight of 
 official responsibility to bear, he replied: “I feel like 
 a locomotive hitched to a boy’s express wagon.” Three 
 years later, the position of Stafford Little Lecturer on 
 Public Affairs was founded in his honor, and he became 
 an organic part of the University. His duties consisted 
 only in the preparation of one or two public lectures a 
 year, but the task weighed heavily upon him. The honor 
 pleased him; but the work appalled him. For months 
 before each address his intimate letters were filled with 
 lamentations and forebodings of evil; but he had a rich 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 270 
 
 experience from which to draw, and the lectures at once 
 became intellectual events in the life of Princeton. 
 
 The final step in his academic career was his election 
 as trustee of the University, and the new duties thus 
 added to the old he took with equal seriousness. “As a 
 trustee of Princeton,” writes Dr. Charles Wood, “where 
 I sat at the meetings of the Board directly opposite him, 
 he was a constant surprise to us all. He was an inde¬ 
 fatigable attendant of all meetings, interested in the Uni¬ 
 versity details and speaking with the greatest simplicity 
 and modesty, as if feeling that his opinion could not be 
 of any great value, though no man in the Board was more 
 convincing.” 
 
 Every detail of University life, from football to social 
 coordination, from entrance examinations to the standard 
 of the degree of doctor of philosophy, received from his 
 trusteeship as painstaking care as he had formerly given 
 to currency, tariff and foreign affairs. When the trustees 
 discussed the necessity of a social reorganization of the 
 institution, Mr. Cleveland drafted an elaborate plan for 
 correcting the evils of undergraduate club life. And 
 when the graduate school committee proposed expansion, 
 he wrote to his friend, Andrew Carnegie, a letter de¬ 
 signed to secure for the project the financial support 
 which he had refused to accept for himself. These 
 things, together with his family and his friends, his rods, 
 guns and hunting dogs, pleasantly filled his life. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 
 
 "Your every voter, as surely as your* Chief Magistrate, 
 under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, 
 exercises a public trust” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 A LTHOUGH out of politics, Mr. Cleveland had not 
 lost his interest in the affairs of the country and 
 from his home in Princeton he watched the passing show, 
 sometimes with approval—often with dismay. By the 
 ist of December, 1897, it was apparent that a crisis was 
 at hand in Cuba. Spain had continued her cruelties, and 
 the following January, in response to appeals from 
 General Fitzhugh Lee, American vessels of war were 
 ordered to occupy vantage points, to be ready should 
 action become necessary. 
 
 The North Atlantic squadron took up its vigil at the 
 Dry Tortugas within six hours of the Cuban shores. 
 Captain Sampson, with a squadron of battleships and 
 cruisers, sailed for Key West, and on the 25th the Spanish 
 Government was notified that the second-class battleship, 
 Maine, had been ordered on a friendly visit to Havana. 
 Thus the stage was set for the tragedy of February 15, 
 1898, when the Maine was wrecked by an explosion, with 
 the loss of two officers and 264 enlisted men. 
 
 Even this disaster, which was interpreted by many as 
 a deliberate act of war on the part of Spain, did not 
 alter Mr. Cleveland’s opinion that “it would be an out¬ 
 rage to declare war.” “If the President’s backbone holds 
 
 271 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 272 
 
 out,” he wrote to Mr. Olney the next day, “our Cuban 
 policy will, I believe, be fully justified.” He was far 
 from being a pacifist, but he was a firm believer in the 
 doctrine that nations should mind their own business, and 
 he did not consider the Cuban situation our affair. He 
 deeply resented the use made of the Maine disaster by 
 the press, and freely expressed this resentment. On 
 February 28th he telegraphed to William Randolph 
 Hearst: 
 
 Feb . 28, 1898 . 
 
 To W. R. Hearst, 
 
 N. Y. Journal', New York. 
 
 I decline to allow my sorrow for those who died on 
 the Maine to be perverted to an advertising scheme for 
 the New York Journal. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Week by week he sought to keep his faith in the 
 ultimate success of the policy of ‘hands off.’ “Notwith¬ 
 standing warlike indications,” he wrote to Olney on 
 March 27th, “I cannot rid myself of the belief that war 
 will be averted. There will be infinitely more credit and 
 political capital in avoiding war when so imminent than 
 to carry it on even well. And then there is Spain’s con¬ 
 dition and the reflection that may come to her that ‘the 
 game is not worth the candle.’ ” And to Commodore 
 Benedict he declared: “I wish the President would stand 
 fast and persist in following the lead of his own good 
 sense and conscience, but I am afraid he intends to defer 
 and yield to Congress. I cannot yet make myself believe 
 there will be war. If there is and it is based upon present 
 conditions, the time will not be long before there will be 
 an earnest and not altogether successful search by our 
 people for a justification.” 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 273 
 
 A few days later the ambassadors of six European 
 countries ventured to intimate the same opinion in a note 
 to President McKinley, expressing the hope that he 
 would avoid war for humanity’s sake. Mr. McKinley’s 
 reply, that if war came it would be a war for humanity’s 
 sake, sounded to the ears of these diplomats like cant and 
 hypocrisy. And when, on April 25th, Congress, by 
 unanimous consent of both houses, with the approval of 
 President McKinley and the vast majority of the Ameri¬ 
 can people, declared war and pledged the nation to the 
 altruistic policy of giving Cuba back to her own people, 
 the Continent’s sarcastic comment was that this was a 
 gesture planned to prevent European interference with 
 a scheme to annex Cuba. England, on the other hand, 
 took the part of the United States. When news of the 
 declaration of war reached London, crowds of English¬ 
 men went to the American Embassy and cheered, and the 
 Stars and Stripes were displayed in every part of the city. 
 There had been talk of foreign intervention to stop the 
 war, but at this attitude of England it quickly died down. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s view, however, was not changed, 
 although he felt, as he wrote to Commodore Benedict, 
 that: “We, the people, have but one thing to do when the 
 storm is upon us and that is to stand by the action of our 
 government.” 
 
 “With all allowances I can make . . . ,” he wrote to 
 Olney, “I cannot avoid a feeling of shame and humilia¬ 
 tion. It seems to me to be the same old story of good 
 intentions and motives sacrificed to false considerations 
 of complaisance and party harmony. McKinley is not 
 a victim of ignorance, but of amiable weakness not un¬ 
 mixed with political ambition. He knew, or ought to 
 have known, the cussedness of the Senate and he was 
 abundantly warned against Lee, and yet he has sur- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 274 
 
 rendered to the former and given his confidence to the 
 latter. The Senate would not hesitate to leave him in the 
 lurch, and Lee will strut and swagger, I suppose, as a 
 Major General and the idol of the populace. Roosevelt, 
 too, will have his share of strut and sensation, and Miles 
 will be commissioned General of the army. In the mean¬ 
 time, we who have undertaken war in the interest of 
 humanity and civilization, will find ourselves in alliance 
 and co-operation with Cuban insurgents—the most in¬ 
 human and barbarous cutthroats in the world. I suppose 
 the outrages to which we shall then be privy, and the 
 starvation and suffering abetted by our interference will 
 be mildly called the ‘incidents of the war.’ 
 
 “My only relief from the sick feeling which these 
 thoughts induce consists in the reflection that it affects 
 no one but myself, and in the hope, almost amounting to 
 expectation, that we shall find Spain so weak and ineffi¬ 
 cient that the war will be short and that the result may 
 not be much worse than a depreciation of national stand¬ 
 ing before the world abroad, and at home, demoralization 
 of our people’s character, much demagogy and humbug, 
 great additions to our public burdens, and the exposure 
 of scandalous operations.” 
 
 On June 21st, in the height of the war spirit, Mr. 
 Cleveland delivered the Commencement address at 
 Lawrenceville, choosing as his subject “Good Citizen¬ 
 ship,” and in ringing sentences denouncing, not the war, 
 but the spirit of imperialism which he feared would 
 follow war: 
 
 “Never before in our history have we been beset with 
 temptations so dangerous as those which now whisper in 
 our ears alluring words of conquest and expansion, and 
 point out to us fields bright with the glory of war. . . . 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 275 
 
 Our government was formed for the express purpose of 
 creating in a new world a new nation, the foundation of 
 which should be man’s self-government, whose safety 
 and prosperity should be secure in its absolute freedom 
 from Old World complications and its renunciation of 
 all schemes of foreign conquest. . . . 
 
 “If you believe these things, do not permit any accusa¬ 
 tion ... to trouble you. If . . . the suggestion is made 
 that the time has come for our nation to abandon its old 
 landmarks and to follow the lights of monarchical haz¬ 
 ards, and that we should attempt to employ the simple 
 machinery of our popular and domestic government to 
 serve the schemes of imperialism, your challenge of the 
 proposition is entirely in order. If you are satisfied that 
 foreign conquest and unnatural extension or annexation 
 are dangerous perversions of our national mission . . . 
 you will not necessarily be wrong. . . . 
 
 “It is difficult to deal with the question of war at this 
 time and avoid misconception and misrepresentation. 
 But we are considering American citizenship, and en¬ 
 deavoring to find its best characteristics, and how they 
 can be most effectively cultivated and securely preserved. 
 From this standpoint, war is a hateful thing, which we 
 should shun and avoid as antagonistic to the objects of 
 our national existence, as threatening demoralization of 
 our national character and as obstructive to our national 
 destiny. ... If you believe this, you should stand 
 bravely for your belief, even though a shower of stupid 
 calls should fill the air.” 
 
 As the problems of a short war merged into those of 
 a victorious peace, he became more and more fearful that 
 the United States had entered upon an era of conquest 
 which would surely enroll her among the imperialistic 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 276 
 
 nations. Among his papers is a faded manuscript, in his 
 own hand, evidently written as his anti-imperialistic 
 creed: 
 
 “We believe that the spirit of our free institutions, 
 the true intent and meaning of the Constitution, and the 
 interest and welfare of our people forbid either the abso¬ 
 lute and permanent control of the Philippine Islands as 
 colonies or dependencies, or their admission to the family 
 of states; and we insist that a consistent adherence to the 
 American idea of freedom and liberty, an honest and sin¬ 
 cere belief that the consent of the governed is essential 
 to just government, and a scrupulous and American re¬ 
 gard for the obligations of good faith, demand that an 
 occupation and control of these Islands shall only be for 
 the purpose of leading their inhabitants to the establish¬ 
 ment of their own government; that these inhabitants 
 shall be at once reassured and pacified by an immediate 
 declaration of such purpose, and that when with our 
 friendly aid such purpose is accomplished, our control 
 and occupation by force in the Isles shall cease—save 
 only so far as they may be desired or be necessary for 
 the maintenance of peace and order under the new gov¬ 
 ernment.” 
 
 In this opinion he had the full sympathy of Mr. 
 Bryan who, though he raised the 3rd Regiment of the 
 Nebraska Volunteer Infantry for the war and became its 
 Colonel, was as suspicious as was the ex-President of the 
 aims of the McKinley administration, and as eager to 
 lead a crusade against imperialism. Truly peace prob¬ 
 lems no less than politics make strange bedfellows, but 
 Mr. Cleveland had no desire to make room for Mr. 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 277 
 
 Bryan, feeling, not without reason, that he was large 
 enough to occupy the bed alone. 
 
 In letter after letter he poured out his distressed con¬ 
 sciousness of his own unpopularity, his disapproval of 
 the conduct of affairs under Republican administration, 
 and his anxiety over the “prevailing American madness”: 
 
 Westland, Princeton, N. J. 
 Jan . 12 } 1899. 
 
 My dear Mr. Shepard: 
 
 . . . With a full realization of the fact that my rela¬ 
 tions with Mr. Bayard and my love for him should 
 constrain me to join with enthusiasm in any movement 
 to honor his memory, I have determined to decline par¬ 
 ticipation in the meeting suggested. I cannot detail all 
 my reasons for this conclusion; and I hope my justification 
 does not require it. 
 
 I will say, however, that I have been controllingly 
 influenced by a clear negative conviction on the following 
 proposition contained in your letter to me: “Whether 
 amid all the present din and noise, a worthy presentation 
 of Mr. Bayard’s career and services can be fittingly 
 heard, is possibly open to doubt.” 
 
 Unpleasant suggestions of “pearls” and “swine” will 
 obtrude themselves. 
 
 My pride and self-conceit have had a terrible fall. I 
 thought I understood the American people. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Edward M. Shepard, Esq. 
 
 New York. 
 
 “I am not the sort of man people want to hear these 
 days,” he wrote to Harmon. “My beliefs and opinions 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 278 
 
 are unsuited to the times. No word that I could speak 
 would do the least good and the announcement that I was 
 to address my fellow countrymen on any subject what¬ 
 ever would be the signal for coarse abuse and ridicule. 
 I am content in my retirement and am far from com¬ 
 plaining of my elimination from public thought or 
 notice; but I cannot see that I ought to uselessly give an 
 opportunity to those who delight in misrepresenting and 
 maligning me. 
 
 “You know me too well to imagine that such a con¬ 
 sideration would have a feather’s weight with me if over 
 against it there was the slightest possibility of my being 
 of service to the country in these perilous days. Indeed 
 I would gladly do such service. The time may come 
 when I can see such an opportunity, but I cannot now; 
 and it may be that this opportunity will more surely come 
 to me, if I am silent now.” 
 
 To Dr. Ward he declared: “Those who delight in my 
 elimination from popular thought and consideration have 
 no need to struggle with a resisting victim. I go most 
 willingly. The delights of life are way back of incidents 
 or days related to political devotion or hate; and of these 
 I cannot be robbed.” 
 
 “Did you ever ‘in all your born days,’ ” he inquired 
 of Olney, “see such goings on as have been exhibited at 
 Washington during the past year? I am in a constant 
 state of wonderment, when I am not in a state of nausea. 
 Sometimes I feel like saying ‘it’s none of my business,’ 
 but that’s pretty hard for me to do, though it would be 
 comfortable if I could settle down to that condition. 
 
 “The Democratic party, if it was in only tolerable 
 condition, could win an easy victory next year; but I am 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 279 
 
 afraid it will never be in winning condition until we have 
 had a regular knockout fight among ourselves, and suc¬ 
 ceed in putting the organization in Democratic hands 
 and reviving Democratic principles in our platform. I 
 don’t think the kind of ‘harmony’ we hear so much of 
 will bridge over our difficulties, and I don’t believe our 
 people, notwithstanding the disgust the fc administration is 
 breeding, are ready to accept Bryan and the Chicago plat¬ 
 form; and if they are, what comfort is there in that for 
 decent, sound Democrats? 
 
 “One thing I regard as absolutely certain: If the 
 plans of those now in charge of our party management 
 are not interrupted, the dishes served up to us will be 
 Bryan and the Chicago platform. To suppose anything 
 else will occur in the contingency suggested, is to ignore 
 every indication in the political sky.” Then, with an 
 effort to turn his mind to happier themes, he added: 
 “Other questions, however, of utmost importance con¬ 
 front us. Bryan is alive and his followers active, numer¬ 
 ous, and determined; but is Jim Jones alive, and are the 
 bass in Long Pond numerous, and will they in due time 
 prove active and determined?” 
 
 Mr. Olney replied in the same vein: 
 
 Boston, 22 March, 1899. 
 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland: 
 
 I have your last favor—to receive which is a pleasure 
 of itself, while, as always, I find the contents full of in¬ 
 terest. It was high time, I have long been thinking, that 
 communication between us was restored, and as one or 
 the other of us had to begin, I am greatly obliged to you 
 for not waiting for the other feller. 
 
 I think my surprise—not to say consternation—at the 
 
280 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 performances in Washington equals your own. While 
 believing the policy of the government in its foreign rela¬ 
 tions might well be liberalized and broadened, and cer¬ 
 tainly should not be hampered by rules not made for 
 present conditions, I have never been able to understand 
 why McKinley wanted to rush upon problems so 
 momentous and why he should conceive it to be either 
 the interest or the duty of the United States to undertake 
 the thankless and enormously expensive task of civilizing 
 and Christianizing some seven or eight millions of 
 Malays. I have been told on good authority—and I have 
 seen some evidence—that the Methodists of the land 
 labored with him in the line of the policy to which he 
 seems to be inclined—although he evidently means to be 
 in a position to disclaim having any policy of his own 
 and to load the whole responsibility upon Congress. But 
 while that is his attitude in his speeches, is he not in fact 
 committing the country to a course from which retreat, 
 even were Congress so disposed, will be well-nigh 
 impossible? 
 
 By the way, I had quite a talk with Senator Hoar the 
 other evening. He asserted with much warmth—what I 
 suppose to be true—that but for Bryan and his influence 
 with Democratic Senators, the treaty would not have 
 been ratified. That being so, will it not be quite im¬ 
 possible for him to pose successfully as an anti¬ 
 imperialist? . . . 
 
 But though I put this in type rather than in my own 
 elegant handwriting, to save your eyes and time and 
 patience, I fear I am taking advantage of your welcome 
 note to inflict upon you a reply of most inordinate length. 
 The really important thing, after all, is what you suggest 
 —namely, how to get to Cape Cod and Jim Jones and 
 the bass at the earliest possible moment. I shall get 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 281 
 
 there as soon as my family will permit—probably early 
 in June—and that Jones and the bass will be on hand 
 with their customary cordial greetings I have no reason 
 to doubt. 
 
 Have you noticed what a handsome start our Ambas¬ 
 sador in London has made? If they take him seriously on 
 the other side, what a nice sort of nation they will deem 
 us to be. 
 
 I hear that the Zorn portraits of Mrs. Cleveland and 
 yourself are most successful—also that they are coming 
 on here soon for exhibition—and hope both rumors will 
 prove to be well founded. 
 
 My best regards to Mrs. Cleveland and the children, 
 with the same for yourself and, looking forward with 
 eagerness to a personal meeting before many weeks, I am 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Richard Olney. 
 
 P. S. 
 
 Miles is here—called on me yesterday—to my dis¬ 
 appointment in plain clothes and not in his gold uniform. 
 What he wanted to find out or what he did find out, I 
 don’t know. I think I found that the presidential bee in 
 his bonnet has swelled to the size of a full-grown peacock. 
 
 “The poor old Democratic party!” Mr. Cleveland 
 lamented in reply. “What a spectacle it presents as a 
 tender to Bryanism and nonsense. If there should be a 
 glimmer of returned Democratic sense between now and 
 the next National Convention, it might, as its best (or 
 worst) result, ascend (or descend) from Bryan to 
 Gorman—nothing better in my opinion.” 
 
 As the currency question upon which Mr. Cleveland 
 had broken with his party was no longer an issue, thanks 
 
282 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 to the fact that the newly discovered gold fields of the 
 Klondike, the Nome district, Cooks Inlet, etc., had fully 
 met the demands of business, the Democrats began to 
 hope that the ex-President would return to the party fold 
 and work with Bryan to stem the tide of imperialism. 
 But Mr. Cleveland had no intention of fighting in ranks ^ 
 headed by Bryan. He did not wish to command, but if 
 he followed it must be some other leader than the 
 Prophet of Free Silver. Of this his letters left no doubt. 
 
 “Don’t you in these days,” he wrote to Dickinson, on 
 November nth, “sometimes pinch yourself to see if you 
 are awake, when you contemplate so-called Democratic 
 management? I actually find myself wondering whether 
 or not those who are leading us do not deliberately in¬ 
 tend to assassinate the organization, and bury it com¬ 
 pletely out of sight and for all time.” 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 February J, IQOO . 
 
 My dear Mr. Shepard: 
 
 Your letter is just at hand. I have not sufficiently 
 recovered from a tedious disability to permit my attend¬ 
 ance at the dinner appointed for next Saturday evening. 
 
 Perhaps I ought not to add anything to this; and yet 
 I feel that I would not be candid if I suppressed the 
 further statement, that even though the obstacle I have 
 mentioned were not in the way, I should still be con¬ 
 strained to avoid appearing as a somber figure at the 
 feast. This is written under the influence of so strong 
 a desire to see true Democracy rehabilitated that it out¬ 
 weighs every other wish. It is written, too, I beg you 
 to believe, uninfluenced by the least feeling of personal 
 irritation or resentment. 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 283 
 
 Considered in the light of judgment and expediency, 
 I am satisfied you are wrong in suggesting my presence 
 at your meeting of conciliation. Thousands of those who 
 have struggled to maintain the true Democratic faith, 
 may be forgiven by the apostles of a newly-invented 
 Democracy; but it seems that I am as yet beyond the pale 
 of honorable condonation. 
 
 Prominent among your guests of honor, there will be 
 those who lose no occasion, on the floor of Congress or 
 elsewhere, to repudiate me as a Democrat, and to swell 
 the volume of “jeers” and “laughter” that greet the men¬ 
 tion of, my name in that connection. Perhaps they are 
 justified; but if I have sinned against Democracy, I am 
 ignorant of my sin; and in any event, my love of country 
 and party will not permit me to sue for forgiveness while 
 being dragged behind the chariot of Bryanism. I know 
 your motives are pure and your purposes exalted. Have 
 I not written something, that should challenge your 
 thought, in support of my opinion that I would be an 
 ill-selected guest at your dinner? 
 
 If a movement shall be there inaugurated tending 
 toward a revival of true Democracy, I shall be glad that 
 I have taken no risk of interrupting it. If it should lead 
 to loading more securely upon our party the fatal burdens 
 of the Chicago platform and Bryanism, I shall be glad 
 to have had no part nor lot in the matter. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Edward M. Shepard, 
 
 Brooklyn, N.Y. 
 
 His letters were equally denunciatory of McKinley 
 and the Republicans who seemed to him, he said, likely 
 “to get their feet into the trough and upset it.” Even the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 284 
 
 signing of the Currency Bill on March 14, 1900, which 
 legalized the gold standard, fixed the reserve at $150,- 
 000,000, and authorized the Secretary of the Treasury 
 to protect it by effective bond issues, did not restore his 
 confidence in McKinley. It seemed only to deepen his 
 resentment that it had been left to the Republicans thus 
 to serve the country while his own party was “in the hands 
 of charlatans and put to the ignoble use of aiding personal 
 ambition.” 
 
 “The political situation is too much for me—that is, 
 I cannot put it before me in any shape for satisfactory 
 contemplation,” he wrote to Olney on June 25th. “I 
 see Massachusetts’ sweet-scented ‘scholar in politics’ 
 played true to his despicable nature at Philadelphia. As 
 for our own party, the old Adam occasionally dominates 
 me, to the extent of prompting me to second the sugges¬ 
 tion of a queer old woman who said a few days ago, anent 
 the Herald's suggestion that I run for President, ‘Let 
 them that got into the scrape, get out of it.’ ” 
 
 And so, he sought to absorb his faculties in academic 
 activities, and to hold aloof from politics. But politics, 
 in one form or another, inevitably crept in, though some¬ 
 times unawares. Richard Watson Gilder has left this 
 account of such an occasion: 
 
 “Stayed at Westland, Saty., 25th to Tues., 28th, ’99. 
 
 “Sunday night I brought Prof. W. W. [Woodrow 
 Wilson] down to the house, wanting him to talk with the 
 President on the subject W. is thinking and writing 
 about—namely, high politics and the relation of states¬ 
 manship to practical partisanship, etc. The Professor 
 wants to arrive at a working theory—to set forth con¬ 
 siderations which will make it easier for men of con¬ 
 science to remain in touch with the machinery of party. 
 G. C. said that it was sometimes perplexing to draw the 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 285 
 
 line, to know how far one could go in yielding to the 
 views of others. . . . After W. W. went, G. C. entered 
 into details.” 
 
 On June 29th, William Elroy Curtis drew the follow¬ 
 ing picture for the readers of the Chicago Record: 
 
 “Ex-President Cleveland is living a quiet, dignified 
 life at Princeton in a congenial atmosphere and apparent 
 contentment. He has plenty of time for study and reflec¬ 
 tion; he can command the society of many learned and 
 agreeable men whose political views are more or less 
 sympathetic, if not similar, to his own; he can accept 
 consultation cases from New York firms and corporations 
 that pay big fees and thus make an income sufficient for 
 his wants; he can receive a sufficient amount of deference, 
 adulation, and honor to satisfy his pride and keep his 
 name before the public, and can have all the fun he needs 
 watching the pranks of the students—all this without 
 going out of Princeton; and what more can an ex-Presi- 
 dent ask for? The chaplains pray for him; the univer¬ 
 sity professors quote from his public papers in their 
 lectures to the students and hold him up before them as 
 an eminent example; he is himself a member of the 
 faculty, occupies the chair of ‘lecturer on public affairs,’ 
 and the students admit him to the general circle of fun 
 and good fellowship, which is the most gratifying, no 
 doubt, to a man of his sentiment and sense of humor of 
 all his experiences here. 
 
 “Whenever anything happens to excite a demonstra¬ 
 tion the ex-President is always remembered. The other 
 evening when the youngest class in college, having com¬ 
 pleted their annual examinations, were celebrating their 
 promotion from freshmen to sophomores in a rather bois¬ 
 terous way, their procession marched from the residence 
 
286 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 of President Patton to Mr. Cleveland’s modest home. 
 He heard them coming—the entire town could trace their 
 movements by the unearthly noise they made—and was 
 standing on the veranda when they reached his house. 
 They gave him the college yell, as they always do, and 
 he responded with a pleasant little speech, congratulat¬ 
 ing them upon the onward step they had taken, wishing 
 them a successful course in the university and successful 
 careers in after life, and thanking them for calling upon 
 him. 
 
 “When the Princeton baseball nine defeated Yale the 
 entire body of students in their enthusiasm marched to 
 his house and let him congratulate them and the univer¬ 
 sity upon the victory. T wish I could give the Princeton 
 yell, boys,’ he said, Tut, as I can’t, you must give it for 
 me. Now, together, with a will!’ And thus he main¬ 
 tains an intimate and sympathetic relation with 1,200 or 
 1,500 boys that keeps him young and is good for both 
 sides. . . . 
 
 “On all formal occasions Mr. Cleveland appears with 
 the rest of the faculty in a mortar-board cap, a silk gown, 
 a hood lined with orange, which is the university color, 
 and a band of purple, which denotes a doctor of laws.” 
 
 4.. 
 
 When the Democratic National Convention assem¬ 
 bled at Kansas City on July 4th, it manifested little desire 
 to tempt the old leader from the enfolding academic 
 shades. Instead it nominated Bryan by acclamation and,^ 
 although making anti-imperialism the chief issue, re¬ 
 affirmed and indorsed the principles of the Chicago plat¬ 
 form of 1896, specifically demanding “the free and un¬ 
 limited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal 
 ratio of 16 to 1, and without waiting for the aid or consent 
 of any other nation.” 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 287 
 
 So overwhelming was Mr. Cleveland’s disappoint¬ 
 ment at this outcome, that for several months he ceased 
 to discuss public questions, even with his intimate friends. 
 During those dark days, the darkest of all his life, his 
 fish and his family were his consolation. Day after day, 
 he hid himself in some quiet cove of Buzzards Bay, 
 starting at dawn, with “Brad” and some chosen com¬ 
 panion, Joe Jefferson, Dean West, Professor McClana- 
 han, the Commodore, or some other member of the 
 Poverty Club, not too closely associated with political 
 memories. When the last ounce of joy had been extracted 
 from his favorite nooks where bottom fish abound, he 
 would troll for blue fish until, wearied at last, he landed 
 at his little wooden wharf, climbed the grassy knoll to 
 the privacy of his home, a quarter of a mile from the 
 nearest neighbor, and sought the never-failing cheerful¬ 
 ness of wife and children, who alone had power to make 
 endurable his St. Helena. 
 
 Amid the sadness of that summer of 1900, each mail 
 brought from his friends requests for political advice, 
 and from his foes indignant demands that he aid the 
 party which had thrice honored him with its highest 
 honor, while the newspapers gossiped over the question, 
 “Why does he not speak?” Though declining to en¬ 
 lighten his enemies, the general public, or the press, he 
 continued to state his views to his intimate and trusted 
 friends. To Harmon he wrote: 
 
 Gray Gables, Buzzards Bay, Mass. 
 
 July 17, IQOO . 
 
 Personal 
 
 My dear Mr. Harmon: 
 
 I was very glad to hear from you—though it is diffi¬ 
 cult to write as full and frank a reply as I would like. 
 
288 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Letters similar to yours come daily to me from all classes 
 and conditions of men, who still love the old faith, and 
 who cannot plainly see the path of duty. So with the 
 arrival of every mail I have a season of cursing the 
 criminals who have burglarized and befouled the Demo¬ 
 cratic Home. 
 
 I have refrained from replying to those letters, be¬ 
 cause I have not been forgiven by Mr. Bryan for lack 
 of support in 1896; and pending his pardon, have no 
 standing in the new Democracy, and cannot therefore 
 speak from that standpoint; and if I should speak accord¬ 
 ing to the principles and teachings of the old Democracy, 
 the notions of the rank and file of the party are so mis¬ 
 taken and confused, that the charge against me of 
 ingratitude, and other accusations and abuse, would do as 
 much or more harm than good. 
 
 Of course the “old Adam” rebels against the dema¬ 
 gogue and insolent crusader, whose title to Democracy 
 is far from unquestioned, but who notwithstanding 
 assumes to say what Democracy is, and to grant certifi¬ 
 cates of membership. It is humiliating to feel that 
 Democrats who were fighting its battles before Bryan was 
 born should be obliged to sue to him for credentials; and 
 as a condition of obtaining them forego all the political 
 beliefs of former days. But personal feelings should be 
 sacrificed if by doing so the country can be saved from 
 disaster. 
 
 As between imperialism and a continued struggle 
 against sound money, you and many other good and 
 patriotic Democrats, see more danger in the first. The 
 latter and much more trouble we would surely get with 
 Bryan. How certain can you be that he would save you 
 from imperialism? What did he do towards that end 
 when the treaty of peace was before the Senate; and how 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 289 
 
 do you know what such an acrobat would do on that 
 question if his personal ambition was in the balance? 
 
 My feeling is that the safety of the country is in the 
 rehabilitation of the old Democratic party. It would be 
 a difficult task to do this, at the end of four years of a 
 Bryan administration and its absurdities, for which the 
 Democratic party would be held responsible. With the 
 defeat of Bryanism and the sham Democratic organiza¬ 
 tion gathered about him, and his and its disappearance 
 in the darkness of aroused Democracy’s scorn and con¬ 
 tempt, the old guard untainted with either Bryanism or 
 McKinleyism could gather together the forces—check¬ 
 ing, through fear of the indomitable force of true 
 Democracy, Republican excesses and promising to the 
 country the conservation and safety of Democratic 
 principles. 
 
 Bear in mind that McKinleyism has not so far com¬ 
 mitted itself concerning the treatment and disposition of 
 our new possessions, that it could not be frightened into 
 decency by the organization of an opposition resting upon 
 sane principle, solid character, and substantial appeal to 
 the sense and judgment of our people. 
 
 I am afraid that the Republicans cannot be dislodged 
 until Bryanism and all in its train is abandoned if not 
 expressly repudiated; this cannot be done until new men 
 are at the helm of the party; and when such new men are 
 called for, it seems to me those most useful and acceptable 
 will be those who now decline Bryanism because it is 
 not Democracy, and Republicanism because it is in every 
 way and at all times un-Democratic. 
 
 When the collapse of Bryanism comes, the rank and 
 file, who have been deceived and misled, will in my 
 opinion look for just such leaders. I shall remain an 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 290 
 
 intensely anxious looker-on. The activities will fall on 
 such men as you. 
 
 I have written you my thoughts as I have to no other 
 person. I may be all wrong, but if I am I don’t intend 
 to influence others to do wrong too. I am quite happy in 
 political exile—or should be if I did not love my country 
 so well. I will only add that I am not in favor of an 
 independent Democratic ticket; and further that what I 
 have written is for you alone. 
 
 Give our love to Mrs. Harmon and believe me 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Judson Harmon, 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 # 
 
 Early in the fall, the Baltimore Sun called his atten¬ 
 tion to the fact that Mr. Olney had expressed the view 
 “that the best interests of the country again require . . . 
 the triumph of the Democratic party, despite the defects 
 which he recognizes in its platform, and its leadership,” 
 and asked for Mr. Cleveland’s opinion on the subject, 
 “strictly confidential, or as matter for publication, as you 
 may desire.” The same mail brought an indignant letter 
 from John P. Irish: “Mr. Olney and Mr. Wilson may 
 lie down with Mr. Hearst and Morgan, Altgeld, Towne, 
 and Eugene Debs, if they wish. I decline, though I lie 
 alone. ... I prefer that you shall go into history as the 
 last Democratic President of the Republic, rather than 
 that Bryan shall go there as the first Populist President. 
 . . . The party in whose conventicles your name is men¬ 
 tioned only to be hissed is not the Democratic party.” At 
 once Mr. Cleveland answered the Suns question, but his 
 reply was not for publication: 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 291 
 
 Buzzards Bay, 
 
 Sept. II, IQOO . 
 
 Messrs. A. S. Abell Co. 
 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 I hope that I have not grown heedless of any duty I 
 owe my countrymen; but I am not inclined to declare 
 publicly my thoughts and opinions on the political situa¬ 
 tion. This I supposed was quite clearly expressed in my 
 note recently published in the New York Herald. 
 
 For a number of years I have been abused and 
 ridiculed by professed Democrats, because I have not 
 hesitated to declare that Bryanism is not Democracy. I 
 have had the consolation of seeing those who professed 
 my belief run to cover, and of noting a more headlong 
 Democratic rush after anti-Democratic vagaries. My 
 opinions have not changed, why then should I speak when 
 bedlam is at its height? Perhaps I am wrong in my 
 opinions; at any rate I should say unwelcome things; 
 and all to no purpose except to add to the volume of 
 abuse, which undefended, I have so long borne. 
 
 I received this morning a clipping from a German 
 newspaper containing my note to the Herald with this 
 comment: “That was wise. That part of the American 
 people who most need instruction at this time would not 
 listen to Grover Cleveland, but the only thanks they would 
 give him for his well-meant advice would be to open 
 upon him a new bombardment of poison and dirt; the 
 other part do not need to be taught by anyone how to 
 vote rightly next November.” That’s about it. 
 
 You are not, however, to suppose for a moment that 
 I could be induced to do anything in aid of McKinleyism 
 or any phase of Republicanism. I suppose it is a case 
 of being “damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” but I 
 have made up my mind that I am entitled to 
 
292 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 decline enlistment in the war between Bryanism and 
 McKinleyism. 
 
 This communication is strictly confidential. It is 
 written because I cannot ignore your letter. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Five days later he poured out his heart to Bissell. 
 
 Buzzards Bay, 
 
 Sept. 16, IQOO. 
 
 My dear Bissell: 
 
 I was very glad to get your letter of the 8th. Some¬ 
 how, in these days, I think I am more than ever glad to 
 hear from old friends. 
 
 The President wrote me asking if I would accept the 
 appointment as one of the arbitrators under the Hague 
 Convention. In reply I wrote that my disinclination to 
 assume any duty of a public nature was so great, that I 
 should ask him to permit me to decline the proffered 
 honor. He replied urging me to accept the place, and 
 informed me that Ex-President Harrison had accepted, 
 &c. Oscar Straus, who was then in Washington, also 
 wrote seconding the President’s request; and Secretary 
 Gage wrote to Hamlin in the same way, and his letter was 
 sent to me by Hamlin. Notwithstanding all this, I felt 
 constrained to adhere to my determination; and a number 
 of days before the receipt of your letter, I had definitely 
 disposed of the matter, by writing to the President that 
 upon a re-examination of the subject I failed to persuade 
 myself that I ought to accept the appointment. 
 
 I think the conclusions arrived at by the Hague Con¬ 
 ference were lame and disappointing ones. I did not care 
 to be one of four men, the majority of whom would prob- 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 293 
 
 ably be quite under the lead of Mr. Harrison; and in my 
 peculiar relation to the organization of my party, I 
 thought it better not to hold a place under the appoint¬ 
 ment of the present administration. 
 
 The pending campaign has brought upon me much 
 unhappiness. First there came numerous letters from 
 apparently honest Democrats in every part of the coun¬ 
 try, asking my advice as to how they should vote. These 
 have been largely succeeded by persuasions and demands 
 from self-styled rock-ribbed Democrats, that I should 
 publicly declare myself in favor of the ticket of the 
 “party which has so greatly honored me”; and in many 
 cases the insistence is made that a word from me would 
 insure the success of the ticket. With these came appeals 
 from anti-imperialists, asking all sorts of things. 
 
 Through all this I have maintained silence, except 
 to say that I have nothing to say. To four letters, I think, 
 from people I could not ignore, I have written my views. 
 I cannot write or speak favorably of Bryanism. I do not 
 regard it as Democracy. But many good party men do. 
 I cannot conceive that anything I might say would better 
 conditions or change results. It would, however, add to 
 the volume of abuse which for a long time has been 
 hurled at my “defenseless head,” and by a bare possibility 
 destroy an opportunity for usefulness in the future. 
 
 I have some idea that the party may before long be 
 purged of Bryanism, and that the rank and file, surprised 
 at their wanderings, and enraged at their false leaders, 
 will be anxious to return to the old faith; and in their 
 desire to reorganize under the old banners will welcome 
 the counsel of those who have never yielded to disastrous 
 heresy. This may never be; or it may be that, however 
 complete the return, those who now refuse to aid in the 
 struggle made in the name of Democracy, whether for 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 294 
 
 right or wrong, will still incur Democratic hatred and 
 discontent. Still it is worth all, to be conscious that 
 at all times one has been consistent and patriotically 
 Democratic. 
 
 I have seen Olney but once this summer. I put the 
 matter before him as I have to you. He expressed his 
 inclination to vote for Bryan, and suggested that those 
 who did so might better secure the confidence of the party 
 in the future. He may .be right on this proposition, as 
 there may have been something more in his mind than 
 there was in mine . It seems to me strange that a man 
 who in my judgment is largely responsible, through his 
 Atlantic article, for the doctrine of expansion and con¬ 
 sequent imperialism, should now be so impressed with 
 the fatal tendency of imperialism, as to be willing to take 
 Bryanism as an antidote. But the times are as full of 
 strange and untoward things as they can be; and no one 
 can foretell the issue. 
 
 I cannot believe Bryanism will win. I am sure 
 Democracy if it was in the field would win; and in any 
 event we shall the most of us, I think, be surprised at the 
 number who will follow the spurious banner to the 
 polls. . . . 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 The idea of forming a third party he disapproved as 
 probably unnecessary and certainly untimely. “I am a 
 strong Democrat,” he wrote to A. B. Farquhar, on 
 September 20th, “and my great affliction is that the pres¬ 
 ent so-called Democratic organization does not represent 
 Democratic principles as I understand them. I am not, 
 therefore, perhaps, a very good adviser in the premises. 
 I believe, however, if the organization of a third party 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 295 
 
 becomes hereafter a strong movement, and is thought 
 necessary by strong men, the present effort will not be a 
 factor, but will be entirely ignored and passed over. . . . 
 If such an emergency should arise, I am afraid identifica¬ 
 tion with an insignificant and inopportune movement 
 now, might impair usefulness that would be greatly 
 needed then . The projectors of the present effort have 
 been so very unfortunate, and the time left for action is 
 so short, that I do not see how any national good can result 
 from it.” 
 
 Toward the end of September, Mr. John S. Green, a 
 gold Democrat of Kentucky, sent him a copy of the letter 
 to Chicago business men, written on April 13, 1895, 
 denouncing Bryan. With it came the questions: “Are 
 you still opposed to the Chicago platform, and do you 
 advise your old friends to support Bryan and his present 
 platform?” To which Mr. Cleveland replied: 
 
 Buzzards Bay, Mass. 
 
 October J, IQOO. 
 
 John S. Green, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I have received your letter enclosing a copy of my 
 letter written more than five years ago to the business 
 men of Chicago. I had not seen it in a long time; but it 
 seems to me I could not state the case better at this time 
 if I should try. 
 
 I have not changed my opinion as then expressed in 
 the least. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 This correspondence, having been given to the press 
 by Mr. Green, was at once explained by the Bryanites as 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 296 
 
 referring to currency alone. Currency, they argued, is no 
 longer the vital issue; imperialism has taken its place, and 
 upon the question of imperialism Mr. Cleveland and Mr. 
 Bryan are one. Therefore Mr. Cleveland favors Mr. 
 Bryan over Mr. McKinley. This conclusion, though 
 perhaps logical, was without a shred of justification, as 
 the following confidential letter makes abundantly clear: 
 
 Princeton, Oct . 12 , IQOO . 
 
 My dear Mr. Dickinson: 
 
 ... I am still pestered to death nearly with appeals 
 “to come out for Bryan” and for advice “how to vote.” 
 It is surprising how many letters I receive purporting 
 to come from people who opposed Bryan in 1896 and 
 are supporting him now. A comparative few of my 
 correspondents ask me to oppose Bryan publicly. Since, 
 however, I cannot do what the large majority desires, 
 and since I am very far from wishing to aid McKinleyism 
 affirmatively, I have thought I might satisfy my con¬ 
 science and avoid the accusation of open and pronounced 
 ingratitude by keeping silence. This is a thing very hard 
 for me to do at a time when I am so clear in # my con¬ 
 victions; and occasionally I am very restive. You see 
 there are millions of our fellow citizens who believe that 
 the organization now supporting Bryan is the same that 
 on three occasions nominated and supported me; and it 
 is hard for them to reconcile my silence, and would be 
 more difficult to reconcile my open and avowed opposi¬ 
 tion, with a proper appreciation on my part, of the honors 
 and favors freely accorded me by Democracy in the past. 
 
 On the other hand, the day I hope is not far distant 
 when sanity will succeed insanity and the Democratic 
 masses will cry out for deliverance from Bryanism and 
 a resurrection of true Democratic faith. If that day 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 297 
 
 dawns, there must be those untainted with heresy to hold 
 aloft the standard. I do not assume for a moment that I 
 shall or can be one of these; but perchance I may encour¬ 
 age and rejoice. You can hardly believe [how] deeply 
 I am concerned lest I should miss doing that which is 
 best for my country and—what in the present emergency 
 seems to me almost the same—best for my party. 
 
 I know you will pardon this long uninvited letter. I 
 would be glad if you could give me any advice or 
 comfort. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. D. M. Dickinson, 
 
 Detroit, Mich. 
 
 If more evidence be needed, it is found in another 
 letter to Dickinson, written a few days later, which 
 declared: “I don’t see how an honest man, holding the 
 views I then expressed, can favor Bryanism now.” Also 
 when Eckles, his former Comptroller of the Currency, 
 and close personal friend, wrote from Chicago: “The 
 followers of Bryan . . . are attempting to deceive honest 
 and respectable Democrats to the support of Bryan by 
 saying you are so much against McKinleyism that . . . 
 you are accepting Bryanism,” he declined to publish a 
 statement, and when the Democratic Headquarters in 
 New York, on October 21st, sent him an S. O. S., he 
 answered: “My silence is the best contribution I can 
 make.” 
 
 A few days before the election certain of his enemies 
 played their last card. On October 29th, a reporter 
 named Black brought to the office of the Philadelphia 
 Times what he declared to be an interview recently 
 granted him at Princeton by ex-President Cleveland. He 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 298 
 
 asked no compensation for the article, which circum¬ 
 stance should have aroused suspicion, and in the absence 
 of the editor, Mr. A. K. McClure, the interview was 
 passed and printed. It startled both parties with its 
 astonishing declarations: 
 
 “Grover Cleveland ... in an interview which I had 
 with him, predicted a landslide to William Jennings 
 Bryan. . . . Mr. Cleveland said: ‘My young man, you 
 will see a landslide for Bryan the morning after election; 
 of that I am confident.’ To this I replied that the indica¬ 
 tions, according to Republican leaders, are favorable to 
 McKinley, but he quickly retorted: ‘Of course they are; 
 that is policy. What I tell you is my private opinion.’ ” 
 
 There was much more in the same vein, intended to 
 create the impression that Grover Cleveland was back 
 in the Democratic fold, eagerly waiting a Democratic 
 victory which would place Bryan in the White House. 
 
 When he saw the interview in the morning papers of 
 October 30th, Mr. Cleveland issued a prompt denial: 
 “The whole thing from beginning to end is an absolute 
 lie without the least foundation or shadow of truth. I 
 have never uttered a word to any human being that 
 affords the least pretext for such a mendacious statement.” 
 
 Upon which Black as promptly made the following 
 deposition: 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. JO, IQOO . 
 
 I, Robert J. Black, had an interview with Grover 
 Cleveland, on the 23rd day of October, 1900, in his home 
 in Princeton, N. J., and during a lengthy talk with him 
 in his parlor he told me that he favored Bryan, and said: 
 “My boy, you will see a landslide for Bryan on the day 
 
WATCHING THE GAME FROM THE SIDE LINES 299 
 
 after election,” that he also said “Bryan was a great 
 orator.” 
 
 R. J. Black, Vinton, Iowa. 
 Witness: John A. Bradley. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed before me this 
 30th day of October, 1900. 
 
 John A. Thornton, Magistrate of Court No. 23. 
 
 During the remainder of the campaign, this pre¬ 
 tended interview continued to be used by unscrupulous 
 politicians, but there is no evidence that it was with .the 
 connivance of responsible national leaders of the Demo¬ 
 cratic party. 
 
 When the election of 1900 was over, the most compe¬ 
 tent critics felt that Bryan had led his last charge, and 
 that as a candidate he was “without hope, unless the 
 [next] convention should be made up of political luna¬ 
 tics,” as a Washington correspondent of the New York 
 Times phrased it. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, the newly elected Vice-Presi¬ 
 dent, expressed his personal appreciation of Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s part in this result in the following letter: 
 
 Private . 
 
 State of New York, 
 
 Executive Chamber, 
 
 Albany, 
 
 Nov. 22 nd, IQOO. 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 My dear President Cleveland: 
 
 During the last campaign I grew more and more to 
 realize the very great service you had rendered to the 
 whole country by what you did about free silver. As I 
 said to a Republican audience in South Dakota, I think 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 300 
 
 your letter on free silver prior to your second nomination 
 was as bold a bit of honest writing as I have ever seen in 
 American public life. And more than anything else it 
 put you in the position of doing for the American public 
 in this matter of free silver what at that time no other man 
 could have done. I was delighted to find that Governor 
 Shaw of Iowa had just the same feeling about it that I 
 had and made an even fuller acknowledgment of the debt 
 due to you in one of his speeches at which I was present. 
 I think now we have definitely won out on the free silver 
 business and therefore I think you are entitled to thanks 
 and congratulations. 
 
 With regards, and best wishes both for Mrs. Cleve¬ 
 land and yourself, I am 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, too, believed that McKinley’s re- 
 election meant an end of the menace of free silver; but, 
 through the columns of the Atlanta Constitution, he 
 assured his friends of the South that William McKinley 
 and Theodore Roosevelt were not President and Vice- 
 President by virtue of his vote. If, on the other hand, he 
 voted for Bryan, he violated the conscience and the desire 
 of Grover Cleveland, and it is, therefore, safe to assume 
 that he cast no vote in 1900. 
 
 On April 27, 1901, he wrote to Dickinson: “It is a 
 little comforting to see the end of Bryanism in politics, 
 but on the Democratic side I am constantly asking, 
 What next?’ ” Although living in Princeton, in almost 
 daily touch with the only Democrat destined within a 
 quarter of a century to stand as the victorious leader of 
 Democracy, the idea that Wilsonism was next never 
 crossed his mind. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 “Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth > 
 and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and 
 surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement ” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 E ARLY in September, 1901, a small company of 
 childhood friends of Vice President Roosevelt re¬ 
 ceived on their dahabeah on the Nile the startling news 
 that President McKinley had been shot by a half-crazed 
 fanatic at Buffalo. “He will not recover,” remarked one 
 of the party. “We all know the Roosevelt luck.” A few 
 days later, upon the assurance of the physicians that the 
 President was making good progress, Colonel Roosevelt 
 left Washington for a wilderness journey of rest and 
 recreation in little frequented parts of the Adirondacks. 
 On September 13th he reached Lake Colton, near the 
 summit of Mount Marcy, accessible only by means of a 
 human messenger. Toward noon one such arrived, a 
 mountain guide sent to bring the news that the President 
 was sinking rapidly. 
 
 Within a few hours Colonel Roosevelt had returned 
 to the house where he had left his family, and by mid¬ 
 night, attended by none save the driver, he was descend¬ 
 ing the mountain in a buckboard, heedless of rain, dark¬ 
 ness, and almost impassable roads. Before dawn he had 
 covered the thirty miles to the nearest railway station, to 
 find a special train awaiting him, and a despatch which 
 announced that once more a Vice President had suc- 
 
 301 
 
302 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 ceeded to the office of Chief Executive. When he reached 
 Buffalo, the Cabinet was assembled, and within a few 
 moments he had taken the solemn oath which made him, 
 at the age of forty-two, the youngest of American 
 Presidents. 
 
 From his retreat at Princeton, Mr. Cleveland 
 watched the career of the new Chief Executive, at first 
 with sympathy, but soon with growing trepidation. 
 Although anxious to do Mr. Roosevelt justice, he found 
 it difficult to appreciate his sterling qualities, being con¬ 
 stantly offended by methods which he considered wholly 
 out of keeping with the dignity that should surround the 
 office of President. Nor did he come under the wonder¬ 
 ful magic of the Colonel’s personality. His own slower 
 mind mistook Roosevelt’s rapidity for superficiality, and 
 he interpreted the latter’s instinctively dramatic appeals 
 to the people as the works of the demagogue. Temper¬ 
 amentally, the two were as far apart as the poles. Roose¬ 
 velt was mercurial, Cleveland was phlegmatic. Roosevelt 
 was quick to form friendships or to conceive enmities. 
 Cleveland did nothing in haste. Roosevelt was ready of 
 speech, whether written or spoken, while a speech to 
 Mr. Cleveland was like a mountain in the pathway, to 
 be laboriously surmounted. But both were courageous 
 and resourceful in danger, loyal and true to the traditions 
 of America in the face of temptation, not self-seeking in 
 public work, and of sterling honesty. 
 
 President Roosevelt’s admiration for Mr. Cleveland 
 was almost boyish. “I always regarded him as a fresh¬ 
 man regards a senior,” he once declared, and when 
 leaving instructions to his biographer, Joseph Bucklin 
 Bishop, he said: “I wish you would put in all the letters 
 of mine to him. I was very fond of the old fellow.” 
 
 About a year after Mr. Roosevelt’s accession to power, 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 3 P 3 
 
 began the great coal strike of 1902, which offered him a 
 chance to employ Mr. Cleveland’s personal influence for 
 an important public service. On May 12th, 145,000 coal 
 miners ceased work, in obedience to the call of the United 
 Mine Workers of America, under the leadership of John 
 Mitchell. Throughout the summer the owners sought in 
 vain to replace the strikers and resume the work of min¬ 
 ing. As August advanced it became apparent that a 
 coal famine must follow unless effective action was taken, 
 for, though the mine owners had an abundance of coal 
 within easy reach of the public, they were deliberately 
 holding it out of the market in the hope that public 
 opinion would drive the strikers to submission. They 
 “had banded together, and positively refused to take any 
 steps looking toward an accommodation,” as President 
 Roosevelt expressed it. The sympathy of the public was 
 with the strikers, and the opinion was freely expressed 
 that the federal government should seize the mines and 
 produce the coal. 
 
 As Mr. Cleveland watched conditions, he became 
 increasingly uneasy, being uncertain what use President 
 Roosevelt might make of such a situation. “If the coal 
 strike and some other matters do not change soon,” he 
 wrote to Commodore Benedict on August 24th, “I be¬ 
 lieve there will be serious trouble before we are six 
 months older. I don’t like to see so many things depend¬ 
 ing on one man’s nod.” Far from assuming unauthorized 
 power, however, President Roosevelt was as determined 
 as Mr. Cleveland could have been to adhere to the strict¬ 
 est constitutional limitations. “I had in theory,” he 
 later wrote, “no power to act directly unless the Governor 
 of Pennsylvania or the Legislature . . . should request 
 me, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States, to 
 intervene and keep order.” 
 
304 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 On September 26th, New York closed her schools to 
 save her scant supply of coal, the price of which was 
 already almost prohibitory. By October, retail dealers 
 were demanding $30 a ton, and the President was being 
 bombarded with prayers for federal intervention. 
 
 In the absence of an appeal from the governors of 
 the coal states, however, Mr. Roosevelt decided to try 
 the role of peacemaker. He accordingly sent to the pres¬ 
 idents of the anthracite coal companies the following 
 telegram: 
 
 I should greatly like to see you on Friday next, Octo¬ 
 ber 3rd, at 11 o’clock A. M., here in Washington, in 
 regard to the failure of the coal supply, which has be¬ 
 come a matter of vital concern to the whole nation. I 
 have sent a similar despatch to Mr. John Mitchell, Presi¬ 
 dent of the United Mine Workers of America. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 The meeting was an excited one, and much strong 
 language was used. Mr. Roosevelt himself said of it: 
 “There was only one person there who bore himself like 
 a gentleman and it wasn’t T.” Later, in his Auto¬ 
 biography, he stated that it was John Mitchell who “kept 
 his temper admirably and showed to much advantage.” 
 Mitchell readily agreed to arbitration, stipulating only 
 that the President should have power to name the Com¬ 
 mission, but the operators refused to arbitrate, insisting 
 instead that the President aid them in breaking the strike. 
 The session lasted throughout the afternoon, and, at the 
 end, the operators boasted that they had “turned down 
 both the miners and the President.” 
 
 The next morning, on his way from Gray Gables to 
 Princeton, Mr. Cleveland read in the New York Herald 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 305 
 
 an account of the conference, under the heading: “Presi¬ 
 dent’s Coal Conference a Complete Failure; Operators 
 Reject Mitchell’s Arbitration Offer.” 
 
 Arrived at Princeton, he sent the President the fol¬ 
 lowing letter: 
 
 Princeton, Oct. 4, IQ02. 
 
 My dear Mr. President : 
 
 I read in the paper this morning on my way home 
 from Buzzards Bay, the newspaper account of what took 
 place yesterday between you and the parties directly con¬ 
 cerned in the coal strike. 
 
 I am so surprised and “stirred up” by the position 
 taken by the contestants that I cannot refrain from mak¬ 
 ing a suggestion which perhaps I would not presume to 
 make if I gave the subject more thought. I am especially 
 disturbed and vexed by the tone and substance of the 
 operators’ deliverances. 
 
 It cannot be that either side, after your admonition 
 to them, cares to stand in their present plight, if any sort 
 of an avenue, even for temporary escape, is suggested to 
 them. 
 
 Has it ever been proposed to them that the indigna¬ 
 tion and dangerous condemnation now being launched 
 against both their houses might be allayed by the pro¬ 
 duction of coal in an amount, or for a length of time, 
 sufficient to serve the necessities of consumers, leaving 
 the parties to the quarrel, after such necessities are met, 
 to take up the fight again where they left off “without 
 prejudice” if they desire? 
 
 This would eliminate the troublesome consumer and 
 public; and perhaps both operators and miners would 
 see enough advantage in that to induce them to listen 
 to such a proposition as I have suggested. 
 
306 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 I know there would be nothing philosophical or con¬ 
 sistent in all this; but my observation leads me to think 
 that when quarreling parties are both in the wrong, and 
 are assailed with blame so nearly universal, they will do 
 strange things to save their faces. 
 
 If you pardon my presumption in thus writing you, 
 I promise never to do it again. At any rate it may 
 serve as an indication of the anxiety felt by millions of 
 our citizens on the subject. 
 
 I have been quite impressed by a pamphlet I have 
 lately read, by a Mr. Champlin of Boston, entitled, I 
 believe, “The Coal Mines and the People.” I suppose 
 you have seen it. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 To the President. 
 
 A more detailed statement of the thoughts aroused by 
 the situation is contained in the following undated manu¬ 
 script found among his papers, and showing many 
 revisions: 
 
 “The stubborn and serious disagreements that have 
 broken out from time to time in our industrial localities 
 between employers of labor and those in their service who 
 work with their hands, have given rise to much discussion 
 concerning their origin and the blame for their existence. 
 . . . They must be regarded as the outcome of a per¬ 
 sistent effort on the part of labor to secure at any cost, 
 a larger share of the fruits of American opportunity, and 
 opposition to these efforts by employers, as based upon 
 demands unreasonable in substance and unjustifiable in 
 method of enforcement. In the meantime the situation 
 they invite and their frequent accompaniment of strike, 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 3°7 
 
 lockout, boycott, paralysis of production and interruption 
 of important undertakings, inflict loss and injury upon 
 numerous citizens absolutely innocent of the least com¬ 
 plicity in these contentions and utter strangers to all they 
 directly involve. . . . 
 
 “Wherever our sympathies may be, we can hardly 
 escape the conviction that labor has made demands, 
 adopted policies and permitted if not encouraged con¬ 
 duct, which cannot be justified; nor can we safely deny 
 that in too many instances, employers of labor have been 
 heedless of the just and reasonable claims of their em¬ 
 ployees, regardless of their interest and disdainful of their 
 presentation of grievances. . . . 
 
 “Manifestly it cannot be necessary to dwell upon the 
 sad consequences visited upon the actual participants in 
 these labor quarrels. Those who run may read these con¬ 
 sequences, in the pinching deprivation that enters the 
 homes of our working men; in their idleness and its 
 malevolent influence on character and habits; and in the 
 morbid discontent and irritation that comes from brood¬ 
 ing over wrongs.—Nor is the depressing story less plainly 
 read in the dispiriting loss and perplexity of employers; 
 in their inability to meet contract engagements and trust 
 expectations; in the hardening of their sympathy with the 
 mass of working men, and in their blinding resentment 
 against those whom they accuse of guilty responsibility 
 for afflictive conditions. . . . 
 
 “With all our efforts to escape it, the consciousness is 
 forced upon us that neither the liberality and equal 
 advantages of our scheme of government nor the patriot¬ 
 ism which is abroad among our people has been found 
 sufficient to prevent the birth and existence of labor 
 disturbances. . . . Human nature when left to its own 
 devices can be so blinded by interest or prejudice, and 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 308 
 
 so strongly led by stereotyped methods of thought, as to 
 be unable, of its own motion, to pass a fair judgment 
 upon the quality of its operations or to correctly define 
 its springs of action. 
 
 “These suggestions lead us to recall the ease with 
 which disagreements between individuals are frequently 
 settled, when the parties are brought to a calm review of 
 their differences by a trusted intermediary. . . . No 
 reason can be given why such a course cannot be followed 
 with the same good results when the dispute, instead of 
 merely involving individuals, is between organized 
 working men and their employers. . . . 
 
 “The method . . . certainly savors of interference, 
 but only with the consent of the disputants; and in view 
 of the broad interests involved, and the multitude of our 
 people affected by labor disputes, surely as much inter¬ 
 ference as this ought to be allowed. ... It is the only 
 remedy within our reach. It embodies every effort but 
 force; and force is not suggested as a real cure by anyone 
 who has studied the situation. . . . 
 
 “Any intermediary attempting to bring the parties in 
 difference together for amicable deliberation should be 
 absolutely disinterested and impartial, and should possess 
 the unqualified respect and confidence of all the parties 
 concerned. . . . Beyond doubt some concessions might 
 also be made in advance of conference, which would bet¬ 
 ter prepare the contestants in labor quarrels for friendly 
 discussion. It is quite generally believed by those who 
 would be glad to see the rights and interests of our 
 working men fully recognized, that labor organizations 
 are much too radical in some of their demands and too 
 far-reaching in the objects of their efforts. If these were 
 so far reduced that the claims and demands of labor 
 could be presented to unprejudiced reason as only such 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 309 
 
 as are relevant to its needs, and necessary to the exigencies 
 of its just protection, the way to a peaceful adjustment of 
 their complaints would be made very much easier; and 
 if these organizations could be freed from the suspicion 
 of taking advantage of pending necessities and emer¬ 
 gencies in industrial conditions to enforce questionable 
 demands, it would give great encouragement to our 
 conservative citizens who approve the legitimate purposes 
 of labor unions. . . . 
 
 “Labor unionism is with us to stay; and whatever the 
 result may be, it has become a permanent element of our 
 industrial system. Its further development must be ex¬ 
 pected. It behooves us therefore to ask whether this 
 development will be in the direction of more reasonable 
 demands, less menacing methods, and a larger, more 
 conscientious conception of the wide and vital interests 
 affected by the movements of labor, or in the direction of 
 a more sullen insistence upon excessive demands, greater 
 heedlessness of the comfort and prosperity of our people 
 at large, and vindictive and revengeful conduct, instead 
 of protective precautions? . . . 
 
 “It has been suggested that it would be well for 
 employers to organize for the purpose of acting together 
 in dealing with labor disputes. Such organization would 
 be useful if prompted by a desire to facilitate pacification 
 and if not allowed to originate and stimulate obstructive 
 resentments, or to keep on constant exhibition an ugly 
 collection of real or supposed wrongs. . . . With organ¬ 
 ization on both sides of a labor dispute the field for 
 review and deliberation would be so enlarged, and such 
 an aggregate of varied and individual situations would 
 be presented that any conclusion arrived at in adjusting 
 the dispute would be more widely binding and more 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 3 IQ 
 
 easily enforceable than any that could be otherwise 
 reached. . . .” 
 
 The operators having refused his attempts at mutual 
 agreement, President Roosevelt formed a drastic plan, 
 conceived upon the theory, as he later explained, “that 
 occasionally great national crises arise which call for 
 immediate and vigorous executive action, and that in 
 such cases it is the duty of the President to act upon the 
 theory that he is the steward of the people, bound to 
 assume that he has the legal right to do whatever the 
 needs of the people demand, unless the Constitution or 
 laws explicitly forbid him to do it.” Through Senator 
 Quay, he arranged that the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
 at a preconcerted signal, should request federal aid for 
 the coal fields, and that Major-General Schofield should 
 then promptly set troops in motion and seize the mines. 
 
 Wishing, however, to avoid this extreme measure if 
 possible, he decided to threaten the operators first with 
 an investigation by a commission so commanding in its 
 personnel as to insure popular support for any verdict it 
 should render. “Ex-President Cleveland’s letter . . .” 
 he explained, “gave me the chance to secure him as head 
 of the Arbitration Commission. I at once wrote him, 
 stating that I would very probably have to appoint an 
 Arbitration Commission or Investigating Commission to 
 look into the matter and decide on the rights of the case 
 . . . and that I would ask him to accept the chief place 
 on the Commission. He answered that he would do so.” 
 
 After sending his reply, Mr. Cleveland proceeded to 
 divest himself of the holdings which he had in the stock 
 of certain coal-carrying railroads, as he was unwilling 
 to be a judge in matters in which he had a personal in- 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 311 
 
 terest. By this transaction he lost $2,500, and unneces¬ 
 sarily, as it developed. 
 
 Had the fictitious millions which the enemy press had 
 brought with him from Washington been real millions, 
 such a sacrifice would have meant nothing. But Mr. 
 Cleveland felt that it was by no means negligible, as he 
 regarded his savings as scarcely sufficient for the dig¬ 
 nified maintenance of his family. That his more intimate 
 friends had a similar view is shown by numerous letters 
 offering financial aid, in manners more or less guarded. 
 More than one had suggested nominal business posts with 
 salaries attached, and Andrew Carnegie only a few 
 months before had offered to solve the difficulty by direct 
 financial aid, an offer which Mr. Cleveland declined in 
 the following letter: 
 
 Jan. 13, 1902 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Carnegie : 
 
 I was so touched and overcome by your last letter 
 that it has taken me some time to fit myself to reply to it. 
 You and I both began to really live late in life—that is 
 to say we were late in knowing the blessedness and joy 
 of wife and children, and the homes they made for us. 
 When I remind you of this I have an idea you will under¬ 
 stand me better than other friends would, if I say to 
 you that it has been with much anxiety that I have looked 
 the “course of nature” in the face, and contemplated the 
 time when the mother of my children would have to bear 
 the burden of their care and maintenance alone. 
 
 I have never written or said as much as this before; 
 but somehow as I have read and reread your letter, it 
 has seemed to me that something of the kind must have 
 been in your mind, and that I ought to be thus frank 
 with you. 
 
3 12 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 So far as the present is concerned, I am getting on I 
 think as well as I deserve. If the law lately introduced 
 in Congress, providing an annuity for ex-Presidents 
 should pass, I would be glad, and would without the 
 slightest compunction avail myself of it. Indeed I think 
 I should nearly feel that I had earned what such a law 
 would give to me. 
 
 But how can I ever bring myself to accept the private 
 benefaction you suggest? And how can I take it from 
 you, who in no sense owe me anything, but have always 
 been a disinterested and warm friend? I am asking 
 things of you in these days. I have just asked you to 
 allow me to decline a great honor you sought to confer 
 upon me; and now I ask you to allow me to pull and 
 worry along in my own way—with permission to go to 
 you, when the Fates are so hard with me that I must 
 have a strong friendly hand; and whether I have this 
 permission or not, let me assure you that your kindness 
 and what you have offered to do, will always remain 
 among my most cherished possessions. 
 
 Yours most gratefully 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Armed with Mr. Cleveland’s consent to accept a place 
 on his Commission, Mr. Roosevelt now played his trump 
 card. Selecting as his agent the ablest member of his 
 Cabinet, Mr. Elihu Root, Secretary of War, he dis¬ 
 patched him to New York to interview J. Pierpont Mor¬ 
 gan, the man best able to influence the actions of the 
 operators. At ten o’clock on the evening of October i ith, 
 a watchful reporter from the New York Herald saw a 
 boat put off from the pier and five minutes later a glass 
 showed the Secretary climbing up the side ladder to greet 
 Mr. Morgan, who stood on the deck. But the glass could 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 313 
 
 not give the conversation in which Mr. Root made known 
 the President’s plan of an arbitration committee, and 
 announced that upon it among other distinguished names 
 would appear that of a man “whose word would have the 
 ear of the nation, Grover Cleveland.” 
 
 This warning had the desired effect. The meeting 
 was followed by a hurried gathering of operators, who, 
 the next day, notified the President that they were ready 
 to submit all matters involved to a commission, consisting 
 of one judge of the United States Court, one engineer of 
 the army or navy, one mining expert, one eminent sociol¬ 
 ogist, and one man experienced in mining and selling 
 coal. As arbitration had been Mr. Mitchell’s desire 
 from the beginning, he readily consented, insisting only 
 that one of the commissioners should come from the ranks 
 of labor. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland being neither a judge, an engineer, a 
 sociologist nor a mining expert, President Roosevelt sent 
 him the following telegram and letter, and headed the 
 list of commissioners with the name of Judge Gray: 
 
 White House, Washington, D. C. 
 
 October I$, IQ02. 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 Strictly personal 
 
 Deeply grateful for your letter. Propositions that 
 have been made since have totally changed situation so 
 that I will not have to make the demand upon you which 
 three days ago it seemed I would have to for the interest 
 of the Nation. I thank you most deeply and shall write 
 you at length. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 3H 
 
 White House, 
 
 Washington. 
 
 October l6, IQ02. 
 
 Personal. 
 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland : 
 
 I appreciated so deeply your being willing to accept 
 that it was very hard for me to forego the chance of 
 putting you on the commission. But in order to get the 
 vitally necessary agreement between the operators and 
 miners I found I had to consult their wishes as to the 
 types of men. Of course I knew that it was the greatest 
 relief to you not to be obliged to serve, but I did wish 
 to have you on, in the first place, because of the weight 
 your name would have lent the commission, and in the 
 next place, because of the effect upon our people, and 
 especially upon our young men, of such an example of 
 genuine self-denying patriotism—for, my dear sir, your 
 service would have meant all of this. I do not know 
 whether you understand how heartily I thank you and 
 appreciate what you have done. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland, 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 President Roosevelt’s views in regard to the influence 
 of the ex-President’s name were in no wise exaggerated. 
 Even when the denunciations of his enemies had been 
 loudest, Mr. Cleveland had had the staunch support of 
 a great body of men who understood and appreciated his 
 struggles to uphold the law of the land, and his public 
 activities of the last few years had but added to the num¬ 
 ber of these admirers and increased the regard in which 
 he was held by the country at large—political antag- 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 3*5 
 
 onists included. From many were beginning to arise the 
 whisper that Grover Cleveland was again coming back, 
 and that he would lead the Democratic ranks to victory 
 in 1904. “There appears to be a strong and steadily 
 growing sentiment in the Middle Western States in favor 
 of your nomination,” wrote Joseph Garretson, of Cin¬ 
 cinnati. “The Times-Star has made a great effort to 
 investigate this sentiment, and the general tenor of all 
 our correspondents is along the line that you are the only 
 logical candidate in the field.” 
 
 But Mr. Cleveland brushed all such suggestions im¬ 
 patiently aside. To this letter and the plea for a few 
 words in reply, he sent the following note: 
 
 Princeton, February 6 , I QOS- 
 Joseph Garretson, Esq. 
 
 Editor, &c 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I have received your letter of the 4th instant asking 
 me on behalf of the Times-Star for an expression regard¬ 
 ing my intentions as related to the next Democratic nom¬ 
 ination for the Presidency. 
 
 I cannot possibly bring my mind to the belief that a 
 condition of sentiment exists that makes any expression 
 from me on the subject of the least importance. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 This cryptic utterance was interpreted by the press 
 as indicating a spirit of submission should the people 
 call again. “His letter ... to an Ohio newspaper,” 
 commented the New York Times, “ ... is taken as an 
 assurance that at the proper time the reformer Buffalo- 
 nian will enter the field.” The papers in other sections, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 316 
 
 too, took up the theme, and, lacking facts, printed fiction, 
 some stating positively that he would run again, others 
 as positively that he would not. To such as came to his 
 notice Mr. Cleveland dealt out such stinging reproofs as 
 the following: 
 
 “Words have been put in my mouth which entirely 
 misrepresent my position in politics. I never said I 
 had retired from active politics to act as the party’s 
 adviser. To be thus pictured as an old Brahmin seated 
 in the background and aspiring to manage things my own 
 way is alike distasteful to me and absolutely false as to 
 my true position.” 
 
 His true position was never in doubt among his 
 friends, to whom he repeatedly declared that no conceiv¬ 
 able condition could tempt him back into public life. 
 “There is nothing that presents anything like the same 
 allurement to me,” he wrote to Commodore Benedict, 
 “as a retreat somewhere that would give me freedom 
 from nagging annoyances and exhausting importunities.” 
 And later: “It seems to me . . . that I have expressed 
 myself with sufficient clearness to enable all who believe 
 in my sincerity, to understand how settled is my deter¬ 
 mination to spend the remainder of my life in the ranks 
 of private citizenship. I can understand why the dirty 
 little scoundrel who is allowed to scatter filth through the 
 columns of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and a few vile 
 imitators, pretend to understand me; and I am not in¬ 
 clined to give them the satisfaction of plainer speech. I 
 doubt if the time will ever come when a more explicit 
 declaration will be necessary for the satisfaction of my 
 friends and the decent people of the country. When in 
 my judgment that time has arrived, such a declaration, in 
 my own way, will be forthcoming.” 
 
 Had he known, as others knew, that the tide of public 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 317 
 
 sentiment had turned toward him, he would doubtless 
 have been more patient with those who persisted in the 
 belief that he would be a candidate for the fourth time 
 in 1904, for even Tammany Hall showed a realization of 
 the fact that this political Samson’s hair was growing. 
 At the Jefferson banquet on April 13, 1903, eight hundred 
 braves, who had evinced little interest when letters from 
 Hill and Bryan were read, leaped to their feet with 
 cheers for “the next President,” when the toastmaster 
 read a simple note of regrets from Grover Cleveland. 
 The cheers of Tammany Hall, however, affected him no 
 more than had its curses. He believed that the people’s 
 faces were turned from him, and the belief was gall and 
 wormwood. 
 
 But a revelation was in store for him, and at no distant 
 date. With great reluctance he had yielded to the 
 demands of his friends and had promised to attend the 
 opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at 
 St. Louis, on April 30th. Before leaving he wrote to 
 ask Mr. Dickinson’s advice as to whether the time had 
 arrived to announce his determination not to run again. 
 To which Mr. Dickinson replied: “I cannot say what 
 you would like me to say. ... I feel that it ought not to 
 be said just now, much as you are assailed by the Ass of 
 Nebraska and others less worthy than he. . . . Recently 
 in the South, I heard his name spoken, and spoke it when 
 not otherwise called out, and it was invariably received 
 with a cuss. . . . Men of good standing . . . who were 
 regular in 1896 and 1900, as I know , are saying that they 
 have been Democratic all their lives but ‘Bryanism was 
 not Democracy and I helped kill it,’ and so on. The 
 President’s popularity [too] is waning remarkably.” The 
 letter urged him not to drive his friends into the arms 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 3l8 
 
 of the Republicans: “If you speak now,” it declared, 
 “just about that will happen.” 
 
 Acting upon this advice, Mr. Cleveland continued to 
 deny to the public any declaration of his intention, and 
 on the appointed day started to St. Louis. All along the 
 line, in the various states through which the train passed, 
 the entire population seemed to have gathered to see and 
 cheer the ex-President, but their enthusiasm only puzzled 
 him; he did not know that the day of the shadow had 
 passed. That knowledge was soon to come. Standing 
 beside President Roosevelt on the platform at St. Louis, 
 he received in one great thunder of applause the whole¬ 
 hearted plaudits of his fellow countrymen, and the sound 
 was a healing balm to his wounded spirit. The scene is 
 described in the following editorial sent him a few days 
 later from Electra, Texas. 
 
 “Mr. Cleveland so far overshadowed President 
 Roosevelt in popular applause, when both stood on the 
 same platform, as to make the latter feel aggrieved. With 
 every department of the administration on the platform, 
 and a former Republican National Committee chairman 
 acting as the spokesman of the occasion; with Governor 
 Odell, of New York, at his feet, and Senator Hanna at 
 his back; and with a circle of distinguished Republicans 
 all around him, Mr. Roosevelt, the President, ought 
 easily to have drawn out the most vociferous and con¬ 
 tinued applause when he stood before the multitude at 
 St. Louis last Thursday. Yet when he sat down and 
 Grover Cleveland, the private citizen, arose, the crowd, 
 on the platform, and out in front, so instantly and so 
 vigorously applauded, and so wildly manifested delight, 
 that the President’s greetings a few minutes before 
 seemed like a whisper compared with a long-continued 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 3*9 
 
 peal of thunder. It was an unexpected, instantaneous, 
 generous, unmistakable ovation. It indicated clearly the 
 state of the public mind toward the ex-President. It was 
 a revelation to the politicians. It was an eye-opener to 
 the anti-Cleveland Democrats. It was a warning to the 
 Roosevelt Republicans. It was plainly the voice of pub¬ 
 lic sentiment, and it thrust Grover Cleveland to the front 
 as the strongest man in American politics to-day.” 
 
 This editorial bears the marks of contemporary pol¬ 
 itics, and is, therefore, unfair to the memory of the great 
 statesman whom it sought to belittle in order to gain 
 additional glory for another great statesman whom it 
 rightly desired to honor. Mr. Roosevelt himself, several 
 years later, described the scene with as frank an enthusi¬ 
 asm as that shown by the editor in question: “I was at 
 St. Louis as President when Mr. Cleveland, then a plain 
 private citizen, arose to make an address in the great hall 
 of the Exposition; and no one who was there will ever 
 forget the extraordinary reception given him by the 
 scores of thousands present. It was an extraordinary 
 testimony to the esteem and regard in which he was held, 
 an extraordinary testimony to the fact that the American 
 people had not forgotten him, and, looking back, had 
 recognized in him a man who with straightforward 
 directness had sought to do all in his power to serve their 
 interests.” 
 
 To Mr. Cleveland, more than to any other soul in that 
 vast assemblage, this overwhelming reception at the hands 
 of an audience gathered from every part of the world 
 was a revelation. Suddenly, without a shaft of light to 
 warn him of its coming, the full noonday sun had broken 
 through the black clouds that for years had covered his 
 sky from horizon to horizon. At last he knew that the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 320 
 
 tide had turned; that the people whom he loved, and 
 whom he had served with so unselfish and so untiring a 
 devotion were again his friends. The joy that came to 
 him with the knowledge lasted throughout the remainder 
 of his life. “From that moment,” declared his wife, “he 
 was a different man.” 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE ELECTION OF 1904 
 
 "Men and times change, but principles — never!’ 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 M R. CLEVELAND left the St. Louis Exposition 
 with a new joy in the realization of the people’s 
 confidence, but with no new ambitions. He still did not 
 desire the nomination, but he delighted in the effect of 
 third term talk upon Mr. Bryan. On May 8th he sent 
 Mr. Gilder a cartoon by McCutcheon, showing four 
 successive expressions upon his own face as he was inter¬ 
 viewed by four successive reporters. In the background 
 stand the figures of Bryan and Watterson, whose expres¬ 
 sions change as Mr. Cleveland’s change. “I find in the 
 situation,” reads the accompanying letter, “two satisfac¬ 
 tory things—the hopping and jumping in certain cages 
 of Democratic zoological specimens, and the belief that 
 the Democratic party will get a hint that no Bryanism 
 or Bryan conciliation will get enough votes to do the 
 business.” 
 
 On that same day “the faithful” read in Bryan’s news¬ 
 paper, the Commoner, a two-page editorial of denunci¬ 
 ation of the ex-President as “an office-boy in a Wall 
 Street institution . . . the logical candidate for the 
 Presidency in case the Democratic party returns to its 
 wallow in the mire. . . . He has been faithful to the 
 financial interests that made him and have kept him, and 
 if those interests are to dominate the Democratic party it 
 
 321 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 322 
 
 would be unfair to deny to him the honor of being their 
 representative. The third-term objection will have no 
 influence upon those who are in sympathy with Mr. 
 Cleveland’s masters, for those who see no objection to 
 making the White House the rendezvous for financial 
 conspirators against the public, who will not be disturbed 
 by the fear of continued authority in one man, the men 
 who are willing to risk imperialism to secure the gold 
 standard, would keep a President in power for life if 
 they thought it would keep the control of the government 
 in the hands of the financiers. The logic of events is 
 forcing Mr. Cleveland more and more into the leader¬ 
 ship of the reorganizing element. The New York World 
 suggested him some months ago, and now the Brooklyn 
 Eagle has withdrawn Mr. Parker and suggested Mr. 
 Cleveland as the proper presidential candidate.” 
 
 This editorial served as the caisson from which the 
 petty officers of “Bogus Democracy” at once drew am¬ 
 munition for further attacks. In the opinion of the 
 Cleveland Democrats, however, they drew “duds,” and 
 on May 13th Lamont gleefully wrote to St. Clair 
 McKelway: “The more the papers and the politicians 
 discuss Cleveland, the smaller Bryan will grow, and they 
 will get the habit of demanding the Cleveland type of 
 President. Therefore, I have written him, urging him 
 to say nothing at present.” 
 
 During the summer, amid the delights of Gray 
 Gables, it was comparatively easy to say nothing about 
 politics, for other and more attractive thoughts engaged 
 his attention. On July 4th he wrote to Mr. Gilder: “I 
 am waiting for a new census report of the Cleveland 
 race, which I expect will be in order within the next two 
 or three days.” And to Commodore Benedict, eleven 
 days later: 
 
323 
 
 THE ELECTION OF 1904 
 
 Buzzards Bay 
 July 15,1 go3 . 
 
 Dear Commodore: 
 
 I received your letter a few days ago and was glad 
 to know that we might expect to see you soon. I cannot 
 refrain from saying to you, however, that there are two 
 conditions now existing which I would like to see changed 
 before you come. One is the state of expectancy and 
 anxiety which the hover of the stork over our house cre¬ 
 ates; and the other is the abominable fishing here just at 
 this time. Both of these conditions will, I hope, give 
 way for better before very long. 
 
 We have not been on the Bay to fish since the Doctor 
 arrived. The fishing is not good enough to be tempting, 
 and I guess we both feel like keeping fairly near home. 
 The Doctor has been working in the hay all day and I 
 have been trying to keep warm at home. 
 
 We may go out a little while to-morrow morning and 
 try Rocky Point near home for squeteague. I will keep 
 you posted as to the fish and the other event; and when 
 conditions assume a more favorable aspect I will 
 promptly give you the word. 
 
 With love to Mrs. Benedict, I am 
 
 Yours very sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Com. E. C. Benedict 
 
 80 Broadway, New York 
 
 Within three days the stork had descended, and the 
 ex-President, father of a second boy, wrote to Mrs. John 
 Grier Hibben, wife of the future President of Princeton: 
 
324 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Buzzards Bay 
 July 1 8, IQ03 . 
 
 My dear Mrs. Hibben: 
 
 I sent you a telegram this morning that a tramp boy 
 had trespassed upon our premises. He was first seen and 
 heard at 10 o’clock A. M. (I hear him now), and I sent 
 the dispatch a few moments thereafter, to Redfield 
 where, according to the itinerary you sent me, you were 
 to be from the 5th to the 20th instant. I have heard since 
 that there was difficulty in transmitting the dispatch from 
 Camden to Redfield; and I shall not be surprised if this 
 letter or the newspapers give you the first information 
 touching to-day’s important event. 
 
 The shameless naked little scoundrel weighed over 
 9 pounds. Richard was very much tickled as long as he 
 thought it was something in the doll line, and was quite 
 overcome with laughter when he found it was “a real 
 baby.” He and I have been planning for the amusement 
 of the newcomer when he shall arrive at Richard’s pres¬ 
 ent age. He denies with considerable warmth any 
 intention of taking him by the hair and throwing him 
 down. In point of fact we have agreed upon no par¬ 
 ticular line of conduct, except an engagement on Rich¬ 
 ards’ part to teach the young brother to swim if all goes 
 well. 
 
 The dear Mother is as well apparently, as possible; 
 and seems to me very self-conceitedly happy—as if she 
 thought she had done a good job. 
 
 She sends her love—and so do I. And we both 
 include the Professor. 
 
 Yours very sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 325 
 
 To his neighbors at Buzzards Bay he announced the 
 good news with even more elaboration: 
 
 “It may possibly be that some of you are aware of a 
 very recent event in my household which has increased 
 by one the present population of the town of Bourne, 
 and has also added another to the future fishermen in 
 Buzzards Bay. This newcomer was weighed on the 
 scales I use for weighing the fish I catch; and he regis¬ 
 tered nine pounds and a half. That’s not a wonderful 
 weight for a child. For a fish it would be all right and 
 among fishermen no explanation need be made. But it 
 was not a fish that was weighed, and others besides fisher¬ 
 men have an interest in the truthfulness of all that per¬ 
 tains to the vital statistics of Bourne Township. 
 Therefore I take this opportunity to say that the nine 
 and a half pounds registered on my fishing scales honestly 
 means nine pounds—no more and no less. The extra half 
 pound is a matter of special and private arrangement 
 between me and the scales. By this statement I satisfy 
 all my conscientious scruples and disdain any attempt to 
 gain credit for half a pound more increase in population 
 than I am entitled to. 
 
 “It must not be for a moment supposed that my fish 
 weighing scales are unique in the particular referred to, 
 nor that I am by any means the only fisherman who 
 resorts to such a mechanical contrivance to substantiate 
 his stories. The fact is, anything I have done in that 
 direction may be regarded as frivolous when compared 
 with other transactions of a like character. In proof of 
 this let me cite an instance of a medical fisherman 
 who, having provided himself with one of these fish 
 story supporting appliances, was called while on a fishing 
 trip in a remote region with a party of companions, to 
 
326 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 attend the wife of one of the few inhabitants of the local¬ 
 ity in the pains and perils of maternity. The child, it 
 was insisted by the parents and all cognizant of its 
 advent, must be weighed; and no scales but the Doctor’s 
 fish scales were at hand. After some demur on his part 
 they were finally pressed into the service, with the 
 astounding result that quite an ordinary looking new¬ 
 born infant was found to weigh nineteen pounds and a 
 half.” 
 
 Shortly after his return to Princeton, his most in¬ 
 timate friend, Wilson S. Bissell, died, and to Commodore 
 Benedict he wrote: “Bissell’s death is another reminder 
 . . . that the shafts are flying.” But, though saddened by 
 the loss, he was by no means inclined to chronic melan¬ 
 choly, and his native wit often enabled him to baffle 
 inquisitive reporters and maintain the sphinx-like silence 
 enjoined by his friends. At Chicago, about the middle 
 of October, when compelled out of consideration to his 
 host, Mr. Eckels, to make some reply to a group of eager 
 questioners seeking a headline concerning the coming 
 presidential campaign, he told the following story: 
 
 “A friend of mine went with me on one of my recent 
 duck-shooting expeditions. Two ducks rose over our 
 heads. One had a white breast and the other a brown 
 one. They were plainly marked. As I raised my gun to 
 fire, my friend said: 
 
 “ ‘Mr. Cleveland, I have named one of those ducks 
 Nomination.’ 
 
 “I fired and one duck fell.” Here Mr. Cleveland 
 paused. 
 
 “Which duck came down?” demanded his hearers 
 breathlessly. But Mr. Cleveland only smiled. 
 
 At length, however, he sent to St. Clair McKelway 
 the following letter with leave to print: 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 327 
 
 Princeton, November 25, IQ03 . 
 My dear Dr. McKelway : 
 
 I have waited for a long time to say something which 
 I think should be said to you before others. 
 
 You can never know how grateful I am for the mani¬ 
 festation of kindly feeling toward me, on the part of my 
 countrymen, which your initiative has brought out. Your 
 advocacy in the Eagle of my nomination for the Presi¬ 
 dency came to me as a great surprise; and it has been 
 seconded in such manner by Democratic sentiment, that 
 conflicting thoughts of gratitude and duty have caused 
 me to hesitate as to the time and manner of a declaration 
 on my part concerning the subject—if such a declaration 
 should seem necessary or proper. 
 
 In the midst of it all, and in full view of every con¬ 
 sideration presented, I have not for a moment been able, 
 nor am I now able, to open my mind to the thought that 
 in any circumstances or upon any consideration, I should 
 ever again become the nominee of my party for the 
 Presidency. My determination not to do so is unalter¬ 
 able and conclusive. 
 
 This you at least ought to know from me; and I 
 should be glad if the Eagle were made the medium of its 
 conveyance to the public. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 St. Clair McKelway, LL.D. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Six weeks later, on January 6, 1904, his daughter 
 Ruth, died of diphtheria, and his grief dwarfed all else. 
 Her death was most unexpected, as his diary shows: 
 
 January 2d, “Ruth is a little sick with tonsillitis.” 
 
 January 3rd, “Ruth still sick, but better.” 
 
328 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 January 6th, “Doctor said this morning Ruth had 
 diphtheria . . . a trained nurse came at 5 125. Prof. West 
 was here. Dr. treated us all with antitoxin and reported 
 that Ruth was getting on well. Houghton Murray came 
 in the evening and we played cribbage until 12. At 2 
 o’clock in the night word came . . . that Ruth was not 
 so well. Dr. Carnochan came at 2:30 and Dr. Wykoff 
 at 3:30. We had been excluded from Ruth’s room, but 
 learned that dear Ruth died before Dr. Wykoff came, 
 probably about 3 o’clock A. M., Jan. 7th.” 
 
 January 8th [in a trembling, almost illegible hand], 
 “We buried our daughter, Ruth, this morning.” 
 
 Deep natures suffer long, and the memory of that 
 little grave in the old Princeton Cemetery haunted him, 
 despite his deep religious faith. On January 10th, he 
 wrote, “I had a season of great trouble in keeping out 
 of my mind the idea that Ruth was in the cold, cheerless 
 grave instead of in the arms of her Saviour.” And the 
 next day, “It seems to me I mourn our darling Ruth’s 
 death more and more. So much of the time I can only 
 think of her as dead, not joyfully living in Heaven.” On 
 the 15th the diary declares: “God has come to my help 
 and I am able to adjust my thought to dear Ruth’s death 
 with as much comfort as selfish humanity will permit. 
 One thing I can say: Not for one moment since she left 
 us has a rebellious thought entered my mind.” “It seems 
 so long since we buried Ruth,” he wrote to Commodore 
 Benedict, on February 20th, “and yet it is only six weeks 
 yesterday. We are becoming accustomed to her absence. 
 For the rest of it we have not a shadow of a doubt that it 
 is well with the child.” 
 
 So deep was the impression made by the loss of this 
 daughter, whose intelligence and personal charm had 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 329 
 
 made her the life of the household, that his friends 
 advised him to divert his mind by re-entering politics. 
 Nathan Straus wrote: a While I have all along been very 
 much averse, purely through a friendly feeling, to your 
 being again drawn into politics, I have changed my 
 opinion since you have met with the misfortune that has 
 visited you. Nothing but time can heal such a wound 
 as you have received; but a change of scene, an active 
 life, the compelling of thoughts in other directions would 
 naturally leave you less time to dwell upon your sorrow. 
 . . . A short time ago I met Mr. Carlisle and told him 
 how I felt about the matter, and he agreed with me and 
 expressed the same sentiments. Further than this, 
 wherever I speak of it, and to whomever I speak of it, 
 I get only one reply, that the only hope of the success 
 of the Democratic party lies in you. I fully agree . . . 
 that you are the only man the Democrats can elect against 
 Mr. Roosevelt.” 
 
 Mr. Straus also quoted a conversation between Mr. 
 J. S. Cram, of Tammany Hall, and Mr. Stillman, in 
 which the latter said: “If you will nominate Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land, I will personally see that there is a fund raised 
 bigger than was raised at the time McKinley was elected, 
 and you know when he ran they had more money than 
 they could use.” 
 
 Tammany’s friendly attitude toward the idea was ex¬ 
 pressed by Murphy to Lamont, who in turn reported it 
 to the ex-President: 
 
 Wednesday Evening, February 10 , IQ04 . 
 
 2 West Fifty-Third Street 
 
 My dear Mr. President: 
 
 Murphy whom I had never seen before called on me 
 yesterday afternoon. He came alone and said he wanted 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 330 
 
 to get in touch with me so that he could confer with me 
 about national politics. I was greatly pleased with 
 him because he is evidently a man of sense and wants 
 to put his organization to the front for the best in the 
 party. 
 
 He is honest in his talk about you and says if it can’t 
 be Cleveland, “then let’s get the nearest to him that can 
 be found.” I advised him to fight down any instructions 
 and to take his delegation to the convention with the 
 announcement that New York was there to confer and to 
 bring about the strongest nomination possible. He gives 
 out to-night just about what I said to him. He says you 
 would be elected without question, and to some things 
 I said to him in response to that he answered, “Then do 
 ask Mr. Cleveland to do no further declining now. Let’s 
 have the benefit of his name to round up a Cleveland 
 party and all will agree on a Cleveland candidate.” He 
 is opposed to Parker—because he says there is nothing in 
 Parker to campaign on; he is against Gorman and he 
 says he would have no idea of McClellan for such a 
 place. Bryan he says should be absolutely turned down 
 and ignored. . . . He has no patience with anybody who 
 wants to placate Bryan. As for Hearst, he says he cuts 
 no figure whatever. 
 
 I have never seen a leader of Tammany Hall talk as 
 well about things as this man does. You will be in¬ 
 terested in my story of his visit when I see you. 
 
 I hope you got home safely and that your trip did 
 you no harm. I wish you would come oftener. The 
 seeing you did us all great good, especially Mrs. Lamont. 
 My love to all. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Daniel S. Lamont. 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 331 
 
 The newspaper statement, to which Lamont refers, 
 reads as follows: 
 
 “Charles F. Murphy to-day practically disposed of 
 the Parker presidential boom, so far as New York is 
 concerned. He volunteered a denial of reports that he 
 was really for Parker, and declared emphatically that 
 he would fight to a finish any plan to instruct the dele¬ 
 gates from New York State to the Democratic National 
 Convention. He also made it plain that Parker will 
 not figure in the national convention as New York’s 
 candidate at any stage of the proceedings if he (Murphy) 
 has anything to say about it; and he thinks he will have 
 a great deal to say about it. 
 
 “Murphy was moved to talk about the Parker boom 
 by reports from Albany that, at a dinner there last night, 
 which Judge Parker attended, Tammany senators and 
 assemblymen shouted for Parker and voted for him on a 
 mock ballot. . . . The Tammany leader did not say it in 
 so many words, but he plainly implied that nobody would 
 have a chance to vote for Parker next November. . . . 
 He volunteered this statement: T hear that it is reported 
 up the State that I have been speaking favorably of Mr. 
 Cleveland by agreement with certain persons, and that 
 I am using Cleveland just now to conceal my purpose of 
 bringing about the nomination of Judge Parker. I wish 
 to say that these reports are absolutely untrue. As I have 
 said more than once, I think Mr. Cleveland is the strong¬ 
 est man that could be named, and I mean it. I am not 
 committed to Cleveland or anybody else, however, and 
 I certainly have not made any agreement with anybody 
 to send the New York delegation to the national con¬ 
 vention with instructions to support Judge Parker. I 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 332 
 
 am opposed to instructions by the convention for any 
 candidate, and I will go into the convention and fight any 
 effort to instruct. I don’t believe in instructions. . . .’ 
 
 “This declaration is plainly a notice served by 
 Murphy on David B. Hill and his friends that Judge 
 Parker cannot be put forward as New York’s candidate 
 at the spring convention, and that any attempt to do so 
 will result in a fight in the convention. The outcome of 
 such a fight, Murphy’s friends say, would not be doubt¬ 
 ful. They assert that he will have a considerable ma¬ 
 jority in the convention, and that the Parker boomers 
 will be suppressed in quick order. It was also asserted 
 at Tammany Hall to-day that if any attempt is made to 
 instruct for Parker, Murphy will not permit David B. 
 Hill to go to St. Louis as a delegate-at-large. 
 
 “The Tammany senators and assemblymen who 
 shouted for Parker last night, under the influence of 
 good cheer at a particularly cheery place—‘The Tub’— 
 will hear something not to their advantage by calling at 
 Tammany Hall when they come down from Albany on 
 Friday. Murphy does not seem to be able to appreciate 
 the humor of that vote for Parker, and there is such a 
 thing as ‘discipline’ in Tammany Hall.” 
 
 A few weeks later, the Honorable James Smith, Jr., 
 Democratic boss of New Jersey, called at Westland to 
 urge the ex-President to enter the race; but he was met 
 by a firm refusal. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s letters and conversations of this 
 period are full of hopes and fears, speculations, and at 
 times lamentations, as he watched the uncertain progress 
 of the party of his devotion struggling toward the light. 
 In reply to Lamont’s letter, he wrote: 
 
3.33 
 
 THE ELECTION OF 1904 
 
 Princeton, Feby. 18, IQ04 . 
 
 My dear Colonel: 
 
 I was very glad to iearn from your letter that you had 
 met Mr. Murphy and that your favorable impression of 
 him agreed with that made upon me by a moment’s chat 
 with him a long time ago. It is exceedingly fortunate 
 that he is at the head of Tammany at this critical time for 
 Democracy, and so far as I can now see it is also fortu¬ 
 nate that McClellan is Mayor, and our old friend 
 McAdoo at the head of New York’s Police Department. 
 
 Under all the circumstances Murphy’s idea of an 
 uninstructed New York delegation to St. Louis is very 
 wise, and I hope he will inexorably insist upon it. I 
 wish I could look differently upon Parker’s candidacy, 
 but what you write of Murphy’s opinion on that subject, 
 exactly expresses my feeling. 
 
 As matters now stand I hope to see a growth in the 
 sentiment towards Olney or Gray. 
 
 I note what you write about the hope expressed in 
 your interview with Murphy that I “do no further de¬ 
 clining now.” 
 
 I am willing to be silent up to the point that continued 
 silence might be construed as indicating a departure 
 from my expressed determination not to be a candidate, 
 or until such silence will subject me to the accusation of 
 misleading my good friends. 
 
 I see the Herald this morning publishes a part of my 
 political article which is to appear in the Saturday Even¬ 
 ing Post . 
 
 I have had some misgivings about the wisdom or pro¬ 
 priety of that utterance; but I am entirely reassured when 
 I hear so much about Bryan-Hearst nonsense and when 
 I recall my right to have my position understood as un- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 334 
 
 compromisingly opposed to Democratic suicide. I will 
 have no part or lot in such a crime. 
 
 I enjoyed my visit with you very much indeed. It 
 seemed like old times; and I want to thank you for the 
 time you spent for my convenience and comfort. 
 
 With love from Mrs. Cleveland and me to both you 
 and Mrs. Lamont, I am 
 
 Yours faithfully 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. D. S. Lamont 
 
 No. 2 West 53d St., New York. 
 
 And ten days later: 
 
 Dear Colonel: 
 
 My notion is that if there is to be an effort to get our 
 party in any kind of promising shape there ought to be 
 a movement in a hard-headed sensible way. Perhaps 
 Parker has such a start that he would be the best one to 
 concentrate on. You know my idea has been that Olney 
 or Gray would suit present conditions best. 
 
 I want you to tell all who talk “Cleveland” non¬ 
 sense that it is a waste of time that might be profitably 
 spent in other ways. 
 
 I would not accept a nomination if it was tendered 
 to me—which of course it cannot be—and I don’t want 
 to be considered as a defeated candidate for nomination. 
 
 I am content. I want to see the party succeed, but I 
 hope there will be no idea of playing any kind of trick 
 on me. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. D. S. Lamont, 
 
 2 West 53rd St., New York. 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 335 
 
 The insistence of his friends in no way affected his 
 determination to remain on the side lines, but their plead¬ 
 ing pleased him, and his eagerness for party success was 
 intense. He watched with expert eye the uncertain drift¬ 
 ing of the bark once so steady in his own guiding hand, 
 and his comments regarding possible candidates of both 
 parties were frequent and specific. “There is one thing 
 about our young President which I think cannot be de¬ 
 nied,” he wrote to Lamont. “He has but little idea of 
 the proprieties that belong to his high office or, for that 
 matter, to its incumbent. . . . There never was a time I 
 believe when the country would be a greater gainer than 
 now, by the clearing out of an administration.” And to 
 Hornblower, eighteen days later: 
 
 Princeton, March 2Q , IQ04 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Hornblower : 
 
 I thank you for the pains you have taken to put in 
 my hands the book I need. I expect to receive it to-day. 
 
 In reply to the other matter contained in your letter 
 I have to say, that I have had doubts as to Mr. Parker’s 
 being the very best candidate in sight, considering all 
 things; but I am not very strong in these doubts. One 
 thing is certain, I think. He is clean, decent, and con¬ 
 servative and ought on those grounds to inspire con¬ 
 fidence in quarters where it is sadly needed, if our party 
 is ever going to be a political power again. 
 
 It is in my view immensely important that the sane 
 portion of our party should be as united on a decent can¬ 
 didate as circumstances will permit—to the end that the 
 movement now threatened in the direction of insanity and 
 indecency may be run over and killed “beyond recogni¬ 
 tion.” In this view it should be taken into account that 
 Parker’s candidacy has such a start and has so many ele- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 336 
 
 ments ready to support it in the convention, that he ap¬ 
 pears to present a better rallying point than anyone else. 
 
 Personally I would prefer Olney or Gray; but they 
 do not seem to me to be under much headway. 
 
 I believe if I were in your place I would signify a 
 disposition towards Parker. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Wm. B. Hornblower 
 
 New York. 
 
 His leaning toward Mr. Olney pleased the latter, but 
 it did not imbue him with presidential longings. “I am 
 fairly astounded at some of your intimations about pol¬ 
 itics,” wrote Mr. Olney, on May 18th. “I esteem any 
 opinion of yours in my favor as about as high a com¬ 
 pliment as it is possible for a man to receive. But I am 
 sure it would not be to my advantage to be President, 
 while at the prospect of a candidacy, if actually pre¬ 
 sented to me, I should be perfectly panic-stricken. Can 
 you think of anyone less fitted for such an ordeal? I am 
 not really disturbed, however, because I refuse to take 
 the matter in the least seriously. Everything done here 
 in Massachusetts has been done without my consent either 
 asked or given, and but for the peculiar conditions of 
 the Hearst invasion I should have publicly and expressly 
 forbidden the use of my name in the contest for delegates 
 at the St. Louis Convention.” 
 
 Judge Parker’s attitude was far more receptive, and 
 he was in a position to point to a record of consistent 
 opposition to free silver, even when the party had stood 
 upon the silver platform. When Mr. Cleveland, toward 
 the end of May, sent word that he could be counted upon 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 337 
 
 to help in case Mr. Parker were nominated, the latter 
 replied: 
 
 Albany, June I , IQ04 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland: 
 
 Mr. Teague of the North American called on me 
 last evening, and conveyed to me your very generous 
 message, at the same time showing me your interview 
 as it appeared in the North American . In the papers I 
 had seen only excerpts. I wish to thank you for your 
 expression of confidence, and the manner of it. I would 
 not have had you put my name before that of Olney 
 and Gray if you could conscientiously have done so, and 
 am glad that you pointed to the fact that “circumstances” 
 put the lead where it is at present. Your generous offer 
 to help if the nomination should come to me is most 
 welcome, for in that event I shall need your advice, and 
 shall be greatly gratified if I may consult you about a 
 few of the more important matters. 
 
 May I be permitted to suggest that you draft such a 
 platform as seems to you to meet the situation? Am sure 
 it will prove of great help to the party if you can find 
 the time to do it. 
 
 Again assuring you of my great appreciation, I am 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Alton B. Parker. 
 
 The Honorable Grover Cleveland. 
 
 As the date of their National Convention approached, 
 Mr. Cleveland watched with astonishment the opera¬ 
 tions of the Republicans who were wise enough to realize 
 —as he did not—that in Theodore Roosevelt, the “acci¬ 
 dental president,” they had a leader of the first order. 
 When the latter’s nomination was announced, he sent 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 338 
 
 Mr. Olney a clipping headed, “Is Bryan for Olney?” at 
 the same time threatening the latter with the Presidency. 
 
 Princeton, June 24, IQ04 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Olney : 
 
 You had better look out. I cut the attached bit of 
 news from the Sun of this morning. 
 
 Did you ever see such a boyish, silly performance as 
 the Republican National Convention which has just 
 adjourned? Perhaps Lodge & Co. think they can safely 
 calculate on the stupidity of enough of the people to 
 elect “Teddy”; but if our party was in proper shape, I 
 am sure the conglomeration of the apostles of all good 
 would find themselves reckoning without their host. 
 
 Somehow I cannot at all times feel very confident of 
 Democratic success; but I honestly think if the hint con¬ 
 tained in the clipping I sent could lead to a practical 
 result, there would be brighter hopes than in any other 
 condition—I mean of course for the country and party 
 and not especially for the comfort and peace of the 
 gentleman referred to. . . . 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Richard Olney, 
 
 23 Court St., Boston, Mass. 
 
 When the delegates were preparing to start for the 
 Democratic National Convention at St. Louis, Mr. 
 Cleveland wrote to the Honorable James Smith, Jr., head 
 of the New Jersey delegation: 
 
 Princeton, June 26, IQ04 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Smith: 
 
 You will, I suppose, head the delegation from my 
 state to the St. Louis Convention. I am well aware of 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 339 
 
 the favorable opinion you originally entertained touch¬ 
 ing my availability as a candidate for the Presidency in 
 the coming campaign; and I remember with great satis¬ 
 faction the friendly spirit in which you accepted the 
 reasons I advanced against that proposition, when we 
 met here a long time ago. My public declaration made 
 before our conversation and the apparent reception of 
 my refusal to be considered a candidate as justifiably 
 conclusive, by you and other friends, have led me to 
 regard all discussion of the matter as ended. 
 
 I have heard and read some things lately that disturb 
 me. Perhaps that is unnecessary but I am very anxious 
 that there should be no misunderstanding which can be 
 chargeable to me or to anything I may do or omit to do. 
 
 In view of all the circumstances, I have ventured to 
 write you this, and to ask you as representing the state 
 of my residence, as my friend, to prevent the use of my 
 name in connection with the presidential nomination at 
 the Convention. I certainly could not accept it. 
 
 I cannot think that any occasion will arise calling 
 upon you to do me this service; but as I am just leaving 
 here for my summer vacation, I regard it as not amiss 
 to provide against even a very slight or possible 
 contingency. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. James Smith, 
 
 Newark. 
 
 To this Mr. Smith replied on June 30th: 
 
 “I remember well the reasons advanced by you at our 
 meeting some months ago for not wishing your name 
 presented, and I then fully agreed with you. Since that 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 340 
 
 time events have so shaped themselves that the people of 
 this country, without regard to politics, seem determined 
 to have you again assume the duties of President. Of 
 course I shall carry out your instructions in this matter, 
 and will see that the New Jersey delegation does not 
 present your name to the Convention. Should it become 
 necessary, I will go further and say on the floor of the 
 Convention that I have a letter from you in which you 
 state that you cannot accept the nomination, provided this 
 course meets with your approval; but should the time 
 come when the Convention shall arise and demand your 
 nomination, with almc:t unanimous voice, I think it 
 would be unfair to ask me, as the head of the delegation 
 from your state, to refuse to assent to such a demand. . . . 
 
 “Senator Hill’s leadership of the Parker forces, to my 
 mind, makes Judge Parker’s election, if nominated, very 
 doubtful. I have no personal feeling against either Sen¬ 
 ator Hill or Judge Parker, but I think it my duty, as a 
 Democrat, to do all in my power to prevent the latter’s 
 nomination, as I am convinced that such an event would 
 be disastrous to Democratic success.” 
 
 In his keynote speech at the opening of the St. Louis 
 Convention, the temporary Chairman, John Sharp Wil¬ 
 liams, declared that, through the dogged persistence and 
 indomitable will of Grover Cleveland, in forcing the 
 repeal of the silver-purchase clause of the Sherman Act 
 in 1893, the gold standard was now an established fact. 
 At the mention of Mr. Cleveland’s name, the party which 
 had deserted him in 1896, and scorned and insulted him 
 in 1900, burst into applause which lasted so long that the 
 speaker had twice to take his seat before it subsided. 
 
 In spite of this fact, however, Mr. Bryan, with the 
 skill of a master of forensic oratory, once more pushed 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 341 
 
 his fight for a declaration in favor of the free and un¬ 
 limited coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. 
 Again he charmed the galleries with his eloquence, but 
 he could not charm the delegates. The St. Louis Conven¬ 
 tion had no mind to go before the country chained to a 
 dead issue. 
 
 When the platform was at length adopted, it was 
 silent upon the silver issue, but when the news of his 
 nomination reached Judge Parker, he sent the following 
 telegram which forced the Convention to the position 
 consistently maintained by Grover Cleveland since his 
 first battle with Bryan, in 1893: 
 
 Honorable W. F. Sheehan, 
 
 Hotel Jefferson, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 I regard the gold standard as firmly and irrevocably 
 established, and shall act accordingly if the action of the 
 Convention to-day shall be ratified by the people. As the 
 platform is silent on the subject, my views should be 
 made known to the Convention, and if it is proved to be 
 unsatisfactory to the majority, I request you to decline the 
 nomination for me at once, so that another may be nom¬ 
 inated before adjournment. 
 
 A. B. Parker. 
 
 Upon reading this message, the Convention, by a 
 vote of 774 to 191, directed that the following reply be 
 sent: 
 
 “The platform adopted by this Convention is silent 
 on the question of the monetary standard. It was not 
 regarded by us as a possible issue in the campaign, and 
 only campaign issues were mentioned. Therefore, there 
 is nothing in the views expressed in the telegram re- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 342 
 
 ceived which would preclude a man entertaining them 
 from accepting the nomination on the said platform.” 
 
 These telegrams, to Mr. Cleveland’s mind, meant 
 party redemption. “True Democracy” was again in the 
 ascendant, after eight years of almost total eclipse; and 
 for the moment he was again a Democrat in full and 
 regular communion with the leadership of his party. 
 For these long, bitter years, he had stood on the side 
 lines. Now, at last, he was able once more to join the 
 team. He sent a cordial telegram to Judge Parker, to 
 which the Democratic nominee responded: 
 
 Rosemount 
 
 Esopus-on-the-Hudson 
 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland : 
 
 I am deeply grateful for your telegram of congratu¬ 
 lations, and pleased beyond expression that my action 
 meets with your approval. 
 
 May I have the liberty of consulting you occasionally 
 about matters that seem of larger moment? I will not 
 trouble you except on very important matters. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Alton B. Parker. 
 
 July 11, 1904 . 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s reply was the letter of a Democrat 
 who is able to endorse his party’s actions heartily and 
 without reservations: 
 
 Buzzards Bay, Mass. 
 July 14, 1904 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Parker : 
 
 I received your letter yesterday at this place, where 
 I have been stranded for more than a week on my way to 
 join my family in New Hampshire. 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 343 
 
 I am certain that no man living appreciates your situ¬ 
 ation and its perplexities better than I; and I am equally 
 positive that no one is more anxious for your election. 
 Of course this does not necessarily mean that I can be of 
 any great service to you—I wish it did. I hope, how¬ 
 ever, that you will feel absolutely at liberty to command 
 me in every way. I am not afraid you will ask me to do 
 anything inadvisable, and if at any time I am too for¬ 
 ward with advice or suggestions you must go your way 
 without the least embarrassment. Your judgment is too 
 good, I am convinced, to be interfered with by any one . 
 
 Our best campaign material just now is— YOU. I 
 mean “You” as you are manifested to your countrymen 
 in the despatch you sent to St. Louis. The spirit and 
 sentiment aroused by this utterance of yours, should be 
 kept alive and stimulated from time to time during the 
 campaign. Occasions will present themselves, when you 
 respond probably to the Committee on notification and 
 when you write your letter of acceptance. I do hope 
 that you will insist upon a free hand in meeting these 
 occasions and that you will not hesitate to paraphrase or 
 give your own language to our platform, to such an 
 extent as to convince our people that you propose to keep 
 the reins you have in hand and that your conception of 
 Democratic obligations will constrain you to protect all 
 legitimate rights, and to restrain all harmful trespass 
 upon the privileges and opportunities promised to all our 
 people under our plan of government—so far as such an 
 exercise of power is within executive limits. For myself 
 I do not think expediency demands of you the distortion 
 of anything your judgment suggests, in deference to the 
 South or the radicals of our party. Bryan is doing the 
 cause much good in his present mood; and I for one hope 
 it will continue. We need Indiana; and if the Taggart 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 344 
 
 Chairmanship will help us to get it, it might be well to 
 remember that after all the Chairman of the Executive 
 Com. of the N. Y. Headquarters is the important man. 
 
 I am bothered about the question of retaining your 
 judgeship while a candidate for President; but I hope 
 there will be a safe deliverance. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Alton B. Parker, 
 
 Esopus, N. Y. 
 
 “I am very much pleased with the outcome of the 
 Convention as brought about by Providence and a gentle¬ 
 man living in Esopus,” he wrote to Olney, on July 19th. 
 “Such Democrats as you and I ought to be pretty well 
 satisfied. Bryan and Bryanism are eliminated as influen¬ 
 tial factors in Democratic councils, true Democracy has 
 a leader, and its time-honored and time-approved princi¬ 
 ples again are set before the people of the land without 
 apology or shamefacedness. 
 
 “If we can only keep peanut methods out of our cam¬ 
 paign management, I believe there is a good chance to 
 rid the country of Rooseveltism and its entire brood of 
 dangers and humiliations. At any rate, it seems to me 
 there can be no excuse for lack of effort or half-hearted¬ 
 ness on the part of any true Democrat who has waited all 
 these years for party regeneration.” 
 
 No sooner was the presidential nomination disposed 
 of, than the demand was made that Mr. Cleveland allow 
 his name to be used as candidate for Governor of New 
 Jersey. “So many people have waited on me, as well as 
 newspaper men, to urge your name,” wrote James Smith, 
 Jr., on July 22d. “I simply told them that while it would 
 be a great pleasure to me to have you accept it, and that 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 345 
 
 while it would insure the state for Democratic electors, 
 I hardly thought that after refusing to accept a nomina¬ 
 tion for the Presidency, you were . . . ‘patriotic’ enough 
 to accept Governor,” a prediction which Mr. Cleveland’s 
 reply promptly justified. 
 
 As the campaign progressed, he grew more and more 
 eager for Judge Parker’s election, writing articles to that 
 effect for Colliers Weekly, for McClures Magazine, 
 and for the Saturday Evening Post, after seeing one of 
 which Judge Parker thanked him in the following letter: 
 
 Rosemount 
 
 Esopus-on-the-Hudson 
 July 22 , IQ04 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland : 
 
 I wish to thank you for your very kind letter of the 
 fourteenth, for all the generous things you say, and for 
 all the suggestions you make. I shall always be most 
 grateful for any advice that comes from you, and it shall 
 always have great weight with me. 
 
 I have read with very grateful appreciation your 
 most generous article written for Collier's Weekly. It is 
 by far, in my opinion, the most telling contribution to 
 the cause. 
 
 Thanking you again, and with best wishes for you 
 always, I am, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Alton B. Parker. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s diary records the events of Novem¬ 
 ber 8th with laconic brevity: “Election day. Voted 
 about 10 o’c . . . Began to receive returns abt. past 7 
 I think. It took but a few reports to enable me to see 
 that we the Democrats were dreadfully left. Went to 
 bed a little after 10.” When the count was finished, it 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 346 
 
 was seen that Roosevelt was overwhelmingly elected. 
 He carried every state except the solid South, and Mis¬ 
 souri and Maryland followed him into the Republican 
 fold. His popular vote was over seven and a half mil¬ 
 lions, and his plurality more than two and a half millions. 
 
 So great was Mr. Cleveland’s disappointment that 
 for weeks he was silent on political matters, replying 
 when questioned: “My present state of mind does not 
 permit me to do the subject justice.” To Mr. Farquhar, 
 however, he wrote, on December 12th: 
 
 A. B. Farquhar, Esq., 
 
 York, Penna. 
 
 My dear Sir:— 
 
 I was glad to receive your recent letter after so long 
 a silence. The result of the election was so astounding 
 that I have hardly sufficiently recovered my composure 
 to contemplate the reasons which led to it or the results 
 likely to follow it. I am such an intense and unalterable 
 believer in the saving common sense of the American 
 people, that I cannot yet believe that the tremendous 
 Republican majority given at the last election should be 
 taken to indicate the people’s willingness to allow the 
 principles and practices of Republicanism to be unalter¬ 
 ably fixed in the affairs of our body politic. I believe 
 that the next swing of the pendulum of public sentiment 
 will be quite to the Democratic side of the dial, and that, 
 if Democracy is prepared to do its duty, when that time 
 arrives, it will become again the beneficent agent of the 
 people’s salvation. 
 
 A number of the incidents involved in the election 
 have so surprised me that sometimes, for a moment, the 
 idea has entered my mind that a change in the character 
 of our countrymen has taken place. This is, however, 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 347 
 
 only for a moment, and the second thought immediately 
 reinstates me in the confidence which I have always had 
 in our people’s right thinking. How the rejuvenation 
 of the Democratic party which seems to be absolutely 
 essential, is to be brought about, I do not know; but I 
 am certain that in due time a way will be made plain. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 The defeat of Judge Parker served incidentally to 
 heighten the prestige of Grover Cleveland, who re¬ 
 mained the only Democrat since Buchanan strong enough 
 to carry a presidential election. The oft-rejected prayer 
 of friends, that he prepare an autobiography, grew more 
 and more insistent, and flattering offers came from pub¬ 
 lishers, who understood far better than he the interest 
 which his own story from his own pen would excite. 
 He rejected them all, declaring the task distasteful to 
 him as smacking too much of what he called “self- 
 conceit.” He admitted, however, the value of biog¬ 
 raphies of great men: “There is no sadder symptom of 
 a generation’s bad moral health than its lack of faith in 
 its great men, and its loss of reverence for its heroes; 
 but let this belief be coupled with the reservation that 
 those called great shall be truly great, and that the heroes 
 challenging our reverence shall be truly heroic, measured 
 by standards adjusted to the highest moral conditions of 
 man’s civilization.” 
 
 In this class he placed Washington, whom he de¬ 
 scribed as “one whose glorious deeds are transcendently 
 above all others recorded in our national annals . . . the 
 incarnation of all the virtues and all the ideals that made 
 our nationality possible”; and Lincoln, “A supremely 
 great and good man . ; . more and more sacredly en- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 348 
 
 shrined in my passionate Americanism with every year 
 of my life.” But Grover Cleveland he persistently re¬ 
 fused to consider even as a candidate for greatness. While 
 fully conscious of a power to endure labor, far beyond 
 that of the average man, of a courage that permitted him 
 to steer his course regardless of opposition, of a purpose 
 bent upon things outside his own personal gain, and of 
 many other qualities of the warp and woof of greatness, 
 he claimed no pedestal, no place among the immortals, 
 content with the thought that he was a citizen who had 
 done his duty. He felt he was in the world for quite 
 another purpose than being great, as Dr. Merle Smith 
 once expressed it. 
 
 But though disinclined to hear with favor the pleas 
 of historians eager to become his biographers, he bitterly 
 resented what he deemed the misrepresentations of 
 pseudo-historians. To Gilder he expressed the wrath 
 which the efforts of some of the latter had kindled: 
 
 Princeton, January 28, IQO 5. 
 
 My dear Mr. Gilder: 
 
 I want to thank you for your trouble in attempting 
 
 to set Mr. - right. (PROF. - God save the 
 
 mark!) I never heard of him until Nelson mentioned 
 him in connection with his stuff; and I don’t care what 
 else he is, it must be that he is a lover of falsehood, who 
 had rather, in the cloak of history writing, put down 
 something new and striking, than tell the truth. There 
 is another coyote in Kansas who is cut off the same piece; 
 and I suppose such yelping and snarling as theirs is 
 history. 
 
 I honestly think, my dear Gilder, that there are 
 things in my life and career that if set out, and read by 
 the young men of our country, might be of benefit to a 
 
THE ELECTION OF 1904 349 
 
 generation soon to have in their keeping the safety and 
 the mission of our nation; but I am not certain of this, 
 for I am by no means sure that it would be in tune with 
 the vaudeville that attracts our people and wins th°ir 
 applause. Somehow, I don’t want to appear wearing a 
 fur coat in July. 
 
 Mr. McClure and all the forces about him have 
 lately importuned me, in season and out of season, to 
 write, say twelve autobiographical articles, offering what 
 seems to me a large sum for them [$10,000]; but I have 
 declined the proposition. I went so far (for I softened 
 up a bit under the suggestion of duty and money) to in¬ 
 quire how something would do like talking to another 
 person for publication; but that did not take at all. 
 I don’t really think I would have done even that, but 
 the disapproval of merely a hint that the “I” might to an 
 extent be eliminated, made it seem to me more than ever 
 that the retention of everything that might attract the 
 lovers of a “snappy life” was considered important by 
 the would-be publishers. 
 
 There is a circle of friends like you, who I hope 
 will believe in me. I am happy in the conviction that 
 they will continue in the faith whether an autobiography 
 is written or not. I want my wife and children to love 
 me now, and hereafter to proudly honor my memory. 
 They will have my autobiography written on their hearts 
 where every day they may turn the pages and read it. 
 In these days what else is there that is worth while to a 
 man nearly sixty-eight years old? 
 
 Give my love to Mrs. Gilder and believe me 
 
 Yours faithfully 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 R. W. Gilder, Esq., 
 
 13 E. 8th St., New York. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 
 
 “We can better afford to slacken our pace than to abandon 
 our old simple American standards of honesty.” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 D URING the first eight years of Mr. Cleveland’s 
 life at Princeton, many attempts were made to lure 
 him into business, where his hold upon the confidence of 
 the public would have been of inestimable value; but he 
 resisted them all, despite the tempting financial offers 
 of many of them. In 1905, however, there came a call 
 to what Elihu Root later characterized as “distinctly a 
 public service,” and one which, as such, he did not feel 
 free to refuse, although it meant leadership in a field 
 wholly new to him. 
 
 The Equitable Life Assurance Society, an association 
 designed to benefit its policyholders, had by slow stages 
 been transformed into a gigantic engine for their exploita¬ 
 tion. Its funds were in the hands of directors who did 
 not direct; its policyholders had become the victims of 
 officials who did direct; while factional differences within 
 the board had brought about a condition in which a 
 receivership was inevitable, unless a thorough reorgan¬ 
 ization could be speedily effected. As a step toward such 
 reorganization, its President, James W. Alexander, had 
 asked the directors to mutualize the society by extending 
 the voting privilege to all policyholders; and, in March, 
 1905, the committee appointed to effect this change unan¬ 
 imously recommended that the charter be so amended 
 
 350 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 351 
 
 as to provide that a majority of the directors, 28 out of 
 52, be elected by the policyholders. 
 
 Before the change was actually made, however, 
 Mr. Thomas F. Ryan purchased 502 of the 1000 shares 
 of Equitable capital stock, a block which had belonged 
 to Henry B. Hyde, and with it the right to cast the 
 majority vote upon all questions. Mr. Ryan later gave 
 the following explanation of the motives which led him 
 to make this purchase, involving the payment of 
 $2,500,000: “I saw in the virtual necessity of a receiver¬ 
 ship of the Equitable . . . disaster impending unless the 
 factional differences in the company among the directors 
 and the management should be radically changed. To 
 avert this and to prevent the frightful losses that would 
 occur from the violent breaking up of the Equitable, not 
 only to the policyholders but to the financial community 
 at large, as well as to myself, I thought that someone 
 ought to take over the business.” 
 
 For one man to intervene to protect the interests of 
 six hundred thousand policyholders, interests amounting 
 to $400,000,000, was a venture of enormous proportions, 
 and Mr. Ryan knew that if his plan were to succeed he 
 must secure as the head of the trustees, in whose hands 
 he intended to place the administration of his majority 
 stock, a man whom the public would fully trust, since 
 with the majority stock went the full control of the 
 Equitable Corporation. Ex-President Cleveland ap¬ 
 peared to him the man best fitted for this task, and he 
 accordingly sent him the following letter: 
 
 New York, June 9, IQO^ 
 
 Dear Mr. Cleveland: 
 
 You may be aware that a bitter controversy exists 
 regarding the management of the Equitable Life As- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 352 
 
 surance Society and that public confidence has been 
 shaken in the safety of the funds under the control of a 
 single block of stock left by the late Henry B. Hyde. 
 This loss of confidence affects a great public trust of more 
 than $400,000,000, representing the savings of over 600,- 
 000 policyholders, and the present condition amounts to 
 a public misfortune. 
 
 In the hope of putting an end to this condition and 
 in connection with a change of the executive management 
 of the Society, I have . . . purchased this block of stock 
 and propose to put it into the hands of a board of trustees 
 having no connection with Wall Street, with power to 
 vote it for the election of directors—as to twenty-eight 
 of the fifty-two directors, in accordance with the instruc¬ 
 tions of the policyholders of the Society, and as to the 
 remaining twenty-four directors in accordance with the 
 uncontrolled judgment of the trustees. This division of 
 twenty-eight and twenty-four is in accordance with a 
 plan of giving substantial control to policyholders already 
 approved by the Superintendent of Insurance. 
 
 I beg you to act as one of this board with other 
 gentlemen, who shall be of a character entirely satis¬ 
 factory to you. 
 
 I would not venture to ask this of you on any per¬ 
 sonal grounds; but to restore this great trust, affecting so 
 many people of slender means, to soundness and public 
 confidence would certainly be a great public service, and 
 this view emboldens me to make the request. 
 
 The duties of the trust would be light, as, in the 
 nature of things, when a satisfactory board is once con¬ 
 stituted there are few changes, and all the clerical and 
 formal work would be done by the office force of the 
 Company. 
 
 I have written similar letters to Justice Morgan J. 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 353 
 
 O'Brien, Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division in 
 our Supreme Court, and to Mr. George Westinghouse, 
 of Pittsburgh, two of the largest policyholders in the 
 Society. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Thomas F. Ryan. 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 After some hesitation, Mr. Cleveland answered: 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 June IO } 1905* 
 
 Thomas F. Ryan, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I have this morning received your letter asking me 
 to act as one of the three trustees to hold the stock of the 
 Equitable Life Assurance Society, which has lately been 
 acquired by you and certain associates, and to use the 
 voting power of such stock in the selection of directors of 
 said Society. 
 
 After a little reflection I have determined that I ought 
 to accept this service. I assume this duty upon the express 
 condition that, so far as the trustees are to be vested with 
 discretion in the selection of directors, they are to be 
 absolutely free and undisturbed in the exercise of their 
 judgment, and that, so far as they are to act formally in 
 voting for the directors conceded to policyholders, a fair 
 and undoubted expression of policy-holding choice will 
 be forthcoming. 
 
 The very general anxiety aroused by the recent un¬ 
 happy dissensions in the management of the Equitable 
 Society furnishes proof of the near relationship of our 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 354 
 
 people to life insurance. These dissensions have not 
 only injured the fair fame of the company immediately 
 affected, but have impaired popular faith and confidence 
 in the security of life insurance itself, as a provision for 
 those who in thousands of cases would be otherwise help¬ 
 less against the afflictive visitations of fate. 
 
 The character of this business is such that those who 
 manage and direct it are charged with a grave trust 
 for those who, necessarily, must rely upon their fidelity. 
 In those circumstances they have no right to regard the 
 places they hold as ornamental, but rather as positions 
 of work and duty and watchfulness. 
 
 Above all things, they have no right to deal with the 
 interests intrusted to them in such a way as to subserve 
 or to become confused or complicated with their per¬ 
 sonal transactions or ventures. 
 
 While the hope that I might aid in improving the 
 plight of the Equitable Society has led me to accept the 
 trusteeship you tender, I cannot rid myself of the belief 
 that what has overtaken this company is liable to happen 
 to other insurance companies and fiduciary organizations 
 as long as lax ideas of responsibility in places of trust 
 are tolerated by our people. 
 
 The high pressure of speculation, the madness of 
 inordinate business scheming, and the chances taken in 
 new and uncertain enterprises, are constantly present 
 temptations, too often successful, in leading managers 
 and directors away from scrupulous loyalty and fidelity 
 to the interests of others confided to their care. 
 
 We can better afford to slacken our pace than to 
 abandon our old simple American standards of hon¬ 
 esty; and we shall be safer if we regain our old habit of 
 looking at the appropriation, to personal uses, of prop- 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 355 
 
 erty and interests held in trust, in the same light as other 
 forms of stealing. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 On June 15th a deed of trust was executed transferring 
 control of the Equitable Life Assurance Society from 
 its one majority owner to Mr. Cleveland and his two co¬ 
 trustees. At the same time Paul Morton, ex-Secretary of 
 the Navy, and a son of J. Sterling Morton, of Cleveland’s 
 second Cabinet, was made President of the Equitable, 
 but he was in effect a President without a Board of 
 Directors, as the old board had nearly all resigned, and 
 the new one was as yet to be created. 
 
 During the days which intervened between his ap¬ 
 pointment and his first formal meeting with his co¬ 
 trustees, Mr. Cleveland set himself to the task of 
 mastering the problems and the complicated machinery 
 of the insurance business. He sought advice from 
 neither Mr. Ryan himself nor from Mr. Ryan’s able 
 counsel, Mr. Elihu Root, although fully conscious of 
 their skill in matters of large business. He had friends 
 also on the Board of Directors, but he asked no help from 
 them, declaring that they had made a mess of things, and 
 that now he, by his own methods, must find his “own 
 blundering way.” Disregarding the summer heat, he 
 worked at his task of discovering the facts, which he later 
 summarized thus: 
 
 “A majority of the directors of this Company were 
 each qualified as stockholders and directors, by a color¬ 
 able holding of five shares of the stock of the Company, 
 placed in their hands by its President and subject at 
 any time to his recall, or such other disposition as he 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 356 
 
 should request. Nearly all of them were men of such 
 wealth and were so distinguished and prominent in busi¬ 
 ness and financial operations that their names were 
 familiar throughout the United States, and some of them 
 throughout the world. All of them were connected with 
 the control and management of other large companies, 
 numbering in some cases twenty or more. Their honor¬ 
 able business reputations repelled any suspicion of delib¬ 
 erate wrongdoing or willful neglect of obligations. They 
 were simply non-directing directors, holding their places 
 at the request of the President of the Company, and 
 doing what a vicious system dictates in such cases—pre¬ 
 cisely nothing except drift with the current. Thus it 
 came about that before their eyes and within their reach, 
 peculation and breach of trust flourished, scandals grew, 
 the beneficent designs of the Company, pending its thor¬ 
 ough reformation, were discredited, and its policyholders 
 were distressed with fear and gloomy forebodings.” 
 
 As soon as he had mastered the situation, he sent an 
 announcement to the policyholders, informing them that 
 the trustees had assumed their posts as representing the 
 majority stock, and asking that suggestions be made or 
 names proposed for the vacant directorships. Although 
 he refused expert advice, he instinctively sought the 
 guidance of popular opinion. 
 
 While the replies were coming in, the question of the 
 salary of the Chairman of the Trustees was taken up by 
 a committee of the directors, which, on June 20th, re¬ 
 ported that in view of “the nature and extent of the 
 services rendered by Mr. Cleveland . . . $1000 per 
 month is a fair sum.” 
 
 By June 27th, some two hundred suggestions had been 
 received in answer to Mr. Cleveland’s request, and on 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 357 
 
 that day the second meeting of the trustees was held, nine 
 directors were chosen, and a longer and more elaborate 
 address adopted, to be sent out under date of June 28th. 
 Each of these documents was drawn with as much care 
 as though it had been a presidential message to Congress. 
 Paul D. Cravath, one of the counsel who had executed the 
 deed of trust, recalls the following incident: “At his 
 request I had drafted a statement or paper of some kind, 
 I forget just what it was, for which he was to become 
 responsible. One afternoon I went to Princeton to sub* 
 mit it to him. He seemed to like it. I went to bed at a 
 normal hour, say eleven o’clock. When I came down to 
 early breakfast the next morning Mr. Cleveland greeted 
 me with an entirely new paper which he had prepared 
 after I had gone to bed. He must have stayed up most 
 of the night. It is needless to say that his paper was 
 very much better than the draft which I had proposed.” 
 
 By the end of June, the Society was reorganized, with 
 a board of trustees ready to take the responsibilities of 
 their trust in the spirit of the “old simple American 
 standards of honesty,” to which Mr. Cleveland always 
 pinned his faith. As Chairman he had furnished men 
 for vacant places, destroying the practice of furnishing 
 places for vacant men. As each new director had been 
 appointed he had called upon Mr. Cleveland, nominally 
 to pay his respects, but really to receive his instructions. 
 Each came from the interview with a clear vision of the 
 dangers which beset directors, and with the knowledge 
 that there was no room for dummy directors on the new 
 board. 
 
 In his letter accepting the trust, Mr. Cleveland had 
 said: “What has overtaken this Company is liable to 
 happen in other companies.” And, on July 20th, acting 
 perhaps upon this hint, the New York Legislature made 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 358 
 
 provision for a committee to investigate the entire busi¬ 
 ness of life insurance within the state. Senator Arm¬ 
 strong was its Chairman, and its chief counsel was Charles 
 E. Hughes. 
 
 Their report laid bare a sordid and humiliating situa¬ 
 tion in which senators, masters of industry, political 
 machine-men, bankers, railroad presidents, and directors 
 of insurance companies had wrought together to exploit 
 a helpless public. But it emphasized the value of the 
 changes which Mr. Cleveland had brought about in the 
 Equitable before the Armstrong Committee had even 
 been appointed, and forced other companies to make 
 similar changes in the interest of the public. 
 
 In commenting upon the report, Mr. Cleveland said 
 of Mr. Hughes: “No one can better know the causes 
 responsible for such management than the able and fear¬ 
 less man who conducted the investigation which brought 
 it to light. His universally conceded sincerity and his 
 pre-eminent qualification as a witness give the weight of 
 conclusiveness to the following words addressed by him 
 to his fellow citizens in the state of New York: ‘What is 
 the vice in the conduct of those great enterprises which 
 directly affect our interests? It is the vice of selfishness. 
 It is the vice of setting up self-interest as against service. 
 It is the vice of seeing how much we can get and keep, 
 instead of seeing how much benefit can be bestowed!’ ” 
 
 No sooner had the affairs of the Equitable been set 
 in order than there came a new call: 
 
 Dec . 15th, [1905] 
 120 Broadway, New York 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland : 
 
 I am authorized by The New York Life Insurance 
 Company, The Mutual Life Company, and this Society to 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 359' 
 
 offer you $12,000.00 per year salary to act as the referee 
 between the three companies in matters of dispute con¬ 
 cerning the respective agents of the three institutions 
 rebating the commissions they receive from premiums 
 paid. 
 
 This will not be arduous work and I doubt if there 
 will be many cases. They can be submitted to you at 
 Princeton generally by correspondence and any expenses 
 for clerk hire will also be allowed you. 
 
 You were the only man suggested for the position and 
 I sincerely hope you will decide to accept it commencing 
 January 1st. 
 
 Mr. Thos. B. Reed once held this same relation to 
 these companies. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Paul Morton. 
 
 To 
 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 To this Mr. Cleveland replied: 
 
 Princeton, Dec . IQ, IQOfj . 
 
 My dear Mr. Morton: 
 
 I have duly considered your letter of the 15th instant 
 in which, on behalf of The New York Life Insurance 
 Company, The Mutual Life Insurance Company, and 
 The Equitable Life Assurance Society you offer me the 
 position of Referee to determine disputes that may arise 
 between the organizations mentioned concerning the 
 allowance by their respective agents of rebates on their 
 premium commissions. 
 
 I believe this to be a vice that can have no place in 
 well-conducted life insurance. 
 
360 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 I accept the proposition contained in your letter; but 
 in doing so I assume that those for whom you speak are 
 seriously determined to present the claims referred to, and 
 will unreservedly second every effort directed to that 
 end. 
 
 Yours very truly 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Paul Morton 
 President of The Equitable 
 Life Assurance Society. 
 
 To the duties of these two posts, the Equitable trus¬ 
 teeship and this refereeship, there was added a year later 
 a third, also in the field of insurance. The revelations 
 of the Armstrong Committee having produced a nation¬ 
 wide tendency on the part of legislatures to make un¬ 
 necessary and ill-advised attacks upon the insurance 
 business, representatives of the larger companies came 
 together and formed an organization for mutual protec¬ 
 tion: “The Presidents’ Association of Life Insurance 
 Companies.” 
 
 As head of this new organization, and therefore in 
 effect the titular head of life insurance in America, they 
 selected Mr. Cleveland, offering him a salary, liberal 
 though not large in comparison with those which Ameri¬ 
 cans had come to associate with high insurance posts. 
 The duty of this office was to examine and elucidate 
 measures of legislation as they were presented, a duty for 
 which his public experience had admirably equipped 
 him. 
 
 For a time he hesitated, accepting at first, and later 
 sending a telegram of refusal, which he explained in the 
 following letter to Mr. Morton: 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 361 
 
 Princeton, Feby. 6, IQOJ. 
 
 My dear Paul : 
 
 I have just sent you a dispatch which has brought 
 me a great deal of regret, and a consciousness that I have 
 caused you disappointment and embarrassment. I am 
 altogether to blame for these and confess my fault with¬ 
 out any claim of mitigation. If I had taken a little 
 more time to consider the matter in all its aspects and 
 had trusted a little more thoroughly to the soundness of 
 my first promptings, I should have saved you embarrass¬ 
 ment and vexation, by declining the place you offered me, 
 at the proper time. 
 
 My interest in insurance affairs, I now realize more 
 than ever, is related exclusively to the success and pros¬ 
 perity of the Equitable, and my great desire to be of 
 service to you and Mr. Ryan as well as to the company. 
 It is such a different proposition to make this new con¬ 
 nection and to be related to other companies and their 
 officials whom I know nothing about and which have not 
 enlisted any personal attachment, that I cannot, all things 
 considered, bring myself to its acceptance. 
 
 I know, too, that on the actual basis of service to be 
 rendered —that is, real work to be done, I would not earn 
 anything like the salary offered me. 
 
 I fully appreciate the generous compensation paid 
 me for past services; but I have had no very serious 
 twinges of conscience on account of its acceptance. 
 
 Conditions have, however, so changed and the work 
 which I might do in the future will be so much dimin¬ 
 ished that I insist upon an entire suspension of the com¬ 
 pensation heretofore allowed me in connection with my 
 trusteeship and refereeship, or the relinquishment of both 
 positions. 
 
 Perhaps, if continued, I ought to be reimbursed 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 362 
 
 actual expenses and a fair compensation for such matters 
 as should be submitted to me as referee. 
 
 I want you to understand that my interest in the 
 Equitable and your success as its President and the satis¬ 
 faction of my relationship with Mr. Ryan, is as strong 
 as ever (and that means as strong as it can be) ; and I 
 would be glad if I could continue a serviceable con¬ 
 nection. 
 
 In my judgment the head of the Presidents’ Associa¬ 
 tion would more naturally be an insurance man. I 
 believe you do not agree with me in this. 
 
 Finally, if you will let me off from this new engage¬ 
 ment with as much complacency as you can muster, I 
 will be glad to render any other possible service to the 
 institution and the persons with whom I am already 
 associated, on the conditions which I believe you under¬ 
 stand. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Paul Morton, 
 
 / * 
 
 President, &c., 
 
 120 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Mr. Morton and his associates, however, persisted in 
 their demand that Mr. Cleveland accept the proffered 
 post, and in the end he yielded. The field of his activ¬ 
 ities was nation-wide, but his audience was world-wide; 
 and the influence exerted by his carefully considered 
 statements concerning the business of life insurance was 
 comparable with that which he had so long exerted as a 
 political leader. His method of pinning the crime on the 
 criminal was employed as fearlessly as in the old days of 
 Sheriff, Mayor, Governor or President. One of his 
 addresses bore the title, “Directors Who Do Not Direct,” 
 
REORGANIZING THE EQUITABLE 363 
 
 and into it he put his philosophy of representative re¬ 
 sponsibility. When a bank has been looted, he declared, 
 it is not enough for the Directors to tell the plundered 
 depositors that “someone must be trusted.” Their proper 
 reply is, “Yes! but we have trusted you.” 
 
 Despite his frank acknowledgment of the fact that 
 the insurance idea had at times been used as a cloak to 
 cover many crooked deals, his examination of the entire 
 field confirmed his earlier view that insurance companies 
 had rendered invaluable service to the great majority. 
 And his frank approval of the system reassured many 
 minds and helped greatly to restore the confidence so 
 rudely shaken by the findings of the Armstrong Com¬ 
 mittee. 
 
 Thus, in the last years of his life, was he able to 
 apply his statesmanship to big business, carrying through 
 promptly, efficiently, and without seeking the spotlight, 
 a series of reforms whose ultimate influence extended far 
 beyond the field of nation-wide insurance. The abuses 
 that had disgraced the insurance business had but re¬ 
 flected others in a hundred kindred lines; and the re¬ 
 forms wrought by the practiced hand of Grover Cleve¬ 
 land, not skilled in insurance but an expert in reform, 
 reacted upon many of these businesses as well. Men had 
 come to believe that the existing system of interlocking 
 directorates was essential to the conduct of big business, 
 because the men capable of managing such enterprises 
 were considered few. This bubble vanished at the first 
 prick of Cleveland realism, for within five weeks after 
 beginning his work as Chairman of the Equitable Trus¬ 
 tees he had found enough new men not connected with the 
 insurance business to conduct successfully a great enter¬ 
 prise which had been brought to the brink of ruin by the 
 older system. He had proved that there is no mystery 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 364 
 
 about big business, and that there is no need to erect its 
 leaders into a mystic priesthood. 
 
 “It has been interesting to me,” declared Judge Day, 
 who entered the Equitable during Mr. Cleveland’s reor¬ 
 ganization, and later became its President, “to see how 
 life insurance was revolutionized. . . . The new owner’s 
 courage in buying a majority of the stock, and his act in 
 divesting himself of any vestige of control over it, by 
 turning it over to the one man in the country who would 
 inspire confidence, has always seemed to me one of the 
 striking events in modern business. . . . The immediate 
 return of confidence, the success of the open appeal to the 
 great public which at once carried its effects beyond the 
 policyholders of the Society, marked it as an outstanding 
 event.” And he added, “the one predominant influence 
 was the name and character of Grover Cleveland. . . . 
 The value of Cleveland’s services to the cause of sound 
 life insurance in the days of its trial cannot be over¬ 
 estimated.” 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SUNSET DAYS 
 
 “I have tried so hard to do right.” 
 
 —Grover Cleveland. 
 
 M R. CLEVELAND’S sixty-ninth birthday found 
 him in Florida, seeking the health which never 
 would return. Although not old, he was aging fast. The 
 physical strength which had made possible strenuous 
 days and deliberately sleepless nights was gone, and he 
 dared not face the penetrating dampness of a New Jersey 
 March. To him in his retreat came, as usual, a deluge 
 of birthday letters, some from intimate friends, some 
 from mere acquaintances, and many from admirers who 
 knew him only by his works. Commodore Benedict, in 
 playful vein, sounded the bugle call of the 69th: 
 
 Indian Harbor, Greenwich, Conn. 
 
 March 12, IQ06 . 
 
 My dear Admiral:— 
 
 I am credibly informed that you are to join the Sixty- 
 ninth regiment on the 18th inst., the day following 
 St. Patrick’s. 
 
 As I shall not be present to extend the glad hand, and, 
 
 as it was my good fortune to join that disorganization 
 
 something over three years ago, I have thought, perhaps, 
 
 you might be interested to hear what I think of it after 
 
 serving the full term of my enlistment, and what you 
 
 may expect, based on my experience. 
 
 365 
 
366 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 You must not be surprised to find at the very outset 
 that you are the youngest member of the whole shooting 
 match, but advancement is very certain, rapid, and con¬ 
 tinuous. You will not be obliged to carry the pail at the 
 end of the procession for more than a few moments, so 
 rapidly are younger members admitted. You will not 
 be greeted with a display of shamrocks or shillalahs, the 
 regiment is too busy admitting new members and burying 
 older ones to indulge in such luxuries. Your enlistment 
 will be for one year only, at the end of which, if you 
 survive, you will be a veteran. 
 
 Although the memberships of this regiment extend 
 throughout the world, you will be surprised to find how 
 few of them you will meet, and, of them, but very few 
 will be found in good marching order, most of them 
 preferring slippers to seven league boots. Never before 
 did you belong to a club, society, or organization which 
 comprised such a lot of rickety humanity. An atmos¬ 
 phere of spring will be found lingering in some hearts, 
 but the most of them will betray a spring halt in their 
 legs or a movement as if getting ready for winter by 
 practicing on snowshoes. And yet the few little boys 
 you will find to play with, some of whom may have been 
 companions of your youth, will all seem to be on their 
 good behavior. They will flatter one another with all 
 sorts of preposterous assurances of youthful looks and 
 actions, and, after swearing off twenty years or so from 
 each other’s ages consult a pedometer and a mirror, with 
 the result that, while each admits a claim to youthful 
 feelings, will all agree that they are pretty good imita¬ 
 tions of old people. They will be ever ready to give 
 the latitude and longitude of all their wanderings, and, 
 after touching upon a few joys, such as fishing and hunt¬ 
 ing—shouldering their guns and rods to show how game 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 367 
 
 and fish have been won—will lapse into a state of ecstatic 
 agony as they unload upon each other the stories of their 
 various sufferings. 
 
 Not the least of the attractions of this regiment is the 
 fair light guard of grandmothers who belong; for 
 women, of course, are not only admitted, but, for the 
 most part, are drafted in spite of many protestations. 
 There will appear to be more of them than men; and 
 then will dawn upon you, if it never has done so before, 
 the fact that, in spite of a few scuttle-bonnet cripples 
 among them, there are a whole lot who are exceedingly 
 fascinating and attractive, a joy wholly denied us in 
 youth, but fortunately reserved for age. So much for 
 the Sixty-niners. 
 
 Your year of service ended, without booming of can¬ 
 non, earthquakes, lightning, or thunder, you will quietly 
 slide into the very aristocracy of age. All your life long 
 you have wondered if you would live out your natural 
 days. How strange it is that we should spend so many 
 years in fear that we may never attain the seventieth 
 birthday, yet always dreading the day when we will do 
 so! However, this question settled, you will find yourself 
 in the ranks of many great men, particularly in Biblical 
 history, like King David; and later, Columbus, and still 
 later, Mark Twain, who made a joke of the event. He 
 must have had in mind the inscription on Gay’s tomb in 
 Westminster Abbey:— 
 
 “Life is a jest, all things show it; 
 
 I thought so once, and now I know it.” 
 
 Then you can almost consider yourself honorably men¬ 
 tioned in the burial service. Looking back to the Sixty- 
 niners, they appear like a marked down lot at Macy’s. 
 I find little depression of spirits on my side of seventy. 
 I am on velvet, as the gamblers say. Besides, many com- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 368 
 
 pensations appear, not the least is to be able to walk into 
 the office of the Commissioner of Jurors, as I have done, 
 with my thumb on my nose and my fingers fluttering in 
 the air. Your value as an antique has increased, and 
 bumps of veneration come to your support on every hand 
 and head. 
 
 But I am exceeding the objects of this letter. At this 
 juncture in your career you might follow the advice given 
 by the little Sunday School boy (in a story you told me, 
 by the way). You remember when asked by his teacher 
 —“What about hell and the Devil?” he answered, 
 “Wait and see.” Meanwhile, uniting with the congrat¬ 
 ulations of other friends, and, in the language of Robert 
 Roosevelt, let me “wish that you may live as long as you 
 want to and want to as long as you live.” 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 E. C. Benedict. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Richard Olney avowed the opinion that, “On your 
 69th birthday you find yourself the object of higher and 
 more general respect and esteem among your fellow 
 countrymen than any other living American.” 
 
 Mark Twain’s tribute revamped the slogan of 1884: 
 “We love him for the enemies he has made.” 
 
 21 Fifth Avenue 
 
 March 6, 1906. 
 
 Grover Cleveland, Esq. 
 
 Ex-President. 
 
 Honored Sir: 
 
 Your patriotic virtues have won for you the homage 
 of half the nation and the enmity of the other half. This 
 places your character as a citizen upon a summit as high 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 369 
 
 as Washington’s. The verdict is unanimous and unassail¬ 
 able. The votes of both sides are necessary in cases like 
 these, and the votes of the one side are quite as valuable 
 as are the votes of the other. When the votes are all in 
 a public man’s favor the verdict is against him. It is 
 sand, and history will wash it away. But the verdict for 
 you is rock, and will stand. 
 
 With the profoundest respect, 
 
 S. L. Clemens. 
 
 (as of date March 18, 1906) 
 
 Woodrow Wilson thus acknowledged his personal 
 debt to the teachings of the Sage of Princeton: 
 
 Princeton University 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 President’s Room 5 March, IQ06 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Cleveland:— 
 
 I should think that a birth-day would bring you very 
 many gratifying thoughts, and I hope that you realize 
 how specially strong the admiration and affection of 
 those of us in Princeton who know you best has grown 
 during the years when we have been privileged to be 
 near you. It has been one of the best circumstances of 
 my life that I have been closely associated with you in 
 matters both large and small. It has given me strength 
 and knowledge of affairs. 
 
 But if I may judge by my own feeling, what a man 
 specially wants to know on his birth-day is how he 
 stands, not in reputation or in power, but in the affection 
 of those whose affection he cares for. The fine thing 
 about the feeling for yourself which I find in the mind 
 of almost everyone I talk with, is that it is mixed with 
 genuine affection. I often find this true even of persons 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 370 
 
 who do not know you personally. How much more must 
 it be true of those who are near you. 
 
 With most affectionate regard and with a hope that 
 you may enjoy many another anniversary in peace and 
 honor and affection, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Woodrow Wilson. 
 
 Honorable Grover Cleveland, 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 Illiterate or literary, commonplace or clever, each 
 birthday tribute received its answer in his own hand¬ 
 writing. To Richard Watson Gilder he wrote: “From 
 the height of sixty-nine, I write to assure you that this is 
 a happy day in my life, and to tell you how happy I am 
 that you have made it so—more by your own loving 
 message of congratulations than by those you have in¬ 
 spired. I have been so deeply impressed by it all, that 
 I have had many struggles between smiles and tears as I 
 read the words of affection and praise that have met me 
 at the gate of entrance to another year. Somehow I am 
 wondering why all this should be, since I have left many 
 things undone I ought to have done in the realm of 
 friendship, and since in the work of public life and effort, 
 God has never failed to clearly make known to me the 
 path of duty. And still it is in human nature for one 
 to hug the praise of his fellows and the affection of 
 friends to his bosom as his earned possessions. I am no 
 better than this; but I shall trust you to acquit me of 
 affectation when I say to you that in to-day’s mood there 
 comes the regret that the time is so shortened, within 
 which I can make further payment to the people that 
 have honored and trusted me.” 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 371 
 
 To Andrew Carnegie, he sent the following reply: 
 
 Stuart, Florida. 
 
 March 20, IQ06 . 
 
 My dear Mr. Carnegie : 
 
 Your exceedingly kind letter of congratulation 
 touched me deeply, and I want to thank you for it from 
 the bottom of my heart. With other like manifestations 
 of good will from friends whom I also hold close in 
 affection, I feel that it compensates not only for ad¬ 
 vancing age, but for all that has been hard and laborious 
 in the past. 
 
 I avail myself of the knowledge of your address 
 which your letter furnishes, to thank you for the package 
 from Scotland which arrived in proper condition some 
 time ago. Despite all fanatical medical advice, I insist 
 upon it that at the age of sixty-nine, a man should know 
 himself of at least one thing that meets his physical 
 condition. 
 
 Ever since you told me something of your dear daugh¬ 
 ter’s ailment, I have been exceedingly anxious to hear 
 that you had been relieved of solicitude on her account. 
 
 Will you please convey to Mrs. Carnegie my dutiful 
 regards and believe me 
 
 Faithfully yours 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Andrew Carnegie, Esq. 
 
 The Cottage 
 
 Dungeness, Fernandino, Fla. 
 
 His acknowledgment to the Rev. Wilton Merle- 
 Smith, D.D., beautifully sums up his own high philos¬ 
 ophy of life: 
 
 Stuart, Fla., March 21, IQ06 . 
 
372 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 My dear Doctor Smith: 
 
 You don’t know how much good your generous letter 
 of congratulation has done me. It has enlivened my 
 sense of gratitude for what I have been able to do in the 
 past, for the joys of the present, and for such friendship 
 and confidence as yours. I have quite often, lately, found 
 myself longing for the rest of idleness, and the peace of 
 inactivity; and I have sometimes even given entrance to 
 the thought that these were my due. But you have writ¬ 
 ten words to me that will help me to constantly appreciate 
 the fact that God who has blessed me above all other 
 men, and directed all my ways, deserves my service, 
 and every good cause deserves my best endeavor, as long 
 as my life and strength shall last. 
 
 I know as no one else can know my limitations, and 
 how fixed and inexorable they are . . . but I shall trust 
 God, as I have in the past, for strength and opportunity 
 for further usefulness. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Rev. Wilton Merle Smith, D.D. 
 
 29 W. 54th St., New York. 
 
 His letter to Vilas, the only surviving member of his 
 first Cabinet, he wrote, in reminiscent mood: 
 
 Stuart, Fla., March 24, IQ06, 
 
 My dear Mr. Vilas, 
 
 In this rather secluded place where I have come to 
 seek rest and recreation, many kind congratulations upon 
 my sixty-ninth birthday have reached me. They have all 
 been delightful and comforting to me; but none have 
 touched me so deeply as yours. Twenty-one years is 
 really a long time; and yet without dwelling upon their 
 
SUNSET DAYS 373 
 
 actual number how short a time it seems since on the 
 4th day of March, 1885, seven of the best and most 
 patriotic men in our country joined me in the highest 
 executive work. It would have been strange indeed if 
 the national responsibilities and perplexities of the next 
 four years—nobly shared by all—had not grappled us 
 together by bands stronger and more enduring than steel. 
 It is one of the most impressive thoughts that enter my 
 mind in these days, that of all that circle you and I alone 
 remain. 
 
 And so it is, that your letter recalling this, and bring¬ 
 ing to my mind our free, frank and trustful association, 
 and manifesting the same unrestrained affection as of old, 
 comes so near my heart. . . . 
 
 With thanks for your continued kindly remembrance 
 of me, and its beautiful expression just at this time, I am, 
 
 Faithfully your friend, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Hon. Wm. F. Vilas, 
 
 Madison, Wis. 
 
 George Allen Bennett, aged nine, received this reply: 
 
 Stuart, Florida. 
 March 30, IQ06. 
 
 My dear little friend : 
 
 I am very glad you wrote me a letter of congratula¬ 
 tion and good wishes on my birthday. And I thank you 
 for kindly thinking of me. We ought to be very good 
 friends, if we were born on the same day of the month, 
 though there is a difference of sixty years in our ages. 
 The years seem to pass much more quickly, as a person 
 grows older and when you arrive at the age of sixty-nine, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 374 
 
 as I have done, you will wonder at the short distance 
 between nine and sixty-nine. 
 
 I think the 18th of March is the best day in all the 
 year to be born on and I hope you do too. I wish for 
 you a great many Happy Birthdays, and that as each one 
 passes, there will be such increase in your mental and 
 moral growth and such improvement in every way that 
 you will be insured a life of honor and usefulness. 
 
 Your friend 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Master George Allen Bennett 
 
 North Ridgefield, Conn. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland loved children and this letter is the 
 result of the natural impulse of that affection. One of 
 his law partners in the old days in Buffalo has recorded 
 the fact that in furnishing his bachelor apartments “his 
 fondness for children was shown in a preponderance of 
 children’s pictures in the photographs scattered about.” 
 And another friend of early days recalls the fact that, 
 while Governor of New York, he used to walk every 
 day from his residence to the Capitol, and always greeted 
 each child whom he met with “Hello, little one!” Not 
 infrequently he received and always enjoyed the retort: 
 “Hello, little one!” During one of Judge Hornblower’s 
 visits to Mr. Cleveland, when Ruth was a very new baby, 
 he drew out from his overcoat pocket and displayed to 
 the ex-President a sadly dilapidated doll which his 
 daughter, Susie, aged five, had asked her father to take to 
 little Ruth when she heard that the latter was ill. The 
 conversation then turned to other matters, and when the 
 Judge returned home he carried the doll with him, for¬ 
 gotten. The next day he received from Mr. Cleveland 
 the following letter: 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 375 
 
 My dear Mr. Hornblower: 
 
 I scarcely do anything just now but read the kindest 
 messages of congratulation and receive in every possible 
 way manifestations of the kindness which pervades the 
 people of the Land. 
 
 And yet nothing has come near touching me so much 
 as the incident of to-day relating to the gift your little 
 daughter sent to mine. 
 
 I do not know why you did not leave the doll with 
 me. Nothing could have been more dear to the mother 
 than the doll which a little girl, and your daughter, was 
 willing to give up to our new baby. 
 
 I do not want your child to feel that her gift was not 
 valued for what it was worth. It meant so much to her 
 that it means a very great deal to us. 
 
 I wish we could have the doll and that its precious 
 little donor could receive our heartfelt thanks, with the 
 assurance that when our child first plays with a doll it 
 shall be with the one she gave her. 
 
 Of course if we are to have it, it must be in the exact 
 shape it was in when I saw it to-day. 
 
 Yours sincerely 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 'The closing months of 1906 were uneventful, save for 
 ceaseless pleas for speeches. But he was weary of speak¬ 
 ing, and refused every call which did not lay a hand 
 upon his conscience. He did, however, promise, at the 
 urgent request of the Union League Club of Chicago, to 
 deliver the Washington’s Birthday address of 1907, under 
 their auspices, although he shrank from the idea of the 
 labor which such a promise entailed. Having completed 
 it, he wrote to George F. Parker: “I have just finished a 
 terrific and not a very victorious struggle in the prepara- 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 376 
 
 tion of something to say at Chicago on Washington’s 
 Birthday. I am consoled, however, by the reflection that 
 it concludes probably my perplexities in that direction 
 for the period of my natural life, and during the ensuing 
 eternity, unless I fail to ‘arrive,’ as I hope to do.” 
 
 Armed with his manuscript he reached Chicago, only 
 to find that he could not escape with a single address. 
 Indeed, he had made four before that strenuous twenty- 
 second of February closed. His principal speech, a trib¬ 
 ute to the memory of George Washington, was at once a 
 eulogy and a warning. He read it from the manuscript 
 with neither gesture nor sign of emotion, save when he 
 turned from his praise of the first President to denounce 
 the corruption, extravagance, and dishonesty of dema¬ 
 gogues, or to attack a too slavish adherence to party and 
 partisan interests. 
 
 “If your observance of this day,” he said, “were in¬ 
 tended to make more secure the immortal fame of Wash¬ 
 ington, or to add to the strength and beauty of his imper¬ 
 ishable monument built upon a nation’s affectionate 
 remembrance, your purpose would be useless. Washing¬ 
 ton has no need of you. But in every moment from the 
 time he drew his sword in the cause of American 
 Independence to this hour, living or dead, the American 
 people have needed him. It is not important now, nor 
 will it be in all the coming years, to remind our country¬ 
 men that Washington has lived. ... But it is important 
 —and more important now than ever before—that they 
 should clearly apprehend and adequately value the vir¬ 
 tues and ideal of which he was the embodiment. . . . 
 There should be no toleration of even the shade of a 
 thought that what Washington did and said and wrote 
 . . . has become in the least outworn, or that in these 
 days of material advance and development they may be 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 3.77 
 
 merely pleasantly recalled with a sort of affectionate 
 veneration, and with a kind of indulgent and loftily cour¬ 
 teous concession of the value of Washington’s example 
 and precepts. These constitute the richest of our crown 
 jewels.” 
 
 In the evening he was introduced to the diners at 
 the Union League Club by President Charles S. Cutting, 
 who referred to the question: “What shall we do with 
 our ex-Presidents?” Mr. Cleveland’s reply was a genial 
 comment upon the solution recently proposed by a promi¬ 
 nent editor-enemy: “Take him out into a five-acre lot and 
 shoot him.” “That proposition,” he said, “has never had 
 my support. In the first place, a five-acre lot seems 
 needlessly large, and in the second place an ex-President 
 has already suffered enough. . . .” 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s delight at the attentions received on 
 his sixty-ninth anniversary prompted his friends to un¬ 
 dertake a larger celebration for the seventieth. In fact, 
 they dared to plan a national observance of the birthday 
 of the man who, ten years before, had left the White 
 House a fallen leader, with few, even among his own 
 party, prepared to do him reverence. Time, the revealer 
 of all things, had dealt kindly with his fame, until now 
 he who had never courted favor, even within his own 
 party, found it in both parties. 
 
 John H. Finley, then President of the College of the 
 City of New York, suggested that the day be kept as the 
 nation’s “out-of-doors day,” and a flock of eager reporters 
 arrived at Princeton to request Mr. Cleveland’s reaction 
 to the suggestion. They were received with cordiality, 
 and retired primed with an interview upon the benefits 
 of the simple life. 
 
 “I look with apprehension,” he said, “upon the mad 
 rush of American life, which is certain to impair the 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 378 
 
 mental and physical vigor necessary to every human be¬ 
 ing. The wholesome sentiments which spring from 
 country life are being overwhelmed by the ambitions 
 and tendencies that flow out from our great cities. Few 
 have the hardihood to withstand the swirl and rush of 
 city life, or to remain indifferent to the promises of sud¬ 
 den wealth and the excitement of speculation in a metrop¬ 
 olis, where immense fortunes are made and lost in a 
 single day. . . . 
 
 “We are proud of our cities, of course. But we must 
 not allow them wholly to shape our ideals and our am¬ 
 bitions. Nothing that the wealth of a city can buy will 
 atone for the loss of that American sturdiness and inde¬ 
 pendence which the farm and the small town have so 
 frequently produced. ... In my experience I have found 
 that impressions which a man receives who walks by 
 the brookside or in the forest or by the seashore make 
 him a better man and a better citizen. They lift him 
 above the worries of business and teach him of a power 
 greater than human power.” 
 
 Just before his birthday, he started south on a hunt¬ 
 ing trip, thus setting a good example to the millions who 
 were asked to observe “out-of-doors day.” Upon his 
 seventieth birthday, therefore, only one letter reached 
 him; but that one made all others unnecessary to his con¬ 
 tentment : 
 
 Princeton, N. J. 
 
 March IS, 1907. 
 
 My DEAREST: 
 
 I am so afraid that I will not get your birthday letter 
 to you in time that I suppose it will be a day ahead! 
 And maybe you will reach home anyway and so not get 
 it, but in that case I think I might be able to express 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 379 
 
 my birthday thoughts to you. I hope you will be well 
 on Monday, just as well as you can be, then things will 
 look bright to you and your new year will begin happily. 
 Then I hope you will keep well, and it will go a long 
 long way toward making your year happy. I hate to 
 have you away on your birthday, but I realize that it 
 will save you some strain—for many people seem to be 
 thinking of you at this time. We all send much much 
 love, and all the deepest best wishes of our hearts—and 
 my heart is full of gratitude for what the years of your 
 life have meant to me. You know how dearly I love 
 you. You do not mind my saying it over, any day, and 
 you won’t mind it on this especial day—so I repeat it 
 and repeat it, and I ask God’s blessing on you for all 
 the days. 
 
 Your loving wife 
 
 Frank. 
 
 The oak box tells the tale of how many people were 
 thinking of him on his seventieth birthday, and of how 
 he cherished the records of their affection. It contains 
 hundreds of letters and telegrams from men, women, and 
 children in all walks of life, expressing pride, gratitude, 
 and affection for this retired leader of men. One of the 
 tributes which he most valued was an editorial in the 
 New York Sun, so long his relentless persecutor and 
 defamer. It declared: “As President, Mr. Cleveland 
 enforced the laws and did not truckle to organized vio¬ 
 lence or crouch before public clamor. The man who 
 taught the Chicago labor lords that there was a Govern¬ 
 ment at Washington, the man who wrote the Venezuela 
 message, is sure of an honorable place in history and of 
 the final approval of his countrymen.” In sending this 
 editorial to Mr. Cleveland, Edwin Packard wrote: “If 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 380 
 
 Mr. Dana were living, I think that even he would make 
 amends.” 
 
 The day was celebrated at Caldwell, New Jersey, 
 by the unveiling of a tablet in the room where he was 
 born. Unsentimental though he appeared to the out¬ 
 sider, his heart was as responsive as that of a child, de¬ 
 spite his long life of conflict; and this mark of affection 
 touched the deepest emotions of his nature. To Richard 
 Watson Gilder, one of the prime movers in the plan to 
 make his birthplace also his memorial, he wrote: 
 
 Princeton, March 25, IQOJ. 
 
 My dear Mr. Gilder : 
 
 It was a complete misfit—a travesty on things as they 
 should be—that I should be disporting in balmy air and 
 all creature comforts, while you cold, hungry, and miser¬ 
 ably forlorn, were finding your way to Caldwell, for the 
 purpose of marking the time and place of my birth. You 
 did what you ought not to have done. There is no proc¬ 
 ess of calculation by which it can be made to appear a 
 profitable investment for you. And yet when men reach 
 the age of seventy, I believe their mental movements 
 grow self-centered to such an extent, that consciously or 
 unconsciously, they sort of believe their gratitude to be 
 in some measure compensatory to those who honor them 
 or suffer discomforts on their behalf. 
 
 I am so new to this venerable age of seventy, that I 
 cannot tell at this moment how much I am under the 
 influence of this idea. But my dear friend, one thing I 
 know: Your kindnesses have been so many, and have 
 extended through so many years, that the pages set apart 
 for their record are full; and I long ago abandoned all 
 hope of redeeming the one-sidedness of the account. 
 
 You must I think see how impossible it is for me to 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 do more than to say to you, that I am profoundly moved 
 by the conception of the Caldwell incident and by the 
 beauty*of its completed manifestation. It stands for the 
 thoughtfulness and affectionate remembrance of friends 
 nearer my heart than all others. 
 
 Yours faithfully 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 Richard W. Gilder 
 
 Editor of The Century Magazine 
 New York. 
 
 Among the many verses written in honor of the day, 
 are the following by Eliza H. Morton: 
 
 “Time’s hand has lightly touched thy brow 
 With lines of care. 
 
 And as he touched, he whispered ‘peace,’ 
 
 And stamped it there.” 
 
 In general, his own reactions were less serious. To 
 Commodore Benedict he wrote, when the day was over: 
 “I am already regarding it as a small performance to 
 do so easy a trick.” 
 
 So successful had been the plan to encourage a nation¬ 
 wide crop of birthday letters that he found it impossible 
 to send personal acknowledgments. He therefore in¬ 
 serted in the New York Times the following grateful 
 confession of helpless appreciation: “It seems to be im¬ 
 possible for me to acknowledge, except through the press 
 of the country, the generosity and kindly consideration of 
 my countrymen, which have been made manifest by con¬ 
 gratulatory messages and newspaper comment on the 
 occasion of my seventieth birthday. These have deeply 
 touched me, and in the book of grateful recollection they 
 are written where every remaining day of my life I can 
 turn a page and read them.” 
 
382 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 The drift of politics during the next few months left 
 him still uncertain which national organization was most 
 entitled to be called by disciples of the “True Democ¬ 
 racy” the common enemy. Eagerly he watched for 
 signs of the long-hoped-for Democratic redemption, and 
 found none. Bryanism was still Democracy, and Cleve¬ 
 land was as unwilling as ever to acknowledge the iden¬ 
 tity. Of Republican regeneration he had long since 
 ceased even to dream, for the promises of McKinleyism, 
 which his influence had done so much to enthrone, had 
 bitterly disappointed him; while its successor, Roose- 
 veltism, had never appealed to him as having even 
 promise. “Concerning . . . political affairs,” he wrote 
 to Benedict, on August 17, 1907, “I feel like the farmer 
 who started at the bottom of a hill with a wagon load of 
 corn and discovered at the hill top that every grain of 
 his load had slid out under the tail board. Though of a 
 profane temperament, he stood mutely surveying his dis¬ 
 aster until to a passing neighbor, who asked him why he 
 didn’t swear, he replied: ‘Because by God I cannot do 
 the subject justice.’ ” 
 
 For the Commodore’s further delectation, he thus 
 pictured his conception of the politics of the day, in 
 which both parties looked strangely alike to him: 
 
 “I see our President has been making another ‘Yes, I 
 guess not’ speech on business, corporations, etc., and has 
 told the farmers how completely they should have the 
 land and the fullness thereof; Gov. Hughes seems to be 
 attempting neck-breaking acrobatics; Bryan smiles at 
 both of them while performing his continuous tight-rope 
 dance; and Hearst in his cage of wild beasts waits his 
 turn to surprise and shock the multitude—‘Open every 
 hour of the day and night gentlemen; wonderful vaude¬ 
 ville performance—all seen under one tent.’ ” 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 383 
 
 He did not hesitate to declare, however, that if Bryan 
 should be again nominated by the Democrats, he would 
 vote for a Republican, should a satisfactory man be 
 selected. When pressed for his opinion as to “a satis¬ 
 factory man,” he declared that he would consider Secre¬ 
 tary Cortelyou such an one, and added: “I know of no 
 one whom I could more heartily and conscientiously sup¬ 
 port.” When Colonel John J. McCook asked him to 
 name a Democrat whom he would be willing to support, 
 he replied, “either Harmon or Gray.” 
 
 As the spring approached, the political atmosphere 
 took on the peculiar tenseness familiar to every man who 
 has dreamed of national political power; and the hope¬ 
 fulness which had carried him through so many appar¬ 
 ently desperate political battles began to return, despite 
 his physical condition. On March 14th, he bared his 
 heart to his old friend, E. Prentiss Bailey: 
 
 “I cannot rid myself of the idea that our party, which 
 has withstood so many clashes with our political oppo¬ 
 nents, is not doomed at this time to sink to a condition 
 of useless and lasting decadence. In my last letter to you 
 I expressed myself as seeing some light ahead for Democ¬ 
 racy. I cannot help feeling at this time that the light is 
 still brighter. It does seem to me that movements have 
 been set in motion which, though not at the present time 
 of large dimensions, promise final relief from the burden 
 which has so long weighed us down. I have lately come 
 to the conclusion that our best hope rests upon the nomi¬ 
 nation of Johnson of Minnesota. The prospects to my 
 mind appear as bright with him as our leader as with 
 any other, and whether we meet with success or not, I 
 believe with such a leader we shall take a long step in 
 the way of returning to our old creed and the old policies 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 384 
 
 and the old pians of organization which have heretofore 
 led us to victory. 
 
 “I received a letter a few days ago from Judge Dona¬ 
 hue of New York, an old war-horse of Democracy, now 
 84 years old, but still active in the practice of his profes¬ 
 sion. He said to me that, though he was by a number of 
 years older than I, he not only hoped but expected to live 
 to see a Democratic President in the White House. I 
 often think that with my seventy-one years to be com¬ 
 pleted in four days now, such a hope and expectation on 
 my part can hardly be reasonably entertained; but I con¬ 
 fess that I am somewhat ashamed of such pessimistic feel¬ 
 ing when I read the cheery and confident words con¬ 
 tained in this old veteran’s letter. I do not want you 
 to suppose that a feeling of pessimism toward political 
 affairs is habitual with me. On the contrary, such a con¬ 
 dition of mind is quite infrequent and so temporary that 
 it yields quickly to a better mood and a settled conviction 
 that our party before many years will march from the 
 darkness to the full light of glorious achievement. . . 
 
 His seventy-first birthday—and his last—found him 
 with strength greatly depleted by the frequent gastro¬ 
 intestinal attacks complicated by organic disease of the 
 heart and kidneys from which he had suffered, with in¬ 
 creasing violence, for many years. His loss of vitality 
 alarmed his family and his physicians who, however, 
 guarded the secret that his condition was serious. On 
 April 14th, Mrs. Cleveland wrote, in strict confidence, to 
 George F. Parker: “We have tried not to have it known, 
 but he has had another attack within the last few days. 
 While not so serious in itself, it came so soon after the one 
 preceding that he was not so strong as usual, and it has 
 left him in much weaker condition.” 
 
 As the days passed it became more evident that he 
 
SUNSET DAYS 
 
 385 
 
 could not rally the strength to resist this new attack, and 
 he prepared to face the final battle of his strenuous life; 
 but with little hope of earthly victory. His affairs were 
 in order. He awaited his summons. 
 
 “During these last weeks,” writes his sister, Mrs. Yeo¬ 
 mans, “he sent to his old home for one of the worn hymn 
 books that were used at family prayers in his boyhood.” 
 His mind instinctively reverted to the early lessons of 
 hope which had been the inspiration of his life. “As 
 weakness more encroached,” wrote St. Clair McKelway, 
 “he faced toward the inevitable with trust in the Al¬ 
 mighty and with good will to mankind. The intent look 
 which often came into his face was not due to appre¬ 
 hension.” 
 
 On June 24, 1908, at 8.40 in the morning he died, as 
 he had often expressed the wish to die, in his Princeton 
 home, with his beloved wife beside him. His parting 
 words are the key to his life: “I have tried so hard to 
 do right.” 
 
 His body was buried in the old Princeton Cemetery 
 two days later, just as the setting sun touched the rim of 
 the horizon. There, to-day, stands his simple grave¬ 
 stone, a shaft of granite on which is carved: 
 
 Grover Cleveland 
 Born Caldwell, N. J. 
 
 March 18th, 1837 
 Died Princeton, N. J. 
 
 June 24th, 1908. 
 
 A mile away rises his national monument, the Cleve¬ 
 land Memorial Tower, erected by the contributions of 
 men and women of varied races and political affiliations, 
 many of whom had never seen his face, but all of whom 
 wished thus to pay their homage to a great American. 
 
3 86 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Living, he dared to disregard party in the service of 
 principle. Dying, he named no party as his heir. Dead, 
 no party and no faction can fairly claim a monopoly of 
 the glory with which the advancing years are steadily 
 crowning his memory. 
 
 In the little oak box by his bedside was found a copy 
 of Whittier’s beautiful poem, “At Last”: 
 
 “When on my day of life the night is falling, 
 
 And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown, 
 
 I hear far voices out of darkness calling 
 My feet to paths unknown, 
 
 Thou, who hast made my home of life so pleasant, 
 
 Leave not its tenant when its walls decay; 
 
 O Love Divine, O Helper ever present, 
 
 Be Thou my strength and stay!” 
 
SOURCES 
 
 A. Primary Sources. 
 
 Partly in manuscript form; partly in the form of 
 printed documents. The manuscripts consist chiefly of 
 memoranda, diaries,- letters written by Mr. Cleveland, 
 and those written to him, speeches, etc., etc. 
 
 The printed primary sources are chiefly public docu¬ 
 ments, city, county, state or national, which have been 
 published either as public archives or as private collec¬ 
 tions. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland, as have all our Presidents, left an 
 enormous mass of manuscript material, but he left it in 
 chaotic condition. The papers were packed into rough 
 wooden boxes, without systematic arrangement, the im¬ 
 portant and the unimportant thrown together; and many 
 of the most valuable manuscripts contain neither title, 
 date, nor other indication of the purpose for which they 
 were prepared. In most cases, except personal letters, 
 the very authorship of the manuscript would be in doubt 
 but for the fact that all are written in “copper plate,” as 
 he called his own neat but distressingly illegible hand¬ 
 writing. Practically every letter, message, proclamation, 
 executive order, even the publicity notices and the suc¬ 
 cessive copies of addresses often revised, are wholly in 
 his own hand. 
 
 He apparently made no attempt to keep his files com¬ 
 plete, and frequently the only copy of an important docu¬ 
 ment was given to some friend who wished a specimen 
 of his handwriting. 
 
 The forty or fifty thousand miscellaneous documents, 
 
 387 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 388 
 
 mostly letters to the President, but including the final 
 copies of many of his presidential messages, which he 
 brought from Washington at the end of his public life, 
 he stored in a wing of Colonel Lamont’s country house at 
 Millbrook, New York, and apparently forgot. These, 
 with a collection of thirty thousand manuscripts from the 
 Library of Congress, and a smaller one from the attic of 
 his Princeton home, constitute the bulk of the manuscript 
 sources upon which his biography has been based. 
 
 I. THE CLEVELAND MANUSCRIPTS 
 
 (1) Memoranda from the following: 
 
 (a) Mr. Cleveland’s sisters, Mrs. Yeo¬ 
 mans and Mrs. Bacon: sketches of his child¬ 
 hood days, giving glimpses such as only the 
 members of his own family could give. 
 
 (b) Richard Watson Gilder, one of Mr. 
 Cleveland’s most intimate friends: a collec¬ 
 tion of notes made immediately after impor¬ 
 tant conversations with Mr. Cleveland. They 
 are written upon the backs of envelopes, or 
 stray scraps of paper of odd sizes and irregu¬ 
 lar shapes. Many of them are almost illeg¬ 
 ible, but all are worth the trouble of decipher¬ 
 ing. 
 
 (c) John G. Milburn, an eminent lawyer, 
 whose friendship extended back into Mr. 
 Cleveland’s Buffalo days: a series of com¬ 
 ments upon important incidents in Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s public and private life. 
 
 (d) Milburn and Locke: documents used 
 by John G. Milburn and Franklin Day Locke 
 in the trial of a suit brought by the Rev. 
 George H. Ball against the Evening Post 
 
SOURCES 389 
 
 Publishing Company, and involving the 
 famous case of Maria Halpin. 
 
 (e) A committee of sixteen Republicans 
 and Independents: a report upon the personal 
 character of Grover Cleveland, made to the 
 Mugwump National Committee during the 
 presidential campaign of 1884. 
 
 (f) The Reverend Wilton Merle-Smith: 
 bearing upon Mr. Cleveland’s religious views. 
 
 (g) William B. Hornblower, with a sup¬ 
 plementary memorandum prepared from 
 Judge Hornblower’s papers by his son, 
 George Hornblower: especial reference to the 
 circumstances connected with Judge Horn- 
 blower’s appointment as an Associate Justice 
 of the Supreme Court, and his rejection by 
 the Senate. 
 
 (h) Otto Gresham, son of Secretary of 
 State Gresham: relating to Mr. Cleveland’s 
 dealings with currency problems, and espe¬ 
 cially with the question of his influence upon 
 the currency declarations of the Republican 
 National Convention of 1896. 
 
 (i) Many of Mr. Cleveland’s friends or 
 close associates, including Elihu Root, 
 Charles W. Eliot, Cardinal Gibbons, Edward 
 W. Hatch, Thomas Cary, Chauncey M. 
 Depew, Adlai E. Stevenson, etc., etc.: brief 
 memoranda relating to particular incidents or 
 impressions. 
 
 Diaries: 
 
 A small pocket diary, in pencil, beginning 
 August 27, 1898, and ending September 27, 
 1905. It contains 122 closely written pages. 
 
390 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Most of the entries relate to fishing. Diaries 
 for the years 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903, 1904, and 
 1905. Many of the pages are left blank, many 
 contain only a few lines of notes, but they are 
 of sufficient biographical value to cause regret 
 that the volumes for 1900 and 1902 are 
 missing. 
 
 (3) Letters: 
 
 For the most part Grover Cleveland’s let¬ 
 ters were gathered from garrets and dusty pri¬ 
 vate files all over the land. Their locations 
 were discovered by studying Mr. Cleveland’s 
 own personal papers, noting the names of all 
 persons with whom he appeared to have been 
 upon terms making likely a personal corre¬ 
 spondence, and writing to the persons in ques¬ 
 tion, or to descendants or relatives. In this 
 way about 1300 manuscript letters were re¬ 
 covered : 
 
 (a) Letters to Cabinet members: 
 
 102 to Wilson S. Bissell; 38 to Judson Har¬ 
 mon; 29 to Don M. Dickinson; 120 to Daniel 
 S. Lamont; 117 to Richard T. Olney; 90 all 
 told to the following: William C. Endicott, 
 Walter Q. Gresham, Charles S. Fairchild, 
 Thomas F. Bayard, William F. Vilas. 
 
 (b) Letters to personal friends, acquaint¬ 
 
 ances, etc.: 
 Louis L. Babcock 
 E. Prentiss Bailey 
 Commodore E. C. Benedict 
 Mrs. W. Cabell Bruce 
 Dr. Joseph B. Bryant 
 Andrew Carnegie 
 
 Thomas Cary 
 Mrs. Julius C. Chambers 
 Mrs. Robert W. Chapin 
 Joseph H. Choate 
 James Freeman Clarke 
 William Clausen 
 
SOURCES 
 
 391 
 
 George B. Cortelyou 
 Frederic R. Coudert 
 Paul D. Cravath 
 Mrs. A. B. Creasey 
 William J. Curtis 
 L. Clarke Davis 
 Bernard S. Deutsch 
 Mrs. Louis R. Ehrich 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot 
 
 George W. Hayward 
 D-Cady Herrick 
 F. W. Hinrichs 
 William B. Hornblower 
 Joseph Jefferson 
 Daniel M. Lockwood 
 Dr. Wilton Merle-Smith 
 Alton B. Parker 
 George F. Parker 
 
 Admiral Robley D. Evans Theodore Roosevelt 
 A. B. Farquhar Edward M. Shepard 
 
 Dr. John H. Finley Oscar Straus 
 
 Mrs. Roderick E. Fletcher Henry T. Thurber 
 Colonel David M. Flynn Mrs. Charles Tracy 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons 
 Richard Watson Gilder 
 A. C. Goodyear 
 John Temple Graves 
 John S. Green 
 M. D. Harter 
 
 Lambert Tree 
 Dr. Samuel B. Ward 
 Dean Andrew Fleming West 
 A. A. Wilson 
 Woodrow Wilson 
 Dr. Charles Wood 
 Of these, the letters to Commodore Bene¬ 
 dict alone number 279, and all touch upon the 
 lighter things of life: fishing, hunting, boat¬ 
 ing, cribbage, etc. 
 
 Mr. Julian B. Beaty, Mr. Cleveland’s pri¬ 
 vate secretary in 1904, kindly reproduced 
 from his notebooks copies of 115 letters dic¬ 
 tated by Mr. Cleveland during that year; Mr. 
 George S. Bixby, the biographer of David B. 
 Hill, sent a considerable collection which 
 Mr. Cleveland wrote to Mr. Hill during the 
 years of political association; and Mrs. H. F. 
 Reid sent nineteen letters and one telegram to 
 Ernest Gittings. 
 
392 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 In these letters we see the man himself, 
 simple, frank, and fearless, with the spirit 
 of a crusader humanized by a sense of humor 
 and a gift for friendship. Without them it 
 would be difficult to picture him, for his for¬ 
 mal papers are one and all wholly impersonal. 
 
 II. PRINTED SOURCES. 
 
 (i) State Collections 
 
 Public Papers of Grover Cleveland as Gov¬ 
 ernor, one volume for 1883 and one volume 
 for 1884. Argus Co., 1883 and 1884. There 
 is a later edition in which the two years are 
 bound together in one volume. 
 
 ^2) Federal Collections 
 
 The documents sent by President Cleve¬ 
 land to Congress, in connection with his vari¬ 
 ous messages, are printed in the records of 
 Congress, and are far too numerous for de¬ 
 tailed discussion. The following are cited as 
 having special reference to outstanding ques¬ 
 tions of foreign policy: 
 
 (a) The Samoan Affair. The chief docu¬ 
 ments are in: 
 
 (1st) House Exec. Doc., 164, 44th 
 Congress, 1st Session, which gives the 
 political history of Samoa. Foreign 
 Relations, 1894, Appx. I, for Bates 
 report. 
 
 (2d) Foreign Relations, 1889, pp. 
 204-231, for texts of protocols on 
 Samoan Conferences among Euro¬ 
 pean nations. 
 
SOURCES 393 
 
 (3d) House Exec. Doc., 238, 50th 
 Congress, 1st Session. 
 
 (4th) Senate Exec. Doc., 31, 50th 
 Congress, 2d Session; Senate Exec. 
 Doc., 68, 50th Congress, 2d Session. 
 
 (b) The Hawaiian Affair: 
 
 (1st) Foreign Relations, 1891. 
 (2d) Foreign Relations, 1894, 
 Appx. II. 
 
 (3d) Foreign Relations, Volume 
 VI. 
 
 (4th) House Exec. Doc., 130, 
 
 49th Congress, 2d Session, Volume 
 XXIII. 
 
 (5th) House Exec. Doc., 48, 53rd 
 Congress, 2d Session. 
 
 (c) The Venezuelan Affair: 
 
 (1st) The British Blue Book, 97, 
 1896. 
 
 (2d) Senate Exec. Doc., 31, 54th 
 Congress, 1st Session. 
 
 (3d) Senate Exec. Doc., 226, 50th 
 Congress, 1st Session. 
 
 (4th) Senate Miscellaneous 
 Docs., 54th Congress, 1st Session, 
 Volume I. 
 
 (3th) The British-Venezuelan 
 Treaty, which ended the controversy, 
 is in Foreign Relations, 1896, p. 254. 
 (3) Miscellaneous Collections 
 
 (a) The Public Papers of Grover Cleve¬ 
 land, Twenty-Second President of the United 
 States, March 4, 1885, t0 March 4, 1889. 
 
394 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Washington Government Printing Office, 
 1889. 
 
 (b) Writings and Speeches of Grover 
 
 Cleveland, edited by George F. Parker. Cas¬ 
 sell Publishing Co., New York, 1892. 571 
 
 pages. A collection of Cleveland documents, 
 1881 to 1892, arranged according to topics. 
 
 (c) Principles and Purposes of our Form 
 
 of Government as Set Forth in the Public Pa¬ 
 pers of Grover Cleveland. Compiled by Fran¬ 
 cis Gottsberger. George G. Peck, New York, 
 1892. 187 pages of extracts from Grover 
 
 Cleveland’s speeches, letters, and public pa¬ 
 pers from 1885 to 1892, without editorial 
 comment. 
 
 (d) Messages and Papers of the Presi¬ 
 dents. Edited by James D. Richardson. 
 Government Printing Office, Washington, 
 1896 et seq. Volumes VIII and IX contain 
 the official executive documents issued by Mr. 
 Cleveland as President. 
 
 (e) The Public Papers of Grover Cleve¬ 
 land, Twenty-Fourth President of the United 
 States, March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1897. 
 Government Printing Office, Washington, 
 1897. 
 
 (f) Letters and Addresses of Grover 
 Cleveland. Edited by Albert Ellery Bergh. 
 The Unit Book Publishing Co., New York, 
 1909. One vol. 499 pages. The most com¬ 
 plete general collection of Mr. Cleveland’s 
 papers. 
 
SOURCES 
 
 395 
 
 B Secondary Sources 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s own books, pamphlets, and articles 
 written for publication; scrapbooks of newspaper clip¬ 
 pings; innumerable biographies, genealogical studies, 
 magazine articles, and pamphlets, published during his 
 life and since his death; and a vast mass of literature con¬ 
 taining incidental reference to him. These are obviously 
 too numerous to be catalogued exhaustively, but the fol¬ 
 lowing list will be found adequate to most demands: 
 
 I. WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION BY GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 (i) Books, pamphlets, etc. 
 
 (a) What Shall We Do with It? (mean¬ 
 ing the surplus). Taxation and revenue dis¬ 
 cussed by President Cleveland, J. G. Blaine, 
 H. Watterson, etc. Harper & Bros., New 
 York, 1888. 
 
 (b) Thou Shalt Not Steal. A few words 
 on the tariff by Grover Cleveland, W. E. Rus¬ 
 sell, etc. A. J. Philpott & Co., Boston, 1892. 
 29 pages. 
 
 (c) Cleveland on the Money Question. 
 Washington, D. C., 1895. 4 pages. 
 
 (d) The Self made Man in American 
 Life. T. Y. Crowell & Co., New York, 1897. 
 
 (e) The Defense of Fishermen. Privately 
 printed, Princeton, N. J., 1902. 13 pages. 
 
 (f) Presidential Problems. Century Co., 
 New York, 1904. One vol. 281 pages. A 
 painstaking description of the major conflicts 
 of his second term. The chapters are in es¬ 
 sence republications of his Stafford Little 
 Lectures at Princeton University, which are 
 available also in the form of booklets printed 
 
396 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 by the Princeton University Press under the 
 following titles: 
 
 (ist) The Venezuelan Boundary 
 Controversy, 1913, first printed as ar¬ 
 ticles in the Century Magazine, June 
 and July, 1901, Vol. LXII. 
 
 (2d) The Government in the Chi¬ 
 cago Strike, 1913. 
 
 (3d) The Independence of the 
 Executive, 1913. 
 
 (g) Fishing and Shooting Sketches . Il¬ 
 lustrated by Henry S. Watson. The Outing 
 Publishing Co., New York, 1906. 
 
 (h) In the Matter of State Legislation 
 Limiting the Compensation of Officers of In¬ 
 surance Companies . Brief in opposition 
 thereto. New York, 1907. 11 pages. 
 
 (i) Compulsory Investment Legislation . 
 Some considerations as to legislation requir¬ 
 ing life insurance companies to make invest¬ 
 ments in certain states in which they are do¬ 
 ing business. The Association of Life Insur¬ 
 ance Presidents, New York, 1907. 8 pages. 
 
 (2) Magazine and Newspaper Articles 
 
 (a) In the Saturday Evening Post: 
 
 “Does a College Education Pay?” 
 May 23, 1900. 
 
 “The Plight of the Democracy,” 
 December 22, 1900. 
 
 “The Young Man in Politics,” 
 January 26, 1901. 
 
 “The Uses of Adversity,” March 9, 
 1901. 
 
SOURCES 
 
 3.97 
 
 “Strength and Needs of Civil Serv¬ 
 ice Reform/’ March 30, 1901. 
 “The Waste of Public Money,” 
 June 1, 1901. 
 
 “The Safety of the President,” 
 October 3, 1901. 
 
 “A Defense of Fishermen,” Octo¬ 
 ber 19, 1901. 
 
 “The Serene Duck Hunter,” April 
 26, 1902. 
 
 “The President and His Patron¬ 
 age,” May 24, 1902. 
 
 “The Shadow of the City,” Septem¬ 
 ber 19, 1903. 
 
 “The Mission of Fishing and Fish¬ 
 ermen,” December 3, 1903. 
 
 “The Democracy’s Opportunity,” 
 February 20, 1904. 
 
 “The Cleveland Bond Issues,” May 
 
 7, 1904. 
 
 “Some Fishing Pretenses and Af¬ 
 fectations,” September 24, 1904. 
 “Why a Young Man Should Vote 
 the Democratic Ticket,” October 
 
 8, 1904. 
 
 “Old-Fashioned Honesty and the 
 Coming Man,” August 5, 1905. 
 “Directors That Do Not Direct,” 
 December 1, 1906. 
 
 By far the most important of these 
 articles is the one on the Cleveland 
 Bond Issues. Its sub-title shows the 
 character of the article: “A detailed 
 history of the crime charged against 
 
398 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 an administration that issued bonds of 
 the government in time of peace.” It 
 is about 10,000 words in length and 
 gives Mr. Cleveland’s interpretation 
 of the circumstances which made the 
 bpnd issues necessary. The original 
 MS. is among the Cleveland papers. 
 
 In the New York World of May 
 15, 1904, appears a detailed reply to 
 Mr. Cleveland’s arguments. 
 
 (b) In the Youth's Companion: 
 
 “The Civic Responsibility of 
 Youth,” July 2, 1903. 
 
 “The Country Lawyer in National 
 Affairs,” February 8, 1906. 
 
 “Our People and Their Ex-Presi¬ 
 dents,” January 2, 1908. 
 
 Jc) In th e Ladies’Home Journal: 
 
 “Woman’s Mission and Woman’s 
 Clubs,” May, 1905. 
 
 “Would Woman’s Suffrage Be Un¬ 
 wise?” October, 1905. 
 
 “The Honest American Marriage, 
 A Plea for Home-Building,” 
 October, 1906. 
 
 (d) In the Independent: 
 
 “Summer Shooting,” June 2, 1904. 
 
 “A Word Concerning Rabbit 
 Hunting,” June 1, 1905. 
 
 (e) In Collier’s: 
 
 “Steady, Democrats, Steady,” July 
 23, 1904. 
 
 (f) In the Pacific Monthly: 
 
SOURCES 
 
 399 
 
 “The Plight of Democracy and the 
 Remedy,” January, 1901. 
 
 (g) In the New York World, Sunday 
 Editorial Section, March 15, 1903: 
 
 “Adversity as an Aid to Success.” 
 
 II. WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION BY OTHERS 
 (1) Scrapbooks: 
 
 (a) The White House Scrapbooks, forty 
 volumes, containing clippings from daily and 
 weekly papers and magazines. In general 
 these clippings are grouped into volumes ac¬ 
 cording to topics, four volumes dealing 
 wholly with Civil Service Reforms, etc., etc. 
 
 (b) Wedding Scrapbooks, three large vol¬ 
 umes containing a varied assortment of clip¬ 
 pings and pictures relating to Mr. Cleveland’s 
 wedding. They were made by friends at the 
 time of the wedding and subsequently pre¬ 
 sented to the President. 
 
 (c) The Fairchild Scrapbooks, three vol¬ 
 umes, containing newspaper clippings and 
 press copies of letters relating chiefly to the 
 history of the campaign of 1892. 
 
 (d) The McKelway Scrapbooks, a set of 
 about a dozen large folio volumes, containing 
 chiefly articles and editorials written by Mr. 
 McKelway, as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle . 
 As Mr. McKelway was an intimate friend and 
 a strong political supporter of Mr. Cleveland, 
 these volumes are rich in biographical ma¬ 
 terial. 
 
 (e) George F. Parker Scrapbook of the 
 Presidential Campaign of 1884, made up 
 
400 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 chiefly of clippings from the New York 
 World, and containing many Cleveland car¬ 
 toons. 
 
 (f) 20th Century Press Clipping Bureau 
 of Chicago Scrapbook, covering the incidents 
 of Mr. Cleveland’s visit to Chicago in Octo¬ 
 ber, 1903. 
 
 (g) New York Public Library Scrap¬ 
 book of the death of Grover Cleveland. New 
 York, 1908. 
 
 (h) Princeton University Library Scrap¬ 
 book, devoted wholly to clippings concerning 
 Mr. Cleveland’s death. 
 
 (2) Biographies: 
 
 (a) Life and Public Services of Grover 
 Cleveland. By Pendleton King. G. P. Put¬ 
 nam’s Sons, New York, 1884. 224 pages. 
 
 (b) Life and Public Services of Grover 
 Cleveland . By Honorable William Dors- 
 heimer. Hubbard Brothers, Philadelphia, 
 1884. A new and enlarged edition was pre¬ 
 pared by W. U. Hensel, in preparation for the 
 Campaign of 1888. Hubbard Brothers, 
 Philadelphia. One vol. 588 pages. 
 
 (c) Life and Public Services of Grover 
 Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks. By 
 Chauncey F. Black. Thayer, Merriam & Co., 
 Philadelphia, 1884. 
 
 (d) B uilding and Ruling the Republic . 
 By James P. Boyd. Garretson, Philadelphia, 
 1884. P art 4- 
 
 (e) Campaign of 1884* Biographies of 
 S . Grover Cleveland, and Thomas A. Hen - 
 
SOURCES 4 OI 
 
 dricks . By Benjamin Le Fevre. Fireside 
 Publishing Co., Philadelphia, 1884. 
 
 (f) The Authorized Pictorial Lives of 
 Stephen Grover Cleveland and Thomas An¬ 
 drews Hendricks. By Frank Triplett. N. D. 
 Thompson & Co., Publishers, New York and 
 St. Louis, 1884. One vol. 568 pages. 
 
 (g) Stephen Grover Cleveland. By 
 Deshler Welch. J. W. Lovell Co., New York, 
 1884. 222 pages. Also published under the 
 title Life of Grover Cleveland, Worthing¬ 
 ton, New York, 1884. 
 
 (h) Early Life and Public Services of 
 Hon. Grover Cleveland, the fearless and in¬ 
 dependent Governor of the Empire State, and 
 candidate for President. . . . Also the Life of 
 Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, candidate for 
 Vice-President. By Thomas W. Handford. 
 Caxton Publishing Co., Chicago and New 
 York, 1884. 510 pages. 
 
 (i) The Life of Honorable Grover Cleve¬ 
 land, including his early days, District At¬ 
 torneyship, Mayoralty of Buffalo, Governor¬ 
 ship of New York, nomination at Chicago. 
 Edited by J. B. McClure. Rhodes and Mc¬ 
 Clure, Chicago, 1884. One vol. 218 pages. 
 
 (j) Life and Public Services of Grover 
 Cleveland, with incidents of his early life, and 
 an account of his rise to eminence in his pro¬ 
 fession; also containing his addresses and offi¬ 
 cial documents as Mayor of the City of 
 Buffalo, and Governor of the State of New 
 York. By Frederick E. Goodrich. B. B. 
 Russell, Boston, 1884. One vol. 504 pages. 
 
402 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 A valuable campaign biography. Abundantly 
 supplied with copies of documents accurately 
 transcribed, many of which are not easily 
 available elsewhere. As a campaign biog¬ 
 raphy, however, it is history written with the 
 intention of making the Democratic party ap¬ 
 pear spotless and the Republican party crook¬ 
 ed and unreliable, a thesis scarcely consistent 
 with fact in that period of the history of New 
 York or of the United States. 
 
 (k) A Man of Destiny . Edited by W. P. 
 Nixon. Belford, Clarke & Co., Chicago, 
 1885. 226 pages. 
 
 ( l ) Life and Public Services of Grover 
 Cleveland . By William U. Hensel and 
 George F. Parker. Guernsey Publishing Co., 
 Philadelphia, 1888 and 1892. 
 
 (m) Life and Public Services of Our 
 Great Reform President, Grover Cleveland . 
 By Col. Herman Dieck. J. Dewing & Co., 
 San Francisco, 1888. Also S. I. Bell & Co., 
 Philadelphia. 554 pages. 
 
 (n) Age of Cleveland . By Harold Ful¬ 
 ton Ralphdon. F. A. Stokes & Bros., New 
 York, 1888. 135 pages. Compiled from con¬ 
 temporary journals. Copy in Library of« 
 Congress. 
 
 (0) Grover Cleveland. ByWm.O. Stod¬ 
 dard. Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, 
 1888. One vol. 263 pages. The best cam¬ 
 paign biography of Grover Cleveland, cover¬ 
 ing a much wider field than tha L of Frederick 
 E. Goodrich, the only one comparable to it. 
 
 (p) Distinguished American Lawyers . 
 
SOURCES 403 
 
 By Henry W. Scott. Webster, New York, 
 
 1891. “Grover Cleveland,” pp. 161-172. 
 
 (q) The History of the Democratic Party 
 from Thomas Jefferson to Grover Cleveland . 
 . . . Lives of Cleveland and Stevenson. By 
 Chandos Fulton. P. F. Collier, New York, 
 
 1892. 608 pages. 
 
 (r) Life and Public Services of Grover 
 Cleveland . By William U. Hensel. Edge- 
 wood Publishing Co., Philadelphia, 1892. 
 556 pages. 
 
 (s) A Life of Grover Cleveland, with a 
 sketch of Adlai E. Stevenson. By George 
 Frederick Parker. Cassell Publishing Co., 
 New York, 1892. 333 pages. 
 
 (t) Cleveland and Stevenson, Their Lives 
 and Record . The Democratic campaign book 
 for 1892, with a handbook of American poli¬ 
 tics up to date, and a cyclopedia of presiden¬ 
 tial biography. Compiled by Thos. Camp- 
 bell-Copeland. C. L. Webster & Co., New 
 York, 1892. One vol. 438 pages. 
 
 (u) Grover Cleveland. By James Lowry 
 Whittle. Bliss, Sands & Co., London, 1896. 
 F. Warne & Co., New York, 1896. One vol. 
 240 pages. In series, “Public Men of Today.” 
 A badly digested sketch of Mr. Cleveland’s 
 life. Its strong British point of view appears 
 especially in Chapter XIV, “America and 
 Great Britain,” where the chief topic is the 
 Venezuelan controversy. It is a volume of 
 what is called popular history, showing little 
 research and no special grace of style or con¬ 
 ception. 
 
4°4 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 (v) Four Great American Presidents, 
 Garfield, McKinley, Cleveland, Roosevelt. 
 J. M. Stradling & Co., New York, 1903. 309 
 pages. 
 
 (w) Recollections of Grover Cleveland . 
 By George F. Parker. Century Co., New 
 York, 1909. One vol. 427 pages. A book of 
 considerable interest, containing the personal 
 recollections of a man closely associated with 
 Mr. Cleveland, especially during the latter 
 years of his life. It contains many personal 
 letters not elsewhere attainable. The same 
 author has written many magazine articles 
 about Mr. Cleveland, notably a series in the 
 Saturday Evening Post ending in 1923, and an 
 earlier series in McClure's Magazine, as fol¬ 
 lows: 
 
 (1st) “Cleveland the Man.” The 
 first administration and the second 
 campaign, v. 32, pp. 337-346- 
 
 (2d) “Cleveland’s Estimate of 
 His Contemporaries.” v. 33, pp. 
 24 - 34 - 
 
 (3d) “Cleveland’s Opinion of 
 Men.” v. 32, pp. 569-581. 
 
 (4th) “Cleveland’s Venezuela 
 Message.” v. 33, pp. 314-323. 
 
 (x) Mr. Cleveland, A Personal Impres¬ 
 sion. By Jesse Lynch Williams. Dodd, 
 Mead & Co., New York, 1909. 
 
 (y) Grover Cleveland , A Record of 
 Friendship. By Richard Watson Gilder. 
 Century Co., New York, 1910. First printed 
 as articles in the Century Magazine, New 
 
SOURCES 
 
 405 
 
 York, 1909, v. 78, pp. 483-503, 687-705, 846- 
 860; v. 79, pp. 24-31. An artistic little vol¬ 
 ume, of much literary merit; depicting the 
 human side of Grover Cleveland. 
 
 (z) Grover Cleveland, A Study in Polit¬ 
 ical Courage. By Roland Hugins. The 
 Anchor-Lee Publishing Co., Washington, 
 
 D. C., 1922. 
 
 (3) Genealogical Works: 
 
 (a) A Genealogy of Benjamin Cleveland, 
 the Great-Grandson of Moses Cleveland of 
 Woburn. By Horace Gillette Cleveland. 
 Rand McNally & Co., Chicago, 1879. 
 
 (b) A Genealogical Register of the De¬ 
 scendants of Moses Cleveland of Woburn, 
 Massachusetts. Munsell, Albany, 1881. 
 
 (c) An Account of the Lineage of Gen. 
 Moses Cleveland of Canterbury, Conn., the» 
 Founder of the City of Cleveland, Ohio. Also 
 a sketch of his life. By H. Rice. W. W. 
 Williams, Cleveland, Ohio, 1885. 
 
 (d) The New Fngland Ancestry of 
 Grover Cleveland. By W. K. Watkins and 
 
 E. Putnam. The Salem Press, 1892. Pri¬ 
 vately printed. 33 copies made. Contains 
 twenty-five pages, the first fifteen being taken 
 up with charts by Walter K. Watkins and 
 Eben Putnam. The rest is given up to notes 
 presenting items of particular interest in con¬ 
 nection with various members of the Cleve¬ 
 land family and collateral branches. 
 
 (e) The Genealogy of the Cleveland and 
 Cleaveland Families. Compiled by Ed- 
 
406 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 mund James Cleveland and Horace Gillette 
 Cleveland. Three vols. 3000 pages. The 
 Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 
 Hartford, Conn., 1899. An enormously de¬ 
 tailed work, covering a vast range of genea¬ 
 logical records. By far the most valuable 
 Cleveland genealogical work. 
 
 (4) Magazine Articles: 
 
 (a) “The President’s Policy.” By J. B. 
 Eustis, Wm. R. Grace, and Theodore Roose¬ 
 velt. North American Review, October, 
 1 885, pp. 374-396. An attempt to combine in 
 a single three-headed article a defense and a 
 denunciation. The article by Mr. Roosevelt 
 is the most interesting of the three, by virtue 
 of its picturesque, violent language, and its 
 frankly partisan criticisms. 
 
 (b) “Southern View of the Election of 
 Cleveland.” By A. G. Bradley. Macmillan's 
 Magazine, 1885. Vol. 51, p. 372. 
 
 (c) “Possible Presidents: President 
 Cleveland.” By D. B. Eaton, North Ameri¬ 
 can Review, 1887. Vol. 145, p. 629, et seq. 
 
 (d) “Democracy Photographed. The 
 Record of a Bogus Reformer. President 
 Cleveland, a Wanton Pledge-breaker.” New 
 York Tribune Extra, No. 100. New York, 
 1888. 
 
 (e) “The Political Effect of fhe Mes¬ 
 sage.” By B. Smith. North American Re¬ 
 view, 1888. Vol. V., p. 146, et seq. 
 
 (f) “La Lutte pour la Presidence aux 
 Etats-Unis.” By A. Moireau. Rev. d. Deux 
 Mondes, 1889. Vol. 91, p. 642, et seq . 
 
SOURCES 
 
 407 
 
 (g) “Regierung des Praesidenten Cleve¬ 
 land.” Unser Zeit, 1889. Vol. 2, p. 208, 
 et seq. 
 
 (h) “Defeat of President Cleveland.” 
 Contemporary Review, 1889. Vol. 55, p. 283, 
 et seq. 
 
 (i) “Cleveland a Popular Leader.” By 
 Wilbur Larremore. The Arena, January, 
 
 1891. Vol. 3, pp. 147-156. 
 
 (j) “What Mr. Cleveland Stands For.” 
 By Charles Francis Adams. Forum, July, 
 
 1892. Vol. 13, pp. 662-670. A brilliant, 
 characteristically frank defense of Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s record on the tariff, civil service, the 
 currency, and the pension question. It is also 
 a promise that the Independents will support 
 Mr. Cleveland in 1892. 
 
 (k) “Mr. Cleveland as President.” By 
 Woodrow Wilson. Atlantic Monthly, March, 
 1897. Vol. 79, pp. 289-300. 
 
 (l) “Second Administration of Grover 
 Cleveland.” By Carl Schurz. McClure's 
 Magazine, May, 1897. Vol. 9, pp. 633-644. 
 An article of great value by one of the recog¬ 
 nized leaders of Civil Service Reform, and a 
 Mugwump of great influence and ability. 
 
 (m) “Character Sketch of Grover Cleve¬ 
 land.” By William Allen White. McClure's 
 Magazine, February, 1902; Vol. 18, pp. 322- 
 330 . 
 
 (n) “Grover Cleveland.” By Lyman 
 Abbott. New York Genealogical and Biolog¬ 
 ical Record. New York, 1908. Vol. 39, pp. 
 237-241. 
 
408 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 (o) Tribute to the Memory of Grover 
 
 Cleveland, June 26, 1908. New York Cham¬ 
 ber of Commerce, 1908. 
 
 (p) “Grover Cleveland.” By Henry 
 
 Loomis Nelson. North American Review, 
 
 New York, 1908. Vol. 188, pp. 161-187. 
 
 (q) “Grover Cleveland, a Princeton 
 
 Memory.” By Andrew Fleming West. Cen¬ 
 tury Magazine, New York, 1908. Vol. 77, 
 
 PP- 323-337- 
 
 (r) “Cleveland as a Teacher in the Insti¬ 
 tution for the Blind.” By Fanny J. Crosby. 
 McGlure s Magazine f March, 1909, pp. 581- 
 583. A series of recollections prepared for 
 the Democratic Campaign Committee, and 
 containing little of interest or value. 
 
 (s) “Cleveland as a Lawyer.” By Wilson 
 S. Bissell. McClure's Magazine, Vol. 32, pp. 
 583-585. New York, 1909. 
 
 (t) “Grover Cleveland Memorial Meet¬ 
 ings in Brooklyn and Manhattan, 1909.” Ad¬ 
 dresses by Dr. St. Clair McKelway, President 
 William H. Taft, Senator Elihu Root, etc., 
 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1909. Eagle Library 
 No. 148. 
 
 (u) “Official Characteristics of President 
 Cleveland.” By Charles R. Lingley. Political 
 Science Quarterly, Lancaster, 1918. Vol. 
 
 33, pp- 255-265. 
 
 (5) Pamphlets: 
 
 (a) Address by Henry Ward Beecher at 
 the Brooklyn Rink, October 22, 1884. Circu¬ 
 lar No. 13 of National Committee of Repub- 
 
SOURCES 409 
 
 licans and Independents, New York, 1884. 
 8 pages. 
 
 (b) Cleveland and the Irish, true history 
 of the great Irish Revolt of 1884. By John 
 Devoy. Issued by the Irish-American Anti- 
 Cleveland and Protective League, New York, 
 1888. 8 pages. 
 
 (c) Tell the Truth, an anonymous pam¬ 
 phlet dealing, in a manner most unfair to Mr. 
 Cleveland, with the scandals of the presiden¬ 
 tial campaign of 1884. 
 
 (d) The Democratic Party and Civil 
 Service Reform. By the Young Men’s Demo¬ 
 cratic Club of Brooklyn. Issued on January 
 26, 1885, and containing a collection of ex¬ 
 tracts bearing upon the Civil Service Reform 
 movement and Mr. Cleveland’s relation 
 thereto. 16 pages. 
 
 (e) The Inauguration of Grover Cleve¬ 
 land, the President-elect, March 4, 1885. A 
 book for fifty million people. By Henry J. 
 Kintz. W. F. Fell & Co., Philadelphia, 1885. 
 
 (f) Defense of Grover Cleveland, in Re¬ 
 gard to His Treatment of the United States 
 Attorneys in Pennsylvania and Missouri. By 
 Edward M. Shepard. New York, 1887. 
 Privately printed. 23 pages. 
 
 (g) The Imaginary Conversations of 
 (< His Excellency” and Dan. By C. W. Taylor 
 with illustrations by F. H. Blair. Cupples 
 and Hurd, Boston, 1888. A burlesque very 
 popular in the days of Mr. Cleveland’s second 
 presidential campaign. 
 
 (h) Souvenir of the Reception and Din- 
 
410 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 ner given by the Young Men’s Democratic 
 Club of the City of New York, to the Honor¬ 
 able Grover Cleveland, New York, May 27, 
 1889. Contains the addresses of Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land, W. C. P. Breckinridge, David B. Hill, 
 Governor Hoadley of Ohio, Frederic R. Cou- 
 dert and Ashbel P. Fitch. 
 
 (i) Tammany Hall Souvenir of Inaugu¬ 
 
 ration of Cleveland and Stevenson. J. W. 
 McDonald & Co., New York, 1893. 148 
 
 pages. 
 
 (j) King George . Chronicles of His 
 
 Reign According to Simonides, the Scribe of 
 the Tribe of Lechay. First book. Published 
 by the author, Allentown, Pa., 1894. I2 & 
 
 pages. Written in the style of the Scriptures. 
 
 (k) Souvenir of the Annual Dinner of 
 the Reform Club, held at the Waldorf Hotel, 
 New York City, April 24, 1897. Martin B. 
 Brown Company, New York, 1897. Contains 
 Mr. Cleveland’s address entitled “Present 
 Problems,” and addresses by John G. Car¬ 
 lisle, William L. Wilson, Edward M. Shep¬ 
 ard, and others, all bearing more or less 
 directly upon the history of Mr. Cleveland’s 
 fight for a sound currency. 
 
 (l) Cleveland’s Last Message: Life in¬ 
 surance and its relationship to our people. 
 Spectator Publishing Co., New York, 1908. 
 
 (m) Good Citizenship. Henry Altemus, 
 Philadelphia, 1908. 
 
 (n) Tribute to Memory of Grover Cleve¬ 
 land, June 26, 1908, by Chamber of Commerce 
 
SOURCES 41X 
 
 of the State of New York. New York Cham¬ 
 ber of Commerce, 1908. 
 
 (0) Cleveland's Last Message, A Literary 
 Forgery . By Broughton Brandenburg. New 
 York, 1908. 15 pages. 
 
 (p) Proceedings of the Second Annual 
 Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance 
 Presidents, including an account of the Cleve¬ 
 land Memorial Meeting. Printed by the As¬ 
 sociation of Life Insurance Presidents, New 
 York, 1909. 
 
 (q) Grover Cleveland Memorial, the 
 eighteenth of March, in the year one thousand, 
 nine hundred and nine. DeVinne Press, New 
 York, 1910. 
 
 (r) Grover Cleveland: Address delivered 
 at the unveiling of the memorial tablet at the 
 Buffalo Historical Society, May 20, 1912. By 
 John G. Milburn. Buffalo Historical So¬ 
 ciety Publications, 1913, v. 17, pp. 121-126. 
 
 (s) Proceedings at the Passing of Title to 
 the (( Old Manse ” Grover Cleveland's Birth¬ 
 place, Caldwell, N. J. March 18, 1913. 
 Grover Cleveland Memorial Association, 
 
 1913* 
 
 (t) Was New York's Vote Stolen?• By 
 Francis Lynde Stetson and William Gorham 
 Rice. Reprint from North American Re¬ 
 view, January, 1914. A critical examination 
 of the contest over the election of 1884. 
 
 (u) The Surgical Operation on President 
 Cleveland in I8 q3. ByWm. W. Keen. G. W. 
 Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, 1917. 52 pages. 
 
 (v) Address on Grover Cleveland, 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 March 18, 1919, Cleveland Memorial Service 
 in New York City. By Leonard Wood. Pub¬ 
 lished by the Cleveland Memorial Associa¬ 
 tion, 1919. 
 
 (w) Memorial Exercises of the Boston 
 Bar Association before the Supreme Judicial 
 Court in Memory of Richard Olney, June 28, 
 1919. Geo. H. Ellis & Co., Boston, 1919. A 
 pamphlet containing many items of interest 
 with reference to the Chicago Strike, the 
 Venezuelan Controversy, etc. 
 
 III. BOOKS CONTAINING IMPORTANT INCIDENTAL BIO¬ 
 GRAPHICAL MATERIAL CONCERNING GROVER CLEVE¬ 
 LAND 
 
 (1) The President and His Cabinet, indicating the 
 progress of the Government of the United States un¬ 
 der the administration of Grover Cleveland. By 
 Charles B. Norton. Cupples & Hurd,’ Boston, 1888. 
 249 pages. 
 
 (2) Biography of James G . Blaine . By Gail 
 Hamilton. Norwich, 1895. 
 
 (3) History of Presidential Elections . By Ed¬ 
 ward Stanwood. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 4th 
 ed., 1896. 
 
 (4) The First Battle . By William Jennings 
 Bryan. A story of the campaign of 1896, together 
 with a collection of his speeches and a biographical 
 sketch by his wife. W. B. Conkey Co., 1897. 629 
 pages. 
 
 (5) A History of the American People . By 
 Woodrow Wilson. Harper & Bros., New York, 1902. 
 Five vols. See v. 5, pp. 170-233. 
 
 (6) Our Presidents and How We Make Them. 
 
SOURCES 413 
 
 By A. K. McClure. Harper & Bros., New York, 
 1902. 481 pages. 
 
 (7) American Tariff Controversies in the Nine - 
 teenth Century. By Edward Stanwood. Houghton 
 Mifflin Co., Boston, 1903. Two vols. 
 
 (8) Autobiography of Seventy Years. By George 
 F. Hoar. Chas. Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1903. 
 Two vols. “President Cleveland’s Judges,” v. 2, pp. 
 172-181. 
 
 (9) The Republican Party. 1854-1904. By Fran¬ 
 cis Curtis. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1904. 
 Two vols. “Convention of 1884—Nomination of 
 Blaine—Moral Issue—Election of Cleveland,” v. 2, 
 pp. 116-162. “Administration of Cleveland,” v. 2, pp. 
 1 63-179. “Conventions of 1892,” v. 2, pp. 239-270. 
 “Second Administration of Cleveland,” v. 2, pp. 271- 
 
 3 ° 3 - 
 
 (10) Autobiography of Andrew D. White. The 
 Century Co., New York, 1905. Two vols. “Arthur, 
 Cleveland, and Blaine,” pp. 192-212. 
 
 (11) The Democratic Party of the State of New 
 York. By James K. McGuire. 1905. Three vols. 
 Grover Cleveland, v. 2, pp. 126-162. 
 
 (12) James Gillespie Blaine. By Edward Stan¬ 
 wood. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1905. 378 
 
 pages. 
 
 (13) Recollections of Thirteen Presidents. By 
 John S. Wise. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 
 1906. Grover Cleveland, pp. 171-194. 
 
 (14) A Political History of the State of New 
 York. By DeAlva Stanwood Alexander. Henry 
 Holt & Co., New York, 1906-9. Three vols. “Cleve¬ 
 land’s Enormous Majority,” v. 3, pp. 483-499. A 
 fourth volume has just appeared (1923), which covers 
 
4 X 4 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 Mr. Cleveland’s later political career in so far as it 
 touched the field of New York politics. 
 
 (15) Twenty Years of the Republic, 1885-1905. 
 By Harry T. Peck. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 
 1907. “The Return of the Democracy,” pp. 1-48. 
 “Two Years of President Cleveland,” pp. 49-96. 
 “President Cleveland Once More,” pp. 306-349. In 
 general, the best history of the Cleveland period, 
 journalistic in style, but accurate in detail. 
 
 (16) National Problems — 1 88$-l8()J . By Davis 
 Rich Dewey. Harper & Bros., New York, 1907. The 
 work of a well-known financial historian, and espe¬ 
 cially valuable upon the financial questions of Mr. 
 Cleveland’s administrations. 
 
 (17) Speeches and Addresses, 1884-1909. By 
 Henry Cabot Lodge. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 
 1909. 462 pages. Contains important incidental com¬ 
 ment upon Mr. Cleveland’s public actions, written by 
 a leader of the opposition party. 
 
 (18) The Autobiography of Thomas Collier 
 Platt. Compiled and edited by Louis J. Lang. B. W. 
 Dodge & Co., New York, 1910. A frank discussion of 
 American politics by a master politician. Of par¬ 
 ticular interest is the discussion in Chapter XVI, 
 “The Gold Plank Controversy and How I Won It.” 
 
 (19) Random Recollections of an Old Political 
 Reporter. By William C. Hudson. Cupples & Leon, 
 New York, 1911. Several chapters relate to Cleve¬ 
 land’s administrations as Governor and President. 
 Contains interesting material regarding Mr. Cleve¬ 
 land’s personal characteristics, and is written in a 
 light, journalistic style. 
 
 (20) The United States in Our Own Time. By E. 
 Benjamin Andrews. Chas. Scribner’s Sons, New 
 
SOURCES 
 
 415 
 
 York, 1912. A rather forbidding volume, written 
 from the point of view of a champion of Free Silver, 
 and covering the period from Cleveland to Roosevelt. 
 
 (21) Speeches f Correspondence and Political 
 Papers of Carl Schurz. Selected and edited by Fred¬ 
 eric Bancroft. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1913. 
 Data relating to the Mugwump campaign of 1884, 
 Civil Service Reform, etc. Six vols. 
 
 (22) Life of Thomas B. Reed . By Samuel W. 
 McCall, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1914. Con¬ 
 tains an account of Cleveland’s administration as 
 viewed by the leader of the opposition. 
 
 (23) American Diplomacy . By Carl Russell 
 Fish. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1915. Third 
 edition revised, 1919. 
 
 (24) Sixty Years of American Life. By Everett 
 P. Wheeler. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1917. 
 
 (25) History of the United States from Hayes to 
 McKinley, 1877-1896. By James Ford Rhodes. The 
 Macmillan Co., New York, 1919. One vol. 484 
 pages. The eighth volume of Dr. Rhodes’ monu¬ 
 mental history of the United States from the Com¬ 
 promise of 1850, includes the entire period of Mr. 
 Cleveland’s public life, and is invaluable as the inter¬ 
 pretation of an historian of the first rank. 
 
 (26) The Return of the Democratic Party to 
 Power in 1884 . By Harrison Cook Thomas. Colum¬ 
 bia University Press, New York, 1919. One vol. 
 225 pages. 
 
 (27) Life of Walter Quintin Gresham f 1832-1895. 
 By Matilda Gresham. Rand, McNally & Co., Chi¬ 
 cago, 1919. Contains many letters and other material 
 bearing upon the public actions of Grover Cleveland. 
 Two vols. 
 
416 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 (28) Marcus Alonzo Hanna; His Life and Work. 
 By Herbert Croly. The Macmillan Co., New York, 
 1919. Important with reference to the gold plank of 
 the Republican platform of 1896. 495 pages. 
 
 (29) Theodore Roosevelt and His Time, Shown 
 in His Own Letters. By Joseph Bucklin Bishop. 
 Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1920. Two vols. 
 
 (30) Since the Civil War. By Charles Ramsdell 
 Lingley. The Century Co., New York, 1920. 
 A volume of unusual interest, designed as a college 
 text. Especially valuable in its treatment of financial 
 questions, and questions connected with the trust 
 problem. 
 
 (31) Recent History of the United States. By 
 Frederic L. Paxson. Houghton Mifflin Co., New 
 York, 1921. One vol. 602 pages. A scholarly sketch 
 of the history of the United States from Hayes to 
 Harding, written from the point of view of a liberal. 
 
 (32) From McKinley to Harding; Personal Rec¬ 
 ollections of Our Presidents . By H. H. Kohlsaat. 
 Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York and London, 
 1923. Important with reference to the gold plank of 
 the Republican platform of 1896. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbett, Leon, I, 340 
 Aberdeen, Lord, II, 174 
 Adams, Charles Francis, I, 200, 319 
 Adams, Edward D., II, 97 
 Adams, Henry, I, 2 
 Adams, John, I, 168 
 Alaskan fisheries, I, 240 
 Alcred, King of Northumbria, I, 166 
 Aldrich, Senator, I, 274 
 Alger, Russell A., I, 296 
 Allen, John, I, 34 
 Allen, Lewis, I, 16 
 Allison, Senator, I, 274 
 Altgeld, John P., II, 148, 151-155, 156, 
 157, 158-162. 
 
 Alvensleben, von, I, 248, 249, 251 
 Alvey, Richard H., II, 198 
 American Railway Union, II, 143, 144, 
 149, 157, 169 
 
 American Tariff Reform League, I, 300 
 Ames, Governor, I, 311 
 Ames, Oakes, I, 75 
 Anderson, E. Ellery, I, 319, 327 
 Annual Register, II, 196 
 Anthracite Coal Strike, II, 303 
 Apaches, I, 229, 230 
 Apgar, Edgar P., I, 40, 81 
 Apia, I, 244, 245, 247, 248, 252, 255, 
 259, 260 
 
 Appointments and removals—relations 
 between Executives and Senate, I, 
 168-183 
 
 Arbuckle Brothers, I, 152 
 Argus, Albany, I, 213 
 “Army of the Commonwealth of 
 Christ,” II, 142 
 
 Army of West Virginia, I, 214 
 Army Register, I, 203 
 Arnold, Benedict, I, 211 
 Arreas and Pensions Act, I, 190, 199 
 Arthur, Chester A., I, 38, 48, 201, 221, 
 222, 224, 269; II, 2 
 Articles of Confederation, I, 167 
 Assembly Bill No. 58, I, 52 
 Assembly of Wise Men. See Wite- 
 nagemot 
 
 Association Hall, meeting at, I, 208 
 Athenians, I, 241 
 Atlantic Monthly, II, 43 
 
 Bache, Benjamin, II, 253 
 
 Bacon, Captain, I, 150, 151, 153 
 
 Bacon-Sterling Case, I, 149-154 
 
 Balfour, Hon. A. J., II, 200 
 
 Bancroft, George, II, 1 
 
 Barnum, William H., I, 98 
 
 Bass, Cleveland, and Bissell, I, 22 
 
 Bass, Lyman K., I, 19 
 
 Bates, G. M., I, 260 
 
 Battleship Maine wrecked, II, 271 
 
 Bayard, Thomas F., I, 80, 82, 84, 102, 
 
 145, 172, 241, 246, 247, 248-249, 250, 
 251, 296, 297, 302; II, 2, 7, 38, 48, 
 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 187, 198, 199, 
 202 
 
 Bee, Omaha, II, 52, 77 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, I, 38, 150 
 Belknap, William W., I, 74, 76 
 Belmont, August, II, 21, 26 
 Belmont, August, & Co., II, 88 
 Benedict, Commodore, I, 308, 355; II, 
 27, 29, 260, 261, 267, 303, 316, 322, 
 323, 326, 365 
 
 Benton, M. E., I, 159, 160, 162, 163, 
 164 
 
 Berlin, Treaty of, I, 260, 262 
 Berliner Tageblatt, I, 249, 252 
 “Big Six.” See Typographical Union 
 No. 6 
 
 Bishop, Joseph Bucklin, I, 54; II, 302 
 Bishop, William, I, 193 
 Bismarck, I, 204, 250, 258, 260, 299 
 Bissell, Wilson S., I, 42, 98, 99, 113, 
 i34, 136, 137, 149, 281, 293, 307, 315, 
 323 , 324, 33 o; II, 5 
 Black, Chauncey F., I, 311 
 Blackburn, James, I, 133 
 “Black Eagle,” I, 226 
 Blacklock (American Vice-Consul at 
 Samoa), I, 256 
 
 Blaine, James G., I, 39, 48, 75, 76, 77, 
 79, 88, 89, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96, 98, 122, 
 
 146, 156, 260, 272, 274, 280, 290, 291, 
 292; II, 2, 49, 50, 177 
 
 Bland, Richard P., II, 35, 36, 79, 224 
 Bland-Allison Act, II, 16-18, 22, 218 
 Blatchford, Samuel, II, 130 
 Blount, James H., II, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61 
 Boies, Horace, I, 341 
 
INDEX 
 
 418 
 
 “Boss” system, I, 62, 78 
 Bradley, Sallie Ann, I, 194-197 
 Bragg, Edward S., I, 81, 332 
 Brandies, Mr., I, 248, 249, 255, 256, 257, 
 261 
 
 Brewer, David J., II, 198 
 Bnnkerhoff, William, I, 356 
 Bnnski, George, 1 , 191 
 British Guiana, II, 173, 177, 182, 198, 
 202 
 
 Britton, Charles P , I, 129, 130 
 Bryan, William Jennings, I, 333; II, 
 33 - 37 , 77-78, 92 - 93 , 203, 220, 223, 
 224, 227, 234, 236, 237, 238, 239, 276, 
 282, 286, 295, 296, 297, 298 
 Bryant, Dr. Joseph, I, 140; II, 27 
 Bryce, Mr., I, 255 
 Buchanan, James, I, 117, 189; II, 1 
 Buffalo, corruption in Board of Aider- 
 men, I, 24 
 
 Burchard, Dr. Samuel, I, 95 
 Burnett, John D., I, 175, 183 
 Burr, Aaron, I, 90 
 Burt, Henry, I, 188 
 Bushy Head, I, 226 
 Butler, Benjamin F., I, 82, 89 
 
 Cabinet, Cleveland’s first, I, 102-107 
 Cadwalader, John L., II, 131 
 Caffery, Senator, II, 102 
 Calhoun, John C , I, 121-122 
 Call, Senator, II, 250 
 Campaign of 1896, II, 203-237 
 Campbell, James E, I, 341 
 Campbell, Timothy J., I, 58, 63 
 Canal ring, I, 155 
 Cannon, Senator, II, 220 
 Carlisle, John G., I, 80, 82, 273, 341; II, 
 4, 5, 6, 22, 24, 78, 89, 104, 181 
 Carnegie, Andrew, I, 312; II, 24, 112, 
 121-126, 139, 220, 242 
 Carter, Charles L., II, 52 
 Carter, James C., II, 131 
 Cary, C. S., I, 299, 326 
 Cass, Lewis, II, 1 
 Castle, William R., II, 52 
 Catchings, T. C., II, 115-119 
 Catiline, I, 211 
 “Cattle kings,” I, 223, 224 
 Cederkrantz, Conrad, I, 261 
 Chamberlain, Joseph, I, 294 
 Chandler, Senator, II, 134 
 Charles I, I, 182 
 Chase, Secretary, I, 73; II, 1 
 Cherokees, I, 220, 226 
 Chickasaws, I, 220, 238, 239 
 China, I, 242 
 Choctaws, I, 220, 238, 239 
 Cicero, I, 211 
 
 Civic reform, I, 26 
 Civil Service Bill, I, 265 
 Civil Service Commission, first, I, 122 
 Civil Service Reform, I, 64, 88, no, 
 122-165, 172, 205, 276, 277, 284, 313, 
 354; II, 11-12, 16. 
 
 Civil Service Reform Association, I, 
 123, 150 
 
 Civil Service Reform League, National, 
 I, 123, 124 
 
 Civil War, I, 72, 73, 189, 192, 209, 265, 
 269, 272 
 
 Clay, Henry, I, 49, 90 
 Clayton, John M., II, 1 
 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, II, 244 
 Cleveland, Aaron, I, 3 
 Cleveland, Anna, I, 4 
 Cleveland, L. F., I, 92 
 Cleveland, Mary Allen, I, 4, 15 
 Cleveland, Moses, I, 2, 3, 16 
 Cleveland, Richard Cecil, I, 4, 92 
 Cleveland, Richard Falley, I, 3, 4, 5 
 Cleveland, Stephen Grover, I, indiffer¬ 
 ence to personal history, I, 2; lack of 
 interest in family history, I, 2; Eng¬ 
 lish line traced back to Norman Con¬ 
 quest, I, 2; American line traced 
 back to 1635, I, 2; origin of name, I, 
 2; variations in spelling of name, I, 
 2-3 ; father’s and mother’s early mar¬ 
 ried life, I, 4-5; birth of, I, 5; at 
 Fayetteville, I, 5-10, 13, 14; child¬ 
 hood, 1, 5-7; religious training, I, 
 6-7; boyhood, I, 8-16; essay written 
 at age of nine, I, 9; letter received 
 two years after entering Whi te 
 House, I, 9-10; at Clinton, N. Y., I, 
 10-13, speech made on visit to 
 old home at Fayetteville, N. Y., I, 
 io-ii; his first job, I, 13-14; father’s 
 death, I, 15; in New York City, I, 
 15 ; letter to benefactor, I, 16; arrived 
 at Buffalo, I, 16; studies law, I, 16- 
 18; choses Democratic party, I, 18; 
 admitted to the New York bar, I, 18; 
 Assistant District Attorney, Erie 
 County, N. Y., I, 18-19; war record, 
 I, 19, 96-97; defeated in election for 
 district attorney, 19; elected sheriff, 
 I, 21; in the shrievalty, I, 21-22; 
 declines attorneyship in New York 
 Central R. R., I, 23 ; nominated for 
 Mayor of Buffalo, I, 25; indorsed by 
 Independents, I, 25; letter of accept¬ 
 ance, I, 25; elected, I, 26; in the 
 mayoralty, 26-36; death of mother, I, 
 39; letter to Edward P. Apgar, I, 40- 
 41; letter to Wilson S. Bissell, I, 42- 
 43; nominated for Governor, I, 44; 
 
INDEX 
 
 419 
 
 letter to David B. Hill, I, 45; letter 
 to Rev. William N. Cleveland, I, 47- 
 48; elected Governor, I, 48; in the 
 Governorship, I, 48-71; letter to John 
 Kelly, I, 57; and Tammany Hall, I, 
 63; message of January 1, 1884, I, 
 64-66; and the Democratic National 
 Convention, I, 76-84; nominated for 
 President, I, 83; first speech of cam¬ 
 paign, I, 85-86; letter to vice-com¬ 
 mandant Koltes Post, G. A. R., I, 
 93-94; elected President, I, 97; alone 
 in the White House, I, 100-116; 
 “Henceforth, I must have no friends,” 
 I, 100; his first Cabinet, I, 102-107; 
 letter to Forty-eighth Congress, I, 
 107-109; letter from S. J. Tilden, I, 
 no; takes oath of office, I, no; 
 facing the political bread line, I, 
 117-165; letters from office seekers, 
 I, 118-120; letter to George William 
 Curtis, I, 124-126; and civil-service 
 reform, I, 122; letter to the press on 
 reappointment of Pearson postmaster 
 of New York, I, 130-131; letter to 
 Wilson S. Bissell, I, 134-136; letter 
 to Charles W. Goodyear, I, 137-139; 
 at play, I, 140-142; letter to King 
 Leopold of Belgium, I, 144-145; 
 letter to Joseph Keppler, I, 148; 
 letter to Edward M. Shepard, I, 156; 
 letter to Alton B. Parker, I, 160; 
 executive order of July 14, 1886, I, 
 1 57 _1 59 i Benton and Stone case, I, 
 159-164; letter to A. H. Garland, I, 
 159-162; letters from Carl Schurz, I, 
 163, 164, 183; conflict with the Sen¬ 
 ate, I, 172-183; message to Forty- 
 ninth Congress, I, 173; message of 
 March 1, 1886, I, 179, 182; marriage, 
 June 2, 1886, I, 186; letter from Joe 
 James, 186; letter to New York 
 Evening Post, I, 187; and the vet¬ 
 erans of the Civil War, I, 189-217; 
 letter from Horace White, I, 200; 
 letter to John W. Frazier, I, 204-205; 
 and the return of captured flags, I, 
 202-207; letter to Secretary Endicott, 
 207; “viper,” “traitor,” “unworthy 
 to breathe the air of heaven,” 
 “skulker,” “hater of Union soldiers,” 
 “oppressor of the widow and father¬ 
 less,” I, 208; “sneaked like a 
 whipped spaniel,” I, 209; resolutions 
 of Mitchell Post, G. A. R., I, 210-211; 
 resolutions of Sam Rice Post, G. A. 
 R., I, 211-214; letter from a veteran, 
 216; and the wards of the nation, the 
 American Indians, I, 218-219; letter 
 
 from Helen Hunt Jackson, I, 222-223 ; 
 and the “cattle kings,” I, 224-225; 
 letter to General Sheridan, I, 228- 
 229; letter to Hoke Smith, I, 237-238; 
 Bismarck and Samoa, 1, 240-263; 
 and foreign affairs, I, 240; undeliv¬ 
 ered message to Congress, I, 257- 
 259; address before school in St. 
 Paul, I, 267; and the tariff, I, 268- 
 275, 289, 291, 294, 299, 301; message 
 of December 6, 1887, I, 271-272; 
 forged Albany Times letter, I, 275- 
 278; letter to James Shanahan, I, 
 281-282; suggestions for platform, 
 New York State Convention, 1887, 
 
 I, 283 ; “the beast from Buffalo,” I, 
 290; nominated for second term, I, 
 290; letter on New York guberna¬ 
 torial nomination to William R. 
 Grace, I, 292-293 ; letter to Bissell, I, 
 293; fisheries dispute, I, 294-296; 
 Sackville-West incident, I, 296-297, 
 302-303 ; defeated for second term, I, 
 297; retires to New York, I, 302; 
 resumes practice of law, 308; ad¬ 
 dresses Merchants Association, of 
 Boston, I, 311; tribute of James 
 Russell Lowell, I, 312; letter to John 
 Temple Graves, 316-317; speech in 
 Philadelphia on anniversary of the 
 battle of New Orleans, I, 317-318; 
 letter to E. Ellery Anderson on free 
 coinage of silver, I, 319-320; address 
 at Cooper Union, I, 322; first child 
 born, I, 323 ; letter to Bissell, I, 323- 
 324; address at Ann Arbor, 328-329; 
 letter to Bissell, I, 330, 331; letter to 
 Edward S. Bragg, I, 332, 333; letter 
 to Justice Lamar, I, 334-336; letter to 
 Bissell, I, 337-338; nominated third 
 time, 341; letter to Bissell, I, 343- 
 344; campaign of 1892, I, 343 ; notifi¬ 
 cation of nomination at Madison 
 Square Garden, I, 345-346; letter to 
 Bissell, I, 347-348; letter to Bissell, I, 
 349; letter to Bissell, I, 350-351; din¬ 
 ner with Tammany men, I, 352-353; 
 speech in Jersey City, I, 355-356; 
 elected President, second time, I, 356; 
 “greatest victory in history,” I, 357; 
 only President re-elected after de¬ 
 feat, II, 1; letter to L. Clarke Davis, 
 
 II, 3; letter to Walter Q. Gresham, 
 II, 4-5; second Cabinet, II, 1-6; and 
 office-seekers, II, 6-8; takes second 
 oath as President, II, 9; second in¬ 
 augural address, II, 9-10; executive 
 order, May 8, 1893, II, 15; and cur¬ 
 rency reform, II, 16; and Bland- 
 
INDEX 
 
 420 
 
 Allison Act, 16-18; financial situa¬ 
 tion, II, 16-25, 34-38, 75; letter from 
 August Belmont, II, 21 ; declaration 
 of April 2, 1893, II, 25; operation on 
 mouth, II, 27-30; special message to 
 Congress, August 8, 1893, II, 32-33; 
 and Bryan, II, 33-37; letter to Am¬ 
 bassador Bayard, II, 39-41; and 
 Hawaii, II, 45-73 ; and the four bond 
 issues, II, 74-106; vetoes the Seign¬ 
 orage Bill, II, 81; annual message 
 December 3, 1894, II, 84; letter to 
 Ambassador Bayard, II, 89-92; an¬ 
 nual message, December 21, 1895, II, 
 95; letter from J. P. Morgan, II, 99- 
 101; letter to Senator Caffery, II, 102; 
 letter from Don Dickinson, II, 113- 
 114; letter from Senator Palmer, II, 
 114-115; letter to Hon. T. C. Catch- 
 ings, II, 115-119; letter from Wayne 
 MacVeagh, II, 119-121; letter from 
 Andrew Carnegie, II, 121-126; letter 
 to Attorney-General Harmon, II, 
 128-130; Senator Hill and nomina¬ 
 tions to Supreme Court, 130-137; 
 letter to Joseph H. Choate, II, 133; 
 letter from William B. Hornblower, 
 II, 135-136; letter to Senator Hill, 
 136-137; and the Pullman strike of 
 1894, II, 138-172; letter to Andrew 
 Carnegie, II, 139-140; special mes¬ 
 sage April 22, 1886, II, 140; letter 
 from Governor Altgeld, II, 151-155.; 
 reply to Altgeld, II, 156; telegram 
 from Altgeld, II, 158-162; dispatch 
 to Altgeld, II, 163; proclamation of 
 July 8, 1894, II, 164-165; second 
 proclamation, II, 166; telegram from 
 Debs and associates, II, 167-169; and 
 Venezuelan affair, II, 173-202; let¬ 
 ters to Olney, II, 180-181, 183; mes¬ 
 sage to Congress, December 17, 1895, 
 II, 188; letter from Bayard, II, 190- 
 191; reply to Bayard, II, 192-196; 
 letter to Chicago business men, II, 
 204-206; letter to Governor Stone, 
 II, 206-207 ; letter from Don M. Dick¬ 
 inson, II, 208-210; letter to Demo¬ 
 cratic newspaper editors, II, 210-211; 
 letters to Dickinson, II, 213-217, 221- 
 223; letter to Colonel Lamont, II, 
 225-226; letter to Hoke Smith, II, 
 227-229; replies of Smith, 230-231; 
 telegram from D. C. Griffin, II, 232; 
 reply to Griffin, II, 232; letter to 
 Colonel Lamont, II, 233-234; speech 
 before the College of New Jersey, 
 2 34-235; letters to R. W. Gilder, II, 
 239-242; and the Cuban revolution, 
 
 II, 245-252, 271-276; last annual 
 message, December 7, 1896, II, 248- 
 249; letter to F. Coudert, II, 251; let¬ 
 ter to A. B. Farquhar, II, 252; de¬ 
 nunciations by extreme press, II, 253 ; 
 life at Princeton, II, 256-270, 285- 
 286; letter to Charles S. Fairchild, 
 II, 262-263; speech before Reform 
 Club, II, 263; receives degree at 
 Princeton, II, 265; letter to Gilder, 
 265-266; letter to Olney, II, 266; 
 letter to President Patton, 266-267; 
 appointed Stafford Little Lecturer on 
 Public Affairs, n, 269; elected trus¬ 
 tee Princeton University, II, 270; let¬ 
 ter to W. R. Hearst, II, 272; Com¬ 
 mencement address at Lawrenceville, 
 II, 274-275; letter to Edward M. 
 Shepard, II, 277; letter to Judson 
 Harmon, II, 277-278; letter to Olney, 
 II, 278-279; Olney’s reply, II, 279- 
 281; letter to Edward M. Shepard, 
 II, 282-283; letter to Harmon, II, 
 287-290; letter to A. S. Abeel Co., II, 
 291-292; letter to Bissell, II, 292-294; 
 letter to John S. Green, II, 295 ; letter 
 to Don M. Dickinson, II, 296-297; 
 false report of interview with, II, 
 298-299; letter from Theodore 
 Roosevelt, II, 299-300; trepidation 
 regarding Roosevelt’s administration, 
 II, 302-303 ; and the anthracite coal 
 strike of 1902, II, 303-314; letter to 
 Roosevelt, 305-306; views on labor 
 and capital, 306-310; letter to Car¬ 
 negie, II, 311-312; letters from 
 Roosevelt, II, 313-314; letter to 
 Joseph Garretson, II, 315; and third 
 term, II, 315-322, 329-332; greeting 
 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 
 April 30, 1903, II, 317-321; letter to 
 Commodore Benedict, II, 323 ; birth 
 of second son, II, 324; letter to John 
 G. Hibben, II, 324; announcement to 
 neighbors, II, 325-326; letter to St. 
 Clair McKelway, II, 327; death of 
 daughter Ruth, II, 327-329; letter 
 from Colonel Lamont, II, 329-330; 
 letters to Lamont, II, 333-334; letter 
 to Hornblower, II, 335-336; letter to 
 Olney, II, 336; letter from Alton B. 
 Parker, II, 337; letter to Olney, II, 
 338; letter to James Smith, Jr., II, 
 338-339; Smith’s reply, II, 339-340; 
 telegram from A. B. Parker, II, 342; 
 letter to Parker, II, 342-343 ; letter to 
 Farquhar, II, 346-347; disappoint¬ 
 ment at Roosevelt’s election, II, 346; 
 letter to Gilder, II, 348-349; and the 
 
INDEX 
 
 421 
 
 reorganization of the Equitable Life 
 Assurance Association, II, 350-364; 
 letter from Thomas F. Ryan, II, 351- 
 353; reply to Ryan, II, 353 .- 355 ; ap¬ 
 pointed trustee of the Equitable, II, 
 355; letter fromPaulMorton, 11,358- 
 359 5 reply to Morton, II, 359-360; 
 head of Presidents’ Association of 
 Life Insurance Companies, II, 360; 
 letter to Morton, II, 361-362; letter 
 from Benedict, II, 365-368; letter 
 from Mark Twain, II, 368-369; letter 
 from Woodrow Wilson, II, 369-370; 
 letter to Gilder, II, 370; letter to 
 Carnegie, II, 371; letter to Wilton 
 Merle Smith, II, 372; letter to Wil¬ 
 liam F. Vilas, II, 372-373 ; letter to 
 George Allen Bennett, aged nine, II, 
 373 " 374 > letter to Hornblower, II, 
 375-376; address before Union 
 League Club, Chicago, II, 375-378; 
 letter from Mrs. Cleveland, II, 378- 
 379; tribute by the New York Sun, 
 II, 379-380; his seventieth birthday, 
 II, 378-381; letter to Gilder, 380-381; 
 letter to E. Prentiss Bailey, II, 383- 
 384; death, II, 385; memorial tower, 
 
 II, 385 
 
 Cleveland, William, I, 3 
 Cleveland, William Neal, I, 4, 13, 47 
 Cleveland and Bissell, I, 24 
 “Cleveland and the Irish,” I, 95 
 Clews, Henry, II, 22 
 Cochran, Bourke, I, 154-340 
 Colfax, Schuyler, I, 76 
 Columbian Exposition, II, 141 
 Commercial Gazette, I, 146, 272 
 Confederate flags, I, 202-207 
 Congo, the, I, 144-145 
 “Congress, Berlin,” I, 260 
 Conkling, Roscoe, I, 96 
 Constitution, Atlanta, II, 253, 300 
 Constitutional Convention of 1787, I, 
 167, 170 
 
 “Contemptible politician,” I, 208 
 Contract, obligation of, I, 52 
 Cooper-Hewitt, I, 98 
 Cooper LTnion, New York, Democratic 
 mass meeting at, I, 322 
 Cornell, Alonzo B., I, 26, 34, 35, 36, 38 
 Coudert, Frederick R., I, 292, 327; II, 
 131. 134. 136, 250-251 
 County Democracy, I, 60 
 Courier-Journal, I, 265 
 Credit Mobilier, I, 73 
 Creeks, I, 220, 221, 237 
 “Crime of 1873,” II, 37 
 Croker, Richard, I, 292, 326, 327, 348, 
 352 , 353 
 
 Cromwell, I, 37 
 
 Crook, General, I, 229, 230 
 
 Crow Creek, I, 221 
 
 “Crown of thorns and cross of gold,” 
 II, 224 
 
 Cuba, I, 242; II, 245-252, 271-275. See 
 also Spanish-American War. 
 Currency bill, II, 284 
 Currency reform, II, 16 
 Curtis, George William, I, 76, 90, 123, 
 124, 147 
 
 Curtis, William Elroy, II, 80, 212, 285 
 Cushing, Caleb, II, 1 
 Cuyler, Theodore L., I, 147 
 
 Daily Evening Telegram, Philadelphia, 
 I, 320 
 
 Daniel, Hon. John W., II, 223, 224 
 Davenport, Charles, I, 155 
 Davis, L. Clarke, I, 310; II, 3, 23, 42, 
 112,217,257 
 
 Dawes Commission, I, 236-238 
 Dawes, Henry L., I, 231, 232, 236 
 Debs, Eugene V., II, 144-145, 146, 149, 
 157, 158, 166, 169, 170, 171 
 Democrat, Wilmington, O., I, 195 
 Democratic Conventions, National, I, 
 68, 69, 70, 71, 77-84, 102, (1884) 283, 
 (1888) 289, (1892) 326, 328, 330, 338- 
 342, 352; II, (1896) 203, 217, 223, 
 (1900) 286, (1904) 331, 338, 340-344 
 Democratic Society of Pennsylvania, I, 
 
 311 
 
 Dependent pension bill, I, 199, 200 
 Depew, Chauncey M., I, 23, 188, 292 
 Deutsch Bank, II, 97 
 Devoy, John, I, 95 
 
 Dewey, Admiral George, I, 242; II, 72 
 Dickens, Charles, I, 268 
 Dickinson, Don M., II, 113, 208, 212, 
 213, 268, 296-297, 301 
 Dingley Bill, II, 262 
 “Dishonor, a century of,” I, 222 
 Dispatch, I, 113 
 Doge, George F., I, 93 
 Dole, President, II, 51, 67, 68 
 Dorsheimer, William, I, 20-21, 69 
 Downing Street, I, 240 
 Drum, Adjutant-General, I, 202, 203, 
 204, 205 
 
 DuBois, Senator, II, 220 
 Duskin, George M., I, 175, 183 
 
 Eagle, Brooklyn, I, 298 
 Eardwulf, Bishop, I, 166 
 Eaton, Commissioner, I, 154 
 Eaton letter, I, 157 
 Edmunds, Senator, I, 175, 176 
 Edwards, Jonathan, I„ 2 
 
422 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Elections, (1800) I, 90; (1824.) I, 90; 
 (1876) I, 90, 97; (1892) II, 1; 
 
 (1896) II, 236; (1900) II, 345 
 Elkins, Senator, II, 101 
 Emory, Frederic, II, 43 
 Endicott, William C., I, 103, 202, 203, 
 206, 303 
 
 England, I, 240-257, 262, 272, 302- 
 303 
 
 Enrollment Act, I, 93 
 “Entangling alliances,” I, 262 
 Environment, heredity and, I, 1-23 
 Equitable Life Assurance Association, 
 reorganization of, II, 350 
 Erdmann, Dr. John F., II, 28 
 Evans, Admiral, II, 255, 257 
 Evarts, William M., I, 168, 243; II, 1, 
 J 77 . 
 
 Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, II, 
 67-68 
 
 Evening News, Baltimore, II, 237 
 Evening Post, New York, I, 150, 187, 
 272 
 
 Ewing, Thomas, II, 1 
 
 Executive, independence of, I, 166-188 
 
 Express, Buffalo, I, 37 
 
 Fairbanks, Charles W., II, 218, 219 
 Fairchild, Charles S., I, 327, 328 
 Fairchild, General, I, 68, 208, 209, 216 
 Farmers’ Alliance, I, 314 
 Farnsworth, General, I, 84 
 Farquhar, A. B., II, 249, 252; II, 294 
 Faulkner, Senator, I, 291 
 First Congregational Church at Wind¬ 
 ham, Connecticut, I, 3 
 First National Bank of Buffalo, failure 
 of, I, 51 
 
 Fish, Hamilton, II, 1, 177 
 Fisheries disputes, I, 294-296 
 Fisk, Pliny, II, 98 
 Five-cent-fare bill, I, 51, 321 
 Five Civilized Tribes, I, 220, 235, 236, 
 237 
 
 Flanagan murder case, I, 33 
 Flower, Roswell, P., I, 43, 44, 82, 98, 
 103, 35 i 
 
 Folger, Charles J., I, 38, 39 
 Folsom, Frances, I, 184-186 
 Folsom, Oscar, I, 184 
 Foraker, Governor, I, 206; II, 221 
 Forest Assize of 1184, I, 166 
 Foster, John W., II, 52 
 Four bond issues, II, 74 
 “Four lean months,” II, 238-255 
 Francis, David R., II, 80 
 Francis, Mayor of St. Louis, I, 217 
 Franklin, Benjamin, II, 151 
 Frazier, John W., I, 204 
 
 Free Silver Democrats, II, 208, 217 
 Frelinghuysen, Secretary of State, II, 
 177 
 
 Fritze, Captain, I, 256 
 “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” I, 
 6 
 
 Fuller, Chief-Justice, I, 105 
 
 Garfield, James A., I, 117, 123, 171, 
 201, 305; II, 2 
 
 Garland, Augustus H., I, 105 
 Gassman, Mayor, I, 221 
 Gazette, Elmira, I, 188 
 General Managers’ Association, II, 
 143, i49 
 
 George III, II, 151 
 
 German Emperor, I, 244-245, 253, 255 
 Germany, I, 240-262 
 Geronimo, I, 230 
 Gettysburg, I, 204 
 Gibson, Dr. Kasson C., II, 29 
 Gilder, Richard Watson, I, 54, 201, 
 321, 354, 357; II, 6, 8, 30, 42, 239-242, 
 252, 284 
 
 Gilman, Daniel C., II, 198 
 Gladstone, William E., I, 147; 197 
 Glaman, Charles, I, 193 
 Gold standard, I, 106, 107 
 Goodyear, Charles W., I, 91, 136, 137, 
 143 , H 9 
 
 Gorman, Senator, I, 98, 290, 291, 326, 
 337 , 34 G II, 113 
 Gospel of Wealth, II, 139 
 Gould, Jay, I, 38, 97 
 Grace, William R., I, 282, 289, 290, 
 292, 327 
 
 Grady, Thomas F., I, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 
 61, 62, 63, 77, 81, 129 
 Grand Army of the Republic, I, 199, 
 201, 203, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 
 214, 215, 216, 265 
 
 “Grandiloquent swell, a.” See Conk- 
 ling, Roscoe 
 
 Grant, Ulysses S., I, 2, 122, 123, 171, 
 201 
 
 Granville, Lord, II, 175, 176 
 Graves, John Temple, I, 316 
 Gray, George, II, 5 
 
 Great Council of the Realm, Norman, 
 I, 166 
 
 “Greatest victory in history,” I, 357 
 Green, John S., II, 295 
 Greenebaum (American Consul at 
 Samoa), I, 245, 246 
 Gresham, Otto, II, 219 
 Gresham, Walter Q., I, 292; II, 3-5, 
 59, 60, 61, 80, 147, 178, 179, 180, 218, 
 220 
 
 Grosscup, P. S., II, 150 
 
INDEX 
 
 “Grover and John Bull,” II, 38 
 Guiteau, I, 38 
 Guthrie, Mr., II, 1 
 
 Half-Breeds, I, 59 
 Hamilton, Alexander, I, m; II, 94 
 Hamilton College, I, 11 
 Hand, Clifford A., II, 131 
 Hanna, Mark, II, 220 
 Harmon, John, I, 188 
 Harmon, Judson, II, 128-130, 225, 267, 
 277, 287 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, I, 2, 234, 235, 259, 
 262, 292, 298, 299, 346, 354; II, 12, 20 
 Harrison, William Henry, II, 1, 2 
 Harrity, William F., I, 356 
 Hart, Alphonso, I, 196 
 Harter, Congressman, I, 346 
 Harvey Fisk & Sons, II, 98 
 Hatch, Edward W., I, 35 
 Hatch, General, I, 221 
 “Hater of Union soldiers,” I, 208 
 Hawaii, I, 240, 241; II, 45-73, 177, 182 
 Hay, John, I, 242 
 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., I, 90, 123, 171, 
 201 
 
 Hendricks, Thomas A., I, 80, 82, 83, 
 84, 89 
 
 Henry II, I, 166 
 Henry III, I, 166 
 Henry V, king of England, I, 2 
 Henry, Patrick, I, 2, 49 
 Herald, Chicago, II, 58 
 Herald, Newport, R. I., II, 61 
 Herald, New York, I, 59, 78, 306; II, 
 57, 92, 190, 284, 304 
 Herbert, Hilary A., II, 6 
 Herbert, Michael H., I, 302; II, 181 
 Heredity and environment, I, 1-23 
 Herrick, D. Cady, I, 70, 292, 293, 337 
 Heusner, Commodore, I, 252 
 Hill, David B., I, 45, 149, 155, 157-158, 
 279, 281, 282, 289, 290, 294, 298, 304- 
 
 307, 310, 314, 315, 320, 321, 322, 324, 
 
 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 336, 337, 340, 
 
 34 U 342, 344 , 348 ; II, 83, 126, 131, 
 
 132, 223, 224, 225 
 Hill-Murphy machine, I, 336 
 Hoadley, Governor, I, 82 
 Hoar, Senator, I, 74, 183 
 Hohenzollerns, I, 250, 262 
 Holy Writ, I, 77 
 
 Home Missionary Society, American, 
 I, 10 
 
 Hornblower, William B., I, 300; II, 
 130-132, 135-136 
 House Bill No. 155, I, 197 
 How, James, I, 152 
 Hoyt, M. E., I, 15 
 
 423 
 
 Hudson, William C., I, 26, 68, 76, 77, 
 78, 86, 87, 88 
 
 “I am a Democrat,” I, 330. See also 
 Hill, David B. 
 
 Ifu, I, 253 
 
 “Inbred Descendants of Charlemagne,” 
 etc., I, 2 n; 
 
 Indian Emancipation Act, I, 231 
 Indian lands, opening of, I, 221-227 
 Indian, North American, I, 218-239 
 Indian Territory, I, 220, 223, 228, 235, 
 239 
 
 Ingalls, Senator, I, 288 
 Injunction against railway strikers, II, 
 146-150, 171-172 
 Inter-Ocean, Chicago, II, 13 
 Interstate Commerce bill, I, 265 
 Irish, John P., II, 290 
 “Iron Chancellor,” I, 260. See also 
 Bismarck 
 
 Irving Hall Democrats, I, 57 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, I, 78, 90, 121, 169, 
 170, 277, 325 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt, I, 222 
 Jacobs, John C., I, 62 
 James, D. Willis, I, 98 
 James, Joe, I, 186 
 Janeway, Dr. E. G., II, 28 
 Jefferson, Thomas, I, 2, 45, 90, hi, 168, 
 339 , 340 
 
 Jenckes, T. A., I, 126 
 Johnson, Andrew, I, 180, 181; II, 1 
 Johnson, Reverdy, II, 1 
 Johnston, Gabriel, I, 167 
 Johnston, George D., II, 12 
 Jones, Senator, II, 113 
 Jordan, David Starr, I, 2 
 Journal, Atlanta, II, 227 
 Journal, Chicago, I, 272 
 
 Kalakaua, King, II, 49 
 Kamehameha III, II, 46 
 Kane, Captain, I, 259 
 Kasson, J. A., I, 260 
 Keegan, Vicar-General, I, 152 
 Keen, Dr. W. W., II, 27 
 Kelly, John, I, 43, 44, 45, 55, 56, 58, 59 , 
 60, 61, 62, 63, 70, 77, 79, 82, 89, 95, 
 129, 130, 290, 321 
 Kempff, Commander, I, 255 
 Keppler, Joseph, I, 148 
 Kernan, John D., II, 170 
 Kidd, M. H., I, 236 
 Kiernan, John J., I, 62 
 Kimberley, Lord, II, 177, 179 
 Kimberley, Rear-Admiral, I, 254, 257, 
 259 
 
INDEX 
 
 424 
 
 King John, the wicked, I, 166 
 Kip, William F., I, 95 
 Koltes Post, G. A. R., 97-98 
 
 Lacedaemonians, I, 241 
 Lamar, Q. C., I, 104, 105, 338 
 Lamberton, Captain, II, 255 
 Lamont, Daniel, I, 55, 76, 84, 85, 86, 
 89. 9<>i 97> IIO > IT 3> 1 T 4> 128, 129, 134, 
 140, 188, 216, 275; II, 5, 6, 181, 218, 
 225, 233, 253, 257, 267 
 Lanning, Cleveland, and Folsom, I, 19 
 Lawton, Henry W., I, 230 
 Leader, Pittsburgh, II, 268 
 Leary, R. P., I, 256 
 Lee, Charles E., I, 269 
 Lee, Gen. Fitzhugh, II, 271 
 Lee, Robert E., I, 2 
 Leopold of Belgium, King, I, 144 
 Liliuokalani, Queen, II, 49-50, 54 - 55 , 
 61, 66 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, I, 49, 73, 102, 111, 
 117, 118, 147, 211, 278; II, 1 
 Locke, Judge, I, 34 
 Lockwood, Daniel, I, 80 
 Lodge, Henry Cabot, II, 102 
 Lodi, bridge of, I, 33, 36 
 “Lost Cause,” I, 206 
 Louis XIV, I, 117; II, 186 
 Lowell, James Russell, I, 311, 312; II, 
 43 
 
 Lyman, Charles, II, 12 
 
 Mack, Frank W., I, 69 
 Mackin, James, I, 62 
 Mac Veagh, Wayne, II, 119 
 “Made in Germany,” I, 261 
 Madison Square Garden, I, 345 
 Malietoa, I, 244, 245, 246, 248, 251, 252, 
 253, 254, 255, 260, 261 
 Manhattan Railway Company, I, 52 
 “Manifest destiny,” II, 45-73 
 Manning, Daniel, I, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 
 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 83, 98, 103, 105; 
 II, 16 
 
 Manning, John B., I, 42 
 Manton, Marble, I, 107 
 Marcy, William L., II, 1, 46 
 Marsden, Joseph, II, 52 
 Massachusetts Tariff Reform Associa¬ 
 tion, I, 300 
 
 Mataafa, I, 254, 257, 258, 259, 261 
 Maynard, Isaac H., II, 131 
 McClellan, General, I, 73 
 McClure, A. K., II, 298 
 McDonald, Joseph E., I, 80, 82, 83, 84 
 McKelway, St. Clair, I, 102, 106, 298, 
 326-327 
 
 McKenon, Archibald S., I, 236 
 
 McKinley bill, II, 107, 109, 115 
 McKinley, William, I, 242, 273; II, 19, 
 71, 217, 220, 231, 234, 236, 251, 253, 
 261, 273, 276, 284, 296, 297, 300 
 McLaughlin, “Boss,” I, 149 
 McPherson, Senator, I, 355 
 McVicar, John, I, 14 
 Meade, General, I, 73 
 Mexican War, I, 201 
 “Miantinoma,” I, 226 
 Milburn, John G., I, 22; II, 88 
 Milchrist, Thomas E., II, 150 
 Miles, General, I, 230; II, 150, 151, 
 162 
 
 Miller, Warner, I, 298 
 Mills bill, I, 273, 274, 290 
 Mills, Roger Q., I, 273 
 Mitchell, John, II, 303, 304, 305, 313 
 Mitchell Post No. 45, G. A. R., I, 210- 
 211 
 
 Mohawk Conference, I, 224, 227, 231 
 Monroe Doctrine, II, 75, 177, 178, 182, 
 186, 199, 200 
 Monroe, R. G., I, 327 
 Moore, John Bassett, I, 263; 183-186 
 Morgan, J. Pierpont, I, 2; II, 85-89, 96- 
 101 
 
 Morgan, J. P., & Co., II, 88, 96 
 Morgan, J. S., & Co., II, 88 
 Morgan, Senator, II, 132 
 Morning Herald, Sydney, I, 249 
 Morning News, Savannah, II, 58 
 Morning Post, London, I, 273 
 Morrison, William R., I, 341 
 Morton, Julius Sterling, II, 6, 77 
 Morton, Levi P., II, 83 
 Murphy, Charles, I, 280, 289, 324, 325, 
 326, 327, 328, 336, 343, 349, 350, 352; 
 II, 83 
 
 Murphy, Col. M. C., I, 58, 61 
 Mugwump campaign of 1884, I, 68-99 
 “Mugwumps,” I, 71, 79, 88, 90, 92, 121, 
 126, 150, 163, 336, 350; II, 14 
 Mutual Life Insurance Company, II, 
 
 359 
 
 Napoleon, I, 33 
 Nation, the, I, 208, 272 
 National City Bank, II, 97 
 National Democratic party, II, 231-234 
 Neal, Ann, I, 3 
 Nelson, Henry C., I, 61 
 News, Galveston, I, 264 
 New York Institute for the Blind, 
 I, 15 
 
 New York Life Insurance Company, II, 
 358 
 
 Noble, John W., I, 235 
 Nordhoff, Charles, II, 57, 58 
 
INDEX 
 
 425 
 
 North American Review, I, 88 
 North Missourian, I, 162 
 
 O’Brien, John W., I, 153 
 Oklahoma, I, 234 
 
 Olney, Richard B., II, 5, 59, 60, 72, 73, 
 89, 146, 163, 180, 182, 186, 188, 190, 
 198, 201, 242, 244, 246, 247, 261, 268, 
 278 
 
 “Oppressor of the widows and father¬ 
 less,” I, 208 
 
 O’Reilly, Dr. R. M., II, 27 
 Ottendorfer, Oswald, I, 94 
 
 Pago-Pago, I, 242, 244, 262 
 Palmer, John, II, 233, 234 
 Palmer, Senator, I, 326, 337; II, 114- 
 
 115 
 
 Parker, Alton B., I, 155 
 Parker, George F., I, 92, 106, 152 
 Parliament, British, I, 166, 182 
 Parsons, John E., II, 131 
 Pattison, Robert E., I, 341 
 Patton, President, II, 266, 267 
 Pauncefote, Sir Julian, II, 179, 186, 
 242 
 
 Pauper Pension bill, I, 200 
 Payne, Colony, I, 221 
 Payne, Henry B., I, 104 
 Pearson, Mr., I, 128-131 
 Peckham, Wheeler H., II, 132-133, 136, 
 137 
 
 Pendleton Act, I, 123 
 Pension Bureau, I, 104, 193, 201 
 Pensions, I, 189-201, 350 
 Pettigrew, Senator, II, 220 
 Phelps, J. E., I, 302, 303 
 Phelps, William Walter, I, 260 
 Philippine Islands, I, 242 
 Pickett’s Division, I, 204 
 Pierce, Franklin, II, I, 46 
 Pilsach, Baron Senfft von, I, 261 
 Plasson, H., II, 250 
 Platt, Thomas C., II, 221 
 Polk, James K., II, 1 
 Populists, I, 354 
 Post, Washington, II, 163 
 Postal Rule No. 1, II, 12 
 Presidency, throwing away the, I, 264- 
 301 
 
 Presidential election of 1876, I, 25 
 Presidents’ Association of Life Insur¬ 
 ance Companies, II, 360 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, I, 3 
 Proclamation of July 8, 1894, against 
 Railway strikers, II, 164, 165 
 “Public office is a public trust,” I, 88 
 “Public officials are the trustees of the 
 people,” I, 25 
 
 Public Opinion, I, 265 
 Pullman Palace Car Company, II, 143, 
 171 
 
 Quay, Senator, II, 128 
 Quincy, Josiah, I, 312 
 
 Randall, Mr., I, 82, 83, 84, 273, 291 
 Random Recollections of an Old Po¬ 
 litical Reporter, I, 68 
 Rebellion, war of, I, 211 
 “Rebel Yell,” I, 212 
 Record, Chicago, II, 80, 285 
 Redmond, John, II, 197 
 Reed, Thomas B., I, 273, 274 
 Rees, W. L., I, 253 
 Reform Governor, the, I, 37-71 
 Reid, Whitelaw, I, 354 
 Republican, Springfield, I, 188 
 Republican conventions, National I, 74- 
 76, 90-96, 292; II, 221 
 Revolution, American, I, 167 
 Revolution of 1688, I, 167 
 “Revolution of 1800,” I, 169 
 Richardson, William A., I, 76 
 Robinson, Edmund Randolph, II, 131 
 Rockefeller, John D., I, 2 
 Rocky Mountain News, II, 38 
 Rogers, Bowen, and Rogers, I, 16, 18 
 Rome, Church of, I, 77, 95 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, I, 2, 53, 59, 65, 88, 
 hi, 123, 181, 217, 242; II, 12, 13, 
 299. 3°°> 301-312 
 “Roosevelt luck,” II, 301 
 Root, Elihu, I, 246; II, 131 
 Rothschild, N. M., & Sons, II, 88, 94 
 “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,” I, 
 95 
 
 Russell, William E., I, 339, 341; II, 224 
 
 Sackville-West, Sir Lionel, I, 240, 296, 
 297, 302-303 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, I, 297, 303; II, 176, 
 183, 186, 187, 188, 200, 201, 202 
 Samoa, I, 240-263, 295; II, 45, 53, 177, 
 182 
 
 Sam Rice Post, G. A. R., I, 211 
 Sanborn, John D., I, 76 
 “Scarlet woman,” I, 77 
 Schiff, Jacob H., II, 37 
 Schomburgk, Sir Robert, II, 173, 174 
 Schouler, James, I, 178 
 Schrechlichkeit, I, 256 
 Schurz, Carl, I, 76, 88, 90, 127, 128, 132, 
 155 ,.163, i 79 , 268; II, 1, 12, 24, 74, 80 
 Scientific Monthly, I, 2 
 Scott, William L., I, 98 
 Secession, Mississippi Ordnance of, I, 
 104 
 
 Seignorage bill, II, 79-82 
 
INDEX 
 
 426 
 
 Seminoles, I, 220, 234, 236, 239 
 Severance, Mr., II, 46 
 Sewall (American Consul at Samoa), 
 I, 255 
 
 Seward, W. H., II, 1 
 
 Shanahan, James, I, 281 
 
 Sheehan, John C., I, 25, 231, 343, 348, 
 
 349 . 350 - 35 i* 352 , 353 ; II, 83 
 Shepard, Edward M., I, 150, 152, 153 
 Shepard, Henry M., II, 147 
 Sheridan, General, I, 73, 223, 224, 228 
 Sherman, General, I, 73, 206 
 Sherman, John, I, 292; II, 1, 44, 243, 
 
 244 
 
 Sherman law, II, 20, 22, 23, 25, 28, 31, 
 35 . 37. 42. 75, 76, 95, 107, 109, 171 
 Sigiraed, King, I, 166 
 Silver, free coinage of, I, 315, 316, 324, 
 .329, 330, 332, 342, 343; II, 16-27 
 Sioux, I, 235 
 
 Sir John Franklin Expedition, I, 111 
 “Skulker,” I, 208 
 
 Slocum, Gen. Henry W., I, 43, 44 
 Smalley, P. J., I, 290 
 Smith, Hoke, I, 237; II, 5, 227 
 Smith, Dr. Wilton Merle, I, 355; II, 8 
 “Snap convention,” I, 326, 327, 328, 
 329, 330 , 337 , 342 
 
 “Snivil Service Reform Act,” I, 154 
 Sound-money standard, I, 346, 354 
 Southwest Sentinel, I, 229 
 Spanish-American War, I, 242. See 
 also Cuba 
 
 Spinney, George F., I, 278, 280 
 Spoils system, I, 170, 176; II, 15 
 Springer bill, II, 141 
 Stalwarts, I, 59 
 Standard, London, II, 243 
 Standard Oil, I, 104 
 Stanton, Secretary, I, 73 
 “Stars and Bars,” I, 213 
 “Stars and Stripes,” I, 213, 253 
 Steinberger, A. B., I, 242, 243 
 Sterling, George H., I, 149, 150, 151, 
 152, 153 
 
 Stetson, Francis Lynde, I, 86, 126, 337; 
 
 n, 96 
 
 Stetson, William L., II, 204 
 Stevens, John S., II, 49, 55, 56, 57, 58, 
 59 
 
 Stevenson, Adlai, I, 341 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, I, 259, 261 
 Stewart, John A., II, 97 
 Stewart, Senator, II, 105 
 Stickney, Albert, II, 131 
 Stillman, James, II, 97 
 Stone, Cuthbert, I, 192-193 
 Stone, William A., I, 159, 160, 161, 162, 
 163, 164 
 
 Straus, Isadore, II, 181 
 Strong, William L., II, 83 
 Sumner, Charles, I, 203 
 Sun, Baltimore, I, 113; II, 290 
 Sun, New York, I, 97, 164, 186, 265, 
 296, 307 
 
 Sunderland, Rev. Dr., I, 186 
 Supreme Court, U. S., I, 218, 226 
 
 Tamasese, I, 245, 253, 254, 255, 256, 
 257, 260 
 
 Tammany Hall, I, 43, 44, 45, 55, 56, 57, 
 58, 59) 63, 70, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 88, 
 89, 129, 130, 155, 265, 278, 290, 321, 
 326, 330, 340, 344, 347, 348, 349, 351, 
 352, 354; II, 224 
 
 Tariff, I, 268-275, 290-291, 294, 299- 
 301, 341, 342, 347, 356; II, n, 19, 75 
 Taylor, Zachary, II, 1 
 “Tecumseh,” I, 226 
 Teller, Senator, II, 220 
 Tenure of Office Act, I, 170, 171, 172, 
 176, 180 
 
 Thurber, Henry T., II, 77 
 Thurman, Allen G., I, 80, 82, 84, 266 
 Thurston, J. B., I, 248 
 Thurston, Lorin A., II, 52, 58 
 Tibbitts, F. G., I, 14 
 Tilden, Samuel J., I, 25, 43, 79, 81, 82, 
 97 , 103, 105, 277; II, 2 
 Times, Albany, I, 275 
 Times, Chicago, II, 156 
 Times, Kansas City, II, 253 
 Times, London, I, 251; II, 243, 299 
 Times, New York, I, 150, 297; II, 57, 
 299 , 315 . 
 
 Times, Philadelphia, I, 209; II, 297 
 Tonga Islands, I, 252 
 Torrance, C. C., I, 18 
 Tracy, Benjamin F., I, 337 
 “Traitor,” I, 208 
 Tree, Lambert, II, 7 
 Tribune, Chicago, I, 140 
 Tribune, New York, I, 96, 97, 174, 273, 
 297; II, 58, 83, 243 
 Tuttle, General, I, 210 
 Tutuila, I, 242, 262 
 Twain, Mark, I, 229, 230; II, 13-14 
 Tweed Ring, I, 103 
 Tyler, President, II, 1 
 Typographical Union No. 6, I, 96 
 
 Union flags, I, 202, 207 
 Union Veterans’ Legion, I, 215 
 Union White Lead Manufacturing 
 Company, I, 152 
 
 United Mine Workers of America, II, 
 
 303 
 
 United States Trust Company, II, 84, 
 98 
 
INDEX 
 
 427 
 
 Unprecedented restoration, an, I, 324- 
 357 
 
 “Unworthy to breathe the air of 
 heaven,” I, 208 
 Urban, George, I, 41 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, I, 78, 277 
 Vanderpoel, Major Isaac K., I, 19 
 Van Etten, Mary A., I, 194 
 Van Sinderen, Howard, II, 82 
 Venezuela, I, 240, 241, 257; II, 65, 96, 
 173-202, 243 
 
 Vermandois, Isabel de, I, 2 
 Vest, Senator, I, 175; II, 113, 224 
 Veto Mayor, the, I, 24-36 
 Vilas, William F., I, 102 
 “Viper,” I, 209 
 Vorhees, Senator, I, 326, 337 
 
 Waite, Chief Justice, I, no 
 Wales, Prince of, II, 197 
 Walker, Edwin, II, 146 
 Walker, Robert J., II, 1 
 Wallenstein, Mr., II, 4 
 Wall Street, I, 163; II, 34, 36, 96 
 Washburn, Elihu, II, 1 
 Washington, George, I, 2, hi, 168, 211, 
 218, 261, 277, 278, 328 
 Watterson, Henry, I, 106 
 Webster, Daniel, I, 346; II, 46 
 Weed. Thurlow, I, 315 
 “We love him for the enemies he has 
 made,” I, 82, 83, 332 
 West, Dean, II, 259, 267, 287 
 West, William H., I, 75, 76 
 Weyler, Valeriano, II, 247 
 Wheeler, Everett P., II, 83 
 White, Andrew, I, 53, 90; II, 198 
 
 White, Edward Douglas, II, 134 
 White, Horace, I, 200 
 White, Senator, II, 130, 223 
 “White-plumed knight,” I, 75. See also 
 Blaine, James G. 
 
 Whisky Ring, I, 73 
 
 Whitney, William C., I, 98, 103, 104, 
 216, 255, 289, 290, 297, 327, 336, 337, 
 341, 342, 343, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 
 352 , 354 ; II, 4 , 224 
 Wilder, William C., II, 52 
 Williams, Jesse Lynch, II, 259 
 Willis, Albert S., II, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66 
 Wilmot proviso, I, 347 
 Wilson bill, II, 108-114, 127, 128, 134 
 Wilson-Gorman tariff, II, 107-137 
 Wilson, James, I, 170 
 Wilson, William L., II, 109 
 Wilson, Woodrow, II, 43-44 
 Winnebagos, I, 221 
 Wintenagemot, Anglo-Saxon, I, 166 
 “With the advice and consent,” I, 166 
 Woman’s National Indian Association, 
 I, 246 
 
 Wood, Dr. Charles, II, 270 
 Wood, Leonard, I, 230; II, 225 
 Woodworth, Alvah, I, 8 
 World, New York, I, 58, 59, 61, 84, 95, 
 150, 156, 216, 265; II, 89, 98-99, 101, 
 102, 104, 197 
 
 World’s Fair. See Columbian Expo¬ 
 sition 
 
 Worthington, Nicholas E., II, 170 
 Wright, Carroll D., II, 170 
 
 Yale College, I, 3 
 Yeomans, E. B., I, 151 
 York, Duke of, II, 197 
 
 THE END 
 

 
 

 
 
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