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LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 Twenty-Second President of the United States and 
 Democratic Nominee for Rk-election, 1888. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY SKETCH BY THE LATE WM. DORSHEIMER, ENLARGED 
 
 AND CONTINUED THROUGH THE PRESF.NT ADMINISTRATION 
 
 TO THE DATE OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 together with a sketch of 
 
 The Life and Public Services of 
 
 ALLEN G. THURMAN, 
 
 Ex-United States Fenator from Ohio and Democratic 
 Nominee for Vice-President. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, ST. LOUIS 
 1888; STATEMENT OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES, AND A HAND- 
 BOOK OF USEFUL POLITICAL INFORMATION. 
 
 By W. U. HENSEIv, 
 
 ASSISTED BY 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 HUBBARD BROTHERS, Publishers, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, CHICAGO, KANSAS CITY; 
 
 Guernsey Publishing Co., Boston; Jas. Morris & Co., Cincinnati; 
 
 Perry Publishing Co., Denver; A. L. Bancroft & Co., 
 
 San Francisco, 
 

 Copyright, 1888, by Hubbard Bros. 
 
PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 
 
 THE following sketches of the Democratic 
 nominees for President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States in the National 
 campaign of 1888 are the joint work of several 
 minds in harmonious collaboration. In 1884 the 
 late Hon. William Dorshelmer, of New York, the 
 friend and acquaintance for many years of Presi- 
 dent Cleveland, wrote for the present publishers 
 a comprehensive sketch of his career, which 
 necessarily ended before the beginning of his 
 notable experience as President. In the prepa- 
 ration of the present work as much as possible of 
 that biography has been preserved, and In the 
 main It furnished the first four chapters of the 
 accompanying book. Such portions of it as re- 
 lated to the services of Mr. Cleveland In the 
 Gubernatorial chair of New York have been con- 
 densed Into Chapters V. and VI. Beyond this 
 point the volume Is entirely new and com- 
 prises by far the most Interesting period of Presi- 
 dent Cleveland's public life. It presents for the 
 first time a continuous narrative of his official acts 
 and personal movements during his Presidential 
 
 iii 
 
IV PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 
 
 term, together with the many notable addresses 
 delivered by him upon political and other topics 
 during the past three years. It will be found to 
 be especially comprehensive In Its statement of 
 the Tariff Reform Issue of 1888 and the Presi- 
 dent's relation thereto. 
 
 This part of the work, together with the biog- 
 raphy of Mr. Thurman, an enlarged statement 
 of Democratic principles, and an account of the 
 St. Louis Convention is from the pen of W. U. 
 Hensel of Lancaster, Pa., assisted at every stage 
 of its preparation by George F. Parker, a trained 
 journalist and thorough student of American 
 politics. 
 
 It IS confidendy believed that this volume, an- 
 ticipating all like publications, will not only take 
 first place as a '' campaign biography," but will 
 have permanent Interest and value as a contri- 
 bution to contemporaneous political history. 
 
 The Publishers. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PACK 
 
 Parentage, Early Life, AND Education 21 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 His Career AT THE Buffalo Bar 32 
 
 CHAPTER ITI. 
 The Mayoralty AND Municipal Reform 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Democratic Canvass for Governor of New York in 1882 52 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 First Year as Governor 61 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Second Year as Governor 74 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Canvass and Convention of i 884 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Cleveland-Blaine Presidential Campaign 99 
 
 ' CHAPTER IX. 
 Preparing FOR THE New Administration 121 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. PAGE 
 
 The Inauguration 132 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 ThePresident AND Congress 161 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Courtship, Marriage, and Domestic Life 180 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The President's Tours Through the Country ....... 202 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Tour to the South and West 224 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Exercise of the Veto Power 241 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Democratic Tariff Reform Policy 268 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Personal Qualities of the President 2S7 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Life of Thurman. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 The Office of Vice-President 3°5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Lineage AND Youth of Thurman 313 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Thurman as a Lawyer— At the Bar and on the Bench . 323 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early Interest in Politics— On the Stump and in Congress 
 
 — Elected to the Senate 334 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Mr. Thurman in the Senate of United States 345 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Thurman in the Days of Reconstruction 35^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Notable Speeches — The Elective Franchise — Chinese Immi- 
 gration — Silver Coinage 37^ 
 
 Ix 
 
X CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. PAGE 
 
 CoMrELLING THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT 39 1 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A Plex. for Religious Toleration — Perils of the Republic — 
 
 Miscellaneous Addresses . 407 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Delegate to the International Monetary Conference — 
 Arbitrator and Counselor — Telephone Suits and 
 Tally Sheet Forgery Cases 418 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Some Personal Characteristics — Mr. Thurman at Home . . 429 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Call from Political Retirement — Nomination for the 
 
 Vice- Presidency 439 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Record of the Democratic National Convention, 
 
 1388. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAG^ 
 
 * 
 Arranging for the Convention 453 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The First Day's Proceedings «•.,.. 456 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Second Day's Proceedings— Chairman Collins's Speech — 
 
 Daniel Dougherty's Speech 460 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Third Days I'koceedings — The Flai form —Speeches 
 AND REsoLunoNs— Nominating a Vice-Presidevt — The 
 National Committee — The President Notified — Noti- 
 fying Mr. Thurman 480 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Principles of the Democratic Party. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Principles of Washington 507 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Principles OF Jefferson 512 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Principles of Madison 515 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Principles of jACKsoN 5x8 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Principles of Tilden 525 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Principles of Tariff Reform 533 
 
 xii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 President Cleveland (steel), Frontispiece. 
 
 State Street and Capitol, Albany, N. Y., . 53 
 The Governor's Mansion, Albany, N. Y., . Gj 
 
 Executive Chamber of Capitol, Albany, N. Y., 85 
 The White House, Washington, D. C, . 91 
 
 Democratic Nominating Convention of 1884, 109 
 Capitol at Washington, . . . . 123 
 
 Starting for THE Inauguration, . . .133 
 Hon. Thomas A. Bayard, . . . . 139 
 
 Hon. Augustus H. Garland, . . . .143 
 Hon. W. C. Whitney, . . . . . 147 
 
 Hon. W. C. Endicott, 151 
 
 Hon. William F. Vilas, 155 
 
 The Late Hon. Samuel J. Tilden, . . ,159 
 The Late Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks,. . 159 
 
 Hon. L. O. C. Lamar, 177 
 
 Mrs. Cleveland as a Bride, . . . . 185 
 
 XV 
 
XVI ILL US TRA TIONS. 
 
 President Cleveland's Wedding, 
 
 Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, . 
 
 Rev Bvkon Sunderland, D. D., 
 
 Chief Rooms of the White House, . , 
 
 Greetings at the Railway Station, . 
 
 Mrs, Cleveland (phototype) 
 
 Allfn G. Thurman (steel), . . . • 
 
 Hon. Don M. Dickinson, . . . . 
 
 Hon. Charles S. Fairchild, 
 
 Hon. Patrick A. Collins, . . . . 
 
 Hon. Daniel Dougherty, . . . • 
 
 Hon. Daniel Manning, . . • , , 
 
 Hon. Samuel J. Randall, . 
 
 President's Reception Room in the Capitol, 
 
 State, W^ar. and Navy Departments, . 
 
 191 
 
 195 
 195 
 199 
 225 
 289 
 303 
 449 
 449 
 473 
 473 
 503 
 503 
 535 
 559 
 
THE LIKB 
 
 OF 
 
 Groyer Cleveland. 
 
 Twenty- Second President of the United States and 
 Democratic Nominee for Re-election, iSSS. 
 
 " The Government can never be restored and reformed except from inside, and 
 by the active, intelligent agency of the Executive. We must hope that 1 rovidence 
 will, in its own good time, raise up a man adapted and qualified for the wise execution 
 of this great work, and that the people will put him in possession of the executive 
 administration, through which alone that noble mission can be accomplished, and the 
 health ard life of our political system be preserved and invigorated." — Samuel y. 
 Tilden to Iroquois Club, Chicago, March Jith, /8S2. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 PARENTAGE, EARLY LIFE, AND EDUCATION. ' 
 
 G ROVER CLEVELAND was born at Cald- 
 well, Essex County, N. J., on the i8th 
 day of March, 1837. His father, Richard 
 F. Cleveland, was a Presbyterian minister, the 
 son of William Cleveland, a watchmaker, who 
 lived at Norwich, Conn. His mother was Anna 
 Neal, the daughter of an Irishman, a bookseller 
 and publisher in Baltimore, Md., who had married 
 Barbara Real, a German Quakeress, of German- 
 town, Pa. The child who has become President 
 of the United States was baptized in infancy Ste- 
 phen Grover, the name of his father's predecessor 
 in the Caldwell pastorate, but early in life young 
 Cleveland dropped the first name. 
 
 In 1 841 the Rev. Richard F. Cleveland moved to 
 Fayetteville, Onondaga County, N. Y. The fam- 
 ily lived there nine years and then removed to 
 CHnton, Oneida County, and in 1853 to Holland 
 Patent, a small village fifteen miles north of Utica. 
 Three weeks after he began his ministry here he 
 died, leaving a widow and nine children, of whom 
 Grover was the third. 
 
 The mother upon whom this sudden responsi- 
 bility had fallen was a woman of dignified appear- 
 ance, with a kindly face and unusual strength of 
 
22 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 character. She combined the traits of her Irish and 
 German ancestors. She Hved to rear and educate 
 her large family and died in April, 1882. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Cleveland are buried in the cemetery at 
 Holland Patent. Their children have erected a 
 monument to mark their graves It bears the 
 followinp- inscriptions: 
 
 Rev. R. F. CLEVELAND, 
 
 Pastor at 
 
 Holland Patent, 
 
 Died Oct. i, 1853 
 
 * Aged 49 years. 
 
 ANNA NEAL, 
 
 Wife of 
 
 R. F. Cleveland, 
 
 Died July lo, 1882, 
 
 Aged 78 years. 
 Her children arise up 
 And call her blessed. 
 
 Grover had received such teaching as the 
 country schools could furnish. But his father's 
 narrow means compelled him to earn his living as 
 soon as possible, and when he was fourteen years 
 of age he became a clerk in a country store at 
 Fayetteville. His salary the first year was fifty 
 dollars, and he was to have one hundred dollars 
 the second year. The removal of the family to 
 Clinton gave Grover an opportunity to attend the 
 academy there, and he left Fayetteville before the 
 end of the second year. At Clinton he pursued 
 the usual preparatory studies, intending to enter 
 
PARENTAGE, EARLY LIFE, AND EDUCATION. 21 
 
 Hamilton College. But his father's death shut 
 him out of college and compelled him to begin the 
 struggle of life. He was then seventeen years 
 old. 
 
 His elder brother William had found employ- 
 ment as a teacher in the New York Institution for 
 the Blind, which is situated on Ninth Avenue 
 between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets. 
 In October, 1853, William was appointed princi- 
 pal in the male department, and about the same 
 time Grover was appointed his assistant. The 
 pupils were taught orally, there being at that time 
 few text-books which could be read by the sense 
 of touch. Grover remained at the institution a 
 little more than a year. He passed the winter 
 of 1854-5 at his mother's house in Holland Patent 
 This was the last of his home life. A neighbor, 
 the late Ingham Townsend, who had become 
 interested in the youth, proposed to him that he 
 should enter college with a view of making the 
 ministry his profession, but the young mian's mind 
 was already fixed upon the law, and declining his 
 friend's offer, he asked him for a loan of twenty- 
 five dollars, to carry him to Cleveland, Ohio, where 
 he hoped for employment in a lawyer's office. 
 On his way west he stopped in Buffalo to visit his 
 uncle, Lewis F. Allen. Mr. Allen, who is still 
 living at an advanced age, was one of the most 
 influential citizens of Buffalo. He was the owner 
 of a large farm on Grand Island, in the Niagara 
 
24 L IFE OF GROl 'ER CL E I ELAND. 
 
 river, where he had a herd of short-horn catde, 
 and Hved at Black Rock, formerly a separate 
 town, but which had been lately annexed to 
 Buffalo. Mr. Allen's house is pleasandy situated 
 on the bank of the river, and in the midst of con- 
 siderable grounds. It is an ample old-fashioned 
 brick building, and was built by General Peter B. 
 Porter, who lived there for many years. A broad 
 hall runs from the front door to the western 
 piazza, which commands a wide view of the 
 Niagara and the Canadian shore. A mile or two 
 to the north-west are the ruins of Fort Erie, 
 the scene of desperate fighdng during the War of 
 1812, in which General Porter had been gready 
 distinguished. At this point the river is an inter- 
 esdng sight. It sweeps by with a current of 
 between six and seven miles an hour and its broad 
 green surface is flecked with foam and broken by 
 coundess eddies. It is not difficult for one who 
 looks upon the tumultuous river and listens to its 
 deep voice to imagine that it feels some premoni- 
 tion of the agony which awaits it below. Grover 
 was no stranger to his uncle's hospitable roof. 
 He had made frequent visits there during his 
 boyhood. He told Mr. Allen of his intention to 
 go to Cleveland and study law. But his uncle 
 strongly advised him to remain in Buffalo. The 
 young man had no acquaintances in Cleveland, 
 while Mr. Allen knew all the principal people in 
 Buffalo and held close and friendly reladons with 
 
PARENTAGE, EARLY LIFE, AND EDUCATIOX. 25 
 
 them. Mr. Allen had, not long before, begun the 
 compilation of the ''Short-horn Herd Book," and 
 he proposed that Grover should assist him, offering 
 him compensation and a comfortable home. In 
 the autumn, on Mr. Allen's application, Grover 
 entered the law office of Henry W. Rogers and 
 Denis Bowen, who, under the firm name of Rogers 
 & Bowen, did a large business at the bar of 
 Erie County. Thus began Grover Cleveland's 
 life in Buffalo. 
 
 It may be well enough to consider his surround- 
 ings. Buffalo was then a city with about one 
 hundred thousand inhabitants. It was a com- 
 mercial and manufacturing communit}^ and held 
 in its control the lake commerce, then growing 
 into great dimensions. There were many notable 
 men among its citizens. Mr. Fillmore had two 
 years before left the Presidency and returned to 
 live there. His neighbor, Nathan K. Hall, who 
 had served in his cabinet as Postmaster-General, 
 was United States Judge of the Northern District 
 of New York. Solomon G. Haven, a lawyer of 
 remarkable talent, then a member of Congress, 
 was the leader of the bar. Retired from his pro- 
 fession and from politics was Albert H. Tracy, 
 who may be described as the most interesting 
 and distinguished figure in Buffalo at that time. 
 He had been chosen to Congress before he was 
 old enough to take his seat, and had served in 
 the House of Representatives during the admin- 
 
26 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 istrations of Monroe and John Quincy Adams, 
 he had been for eight years in the State Senate ; 
 and in the Court of Errors he had won a judicial 
 reputation, hardly inferior to any in the history of 
 the State. He had acted both with the Whig and 
 the Democratic parties. But it was his misfortune 
 to be out of relation, in both instances, with the 
 leader of his parties. He despised Jackson, and 
 disliked Clay. He had assisted Seward, Weed, 
 and Fillmore to create the Whig party, and left it 
 in 1840, in the hour of its triumph. Mr. Webster 
 tried to persuade him into Tyler's cabinet with 
 the offer of the Treasury Department, but he 
 declined, preferring, doubtless, to retain his Dem- 
 ocratic associations which the acceptance of Mr. 
 Webster's offer would have broken. Mr. Tracy 
 never held office afterwards. He devoted so 
 much of his time as was necessary to the care of 
 his estate, but gave himself chiefly to reading and 
 the society of those who interested him. Mr. 
 Tracy exercised a great influence over all young 
 men who came within his reach, and it is impos- 
 sible to speak of Buffalo at that time without 
 recalling his gracious presence, his kindly counsels 
 and his delightful and instructive conversation. 
 Mr. Allen was one of Mr. Tracy's intimate 
 friends and the nephew was soon taken to the 
 Tracy house. 
 
 The gendemen who made the firm of Rogers 
 & Bowen were both notable men. Henry W. 
 
PARENTAGE, EARLY LIFE, AND EDUCATION. 2 J 
 
 Renders was a large man with a somewhat loud 
 but hearty manner. He had at command a great 
 stoj e of anecdote, and without being witty he 
 easily said smart things, and still more easily 
 bitter ones. Mr. Rogers was the advocate of the 
 firm, and was a strong jury lawyer. 
 
 Denis Bowen was a very different person. He 
 was quiet and unobtrusive, never went into court, 
 nor ever sought publicity. He was a master of 
 detail, an excellent business lawyer, with a calm 
 dispassionate judgment to which his clients 
 trusted implicidy. Beneath a somewhat cold 
 manner was hidden a most gentle disposition, and 
 Denis Bowen was not only greatly respected, but 
 greatly loved by those among whom he lived. 
 
 At that time upon the bench of the Superior 
 Court were Isaac A. Verplanck, Joseph G. Masten 
 and George W. Clinton. The latter of these is still 
 extensively known, and I will, therefore, not speak 
 of him. Judge Verplanck had a vigorous and 
 thoroughly unpartial mind, and a huge unwieldy 
 body. No one could ever find how much he 
 weighed. He once made a journey to the plains 
 in the stage-coach days, with Mr. Fargo and a 
 party of gentlemen. It was arranged that the 
 coach should be driven on to the scales at the next 
 station and weighed, passengers and all, and then 
 Verplanck's weight was to be got by deducting 
 the weight of the coach and the other passengers. 
 But no sooner did the driver pull up than the 
 
28 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAXD. 
 
 Judge, who was as quick of mind as slow of body» 
 saw what his friends were at, and jumped from 
 the coach before its weight could be taken. Judge 
 Verplanck was a good lawyer and an excellent 
 judge. As a 7iisi priiis judge he could not be 
 excelled. His dislike of work made him impa- 
 tient of delay, and eager to get through. Busi- 
 ness before him was done rapidly. But it was in 
 criminal cases that his generous heart showed 
 itself. There was litde danger that injustice 
 would be done in his court to any criminal, how- 
 ever wretched, friendless, or guilty. Once he 
 sent for a young lawyer and asked him to defend a 
 man charged with murder. The youthful advocate 
 pleaded his inexperience and dread of the respon- 
 sibility. "Have no fear," said the Judge; "I 
 will see to it that your client does not suffer." 
 In private Judge Verplanck was the pleasantest 
 of companions. He was fond of food, of wine 
 and good company. There was no bitterness in 
 his temper, but always a genial sunshine which 
 made him welcome everywhere. 
 
 Joseph G. Masten was by far the most learned 
 lawyer in Buffalo. Those who knew him and 
 others well enough to judge, thought there was 
 no better lawyer anywhere. Like \^erplanck, he 
 had a great social charm, and was a prominent 
 figure in a society full of able and interesting 
 
 men. 
 
 After the death of Mr. Haven, which took place 
 
PARENTAGE, EARL V LIFE, AND EDUCATION 2^ 
 
 in 1 86 1, John Garison came to be the leader of 
 the Buffalo bar. He had a clear and vigorous 
 intellect and untiring industry. He had been 
 carefully educated and thoroughly trained for his 
 profession. No one could equal him in the care 
 with which his causes were prepared, nor in the 
 clearness with which, brushing aside all extrane- 
 ous matter, he presented the essential points of 
 his argument. He had no eloquence, but his 
 lucidity and conciseness, and his instinct for the 
 strong points of a case, made him a very success- 
 ful advocate. He served with distinction in Con- 
 gress and in the State Senate, and his sudden 
 death, in 1874, brought to a close a career which 
 was full of promise. 
 
 The principal person in Buffalo society at that 
 time was Dr. Walter Gary, a gentleman widely 
 known in this country and in Europe. The doc- 
 tor had retired from his profession by reason of 
 delicate health. A large estate and a ready dis- 
 position to new enterprises, gave him abundant 
 occupation. Travel and society were his chief 
 pleasures, and the influence of his example did 
 much to give to Buffalo its reputation for hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 Albert Haller Tracy was the oldest son of 
 Albert H. Tracy, mentioned above. He and 
 Grover Cleveland were about the same age. 
 After his father's death, by which event he came 
 into a large fortune, Tracy retired from the pro- 
 
30 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 fession In which he might easily have won distinc- 
 tion. He had a mind remarkable for judgment 
 and moderation. His knowledge of men and 
 affairs was extensive, his reading considerable, 
 and his memory most retentive. 
 
 I have mentioned the most prominent men In 
 the city In which Grover Cleveland had made his 
 home, where his character was to be formed, his 
 career begun, and where he was to find an 
 entrance, If he ever did, into the path which 
 should lead him to fame and greatness. I have, 
 however, spoken only of the dead. There are 
 many living persons who should be mentioned, If 
 it were Intended to make a complete description 
 of the associations in which Cleveland found him- 
 self ; but I am not permitted to speak of the living 
 with the freedom which would be necessary. 
 
 It will thus be seen that before he was twenty 
 years old, Cleveland had begun the study of his 
 profession under most favorable circumstances. 
 He was In the family of an uncle who lived com- 
 fortably and well. He was thrown into associa- 
 tion with men of talent and distinction. He was 
 in the employ of a firm of able and successful 
 lawyers, who were entrusted with very important 
 affairs. 
 
 Thenceforth there was no element of hardship 
 In Cleveland's life. He probably never knew 
 what want was. He had all that it was possible 
 to have. He had opportunity as full and com- 
 
PARENTAGE, EARLY LIEE, AND EDUCATWX. 
 
 31 
 
 plete as if he had been born to wealth. Indeed, 
 he had, in the necessity for exertion, a stimulant 
 and a training which wealth could not have given 
 him. The transplanted tree had found a con- 
 genial soil. 
 
 Grover Cleveland remained with Rogers & 
 Bowen, as student and clerk, until 1863. At the 
 outbreak of the war, the question had come to 
 him as to the duty he owed his country. Wliile 
 teaching in New York, and while studying in 
 Buffalo, he had always sent whatever money he 
 could spare to his mother. He was then earning 
 enough to make his contributions of importance 
 to the family. It was therefore decided that the 
 two younger brothers should go to the army, and 
 that the bread winner should stay and work for 
 die support of his mother and sisters. 
 
 In 1872, these younger brothers, who had rep- 
 resented the family in the army during the Civil 
 War, were drowned at sea, in the burning of the 
 Steamship Missouri near the Island of Abaco, 
 October 2 2d. In that disaster they exhibited un- 
 usual coolness and courage ; they stood by the 
 boats when they were lowered and helped the 
 passengers into them, doing the work the fright- 
 ened officers should have done. But when the 
 boats were lowered there was no room for them 
 and they went down with the ship. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS CAREER AT THE BUFFALO BAR. 
 
 G ROVER CLEVELAND had been admlt^ 
 ted to the bar in 1859, and in January, 1863, 
 he was appointed Assistant District Attor- 
 ney for the County of Erie. This position brought 
 young Cleveland into court, and accustomed him to 
 the trial of causes. At that time the District Attorney 
 had but one assistant, and upon him fell a large 
 share of the work of the office. His industry 
 and evenness of temper fitted him, peculiarly, 
 for his duties, and he soon held a more important 
 relation to the public business than it had been 
 usual for an Assistant District Attorney to have. 
 This was, perhaps, due, in part, to the fact that 
 Mr. Torrance, the District Attorney, did not live 
 in the city, but in a village twenty-five miles dis- 
 tant. He therefore naturally left much to the 
 capable and industrious assistant, who was con- 
 stantly at hand. The three years in the District 
 Attorney's office were of great value to Cleve- 
 land. They gave him confidence in himself, 
 accustomed him to the trial of causes and to 
 addressing juries ; enabled him to make a wide 
 acquaintance among the people in the country 
 32 
 
HIS CAREER AT THE BLTEALO BAR. 3;^ 
 
 towns, as well as in the city, and attracted to him 
 the attention of clients and the bar. 
 
 The Assistant District Attorneyship also 
 brought him into politics. From the time of his 
 acceptance of that office, he was known as a 
 Democratic politician. Mr. Dean Richmond, a 
 man of singular ability and force of character, 
 was then the principal Democrat in Western New 
 York, and eoverned local affairs with a firm hand. 
 At the expiration of Mr. Torrance's term, Cleve- 
 land received the Democratic nomination for 
 District Attorney. His nomination to so import- 
 ant an office, when he was only twenty-nine years 
 old, is the strongest evidence that can be given 
 of the standing he had obtained in the community 
 and in his profession. His opponent was Lyman 
 K. Bass, a young Republican lawyer, afterwards 
 a member of Congress, and who has been pre- 
 vented by ill-health from completely fulfilling the 
 promise of his youth. After a heated canvass, 
 Cleveland was beaten, a result not to be wondered 
 at, for the county then usually went Republican. 
 An old political friend well remembers meeting 
 Cleveland the day after the election, and recalls 
 the perfect coolness and good humor with which 
 he took his defeat. 
 
 He at once resumed the practice of his profession, 
 and soon formed a partnership with the late 
 Isaac V.Vanderpool. In 1867, the late William Dor- 
 sheimer having been appointed, by President John- 
 
3^ LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 son, United States Attorney for the Northern 
 District of New York, offered Cleveland an 
 appointment as Assistant District Attorney. This 
 offer he declined, for the reason that the duties of 
 the office would require frequent absence from 
 the city, and he preferred to attend to his rapidly- 
 growing clientage. He soon after became asso- 
 ciated with the late A. P. Lanning and Oscar 
 Folsom, a young companion of Cleveland, who 
 had taken the Assistant Attorneyship which the 
 former had declined. The name of the new firm 
 was Lanning, Cleveland & Folsom. The daugh- 
 ter of the last named gentleman is now the Pres- 
 ident's wife. 
 
 In the autumn of 1870, Cleveland's polit- 
 ical friends offered him the nomination for 
 sheriff of the countv. " Now," said he, to 
 a friend whose advice he asked, " I know 
 that it is not usual for lawyers to be sheriffs. 
 I do not remember of any lawyer being a sheriff 
 But, there are some reasons why I should consider 
 the matter carefully. I have been compelled to 
 earn my living since I was seventeen. I have 
 never had time for reading, nor for thorough pro- 
 fessional study. The sheriff's office would take 
 me out of practice, but it would keep me about 
 the courts, and in professional relations. It would 
 eive me considerable leisure, which I could devote 
 to self-improvement. Besides, it would enable 
 me to save a modest competency, and give me 
 
HIS CAREER AT THE BUFFALO BAR. 35 
 
 the pecuniary Independence which otherwise I 
 may never have. I have come for your advice. 
 What would you do in my place?" 
 
 His friend strongly recommended him to accept 
 the nomination. He received the same advice from 
 other friends. He took the nomination and was 
 elected. Naturally, some of the duties of the 
 sheriff's office were grievously distasteful to him, 
 but he performed them with that strong sense of 
 duty which has always characterized him. 
 
 He used the opportunities of the position as he 
 had said he would. He made a considerable 
 saving, and he gave his leisure time to profes- 
 sional and other studies. As soon as he returned 
 to the bar the effect was noticeable. He was a 
 stronger and a broader man than he had been 
 before, and he at once took a higher place than 
 he had ever held. 
 
 At the close of his term as sheriff, he formed a 
 partnership with his old antagonist, Lyman K. 
 Bass, and Wilson S. Bissell. Failinor health com- 
 pelled Mr. Bass to remove to Colorado, and after- 
 wards Mr. George J. Si card entered the firm, 
 w^hich was known as Cleveland, Bissell '& SIcard. 
 From this time, 1874, until his election as Mayor, 
 Cleveland practiced his profession with constantly 
 increasing success. He came to have great skill 
 in trying causes, and his arguments to the court In 
 banc were noticeable for lucidity and thorough- 
 ness. Many important matters were entrusted to 
 
36 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 him, and before he again took office he was 
 beginning to receive large fees. There can be 
 no doubt that, had he remained at the bar, he 
 would have won as great a success as the theatre 
 in which he acted would permit. 
 
 But during these years of professional labor, 
 Cleveland was not indifferent to politics. Indeed, 
 he was all the time a counsellor of his party. 
 After the death of Dean Richmond, in 1866, 
 Joseph Warren, the editor of the Courier, became 
 the head of the Democratic organization in Buf- 
 falo. He was a native of Vermont, who had, 
 when a very young man, gone to Albany, and 
 from there to Buffalo. He found employment in 
 the editorial office of the Courier, while the late 
 William A. Seaver was its proprietor and editor. 
 Upon the retirement of Mr. Seaver, he succeeded 
 to the control of the paper, and was one of its prin- 
 cipal owners. Mr. Warren directed party affairs 
 with great judgment and self-control. He never 
 aspired to office himself, was very appreciative of 
 the talents of others, and always ready to aid in 
 advancing the fortunes of his friends. He was, 
 besides, a promoter of all the generous enter- 
 prises which promised to add to the prosperity of 
 the city. All the public institutions were aided by 
 his wise counsel and unselfish labors. Mr. War- 
 ren was a warm friend of Cleveland's, and was 
 one of the first to recognize his talents and predict 
 his success. He died in 1876, and thenceforward 
 
HIS CAREER AT THE BUFFALO BAR. 
 
 Z7 
 
 Cleveland was drawn into more responsible politi- 
 cal relations. He was not willing to take the local 
 leadership, which he might easily have had, for he 
 could not give to It the necessary time and atten- 
 tion. But he served on party committees, and 
 there was little done in party matters in Buffalo 
 as to which his advice was not taken. When he 
 went to Albany, many thought him ignorant of 
 political methods. But they were greatly mis- 
 taken. Few men know practical politics better 
 than he. 
 
 During all these years he had been a Democrat 
 of Democrats. Through good report and evil 
 report, he had stood with his party. Neither 
 success nor defeat had, for an Instant, diminished 
 his alh^glance or his zeal. 
 
 During the early period of Cleveland's Buffalo 
 life the city had begun a new career. Its wealtlv, 
 had greatly Increased, and a number of young 
 men with more education than their elders had 
 become active In affairs. A desire for a higher 
 civilization began to show itself The Young 
 Men's Association, which maintained a small 
 library and a course of public lectures in the 
 winter, had long been the principal, and it may be 
 said the only literary society. But it had lan- 
 guished upon a meagre Income. During this tirne 
 a movement was set afoot to secure an endow- 
 ment for it. Through the exertion of several 
 crentlemen. amono- whom the late S. V. R. Wat- 
 
38 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 son was most prominent, a fund of between 
 eighty and ninety thousand dollars was raised by 
 subscription and the sale of life-memberships. A 
 valuable property was purchased and the associa- 
 tion provided with an abundant income. During 
 this period the Buffalo Historical Society, of which 
 Mr. Fillmore was the first president, was formed, 
 and also the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts. Both 
 of these Institutions excited the interest of the 
 more liberal citizens. It doubdess seemed to 
 many, an ambitious undertaking to establish an 
 Academy of Fine Arts in a place so given over to 
 business as Buffalo. Once, in those early days, 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson went through the gallery, 
 which was then largely made up of pictures on 
 sale contributed by the artists of New York and 
 Boston, but which also contained a number of 
 works, the property of the academy, that were 
 worthy of attention. Said the philosopher: "This 
 has begun well and will come to something in the 
 course of the ages." Indeed those who began the 
 work knew as well as any one, how little could be 
 done during their life-time, but they thought a 
 beginning should be made. To this period, also, 
 belongs the Society of Natural History, which 
 owes its success chiefly to the scientific zeal of 
 George W. Clinton. 
 
 Any traveler who, to-day, shall visit the institu- 
 tions I have mentioned, and thoroughly examine 
 their collections, will be surprised to find how 
 
HIS CAREER AT THE BUEEALO BAR. 39 
 
 much has been accompHshed in twenty-five years. 
 He will see that Buffalo has become the centre of 
 literary, artistic and scientific activities, and that 
 forces have been set at work which are sure to 
 strengthen with time, and to gready influence 
 the character of the place and the lives of its 
 people. 
 
 Grover Cleveland was hardly old enough to 
 take part in the beginning of these things. But 
 he has done his share of work in building them 
 up to their present prosperous state. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MAYORALTY AND MUNICIPAL REFORM. 
 
 EIGHT years ago Grover Cleveland was, 
 as has been seen, living quietly In Buffalo 
 and practicing law. Neither he nor any 
 one foresaw the career which was before hlm^ and 
 upon w^hlch he was soon to enter. This may be 
 said without disparagement, for If any Intelligent 
 resident of Buffalo had been asked to name a 
 citizen who was by nature fit to be Governor and 
 President, he would have been more likely to 
 mention Cleveland than any other man In the 
 place. 
 
 The National defeat of 1880 had not seriously 
 impaired Democratic strength in Buffalo, and 
 when the municipal election of 1881 drew near 
 there was a strong feeling that a proper person 
 could be elected to the Mayoralty by the Demo- 
 crats. City affairs were In an unsatisfactory state, 
 and there was a general feeling In favor of munici- 
 pal reform. The party leaders urged Cleveland 
 to take the nomination. At first he refused, but 
 it was pressed upon him with such urgency, and 
 with so strong an appeal to his sense of duty, that 
 he at last consented. His candidacy led to a 
 spirited canvass, and to his election by a majority 
 40 
 
MA YORALTY AM) MUNICIPAL REFORM, 41 
 
 of 3500, the largest ever known in the history of 
 the city. 
 
 He took office as Mayor on the ist day of Jan- 
 uary, 1882. He at once called to his side, as his 
 secretary, Mr. Harmon S. Cutting, a devoted friend, 
 and a lawyer of excellent standing and great expe- 
 rience, who was unrivalled for his knowledge of 
 municipal law. Mr. Cleveland entered upon his 
 office with a strong feeling that the affairs of 
 the municipality should, so far as possible, be 
 kept apart from party politics. He could not 
 see why the paving, lighting, and cleaning of 
 streets, should depend upon the exigencies of 
 parties which had been formed upon lines of state 
 or national policy. His first resolve was to do 
 what he thought the interests of the city required, 
 without reference to the effect his action would 
 have upon either the Democratic or the Republi- 
 can party. In his speech accepting the nomination 
 for Mayor, he said : " There is, or there should 
 be, no reason why the affairs of our city should 
 not be managed with the same care and the same 
 economy as private Interests ; and when we con- 
 sider that public officials are the trustees of the 
 people and hold their places and exercise their 
 powers for the benefit of the people, there should 
 be no higher inducement to a faithful and honest 
 discharge of public duty." In his inaugural mes- 
 sage, he used the following language : 
 
 ** We hold the money of the people in our 
 
42 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 hands, to be used for their purposes and to fur 
 ther their Interests as members of the munlci- 
 pahty, and It is quite apparent that, when any part 
 of the funds which tlie taxpayers have thus 
 intrusted to us are diverted to other purposes, or 
 when, by design or neglect, we allow a greater 
 sum to be applied to any municipal purpose than 
 is necessary, we have, to that extent, violated our 
 duty. There surely is no difference in his duties 
 and obligations, whether a person is intrusted 
 with the money of one man or many." 
 
 These two declarations laid down the rule by 
 which he meant to be guided. A trust had been 
 placed in his hands, and as a trust he intended to 
 administer his office. The public moneys were to 
 be dealt with as private moneys are dealt with, by 
 a competent and honest trustee. This rule he at 
 once rigidly applied to municipal affairs. He applied 
 it, in a striking manner, to a resolution which was 
 passed by the city council appropriating five hun- 
 dred dollars to defray the expenses attending a 
 proper observance of Decoration Day. It was 
 proposed, that this sum of money should be paid 
 out of what was know^n as the Fourth of July fund, 
 and therefore the resolution was obnoxious to a 
 provision in the charter of the city, which made 
 it a misdemeanor to appropriate money raised for 
 one purpose to any other object. Upon this 
 ground he refused to approve the resolution. 
 But he also placed his refusal upon broader 
 
AfA 3 ^ORA LTV A.\ 'D Mi W 'ICIPA L REFORM. 4 3 
 
 grounds. In his veto message, among other 
 things, he said : 
 
 "I deem the object of this appropriation a most 
 worthy one. The efforts of our veteran soldiers 
 to keep ahve the memory of their fallen comrades 
 certainly deserves the aid and encouragement of 
 their fellow-citizens. We should all, I think, feel 
 it a duty and a privilege to contribute to the funds 
 necessary to carry out such a purpose. And I 
 should be much disappointed if an appeal to our 
 citizens for voluntary subscriptions for this patri- 
 otic object should be in vain. 
 
 '* But the money so contributed should be a free 
 gift of the citizens and taxpayers, and should not 
 be extorted from them by taxation. This is so, 
 because the purpose for which this money is asked 
 does not involve their protection or interest as 
 members of the community, and it may or may 
 not be approved by them. 
 
 ''The people are forced to pay taxes into the 
 city treasury only upon the theory that such 
 money shall be expended for public purposes, or 
 purposes in which they all have a direct and practi- 
 cal interest. 
 
 '* The logic of this position leads directly to the 
 conclusion that, if the people are forced to pay 
 their money into the public fund and it is spent by 
 their servants and agents for purposes in which the 
 people as taxpayers have no interest, the exaction 
 of such taxes from them is oppressive and unjust. 
 
44 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 "I cannot rid myself of the idea that this cit) 
 government, in its relation to the taxpayers, is a 
 business establishment, and that it is put in our 
 hands to be conducted on business principles. 
 
 " This theory does not admit of our donating 
 the public funds in the manner contemplated by 
 the action of your honorable body. 
 
 "I deem it my duty, therefore, to return both 
 of the resolutions herein referred to without my 
 approval." 
 
 This act attracted the attention of the whole 
 community. The leading newspapers, without dis- 
 tinction of party, gave it their approval. But in 
 order that the object for which the money had 
 been voted should be accomplished, a subscription 
 was at once set afoot, which the Mayor headed by 
 a liberal coi^tribution. He soon had an opportu- 
 nity to apply his principles to a more important 
 matter. The City Council had awarded the con- 
 tract for cleaning the streets for five years for the 
 sum of four hundred and twenty-two thousand, 
 five hundred dollars. Another party had offered 
 to do the work for one hundred thousand dollars 
 less, and the person to whom the contract had 
 been given had himself, a few weeks before, pro- 
 posed to perform the same service for fifty thou- 
 sand less. This scandalous transaction was dealt 
 with by the Mayor with a commendable directness 
 and frankness ; he returned the resolution with a 
 message, which contained the following language : 
 
MAYORALTY AND MUNICIPAL REI'ORM. 
 
 45 
 
 *'ThIs is a time for plain speech, and my objec- 
 tion to the action of your honorable body now 
 under consideration shall be plainly stated. I 
 withhold my assent from the same, because I regard 
 it as. the culmination of a most barefaced, impudent 
 and shameless scheme to betray the interests of 
 the people, and to worse than squander the public 
 money. 
 
 '* I will not be misunderstood in this matter. 
 There are those whose votes were given for this 
 resolution whom I cannot and will not suspect of 
 a willful neglect of the interests they are sworn to 
 protect ; but it has been fully demonstrated that 
 there are influences, both in and about your hon- 
 orable body, which it behooves every honest man 
 to watch and avoid with the greatest care. 
 
 "When cool judgment rules the hour, the people 
 will, I hope and believe, have no reason to com- 
 plain of the action of your honorable body. But 
 clumsy appeals to prejudice or passion, insinua- 
 tions, with a kind of low, cheap cunning, as to the 
 motives and purposes of others, and the mock 
 heroism of brazen effrontery which openly declares 
 that a wholesome public sentiment is to be set at 
 naught, sometimes deceives and leads honest men 
 to aid in the consummation of schemes, which, if 
 exposed, they would look upon with abhorrence. 
 
 "If the scandal in connection with this street 
 cleaning contract, which has so aroused our citi- 
 zens, shall cause them to select and watch with 
 
46 iLlf£- OF C ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 more care those to whom they Intrust their inter- 
 ests, and if it serves to make all of us who are 
 charged with official duties more careful in their 
 performance, it will not be an unmitigated evil. 
 
 '' We are fast gaining positions in the grades of 
 public stewardship. There is no middle ground. 
 Those who are not for the people, either In or out 
 of your honorable body, are against them, and 
 should be treated accordingly." 
 
 This bold and honorable act attracted wide at- 
 tention, and laid the foundation of a reputation 
 which soon extended throughout the State. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland continued to apply to the affairs 
 of Buffalo the same inflexible rule of administerine 
 his office as though it were a trust. There can 
 be no doubt that the result was a success greater 
 than has ever been accomplished upon so narrow 
 a political field as a single municipality. At home, 
 the favor which he obtained was quite universal. 
 All party differences disappeared before a public 
 officer who performed his duties with so complete 
 a reference to the general welfare. 
 
 During the short term of his mayoralty there 
 were several occasions which compelled him to 
 speak upon Important topics. But whatever sub- 
 ject he dealt with was presented in the light of 
 the principle he had from the first declared should 
 guide his conduct. In speaking at the semi-cen- 
 tennial celebration of the foundation of the city, 
 July 3d, 1882, he said: 
 
MA YORAL TV AND MUNICIPAL REFORM. 
 
 47 
 
 ** We boast of our citizenship to-night. But 
 this citizenship brings with it duties 7iot unlike those 
 we owe onr neighbor and our God. There is no 
 better time than this for self-examination. He 
 who deems himself too pure and holy to take part 
 in the affairs of his city, will meet the fact that 
 better men than he have thought it their duty to 
 do so. He who cannot spare a moment in his 
 greed and selfishness to devote to public con- 
 cerns, will, perhaps, find a well- grounded fear 
 that he may become the prey of public plun- 
 derers ; and he who indolently cares not who 
 administers the government of his city, will find 
 that he is living falsely, and in the neglect of his 
 highest duty." 
 
 When laying the corner-stone of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association building, on die 7th of 
 September, 1882, he used the following language : 
 
 '' We all hope and expect that our city has 
 entered upon a course of unprecedented pros- 
 perity and growth. But to my mind not all 
 the signs about us point more surely to real great- 
 ness than the event which we here celebrate. 
 Good and pure government lies at the /omidatio7i 
 of the zucalth and progress of every co7n7nunity. As 
 the chief executive of this proud city, I congratu- 
 late all my fellow-citizens that to-day we lay the 
 foundation stone of an edifice which shall b^ a 
 beautiful ornament, and, what is more important, 
 shall enclose within its walls such earnest Christian 
 
48 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 endeavors as must make easier all our efforts to 
 administer safely and honestly a good municipal 
 government." 
 
 These utterances disclose the high moral pur- 
 pose in which his whole nature seemed to be 
 absorbed, and which he was, in a measure, com- 
 pelled to profess upon every occasion when he 
 was required to address the people. Perhaps 
 there was no occasion on which he made so clear 
 a revelation of himself and his character as by the 
 address which he delivered on the 9th of April, 
 1882, when taking the chair at a mass meeting to 
 protest against the treatment of American citizens 
 imprisoned abroad. This short speech is worthy 
 of the careful attention of all those who wish to 
 understand his mind and character: 
 
 " Fellow Citizens. — This is the formal mode 
 of address on occasions of this kind, but I think 
 we seldom realize fully its meaning or how valu- 
 able a thinof it is to be a citizen. 
 
 '' From the earliest civilization to be a citizen 
 has been to be a free man, endowed with certain 
 privileges and advantages, and entitled to the full 
 protection of the State. The defense and protec- 
 tion of the personal rights of its citizens has always 
 been the paramount and most Important duty of 
 a free, enlightened government. 
 
 " And perhaps no government has this sacred 
 trust more in its keeping than this — the best and 
 freest of them all ; for here the people who are to 
 
MAYORALTY AND MUNICIPAL REFORM. 49 
 
 be protected are the source of those powers which 
 they delegate upon the express compact that the 
 citizen shall be protected. For this purpose we 
 chose those who, for the time being, shall manage 
 the machinery which we have set up for our 
 defense and safety. 
 
 *' And this protection adheres to us in all lands 
 and places as an incident of citizenship. Let but 
 the weight of a sacrilegious hand be put upon this 
 sacred thing, and a great strong government 
 springs to its feet to avenge the wrong. Thus it 
 is that the native born American citizen enjoys his 
 birthright. But when, in the westward march of 
 empire, this nation was founded and took root, 
 we beckoned to the Old World, and invited hither 
 its immigration, and provided a mode by which 
 those who sought a home among us might become 
 our fellow citizens. They came by thousands and 
 hundreds of thousands ; they came and 
 
 Hewed the dark old woods away, 
 And gave the virgin fields to day ; 
 
 they came with strong sinews and brawny arms 
 to aid in the growth and progress of a new coun- 
 try ; they came, and upon our altars laid their 
 fealty and submission ; they came to our temples 
 of justice, and under the solemnity of an oath 
 renounced all allegiance to every other State, 
 potentate and sovereignty, and surrendered to us 
 all the duty pertaining to such allegiance. We 
 
50 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 have accepted their fealty, and invited them to 
 surrender the protection of their native land. 
 
 "And what should be given them in return? 
 Manifestly, good faith and every dictate of honor 
 demand that we give them the same liberty and 
 protection here and elsewhere which we vouchsafe 
 to our native-born citizens. And that this has 
 been accorded to them is the crowning glory of 
 American institutions. 
 
 *' It needed not the statute, which is now the 
 law of the land, declaring that all 'naturalized 
 citizens while in foreign lands are entjtled to and 
 shall receive from this government the same pro- 
 tection of person and property which is accorded 
 to native-born citizens,' to voice the policy of our 
 nation. 
 
 ''In all lands where the semblance of liberty is 
 preserved, the right of a person arrested to a 
 speedy accusation and trial is, or ought to be, a 
 fundamental law, as it is a rule of civilization. 
 
 '* At any rate, we hold it to be so, and this Is 
 one of the rlehts which we undertake to j^uarantee 
 to any native-born or naturalized citizen of ours, 
 whether he be imprisoned by order of the Czar 
 of Russia or under the pretext of a law admin- 
 istered for the benefit of the landed aristocracy 
 of England. 
 
 "We do not claim to make laws for other 
 countries, but we do insist that whatever those 
 laws may be they shall, in the interests of human 
 
MAYORALTY AND MUNICIPAL REFORM. 51 
 
 freedom and die rights of mankind, so far as they 
 involve the Uberty of our citizens, be speedily 
 administered. We have a right to say, and do 
 say, that mere suspicion without examination or 
 trial, is not sufficient to justify the long Imprison- 
 ment of a citizen of America. Other nations 
 may permit their citizens to be thus imprisoned. 
 Ours will not. And this in effect has been 
 solemnly declared by statute. 
 
 "We have met here to-night to consider this 
 subject and to inquire into the cause and the 
 reasons and the justice of the imprisonment of 
 certain of our fellow-citizens now held in British 
 prisons without the semblance of a trial or legal 
 examination. Our law declares that the govern- 
 ment shall act in such cases. But the people are 
 the creators of the government. 
 
 "The undaunted apostle of the Christian relig- 
 ion imprisoned and persecuted, appealing centuries 
 ago to the Roman law and the rights of Roman 
 citizenship, boldly demanded: *Ts it lawful for 
 you to scourge a man that is a Roman and 
 uncondemned? " 
 
 "So, too, might we ask, appealing to the law 
 of our land and the laws of civilization: Ts it 
 lawful that these our fellows be- imprisoned who 
 are American citizens and uncoildemned ? ' 
 
 "I deem it an honor to be called upon to pre- 
 side at such a meeting, and I thank you for it 
 What is your further pleasure.'^ " 
 
CHAPTER IV. _ 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR OF NEW 
 YORK IN 1882. 
 
 THE year 1882 was one of political reac- 
 tion and surprising revolution. The 
 death of Garfield, the succession of Ar- 
 thur, the changes In Cabinet and policy, the with- 
 drawal oT Senators Conkling and Piatt and their 
 failure of re-election, and the defeat of the regu- 
 lar Republican caucus nominee for United States 
 Senator in Pennsylvania, convulsed the politics 
 of the two principal States of the Union. In the 
 Empire and Keystone States the movements of 
 leaders controlled the fortunes of the two great 
 parties In whose councils these Commonwealths 
 were supreme. Men were everywhere looking 
 to the Gubernatorial contests of the year to 
 shape the next Presidential campaign and to 
 influence the control of the Federal Administra- 
 tion, perhaps, for many years to come. 
 
 In New York city and Brooklyn, where the 
 contention of the Tammany Society and County 
 Democracy had distracted their party for years 
 past and led to Its defeat In the Gubernatorial 
 campaign of 1879, rival candidates were pre- 
 52 
 
STATE STREET AND CAPITOL, ALBANY, NEW YORK. 
 
CAXVAS <r FOR G O VER.VOK. 5 5 
 
 sented in such well-known personages as Roswell 
 P. Flower and General Henry W. Slocum. The 
 former was recognized as having the favor of 
 Tammany Hall ; he had wealth, extended busi- 
 ness reputation, and the experience of a term in 
 Congress. General Slocum was one of the 
 worthiest and most popular soldiers in the War 
 for the Union, and had proved his eminent fitness 
 for civil duties in Congress. They were pressed 
 with a zeal that bid fair to lead to intense bitter- 
 ness and possibly to disastrous dissension. Two 
 influences operated to avert the threatened col- 
 lision. 
 
 While the local pride of Buffalo was enlisted 
 to promote to the Chief Magistracy of the State 
 the Mayor who had served his city so well, and 
 while his most ardent supporters there were 
 found among the Republicans who had contribu- 
 ted to his municipal victory, the eyes of the cool- 
 headed party managers at Albany had been turned 
 to the "availability" of a candidate who had al- 
 ready exhibited marked elements of political 
 strength, and who was remote from the local dis- 
 traction of the various halls and factions of the 
 great cities of Eastern New York. Mr. Manning 
 and others of the discreet and sagacious politi- 
 cians who controlled the party organization fully 
 satisfied themselves that in the Mayor of Buffalo 
 were to be found qualities of successful leadership 
 for the campaign then before the party. The del- 
 
56 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 eofates from Western New York were sollcllv for 
 him. The Tammany people gladly espoused hiii 
 cause radier than risk defeat. On the third bal- 
 lot in the State Convention their delegates went 
 to Cleveland and his nomination was secured. 
 
 As soon as the canvass opened it was seen that 
 the choice had been a wise one. The movement 
 for Cleveland rose in the West to a great height 
 and ran swiftly through the State. Ever}^where 
 factional differences w^ere swept away. In New 
 York the adherents of Tammany and of the 
 County and Irving Hall organizations united in 
 support of the State ticket, and upon all other 
 important nominations. 
 
 Meantime, in other States, events were pro- 
 gressing well calculated to inspire the Democrats 
 In Connecticut, Thomas M. Waller led the battle 
 which ended in victory. In Massachusetts, a combi- 
 nation of Democrats and Independents, under the 
 banner of General B. F. Butler, was wresting the 
 State from Republican control. In Pennsylvania, tb.e 
 Independent Republican candidacy of John Stew- 
 art, and the nomination of General James A. Bea- 
 ver by the regular organization, made easy the elec- 
 tion of Robert E. Pattison. 
 
 The Republican dissensions were increased in 
 proportion to the growth of Democratic union 
 and enthusiasm. Those Republicans who were 
 disposed to vote against their part}-, were not 
 deterred by fear of failure. The certainty of 
 
CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 57 
 
 Clevdand's election increased the temptation to 
 aid his cause. Thousands were eager to add to 
 the weight of the blow which was to fall on the 
 Administration and its friends. The Republican 
 candidate was an eminent citizen. He had shown 
 high abilities in many public employments. His 
 character was without a stain. He had been 
 Chief Justice of the State ; and a long career on 
 the bench had won for him that general esteem 
 and public favor which successful judicial service 
 almost always wins. But the more worthy the 
 candidate the more impressive the lesson of his 
 defeat. The murder of Garfield was to be 
 avenged ; party chains were to be broken ; the 
 forgery of a telegram was to be punished, and 
 Republican independence and manhood were to 
 be asserted. The party difficulties were very 
 materially increased also by the attitude of lead- 
 ing men. 
 
 Mr. Evarts, who had always been ready to give 
 his elaborate eloquence to his party, was silent, and 
 what was of far more importance, Roscoe Conk- 
 ling also was silent. For more than a decade he 
 had been the Republican advocate. His popular 
 triumphs had been without precedent. In 1872, 
 when Republican supremacy was threatened by a 
 revolt, formidable on account of the number and 
 the character of the rebels, he excited the Repub- 
 licans who remained faithful to their party to un- 
 exampled efforts ; efforts which created a Demo- 
 
58 L IFE OF GR OVER CLE VELA ND. 
 
 cratic suplneness far more effective at the 'polls 
 than the liberal Republican rebellion. In 1876 he 
 had held his party together amid great discour- 
 agements, and upon a lost field. He had after- 
 wards stood aloof from the intrigues by which Mr. 
 Tilden had been deprived of the office to which 
 he had been elected. In 1880, at a time when 
 Republican defeat seemed to be certain — when 
 Mr. Blaine had been beaten in Maine, and the 
 October elections in Ohio and Indiana were in the 
 greatest doubt — he reluctantly came forward to 
 aid a candidate whom he distrusted and despised. 
 He threw himself into the canvass with all his 
 accustomed zeal. Those who have never heard 
 Mr. Conkling addressing a great meeting can 
 have but little idea of the vigor, brilliancy, and 
 fiery energy of his picturesque eloquence. The 
 effect of his speeches at the West, and m his 
 own State, cannot be over-stated. Never, in our 
 politics, has any one made such a display of per- 
 sonal power. But in 1882 he was silent. It is 
 not necessary to explain here the causes of his 
 silence. Its effects were to be seen plainly 
 enough by all who watched the events of that 
 year. 
 
 The Republican disaffection grew more power- 
 ful every day. Party journals, like the Buffalo 
 Express, openly advocated Cleveland's election. 
 The Albany Journal, the New York Times, and 
 the Tribune gave Judge Folger but a cold sup- 
 
CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. cg 
 
 port. The friends of Garfield wished his defeat. 
 The friends of ConkHng wished his defeat ; and 
 to these discontents, added to Democratic enthu- 
 siasm, the friends of President Arthur could make 
 but litde resistance. The Republican treasury 
 was without funds, and had the canvass lasted two 
 weeks longer, the Republican cause would proba- 
 bly have been pracdcally abandoned. The elec- 
 tion resulted in a majority of one hundred and 
 ninety-two thousand for Grover Cleveland; In 
 the elecdon of twenty-one Democradc members 
 of the House of Representadves, and of a large 
 majority in the State Assembly. The wisdom of 
 those who had advised Mr. Cleveland's nomina- 
 tion was abundantly vindicated by this overwhelm- 
 ing victory. 
 
 In that hour of triumph there was one man 
 whose mind was filled with anxiety. The Demo- 
 cradc candidate had, during the canvass, borne 
 himself modesdy, and had passed his dme in the 
 duties of his office. He heard the news of his 
 success with joy, indeed, but it was a joy tempered 
 by a sense of the undefined responsibilides which 
 lay before him. This feeling showed Itself in the 
 speech which he made the night of his elecdon 
 at the Manhattan Club, and even m^ore strongly 
 in the address which he made upon taking the 
 oath of office. 
 
 To many, the governorship thus attained sug- 
 gested the presidency. If this high andcipadon 
 
6o LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 came to him, as It did to others, it made no change 
 in his demeanor. Dehberately and calmly he 
 began to prepare for his departure, and performed 
 the preliminary work in the composition of his 
 message and the selection of his staff, as unosten- 
 tatiously as if they were in the ordinary course of 
 his daily employment. 
 
 " If chance will have one king, why, chance may crown me 
 Without my stir." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FIRST YEAR AS GOVERNOR. 
 
 THE office of Governor of the State of New 
 York has long been considered the fit 
 reward for men of large experience in pub- 
 lic life, great natural parts, and high personal char- 
 acter. It has seldom been filled by a small man 
 or by a mere seeker after place and power. From 
 the earliest days of the history of the State it has 
 been looked upon, not only in the State of New 
 York itself, but throughout the Union, as an office 
 scarcely lower in dignity and importance than the 
 Presidency of the United States. 
 
 During the early political history of New York 
 as a State in the Union the Presidency was prac- 
 tically monopolized by Virginia and Massachusetts. 
 During this time, however, the Vice-Presidency, 
 then deemed of much greater relative importance 
 than now, and generally representing the second 
 c'.ioice of the electors for President, was filled for 
 five terms out of a possible six by natives and 
 residents of New York between the time of the 
 accession of Thomas Jefferson and the retirement 
 of James ivlonroe. Two of the men so honored, 
 George Clinton and Daniel D. Tompkins, had 
 
 6i 
 
^2 ^^i^E OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 been Governors of their State. With the election 
 of Martin Van Buren to the Presidency, in 1836, 
 the Presidency ceased to be the heritage of any 
 one or two States of the Union, and since that 
 time the country has always looked with hope and 
 expectancy to the Gubernatorial choice of the 
 State of New York for men to honor with the 
 Presidency of the United' States. The names of 
 Silas Wright, William L. Marcy, William H. Sew- 
 ard, Horatio Seymour, and Samuel J. Tilden are 
 familiar household words in our political history 
 as aspirants for nomination or election to the high 
 office of President. Of these, only the two latter 
 ever received the recognition of nomination, and 
 the latter was the only Governor of his State 
 elected to the Presidency after the success of Mr. 
 Van Buren in 1836. 
 
 With all these examples at hand. It should have 
 been no occasion for surprise that Grover Cleve- 
 land was looked upon with unusual interest after 
 his election to tlie Governorship by a majority 
 unprecedented in the history of the politics of 
 American States. That he was comparatively 
 little known added to this interest. The element 
 of surprise that a man of such slight experi- 
 ence in the larger politics of the State should 
 have been nominated and elected was rein- 
 forced by a feeling of anticipation, an eager 
 demand to know what he would do in the office, 
 now that he had reached it under such exceptional 
 
FIRS 7^ YEAR AS GOVERXOR. 5^ 
 
 circumstances. He had not come to the office 
 as the result of poHtical management, of long ser- 
 vice in one or the other branch of the Legislature, 
 nor of ereat and widely recoQfnized distinction in his 
 profession. He was simply known as an honest 
 man, of good ability, who, in whatever station he 
 had been called to fill, had done his duty without 
 fear or favor. While this lack of familiarity with 
 politics and political movements undoubtedly had 
 its drawbacks and disadvantages, which raised In 
 the mind of the new Governor many doubts and 
 apprehensions, it had many compensations. It 
 left him free-handed and independent. He was 
 not tied up with obligations to persons, localities, 
 or Interests. Trained to consider questions on 
 their merits by the exacting duties of long prac- 
 tice of the law, he could look fairly and fully at 
 every public question as it came up, and decide as 
 his judgment and honesty of purpose would direct. 
 The people of New York were not long In find- 
 ing out that this was the very thing which Governor 
 Cleveland was determined to do. His first mes- 
 sage was something of a disappointment, only 
 because events had moved so rapidly In bringing 
 him Into unnatural prominence as to raise extrav- 
 agant expectations. But It was mainly disap- 
 pointing because It lacked the self-assertive dog- 
 matism which the people of New York had long 
 been trained to expect from a Governor, especially 
 from a new one. 
 
6^ LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAAD. 
 
 But familiarity with the duties and obligations, 
 as well as with the power and the rights con- 
 ferred upon the Governorship, came rapidly. Then 
 the hesitation disappeared, and the people of the 
 country, as well as those of New York, found that 
 Grover Cleveland not only knew how to govern, 
 but that he was determined to be Governor. 
 
 He early learned to use without mercy the 
 weapon of the veto power, almost autocratically 
 lodo^ed with the Governor of New York bv the 
 new Constitution. Between the 26th of January 
 and the ist of March he sent to the Legislature 
 eight veto messages. These documents clearly 
 disclose his purposes. In one, he refused to per- 
 mit the county of Montgomery to borrow money. 
 In another he refused his consent to an amend- 
 ment of the charter of Elmira which was intended 
 to change the liability of the city for injuries re- 
 ceived in consequence of the streets being in an 
 unsafe and dangerous condition. He refused his 
 signature to a bill which would have relieved the 
 library association of Fredonia from the payment 
 of local taxes, and to one that authorized the 
 county of Chautauqua to appropriate money for 
 a soldiers' monument. He vetoed an act author- 
 izing the village of Fayetteville, where he had lived 
 during his boyhood, to borrow money for the pur- 
 pose of purchasing a steam fire-engine, and also 
 one authorizino- the villaore of Mechanicsville to 
 borrow money for the same purpose. 
 
FI/xST YEAR AS GOVERXOR. ^e 
 
 By these vetoes he showed that he was deter- 
 mined to adhere to the rule which had gov- 
 erned him while Mayor of Buffalo, and to deal 
 with the public moneys on the principle that offi- 
 cials are the trustees of the people. 
 
 He did not, however, confine his use of the 
 veto power to bills intended to prevent the ex- 
 penditure of small sums of money by village or 
 town or county authorities. He even dared to 
 run the risk of unpopularity by the veto of a bill 
 fixinof a uniform rate of five cents as fare on the 
 elevated railroads of the city of New York. That 
 city had suffered severely by the unjust exactions 
 of the roads in question, and a strong popular 
 sentiment had been developed which demanded 
 that new restrictions should be imposed. But 
 the form in which the Leo^islature sought to em- 
 body this sentiment was so unsatisfactory and its 
 effects would have been so far-reaching^ that the 
 Governor saw danger and injustice ahead. It 
 was insisted by opponents of the measure, who 
 had no interest in the roads involved, that for a 
 commercial community like New York to disregard 
 the implied obligation which had arisen between 
 the State and its citizens, and between the State 
 and citizens of other States and countries, would 
 be, in the judgment of many thoughtful men, a 
 dangerous and pernicious act. This latter view 
 was taken by the Governor in the following ex- 
 tract from his veto messacje: 
 
66 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAXD. 
 
 " But we have especially in our keeping the 
 honor and good faith of a great State, and we 
 should see to it that no suspicion attaches, through 
 any act of ours, to the fair fame of the Common- 
 wealth. The State should not only be strictly 
 just, but scrupulously fair, and in its relations to 
 the citizen every le^al and moral obligation should 
 be recognized. This can only be done by legis- 
 lating without vindictiveness or prejudice, and 
 with a firm determination to deal justly and fairly 
 with those from whom we exact obedience." 
 
 He rejected the advice given in many quarters 
 to permit the bill to become a law without his 
 signature, and put himself upon high ground by 
 saying in his message, '' I am convinced, that in 
 all cases the share which falls upon the Executive 
 recrardinor the lesfislation of the Stale, should be 
 in no manner evaded, but fairly met by the ex- 
 pression of his carefully guarded and unbiased 
 judgment." 
 
 This courage challeno^ed admiration even from 
 those who did not agree with his position and who 
 differed from him in political opinion. The result 
 was to give him popularity with people of his' 
 State, because they were convinced that whatever 
 he did, whatever position he took, their safety and 
 their Interests would be consulted. 
 
 The same Independent position was assumed 
 in dealing with bills reorganizing the Fire Depart- 
 n^ent in Buffalo, a measure which would have con- 
 
GOVERNORS MANSION. ALBANY, N. V. 
 
FIRST YEAR AS GOVERNOR. ^^ 
 
 ferred a supposed advantage upon his own party. 
 Other bills affecting the city of New York and 
 having back of them considerable support in 
 public sentiment, were subjected to the same re- 
 lentless examination and rejected when it ap- 
 Deared to the Governor that they did not ?iccord 
 with the interests of the people of his State. 
 
 During his first year as Governor it fell to his 
 lot to make a large number of appointments to fill 
 vacancies in public offices. He undertook co 
 apply to this duty the same principles which 
 governed his conduct in dealing with questions 
 more strictly financial or business in their scope. 
 He gave heed to the demands of his party, re- 
 cognizing in general that it is neither possible nor 
 desirable to separate important or responsible 
 places from accountability to the sentiment domi- 
 nant among the people of a given locality. But 
 this devotion to his own party was always accom- 
 panied by the most exacting demands of fitness, 
 capacity and character in the applicant. Wher- 
 ever it was possible to do so he recognized tlie 
 system of merit by which men having special 
 fitness or experience in given lines were promoted. 
 He made the assistant in the Insurance Depart- 
 ment its chief; he appointed a builder of charac- 
 ter as Commissioner of the Capitol, and made a 
 business nian, whose qualifications he knew, 
 Superintendent of the same building. The 
 Superintendency of Public Works, a place which 
 
70 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 had often been filled by mere partisans with little 
 regard to fitness, was given to a man whose long 
 experience in the management of the canals had 
 made him practical and thorough. The Railroad 
 Commission, the appointment of the original 
 members of which was imposed upon Mr. Cleve- 
 land during his first year's service as Governor, 
 was selected with such judgment that the choice 
 gave general party and public satisfaction. It 
 justified his confidence and that of the people of 
 the State by doing its work so faithfully and well 
 that there has probably been less irritation or ill- 
 feeling between the people and the railroads In 
 New York than In any other State In the Union. 
 For several years the labor question had been 
 gradually coming to the front in New York as 
 one of the most important to be dealt with by 
 political parties, Legislatures, and executive 
 officers. The peculiar character of the working 
 people of New York city had had much to do 
 with giving the question importance. In addition 
 to maintaining Its supremacy as the first commer- 
 cial city of the Western world, It had recently 
 become the largest centre for manufacturlnir In- 
 dustrles. This had the effect of IntroducinQ- a 
 population which for variety in origin, ideas, and 
 Interests could be found nowhere else. Many 
 Impracticable measures were proposed from time 
 to time by the accepted representatives of the 
 labor Interests, too^ether with others which were 
 
FIRST YEAR AS GOVERNOR. 
 
 7t 
 
 principally distinguished for crudeness and ineffi- 
 ciency. Some such measures had been permitted 
 to become laws, perhaps, in some cases, from 
 an honest desire on the part of Legislators and 
 Governors, but in most instances to appease what 
 was supposed to be the demands of a large and 
 commandinof vote. 
 
 The platform of the Convention by which Mr. 
 Cleveland had been nominated orave distinct 
 pledges committing the Democratic party in New 
 York to the enactment of certain legislation in 
 the interest of labor. These were accepted by 
 Mr. Cleveland in his letter of acceptance in the 
 following language : 
 
 •' The platform of principles adopted by the 
 Convention meets with my hearty approval. The 
 doctrines therein enunciated are so distinctly and 
 explicitly stated that their amplification seems 
 scarcely necessitated. If elected to the office for 
 which I have been nominated, I shall endeavor to 
 impress them upon my administration and make 
 them the policy of the State." 
 
 Further on, in the same letter^ he says : 
 
 '^The laboring classes constitute the main part 
 of our population. They should be protected in 
 their efforts to assert their rights when endangered 
 by aggregated capital, and all statutes on this sub- 
 ject should recognize the care of the State for 
 honest toil, and be framed with a view of improv- 
 inof the condition of the workinorman." 
 
72 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 The Legislature did its part toward redeeming 
 these promises, and bills for the establishment of 
 a Bureau of Labor Statistics, for prohibiting the 
 manufacture of cigars in tenement houses, and 
 forbidding the manufacture of woolen hats in 
 penitentiaries were passed by the Legislature and 
 signed by the Governor. 
 
 But even In dealing with labor questions he did 
 not yield his judgment to popular clamor when 
 convinced that a proposed law affecting interests 
 of large bodies of men were either impracticable 
 or dangerous in principle. For this reason, he 
 refused to sio^n a bill which reached him late in the 
 leorislative session, known as the " Car Conductors' 
 and Drivers' Bill ;" it proposed to prohibit the 
 exaction of more than twelve hours for a day's 
 work on street railways. This action was not 
 taken because of any disapproval of the objects 
 sought to be accomplished by the proposed law, 
 but upon purely legal and constitutional grounds. 
 The bill was defective and unskillfully drawn in 
 that the riofht of contract between street car com- 
 panies and their employes was not interfered 
 with. It was clear that the law could never be 
 enforced, as experience had already shown in 
 other States. 
 
 The session of the first Leeislature under Mr. 
 Cleveland's administration as Governor of the 
 State of New York closed with credit to himself 
 He had worked hard and faithfully to redeem the 
 
FIRST YEAR AS GOVERNOR. 7^ 
 
 promises made by himself and his party, and had 
 achieved a larger degree of success than gener- 
 ally comes to men under such circumstances. 
 He had maintained and increased the respect felt 
 for his honesty and faithfulness throughout the 
 State, and had become widely known in every 
 section of the Union. His relations with his own 
 party were, in general, good, in spite of the fact 
 that they had been severely strained with certain 
 . sections of it. Already his name had been very 
 generally discussed as that of a man who v>^as most 
 likely to enable his party to regain in the Union 
 that power which it had lost twenty-three years 
 before. But he made no avowals, and was not, 
 apparently, to be turned either to the right or to 
 the left by this consideration. He simply did his 
 duty as it came to him, leaving the future to take 
 care of itself. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SECOND YEAR AS GOVERNOR. 
 
 IN his second annual message Grover Cleve- 
 land showed that he felt easy in the place 
 as well as liked it — something- which he con- 
 fessed to his friends. He showed more and more 
 confidence in himself and in his ability to satisfy 
 both the people of his State and himself in carry- 
 ini^ out its duties. There was no longer uncer- 
 tainty or hesitation. He showed that he knew 
 what measures the best interests of the State 
 demanded, and he recommended them with that 
 dogmatism so much admired by the people of 
 New York, and which ever wins for public men 
 increasing popularity among intelligent people. 
 
 Among the most important of the questions 
 with w^hich he came to deal was the relations of 
 corporations to the State. It had long been ap- 
 parent that many evils were growing up about 
 these associations of men and money, and earnest 
 men of intellio-ence and conscience had souoht 
 some way of meeting what seemed to them a 
 serious daneer. There w^as general agreement 
 to the proposition that if the widest publicity 
 could be given to the accounts of corporations 
 74 
 
SECOND YEAR AS GOVERNOR. 
 
 7, 
 
 created by the State the beginning of the end oi 
 the evil would be reached. The Governor con- 
 sidered this phase of the question at some lengtn 
 in his second annual message, from which the fol- 
 lowing views are extracted : 
 
 " It would, in my opinion, be a most valuable 
 protection to the people if other large corpo- 
 rations were obliged to report to some depart- 
 ment their transactions and financial condition. 
 
 "The State creates these corporations upon the 
 theory that some proper thing of benefit can be 
 better done by them than by private enterprise, 
 and that the aggregation of the funds of many 
 individuals may be thus profitably employed. 
 They are launched upon the public v;ith the seal 
 of the State, in some sense, upon them. They 
 are permitted to represent the advantages they 
 possess and the wealth sure to follow from ad- 
 mission to membership. In one hand is held a 
 charter from the State, and in the other is proffered 
 their stock. 
 
 " It is a fact, singular though well established, 
 that people will pay their money for stock in a 
 corporation engaged in enterprises in which they 
 would refuse to invest if in private hands. 
 
 '' It is a grave question whether the formation 
 of these artificial bodies ou^jht not to be checked 
 or better regulated, and in some way supervised. 
 
 " hx. any rate, they should always be kept well 
 in hand, and the funds of its citizens should be 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF GRQVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 protected by the State which has invited their 
 investment. While the stockholders are the own- 
 ers of the corporate property, notoriously they are 
 oftentimes completely in the power of the direct- 
 ors and managers, who acquire a majority of the 
 stock and by this means perpetuate their control, 
 using- the corporate property and franchises for 
 their benefit and profit, regardless of the inter- 
 ests and rights of the minority of stockholders. 
 Immense salaries are paid to officers ; transactions 
 are consummated by which the directors make 
 money, while the rank and file among the stock- 
 holders lose it ; the honest investor waits for 
 dividends and the directors erow rich. It is 
 suspected, too, that large sums are spent under 
 various disoruises in efforts to influence leeislation. 
 
 "The State should either refuse to allow these 
 corporations to exist under its authority and 
 patronage, or, acknowledging their paternity and 
 its responsibility, should provide a simple, easy 
 way for its people, whose money is invested, and 
 the public generally, to discover how the funds of 
 these Institutions are spent, and how their affairs 
 are conducted. It should at the same time pro- 
 vide a way by which the squandering or misuse 
 of corporate funds would be made good to the 
 parties Injured thereby. 
 
 " This might well be accomplished by requiring 
 corporations to frequently file reports made out 
 with the utmost detail, and which would not allow 
 
SECOND YEAR AS GOVERNOR. 
 
 1\ 
 
 lobby expenses to be hidden under the pretext of 
 legal services and counsel fees, accompanied by 
 vouchers and sworn to by the officers making 
 them, showing particularly the debts, liabilities, 
 expenditures, and property of the corporation. 
 Let this report be delivered to some appropriate 
 department or officer, who shall audit and examine 
 the same; provide that a false oath to such ac- 
 count shall be perjury, and make the directors 
 liable to refund to the injured stockholders any 
 expenditure which shall be determined improper 
 by the auditing authority. 
 
 ''Such requirements might not be favorable to 
 stock speculation, but they would protect the inno- 
 cent investors ; they might make the management 
 of corporations more troublesome, but this ought 
 not to be considered when the protection of the 
 people Is the matter in hand. It w^ould prevent 
 corporate efforts to influence legislation ; the 
 honestly conducted and strong corporations w^ould 
 have nothing to fear ; the badly managed ana 
 weak ought to be exposed." 
 
 It would be difficult to find in the record of any 
 of our public men so well-considered a plan as 
 that here presented, dealing with the glaring evilr 
 of legislative and official corruption. 
 
 It was only natural that Grover Cleveland 
 should devote much time, thouoht, and attention 
 to the discussion of municipal affairs. His first 
 political office, and that from wdilch he had taken 
 
^7g LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 his way Into the higher walks of pubHc Hfe, was 
 that of Mayor of Buffalo. During the time he 
 occupied that office he brought to the discharge 
 of Its duties a purpose to do what lay in his 
 power toward making his city a place where 
 health, the material independence of Its citizens, and 
 their mental and moral growth niight all be pro- 
 moted. In was in the Mayoralty that he insisted 
 upon a decent economy and the most scrupulous 
 fidelity to all the trusts imposed by public office. 
 In his first message to the Legislature he had 
 said : 
 
 ''They [municipal governments] should be so 
 orcranlzed as to be simple in their details, and to 
 cast upon the people affected thereby the full 
 responsibility of their administration. The differ- 
 ent departments should be In such accord as In 
 their operation to lead toward the same results. 
 Divided counsels and divided responsibility to the 
 people, on the part of municipal officers, it is 
 believed, give rise to much that is objectionable 
 in the government of cities. If, to remedy this 
 evil, the chief executive should be made answer- 
 able to the people for the proper conduct of the 
 city's affairs. It is quite clear that his power in the 
 selection of those who manage its different depart- 
 ments should be greatly enlarged." 
 
 And acraln he said : 
 
 *' It Is not only the right of the people to admin- 
 ister their local government, but It should be made 
 
SECOA'D YEAR AS GOVERNOR. J7t) 
 
 their duty to do so. Any departure from this 
 doctrine is an abandonment of the principles upon 
 which our institutions are founded, and a conces- 
 sion of the infirmity and partial failure of the 
 thieory of a representative form of government. 
 
 ■ "If the aid of the Legislature is invoked to 
 further projects which should be subject to local 
 control and management, suspicion should be at 
 once aroused, and the interference sought should 
 be promptly and sternly refused. 
 
 " If local rule is in any instance bad, weak, 01" 
 inefficient, those who suffer from maladministra- 
 tion have t]"ie remedy within their own control. 
 If, through their neglect or inattention, it falls into 
 unworthy hands, or if bad methods and practices 
 gain a place in its administration, it is neither 
 hareh nor unjust to remit those who are respon- 
 sible for those conditions to their self-invited fate, 
 until tliuir interest, if no better motive, prompts 
 them to an earnest and active discharoe of the 
 duties of good citizenship." 
 
 llie Legislature of 1SS4, accepting this theory 
 and acting upon what was the drift of discussion 
 in the city of New York, passed an elaborate bill 
 depriving the Board of Aldermen of the power 
 of confirmation of appointments to certain offices 
 in that city, and lodging this power in the hands 
 of the Mayor without restriction. In some respects 
 the nev/ lav/ did not meet the opinions of the Gov- 
 ernor, but he signed it, filing with the newly made 
 
go i^IFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 law a memorandum of the reasons which had led 
 him to take this action. Under this law the im- 
 proved condition of municipal politics in the city 
 of New York has become apparent. The Board 
 of Aldermen, shorn of their coveted power of con- 
 firmation, has not been able to maintain the old 
 and unnatural importance which had been given 
 to it; the politics of the city has had opportunity 
 to lose its old-time reputation for bargains and 
 bargaining, and there is a very apparent improve- 
 ment in the character, not only of the officials ap- 
 pointed by the Mayor, but of those elected by the 
 people as well. Much of this is due to Mr. Cleve- 
 land's recoo^nition of the need of a change in 
 municipal methods, suggested by his own expe- 
 rience and elaborated by his industry and ability. 
 That much still remains to be done no man will 
 question, but with the interest which has been ex- 
 cited in such questions and the intelligence which 
 is being brought to bear upon it there can be no 
 serious doubt of the result. When this is assured 
 liistory will give due credit for it to the man who 
 is now President of the United States. 
 
 As Governor, Mr. Cleveland recognized the 
 importance of the National Guard of New York, 
 and dici much to revive interest in its citizen sol- 
 diery. He selected his staff not for ornamental 
 purposes, as is so often the case with the militia 
 of the several States, but with a view of getting 
 the most efficient practical result?. He was care- 
 
SECOXD YEAR AS CO]ERNOR, gj 
 
 ful to promote the true Interests of the soldiers 
 who served hi the Union army during the Civil 
 War, approving measures giving soldiers and sail- 
 ors preference for employment upon public works, 
 and the provision for completing the records of 
 New York regiments and other military organiza- 
 tions and for their safe keeping. 
 
 The pardoning power, one of the most respon- 
 sible duties of the Governor, was exercised with 
 care, and at the same time with greater frequency 
 than usual. His legal training and practice had 
 evidendy convinced him that the power of trav- 
 ersinor the sentences of the vast number and vari- 
 ety of courts in a State like New York was one 
 which imposed the most serious responsibilities 
 upon the Governor. The constant tendency on 
 the p^rt of a certain class of judges to Impose 
 " cruel and unusual punishments" Is one of the 
 most serious of the time, and one which constantly 
 needs to be reviewed in order that justice may be 
 tempered with that mercy which Is Its highest 
 attribute. 
 
 Among the more Important measures passed 
 was an Act providing for the appointment of a 
 Commission to select and set apart such lands as 
 might be found necessary for the preservadon of 
 the scenery at Niagara Falls. All the islands im- 
 mediately above the falls, and the lands upon the 
 main shore, had early in the century been sold to 
 private citizens. Some of them have been devoted 
 
g2 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 to manufacturing purposes, the forests upon tlie 
 mainland have been cut clown, and a process of 
 deterioration has begun which, if continued, will 
 soon destroy the charm and interest which Niagara 
 has had as an object of natural beauty and 
 sublimity. 
 
 It had been some time in contemplation to pre- 
 serve Niagara by creating a State reservation, by 
 removing unsightly constructions, and restoring, 
 so far as practicable, the scenery to its original 
 cliaracter. The efforts in this direction had been 
 thwarted by tlie action of Governor Cornell, who 
 had indicated diat if the proposed measure was 
 passed he would refuse to sign it. Governor 
 Cleveland, however, showed a generous disposi- 
 tion to the undertaking, and encouraged the pas- 
 sage of the bill. This law has since been carried 
 into complete effect with the most satisfactory re- 
 sults, and the State Reservation at Niagara Falls 
 promises in due time to become one of the most 
 striking of the landscape features of the State. 
 Alreadv many of the serious abuses which formerly 
 met visitors to that great natural \vonder have 
 been removed. The Dominion of Canada has, on 
 its part, carried on the work on the opposite side 
 of the river.'"" 
 
 * Much of the credit for the success of the New York undertaking must 
 be ascribed to the late William Dorsheimer, who was by appointment one 
 of the original, as he was the most active, of the Commissioners having the 
 work in charge. 
 
SECOND YEAR AS GOVERNOR. g -> 
 
 In brief, every question which engaged the at- 
 tention or the energies of the people of the great 
 State of New York found in Mr. Cleveland durinor 
 
 o 
 
 his "service" as Governor the most intelligent and 
 industrious encouragement. The reform of the 
 State Civil Service system, the protection and 
 preservation of the forests of the Adirondacks, 
 the promotion of education and industry, found 
 in the Governor of the State their most active and 
 intelligent support. 
 
 A speech which the Governor made at the Albany 
 Hiorh School contains some observations which 
 
 o 
 
 must have been derived from his own experience. 
 It is here given both as an expression of his 
 opinions upon important subjects, and by reason 
 of its biographical value. He said: 
 
 "I accepted the invitation of your principal to 
 visit your school this morning with pleasure, be- 
 cause I expected to see much that would gratify 
 and interest me. In this I have not been disap- 
 pointed. But I must confess that if I had known 
 that my visit here involved my attempting to ad- 
 dress you, I should have hesitated, and quite likely 
 have declined the invitation. 
 
 "I hasten to assure you now that there is noc 
 the slightest danger of my inflicting a speech upon 
 you, and that I shall do but little more than to ex- 
 press my pleasure in the proof I have of the 
 excellence of the methods and management of the 
 school, and of the opportunities which those who 
 
g, LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 attend have within their reach of obtaining a 
 superior education. 
 
 " 1 never visit a school in these days without 
 contrastinor the advantao-es of the scholar of to- 
 day with those of a time not many years in the 
 past. Within my remembrance even, the educa- 
 tion which is freely offered you was only secured 
 by those whose parents were able to send them 
 to academies and colleges. And thus, when you 
 entered this school very many of you began where 
 your parents left off. 
 
 ''The theory of the State in furnishing more 
 and better schools for the children, is that it 
 tends to fit them to better perform their duties 
 as citizens, and that an educated man or woman 
 is apt to be more useful as a member of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 "This leads to the thought that those who avail 
 themselves of the means thus tendered them are 
 in duty bound to make such use of their advan- 
 tao-es as that the State shall receive in return the 
 educated and intelligent citizens and members of 
 the community which it has the right to expect 
 from its schools. You, who will soon be the men 
 of the day, should consider that you have assumed 
 an obligation to fit yourselves by the education, 
 which you may, if you will, receive in this school, 
 for the proper performance of any duty of citizen- 
 ship, and to fill any public station to which you 
 mav be called. And it seems to me to be none 
 
GOVERNOR-, ROOM IN STATE CAPITOL AT ALBANY, N. Y. 
 
SECOXD YEAR AS GO]'ERXOR. g^ 
 
 the less Important that those who are to be the 
 wives and mothers should be educated, refined, 
 and intellioent. To tell the truth, I should be 
 afraid to trust the men, educated though they 
 should be, if they were not surrounded by pure 
 and true womanhood. Thus it is that you all, 
 now and here, from the oldest to the youngest, 
 owe a duty to the State which can only be an- 
 swered by diligent study and the greatest possi- 
 ble improvement. It is too often the case that in 
 all walks and places the disposition Is to render 
 the least possible return to the State for the favors 
 which she bestows. 
 
 " If the consideration which I have mentioned 
 fails to impress you, let me remind you of what 
 you have often heard, that you owe it to your- 
 selves and the importantpartof yourselves toseize, 
 while you may, the opportunities to improve your 
 minds, and store Into them, for your own future 
 use and advantaore, the learninor and knowledee 
 now fairly within your reach. 
 
 " None of you desire or expect to be less in- 
 telligent or educated than your fellows. But un- 
 less the notions of scholars have changed, there 
 may be those among you who think that in some 
 way or manner, after the school day is over, there 
 will be an opportunity to regain any ground now 
 lost, and to complete an education without a 
 present devotion to school requirements. I am 
 sure this is a mistake. A moment's reflection 
 
38 ^J^£ ^^ C ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 ought to convince all of you that when you have 
 once entered upon the stern, uncompromising-, 
 and unrelenting duties of mature life, there will 
 be no time for study. You will have a contest 
 then forced upon you which will strain every 
 nerve and engross every faculty. A good educa- 
 tion, if you have it, will aid you, but If you are 
 wlthiOut it, you cannot stop to acquire it. When 
 you leave the school you are well equipped for 
 the van in the army of life, or you are doomed to 
 be a laggard, aimlessly and listlessly following In 
 the rear. 
 
 "Perhaps a reference to truths so trite Is use- 
 less here. I hope It is. But I have not been able 
 to forego the chance to assure those who are hard 
 at work that they will surely see their compensa- 
 tion, and those, if any such there are, who find 
 school duties irksome, and neglect or slightingly, 
 perforin them, that they are trifling with serious 
 things and treading on dangerous ground." 
 
 Before the meeting of the Legislature in 1885 
 the verdict of the people of the United States, ot 
 ''Well done," had been pronounced, and Mr. 
 Cleveland resigned the Governorship into the 
 hands of David Bennett Hill, the faithful coadju- 
 tor who had entered office wlt-h him as Lieutenant- 
 Governor in January, 1883. With the exception 
 of Mr. Tilden, it is doubtful whether such an in- 
 dustrious Governor had ever been seen in 
 Albany. Mr. Cleveland went to his room in the 
 
SECOND YEAR AS GOVERXOR. 0^ 
 
 cy 
 
 Capitol at nine o'clock in the morning, and he 
 seldom left it, except to take his meals, before 
 midnight. He examined every bill with a close 
 and critical attention, and never decided upon one 
 with whose provisions he was not perfectly fa- 
 miliar. The same care was taken with all other 
 official acts. The result was not only an excel- 
 lent performance of the public service, but the 
 Governor himself received a severe discipline and 
 a wide education from his labors. 
 
 After his resignation he retired to a quiet pri- 
 vate residence in Albany, wdiere he devoted him- 
 self to the new duties to which the favor of his 
 countrymen had called hJm. He received deleo-a- 
 tions from States and delegations from sections. 
 He gave patient audience to the friends of men 
 \\\\o sought, or for whom was asked, admission 
 into his Cabinet as Presidential advisers. He 
 heard men who wanted office for themselves or 
 their friends. He was then, In the hour of tri- 
 umph, the same unobtrusive man, the most 
 modest member of his party, over the great and 
 decisive victory achieved with him as its leader. 
 
 A few days before the 4th of March, 1885, 
 he went to Washington as the guest of the late 
 President Arthur. He was received with many 
 demonstrations of respect, joy, and confidence on 
 his way to begin the new career which fate and 
 his own merits had marked out for him. 
 
 The conduct of the outgoing President toward 
 
90 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 his successor was marked by the urbanity and 
 courtesy which had characterized Mr. Arthur's 
 demeanor throughout the trying times of his 
 entire Administration. He had come to the first 
 office of the country under the m.ost painful and 
 embarrassing circumstances. Distrusted by the 
 opposition and by a very strong faction in his own 
 party, he bore himself as a gentleman and a 
 patriot. His unselfish purposes and his intelli- 
 gent policy alike were unappreciated by the 
 Blaine wing of the party ; and they had com- 
 passed the defeat of his nomination, only to be 
 themselves unhorsed in the campaign. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CANVASS AND CONVENTION OF 1 884. 
 
 T 
 
 ^HE disputed result of the Presidential 
 election of 1876, the death of President 
 Garfield, and the unexpected accession of 
 President Arthur gave to the political campaign 
 of 1884 an interest and importance which had not 
 entered into any preceding political contest since 
 that of i860. The clean, dignified, and manly ad- 
 ministration of President Arthur, and especially 
 its tendencies toward tariff reform, had not given 
 satisfaction to the majority of his party ; and it 
 early became evident to intelligent and impartial 
 observers that he could not secure a nomination 
 to succeed himself. The dominance of Mr. Blaine 
 in the counsels of his party had long been ac- 
 knowledged ; in the early part of the canvass it was 
 clear that he had become the commanding force. 
 He and his followers had had a brief taste of 
 authority while he was occupying the office of 
 Secretary of State during the luckless and waver- 
 ing rule of Garfield, and his last desperate eftbrt 
 to seize the standard of his party was rewarded 
 with his nomination for President, Senator John 
 A. Logan being named for second place. 
 
 93 
 
94 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 On the other hand, the drift In the Democratic 
 party toward Mr. Cleveland was scarcely less ap- 
 parent. The reform and progressive elements of 
 the party represented by Mr. Tllden so long as 
 he chose to remain their leader, had begun to 
 look toward the Governor of New York as his 
 natural successor. It was generally conceded 
 that the party, having been so long out of power, 
 must make a nomination which would not only 
 prove attractive to the voters directly attached to 
 its principles, purposes, and leaders, but one which 
 would appeal to the large and increasing number 
 of independent, unattached, or semi-detached 
 voters, always found most numerously In the 
 great and controlling State of New York, and 
 who had now clearly become a strong force in the 
 polldcs of the United States. Mr. Cleveland's 
 course as Governor had been such that a con-' 
 siderable element of his party In the State of New 
 York was bitterly opposed to his promotion to the 
 Presidency of the United States. In spite of 
 this feeling, the State Convention held at Saratoga 
 in June, 1884, to select delegates to the Demo- 
 cratic National Convention called to meet at 
 Chicago on the elghdi of July following selected 
 seventy-two delegates, who were not placed under 
 instructions as to candidates, but were directed to 
 vote on all questions as a unit. Each element of 
 the party then hoped to gain control of the dele- 
 gation. 
 
THE CANVASS AND COXVEXTIOX OF it 
 
 95 
 
 Meanwhile the canvass was c^oinof on in other 
 States of the Union, in many of which a strong- 
 sentiment had developed in favor of the nomi- 
 nation of the New York candidate ; so that when 
 the Convention met in Chicago party sentiment 
 had pretty effectually crystallized itself around the 
 name of Mr. Cleveland as the most available 
 candidate for the Presidency. 
 
 The National Democratic Convention of 1884 
 met in the Exposition Hall, Chicago, at noon on 
 Tuesday, July Sth. It was called to order by ex- 
 Senator William H. Barnum, of Connecticut, 
 Chairman of the National Committee, who, after 
 prayer had been offered by the Rev. D. C. 
 Marquis, of Chicago, congratulated the assembled 
 delegates upon the sentiment of harmony which 
 pervaded the body they were about to form and 
 proceeded at once to business by naming as 
 Temporary Chairman ex-Governor Richard B. 
 Hubbard, of Texas, who spoke at some length on 
 the issues of the day. Frederick O. Prince, of 
 Massachusetts, was made Temporary Secretary, 
 Richard J. Bright, of Indiana, Sergeant-at-arms, 
 with a full list of assistants to • each selected with 
 care from every section of the Union. 
 
 Immediately after the temporary organization 
 had been effected, an attack was made by -the 
 minority of the delegation from the State of New 
 York, known as the '' Tammany wing," upon the 
 unit rule which had so lone governed the action 
 
96 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND-. 
 
 of National Democratic Conventions when in- 
 structions had been made by the States from 
 which delefratlons were accredited. A lone dis- 
 cussion ensued in which the opposing elements 
 from the Empire State were the principal disput- 
 ants, after which, by a vote of 463 to 332, the Con- 
 vention decided in favor of the retention of the 
 unit rule. This solidified New York for Cleve- 
 land and vastly strengthened his cause in other 
 States. Committees were appointed on Perma- 
 nent Organization, Credentials, and Resolutions, 
 composed of one delegate from each State. 
 
 On the second day a permanent organization 
 was effected, with William F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, 
 as President ; the Temporary Secretary, Sergeant- 
 at-arms, and assistants were declared Permanent, 
 and Vice-Presidents and Secretaries from each State 
 were added. The presiding officer in a long and 
 able speech, that did much to win for him recogni- 
 tion a few months later in his appointment as 
 Postmaster-General in the Cabinet of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, laid down the princi- 
 ples upon which he thought the canvass should be 
 conducted and predicted the victory which followed. 
 The Committee on Resolutions not being ready to 
 report, an animated discussion arose over the 
 question of naming the candidate for President, 
 and the Convention decided that this should be 
 done. The roll of States was called and the 
 names of Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio ; Thomas F. 
 
THE CANVASS AND CONVENTION OF 1S84. 9^ 
 
 Bayard, of Delaware ; Joseph E. McDonald, of 
 Indiana; John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky ; Samuel J. 
 Randall, of Pennsylvania, and Grover Cleveland, 
 of New York, were formally presented as candi- 
 dates for nomination to the office of President of 
 the United States. Nearly all the second day, 
 together with the day session of the third, was con- 
 sumed in speeches. The Committee on Resolu- 
 tions reported at the evening session of the third 
 day, July loth, and immediately after the adop- 
 tion of its report the first ballot for President was 
 taken, with the following result : Cleveland, 392 ; 
 Bayard, 170; Thurman,88; Randall, 78 ; McDon- 
 ald, 56; Carlisle, 27; Flower, 4; Hoadley, 3: 
 Hendricks, i ; Tilden, i. Necessary to a choice 
 under the two-thirds rule, 547. 
 
 By a close vote adjournment was had until 
 eleven o'clock on Friday morning, when a remark- 
 able scene occurred in the effort to stampede the 
 Convention to Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana. 
 A ereat tumult was aroused in the iralleries for 
 half an hour, at the end of which time Mr. Voor- 
 hees, of Indiana, withdrew the name of Joseph E. 
 McDonald, with announced purpose on the part of 
 the deleeation from that State to cast its vote for 
 Mr. Hendricks. As the ballot proceeded it be- 
 came apparent that Cleveland was the choice of 
 the Convention, and with changes in the vote of 
 many States, the result of the second ballot 
 was declared as follows : Cleveland, ^"^^ ; Bayard, 
 
gg LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 8i^ ; Hendricks, 45^ ; Thurman, 4; Randall, 4; 
 McDonald, 4. Upon the announcement of this 
 result Mr. Menzies, of Indiana, made a motion, 
 which was seconded by delegates from a number 
 of States, that the nomination be made unani- 
 mous. This was passed without dissent, and 
 Grover Cleveland was declared the candidate of 
 the National Democratic Convention for the Pres- 
 idency of the United States. 
 
 Adjournment was then had until evening, when 
 nominations for Vice-President were declared to 
 be in order. Upon the call of States California 
 presented William S. Rosecrans ; Colorado, Jos- 
 eph E. McDonald ; Georgia, John C. Black, sec- 
 onded by Illinois, and Kansas, George W. Click. 
 When Pennsylvania was reached ex-Senator Wil- 
 ham A. Wallace presented the name of Thomas 
 A. Hendricks, of Indiana, and asked that he be 
 nominated by acclamation. After some discus- 
 sion the names of all other candidates were with- 
 drawn and the vote of every delegate in the Con- 
 vention was cast for Mr. Hendricks, who was 
 thus made the candidate of the Democratic party 
 for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. 
 The ticket was completed and the nominations 
 ratified with such an outburst of enthusiasm and 
 demonstrations of applause as had never before 
 been seen and heard on the continent. After the 
 adoption of the customary resolutions of thanks 
 the Convention adjourned sine die. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE CLEVELAND-BLAINE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. 
 
 THE campaign which followed the nomina- 
 tions was one of the the most exciting 
 and bitter known to the history of this 
 country. It was rendered particularly so by the 
 opposition to Blaine of a large number of indepen- 
 dent voters in every State of the Union. These 
 men had been Republicans almost to a man. 
 Many of them were the leaders of their party and 
 had been prominent in its counsels from its or- 
 ganization. Others were young men thus early 
 driven out of their party because of a recognition 
 of its bad tendencies and the dano^erous character 
 of its candidate for President, Mr. Blaine. Mad- 
 dened by these desertions and rendered desper- 
 ate by the prospective loss of power long held by 
 the aid of discreditable methods, the National 
 Committee of the Republican party, aided by the 
 close friends of its candidate, invented and gave 
 currency to outrageous charges against the pri- 
 vate character of the Democratic candidate. He 
 met these with a pitiless exposure of their falsity, 
 and with conscious integrity, demanded from his 
 friends that they should " Tell the truth." This 
 
 99 
 
lOO LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 declaration became a Democratic watchword dur- 
 ing the ensuing canvass. Of Cleveland's mawly 
 conduct with relation to this phase of the cam- 
 paign, and in striking contrast with the attitude 
 of his opponent on questions deeply affecting his 
 personal integrity, the editor of Harper s Weekly, 
 August 1 6th, 1884, said: 
 
 ''There was no whining about his private bus- 
 iness ; no seizing of letters, and, after a menacing 
 pressure of public opinion, a theatrical reading of 
 such parts as he chose and with his own com- 
 ments ; there was no desperate equivocation and 
 attempted concealment. 'Tell the truth' was 
 the only reply — a reply which showed a man hon- 
 orably unwilling to receive any public trust under 
 false pretenses." 
 
 SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 In due time Governor Cleveland was notified 
 officially of his nomination by the Committee ap- 
 pointed for that purpose. In reply he made the 
 following brief and pointed address : 
 
 ^'Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: 
 
 "Your formal announcement does not, of 
 course, convey to me the first information of the 
 result of the Convention lately held by the De- 
 mocracy of the Nation, and yet, when, as I listen 
 to your message, I s&e about me representatives 
 from all parts of the land of the great party which, 
 
CLEVELAXD BLAINE CAMPAIGN. 1 01 
 
 claiming to be the party of the people, asks them 
 to intrust to it the administration of their o^overn- 
 ment, and when I consider under the influence of 
 the stern reality which the present surroundings 
 create, that I have been chosen to represent the 
 plans, purposes, and the policy of the Democratic 
 party, I am profoundly im^pressed by the solemnity 
 of the occasion and by the responsibility of my 
 posidon. Though I gratefully appreciate it, I do 
 not at this moment congratulate myself upon the 
 distinguished honor which has been conferred 
 upon me, because my mind is full of an anxious 
 desire to perform well the part which has been 
 assigned to me. 
 
 " Nor do I at this moment fororet that the rio-hts 
 and interests of more than fifty millions of my 
 fellow-citizens are involved in our efforts to eain 
 Democratic supremacy. This reflection presents 
 to my mind the consideration which more than all 
 others gives to the action of my party In conven- 
 tion assembled its most sober and serious aspect. 
 The party and its representatives which ask to be 
 intrusted at the hands of the people with the 
 keeping of all that concerns their welfare and 
 their safety, should only ask it with the full appre- 
 ciation of the sacredness of the trust, and with a 
 firm resolve to administer it faithfully and well. I 
 am a Democrat because I believe that this truth 
 lies at the foundation of true Democracy. I have 
 kept the faith, because I believe if rightly and fairly 
 
102 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 administered and applied, Democratic doctrines 
 and measures will insure the happiness, content- 
 ment, and prosperity of the people. 
 
 " If, in the contest upon which we now enter, we 
 steadfastly hold to the underlying principles of 
 our party creed, and at all times keep in view the 
 people's good, we shall be strong, because we are 
 true to ourselves, and because the plain and 
 independent voters of the land will seek by their 
 suffrages to compass their release from party 
 tyranny where there should be submission to the 
 popular will, and their protection from party cor- 
 ruption where there should be devotion to the 
 people's interests. These thoughts lend a conse- 
 cration to our cause, and we go forth, not merely 
 to gain a partisan advantage, but pledged to 
 eive to those who trust us the utmost benefits of 
 a pure and honest administration of National 
 affairs. No higher purpose or motive can stimu- 
 late us to supreme effort, or urge us to continuous 
 and earnest labor and effective party organization. 
 Let us not fail in this, and we may confidently 
 hope to reap the full reward of patriotic services 
 well performed. I have thus called to mind some 
 simple truths, and, trite though they are, It seems 
 to me we do well to dwell upon them at this time. 
 I shall soon, I hope, signify, in the usual fornial 
 manner, my acceptance of the nomination which has 
 been tendered to me. In the meantime I gladly 
 greet you all as co-workers in the noble cause." 
 
CLEVELAND-BLAINE CAMPAIGN. \oX 
 
 FORMAL LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 Subsequently, Mr. Cleveland wrote and for- 
 warded to the Committee of Notification the fol- 
 lowing letter, which sets forth more in detail his 
 ideas of the issues of the campaign : 
 
 '^ Albany, N. Y., August iSth, 1884. 
 
 "Gentlemen: I have received your communi- 
 cation dated July 28th, 1884, informing me of my 
 nomination to the office of President of the United 
 States by the National Democratic Convention 
 lately assembled at Chicago. 
 
 "I accept the nomination with a grateful appre- 
 ciation of the supreme honor conferred, and a 
 solemn sense of the responsibility which, in its 
 acceptance, I assume. 
 
 " I have carefully considered the platform 
 adopted by the Convention and cordially approve 
 the same. So plain a statement of Democratic faith 
 and the principles upon which that party appeals 
 to the suffrages of the people needs no supple- 
 ment or explanation. 
 
 " It should be remembered that the office of 
 President is essejitially executive in its nature. 
 The laws enacted by the legislative branch of the 
 Government the Chief Executive is bound faith- 
 fully to enforce. And when the wisdom of the 
 political party which selects one of its members as 
 a nominee for that office has outlined its policy 
 
I04 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 and declared its principles, it seems to me that 
 nothino- in the character of the office or the neces- 
 sities of the case requires more from the candi- 
 date accepting such nomination than the sugges- 
 tion of certain well-known truths so absolutely 
 vital to the safety and welfare of the nation, that 
 they cannot be too often recalled or too seriously 
 enforced. 
 
 **We proudly call ours a government by the 
 people. It is not such when a class is tolerated 
 which arrogates to itself the management of pub- 
 lic affairs, seeking to control the people instead 
 of representing them. 
 
 " Parties are the necessary outgrowth of our in- 
 stitutions ; but a government is not by the people 
 when one party fastens its control upon the coun- 
 try and perpetuates its power by cajoling and be- 
 traying the people instead of serving them. 
 
 "A government is not by the people, when a 
 result which should represent the intelligent will 
 of free and thinking men is, or can be, determined 
 by the shameless corruption of their suffrages. 
 
 " When an election to office shall be the selection 
 by the voters of one of their number to assume 
 for a time a public trust instead of his dedication 
 to the profession of politics ; when the holders of 
 the ballot, quickened by a sense of duty, shall 
 avenge truth betrayed and pledges broken, and 
 when the suffrage shall be altogether free and 
 uncorrupted, the full realization of a government 
 
CLEVELAXD-BLAIKE CAMPAIGN. 1 05 
 
 by the people will be at hand. And of the means 
 to this end, not one would, in my judgment, be 
 more effective than an amendment to the Consti- 
 tution disqualifying the President from re-election. 
 When we consider the patronage of this great 
 office, the allurements of power, the temptation to 
 retain public place once gained, and, more than 
 all, the availability a party finds in an incumbent 
 whom a horde of office-holders, with a zeal born 
 of benefits received, and fostered by the hopes of 
 favors yet to come, stand ready to aid with money 
 and trained political service, we recognize in the 
 eligibility of the President for Fe-election a most 
 serious danger to that calm, deliberate, and intelli- 
 gent political action which must characterize a 
 government by the people. 
 
 "A true American sentiment recognizes the dig- 
 nity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest 
 toil. Contented labor is an element of national 
 prosperity. Ability to work constitutes the capi- 
 tal and the wage of labor the income of a vast 
 number of our population ; and this interest should 
 be jealously protected. Our workingmen are 
 not askine unreasonable induleence; but as in- 
 telligent and manly citizens, they seek the same 
 consideration which those demand who have other 
 interests at stake. They should receive their full 
 share of the care and attention of those who make 
 and execute the laws, to the end that the wants 
 and needs of the employers and the employed 
 
106 ^^P^ OF G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 shall alike be subserved, and the prosperity of 
 the country, the common heritage of both, be ad- 
 vanced. As related to this subject, while we 
 should not discouracfe the immieration of those 
 who come to acknowledo-e allegiance to our eov- 
 ernment and add to our citizen population, yet 
 as a means of protection to our workingmen, a 
 different rule should prevail concerning those who, 
 if they come, or are brought, to our land, do not 
 Intend to become Americans, but will injuriously 
 compete with those justly entitled to our field of 
 labor. 
 
 '' In a letter accepting the nomination to the 
 office of Governor, nearly two years ago, I made 
 the following statement, to which I have steadily 
 adhered: 
 
 " ' The laboring classes constitute the main part 
 of our population. They should be protected in 
 their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when 
 endangered by aggregated capital ; and all stat- 
 utes on this subject should recognize the care of 
 the State for honest toil and be framed with a 
 view of improving the condition of the working- 
 man.' 
 
 "A proper regard for the welfare of the work- 
 ingman being inseparably connected with the In- 
 tegrity of our institutions, none of our citizens are 
 more Interested than they In guarding against 
 any corrupting influences which seek to pervert 
 the beneficent purposes of our Government; and 
 
CLEVELAND-BLAINE CAMPAIGN. 1 07 
 
 none should be more watchful of the artful machi- 
 nations of those who allure them to self-inflicted 
 injury. 
 
 '' In a free country, the curtailment of the abso- 
 lute rights of the individual should only be such 
 as is essential to the peace and good order of the 
 community. The limit between the proper sub- 
 jects of governmental control, and those which 
 can be more fittingly left to the moral sense and 
 self-imposed restraint of the citizen, should be 
 carefully kept in view. Thus laws unnecessarily 
 interfering with the habits and customs of any of 
 our people which are not offensive to the moral 
 sentiments of the civilized world, and which are 
 consistent with good citizenship and the public 
 welfare, are unwise and vexatious. 
 
 "The commerce of a nation to a irreat extent de- 
 termines its supremacy. Cheap and easy trans- 
 portation should therefore be liberally fostered. 
 Within the limits of the Constitution, the General 
 Government should so improve and protect its 
 natural water-ways as will enable the producers 
 of the country to reach a profitable market. 
 
 *' The people pay the wages of the public em- 
 ployes, and they are entided to the fair and 
 honest work which the money thus paid should 
 command. It is the duty of those intrusted with 
 the management of their affairs to see that such 
 public service is forthcoming. The selection and 
 retention of subordinates in Government employ- 
 
jo8 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 ment should depend upon their ascertained fitness 
 and the vakie of their work, and they should be 
 neither expected nor allowed to do questionable 
 party service. The interests of the people will be 
 better protected ; the estimate of public labor and 
 duty will be immensely improved ; public employ- 
 ment will be open to all who can demonstrate 
 their fitness to enter it ; the unseemly scramble 
 for place under the Government, with the conse- 
 quent importunity which embitters official life, will 
 cease ; and the public departments will not be 
 filled with those who conceive it to be their first 
 duty to aid the party to which they owe their 
 places, instead of rendering patient and honest 
 return to the people. 
 
 "I believe that the public temper Is such that 
 the voters of tlie land are prepared to support 
 the party which olves the best promise of 
 adminlsterlnof the Government in the honest, 
 simple, and plain manner which Is consistent with 
 its character and purposes. They have learned 
 that mystery and concealment in the management 
 of their affairs cover tricks and betrayal. The 
 statesmanship they require consists in honesty 
 and frugality, a prompt response to the needs of 
 the people as they arise, and the vigilant pro- 
 tection of all their varied Interests. 
 
 " If I should be called to the Chief Magistracy 
 of the Nation by the suffrages of my fellow-citi- 
 zens. I will assume the duties of that hieh office 
 
CLEVELAXD-BLAIXE CAMPAIGN. Ill 
 
 with a solemn determination to dedicate every 
 effort to the country's good, and with an humble 
 reliance upon the favor and support of the 
 Supreme Being, who I believe will always bless 
 honest human endeavor in the conscientious dis- 
 charge of public duty. 
 
 -GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 ''To Colonel William F. Vilas, Chairman, and D. 
 P. Bestor, and others, members of the Notifica- 
 tion Committee of thd Democratic National Con- 
 vention ^ 
 
 independent support of CLEVELAND. 
 
 The serious and earnest tone which pervaded 
 both of these deliverances commended their author 
 to the hearty support of a great body of electors 
 whose votes had been seldom of late years cast 
 for Democratic nominees. 
 
 Among the prominent Republicans who made 
 speeches or otherwise took an active part in favor 
 of the election of Mr. Cleveland were George 
 William Curtis, editor of Harper s Weekly ; Carl 
 Schurz, ex-Secretary of the Interior; Rev. Henry 
 Ward Beecher; Colonel Charles R. Codman, Col- 
 onel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry L. 
 Pierce, the late Rev. James Freeman Clarke, all of 
 Boston ; ex-Senator Wadleigh, of New Hamp- 
 shire ; ex-Governors Daniel H. Chamberlain, of 
 South Carolina, Blair, of Michigan, and Pound, of 
 Wisconsin; Henry C. Lea, of Philadelpliia, be- 
 
112 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 sides hundreds of able though less widely known 
 men in every part of the United States who 
 were active in the promotion of the principles and 
 the success of the Republican party so long as they 
 thought its candidates creditable and honest men. 
 While the independent candidacy of General 
 Butler and his support by the New York Sun — 
 which journal, late a supporter of the Democratic 
 party, had become the most virulent foe of its 
 candidate — distracted what was known as the 
 '' Labor vote " in some quarters, the candidacy of 
 Governor St. John on the Prohibition ticket in 
 equal degree weakened the Republican party, and 
 diverted from it a considerable part of its strength 
 in close States where it was not easily spared. 
 
 Influential independent and Republican journals, 
 like the Boston Herald and Tra7isc7^ipt, the New 
 York Herald, Times, Eve^iing Post, and Harper s 
 JVeekly, the Philadelphia 7?V;^^^, Indianapolis iV^zc^j", 
 and the powerful and effective cartoons and cari- 
 catures of Puck, gave to the Cleveland campaign 
 a journalistic support which his party had not 
 enjoyed for a generation ; and they were a tre- 
 mendous factor In achievincr the successful result. 
 
 Throughout the campaign Governor Cleveland 
 bore himself with great dignity, composure, and 
 self-reliance. He exercised with his usual dili- 
 gence and efficiency the functions of the Guber- 
 natorial office in Albany ; he seldom w^ent beyond 
 the borders of his own State, and never neglected 
 
CLEVELAND-BLAINE CAMPAIGN II3 
 
 the duties of Its Chief Magistracy to promote 
 his election or to serve the purposes of the party 
 managers. His few speeches were characterized 
 by the same seriousness and sincerity which 
 pervaded all the utterances of his official career, 
 and one of the effects of the popular confidence 
 thus gained was seen in the steady increase of his 
 support in business and financial circles ; the 
 Commercial Exchanges of New York and other 
 centres of trade manifested a great preponderance 
 of sentiment in his favor. 
 
 In contrast with his campaign and his personal 
 conduct was the wild pageantry with which Blaine 
 was conducted over the country, culminating in a 
 series of ovations, dinners, and receptions in 
 New York city. One of these, a select assem- 
 blage of millionaires to do honor to the Republican 
 candidate, created a strong feeling that his election 
 was chiefly desired by the plutocrats and monopo- 
 lists ; at another a misfit preacher named Bur- 
 chard dropped an ill-timed remark, aspersing the 
 Democracy as the party of *'Rum, Romanism, and 
 Rebellion," and to these two incidents many of 
 Mr. Blaine's admirers lay the accountability for the 
 slender adverse plurality which lost to him New 
 York and the Presidency. 
 
 AMONG OLD FRIENDS. 
 
 In the course of this campaign, and when the 
 fiercest attacks upon his private character were 
 being made, Mr. Cleveland made a visit to his old 
 
1 14 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND: 
 
 home and to the friends of his youth and manhood 
 in Buffalo. On October 2d, 1884, after the longest 
 interval of absence during his thirty years resi- 
 dence there, he was received with such an ovation 
 of enthusiasm as testified that his hold upon the 
 affections and esteem of his fellow-townsmen had 
 not weakened. For the people of that great city, 
 Henry Martin, President of the Manufacturers' 
 and Tradesmen's Bank, welcomed him, and, in a 
 speech of reply. Governor Cleveland, referring to 
 the significance of the greeting, said with great 
 pathos : 
 
 "It tells me that my neighbors are still my 
 friends. It assures me that I have not been alto- 
 gether unsuccessful In my efforts to deserve their 
 confidence and attachment. In years to come, I 
 shall deem myself not far wrong if I still retain 
 their good opinion ; and if surrounding cares and 
 perplexities bring but anxiety and vexation, I 
 shall find solace and comfort In the memory of the 
 days spent here, and in recalling the kindness of 
 my Buffalo friends." 
 
 To the ereat business men's meetlnof m Nev/ 
 York, to which Mr. Tllden sent a letter of char- 
 acteristic strength, Mr. Cleveland spoke w^Ith 
 entire acceptability, and In his Newark, N. J., 
 speech, near the close of the campaign, he thus 
 foreshadowed what has come to be the supreme 
 issue of political discussion in the closing years 
 of his first term : 
 
 "It Is quite plain, too, that the people have a 
 
 I 
 
CLEVE L A XD -BLAINE CAMPAIGN. I 15 
 
 riglu to demand that no more money should be 
 taken from .them directly or indirectly for public 
 uses than is necessary lor an honest and econom- 
 ical administration ol public affairs. Indeed, the 
 rii^dit of the Government to exact tribute from the 
 citizens is limited to its actual necessities, and 
 every cent taken from the people beyond that re- 
 quired for their protection by the Government is 
 no better than robbery. We surely must con- 
 demn, then, a system which takes from the pock- 
 ets of the people millions of dollars not needed 
 for the support of the Government, and which 
 tends to the inauguration of corrupt schemes 
 and extravagant expenditures. 
 
 " The Democratic party has declared that all 
 taxation shall be limited by the requirements of 
 an economical Government. This is plain and 
 direct ; and it distinctly recognizes the value of 
 labor and its right to governmental care when it 
 further declares that the necessary reduction in 
 taxation and limitation thereof to the country's 
 needs should be effected without destroying- 
 American labor, or the ability to compete success- 
 fully with foreign labor, and without injuring the 
 interests of our laboring population." 
 
 In the last speech of the 1884 campaign, at 
 Bridgeport, Connecticut, he said: 
 
 " The world does not present a more sublime 
 spectacle than a nation of freemen determining 
 their own cause, and the leader whom they follow 
 at such a time may well feel a sober, solemn sense 
 
I I 6 L IFE OF GROVE R CLEVEl A XD. 
 
 of responsibility. The plaudits of his fellows he 
 should feel, but only to feel more Intensely what 
 a serious thing It Is to have In keeping their hopes 
 and their confidence." 
 
 Two years before, when there opened to him 
 the wide prospect of election to the Gubernatorial 
 chair of New York, he had, in the privacy of his 
 own family circle, written the following letter, 
 which accidentally came to light In the campaign 
 of 1884, oily to disclose his modest and yet self- 
 reliant character, his consecration to public duty, 
 and utter disregard of any other consideration 
 than the conscientious exercise of solemn trust: 
 
 Mayor's Office, Buffalo, N. Y., 
 
 November 7th, 1883. 
 
 Mv Dear Brother: — I l:ave just voted. I sit 
 here In the Mayor's office alone, with the excep- 
 tion of an artist from Frank Leslie's newspaper, 
 who Is sketching the office. If mother were here 
 I should be v/rlting to her, and I feel as If It were 
 time for me to write to some one who will believe 
 what I write. I have been for some time In the 
 atmosphere of certain success, so that I h.ave 
 been sure that I should assume the duties of the 
 hieh office for which I have been named. I have 
 tried hard In the light of tb.is fact to properly 
 appreciate the responsibilities that will rest upon 
 me, and they are much — too much — underesti- 
 
CLE VELA XD DL A EXE CA MPA IGN. 
 
 ^n 
 
 mated. But the thoucrht that has troubled me is: 
 Can I well perform my duties, and in such a 
 manner as to do some good to the people of the 
 State? I know there is room for it, and I know 
 that I am honest and sincere in my desire to do 
 well, but the question is whether I know enough 
 to accomplish what I desire. 
 
 The social life which seems to await me has 
 also been a subject of much anxious thought. I 
 have a notion that I can regulate that very much 
 as I desire, and if I can I shall spend very little 
 in the purely ornamental part of the office. In 
 point of fact, I will tell you, first of all others, the 
 policy I intend to adopt, and that is to make the 
 matter a business engagement between th.e 
 people of the State and myself, in which the 
 obligation on my side is to perform the duties 
 assigned me widi an eye single to the interest of 
 my employers. I shall have no idea of re-election 
 or of any higher political preferment in my head, 
 but be very thankful and happy if I can well 
 serve one term as the people's Governor. Do 
 you know that if mother were alive I should feel 
 so much safer? I have always thought her 
 prayers had much to do with my success. I shall 
 expect you to help me in that way. 
 
 Give my love to and to , if she is 
 
 with you, and believe me, 
 
 Your affectionate brother, 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
ii8 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 The State election In Ohio took place in Octo- 
 ber and was carried by the Republican candidates 
 for State offices. Mr. Blaine made an election- 
 eerlnor tour throuorh that State durinnr the latter 
 part of September, and the most active efforts were 
 put forth to secure a favorable result. The Demo- 
 crats carried Georo^ia and West Yirijinia, so that 
 the State elections which had long been supposed 
 to influence the o-eneral result at the Presidential 
 election, were deemed an offset to each other, Indi- 
 ana havinor ceased to be an October State. 
 
 The election was held on November 4th, 1884, 
 resultinof in the choice of electors as follows : 
 
 FOR CLEVELAND. 
 
 Alabama, lo 
 
 Arkansas 7 
 
 Connecticut, 6 
 
 Delaware, 3 
 
 Florida, 4 
 
 Georgia, 12 
 
 Indiana, 15 
 
 Kentucky 13 
 
 Louisiana, 8 
 
 ^Taryland, 8 
 
 Mig issippi, 9 
 
 Missouri, . 16 
 
 New Jersey^ 9 
 
 New York, 36 
 
 North Carolina, ...... 11 
 
 South Carolina, 9 
 
 Tennessee, • . . 12 
 
 Texas, 13 
 
 Virginia 12 
 
 West Virginia, 6 
 
 Total, .219 
 
 FOR BLAINE. 
 
 California, 8 
 
 Colorado, 3 
 
 Illinois, 22 
 
 Iowa, 13 
 
 Kansas, 9 
 
 Maine, 6 
 
 Massachusetts, 14 
 
 Michigan, 13 
 
 Minnesota, 7 
 
 Nebraska, 5 
 
 Nevada, 3 
 
 New Hampshire, 4 
 
 Ohio, 23 
 
 Oregon, 3 
 
 Pennsylvania, . 30 
 
 Rhode Island, 4 
 
 Vermont, 4 
 
 Wisconsin, 11 
 
 Total. 182 
 
CLEVELAND-BLALYE CAMPAIGN, II9 
 
 The popular vote aggregated as follows: 
 
 Cleveland, 4,874,986 Butler, I73.370 
 
 Elaine, 4,851,981 St. John, ISO-S^Q 
 
 For some days after the election an attempt 
 was made to represent the result as doubtful be-= 
 cause the plurality in the State of New York was 
 small. But the effort was so decidedly the last 
 expiring hope of a defeated party that it produced 
 no other feelinir stronger than distrust and a de- 
 termination that no such fraudulent result as that 
 of 1876 should be declared. In four days after, 
 the election the result was universally accepted. 
 
 The managers of the defeated party, in their 
 intense disappointment, vented their rage partly 
 upon the Prohibitionists, and to some degree upon 
 the luckless speech of Rev. Dr. Burchard ; their 
 deepest resentment, however, was exhibited 
 against the so-called " Mugwumps," for whom no 
 terms of reproach were deemed too violent. The 
 Independent Republicans, who had vainly pro- 
 tested against Blaine's nomination and had con- 
 tributed to his defeat at the polls, received the 
 abuse now heaped upon them with great com- 
 placency and hopefully looked to the new Admin- 
 istration for their vindication. 
 
 The Democrats over the whole country cele- 
 brated their victory with jubilees, barbecues, 
 parades, and varied methods of popular rejoicing. 
 The celebration of 1876 had been premature; 
 but now the triumphant party gave vent to dem- 
 
I20 LIFE OF GROVE R CLE PEL A XD. 
 
 onstratlons of unqualified and unrestrained joy. 
 Amid all this, In many quarters, were heard the 
 warning voices of discreet leaders, pointing out 
 that the victory should be Interpreted as a tri- 
 umph of the better elements of all parties, and a 
 narrow escape of the Government from threatened 
 perils rather than a mere partisan achievement. 
 Speculation was rife as to how a comparatively 
 untried man would meet and deal with the great 
 responsibilities of an office coming to him under 
 the peculiar circumstances of the campaign of 
 1884. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PREPARING FOR THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM— THE SILVER QUESTION. 
 
 THE interval between the retirement of 
 Governor Cleveland from the Executive 
 chair of New York, which David B. Hill, 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, was now called upon to 
 fill, and the inauguration of a Democratic Ad- 
 ministration at the Federal capital, was busily 
 occupied with consultations and plans for the re- 
 organization in Federal power of a party virtually 
 excluded from it for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
 tury. Chief in all such councils and first among 
 all counselors of the President-elect, then and 
 ever since, was and has been Colonel Daniel S. 
 Lamont, who was soon to be translated from the 
 position of Private Secretary to the Governor of 
 New York to that of Private Secretary to the 
 President of the United States. A young man, 
 trained in the best school of New York politics, 
 experienced in journalism, quick to perceive the 
 value and character of men, discreet in speech, 
 and efficient in commanding the largest share of 
 information from any visitor, whether he has an 
 axe to grind or comes merely as an interested 
 
 121 
 
122 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 observer of the action and character of others 
 — he has shown himself the most intelhgent, as he 
 has become the best known of ah the men who 
 in the arduous and difficult post of Private Secre- 
 tary have contributed to increase the interest and 
 the pleasure or to lighten the labor of men in the 
 public life of the United States. 
 
 To most men the lack of all experience in pub- 
 lic life in a Federal office would have been a seri- 
 ous drawback on the threshold of an Administra- 
 tion which was to bring back to the country the 
 policy of a party long exchided. But it was rather 
 an advantage to Grover Cleveland. He had none 
 of those prejudices, those likes and dislikes, which 
 incessantly surround the men Vv^hohave had many 
 years experience in the somewliat artificial and 
 insincere life of Washington. He did not know 
 personally any large number of those with whom 
 he was destined to deal. But he had patience, 
 the faculty of investigating everything with care, 
 and of deciding it on its merits, and he had an 
 insight Into men and their characters which is rare. 
 
 There were more thinors to do in the interval 
 between the election in November, 1884, and the 
 inauguration of March 4th, 1885, than the mere 
 choosing of men to carry out the policy of the new 
 President and the party behind him. Delegations 
 with ideas of various kinds, which they were anx- 
 ious to force upon the attention of the powers 
 that were to be, had to be received and answered. 
 
THE PRE PA RA TION. I 2 5 
 
 Eccentric men and women must be received and 
 treated with a politeness which such persons at 
 times do much to strain. The admonition of many 
 well-meaning persons without ideas or mission, 
 but with a capacity for curiosity, had to be accepted 
 in a spirit as meek as was consonant with the fail- 
 inors of humanity. Most important, and most dif- 
 ficult of all, the man who was to take upon him- 
 self such a burden was compelled continually to 
 enunciate anew the principles upon which he 
 would seek to shape his policy. His election had 
 been promoted by the support of a large and 
 growing class of men in politics formerly denom- 
 inated by the somewhat indefinite name of *' inde- 
 pendent voters," but known during the campaign 
 and since by the title of *' Mugwumps " — a distinct- 
 ive addition to the nomenclature of politics. 
 
 CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM LETTER. 
 
 Before his retirement from the Governorship, 
 under date of December 25th, 1884, Mr. Cleve- 
 land wrote a letter to Mr. George William Curtis, 
 President of the National Civil Service Reform 
 Association, in which he laid down with great dis- 
 tinctness the general policy which he wished to 
 pursue In the matter of removals from office and 
 appointments. In this letter the President-elect 
 said : 
 
 ''That a practical reform in the civil service is 
 abundantly established by the fact that a statute 
 
I2S LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 referred to In your communication to secure such 
 a result has been passed in Congress with the 
 assent of both poHtical parties, and by the further 
 fact that a sentiment is generally prevalent among 
 patriotic people calling for the fair and honest 
 enforcement of the law which has thus been en- 
 acted. I regard myself pledged to this, because 
 my conception of true Democratic faith and pub- 
 he duty requires that this and all other statutes 
 should be in o-ood faith and without evasion en- 
 forced, and because in many utterances made 
 prior to my election as President, approved by 
 the party to which I belong, and which I have no 
 disposition to disclaim, I have in effect promised 
 the people that tliis should be done. 
 
 "I am not unmindful of the fact, to which you 
 refer, that many of our citizens fear that the recent 
 party changes in the national Executive may 
 demonstrate that the abuses which have grown 
 up in the civil service are ineradicable. I know 
 that they are deeply rooted, and that the spoils 
 system has been supposed to be intimately related 
 to success in the maintenance of party organiza- 
 tion, and I am not sure that all those who profess 
 to be the friends of this reform will stand firmly 
 among its advocates when they find It obstructing 
 their way to patronage and place. 
 
 " But fully appreciating the trust committed to 
 my charge, no such consideration shall cause a 
 relaxation on my part of an earnest effort to en- 
 force the law. 
 
 ''There is a class of Government positions which 
 are not within theletter of the civil-service statute, 
 but wliich are so disconnected with the policy of 
 an Administration that the removal therefrom 
 
THE PRE PARA TION. I 2 7 
 
 of present incumbents, in my opinion, should 
 not be made during the term for which they 
 were appointed solely on partisan grounds, and 
 for the purpose of putting in their places those 
 who are in political accord with the appointing 
 power. 
 
 " But many now holding such positions have 
 forfeited all just claim to retention because they 
 have used their places for party purposes, in dis- 
 regard of their duty to the people, and because, 
 instead of being decent public servants, they have 
 proved themselves offensive partisans and un- 
 scrupulous manipulators of local party manage- 
 ment. 
 
 "The lessons of the past should be unlearned, 
 and such officials, as well as their successors, 
 should be taught that efficiency and fitness and 
 devotion to public duty are the conditions of their 
 continuance in public place, and that the quiet 
 and unobtrusive exercise of individual political 
 rights is the reasonable measure of their party 
 service. 
 
 "If I were addressing none but party friends, I 
 should deem it entirely proper to remind them 
 that, though the coming Administration is to be 
 Democratic, a due regard for the people's interest 
 does not permit faithful party work to be always 
 rewarded by appointment to office, and to say to 
 them that, while Democrats may expect all proper 
 consideration, selections for office not embraced 
 within the civil-service rules will be based upon 
 sufficient inquiry as to fitness instituted by those 
 charged with that duty, rather than persistent 
 importunity or self-solicited recommendations on 
 behalf of candidates for appointment." 
 
128 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 THE SILVER LETTER OF 1 885. 
 
 Another element of strencrth to Mr. Clev-land 
 in the exciting campaign which had just closed was 
 the general impression of his substantial sound- 
 ness on all financial questions, measured by the 
 standards of Jefferson, Jackson, and Tilden, and 
 by the general acceptance by the people of the 
 country after many years of agitation of the dan- 
 ger of inflation of a currency worth less than its 
 face. At the time under discussion there was a 
 general fear on the part of thoughtful students of 
 financial questions that disaster would finally re- 
 sult from the compulsory coinage under the law 
 of 1878 of a minimum of two millions of silver 
 dollars each month. Mr. Cleveland, a short time 
 before his inauguration, in a letter under date of 
 February 28th, 1885, ^^^ addressed to Mr. War- 
 ner, a representative from the State of Ohio, and 
 others, set forth his views upon this question at 
 considerable length and with much positiveness. 
 Besides other things, he said : 
 
 ** To the Hon. A. J. War7ier and others, Members 
 of the Forty-eighth Congress. 
 
 •' Gentlemen : The letter which I have liad the 
 honor to receive from you invites, and indeed 
 obliges, me to give expression to some grave 
 public necessities, although In advance of the 
 moment when they would become the objects of 
 my official care and partial responsibility. Your 
 
THE PREPARATION. I 29 
 
 solicitude that my judgment shall have been care- 
 fully and deliberately formed is entirely just, and 
 I accept the suggestion in the same friendly spirit 
 in which it has been made. It is also fully justi- 
 fied by the nature of the financial crisis which, 
 under the operation of the act of Congress of 
 February 28th, 1878, is now close at hand. 
 
 *" By a compliance with the requirements of 
 that law all the vaults of the Federal Treasury 
 have been and are heaped full of silver coins, 
 which are now worth less than eighty-five per 
 cent, of the gold dollar prescribed as the unit of 
 value in section 16 of the act of February 12th, 
 1873, and which, with the silver certificates repre- 
 senting such coin, are receivable for all public 
 dues. Being thus receivable, while also constantly 
 increasing in quantity at the rate of ^28,000,000 
 a year, it has followed of necessity that the flow 
 of gold into the Treasury has steadily diminished. 
 Silver and silver certificates have displaced and are 
 now displacing the gold in the Federal Treasury 
 now available for the gold obligations of the United 
 States and for redemption of the United States 
 notes called ' greenbacks,' if not already en- 
 croached upon, is perilously near such encroach- 
 ment. 
 
 " These are facts which, as they do not admit of 
 difference of opinion, call for no argument. They 
 have been forewarned to us in the official reports 
 of every Secretary of the Treasury, from 1878 till 
 now. They are plainly affirmed in the last De- 
 cember report of the present Secretary of the 
 Treasury to the Speaker of the present House of 
 Representatives. They appear in the official doc- 
 uments of this Congress, and in the records of the 
 
130 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 New York Clearing-house, of which the Treasury 
 is a member, and throusfh which the bulk of the 
 receipts and payments of the Federal Government 
 and country pass. 
 
 ''These being the facts of our present condi- 
 tion, our danger, and our duty to avert that dan- 
 ger, would seem to be plain. I hope that you 
 concur with me and with the great majority of our 
 fellow-citizens, in deeming it most desirable at the 
 present juncture to maintain and continue in use 
 the mass of our gold coin, as well as the mass of 
 silver already coined. This is possible by a pres- 
 ent suspension of the purchase and coinage of 
 silver. I am not aware that by any odier method 
 it is possible. It is of momentous importance 
 to prevent the two metals from parting company ; 
 to prevent the increasing displacement of gold by 
 the increasing coinage of silver ; to prevent the 
 disuse of gold in the custom-houses of the United 
 States in the daily business of the people; to pre- 
 vent the ultimate expulsion of gold by silver. 
 Such a financial crisis as these events would cer- 
 tainly precipitate, were it now to follow upon so 
 long a period of commercial depression, would 
 involve the people of every city and every State 
 in the Union in a prolonged and disastrous trou- 
 ble. The revival of business enterprise and pros- 
 perity so ardently desired, and apparently so near, 
 would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would be 
 withdrawn to its hoarding places, and an unpre- 
 cedented contraction in the actual volume of our 
 currency would speedily take place. 
 
 " Saddest of all, in every workshop, mill, factory, 
 store, and on every railroad and farm the wages 
 of labor, already depressed, would suffer still fur- 
 
THE PRE PARA TIOX. r >> ^ 
 
 ther depression by a scaling down of the purchas- 
 ing power of every so-called dollar paid into the 
 hands of toil. From these impending calamities, 
 it is surely a most patriotic and grateful duty of 
 the representatives of the people to deliver them. 
 
 " I am, gentlemen, with sincere respect, your 
 fellow-citizen, 
 
 " GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 "Albany, February 24th, 18S5." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE INAUGURATION. 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATtON — THE CABINET OFFICERS 
 AND HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 A 
 
 S the day for the Inauguration of the Presi- 
 dent drew near, pubUc interest in the men 
 who would be chosen as his constitutional 
 advisers became more arid more aroused. At a 
 comparatively early day Mr. Cleveland adopted a 
 policy, which he has since carried out with much 
 success, of giving out informally and unofficially 
 indications of any important appointment, message, 
 or policy upon which he had determined. In this 
 way it was generally known that Senator Bayard, 
 of Delaware, would be tendered the office of Sec- 
 retary of State, nominally considered the leading 
 place in the Cabinet because first created and sur- 
 rounded by traditions which gave it this rank by 
 Thomas Jefferson, the first Incumbent of the 
 office under President Washington. From time 
 to time hints were let fall as to other members of 
 the Cabinet, although no official announcement 
 was made until the day following the inauguration, 
 when their names were sent to the Senate. 
 132 2 
 
STARTING FOR THE INAUGURATION. 
 
THE INA UG URA TTOX. T - - 
 
 The day fixed by law for die inauguration of 
 die new President, March 4th, 1885, was the most 
 perfect, from an atmospheric point of view, that 
 Washington had seen for months. The President- 
 elect, accompanied by the Vice-President-elect, 
 Mr. Hendricks, and members of the Senate Com- 
 mittee appointed to escort them to the Capitol^ 
 went at about half-past ten o'clock to the White 
 House, where President Arthur and the Marshal 
 of the district were In waiting. A start was made 
 at once, the carriages falling into line in the place 
 arranged for them by the Chief Marshal, General 
 Henry W. Slocum, of New York. The Regular 
 Army, the Marines, the Navy, the Artillery, the 
 Marine Band and detachments from the militia of 
 several States contributed to swell the procession 
 to something like twenty-five thousand men. As 
 usual, the ceremonies of inauguration were per- 
 formed at the east front of the Capitol, and in 
 this case before an audience estimated to number 
 one hundred and fifty thousand. Mr. Cleveland 
 was dressed in the regulation Prince Albert suit. 
 In speaking he held his left hand closed behind 
 his back, using his right hand for making the cus- 
 tomary gestures of the public speaker. He spoke 
 without manuscript, as is his wont, and In a clear, 
 resonant voice. His self-confidence and compo- 
 sure were as marvelous to the hundreds of more 
 experienced public men who surrounded him as 
 they were novel and yet reassuring to the people 
 
1^5 ^^^"^ OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 of the country. The most important utterances 
 of his inaugural address were as follows : 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE INAUGURAL. 
 
 "Amid the din of party strife the people's 
 choice was made, but its attendant circumstances 
 demonstrated anew the strength and safety of a 
 government by the people. 
 
 " In each succeeding year it more clearly ap- 
 pears that our Democratic principle needs no 
 apology, and that in its fearless and faithful ap- 
 plication is to be found the surest guaranty of 
 good government. But the best results in the 
 operation of a government wherein every citizen 
 has a share largely depend upon a proper limita- 
 tion of purely partisan zeal and effort, and a cor- 
 rect appreciation of the time when the heat of the 
 partisan should be merged in the patriotism of 
 the citizen. 
 
 "To-day the Executive branch of the govern- 
 ment is transferred to new keeping, but this is 
 still the government of all the people, and it 
 should be none the less an object of affectionate 
 solicitude. At this hour the animosities of polit- 
 ical strife, the bitterness of partisan defeat, and 
 the exultation of partisan triumph should be sup- 
 planted by an ungrudging aquiescence in the 
 popular will, and a sober, conscientious concern 
 for the general weal. 
 
 " Moreover, if from this hour we cheerfully and 
 honestly abandon all sectional prejudice and dis- 
 trust, and determine with manly confidence in one 
 another to work out harmoniously the achieve- 
 ments of our national destiny, we shall deserve to 
 
THE INA UG URA TION. I 3 7 
 
 realize all the benefits which our happy form of 
 government can bestow ; on this conspicuous oc- 
 casion we may well renew the pledge of devotion 
 to the Constitution, which, launched by the found- 
 ers of the Republic and consecrated by their 
 prayers and patriotic devotion, has for almost a 
 century borne the hopes and the aspirations of a 
 great people through prosperity and peace, and 
 through the foreign conflicts and the perils of do- 
 mestic strife and vicissitudes. 
 
 " By the Father of his Country our Constitution 
 was commended for adoption, as ' the result of 
 a spirit of amity and mutual concession.' In that 
 same spirit it should be administered, in order to 
 promote the lasting welfare of the country, and to 
 secure the full measure of its priceless benefits to 
 us and to those who will succeed to the blessings 
 of our national life. The large variety of diverse 
 and competing interests subject to Federal 
 control, persistently seeking the recognition of 
 their claims, need give us no fear that the great- 
 est i^ood to the orreatest number will fail to beac- 
 complished, if in the halls of the National Legis- 
 lature that spirit of amity and mutual concession 
 shall prevail in which the Constitution had its 
 birth. 
 
 " If this involves the surrender or postpone- 
 ment of private interests, the sacrifice of local van- 
 tages, compensation will be found in assurance 
 that thus the minor interest is subserved and 
 the general welfare advanced." 
 
 ADVISERS OF THE EXECUTIVE. 
 
 It was not until the next day after the inaugu- 
 ration ceremonies that the curiosity of the country 
 
1 ^Q LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 concerning^ the Cabinet was officially gratified. 
 Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State, had seen 
 long service In the Senate from the State of Dela- 
 ware, and had attained such prominence that he 
 had been voted for In three National Conventions 
 as a candidate for President. His nature was 
 conservative ; his mind was trained to politics from 
 early manhood by a close study of our system of 
 government. He had taken high rank as a law- 
 yer, both in the practice of his profession and in 
 legal arguments before that august body, the 
 Senate of the United States. His appointment 
 as Secretary of State gave general satisfaction 
 because of the known dignity of his character, 
 his conservatism, and his lack of those fiery and 
 impractical qualities which distinguish demagogues 
 and men of so-called "magnetism." His career 
 in the State Department has justified the hopes of 
 his friends and confounded his enemies. 
 
 The man selected for that most Important and 
 difficult office. Secretary of the Treasury, was 
 Daniel Manning, of the State of New York. He 
 was a man whose career illustrated the genius of 
 our institutions better, perhaps, than that of any 
 one who ever occupied that office. A memberof a 
 worthy family in his native State of New York, 
 he was early apprenticed to learn the trade of 
 printer in the office of the Argus at Albany. Here 
 his industry, his unfailing good sense, and Ills 
 energy gave him the opportunities he needed. 
 
THOMAS F. BAYARD, SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
THE INAUGURATION. I4I 
 
 As a result he rose rapidly through different 
 grades of the business and editorial departments 
 of the paper until he became Its editor and 
 owner. With business prosperity he had also 
 entered Into the banking business, and thus turned 
 his attention to the study of financial questions. 
 Always active in politics, he rose with each step 
 of his business and professional advancement in 
 the councils of his party, until, as Chairman of the 
 State Committee, In the first Democratic State of 
 the Union, he became the Warwick who made 
 Governors and Presidents without subjecting 
 himself to the charofe of beinor a " boss " — that 
 great bugbear of the modern prudes of politics. 
 He had early recognized the qualities of Mr. 
 Cleveland, both practical and available, and he 
 was the earnest and successful leader in direct- 
 ing his nomination for President, as well as a 
 potent factor In securing his election. His 
 career as Secretary of the Treasury was, taking 
 Its brevity Into consideration, the most, brilliant 
 in the history of the United States ; and when, 
 after less than two years service, he was com- 
 pelled to resign because of Impaired health, he 
 retired with universal respect and admiration of 
 his countr^^men, and when he died, early in the 
 present year, he was as sincerely mourned as a 
 loss to our politics as If he had been for many 
 years one of the leading figures in shaping the 
 policies of a great nation. 
 
142 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 For Attorney-General the President selected 
 Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas. One of the 
 ablest lawyers of his State, he had been its Gover- 
 nor in the troublous times of the carpet-baggers, 
 which so tried the souls of honest men, and he 
 had rendered conspicuous service in ridding his 
 State and section of these human pests. His 
 service in the Senate of the United States had de- 
 monstrated his attainments as a lawyer, his 
 patrlodsm and honesty as a man, and his useful- 
 ness as a legislator. 
 
 To William C. Whitney, of the State of New 
 York, was confided the difficult task of taking 
 the Navy Department and of redeeming it from 
 reproach. He was the youngest man in the 
 Cabinet, but he had done conspicuous work fur 
 the cause of good government in the State and 
 city of New York ; and as corporation counsel 
 of that great municipality he had shown the energy 
 and executive efficiency which in his present 
 larger sphere have made his department clean 
 and respectable. The success attending his 
 efforts to restore the navy on sound business 
 principles has justified the confidence reposed in 
 him by President Cleveland ; and the present 
 political " solidity " of New York vindicates the 
 wisdom of the daring experiment of taking two 
 Cabinet officers from a single State. 
 
 For Secretary of War, William C. Endicott, 
 who had seen judicial service in his native State 
 
AUGUSTUS H. GARLAND. 
 
THE INAUGURATION. 
 
 145 
 
 of Massachusetts, was selected. He was the 
 least known of the members of the new Cabinet : 
 but the absence of scandal and the preservation 
 of discipline in his department show his honesty 
 and ability. 
 
 The Post-Office Department is in many re- 
 spects the mo.t important and most difficult port- 
 folio in the Cabinet of the President. Its subor- 
 dinates greatly outnumber those of all others 
 combined, its efficiency is tested even in the re- 
 motest hamlet, and its revenues give it second 
 place in rank. Wm. F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, had 
 the training of a lawyer who had always been an 
 apt and ardent student of politics. He gave close 
 attention to every detail of the work in his De- 
 partment and rendered excellent service in it 
 until his transfer to the head of the Interior De- 
 partment in December, 1887. 
 
 L. Q. C. Lamar, then a Senator of the United 
 States from Mississippi, was chosen as Secretary 
 of the Interior. Under his direction, the many 
 and serious abuses in his Department were cor- 
 rected. He carried out a wise policy of dealing 
 with the Indians under which peaceful relations 
 have been uniformly maintained since March, 1885 ; 
 he inaugurated reforms in the affairs of the Patent 
 Office ; he selected careful and honest men to 
 manao;e the Pension Office and the Aericultural 
 Department; he took firm measures to bring the 
 delinquent Pacific Railroads to account, and carried 
 
J ^5 Z/y^Z: OFGROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 out In the most conscientious way the policy 
 of reclaiming land grants to railroads after 
 they had lapsed because of a failure to perform 
 the condition of the crrants. His course in office 
 
 o 
 
 fully justified the choice of the President, and his 
 appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States was only regretted because 
 It took him out of an executive office which he 
 had managed faithfully and well. 
 
 The first vacancy in the Cabinet was caused by 
 the retirement of Daniel Manning from the office 
 of Secretary of the Treasury. He was succeeded 
 by Charles S. Fairchild, who was promoted from 
 the position of First Assistant Secretary. He had 
 had a careful training In the larger politics- of 
 the State of New York, where he had rendered 
 conspicuous service as Attorney-General In pros- 
 ecution of the canal frauds unearthed by Mr. 
 Tllden while Governor. He has shown himselfa 
 worthy successor of Mr. Manning, of whose policy 
 he himxself has always been a falthfu'l pupil and 
 follower. 
 
 By the appointment of Mr. Lamar to a judge- 
 ship of the Supreme Court, and the ensuing trans- 
 fer of Mr. Vilas from the Post-Office Department 
 to the Interior, Don M. Dickinson, of Michigan, 
 became Postmaster-General. During his brief 
 term of service he has shown the Industry, hon- 
 esty, and executive capacity, as well as political 
 eood sense, which lone distineuished him as the 
 
w. c 
 
 :. WHITNEY, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 
 
THE INAUGVRATIOX. 149 
 
 head of his profession and the leader of his party 
 irt Michigan. 
 
 HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Scarcely less important than the selection of a 
 Cabinet of constitutional advisers was the choice 
 of men to fill those offices popularly recognized 
 as of the second grade, the duties of whose posi- 
 tions compel them none the less to study and 
 learn the details of their various departments and 
 upon whom the President and the heads of de- 
 partments must in a large measure depend. 
 Among the men thus chosen^ and chosen with- 
 out mistake, were John Goode, of Virginia, as 
 Solicitor-General of the United States. His 
 nomination was defeated In a partisan Senate by 
 the petty malice of William Mahone, whose ne- 
 farious and disgraceful schemics ^Ir. Goode had 
 exposed at every turn, and with just, unsparing 
 severity. Another was tlic lamented and gifted 
 Malcolm Hay, of Pennsylvrnii, whose illness, 
 soon after proving fatal, compelled his early res- 
 ignation as First Assistant Postmaster-General. 
 His successor, A. E. Stevenson, of Illinois, charged 
 especially with the selection of fourth-class post- 
 masters, by far the most numerous class of public 
 servants, has carried out with conspicuous fidelity 
 the policy, the necessity of which became early 
 apparent, of making the postal service effective 
 by removing the men whose only desire was to 
 
150 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 obstruct Its operations in order to embarrass the 
 new Administration. George A. Jenks, one of 
 the foremost lawyers of Pennsylvania, who, as 
 counsel forTildtn before the Electoral Commission, 
 achieved more reputation in one Congressional 
 term than comes to most public men in a lifetime, 
 became Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and 
 was a terror to the violators of the land and 
 other laws with the execution of which he was 
 charged. He was finally promoted to be Solici- 
 tor-General of the United States. Charles S. 
 Fairchild and Judge Isaac H. Maynard, of New 
 York, together v/ith ex-Governor Hugh J. Thomp- 
 son, of South Carolina, have done good work as 
 Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury; while Gen- 
 eral William S. Rosecrans, of California, as Reg- 
 ister of the Treasury; Conrad N. Jordan, of New 
 York, as Treasurer of the United States ; Judge 
 McCue, of New York, as Solicitor of the Treasury, 
 and MiltonJ. Durham, of Kentucky, as First Comp- 
 troller, have rendered service to the Treasury 
 and the country in the various positions of trust 
 to which they have been called. In the Interior 
 Departmentthe veteran soldier. General Joseph E. 
 Johnston, of Virginia, has been conspicuous as 
 Commissioner of Railroads ; John D. C. Atkins, 
 as Indian Commissioner, and Norman J. Coleman, 
 as Commissioner of Agriculture, have adminis- 
 tered their Important offices, so large as to be of 
 the magnitude of and to be called " departments," 
 

 w. 
 
 C. ENDICOTT, SECRETARY OF WAR. 
 
THE IXAVGURATION. I 53 
 
 with honesty and efficiency. Scarcely second in 
 importance to a Cabinet office is the great Bureau 
 of Pensions, which, under the Conimissionership 
 of General John C. Black, the veteran soldier and 
 maimed hero of the Union cause, has been ad- 
 ministered with a promptitude, efficiency, econo- 
 my of expenditure, and liberality of construction 
 unprecedented under Republican administrations. 
 Next in the amount of receipts to the customs 
 service itself is the system of Internal Revenue, 
 which constitutes a department; to the head of 
 it the President, with his characteristic sagacity in 
 the selection of m.en, called a vigorous, clear- 
 lieaded, and able executive officer in the person of 
 Joseph S. Miller, an ex-Representative in Con- 
 gress from West Viroinia. 
 
 To the wisdom and fitness of choice displayed 
 in these and many other worthy and no less Im- 
 portant Executive appointments, and to the sin- 
 gleness of purpose with which the appointees 
 have carried out the President's policies, have 
 been largely due the cohesion and success of Mr. 
 Cleveland's Administration. 
 
 In the diplomatic service, Edward J. Phelps, 
 of Vermont, as Minister to England ; Robert M. 
 McLane, of Maryland, as Minister to France; 
 George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, as Minister to 
 Germany ; George V. N. Lothrop, of Michigan, 
 as Minister to Russia; J. B. Stallo, of Ohio, as 
 Minister to Italy ; Richard B. Hubbard, as Minis- 
 
154 ^^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 ter to Japan ; and Thomas M. Waller, of Connect- 
 icut, as Consul-General to London, are only some 
 of the principal appointments to a branch of the 
 service of which not a single member has reflected 
 discredit or dishonor upon his country or the 
 Administration. 
 
 During the first year of his administration Pres- 
 ident Cleveland .was subjected to considerable 
 criticism in his own party, and to malignant mis- 
 representation from without, because of his rigid 
 adherence to the civil-service reform policy which 
 he had set out to establish and maintain. Many 
 of the less thoughtful members of his own party 
 made the complaint that he did not proceed rap- 
 idly enough in the work of making removals. On 
 the other hand, some of his independent support- 
 ers w^ere inclined to foro^et that he was confronted 
 by " a condition, not a theory," and made loud 
 outcry each time some cringing incumbent of an 
 office was removed that the President was forget- 
 ting his pledges. Still another class of complaints 
 came from Republicans, both in office and out. 
 There was general resentment on the part of 
 these people at the audacity which would deprive 
 them of what they had come to believe was a 
 vested right to hold office ; consequendy, early in 
 the session of the Forty-ninth Congress, the 
 Senate, under the lead of Mr. Edmunds, of Ver- 
 mont, set up the claim, hitherto never advanced, 
 that that body was entitled to the ''papers ' upon 
 

 
 WILLIAM F. VILAS, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 
 
7^HE INAUGURATION. 
 
 157 
 
 which removals and appointments had been made. 
 The President refused to comply with this request, 
 holdinor that such documents affected considera- 
 tions private to himself. After some little delay 
 the Senate found that its position was indefensible, 
 and quietly receded from ir, by confirming the men 
 appointed to the offices in question. 
 
 On the whole, however, the people of the coun- 
 try sustained the President in his position. There 
 was general recognition of the fact that many 
 unfriendly incumbents of office had impeded the 
 service in order to discredit the new Administra- 
 tion ; that others had truckled to the new powers 
 in the hope that their sudden zeal might hide 
 their cowardice and inefficiency; and that still 
 others had all of a sudden become great reformers 
 when they could no longer prostitute the public 
 service to party and selfish ends. The desire of 
 the people to see fair play finally triumphed over 
 the impatient friends of the President, his imprac- 
 ticable supporters who had expected so much, and 
 his unscrupulous enemies In the Senate and in 
 the minor offices. It was then seen that the 
 standard of public service fixed by the new Ad- 
 ministration was such a lofty one that no scandal 
 had come from the actions of any of the new 
 officials, whether in the departments or In the sub- 
 ordinate offices ; that the minor places in the de- 
 partments at Washington and In the large custom- 
 houses and post-offices were filled strictly in obe- 
 
I^S LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 dience to the civil-service law; that there were no 
 glaring instances in which officials had used their 
 places to do political wrongs, and that, as a whole, 
 the public service of the United States had never 
 been in better condition. For the first time, a 
 substantial advance had been made in genuine 
 civil-service reform, and the President's victory- 
 was secured without the alienation of any influen- 
 tial element of his own party, and without violating 
 any obligation, express or implied, which he took 
 upon himself in becoming its candidate. In the 
 years to follow, the wisdom of his policy was to 
 be more fully tested and more emphatically ap- 
 proved. 
 
 In the death, on the 25th of November, 1885, of 
 thehonoredstatesman,ThomasA. Hendricks, Vice- 
 President of the United States, the new Demo- 
 cratic circle was first broken. From his earliest 
 manhood, even before he reached his majority, he 
 had upheld the standard of his party, and incul- 
 cated such a lofty patriotism that he had never 
 done aught which could be construed as inimical 
 to the interests of his country. The highest 
 honors were paid to his memory. The President, 
 immediately upon the receipt of the sad tidings 
 of his death, issued a proclamation to the country, 
 recounting his services and directing that the 
 various branches of the Government should pay 
 the customary tributes of respect to his memory. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 
 
 *^ESSAGES TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE — TARIFF REVISION 
 AND OTHER REFORMS. 
 
 ON the first Monday In December, 1885, 
 the Forty-ninth Congress met, and 
 President Cleveland transmitted his first 
 annual message. He adverted feelingly in its 
 opening sentences to the death of Vice-President 
 Hendricks, and paid a warm tribute to his mem- 
 ory. He discussed with much fullness all the 
 leading questions which affected the country, and 
 with general public acceptance. Among the 
 issues which have since become of great import- 
 ance were the enactment of lav/s to prevent the 
 collection of a surplus revenue, the retention of 
 the public lands for actual settlers, and the reform 
 of the abuses which had crept into the civil 
 service. On the reduction of taxation his views 
 were so clear and conscientious upon the one 
 issue, which he has since projected into import- 
 ance, that his conclusions are given at length: 
 
 "The fact that our revenues are in excess of 
 the actual needs of an economical administration 
 of the Government, justifies a reduction in the 
 
 161 
 
I 52 Z/i^^' OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 amount exacted from the people for its support. 
 Our Government is but the means estabhshed by 
 the will of a free people by which certain princi- 
 ples are applied which they have adopted for their 
 benefit and protection ; and it is never better ad- 
 ministered arid its true spirit is never better ob- 
 served than when the people's taxation for its 
 support is scrupulously limited to the actual 
 necessity of expenditure, and distributed accord- 
 ing to a just and equitable plan. 
 
 *' The proposition with which we have to deal 
 is the reduction of the revenue received by the 
 Government, and indirectly paid by the people 
 from customs duties. The question of free trade 
 isnotinvolved,noris there now any occasion for the 
 general discussion of the wisdom or expediency 
 of a protective system. Justice and fairness dic- 
 tate that in any modification of our present laws 
 relating to revenue, the industries and interests 
 which have been encouraged by such laws, and in 
 which our citizens have large investments, should 
 not be ruthlessly injured or destroyed. We should 
 also deal with the subject in such a manner as to 
 protect the interests of American labor, which is 
 the capital of our workingmen ; its stability and 
 proper remuneration furnish the most justifiable 
 pretext for a protective policy. 
 
 " Within these limitations a certain reduction 
 should be made in our customs revenue. The 
 amount of such reduction having been determined, 
 the inquiry follows, where can it best be remitted 
 and what articles can best be released from duty, 
 in the interests of our citizens? I think the re- 
 duction should be made in the revenue derived 
 from a tax upon the imported necessaries of life. 
 
THE PRESIDENT AXD CONGRESS. j ^^^ 
 
 We thus directly lessen the cost of living in every 
 family of the land, and release to the people in 
 every humble home a larger measure of the re- 
 wards of frugal industry." 
 
 CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM. 
 
 Having announced his devotion to a genuine 
 reform of the civil-service abuses in his letter of 
 acceptance, in various letters and speeches during 
 the campaign, and in his first inaugural address, 
 he took occasion to emphasize anew his position 
 in the following language : 
 
 " I am inclined to think that there is no senti- 
 ment more general in the minds of the people of 
 our country, than a conviction of the correctness 
 of the principle upon which the law enforcing civil- 
 service reform is based. * * * * Experience in 
 its administration will probably suggest amend- 
 ment of the mediods of its execution, but I venture 
 to hope that we shall never again be remitted to the 
 system which distributes public positions purely 
 as rewards for pardsan service. Doubts may well 
 be entertained whether our Government could 
 survive the strain of a continuance of this system, 
 which upon every change of Administration in- 
 spires an immense army of claimants for office to 
 lay siege to the patronage of Government, en- 
 grossincr the dme of public officers with their im- 
 portunities, spreading abroad the contagion of 
 their disappointment, and filling the air with the 
 tumult of their discontent. 
 
 "The allurements of an immense number of 
 offices and places, exhibited to the voters of the 
 
1 64 
 
 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 land, and the promise of their bestowal in recog- 
 nition of partisan activity, debauch the suffrage 
 and rob pohtical action of its thoughtful and de- 
 liberative character. The evil would increase 
 with the multiplication of offices consequent upon 
 our extension, and the mania for office-holding, 
 growing from its indulgence, would pervade our 
 population so generally that patriotic purpose, the 
 support of principle, the desire for the public good, 
 and solicitude for the nation's welfare, would be 
 nearly banished from the activity of our party 
 contests and cause them to deo^eneratc into iono- 
 ble, selfish, and disgraceful struggles for the pos- 
 session of office and public place. Civil-service 
 reform enforced by law came none too soon to 
 check the progress of demoralization. One of its 
 effects, not enough regarded, is the freedom it 
 brings to the political action of those conservative 
 and sober men who, in fear of the confusion and 
 risk attending an arbitrary and sudden change in 
 all the public offices with a change of party rule, 
 cast their ballots a^ralnst such a chance. 
 
 " Parties seem to be necessary, and will long 
 continue to exist; nor can it be now denied that 
 there are legitimate advantages, not disconnected 
 with office-holding, which follow party supremacy. 
 While partisanship continues bitter and pro- 
 nounced, and supplies so much of motive to senti- 
 ment and action, It is not fair to hold public offi- 
 cials, In charge of important trusts, responsible for 
 the best results in the performance of their duties, 
 and yet insist that they shall rely, in confidential 
 and important places, upon the work of those not 
 only opposed to them In political affiliation, but so 
 steeped in partisan prejudice and rancor that they 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS, j 5 :, 
 
 have no loyalty to their chiefs and no desire for 
 their success. Civil-service reform does not ex- 
 act this, nor does it require that those in subor- 
 dinate positions who fail in yielding their best ser- 
 vice, or who are incompetent, should be retained 
 simply because they are in place. The whining of 
 a clerk discharged for indolence or incompetency, 
 who, though he gained his place by the worst pos- 
 sible operation of the spoils system, suddenly 
 discovers that he is entitled to protection under 
 the sanction of civil-service reform, represents 
 an idea no less absurd than the clamor of the 
 applicant who claims the vacant position as his 
 compensation for the most questionable party 
 work. 
 
 '*The civil-service law does not prevent the dis- 
 charge of the indolent or incompetent clerk, but 
 it does prevent supphing his place with the 
 unfit party worker. Thus, in both these phases, 
 is seen benefit to the public service. And the 
 people who desire good government having se- 
 cured this statute, will not relinquish its benefits 
 without protest. Nor are they unmindful of the 
 fact that its full advantages can onlv be gained 
 through the complete good faith of those having 
 its execution in charge. And this they will insist 
 upon." 
 
 THE PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 Since the advent of the present Administration 
 the policy of preserving the public lands for actual 
 settlers has been consistently carried out. Closely 
 allied with this policy has been the restoration of 
 unearned lands granted to railroads to the public 
 
J 56 Z//'^ OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 domain. The President had given careful atten- 
 tion to the question and thus announced his con- 
 clusions : 
 
 " It is not for the * common benefit of the 
 United States ' that a large area of the public 
 lands should be acquired, directly or through 
 fraud, in the hands of a single individual. The 
 Nation's strength is in the people. The Nation's 
 prosperity is in their prosperity. The Nation's 
 glory is in the equality of her justice. The 
 Nation's perpetuity is in the patriotism of all her 
 people. Hence, as far as practicable, the plan 
 adopted in the disposal of the public lands should 
 have in view the original policy, which encouraged 
 many purchasers of these lands for homes, and 
 discouracred the massinor- of laro^e areas. Exclu- 
 sive of Alaska, about three-fifths of the national 
 domain has been sold or subjected to contract or 
 ofrant. Of the remaininof two-fifths a consider- 
 able portion is either mountain or desert. A 
 rapidly increasing population creates a growing 
 demand for homes^ and the accumulation of 
 wealth inspires an eager competition to obtain 
 the public land for speculative purposes. In the 
 future this collision of interests will be more 
 marked than in the past, and the execution of 
 the Nation's trust in behalf of our settlers will be 
 more difficult. I therefore commend to yoiir 
 attention the recommendations contained in the 
 report of the Secretary of the Interior with refer- 
 ence to the repeal and modification of certain of 
 our land laws. 
 
 ''The nation has made princely grants and 
 subsidies to a system of railroads projected as 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 
 
 167 
 
 great national highways to connect the Pacific 
 States with the Hast. It has been chareed that 
 these donations from the people have been di- 
 verted to private gain and corrupt uses, and thus 
 public indignation has been aroused and suspi- 
 cion engendered. Our great nation does not 
 begrudge its generosity, but it abhors peculation 
 and fraud; and the favorable regard of our 
 people for the great corpoj'ations to which these 
 grants were made can only be revived by a 
 restoration of confidence, to be secured by their 
 constant, unequivocal, and clearly manifested 
 integrity. A faithful application of the undimin- 
 ished proceeds of the grants to the construction 
 and perfecting of their roads, an honest discharge 
 of their obligations, and entire justice to all the 
 people in the enjoyment of their rights on these 
 highways of travel, are all the public asks, and it 
 will be content with no less. To secure these 
 things should be the common purpose of the 
 officers of the Government, as well as of the 
 corporations. With this accomplishment, pros- 
 perity would be permanently secured to the roads, 
 and national pride would take the place of na- 
 tional complaint." 
 
 With the same object in view, he interposed his 
 veto to maintain the lands of the Indian tribes free 
 from invasion by railroads without the consent of 
 the tribes, thus protecting the wards of the nation 
 from the exactions of corporations. 
 
 Wherever an attempt has been made by Con- 
 gress to surrender any of the rights of Indian 
 tribes by giving away privileges to their lands, 
 
j5S ^^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 President Cleveland has interposed his veto to 
 prevent, or has suggested the insertion of new and 
 additional safeguards for the better protection of 
 their rights. 
 
 PROTECTING THE SETTLERS, 
 
 During the early part of the year 1887, the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad Company undertook to 
 enforce with much severity certain litigation with 
 men who had settled on certain lands afterward 
 found to lie within the limits of indemnity lands 
 to be selected by the Company for making up any 
 deficiencies in the lands granted to it by Congress. 
 Amonor these cases was that of Guilford Miller. 
 He claimed that he had settled upon the land in 
 1878, and that he had cultivated the same under 
 the homestead law until 1884, when he claimed 
 title. The case was referred to the Attorney- 
 General, who, upon its strictly technical and legal 
 aspects, decided against the settler. All the 
 papers were, at his request, turned over to the 
 President, who examined them with the great 
 care and comprehensive industry which has usually 
 distinguished his examination of such cases, both 
 as Governor and President. On April 25th, 1887, 
 he addressed a notable letter to the Secretary of 
 the Interior, suggesting a method of settlement, 
 which, while not interfering with the rights of Mil- 
 ler, would also permit the railroad to select an 
 equal amount of land from some contiguous por- 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. j Oc^ 
 
 tion of the public domain to indemnify it for this 
 loss. In other words, the President sought a way 
 to decide the matter upon the equities of the case, 
 in such a way, as he expressed it,^^''as to protect 
 this setder from hardship and loss." 
 
 In the course of his letter he hid down the fol- 
 lowing as setUing the policy he would pursue : 
 
 "There seems to be no evidence presented 
 showino- how much, if any, of this vast tract is ne- 
 cessary" for the fulfillment of the grant to the rail- 
 road company, nor does there appear to be any 
 limitadon of the time within which this fact should 
 be made known and the corporation obliged to 
 make its selection. After a lapse of fifteen years 
 this laro-e body of the public domain is still held 
 in reserve, to the exclusion of setdcrs, for the 
 convenience of a corporate beneficiary of the 
 Government, and awaiting its selection, though it 
 is entirely certain that much of this reserved land 
 can never be honesdy claimed by said corpora- 
 tion Such a condition of the public lands should 
 no lono-er continue. So far as it is the result of 
 executtve rules and methods, these should be 
 abandoned, and so far as it is a consequence of 
 improvident laws, these should be repealed or 
 
 amended. . 11^1 
 
 "Our public domain is our national wealth, tne 
 earnest of our growth and the heritage of our 
 people. It should promise limidess development 
 and riches, relief to a crowding population, and 
 homes to thrift and industry. These inestimable 
 advantages should be jealously guarded, a_nd a 
 careful and enlightened policy on the part ot the 
 
I JO LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. . 
 
 Government should secure them to the people. 
 In the case under consideration I assume that 
 there is an abundance of land within the area 
 which has been reserved for Indemnity, in which 
 no citizen or settler has a legal or equitable inter- 
 est, for all purposes of such indemnihcatlon to 
 this railroad company, if its grant has not already 
 been satisfied." 
 
 During the year 1886 an executive proclama- 
 tion was Issued, directing the removal of the fences 
 by which large sections of the public domain In the 
 ranch sections of the country were inclosed. This 
 had become one of the most serious of abuses. 
 Men who had gained the personal or the party favor 
 of men in power had been permitted to fence In 
 great tracts of public land, and they had success- 
 fully defied all attempts at their removal. But 
 from the day that President Cleveland issued his 
 order the fences began to come down, and since 
 that time thousands of acres of land l:ave thus 
 been thrown open for the actual settler. 
 
 By the action of the President and Secretary of 
 the Interior, about 20,®oo,ooo acres of land not 
 granted to railroads by Congr'ess, but withdrawn 
 from settlement as indemnity lands to await the 
 convenience of railroad companies, were restored 
 to the public domain and thrown open to settle- 
 ment. Thousands of homes are being made by 
 settlers on these lands. In the Forty-seventh 
 Congress the Republicans were in full possession 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. I y \ 
 
 of both branches of Congress, and not one rail- 
 road land grant was forfeited. In the Forty- 
 eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses the Demo- 
 cratic party controlled the Floiise of Representa- 
 tives, and these Congresses passed laws restoring 
 50,000,000 acres of unearned railroad land grants 
 to the public domain. With scarcely an exception 
 these bills passed the House before the Senate 
 considered them. The Republican Senate passed 
 no forfeiture bill that the House did not pass, but 
 the House passed bills forfeiting 38,000,000 acres 
 of grants that the Republican Senate did not pass, 
 and the House Committee on Public Lands made 
 favorable reports on bills to forfeit grants amount- 
 ing to 12,000,000 or 13,000,000 more. 
 
 VETOING LOG-ROLLING SCHEMES. 
 
 Another class of questions which early attracted 
 President Cleveland's attention was that of appro- 
 priations for public buildings. It has long been 
 a recognized scandal to the name of Coneress 
 that such measures are passed by a system known 
 as log-rolling, or members of Congress or State 
 delegations voting for an appropriation for a like 
 favor to be given in return. The President early 
 in his administration set his face consistently 
 against this policy, and has carried it out to its 
 logical results by interposing his veto of such ap- 
 propriations where the interest or the sum pro- 
 posed to be expended largely exceeded the rent 
 
172 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 paid for public buildings, always taking into con- 
 sideration all the elements of the case, such as 
 the presence or absence of Federal courts, of 
 internal revenue offices, and of such conditions 
 as would promote the best interests of the local- 
 it3Mn question. By judicious adherence to this 
 policy he has saved large sums of money, and 
 saved the country from the dangers which would 
 follow the bad precedent otherwise set to future 
 lecrislators and Presidents. 
 
 He has also interposed the veto power In the 
 matter of the private claims so persistently lobbied 
 through Congress, insisting that the laws as ad- 
 ministered by the courts are generally ample to 
 protect the rights of individuals when dealing 
 with the Government. He has done much by 
 this course to promote the growth of a healthy 
 public sentiment which shall demand the reference 
 of all such claims to the regular Federal courts 
 and to the Court of Claims for adjudication and 
 settlement. 
 
 During the second session of the Forty-ninth 
 Congress a bill was passed creating an Inter- 
 State Commerce Commission, and orrantine it 
 certain powers to prohibit discrimination In rates* 
 of carrying of passengers and freight. The bill 
 was at once signed by the President and a most 
 efficient Commission appointed for the purpose 
 of carrying Its provisions Into effect. Of this 
 Commission Thomas M. Cooley, of Michigan, one 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. i ; 3 
 
 of the ablest jurists in the country, was elected 
 Chairman. The law was universally accepted by 
 both the people and the railroads with good re- 
 sults. 
 
 The Pacific Railroads having asked for an ex- 
 tension of the time granted them by the Thur- 
 man Act for makincr settlement with the Govern- 
 ment, an act was passed authorizing the appoint- 
 ment of a Commission vested with full power to 
 investigate the question in all its bearings. This 
 Commission was appointed by President Cleve- 
 land, and the majority reported in favor of certain 
 rigid assertions of right on the part of the Gov- 
 ernment as well as in favor of granting cer- 
 tain concessions. Under this report the money 
 advanced by the Government would be secured, 
 and at the same time the companies would be 
 granted such a reasonable extension of time as 
 would enable them to fully carry out their ob- 
 ligations to the Government, without undue Im- 
 pairment of their resources or injury to the section 
 of country dependent upon them for the promo- 
 tion of its interests. The President sent this re- 
 port to Congress with favorable recommendations, 
 but insisted that the rights of the Government 
 should be protected by adequate safeguards. 
 
 Thus at every turn have President Cleveland 
 and his advisers shown a careful regard for the 
 interests of the people, and a determination to 
 carry out the laws enacted to secure those inter- 
 
174 Z//"^ OFGROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 ests. No demagoguery has disfigured diese whole- 
 some efforts to promote the pubHc welfare. No 
 crusade against property of any kind has been In- 
 dulged In, and no attempt has been made to array 
 one class of men ao^ainst another. 
 
 o 
 
 OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 
 
 At the first session of the Fiftieth ConQ^ress 
 the President sent to the Senate a treaty just -con- 
 cluded with the Emperor of China, by which all 
 classes of Chinese excluded from this country 
 under our laws were upon a complete and full 
 understandlncr with China to be excluded durlnor 
 a term of twenty years. The Administration had 
 been able to negotiate this most desirable treaty 
 because of its liberal policy in dealing with com- 
 pensations paid to the Government of China as 
 damages for certain outrages perpetrated upon a 
 number of Inoffending Chinese in the Territory 
 of Wyoming. But partisan feeling was so strong 
 in the Senate that a chancre of a single word was 
 made in the treaty, thus rendering it necessary to 
 return It to China for ratification. The treaty se- 
 cured everything which the Government of the 
 United States had sought to accomplish by law, 
 and made the term of exclusion long enough to 
 turn the tide of Chinese immigration permanently 
 away from our shores. 
 
 In his first annual message the President di- 
 rected attention sharply to the condition of the 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. \ ^75 
 
 law relating to the Presidential succession, with 
 the result that bills .which had long been pendino- 
 without ability to command support In both 
 houses of Congress were taken up and passed 
 into a law which was eminently satisfactory to 
 public sentiment, and under the operation of which 
 the Presidential succession descends from the 
 elected Vice-President to the Cabinet officers, be- 
 ginning with the Secretary of State, and not to 
 the President /r^ tern, of the Senate. 
 
 Approval was given to a law designed to check 
 the manufacture and sale of products fraudulently 
 sold as butter, known as the Oleomarorarlne Bill, 
 the President going extensively into his reasons 
 for slo-nlne the bill. 
 
 During the first session of the Forty-ninth 
 Congress President Cleveland sent a special mes- 
 sage to Congress recommending legislation look- 
 ing toward a peaceful setdement byarbitradon of 
 disputes between laboring men and their em- 
 ployers. His recommendations were carefully 
 drawn, and the narrow constitutional authority of 
 Congress over the question was enforced; but It 
 showed the President's Interest in such questions 
 and his anxiety to do whatever lay in his power 
 to promote an object so worthy the attention of all 
 thoughtful and philanthropic men. 
 
 This review of the principal acts of the Ad^ 
 minlstradon, brief as it Is, is still sufficient to show 
 that every question has been approached with a 
 
1^6 ^^^^ ^^ GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 desire and determination to act with promptness, 
 intelligence, and vigor on all questions affecting 
 the interests of the public. There has been no 
 cringing to corporations on the one hand and no 
 injustice has been done to them, on the other, 
 having purely partisan or political ends in view. 
 The rights of our people in foreign countries and 
 in commerce have been upheld in a manly and 
 straightforward manner, with determination to 
 exact what was rieht, but without bluster or 
 bravado. The public service has been clean and 
 honest, so that " public office " has indeed been 
 deemed a '' public trust." Whether from the 
 standpoint of the patriot or the partisan of the 
 President, his Administration has fairly justified 
 itself, and it has a right to appeal with confidence 
 to the country. 
 
 In nothing has the Administration served its 
 party and the country better than in demon- 
 strating the utter groundlessness of the fears — 
 honestly felt in some quarters and pretended In 
 others — that a change of parties in control of the 
 Government threatened disaster to the business 
 interests of the country. The conservative but 
 firm policy of the President and his Cabinet in 
 all matters touching the relations of the Govern- 
 ment with business have inspired confidence in 
 the Administration and disarmed those who have 
 been wont to " indict a whole party" for cherish- 
 ing destructive purposes. The great commercial 
 

 L. Q. C. LAMAR. 
 
THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS, I 79 
 
 centres of the land have been quick to respond 
 to every occasion with expressions of their con- 
 fidence in the President and his party. The 
 Democracy enters upon the Presidential cam- 
 paign of 1888 without any of the distrust attaching 
 to it as an organization by which so many of the 
 independent voters in former years seem to have 
 been affected ; and every promise is given in the 
 situation, as it stands, of accessions to the sup- 
 port of Cleveland and Thurman from elements 
 which have hitherto withheld themselves from the 
 Democracy. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 
 
 WHILE there has never been any ten- 
 dency in the United States to imitate 
 the court customs of European coun- 
 tries, interest has always been strong in the 
 domestic Hfe of our pubhc men, and especially of 
 those called to the Presidency. While the majority 
 of these have been drawn from the average plain 
 life of the plain people of the country, our history 
 does not present a single case in which the men 
 elected President, or who succeeded as Vice- 
 Presidents, were not of gentlemanly social aspect, 
 and their families, if they had them, did not do the 
 honors of the White House with credit to them- 
 selves and to their country. 
 
 Only twice in the history of the country have 
 our Presidents been bachelors, and, curiously 
 enough, these were James Buchanan, the last 
 Democratic President chosen before the fatal di- 
 vision which sundered the party in i860, and 
 Grover Cleveland, the first with Vv'hom it was to 
 regain power in 18S4, after twenty-four years of 
 exclusion. Jackson's wife died a few months be- 
 fore his accession to office. Tyler, Johnson, and 
 I So 
 
CO UR TSHIP AND MA RRIA GE. j 3 j 
 
 Arthur were widowers when they entered the 
 White House from the Vice-Presidency in suc- 
 cession to their superiors, who had died or had 
 been assassinated in office. Tyler was the only 
 one who had remarried while in office, though not 
 in the White House itself. So that while there 
 had been marrying and giving in marriage in the 
 Executive residence, they had been of the sons 
 and grandsons, or the daughters and grand- 
 daughters, of Presidents or their friends, and not 
 of the actual occupants of that historic mansion as 
 the Chief Magistrates of the Union. 
 
 When Grover Cleveland was elected President 
 he had reached the somewhat mature ao^e of 
 forty-seven, and having thus far lived the life of a 
 bachelor, he was, not unnaturally, looked upon as 
 a confirmed specimen of this class of men, about 
 whom their friends are always so deeply and so 
 interestingly concerned. Nevertheless, the same 
 universal interest attached itself to him and his 
 social movements as If he had been a Benedict of 
 many years experience. The new President's 
 youngest sister, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, was, 
 like himself, unmarried. She was, therefore, 
 naturally called to take the position of mistress 
 of the White House, In which a vacancy had ex- 
 isted for some time, because of the fact that Pres- 
 ident Arthur had also been com.pelled to rely upon 
 his sister, Mrs. McElroy, to fill this place. Miss 
 Cleveland filled the duties of this somewhat diffi- 
 
jg2 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 cult place with great tact and with general accept 
 ance. She was a cultured woman of the most de- 
 cided opinions, whose experience as a teacher and 
 writer had led her to rely upon herself in the race of 
 life. But almost from the beginning it was consid- 
 ered, although the President had never given 
 any indication that he was a marrying man, he had 
 certainly not passed "the marrying age," that some- 
 what movable quality which nobody has ever yet 
 been able to define with accuracy and acceptation. 
 It soon beean to be noised about that the Pres- 
 ident had entered upon a career of love-making, 
 and it was not long before he blushingly and bash- 
 fully admitted the impeachment. From that time 
 public interest, on the old principle enunciated 
 by Emerson, that " all the world loves a lover," 
 was concentrated upon the domestic affairs and 
 advantages of the man who occupied such an ex- 
 alted position. He did not appear to cease from 
 filing vetoes of bad measures, nor from putting 
 an occasional political opponent out and a political 
 supporter into a desirable office, which had some- 
 thing to do with fixing political responsibility upon 
 his administration. Nor did he seem to lose any 
 sleep, as it is sometimes alleged that lovers of the 
 masculine persuasion are wont to do. He did 
 nothing foolish or gushing, as no doubt many 
 other accepted lovers of both sexes expected him 
 to do ; but in the meantime preparations proceeded 
 for the wedding. 
 
CO UR TSHIP A ND MARRIA GE. j § ^ 
 
 The gossips were not given much of a chance 
 to suggest doubts as to the name and personahty 
 of the woman who was to become a bride in the 
 White House. Miss Frances Folsom, the only 
 child and dausihter of Oscar Folsom, was an- 
 nounced as the young woman who had accepted 
 the suit of the President of the United States. 
 She had been a friend and intimate of her future 
 husband from the earliest years of her childhood. 
 Her father was a partner in the practice of his 
 profession and a close personal friend and ad- 
 viser. He had been killed in an accident with a 
 runaway horse in the year 1 8 75, just as his powers 
 were at their ripest and his prospects of the best. 
 He was a man of genial good nature, generous 
 and open-hearted in his impulses and his life, and 
 a devoted husband and father. 
 
 Miss Frances Folsom, called " Frank " before 
 her marriage, was born in Buffalo, New York, 
 July 2 1 St, 1 864. As a child she attended the French 
 Kindergarten of Mme. Brecker, and the quickness 
 of apprehension which she then displayed received 
 a fuller exemplification when, upon the return of 
 the family to Bufialo, she entered the Central 
 School, and almost immediately became the pro- 
 nounced favorite of both teachers and her fellow- 
 pupils. She threw her energies into her studies 
 in a way which augured well for her future success 
 in whatever field she should elect to occupy, and 
 earnest application joined with natural ability to 
 
l^A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 develop character and instill culture. At this 
 period Mrs. Folsom boarded in the city of Buffalo, 
 and the daughter availed herself of her Central 
 School certificate, which admitted her to the 
 sophomore class at Wells College without prelimi- 
 nary examination. Here again she became a 
 prime favorite, and it was during her sojourn at 
 this institution that the flowers sent her from 
 Albany, and the many evidences of regard which 
 the Governor bestowed, began to cause a whisper 
 that his attachment amounted to something more 
 than mere friendly kindliness. The whisper grew 
 into a much more definite utterance when Miss 
 Folsom was graduated and was the recipient of 
 beautiful floral tributes from the White House 
 conservatories. Governor Cleveland had become 
 President of the United States, and the fact that 
 he was a bachelor, coupled with the other fact that 
 his exalted position kept him ever in the bright 
 light of public scrutiny, conspired to set many 
 tongues wagging as to the possible outcome of 
 his acquaintance with the fair graduate, who, in 
 June, 1885, said farewell to Alma Mater 2SiA\N^v\\. 
 to spend the summer, or apart of it, at the residence 
 of her grandfather, the late Colonel John B. Fol- 
 som, of Folsomdale, Wyoming County, N. Y., two 
 miles out of Cowlesville. The old place is a typi- 
 cal homestead, possessing all the homely charac- 
 teristics of farm-life combined with much of solid 
 comfort and refinement. 
 
BRIDE OK THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
CO UR TSHIP AND MARRIA GE. j 3 7 
 
 Exactly what understanding existed between 
 the President and Miss Folsom at the time she 
 went abroad may not be definitely known outside 
 of the circle immediately interested, but it is 
 likely they were betrothed ere her departure. 
 Both parties maintained a guarded silence, and 
 their engagement escaped parade in the news- 
 papers until a date near the time fixed for the 
 wedding. 
 
 Litde was heard from Miss Folsom until, on 
 the 27th of May, 1886, the Red Star steamer 
 Noordland, from Antwerp, sailed into the port of 
 New York, having just transferred to a United 
 States revenue cutter Miss Folsom, her mother, 
 and her cousin, Mr. Benjamin Folsom. The 
 party came comparatively unannounced. Colonel 
 Lamont was present as the President's represen- 
 tative. At the pier the bride-elect was welcomed 
 by Miss Cleveland, and the party was speedily 
 installed at the Gilsey House, where the ladies 
 of the Cabinet joined in a reception and kindly 
 welcome to the modest and beautiful young 
 woman v/ho was soon to make such a stir in 
 American society. On Sunday, May 30th, the 
 President visited his betrothed in New York. 
 
 Miss Folsom kept herself secluded during her 
 stay in the metropolis, but as the wedding-day 
 had been fixed for the 2d of June, there was much 
 social sensation over the event. A wedding in 
 the White House was decided upon, and elab- 
 
J 33 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 orate preparations were set on foot. The Execu* 
 tive Mansion became a scene of hasty labors on 
 the part of upholsterers, decorators, and florists; 
 there were crowds of callers, most of whom were 
 unsuccessful in seeing the President, who escaped 
 much annoyance by driving out to his country 
 place, *' Pretty Prospect," and turning his visitors 
 over to the tender mercies of the doorkeepers. 
 
 By Wednesday, June 2d, the Blue Room, in 
 which the ceremony was to take place, had been 
 converted Into a bower of loveliness. The south 
 side was a solid bank of dark-crreen follaore, acralnst 
 which stood out the red and pink and white of 
 azaleas and camelias. The fire-places were filled 
 with potted plants, while the mantels were nearly 
 concealed beneath banks of flowers. The east 
 mantel was covered with purple pansies, bor- 
 dered with a line of yellow, and fringed with ferns. 
 On this purple bed appeared the inscription, 
 "June 2d, 1886," in white pansies. On the west 
 mantel was a bank of crimson roses, bordered 
 with malden's-hair fern, and bearing the monogram 
 " C. F." In white moss roses. The mirrors were 
 bordered by parti-colored garlands composed of 
 roses and other rare flowers. Great palms stood 
 on either side of the doorway leading to the main 
 hall, and a scroll, composed of pinks and bearing 
 the national motto, " E Fluribus Uiiuni',' was 
 fixed immediately above the centre doorway. 
 
 The East Parlor was decorated differently, 
 
CO UR TSHIP AND MARK I A GE. j g g 
 
 but with like elegance and taste; there were 
 fewer flowers, but the display of foliage, especially 
 rare palms, was exceedingly fine. The Green 
 Parlor was comparatively devoid of ornament, 
 but the decoration there was in excellent taste 
 and in pleasing contrast with the greater elabora- 
 tion bestowed upon the other apartments. In 
 the dining-room the ornamentation was in general 
 similar to that of the East Parlor. Potted plants, 
 arranged in pyramids, filled the corners, and roses 
 festooned the mirrors. The sideboards were 
 covered with rare plants, and a floral piece in the 
 centre of the table represented a ship under full 
 sail, the nadonal colors flying from her mast-head, 
 with a pennant bearing the monogram " C. F." 
 
 It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening when 
 the weddine euests assembled in the Blue Room. 
 Owing to the President's desire that die affair 
 should be as private as possible, the Diplomatic 
 Corps had not been invited, and the following 
 guests were the only persons present: Mrs. 
 Folsom, the mother of the bride; Rev. W. N. 
 Cleveland, the President's brother; Mrs. Hoyt 
 and Miss Cleveland, the President's sisters ; Mr. 
 Bayard, Secretary of State; Mr. Manning, Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, with Mrs. Manning; Mr. 
 Endicott, Secretary of War, with Mrs. Endicott; 
 Mr. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, with Mrs. 
 Whitney; Mr. Vilas, Postmaster-General, with 
 Mrs. Vilas ; Mr. Lamar, Secretary of the Interior; 
 
IgO LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAXD. 
 
 Colonel Lamont, Private Secretary, with Mrs. 
 Lamont; Benjamin Folsom, Esq. ; Mr. and Mrs. 
 Rogers, of Seneca Falls, N. Y. ; Mrs. Cadman 
 and Miss Huddleston, of Detroit ; Mr. and Mrs. 
 Harmon, of Boston ; Miss Nelson, of New York ; 
 W. S. Bissell, Esq., of Buffalo, and Rev. Dr. and 
 Mrs. Byron Sunderland. The Attorney-General, 
 though invited, was not present, being disinclined 
 to society. 
 
 The guests placed themselves in the form of a 
 semicircle, Mr. Bayard being at the extreme left 
 and Rev. Mr. Cleveland at the extreme right. 
 
 The Marine Band, stationed in the anteroom, 
 played the wedding march of Mendelssohn, as 
 Rev. Dr. Sunderland took his position at the 
 south end of the room, and immediately after the 
 bridal party entered. Miss Folsom leaned upon 
 the President's arm, looking exceedingly pretty in 
 her wedding dre^s of cream white satin, with high, 
 plain corsage, elbow sleeves, and very long train. 
 The front breadth just below the waist was draped 
 from side to side with soft silk India muslin, at- 
 tached on the left side, and nearly joining the 
 court train. The muslin was bordered with a 
 narrow band of orancre flowers and leaves that 
 
 o 
 
 oudined the draping. The train, which was at- 
 tached to the plain bodice just below the waist, 
 measured over four yards in length, was slightly 
 rounded, and fell in full plaits on the floor, with no 
 trimminor but Its own richness. Two scarfs of the 
 
COURTSHIP AND MAKKIACE. 
 
 193 
 
 muslin, startln^^ from the shoulder seams, crossed 
 the bosom in Grecian folds and were bordered 
 with a narrow band of orange flowers to corres- 
 pond with the skirt. The scarfs disappeared 
 under a girdle of satin, crossing the bodice from 
 left to ricrht. The sleeves were trimmed with folds 
 of the mull and two or three orange buds and 
 blossoms. The tulle veil, six yards in length, was 
 fastened with a coronet of myrtle and orange 
 blossoms above the high coiffure, its folds lightly 
 coverino- the entire train. The creneral effect Vvas 
 
 & o 
 
 that of exquisite simplicity, suited to the beauty 
 of the bride. She wore no jewelry and carried 
 no hand-bouquet, but lightly held a beautiful white 
 fan. The President w^ore full evening dress, and 
 their bearing was dignified and impressive. They 
 were followed by the few guests who were closely 
 related to the contracting parties, and as soon as 
 the usual hush had fallen upon the assemblage 
 Dr. Sunderland offered prayer and followed it 
 with the impressive marriage ceremony, the bride 
 and groom making response in clear tones. The 
 ring was then passed and placed upon the bride's 
 finger, and the two were pronounced man and 
 wife. The benediction was spoken by Rev. Mr. 
 Cleveland. The ceremony occupied ten minutes. 
 Rev. Mr. Cleveland came forward first to offer his 
 congratulations, and kissed the bride. Upon 
 Colonel Lament's invitation tlie guests then en- 
 tered the dining-room, where a collation was 
 
T94 Z/ZZ" OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 served. Very elegant white satin boxes contain- 
 ing pieces of the wedding cake were distributed 
 as souvenirs, the date, June 2d, 1886^ being em- 
 broidered in colors on the covers. 
 
 Within an hour the President and his wife were 
 on their way to the station of the Baltimore and 
 Ohio Railway to start for Deer Park, Md., where 
 the honeymoon was passed. The time from the 
 3d until the 8th of June was spent at this pretty 
 resort on the summit of the Alleo-henies. On the 
 8th the couple returned to Washington and to 
 life in the White House. 
 
 One week later, on Tuesday, June 15th, the 
 first State reception of the President and Mrs. 
 Cleveland took place ; and it was the beginning 
 of a series of social engagements, which fully tested 
 the ability of the young mistress of the White 
 House to do tlie arduous duties of her new 
 place. Amid blazing lights and blooming flowers, 
 to the soft music of orchestra and all the elegant 
 accompaniments of society entertainments, Cabi- 
 net and diplomatic corps, judiciary, Congress, 
 army and navy, the most distinguished men and 
 a QT-reat array of beautiful and critical women 
 were received by the winsome bride and her hus- 
 band. Popular receptions followed, when the 
 great crowds poured through the White House 
 in democratic fashion and greeted her whom all 
 were willing to own the first lady of the land ; 
 dinners of state and society dinners followed ; 
 
CO UR TSniP AND MA RkIA GE. 1 9 7 
 
 guests were entertained at the White House, and 
 its spacious chambers and hospitable board week 
 after week welcomed the highest society of the 
 capital and of the country at large ; the Cabinet 
 ministers and their wives entertained the Presi- 
 dential couple, and a season of such social bril- 
 liancy was ushered in as Washington had never 
 known. In every position and under all circum- 
 stances Mrs. Cleveland proved herself a woman 
 ot as noble mind as she was acknowledged to be 
 of eminent personal beauty and graceful accom- 
 plishments. Her courtesy and tact won the hearts 
 of men and disarmed the criticism of women. A 
 stranger to Washington society, she captivated it 
 from the start, and her reign has never ceased 
 nor has the influence of her charms waned. 
 
 In appearance, Mrs. Cleveland is tall and grace- 
 ful, with soft, dark-brown hair worn loosely drawn 
 back from the forehead. Her eyes are violet 
 blue, her nose rather large and prominent ; her 
 mouth is mobile and of singular beauty, and a dis- 
 tinct individuality Is Imparted to the face by heavy 
 eyebrows which nearly meet. 
 
 Mrs. Cleveland has, since her marriage, become 
 the most popular, as she is certainly the best- 
 known woman, in the United States. In all the 
 varied domestic, social, and semi-political duties 
 which devolve upon one placed In her position, 
 she has never failed to show the instincts, the 
 training, and the qualities which especially fitted 
 
IqS ^^P^ ^P G rover CLEVELAND. 
 
 her for her rank and position. There has never 
 been any desire for display. She has gone freely 
 into society with the President and on her own 
 account wherever she has been, but this has 
 always been done with a modesty and a woman- 
 liness which do herself, her sex, and the country 
 infinite credit. She has traveled much, generally 
 with the President, in his summer jaunts to the 
 Adirondacks, and on his revisits to his childhood 
 home in Central New York, on his trips to 
 Harvard College, throughout the West and South, 
 to the Constitutional Centennial Celebration at Phil- 
 adelphia, to the joint meeting of the Presbyterian 
 General Assemblies of the Northern and Southern 
 Churches at Philadelphia, and upon almost every 
 other visit of importance which he has made to 
 different cities, or to meetings of organizations of 
 one kind or another. She is always willing to 
 lend her presence to assemblies or meetings for 
 religious or moral objects, so that she has shown 
 a willingness and a determination to do her duty 
 in the station to which she has been temporarily 
 called. In every way she has proved herself an 
 efficient helpmeet, and remains now what she 
 became upon her marriage in June, 1886, a faithful 
 wife of an American citizen, called by the will of 
 the people of his country to its highest office. 
 Occupying such a position, and doing her duty thus 
 faithfully, it is not surprising that she has gained 
 \ popularity quite as universal as was ever ac- 
 
THE STATE DINING ROOM. 
 
CO UR TSiilF AND MARRIA GE. 201 
 
 corded to any mistress of the White House ; and 
 our social history has never been illustrated by 
 a better example of the true American girl, grow- 
 ing at a single step into the highest type of Amer- 
 ican womanhood, measuring up to its most sacred 
 ^luties, and realizing the consecrated joys of our 
 purest domestic life. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE president's TOURS THROUGH THE COUNTRY 
 
 TRIP TO RICHMOND VISIT TO HARVARD COLLEGE 
 
 THE GARFIELD ORATION THE CLINTON CENTEN- 
 NIAL. 
 
 ONE of the most forcible and effective argu- 
 ments used against the election of 
 Cleveland in 1884 was his lack of ac- 
 quaintance with the country at large — his little ex- 
 perience in meeting with the people of the dif- 
 ferent sections, his want of sympathy with the 
 varied elements which make the composite citizen- 
 ship and the vast material greatness of a nation 
 of thirtv-eiorht States and of ma2:nificent territorial 
 possessions. Devoted to his official duties and 
 the arduous concerns of a law practice circum- 
 scribed by the boundaries of his own State, he 
 had before his inauoruration visited Washinorton 
 but once, a casual and unnoticed visitor. He knew 
 nothing by personal observation of the great 
 physical resources of the rich empire of Pennsyl- 
 vania, with Its mountains of mineral wealth, Its 
 blooming fields of agricultural development, its 
 blazing coke ovens, and the rich yielding oil and 
 gas fields. To the academic halls of New Eng- 
 land he was a like stranger. In the South, whose 
 plantations were just recovering from the wasting 
 202 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 203 
 
 ravages of war, he had never visited a single 
 State. Nor had he ever stood in the busy marts 
 of the Great West, each striving for supremacy 
 of trade. In that mafrnlficent domain of the 
 Mississippi Valley, mostly gained for the country 
 by the foresight of the first Democratic President, 
 toward the middle of which the centre of popu- 
 lation has been with each decennial census 
 steadily pressing forward, the foot of the twenty- 
 second President had never trod. A natural 
 sympathy with the sovereign people — whose ser- 
 vant and not their ruler he always avowed him- 
 self — and a willingness to gratify the unceasing 
 demand that he should come among them, im- 
 pelled Mr. Cleveland to arrange a series of visits 
 to the different parts of the country. He aimed 
 only at those which could be reached without any 
 serious interruption of his official duties and In a 
 manner that added to and did not detract from 
 the Invariable dignity which attended his exercise 
 of the magisterial functions. During a part of the 
 summer of 1886, in that heated term when life is 
 rendered uncomfortable in the capital, when Con- 
 gressional proceedings are ended and department 
 work limited to the merest routine, he betook him- 
 self with his bride to the cool fastnesses and the 
 fishing grounds of the Adirondacks. Thither this 
 narrative need not follow him, thouoh wherever 
 they went they were the cynosure of public at- 
 tention and the object of journalistic enterprise, if 
 not of occasional impertinence. 
 
204 ^^^^ ^P G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 On October 21st, 1886, the President, accom- 
 panied by Secretaries Bayard, Endicott, and Vilas, 
 for the first time visited Richmond, the capital of 
 the "Old Dominion" State, and in historic import- 
 ance the first city of the South. All along the 
 way to his destination and upon his arrival there 
 he was greeted with enthusiastic demonstrations, 
 and with the courtesy characteristic of a hospit- 
 able and well-bred people. He was welcomed by 
 Governor Fitz Hugh Lee in a speech of friendly 
 salutation, and upon the grounds of the State 
 Fair Mr. Cleveland made felicitous reply. After 
 recountinor the historic achievements of Viro^inia 
 he said : 
 
 *' In our sisterhood of States the leading and 
 most commanding place must be gained and kept 
 by that Commonwealth which by the labor and in- 
 telligence of her citizens can produce most of 
 those things which meet the necessities and de- 
 sires of mankind. But the full aavantao^e of that 
 which may be yielded a State by the toil and 
 ingenuity of her people is not measured alone by 
 the money value of the product. The efforts and 
 the struggles of her farmers and her artisans not 
 only create new values in the field of agriculture 
 and in the arts and manufactures, but they at the 
 same time produce rugged, self-reliant, and inde- 
 pendent men, and cultivate that product which 
 more than all others ennobles a State — a patriotic, 
 earnest American citizenship. 
 
 "This will flourish in every part of the Ameri- 
 can domain ; neither drought nor rain can injure 
 it, for it takes root in true hearts enriched by love 
 
THE PRESIDENTS TOURS. 205 
 
 of country. There are no new varieties in this 
 production ; it must be the same wherever seen, 
 and its quaUty is neither sound nor genuine unless 
 it grows to deck and beautify an entire and united 
 nation, nor unless it support and sustain the in- 
 stitutions and the Government founded to protect 
 American liberty and happiness. 
 
 " The present Administration of the Government 
 is pledged to return for such husbandry not only 
 promises but actual tenders of fairness and justice, 
 with equal protection and a full participation in 
 national achievements. 
 
 " If in the past we have been estranged, and 
 the cultivation of American citizenship has been 
 interrupted, your enthusiastic welcome of to-day 
 demonstrates that there is an end of such estrange- 
 ment, and that the time of suspicion and lear is 
 succeeded by an era of faith and confidence. 
 
 " In such a kindly atmosphere and beneath such 
 cheering skies I greet the people of Virginia as 
 co-laborers in the field where grows the love of 
 our united country. ^ , ^ 
 
 " God grant that in the years to come Virginia, 
 the Old Dominion, the Mother of Presidents, she 
 who looked upon the nation at its birth, may not 
 only increase her trophies of growth in agricul- 
 ture and manufactures, but that she may be 
 among the first of all the States in the cultivation 
 of true American citizenship." 
 
 AT THE HARVARD CELEBRATION. 
 
 In November, 1886, Harvard College, the old- 
 est and most famous seat of the higher learning 
 in America, celebrated with fit ceremony the two 
 
2o6 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding. 
 Among those upon whom it would have conferred 
 the degree of LL. D. was the President, but he 
 dedined it. Accompanied by Mrs. Cleveland 
 and a number of the members of his official staff, 
 he visited Boston and Cambridge upon this occa- 
 sion. They were welcomed to the metropolis of 
 New England by the Governor of its principal 
 Commonwealth and a brilliant street pageant. 
 In the halls of learning at Cambridge they hs- 
 tened to the poem by that most honored of Ameri- 
 can men of letters, Oliver Wendell Holmes; and 
 the splendid oration of his co-worker, who has 
 helped so signally to give American literature 
 its due recognition the world over, James Rus- 
 sell Lowell, concluded with this fine tribute to 
 the Chief Magistrate of sixty millions of free 
 people : 
 
 " Brethren of the Alumni, it now becomes my 
 duty to welcome in your name the guests who 
 have come, some of them so far, to share our 
 congratulations and hopes to-day. I cannot name 
 them all and give to each his fi. tting phrase. * '^ '^ 
 There is also one other name of which it would 
 be indecorous not to make an excepdon. You 
 all know that I can mean only the President of 
 our Republic. His presence is a signal honor to 
 us all, and to us all I may say a personal gratifi- 
 cation. We have no politics here, but the sons of 
 Harvard all belong to the party which admires 
 courage, strength of purpose, and fidelity to duty, 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 
 
 207 
 
 and which respects, wherever he may be found, 
 the 
 
 ^Jusfiim ac tena c em propositi mrum^^ 
 
 who knows how to withstand 
 
 ^Civium ardor prava Jubentium.' 
 
 He has left the helm of State to be with us here, 
 and so long as It Is Intrusted to his hands we are 
 sure that, should the storm come, he will say with 
 Seneca's Pilot, 'O Neptune! you may save me if 
 you will; you may sink me if you will; but what- 
 ever happen, I shall keep my rudder true.' " 
 
 At the Alumni banquet, where ex-Attorney- 
 General Charles Devens presided, Mr. Cleveland 
 made the following address : 
 
 *'Mr. President and Gentlemen: 
 
 "I find myself to-day in a company to which I 
 am much unused, and when I see the alumni of 
 the oldest college in the land surrounding In 
 their right of sonship the maternal board at 
 which I am but an invited guest, the reflection 
 that for me there exists no alma mater gives rise 
 to a feeling of regret which is kindly tempered 
 only by the cordiality of 3'our welcome and your 
 reassuring kindness. If the fact is recalled that 
 only twelve of my twenty-one predecessors In 
 office had the advantage of a collegiate or uni- 
 versity education, proof is presented of the 
 democratic sense of our people rather than an 
 argument against the supreme value of the best 
 and most liberal education in hlcrh public position. 
 There certainly can be no sufficient reason for 
 
2o8 ^^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 any space or distance between the walks of the 
 most classical education and the way that leads 
 to political place. Any disinclination on the part 
 of the most learned and cultured of our citizens to 
 mingle in public affairs, and the consequent aban- 
 donment of political activity to those who have 
 but little regard for the student and scholar in 
 politics, are not favorable conditions under a 
 government such as ours, and if they have existed 
 to a damaging extent very recent events appear 
 to indicate that education and conservatism of the 
 land are to be hereafter more plainly heard in ex- 
 pression of the popular will. Surely the splendid 
 destiny which awaits patriotic effort in behalf of 
 our country will be sooner reached if the best of 
 our thinkers and educated men shall deem it a 
 solemn duty of citizenship to actively and practi- 
 cally engage In political affairs, and if the force and 
 power of their thought and learning shall be 
 willingly or unwillingly acknowledged in party 
 management. If I am to speak of the President 
 of the United States, I desire to mention the 
 most pleasant and characteristic feature of our 
 system of government, the nearness of the 
 people to their President and other high officials. 
 The close view afforded our citizens of the acts 
 and conduct of those to whom they have in- 
 trusted their Interests serves as a regulator and 
 check upon the temptation and pressure of office, 
 and is a constant reminder that diliofence and 
 faithfulness are the measure of public duty, and 
 such relations between the President and people 
 ought to leave but little room In the popular 
 judgment and conscience for unjust and false 
 accusations, and for malicious slanders Invented 
 
THE PRESIDENTS TOURS. 2O9 
 
 for the purpose of undermining the people's trust 
 and confidence in the administration of their gov- 
 ernment. No pubhc officer should desire to check 
 the utmost freedom of criticism as to all official 
 acts, but every right-thinking man must concede 
 that the President of the United States should not 
 be put beyond the protection which America's 
 love of fair play and decency accords to every 
 American citizen. 
 
 " This trait of our national character would not 
 encourage, if their extent and tendency were 
 fully appreciated, the silly, mean, and cowardly 
 lies that every day are found In the columns of 
 certain newspapers which violate every instinct of 
 American manliness, and in ghoulish glee dese- 
 crate every sacred relation of private life. There 
 Is nothing in the highest office that the American 
 people can confer which necessarily makes their 
 President altogether selfish, scheming, and un- 
 trustworthy. On the contrary, the solemn duties 
 which confront him tendinor to a sober sense of the 
 responsibility, trust of the American people and 
 appreciation of their mission among nations of 
 the earth, should make him a patriotic man, and 
 tales of distress which reach him from the hum- 
 ble and lowly and needy and afflicted In every 
 corner of the land cannot fail to quicken within 
 him every kind impulse and tender sensibility. 
 After all it comes to this. The people of the 
 United States have one and all a sacred mission 
 to perform, and your President, not more surely 
 than any other citizen who loves his country, must 
 assume a part of the responsibility of demonstrat- 
 ing to the world the success of popular govern- 
 ment. No man can hide his talent in a napkin 
 
2 1 L IFE OF GR VER CLE VELAND. 
 
 and escape condemnation. His slothfulness de- 
 serves not to evade the stern sentence v/hich his 
 faithlessness invites. 
 
 " Be assured, my friends, that the privileges of 
 this day, so full of Improvement and enjoyments, 
 of this hour, so full of pleasure and cheerful en- 
 couragements, will never be fororotten, and In 
 parting- with you now let me express an earnest 
 hope that Harvard's Alumni may always honor 
 the venerable institution which has honored them, 
 and that no man who forgets or neglects his duty 
 to American citizenship shall find his Alma Mater 
 here." 
 
 The stamp of thorough appreciation of high 
 culture upon this address ; its graceful recognition 
 of the uses of the higher education, and its diof- 
 nified apology for his own deficiencies, won for its 
 author approval and commendation In quarters 
 where just recognition of his intellectual qualities 
 had hitherto been withheld. If the single discor- 
 dant note, which detracted somewhat from the art 
 of this otherwise masterful speech, excited slight 
 resentment, it was universally conceded that the 
 President was smarting under deep provocation, 
 and spoke with a warmth that was justified by 
 every manly Impulse. Mankind thinks none the 
 less of the impetuous disciple, Simon Peter, be- 
 cause he cut off the servant's ear. 
 
 After the college festivities there was accorded 
 to him a popular reception at Faneuil Hall and at 
 the hotel, and in the evening the University 
 students had a great procession. 
 
THE PliESIDENT^S TOURS. 211 
 
 THE GARFIELD ORATION. 
 
 Another felicitous address of Mr. Cleveland 
 was that delivered at the dedication of the monu- 
 ment to President Garfield, erected by the Society 
 of the Army of the Cumberland, at the foot of 
 the Capitol grounds, on May 12th, 1887. After 
 the oration by J. Warren Kelfer and other exer- 
 cises, the President said : 
 
 " Fellow- Citizens : 
 
 "In performance of the duty assigned to me on 
 this occasion, I hereby accept, on behalf of the 
 people of the United States, this completed and 
 beautiful statue. 
 
 ''Amid the interchange of fraternal greetings be- 
 tween the survivors of the Army of the Cumber- 
 land and their former foes upon the battlefield, 
 and while the Union General and the people's 
 President awaited burial, the common grief of 
 these magnanimous soldiers and mourning citizens 
 found expression in the determination to erect 
 this tribute to American greatness ; and thus to- 
 day in its symmetry and beauty, It presents a sign 
 of animosities forgotten, an emblem of a broiher- 
 hood redeemed, and a token of a nation restored. 
 
 " Monuments and statues multiply throughout 
 the land, fittingly illustrative of the love and affec- 
 tion of our grateful people and commemorating 
 brave and patriotic sacrifices in war, fame In 
 peaceful pursuits, or honor In public station. 
 
 ''But from this day forth, there shall stand at our 
 seat of Government this statue of a distlnq-ulshed 
 citizen, who in his life and services combined all 
 
212 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 those things and more, which chahenge admira- 
 tion in American character — loving tenderness in 
 every domestic relation, bravery on the field of 
 batde, fame and distinction in'our halls of legis- 
 lation, and the highest honor and dignity in the 
 Chief Magistracy of the nation. 
 
 "This stately effigy shall not fail to teach every 
 beholder that the source of American greatness 
 is confined to no condition, nor dependent alone 
 for its growth and development upon favorable 
 surroundinors. The genius of our national life 
 beckons to usefulness and honor those in every 
 sphere, and offers the highest preferment to manly 
 ambition and sturdy, honest effort chastened and 
 consecrated by patriotic hopes and aspirations. 
 As long as this statue stands, let it be proudly re- 
 membered that to every American citizen the way 
 is open to fame and station, until he — 
 
 *' ' Moving up from high to higher, 
 
 Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope 
 The pillar of a People's hope, 
 The centre o£ a World's desire.' 
 
 "Nor can we forofet that it also teaches our 
 people a sad and distressing lesson; and the 
 thoughtful citizen who views its fair proportions 
 cannot fail to recall the tragedy of a death which 
 brought grief and mourning to every houshold in 
 the land. But while American citizenship stands 
 ao^hast and affriorhted that murder and assassina- 
 tion should lurk in the midst of a free people 
 and strike down the head of their Government, a 
 fearless search and the discovery of the origin and 
 hiding-place of these hateful and unnatural things, 
 should be followed by a solemn resolve to purge 
 forever from our political methods and from the 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 213 
 
 operation of our Government, the perversions and 
 misconceptions which give birth to passionate and 
 bloody thoughts. 
 
 " If from this hour our admiration for the 
 bravery and nobihty of American manhood and 
 our -faith in the possibiUties and opportunides of 
 American citizenship be renewed, if our apprecia- 
 tion of the blessing of a restored Union and love 
 for our Government be strengthened, and if our 
 watchfulness against the dangers of a mad chase 
 after partisan spoils be quickened, the dedication 
 of this statue to the people of the United States 
 will not be in vain." 
 
 AMID THE ASSOCIATIONS OF HIS YOUTH. 
 
 In May, 1887, the short term of the Forty-ninth 
 Congress having terminated March 4th, President 
 and Mrs. Cleveland set out for the Adirondacks, 
 and spent the greater part of the month of June 
 at Upper Saranac Lake and other points of inter- 
 est In that attractive region. After a return to 
 Washington and official dudes, Mr. Cleveland re- 
 joined his wife about the middle of July, and with 
 Secretary and Mrs. Fairchild and other friends 
 they began a series of visits to points In Central 
 and Western New York, which had been familiar 
 to his boyhood associations and to which his re- 
 turn at this dme was of peculiar interest because 
 of certain historical celebrations then In progress. 
 
 At Fayettevllle, N. Y., where he had lived 
 eleven of the first fourteen years of his life^ In 
 
214 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 an address upon the village green to two thousand 
 persons gathered to greet him, he spoke most 
 tenderly and feelingly of the schoolmates and 
 childhood pranks of his early days. At Holland 
 Patent, on July 12th; at the Clinton Centennial, 
 July 13th; at Forest Port, July 15th, where he re- 
 ceived the citizens at the home of his brother, 
 Rev. Wm. N. Cleveland, and at Cazenovia, July 
 1 8th, where he was the guest of the Fairchild 
 household, he was deeply touched by the gracious 
 hospitality and fervent greeting of the family 
 friends who had watched his sudden rise to ex- 
 alted position and enlarged usefulness with pecu- 
 liar local and personal pride. Of all the ad- 
 dresses delivered upon this trip the most notable 
 was that made at Clinton, than which none of his 
 public utterances more clearly reveals the pro- 
 found sentiment and domestic traits of the Presi- 
 dent. He said: 
 
 "I am by no means certain of my standing here 
 amonor those who celebrate the centennial of 
 Clinton's existence as a village. My recollections 
 of the place reach backward but about thirty-six 
 years, and my residence here covered a very brief 
 period. But these recollections are fresh and 
 distinct toda)^ and pleasant, too, though not en- 
 tirely free from sombre coloring. 
 
 " It was here in the school, at the foot of 
 College Hill, that I began my preparation for col- 
 
THE PRi^SlDENT'S TOURS. ^ I c' 
 
 lege life and enjoyed die anticipation of a collegiate 
 education. We had but two teachers in our school. 
 One became afterward a judge in Chicago and the 
 other passed through the legal' profession to the 
 ministry, and within the last two years was livino- 
 further West. I read a lltde Latin with two other 
 boys in the class. I think I floundered through 
 four books of the ' ^neid.' The other boys had 
 nice, large, modern editions of Virgil, with big 
 print and plenty of notes to help one over the 
 hard places. Mine was a litde, old-fashioned copy, 
 -which my father used before me, with no notes, 
 and which was only translated by hard knocks. I 
 believe I have forgiven those other boys for their 
 persistent refusal to allow me the use of the notes 
 in their books. At any rate, they do not seem to 
 have been overtaken by any dire retribution, for 
 one of them is now a rich and prosperous lawyer 
 in Buffalo, and the other is a professor in your 
 college and the orator of to-day's celebration. 
 The struggles with ten lines of Virgil, which at 
 first made up my daily task, are amusing as re- 
 membered now; but with them I am also forced 
 to remember that instead of being the beginning 
 of the higher education for which I honesdy 
 longed, they occurred near the end of my school 
 advantages. This suggests a disappointment 
 which no lapse of time can alleviate, and a de- 
 privation I have sadly felt with every passing 
 year. 
 
2 I 6 LIFE OF G ROVER CLE VELAND. 
 
 "I remember Benoni Butler and his store. I 
 don't know whether he was an habitual poet or not, 
 but I heard hnn recite one poem of his own man- 
 ufacture which embodied an account of a travel 
 to or from Clinton in the early days. I can recall 
 but two lines of this poem, as follows : 
 
 " * Paris Hill next came in sight, 
 And there we tarried over night.* 
 
 " I remember the next-door neighbors, Drs. 
 Bissell and Scollard, and good, kind neighbors 
 they were, too, not your cross, crabbed kind, who 
 could not bear to see a boy about. It always 
 seemed to me that they drove very fine horses ; 
 and for that reason I thought they must be ex- 
 tremely rich. 
 
 " I don't know that I should indulee further rec- 
 ollections that must seem very little like centen- 
 nial history, but I want to establish as well as I 
 can my right to be here. I might speak of the 
 College Faculty, who cast such a pleasing though 
 sober shade of dignity over the place, and who, 
 with other educated and substantial citizens, made 
 up the best of social life. I was a boy then, and 
 slightly felt the atmosphere of this condition, but, 
 notwithstanding, I believe I absorbed a lasting ap- 
 preciation of the intelligence and refinement which 
 made this a delightful home. 
 
 " I know that you will bear with me, my friends, 
 if I yield to the impulse which the mention of 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 2 \ 7 
 
 home creates and speak of my own home here 
 and how through the memories which ckister about 
 it I may claim a tender relationship to your vil- 
 lage. Here It was that our family circle entire, 
 parents and children, lived day after day In loving 
 and affectionate converse, and here for the last 
 time we met around the family altar and thanked 
 God that our household was unbroken by death 
 or separation. We never met together In any 
 other home after leaving this, and death followed 
 closely our departure. And thus It Is that as with 
 advancing years I survey the havoc death has 
 made, and the thoughts of my early home become 
 more sacred, the remembrance of this pleasant 
 spot, so related, is revived and chastened. I can 
 only add my thanks for the privilege of being 
 with you to-day, and wish for the village of Clin'! 
 ton In the future a continuation and Increase of 
 the blessings of the past." 
 
 THE CENTENNIAL AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 On September 15th, i6th, and 17th, 1S87, the 
 people of the country celebrated with a magnifi- 
 cent pageant and eminently fit public exercises 
 the centennial of the making of their Federal Con- 
 stitution in Philadelphia. In that city, a hundred 
 years before, had sat the Congress which fash- 
 ioned this great charter, pronounced by Mr. Glad- 
 stone to be " the most wonderful work ever struck 
 off at a given time by the brain and purpose of 
 
2i8 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 man." The first day's spectacle was an Industrial 
 parade, with twenty thousand men in line, and an 
 almost endless train of devices to illustrate the 
 progress of a hundred years in the arts and 
 sciences. The President and his wife, with a party 
 of Cabinet officers and other friends, reached the 
 city on the evening of that day. Mr. Cleveland 
 attended the reception of the Catholic Club to 
 Cardinal Gibbons, and the reception to the visiting 
 Governors of the States at the Academy of Fine 
 xA.rts; next morning he was welcomed to the Com- 
 mercial Exchanore, and made an address to the 
 business men of Philadelphia, which was received 
 with much favor ; later in the day, he reviewed 
 the parade of twenty thousand soldiers, and in the 
 evenine the President and Mrs. Cleveland re- 
 ceived the people in the Academy of Music, where 
 ten thousand persons paid their respects. The 
 same evening, the President visited the dinner of 
 the Clover Club, a Bohemian dining organization, 
 at whose board some of the most brilliant wits of 
 the country are to be found, and he bravely held 
 his own in light badinage and ready repartee. 
 The literary and musical exercises were held Sat- 
 urday, September 17th, 1887, in Independence 
 Square, and, before the delivery of the oration 
 by Justice Miller, of the United States Suprem.e 
 Court, the President made the following address: 
 "I deem it a very great honor and pleasure to 
 participate in these impressive exercises. Every 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 
 
 219 
 
 American citizen should on this centennial day 
 rejoice in his citizenship. He will not find the 
 cause of his rejoicing in the antiquity of his 
 country, for among the nations of the earth his 
 stands with the youngest. He will not find it in 
 the glitter and the pomp that bedeck a monarch 
 and dazzle abject and servile subjects, for In this 
 country the people themselves are the rulers. He 
 will not find it in the story of bloody foreign con- 
 quests, for his Government has been content to 
 care for its own domain and people. He should 
 rejoice because the work of framing our Constitu- 
 tion was completed one hundred years ago to- 
 day, and because when completed it established a 
 free Government. He should rejoice because 
 this Constitution and Government have survived 
 with so many blessings and have demonstrated so 
 fully the strength and value of popular rule. He 
 should rejoice in the wondrous growth and 
 achievements of the past one hundred years and 
 also in the glorious promise of the Constitution 
 through centuries to come. We shall fail to be 
 duly thankful for all that was done for us one 
 hundred years ago unless we realize the difficul- 
 ties of the work then in hand, and the dangers 
 avoided In the task of forming ' a more perfect 
 Union ' between disjointed and inharmonious 
 States, with interests and opinions radically diverse 
 and stubbornly maintained. The perplexities of 
 the Convention which undertook the labor of pre- 
 
220 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 paring our Constitution are apparent in these 
 earnest words of one of the most iUustrious of 
 its members : * The small progress we have made 
 after four or five weeks of close attendance and 
 continued reasoning with each other, our different 
 sentiments on almost every question — several of 
 the last producing as many noes as yeas — is, 
 methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection 
 of the human understandinor. We indeed seem 
 to feel our want of political wisdom, since we have 
 been runnino^ about .in search of it. We have 
 gone back to ancient history for models of gov- 
 ernment and examined the different forms of 
 those republics which, having been formed with 
 the seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer 
 exist. In this situation of this assembly, groping 
 as it were in the dark to find political truth, and 
 scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, 
 how has it happened, sir, that we have heretofore 
 not once thought of humbly applying to the Father 
 of Licrht to illuminate our understanding ?' 
 
 " And this wise man, proposing to his fellows 
 that the aid and blessing of God should be in- 
 voked in their extremity, declared : ' I have lived, 
 sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more 
 convincing proof I see of the truth that God gov- 
 erns in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow can- 
 not fall to the ground without His notice, is it 
 probable that an empire can rise without His no- 
 tice? We have been assured, sir. In the sacred 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 221 
 
 writings, that except the Lord build the house, 
 they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe 
 this, and I also believe that without His concur- 
 ring aid we shall succeed in this political building 
 no better than the building of Babylon. We shall 
 be divided by our little partial interests, our pro- 
 jects shall be confounded, and we ourselves shall 
 become a reproach and byword down to future 
 ages ; and, what is worse, mankind may hereafter 
 from this unfortunate instance despair of estab- 
 lishing governments by human wisdom and leave 
 it to chance, war, and conquest.' 
 
 *' In the face of all discouraorements the fathers 
 
 <_> 
 
 of the Republic labored on for four weary, long 
 months in alternate hope and fear, but always 
 with rugged resolve, never faltering In a sturdy 
 endeavor sanctified by a prophetic sense of the 
 value to posterity of their success and always 
 with unflinching faith in the principles which make 
 the foundation of a government by the people. 
 At last their task was done. It is related that 
 upon the back of the chair occupied by Washing- 
 ton as President of the Convention a sun was 
 painted, and that as the delegates were signing 
 the completed Constitution one of them said : *I 
 have often and often, in the course of the session 
 and In the solicitude of my hopes and fears as to 
 its Issue, looked at that sun behind the President 
 without beinor able to tell whether it was risinof or 
 setting. But now at length I know that it is a ris- 
 
2 22 LIFE OF GR O VER CLE VELAND. 
 
 ing and not a setting sun.' We stand to-day on the 
 spot where this rlsnig sun emerged from poHtical 
 night and darkness, and in its own bright meridian 
 Hght we mark its glorious way. Clouds have 
 sometimes obscured its rays and dreadful storms 
 have made us fear, but God has held it on its 
 course, and through its life-giving warmth has 
 performed His latest miracle in the creation of 
 this wondrous land, and people. As we look 
 down that past century to the origin of our Con- 
 stitution ; as we contemplate its trials and its tri- 
 umphs ; as w^e realize how completely the princi- 
 ples upon which it is based have met every 
 national peril and every national deed, how de- 
 voutly should we confess with Franklin, ' God 
 governs in the affairs of men,' and how solemn 
 should be the reflection that to our hands is com- 
 mitted this ark of the people's covenant, and that 
 ours is the duty to shield it from impious hands. 
 We receive it sealed with the tests of a century. 
 It has been found sufficient in the past, and in all 
 the future years it will be found sufficient if the 
 American people are true to their sacred trust. 
 
 " Another centennial day will come, and millions 
 yet unborn will inquire concerning our steward- 
 ship and the safety of their Constitution. God 
 grant that they may find it unimpaired ; and as we 
 rejoice in the patriotism and devotion of those 
 who lived a hundred years ago, so may others 
 who follow us rejoice in our fidelity and in our 
 jealous love for constitutional liberty." 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S TOURS. 223 
 
 In the evening a great banquet was given 
 jointly by the learned and scientific societies of 
 Philadelphia in the Academy of Music. Six 
 hundred of the most distinoruished men of the 
 country sat down to it, and the President made 
 another felicitous address, after having also, 
 earlier in the evening, made a happy after- 
 dinner speech at the quarterly feast of the 
 Friendly Sons of St Patrick. Philadelphia so- 
 ciety, critical, exclusive, and intensely Republican, 
 was stirred to its depths with enthusiasm for the 
 President, and only divided the lavish honors paid 
 him with his winsome and popular helpmeet. 
 
 On October 28th, 1886, President Cleveland 
 bore a conspicuous part in the ceremonies of un- 
 veiling the Bartholdi Statue of *' Liberty " on 
 Bedloe Island in New York Harbor. This mae- 
 nificent work was the orift to America of the 
 sculptor and the French people ; the enterprise 
 of the New York Woj^ld secured the necessary 
 fund to erect the pedestal. The dedication of it 
 was the occasion of a great civic, military, and 
 naval demonstration ; and Mr. Cleveland's brief 
 address was graceful and appropriate. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE TOUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST. 
 
 THE greatest popular ovation and personal 
 triumph awaited his journey to the West, 
 the Northwest, and the South. A hun- 
 dred years before the chief executive of the Re- 
 pubHc, the father of his country, had set the well- 
 approved fashion of a President becoming per- 
 sonally acquainted with the land whose affairs he 
 is expected to administer. In 1791 Washington 
 visited New England and went as far south as 
 Aucrusta, Ga., travellnof one thousand seven hun- 
 dred miles In sixty-six days. 
 
 On the morning of September 30th, 1 887, a train 
 of three magnlficendy appointed Pullman palace 
 cars, fur.nlshed with all the appliances and comforts 
 of modern travel, drew out from the Baltimore and 
 Potomac Station in Washinorton, bearlnor the Presi- 
 dent, his wife, Secretary Lamont and wife, and 
 other political associates and personal friends, 
 ladles and gentlemen, the party being some- 
 what changed at different points of the route. At 
 Baltimore, York, Harrlsburg, Altoona, Pittsburgh, 
 224 
 
TOUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST 
 
 227 
 
 and other stopping places, great crowds of people 
 thronged the railway stations and gave vent to 
 their enthusiasm by every conceivable variety of 
 demonstration. 
 
 Beyond Pittsburgh the shooting of a gas well, 
 especially arranged for the Presidential party by 
 Mr. James M. Guffey, w-as a novel spectacle, illus- 
 trative of the peculiar natural features and mar- 
 velous resources of Western Pennsylvania. The 
 State of Ohio was traversed at nighttime, and 
 the first stop was made in Indianapolis. There a 
 general decoration of the city, a great procession 
 of people, booming cannon, pealing bells, and 
 bands of music welcomed the distinguished party. 
 In responding to Governor Gray's address the 
 President paid a feeling tribute to Indiana's great 
 statesman, who had been associated with him on 
 the ticket in 1884, and Mrs. Hendricks entertained 
 the visitors at lunch. Resuming their journey, the 
 party reached St. Louis at midnight of the second 
 and third days ; and attendance upon Divine 
 worship on Sunday was followed next day with 
 visits to the Fair, then in progress, receptions at 
 the hands of the Commercial Exchanges, general 
 assemblages of the people to do honor to their 
 civil head, and the pomp of immense parades. 
 
 Chicago was reached on October 5th, and like 
 scenes of popular enthusiasm were witnessed 
 there. In a public address in that city the Presi- 
 dent gave expression to his idea of the duty of 
 
2 28 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 the people in relation to the responsibilities of 
 their officials : 
 
 "You have said the President oueht to see 
 Chicago. I am here to see it and its hospitable, 
 large-hearted people. But because your cit^- is so 
 great, and your interests so large and important, 
 I know you will allow me to suggest that I have 
 left at home a city you ought to see and know 
 more about. In point of fact, it would be well for 
 you to keep your eyes closely upon it all the 
 time. Your servants and accents are there. They 
 are there to protect your interests and to aid 
 your efforts to advance your prosperity and well- 
 being. Your bustling trade, and your wearing, 
 ceaseless activity of hand and brain, will not yield 
 the results you deserve unless wisdom guides the 
 policy of your Government, and unless your needs 
 are regarded at the Capitol of the nation. It will 
 be well for you not to forget that in the perform- 
 ance of your political duties with calm thoughtful- 
 ness and broad patriotism there lies not only a 
 safeguard against business disaster, but an im- 
 portant obligation of citizenship." 
 
 From Chicago the tourists went to Milwaukee, 
 thence to Madison, where the Sabbath was quiedy 
 spent with the family of Postmaster-General Vilas. 
 In a speech at the banquet given by the people of 
 Milwaukee, Mr. Cleveland, speaking of the Pres- 
 idency, used this language : 
 
 " And because it belongs to all the people, the 
 
TOUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST. 229 
 
 obligation is manifest on their part to maintain a 
 constant and continuous watchfulness and interest 
 concerning its care and operation. Their duty is 
 not entirely done when they have exercised their 
 suffrage and indicated their choice of the incum- 
 bent. Nor is their duty performed by settling- 
 down to bitter, malignant, and senseless abuse of 
 all that is done or attempted to be done by the 
 incumbent selected. The acts of an Administra- 
 tion should not be approved as a matter of course, 
 and for no better reason than that it represents a 
 political party. But more unpatriotic than all others 
 are those who, having neither party discontent 
 nor fair ground of criticism to excuse or justify 
 their conduct, rail because of personal disappoint- 
 ments, who misrepresent for sensational purposes, 
 and who profess to see swift destruction In the 
 rejection of their plans of governmental manage- 
 ment. After all, we need have no fear that the 
 American people will permit this high office to 
 suffer. There is a patriotic sentiment abroad which, 
 in the midst of all party feeling and all party dis- 
 appointment, will assert Itself, and will insist that 
 the office which stands for the people's will, shall, 
 in all its vigor, minister to their prosperity and 
 welfare." 
 
 From Madison, by way of La Crosse, the Pres- 
 idential company proceeded to St. Paul and Min- 
 neapolis, the two marvelous cities of the great 
 Northwest. To the people of St. Paul the Presi- 
 dent pleasantly said : 
 
230 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 "• My visit to you being a social one, and trusting 
 that we have a sort of friendly feeling for each 
 other, I want to suggest to you why I am particu- 
 larly and personally interested in St. Paul and 
 its people. Some years ago a young girl dwelt 
 among you and went to school. She has grown 
 up to be a woman, and is now my wife. If any 
 one thinks a President oueht not to mention thinos 
 of this sort in public, I hope he or she does not 
 live in St. Paul, for I do not want to shock any- 
 body when I thank the good people of this city 
 because they neither married nor spoiled my 
 wife, and when I tell them they are related to that 
 in my life better than all earthly honors and dis- 
 tinctions. Hereafter, you may be sure that her 
 pleasant recollections of her school days will be 
 reinforced by the no less pleasant memory of our 
 present visit, and thus will our present interest in 
 St. Paul and its kind citizens be increased and 
 perpetuated." 
 
 The train left Minneapolis for Omaha early on 
 the morning of October I2tii, and as progress 
 westward was made the demonstrations of wel- 
 come took on a more novel aspect. At Chaska 
 tar barrels stacked high were burned, balloons 
 set off, and brass bands drowned the locomotive 
 whistle. At Sioux City baskets of flowers were 
 showered upon the guests of the people ; and In 
 Omaha a great concourse welcomed them. Thence 
 the trip was directed to Kansas City, where a 
 
TOUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST. 23 I 
 
 longer stay had been arranged. While there the 
 President laid the corner-stone of the new build- 
 ine for the Youncr Men's Christian Association, 
 and the followino^ is an extract from his address 
 upon that occasion : 
 
 " In the busy activities of our daily life we are 
 apt to neglect instrumentalities which are quietly 
 but effectually doing most important service in 
 molding our national character. Among these, 
 and challenging but little notice compared with 
 their valuable results, are the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Associations scattered throughout the country. 
 All will admit the suprem.e importance of that 
 honesty and fixed principle which rest upon 
 Christian motives and purposes, and all will ac- 
 knowledge the sad and increasing temptations 
 which beset our young men and lure them to their 
 destruction. 
 
 "To save these young men, oftentimes de- 
 prived of the restraints of home, from degrada- 
 tion ind ruin, and to fit them for usefulness 
 and honor, these associations have entered 
 the field of Christian effort and are pushing 
 their noble work. When it is considered that the 
 objects of their efforts are to be the active men 
 for good or evil in the next generation, mere 
 human prudence dictates that these associations 
 should be aided and encouraged. Their increase 
 and fiourishine condition reflect the hiohest honor 
 upon the good men who have devoted themselves 
 
232 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 to this work, and demonstrate that the American 
 people are not entirely lacking- in appreciation of 
 its value. Twenty years ago but one of these 
 associations owned a building, and that was valued 
 at eleven thousand dollars. To-day more than 
 one hundred such buildings, valued at more than 
 five million dollars, beautify the different cities of 
 our land and beckon our young men to lives of 
 usefulness. 
 
 '* I am especially pleased to be able to participate 
 to-day In laying the corner-stone of another of 
 these edifices In this active and growing city ; and 
 I trust that the encourao-ement driven the Youn^r 
 Men's Christian Association located here may be 
 commensurate w^Ith its assured usefulness and in 
 keeping with the generosity and intelligence which 
 are characteristic of the people of Kansas City." 
 
 Turning southward from Kansas City, the next 
 important stop was made at Memphis, Tenn. On 
 the v/ay thither, what might have proved a terri- 
 ble disaster was averted by the providential dis- 
 covery in good time that a trestle over which the 
 train must pass had been fired. A sad accident 
 which clouded the celebration at Memphis was the 
 sudden death of Judge John T. Ellett, who expired 
 on the platform just after the President had replied 
 to the address of welcome delivered by Judge 
 Ellett for his fellow-citizens. Sunday was spent 
 at the beautiful Belle Meade farm of General W. 
 H. Jackson, and on Monday, October 17th, Nash- 
 
TOUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST. 2X'\ 
 
 ville and Chattanooga received the visitors with 
 true Southern hospitahty. Atlanta, Georgia, and 
 Montgomery, Alabama, were reserved for the 
 close of the tour, which had been from the begin- 
 ning a perfect success, and was attended with such 
 demonstrations of popular good feelino- as no 
 event since the close of the war had excited. At 
 Montgomery, the President, his heart filled with 
 joy at the sure signs he saw everywhere of a re- 
 stored Union and a subsidence of secdonalism, 
 said : 
 
 "Your fellow-countrymen appreciate the value 
 of indmate and profitable business relaUons with 
 you, and there need be no fear that they will per- 
 mit them to be destroyed or endangered by de- 
 signing demagogues. The wickedness of those 
 partisans who seek to aid their ambitious schemes 
 by engendering hate among a generous people is 
 fast meeting exposure ; and yet there is and should 
 be an insistence upon a strict adherence to the 
 setdement which has been made of disputed 
 questions and upon the unreserved acceptance oi' 
 such setdement. As against this I believe no 
 business conslderadons should prevail, and I 
 firmly believe that there is American fairness 
 enough abroad in the land to insure a proper and 
 substantial recognition of the good faith which 
 you have exhibited. We know diatyou still have 
 problems to solve involving considerations con- 
 cerning you alone^ questions beyond the reach of 
 
234 ^^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAXD. 
 
 Federal law or Interference, and wilh which none 
 but you should deal. I have no fear that you 
 will fail to do your manful duty in these matters, 
 but may I not, in the extension of the thoughts 
 which I have before suggested, say to you that 
 the educational advantages and the care which 
 may be accorded to every class of your citizens 
 have a relation to the general character of the 
 entire country as intimate and potential as your 
 production and the development oi your mineral 
 resources have to its material prosperity ?'' 
 
 The tone of this address reflected the feelinors 
 awakened not only in the President, but in the 
 minds of his fellow-countrymen, who were deeply 
 impressed by the pervading and enthusiastic pa- 
 triotism of a section so lately estranged ; and when 
 Mr. Cleveland returned to Washington on Octo- 
 ber 2 2d, his movements for the past three weeks 
 had done much to strengthen the popular senti- 
 ment in behalf of obliterating from American pol- 
 itics the baleful issues of race and sectional strife. 
 
 AT THE PRESBYTERIAN REUNION. 
 
 On February 21st, 1888, the President and his 
 wife, accompanied by some of his Cabinet, made a 
 brief trip to a part of the South not visited before. 
 They spent a day or two in Jacksonville, Florida, 
 being received there and at all the stations on the 
 way with extravagant outbursts of enthusiasm. 
 Returning, a few days later, they were greeted in 
 
'^OUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST. 235 
 
 Charleston, S. C, with hke cordiahty and heart- 
 iness. 
 
 In May, 1888, the two General Assemblies 
 of the Presbyterian Church, North and South, 
 being then in session in Philadelphia and Balti- 
 more, respectively, the notion was conceived by 
 some of the good people desiring the closer 
 union and the final reconciliation of these bodies 
 to bring them into a social conference. Arrange- 
 ments were made for public meetings and for the 
 private entertainment of the delegates ; the Pres- 
 ident, himself the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, 
 was urgendy invited to participate in the exer- 
 cises, and he visited Philadelphia for that purpose. 
 
 At a reception to the members of the two As- 
 semblies, given by Mr. Wistar Morris at his home 
 in Overbrook, a suburb of Philadelphia, on May 
 2 1 St, the President spoke as follows : 
 
 "I am very much gratified by the opportunity 
 here afforded me to meet the representatives of 
 the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 "Surely a man never should lose his interest in 
 the welfare of the Church in which he was reared ; 
 and yet I will not find fault with any of you who 
 deem ita sad confession made when I acknowledo-e 
 that I must recall the days now long past to find 
 my closest relations to the grand and noble de- 
 nomination which you represent. I say this be- 
 cause those of us who inherit fealty to our Church, 
 as I did, begin eariy to learn those things which 
 
make iis Presbyterians all the days of our lives ; 
 and thus it is that the rigors of our earliest teach- 
 ing, by which we are grounded in our lasting 
 allegiances, are especially vivid and perhaps the 
 best remembered. The attendance upon church 
 services three times each Sunday, and upon Sab- 
 bath-school during noon intermission, may be 
 irksome enough to a boy of ten or twelve years 
 of age to be well fixed in his memory ; but I have 
 never known a man who regretted these things 
 in the years of his maturity. The Shorter Cate- 
 chism, though thoroughly studied and learned, 
 was not, perhaps, at the time perfectly understood ; 
 and yet in the stern duties and labors of after life 
 those are not apt to be the worst citizens who 
 were early taught, * What is the chief end of 
 man?' 
 
 *' Speaking of these things and in the presence 
 of those here assembled, the most tender thoughts 
 crowd upon my mind — all connected with Presby- 
 terianism and its teachings. There are present 
 with me now memories of a kind and affectionate 
 father, consecrated to the cause, and called to his 
 rest and his reward in the midday of his useful- 
 ness ; a sacred recollection of the prayers and 
 pious love of a sainted mother and a family circle 
 hallowed and sanctified by the spirit of Presbyte- 
 rianism. 
 
 " I certainly cannot but express the wish and 
 hope that the Presbyterian Church will always be 
 
 I 
 
TOUR TO THE SOUTH A XD WEST. 2^J 
 
 at the front in every movement which promises 
 the temporal as well as the spiritual advancement 
 of mankind. In the turmoil and the bustle of 
 every-day life few men are foolish enough to 
 ignore the practical value to our people and our 
 country of the church organizations established 
 among us and the advantage of Christian exam- 
 ple and teaching. 
 
 " The field is vast and the work sufficient to en- 
 gage the efforts of every sect and denomination ; 
 but I am inclined to believe that the Church which 
 is most tolerant and conservative without loss of 
 spiritual strength will soonest find the way to the 
 hearts and affections of the people. While we 
 may be pardoned for insisting that our denomina- 
 tion is the best, we may, I think, safely concede 
 much that is crood to all other Churches that seek 
 to make men better. 
 
 " I am here to greet the delegates of two Gen- 
 eral Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church. One 
 is called ' North ' and the other * South.' The subject 
 is too deep and intricate for me, but I cannot help 
 wondering why this should be. These words, so 
 far as they denote separation and estrangement, 
 should be obsolete. In the counsels of the nation 
 and in the business of the country they no longer 
 mean reproach and antagonism. Even the sol- 
 diers who foucrht for the North and for the South 
 are restored to fraternity and unity. This frater- 
 nity and unity is taught and enjoined by our 
 
2'>S LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 Church. When shall she herself be united with 
 all the added strength and usefulness that har- 
 mony and union insure ?" 
 
 TO THE CATHOLIC CLUB. 
 
 The frankness and self-assertion of this expres- 
 sion, coupled with a true spirit of religious tolera- 
 tion, recall Mr. Cleveland's letter to the Catholic 
 Club, of Philadelphia, to which, under date of 
 February loth^ 1887, he wrote: 
 
 " The thoughtfulness which prompted this invi- 
 tation is gratefully appreciated, and I regret that 
 my public duties here will prevent its acceptance. 
 I should be glad to join the contemplated expres- 
 sion of respect to be tendered to the distinguished 
 head of the Catholic Church in the United States, 
 whose personal acquaintance I very much enjoy, 
 and who is so worthily entided to the esteem of 
 all his fellow-citizens. 
 
 " I thank you for the admirable letter which ac- 
 companied my invitation, in which you announce 
 as one of the doctrines of your Club ' that a good 
 and exemplary Catholic must, ex necessitate rei, 
 be a good and exemplary citizen,' and ' that the 
 teachinofs of both human and divine law, thus 
 merging in the one word duty, form the only 
 union of Church and State that a civil and reliorious 
 Government can recognize.' 
 
 " I know you wnll permit me as a Protestant to 
 supplement this noble sentiment by the expres- 
 
TOUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST. 239 
 
 sion of my conviction that the same influence and 
 result follow a sincere and consistent devotion to 
 the teachings of every religious creed which is 
 based upon Divine sanction. A wholesome relig- 
 ious faith thus inures to the perpetuity, the safety, 
 and prosperity of our Republic, by exacting the 
 due observance of civil law, the preservation of 
 public order, and a proper regard for the rights 
 of all; and thus are its adherents better fitted for 
 good citizenship and confirmed in a sure and 
 steadfast patriotism. It seems to me, too, that 
 the conception of duty to the State, which is 
 derived from religious precept, involves a sense of 
 personal responsibility which is of the greatest 
 value in the operation of the Government by the 
 people. It will be a fortunate day for our country 
 when every citizen feels that he has an ever 
 present duty to perform to the State which he 
 cannot escape from or neglect without being false 
 to his religious as well as his civil allegiance." 
 
 VERSATILITY OF GENIUS. 
 
 On June 27th, 1888, the President attended the 
 commencement exercises of the University of 
 Virorinia, at Charlottesville, conferred the decrees 
 upon the graduates, received many thousands of 
 visitors, and responded to a sentiment at the 
 alumni dinner, after which he visited the house 
 and the grave of Jefferson, founder of the Univer- 
 sity. 
 
240 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 On July 3d, 18S8, the German singing societies 
 of the country, holding their national Soengerfest 
 in Baltimore, Md., gave the President and his wife 
 an urgent invitation to attend one of their grand 
 concerts in the Academy of Music. The Invita- 
 tion was accepted, and the visit was the occasion 
 of a magnificent ovation to the Presidential party, 
 not only from his enthusiastic German admirers, 
 but from the Democratic clubs of the country, 
 then assembling in their great Fourth of July Con- 
 vention. 
 
 The foreeoine narrative recalls visits of the 
 President to every section of the country except- 
 ing the Pacific slope and the extreme Southwest, 
 touching three-fourths of the States and many of 
 the chief cities; demanding from him attention to 
 the widest variety of Interests, moral and material, 
 anddrawlngupon him for frequent public speeches. 
 These many occasions found him ready, apt, and 
 versatile ; and nothing could better illustrate the 
 profound earnestness, the lofty patriotism and 
 the keen intelligence of the President, than the 
 elevated bearing and the easy yet dignified de- 
 meanor which have marked his commingling with 
 his fellow-countrymen at their homes and amid 
 their familiar associations. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EXERCISE OF THE VETO TOWER* THE BATTLE- FLAG 
 
 INCIDENT FRAUDULENT PENSION BILLS. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Constitution of the Uni- 
 ted States requires the assent of the Pres- 
 ident to every bill before it becomes a law, 
 unless both Houses determine by a two-thirds 
 aye-and-no vote to pass it over his veto, this 
 power of disapproval has been, on the whole, 
 sparingly used by the Executives of the United 
 States. Until 1830 there were but nine vetoes — 
 two by Washington, none by Adams, none by 
 Jefferson, six by Madison, and one by Monroe. 
 Jackson exercised the veto nine times, besides 
 pocketing several bills presented just prior to the 
 final adjournment. 
 
 So infrequent was the exercise of this power 
 that Jackson and the prerogative itself were 
 
 * For many of the facts cited in this chapter, and for some views ex- 
 pressed, the authors have drawn upon a review styled " The President's 
 Vetoes," in the publication of which the writer's name is modestly with- 
 held. It will be very generally recognized, however, as a revision of the ad- 
 mirable address on this subject made before the Iroquois Club, of Chicago, 
 Illinois, by Melville W. Fuller, Esq., leader of the bar of that city and 
 State, and the nominee of the President for the Chief Justiceship of th? 
 United States, recently made vacant by the death of Chief Justice Waite. 
 
 241 
 
2A,2 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELA.VD. 
 
 fiercely attacked, and Tyler had a stormy time 
 because he had the temerity to veto six bills. 
 
 ''Polk vetoed three and Pierce nine bills; 
 Buchanan and Lincoln but few; Grant more, one 
 of his forty-two vetoes being of a bill to in- 
 crease the amount of greenbacks to ^400,000,000 
 and authorize the issue of ^46,000,0^0 in national 
 bank notes ; Johnson, in his controversy with 
 Congress, a great many. And so of President 
 Hayes, when it was attempted to repeal general 
 legislation by riders on appropriation bills, though 
 his most important veto was of the silver bill of 
 1878. President Arthur exercised the power but 
 rarely. 
 
 '*It has devolved upon the present incumbent 
 of the Presidential office to exercise the veto 
 power in more instances than all the other Presi- 
 dents put together; a clear indication of the In- 
 crease in legislation and of carelessness in the 
 enactment of special laws, requiring greater care 
 in examination and the application of closer busi- 
 ness scrutiny, as well, doubtless, of a different 
 view of the functions of government than that In- 
 dulged In by some of the leading politicians in the 
 period just preceding Mr. Cleveland's Inaugura- 
 tion. 
 
 a * -^ * p^jg view In taking office seems to 
 have been that free Institutions are inconsistent 
 with a paternal government; that governmental 
 ?-dministration Is a business matter, to be carried 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. -43 
 
 forward on business principles ; that it Is the duty 
 of the Executive to examine all bills presented 
 to him for his approval, and to require a recon- 
 sideration of those which he thinks improper to 
 be passed into laws. There is not a particle of 
 doubt that it was the intention of the framers of 
 the Constitution, and of those who adopted it, that 
 this should be the attitude of the Executive in re- 
 lation to the enactment of laws; and it is clear that 
 the danger was that the power would be exer- 
 cised too litde, rather than too often or too much. 
 It is vastly easier to say yes than no ; to yield to 
 importunity rather than resist It."'^ 
 
 To Mr. Cleveland's conscientious care and 
 unflaeeino- personal industry in the detailed ex- 
 aminadon of leglsladve enactments, as much as to 
 the considerations advanced in the foregoing 
 extracts, have been due the unexampled fre- 
 quency and vigor with which he has wielded the 
 veto power That he has not gone far wrong, 
 upon the whole, Is shown by the fact that the two 
 Houses of Congress have almost invariably 
 acquiesced in the wisdom of his decisions and the 
 cogency of his reasons. 
 
 APPROPRIATIONS FOR FEDERAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 While individual members, Intent upon making 
 capital for themselves at home, and special locali- 
 
 * The President's Vetoes, pp. 7, 8. 
 
2 44- LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 tiss, eager to serve their own interests at the 
 general expense, have bewailed the disapproval 
 of their bills for public building appropriations, 
 the average common sense of the great body of 
 the people has heartily approved the stand taken 
 by the President, and has recognized the consist- 
 ency of his cause in measuring such bills by con- 
 siderations like these, announced in his various 
 messages : 
 
 " The necessities of the Government should 
 control the question, and it should be decided as 
 a business proposition, depending upon the needs 
 of a Government building at the points proposed, 
 in order to do the Government work." 
 
 "While a fine Government buildine is a desir- 
 able ornament to any town or city, and while the 
 securing of an appropriation therefor is often 
 considered as an illustration of zeal and activity 
 in the interests of a constituency, I am of the 
 opinion that the expenditure of public money for 
 such a purpose should depend upon the necessity 
 of such a building for public uses/* 
 
 " The care and protection which the Govern- 
 ment owes to the people do not embrace the 
 grant of public buildings to decorate thriving and 
 prosperous cities and villages, nor should such 
 buildings be erected upon any principle of fair 
 distribution among localities. The Government 
 is not an almoner of gifts among the people, but 
 an instrumentality by which the people's affairs 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO TOWER. 245 
 
 should be conducted upon business principles, 
 regulated by the public needs." 
 
 Upon another occasion, in disposing of a bill 
 for the relief of a stricken community, he assumed 
 this statesmanlike position : 
 
 "I do not believe that the power and duty of 
 the General Government ouo;ht to be extended to 
 the relief of individual sufferinsf which is in no 
 manner related to the public service or benefit. 
 A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited 
 mission of this power and duty should, I think, 
 be steadfastly resisted, to the eiid that the lesso?i 
 shoicid be constantly enforced that though the people 
 S2ipport the Government, the Government should not 
 support the people. The friendliness and charity 
 of our countrymen can always be relied upon to 
 relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This 
 has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. 
 Federal aid m such cases encourages the expectation 
 of paternal care on the part of the Government, anl 
 weakens the sturdiness of our national character, 
 while it prevents the indulgence among our people 
 of the kindly sentiment and conduct which 
 strengthen the bond of a common brother- 
 hood." 
 
 THE PENSION VETOES. 
 
 His most numerous class of vetoes has included 
 a large number of the cases of private pension 
 bills, whose beneficiaries or their agents, unwilling 
 
246 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 to depend upon the ordinary operation of the ex- 
 tremely Hberal existing pension laws and their 
 present prompt execution, resort to Congress for 
 special action on their cases. In that body they 
 are acted upon without general investigation of 
 their merits and without any of the deliberation 
 and care which characterize department work. 
 
 The President, as all members of Congress well 
 know, did not overstate the case when, in his 
 message of June 21st, 1886, he said: " A large 
 proportion of these bills have never been submit- 
 ted to a majority of either branch of Congress, 
 but are the results of nominal sessions, held for 
 the express purpose of their consideration, and 
 attended by a small minority of the members of 
 the respective Houses of the legislative branch of 
 Government. Thus, in considering these bills I 
 have not felt that I was aided by the deliberate 
 judgment of the Congress; and when I have 
 deemed it my duty to disapprove many of the bills 
 presented, I have hardly regarded my action as a 
 dissent from the conclusions of the people's rep- 
 resentatives." 
 
 An uncontradicted description of a recent scene 
 in the Senate, with the President's most relentless 
 and abusive antagonist. Senator Ingalls, in the 
 chair, illustrates how necessary to save the pub- 
 lic treasury is the careful and judicious examina- 
 tion by the Executive of bills thus passed: 
 
 " The Senate yesterday considered pension 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 247 
 
 bills on the calendar and in a short space of time 
 passed about ninety of them. The mode of pro- 
 cedure in this rapid passage of the bills is rather 
 interesting. Usually, when such a measure is to 
 be considered, the bill is reported by its number and 
 the presiding officer says : ' In Committee of the 
 Whole and the bill will he read at length.' This is 
 done, and then he says : ' The bill is open to 
 amendment : if there be no amendment it will be 
 reported to the Senate. The Committee has had 
 
 under consideration bill numbered . The bill 
 
 is still open to amendment. If there be no amend- 
 ment the question is upon ordering the bill to be 
 engrossed and read a third time. Senators in the 
 affirmative will say *' aye ;" negative, ** no." The 
 ayes appear to have it ; the bill will be engrossed 
 and read the third time.' The bill is then read 
 by its title, when the presiding officer says : ' The 
 question is upon the passage of the bill,' and the 
 question is then put. 
 
 " But when the Senate is considering these bills 
 hastily upon the calendar a different method is 
 adopted. It is understood that no objection will 
 be made to them, and it is desirable to get them 
 out of the way as quickly as possible. Yesterday 
 Mr. Ingalls stood up in front of his desk marking 
 the place on the calendar. He would call for a 
 bill by its number on the order of business and 
 the clerk would report its number as a bill. 
 Then Mr. Ingalls sa)s: * In Committee of the 
 
2 48 LIFE OF GR O VER CL E VELAND. 
 
 Whole.' The clerk reads the bill rapidly, and as 
 he finishes Mr. Ingalls says : ' Reported to the 
 Senate, engrossed, read third time, and passed. 
 No. — ,' calling out the next measure. No vote 
 is taken ; no one listened to the bill ; in fact, the 
 whole business was transacted by the President 
 pro tempore and the Clerk. There were less than 
 a dozen Senators In the chamber, all engaged in 
 somethinor else than crlvlno- attention to the busi- 
 ness being transacted, as, in fact, their attention 
 was not required." 
 
 The frequency with which private bills have 
 had to be vetoed therefore Illustrates thecareless- 
 ness of Congress and not the existence of any 
 hostility on Mr. Clev( land's part to this special 
 class of legislation. On the contrary, with proper 
 qualification against frauds and Impostures upon 
 tlie Government's bounty, Mr. Cleveland has 
 shown himself consistently In favor of Its most 
 liberal extension to deserving subjects of It. In 
 his annual message, December 6th, 1886, he pre- 
 sents this succinct and striking statement: 
 
 "The report of the Commissioner of Pensions 
 contains a detailed and most satisfactory exhibit 
 of the operations of the Pension Bureau during 
 the last fiscal year. The amount of work done 
 was the largest in any year since the organiza- 
 tion of the Bureau ; and it has been done at 
 less cost than during the previous year in every 
 divisio7i. 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 
 
 249 
 
 "On the thirtieth day of June, 1886, there were 
 3^57^3 pensioners on the rolls of the Bureau. 
 
 "Since 1861 there have been 1,018,732 appH- 
 cations for pensions filed, of which ^'^,^'}i\ were 
 based upon service in the War of 1812. There 
 were 62 1 ,754 of these applications allowed, includ- 
 ing- 60,178 to the soldiers of 181 2 and their 
 widows. 
 
 " The total amount paid for pensions since 1861 
 is $808,624,811.57. 
 
 "The number of new pensions allowed during 
 the year ended June 30th, 1886, is 40,8 5 7 — a larger 
 number than has been allowed in any year save 
 one since 1861 ; the names of 2,229 pensioners 
 which had been previously dropped from the rolls, 
 were restored during the year, and after deduct- 
 ing those dropped within the same time for va- 
 rious causes, a net increase remains for the year 
 of 20,658 names. 
 
 "From January Tst, 1861, to December ist, 1885, 
 1,967 private pension acts had been passed. Since 
 the last-mentioned date, and durinor the last ses- 
 sion of the Congress, 644 such acts became laws. 
 
 " It seems to me that no one can examine our 
 pension establishment and its operations without 
 being convinced that through its instrumentality 
 justice can be very nearly done to all who are en- 
 titled under present laws to the pension bounty 
 of the Government. 
 
 " But it is undeniable that cases exist, well en- 
 
250 L^P^ OF G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 titled to relief, in which the Pension Bureau is 
 powerless to aid. The really worthy cases of this 
 class are such as only lack by misfortune the kind 
 or quantity of proof which the law and regu- 
 lations of the Bureau require, or which, though 
 their merit is apparent, for some other reason 
 cannot be justly dealt with through general laws. 
 These conditions fully justify application to the 
 Congress and special enactments. But resort to 
 the Congress for a special pension act to overrule 
 the deliberate and careful determination of the 
 Pension Bureau on the merits or to secure favor- 
 able action when it could not be expected under 
 the most liberal execution of general laws, it 
 must be admitted, opens the door to the allow- 
 ance of questionable claims and presents to the 
 legislative and executive branches of the Gov- 
 ernment applications concededly not within the 
 law and plainly devoid of merit, but so sur- 
 rounded by sentiment and patriotic feeling that 
 they are hard to resist. I suppose it will not be 
 denied that many claims for pensions are made 
 without merit and that many have been allowed 
 upon fraudulent representations. This has been 
 declared from the Pension Bureau, not only in 
 this, but in prior Administrations. 
 
 "The usefulness and the justice of any system 
 for the distribution of pensions depend upon the 
 equality and uniformity of its operation. 
 
 "It will be seen from the report of the Commis- 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 
 
 251 
 
 sioner that there are now paid by the Govern- 
 ment one hundred and thirty-one different rates 
 of pension. 
 
 "He estimates from the best Information he can 
 obtain that nine thousand of those who have 
 served in the Army and Navy of the United States 
 are now supported, in whole or in part, from pub- 
 He funds or by organized charities, exclusive of 
 those in soldiers' homes under the direction and 
 control of the Government. Only 13 per cent, of 
 these are pensioners, while of the entire number 
 of men furnished for the late war something like 
 20 per cent., including their widows and relatives, 
 have been or are now in receipt of pensions. 
 
 "The American people, with a patriotic and 
 grateful regard for our ex-soldiers — too broad 
 and too sacred to be monopolized by any special 
 advocates — are not only willing but anxious that 
 equal and exact justice should be done to all hon- 
 est claimants for pensions. In their sight the 
 friendless and destitute soldier, dependent on 
 public charity, if otherwise entitled, has precisely 
 the same right to share in the provision made for 
 those who fought their country's battles as those 
 better able, through friends and influence, to push 
 their claims. Every pension that is granted under 
 our present plan upon any other grounds than 
 actual service, and injury or disease incurred In 
 such service, and every instance of the many In 
 which pensions are increased on other grounds 
 
252 LIFE OF GR O VER CLE VELAND. 
 
 than the merits of the claim, work an injustice to 
 the brave and crippled, but poor and friendless 
 soldier, who is entirely neglected or who must be 
 content with the smallest sum allowed under gen- 
 eral laws. 
 
 ''There are far too many neighborhoods in which 
 are found glaring cases of inequality of treatment 
 in the matter of pensions ; and they are largely 
 due to a yielding in the Pension Bureau to impor- 
 tunity on the part of those, other than the pen- 
 sioner, who are especially interested, or they arise 
 from special acts passed for the benefit of indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 "The men who fought side by side should stand 
 side by side when they participate in a grateful 
 nation's kind remembrance. 
 
 ** Every consideration of fairness and justice to 
 our ex-soldiers, and the protection of the patriotic 
 instinct of our citizens from perversion and viola- 
 tion, point to the adoption of a pension system 
 broad and comprehensive enough to cover every 
 contingency, and which shall make unnecessary 
 an objectionable volume of special legislation. 
 
 "As long as we adhere to the principle of grant- 
 ing pensions for service, and disability as the re- 
 sult of service, the allowance of pensions should 
 be restricted to cases presenting these features. 
 
 "Every patriotic heart responds to a tender con- 
 sideration for those who, having served their 
 country long and well, arc reduced to destitution 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 253 
 
 and dependence, not as an incident of their ser- 
 vice, but with advancing age or through sickness 
 or misfortune. We are all tempted by the con- 
 templation of such a condition to supply relief, 
 and are often impatient of the limitations of pub- 
 lic duty. Yielding to no one in the desire to in- 
 dulge this feeling of consideration, I cannot 
 rid myself of the conviction that if these ex- 
 soldiers are to be relieved, they and their 
 cause are entitled to the benefit of an enact- 
 ment, under which relief may be claimed as a 
 right, and that such relief should be granted 
 under the sanction of law, not in evasion of 
 it ; nor should such worthy objects of care, all 
 equally entitled, be remitted to the unequal opera- 
 tion of sympathy, or the tender mercies of social and 
 political influence, with their unjust discriminations. 
 "Thedischarged soldiers and sailorsof the coun- 
 try are our fellow-citizens, and interested with us 
 in the passage and faithful execution of wholesome 
 laws. They cannot be swerved from their duty 
 of citizenship by artful appeals to their spirit of 
 brotherhood born of common peril and suffering, 
 nor will they exact as a test of devotion to their 
 welfare a willingness to neglect public duty in their 
 behalf." 
 
 VETO OF THE DEPENDENT PENSION BILL. 
 
 Early in 1887 Congress passed the first general 
 bill ** since the close of the late civil war, permitting 
 
254 ^^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 a pension to the soldiers and sailors who served In 
 that war upon the ground of service and present 
 disability alone, and in the eniire absence of any 
 injuries, received by the casualties or incidents of 
 such service!' It was, as the President expressed 
 it, *• an avowed departure from the principle thus 
 far adhered to respecting Union soldiers, that the 
 bounty of the Government in the way of pen- 
 sions is generously bestowed when granted to 
 those who In their military service, and in the line 
 of military duty, have, to a greater or less extent, 
 been disabled." In view of this fact ; of the annual 
 expenditure already of over J75, 000,000 a year 
 for pensions; of nearly 400,000 now borne on the 
 pension rolls, and a steady increase of the number* 
 the furtheraway the war period becomes, — the Pres- 
 ident vetoed the bill, and it did not become a law. 
 The force of his reasons for disapproval was rec- 
 ognized by conservative men all over the country ; 
 and the most intelligent representatives of a sound 
 public judgment gave hearty indorsement to 
 
 * In the New York Nation of February 3d, 1887, will be found the 
 annual cost of the European military establishments with the numbers 
 which compose them, as compared with our present and the proposed pen- 
 sion list, as follows : 
 
 ANNUAL COST. NUMBERS. 
 
 Great Britain, $102,477,010 209,480 
 
 Austria-Hungary,. ....... 51,307,602 286,423 
 
 Germany, 91,522.495 449o42 
 
 France 126,366,086 523,283 
 
 U. S. present pension list, .... 75,000,000 365,783 
 
 As proposed, 147,000,000 865,783 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 
 
 255 
 
 such considerations as these, advanced in his 
 message : 
 
 " I am of the opinion that it may fairly be con^ 
 tended that under the provisions of this section 
 any soldier, whose faculties of mind or body have 
 become impaired by accident, disease, or age, 
 irrespective of his service in the army as a cause, 
 and who by his labor only is left incapable of gain- 
 ing the fair support he might with unimpaired 
 powers have provided for himself, and who is not 
 so well endowed with this world's croods as to 
 live without work, may claim to participate in its 
 bounty; that it is not required that he should be 
 without property, but only that labor should be 
 necessary to his support in some degree ; nor is 
 it required that he should be now receiving sup- 
 port from others. 
 
 " Believing this to be the proper interpretation 
 of the bill, I cannot but remember that the sqI- 
 diers of our civil war, in their pay and bounty, 
 received such compensation for mihtary service 
 as has never been received by soldiers before, 
 since mankind first went to war ; that never 
 before, on behalf of any soldiery, have so many 
 and such generous laws been passed to relieve 
 against the incidents of war ; that statutes have 
 been passed giving them a preference in all pub- 
 lic employments ; that the really needy and 
 homeless Union soldiers of the Rebellion have 
 been, to a large extent, provided for at soldiers' 
 
256 LIFE OF GR O VER CLE VELAND. 
 
 homes, instituted and supported by the Govern- 
 ment, where they are maintained together, free 
 from the sense of degradation which attaches to 
 the usual support of charity ; and that never 
 before in the history of the country has it been 
 proposed to render Government aid toward the 
 support of any of its soldiers based alone upon a 
 military service so recent, and where age and 
 circumstances appeared so little to demand such 
 aid. 
 
 " Hitherto such relief has been granted to sur- 
 viving soldiers few in number, venerable in age, 
 after a long lapse of time since their military ser- 
 vice, and as a parting benefaction tendered by a 
 grateful people. 
 
 *' I cannot believe that the vast peaceful army 
 of Union soldiers, who, having contentedly re- 
 sumed their places in the ordinary avocations of 
 life, cherish as sacred the memory of patriotic 
 service, or who, having been disabled by the casu- 
 alties of war, justly legardthe present pension- 
 roll, on which appear their names, as a roll of 
 honor, desire at this time and in the present ex- 
 igency, to be confounded with those who througli 
 such a bill as this are willing to be objects of 
 simple cnarity and to gain a place upon the pen- 
 sion-roll through alleged dependence. 
 
 " Recent personal observ^ation and experience 
 constrain me to refer to another result which will 
 inevitably follow the passage of this bill It is 
 
 I 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 
 
 257 
 
 sad but nevertheless true, that already in the 
 matter of procuring- pensions there exists a wide- 
 spread disregard of truth and good faith, stimu- 
 lated by those who as agents undertake to estab- 
 lish claims for pensions, heedlessly entered upon 
 by the expectant beneficiary, and encouraged or 
 at least not condemned by those unwilling to 
 obstruct a neighbor's plans. 
 
 "In the execution of this proposed law under 
 any interpretation, a wide field of inquiry would 
 be opened for the establishment of facts largely 
 within the knowledge of the claimants alone ; and 
 there can be no doubt that the race after the pen- 
 sions offered by this bill would not only stimulate 
 weakness and pretended incapacity for labor, but 
 put a further premium on dishonesty and men- 
 dacity. 
 
 *'The effect of new invitations to apply for 
 pensions, or of new advantages added to causes 
 for pensions already existing, is sometimes start- 
 ling. 
 
 "Thus in March, 1879, large arrearages of 
 pensions were allowed to be added to all claims 
 filed prior to July ist, 1880. For the year from 
 July 1st 1879, to July ist, 1880, there were filed 
 110,673 Claims, though in the year immediately 
 previous there were but 36,832 filed, and in the 
 year foJowIng but 18,455. 
 
 " While cost should not be set against a patri- 
 otic duty or the recognition of a right, still, when 
 
258 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 a measure proposed is based upon generosity or 
 motives of charity, it is not amiss to meditate 
 somewhat upon the expense which it involves. 
 Experience has demonstrated, I beheve, that all 
 estimates concerning the probable future cost of 
 a pension list are uncertain and unreliable, and 
 always fall far below actual realization. 
 
 "The chairman of the House Committee on 
 Pensions calculates that the number of pensioners 
 under this bill would be 33,105, and the increased 
 cost $4,767,120 ; this is upon the theory that only 
 those who are entirely unable to work would be 
 its beneficiaries. Such was the principle of the 
 Revolutionary pension law of 1818, much more 
 clearly stated, it seems to me, than in this bill. 
 When the law of 1818 was upon its passage in 
 Congress the number of pensioners to be bene- 
 fited thereby was thought to be 374 ; but the 
 number of applicants under the act was 22,297, 
 and the number of pensions actually allowed 
 20,485, costing, it is reported, for the first year, 
 $1,847,900, instead of $40,000, the estimated ex- 
 pense for that period." 
 
 PRIVATE PENSION VETOES. 
 
 Upon such grounds as these the President, while 
 signing far more private pension bills* than any ©f 
 
 * " The Democracy has held sacred and has far advanced the claims of 
 the pensioner as the common debt of the common people, to be sacredly, 
 honestly, and munificently paid. Never since the tender hand of peace 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POIVFR. 259 
 
 his predecessors, has felt Impelled to puncture a 
 vast number of frauds attempted in the name of 
 charity, and to correct gross carelessness and im- 
 providence on the part of Congress in passing 
 them.' For this he has been subject to malignant 
 misrepresentation, and the abuse of rancorous 
 partisans and of some narrow-minded people 
 who think they are patriots simply because they 
 were soldiers. 
 
 Few if any of these complainants have ever had 
 the fairness or taken the trouble to actually read 
 the vetoes or weigh their merits ; and from such 
 no honest judgment can be reasonably expected. 
 Even the great body of people will, no doubt, be 
 agreeably surprised to find that these much 
 maligned vetoes rest on impregnable grounds ; and 
 ■Mr. Cleveland could not better afford to invite dis- 
 cussion of any phase of his Presidential policy than 
 of the reasons which have induced his disap- 
 proval of many of the private pension jobs. They 
 are thus summarized in the pamphlet from which 
 previous extracts have been made :* 
 
 Some of these bills were vetoed because the 
 
 first bound up the wounds of rugged w ar; never since ti.e awful fruit of 
 battle cumbered the red earth ; never since m« n di^d and women wept 
 and children sorrowed, has greater munificence or more eager willingness 
 been manifest than has been shown to the pensioners by the triumphant 
 Democracy — which, God willing, shall for many years pour the nation's 
 reviving streams by the stricken and desolate." — General John C. Blacky 
 Commissioner of Pensions. 
 * " The Vetoes of the President," pages 13, 14, 15, 16. 
 
2 5o LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 claims named In them had already been allowed, 
 and die effect of permitting them to become laws 
 would be to deprive the claimants of several 
 months' pay. Some were disapproved because 
 the claims were still pending in the Pension Office ; 
 some, because disability existed before, and some, 
 because it was occasioned after service. Most of 
 the bills disapproved were in respect of claims 
 which had already been minutely, and, in many 
 instances, frequently examined and rejected in the 
 Pension Office ; but in each instance, where time 
 was afforded, the President made a careful exam- 
 ination for himself, being compelled to let, how- 
 ever, a larofe number become laws for want of 
 time to make such examination, of itself a com- 
 mentary on the objectionable manner in which 
 this business is conducted. Amon^f those vetoed 
 we find a claim on behalf of the widow of a per- 
 son who, sixteen years after tlie close of the war, 
 fell backward from a ladder and fractured his 
 skull ; another, predicated upon the ground that 
 the claimant's husband w^as deaf, and being 
 drowned in crosslnor a river could not hear the 
 ferryman call out that the boat was sinking, al- 
 though, as the President says, " How he could 
 have saved his life if he had heard the warning, la 
 not stated;" another of an old gentleman of sev- 
 enty-five, who claimed that he contracted chronic 
 diarrhoea in the Blackhawk War. The President 
 said : '* I am inclined to think It would have been 
 
EXERCISE OE THE VETO POWER. 26 1 
 
 a fortunate thing if, in this case, it could have been 
 demonstrated that a man could thrive so well with 
 a chronic diarrhoea for fifty-two years, as its exist- 
 ence in the case of this good old gentleman would 
 prove. We should then, perhaps, have less of 
 it in claims for pensions." The examination in 
 that case showed that the applicant did not claim 
 to have had diarrhcca for many years just preced- 
 ing the application. 
 
 In another instance, the claim attributed " death 
 from apoplexy \:o a wound in the knee received 
 nineteen years before the apoplectic attack." In 
 another case the man was discharged from the 
 hospital with a certificate : " We do not believe 
 him sick, or that he has been sick, but completely 
 worthless. He is obese, and a malingerer to such 
 an extent that he is almost an imbecile." 
 
 In another instance the beneficiary's husband 
 died in a street fight from the blow of a fist ; in 
 another the son was killed in 1862, and his father 
 was not aware of it until 1864. The boy had been 
 in charge of an uncle, and afterward of other 
 persons, ever since he was nine years old. The 
 President says : " After the exhibition of heart- 
 lessness and abandonment on the part of a father, 
 which is a prominent feature in this case, I should 
 be sorry to be a party to a scheme permitting him 
 to profit by the death of his patriotic son. The 
 claimant relinquished the care of his son, and 
 should be held to have relinquished all claim to 
 
262 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 his assistance, and the benefit so indecently 
 claimed, as the result of his death/' 
 
 In another case of a fisticuff, the Presi- 
 dent says: "The Government ought not to be 
 called upon to insure against the quarrel- 
 some propensities of its individual soldiers, 
 nor to compensate one who is worsted in a fight, 
 or even in an unprovoked attack, when the cause 
 of injury is in no way connected with or related to 
 any requirement or incident of military service." 
 In another case a widow applied for a pension and 
 did not claim that the death resulted from military 
 service. The President says : " This presents the 
 question whether a gift in such a case is a proper 
 disposition of money appropriated for the pur- 
 pose of paying pensions. The passage of this 
 law would, in my opinion^ establish a precedent 
 so far-reaching, and open the door to such a vast 
 multitude of claims not on principle within our 
 present pension laws, that I am constrained to dis- 
 approve the bill under consideration." In another 
 instance the decedent was addicted to periodical 
 sprees ai d died in the city lock-up, where he had 
 been taken by an officer while on a drunken spree. 
 In another case the death was from yellow fever 
 in 1878. In another the claimant was enrolled as 
 a substitute March 25th, 1865, when high boun- 
 ties were paid, and remained in the army one 
 month and seventeen days, during which time he 
 Vad the measles. " Fifteen years after this bril- 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO EOUER. 26 
 
 liant service and this terrific encounter with the 
 measles, and on the i8th day of June, 1880, the 
 claimant discoveied that his attack of the measles 
 had some relation to his army enrollment, and 
 that this disease had settled in his eyes , also af- 
 fecting his spinal column." Another case was 
 this, as stated by the President : This man " was 
 mustered into the service October 26th, 1861 ; he 
 never did a day's service, so far as his name ap- 
 pears, and the muster-out roll of his company re- 
 ports him as having deserted at Camp Cameron, 
 Pennsylvania, November 14th, 1861. lie visited 
 his family about the first day of December, 1861, 
 and was found December 30th, 1861, drownc^d in 
 a canal about six miles from his home. Those 
 who prosecute claims for pensions have grown 
 very bold when cases of this description are pre- 
 sented for consideration." In another instance tlie 
 Committee reported favorably, " in view of the 
 long and faithful service and high character of the 
 claimant." The President states the facts and 
 continues: "Thus it quite plainly appears that 
 this claimant spent most of his term of enlistment 
 in desertion or In Imprisonment as a punishment 
 for that offense, and thus Is exhibited 'the long 
 and faithful service and the hieh character of the 
 claimant,' mentioned as entitling him to consid- 
 eration by the Committee who reported favorably 
 upon this bill. I wn'thhold my assent from this 
 bill because if the facts before me, derived from 
 
264 ^^^^ <^^ GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 the army records and the statements of the claim 
 ant, are true, the allowance of this claim would, 
 in my opinion, be a travesty upon our whole 
 scheme of pensions and an insult to every decent 
 veteran soldier." 
 
 Yet another case was this: The mother of the 
 decedent, her husband, the father, having aban- 
 doned her, was allowed a pension as dependent 
 mother from 1862 to 1884, when she died. The 
 father applied in 1877, alleging the death of his 
 wife, but the claim was rejected by the Pension 
 Office because she was living, and after her death 
 again rejected because of the abandonment. The 
 President says : ** The allegation in 1877 of the 
 man who now poses as the aged and dependent 
 father of a dead soldier, that the mother died in 
 1872, when at that time her claim was pending 
 for pension largely based upon his abandonment; 
 the affidavit of the man w4io testified that he saw 
 her die in 1872 ; the effrontery of this unworthy 
 father renewing his claim after the detection of 
 his fraud and the actual death of the mother, and 
 the alleeation of the mother that she was a widow 
 when in fact she was an abandoned wife, show 
 the processes which enter into these claims for 
 pensions, and the boldness w^ith which plans are 
 sometimes concocted to rob the Government by 
 actually trafficking in death, and imposing upon 
 the sacred sentiments of patriotism and national 
 gratitude." 
 
EXERCISE OE THE VETO POWER. 265 
 
 THE BATTLE-FLAG INCIDENT. 
 
 In the summer of 18S7 occurred the popular 
 sensation erowinoroutof an alleored executive order 
 for the return to the Confederates of the batde 
 flags which had been captured from them by the 
 Union forces during the late Civil War. Frothy 
 party orators worked themselves and some mis- 
 guided people into a state of intense excitement; 
 virulent newspapers seized eagerly an opportunity 
 to misrepresent the President and his party ; while 
 a few Governors, like Foraker, of Ohio, pranced 
 to the front with most vehement declarations that 
 they would resist all attempts to tear from the 
 custody of the States the flags ♦captured by their 
 troops — a proceeding which had, of course, never 
 been contemplated except in their own imagina- 
 tions. 
 
 The simple facts of the matter were that for 
 years past, with a growing feeling of friendliness 
 between the North and South, and frequent ex- 
 change of visits on the part of military organiza- 
 tions that had faced each other with hostile front 
 on the field, the return of captured battle flags 
 had come into vogue. A number of these trophies 
 in custody of the War Department at Washing- 
 ton had been allowed under Republican Adminis- 
 trations to be stowed away in a room in the sub- 
 basement and were decaying rapidly when In 
 1882 they were transferred to the Ordnance 
 
2^S L^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 Museum. Adjutant-General Drum, noticing their 
 increasing dilapidation, suggested that they be re- 
 turned to the States from which the organizations 
 carrying them had come. The President, without 
 much reflection, assented to the idea, which, at 
 most, was by no means so advanced a measure of 
 reconciliation as many that had been urged by 
 Sumner, Greeley, Lincoln, Grant, and other leading 
 Republicans. As soon as it was recognized that 
 the matter was to be made the subject of malig- 
 nant representation the country over, the Presi- 
 dent quietly gave the following direction revoking 
 the order of Adjutant-General Drum: "I have 
 considered it with more care, and finding the return 
 "of the flags not authorized by existing law nor 
 justified by any existing act, request nothing fur- 
 ther be done except to inventory and take mea- 
 sures to preserve them." 
 
 Sufficient pretext, how^ever, had been afforded 
 such men as Fairchild, of Wisconsin; Foraker, of 
 Ohio; Tuttle, of Iowa, and others of their stripe to 
 insult the President; and when, shortly after the 
 flag episode, it was announced that he had been 
 invited to visit St. Louis on the occasion of the 
 National Encampment of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic there, it was proclaimed by Tuttle and 
 others that if Mr. Cleveland went he would be 
 publicly insulted. This declaration of an offensive 
 purpose injured only the authors of it, and Gen- 
 eral Sherman publicly rebuked it in a letter June 
 
EXERCISE OF THE VETO POWER. 267 
 
 1 2th, in which he declared that the President 
 was the Commander-in-chief of all the armies, 
 free to go anywhere, and the idea of his being 
 insulted by any true soldier was monstrous. The 
 President himself in a letter of characteristic 
 dignity declined to visit St. Louis on this occasion ; 
 but the citizens of Missouri, shamed by the con- 
 duct of the Tuttles, Fairchilds, and Forakers, 
 urged him to make another opportunity for them 
 to show their respect for his high office and him- 
 self. This invitation resulted in the tour and re- 
 ception which have been previously described iri 
 these pages. 
 
CHAPTER XVL 
 
 DEMOCRATIC TARIFF REFORM POLICY THE GREAT 
 
 ISSUE OF 1888. 
 
 PRESIDENT CLEVELAND and his Ad- 
 ministration had thus, during the first two 
 years and a half of his term, inaugurated 
 every minor reform that had been promised in 
 the platform of the Convention which had nomi- 
 nated him or in his own letters and speeches. 
 But there was still a ereat work to be done. This 
 was the liorhteninor of the burden of that taxation 
 which had been borne by the country since the 
 close of the war. Republican Administrations 
 had tied up the debt still remaining unpaid in long- 
 time bonds, none of which were payable before 
 the year 1892, and the most of which run at an 
 exorbitant rate of interest until the year 190/7. 
 This had been done when there was nothing in 
 the material condition of the country to demand 
 the payment of four or four and a half per cent, 
 interest on the debt about to be refunded. 
 
 For many years even the party in power had 
 perceived that the time would come when, while 
 the money must continue to flow into the Treas- 
 ury in undiminished volume, it could not be taken 
 268 
 
DEMOCRATIC TARIFF REFORM POLICY. 26c) 
 
 out for any of the legitimate objects of govern- 
 ment. So that during all of the Presidential term 
 filled by Chester A. Arthur his Secretaries of the 
 Treasury had insisted that a wise and discreet 
 reduction of the tariff duties was imperative. In 
 1883 a Tariff Commission was appointed, but its 
 members turned out to be either interested manu- 
 facturers themselves or their willing dupes. The 
 result was a report which, while it recommended 
 a reduction on certain lines of manufactured 
 goods and enlarged the free list on somiC articles 
 of almost no importance, really proposed a con- 
 siderable increase on other articles necessary for 
 the life and comfort of every element of our pop- 
 ulation. Even this Incongruous report was not 
 accepted, but Congress proceeded to make from 
 it a compromise scheme, the average reduction of 
 which was less than four per cent, while the ine- 
 qualities of classification and of tax were not 
 removed. On some classes of goods these ine- 
 qualities even became greater, experience soon 
 proved, while the opportunities for fraud were in- 
 creased. It was apparent after a trial of less than 
 a year that the tariff must be revised on entirely 
 different lines if taxes w^ere to be reduced, and 
 labor and capital relieved of the heavy load they 
 had carried so long. The party in power, though 
 mainly made up of men who were in favor of the 
 theory called protection, i. e., the laying of a tax 
 on importations for the benefit of the domestic 
 
270 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 manufacturer and the alleged interest of the lab- 
 orer. with incidental reference to the revenue 
 needed for the Government, was not wholly com- 
 posed of persons professing allegiance to this 
 school of political economy. 
 
 This had nominally been the dominant idea in 
 the Whig party, of whose effects the Republican 
 party became the legatee, but even its leaders 
 never for a moment contemplated a tax on im- 
 ports averaging nearly fifty per cent, on the entire 
 list. A good proportion of the membership of the 
 party had, however, been drawn from the young 
 and independent men, who from the years 1850 
 to i860, had not been satisfied with the policy of 
 the then existing political parties. The majority 
 of these men were not attached to the idea'of pro- 
 tection which has since become so popular with 
 its beneficiaries as to acquire a sort of sacredness. 
 So that in 1857, when the further reduction of the 
 revenue tariff of 1846 was under discussion in 
 Congress, two-thirds of the Representatives, and 
 nearly all the Senators from New England, most 
 of whom w^ere adherents of the Republican party, 
 voted in favor of the bill. Among these, was 
 Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, who had raised 
 himself from the humblest surroundincrs and was 
 to live to become Vice-President of the United 
 States ; in a long speech in which he expressed the 
 sentiments of his colleague, Mr. Sumner, as well as 
 his own, he said : 
 
DEM OCR A TIC TARIFF REFORM FOLIC Y. 2 7 I 
 HENRY WILSON ON THE TARIFF IN 1857. 
 
 ''The manufacturers, Mr. Chairman, make no 
 war upon the wool-growers. They assume that 
 the reduction of the duty on wool, or repeal of the 
 duty altogether, will Infuse vigor Into that droop- 
 ing Interest, stimulate home production, and dim- 
 inish the Importation of foreign woolen manufac- 
 turers, and afford a steady and Increasing demand 
 for American wool. They believe this policy will 
 be more beneficial to the wool-growers, to the 
 agricultural Interests, than the present policy. 
 The manufacturers of woolen fabrics, many of 
 them men of large experience and extensive 
 knowledge, entertain these views, and they are 
 sustained In these opinions by the experience 
 of the great manufacturing nations of the Old 
 World. 
 
 ''Since the reductions of duties on raw mate- 
 rials In Encrland, since wool was admitted free, her 
 woolen manufactures have so Increased, so pros- 
 pered, that the production of native wool has in- 
 creased more than loo percent. The experience 
 of England, France, and Belgium demonstrates 
 the wisdom of that policy which makes the raw 
 material duty free. Let us profit by their example. 
 
 "If our manufactures are to Increase, to keep 
 pace with the population and the growing wants 
 of our people; If we are to have the control of 
 the markets of our own country; If we are to 
 
272 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 meet with and compete with the manufacturers of 
 England and other nations of Western Europe in 
 the markets of the world, we must have our raw 
 materials admitted duty free or at a mere nomi- 
 nal rate. 
 
 :;j * tH * ♦ * * 'J' 
 
 '' We of New England believe that wool, es- 
 pecially the cheap wools, manila, hemp, flax, raw 
 silk, lead, tin, brass, hides, linseed, and many other 
 articles used in our manufactories can be admit- 
 ted dutyfree, or for a mere nominal duty, without 
 injuring to any extent any considerable interest 
 of the country." 
 
 Further on he said: 
 
 " In closing, Mr. Chairman, the remarks I have 
 felt it my duty to submit to the Senate and the 
 country, that the Commonwealth I represent on 
 this floor — I. say in part, for my colleague, Mr. 
 Sumner, after an enforced absence of more than 
 nine months, is here to-night to give his vote if he 
 can raise his voice for the interest of his State — 
 has a deep interest in the modification of the tariff 
 of 1846 by this Congress. Her merchants, man- 
 ufacturers, mechanics, and business men in all de- 
 partments of a varied industry want action now 
 before the Thirty-fourth Congress passes away. 
 
 " They are for the reduction of the revenue to 
 the actual wants of an economical administration 
 of the Government; for the depletion of the 
 Trea3ury, now full with millions of hoarded gold; 
 
DEMO CRA TIC TARIFF REFORM POL IC V. 27- 
 
 for a free-list embracing articles of prime neces- 
 sity we do not produce ; for mere nominal duties 
 on articles which make up a large portion of our do- 
 mestic industry^ and for such an adjustment of the 
 duties on the productions of other nations that 
 come in direct competition with the product of 
 American capital, labor, and skill as shall im- 
 pose the least burdens on that capital, labor, and 
 skill." 
 
 Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, then a member of the 
 House, now the patriarch of the Senate, expressed 
 the opinion that the proposed duty of 20 per cent. 
 on cutlery, edged tools, etc., was ample in spite 
 of the fact that he has now announced his oppo- 
 sition to a bill which makes a slioht reduction in 
 the present duty of 50 per cent, on the same class 
 of goods ! 
 
 JOHN SHERMAN IN 1 867. 
 
 In 1867 John Sherman, of Ohio, in the course 
 of a speech discussing the revenue question, said: 
 " Every law imposing a duty on imported goods 
 Is necessarily a restraint on trade. It imposes a 
 burden upon the purchase and sale of imported 
 goods and tends to prevent their importadon. 
 The expression *a free-trade tariff,' involves an 
 absurdity." * * * "Every duty on Imported mer- 
 chandise gives to the domestic manufacturer an 
 advantage equal to the duty, and to that extent 
 
2 74 ^^^^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 every tariff is a protective tariff." * * * <* If you 
 converse with intelligent men engaged in the 
 business of manufacturing they will tell you that 
 they are willing to compete with England, France, 
 Germany, and all the countries of Europe at the 
 old rates of duty. If you reduce their products 
 to a specie basis, and put them upon the same 
 footing they were on before the war, the present 
 rates of duty would be too high. It would not be 
 necessary for scarce any branch of industry to be 
 protected to the extent of your present tariff law. 
 They do not ask protection against the pauper 
 labor of Europe, but they ask protection against 
 the creation of your own laws." 
 
 In March, 1872, in. a speech discussing this ever 
 present question, Mr. Sherman said: ** I have 
 listened with patience, day by day, to the state- 
 ments of gentlemen who are interested in our 
 domestic productions. I am a firm ♦believer in 
 the general idea of protecting their industries, but 
 I assure them, as I assure their representatives 
 here, that if the present high rates of duty, unex- 
 ampled in our country, and higher by nearly 50 
 per cent, than they were in 1861, are maintained 
 on metallic and textile fabrics after we have re- 
 pealed the very internal taxes which gave rise to 
 them, and after we have substantially given them 
 their raw materials free of duties, we shall have a 
 feeling of dissatisfaction among other interests 
 
DEMOCRATIC TARIFF REFORM POLICY. 
 
 2/5 
 
 In the country that will overthrow the whole system, 
 and do greater harm than can possibly be done 
 by a moderate reduction of the present rates of 
 duty. And I am quite sure that intelHgent men 
 engaged in the production of various forms of 
 textile and metallic fabrics feel as I do, that it is 
 wiser and better to do what is just and right, to 
 make a reduction on their products, at least to the 
 extent of the reduction in this bill on the raw 
 materials, rather than to invite a controversy in 
 which I believe they will be in the wrong." * * * 
 *' The public mind is not yet prepared to apply 
 the key to a genuine revenue reform. A few 
 years of further experience will convince the 
 whole body of our people that a system of 
 national taxes, which rests the whole burden of 
 taxation on consumption, and not one cent on 
 property or income, is intrinsically unjust. While 
 the expenses of the National Government are 
 largely caused by the protection of property. It is 
 but right to require property to contribute to 
 their payment. It will not do to say that each ' 
 person consumes In proportion to his means. This 
 Is not true. Every one must see that the con- 
 sumption of the rich does not bear the same re- 
 lation to the consumption of the poor as the in- 
 come of the one does to the waofes of the other. 
 As wealth accumulates this Injustice In the funda- 
 mental basis of our system will be felt and forced 
 upon the attention of Congress." 
 
276 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 PRESIDENT ARTHUR S VIEWS. 
 
 President Arthur, in his annual message, trans- 
 mitted to Congress in D.^cember, 1882, used the 
 followincr lano^uaore : " I recommend an enlarore- 
 ment of the free Hst so as to include the numerous 
 articles which yield Inconsiderable revenue, a 
 simplification of the complex and inconsistent 
 schedule of duties upon certain manufactures, 
 particularly cotton. Iron, and steel, and a sub- 
 stantial reduction of duties on those articles and 
 on sugar, molasses, silk, wool, and woolen goods." 
 
 Charles J. Folger, Secretary of the Treasury, 
 in his report to President Arthur, made at the 
 same time, said: ''The classes of merchandise 
 paying the largest amount of duties from customs 
 are the followinof: Suear and molasses, wool 
 and manufactures from it, Iron and steel and the 
 manufactures from them, manufactures of silk, 
 manufactures of cotton. A substantial reduction 
 upon each of the class of articles named Is rec- 
 ommended. And it Is believed that the time has 
 arrived when a reduction of duties on nearly all the 
 articles In the tariff Is demanded and is feasible." 
 
 In his annual report for 1884, Hugh.McCulloch, 
 President Arthur's last Secretary of the Treasury, 
 concluded a long discussion of the revenue de- 
 rived for customs duty with the following recom- 
 mendations : — 
 
 " First — That the existing duties upon raw 
 
material which, are used In manufactures should 
 be removed. This can be done in the interest of 
 our foreign trade. 
 
 " Second — That the duties upon the articles 
 used or consumed by those who are least able to 
 bear the burden of taxation should be reduced. 
 This also can be effected without prejudice to our 
 export trade." 
 
 The Republican tariff platform of 1SS4 de- 
 clared : 
 
 " The Democratic party has failed completely 
 to relieve the people of the burden of unneces- 
 sary taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. 
 The Republican party pledges itself to correct the 
 inequalities of the tariff and to reduce the sur- 
 plus." 
 
 CLEVELAND ON THE TARIFF. 
 
 In his first annual message President Cleveland 
 gave due attention to this question without con- 
 ferring upon it that prominence it attained in late 
 messages when the gravity of the case demanded 
 more extended and more heroic treatment. 
 
 He said : " A due regard for the interests and 
 prosperity of all the people demands that our 
 finance shall be established upon such a sound and 
 sensible basis as shall secure the safety and con- 
 fidence of business interests and make the wages 
 of labor sure and steady ; and that our system of 
 revenue shall be so adjusted as to relieve the 
 
278 LIFE OFGROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 people from unnecessary taxation, having a due 
 regard to the Interests of capital invested and of 
 worklngmen employed in American Industries, 
 and preventing the accumulation of a surplus In 
 the Treasury to tempt extravagance and waste." 
 
 In his second annual message, transmitted to 
 Congress In December, 1886, the President en- 
 larged upon the Issue which was then assuming 
 the first Importance. His views are fairly re- 
 flected In the follow^Ing extracts: 
 
 *' Good government, and especially the govern- 
 ment of w^hlch every American citizen boasts, has 
 for Its objects the protection of every person 
 wathin Its care In the greatest liberty consistent 
 with the good order of society, and his perfect 
 security in the enjoyment of his earnings, with the 
 least possible diminution for public needs. When 
 more of the people's substance is exacted through 
 the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the 
 just obligations of the Government and the ex- 
 pense of its economical administration, such ex- 
 action becomes ruthless extortion and a violation 
 of the fundamental principles of a free Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " Those w^ho toll for dally w^ages are beginning 
 to understand that capital, though sometimes 
 vaunting its importance and clamoring for the 
 protection and favor of the Government, Is dull 
 and sluggish, till, touched by the magical hand of 
 labor. It springs Into activity, furnishing an occa- 
 
DEMOCRA TIC TARIFF REFORM FOLIC V. 2 79 
 
 sion for Federal taxation and gaining the value 
 which enables it to bear its burden. And the la- 
 boring man is thoughtfully inquiring whether in 
 these circumstances, and considering the tribute 
 he constantly pays into the public Treasury as he 
 supplies his daily wants, he receives his fair share 
 of advantacres. 
 
 " There is also a suspicion abroad, that the sur- 
 plus of our revenues indicates abnormal and ex- 
 ceptional business profits, which, under the system 
 which produces such surplus, increase, without 
 corresponding benefit to the people at large, the 
 vast accumulations of a few amone our citizens 
 whose fortunes, rivaling the wealth of the most 
 favored in anti-democratic nations, are not the 
 natural growth of a steady, plain, and industrious 
 republic. 
 
 " It has been the policy of the Government to 
 collect the principal part of its revenues by a tax 
 upon imports ; and no change in this policy is de- 
 sirable. But the present condition of affairs con- 
 strains our people to demand that by a revision 
 of our revenue laws the receipts of the Govern- 
 ment shall be reduced to the necessary expense 
 of its economical administration ; and this demand 
 should be recognized and obeyed by the people's 
 representatives in the legislative branch of the 
 Government. 
 
 " In readjusting the burdens of Federal taxation, 
 a sound public policy requires that such of our 
 
2 So ^^^'-^ ^^ G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 citizens as have built up large and important 
 industries under present conditions should not 
 be suddenly and to their injury, deprived of ad- 
 vantages to which they have adapted their business; 
 but if the public good requires it, they should be 
 content with such consideration as shall deal 
 fairly and cautiously with their interests, while 
 the just demand of the people for relief from 
 needless taxation is honesdy answered. A reason- 
 able and timely submission to such a demand 
 should certainly be possible without disastrous 
 shock to any interest ; and a cheerful concession 
 sometimes averts abrupt and heedless action, often 
 the outgrowth of impatience and delayed justice. 
 " Due regard should be also accorded, in any 
 proposed readjustment, to the interests of 
 American labor so far as they are Involved. We 
 congratulate ourselves that there Is amoncr us no 
 laboring class, fixed within unyielding bounds and 
 doomed under all conditions to the inexorable 
 fate of daily toil. We recognize in labor a chief 
 factor In the wealth of the Republic, and we treat 
 those >vho have it in their keeping as citizens en- 
 titled to the most careful regard and thoughtful 
 attention. This regard and attention should be 
 awarded them, not only because labor is the 
 capital of our workingmen, justly entitled to Its 
 share of Government favor, but for the further 
 and not less Important reason, that the laboring 
 man, surrounded by his family In his humble home, 
 
DEMOCRA Ti C TARIFF REFORM FOLIC V. o cS I 
 
 as a consumer is vitally interested in all that 
 cheapens the cost of living and enables him to 
 brintr within his domestic circle additional com- 
 forts and advantages. 
 
 " This relation of the workingman to the reve- 
 nue laws of the country, and the manner in which 
 it palpably influences the question of wages, 
 should not be forgotten in the justifiable promi- 
 nence given to the proper maintenance of the 
 supply and protection of well-paid labor. And 
 these considerations suggest such an arrangement 
 of Government revenues as shall reduce the ex- 
 pense of living, while it does not curtail the op- 
 portunity for work nor reduce the compensation 
 of American labor, and injuriously affect its con- 
 dition and the dignified place it holds in the esti- 
 mation of our people. 
 
 "But our farmers and agriculturists — those who 
 from the soil produce the tilings consumed by 
 all — are perhaps more* direcdy and plainly con- 
 cerned than any other of our citizens in a just 
 and careful system of Federal taxation. Those 
 actually engaged in and more remotely connected 
 with this kind of work number nearly one-half of 
 our population. None labor harder or more con- 
 tinuously than they. No enactments limit their 
 hours of toil, and no interposition of the Govern- 
 ment enhances to any great extent the value of 
 their products. And yet for many of the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life, which the most scru- 
 
282 LIFE OF GROVE R CLEVELAND. 
 
 pulous economy enables them to bring Into their 
 homes, and for their implements of husbandry, 
 they are obliged to pay a price largely increased 
 by an unnatural profit which, by the action of the 
 Government, is given to the more favored manu- 
 facturer. 
 
 " I recommend that, keeping in view all these 
 considerations, the increasing and unnecessary 
 surplus of national income annually accumulating 
 be released to the people by an amendment to 
 our revenue laws which shall cheapen the price of 
 the necessaries of life and orive freer entrance to 
 such imported materials as by American labor 
 may be manufactured into marketable commodi- 
 ties. Nothing can be accomplished, however, in 
 the direction of this much-needed reform unless 
 the subject is approached in a patriotic spirit of 
 devotion to the interests of the entire country and 
 with a willingness to yield something for the pub- 
 lic good." 
 
 SOUNDING A BATTLE CRY. 
 
 But all that had gone before was the merest 
 child's play compared with the courage, the mag- 
 nificent audacity of statesmanship, which the Pres- 
 ident displayed in his third annual message, trans- 
 mitted to the opening session of the Fiftieth Con- 
 gress, In December, 1887. Rising to the occasion 
 by casting all other Issues aside, as unimportant 
 in comparison with the reduction of revenues In 
 
DEMOCRA TIC TARIFF REFORM FOLIC Y. 283 
 
 order to rid the country of a dangerous surplus, 
 he devoted all his annual message to the consid- 
 eration of this one question/*'' This document 
 was brief to a deorree which was comfortino- 
 when the long, prosy messages usually sent to 
 Congress by Presidents are considered. For 
 once the people of the United States had a mes- 
 sage they could read and did read. The effect 
 v/as immediate. Public attention was focused 
 upon this one great question as it had not been 
 similarly directed to any issue since the absorbing 
 days of the war. Young men not accustomed to 
 such direct and pointed appeals were surprised, 
 but their attention and their intellieence were 
 aroused. Politicians who had been accustomed 
 to discuss only the war and its cognate questions 
 were amazed at the awful audacity of a President 
 who did not so much as intimate anvthino- about 
 the various sections of the country. Some timid 
 members of the President's own party were 
 alarmed at his seeming willingness to intrust all 
 his polidcal eggs to one basket. The protected 
 manufacturers who had fattened on a tariff were 
 naturally alarmed. But the general feeling in 
 
 * It has not been thought necessary or desirable in such a book as this 
 to attempt to make extracts from the President's annual message of 1887. 
 Every word would be essential to a knowledge of it. A complete appre- 
 ciation of the leading issues of the present campaign cnn only be gained 
 by a thorough study of this document, and of the speeches made in the 
 House in support of it, all of which documents are supplied on applicatioa 
 to the Democratic National Committee. 
 
284 ^ ^^^ OF GROl 'ER CLE VELAND. 
 
 the country was one of relief. Its politics had 
 been drifting into a condition of torpidity, and 
 the country, as was so well shown by the Presi- 
 dent, was plunging Into the most serious of 
 perils. Great satisfaction was expressed among 
 men of every avocation and party at the feeling 
 that something more than a mere commonplace 
 strucrcrle over the offices was now to beorin. 
 
 00 o 
 
 The message at once attracted the attention of 
 the leaders of the Republican party, now in the 
 minority and opposition. Mr. Blaine, ever eager 
 to direct attention to himself, submitted himself to 
 a newspaper interview in Paris. Senator Sher- 
 man took occasion to make such reply from his 
 place on the floor of the Senate as showed that 
 he had forgotten his conservative and progressive 
 words of former days. The press discussed the 
 question from every point of view, and In every 
 circle, from one end of the country to the other, 
 the President's message became the one subject 
 for conversation and discussion. 
 
 The effect upon the lower House of Congress 
 was no less important. The Committee on Ways 
 and Means was selected with unusual care, and 
 at once went to work to prepare a careful, conser- 
 vative bill In line with the message. Such a bill 
 was reported in due time, and the most extended 
 and interesting discussion of the tariff issue heard 
 in this country since the enactment of the Walker 
 tariff was entered upon. The debate was opened 
 
DEMOCRATIC TARIFF REFORM POLICY. 285 
 
 with a speech by Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, Chair- 
 man of the Committee of Ways- and Means, 
 which was one of the clearest and most luminous 
 arguments ever presented before the Congress of 
 the United States. Other members of the major- 
 ity of the Committee, Messrs. Scott, Breckenridge, 
 Wilson, and Bynum,together with the Speaker, Mr. 
 Carlisle, and Messrs. Cox, Russell, Buckalew, and 
 many of the Democratic members, Mr. Fitch, of 
 New York, Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota, Republi- 
 cans, spoke In favor of the principle of the 
 bill. 
 
 On the Republican side, the brunt of the debate 
 was borne by Messrs. Kelley, McKInley,Reed, Bur- 
 leigh, Boutelle, Butterworth, and Grosvenor. The 
 only Democrat who arrayed himself against the 
 bill was Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania, whose 
 speech was temperate In tone. 
 
 In the meantime, this general discussion of the 
 principles of the message spread into the State 
 Conventions of the Democratic party, then just 
 meeting to select delegates to the National Conven- 
 tion called to meet at St. Louis on the fifth of June. 
 Every such body in every State of the Union in- 
 dorsed substantially the President's position, chose 
 delegates In favor of his renomlnation, and In the 
 majority of States commended the bill of the 
 Ways and Means Committee to Democratic mem- 
 bers of Congress Even in Pennsylvania, which 
 had been for nearly a century coddled and cos- 
 
286 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 seted on a protective tariff, until its people had 
 come to look upon themselves as the beneficiaries 
 of the Government, the party broke away from the 
 narrow trammels which had bound it and kept it 
 out of harmony with the organization in the rest of 
 the country, and a strong platform was adopted, in 
 which the action of the President was commended. 
 The Temporary Chairman of the Convention, 
 W. U. Hensel, and the Permanent Chairman, Ex- 
 Senator William A. Wallace, both insisted upon 
 the most outspoken utterance possible, and their 
 advice was followed to the letter. 
 
 The credit for this condition of the public mind 
 must be awarded to the President. Seeing clearly 
 the danger, appreciadng the necessity for some 
 bold utterance from one who could speak as with 
 authority, he had the courage to do what he deemed 
 his duty, and the result promises to be a better 
 and more intelligent knowledge of the subject and 
 the ultimate triumph of conservative ideas.* 
 
 *At this writing, July loth, the Mills bill, it seems almost certain, will 
 pass the House by a nearly solid Democratic vote. It is not impossible 
 that even a majority of the Senate will agree to a modified form of it. It 
 is manifest the Republicans in Congress are divided in their views of 
 tariff reform, and that a very respectable minority of them will not join in 
 the obstruction of every effort to reduce duties. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PERSONAL QUALITIES OF THE PRESIDENT A STPONG 
 
 WILL GENIALITY OF DISPOSITION SOME STRIK- 
 ING CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 THE unanimous renomlnatlon of President 
 Cleveland by die Nadonal Convention of 
 his party — the proceedings of which as- 
 semblage are narrated in full in succeeding pages 
 of this volume'^ — was a fit acknowledgment of his 
 Strong leadership, and his victory over and sup- 
 pression of all factional feeling. The platform of 
 principles upon which his candidacy for a second 
 term has been launched Is a reflection of the sub- 
 jects for popular attention that he had kept to 
 the fore daring his administration. Despite the 
 loud murmurs of discontent that were for a 
 time heard in the ranks of his own party, every 
 element of opposidon subsided before the Con- 
 vention met; and no other name, however loudly 
 proclaimed before as that of a possible compeUtor, 
 was whispered In the proceedings of the Conven- 
 tion nor In the preliminaries which led up to It. 
 This result was achieved without any Interposition 
 on the President's own part, and, Indeed, without 
 
 *See** Record of the Convention." 
 
 287 
 
288 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 any abandonment of the grounds which he took 
 in his campaign of 1884 against a second term. 
 
 For the principles of a genuine civil-service re- 
 form which he espoused he gained substantial 
 victory. He had under every circumstance and 
 at all times declared himself a partisan and a 
 Democrat. He said : " I believe in an open and 
 sturdy partisanship which secures the legitimate 
 advantages of party supremacy," and for his party 
 he secured these. But he never wavered from 
 the qualifying words with which he accompanied 
 this declaration ; and the great body of independ- 
 ent voters who had come to his support in 1884 
 remain steadfast with him, and with largely in- 
 creased numbers, because they have learned that 
 he was sincere when he added, at the same time : 
 " Parties were made for the people, and I am 
 unwilling, knowingly, to give my assent to meas- 
 ures purely partisan which will sacrifice or en- 
 danger their interests." He complained bitterly, 
 and sometimes impatiently, at the unreasonable- 
 ness of his partisan adherents, who could not bide 
 their time and the exercise of his own good judg- 
 ment as to changes in office. He resented with 
 hot indignation the impositions practiced and 
 others attempted upon him in the zeal of parti- 
 sans to reward their friends or to rid themselves 
 of importunate office-hunters. The literature of 
 our politics contains no more scorching correspon- 
 dence than these two letters, respectively ad- 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
PERSONAL QUALITIES. 29 1 
 
 dressed to and written by the President— from and 
 to whom matters nothing to the moral they point : 
 
 INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 "Cincinnati, July 24th, 1885. 
 ''To the President, Washington, D. C. 
 
 "Dear Sir: — This community read the an- 
 nouncement of to the judgeship 
 
 with astonishment and regret, if not pain, and none 
 were more astonished than those who had sicrned 
 his petition, and I regret to say that my name is 
 to be found upon it. I have refused several whom 
 I knew to be unfit, but I signed this one, thinking 
 it would never be considered, and not for one 
 moment believing the appointment was possible. 
 When first presented to me I put him off and 
 hoped to escape, but he came again with it, and, 
 with others, I signed it, thinking there was no 
 chance of its reaching even a consideration. It 
 was signed by many prominent men who hated to 
 refuse and hoped and thought it would result in 
 nothing. 
 
 " Yours, very respectfully, 
 
 " Washington, August ist, 1885. 
 
 "Dear Sir: — I have read your letter with 
 
 amazement and indlo^natlon. There Is one — but 
 
 one — mitigation to the perfidy which your letter 
 
 discloses, and that is found in the fact you confess 
 
292 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 your share In It. I don't know whether you are 
 a Democrat or not, but If you are the crime which 
 you confess is the more unpardonable. The idea 
 that this Administration, pledged to give people 
 better officers and engaged in a hand-to-band 
 fight with the bad elements of both parties, should 
 be betrayed by those who ought to be worthy of 
 implicit trust, is atrocious, and such treason to the 
 people and to the party ought to be punished by 
 imprisonment. Your confession comes too late 
 to be of immediate use lo the public service, and 
 I can only say that while this is not the first time 
 I have been deceived and misled by lying and 
 treacherous representations, you are the first one 
 that has so frankly owned his grievous fault. If 
 any comfort is to be extracted from this assur- 
 ance you are welcome to it. 
 
 "GROVER CLEVELAND.' 
 
 Somethinof of the same tone of resentment at 
 the exaction of unreasonable professed friends of 
 his policies is to be found In other letters of the 
 President and not unfrequently In his State papers. 
 In his Civil-Service reform letter to Dorman B. 
 Eaton, upon the retirement of that gentleman 
 from the Civil-Service Commission, Sept. nth, 
 1885, Mr. Cleveland said: "Of course, there 
 should be no surrender of principle, no backward 
 step ; and all lav/s for the enforcement of the re- 
 form should be rigidly enforced ; but the benefits 
 
PERSONAL QUALITIES. 293 
 
 which Its principles promise will not be fully pro- 
 duced unless the acquiescence of the people Is 
 added to the stern assertion of doctrine and the 
 vigorous execution of the laws. It Is a source of 
 congratulation that there are so many friends of 
 Civil-Service reform marshaled on the principal 
 side of the question, and that the number is not 
 greater of those who profess friendliness for the 
 cause and yet mischievously and with supercilious 
 air discredit every effort not in exact accord with 
 their attenuated ideas, decry with carping criticism 
 the labor of those actually In the field of reform, 
 and, Ignoring the conditions which bind and qualify 
 every struggle for a radical improvement In the 
 affairs of government, demand complete perfec- 
 tion." 
 
 A STRONG AND SELF-RELIANT MAN. 
 
 If these and like expressions lay him open to 
 the charge of querulousness, it must be remem- 
 bered they are the natural outgivings of a strong, 
 independent, brave, industrious, and honest man. 
 Strength of will-power, inflexible courage, inde- 
 fatigable industry and unquestionable honesty are 
 his characteristics, not unmixed with a keen sense 
 of the humorous, sly sarcasm, and a generous, 
 sympathetic heart. Untiring himself, he expects 
 of his subordinates official Industry, without shirk- 
 ing. His habit Is to stay up late at nights if ne- 
 cessary for the completion of his tasks. He took 
 
294 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 with hini from Albany — where his close exami- 
 nation of details was the marvel of those about 
 him — to the sphere of his enlarged labors at 
 Washington this habit of thorough examination 
 into the entire aspect of every case. It has hap- 
 pened, not rarely, that a member of his Cabinet, 
 after submitting to him a matter in general, found 
 his chief next day more familiar with all the details 
 of It than he himself, although it may have required 
 the better hours of the night to master them. 
 Withal, early rising and regular hours aid him to 
 the dispatch of enormous quantities of business, 
 without renderinpf himself inaccessible to the con- 
 stantly increasing demands of personal visitors, 
 and without neolect of those numerous social 
 duties which have been discharged so graciously 
 by the present occupants of the White House as 
 to make their period one of the most brilliant ever 
 known in the history of the Presidential household. 
 
 A FRIEND OF LABOR. 
 
 A laborer himself, in the broadest significance 
 of the term, he has always been a faithful friend 
 and zealous ally of every effort to improve the 
 condition of those who, by the toil of their hands, 
 have come to be regarded as the laboring men of 
 the country. In a special message, April 2 2d, 
 1886, he paid this tribute to their rights: 
 
 " Under our form of government the value of 
 labor as an element of national prosperity should 
 
PERSONAL QUALITIES. 295 
 
 be distinctly recognized, and the welfare of the 
 laboring man should be regarded as especially 
 entitled to legislative care. In a country which 
 offers to all its citizens the hio^hest attainment of 
 social and political distinction its workingmen 
 cannot justly or safely be considered as irre- 
 vocably consigned to the limits of a class and 
 entitled to no attention and allowed no protest 
 ao^ainst neo^lect. 
 
 "The laboring man, bearine In his hand an in- 
 dispensable contribution to our growth and pro- 
 gress, may well insist, with manly courage and as 
 a right, upon the same recognition from those who 
 make our laws as is accorded to any other citizen 
 havinor a valuable interest in charc^e ; and his 
 reasonable demands should be met in such a spirit 
 of appreciation and fairness as to induce a con- 
 tented and patriotic co-operation in the achieve- 
 ment of a grand national destiny. 
 
 ."While the real interests of labor are not pro- 
 moted by a resort to threats and violent manifes- 
 tations, and while those who, under the pretexts 
 of an advocacy of the claims of labor, wantonly 
 attack the rights of capital, and for selfish pur- 
 poses or the love of disorder sow seeds of vio- 
 lence and discontent, should neither be encouraged 
 nor conciliated, all legislation on the subject should 
 be calmly and deliberately undertaken, with no 
 purpose of satisfying unreasonable demands or 
 gaining partisan advantage." 
 
296 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 THE DOMESTIC VIRTUES. 
 
 Appreciative of the necessity of preserving the 
 purity of the family as the unit of our social sys- 
 tem, Mr. Cleveland early set his face against the 
 polygamous practices of the Mormon Society In 
 Utah, and in one of his messages he said : 
 
 "The strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny 
 of the Nation rest upon our homes, established 
 by the law of God, guarded by parental care, reg- 
 ulated by parental authority, and sanctified by 
 parental love. 
 
 " These are not the homes of polygamy. 
 
 '' The mothers of our land, who rule the Nation 
 as they mold the characters and guide the actions 
 of their sons, live according to God's holy ordi- 
 nances, and each, secure and happy in the exclu- 
 sive love of the father of her children, sheds the 
 warm light of true womanhood, unperverted and 
 unpolluted, upon all within her pure and whole- 
 some family circle. 
 
 '' These are not the cheerless, crushed, and un- 
 womanly mothers of polygamy. 
 
 " The fathers of our families are the best citi- 
 zens of the Republic. ' Wife and children are the 
 sources of patriotism, and conjugal and parental 
 affection beget devotion to the country. The man 
 who, undefiled with plural marriage, Is surrounded 
 in his single home with his wife and children, has 
 a stake in the country which inspires him with re- 
 spect for its laws and courage for its defense. 
 
PERSONAL QUALITIES. 297 
 
 " These are not the fathers of polygamous fam- 
 iUes. 
 
 "There Is no feature of this practice, or the 
 system which sanctions it, which is not opposed to 
 all that is of value in our institutions." 
 
 At the same time he regarded with scrupulous 
 care the political rights which every citizen of the 
 Republic possesses, and he never countenanced 
 against the deluded people of the Utah theocracy 
 the proscriptive campaign of persecution with fire 
 and blood that has been so often recommended by 
 impracticable reformers, and so eagerly awaited by 
 hungry spoilsmen. The consequence is that af- 
 ter twenty-five years of thunder in the index on 
 the part of the Republican party, without any cure 
 of the constantly increasing social evils in Utah, 
 within three years of the firm, resolute, and con- 
 siderate Cleveland Administration there has been 
 accomplished in Salt Lake City a social revolu- 
 tion which has already well-nigh eradicated polyg- 
 amy, without the destruction of vested rights and 
 without assault upon the lawful accumulations of 
 a system of thrift and industry that no decent hu- 
 man instincts could have desired to steal and de- 
 spoil. 
 
 CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 With a hiofh and even stern sense of official 
 duty, the sympathies of the President are easily 
 aroused. In the circles where he is most intimately 
 
298 I^I^'E OF GROVE R CLEVELAND: 
 
 known are current many incidents testifying to 
 the warmth of his generosity, his fidehty to friends, 
 and his sincere appreciation of the fireside virtues 
 which ahke adorn cidzen and ruler. 
 
 Plain and unpretentious in dress and manner, 
 bred and accustomed to the courtesies of an 
 elevated social life, his walk and conversation 
 illustrate the character of an American gentleman, 
 and in the regulation of his private affairs he sets 
 the example which is so forcibly recommended in 
 these lines from his inaugural message : 
 
 " It is the duty of those serving the people in 
 public place to closely lliiilt public expenditure to 
 the actual needs of the Government, economically 
 administered ; because this bounds the right of 
 the Government to exact tribute from the earnings 
 of labor or the property of the citizen and be- 
 cause public extravagance begets extravagance 
 among the people. We should never be ashamed 
 of the simplicity and prudential economies which 
 are best suited to the operation of a republican 
 form of government and most compatible with 
 the mission of the American people. Those who 
 are selected for a limited time to manage public 
 affairs are still of the people and may do much 
 by their example to encourage, consistendy with 
 the dignity of their official functions, that plain 
 way of life which among their fellow-citizens aids 
 integrity and propounds thrift." 
 
 In personal appearance Mr. Cleveland is little 
 
PERSONAL QUALITIES. 299 
 
 under six feet in height, though he is heavily built 
 and scarcely looks to be of his full stature. He 
 weighs about two hundred and fifty pounds ; his 
 haiAs scant ; he wears a light mustache ; the lines 
 of his face are deeply graven and his ordinary 
 aspect is that of a grave and serious man, easily 
 lighted by a gleam of humor or a kindly feeling. 
 He generally dresses in a Prince Albert frock 
 coat^but on informal occasions wears a gray busi- 
 ness suit, with cutaway or sack coat. His prm- 
 cipal exercise is driving, especially since he has 
 taken a private residence at " Oak View," in the 
 suburbs of Washington. In conversation Mr. 
 Cleveland is a good listener, quiet, dignified, and 
 self-possessed, but not without a positive and 
 when necessary a dogmauc and resolute manner. 
 In public speech he is easy, self-contained, fluent, 
 and impressive. He holds to the Presbyterian 
 faith of his father, and attends Rev. Dr. Sunder- 
 land's church. 
 
 Of the President's great-great-grandfather, who 
 died at Benjamin Franklin's house, August, 
 1757, that most illustrous man of his time and 
 greatest American of any age said : 
 
 " He is a gendeman easy and affable In his con- 
 versation, open and sincere In his friendship, and 
 above any species of meanness and dissimu- 
 lation." 
 
 These qualities have not been lost in the family 
 
 inheritance. 
 
A Biographical Sketch 
 
 OF 
 
 ALLEN CRANBERRY THURiiN, 
 
 EX-SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OHIO, 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT OF 
 THE UNITED STATES, 1888. 
 
" Rich in saving common sense." 
 
 " O good, gray head which all men knew, 
 O voice from which their omens all men drew, 
 O iron nerve to true occasion true." 
 
 ** His rank in the Senate was established from the day he took his seat, 
 and was never lowered during the period of his service."— B/aine's 
 Twenty Years of Congress, 
 
^^?^;;2--2 CPO-t^^^^ 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 IN the Federal Convention of " our wise an- 
 cestors," who framed that Constitution under 
 which, with sHght changes, the Government 
 has been administered successfully for more than 
 a century, the office of President, as it now exists, 
 and the mode of filling it, were not created and 
 adopted without serious variances of opinion and 
 repeated changes of plan. 
 
 In the article on President and Vice-President, 
 as finally adopted, it was provided that each elec- 
 tor could vote for two persons as his choice for 
 President without expressing any preference or 
 distinction. The failure of any candidate to 
 receive a clear majority of all the votes cast, or a 
 tie resulting between the highest two candidates, 
 each with a majority — events not unlikely to occur 
 in the manifold political divisions of that day — was 
 provided for by the regulation that the House of 
 Representatives, voting by States, should make 
 choice between the two tied, or among the high- 
 est five of whom none had received a majority. 
 The same article provided, however, that after 
 the choice of President, the next highest electoral 
 
 3*55 
 
3o6 Z//'^ OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 vote should designate the Vice-President ; and 
 only in the event of a tie should the election to 
 that office be referred to Congress, and then to 
 the Senate, voting individually, and not to the pop- 
 ular branch nor to a vote by States. 
 
 To the office of Vice-President itself, created 
 rather grudgingly, objection was made. "Such 
 an officer as Vice-President," said Williamson, **is 
 not wanted." Says Bancroft: "To make an ex- 
 cuse for his existence the Convention decreed that 
 he should be President of the Senate." The 
 peculiar powers, duties, and significance of it have 
 always been more or less the subject of conten- 
 tion. John Adams, the first Vice-President, said to 
 the Senate : " Gentlemen, I do not know whether 
 the framers of the Constitution had in view the two 
 Kings of Sparta, the two Consuls of Rome, or the 
 two Suffetes of Carthage when they formed it — the 
 one to have all the power while he held it, and the 
 other to be nothinor. Gentlemen, I feel o^reat 
 difficulty how to act. I am possessed of two 
 separate powers — the one in esse, the other m posse, 
 I am Vice-President. In this I am nothino-, but I 
 may be everything. But I am President also of 
 the Senate. When the President comes into the 
 Senate what shall I be ? I wish, gentlemen, to 
 think what I shall be." Years ago the Senate 
 took away from the Vice-President and assumed 
 for itself the power to appoint the working com- 
 mittees of that body ; and except to preside in the 
 
OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 30/ 
 
 Senate, and cast the deciding vote in case of a tie 
 it has been left to the Vice-President only to 
 await the contingency pointed out by that section 
 of the Federal Constitution which says : " In case 
 of the removal of the President from office, or of 
 his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the 
 powers and duties of the said office, the same 
 shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the 
 Congress may by law provide* for the case of re- 
 moval, death, resignation or inability, both of the 
 President and Vice-President, declaring what 
 officer shall then act as President, and such officer 
 shall act accordingly, until the disability be re- 
 moved, or a President shall be elected." 
 
 Under the original scheme of the Constitution 
 as framed by its authors, John Adams being the 
 second choice of a majority of the Electoral 
 College for President, both at the first and sec- 
 ond elections of Washington, became the Vice- 
 President, although George Clinton, Republican, 
 received fifty electoral votes in 1792 to seventy- 
 seven for Adams. In the sharply contested strug- 
 gle of 1796, Thomas Jefferson came within two 
 votes of the Presidency, and, receiving more votes 
 than the Federalist candidate for Vice-President, 
 he was chosen to the second place in an Admin- 
 istration of which the Chief was his political antag- 
 onist. 
 
 * Congress has recently provided that in such cases the Secretary of 
 State shall act as President pending the new election. 
 
2o8 ^^^^ O^ ALLEN G. THURMAI^. 
 
 It was not until after the treachery of Aaron 
 Burr in 1801, forcing a tie vote between him and 
 his Chief in the Electoral College, had opened the 
 eyes of the people to the danger of their real 
 choice being obstructed by the uncertain machin- 
 ery of that cumbersome device, that such change 
 was made in the plan of electing the President 
 and Vice-President as tended to more directly se- 
 cure the real expression of the popular will. By 
 the Twelfth Amendment, proposed by Congress 
 in 1803 and promptly ratified by the States, it was 
 prescribed that henceforth electors should desig- 
 nate distinctly their one choice for President and 
 for Vice-President ; that " the person having the 
 greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall 
 be the Vice-President, if such number be a ma- 
 jority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
 and if no person have a majority, then from the 
 two highest numbers on the list the Senate sliall 
 choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the pur- 
 pose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole num- 
 ber of Senators, and a majority of the whole num- 
 ber shall be necessary to a choice." By the same 
 Amendment an oversight of the original instru- 
 ment was corrected in the enactment that "no 
 person Constitutionally ineligible to the office of 
 President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President 
 of the United States." 
 
 Burr, of course, failed of re-election to the 
 Vice-Presidency ; under Jefferson's second Ad- 
 
OFFICE OF VICE-rRESlDFNT. 309 
 
 ministration and in the first of Madison's terms 
 George Clinton brought to the Vice-Presidency 
 an honored name, worthy and fit dignity. Elbridge 
 Gerry, elected Vice-President to Madison, died 
 suddenly in the second year of his term ; Daniel 
 D. Tompkins, who went into office and out of it 
 with Monroe, in the uneventful era of good feel- 
 ing, was a more conspicuous statesman before 
 than after he became Vice-President; John C. 
 Calhoun, previously distinguished as a Represen- 
 tative and by brilliant Cabinet service, became 
 Vice-President by the mutual consent of the fierce 
 Adams and Jackson factions in the electoral strug- 
 gle of 1824, but differed almost throughout 
 his Administration from President John Quincy 
 Adams, and was an active party to the combina- 
 tion which defeated him. 
 
 Personal and political alienation and a revival 
 of the old troubles between Monroe's War Secre- 
 tary and the chief captain of the Seminole War 
 soon produced a far more violent rupture between 
 Jackson and Calhoun than had ever occurred 
 between Adams and Calhoun, ensuing in the hit- 
 ter's resignation of the Vice-Presidency and his 
 antagonism of Van Buren. Then followed Van 
 Buren's own political ascendency, first as Vice- 
 President, then as President, to be succeeded by 
 his defeat, even after Calhoun had become recon- 
 ciled to his support. 
 
 Richard M. Johnson, the Van Buren candidate 
 
3IO LIFE OF ALLEN G, THURMAX, 
 
 for Vice-President, failed of election in the Elect- 
 oral College ; he only received 1 47 electoral votes, 
 while his Chief had i 70, the number necessary to 
 a choice being 148. 
 
 The election being referred to the Senate, 
 Johnson was chosen by n votes to 16 for Francis 
 Granger, the highest Whig candidate. 
 
 During the first thirteen Presidential terms, 
 covering the period from i 789 to 1841, none of 
 the eight Presidents died, resigned, or had been 
 impeached, and no one of the twelve persons who 
 within that period had acted as Vice-Presidents 
 had ever succeeded to the higher place. That 
 experience came to the country early in the Ad- 
 ministration of Harrison, who died after a month 
 in office, and John Tyler became his successor. 
 His choice as a candidate on the Whig ticket of 
 1840 had been directed by a desire to secure the 
 support of an element different from that which 
 was rallied by Harrison's name ; and Tyler's de- 
 fection from Whig principles and poHcies, which 
 might have been reasonably expected, called forth 
 for him bitter denunciation from his late sup- 
 porters and added the word " Tylerize " to our 
 political nomenclature. John Tyler's estrange- 
 ment from the party which made Harrison Presi- 
 dent ought to have taught the politicians that they 
 had not, by the policy pursued in the selections 
 they made for Vice-President, avoided the dangers 
 which it had been sought to obviate by the con- 
 
OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 31 1 
 
 stitutional amendment of 1803. But the lesson 
 has not always been heeded. Since 1841 it hap- 
 pened, within a period no longer than the space 
 of a generation, that three Vice-Presidents suc- 
 ceeded to vacancies caused by death ; none of 
 them united his party in support of his Adminls- 
 tratlon, nor attained by election the office to 
 which he came by accident, though all aspired to 
 it. 
 
 Fillmore was chosen Vice-President by the same 
 electors who made Taylor President, but his 
 signature to the Fugitive Slave Law, approved 
 by a vote of 227 to 60 in the next National Con- 
 vention of his party, lost him a renominatlon. 
 William R. Kinor's loner career of usefulness and 
 distinction was crowned with election to the Vice- 
 Presidency ; and a graceful grant by Congress 
 gave him permission to take the oath of office in 
 Cuba, where, on March 4th, 1853, he was sojourn- 
 inof for his health. 
 
 John C. Breckenridge*s name was a fit one to 
 be associated with any Democratic candidate 
 and to be honored by election in 1856. He 
 was the nominee of one wing of his party, 
 in its fatal dissensions of i860, for the highest 
 place. Hamlin's defeat for renominatlon, in 1864, 
 was due to a spirit of concession to the Southern 
 Loyalists, and resulted in the Johnson succession 
 to the murdered Lincoln, with all the train of 
 political complications that followed. Colfax's de- 
 
312 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 feat for renomlnation as Vice-President with 
 Grant is ascribed to the hostility of the newspaper 
 correspondents, whose righteous wrath he had 
 provoked. Mr. Wheeler " glided through the 
 official routine " of Hayes' term to be submerged 
 by the obscurity which settled upon the whole of 
 that Administration ; while Arthur shared the fate 
 of Fillmore — in seeing his policy almost unan- 
 imously indorsed by his party and himself rejected 
 by that dominant faction which had chosen the 
 head of the ticket in 1880, and completed it with 
 a view to reconcile the disappointed elements of 
 the Convention, having no thought to the re- 
 mote contingency of the Presidential succession. 
 Since John C. Calhoun's day no Vice-President 
 has ever been re-elected, and no man who became 
 President by succession has been subsequently 
 elected to the office 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LINEAGE AND YOUTH OF THURMAN. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the name of Allen Cranberry 
 Thurman has been a household word 
 ^ with the Democracy of the whole coun- 
 try for twenty years, and during all that period 
 he has stood in the front rank among its leaders, 
 the nomination to the Vice-Presidency in 1888 
 came to him as the result of no seeking nor soli- 
 citation on his part, and with no thought as to the 
 effect of his election upon a political career al- 
 ready well rounded out. Twice before his name 
 had been greeted wathloud acclaim in the National 
 Conventions, when mentioned in connection with 
 the highest place, and of late years he had 
 shunned rather than sought political distinction. 
 He had come to prefer the ease and seclusion of 
 private life, with only occasional sallies into the 
 fields where he had won the highest professional 
 and political honors, to the turmoil of the battle 
 in whose fiercest passages he had so often by 
 stubborn resistance or brilliant onset turned de- 
 feat to victory for his party. 
 
 This present sketch will deal with his career, 
 therefore, as that of one whose fame is already 
 
 3U 
 
3 1 4 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 established, whose name is familiarly known, and 
 whose career is the possession and the pride of a 
 large portion of his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 A citizen of Ohio during the three decades In 
 which that Commonwealth has achieved and kept 
 its place as of third importance in the sisterhood 
 of the Union, his name illustrates a very large 
 part of its history and combines the surnames of 
 two families who have p-Iven lustre to Ohio'^ 
 escutcheon. In the Federal Capitol, in that hall 
 where, by the invitation of the nation, each State 
 places the statues of two of its most distinguished 
 sons, Ohio has set side by side with the figure of 
 Garfield, the last President from that State, the 
 commandinor statue of William Allen. That 
 brilliant lawyer, strong-minded statesman, and 
 powerful orator was the brother of Allen G. 
 Thurman's mother and the companion and pre- 
 ceptor of the son. 
 
 THE THURMANS AND ALLENS. 
 
 On both sides, through the strain alike of his 
 paternal and of his maternal ancestors, Allen 
 Cranberry Thurman inherits that " good blood " 
 which it is the just pride of every democratic 
 American citizen to trace through forerunners 
 who were honest, industrious, and intelligent men 
 and women, from whatever land they came and 
 in whatever vocation they worked and walked 
 upright. Nathan Thurman, a Virginia planter 
 
LINEAGE AND YOUTH OF JIIURMAN. 315 
 
 and Baptist preaclier, born in Prince Edward 
 County, January 17th, 1743, was a son of Richard 
 and Sarah Thurman ; his ancestors came of good 
 Saxon stock ; their character fits a name that in 
 every language where its root is found signifies 
 the true, strong, manly qualities which have ever 
 cliaracterized the race. He was a volunteer in 
 the Indian Wars which preceded the Revolution, 
 and he bore arms and a patriotic part in the larger 
 struggle for our independence and self-govern- 
 ment. August 5th, 1760, Nathan Thurman mar- 
 ried Rebecca Jennings, of Virginia family, and 
 Heaven blessed them with twelve children, nearly 
 all of whom lived to adv^anced aires. Of these, 
 Pleasant was born in Pittsylvania County, Vir- 
 ginia, October 23d, 17CS3, and died at Chillicothe, 
 Ohio, February 13th, 1856. He was the father of 
 Allen G., and early in life he devoted himself to 
 the ministry of the divine gospel. He was or- 
 dained a deacon of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church February 3d, 1808 ; an elder February 
 14th, 1 8 10, and he traveled the circuit as an 
 itinerant preacher for seven years. He was 
 pastor at Edenton, N. C, in 181 1, and on the 
 2 1 St of May, that year, he was married to Mary 
 G. Allen, the daughter of a prominent citizen of 
 that State. 
 
 Nathaniel Allen and family emigrated from 
 England in the ship that brought hither William 
 Penn, founder of the liberal and progressive 
 
3 I 6 LIFE OF ALLEN C. T7/URMAX. 
 
 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, late in the 
 seventeenth century. The family lived in Phila- 
 delphia for many years, and a great-grandson, 
 Nathaniel again, married Sarah Hewes, who was a 
 sister of Joseph Hewes, one of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence. Of the children of 
 this union the eldest two sons^ Joseph and Aaron, 
 were sent to Oxford, England, to be educated. 
 Aaron died there, and the illness of Joseph ter- 
 minated fatally on his homeward ocean voyage. 
 Hannah, the eldest daughter, married Robert 
 Gill, a sea captain in the East India trade, and 
 subsequently Washington's appointee as Naval 
 Agent at Philadelphia. Three daughters remained 
 unmarried, and Mary, the youngest, became the 
 wife of Captain Davis, of Alexandria, Va. Na- 
 thaniel Allen, the youngest son, born in Philadel- 
 phia April loth, 1755, died in North Carolina in 
 1805, at the age of nine was adopted by his 
 uncle, the Siofner, and his career was achieved in 
 North Carolina. He did gallant service for Inde- 
 pendence daring the Revolution, served in the 
 Legislature, and had honorable success as a mer- 
 chant. Mary Dawson was his first wife ; she 
 died young, and in 1781 he married Mary, daugh- 
 ter of Joseph and Christianna Cranberry. His 
 second wife died at the early age of thirty-two, 
 and of her two children, Joseph Henry and 
 Mary Cranberry, the latter became the mother of 
 Allen G. Thurman. She was born in Edenton, 
 
LINEAGE AND YOUTH OF THURMAN. 3 I 7 
 
 North Carolina, October 20th, 17S9, and died in 
 Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1S51, just about the time her 
 son attained the highest judicial honors of his 
 adopted State. Nathaniel Allen contracted a 
 third marriage, and four other sons were born to 
 him, of whom the youngest, William, born De- 
 cember, 1803, afterward removed from Virginia 
 to Ohio and became United States Senator and 
 Governor. 
 
 ALLEN G. THURMAN's BOYHOOD. 
 
 In the course of his ministrations as an itiner- 
 ant, Pleasant Thurman moved to Lynchburg, Vir- 
 ginia, in the neighborhood of his family estates, 
 and there his eldest son, Allen Cranberry, was 
 born at 3.30 p. m., November 13th, 181 3. He was 
 baptized by Bishop IMcKendree January 30th, 
 1 814, when the holy man conferred upon him the 
 two honorable names which his mother bore. 
 
 Of the other children of that marriage, two sons 
 and five daughters, none survived except the 
 youngest sister of Allen, Henrietta Jennings, the 
 wife of Rev. C. Riemensnyder, of Lancaster, Pa., 
 to whom and her family the great ex-Senator 
 makes frequent fraternal visits. 
 
 When Pleasant Thurman's father erew older 
 and an increasincr feeling of dissatisfaction with 
 the slavery system, as well as inability to manage 
 his negroes, strongly induced him to m.ake a change 
 of life, he prevailed upon his son to cease his active 
 
3i8 
 
 LIFE OF ALLEN G. TIIUKMAN, 
 
 ministry and remove to Madison, Amherst County, 
 Virginia, across the James River from Lynchburg; 
 there these early emancipators set about the 
 practical operation of freeing their bondsmen, and 
 yet they sought to care for their moral and spirit- 
 ual welfare to a degree uncommon among the 
 slaveholders. It was only to be expected from the 
 self-denying spirit of those whose desire to man- 
 umit their slaves had induced them to yield their 
 property as a sacrifice to humanity and freedom. 
 Beyond the Ohio River, to the Northwest, lay not 
 only the greatest future development of the coun- 
 try but the land of liberty, where to free the 
 bondsman from his chains was to open to him 
 opportunity. 
 
 The elder Mrs. Thurman then being dead, the 
 family, their personal effects, stock, and negroes, 
 numbering eighteen grown males, wives and 
 children, were transported by wagon, pack-horse, 
 and on foot, through wilderness, over mountains, 
 by bridle path and forest road, to the borders of 
 the Ohio River, and there ferried across. Once 
 landed on the other side, the negroes were set 
 free. They danced with joy at being declared no 
 longer slaves. But In whatever humane spirit 
 conceived, their emancipation was of doubtful 
 advantage to the males, unused to and unfitted 
 for judicious exercise of their new privileges, and 
 many of them became Idle and vicious; one "Black 
 Sam," the smartest and worst of the lot, for whom 
 
LINEAGE AND YOUTH OF THURMAN, 319 
 
 his late master had been offered $i,ooo, served 
 several terms in the State prison, where he met a 
 number of his companions of greater or less 
 offending. The women, as a rule, turned out bet- 
 ter, and by industry supported their families. 
 
 On November 29th, 18 19, when his father set 
 out for Ohio, young Allen G. Thurman was barely 
 six years old, and almost his first well remembered 
 experiences of life were in a State to which his 
 ancestors had been strangers, and which was itself 
 then in only a formative condition. He could 
 have had no recollection of that memorable day 
 not long after the batde of New Orleans, when, 
 in his native town of Lynchburg, Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, walking side by side with Andrew Jackson, 
 amid all the demonstrations of popular rejoicing, 
 presented a spectacle calculated to impress a child 
 with Democratic tendencies that wouldlast through 
 
 life. 
 
 The Thurman family settled in Chillicothe, then 
 a flourishing town of the new Commonwealth, and 
 the father, a man of culture and scholarship, bore 
 his part in the moral and material development of 
 the neighborhood by teaching in the village schools 
 and by attention to his business interests, which 
 consisted of two-thirds ownership in a woolen 
 mill. He was not without honor in his community 
 and was elected Burgess and Justice of the Peace 
 for two terms. 
 
 The lad's education was largely directed, and 
 
320 LIFE OF ALLEN G, THURMAN. 
 
 in him were planted the seeds of self-reliant 
 character and refined culture, by his mother, a 
 woman of strength aad nobility of mind. Young 
 Allen attended the High School, and subsequently 
 the Academy — one of those admirable training 
 schools of liberal education and classical culture 
 that have been, alas ! too generally uprooted by 
 what we are pleased to call more " popular '* 
 schemes of instruction. Out of that institution, 
 which, like others of its kind the country over, was 
 the nursery of many brilHant intellects, the boy 
 Thurman saw, with grievous disappointment, many 
 of his companions go to the larger advantages of 
 college life, and it is related that when they 
 mounted the stage to leave, his disappointment 
 was so grievous that he lay down on a flat grave- 
 stone in the Presbyterian graveyard and poured 
 out his lamentations in passionate tears for hours. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Youthful as he was, he had undaunted spirit, 
 and speedily recovered from his passing grief. 
 He determined with the books and chance he had 
 to outstrip even his more fortunate fellows, and 
 applied himself to every study with a resolute 
 purpose to master it. The light was often burn- 
 ing in his room, as he pored over his books, until 
 the coming dawn chased his weary head to its 
 pillow. As early as at fourteen years of age he 
 
LINEAGE AND YOUTH OF THURMAN. 321 
 
 taught school, Walking three miles into the coun- 
 try to do his daily task. He worked at surveying 
 to help his father and to contribute to larger edu- 
 cational advantages for himself. He returned to 
 the Academy after having made of himself a thor- 
 ough mathematician . and skilled surveyor, and 
 acquired thorough knowledge of Latin, though 
 never taking kindly to Greek. Close application 
 had worn him down bodily, and he spent, to great 
 physical profit, a year in surveying lands for 
 owners and occupants in the Virginia military 
 district, that section of Ohio lying between the 
 Scioto and Miami Rivers, over which Ohio had ju- 
 risdiction but which Viro^inia had reserved for the 
 benefit of her Revolutionary soldiers. Many of 
 these beneficiaries sold their warrants to specu- 
 lators, and for extensive locators like Governor 
 Mc Arthur, Wallace, Latham, and others, young 
 Thurman did a great deal of work in running lines 
 and designating grants. Besides this occupation, 
 he served as a clerk in the town post-of^ce, and 
 with his earnings then, as ever since, he was gen- 
 erous in filial and fraternal attention. 
 
 To the accomplishments which years of hard 
 study, crowned by early graduation from the 
 Academy with high honors gave him, Thurman 
 in early life added a knowledge of French that was 
 rare in his day and is not frequent even among 
 public men of distinction in this generation. This 
 circumstance he owed somewhat to the watchful 
 
22 2 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 care and culture of his mother^ and to the addi- 
 tional fact of his association with Professor Gre- 
 goire, a Frenchman, who, disappointed in land 
 speculations, came to Chillicothe as a teacher of 
 French, and whose motherless little daughter be- 
 came, at the instance of the kind-hearted Mrs. 
 Thurman, an inmate of her household and a com- 
 panion to her boy. 
 
 Besides his exercise in the fields and woods as 
 a surveyor, an occasional indulgence in a deer 
 hunt, a ride with the hounds, and two months ser- 
 vices as assistant tax collector aided to rebuild 
 his physical constitution and to strengthen him 
 for the arduous duties which in the great career 
 that lay before him were to tax and try extraor- 
 dinary powers of bodily endurance. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MR. THURMAN AS A LAWYER AT THE BAR AND ON 
 
 IHE BENCH. 
 
 THE Chlllicothe Bar fifty years ago was a 
 strong one. William Allen had walked 
 over the mountains from Viro^inia to the 
 new Commonwealth, trusting his fortunes to the 
 never failing aid of his half-sister, Allen G. Thur- 
 man's mothqr, and her husband, who had settled 
 in Chillicothe. Under their wise direction, and 
 with their generous help, Allen had completed his 
 academic and lecral studies and attained a hi^h 
 place at the bar. The elder Thomas Ewing, 
 Judge Scott, Colonel King, Henry Stanberry, 
 William Creighton, Benjamin F. Leonard, and H. 
 H, Hunter are the names of some others whose 
 eloquence, wit, and learning were at once the ad- 
 miration and the fear of the ambitious young law 
 student of that day in Ross County, Ohio. The 
 mother of young Thurman and his uncle wejre 
 agreed in their counsel that he should study law, 
 and a place as student was given to him in the 
 office of William Allen. He applied himself with 
 the assiduity that marked his school experience 
 and which has been the foundation of nearly every 
 great success in the legal profession. 
 
 323 
 
324 LIFE OF ALLEN G. Til UK MAN. 
 
 Meantime his preceptor had been elected to 
 Congress. Governor Lucas was then the Chief 
 Executive of Ohio — subsequently he became 
 Governor of Iowa Territory. He knew young 
 Thurman as an active Democrat already, and in 
 the winter of 1834 the Governor wrote to him 
 that his private secretary was going to Cincinnati 
 and he wanted Thurman to take his place. He ac- 
 cepted it and went to Columbus, but in connection 
 with his official duties continued his law studies 
 with Judge Swayne, afterward Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. In May, 
 1835, he found himself prepared for examination 
 for admission to the bar. The Judges of the 
 court were then sitting at Washington, Fayette 
 County, and would not get to Chillicothe before 
 November. He went down to Washington, 
 stood the public examination then in vogue with 
 credit to himself and with satisfaction to the Com- 
 mittee of the bar and to the bench, and was ad- 
 mitted to practice in the courts of Ohio. 
 
 AT THE BAR. 
 
 ■ He returned to Chillicothe and very soon formed 
 a partnership with his distinguished uncle. Mr. 
 Allen being elected to the United States Senate 
 in 1836, virtually quit the practice of law, and 
 the work of the office fell almost entirely upon 
 young Thurman. His shoulders bore it well. 
 The judicial district in which Chillicothe was lo- 
 
MR, TIfL -RMAX AS A LA WYLR. ^ -» - 
 
 cated comprised the four counties of Ross, FIke, 
 Jackson, and Fayette, and in these four lay the 
 young lawyer's practice. He rode from one 
 county seat to the other on horseback, and in ten 
 years practice he never missed a court in any one 
 of the counties on the circuit. No lawyer ever 
 worked harder ; he was alike at home in every 
 branch of practice, although he early became dis- 
 inclined to and gradually abandoned the petty 
 criminal business. 
 
 His first case came to him in this fashion : He 
 was about setting out for the Jackson County 
 Court when Colonel William T. JMurphy, one of 
 the older lawyers of Chillicothe, hailed him with a 
 request that he take charge of a suit for him 
 there. In the Congressional contest between 
 William Allen, Democrat, and Duncan McArthur, 
 Whig, who had abandoned the attempt to be re- 
 elected Governor to make this fight, William 
 Allen had been elected by one vote. Murphy had 
 run as a "bolting" Independent Democratic can- 
 didate, mainly to beat Allen. Chagrined at his 
 failure by so close a shave, he was not in a partic- 
 ularly amiable mood with his Jackson County 
 client, one Wilber, a Yankee, who, though a de- 
 voted friend professionally, was too ardent a Dem- 
 ocrat to vote for a " bolter,'' and had stuck to Al- 
 len in the canvass just closed. He especially ag- 
 gravated Murphy by claiming that his own single 
 vote had elected Allen ; and, whether from this or 
 
326 LIFE OF ALLEN G. TIIURMAN 
 
 some other cause, IMurphy was unwllllnq^ to go 
 over and try his case. Young Thurman felt diffi- 
 dent about undertaking it. Being pressed, how- 
 ever, he took Murphy's brief and devoted himself 
 to close study of it as he rode horseback to Jack- 
 son. He soon discovered that the action had 
 been brought erroneously in trover when it should 
 have been in assumpsit. 
 
 Wilber^s disappointment at the failure of his 
 counsel to come was not allayed by the unprom- 
 isinor substitute he had sent in the fledorlinor Thur- 
 man. When the young lawyer told Wilber that 
 the suit was wrongly brought, they would be non- 
 suited, and he declined to take the responsibility 
 of going on with the case, his new client declared 
 
 that Murphy, " the rascal, did that on purpose 
 
 to punish me for voting for Bill Allen ;" but no 
 diffidence on Thurman's part discouraged him. 
 He insisted that the case should proceed, and the 
 youthful counsel who had discovered Murphy's 
 error was warmly commended to him by his quick 
 perception and frankness. Thurman contented 
 himself by reading Murphy's brief, and suffered a 
 non-suit. Nothing daunted by the result, Wilber 
 took to sounding his praises, became his client 
 and influential friend, and, being a litigious person 
 and subsequently gaining many lawsuits with his 
 young attorney, the association so unpropitiously 
 begun turned out to be of great advantage to 
 Thurman. 
 
MR. THURMAN AS A LA l^VYER. 
 
 IN GENERAL PRACTICE. 
 
 327 
 
 In the trial of disputed land titles, his experi- 
 ence in the field, and his thorough knowledge of 
 surveying, served him well. Water-rights and mill- 
 dam powers were frequent subjects of contention 
 in the courts of that day, and collections, con- 
 tracts, ejectments, and all the elements of a mis- 
 cellaneous practice in a country town made up 
 his regular professional work. A one-hundred 
 dollar fee in that day was an unusual event. Mr. 
 Allen retiring from practice, Thurman associated 
 with him Theodore Sherer, who remained a law 
 partner until his senior was chosen to the Ohio 
 Supreme Bench in 1851. 
 
 During all this time he was active in politics, 
 consistent in his Democracy, and as unceasing as 
 he was fearless in his labors to promote the suc- 
 cess of his party in its local. State, and National 
 campaigns. But he refused to be diverted from 
 the path of professional application in which he 
 had set his feet to any of^ce of political honor or 
 emolument. He declined candidacy for all official 
 place, except the single term of Congress for 
 which he was nominated, against his will, in his 
 absence from the State in 1844 — an event which, 
 with its results, will be- considered hereafter in a 
 review of his political career. 
 
 As a lawyer he was studious, prompt, pains- 
 taking in his preparation, logical, quick to discern 
 
-^28 LI IE OF ALLEN G, TUCK MAN. 
 
 the weak points of the opposition, and aggressive 
 in attack at the opportune time. He practiced 
 largely in the Supreme Court of Ohio and of the 
 United States, and as early as 1851 he was known 
 and recognised throughout the State as one of its 
 foremost lawyers* 
 
 ELECTED TO THE SUPREME BENCH. 
 
 Under the new Constitution of Ohio its Su- 
 preme Court was to be reorganised in 1851 by 
 the election of five new judges on a single ticket. 
 Thurman was the unanimous choice of his party 
 for one of the places. The Democrats were suc- 
 cessful in the election of all their nominees in the 
 fall of 1 85 1, and the Judges elect drew lots for 
 their terms, the chief-justiceship to go in turn to 
 those whose terms first expired. Mr. Thurman 
 went upon the bench in February, 1852, and 
 drew the four-year term, but Judge Corwin, who 
 drew the three-year term, resigned, and the chief 
 place on the bench went to Judge Thurman for 
 more than one year (December 4th, 1854-Feb- 
 ruary 9th, 1856.) 
 
 The same qualities of mind, thorough knowl- 
 edge, keen discernment and positive, direct as- 
 sertion which had distinguished him as a lawyer 
 characterized his labors on the bench. Asso- 
 ciated with men who then ranked high, and some 
 of whom afterward gained laro^er fame, Chief- 
 Justice Thurman easily led the court while he was 
 
MR. THURMAN AS A LAWYER. 329 
 
 a member of it. Charged with the construction 
 of the new Constitution and the duty of adjusting 
 it to the conditions under which the State's juris- 
 prudence had been developed, his term of service 
 was a most important one in the constitutional 
 and judicial history of Ohio. The State Reports 
 (Volumes I-V) of this time are enriched with 
 many opinions exhibitinghis learning, perspicacity, 
 and cogent reasoning. Amone these, and be- 
 sides many others of no less importance, was that 
 in Bloom v, Richards (2 Ohio St., Z^']), in which 
 case the point in issue was whether or not specific 
 performance could be enforced of a contract which 
 was made on Sunday for the sale of lands. The 
 syllabus of the opinion in this case is as follows : 
 
 A contract, entered into on a Sunday, was not 
 for that reason void at common law. 
 
 With perhaps a single exception, all the cases, 
 English and American, in which contracts have 
 been declared void because made on a Sunday, 
 rest upon the ground of a statutory prohibition. 
 
 But even were such a contract void by the 
 common law, it would not necessarily follow that 
 it is void in Ohio. 
 
 The English common law, so far as it is reason- 
 able in itself, suitable to the condition and business 
 of our people, and consistent with the letter and 
 spirit of our Federal and State Constitutions and 
 statutes, has been and is followed by our courts, 
 and may be said to constitute a part of the com- 
 mon law of Ohio. But whenever it has been 
 found wanting in either of these requisites, our 
 
330 LIFE OF ALLEN G. TIIURMAN. 
 
 courts have not hesitated to modify It to suit our 
 circumstances, or, if necessary, wholly to depart 
 from It. 
 
 Christianity Is a part of the common law of 
 England, but, under the provisions of our Consti- 
 tution, neither Christianity nor any other system 
 of religion Is a part of the law of this State. 
 
 We have no union of Church and State, nor 
 has our Government ever been vested with au- 
 thority to enforce any religious observance simply 
 because It Is religious. Of course, It is no objec- 
 tion, but, on the contrary, It Is a high recommen- 
 dation to a legislative enactment, based upon jus- 
 lice or public policy, that is found to coincide with 
 the precepts of a pure religion: nevertheless, the 
 power to make the law rests In the legislative 
 control over things temporal, and not over things 
 spiritual. 
 
 The statute, prohibiting comimon labor on the 
 Sabbath, could not stand for a moment as the 
 law of this State, if its sole foundation was the 
 Christian duty of keeping that day holy, and Its 
 sole motive to enforce the observance of that duty. 
 It Is to be regarded as a mere municipal or police 
 regulation, whose validity is neither strengthened 
 nor weakened by the fact that the day of rest It 
 enjoins Is the Sabbath day. 
 
 Numerous cases may be found In which con- 
 tracts entered Into upon a Sunday, have been 
 declared invalid, but It will be seen, by an exami- 
 nation of the statutes, under which these decisions 
 were made, that they are, In everv instance, much 
 more comprehensive than the Ohio enactment. 
 Their prohibition is not, like that of the Ohio 
 law, of common labor simply, but of any manner 
 
MR. THURMAN AS A LAWYER. 33 1 
 
 of worldly busi?iess, save acts of necessity or 
 charity. 
 
 It seems to be the common expression of the 
 courts, that the making of a contract Is busmess, 
 within the meaning of the acts they are construing. 
 
 Neither In common parlance, nor in its strict 
 philological sense, does the expression, " common 
 labor," embrace the simple making of a bargain. 
 
 It Is not to be understood, tliat because a Sun- 
 day contract may be valid, therefore business may 
 be transacted upon that as upon other days — as 
 for instance, by a merchant, not of the excepted 
 class. To wait upon his customers and receive 
 and sell his wares. Is the common labor of a mer- 
 ciiant, and there is a broad distinction between 
 pursuing this avocation, and the case of a single 
 sale out of the ordinary course of business. But 
 the mere making of a contract on Sunday is not 
 prohibited by the statute of Ohio. 
 
 The opinion In Bloom v. Richards, In which the 
 entire court concurred, Is a most comprehensive 
 and learned review of the subject to which It re- 
 lates. It is especially clear In its distinction be- 
 tween the provisions of the Ohio Constitution and 
 the law of other Commonwealths that liad been 
 less liberal In framing their fundamental provi- 
 sions. It has long stood as high authority over 
 the whole country. 
 
 TIETURN TO THE BAR. 
 
 The salary of a Judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Ohio was not commensurate with the earnlnos of 
 
332 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THUKMAN. 
 
 a lawyer of the hig-Iiest ability and greatest repu- 
 tation, and at the close of his term Judge Thur- 
 man declined to be a candidate for re-election. 
 He returned to his practice, and, unlike many 
 judges whom an experience on the bench rather 
 disables for general practice, he came back to it 
 with renewed strength and fitness, and at once 
 leaped into a far more lucrative business than he 
 had ever before enjoyed. 
 
 During his term as Judge of the Supreme 
 Bench he had removed his residence from Chilli- 
 cothe to Columbus, the capital of the State, where 
 he has lived ever since. There he located his law 
 office, and henceforth his practice dealt with the 
 largest concerns. In the State and Federal 
 courts he was known equally well as a sagacious 
 counselor, a most ingenious and forcible attorney 
 before the court in banc, and a persuasive and 
 subtle advocate in jury trials. His business re- 
 lations and undiminished political activity gave 
 him wide acquaintance throughout the State. 
 While Chase, Sherman, Wade, and other leading 
 men of Ohio, whom more favorable political con- 
 ditions brought into national prominence, were 
 better known to the country at large, close devo- 
 tion to the law was oraininor for Thurman advan- 
 tages which, when his time came to profit by them 
 in a Senatorial career, equipped him to take a 
 front rank from the start in a chamber then well 
 filled with brilliant and distinoruished men. 
 
MR. THURMAN AS A LAWYER. 333 
 
 After his election to the Senate .and during his 
 service in Washington, Mr. Thurman gave Httle 
 attention to law practice, save in about a dozen 
 important cases with which his relations could not 
 be violently sundered. His political distinction 
 and eminent public services are, however, chiefly 
 due to his character as a great lawyer; on the 
 Judiciary Committee or the floor of the Senate, as 
 a member of the International Monetary Confer- 
 ence, as arbiter between the Trunk Line Railroad 
 Companies, as counsel for the Government in the 
 telephone cases, as an arbitrator between the 
 operators and miners in the Hocking Valley, and 
 finally in his last professional service as associate 
 counsel for the prosecution of the accused of his 
 own political party in the tally-sheet forgery cases, 
 he has held his place and justified his reputation as 
 one of the first lawyers of the United States. His 
 eminence and success he owes in large measure 
 to natural endowment. God ea-ve to him an in- 
 herent love of justice, and he cultivated his genius 
 with that singleness of purpose which makes much 
 for greatness, " If therefore thine eye be single, 
 thy whole body shall be full of light." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EARLY INTEREST IN POLITICS ON THE STUMP AND 
 
 IN CONGRESS ELECTED TO THE SENATE. 
 
 FROM his ancestry and family connections it 
 was quite natural that the boy Thurman 
 should manifest early political inclinations 
 toward the Jacksonlan Democracy. He took an 
 active interest in the violent discussions of the 
 period when he was growing to manhood and 
 when politics absorbed far more of serious popu- 
 lar attention than now. He first mounted the 
 stump before he was of age, at Piketon, Pike 
 County, where enthusiastic friends forced him, 
 reluctant, to assume the rights of an elector to 
 harangue the crowd. He had " peddled" tickets 
 for Jackson in 1828, the ballots for the entire 
 State being then printed in Cincinnati and sent to 
 the county-seats. Young Thurman spent as much 
 as two weeks time taklnof them from house to 
 house in Ross, Scioto, and Pike Counties. His 
 personal acquaintances and his work as a sur- 
 veyor brought him into association with many 
 of the prominent men of his party in the State ; 
 and when Governor Lucas sent for him to come 
 to Columbus as his Secretary he had already 
 surveyed through the hills with that statesman. 
 In his uncle's campaigns he participated with 
 
 334 
 
EARL V INTEREST IN POLITICS. 335 
 
 much energy, and his party found In him a wilHng 
 and IndefatI(Table worker. 
 
 It was not until 1844 that he allowed himself to 
 be nominated for any office, his energies being 
 chiefly directed to building up his practice and to 
 aiding In the support of his father's family, espe- 
 cially the education of his sisters. In the midst of 
 the famous Polk-Clay campaign of 1844, ^.nd 
 during his absence from the State, In Kentucky, 
 he was nominated for Cono^ress in the district com- 
 posed of Ross, Adams, Jackson, Pike, and Hocking 
 Counties. At the election previous Ex-Governor 
 Lucas (who had come back to the State from 
 Iowa) lost the district as the Democratic candi- 
 date, being beaten by John I. V^an Meter, Whig, 
 by 250 majority. The Democrats in their neces- 
 sity turned to their strongest man to recover 
 their prestige and their Congressional repre- 
 sentation. A spirited contest ensued, marked, 
 however, as all Thurman's political controversies 
 have been, by personal courtesy and good feeling. 
 
 Thurman spent a week on the stump in each 
 county of the district. His opponent was a fine 
 gentleman but not a public speaker, and he was 
 beaten by over four hundred. 
 
 IN CONGRESS, I 845-47. 
 
 Mr. Thurman went to Washington in Decem- 
 her, 1845, ^t the opening of the term of Congress, 
 and he recalls that he entered public life there 
 
336 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 on the same day as Simon Cameron, who had 
 been elected Senator from Pennsylvania for the 
 first time. They boarded at the same house, 
 Young Gadsby's. 
 
 These were great days In Washington. The 
 Senatorial giants were In the maturity of their 
 powers. The tariff of 1846, the Mexican War, 
 and the Oregon question were some of the sub- 
 jects of disputation during his single Congres- 
 sional term. He served on the Judiciary Com- 
 mittee In the House, of which body Dr. John W. 
 Davis, of Indiana, was Speaker. 
 
 He supported the Administration and Its con- 
 duct of the Mexican War. He made a speech 
 on the Oregon issue, and stood firm widi Stephen 
 A. Douglas, Andrew Johnson, and Howell Cobb 
 against the abandonment by most of his Demo- 
 cratic colleagues of the bold position they had 
 before taken for ''Fifty-four Forty or Fight.'' 
 
 In the division of the Northern Democrats over 
 the " Wilmot Proviso " he voted with Hannibal 
 Hamlin, Preston King, Simon Cameron, and 
 John Wentworth, of his party, in favor of that 
 momentous amendment to the proposed execu- 
 tive grant. 
 
 Remotely removed from his law practice. In the 
 days of slow communication between the East 
 and West, with very moderate accumulation of 
 fortune, and having assumed new responsibili- 
 ties by his recent marriage, Mr. Thurman recog- 
 
EARL V IN TERES! IN POLITICS. -7)^1 
 
 nized that he could not afford to remahi In Con- 
 gress at a salary of eight dollars per day and 
 heavy personal expenses. He declined re- 
 nomination and renewed his attention to his law 
 practice. 
 
 He abated none of his active interest In politics 
 and shirked no task that It imposed upon him. 
 Having withheld himself from partisan interfer- 
 ence while on the bench, upon re-entering politi- 
 cal life he resolutely resisted the arrogance of the 
 slave power, and In the Douglas-Buchanan party 
 differences he opposed the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise and advocated non-interference of 
 the Federal Government for slavery in the Ter- 
 ritories. He was against the Lecompton Con- 
 stitution for Kansas, and supported Douglas for 
 President in i860, though never accepting his 
 doctrine of " squatter sovereignty." He strenu- 
 ously antagonized the doctrine of secession and 
 loyally supported the Union cause. He believed 
 in the vigorous prosecution of the war, though he 
 never justified the resort to unconstitutional 
 means nor recognized the necessity of Imperiling 
 the Union to save it. He had but two logical al- 
 ternatives as to the relation of the seceded States 
 to the General Government : If they were out of 
 the Union the North was at war with them and 
 every loyal man must stand by the flag ; if they 
 were in the Union, they were in a state of insur- 
 rection that must be suppressed. 
 
338 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN, 
 
 THE CANVASS OF I 867. 
 
 In 1867 ^ Legislature was to be chosen In Ohio 
 to name a successor to Ben Wade, then United 
 States Senator ; a Governor was to be elected, 
 and, in advance of the ratification of the Fifteenth 
 Amendment to the Federal Constitution, negro 
 suffrage was to be imposed upon this Common- 
 wealth by the popular adoption of a State consti- 
 tutional amendment. To the leadership of the 
 Democratic party in the field Its ablest champion, 
 in the person of Allen G. Thurman, was called by 
 unanimous nomination for Governor. Ruther- 
 ford B. Hayes was the Republican candidate. 
 Then ensued a remarkable campaign, which at- 
 tracted attention throughout the country. Mainly 
 through Mr. Thurman'sown efforts and direction 
 a close and thorough organization of his party was 
 effected. He led the fight himself, and for sixty- 
 five consecutive working days he was on the 
 stump, saving only two days which he spent In 
 Columbus in council with the Executive Com- 
 mittee. He made over one hundred speeches. 
 The negro suffrage amendment was beaten by 
 fifty thousand. Hayes was barely elected by 
 three thousand plurality, and the House and Sen- 
 ate were Democratic. For the United States 
 Senatorship the people of his party named him 
 with loud acclaim, and In the legislative caucus he 
 was chosen by a vote nearly double that received 
 
EARL Y INTEREST IN POLITICS. 339 
 
 by his only opponent, the late Clement L. Vallan- 
 digham. Men of all parties recognized the fitness 
 of'bestowing upon him the highest honors of a 
 campaign which he organized and directed with 
 unequaled sagacity and skill. The new Legis- 
 lature chose him as the successor of Benjamin F. 
 Wade, United States Senator from Ohio. 
 
 AS A CAMPAIGN SPEAKER. 
 
 In this campaign Mr. Thurman exhibited the 
 widest range of his powers as a public speaker, 
 an organizer, and a far-sighted statesman ; ^ no 
 less dfd he display a remarkable physical ^ vigor 
 and adaptation to all the conditions to which an 
 active campaigning candidate is exposed. Popu- 
 lar and effective as he has always been on the 
 stump, he never abandons his logic, never sacri- 
 fices directness of address to rhetorical flights, 
 nor supplants argument with abuse of his op- 
 ponents. In a speech in the campaign of 1868, 
 at Sandusky, Ohio, he said what he might, with 
 justice,have said of his speeches generally on the 
 hustings or in the Senate : 
 
 "I am profoundly grateful, I assure you, for the 
 cordiality and warmth of your welcome. I shall 
 endeavor to repay it by speaking on subjects 
 worthy of your attention, and in the language of 
 soberness and truth befitting the occasion. I am 
 not here to declaim, however pardonable declama- 
 tion might be— I am not here to indulge in abuse. 
 
340 ^'^^^ OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 however justifiable might be strong terms of con* 
 demnation. For that style and mode of speak- 
 ing, in which rlictoric is preferred to reason, hard 
 names to argument, and unfounded assertions to 
 incontestable facts, I have neither capacity, incli- 
 nation, nor taste. What I desire is, to present to 
 my fellow-citizens, who honor me with their at- 
 tention, undeniable facts and sound arguments 
 upon matters that deeply concern them, and to do 
 this in the plainest and clearest language that I 
 am capable of using." 
 
 ON THE TARIFF TWENTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 From the same speech may fitly be made at 
 this time an extract on the tariff issue, to show 
 how clearly he foreshadowed the issue of the cam- 
 paign in which he has come to be one of the 
 standard-bearers in 1888. 
 
 On September 7th, 1868, he said : 
 
 " I desire to call your attention, first, to the sub- 
 ject of the tariff. What is the tariff? It is a duty 
 or tax levied by the Government upon goods 
 imported into the United States. When no higher 
 than was required for the purposes of revenue, it 
 has always been cheerfully acquiesced in by the 
 people. They have generally preferred it to any 
 other mode of taxation, and they have not objected 
 to so arranorlnor a revenue tariff as to afford inci- 
 dental protection or benefit to our own manufac- 
 turers. But when a tariff, like that now in force. 
 
EARL Y INTEREST IN POLITICS. 341 
 
 Is framed, not for revenue purposes, but to give 
 one class of capitalists a monopoly of the market, 
 or, at least, to enhance the price of everything 
 they make, and thus burden the consumers, it 
 becomes seriously oppressive. It Is a tax that 
 benefits no one but the favored capitalist. It does 
 not benefit the Government, for a greater revenue 
 would be produced by a lower tax. When a tariff 
 is exorbitant, Importations fall off, the revenue 
 fails, and the Government loses. But the favored 
 monopolist, having the market substantially to 
 himself, adds to the price of his commodities, and 
 the consumers suffer. Whether they buy Im- 
 ported or domestic goods. In the price they pay 
 for them they pay the tax levied by the Govern- 
 ment. If the goods be imported, the Importer 
 pays the tax, and adds it, with a per cent, of Inter- 
 est or profit, to the price when he sells to the retail 
 merchant, and the latter adds to that his per cent, 
 of interest or profit when he sells to the consumer, 
 who Is the man that In the end pays the tax, and 
 the profits or Interest thereon. If the goods 
 be not Imported, yet the domestic manufacturer 
 raises the price of his goods to that of the im- 
 portations, and so the consumer pays the amount 
 of the tax, while the Government gets not one 
 cent of it. Now, that Is precisely what Is going 
 on every day. There is not an article you wear, 
 the price of which is not enhanced by the enor- 
 mous tariff duties levied by our Government." 
 
342 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 In the same speech he depicted with vivid eftect 
 the impoverished condition of the South, owino- 
 to the misdirected system of reconstruction im- 
 posed upon it ; and he pointed out the economic 
 loss occasioned to the North by this miserable pol- 
 icy of sectional hate and partisan greed. He 
 said : 
 
 " My friends, have you any idea of the impov- 
 erishment of the South ? If you have not, let me 
 give one fact from the official records of the 
 Treasury Department, about which there can be 
 no mistake, and which reveals it in a startling 
 light. You know that our Radical rulers have 
 established the most inquisitorial and searching 
 system of taxation the world ever saw. It fol- 
 lows a man wherever he goes, and directly or in- 
 directly taxes him on all he eats or drinks or 
 wears ; it attends him in sickness as well as in 
 health, and, reluctant to give up its grasp, it ac- 
 companies him to the grave ; and when, at last, he 
 is laid in his mother earth, it demands of his heirs 
 or legatees a further tribute before they can en- 
 joy his estate. And yet with all this searching 
 inquisition, the taxes paid by the ten Southern 
 States are less, by ^5,000,000 a year, than those 
 paid by Ohio alone. So poverty-stricken is that 
 portion of the Republic, that the tax officials of 
 the Government cannot find in all those ten 
 
EARLY INTEREST IN POLITICS. 343 
 
 States as much property to tax as is found in 
 Ohio alone. Nay, the single county of Hamilton, 
 in our State, paid in the fiscal year of 1866-67, 
 ;g 1, 1 00,000 more taxes to the Federal Government 
 than did eio-ht of the Southern States. Could 
 anything more completely demonstrate the im- 
 poverished condition of those States, or more 
 completely show how that poverty increases our 
 burden ? 
 
 " Now, my friends,! repeat that all this is in a 
 great degree owing to the Radical policy toward 
 those States since the war closed. Had the right 
 policy been pursued, had the Southern people, 
 after they laid down their arms, been treated as 
 American citizens and not as enemies, had they 
 been permitted to peaceably resume the benefits 
 of civil government and the avocations of peace, 
 had they not been placed under military domi- 
 nation and negro rule, and had no threats of 
 sweeping confiscation been made, long before this 
 their ancient prosperity would have begun to re- 
 vive, the marks of war's desolation would have 
 become fainter every day, and in a few short 
 years hardly a trace of them would have been 
 found." 
 
 ALWAYS TO THE FRONT. 
 
 In all the campaigns of his party, while he was 
 Senator and since, Mr. Thurman has been a con- 
 spicuously effective advocate of the candidates 
 
344 ^^^^ ^^ ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 and principles of the Democracy. Loyal in his 
 devotion to the ororanization of his own Stale and 
 steadfast in an affection for his party everywhere, 
 which is heartily reciprocated, to him again and 
 again has it been left to strike a " keynote " which 
 should reverberate from ocean to ocean. 
 
 Mr. Thurman fio-ured in the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention of 1864. He was on the floor 
 of the Convention in 1868 which nominated Sey- 
 mour for President in New York. He was not 
 present at the " fusion " of the Liberal Republi- 
 can and Democratic parties in 1872, and reluct- 
 antly assented to the fatal policy of that year. 
 Tilden In 1876, Hancock in 1880, and Cleveland 
 in 1884 ^'^'^^ ^"^^s earnest support. Though his 
 own name had been favorably mentioned and en- 
 thusiastically received at Chicago in the last- 
 named year, his was one of the first of the leaders' 
 voices heard for the successful candidate. His 
 speeches in the last national canvass of his party 
 in Brooklyn, Tammany Hall, and throughout the 
 whole of Southern Indiana were amonor the mem- 
 orable influences that contributed to Democratic 
 victory. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 MR. THURMAN IN THE SENATE OF UNITED STATES. 
 
 N^ EARLY thirty years before he went to 
 Washington to take a seat in the highest 
 legislative body of the country Mr. Thur- 
 man had made a jouuiey to the Capital City, 
 partly to recruit his health, impaired by severe 
 labors, and pardy to visit his uncle, Senator Allen, 
 and to have a sight of his famous contemporaries. 
 He listened with delicrht to the familiar conversa- 
 tion of Calhoun, heard the fiery debates of the 
 great orators of that day, and spent nearly two 
 months of time amid those scenes and person- 
 ages with great interest and profit. Subsequently 
 he had visited Washington rarely, except during 
 his one term in Congress and upon the legal 
 business which required his attention in the courts 
 and at the departments. But now, elected to 
 represent his State and the weightiest concerns 
 of the people, regarded with pride and attention 
 by his party throughout the country as one of its 
 most eminent leaders, placed in a position of 
 greatest responsibility, he made every interest 
 secondary to the duties of a faithful public servant, 
 a fearless tribune of the right. 
 
 345 
 
346 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 He came into office with the new Administra- 
 tion of President Grant, following that stormy 
 period in which the obstinacy of Andrew John- 
 son had pushed the Congressional leaders of 
 his late party into the most violent excesses. A 
 very serious loss the Democratic party in the 
 Senate sustained was the retirement at this time 
 by the expiration of his term of that lamented 
 statesman, Thomas A. Hendricks, who had for 
 six years maintained leadership on his side of the 
 Chamber and had resisted with couraofeous effort 
 the wrongs and oppressions of the dominant 
 party in the reconstruction period. Happily for 
 the Democracy, whose Senators then numbered 
 so few, the same day that marked the retirement 
 of Hendricks was the date of Thurman's admis- 
 sion to the Senate. 
 
 When he took his seat there were besides him 
 but few colleagues of his own faith ; Stockton, 
 of New Jersey ; Garrett Davis and McCreery, of 
 Kentucky ; Eugene Casserly, of California; Vick- 
 ers and Hamilton, of Maryland ; Willard Sauls- 
 bury and Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; John- 
 ston, of Virginia, and Thomas M. Norwood, 
 of Georgia. Of these Bayard and Stockton 
 were, like himself, untried in this field of public 
 service. Among the. Republicans of distinction 
 who entered the Senate for the first time with him 
 were the brilliant and impulsive Carpenter; Schurz 
 and Fenton, so soon to break with the ororaniza- 
 
MR. TUVRMAN IN THE SENATE. 347 
 
 tion that elected them, and William A. Bucking- 
 ham, to whose memory Ihurman has paid tender 
 and touchinor tribute. But of the trained leaders 
 in the opposition with whom Thurman was to 
 cross swords were Fessenden, who did not long 
 survive the obloquy cast upon him by his party 
 for his independent vote on the Johnson impeach- 
 ment; Edmunds and Morrell; Sumner and Wilson; 
 Conkling, Anthony, Cameron, Sherman, Morton, 
 Trumbull, Chandler, and Howe. The Republican 
 representation from the South w^as largely made 
 up of the class now relegated to obscurity as 
 " carpet-baggers," or the fit representatives of 
 that unsavory element. 
 
 One of the first moves of the Republicans in 
 both Houses was to repeal for President Grant's 
 convenience the Tenure-of-Office Act, for the 
 alleged violation of which they had sought to de- 
 pose Johnson. The Senate, less shameless than 
 the House, gagged at the proposition to so 
 prompdy uncover its own Inconsistency; and Its 
 Judiciary Committee tried to palter with the issue 
 by proposing to " suspend " the act. Mr. Thur- 
 man, the ripeness of whose powers as a jurist had 
 designated him for the Judiciary Committee, 
 derided the offer '' to enforce the act when It will 
 have no practical effect and to suspend It when It 
 would have practical effect." He made his 
 single speech of the session on this point, and the 
 report was recommitted. After some contention 
 
348 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 between the Houses a substitute for the act was 
 passed. 
 
 BRILLIANT SERVICE IN THE SENATE. 
 
 The most brilHant services of the new Senator 
 from Ohio were, of course, rendered to his party 
 and his country at this period, in connection with 
 the questions that arose out of the so-called 
 " reconstruction " by Congress of the States 
 recently in rebellion. The murder of Mr. Lincoln 
 at a time when his great qualities of head and 
 heart were most needed to restore the Union he 
 had helped to save, the perverse and impracti- 
 cable, though sincere, purposes of his successor, 
 and the desperate party zeal of the Radicals in 
 Congress had united to produce political condi- 
 tions as disgraceful as they were disastrous to 
 both sections of the country. Mr. Thurman's 
 undisturbed equanimity of temper, his unfailing 
 courtesy to opponents, his readiness in debate, 
 and his profound knowledge of Constitutional law, 
 stood his party well in this time of its scant num- 
 bers and few leaders. 
 
 One of his early opportunities to show the stuff 
 that was in him came with the contest in the 
 Senate over the right of the Federal Congress 
 to "reconstruct " the Georgia Legislature because, 
 it was alleged, negroes chosen to it were excluded 
 from their seats. Georgia had adopted a Consti- 
 tution in which the colored man was given the 
 
MR. THURMAN IN THE SENA TE, 349 
 
 right of suffrage, but not expressly the privilege 
 of holding office. Joseph E. Brown had been 
 elected Governor on the Republican ticket in a 
 canvass in which he distinctly held that the pro- 
 posed fundamental law did not confer the right to 
 hold office upon the negro, and upon that assur- 
 ance the people ratified it. Nevertheless, the 
 Republicans elected a Legislature largely made 
 up of negroes. The lawfully chosen members, 
 exercising the ordinary rights of representative 
 bodies to judge of the qualifications of their own 
 members, barred out the negroes. The Republi- 
 cans introduced into the Senate a resolution of 
 inquiry and investigatioH, aimed at dislodging the 
 whites and putting in the negroes. 
 
 Representatives and Senators elect were ex- 
 eluded from Congress pending the successful 
 efforts of the Radicals to alter the Le2:islature and 
 compel the ratification of the Fifteenth Amend- 
 ment. Against this most revolutionary and ex- 
 traordinary conduct on the part of Congress, even 
 Republicans like Carpenter In the Senate and 
 Bingham In the House protested, as an unpre- 
 cedented assumption of Federal power. Thurman 
 led the fight for his party In the Senate, and for 
 five days and nlghts,^ during which it Is said he 
 never went to bed, he made hopeless parliamen- 
 tary battle against overwhelming odds. But 
 high above the defeat of the hour rang out his 
 bugle note of alarm to the country that Congres- 
 
350 ^IPE OF ALLEN G, TIIURMAN. 
 
 sional powers were bein^ stretched to the last 
 Hmit of safety for the RepubHc. 
 
 A SUCCESSFUL CONTEST. 
 
 Upon another occasion, Hke in the early ex- 
 periences related, he succeeded in arresting the 
 partisan zeal of the Senate and in securing for 
 his own side substantial gain, while at the same 
 time he served the cause of justice. 
 
 Joseph C. Abbott, a "carpet-bag" Senator from 
 North Carolina, now justly forgotten, had been 
 succeeded by Zebulon B. Vance, elect of the 
 Legislature. Vance's disabilities had not been 
 removed and, of course, the Republican Congress 
 would not vote them off. The Democratic Sena- 
 tors wrote to him uniting in a request that he 
 make no obstruction or delay in having some 
 eligible Democrat chosen to Abbott's place. 
 Vance manfully withdrew and M. W. Ransom was 
 chosen. Then Abbott, fortified by an opinion 
 from Caleb Cushing, set up the ridiculous plea 
 that at the first election the votes cast for Vance 
 counted as blanks, and that he himself, having 
 received the others, had a majority of the legal 
 votes cast and was the lawful Senator-elect. 
 Cushing's cunningargument captivated Carpenter 
 and he fought viciously for Abbott's admission. 
 Morton was Chairman of the Committee on Priv- 
 ileo-es and Elections. Thurman madeforRansom 
 what he is pleased to recall as the best legal 
 
MR. THURMAN IN THE SENATE. 351 
 
 argument of his career. To the surprise and de- 
 light of the Democrats, Logan voted with them, 
 and Morton broke the tie by casting his vote also 
 for Ransom. He assigned to Thurman the prepa- 
 ration of the majority report, but the Ohio Sena- 
 tor insisted that Los^an should make it and aided 
 him with his brief. The question gave rise to a 
 viirorous debate on the floor, in which Thurman 
 gained new laurels, and the admission of Ransom 
 was an additional sign of returning reason in 
 politics. 
 
 A POPULAR SENATOR. 
 
 The defection of the Liberal Republican Sen- 
 ators in 1872 intensified the political dissensions 
 and personal differences which seemed to begin 
 when the party was at its strongest, and were ag- 
 gravated under the Grant Administration. Per- 
 sonal friendships crossed party lines at right an- 
 gles, and no man on either side grew more steadily 
 in the respect and affections of his colleagues than 
 Thurman. 
 
 In 1873 his re-election was one of the chief 
 issues of the Ohio campaign. It was rendered 
 memorable, too, by the recall of the venerable 
 William Allen to the active leadership of his party 
 by making him its candidate for Governor. The 
 two great family names that had so long been 
 emblazoned on the banners of the Ohio Democ- 
 racy were irresistible. Allen was elected Gov- 
 
352 LII-E OF ALLEN G. TIIURMaN. 
 
 ernor, and a Legislature was chosen which made 
 Thurman United States Senator for a second 
 term. During all his twelve years service in the 
 Senate Mr. Thurman kept close to his constitu- 
 ents. He made and revised lists of the leading 
 men of his party in the State, kept in correspon- 
 dence and communication with the local organiza- 
 tions everywhere, and entered vigorously into all 
 the campaigns. He never sympathized with the 
 extreme inflation notions of " the Ohio idea," al- 
 though its illustrious author "overwhelmed him 
 with words;" and when in 1873, at Thurman Hall, 
 in Columbus, General Thomas Ewing and others 
 seriously proposed to merge the Ohio Democracy 
 into a new '* popular" party Thurman indignantly 
 left the conference, declaring, " If you are going to 
 bury the Democratic party don't ask me to be 
 one of the pall-bearers." His vigorous protest 
 saved the party from disorganizadon. 
 
 EMINENT PUBLIC SERVICES. 
 
 In the debates on financial policies, the Pacific 
 Railroad bills, Chinese immigration, and other 
 leadinor issues — of some of which more extended 
 notice will furnish the body of subsequent chap- 
 ters — he took a leading part during twelve years 
 of Senatorial experience. For the trial of Belk- 
 nap he was appointed and served as one of the 
 Senate Committee of Arrangements. On the joint 
 Committee appointed in 1876 respecdng the 
 
MR. THURMAN IN THE SEX ATE. 353 
 
 mode of countlnof the electoral votes he was One 
 of the three Democratic Senators. In the orean- 
 
 o 
 
 ization of the electoral commission he was origi- 
 nally selected as one of the members, and when 
 ill health prevented his regular attendance and a 
 successor was chosen at his request, Senator Ker- 
 nan, of New York, took his seat. Thurman's for- 
 cible arcrument ao^ainst countinor the vote of Louis- 
 iana was one of the most notable contributions to 
 the controversy. 
 
 In the executive sessions of the Senate Mr. 
 Thurman consistently opposed and frequently 
 succeeded in defeating the nominations of broken- 
 down politicians and other unfit persons from the 
 East for Federal Territorial offices, and much of 
 the popularity he has so long enjoyed in what are 
 known as '* the Pacific States " has been due to 
 this feature of his public record. He has be- 
 lieved in the recognition of the bright and brainy 
 young men who to a large extent have peopled 
 the Territories, and the resolution of the Chicago 
 platform of 1884, looking to this policy, was 
 adopted at his instance. 
 
 In the Forty-sixth Congress, Mr. Thurman's 
 party having advanced from the feeble numbers 
 which gathered about his banner when he entered 
 the Chamber to a majority of the whole body, he 
 was chosen President pro tern., and in the ah 
 sence of Vice-President Wheeler he occupied the 
 Chair with that great acceptability that always at- 
 
354 ^^^^ OF ALLEN G. THURAL-USf. 
 
 tended his Senatorial relations. Of these and 
 of the characteristics always attaching to men of 
 great intellectual power — but often exaggerated 
 in popular narration — many amusing and pictur- 
 esque anecdotes are told which do not fall within 
 the scope of this present sketch. If any quality 
 more than another distinguished his service it was 
 the readiness and directness of his remarks upon 
 pending questions, attributable to his great 
 breadth of information and to the sins^leness of 
 purpose which always induced him to confine his 
 efforts to the matter in issue. In a speech Jan- 
 uary 8th, 1875, h^ frankly spoke of himself in 
 these words, the force and truth of which are 
 readily recognized by those acquainted with his 
 Senatorial habits : 
 
 " If I know myself, I never have occupied the 
 time of the Senate for any purpose of personal 
 ambition, to be admired or applauded for what I 
 might say. I have spoken, and spoken frequently, 
 and, as I think the Senate will bear me witness, 
 spoken always directly to the point under consid- 
 eration, and, as I know, with an earnest and sin- 
 cere desire to be of some service to the Senate, 
 however humble in its consideration of whatever 
 subject might be under discussion." 
 
 SOME CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM. 
 
 A not over-friendly critic of his own party In a 
 contemporary review of Mr. Thurman's Sena- 
 
MR. THURMAN IN THE SENATE. 355 
 
 torlal career said : '' A Virginian by birth, brought 
 up among plain Ohio folks, a judge and a lawyer 
 deep read in die principles and versed in all die 
 practical rules of his profession, an ardent politi- 
 cian of the Jacksonian school, with amendments 
 made to conform systems to his own original 
 thought, Senator Thurman came to the Senate 
 fortified with a store of unusual resources, which 
 he is always willing and even eager to draw upon 
 at sight in an unlimited way. Critical as Edmunds, 
 he has that sort of constructive ability in which 
 Edmunds is conspicuously lacking. His services 
 on the Judiciary Committee have been important 
 and valuable, and his power of work is simply 
 prodigious. Edmunds can pick to pieces a bill, 
 a charter, or a proposition, but Thurman can 
 amend it so as to remove its evils, and give vital- 
 ity and usefulness to what was before noxious 
 and injurious. * * * The Democratic party and 
 the country owe a debt of recognizance to Judge 
 Thurman which it will not be easy to forget. His 
 acumen, his logic, his learning, his quickness and 
 intrepidity in debate, have all availed him to stand 
 in the breach and defend the Constitution. He 
 has done yeoman's service in showing up radical 
 Republicanism upon its desperate course, in bring- 
 ing it to its senses, and In awakening the whole 
 country to its fatal designs. He has found out 
 how to arrest and put Constitutional checks upon 
 the great corporations and monopolies, and has 
 
356 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN, 
 
 brought the Insolence of land-grant companies to 
 swift punishment." 
 
 Mr. James G. Blaine, In his Twenty Years of 
 Congress, In which no one has accused him of 
 over-estimating his political antagonists, thus sums 
 up the Senatorial character of Mr. Thurman : 
 " When he came to the Senate he was entitled to 
 be considered the foremost man of his party in 
 the nation. His rank in the Senate was estab- 
 lished from the day he took his seat, and was 
 never lowered during the period of his service. 
 He was an admirably disciplined debater, was fair 
 in his method of statement, logical In his argu- 
 ment, honest in his conclusions. He had no tricks 
 in discussion, no catch phrases to secure attention, 
 but was always direct and manly. His mind was 
 not preoccupied and engrossed with political con- 
 tests or with affairs of State He had natural 
 and cultivated tastes outside of those fields. He 
 was a discriminating reader, and enjoyed not only 
 serious books, but Inclined also to the lighter In- 
 dulgence of romance and poetry. He was espe- 
 cially fond of the best French writers. He loved 
 Mollere and Racine, and could quote with rare 
 enjoyment the humorous scenes depicted by Bal- 
 zac. He took pleasure In the drama, and was 
 devoted to music. In Washington he could 
 usually be found in the best seat of the theatre 
 when a good play was to be presented or an 
 opera was to be given. These tastes Illustrate 
 
MR. THUKMAN IX THE SENATE. 357 
 
 the eenlal side of his nature, and were a fittlne 
 complement to the stronger and sterner elements 
 of the man. His retirement from the Senate was 
 a serious loss to his party, a loss indeed to the 
 body. He left behind him pleasant memories, 
 and carried with him the respect of all with whom 
 he had been associated during his twelve years of 
 honorable service" 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THURMAN IN THE DAYS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 URING nearly all of that gloomy period, 
 politically, for the Democracy in which 
 the Republicans were exercising their nu- 
 merical power in the Southern States and in 
 Congress to prevent any scheme of reconstruction 
 that would not perpetuate their party oligarchy, 
 Thurman remained steadfastly the exponent 
 of Constitutional doctrine. He was the friend, 
 not particularly of the South, nor of any one sec- 
 tion, but of the whole country, of the tranquillity 
 of the Union, and of the restored material pros- 
 perity that could only come and stay with the estab- 
 lishment and maintenance of home rule and local 
 self-o;overnment. For these he wacred continual 
 struggle, and he lived to see his views vindicated 
 again and again by the sober decisions of the 
 Supreme Court, as well as justified by the irre- 
 sistible conviction of an enlightened popular sense 
 of fairness. One by one the Republican leaders, 
 with a lingering sense of justice, abandoned the 
 pretensions of the radical element to treat the 
 South as a subjugated province. Gradually the 
 more respectable organs of public opinion re- 
 358 
 
IN THE DA YS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 359 
 
 v^olted at the attempted subversion of the Consti- 
 tution and the frequent attacks upon the integrity 
 of the Union, more insidious and yet scarcely 
 less dangerous than tiie blows of armed rebellion 
 itself. Litde by litde the substantial business 
 interests of the North came to see that a policy 
 which prolonged prostradon of the South's mate- 
 rial interests worked disaster to that free inter- 
 State trade which is the life-blood of our NaUonal 
 prosperity. Finally, the withdrawal of Federal 
 interference from Louisiana and South Carolina, 
 and the grant to the people of those States to 
 exercise their legitimate political functions com- 
 pleted the victory for which Mr. Thurman and his 
 colleaorues in Congress had made such devoted 
 effort through more than a decade of portentous 
 political unrest. 
 
 CHASING AWAY RADICAL BOGIES. 
 
 An extract from one of his speeches at that 
 time illustrates very well his plain, direct mode of 
 expression, and shows how forcibly he met some 
 of the spectral issues with which for years the 
 Republican politicians sought to delude the people 
 of the country. Speaking on the subject of po- 
 lidcal disabilities and amnesty In the Senate, Janu- 
 ary 23d, 1872, he said in reply to Senator Mor- 
 ton : 
 
 "It has come to be the custom, I am Inclined to 
 think, for the Senator from Indiana, at the begin- 
 
360 LIFE OF ALLEX G. TIIURMAN. 
 
 ning of each political campaign, to make a speech 
 which the lesser lights of the Republican party 
 and the Republican press generally announce as 
 the key-note of that campaign ; and it seems that 
 he is looked to to sound the key-note of each 
 campaign — that that function has been devolved 
 upon him or assumed by him until it has passed 
 into a part of the common law of the Radical 
 party. And now at the beginning of this great 
 campaign of 1872 the Senator has sounded his 
 note again, and I only regret that in all the long 
 years that he has been studying this music he has 
 found no new tune, nor even a single new note. It 
 is the same old note again ; it Is the same old tune 
 again; It is the same old horrors of the Rebellion ; 
 it Is the same old wickedness of the Instiorators of 
 that Rebellion ; It Is the same old terrible sufferinor 
 that that Rebellion entailed on the country; and It Is 
 the same friirhtful array of ehosts, found nowhere 
 except in the Senator's Imagination, portending 
 misery, nay destruction, to the country should the 
 Democratic party ever get Into power. 
 
 " It Is the same old cry of payment of the rebel 
 debt ; payment of pensions to rebel soldiers ; re- 
 institution of slavery ; refusal to pay our own 
 debt ; refusal to pay pensions to our own soldiers; 
 and so on to the end of the tune. These are 
 charges that certainly the Senator believes, or he 
 would not make them ; for no one Is authorized to 
 charge a Senator, especially when speaking from 
 
IN THE DA YS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 361 
 
 his place In this Chamber, with asserting what he 
 does not beheve. These are charges which un- 
 doubtedly the Senator believes ; apprehensions 
 which his lively imagination conjures up in his 
 fertile brain, but which I venture to say no other 
 human beinor, Jq the whole lencrth and breadth of 
 the Republic, in his senses, and intelligent enough 
 to form an opinion, does believe for one single in- 
 stant. 
 
 "Why, how Is It ? Payment of the rebel debt? 
 Kow Is it to be paid In the face of your Fourteenth 
 Amendment, which prohibits even a State from 
 making any payment of it? Payment of pensions 
 to rebel soldiers ! Positively prohibited by your 
 Fourteenth Amendment. Repudiation of your own 
 debt ! Its payment Is solemnly guarantied by your 
 own Constitution. Relnstltutlon of slavery! It 
 Is positively prohibited by your Constitution and 
 by the Constitution of every State in the Union. 
 And yet a Senator, a distinguished Senator, a 
 Senator who Is looked upon, perhaps, as the leader 
 of his party and the particular mouthpiece of the 
 Administration, has the boldness to get up In the 
 American Senate, before It and the American 
 people, and, sounding the key-note of the cam- 
 paign, to hold up these preposterous pictures to 
 frighten the credulous out of their propriety ! Sir, 
 it may do very well on the stump in some swamp 
 of Indiana ; It may do very well before an igno- 
 rant audience who do not know or have not ability 
 
362 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 to comprehend what Is reasonable and what Is net, 
 and who are accustomed to take the assertions of 
 the Senator from Indiana as a part of the law of 
 the land, as sacred and as truthful as Holy Writ; 
 but with men accustomed to reflect and deal fairly 
 with a subject, it Is not too much to say — and I 
 speak without disrespect to the Senator — that all 
 the apprehensions he has expressed are simply 
 preposterous — nay, more, simply ridiculous." 
 
 STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL POWERS. 
 
 In the same admirable speech he gave very 
 lucid q;cposItIon of the modern Democratic Idea 
 of the Constitutional relation of State Rights to 
 Federal powers, w^hen he said : 
 
 " Mr. President, I once more say that, although 
 I have never gone to any such length as some 
 State-rliirhts men have eone in deducinor the doc- 
 trine of the right of secession, and have never be- 
 lieved and do not believe In that doctrine, yet I 
 am, and hope I shall die, a State-rights man. I 
 am so because I believe that the existence of the 
 States and the existence of local self-government 
 are essential to freedom and to prosperity in this 
 country. 
 
 ** Why, sir, If there is no such thing as State 
 rights, how comes It that the two distinguished 
 Senators from Vermont are here, coming from a 
 State with not one-tenth, not one-twelfth, very 
 little more than one-thirteenth, of the population 
 
IN THE DAYS OF RECONSTRUCTW.W 363 
 
 of the State of New York ? How comes it that 
 with three hundred thousand inhabitants only, 
 there are two Senators on this floor from Ver- 
 mont, while New York, with more than four mil- 
 lions, has but two ? How comes that, sir, if there 
 be no such thing as State rights? What right 
 have they to make local law for Ohio ? Why 
 should New York, with her four millions of peo- 
 ple and only two Senators on this floor, have her 
 local law made here by the votes of twelve Sena- 
 tors from New England, when all New England 
 has not a population equal to hers ? How is it 
 that twelve votes shall be received here from New 
 Encrland to make local law for Missouri ? In that 
 local law New England has no interest whatso- 
 ever, while that great State, soon to have a popu- 
 lation equal to that of all of New England, and 
 now with a population half as great, has but two 
 Senators on this floor. What is it that gives this 
 unequal representation in the Senate but the doc- 
 trine of State rights ; nay, sir, to go further, but 
 the doctrine of the original sovereignty of the 
 States ? I am not complaining of this. I am 
 willing to stand by this inequality in the Senate of 
 the United States so long as you stand by the 
 Constitution as its framers intended it to be. So 
 long as you do not trample State governments 
 out of existence, so long as you let local legisla- 
 tion be the subject of local State law alone, so 
 long as you do not interfere and usurp the powers 
 
364 LIFE OF ALLEN G. TIWRMAN. 
 
 that properly belong to the States, I greet with 
 arms wide open the Senators from the smallest 
 State of this Union ; nay, I will take the Senators 
 from Nevada into my embrace, although their 
 whole State does not contain as many people as 
 the litde city in which I live ; I will take them and 
 welcome them here so long as you leave to the 
 State governments that power which the framers 
 of the Constitution intended they should have, 
 and which, in my judgment, is essential to the very 
 existence of free institutions at all. But if you 
 will strike down that power, if you will abolish 
 local legislation, if you will annihilate the States, 
 if you will make them mere departments of a cen- 
 tralized Government, if you will make them the 
 mere counties, of a great State, then I say to Sen- 
 ators the time will come when that inequality in 
 the Senate will not be submitted to longer. I do 
 not want to see that time. I want to see no such 
 question raised. I want to see the Constitution 
 administered in the spirit in which it was framed. 
 I want the General Government sufficiently strong 
 to protect us against all foreign aggression. I 
 want it to be sufficiently strong to protect us in 
 the enjoyment of peace in this country so far as 
 that function is devolved upon it by the Constitu- 
 tion. I want to believe that, with all its blessings, 
 It will endure for all time to come. If anything of 
 earthly institution can so long endure. But I do 
 firmly believe that It is precisely the institution of 
 
IN THE DA YS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 365 
 
 State governments, It Is precisely the allotment of 
 local legislation to a local power, which enables 
 this Republic to spread Itself from ocean to ocean, 
 and from the arctic zone down to the torrid. 
 Strike that out of It, strike its local self-govern- 
 ment out of the system, and It wall go the way 
 that all consolidated centralized Governments 
 have gone In all time past ; first a despotism un- 
 endurable, and next a rendine Into fragments 
 more numerous far than the States of this Union 
 now are." 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO CENTRALIZATION. 
 
 In a previous campaign speech he had thus for- 
 cibly set forth the dangers of the centralizing 
 tendencies wdilch were at this period controlling 
 the legislation of the country : 
 
 " I am opposed to the centralization of all pow- 
 ers In the Federal Government, for reasons that 
 can be but briefly and imperfectly stated In the 
 proper limits of a speech. 
 
 ^' First. I am opposed to It because it w^ould be 
 destructive of the existence of the Republic. The 
 Republic could not. In my judgment, long endure 
 under such a system. It would break down under 
 its own welorht. There never was a greater mis- 
 take than to suppose that a government of des- 
 potic powders is alone able to govern a great 
 extent of territory. The very reverse of the 
 proposition is nearer the truth. Vast monarchies 
 
366 LIFE OF ALLEN G. JIIUKMAN, 
 
 have existed, covering great portions of the earth, 
 and seeming for a time to be indestructible, yet 
 how few of them remain ? And where they yet 
 exist, how miserable, comparatively, is the condi- 
 tion of the people ! I am not speaking of com- 
 pact countries of limited extent, in which central- 
 ized power is possible and may long endure. Nor 
 am I speaking of people who have no aspiration 
 for freedom or for a better state of mental, mate- 
 rial, and social well-being. What I speak of is a 
 territory similar to our own, and a people loving 
 freedom and seeking prosperity. And it is in ref- 
 erence to such a territory with such a people, that 
 I affirm it to be an impossibility that a great cen- 
 tralized Government can loner rule over it. Either 
 
 o 
 
 the Government will undergo a change, or the 
 territory will be rent inio pieces and separate and 
 independent governments be set up on the frag- 
 ments. 
 
 "This, then, is my first objection to such a cen- 
 tralized government as I have supposed. Its inev- 
 itable result would be, in my opinion, the disinte- 
 gration of the Republic at no very distant day. 
 
 " Secondly. But were it possible for such a 
 government to rule this country, what would be 
 its effects? We have a territory of vast extent, 
 stretchino^ from ocean to ocean, with a o^reat 
 diversity of climate, soils, productions, arts, indus- 
 tries, occupations, capital, and wages. The' diver- 
 sity of peoples is not less remarkable. And then 
 
IN THE DA YS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 367 
 
 the people of each State have grown up under 
 their own State laws, to which their affections are 
 bound by the force of .abit, and because they are 
 the enactments of their own free will. Add to 
 these considerations the difference in social ob- 
 servances and customs, and conceive, if you can, 
 of a country in which local self-government is 
 more indispensalje to the interest or happiness of 
 the people, or in which it would be more impos- 
 sible, without a crushing tyranny, to subject the 
 whole community to an uniform, iron rule." 
 
 BAYONET GOVERNMENT IN LOUISIANA. 
 
 On January 5th, 1875, Mr. Thurman offered a 
 resolution in the Senate requesting the President 
 to inform the Senate if any portion of the Army 
 had been used to interfere with the organization 
 of the Lecrislature in Louisiana. Mr. Schurz had 
 also introduced a resolution, " That the Committee 
 on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire what leg- 
 islation by Congress is necessary to secure to the 
 people of the State of Louisiana their rights of 
 self-government undv^r the Constitution, and to 
 report with the least possible delay by bill or 
 otherwise." Upon the question involved in these 
 inquiries Senator Thurman made one of the most 
 elaborate and exhaustive speeches of his Sena- 
 torial career, on January 25th, 1872. He traced 
 the becrinnin^r and continuation of the Louisiana 
 troubles with keen, scalpel and firm hand, and 
 
368 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 diagnosed the whole case with the ability of a 
 lawyer and statesman. With vivid truthfulness 
 he said : 
 
 '' But the men who have exercised supreme 
 power in Louisiana for the last two years have 
 held their offices and exercised their powers, ac- 
 cording to the finding of your own Committee on 
 Privileges and Elections, by means of a void mid- 
 night order made by a Federal judge without 
 authority and enforced by the bayonets of the 
 Army of the United States, and upheld by the 
 Chief Magistrate of the Republic ; and the sole 
 title to-day of William P. Kellogg to be Gov- 
 ernor of Louisiana is the sanction by the Presi- 
 dent of the United States of these unconstitu- 
 tional proceedings, and the sole foundation upon 
 which he stands, the sole thing that upholds him 
 in his usurpation, are the glittering bayonets of 
 the Federal Army. 
 
 * * ♦ ♦ * * * 
 
 "Why, sir, to say nothing about the corruption 
 that exists, just think of one thing — just think of this 
 fact : ' The securities of the State have fallen in two 
 years' — that Is, since Kellogg was inaugurated — 
 ' from 70 or 80 to 25 ; of the city of New Orleans, 
 from 80 or 90 to 30 or 40, while the fall in bank 
 shares, railway shares, city and other corporate 
 companies, has in a degree corresponded. 
 Throuofhout the rural districts of the State the 
 negroes, reared in habits of reliance upon their 
 
IX THE DAYS OF RECONSl RUCTION, 369 
 
 masters for support, and in a community in which 
 the members are always ready to divide the ne- 
 cessaries of hfe with each other, not re^ardine 
 such action as very evil, and having immunity 
 from punishment from the nature of the local 
 officials, had come to filching and stealing fruit, 
 vegetables, and poultry so generally — as Bishop 
 Wilmarth stated without contradiction from any 
 source — that the raisinof of these articles had to 
 be entirely abandoned, to the great distress of 
 the white people, while within the parishes, as 
 well as in New Orleans, the taxation had been 
 carried almost literally to the extent of confisca- 
 tion. In New Orleans the assessors are paid a 
 commission for the amount assessed, and houses 
 and stores are to be had there for the taxes.' 
 
 " That is, you can have among the best of the 
 dwelline-houses in New Orleans, amone the best 
 of the stores, without any other rent than the 
 payment of the taxes. But that is not all. 
 
 "*In Natchitoches the taxation reached about 
 eight per cent, of the assessed value of the 
 property.' 
 
 " Eight per cent, of the assessed value, and 
 yet the people of Natchitoches are expected to 
 be very quiet and contented ! With a taxation 
 more than five times the average taxation in the 
 State of Ohio bearing upon that depressed people, 
 they are expected to be quiet and contented ; and 
 if they are not quiet and contented, a Lieutenant- 
 
370 LIFE OF ALLEN G. TIIURMAN. 
 
 General of the Army of the United States pro- 
 poses that the President shall proclaim that they 
 are 'banditti,' and then nothing more will be 
 necessary than the duty that will devolve on him ! 
 Ah, sir, I never expected to live to see the day, in 
 what was once called free America, in what was 
 once called a republic, when such things as these 
 could take place, and any man, who called himself 
 a freeman or a lover of liberty and of free insti- 
 tutions, could stand up to defend or even to pal- 
 liate them. 
 
 '' Sir, have the rights of the States become of 
 so little consequence, has the supremacy of the 
 civil over the military power become so absolute, 
 that a soldier of the Federal Government can in- 
 vade a State Legislature and eject persons claim- 
 ing seats therein, and make no report of his pro- 
 ceedings and of the reasons that induced them ? 
 Have our generals stationed in the States become 
 irresponsible satraps, ruling over prostrate prov- 
 inces according to their own supreme will and 
 pleasure ? Where, I repeat. Is the report of De 
 Trobrland? What account does he give of his 
 acts on that memorable day ? What defense does 
 he make for a deed that the President himself Is 
 forced to admit was without legal justification ? 
 What order of his superior, General Emory, does 
 he produce in his defense ; and, if any, what ex- 
 cuse has Emory to allege for issuing the order? 
 And, order or no order, what step has the PresI- 
 
JN THE DA YS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 37 1 
 
 dent taken to bring these offenders against the 
 Constitution and the laws to an account for their 
 misconduct ? Upon all these points the message 
 is as silent as the grave. Except inferentially, 
 and by a reference to Sheridan's telegram, it does 
 not even admit that there was military interfer- 
 ence at all. But thus admitting it, while it de- 
 clines to justify, it seeks to palliate and excuse it. 
 We are told that ' the Army is not composed of 
 lawyers,' and that 'there are circumstances con- 
 nected with the late legislative imbroglio in Louisi- 
 ana which seem to exempt the military from any 
 intentional wrong in that matter.' 
 
 *' Ah, Mr. President, are we yet to learn that it 
 is no defense for the humblest and most ignorant 
 man in the land, accused of crime, that he was 
 ignorant of the law, and that his intentions in vio- 
 lating it were not willfully wrong, nay, were praise- 
 worthy ? In no civilized country, in no country 
 where law prevails, is that defense allowed. But 
 when one of the greatest of crimes against free 
 insdtutions has been committed in this Republic— 
 when, in plain violation of our fundamental law 
 and of the underlying principle of all free gov- 
 ernment, the military has set itself above the civil 
 power, then the brigadier-general who acted, the 
 major-general who ordered, and the Lieuten- 
 ant-General who approves, are exempted from 
 censure by the Commander-in-Chief, the President, 
 on the plea that they are not lawyers, and that no 
 
2^J2 LIFE OF ALLEN G. Til UR. VAX. 
 
 mtentional wronor was desioned. It Is of no con- 
 sequence that the miUtary assumed to decide who 
 were members of a State Legislature ; it is of no 
 consequence that they expelled members duly 
 elected, and that in consequence of that expulsion 
 the seats of those members are now held by de- 
 feated candidates ; it is of no consequence that by 
 these high-handed proceedings the will of the 
 people of Louisiana has been overthrown and a 
 government not of their choice imposed on them 
 by force — all these things are of no consequence, 
 it would seem, in the eyes of the President ; for 
 none of these thinors has he a word of censure or 
 rebuke ; for is it not true, he exclaims, that Army 
 people are not lawyers ? and whatever may have 
 been their offenses they were guiltless of intentional 
 
 wrong. 
 
 " Senators, if you wish free Institutions to be 
 preserved, it is time to teach the Army, from the 
 highest to the low^est man In it, that there is such 
 a thing as law, and that the absence of intendonal 
 wrong does not justify Its violation. It is time to 
 teach it that In every free country the military is 
 subordinate to the civil power. It Is time to teach 
 it that In this Republic the States as well as the 
 Federal Government have riofhts that are sacred 
 and must be respected. 
 
 " General Sheridan telegraphs that there have 
 been thirty-five hundred murders in the State of 
 
IN THE DA YS OF RECOXSTRUCTiON. 373 
 
 Louisiana since 1866. How does he know it? 
 He had been in New Orleans four days. How 
 did he learn that there had been thirty-five hun- 
 dred murders there ? From rumor, or the state- 
 ments of persons interested in libeling the people 
 of Louisiana. Furthermore, it Avas said yesterday 
 on this floor that not one sinorle case of murder 
 in Louisiana had been punished, if I understood 
 the remarks of the Senator who spoke. Why, 
 sir, I have in my desk a list of no less than thir- 
 teen pardons by Kellogg of persons convicted of 
 homicide, and most of them of murder in the first 
 degree, in the single year 1874. No convictions, 
 forsooth ! 
 
 " It has been said ao^ain and ao^ain that white 
 men are not arrested who commit murder ; that 
 nobody but black men are arrested. I have be- 
 fore me a statement of the committals to one of 
 the largest prisons in that State of homicides ; and 
 let us see what is the color of the persons arrested 
 and committed for that offense. This covers the 
 time spoken of by Sheridan, and of the arrests 
 for homicide fifty-eight were white and forty-four 
 blacks. Does that look as if white men are al- 
 lowed to go acquit ? More white men were 
 arrested, more white men charo-ed with homicide 
 there than blacks, and yet the number is so nearly 
 equal that one is at a loss to know which class of 
 the community is most to be condemned. 
 
 " But why undertake to convey the idea that all 
 
374 ^^^^ OF ALLEN G. Til UR MAN, 
 
 the homicides in Louisiana or Arkansas or Mis- 
 sissippi are homicides for poHtical purposes, when 
 the fact is notorious that the majority of the 
 homicides committed in those States are by blacks 
 upon blacks, and it could not well be otherwise. 
 You set free that vast population of colored men, 
 the most of diem being in profound ignorance. 
 That was all right enough. I am glad they are 
 free and have always been glad to see them free. 
 But when you have set them free and banded 
 them together as you did in loyal leagues, and set 
 their faces in opposition to the whites, and drawn 
 the race line as plain as a sunbeam ; when you did 
 that through your Freedman's Bureau and the 
 expenditure of public money — when that was 
 done and those negroes had arms in their hands, 
 somebody was bound to be hurt. You could not 
 put arms in the hands of those men in their semi- 
 barbarous condition without their feeling a dispo- 
 sition to use them. It is in their instincts ; it is in 
 their nature ; and although they do improve, as I 
 have every reason to believe they do, in civiliza- 
 tion, year by year, yet it was inevitable that if you 
 put into the hands of seven or eight hundred 
 thousand semi-barbarians instruments of destruc- 
 tion they would use them ; and they destroy each 
 other far more than the whites destroy them. Yet 
 every murder that takes place is exaggerated — 
 for it is swelled to ten before you get through 
 with it — and is said to be a murder for political 
 purposes. Ah, Mr. President, the waning fortunes 
 
IN THE DA YS OF RECOXSJRUCl lOX. 375 
 
 of no political party can be sustained by any such 
 clamor as this. No, sir ; the people of the United 
 States are too wise, are too just, and know too 
 well how to sift testimony, to be imposed upon by 
 any such statements. '^ * * v ^^^ 
 
 " Mr. President, one word more and I have 
 done. These outrages, if they exist, are very 
 much to be deplored; but there is something 
 more deplorable than even violence. When you 
 sap the foundation of Constitutional Government, 
 when you overthrow the free institutions of Amer- 
 ica, you do an evil, you perpetrate a wrong, 
 frauo-ht with a thousand times more mischief to 
 your fellow-men now and in the future than even 
 the prevalence of crime. You cannot accustom 
 the prople of this country to see the military place 
 itself above the civil power ; you cannot accustom 
 the people of this country to see armed men 
 intrude themselves into the halls of legislation 
 and decide questions of membership there with 
 the bayonet ; you cannot see that done and pass 
 it by even in silence, much less with approbation, 
 much longer without finding that everything like 
 respect for Constitutional Government and free 
 institutions has vanished from the land. Ah, Mr. 
 President, it is a terrible crime to assassinate a 
 man, but it is worse crime to assassinate the Con- 
 stitution of a free people. These acts of military 
 interference have driven a dagger to the heart of 
 free institutions, and the question now to be set- 
 tled is whether they can survive the blow." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OTHER NOTABLE SPEECHES THE ELECTIVE FRAN- 
 CHISE CHINESE IMMIGRATION SILVER COINAGE. 
 
 IN the United States Senate, Mr. Thurman 
 spoke at length, and repeatedly, in favor of 
 the expulsion of Caldwell, of Kansas, for 
 bribery. He opposed the admission of Pinchbeck, 
 the Senatorial pretender from Louisiana ; he bore 
 a conspicuous part in the debate over the Geneva 
 Award bill — in which most of the lawyers of the 
 Senate antagonized Blaine ; and, indeed, his voice 
 was heard upon nearly every leading topic that 
 engaged the attention of the Senate while he was 
 a member of it. 
 
 Upon the entrance of Mr. Blaine into the Sen- 
 ate, and the introduction of new methods of 
 address which that rather boisterous publicist 
 brought with him, Mr. Thurman found subject 
 for Irequent castigations ; in December, 1878, 
 when Mr. Blaine introduced a resolution inquir- 
 ing into interferences with the free exercise of 
 the elective franchise^ Mr. Thurman, with most 
 unsparing severity, pointed out that the object 
 of the inquiry was not to vindicate the right of 
 suffrage throughout the Union, but to revive sec- 
 376 
 
NOTABLE SPEECHES. 377 
 
 tionalism, to arouse hatred in one portion of the 
 country against the defenseless people of another. 
 On the broad subject of the elective franchise, 
 Mr. Thurman said: 
 
 *' I am not here to-day to justify the violation of 
 the rights of any man, however humble he may 
 be, whatever may be the color of his skin, what- 
 ever may be the poverty of his situation. I am 
 here for no such purpose as that. If I know my 
 own heart, I am as much in favor of respecting 
 the rights of every man under the Constitution 
 as the Senator from Maine or any other Senator 
 on this floor ; but I do know that property. Intel- 
 ligence, education will assert their influence 
 everywhere on the face of this globe. 
 
 "Now, Mr. President, let me say one word more 
 on this subject. Who was it that drew the color 
 line between the whites and the negroes In the 
 South ? Let me tell you, sir, that millions of 
 money, of the money of the people of the United 
 States, were expended by your agents, the Freed- 
 man's Bureau agents, in getting every colored 
 man in the South into loyal leagues and swearing 
 him never to vote for a Democrat. That is where 
 the color line beoan to be drawn. That Institu- 
 tlon which took charge of the negro at the ballot- 
 box, took charge of him in the cotton field, took 
 charge of him everywhere, supervised every con- 
 tract that he made, allowed no contract to be 
 made unless it had the approval of the agents of 
 
^yS LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 the Freedman's Bureau, and spent the money 
 and property called ' captured and abandoned 
 property' that was surrendered to it, and many 
 millions of money directly appropriated out of the 
 Treasury of the United States — it was that Bu- 
 reau and its ao^ents who first drew the color line. 
 And yet when the white people of the South, 
 when the men owning the property and having 
 the intelligence and the education at the South, 
 saw their very social system menaced with de- 
 struction, saw their very households threatened 
 with ruin under an inundation of barbarism 
 directed by the most unscrupulous of men, and 
 when they naturally came together, when they 
 naturally united, as people menaced with danger 
 ever will unite, then a cry is raised against *the 
 solid South !' Ah, Mr. President, It will not do. 
 This system of legislation toward the South that 
 began more than ten years ago is reaping 
 its fruit ; and it is not by additional penal laws 
 that you can better the condition of this country. 
 What does the Senator want more penal laws 
 for ? Let him look into the statute-book on this 
 very subject ; let him read the statutes in regard 
 to the enforcement of the riorhts of citizens to vote, 
 and I defy him to find In the statute-books of any 
 civilized country on this globe a body of laws so 
 minute, so searching, and bristling all over with 
 6nes and forfeitures as do these laws. 
 
 " But that is not all. In addition to that you 
 
NOTABLE SPEECHES. 379 
 
 have a vast machinery of superintendents of elec- 
 tion, Federal supervisors, marshals, deputy mar- 
 shals, paid electioneerers out of the Treasury of the 
 United States, under the guise of being men to 
 preserve the freedom of suffrage and peace at 
 elections. You have a whole army of them pro- 
 vided for by your statutes. What more does the 
 Senator want ? I think I see, Mr. President, what 
 is wanted. I think this is a note which is sounded 
 to the people of the North that they must retrace 
 their steps ; and this very party which required 
 two amendments to the Constitution to be made 
 in the interest, it was said, of the colored popula- 
 tion of the South, is now preparing to face about, 
 retrace its steps, and undo what it did only a few 
 years ago. Either directly or by indirection that 
 is to be done. Indeed, I thought, while the Sen- 
 ator from Maine was making his speech, how 
 much reason this country, and especially the 
 Southern part of the country, had to congratulate 
 itself that the next House of Representatives will 
 not have a majority of gentlemen thinking like the 
 Senator from Maine, for if he is right in what he 
 said, if his threats are not mere idle wind — and I 
 certainly do not attribute any such thing to him — 
 if they are deep-seated and permanent thoughts 
 of those with whom he acts, then I should be pre- 
 pared to see a House of Representatives In which 
 there was a Republican majority exclude Southern 
 members by the score ; then I should be prepared 
 
380 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 to see them decide themselves that the rlgnt of 
 suffrage was prohibited down there to the negro, 
 and then to see them in their supreme authority, 
 as they would construe it, vote out the chosen 
 Representatives of the South, not by ones, not by 
 twos, but by the score. It is a fortunate thing for 
 this country, it is a fortunate thing for our free in- 
 stitutions, that there is not in the present House 
 of Representatives, and will not be in the next, a 
 majority thinking as the Senator from Maine 
 thinks, and willing to act as I fear he is willing to 
 act. 
 
 "Mr. President, one word on the amendment I 
 have offered. My own belief is that there is a far 
 greater danger that menaces our institutions and 
 menaces the right of suffrage in this country than 
 that to which the Senator from Maine has alluded. 
 Sir, the most dishearteninof thine to an American 
 wholoves free institutions is to see that year by year 
 the corrupt use of money in elections Is making its 
 way until the time may come, and that within the 
 observation of even the oldest man here, when 
 elections in the United States will be as debauched 
 as ever they were in the worst days of the old 
 borough parliamentary elections in the mother 
 land. 
 
 "Mr. President, there Is the great danger. The 
 question is whether this country shall be governed 
 with a view to the rights of every man, the poor 
 man as well as the rich man, or whether the long- 
 
NOTABLE SPEECHES. 38 1 
 
 est purse shall carry the elections and this be a 
 mere plutocracy instead of a democratic repub- 
 lic. That is the danger ; and that danger, let me 
 tell my friend, exists far more in the North than , 
 it does in the South. Sir, if he wants to preserve 
 the purity of elections, if he wants to have this 
 Government perpetuated as a system that can be 
 honestly administered from the primary election 
 to the signature of a bill by the President of the 
 United States, let him set his face and exercise 
 his great ability in stopping the flood-gates of 
 corruption that threaten to deluge the whole land 
 and bring republican institutions into utter ruin 
 and disgrace." 
 
 ON THE CHINESE QUESTION. 
 
 Before the importation of Chinese servile 
 laborers in great hordes upon the Pacific coast 
 had become a subject of general attention and 
 discussion throughout the country, Mr. Thur- 
 man had expressed his views and taken a decided 
 position. As early as September loth, 1870, in a 
 campaign speech at Cincinnati, more than five 
 years before the Legislature of California memo- 
 rialized Congress on the subject, Mr. Thurman, 
 addressing his constituents, said : 
 
 " I do not think that a large Chinese immigra- 
 tion to this country is desirable. I do not think 
 it would be a valuable acquisition. On the con- 
 
382 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 trary, I think It would be a seriously disturbing 
 element. In race, civilization, habits, education, 
 and religion the Chinese are widely different from 
 our people — so different as to form a very strik- 
 ing contrast. The European immigrants are of 
 the same race, religion, and civilization as our- 
 selves, and while they add Immensely to the 
 power and wealth of the Republic, they do not 
 seriously disturb the substantial homogeneity of 
 our white population. Their migration, therefore, 
 benefits the country and deserves encouragement. 
 Not so with the Chinese. They will never be- 
 come one people with us. Were they to dwell 
 here for centuries they would probably be as dis- 
 tinct from the white race as are gypsies in Spain 
 from the pure-blooded Spaniard. We are destined 
 to have a great commerce with Asia, and the 
 natural result will be the voluntary migration from 
 that continent of a limited number of business 
 men. I see no objection to that. It will not In- 
 terfere with our mechanics or laborers, will not 
 disturb our social or political system, while it will 
 tend, by an increase of ourcommercial connections, 
 to add to our commerce and wealth. But that Is 
 :i wholly different thing from the Coolie Immigra- 
 tion that is now going on, and which, If not stopped, 
 must alarmingly Increase. This immigration Is 
 In no proper sense of the word voluntary. It is 
 a kind of Chinese slave trade. Instead of an in- 
 dependent, self-reliant body of freemen, it Intro- 
 
MotabIe speeches. ^^2, 
 
 duces a horde of quasi slaves, working at half 
 wages by the command of a taskmaster. 
 
 " And this leads me to notice a statement I 
 have seen, that this country needs cheap labor; 
 in other words, men who will work for low wages ; 
 that there is a scarcity of laborers here, and, 
 therefore, Chinese laborers should be imported 
 to supply the deficiency. 
 
 *' I do not concur in this view. My opinion is 
 that we, or rather our posterity, are much more 
 likely to suffer from a redundancy of population 
 than from a dearth of it. In thirty years from 
 now we will have one hundred millions of people, 
 without counting a Chinese immigrant, in sixty 
 years two hundred millions, in one hundred years 
 probably four hundred millions. We are in no 
 danger of a scarcity of laborers. 
 
 " Nor do I think that low wa^es are a blessine 
 to any country. In the opinion of an eminent 
 tliinker, Buckle, low wages and despotism are in- 
 separable. It will be found, I think, that the 
 freer the institutions of a country are, the greater 
 will be the tendency to fair wages for labor. Low 
 wages are mainly owing to an unequal and unfair 
 distribution of the annual production of wealth. 
 This annual production, which is nearly all the 
 result of labor, is being constantly divided into 
 four parts, rents to the landlord, interest to the 
 money lender, profits to the business man, and 
 wages to the laborer. Now, if the wages be low 
 
384 ^^^'^ ^^ ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 it must be because the annual product is small 
 and all classes suffer, or because that product Is 
 unfairly distributed. In general, the latter is the 
 cause, and when wages are very low the laborer 
 gets but a bare subsistence, while the other classes, 
 or some of them, accumulate enormous wealth. 
 And thus society becomes divided into the very 
 rich and the very poor. That this is an' unfortu- 
 nate condition for a country is too obvious to need 
 remark, and that its tendency is hostile to free 
 institutions, as well as to the material comfort of 
 the people, is undoubtedly true. I have therefore 
 no sympathy with the cry for cheap labor and 
 low wages. They may give rise, it is true, to 
 great public u^orks and magnificent structures, but 
 the benefit is gained at the expense of a suffering 
 people. The Pyramids are striking monuments 
 of the pride and ostentation of kings, but they 
 are more strikinof evidences of a dei^raded condi- 
 tion of the laboring class. That country is likely 
 to be most free and happy where the annual pro- 
 duction of wealth being jw-stly distributed, labor 
 obtains a fair reward." 
 
 Six years later, when Senator Sargent pre- 
 sented the grievances of the people of his State 
 and section against the evils of Chinese immigra- 
 tion, and after the report of a committee of in- 
 quiry on the subject, the bill to restrict the immi- 
 gration of the Chinese, which passed the House 
 by 155 to 72, found Mr. Thurman one of its fore- 
 
NOTABLE SPEECHES. 38 5 
 
 most champions In the Senate. Hayes vetoed 
 the bill. Future restrictive legislation had Thur- 
 man's support, and this is one of the reasons why 
 he has always been enthusiastically favored by 
 the people of the Pacific States. 
 
 A BIMETALLIST. 
 
 The position he has consistently maintained 
 upon the coinage of silver and the retention of 
 both metals as the basis of our currency Is one 
 about which parties have been divided, and the 
 lines that mark the division are geographical 
 rather than political. Mr. Thurman never be- 
 lieved in an irredeemable paper currency, and 
 never abandoned the Jacksonian Democratic hard- 
 money idea. To his view, gold and silver, metals 
 of Intrinsic value, international exchanges the 
 world over, ought both to be maintained In circu- 
 lation as currency and as the basis of the paper 
 money of the country. He supported the Act of 
 the Forty-fifth Congress for the coinage of silver 
 dollars ; he thought that the contract provided for 
 the payment of public debts in coin of the stand- 
 ard of 1870, when the dollar of 412^ grains was 
 full legal tender, and that such dollars would 
 approximate to gold In value. 
 
 He made a strong speech in the Senate on 
 February 6th, 1878, on the proposition to author- 
 ize the free coinao^e of the standard silver dollar, 
 
^S6 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 and to restore its legal tender character ; and in 
 the course of It he said : " Mr. President, silver and 
 gold have been the metallic money of the world 
 for thousands of years. They are also the money 
 of our Constitution. They were the metalhc 
 money of the colonies, and afterward of the Uni- 
 ted States, from the Declaration of Independence 
 until silver was demonetized, by mistake and 
 without the knowledge of the people or Congress, 
 by the enactment of the Revised Statutes in 1874. 
 Both metals are suited to perform the functions 
 of money, and siWer does perform that function 
 among a large majority of the human race. Sil- 
 ver is especially suited for small transactions, and 
 may therefore be properly called the money of 
 people in humble circumstances. It follows from 
 these premises that the burden of proof rests on 
 those who insist that silver should be demone- 
 tized." 
 
 He then proceeded with much cogency, and In 
 logical order, to answer all the objections to the 
 remonetlzation of silver, and to advance a series 
 of arguments In favor of it. A further extract 
 will convey some Idea of his line of reasoning : 
 
 " It Is by no means certain that the standard of 
 value Is less variable in monometallic than It is in 
 bimetallic countries. An absolutely unvarying 
 standard of value is an impossibility ; and the 
 thinkers who have endeavored to discover such a 
 standard have never been able to find It In any 
 
I 
 
 NOTABLE SPEECHES. 387 
 
 one thing. Neither gold nor silver, nor any annual 
 product of the earth or of human industry, nor 
 the wages of labor (once insisted upon as the best 
 standard), have been found to solve the problem. 
 And hence it has been argued, with no little zeal, 
 that the average price, or the average cost of pro- 
 duction, of a number of commodities, some say 
 as many as twenty, must be taken to find a stand- 
 ard of value even approximatively correct. 
 
 " I merely glance at diese speculations of in- 
 genious men and rely upon the judgment and ex- 
 perience ot mankind, who for thousands of years 
 have considered and found gold and silver to 
 furnish the nearest possible approach to an un- 
 varying standard, and the safest though not the 
 most convenient instrument of exchano-e. I am 
 content to rest upon this experience, which has 
 been full, ample, enduring, until something better 
 shall be discovered, should that event ever take 
 place. But now, in answer to the gloomy fore- 
 bodings we have heard, the predictions of ruin 
 should this bill become a law, I wish to appeal for 
 a moment to the teachings of history. 
 
 " Mr. President, has there ever been, so far as 
 we know, a more prosperous country than were 
 the United States from 1789 to 1861 ? Did any 
 nation ever exceed the progress we made in popu- 
 lation, wealth, education, retinement, and the een- 
 eral well-being of the people, in those seventy- 
 two years ? And yet during all that period we 
 
388 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAX. 
 
 had bimetallism ; for we gave no preference to 
 gold over silver, or to silver over gold. Those 
 metals fluctuated then as they have done since, 
 and probably ever will do, but no American states- 
 man of that period thought of demonetizing 
 either. Great Britain had set the example of 
 demonetizing silver as early as 181 6, and adopted 
 the single gold standard, but neither the American 
 people nor the American Congress thought of 
 following that example. 
 
 " And now, Mr. President, let us turn to Europe 
 for a moment, and what do we hear ? The wall- 
 Ings of thousands of laboring men, women, and 
 children thrown out of employment ; the cries of 
 anofulsh of thousands of other men who but a 
 year ago were rich but now are bankrupts ; in a 
 word, the same notes of sorrow that so afflict our 
 ears in our own distressed land. But from what 
 countries do they mainly come ? From two, sir 
 — from two — from gold, monometallic England, 
 and gold, monometallic Germany ; while bimetal- 
 lic France, the land of silver as well as gold, en- 
 joys a prosperity hardly exceeded by that of any 
 people on the earth. 
 
 *' Among the gloomy predictions that have been 
 uttered in this debate Is the assertion that If this 
 bill pass our foreign commerce will be disjointed 
 and the national credit be destroyed. 
 
 " Our foreign commerce disjointed ! Why, sir, 
 have we not carried on the business of this coun- 
 
NOTABLE SPEECHES. 
 
 389 
 
 try for the last sixteen years upon an Inconvertible 
 paper currency, and has our foreign commerce 
 been destroyed or disjointed? Do we not import 
 all we need ? Do we not export more than we 
 ever before exported ? Is not the balance of trade 
 in our favor ? And if all this be true with a home 
 currency of inconvertible paper money- how can 
 any man who has the faculty of thought seriously 
 believe that our condition would be worse with an 
 ample basis of metallic money to support our 
 paper issues ? 
 
 " The national credit destroyed ! How de- 
 stroyed ? By complying to the letter with our 
 national obligations ; by paying precisely as we 
 promised to pay ? Sir, when silver was demone- 
 tized it was worth more than gold. We seemed 
 to have elected to pay our obligations In the 
 cheaper metal. Did that destroy the national 
 credit ? 
 
 "England, In 181 6, adopted the single gold 
 standard when gold was cheaper than silver. Did 
 that destroy her credit, did that humiliate and de- 
 grade her in the eyes of the civilized world ? 
 
 " No, Mr. President, the United States need no 
 such prop as the single gold standard to support 
 their credit. The resources of this country are too 
 great and too well known, her fidelity to her obli- 
 gations has been too well proved, for her credit to 
 suffer by her return to her ancient, constitutional, 
 and well-approved policy. And, for one, I long for 
 
390 ^/-^-^ OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 the day, which I am too old ever to see, but 
 which will come, when our obligations, National, 
 State, municipal, and corporate, will be held at 
 home and not abroad ; when there will be no 
 annual drain of the resources of America to im- 
 poverish our people and enrich foreign nations. 
 
 " ' Our bonds will be returned from Europe if 
 we pass this bill,' cries an alarmist. No, sir, they 
 will not be returned ; or if they be to some small 
 extent, or even in great amounts, they will soon 
 be recalled. The telegraph says this morning 
 that $6,000,000 are on their way from England. 
 They will be getting back there very soon, whether 
 this bill pass or not ; for were every one of them 
 payable in silver coin, and were the depreciation 
 of silver to continue, the interest upon them would 
 be greater than any equally safe European public 
 stock affords. But, again, they will not be returned 
 unless they can find purchasers in the United 
 States. Suppose they do find such purchasers, 
 will not every one of you, Senators, congratulate 
 yourself that our public debt is held at home ? 
 Will not every one of you remember that a prin- 
 cipal reason why England can endure her im- 
 mense indebtedness, why France can live under 
 hers, is that English debts are held by Englishmen 
 and French debts by Frenchmen ? And will you 
 not hail the day when American debts shall be 
 held by Americans and by Americans alone ?" 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COMPELLING THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 
 
 s 
 
 ENATOR THURMAN'S natural Demo- 
 cratic instinct led him early to see the 
 ^-^ dangers which threatened the country and 
 the people in the vast accumulations of wealth and 
 power by great corporations. Before he entered 
 the Senate the subsidies and land irrants eiven to 
 the monopolies who received their charters from 
 the Federal Government — and proposed to cross 
 State lines and traverse the Territorial dominions 
 in their construction — had been the fruitful source 
 of political demoralization and personal corruption. 
 The greedy " Give ! give !" of those whose hands 
 and pockets had been already well filled was ring- 
 ing through the halls of Congress ; corporate 
 power, having obtained valuable franchises upon 
 conditions never fulfilled, defied the Government 
 to enforce the obligations which it held. 
 
 As early as 1870, in a speech in Cincinnati, 
 Senator Thurman had shown his disposition to 
 warn his countrymen against the encroachment 
 of these powers. Faithful guardian as he was of 
 
 the riorhts of the Government and of the interests 
 <_> 
 
 of the people, the nice sense of justice which en- 
 
 391 
 
392 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 dowed him for the legal profession withheld him 
 from any destructive crusade upon the vested 
 privileges of the objects of his denunciation. He 
 said : 
 
 " Look at the astounding subsidies to railroad 
 companies — mere private corporations. To say 
 nothing of the fift3^-elght million acres granted to 
 States for purposes of internal improvement, most 
 of which have gone Into the hands of railroad 
 companies, there had been granted by Congress 
 before its last session directly to four railroad 
 companies, the Union Pacific and branches, Cen- 
 tral Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Atlantic and 
 Pacific, 124,000,000 acres — more land than is 
 contained in the Middle States, stretching from 
 the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River — that 
 is to say, the seven States of New Jersey, Dela- 
 ware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, 
 and Illinois. Besides this, a subsidy of over $60,- 
 000,000 In bonds was granted to the two first- 
 named roads — every dollar of which, though in 
 name a loan, will. It can hardly be doubted, have 
 to be paid by the United States. 
 
 :;: :i: :i: :]: j]: * j{: ;i: 
 
 " Not only this, the wealth, power, and dominion 
 thus conferred upon these great and favored cor- 
 porations will make them the overshadowing and 
 ruling power in at least a dozen States. In reality, 
 they and not the State Legislatures, will choose 
 Senators In Congress; they, and not the unbiased 
 
COMPELLING RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 393 
 
 VOice of the people, will elect Representatives ; 
 they, and not free States, will speak in the choice 
 of Presidents. 
 
 '' Think of a road stretching from Lake Superior 
 to the Pacific Ocean, embracing within its branches 
 more than two thousand miles of line, the prop- 
 erty of a single corporation, and that corporation 
 owning every alternate section of land, or its pro- 
 ceeds, in a belt of eighty miles wide for nearly the 
 whole length of its line — 40 sections, or 25,600 
 acres to the mile — 53,000,000 acres in all, or the 
 proceeds of their sale at such prices as the cor- 
 poration may see fit to exact — with towns and 
 cities owned by the corporation or a favored ring 
 of its stockholders, scattered along the road, and 
 the great stockholders, those owning nearly all its 
 stock and ruling its affairs, residing in Boston, 
 New York, and Philadelphia, and you will have 
 some idea what the Northern Pacific Railroad is 
 to be, and what chance for political promotion any 
 man within the limits of its influence would have, 
 should he dare seek to restrict its monopoly, 
 restrain its exactions, or otherwise oppose its 
 will. 
 
 " Much is beincT nov/ said about the relative 
 rights of capital and labor; much complaint is 
 uttered at w^hat is said to be the exactions of 
 capital and the depression of labor. The working 
 men are everywhere forming unions, holding con- 
 gresses, and issuing books, pamphlets, and news- 
 
394 Z/i^^ 01^ ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 papers, to advocate their claims, and protest 
 against the unequal distribution of wealth, which 
 they assert is resulting from existing laws, and 
 especially from their tendency to aggregate 
 capital. But what aggregation of capital and 
 privilege was ever seen equal to that created by 
 Congress, by the charters it has granted and the 
 donations it has made to the four railroad com- 
 panies I have named ? What other corporations 
 have ever become the owners in fee of a territory 
 equal to seven State's of this Union, greater than 
 the area of Germany ; and in addition to this 
 wealth, been clothed wdth a corporate existence, 
 and immense corporate privileges of perpetual 
 duration? I am certainly not so absurd as to be 
 an enemy of railroads. No man acknowledges 
 more fully than I do the immense advantage 
 they are to a country ; no man honors more 
 than I do the men who wisely project, and 
 honestly build and manage them. I could men- 
 tion names — some of the dead, some of the 
 living — to whom Ohio owes a great debt of gra- 
 titude for the construction, and liberal, wise, and 
 successful management of her raihvays. But 
 there Is a vast difference between roads built under 
 State authority, with capital furnished by the 
 stockholders, supervised by the State, controlled 
 and managed by her citizens, and limited in extent, 
 and roads chartered bv Con^^ress, built with dona- 
 tions of the public domain, spanning more than 
 
COMPELLING RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 395 
 
 half the continent, and owned and controlled by 
 a few rich men in the Q^reat cities of the East. 
 
 " Before I leave this topic, I must call your 
 attention to an alarming step taken at the last 
 session of Conoress in the matter of these land 
 grants. Before then Congress had never granted 
 any but the alternate sections, designated by odd 
 numbers, and in defense of these grants it was 
 said that the construction of the railroads would 
 double the value of the even-numbered sections 
 retained by the Government, and hence there 
 would be no loss of money, and accordingly the 
 price of the retained sections was raised from 
 ^1.25 to $2.50 per acre. This defense never had 
 any weight with me, for it treated the Govern- 
 ment as a speculator in lands, seeking to extort 
 the highest price from the settler ; whereas I 
 thought, and yet tliink, that it is not as a specu- 
 lator, but as a beneficent parent that the Govern- 
 ment oucrht to reo^ard and administer these lands. 
 But that was the defense, and with those who look 
 at nothinor but dollars and cents it sufficed. But 
 at the last session, the Senate threw even this 
 defense away. For, in face of the most deter- 
 mined opposition, and after full discussion, it 
 deliberately passed a bill granting to the Central 
 branch of the Union Pacific Railroad the even- 
 numbered sections, the odd numbered having 
 been already given to other railroad companies. 
 And so, for a distance of about three hundred 
 
396 LIFE OP ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 mlbs, lying partly In Kansas, partly In Nebraska, 
 and partly in the Territory of Wyoming, every foot 
 of land belonorlns: to the Government was o^ranted, 
 so far as the Senate could do it, to railroad cor- 
 porations. And this leads me to observe that you 
 must not suppose that because all the land-grab- 
 bing bills that passed the Senate did not go 
 through the House, therefore they are dead. In 
 view of the approaching Congressional elections, 
 and fearful of the people, the House laid some of 
 them aside ; but they are still upon its calendar, to 
 be acted upon next winter ; and should the Radi- 
 cal party triumph In the fall elections, you may 
 rest assured that every one of them will pass." 
 
 PROTECTING THE GOVERNMENT S RIGHTS. 
 
 The disclosures of the Credit Mobilier scandal 
 had called public attention to the fact that the 
 liberal grants of the United States Government, 
 in good faith, for the building of transcontinental 
 lines of railway had been grossly misappropriated 
 for the enrichment of the few favored members 
 of the "Inside rings." They had built the road 
 on second mortgage bonds, which had by some 
 legerdemain supplanted the security that the 
 Government had taken for Its subsidies, and the 
 United States became holder of a precarious sub- 
 ordinate lien for the money It had advanced. 
 Although the original act required the railroads 
 
COMPELLING RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 397 
 
 to pay their debts to the Government at maturity, 
 and allowed it to retain only one-half of the sums 
 arising from transportation, it seemed likely that 
 before the principal of these obligations fell due 
 the railroad managers would find their profit in 
 abandoning their mortgaged property and in 
 lettinof their Federal creditor collect its lien from 
 what Mr. Thurman once said would be " a streak 
 of rust" across the continent. An Act of 1873, 
 the outcome of public indignation at the prospect, 
 instructed the Attorney-General to sue the stock- 
 holders for the Government's rIo;hts under the 
 contract; and the Crovernment was empowered 
 to retain all of the moneys which it otherwise 
 would pay for mail service and transportation to 
 the Pacific railroads until the interest in default 
 by these corporations was met. The railroad 
 companies brought suit to recover half of the 
 withheld pay for these services, the other half 
 being retained under the original contract. It 
 was ruled by the courts that, under the terms of 
 the contract between the Government and the 
 companies' the Interest on the bonds was not due 
 until the principal matured. The Act of March, 
 1873, was thus rendered Ineffective; and the sulc 
 of the Government aoralnst Oakes Ames and 
 other Credit Mobilier stockholders who had 
 profited by the advantage taken of the Govern- 
 ment was dismissed on the o-round that the United 
 States was an intermeddler in that issue between 
 
398 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 the stockholders of the road and the men who 
 cheated them ; beinof a creditor whose claim was 
 not yet due, it had no concern in the suit it had 
 raised up. The result of the litigation between 
 1873 and 1878 was favorable to the companies, 
 and the prospect of the Government ever getting 
 its just dues was gloomy indeed. 
 
 A BRILLIANT FIGHT BRAVELY WON. 
 
 It was then Mr. Thurman shifted the line of his 
 attack; aided by Mr. Edmunds and opposed 
 by Mr. Blaine and other friends of the corporate 
 interests, he began the battle for the recovery of 
 the plunder which the Pacific Railways were daily 
 making away with in full sight of the executive, 
 leo-islative, and judicial branches of the Govern- 
 ment. He laid down the principle that a creditor 
 whose debt, though not due, is in danger has a 
 rio-ht to ask a court of equity to restrain the debtor 
 from squandering his assets. He contended 
 for an act which would create a sinking fund 
 into which should be paid five per cent, of the 
 net earnings and all the money that the Govern- 
 ment was asked to pay the railway companies for 
 service rendered ; that sinking fund, swelled thus 
 annually by about $1,200,000, would gradually in- 
 crease to meet at maturity, In part, at least, the 
 interest and principal of the debt of the railway 
 companies. For such a measure he and Mr. Ed- 
 
COMPELLING RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT 399 
 
 munds made gallant and successful struggle, 
 though opposed at every stage of it by some of 
 the ablest debaters of both parties. 
 
 No higher service was rendered the country 
 at the time than by the adoption of this measure, 
 which checked and prevented an impudent attempt 
 of defaulting corporations to evade their just 
 debts. Not only were manymillions actually saved 
 and thus gained to the public Treasury, but an 
 example was set of strict accountability that was 
 needed to repress a growing tendency on the 
 part of Congress to deal liberally and loosely with 
 the contracts of corporations. Mr. Thurman's 
 speeches on the various phases of this legislation, 
 far too numerous and lengthy to be quoted here, 
 were in his usual vigorous style, and he never ap- 
 peared to better advantage than when the gad- 
 flies of parliamentary interruption swarmed about 
 him. In attacking a proposed amendment to his 
 bill, offered by Mr. Blaine, who thus sought to se- 
 cure for the railroad companies a provision re- 
 pealing in part the reserved powers of the Gov- 
 ernment in the charters to alter, amend, or repeal 
 them, Mr. Thurman said : 
 
 " Mr. President, one of the things for which these 
 railroad companies have been striving these many 
 long years has been to get rid of that very re- 
 served power; but this is the first time that they 
 have ventured — no, not they ; I beg pardon for 
 saying that — this is the first time that any one in 
 
400 LIFE OF ALLEN- G. THURMAN. 
 
 the Senate of the United States or, I believe, in 
 the House of Representatives, has ventured to 
 champion such an idea. Their officers and law- 
 yers, in their arguments before the Judiciary Com- 
 mittee last November and December, urged upon 
 us strenuously enough that we should make some 
 kind of bargain with the companies, and they 
 would be extremely liberal if we would only give 
 up the right to alter, amend, or repeal their char- 
 ters. Those arguments, taken in short-hand, will 
 show that it is the cherished object of these cor- 
 porations to get rid of that power of control which 
 Congress possesses over them. They would give 
 for that far more than the Senator from Maine 
 asks from them. They would give far more than 
 the Judiciary Committee bill asks from them, upon 
 any interpretation, if Congress would surrender 
 that power to alter, amend, or repeal. That, 
 therefore, is involved in the amendment which is 
 now under consideration. Congress, for good 
 and sufficient reasons, I am willing to admit for 
 the purposes of this argument, saw fit in 1862 to 
 pass an act chartering railroad companies whose 
 roads should extend over one-half of this conti- 
 nent, and chartering them in perpetuity, charter- 
 ino- them with an existence that should endure as 
 long as the Republic itself should endure^ charter- 
 ing them with powers such as never were con- 
 ferred on any other railroad corporations on the 
 face of this globe, endowing them as no other cor- 
 
COMPELLING RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 40 1 
 
 porations ever were endowed. And then, In 1864, 
 It saw fit to nearly double the endowment, and to 
 increase their powers and their privileges im- 
 mensely beyond what they had been before. But 
 in view of that fact, in view of the immense power 
 and extent and wealth that these corporations 
 would have, in view of the fact which human ex- 
 perience has shown and nowhere more than in 
 the United States, the power of concentrated 
 capital, wielded in the employment of thousands 
 and tens of thousands of men, the Congress 
 wisely retained the power to alter, add to, amend, 
 or repeal those charters. It did it for the very 
 purpose for which such reservations are made, in 
 the language of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. It did it because, in the lan<ruaee of that 
 court — 
 
 " 'The object of the reservation, and of similar 
 reservations in other charters, is to prevent a 
 grant of corporate rights and privileges in a form 
 which will preclude legislative interference v/ith 
 their exercise. If the public interest ' — not the pri- 
 vate interest of these corporations, as my friend 
 from Connecticut [Mr. Eaton] suggests, but 
 against their Interest if necessary and against their 
 will — *If the public interest should at anytime re- 
 quire such Interference. It is a provision Intended 
 to preserve to the State control over its contract 
 with the corporators.' 
 
 ^' That is the language of the Supreme Court, 
 
402 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THUKMAN. 
 
 and that was the law of this land when the Con- 
 o^ress of the United States in 1862, and again 
 in 1864, said the Congress of the United States 
 shall have control over this contract with these 
 corporations. And now, sir, it is to get rid oi 
 that control, to fritter It away, to overthrow and 
 destroy it, to annihilate the very thing for which 
 the people of this country for thirty years have 
 been contending, and which they have put into 
 nearly thirty Constitutions of the States — it Is 
 to get rid of that, to trample it under foot, to 
 render it a nullity, to construe It away, to make 
 it not worth the paper on which the words are 
 printed, that amendments like that now under 
 consideration are offered." '=' '*" '"^ " Mr. Pres- 
 ident, I have said, and I repeat It, that, rather 
 than see Congress give up that power of con- 
 trol over these two great corporations, I would 
 see every dollar of the debt they owe the Gov- 
 ernment lost forever. I would rather see this 
 bill sunk into the depths of the sea, never to be 
 resurrected, than to see Congress yield for one 
 day its power over these two corporations or 
 any others over which it has the power." 
 
 ENORMOUS FIGURES. 
 
 With reference to the effect of the bill gener- 
 ally, In the same speech, he said : 
 
 "At the maturity of the debt the companies 
 will still owe under present laws, that is, If they 
 
COMPELLIXG RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 403 
 
 should not be changed, according to the best esti- 
 mate that can be made of the product of the five 
 per cent, and the product of the half transporta- 
 tion, $109 000,000. The estimate of the Judiciary 
 Committee was ^120,000,000, and of the Railroad 
 Committee ^122,000,060. The chief of accounts 
 estimated it at ^109,000,000, because, as I have 
 said, he estimates the five per cent, of net earnings 
 and the half-transportation account higher than 
 the estimate of the Committees under the Judiciary 
 Committee bill, upon the Committee's estimate of 
 g 1, 1 66,000, or in round numbers $1,200,000, as 
 the amount of the five per cent, and the half- 
 transportation, the sum that would be due to the 
 Government at the maturity of the bonds, the 
 average time of which Is October ist, 1897, would 
 be $75,000,000. That Is what the two companies 
 would owe to the Government at that time upon 
 the estimate made by the Judiciary Committee of 
 the five per cent, and of the half-transportation, 
 if the bill should pass ; but upon the estimate 
 made by this expert, this chief of accounts, allow- 
 Inor for the Increased business in the future at the 
 ratio at which it has Increased in the past, or 
 something like that, theamount that would remain 
 due would be $36,000,000. Under Senate bill 
 No. 812, the bill of the Railroad Committee, the 
 Government would sponge out fifty-three million 
 and odd, losing that by mere computation of in- 
 terest, and the companies would still owe at the 
 maturity of the bonds $67,000,000. 
 
404 ^^^'^ ^^ ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 " Mr. President, It seems to me that this state- 
 ment of itself shows that this is not a subject 
 upon which the hands of Congress ought to be 
 tied, so that, no matter what may be the conse- 
 quences in the future, no matter how these com- 
 panies may mismanage their affairs, no matter, on 
 the other hand, how prosperous they may be, we 
 shall be so tied up that we can do nothing for the 
 protection of their creditors." 
 
 A DISINTERESTED STATESMAN. 
 
 In concluding his remarks upon the Blaine 
 amendment he said : " Having this bill in charge, 
 having bestowed great care upon it, having be- 
 stowed long study and much labor upon it, I 
 thought It my duty to make some remarks in the 
 close of the discussion. I wish, I repeat, to say 
 in conclusion that I have no feeling on this subject 
 and can have no feeling but that which becomes 
 a Senator. My judgment Is not in the least de- 
 gree swayed by Interest. There is no interest In 
 Ohio adverse to these companies that does not 
 exist In Georgia or Maine or any other State in 
 the Union, and there is no interest adverse to 
 them, unless to make them discharge their duties 
 and pay their debts is an adverse interest. I do 
 not know a citizen of Ohio who owns a dollar of 
 stock in either one of these companies ; I do not 
 know a citizen of Ohio who owns a bond of one 
 of these companies ; I do not know a citizen of 
 that State who is a creditor of one of these com- 
 
COMPELLING RAILWAYS TO ACCOUNT. 405 
 
 panies in any way ; I do not know a citizen of my 
 State who is a stockholder or creditor of any rival 
 company to these companies. If there could be 
 a constituency that stands perfectly impartial be- 
 tween the Government and these corporations, it 
 is the constituency that I have the honor in part to 
 represent. All they ask of them, all they ask of 
 their Representatives in Congress, is to see that 
 justice is done. And in order that justice may be 
 done they ask that their cherished principles, for 
 which they long contended and which they carried 
 by triumphant majorities and crystaUized in the 
 Constitution of the State, that every charter 
 granted by the Legislature shall be subject to 
 alteration, amendment, or repeal, in the discretion 
 of the Legislature— they do ask that this great 
 principle which they think essential to the preser- 
 vation of liberty, essential to the preservation of 
 purity in legislation, essential to the rights and 
 prosperity of the people, essential to guard against 
 the dangers that history taught them had so often 
 befallen a people from the existence of monopolies, 
 shall be maintained. They are unwilling that this 
 great principle shall be frittered away and reduced 
 to nothing, shall become a shadow instead of a 
 living and'^potent reality. Tliat they are unwilling 
 to do. In all that I sympathize fully with them. 
 And if I have expressed myself warmly on this 
 subject, it is because I do so sympathize, and this it 
 is that has led me to say again and again, not by 
 
4o6 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN, 
 
 way of bravado, not as my friend from Connecti- 
 cut seems to think, by way of dictating the bill 
 of the Judiciary Committee as the ultimate result 
 of human wisdom (fori have never intimated any 
 such thing, nor do I know any other member of 
 the Committee who has done so), but it is that 
 sentiment as well as the sentiment of justice and 
 of our duty to the people of the United States 
 that have made me speak perhaps somewhat 
 warmly on the subject, and to declare as I did 
 declare, and now repeat, that rather than see that 
 power of Congress, reserved to it over these cor- 
 porations, suspended for one day I would see this 
 bill defeated and every dollar of the Government 
 debt forever lost." 
 
 Senator Thurman miofht well rest his fame as a 
 lawyer and Senator upon the framing and push- 
 ing to passage of this act, which bears his name; it 
 secures to the Federal Treasury many millions 
 that were imperiled, if not lost. His part in it 
 required not only the honesty as a public repre- 
 sentative which has always been conceded to his 
 character, but a degree of industry, ability, cour- 
 age and zeal which are too often lacking in the 
 Senate. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION — PERILS OF THE 
 REPUBLIC MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES. 
 
 MR. THURMAN'S habit, it has before 
 been intimated, is to speak rather when 
 he has something to say, than because 
 he seeks a pretext to say something. Having 
 devoted himself closely to his duties as a Senator, 
 without diversion therefrom to outside business, 
 professional or literary engagements, his utter- 
 ances on public questions are to be found chiefly 
 in the many volumes of the Congressional Record, 
 issued during the period of his public service. 
 Occasionally, however, at these and other times, he 
 delivered at various places public addresses on 
 many subjects, which bear impress of the same 
 thoughtfulness and breadth of view that charac- 
 terized his speeches on the floor of the Senate. He 
 made an address before the literary societies of the 
 University of Virginia, at Charlottesville June 26th, 
 1872, in which he depicted to the young men 
 attending that institution the dangers likely to 
 menace the existence of the Republic, and the 
 means of averting them. Some of these perils 
 he found in the territorial magnitude and enor- 
 mously increasing populadon of the country, the 
 
 407 
 
408 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 diversity of races and languages, the proneness 
 of mankind to war and the love of military glory, 
 and the tendency to centralization. The tone of 
 the address Is by no means pessimistic, however, 
 and for the evils which might result from prevail- 
 ing perilous tendencies he offered practicable 
 relief and saw hopeful remedies. Some striking 
 facts were called to public attention in this speech: 
 ''Only fifty years hence our population will 
 probably exceed 160,000,000, or four times the 
 present population of France. At the end of a 
 century, in 1972, if it increase in the same ratio 
 that has hitherto marked its growth, the United 
 States will contain more than twice as many peo- 
 ple as now inhabit the continent of Europe. If 
 It be inadmissible to suppose that this ratio of In- 
 crease will continue. It is not Irrational to affirm, 
 that wldiin the lifetime of a child now born, our 
 population will equal that of the five Great Powers 
 of Europe combined. Such an aggregadon of man- 
 kind, for the most part homogeneous, belonging 
 to the most Intellectual and energetic portion of 
 the human race, speaking the same language, all 
 more or less educated, occupying one of the fair- 
 est and most fruitful portions of the earth in that 
 North Temperate Zone that seems to be the 
 chosen habitation of civilization and progress, 
 united under one crovernment, and that a oovern- 
 ment of free Institutions, will present a phenome- 
 non such as never yet has been seen in the world. 
 
A FLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 409 
 
 History exhibits nothing hke it, nothing that bears 
 any close analogy to it. It strikes the imagina- 
 tion Hke the dawn of a millennium, and even the 
 most sanguine and hopeful can scarcely regard it 
 as more than a dream." 
 
 '' or the thirtv-eiorht and a-half millions of our 
 people in 1870, but five and a-half millions were 
 foreign born, and they were scattered throughout 
 every State and Territory of the Union. And for 
 the most part they are intelligent, industrious, 
 thriving, and sincerely attached to free institu- 
 tions. With the increase of population, the pro- 
 portion of foreign born to native citizens will de- 
 crease each year. The various elements of white 
 population will become more and more blended, 
 until a homogeneous whole will be the result. The 
 American of a century hence may differ from the 
 American of the past or the present century, but 
 yet, whatever his origin, he will be an American. 
 What people are more homogeneous than the 
 French? And yet, in their veins runs the blood 
 of Celt, Roman, Goth, Teuton, to say nothing of 
 lesser subdivisions of the human race. What 
 more composite in his origin than an English- 
 man, to whose blood the Celt, the Roman, the 
 Dane, the Angle, the Saxon, the Norman all con- 
 tributed? Yet, what unification more complete 
 than than that of the English people of to-day ? 
 We have nothing then to fear, as it seems to me, 
 
41 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMaN. 
 
 from the diversity of race among our white popula- 
 tion." 
 
 Jj^ Jj^ ^ ^ 5jC ^ J|J 
 
 " It has been said that orators govern Repub- 
 Hcs, but if the remark were ever true, it is true no 
 longer. Had every member of Congress the 
 eloquence of Demosthenes, they could not mold 
 public sentiment against a press whose daily 
 issues exceed 1,300,000, and furnish daily mental 
 food to millions of readers. But of these 1,300,000 
 daily sheets, about 1,170,000, or nearly eight- 
 ninths of the whole number, are published in the 
 three cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Bos- 
 ton. More than one-half of the whole number 
 issue from the press of New York alone. 
 
 " If we turn from the dailies to the weeklies, 
 tri- and semi-weeklies, reviews, and magazines we 
 find the same striking fact, that these three cities 
 are the great centres of publication. There is 
 scarcely an art or industry that has not its organ 
 in the city of New York. So too of the books 
 published in the United States. More than three- 
 Fourths — probably nearer nine-tenths — issue from 
 the press of these three cities. The effect is that 
 :hey have become the great centres from which 
 the fact-, the fictions, and the opinions that are 
 molding the American mind emanate." 
 
 H: * >;: :■: :•: :•: ♦ 
 
 " The last census shows that in some of the 
 States there was within the last decade no increase 
 
A PL EA FOR REL IGIO US TOLERA TION. 4 1 i 
 
 at all of the rural population, or one too inslcrnif- 
 icant to be noticed. The whole increase was in 
 the cities and towns. And with the exception of 
 some of the new States, the same census shows 
 everywhere in the Republic an increase in the 
 cities and towns altogether disproportionate to 
 that outside of them. What will be the ultimate 
 effect of this fact, if prolonged, upon our institu- 
 tions, I do not venture to predict. I merely note 
 It as a fact very striking in itself, ^nd worthy of 
 the profoundest consideration." 
 
 A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 
 
 In the Ohio State campaign of 1875 the Republi- 
 cans attempted to create a sectarian issue bycharg- 
 inorthat there was a combination between the Dem- 
 ocratic party and the Catholic Church to abolish 
 the common-school system, or, at least, divide the 
 school fund amono- the various reliofious denomi- 
 nations, or to exempt Catholics from all taxation 
 for the support of the schools. As Mr. Thurman 
 said in an address at Cleveland, opening the cam- 
 paign, " A more unfounded pretense, a more false, 
 hollow, and hypocritical assertion, was never ut- 
 tered by mortal man. Itwouldbea sufficient answer 
 to say that no combination between the Demo- 
 cratic party and the Catholic Church exists or has 
 ever existed. There never has been a public 
 measure adopted or advocated by the Democratic 
 party that gave to the Catholic, or any other 
 
41 2 LIFE OF ALLEN G. ThURMAJST. 
 
 Church, any preference or advantage over any 
 other sect or body of men. It has been the boast 
 of the party, and a just and proper boast, too, that 
 from Its verv foundation it has defended the rights 
 of conscience of every man, opposed every scheme 
 for a union of Church and State, and maintained 
 the perfect equahty of right of every sect and de- 
 nomination of mankind. Its great founder, the 
 immortal Jefferson, was one of the first of men to 
 advocate this Qquahty, and to give to it the sanc- 
 tion of law in the Legislature of his native State. 
 For his maintenance of this principle he was un- 
 sparingly denounced by -his enemies, and held up 
 to the public gaze as an Infidel seeking to destroy 
 the very foundations of religion. But the Demo- 
 cratic party rallied to his support, and so firmly 
 established the principle that It has become a part 
 and parcel of our free Institutions, as Inseparable 
 from them as our blood is from our lives, and 
 destined to endure as long as they shall exist." 
 
 The Issue thus raised eave Senator Thurman 
 cause to make a clear deliverance on the subject 
 of the relation of the Church and State, and upon 
 religious toleration in general. In the speech 
 above quoted he also said : 
 
 ** There are many people yet who think that a 
 Unitarian denies the truths of Scripture, and de- 
 serves the frowns and condemnation of all true 
 Christians. There are others who regard the 
 Quakers as enemies of government, because they 
 
A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 413 
 
 insist upon the gospel of peace and deny the law- 
 fuhiess of war. There are others who regard the 
 Episcopal Church as a sort of adjunct to Rome. 
 And so of all the sects, there is not one against 
 whom, in the minds of other sectaries, prejudice 
 may not be excited ; and if that prejudice is to 
 take the form of political warfare, there is no sect 
 that will be secure from its baleful influence. 
 The Radical manao^ers now assail the Catholics 
 knowing them to be in a minority. Were the 
 Protestants in a minority, I dare say some of these 
 same manao^ers would be found assailincr them. 
 No, my friends, the only safe ground to stand 
 upon is the Democratic principle of equal rights 
 and perfect freedom of conscience, embodied In 
 our Federal and State Constitutions. The 
 Churches are powerful and efficient instrumen- 
 talities for good, and whatever may be a man's 
 belief, or disbelief, in theological tenets, he cannot 
 truthfully deny their conservative power over the 
 morals and peace of society. But whenever they 
 shall be dragged into the mire of politics, when- 
 ever warfare upon a Church shall become a high- 
 road to political preferment, you may rest assured 
 that a blow at their usefulness will have been dealt 
 that will require many years of pain and suffering 
 before its evil effects will cease to be felt. 
 
 " To hear a Radical stumper talk of the Catholic 
 Church, you would think, if you knew no better, 
 that all the members of that Church are under the 
 
4 J 4 • ^^^^ O^ ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 absolute dominion of their priests ; that the priest 
 has but to point his finger, and his whole flock 
 vote for the party to which he points. There 
 never was a more unfounded assertion, never a 
 greater libel pronounced against a body of Ameri- 
 can freemen. In matters of religion the Catholic 
 reverently receives the instructions of his spiritual 
 guide ; in secular matters he acts, as other men 
 act, upon the dictates of his own judgment. There 
 are tens of thousands of Catholics who vote, and 
 have always voted, the Republican ticket ; and if 
 the number of such votes is diminishing, it is not 
 because of priestly domination, but because the 
 spirit of Know-Nothingism again stalks abroad, 
 and threatens to obtain complete possession of 
 the Republican party. 
 
 " It is not many years since Archbishop Hughes, 
 of New York, and Archbishop Purcell, of Cincin- 
 nati, were open supporters of Lincoln's Adminis- 
 tration, and were much applauded by the Repub- 
 lican leaders for that support. Then not one of 
 those leaders was heard to utter a word about 
 priestly interference in politics, or priestly domi- 
 nation. On the contrary, these venerable prelates 
 were lauded to the skies by the Republican party, 
 and their example everywhere cited as an induce- 
 ment to Catholics to vote the Republican ticket. 
 Nay, further. President Lincoln manifested his 
 high regard for the Archbishop of New York by 
 sending him on a mission to Europe, and the 
 
A PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 41 5 
 
 whole Republican party applauded the act. But 
 did the course taken by these eminent prelates — 
 none more eminent or better entitled to the 
 regard of their flocks and of mankind — control 
 tlie Catholic vote ? Every man of you is ready to 
 say, no, for it is as notorious as that the sun gives 
 light to the earth, that the great body of Catholics 
 continued to vote as they had been accustomed 
 to vote — the Democrats continued to be Demo- 
 crats, and the Republicans continued to be Re- 
 publicans. 
 
 " It is a little curious to hear Republican speak- 
 ers denounce what they call the interference of 
 the Catholic priesthood in politics, and then turn 
 over a few pages of history and see what the 
 Protestant priesthood have done, not only with 
 the approbation but encouraged by the loud plau- 
 dits of these same Republicans. Have you for- 
 gotten the petition to Congress of three thousand 
 (I think that was the number) Protestant minis- 
 ters, denouncing the policy of a Democratic 
 Administration, and with what a flourish of trum- 
 pets it was presented and applauded ? 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, you will much misunderstand 
 me if you suppose that, in anything I have said, I 
 mean to censure, much less condemn, any Prot- 
 estant Church or any Protestant priest. On the 
 contrary, I stand here to defend the rights of 
 every Church, and to maintain that every man, be 
 he Christian or Jew, Protestant or CathoHc, priest 
 
41 6 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 or layman, believer or unbeliever, shall enjoy to 
 the fullest extent his rights as a citizen ; that he 
 shall have the rights guaranteed by our Constitu- 
 tions — Federal and State — the right of free 
 speech, the right to petition the law-making power, 
 the riorht to vote as he sees fit, the rieht to hold 
 office, and, most sacred of all, the right to wor- 
 ship Almighty God according to the dictates of 
 his own conscience. I stand here to maintain 
 that he shall not be traduced and proscribed 
 because he exercises these rights ; that a vindic- 
 tive prejudice shall not be excited against him 
 because he exercises them ; that he shall be, to 
 all intents and purposes, what the Constitution 
 makes him, a free man. I stand here to denounce 
 the agitators who would practically deprive any 
 man of these rights, to denounce the Know-Noth- 
 ing spirit that seeks to reduce Catholics and 
 foreiofn-born citizens to the status of a dee^raded 
 class in the community, to denounce the hypocrisy 
 that pretends that our schools are in danger, or 
 that our legislation is controlled by any priest- 
 hood whatever ; and I stand here to appeal to 
 you, whatever may be your religious belief or dis- 
 belief, whatever are or may have been your polit- 
 ical affiliations, whatever may be your calling or 
 occupation, whatever may be the land in which 
 your eyes first beheld the sun, to set the seal of 
 your condemnation upon the most heartless, insin- 
 cere, illiberal, anti- American, and dangerous at- 
 
A FLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 417 
 
 tack upon freedom of conscience, the rights of 
 the citizen, the peace of society, and the welfare 
 of your Government ever made In America since 
 the Know-Nothing banner, tv/enty years ago, 
 went down In the dust." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 DELEGATE TO THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY CON- 
 FERENCE ARBITRATOR AND COUNSELOR TELE- 
 PHONE SUITS AND TALLY-SHEET FORGERY CASES. 
 
 IN 1879 the Republicans elected a majority of 
 the Ohio Legislature and chose James A. 
 Garfield United States Senator to succeed 
 Mr. Thurman. There is not much doubt that with 
 the expiration of his Senatorial term Senator Thur- 
 man felt that his official life had ended. Although 
 his name had been mentioned for the highest office 
 in the Republic, fit object of any citizen's aspirations, 
 he had never let himself be led off by ambitious 
 dreams. He had not been supplanted in the es- 
 teem ot his countrymen, nor had the affectionate 
 regard of his party for him weakened in any de- 
 gree; but national politics had come to be so 
 largely a contest for a few close States that no- 
 body realized more clearly than Mr. Thurman 
 that the Democratic nominee for President would 
 not likely be chosen from Ohio during the years 
 of his availability. On March 4th, t 881, with 'the 
 inauguration of President Garfield, he retired from 
 the Senate, and an incident'*'"* related at this time 
 
 ^ Howard Carroll's Twelve Americans ^ page i66, 
 418 
 
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. 
 
 419 
 
 shows how welcome was the reUef from responsi- 
 bihty and how complacently he viewed what he 
 felt to be his final exit from the stao^e : 
 
 On the 3d of March, 18S1, at the close of his 
 own term as Senator, Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, 
 sitting in his chair in the Senate Chamber, wrote 
 a letter to his son expressing his sense of freedom 
 at his approaching permanent release from all 
 official duties. After finishinof the letter he handed 
 it to Mr. Thurman, who wrote on a blank page 
 of the paper the following : 
 
 " My Dear Mr. Hamlin : — I have not the pleas- 
 ure of your acquaintance, but I have known your 
 father for over twenty-five years. Like him, I 
 can say this is the hist day of my political life, and 
 I am rejoiced to go out of it in such good com- 
 pany and with my personal friend of a generation. 
 My sincere wish Is that you may do honor to a 
 father so Illustrious. 
 
 " Truly yours, etc., 
 
 "A. G. Thurman.'* 
 
 A DELEGATE TO PARIS. 
 
 When Mr. Garfield was elected Senator, he 
 Indulged In some polite poetic fancies about the 
 flowers that hung over the garden walls of party 
 politics in Ohio, In token of the amenities always 
 existing between him and Mr. Thurman ; one 
 of the first appointments which the new President 
 
420 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 of 1 88 1 made, was a graceful recognition of his 
 Senatorial predecessor and the leader of the 
 opposition party in his own State. Together with 
 ex-Secretary of State William M. Evarts, and 
 ex-Senator Timothy O. Howe, President Garfield 
 appointed Allen G. Thurman one of the three 
 American delegates to meet the representatives 
 of nearly all the European nations at the Interna- 
 tional Monetary Conference of 1881, which as- 
 sembled in Paris on the 19th of April, 1881. 
 Conferences of this kind had assembled before, 
 the first in 1867, and another in 1878. To the 
 last, the American delegates were Reuben E. 
 Fenton, William S. Groesbeck, and Francis A. 
 Walker, with S. Dana Horton as Secretary. 
 Although its proceedings disclosed progress 
 toward a general adoption of silver remonetiza- 
 tion, it came to no definite result. 
 
 Mr. Thurman, accompanied by his wife, faithful 
 companion of all his journeyings, sailed for Europe 
 on April 5th, 1881, and reached the Conference 
 with his colleagues and Mr. Horton, their 
 Secretary — but admitted also as a member, having 
 been a delegate to the conference of 1878 — in 
 time for the opening of the session. Austria, Hun- 
 gary, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, The 
 Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Spain, 
 Switzerland and France were represented from the 
 outset, and the English delegates soon appeared. 
 Thirteen sessions in all were held, during April, 
 
INTERNA TIONAL MONETAE V CONFERENCE. 42 I 
 
 May, June, and July ; the discussions were Inter- 
 esting and the exhibits valuable; the proceedings 
 were marked by the highest courtesy and profound 
 international consideration. The news of Pres- 
 ident Garfield's assassination was received during 
 the sittings, and the Conference transmitted 
 through our delegates warm sentiments of sym- 
 pathy. The draft of a Convention was framed by 
 which the different Governments were to bind 
 themselves till January ist, 1900, to admit gold 
 and silver to mintage without any limitation of 
 quantity, and at the ratio of i to 15^ ; but the 
 disinclination of the English and German dele- 
 gates prevented definite action. A number of the 
 delegates had simply the power to report to their 
 Governments, and, though the Convention sepa- 
 rated on July 12th, to reassemble in April, 1882, 
 there has been no further session. Socially and 
 officially, Mr. Thurman was a conspicuous figure 
 and general favorite in the Conference. During 
 the tenth session he made an address on the 
 effect upon commerce of oscillations of the value 
 of silver, and upon the desirability of a stable rela- 
 tion in the value of the two metals. 
 
 Between the sessions and after the adjourn- 
 ment of the conference Mr. and Mrs. Thur- 
 man visited Geneva, Berne, Basle, Stras- 
 bourg, Heidelberg, Frankfort-on-Main, Mayence, 
 Cologne, Brussels, and other German cities ; 
 they spent a week at Versailles, another In 
 
42 2 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 London, and made the tour of England and 
 Scotland, He was an interested spectator and 
 stutlent of European affairs, though he returned 
 even a better American than before. 
 
 BACK TO BUSINESS. 
 
 Scarcely had he returned to his own country, 
 his home and his office, when professional en- 
 gagements claimed his attention. In 1882 the 
 great trunk line railroad companies, the Pennsyl- 
 vania, New York Central, Erie, and Baltimore 
 and Ohio became involved in a war of rates ; and 
 they agreed on Mr. Thurman, with Thomas M. 
 Cooley, the Michigan jurist, and Elihu B. Wash- 
 burne, ex-Minister to France, to arbitrate their 
 differences about differential rates. 
 
 Many other matters of large concern, besides 
 an active interest in national politics, claimed his 
 time and eno^ao^ed his services. In the winter of 
 1886-87 the miners in the Hocking Valley de- 
 manded higher wages ; the employing operators 
 refused to grant the advance, declaring that the 
 condition of their business and the profits then 
 making vv^ould not afford it. Serious troubles 
 arose and worse portended. Finally both sides 
 agreed on ex-Senator Thurman as sole arbitrator 
 to hear the allegations and proofs and to de- 
 termine whether the advance should be paid. He 
 heard the case fully, decided in favor of the 
 miners, the increase demanded was granted, and 
 
BACK TO BUSINESS. 423 
 
 nothing has developed to discredit the wisdom of 
 his judgment. 
 
 In 1885 the United States Government began 
 what came to be known as the Telephone suits, 
 to annul the Bell patents on the ground of prior 
 discovery. The immense money interests at stake 
 and the ensuing political recrimination attracted 
 wide popular attention to the cases, which was 
 intensified when ex-Senator Thurman was^ re- 
 tained to assist the Government. The suits- 
 begun in the Circuit Court of the Southern Dis- 
 trict of Ohio, where Mr. Tharman made an elab- 
 orate argument against the motion to quash the 
 marshal's return — were dismissed on the ground 
 of no jurisdiction, on the point that the Bell 
 Company was a Massachusetts corporation and 
 that service on its subordinate companies in Ohio 
 was not sufficient. Mr. Thurman, in the course 
 of an elaborate argument, said: 
 
 *' Here is a supposed invention made by Alex- 
 ander Graham Bell, and patents obtained for it, 
 and those patents sold to a corporation created 
 in the State of Massachusetts for the express 
 purpose of holding those patents, and of doing 
 the business which those patents give the paten- 
 tee a right to do, and restrain all other people 
 from doing. Here is this corporation thus created 
 to hold this great invention, it is said, and ulti- 
 mately to do a business that almost appalls the 
 understanding when you come to think of it ; a 
 
424 
 
 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 business that was well said by my friend here on 
 my right exceeds all the transactions and all 
 the revenues of some of the nations of the 
 earth — a business that ultimates in $70,000,000 
 or $80,000,000 of stock and in a revenue 
 or more than $10,000,000 a year. Here is 
 this corporation to carry on this great business 
 and to carry it on with a skill and an intellect 
 that I never can think of without beinof lost in 
 admiration. And, I have said ai^ain and again, 
 and I repeat it now, if Alexander Graham Bell 
 had ever manifested one-twentiedi part of the in- 
 ventive genius in science that WilHain li. Forbes 
 and his associates have exemplified in the build- 
 ing up of a mighty commercial monopoly. Bell 
 would be the greatest scientist, or have the rep- 
 utation of beinof the orreatest scientist, stand- 
 ing upon the top of this globe. Why, it is 
 marvelous to see what it is. Here is a patent 
 that stretches over this whole Republic, from 
 ocean to ocean, and from lake to gulf, that grasps 
 within its provisions more than 60,000,000 of peo- 
 ple now, and it will have more than 100,000,000 
 within its embrace, if it shall be maintained, before 
 it expires; which has these immense agencies 
 throughout the whole country — not a little fellow 
 here or there with a pen stuck behind his ear — 
 some clerk at a desk — not some fellow with a 
 wheelbarrow — not some fellow driving a dray; 
 nothingof that kind, but it has a whole series of 
 
BACK TO BUSINESS. 425 
 
 great corporations at its bid as the agencies or in- 
 strumentalities by which it carries on this mighty 
 business. Now, sir, you are not to look at the 
 mere fact that it owns stock in these corporations 
 and then say, ' What is that ? Owning stock in 
 a foreign corporation don't make the holder an 
 Inhabitant of the locality of that foreign corpora- 
 tion or make him found there.' When these 
 local corporations are the mere agencies, the mere 
 instrumentalities of the great mother corporation ; 
 when the mother corporation could not do its 
 business without them; when they are absolutely 
 essential to this extended and erand business 
 which It carries on, and when It has them within 
 its grasp so completely that there is not one of 
 them in which it has not a majority of stock ; In 
 which It cannotturn out every functionary on a mo- 
 ment's notice; in which it cannot dissolve the 
 corporation and surrender Its charter If it see fit 
 to do It ; in which It cannot dictate every contract 
 that it makes, and govern It In every step that It 
 takes — when that is the case, what are these 
 corporations but Its servants ? What are they 
 but Its Instrumentalities? Why, your Honors 
 want to do a business, and you want to extend it 
 over several States, and you get — I do not care 
 whedier you get a charter here In Ohio or not, 
 but it will be convenient, if nothing more, that for 
 the conduct of this business In Kentucky, in Ten- 
 nessee, In Illinois, and in Pennsylvania, that you 
 
426 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 should act by corporations there ; you might not 
 be able to do otherwise, and to do your business 
 with any sort of success. If you had to employ 
 mere human agents, with the imperfect control 
 you would have over them, with the liability to 
 have your agency destroyed by the death at any 
 time of your agent, or by disability, or by dishon- 
 esty, or the like, you might be wholly unable to 
 carry on your business. This American Bell Tel- 
 ephone Company therefore wisely sets up these 
 subordinate companies, these licensee companies, 
 as it calls them ; these chickens of the same hen ; 
 it sets them up and it governs them, and rules 
 them, and to be perfectly sure that they shall not 
 get from under its domination, not content with 
 all the provisions that have been read to your 
 Honors from the contracts, it gets a majority of 
 the stock, as in this case of the Central Union 
 and of some other companies. What Is this Cen- 
 tral Union Company ? It stretches over three 
 States. It embraces Illinois, includinof the o-reat 
 city of Chicago ; it embraces Indiana, and it em- 
 braces a great portion of the State of Ohio. 
 What is the Central Union Company ? Why, 
 this Bell Telephone Company in its corporate 
 capacity — mark that — not the individuals of the 
 American Bell Telephone Company, but the Bell 
 Telephone Company, In Its corporate capacity, 
 owns the majority of the stock of that company 
 and can to-morrow, if it see fit, take out every 
 
BACK TO BUSINESS. 427 
 
 telephone that Is in existence from here to Rock 
 Island. 
 
 " Now, sir, when It employs such agencies as 
 that to do Its business, and could not do Its busi- 
 ness without them, are they not Its managing 
 agents ? If not, what are they, I would like to 
 know ? • Are they not Its managing agents with 
 the powers that are given to them by what are 
 called here these licenses and by the power which 
 it has over them by the grasp that it has upon 
 their throats ? Who can say that it does not do 
 business In Ohio by means of these subordinate 
 corporations, and that they are not its managing 
 agents ?" 
 
 The point was decided against the Government; 
 new suits were then begun In Massachusetts, and 
 upon adjudication of these the Circuit Court de- 
 cided against the rlo-ht of the Government to 
 annul the patents. The Supreme Court, by a 
 very close division, affirmed the judgment ; the 
 motion for a rehearlncr before a somewdiat changed 
 court is set down for September, when Mr. 
 Thurman Is expected to open the argument for the 
 Government. One of Mr. Thurman's colleagues 
 in this case speaks in the highest terms of his 
 legal acumen, and declares that In his analytical 
 power to cut loose from the consideration of an 
 issue all irrelevant matter he is unexcelled at the 
 American bar. 
 
 His most recent appearance as a lawyer has 
 
428 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 been as associate counsel for the prosecution In 
 the cases In the Criminal Court at Columbus 
 against some members of his own party charged 
 with forging tally papers and making false and 
 fraudulent returns at ageneral election. Regularly 
 retained, and making no objection that the de- 
 fendants called themselves Democrats, he went 
 Into the trial of the first case called, and during 
 the two months that It lasted conducted It with a 
 vigor and skill diat showed him to be at the very 
 maturity of his powers. The jury disagreed, and 
 it is understood to have hung at eleven for con- 
 viction to one for acquittal. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SOME PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS MR. THURMAN 
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 1 
 
 "^HAT veteran correspondent and observer 
 of men and thlnors at Washinoton, the 
 late Ben: Perley Poore, in his remin- 
 iscences of the Federal capital, thus refers to 
 Senator Allen G. Thurman and some of his 
 striking- personal characteristics as they appeared 
 to the galleries : 
 
 " Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, was recognized 
 by the Democrats in the Senate as their leader. 
 He was a broad-shouldered, sturdily built man, 
 with a large, square head and ruddy complexion, 
 gray hair and beard, and a positive manner that 
 commanded respect. Earnest, outspoken, and 
 free in his criticisms of men and manners, he 
 would wave his red bandana pocket handkerchief 
 like a guidon, give his nose a trumpet-blast, take 
 a fresh pinch of snuff, and dash into the debate, 
 dealing rough blows, and scattering the carefully 
 prepared arguments of his adversaries like chaff." 
 Mr. Thurman's bandana handkerchief and his 
 snuff-box have been made so prominent in all the 
 personal accounts of him which have appeared in 
 the prints, especially since his nomination for Vice- 
 
 429 
 
430 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 President, that the pubHc attach more Importance 
 to them as points of his marked personality than 
 the facts warrant. Like the appellation, *' Old 
 Roman," Senator Thurman ascribes the frequency 
 of notice given his handkerchief and his snuff- 
 box to the active newspaper correspondents of 
 the capital, who, always his friends, are alert to 
 seize upon the picturesque features of a public 
 man's habit, and often to exaggerate if not to in- 
 vent idiosyncrasies. Mr. Thurman acquired the 
 habit of taking snuff, not infrequent fifty years 
 ago, from his old French teacher, Professor 
 Gregoire ; and when he first went to Washington 
 he found it to be a prevailing practice there. He 
 does not, however, use snuff to any excess, and 
 his moderate-sized box, supplied with the finest 
 quality, will easily last him a fortnight without re- 
 filling. He naturally took to the use of the ban- 
 dana handkerchief in vogue in his younger days, 
 and has simply never abandoned an article of 
 dress that has popularly been supplanted by more 
 modern forms. Neither of these nor any other 
 feature of his personal attire or habit is an affec- 
 tation, and no man is less self-conscious than he 
 in these matters of minor concern. 
 
 In early manhood Mr. Thurman eschewed to- 
 bacco and all manner of stimulants ; until he was 
 twenty-nine years of age he had never smoked a 
 cigar. Frequent out-door speaking had induced 
 bronchitis, and intense application to study and work 
 
SOME PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 43 1 
 
 had worn him down physically. It was dien upon 
 the reiterated advice of one trusted physician alter 
 another that he adopted a more generous mode 
 of life ; he acquired a taste for a good cigar, which 
 has never failed him, an appreciation of a glass 
 of old Madeira which he has never abused nor 
 forsaken. His trip to Washington and the South, 
 and moderate changes toward a diet upon which 
 exhaustive work could make strono-er drafts, im- 
 proved his health and prolonged his years and 
 usefulness. 
 
 MR. THURMAN AT HOME. 
 
 For the first nine years of his practice Mr. 
 Thurman devoted his attention and his earnings 
 largely to the aid of his father's family. He was 
 married soon after his first election to Congress, 
 and to this happy union have been owing in large 
 degree the success which has attended his public 
 and professional career and the peace and joy 
 that have brio-htened his domestic life. Mrs. 
 Mary A. Tompkins, daughter of Judge Walter 
 Dun, of Kentucky, later of Ohio, was a widow 
 with one daughter, now deceased, when, on No- 
 vember 14th, 1844, she became the wife of Allen 
 G. Thurman. With congenial tastes in literature, 
 politics, and social affairs, their life together has 
 been one of unbroken harmony and mutual help- 
 fulness. After the late nomination at St. Louis, 
 Governor Foraker^ in his partisan zeal to belittle 
 
432 Life of alien g. thukman. 
 
 not only his distinguished townsman, but Mr. 
 Thurman's beloved wife, denounced the one as a 
 "copperhead" during the war, and the other as a 
 "rebel sympathizer," because when the captured 
 Confederates were imprisoned near Columbus 
 Mrs. Thurman's goodness of heart prompted her 
 to give motherly attention to some of the sick in 
 their confinement. The good couple noticed the 
 attempted insult with the utmost complacency, 
 and Mr. Thurman quietly remarked that he did 
 recall how Governors Dennison and Todd — both 
 Republicans, "used to praise Mary for her kindness 
 in carrying delicacies to the sick and forlorn in 
 the prison camp." The stinging rebuke was pro- 
 bably appreciated by every citizen of Columbus 
 except the occupant of the Gubernatorial chair. 
 
 Mr. Thurman never removed his residence 
 from Columbus after he went to the capital city 
 as Judge of the Supreme Court. For a long time 
 his home adjoined his office on South High Street, 
 in the central and more crowded portions of the 
 city ; but a few years ago he removed to the new 
 double stone front and brick house erected for his 
 own and his son Allen W.'s family, at the corner 
 of Rich Street and Washington Avenue. His res- 
 idence is a commodious, comfortable, and unpre- 
 tentious mansion^ where he and his wife live in 
 Democratic simplicity, at peace with themselves, 
 their neighbors, and all mankind. No liveried 
 flunkies attend their door, no crests are emblaz- 
 
SOME PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 433 
 
 oned on the panels of their carnage ; indeed, they 
 keep no horses, and they entertain with genuine 
 hospitaUty rather than lavish expenditiire. The 
 ex-Senator's library is a comfortable, well-lighted 
 room on the second floor, in which are arranged, 
 in a sort of orderly confusion that suits him, a 
 miscellaneous collection of books, by no means 
 extensive, nor restricted to any special subject. 
 Although he has had large correspondence, he 
 has retained few letters received ; he has no col- 
 lection whatever of his many speeches in Congress 
 and miscehaneous addresses, and neither he nor 
 any one for him has made the ordinary '' scrap- 
 book," or any gathering of the thousands of col- 
 umns of newspaper matter that have recorded his 
 movements and sayings, and have commented 
 upon the " old Roman " and his characteristics. 
 
 Mr. Thurman reads French as fluendy and as 
 understandingly as the language of his mother 
 tongue ; he does not pretend, chiefly from disuse, 
 to sVak the foreign language as readily as his 
 own, but he condnues with renewed pleasure his 
 long time recreation in Racine, Moliere, and the 
 Fre^nch novelists, and when the news of the St. 
 Louis nomination reached him he had just com- 
 pleted thirty volumes of the Histoire des Francais 
 par Simonde de Sismonde. He delights in local 
 history and was the first President of the Ohio 
 State Arch^ological and Historical Society. 
 
 Adjoining his house on the east, and down 
 28 
 
434 
 
 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 under the window where the morning light never 
 greets him — for it is his present habit to stay with 
 his books until after midnight, and to breakfast at 
 noon — stretches a beautiful lawn. Cherry trees 
 stand alone its borders ; tennis courts are marked 
 out in the centre of it, and several huge Ohio 
 boulders help to give it a striking aspect. Here 
 the amiable statesman loves to gather about him 
 at the close of the day a score or more of the 
 litde folk of the neighborhood, playfellows of his 
 own crrandchildren ; he is never averse to those 
 who come in ragged or even soiled garments, but 
 he insists that every one of them whom he toler- 
 ates shall have a " clean tongue " In his or her 
 head. 
 
 His only son, Allen W., his wife, and four chil- 
 dren live in the double house which comprises the 
 Thurman homestead. His daughters, one the 
 wife of ex-Governor R. C. McCormick, and the 
 other the wife of a lieutenant in the United States 
 Navy, live on Staten Island, where their father 
 makes frequent journeys to Indulge his parental 
 fondness. 
 
 Mr. Thurman is in no wise enfeebled in body 
 nor in impaired physical health. For twenty years 
 he has suffered more or less from rheumatic affec- 
 tion, impeding the free exercise of his legs, At 
 times this is increased by long disuse and close 
 retirement day after day in his library. But with 
 exercise the stiffness passes away, and it was 
 
SOME PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 435 
 
 noticed during the late trials of the tally-sheet for- 
 gery cases that each day he walked to his work with 
 lighter step and mounted the stairs with easier 
 exertion. His brain has never been clearer nor 
 his mind more active, as his public deliverances 
 since his nomination plainly show. 
 
 Years a^ro Mr. Thurman invested in a laree 
 tract of land, two hundred acres in all, near 
 Columbus. He himself surveyed and laid it out in 
 town lots and he has profited by its natural in- 
 crease in value. This foresight and like enter- 
 prises, with a steady application to business, thrift, 
 and eood manao^ement, have secured for him a 
 handsome competency, and he dispenses charity 
 with uncrrudorincr hand. 
 
 Mr. Thurman is liberally orthodox in his re- 
 ligious belief, and the family attend the Episcopal 
 Church. In common with most men of general 
 culture and of a wide rano-e of reading in the 
 classics, ancient and modern, he is a student of 
 the truths and beauties of the Holy Scriptures. 
 A few days after his nomination for Vice-President 
 he addressed, at the request of Bishop Watterson, 
 the picnic of St. Vincent's orphans, near Colum- 
 bus ; taking for his text " and the greatest of 
 these is charity," he made an address that would 
 have fallen fitly from the lips of a clergyman in 
 the sanctuary, his exposition oi the Sermon on 
 the Mount being marvelously eloquent and 
 beautiful. 
 
436 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 In society Mr. Thurman neither seeks nor shuns 
 attention. His large experience, unfailing good 
 humor, rich fund of anecdote, direct and forcible 
 narration, make him much sought for in company. 
 He is a representative American ; he has traveled 
 widely and observed closely ; he. has nursed hay 
 fever at the Isle of Shoals and caught fish in Bear 
 Lake, Minnesota ; he is at home in the galleries of 
 Versailles or the cottage of the frontiersman ; 
 he Is loved by his neighbors and trusted by those 
 who know him best. One of the leading Repub- 
 licans of Columbus, upon leaving for Europe re- 
 cently, said: "I have handed Judge Thurman a 
 blank power of attorney and said : ' If I should 
 meet with any accident I want you to have the 
 settling up of my estate.' There Is no other man 
 living, Democrat or Republican, whom I would 
 trust to that extent, but I know that In Judge 
 Thurman's hands my property would be perfectly 
 safe. I am a Republican, and expect to vote 
 against Judge Thurman, but no human being can 
 successfully assail his honor or his Integrity." 
 
 RELATIONS WITH SENATORIAL COLLEAGUES. 
 
 Mr. Thurman's frankness and freedom from 
 every sort of affectation permitted to his personal 
 characteristics free play In the Senate, and estab- 
 lished and kept for him the most agreeable rela- 
 tions with his colleagues In that body. He has 
 said, " I have always kept a civil tongue in my 
 
SOME PERSONAL CHARACl ERISTICS. 437 
 
 head, and recognized the right of everybody to 
 think for himself." He stated the case fairly. The 
 speeches of no conspicuous man in Congress, 
 who had so long filled such large space in the public 
 eye, will be found so frequently broken into by 
 the interruptions and queries of his colleagues. 
 Equally notable are the good temper with which 
 these were invariably received, the encyclopedic 
 knowledge and acute readiness with which they 
 were answered. 
 
 For instance, upon one occasion, after many in- 
 terruptions, Mr. Thurman was asked through the 
 Chair if he would allow himself to be interrogated 
 by the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Edmunds. His 
 quick answer was: " He looks so inviting that I 
 cannot help it." 
 
 Upon another, and like occasion, he said : . " I am 
 tired. Senators do me too much honor. They 
 seem to think I am able to explain everything, and 
 I confess I am not." 
 
 Again, concluding a long address, in which he 
 had been helped and hindered by the frequent aid 
 of friends and foes, he said : 'T have occupied far 
 more time than I expected, and far more than I 
 should have done but for these pleasant litde 
 questions and interruptions that have taken place, 
 and which so enliven a dull speech, that I am 
 always happy to be interrupted in order that I 
 may not wear out the patience of the Senate." 
 
 Mr. Conkling was one day making a speech, 
 
4-5g LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 during which he repeatedly turned to Judge 
 Thurman and addressed remarks to him. They 
 were not always free from irritating purpose, and 
 Judge Thurman, with unwonted fierceness, finally 
 said : 
 
 " Does the Senator from New York expect me 
 to answer him every time he turns to me?" 
 
 For a moment Mr. Conkling hesitated. Then, 
 with an air of exquisite courtesy, he replied : 
 
 " When I speak of the law I turn to the Senator 
 from Ohio as the Mussulman turns toward Mecca. 
 I turn to him as I do to the English common law, 
 as the world's most copious fountain of human 
 jurisprudence." 
 
CHAPTER Xil. 
 
 THE CALL FROM POLITICAL RETIREMENT NOMI^^\- 
 
 TION FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY. 
 
 SENATOR THURMAN was vindoubtedly 
 sincere in his purpose to retire from official 
 life with the end of his Senatorial term. He 
 believed that no summons of his party to future 
 candidacy for office worthy of his regard would 
 reach him. In response to a serenade from the 
 Thurman Club, of Cincinnati, last year, he made 
 this touchino- address : 
 
 " Mv Young Friends : When I was a boy at 
 school many years ago, one of the text-books I 
 studied was a Latin one, Cicero on Old Age, and 
 I remember well when I read that beautiful treat- 
 ise, in which the author sets forth in the most 
 beautiful and impressive man^er that consumma- 
 tion in old aore which would in some deo^ree be a 
 compensation for the trials of youth, I wondered 
 if that lot would ever be mine. Now, when I 
 look down upon your heads and see your bright 
 faces and know who you are and what you are, I 
 feel somethino- of recrret that the old author never 
 had a Ciceronian Club to honor and console him 
 in his old age, as you have mine. I thank you, 
 first, for the honor you have done an old man in 
 
 439 
 
440 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 taking his name for your Club; and, second, for 
 the kindness you have manifested toward me by 
 your attendance, to-night and your beautiful 
 serenade. My friends, no one can say you are 
 worshiping a rising sun. No, it is a setting sun, 
 low down in the horizon, and fast disappearing 
 forever. I shall never hold another office, nor 
 shall I ever be a candidate for office, hence it will 
 not be in my power to reward my friends or to 
 punish my foes. You come without hope or fear 
 in that respect, merely to honor an old fellow, 
 who from boyhood has been a Democrat, and who 
 until his dying day will be a Democrat, and who 
 is pleased not to be forgotten while he still lives. 
 It is my pride and boast that I have always been 
 a strong and steadfast adherent of the principles 
 of Democracy, and when my dying day comes, as 
 soon it must, and my eyes are turned to behold 
 the sun in the heavens for the last time, it will be 
 the eyes of a Democrat that will look upon that 
 orb. And when I am under the sod, and some 
 one stumbles over my grave, there will he find 
 the epitaph, ' Here lies a man who was an honest 
 Democrat his whole life long.' " 
 
 IN NATIONAL CONVENTIONS. 
 
 He had won and worn the hiQrhest honors of his 
 party in the field of its most eminent legislative 
 service, as President /'r^/^;;^. of the United States 
 Senate. In i880; when the National Convention 
 
THE CALL FROM POLITICAL RETIREMENT, 44 1 
 
 of the Democracy met in Cincinnati, he had the 
 support of the delegation from his own and other 
 States for President. He was sent to the Chicago 
 Convention of 1884 as a delegate at large. He 
 went widi no thought of his own nomination, but 
 every time he made his appearance on the floor 
 was received with such demonstrations of en- 
 thusiasm and good-will that it became impossible 
 to fairly count him out of the list of possible 
 nominees. Mr. Thurman, recognizing as in- 
 evitable that his name would be placed before d:ie 
 Convention, withdrew as a delegate. When Cali- 
 fornia was called John W. Breckinridge, a son of 
 the Vice-President, 1857-61, tm behalf of that 
 State, nominated Thurman for President; General 
 Durbin Ward seconded the nomination for Ohio, 
 though the Hoadley-McLean influence in the dele- 
 gation was hostile to him; and W. Bourke 
 Cockran, of New York, zealous to direct the 
 Cleveland opposition to the most eflecdve place, 
 wound up a long speech with the suggestion of 
 Mr. Thurman's name. Next day General Mansur, 
 of Missouri, spoke in his behalf and declared that 
 one thousand telegrams had been received by the 
 Ohio delegates encouraging Thurman's nomina- 
 tion. Upon the first ballot he received ^Z votes: 
 Alabama, i ; California, 1 6 ; Colorado, i ; Illinois, 
 I ; Iowa, I ; Kansas, 2 ; Louisiana, i ; Massachu- 
 setts, 2; Michigan, 11 ; Mississippi, i ; Missouri, 
 3; Nebraska, i ; Nevada, 6 ; Ohio, 23 ; Tennessee, 
 
442 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 9 ; Texas, 4 ; Virginia, i ; West Virginia, 2 ; Wis- 
 consin, 2. On the second ballot next clay and 
 after the attempt to stampede the Convention 
 to Hendricks 60 votes were cast for Thurman. 
 The chancres then made soon increased Mr. Cleve- 
 land's 475 to the required two-thirds. In the en- 
 suing campaign Mr. Cleveland had no more 
 effective supporter than the ex-Senator from 
 Ohio. 
 
 AT ST. LOUIS. 
 
 The first mention of Mr. Thurman's name for 
 association with the ticket of 1888, to be head 
 of which Mr. Cleveland's renomination was early 
 apparent, came from California in May. The 
 Idea met with quick response in the East, the 
 only doubts expressed having reference to the 
 condition of his health and his possible willing- 
 ness to accept. The movement for his nomina- 
 tion, which had steady growth, met with no en- 
 courao-ement from Mr. Thurman. Ao^ain and 
 aeain he declared that he had no such idea nor 
 expectation ; with each disclaimer the demand 
 from the party became more vociferous, and a 
 week before the Convention met the feeline for 
 such a nomination as his was so intense as to 
 leave no doubt that it would be effected. The 
 faintest intimation that If a practically unanimous 
 call was made upon him he would respect It was 
 enough to confirm the delegates In their purpose, 
 
THE CALL FROM POLITICAL RETIREMENT, 443 
 
 and when the delegation from his own State of 
 Ohio proclaimed him as the choice of its Democ- 
 racy the other States fell in with the movement 
 and its success was assured. 
 
 Elsewhere in this volume"-' is told the story of 
 the Convention and of the scenes which attended 
 both nominations. Throughout the entire sessions 
 the flutterinofof thousands of bandanas orave color 
 to the scene and zest to the proceedings, and 
 when the invincible name of Thurman was coupled 
 with that of the victorious Cleveland the Democ- 
 racy of the country had a thrill of confidence that 
 gave a mighty Impetus to the campaign. 
 
 A VIGOROUS OLD MAN. 
 
 The first trumpet notes from Columbus assured 
 the waiting millions that the old Senator's eye was 
 not dimmed nor his natural force abated. He heard 
 the news of his nomination with composure ; he 
 received the conorratulations of his neighbors in 
 person and of his friends by telegraph with his 
 usual undisturbed o^ood humor ; and when the 
 Randall Club, of Philadelphia, bound homeward 
 from the Convention, stopped at Columbus and 
 serenaded him he made a most vigorous speech 
 to the great concourse that assembled in and 
 about the grounds of his residence. All felt that 
 
 *See " Record of the Convention." 
 
444 ^^^^ OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 he Spoke sincerely, and all rejoiced diat he spoke 
 so bravely when he said : 
 
 *' My friends, I should be the most Insensible 
 and cold blooded man in the world if I did not feel 
 grateful for the kindness that you have manifested 
 toward me to-night — yes, and I may say that you 
 have manifested toward me before to-niorht ; and 
 yet I do not know about that quite. I was living 
 in my own quiet home with my good old wife and 
 my children and grandchildren and friends around 
 me, wishing for nothing in this world but peace 
 and quiet, when you and others like you force me 
 once more into the political arena. Whether that 
 was kind or not, time will tell ; whether It was 
 well advised or not, time will disclose. But one 
 thing I need not wait for time to disclose, and that 
 Is that I owe you the deepest and profoundest grat- 
 itude from the very bottom of my heart. '^ '•" * 
 You will not expect me to make a political speech 
 to-night. When the two parties shall have been 
 fully marshaled in the field, when the Issues, as 
 the lawyers call them, shall have been distinctly 
 declared, when all the candidates have their har- 
 ness on and are ready for the tilt, then it will be 
 for me to bear my humble part in the fray. Then 
 I give you my word that I shall be heard from ac> 
 cording to my feeble abilities. I think there Is 
 life enough in me yet. I diink that there is still 
 In this old head some remnant of brains to enable 
 me to tell the people why it is that all my life long 
 
THE CALL FROM POLLTICAL RETIREMENT. 445 
 
 I have been a Democrat and mean to die one, and 
 I think I shah be able to give them one reason 
 why they should be Democrats from now until 
 they are laid in their grave. 
 
 " My friends, it is not my purpose to say harsh 
 things of our political opponents. That never 
 has been my style of speaking. Even when I 
 was a very young man — I might say not a man 
 at all, for the first stump speech I ever made I 
 was nothing but a boy — even then I always 
 ''endeavored to keep a civil tongue in my head, 
 i always recognized the right of every man to 
 liis ov/n thinking, and if he would only think 
 honestly and be as tolerant of me as I was to 
 him there would be no harsh words fall from my 
 lips in respect to him, and so in the contests that 
 happened in our own party it never has been my 
 habit to quarrel with those who did not think 
 just as. I thought. I have been before your Con- 
 vention at St. Louis without my will — against 
 my will — as a candidate for a great office. I was 
 warmly, nobly, generously supported in that Con- 
 vention. I was also warmly and earnestly opposed. 
 Toward those who opposed me I have nothing in 
 the world but feelincrs of kindness. It was their 
 right if they thought some other man was 
 better — a better man to be nominated. If they 
 thought It more politic or advisable, however 
 well they might think of me, to nominate some- 
 body else, it was their right to think so. They 
 
446 LIFE OF ALLEN G. TILURMAN. 
 
 were sent there to exercise their judgment, and 
 God knows they have created not a single ruffle 
 in my bosom nor the least symptom of ill-will 
 toward them. No, my friends, I am here to advo- 
 cate the right of every free American citizen to 
 think for himself I believe in it, and always have 
 believed in it, as the very essence of Democracy 
 and of free o-overnment. 
 
 
 ''I tell you, my friends, that the St. Louis Conven- 
 tion did one thing that of itself should immortal- 
 ize it ; it did one thinof which of itself should 
 command the esteem and respect and gratitude 
 of the American people; it did one thing which 
 set a magnificent example for all time to the 
 American people, and, indeed, to all other people 
 who have anything to do in the choice of their 
 rulers, and that thing was to renominate Grover 
 Cleveland by the unanimous voice of the Conven- 
 tion." 
 
 NOT TOO OLD FOR ACTION. 
 
 Telegrams poured in upon him from every 
 quarter, visiting clubs gathered to serenade and 
 greet him. To the Newark, O., Club, which came 
 over several hundred strong, he made a speech 
 of thanks in his own behalf, and extolled Cleve- 
 land as a brave, honest, and able President. The 
 newspaper correspondents, returning from the 
 Convention, stopped off to do him honor in a 
 
THE CALL FROM POLITICAL RETIREMENT. 447 
 
 body, and he made felicitous reply to their com- 
 pliments and congratulations. The Ohio Dele- 
 gation, flying his colors, came to Columbus and 
 min<^led their cheers with those of his visitors from 
 other States. The Democratic .press throughout 
 the country greeted his nomination with the 
 warmest approval, and even the Independent Re- 
 publican journals, which are supposed to support 
 Mr. Cleveland exclusive of any sympathy with 
 his party, had only words of praise for Thurman 
 and commendation for the political strategy which 
 compassed his nomination. Harper s Weekly 
 said : 
 
 " Mr. Thurman is universally respected as an 
 upright and able man, and there is no Democrat 
 In the country who enjoys higher regard among 
 his political opponents. The sturdy honesty of 
 the two Democratic candidates, and the freedom 
 of the ticket from all taint of boodle, will compel 
 the Republicans to take care that no suggestive 
 contrast shall be offered by their ticket." 
 
 The New York Sun^ regarded by the Democ- 
 racy with suspicion for years past, began to give 
 support to the ticket from the time It was com- 
 pleted with Thurman's name. 
 
 The single qualification In all the acclaim which 
 has greeted his name is In the expression of some 
 doubt or fear, here and there, that the advanced 
 age of Mr. Thurman may interfere In some degree 
 with the discharore of his official duties. It has 
 
448 LIFE OF ALLEN G. THURMAN. 
 
 been said with sufficient clearness and emphasis 
 that at no time in the past decade did he show 
 more vigorous powers than now ; and they who 
 think that lapse of time and measurement of 
 years alone bring decrepitude and unfitness for 
 official duty need only be reminded that Allen G. 
 Thurman is younger than was Kaiser Wilhelm 
 when he grasped the sword of Europe by the hilt 
 and effected the consolidation of the German 
 Empire ; younger than Gortschakoff when he 
 dominated the Imperial Government of Russia ; 
 of the aore of Disraeli when he turned the sov- 
 erelgns of Europe to his own purposes, went 
 home to England with the cry of " Peace with 
 honor," and made Victoria Empress of the Indias; 
 younger than Thiers when he was chosen first 
 President of the French Republic, the most mag- 
 nificent event of Continental politics in the nine- 
 teenth century; younger than John Marshall when, 
 full of years and of honors, he renewed, at nearly 
 four score, the intellectual strength and vigor 
 which made so much for the enliehtened con- 
 struction of our Federal Constitution, a covenant 
 that, in these latter days, has had no abler advocate 
 and no more patriotic defender than Allen G. 
 Thurman. 
 
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RECORD 
 
 OF THK 
 
 Democratic National Convention, 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO., 
 
 JUNH^ 5tm, 6th, ArvTD Tth, 188S. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ARRANGING FOR THE CONVENTION. 
 
 WHEN the National Democratic Con- 
 vention met in Washington, in 1888, 
 as usual in Presidential years, on 
 February 2 2d, it began the \vork of the cam- 
 paign under auspices more favorable than had 
 appeared under an Administration of its party for 
 fifty-six years. The course of President Cleveland 
 had been such as not only to command party 
 favor, but the admiration and enthusiastic support 
 of conservative men of every party. No other 
 name was mentioned or thought of for the nom- 
 ination as a candidate for President in any State 
 or section of the Union. Never before In the 
 history of National Conventions, except in 1832, 
 when Andrew Jackson was the unanimous choice 
 of the Democratic party for renominatlon, and in 
 1872, when Ulysses S. Grant was chosen as the 
 unanimous nominee of the Republican party, had 
 there been an instance wherein no other candi- 
 date was thought of or mentioned ; and in the 
 case of Grant's renominatlon the assurance of it 
 drove many of the ablest Republican leaders and 
 newspapers into open revolt, and created dissen- 
 
 Bions which were never healed. 
 
 453 
 
454 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 When the Committee met the only contest to 
 settle was the meeting place of the Convention. 
 New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and 
 San Francisco were competitors for this honor, 
 all except the first named being represented by 
 large and enthusiastic delegations of citizens and 
 politicians. When it was decided for the second 
 time in the history of the party to hold the Con- 
 vention in St. Louis there was general acquies- 
 cence In the result. Some little contest was also 
 developed over the time for holding the Conven- 
 tion, but the 5th of June was finally selected with- 
 out difficulty, and with quite universal satisfaction. 
 It was thought that as the party was now dominant 
 in Federal politics, it should boldly take the lead in 
 naming its candidates and laying down its princi- 
 ples. 
 
 When the time for the meeting- of the Conven- 
 tlon arrived, the Democratic Conventions of every 
 State in the Union had not only unanimously 
 demanded the renominatlon of President Cleve- 
 land, but had Indorsed his position on the tariff as 
 logical, safe, and Democratic. The work of the 
 Convention when it met at St. Louis was there- 
 fore mapped out for it. But this did not have any 
 serious effect in reducing the enthusiasm or the 
 attendance upon the Convention. All the dele- 
 gates and alternates appointed from every State, 
 accompanied by thousands of friends, made their 
 way to St. Louis. The weather was pleasant for 
 
ARRANGING FOR THE CONVENTION. 455 
 
 the season, the welcome hospitable and agreeable, 
 the feeling of harmony all-pervading, and the 
 determination to deserve to win as strong as the 
 confidence which the party felt in its success. 
 
 The National Committee met the day before 
 the time fixed for the meetlnor of the Convention 
 and designated the following as its temporary 
 officers : 
 
 Chairman, Stephen M. White, of California ; 
 Secretary, Frederick O. Prince, of Massachusetts; 
 Assistant Secretaries, Alfred Orendorf, of Illinois; 
 W. L. Stott, of Virginia ; T. E. Barrett, of St. 
 Louis; Leopold Strauss, of Alabama; O. M. Hall, 
 of Minnesota ; John Triplett, of Georgia; L. E. 
 Rowley, of Michigan ; Oliver Newell, of Color- 
 ado ; T. J. Tingle, of Missouri ; T. L. Merrill, of 
 Nebraska. Reading Secretary, Thomas Pettit, 
 House of Representatives. Official Stenogra- 
 pher, Edw^ard B. Dickinson, of New York. Ser- 
 geant-at-arms, Richard J. Bright, of Indiana. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST day's PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 THE Convention was called to order at 12 
 o'clock on Tuesday, June 5th, by William 
 H. Barnum, of Connecticut, Chairman of 
 the National Committee, and was opened with 
 prayer by Bishop Cranberry, of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South. The Temporary Chair- 
 man, Stephen M. White, Lieutenant-Governor of 
 California, made the first extended address of the 
 Convention. In the course of his speech, upon 
 taking the Chair, he said : 
 
 "The present Administration has realized its 
 promises made by the Democratic Convention 
 of 1884. It has sought to reduce and lighten the 
 burdens of the people and to reduce the revenue 
 so as to prevent undue accumulation in the 
 Treasury, and has at the same time taken the 
 requisite steps to foster and protect domestic in- 
 dustries. It has discouracred the centralization of 
 wealth, and has enabled, as far as the circum- 
 stances would permit, those in the less favored 
 walks of life to enjoy the benefits of their exer- 
 tions. In other words, the Democratic Adminis- 
 tration has used its utmost endeavors to faithfully 
 
 456 
 
THE FIRST DA Y'S PROCEEDINGS. 45 ; 
 
 carry out the platform upon v/hich our great re- 
 form victory was achieved. If the tariff has not 
 been modified, it is because of Repubhcan ob- 
 struction. . 
 
 " The existence of an enormous surplus in the 
 Treasury threatens the industries of the country, 
 is a constant source of injury to the consumer 
 and the man of moderate means, who finds it diffi- 
 cult to procure monetary assistance because of 
 the withdrawal of a large portion of the circulat- 
 ing medium. This unfortunate situation is di- 
 rectly attributable to the policy of the Republican 
 party, whose aim has ever been to encourage and 
 enrich the monopolies and ignore the interests of 
 the masses. 
 
 "During the Republican dominancy many mil- 
 lions of acres of the public domain passed into the 
 hands of corporate and foreign syndicates. The 
 obligations imposed as conditions precedent to 
 investiture of title were persistently violated by 
 the beneficiaries, and these violati^ons passed un- 
 heeded until a Democratic Administration, in 
 conformity with the doctrines of the party, declared 
 the forfeiture, thus tendering to those seeking 
 homes in good faith mxore than 40,000,000 acres, 
 which had been withheld by the Republican party 
 for the benefit of the selfish few. In accordance 
 with the views of the President, a statute has been 
 enacted preventing the acquisition of lands by 
 those not citizens of the United States, and re- 
 
458 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENIION. 
 
 strlcting the power of corporations to obtain titles 
 to realty In the Territories. If preceding Repub- 
 lican Administrations had adopted the present 
 Democratic policy, there would have been pre- 
 served as homes for settlers locating In good faith 
 an immense amount of fertile soil now in the 
 hands of corporations and foreign speculators. 
 
 " For years universal attention has been directed 
 to the dangers of Chinese immlo-ratlon. The ad- 
 vent of hordes of pagan slaves, disciplined to 
 starvation and Inured to unremunerative wages, 
 has rightly been considered destructive to the In- 
 terests of laborers and a menace to the Republic. 
 The Democracy, unlike Its political adversaries, 
 has always been with all the people upon this issue. 
 The Administration has entered Into a treaty with 
 the Chinese which must result In excluding the 
 Mongolian from our shores, and for the first time 
 makes it possible to prevent the perpetration of 
 the frauds upon our Immigration laws now prac- 
 ticed by that race, and to preserve us from the 
 evils of competition. Thus, after repeated Re- 
 publican failures, we have reached a successful 
 settlement of a question which justly agitated a 
 vast number of our citizens and with which Re- 
 publican leaders have proved themselves incom- 
 petent to deal. 
 
 " The re-election of Grover Cleveland Is de- 
 manded by the patriotic sentiment of the land. 
 The Republican party Is struggling for life. It 
 
THE FIRS T DAY'S FRO CEEDINGS. 459 
 
 cannot long survive. Its extended incumbency 
 was due to the fears and doubts succeeding the 
 civil conflict. These forebodings have been re- 
 moved by time and thought ; and honest opinion, 
 in spite of illegal force openly used, notwithstand- 
 ing criminal efforts defeating the public will as 
 expressed at the ballot-box, has driven unworthy 
 servants from office, and has summoned to power 
 an Administration to which no stain or suspicion 
 has ever attached. * * * The honest intel- 
 ligent electors, whose judgment is untainted by 
 prejudice, are prepared to again intrust this Gov- 
 ernment to the Democratic party. That that or- 
 ganization has accomplished so much, notwith- 
 standing the continued opposition of its foes, is 
 ample evidence that during the next four years its 
 policy will be finally and completely adopted. 
 The comine contest will result in the triumph of 
 Democracy. The nominees of this Convention 
 will be the chosen of the people, and if we do 
 our duty the Republican party will be unable to 
 retard the progress of our country." 
 
 After the appointment of Committees on Res- 
 olutions, Credentials, and Permanent Organiza- 
 tion, of one delegate from each State, the election 
 of a Vice-Chairman and Secretary from each State, 
 and the choice of a member of the National Conv 
 mittee by each delegation, the Convention ad- 
 journed until 10 o'clock Wednesday morning. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SECOND DAV's PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 IN the meantime the Committees organized 
 without contest, except that on Resolutions, 
 of which Henry Watterson, of Kentucky, 
 was elected Chairman over Arthur P. Gorman, of 
 Maryland, by a vote of twenty-two to twenty. 
 
 The second day's session of the Convention 
 was opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. J. P. Green, 
 of Missouri, after which Lewis C. Cassid)', of 
 Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Committee on Per- 
 manent Organization, reported the name of Pat- 
 rick A. Collins, Representative in Congress from 
 Massachusetts, as President of the Convention. 
 Mr. Collins was escorted to the chair by William 
 H. Barnum, of Connecticut; Roswell P. Flower, 
 of New York, and John O. Day, of Missouri, and 
 made the following address, which was frequendy 
 interrupted by applause: 
 
 CHAIRMAN COLLINS'S SPEECH. 
 
 " To Stand by your favor in this place, so often 
 filled by the foreniost men in our great party, is 
 a distinction of the highest character and an honor 
 for which I am profoundly grateful. In perform- 
 ing the delicate and difficult service to which you 
 460 
 
THE SECOND DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 45! 
 
 have assigned me, I can scarcely hope to justify 
 the wisdom of your choice. I shall at all times 
 need a continuance of your indulgence and cour- 
 tesy, as well as your full co-operation to promote 
 order, decorum, and good-will until these pro- 
 ceedings are brought to a happy close. 
 
 " We represent in this Convention more than 
 30,000,000 of the American people ; we bear the 
 commission to act for them and their injunction 
 to act with all the wisdom that God has given us, 
 to protect and safeguard the Institutions of the 
 Republic as the fathers founded them. 
 
 " In a time when the world was king-rldden and 
 pauperized by the privileged few, when men 
 scarcely dared to breathe the word * Liberty,' even 
 if they understood its meaning, the people scat- 
 tered alone our eastern coast, with a sublime 
 heroism never equaled, broke from all traditions, 
 rejected all known systems, and established, to 
 ■ the amazement of the world, the political wonder 
 of the ages, the American Republic, the child of 
 revolution nursed by philosophy. The hand that 
 framed the Immortal Declaration of Independence 
 is the hand that guided the emancipated country 
 to progress and glor)\ It Is the hand that guides 
 js still In our onward march as a free and pro- 
 gressive people, The principles upon w^hlch our 
 Government can securely rest, upon which the 
 peace, prosperity, and liberties of the people de- 
 pend, are the principles of the founder of our 
 
. 5 2 DEMO CRA TIC NA T/ONA L CON VENTION. 
 
 party, the apostle of Democracy, Thomas Jeffer- 
 son. 
 
 " Our young- men under thirty have heard more 
 in their time of the clash of arms and the echoes 
 of war than of the principles of government. It 
 has been a period of passion, force, impulse, and 
 emotional politics. So that v^e need not wonder 
 that now and then we hear the question asked 
 and scarcely answered, ' What difference is there 
 between the two parties ?' Every Democrat 
 knows the difference. The Democratic creed was 
 not penned by Jefterson for a section or a class 
 of the people, but for all time. 
 
 "These principles conserved and expanded the 
 Republic in all its better days. A strict adher- 
 ence to them will preserve it to the end, so the 
 Democracy of to-day, as in the past, believe with 
 Jefferson in (i) equal and exact justice to all men 
 of whatever state or persuasion, religious or polit- 
 ical ; (2) peace, commerce, and honest friend- 
 ship with all nations, entangling alliances with 
 none ; (3) support of the State Governments in 
 all their rights as the most competent administra- 
 tors of our domestic concerns, and the surest bul- 
 warks against anti-republican tendencies ; (4) 
 the preservation of the General Government in its 
 whole Constitutional vieor as the sheet-anchor of 
 our peace at home and safety abroad ; (5) a jealous 
 care of the right of election by the people, a mild 
 and safe corrective of abuses, which are lopped off 
 
THE SECOND DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 463^ 
 
 Ly the sword of revolution where peaceable means 
 are unprovided ; (6) absolute acquiescence In the 
 decisions of the majority, the vital principle of 
 republics, from which there is no appeal but to 
 force, the vital principle and immediate parent of 
 despotism ; (7) a well-disciplined militia, our best 
 reliance in peace and for the first moments in 
 war; (8; the supremacy of the civil over the mil- 
 itary authority; (9) economy in the public ex- 
 penses, that labor may be lighdy burdened ; (10) 
 the honest payment of our debts and the preser- 
 vation of our public faith ; (11) encouragement of 
 agriculture and of commerce as Its handmaid; 
 (12) the diffusion of information and arraignment 
 of all abuses at the bar of public reason; (13) 
 freedom of religion ; (14) freedom of the press ; 
 (15) freedom of the person under the protection 
 of the habeas corpus ; (16) trial by juries impar- 
 tially selected. Add to these the golden eco- 
 nomic rule that no more taxes should be levied 
 upon the people in any way than are necessary to 
 meet the honest expenses of Government, and 
 you have a body of principles to sin against which 
 has been political death to every party hitherto, 
 to sin ao-alnst which in the future will be political 
 suicide. 
 
 " True to these principles, the Democratic party 
 fought successfully our foreign wars, protected 
 our citizens In every clime, compelled the respect 
 of all nations for our flag, added imperial domain 
 
^(54 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 to our territory, and insured peace, prosperity, 
 and happiness to all our people. False to these 
 principles, the great Federal, Whig, and Know- 
 Nothing parties went down, never to rise ; and v/e 
 are here to-day, representatives of the party that 
 has survived all others, the united, triumphant, 
 invincible Democracy, prepared to strike down 
 forever the last survivincr foe in November. 
 
 "Our standard must be the rallying-point now 
 and in the future for all good citizens who love 
 and cherish republican institutions, who love lib- 
 erty regulated by the Constitution and law, who 
 believe in a Government not for a class or for a 
 few, but a Government of all the people, by all 
 the people, and for all the people. This has been 
 the asylum for all good men from over the earth 
 who flee from want and oppression, and mean to 
 become Americans. But we invite and welcome 
 only * friends to this ground and liegemen ' to the 
 Republic. Our institutions cannot change to meet 
 hostile wishes, nor be so much as sensibly modi- 
 fied save by the peaceful and deliberate action of 
 the mass of our people in accordance with the 
 Constitution and the laws of the land. Whatever 
 problems the present has or the future may pre- 
 sent, so far as political action can effect them, will 
 be dealt with by the American people within the 
 law. And in the future, as in the past, the people 
 will find security for their liberty and property, 
 encouragement and protection for their industries, 
 
THE SECOND DA Y' S PROCEEDINGS. ^5 - 
 
 peace and prosperity following the party of the 
 American masses, which will ever shield them 
 against the aggressions of powder and monopoly 
 on the one side, and on the other the surglngs of 
 chaos. While almost all the rest of the civilized 
 world is darkened by armies, crushed by Kings, 
 or nightmared by conspiracies, we alone enjoy a 
 healthy peace, a rational liberty, a progressive 
 prosperity. We owe it to our political institutions, 
 to Democratic teachings, at least as much as to the 
 exuberant soil. The man is not a good American 
 who, knowing what we are, by act or by word, ex- 
 periment or thought, in any way, will attempt to 
 weaken the foundation of this splendid political 
 structure — the Republic of the United States. 
 
 " We meet to-day under conditions new to the 
 Democrats of this generation. How often w^e 
 stood In conventions in the past when to others it 
 seemed as if the shadows of death closed about 
 us, when the day of victory seemed almost as far 
 away as the day of general judgment. It could 
 not then be said that w^e met for spoils or personal 
 advantage. We met to keep the fires of Demo- 
 cratic liberty alive till the dawn of a better day. If 
 we were a party of misfortune. It must also be 
 agreed that we were a party of undaunted courage 
 and inflexible principles. Twenty-eight years ago, 
 the Democratic party, rent in fragments, heated 
 by feuds that only time could allay or punishment 
 destroy, met, as it looks now, merely to settle in 
 
466 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 angry mood the terms upon which they should 
 become exiled from power. By their mad dissen- 
 sions they elected to go to defeat rather than 
 wait for the soberincr influence of time to 
 close the breach. To the younger men of that 
 day the act seemed suicide, mitigated by insanity. 
 Their madness transferred to a minority of the 
 American people the political government of 
 all. That party, w^hatever the honesty and 
 respectability of its members, however patriotic 
 its motives, was not broad or national at Its base. 
 It had almost but one central idea, and when that 
 idea w^as set in the Constitution and crystallized 
 into law it ran a career of riot that appalled all 
 men. The history of that period of political de- 
 bauchery is too sad and famihar to Americans to 
 be recited anew. The Republican party, sometimes 
 peacefully and sometimes by force, sometimes fairly 
 and sometimes by fraud, succeeded in holding 
 power twenty-four years, till at last the American 
 people, no longer condoning its faults or forgiving 
 its sins, hurled it from power and again committed 
 to the historic party of the Constitution and the 
 whole Union the administration of our political 
 affairs. We won by the well-earned confidence 
 of the country in the rectitude of our purpose, by 
 the aid of chivalrous and conscientious men who 
 could no longer brook the corruptions of the Re- 
 publican party. It was a great, deserved, neces- 
 sary victory. 
 
THE SECOXD DAY'S PROCEEDhXGS. ^57 
 
 " The day on which Grover Cleveland, the plain, 
 straightforward, typical American citizen chosen 
 at the election, took the oath of office in the pre- 
 sence of the multitude — a day so lovely and so 
 perfect that all nature seemed exuberantly to 
 sanction and to celebrate the victory — that day 
 marked the close of an old era and the beginning 
 of a new one. It closed the era of usurpation of 
 power by the Federal authority, of illegal force, of 
 general contempt for constitutional limitations and 
 plain law, of glaring scandals, profligate waste and 
 unspeakable corruption, of narrow sectionalism 
 and class strife, of the reign of a party whose 
 good work had long been done. It began the 
 era of perfect peace and perfect union. The 
 States fused in all their sovereignty into a Fed- 
 eral Republic with limited but ample powers, of a 
 public service conducted with absolute integrity 
 and strict economy ; of reforms pushed to their 
 extreme limit ; of comprehensive, sound, and safe 
 financial policy ; giving security and confidence to 
 all enterprise and endeavor, a Democratic Ad- 
 ministration faithful to its mighty trust, loyal to 
 its pledges, true to the Constitution, safe-guard- 
 ing the interests and liberties of the people. And 
 now we stand on the edge of another era, perhaps 
 a ereater contest, with a relation to the electors 
 that we have not held for a generation — that of 
 responsibility for the great trust of Government. 
 We are no longer auditors, but accountants ; no 
 
^68 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 longer critics, but the criticised. The responsl- 
 bihty is ours, and if we have not taken all the 
 power necessary to make that responsibility good 
 the fault is ours, not that of the people. 
 
 " We are confronted by a wily, unscrupulous, 
 and desperate foe. There will be no speck on 
 the record that they will not magnify into a blot ; 
 no circumstance that they will not torture and 
 misrepresent ; no disappointment that they will 
 not exaggerate into a revolt ; no class or creed 
 that they will not seek to inflame ; no passion 
 that they will not attempt to rouse ; no fraud that 
 they will not willingly perpetrate. They fancy, 
 indeed, that there is no imposture too monstrous 
 for the popular credulity, no crime that will not 
 be condoned. But we stand at s^uard, full armed 
 at every point to meet them. Our appeal Is not 
 to passion nor to prejudice, to class or faction, tc 
 race or creed, but to the sound common sense, 
 the interest, the Intelligence, and patriotism of the 
 American people. 
 
 " The Admlnlstradon of President Cleveland 
 has triumphantly justified his election. It com- 
 pels the respect, confidence, and approval of the 
 country. The prophets of evil and disaster are 
 dumb. What the people see Is the Government 
 of the Union restored to its ancient footing of 
 justice, peace, honesty, and impartial enforcement 
 of law. They see the demands of labor and 
 0-nculture met so far as Government can meet 
 
THE SE COiYD DAY'S PRO CEEDINGS. . 5 g 
 
 them by the legislative enactments for their en- 
 couragement and protection. They see the vete- 
 rans of the Civil War granted pensions long due 
 them to the amount of more than twice in number 
 and nearly three times in value of those granted 
 under any previous Administration. They see 
 more than 32000,000 acres of land recklessly 
 and illegally held by the grantees of the corrupt 
 Republican regime restored to the public domain 
 for the benefit of honest settlers. They see the 
 negro, whose fears of Democratic rule were 
 played upon by demagogues four years ago, not 
 only more fully protected than by his pretended 
 friends, but honored as his race was never hon- 
 ored before. They see a financial policy under 
 which reckless speculation has practically ceased 
 and capital is freed from distrust. They see for 
 the first time an honest observance of the law 
 governing the civil establishment, and the em- 
 ployes of the people rid at last of the political 
 highwaymen with a demand for tribute in one 
 hand and a letter of dismissal in the other. They 
 see useless offices abolished and expenses of ad- 
 ministration reduced, while improved methods 
 have lifted the public service to high efiiciency 
 They see tranquillity, order, security, and equal 
 justice restored In the land ; a watchful, steady, 
 safe, and patriotic Administration — die solemn 
 promises made by the Democracy faithfully kept. 
 *It is an honest Government by honest men.' If 
 
470 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 this record seems prosaic, if it lacks the blood- 
 thrilling element, if it is not lit with lurid fires, if 
 it cannot be illustrated by a pyrotechnic display, 
 if it is merely the plain record of a constitutional 
 party in a time of peace, engaged in administra- 
 tive reforms, it is because the people of the 
 country four years ago elected not to trust to 
 sensation and experiment, however brilliant and 
 alluring, but preferred to place the helm In a 
 steady hand, with a fearless, trustworthy, patriotic 
 man behind it. Upon that record and upon our 
 earnest efforts, as yet incomplete, to reduce and 
 equalize the burdens of taxation, we enter the 
 canvass and go to the polls, confident that the free 
 and intelligent people of this great country will 
 say, * Well done, good and faithful servants.' 
 
 '' To the patriotic, independent citizens who, 
 four years ago, forsook their old allegiance and 
 came to our support, and who since that time 
 have nobly sustained the Administration, the 
 Democratic party owes a deep debt of gratitude. 
 That they have been reviled and Insulted by their 
 former associates is not only a signal compliment 
 to their character and influence, but another evi= 
 dence of the decadence of the Republican party^ 
 Blind worship of the machine — the political Jug- 
 gernaut — is exacted from every man who will take 
 even standing room in that party. The Demo- 
 cratic temple is open to all, and If in council we 
 cannot ao^ree in all thino^s, our motto is : * In es- 
 
THE SE COND DAY'S PRO CEEDIA 'GS. 471 
 
 sentlals, unity; In non-essentials, liberty; in all 
 things, charity.' To all good men we say, 'Come 
 in.' ' Good-will ne'er halted at the door-stone.* 
 As four years ago you voted with us to reform 
 the Administration, to conserve our Institutions 
 for the well-being of our common country, so 
 join with us again In approval of the work so well 
 accomplished to complete what remains undone. 
 We ask you to remember that it is a ' fatal error 
 to weaken the hands of a political organization by 
 which ereat reforms have been achieved and risk 
 them in the hands of their known adversaries.' 
 Four years ago you trusted tentatively the Dem- 
 ocratic party, and supported with zeal and vigor 
 its candidate for President. You thought him 
 strong In all the sturdy qualities requisite for the 
 great task of reform. Behold your splendid jus- 
 tification. No President In time of peace had so 
 difficult and laborious a duty to perform. His 
 party had been out of pov/er for twenty-four 
 years. Every member of it had been almost ven- 
 omously excluded from the smallest post where 
 administration could be studied. Every place 
 was filled by men whose Interest It was to 
 thwart inquiry and belittle the new Administra- 
 tion ; but the master hand came to the helm, 
 and the true course has been kept from the be- 
 
 Sflnninor. 
 
 "We need not wait for time to do justice to 
 the character and services of President Cleveland. 
 
472 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 Honest, clear-sighted, patient, grounded in re- 
 spect for law and justice ; with a thorough grasp 
 of principles and situations ; with marvelous and 
 conscientious industry; the very incarnation of 
 firmness — he has nobly fulfilled the promise of 
 his party, nobly met the expectations of his coun- 
 try, and written his name high on the scroll where 
 future Americans will read the names of men who 
 have been supremely useful to the Republic. 
 
 *' Fellow-Democrats : This is but the initial 
 meeting in a political campaign destined to be 
 memorable. It will be a clashing of nearly even 
 forces. Let no man here or elsewhere belittle or 
 
 underestimate the strenoih or resources of the 
 
 »_> 
 
 opposition. But great as they are, the old Dem- 
 ocratic party, in conscious strength and perfect 
 union, faces the issue fearlessly.'* 
 
 DANIEL DOUGHERTY NOMINATES CLEVELAND. 
 
 When all the necessary routine business had 
 been transacted, it was proposed that, as the Com- 
 mittee on Resolutions was not yet ready to report, 
 the Convention should adjourn until evening. 
 This motion was resisted and the rules were sus- 
 pended in order that the roll of States might ba 
 called for namincf candidates for President. There- 
 upon the State of Alabama when called sur- 
 rendered its riorht to name a candidate to Daniel 
 Dougherty, of New York, who made the following 
 
THE SECOND DAY'S PROCEEDINGS, 475 
 
 speech presenting the name of Grover Cleve- 
 land : 
 
 " I greet you, my countrymen, with fraternal 
 regard. In your presence I bow to the majesty 
 of the people. The sight itself is inspiring, the 
 thought sublime. You come from every State 
 and Territory, from every nook and corner of our 
 ocean-bound, continent-covering country. You 
 are about to discharge a more than imperial duty. 
 With simplest ceremonials, you, as representatives 
 of the people, are to choose a magistrate with 
 power mightier than a monarch, yet checked and 
 controlled by the supreme law of a written Con- 
 stitution. Thus impressed, I ascend the rostrum 
 to name the next President of the United States. 
 New York presents him to the Convention and 
 pledges her electoral vote. Delegations from the 
 thirty-eight States and all the Territories are here 
 assembled without caucus or consultation, ready 
 simultaneously to take up the cry and make the 
 vote unanimous. We are here not indeed to 
 choose a candidate, but to name the one the people 
 have already chosen. 
 
 " He is the man for the people. His career 
 illustrates the glory of our institutions. Eight 
 years ago unknown, save in his own locality, he 
 for the last four years has stood in the gaze of 
 the world, discharging the most exalted duties 
 that can be confided to a mortal. To-day de- 
 termines that not of his own choice, but by the 
 
Ay^ DEMOCRA TIC NA TIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 mandate of his countrymen and with the sanction 
 of heaven, he shall fill the Presidency for four 
 years more. He has met and mastered every 
 question as if from youth trained to statesman- 
 ship. The promises of his letter of acceptance 
 and inauo^ural address have been fulfilled. His 
 
 o 
 
 fidelity in the past inspires faith in the future. 
 He is not a hope. He is a realization. Scorning 
 subterfuge, disdainlnor re-election by concealino- 
 convictions, mindful of his oath of of^ce to defend 
 the Constitution, he courageously declares to 
 Congress, dropping minor matters, that the su- 
 preme issue is reform, revision, reduction of 
 national taxation ; that the Treasury of the United 
 States, glutted with unneeded gold, oppresses in- 
 dustry, embarrasses business, endangers financial 
 tranquillity, and breeds extravagance, centraliza- 
 tion, and corruption ; that high taxation, vital for the 
 expenditures of an unparalleled war, is robbery in 
 years of prosperous peace ; that the millions that 
 pour into the Treasury come from the hard-earned 
 savings of the American people ; that in violation 
 of equality of rights the present tariff has created 
 a privileged class, who, shaping legislation for 
 their personal gain, levy by law contributions for 
 the necessaries of life from every man, woman, and 
 child in the land : that to lower the tariff is not 
 free trade — it is to reduce the unjust profits of 
 monopolists and boss manufacturers and allow 
 consumers to retain the rest. 
 
THE SECOND DA Y' S PROCEEDINGS. 477 
 
 "The man who asserts that to lower the tariff 
 means free trade, insults intelligence. We brand 
 him as a falsifier. It is furthest from our thoughts 
 to imperil capital or disturb enterprises. The 
 aim is to uphold wages and protect the rights of 
 all. This Administration has rescued the public 
 domain from would-be barons and cormorant cor- 
 porations, faithless to obligations, and reserved it 
 for free homes for this and coming generations. 
 There is no pilfering. There are no jobs under 
 this Administration. Public office is a public trust. 
 Integrity stands guard at every pobt of our vast 
 empTre. While he has been the medium through 
 which has flowed the undying gratitude of the 
 Republic for her soldiers, he has not hesitated to 
 withhold approval from special legislation if strict- 
 est inquiry revealed a want of truth and justice. 
 "Above all, sectional strife, as never before, is 
 at an end, and 6o,ooo,oco of freemen in the ties 
 of brotherhood arc prosperous and happy. These 
 are the achievements of this .Administration. 
 Under the same illustrious leader we are ready 
 to meet our political opponents in high and hon- 
 orable debate and stake our triumph on the inteb 
 ligence, virtue, and patriotism of the people. 
 Adhering to the Constitution, its every line and 
 letter, ever remembering that ' powers ' not del- 
 egated to the United States by the Constitution, 
 nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to 
 the States respectively, or to the people, by the 
 
47S 
 
 DEMO CRA TIC NA TIONA L CON I '£A TION. 
 
 authority of the Democracy of New York and by 
 the Democracy of the entire Union, I give you 
 a name entwined with victory. I nominate Gro- 
 ver Cleveland, of New York." 
 
 Immediately upon the name of the President 
 being pronounced there ensued a scene which 
 baffles all attempts at description. The like of it 
 is to be seen only at a National political conven- 
 tion, but such a fervent and prolonged outburst 
 of enthusiasm as took place upon this occasion 
 was without a precedent in American political 
 history. A contemporary account of it says: 
 " The deleorates were standing on their chairs 
 waving their hats, handkerchiefs, and canes, and 
 cheering like mad. Some of them opened their 
 umbrellas and waved them. The uproar was 
 deafening. Somebody pressed an electric button 
 upon the platform and the band at the far end of 
 the Convention struck up. Just what the air was 
 nobody could distinguish from the reporters' gal- 
 lery. The spectators in the galleries were more 
 wildly enthusiastic than the occupants of the floor. 
 The bronzed eagles were torn from their fasten- 
 ings and hoisted to view by eager hands. Tlie 
 delegates upon the floor below were bombarded 
 with wads of morning newspapers. One of the 
 Vice-Presidents crowned the bust of President 
 Cleveland with a wreath of laurel. By means of 
 an ingenious contrivance a life-size figure repre- 
 
THE SEC O AD DAY'S FROCEEDIXGS. 479 
 
 senting the President appeared upon the screen 
 that covered the end of the hall and disappeared 
 within the doors of the Capitol thereon depicted. 
 The standards were snatched from their sockets, 
 and the banners of the States and Territories were 
 massed above the New York delectation. It was 
 a demonstration that lasted twenty-five minutes, 
 and then, as the din died away, the strains of The 
 Star-Spangled Banner and Yankee Doodle filled 
 the air." 
 
 After the enthusiasm had somewhat subsided, 
 James A. McKenzIe made a humorous speech 
 secondlmr the nomination ; and other addresses 
 to the same purpose were made by H. D. D. 
 Twiggs, of Georgia; Byron J. Stout, of Michigan; 
 F. W. Dawson, of South Carolina, and H. W. 
 LIghtfoot, of Texas. The question of nominating 
 Cleveland by acclamation was then put to the 
 Convention, and without a call of the roll or a 
 dissentlnof vote he was declared to be the candl- 
 date of the Democratic party for President of the 
 United States. Exactly one hour and a quarter 
 had been consumed In reachlnor this unanimous 
 
 o 
 
 and harmonious result, when the Convention 
 adjourned until ten o'clock the following morn- 
 inofo 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE THIRD DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 UPON the assembling of the Convention on 
 Thursday, prayer was offered by Rev. 
 Dr. Bronk, of the Central Presbyterian 
 Church, St. Louis. The Chairman then announced 
 that the Committee on Resolutions was ready to 
 make a report, which was presented as the unan- 
 imous agreement of the Committee. The plat- 
 form was as follows: 
 
 THE PLATFORM. 
 
 The Democratic party of the United States in 
 National Convention assembled renews the pledge 
 of its fidelity to Democratic faith, and reaffirms 
 the platform adopted by its representatives in the 
 Convention of 1884 and indorses the views ex- 
 pressed by President Cleveland in his last annual 
 message to Congress as the correct interpretation 
 of that platform upon the question of tariff reduc- 
 tion ; and also indorses the efforts of our Demo- 
 cratic representatives in Congress to secure a 
 reduction of excessive taxation. 
 
 Chief among its principles of party faith are the 
 maintenance of an indissoluble Union of free and 
 indestructible States, now about to enter upon its 
 second century of unexampled progress and re- 
 nown ; devotion to a plan of government regula- 
 480 
 
THE THIRD DA Y' S PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 48: 
 
 ted by a written Constitution strictly specifying 
 every granted power, and expressly reserving to 
 the States or people the entire ungranted residue 
 ot power; the encouragement of a jealous, pop- 
 ular vigilance directed to all who have been chosen 
 for brief terms to enact and execute the laws 
 and are charged w^ith the duty of preserving 
 peace, insuring equality, and establishing justice. 
 
 The Democratic party welcomes an exacting 
 scrutiny of the administration of the executive 
 power, which four years ago was committed to its 
 trust in the election of Grover Cleveland as 
 President of the United States, but it challenges 
 the most searching inquiry concerning its fidelity 
 and devotion to the pledges which then invited 
 the suffrages of the people. During a most crit- 
 ical period of our finanj:ial affairs, resulting from 
 over-taxation, the anomalous condition of our 
 currency, and a public debt unmatured, it has, by 
 the adoption of a wise and conservative course, 
 not only averted disaster, but greatly promoted 
 the prosperity of the people. 
 
 It has reversed the improvident and unwise 
 policy of the Republican party touching the pub- 
 lic domain, and has reclaimed from corporations 
 and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored 
 to the people nearly one hundred millions of 
 acres of valuable land, to be sacredly held as 
 homesteads for our citizens. 
 
 While carefully cryarding the interests of the 
 taxpayers and conforming strictly to the princi- 
 ples of justice and equity, it has paid out more for 
 pensions and bounties to the soldiers and sailors 
 of the Republic than was ever paid before during 
 an equal period. 
 
4B2 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm 
 and prudent foreign policy, preserving peace with 
 all nations while scrupulously maintaining all the 
 rio-hts and interests of our own Government and 
 
 o 
 
 people at home and abroad. The exclusion from 
 our shores of Chinese laborers has been effectu- 
 ally secured under the provision of a treaty, the 
 operation of which has been postponed by the 
 action of a Republican majority In the Senate. 
 
 Honest reform in the civil service has been In- 
 augurated and maintained by President Cleve- 
 land, and he has brought the public service to the 
 highest standard of efficiency, not only by rule 
 and precept, but by the example of his own un- 
 tiring and unselfish administration of public af- 
 fairs. 
 
 In every branch and department of the Gov- 
 ernment under Democratic control the rights and 
 the welfare of all the people have been guarded 
 and defended, every public interest has been pro- 
 tected, and the equality of all our citizens before 
 the law, without regard to race or color, has been 
 steadfastly maintained. 
 
 Upon its record thus exhibited, and upon the 
 pledge of a continuance to the people of the ben- 
 efits of Democracy, the Democracy invoke a re- 
 newal of popular trust b)' the re-election of a 
 Chief Magistrate who has been faithful, able, and 
 orudent. We invoke In addition to that trust 
 rlie transfer also to the Democracy of the entire 
 legislative power. 
 
 The Republican party, controlling the Senate 
 and resisting in both Houses of Congress a re- 
 formation of unjust and unequal tax laws, which 
 lave outlasted the necessities of war and are now 
 
THE THIRD DA V S PROCEEDINGS. ^^ -, 
 
 undermining the abundance of a long- peace, deny 
 to the people equality before the law and the fair- 
 ness and the justice which are their right. Then 
 the cry of American labor for a better share in 
 the rewards of industry is stitied with false pre- 
 tences, enterprise is fettered and bound down 
 to home markets, capital is discouraged with 
 doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be 
 properly amended nor repealed. The Demo- 
 cratic party will continue with all the power con- 
 fided to it the struggle to reform these laws in 
 accordance with the pledges of its last platform, 
 indorsed at the ballot-box by the suffrages of the 
 people. 
 
 Of all the industrious freemen of our land, the 
 immense majority, including every tiller of the 
 soil, gain no advantage from excessive tax laws, 
 but the price of nearly everything they buy is in- 
 creased by the favoritism of an unequal system 
 of tax legislation. All unnecessary taxation is 
 unjust taxation. It is repugnant to the creed of 
 Democracy that by such taxation the cost of the 
 n jcessaries of life should be unjustifiably increased 
 to all our people. Judged by Democratic prin- 
 ciples, the interests of the people are betrayed 
 when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and combi- 
 nations are permitted to exist which, while unduly 
 enriching the {^\n that combine, rob the body of 
 our citizens by depriving them of the benefits of 
 natural competition. Every Democratic rule of 
 governmental action is violated when, through 
 unnecessary taxation, a vast sum of money, far 
 beyond the needs of an economical administration, 
 is dra-vvn from the people and the channels of 
 trade, and accumulated as a demjralizing surplus 
 
^^, DEMOCRATIC A^AT/OXAL CONVENTION^. 
 
 ia the Treasury. The money now lying Idle in 
 the Federal Treasury, resultino- from superfluous 
 taxation, amounts to more than one hundred and 
 twenty-five millions, and the surplus collected is 
 reaching the sum of more than sixty millions 
 annually. Debauched by this immense temp- 
 tation, the remedy of the Republican party is to 
 meet and exhaust by extravagant appropriation 
 and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the 
 accumulation of extravagant taxation. The 
 Democratic policy is to enforce frugality in public 
 expense and abolish unnecessary taxation. Our 
 established domestic industries and enterprises 
 should not and need not be endangered by the 
 reduction and correction of the burdens of tax- 
 ation. On the contrary, a fair and careful revision 
 of our tax laws, with due allowance for the differ- 
 ence between the wages of American and foreign 
 labor, must promote and encourage every branch 
 of such industries and enterprises, by giving them 
 assurance of an extended market and steady and 
 continuous operations. In the Interests of Ameri- 
 can labor, which should in no event be neglected, 
 the revision of our tax laws contemplated by the 
 Democratic party should promote the advantage 
 of such labor, by cheapening the cost of neces- 
 saries of life in the home of every workingman, 
 and at the same time securing to him steady and 
 remunerative employment. 
 
 Upon this question of tariff reform, so closely 
 concerning every phase of our national life, and 
 upon every question Involved in the problem of 
 good government, the Democratic party submits 
 its principles and professions to the intelligent 
 suffrages of the American people. 
 
THE THIRD DAY'S 1 KOCEIZDIXCS. ^3- 
 
 MORE SPEECHES AND RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Mr. Watterson, reporting the platform, made 
 the following short speech of explanation and 
 advocacy : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman and Fellow - Democrats : 
 We bring to you a platform upon which Demo- 
 crats may stand without feeling that they are 
 away from home. It embraces a declaration of 
 principles to which Democrats may subscribe 
 widiout lookinor around the corner. It embodies 
 a statement of facts incontrovertible. It delocal- 
 izes the cause of reform and gives to it a language 
 which may be spoken alike in New Jersey and 
 Iowa, in Massachusetts and in Texas. Its face is 
 set in the right direction, and its eyes look upon 
 the rising, not the setting sun. 
 
 " Gentlemen, the language of agitation Is one 
 thing, the hand of construction is another thing. 
 Thanks to Grover Cleveland, the attendon of the 
 country, wooed by others so long in vain, is fixed 
 at last upon a remedy of real instead of the im- 
 aginary evils arising out of a state of war; and 
 henceforward the Democratic party, which has 
 been the voice, will become the hand, of the people. 
 But its hands will be the hands of the builder, not 
 the destroyer, and it will remove the occupants 
 before it takes the roof off the house. 
 
 '' Fellow-Democrats, I bid you be of cheer 
 touching the future of the party and the country. 
 
^8 6 DEMO CRA TIC NA TIONA L CONVENTION. 
 
 Democracy at least Is one with Itself, and though 
 we may sometimes contend among ourselves, our 
 contests shall be like those of the Romans of old, 
 only resulting In more Romans. It Is now the 
 time of the Republicans to know what it Is to have 
 only half the country and no leader at all. 
 
 " Gentlemen, two good Democrats can only 
 understand one another thoroughly and love one 
 another entirely when they have had some fun 
 together, and this will be sufficient reason, if any 
 reason were needed, why I should present to you 
 Senator Gorman, of Maryland." 
 
 SENATOR Gorman's speech. 
 
 Upon this introduction by the Chairman of the 
 Committee Senator Gorman spoke as follows : 
 
 " Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Conven- 
 tion, AND Democrats all: I would be out of place 
 were I found elsewhere than In a Democratic 
 Convention and standing upon the Democratic 
 principles as written by Jefferson and now being 
 enforced by the Democratic party under the lead 
 of Grover Cleveland. Four years, ago, at 
 Chicago, the Democratic party, restating its dec- 
 laration of principles, promised that. If Intrusted 
 with power, sectionalism should be wiped out 
 forever, that the finances of your Government 
 should be so controlled and Its tariff directed not 
 to impair the business Industries of the land, but 
 that extravagant expenditures should be reduced 
 
Tin: THIRD DA Y'S PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 4S7 
 
 until we should have a Government economically 
 administered, and that the war taxes placed upon 
 us by the Republican party should be reduced 
 according- to the requirements of the Government. 
 Upon the declaration of principles thus made at 
 Chicago we went before the people, and the result 
 was the election of Grover Cleveland. In the 
 matter of the reduction of taxation he has been 
 thus honest and earnest and with a desire to carry 
 out to the letter the promises of his party ; and 
 when he declared that we were now to face the 
 fact of the reduction of taxation and wipe out 
 this hundred million of surplus, it was no longer 
 a question, nor could it be controlled by clap-trap 
 phrases of the opposition charging us with free 
 trade, but we stood pledged as honest men, as 
 honest reformers, to reduce this Immense taxation 
 one hundred millions per annum. 
 
 " Differ as you w^ll about the phrases, we have 
 presented a platform in strict accord with all the 
 Democratic declarations that have preceded us. 
 As Mr. Watterson has well said, it is a platform 
 upon which every Democrat in this broad land 
 can stand. And if, in the discussion of the great 
 questions where local interests play so sharp a 
 part, there is during the campaign and during 
 future campaigns some difference, there will be 
 the same spirit of toleration. We will hold every 
 Democrat to the cardinal principles of the party, 
 but we will give him liberty of conscience and 
 
j^g 3 DEMO CRA TIC NA TIONA L CON VENTION. 
 
 action on non-essentials. With such a declara- 
 tion and such a candidate we will go forth to bat- 
 tle against a party which is yet well organized, 
 holding advantage of a position of criticising 
 without making themselves responsible for any 
 particular measure. We will not underrate them, 
 but I say to you, with an opportunity that I have 
 had of communication with our fellow-Democrats 
 in every State of the Union, comparing it with 
 the great contest we had in 1884, we are better 
 organized, united, and, I think, more certain of 
 victory." 
 
 SUPPLEMENTING THE PLATFORM. 
 
 Mr. Watterson moved that the report of the 
 Committee be adopted, which was agreed to by 
 a unanimous vote. Mr. Watterson then an- 
 nounced that the Committee would present three 
 resolutions, the passage of which they recom- 
 mended without discussion. The first of these, 
 which was presented by William L. Scott, was : 
 
 ''Resolved, That this Convention hereby in- 
 dorses and recommends the early passage of the 
 bill for the reduction of the revenue now pending 
 in the House of Representatives." 
 
 The resolution was adopted amid applause, 
 and then Fred. W. Lehman, of Iowa, offered and 
 the Convention adopted a resolution declaring 
 
THE THIRD DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 4S9 
 
 for the admission of Washington Territory, Da- 
 kota, Montana, and New Mexico into the Union. 
 On motion of Ex-Governor Abbett, of New Jer- 
 sey, the following resolution was also adopted : 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That we express our cordial sympa- 
 thy with struo-gling people of all nations in their 
 efforts to secure for themselves the inestimable 
 blessings of self-government and civil and relig- 
 ious liberty ; and we especially declare our sym- 
 patiiy with the efforts of those noble patriots who 
 led by Gladstone and Parnell, have conducted 
 their grand and peaceful contest for Home Rule 
 in Ireland." 
 
 Mr. Baker, of Ohio, asked unanimous consent, 
 as a delegate from the State which loved and hon- 
 ored Thomas A. Hendricks, to present and have 
 adopted a resolution of respect to the late Vice- 
 President and of regret at his death. The reso- 
 lution, which was adopted by a rising vote, was as 
 follows : 
 
 " The Democracy of the nation. In Convejitlon 
 
 assembled, remember with pride the distinguished 
 
 services of Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks to his 
 
 party and his country. He was a fearless leader, 
 
 a distincTuished statesman, a pure patriot. in 
 
 the adm^inistration of all public trusts he acted 
 
 with honor and with fidelity. We tender to Mrs. 
 
 Hendricks in her bereavement the affectionate 
 
 respect and sympathy of the Democracy of the 
 
 United States." 
 
490 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 The Chair announced that there had been a 
 sHght mistake in the report of the Committee on 
 Platform in the statement that the Committee had 
 been unanimous in its adoption of the resolutions 
 presented to the Committee. Mr. Edward Cooper, 
 of New York, dissented from a portion of the 
 tariff plank. With this exception the Committee 
 was unanimous. 
 
 NOMINATING A VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 The next business in order under the rules was 
 the callinor of the roll of States for nominations 
 for Vice-President. When California was reached 
 M. F. Tarpey presented the name of Allen G. 
 Thurman, of Ohio, in a speech of considerable 
 lenofth, which aroused orreat enthusiasm. Thomas 
 M. Patterson, of Colorado, nominated General 
 John C. Black, of Illinois, only to withdraw his 
 name by reason of a letter from General Black. 
 United States Senator Daniel W. Vorhees named 
 Isaac P. Gray, of Indiana. The nomination of 
 Thurman was seconded in speeches by James P. 
 Pigott, of Connecticut; M. C. Dryden, of Mis- 
 souri ; Governor Robert S. Green, of New Jersey ; 
 J. W. Dorsey, of Nevada ; George Raines, of 
 New York ; Thomas E. Powell, of Ohio ; F. W. 
 Dawson, of South Carolina; J. W. Throckmorton, 
 of Texas ; John W. Daniel, of Virginia, and 
 Martin Maginnis, of Montana. Speeches second- 
 ing the nomination of Gray were made by Albert 
 
THE TIIIKD DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 49 T 
 
 H. Cox, of Georgia, and Evan C. Little, of Ken- 
 tucky. 
 
 Upon a call of the roll of States, it was found 
 that Allen G. Thurman had received 687 votes; 
 Isaac P. Gray, 104; and John C. Black, 31. The 
 States that cast their votes solidly for Thurman 
 were: Arkansas, 14; California, 1 6 ; Connecticut, 
 12; Florida, 8 ; Louisiana, 16; Maine, 12; Mary- 
 land, 16; Mississippi, 18; Nevada, 6; New 
 Hampshire, 8; New Jersey, 18; New York, 72; 
 North Carolina, 22; Oregon, 6; Ohio, 46; Penn- 
 sylvania, 60; Rhode Island, 6 ; South Carolina, 18 ; 
 Tennessee, 24; Texas, 26; Vermont, 8; Virginia, 
 24; Iowa, 26, and two votes were cast by each 
 of the Territories for Thurman. 
 
 The States that divided their votes were : Ala- 
 bama, with 15 for Thurman, 4 for Gray, and i for 
 Black; Delaware, with 3 for Thurman and 3 for 
 Gray; Illinois, with 17 each for Black and Gray, 
 and 10 for Thurman ; Kansas, with 2 for Black, 
 2 for Gray, and 14 for Thurman ; Kentucky, with 
 17 for Gray, i for Black, and 8 for Thurman ; 
 Massachusetts, with i for Black, 7 for Gray, and 
 19 for Thurman ; Michigan, with 3 for Black and 
 23 for Thurman ; Minnesota, with i for Gray, and 
 13 for Thurman ; Nebraska, 2 for Gray, and 8 for 
 Thurman. Only one State voted solidly for Gray. 
 Tluit was his own — Indiana. Only one State voted 
 feolidly for Black — Colorado. 
 
 Before the vote was announced, the certainty 
 
492 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 of Thurman's nomination being manifest, the Con. 
 vention again broke out into a storm of uncon- 
 trollable applause, repeating the scenes of the 
 clay previous. It was only checked after fifteen 
 minutes of wild cheering, and the nomination was 
 made unanimous. 
 
 A TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD. 
 
 The following resolution, offered by Colonel 
 John R. Fellows, of New York, was imanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 ''Resolved, That this Convention, having com- 
 pleted the business for which it assembled, cannot 
 separate without an expression of its deep sense of 
 the irreparable loss which, since the great triumph 
 in 1884. when the people rest-ored to the Dem- 
 ocratic party the administration of the" General 
 Government, for twenty-four years confided to its 
 opponent, has been sustained by that party in the 
 death of the four most distinguished of its mem- 
 bers, who during those years had been its candi- 
 dates for the Presidency of the United States, 
 Winfield Scott Hancock, the superb soldier in war 
 and the fearless asserter of the supremacy of the 
 law In peace ; Samuel J. Tllden, the leader and 
 able exponent of the immortal principles of Jef- 
 ferson, and the sagacious and triumphant political 
 leader, who refused to right by force the great 
 wrong which had defrauded him of the high office 
 to which he had been elected ; Horatio Seymour, 
 the. gifted orator and matchless leader of men, 
 who held throueh all his life the boundless conh- 
 
THE THIRD DA Y' S PROCEEDINGS, 4^3 
 
 denceofhis party ; and George B. McClellan, die 
 brilliant ororanizer of the armies of the Union, as 
 sound in his pohtical principles as he was faidiful 
 in the performance of his official duties — the 
 great and noble sons who in so brief a period it 
 lias had to yield to the cold embrace of the grave ; 
 rnd, though we have parted with their mortal re- 
 mains, they will live forever in the grateful hearts 
 of the party they honored and served, and their 
 generous-minded countrymen of every party will 
 chonsh all through their time the sacred and beau- 
 tiful memories of their useful and illustrious lives." 
 
 The Convention then adjourned sine die. 
 
 THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 The following members constitute the National 
 Democratic Committee for the next four years : 
 
 Alabama— VlYM'^Y C. CLAYTON. 
 
 Arkansas—^. W. FORDYCE, JR. 
 California— U. F. TARPEY. 
 Colorado— C. S. THOMAS. 
 
 Connecticut— \N . H. BARNUM (a'«). 
 Delaware— \)^. JAMES A. DRAPER. 
 Florida— ^kU\}YA. PASCO. 
 
 6^^^ro/a— JAMES H. ESTELL. 
 
 /////^6;/>— ERSKINE M. PHELPS.* 
 Indiana—^. P. SHEERIN. 
 
 Iowa—]. J. RICHARDSON. 
 Xansas—Q. W. BLAIR. 
 
 Kentucky— U. D. McHENRY. 
 
 Louisiana— ^.^.UY.'S JEFFERIES. 
 Maine— AKTHUK SEWELL.* 
 Maryland— A. P. GORMAN.* 
 
 '*' Executive Committee. 
 
494 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 Massachusetts— (ZYih^\.YJ$> D. LEWIS. 
 Michigan— O. M. BARNES. 
 
 Minnesota— UlCYik^l. DORAN. 
 
 Mississippi— Q. A. JOHNSTON. . 
 Missouri—]. G. PRATHER. 
 
 Nebraska— ]XMY.'^ E. BOYD 
 Nevada—^. P. KEITING. 
 
 New Hampshire— K. W. SULLOWAY. 
 New Jersey— Ul\.^S ROSS.^' 
 
 New K^r/^— HERMAN OELRICHS * 
 North Carolina— UNYTHEW W. RANSOM.* 
 6>/«'^— CALVIN S. BRICE.* 
 Oregon— A. NOLTNER. 
 
 Fennsylvania-'sNllAAAU L. SCOTT.* 
 Rhode Island— i: . B. BARNABY. 
 
 South C^r^//>z^—F.W. DAWSON. 
 Tennessee—'^. F. LOONEY. 
 Texas— O. T. HOLT. 
 
 '-Vr/^^/^'— HIRAM ATKINS. 
 
 F/r^^/«/a— JOHN S. BARBOUR.* 
 
 Wisconsin— ]OYm L. MITCHELL. 
 
 West Virginia— \\\ L. CLEMENTS. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT NOTIFIED. 
 
 On the 26th of June, 1888, the members of the 
 National Committee met in Washington, D. C, 
 and organized for the campaign by the re-election 
 of W. H. Barnum as Chairman. On the same 
 day the Committee upon Notification, appointed 
 by the St. Louis Convention, assembled in the 
 Capital City, and at 2 p. m. were received by the 
 President, his family, and Cabinet in the Executive 
 
 * Executive ComiiiiUee. 
 
THE presidei:t notified. 49 -^ 
 
 Mansion. Chairman P. A. Collins presenccd Mr. 
 Charles D. Jacob, of Kentucky, who read the 
 formal letter of notification, to which the President 
 made reply as follow^s : 
 
 "I cannot but be profoundly impressed when I 
 see about me the messenorers of the National De- 
 mocracy bearing its summons to duty. The political 
 party to which I owe allegiance both honors and 
 commands me. It places In my hand its proud 
 standard and bids me bear it hitrh at the front in 
 a battle which it wages, bravely because conscious 
 of right, confidently because Its trust is in the 
 people, and soberly because it comprehends the 
 obligations which success imposes. 
 
 "The messaofe which you brinor awakens within 
 me the liveliest sense of personal gratitude and 
 satisfaction, and the honor which you tender me 
 is in itself so o^reat that there micrht well be no 
 room for any other sentiment. And yet I cannot 
 rid myself of grave and serious thoughts when I 
 remember that party supremacy is not alone in- 
 volved in the conflict which presses upon us, but 
 that we struo^Me to secure and save the cherished 
 institutions, the welfare and the happiness of a 
 nation of freemen. 
 
 " Familiarity with the great office which I hold 
 has but added to my apprehension of Its sacred 
 character and the consecration demanded of him 
 who assumes Its immense responsibilities. It is 
 the repository of the people's will and power. 
 
4^g5 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION. 
 
 Within its vision should be the protection and 
 welfare of the humblest citizen ; and with quick 
 ear it should catch from the remotest corner of 
 the land the plea of the people for justice and for 
 ricrht. For the sake of the people, he who holds 
 this office of theirs should resist every encroach- 
 ment upon its legitimate functions ; and for the 
 sake of the integrity and usefulness of the office, 
 it should be kept near to the people and be admin- 
 istered in full sympathy with their wants and needs. 
 
 •' This occasion reminds me most vividly of the 
 scene when, four years ago, I received a message 
 from my party similar to that which you now 
 deliver. With all that has passed since that day 
 I can truly say that the feeling of awe with which 
 I heard the summons then is intensified many fold 
 when it is repeated now. 
 
 "Four years ago I knew that our Chief Execu- 
 tive office, if not carefully guarded, might drift lit- 
 tle by little away from the people to whom it be- 
 longed and become a perversion of all it ought to 
 be; but I did not know how much its moorings 
 had already been loosened. I knew four years 
 ago how well devised were the principles of true 
 Democracy for the successful operation of a gov- 
 ernment by the people and for the people ; but I 
 did not know how absolutely necessary their ap- 
 plication then was for the restoration to the peo- 
 ple of their safety and prosperity. I knew then 
 that abuses and extravagances had crept into the 
 
THE PRESIDENT NOTIFIED. 
 
 497 
 
 management of public affairs, but I did not know 
 their numerous forms nor the tenacity of their 
 grasp. I knew then something of the bitterness 
 of partisan obstruction, but I did not know how 
 bitter, how reckless, and how shameless it could 
 be. I knew, too, that the American people were 
 patriotic and just, but I did not know how grandly 
 they loved their country nor how noble and gen- 
 erous they were. 
 
 *' I shall not dwell upon the acts and the policy 
 of the Administration now drawing to its close. 
 Its record is open to every citizen in the land. 
 
 ''- And yet I will not be denied the privilege of 
 assertincr at this time that in the exercise of the 
 functions of the high trust confided to me, I have 
 yielded obedience only to the Constitution and 
 the solemn obligation of my oath of office. I have 
 done those things which, in the light of the under- 
 standing God has given me, seemed most condu- 
 cive to the welfare of my countrymen and the 
 promotion of good government. 
 
 '^ I would not if I could, for myself nor for you, 
 avoid a single consequence of a fair interpretation 
 of my course. 
 
 "It but remains for me to say to you, and 
 through you to the Democracy of the nation, that 
 I accept the nomination with which they have hon- 
 ored me, and that I will in due time signify such 
 acceptance in the usual formal manner." 
 
498 
 
 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, 
 
 A FOURTH OF JULY LETTER. 
 
 To the Tammany Society of New York, cele- 
 brating the Fourth of July, 1888, the President 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 " I regret that I am obliged to decline the cour- 
 teous invitation which I have received to attend 
 the celebration by the Tammany Society on the 
 birthday of our Republic, on the fourth day of 
 July next. The zeal and enthusiasm with which 
 your Society celebrates this day afford proof of its 
 steadfast patriotism as well as its care for all that 
 pertains to the advantage and prosperity of the 
 people. I cannot doubt that the renewal of a 
 * love and devotion to a pure Jeffersonian Demo- 
 cratic form of Government' which you contem- 
 plate will suggest the inquiry whether the people 
 are receiving all the benefits that are due them 
 under such a form of oovernment. These bene- 
 fits are not fully enjoyed when our citizens are 
 unnecessarily burdened, and their earnings and 
 incomes are uselessly diminished under the pre- 
 text of Government support. 
 
 " Our Government belongs to the people. They 
 have decreed its purposes, and it is their clear 
 right to demand that its cost shall be limited by 
 frugality, and that its burden of expense shall be 
 carefully limited by its actual needs. And yet a 
 useless and dangerous surplus in the National 
 Treasury tells no other tale but extortion on the 
 
A FO UR TH OF JUL Y LE TTER. 499 
 
 part of the Government and a perversion of the 
 people's intention. 
 
 •*In the midst of our impetuous enterprise and 
 blind confidence in our destiny, it is time to pause 
 and study our condition. It Is no sooner appre- 
 ciated than the conviction must follow that the 
 tribute exacted from the people should be dimin- 
 ished. The theories which cloud the subject, mis- 
 leading- honest men, and the appeals to selfish 
 Interests which deceive the understanding make 
 the reform, which should be easy, a difficult task. 
 
 " Although those who propose a remedy for the 
 present evils have always been the friends of Amer- 
 ican labor, and though they declare their purposes 
 to further its interests in all their efforts, yet those 
 who oppose reform attempt to disturb our work- 
 ingmen by the cry that their wages and their em- 
 ployment are threatened. They advocate a sys- 
 tem which benefits certain classes of our citizens 
 at the expense of every householder in the land — 
 a system which breeds discontent, because it per- 
 mits the duplication of wealth without correspond- 
 ing additional recompense to labor ; which pre- 
 vents the opportunity to work by stifling production 
 and limiting the area of our markets, and which 
 enhances the cost of living beyond the laborer's 
 hard-earned wages. 
 
 " The attempt is made to divert the attention of 
 the people from the evils of such a scheme of tax- 
 ation by branding those who seek to correct these 
 
5 CO DEMO CRA TIC NA 1 ION A L CO N I 'Eh TION. 
 
 evils as free traders and enemies of our worklnc^- 
 men and our industrial enterprises. This is sc 
 far from the truth that there should be no chance 
 for such deception to succeed. It behooves the 
 American people while they rejoice in the anni- 
 versary of the day when their free Government 
 was declared to also reason tos^ether and deter- 
 mine that they will not be deprived of the bless- 
 ings and the benefits which their Government 
 should afford." 
 
 NOTIFYING MR. THURMAN. 
 
 After the Committee had been fitly entertained 
 in Washington its members journeyed by special 
 train to Columbus, Ohio. In that city, on June 
 28th, they visited Allen G. Thurman, the nominee 
 for Vice-President, in a body at his home. Upon 
 the presentation of the formal notification to him 
 he said : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Com- 
 mittee : — I pray you to accept my very sincere 
 thanks for the kind and courteous manner in 
 which you have communicated to me the official* 
 information of my nomination by the St. Louis 
 Convention. You know without saying it that I 
 am profoundly grateful to the Convention and to 
 the Democratic party for the honor conferred 
 upon me, and the more so that it was wholly un- 
 sought and undeslred by me ; not that I under- 
 valued a distinction which any man of our party 
 
NOTIFYING MR. THURMAN. 501 
 
 however eminent might highly prize, but simply 
 because I had ceased to be ambitious of public 
 life. But when I am told in so earnest and im- 
 pressive a manner that I can still render service 
 to the good cause to which I have ever been de- 
 voted — a cause to which I am bound by the ties 
 of affection, by the dictates of judgment, by a 
 sense of obligation for favors so often conferred 
 upon me — what can I under such circumstances 
 do but yield my private wishes to the demand of 
 those whose opinions I am bound to respect ? 
 
 *' Gentlemen, with an unfeigned diffidence in my 
 ability to fulfill the expectations that led to my 
 nomination, I yet feel it to be my duty to accept 
 it and do all that it may be in my power to do to 
 merit so marked a distinction. 
 
 " Gentlemen, the country is blessed by an able 
 and honest administration of the General Govern- 
 ment. We have a President who wisely, bravely, 
 diligently, and patriotically discharges the duties 
 of his high office. I fully believe that the best 
 interests of the country require his re-election, 
 and the hope that I may be able to contribute 
 somewhat to bring about the result is one of my 
 motives for accepting a place on our ticket. I 
 also feel it my duty to labor for a reduction of 
 taxes and to put a stop to that accumulation of a 
 surplus In the Treasury that, In my judgment, Is 
 not only prejudicial to our financial welfare, but 
 is, in a hi;^h degree, dangerous to honest and con- 
 
5 O 2 DEMO CRA TIC XA TIONA L CON VENTION, 
 
 stitutional government. I suppose, gentlemen, 
 that I need say no more to-day. In due time and 
 in accordance with estabhshed usac^e I will trans- 
 mit to your Chairman a written acceptance of my 
 nomination, with such observations upon public 
 questions as may seem to me to be proper." 
 
PRINCIPLES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DEMOCRATIC PARTY 
 
^ > 
 
 5 ^21 
 
PRINCIPLES 
 
 DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 WASHINGTON lived before the days 
 of party politics. He exemplified his 
 principles by his conduct, whether at 
 the head of the army or of the civil Administra- 
 tion. He had studied well the principles of free 
 governments in former ages and was well 
 grounded in the faith. In his Farewell Address to 
 the American people he left a legacy any party 
 might well be proud of. Not because he was at 
 the head of a so-called Democratic or Republican 
 or any party, but because the few fundamental 
 principles upon which rested the perpetuity of the 
 Union which he announced have always been a 
 part of the faith of the Democracy, does it become 
 appropriate here to insert those principles. No 
 person can be a sound Democrat who cannot give 
 unqualified assent to them. In substance he 
 announced the following principles : — 
 ' 507 
 
508 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 "The union of the government Is the main 
 pillar In the edifice of our real Independence : 
 the support of our tranquillity at home, our peace 
 abroad ; of our safety and our prosperity, yea, of 
 the very liberty all so highly prize." 
 
 He warned his countrymen that from different 
 causes and from different quarters great pains 
 would be taken (as was the case three-quarters of 
 a century after that), and many artifices would be 
 employed, to weaken In the minds of the people 
 the conviction of this great truth. He told them 
 that this was a point In their political fortress 
 against which the batteries of Internal and exter- 
 nal enemies would most constantly and most 
 actively, though covertly and insidiously, direct 
 their assaults. 
 
 He entreated them to cherish a cordial, habitual, 
 and Immovable attachment to the Union, accus- 
 toming them to think and speak of It as the pal- 
 ladium of their political safety and prosperity, 
 watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, 
 discountenancing whatever might even suggest a 
 suspicion that It could in any event be abandoned, 
 and indignantly frown upon the first dawning of 
 every attempt to alienate any portion of our coun- 
 trymen from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred 
 ties which link together the various parts of our 
 common country. 
 
 Whether he called himself a Democrat or not 
 makes no difference, this principle of cherishing 
 
DEMO CRA TIC PRINCIPL ES. 5 O9 
 
 an absolute devotion to the existence of the Union 
 under one form of government is a sacred Demo- 
 cratic principle that must be subscribed to by 
 every citizen of this great Republic who aspires 
 to be called an American Democrat. It is be- 
 cause Democrats have ever entertained the same 
 convictions and (save by the men who called 
 themselves Democrats, but had forgotten or dis- 
 regarded the warning voice of Washington, and 
 went into a rebellion against the Government, 
 thereby seeking to destroy the Union) have ever 
 been true to these principles, and above all other 
 parties most profoundly impressed with the truth 
 of this doctrine, that many of the most thought- 
 ful men have ever been Democrats. 
 
 Washington sought by most cogent arguments 
 to Impress upon his countrymen that all parts of 
 the country. North, South, East and West, had a 
 common destiny and a common interest in the 
 general welfare of ever}^ other section, and be- 
 cause each added strength and security to the 
 other, and in this sense the Union was the main 
 prop of our liberties, so that the love for one 
 should endear to the people the preservation of 
 the other, and thus become the primary object of 
 patriotic desire. 
 
 Democrats believe all this ; and though the party 
 itself became distracted and many of its adher 
 ents were dragged into a rebellion, still, so soon 
 as military force was overcome and the conviction 
 
5 I O DEMOCRA TIC PR INC I PL ES. 
 
 of the mind could be freely exercised, even those 
 again became as ardently attached to the Union 
 as any other portion of our people, and since the 
 close of the war have sought, by every means 
 within their power, to bring together and bind 
 more closely the whole people of this Union in 
 the bonds of a fraternal brotherhood of States. 
 
 Washington warned his countrymen against sec- 
 tionalism. He cautioned them that designing 
 men, as they ever have, would endeavor to excite 
 a belief that there was a real difference of local 
 interests and views. He said one of the expedi- 
 ents of partyisms would be to acquire influence 
 in one particular section by misrepresenting the 
 opinions and aims of another section, and that 
 they could not shield themselves too much against 
 the jealousies and heart-burnings aroused by 
 these misrepresentations, tending to alienate the 
 sections from each other instead of binding them 
 more closely together with fraternal regard and 
 affection, bringing about the opposite result. It 
 is because we have seen the Democratic party en- 
 deavoring by every possible means in its power 
 to inculcate these same great truths, while its op- 
 ponents have conducted themselves toward one 
 section precisely in the way and manner suggested 
 by Washington men would, that they are forced 
 to be Democrats when true to their convictions 
 of right. 
 
 He cautioned his countrymen against heaping 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 5 1 i 
 
 up public debts for posterity to pay, thus ungen- 
 erously throwing upon them burdens which we 
 ourselves should pay. This whole business of 
 bonded indebtedness is undemocratic and ought 
 not to be indulged in if by any means it can be 
 avoided. It is true that men callinor themselves 
 Democrats have been led astray by the plausible 
 arguments of those who regarded " public debts 
 as public blessings," still the Democratic party, as 
 such, has ever denounced the practice, and be- 
 cause they have always coincided with him in this 
 particular they are Democrats. # 
 
 Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, 
 he conjured his fellow-citizens, their jealousy 
 ought to be constantly awake. Numerous oppor- 
 tunities would be offered, he said, to tamper with 
 domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, 
 to mislead public opinion, to influence public coun- 
 cils. 
 
 No attachment, therefore, for one nation to the 
 exclusion of another should be tolerated. 
 
 Such conduct would lead to concessions to one 
 nation and denials of privileges to others, and 
 would Invite a multitude of evils upon us. 
 
 It is because this has been a fundamental prin- 
 ciple of the Democratic party, who most heartily 
 believe In the doctrine, hence they are Democrats. 
 
 Washington also advised his countrymen to re- 
 sist with care the spirit of Innovation upon the 
 principles on which the Government was founded, 
 
512 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 however specious the pretext might be. One 
 method of assault would be, he said, to effect 
 under the forms of the Constitution alterations 
 which would impair the whole system. It is be- 
 cause the Democratic party, impressed by the 
 truth of these teachings of Washington, has op- 
 posed the numerous amendments constantly being 
 proposed that they are Democrats, believing that 
 in this they adhere more strictly to the teachings 
 of Washington than any other party. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF JEFFERSON. 
 
 ALTHOUGH in his time not called "a 
 Democrat," yet the leader of what was 
 then known as the Republican party, con- 
 tending against the Federal or strong govern- 
 ment party, Thomas Jefferson was perhaps one 
 of the best expounders of those principles now 
 held by the Democratic party among all of those 
 Revolutionary sages. 
 
 In his writings and official messages as Presi- 
 dent we find the most frequent allusions to and 
 rigid application of them in the administration of 
 public affairs, so that he has been called " the 
 father of the Democratic party." It was pecu- 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 513 
 
 liarly appropriate that he should do so, because, 
 though early in the history of our Government 
 yet, anti-democratic principles were already slowly 
 creeping into the administration of public affairs 
 under the Administration of the elder Adams, so 
 that it required vigorous opposition and deter- 
 mined application to bring the Government back 
 once more to be administered in accordance with 
 those pure principles of a representative demo- 
 cradc government. 
 
 In his inaugural address, delivered to Congress 
 on March 4th, 1801, the commencement as well 
 of a new century as of a new era in our govern- 
 ment. President Jefferson announced the follow- 
 ing fundamental doctrines of democracy, which, 
 he said, he deemed essential principles of our 
 Government, which should guide him in its admin- 
 istration. He compressed them within the smallest 
 possible compass, stating only the general prin- 
 ciples, but not all their limitations : — 
 
 First, Equal and exact justice to all men of what- 
 ever State or persuasion, religious or political. 
 
 Second, Peace, commerce, and honest friend- 
 ship with all nations ; entangling alliance with 
 none. 
 
 Third, The support of the State govern- 
 ments in all their rights as the most competent 
 administrators of our domestic concerns and the 
 surest bulwarks against anti-republican tenden- 
 cies. 
 
5 1 4 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Fourth. The preservation of the General Gov- 
 ernment in its whole constitutional vigor as the 
 sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety 
 abroad. 
 
 Fifth. A jealous care of the right of election 
 by the people, a mild and safe corrective of 
 abuses, which are lopped by the sword of revolu- 
 tion where peaceable means are unprovided. 
 
 Sixth. Absolute acquiescence in the decisions 
 of the majority, the vital principles of republics, 
 from which is no appeal but to force, the vital 
 principle and immediate parent of despotism. 
 
 Seventh. A well-disciplined militia, our best 
 reliance in peace, and for the first moments of 
 war, till regulars may relieve them. 
 
 Eighth. The supremacy of the civil over the 
 mihtary authority. 
 
 Ninth. Economy in the public expenses, that 
 labor may be lighdy burdened. 
 
 Tenth. The honest payment of our debts and 
 the sacred preservation of the public faith. 
 
 Eleventh. Encouragement of agriculture and 
 of commerce as its handmaid. 
 
 Twelfth. The diffusion of information and 
 arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public 
 reason. 
 
 Thirteenth. Freedom of religion. 
 
 FourtecntJi. Freedom of the press. 
 
 Fifteenth. Freedom of the person under the 
 protection of the habeas corpus. 
 
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 515 
 
 Sixteenth. Trial by juries impartially selected. 
 
 "These principles," said Jefferson, "form the 
 bright constellation which has gone before us and 
 guided our steps through the age of revolution 
 and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and 
 the blood of our heroes have been devoted to 
 their attainment. They should be the creed of 
 our political faith, the text of civic instruction, 
 the touchstone by which to try the services of 
 those we trust ; and should we wander from them 
 in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to 
 retrace our steps and to regain tJie road which 
 alone leads to peace, liberty and safety." 
 
 It is because Democrats believe every one of 
 those fundamental principles to be true that they 
 are Democrats. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF MADISON. 
 
 DEMOCRATS believe in a full, unequivocal 
 and hearty support of the Constitution, in 
 a strict construction of it, and in the spirit 
 and the purpose for which it was formed, and in 
 Madison, also, who took such a deep interest in 
 its formation as to be called " the father of the 
 Constitution," they have another exponent of 
 sound Democratic principles. 
 
5 I 6 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 He knew well the principles on which that Con- 
 stitution was founded. He had studied the rise, 
 progress, decay and fall of every free govern- 
 ment which had gone before, and, profiting by the 
 very misfortunes of other nations, he had secured 
 in the adoption of our Constitution such principles 
 as he fondly believed would prevent us as a people 
 from falling into similar errors. Standing upon 
 the threshold of his great office as President of 
 the United States, succeeding Jefferson, he an- 
 nounced the following as additional principles 
 vital to the welfare of the American people in 
 their intercourse with foreign nations. They were 
 in part but the echoes which came from the lips 
 of Washington and Jefferson, and became the 
 policy of the Democratic party ever since. He 
 announced them as follows : — 
 
 First. To cherish peace and friendly intercourse 
 with all nations having a corresponding disposi- 
 tion. 
 
 Second. To maintain sincere neutrality toward 
 belligferent nations. 
 
 Third. To prefer in all cases amicable discus- 
 sions and reasonable accommodation of differences 
 to a decision of them by an appeal to arms. 
 
 Fourth. To exclude foreign intrigues and for- 
 eign partialities, so degrading to all countries and 
 so baneful to free ones. 
 
 Fifth. To foster a spirit of independence, too 
 just to invade the rights of others, too proud to 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 5 I 7 
 
 surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy 
 prejudices ourselves, and too elevated not to look 
 down upon them in others. 
 
 Sixth. To hold the Union of the States as the 
 basis of their peace and happiness. 
 
 Seve7ith. To support the Constitution, which is 
 the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations 
 as in its authorities. 
 
 Eighth, To respect the rights and authorities 
 reserved to the States and the people as equally 
 incorporated with and essential to the success of 
 the general system. 
 
 Nhith. To avoid the slightest interferences with 
 the riehts of conscience or the functions of reli- 
 gion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction. 
 
 Tenth. To preserve in their full energy the 
 salutary provisions in behalf of private and per- 
 sonal rights and the freedom of the press. 
 
 Eleventh. To observe economy in public ex- 
 penditures. 
 
 Twelfth. To liberate public resources by an 
 honorable discharge of the public debts. 
 
 Thirteenth. To keep within the requisite limits 
 a standing military force, always remembering 
 that an armed and trained militia is the firmest 
 bulwark of republics. 
 
 Fourteenth. That without standing armies, their 
 liberties can never be in danger, nor with large 
 ones, safe. 
 
 Fifteenth. To promote, by authorized means, 
 
5'8 
 
 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 improvements friendly to agriculture, to commerce, 
 to manufactures, and to external as well as inter- 
 nal commerce. 
 
 Sixteenth. To favor, in like manner, the ad- 
 vancement of science and diffusion of information 
 as the best aliment of true liberty. 
 
 Seventeenth. To carry on benevolent plans for 
 the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from 
 the degradation and wretchedness of savage life to 
 a participation of the improvements of which the 
 human mind and manners are susceptible in a 
 civilized state. 
 
 In one of his messaofes he also laid down the 
 principle that a well-instructed people alone can 
 be permanently free, all of which Democrats de- 
 voutly believe. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF JACKSON. 
 
 IN the principles of Andrew Jackson the De- 
 mocracy take great pride. From his inaugu- 
 ral address, on March 4th, a. d. 1829, to the 
 close of his Administration of eight years, in every 
 messaofe to Conoress he uttered Democratic sen- 
 
 o o 
 
 timents in a terse, vigorous style, which, on ac- 
 count of their self-evident truth, deeply rooted 
 themselves in American hearts and became the 
 
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 5^9 
 
 principles of the Democratic party, which during 
 his Administration first took that name and which 
 it has held ever since. They are found scattered 
 all through his messages, and were his guide in 
 deciding all questions of national policy, so many 
 of which pressed themselves upon him during his 
 term of office. From these the following may be 
 selected and placed in order, which should be 
 thoroughly studied and applied to all questions 
 which may even now arise. 
 
 First. He said: "Regard should be had for the 
 rights of the several States, taking care not to 
 confound the powers reserved to them with those 
 they had in the Constitution granted to the Gen- 
 eral Government. 
 
 Second. In ever}^ aspect of the case advantage 
 must result from strict and faithful economy in the 
 administration of public affairs. 
 
 Third. He declared the unnecessary duration 
 of the public debt incompatible with real inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Fourth. In the adjustment of a tariff for reve- 
 nue, he insisted that a spirit of equity, caution and 
 compromise requires the great interests of agri- 
 culture, manufactures and commerce to be equally 
 favored. 
 
 Fifth. He admitted the policy of internal im- 
 provements to be wise only in so far as they could 
 be promoted by constitutional acts of the General 
 Government. 
 
520 
 
 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Sixth, He declared standlncr armies to be dan- 
 
 o 
 
 gerous to free government, and that the mihtary 
 should be In strict subordination to the civil power. 
 
 Seventh. He declared the national militia to be 
 the bulwark of our national defense. In enforcing 
 this principle, he declared that so long as the 
 Government was administered for the good of the 
 people and regulated by their will ; so long as it 
 secured to the people the rights of person and of 
 propert)^ liberty of conscience and of the press, 
 the Government would be worth defending, and 
 so long as It was worth defending the patriotic 
 militia would cover it with an impenetrable cegis. 
 
 Eighth. He pledged himself to the work of 
 reform In the Administration, so that the patronage 
 of the General Government, which had been 
 brought into conflict with the freedom of elections 
 and had disturbed the rightful course of appoint- 
 ments by continuing In power unfaithful and in- 
 competent public servants, should no longer be 
 used for that purpose. 
 
 Ninth. He declared his belief in the principle 
 that the integrity and zeal of public officers would 
 advance the interests of the public service more 
 than mere numbers. 
 
 Te?ith. He declared the right of the people to 
 elect a President, and that It was never designed 
 that their choice should in any case be defeated 
 by the Intervention of agents, enforcing this 
 principle by saying, what experience had amply 
 
DEMO CRA TIC PR INC IF L ES. 5 2 I 
 
 proved, that In proportion as agents were multi- 
 plied to execute the will of the people, there was 
 the danger increased that their wishes would 
 be frustrated. Some 7nay be unfaithful — all liable 
 to err. So far, then, as the people were con- 
 cerned, it was better for them to express their own 
 will. 
 
 Eleventh. The majority should govern. No 
 President elected by a minority could so success- 
 fully discharge his duties as he who knew he was 
 supported by the majority of the people. 
 
 Twelfth. He advocated rotation in office. Cor- 
 ruption, he said, would spring up among those in 
 power, and, therefore, he thought appointments 
 should not be made for a longer period than four 
 years. Everybody had equal right to office, and 
 he favored removals as a leading principle which 
 would give healthful action to the political system. 
 
 Thirteenth. He advocated unfettered com- 
 merce, free from restrictive tariff laws, leaving it 
 to flow into those natural channels in which indi- 
 vidual enterprise, always the surest and safest 
 guide, might direct it. 
 
 Fourteenth. He opposed specific tariffs, be- 
 cause subject to frequent changes, generally pro- 
 duced by selfish motives, and under such influ- 
 ences could never be just and equal. 
 
 Fifteejith. The proper fostering of manufac- 
 tures and commerce tended to increase the value 
 of agricultural products. 
 
52 2 DEMOCRA TIC FRINCIPL ES. 
 
 SixteentJi. In cases of real doubt as to matters 
 of mere public policy he advocated a direct ap- 
 peal to the people, the source of all power, as the 
 most sacred of all obligations and the wisest and 
 most safe course to pursue. 
 
 Seventee7ith. He advocated a just and equita- 
 ble bankrupt law as beneficial to the country at 
 large, because after the means to discharge debts 
 had entirely been exhausted, not to discharge 
 them only served to dispirit the debtor, sink him 
 into a state of apathy, make him a useless drone 
 in society, or a vicious member of it, if not a feel- 
 ing witness of the rigor and inhumanity of his 
 country. Oppressive debt being the bane of en- 
 terprise, it should be the care of the Republic not 
 to exert a grinding power over misfortune and 
 poverty. 
 
 Eightee7ith. He declared in favor of the prin- 
 ciple that no money should be expended until first 
 appropriated for the purpose by the Legislature. 
 The people paid the taxes, and their direct repre- 
 sentatives should alone have the right to say what 
 they should be taxed for, In what sums, and how 
 and when it should be paid. 
 
 Nineteenth. He utterly opposed the system of 
 Government aiding private corporations in mak- 
 ing internal improvements. It was deceptive and 
 conducive of improvidence in the expenditure of 
 public moneys. For this purpose appropriations 
 could be obtained with greater facilities, granted 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPL ES. 523 
 
 with inadequate security, and frequently compli- 
 cated the administration of Government. 
 
 Twentieth. The operations of the General Gov- 
 ernment should be strictly confined to the few 
 simple but important objects for which it was origi- 
 nally designed. 
 
 Twenty first. He favored the veto power in the 
 Executive, but on!y to be exercised in cases of at- 
 tempted violation of the Constitution, or in cases 
 next to it in importance. 
 
 Twenty-second, He advocated State rights as 
 far as consistent with the rightful action of the 
 General Government as the very best means of 
 preserving harmony between them ; and pro- 
 nounced this the true faith, and the one to which 
 might be mainly attributed the success of the en- 
 tire system, and to which alone we must look for 
 stability in it. 
 
 Twenty-third. He advocated " a uniform and 
 sound currency," but doubted the constitutionality 
 and expediency of a National Bank ; and after- 
 ward made his Administration famous by suc- 
 cessfully opposing the renewal of its charter. 
 
 Ttventy -fourth. Precious metals as the only cur- 
 rency known to the Constitution. Their peculiar 
 properties rendered them the standard of values 
 in other countries, and had been adopted in this. 
 The experience of the evils of paper money had 
 made it so obnoxious in the past that the framers 
 of the Constitution had forbidden its adoption as 
 the legal-tender currency of the country. 
 
524 DEMOCRA TIC FRINCIPL ES. 
 
 Variableness must ever be the characteristic of 
 a currency not based upon those metals. Expan- 
 sion and contraction, without regard to principles 
 which reo-ulate the value of those metals as a 
 standard in the general trade of the world, were, 
 he said, extremely pernicious. 
 
 Where these properties are not infused into the 
 circulation, and do not control it, prices must vary 
 according to the tide of the Issue ; the value and 
 stability of property exposed, uncertainty attend 
 the administration of institutions constantly liable 
 to temptations of an Interest distinct from that of 
 the community at large, all this attended by loss 
 to the laboring class, who have neither time nor 
 opportunity to watch the ebb and flow of the 
 money market. 
 
 Twenty-fifth. He renews his advocacy of a 
 cheerful compliance with the will of the majority ; 
 and the exercise of the power as expressed in a 
 spirit of moderation, justice and brotherly kind- 
 ness as the' best means to cement and forever pre- 
 serve the Union. Those, he closes, who advocate 
 sentiments adverse to those expressed, however 
 honest, are, in effect, the worst enemies of their 
 country. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF TILDEN. 
 
 THE fundamental principles of liberty 
 adapted to a republican form of govern- 
 ment were thus laid down by Washington, 
 Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson, and carried out 
 by a long line of public men in legislation and 
 the concerns of o-overnment. Amonor the men 
 who did much to preserve and maintain these 
 principles of popular government, in which the 
 relations of the General Government to the States 
 and the relation of both to the people were pre- 
 served in true adjustment, was Samuel J. Tilden, 
 elected President in 1876 by the people and by 
 a majority of the honesdy chosen electors, and 
 defrauded of the office as the successful result of 
 a dastardly conspiracy. 
 
 Mr. Tilden began to take an active part in the 
 discussion of serious political questions as early 
 as 1833, when the question of the right of a State 
 to nullify the laws of the United States was the 
 dominant one. He had early been brought Into 
 close personal and political association with Mar- 
 tin Van'Buren, Silas Wright, and other leaders cf 
 the Democratic party In the State of New York, 
 and by their advice contributed to the discussion 
 of the issues then uppermost in the public mind. 
 
 525 
 
r 2 (3 L IFE OF G ROVER CLE VELAND. 
 
 From tliat time, when he contributed to the local 
 newspapers of his native county, until his death 
 in 1886, his letters, speeches, and legal arguments 
 form a body of constitutional interpretation w^hich, 
 in both quantity and value, are of the highest im- 
 portance to the student of political history. It is 
 difficult to make any selection from all this body 
 of Tilden's writings which will fairly represent 
 him, but the following extracts give a fair idea of 
 his devotion to his country and to Democratic 
 principles : 
 
 " It is no part of the duty of the State to coerce 
 the individual man, except so far as his conduct 
 may affect others, not remotely and consequen- 
 tially, but by violating rights w^hlch legislation can 
 recognize and undertake to protect." 
 
 " The reason why self-government is better 
 than government by any one man, or by a foreign 
 people, is that the policy evolved by this process 
 is generally better adapted to the actual condition 
 of the society on Avhich it is to operate." 
 
 " Every business, every industrial Interest, Is 
 paralyzed under excessive taxation, false systems 
 of finance, extravagant cost of production, 
 diminished ability to consume." 
 
 " These taxes, when laid on imports in the man- 
 ner In which they were laid in the Congressional 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF TILDEN. 
 
 5-^7 
 
 carnival of manufacturers which framed our 
 present tariff, cause a mIsappUcation of industry 
 that charges on the consumer what neither the 
 Government is able to collect as taxes, nor the 
 manufacturer to appropriate as profits. They 
 lessen the productive power of human labor as if 
 God had cursed it with ungenial climate or sterile 
 soil." 
 
 " There is no royal road for a government more 
 than for an individual or a corporation. What 
 you want to do is to cut down your expenses and 
 live within your income. I would give all the 
 legerdemain of finance and financiering — I would 
 give the whole of it — for the old homely maxim, 
 *LIve within your income.' '* 
 
 " Disunion and centralization are equally fatal 
 to orood government." 
 
 " When the two ideas of personal gain and the 
 bestowal of office are allowed to be in our mind 
 at the same time they will become associated, and 
 it is but a step to the sale of the greatest trusts. 
 Intellect, training, and virtue will soon succumb to 
 wealth. Vulgar millionaires will grasp the highest 
 seats of honor and power as they would put a 
 new emblazonment on their carriages or a gaudy 
 livery on their servants." 
 
C2^ LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
 " Principles are the test of political character. 
 The Democracy always made fidelity to official 
 trust and justice to the toiling masses who earn 
 their bread by the sweat of their brow a funda- 
 mental article in their party creed." 
 
 *' I myself never lost courage, never lost my 
 belief that the element of human society which 
 seeks for what is good is more powerful, if we 
 will trust it, than all those selfish combinations 
 that would obtain unjust advantage over the 
 masses of the people." 
 
 "Whoever obstructs the means of payment ob- 
 structs also the facilities of sale. We must relax 
 our barbarous revenue system so as not to retard 
 the natural processes of trade. We must no 
 longer legislate against the wants of humanity 
 and the beneficence of God." 
 
 ''The pecuniary sacrifices of the people are not 
 to be measured by the receipts into tlie Treasury. 
 They are vastly greater. A tax that starts in its 
 career by disturbing the productive power of la- 
 bor, and then comes to the consumer distended 
 by profits of successive intermediaries and by in- 
 surance against the risks of a fickle or uncertain 
 governmental policy and of a fluctuating govern- 
 mental standard of value, blights human well-beincr 
 at every step. When it reaches the hapless child 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF TILDE N. 52^ 
 
 of toil who buys his bread by the single oaf and 
 his fuel by the basket, it devours his earnings and 
 inflicts starvation." 
 
 " The Constitution of the United States is by 
 its own terms declared to be perpetual. The 
 government created by it acts, within the sphere 
 of its powers, directly upon each individual citizen. 
 No State is authorized, in any contingency, to 
 suspend or obstruct that acUon, or to exempt any 
 citizen from the obligation to obedience. Any 
 pretended act of nullification or secession where- 
 by such effect is attempted to be produced is ab- 
 solutely void." 
 
 u * * Our wise ancestors warned us ao^ainst 
 standing armies and all those false systems of 
 government which require standing armies. They 
 formed the Union of the States that we mio^ht be 
 free from the jealousies of coterminous countries, 
 which has been the usual pretext of tyrants for 
 maintaining costly military establishments. They 
 founded that Union on the principles of local 
 self-government, to be everywhere carried on by 
 the voluntary co-operation of the governed. They 
 did not intend that one part of our country should 
 govern another part." 
 
 " * * The destruction of all local self-govern- 
 ment in a country so extensive as ours, and em- 
 
530 
 
 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 bracing such elements of diversity in habits, man- 
 ners, opinions, and interests, and the exercise by 
 a single centralized authority of all the powers of 
 society over so vast a region and over such pop- 
 ulation would entail upon us an indefinite series 
 of civic commotions, and repeat here the worst 
 crimes and worst calamities of history." 
 
 *' Our wise ancestors warned us that this grand 
 experiment in self-government would turn on the 
 intelligence and virtue of the people, and that 
 our efforts to cultivate and elevate must be com- 
 mensurate with our diffusion of political rights 
 and polidcal powers. It is a great partnership in 
 self-government. Every man yields a share in 
 the government of himself to every other man, 
 and acquires a share in the government over that 
 other man.'* 
 
 " The immiorrants who have contributed so much 
 t ) swell the population of our Northern States 
 spring from the same parent stocks with ourselves. 
 They come to rejoin their kindred. Races have 
 a orrowth and culture as well as individuals. What 
 a race has been many centuries in accumulating 
 is often appropriated and developed in an indi- 
 vidual life, in the ascent from the humblest origin 
 to the highest attainments of the species. Our 
 accessions are drawn from races which have lived 
 imder essentiallv the same climatic influences 
 
THE PRINCIPLES OF TIIDEN. 5- I 
 
 with ourselves, which have attained the highest 
 civiHzation and made the largest progress in the 
 arts and industries of mankind. They are at- 
 tracted here by their aspirations for civil libert)', 
 or for the improvement of their personal condi- 
 tion ; and every aspiration ennobles. 1 hey are 
 well represented in all our occupations which call 
 for intellect and culture, and even the portion 
 which come to fill the ranks of raw labor, made 
 vacant by the ascent to more skilled and more 
 remunerative employments, which our universal 
 education opens to all, show a capacity quickly to 
 follow in the noble competition for improvement." 
 
 " There is no instrumentality in human society 
 so potential in its Influence upon mankind, for 
 good or evil, as the governmental machinery for 
 administering justice and for making and execu- 
 ting laws. Not all the eleemosynary institutions 
 of private benevolence to which philanthropists 
 may devote their lives, are so fruitful in benefits 
 as the rescue and preservation of this machinery 
 from the perversions that make it the instrument 
 of conspiracy, fraud, and crime against the most 
 sacred rights and interests of the people." 
 
 " Every power is a trust and involves a duty.' 
 
 " All history shows that reform in Government 
 must not be expected from those who sit serenely 
 
532 ^I^E OF GROVr.R CLEVELAXD. 
 
 on the social mountain tops, enjoying the benefits 
 of the existin<r order of thinq;s. Even the Divine 
 Author of our rehglon found His followers, not 
 among the self-complacent Pharisees, but among 
 lowly minded fishermen." 
 
 " The Republican party is largely made up of 
 those who live by their wits, and who aspire in 
 politics to advantages over the rest of mankind 
 similar to those w^hich their daily lives are devoted 
 to securing in private business. 
 
 *' The Democratic party consists largely of those 
 who live by the work of their hands, and whose 
 political action Is governed by their sentiments or 
 imagination. 
 
 "It results that the Democratic party, more read- 
 ily than the Republican party, can be molded to 
 the support of reform measures which involve a 
 sacrifice of selfish interests.'* 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF TARIFF REFORM. 
 
 FOLLOWING is the famous message of 
 December, 1887, sent by President Cleve- 
 land to the first session of the Fiftieth Con- 
 gress : — 
 
 To the Congress of the United States: — . 
 
 You are confronted at the threshold of your 
 legislative duties with a condition of the national 
 finances which imperatively demands immediate 
 and careful consideration. 
 
 The amount of money annually exacted, through 
 the operation of present laws, from the industries 
 and necessities of the people, largely exceeds the 
 sum necessary to meet the expenses of the Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 When we consider that the theory of our in>sti- 
 tutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoy- 
 ment of all the fruits of his industry and enter- 
 prise, with only such deduction as may be his. 
 share toward the careful and economical mainr 
 tenance of the Government which protects him, it 
 is plain that the exaction of more than this is in- 
 defensible extortion, and a culpable betrayal of 
 American fairness and justice. This wrong in- 
 flicted upon those who bear the burden of national 
 
 533 
 
534 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 taxation, like other wrongs, multiplies a brood of 
 evil consequences. The public treasury, which 
 should only exist as a conduit conveying the 
 people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expend- 
 iture, becomes a hoarding-place for money need- 
 lessly withdrawn from trade and the people's use, 
 thus crippling our national energies, suspending 
 our country's development, preventing investment 
 in productive enterprise, threatening financial dis- 
 turbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder. 
 
 This condition of our treasury is not altogether 
 new ; and it has more than once of late been sub- 
 mitted to the people's representatives in the Con- 
 gress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet 
 the situation still continues, with aggravated inci- 
 dents, more than ever presaging financial convul- 
 sion and widespread disaster. 
 
 It will not do to neglect this situation because 
 its dangers are not now palpably imminent and 
 apparent. They exist none the less certainly, and 
 await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion 
 when suddenly they will be precipitated upon us. 
 
 On the 30th day of June, 1885, the excess of 
 revenues over public expenditures after comply- 
 ing with the annual requirement of the sinking- 
 fund act, was $17,859,735.84; during the year 
 ended June 30th, 1886, such excess amounted to 
 $49,405,545.20; and during the year ended June 
 30th, 1887, it reached the sum of $55.567>849-54- 
 
 The annual contributions to the sinking fund 
 
THE PRESIDENT S ROOM IN THE CAPITOL. 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. ^T^J 
 
 during the three years above specified, amounting 
 in the aggregate to §138,058,320.94, and deducted 
 from the surplus as stated, were made by calling 
 in for that purpose outstanding three per cent, 
 bonds of the Government. During the six months 
 prior to June 30th, 1887, the surplus revenue had 
 grown so large by repeated accumulations, and it 
 was feared the withdrawal of this great sum of 
 money needed by the people, would so affect the 
 business of the country, that the sum of §79,864,- 
 100 of such surplus was applied to the payment 
 of the principal and interest of the three per cent, 
 bonds still outstanding, and which were then pay- 
 able at the option of the Government. The pre- 
 carious condition of financial affairs among the 
 people still needing relief, immediately after the 
 30th day of June, 1887, the remainder of the three 
 per cent, bonds then outstanding, amounting with 
 principal and interest to the sum of §18,877,500, 
 were called in and applied to the sinking-fund con- 
 tribution for the current fiscal year. Notwith- 
 standing these operations of the Treasury De- 
 partment, representations of distress in business 
 circles not only continued but increased, and 
 absolute peril seemed at hand. In these circum- 
 stances the contribution to the sinking fund for 
 the current fiscal year was at once completed by 
 the expenditure of §27,684,283.55 in the purchase 
 of Government bonds not yet due bearing four 
 and four and a half per cent, interest, the pre- 
 
538 DEMOCRA TIC PR IXC IP L ES. 
 
 mium paid thereon averaging about twenty-four 
 per cent, for the former and eight per cent, for 
 the latter. In addition to this the interest accru- 
 ing during the current year upon the outstanding 
 bonded indebtedness of the Government was to 
 some extent anticipated, and banks selected as 
 depositories of public money were permitted to 
 somewhat increase their deposits. 
 
 While the expedients thus employed to release 
 to the people the money lying idle in the Treasury 
 served to avert immediate danger, our surplus 
 revenues have continued to accumulate, the excess 
 for the present year amounting on the first day of 
 December to $55,258,701.19, and estimated to 
 reach the sum of $1 1 3,000,000 on the 30th of June 
 next, at which date it is expected that this sum, 
 added to prior accumulations, will swell the sur- 
 plus in the Treasury to $140,000,000. 
 
 There seems to be no assurance that, with such 
 a w^ithdrawal from use of the people's circula- 
 ting medium, our business community may not in 
 the near future be subjected to the same distress 
 which was quite lately produced from the same 
 cause. And while the functions of our National 
 Treasury should be few and simple, and while its 
 best condition would be reached, I believe, by its 
 entire disconnection with private business inter- 
 ests, yet when, by a perversion of its purposes, it 
 idly holds money uselessly subtracted from the 
 channels of trade, there seems to be reason for the 
 
DEMOCKA TIC rRIXCiri ES. 539 
 
 claim tliat some Ico^ltimate means should be de- 
 vised by the Government to restore in an emer- 
 gency, without waste or extravagance, such money 
 to its place among the people. 
 
 If such an emergency arises there now exists 
 no clear and undoubted executive power of relief. 
 Heretofore the redemption of three per cent, bonds, 
 which were payable at the option of the Govern- 
 ment, has afforded a means for the disbursement 
 of the excess of our revenues ; but these bonds 
 have all been retired, and there are no bonds out- 
 standing the payment of which we have the right to 
 insist upon. The contribution to the sinking fund 
 which furnishes the occasion for expenditure in 
 the purchase of bonds has been already made for 
 the current year, so that there is no outlet in that 
 direction. 
 
 In the present state of legislation the only pre- 
 tense of any existing executive power to restore, 
 at this time, any part of our surplus revenues to 
 the people by its expenditure, consists in the suppo- 
 sition that the Secretary of the Treasury may enter 
 the market and purchase the bonds of the Govern- 
 ment not yet due, at a rate of premium to be 
 agreed upon. The only provision of law from 
 which such a power could be derived is found in 
 an appropriation bill passed a number of years 
 ago ; and it is subject to the suspicion that it was 
 intended as temporary and limited in its applica- 
 tion, instead of conferring a continuing discretion 
 
r^O DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 and authority. No condition ought to exist which 
 would justify the grant of power to a single offi- 
 cial, upon his judgment of its necessity, to withhold 
 from or release to the business of the people, in an 
 unusual manner, money held in the Treasur}% and 
 thus affect, at his will, the financial situation of the 
 country ; and if it is deemed wise to lodge in the 
 Secretary- of the Treasury the authority in the 
 present juncture to purchase bonds, it should be 
 plainly vested, and provided, as far as possible, 
 with such checks and limitations as will define this 
 official's right and discretion, and at the same 
 time relieve him from undue responsibility. 
 
 In considering the question of purchasing bonds 
 as a means of restoring to circulation the surplus 
 money accumulating in the Treasury, it should be 
 borne in mind that premiums must of course be 
 paid upon such purchase, that there may be a 
 large part of these bonds held as investments 
 w-hich cannot be purchased at any price, and that 
 combinations among holders who are willing to 
 sell, may unreasonably enhance the cost of such 
 bonds to the Government. 
 
 It has been suggested that the present bonded 
 debt mio^ht be refunded at a less rate of interest. 
 
 o 
 
 and the difference between the old and new se- 
 curity paid in cash, thus finding use for the surplus 
 in the Treasury. The success of this plan, it is 
 apparent, must depend upon the volition of the 
 holders of the present bonds; and it is not entirely 
 
DEM0CA\177C /'AV.\'( iriJlS. 54 \ 
 
 certain that the iiuliircnicnt which must he offered 
 them wcniKl result in more iinanciiil benefk to the 
 Government than the purchase of bonds, while the 
 latter proposition wtniKl rcuhue the piineipal ot the 
 debt by actual payment, instead of extendini^ it. 
 
 Hie proposition to deposit the mc^iey held by 
 the CiOvernnuMit in banks throughout the country, 
 ior use b\' the pcH)pK\ is, it seems ti> me, exeeed- 
 iuL^K' objectionable \\\ prmtiple, as establishing; too 
 close a relationshij) between the operations of the! 
 Government Treasury and the business o{ the 
 ^ country, and tcM) extensive a conuniui^lini;- of their 
 nuMiev, thus U)sterlnt;' an unnatural reli.mce in 
 j)rivate business upon public funds. If this scheme 
 should be adoptcul. it sb.ould o\\\\ be C^^^^wr as a 
 temporar)' exj)edient U> meet an urgent neces- 
 sit}'. Lc\L;islati\'e and exi^nitive etiort shouKl gen- 
 erally be in the opposite dircxiion, and slu>uld have 
 a tentlency to ilivcMHw as much and as fast as can 
 safely be ^\o\\c, the i'reasury Hepartment from 
 private^ enterprise. 
 
 Of coiu'se it is not c\xpected that unnecessary 
 and extravagant a[)pro|)riations will be made for 
 the purpose of avoidini;' the accumulation of an 
 excess of re\enue. Such expenditure, beside the 
 demoralization ol all just conceptions ot public 
 duty which it entails, stimulates a habit of reckless 
 improvidence not in the least consistent with the 
 mission ot our people^ or the high and beneficent 
 purposes o{ our Go\'ernmcnt. 
 
54-^ 
 
 DEM OCR A TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 I have deemed It my duty to thus bring to the 
 knowledge of my countrymen, as well as to the 
 attention of their representatives charged with the 
 responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity of 
 our financial situation. The failure of the Congress 
 heretofore to provide against the dangers wdiich 
 it w^as quite evident the very nature of the diffi- 
 culty must necessarily produce, caused a condidon 
 of financial distress and apprehension since your 
 last adjournment, which taxed to the utmost all 
 the authority and expedients within executive 
 control ; and these appear now to be exhausted. 
 If disaster results from the continued inaction of 
 Congress, the responsibility must rest where it 
 belongs. 
 
 Though the situation thus far considered is 
 fraught with danger which should be fully realized, 
 and though it presents features of wrong to the 
 people as well as peril to the country. It Is but a 
 result growing out of a perfectly palpable and 
 apparent cause, constantly reproducing the same 
 alarming circumstances — a congested national 
 treasury and a depleted monetary condition In the 
 business of the country. It need hardly be stated 
 that while the present situation demands a remedy, 
 we can only be saved from a like predicament In 
 the future by the removal of Its cause. 
 
 Our scheme of taxation, by means of which 
 this needless surplus is taken from the people and 
 put Into the public treasury, consists of a tariff or 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRIXCirLES. 543 
 
 duty levied upon importations from abroad, and 
 internal revenue taxes levied upon the consump- 
 tion of tobacco and spirituous and malt liquors. 
 It must be conceded that none of the things sub- 
 jected to internal revenue taxation are, strlcdy 
 speaking, necessaries ; there appears to be no just 
 complaint of this taxation by the consumers of 
 these articles, and there seems to be nothing so 
 well able to bear the burden without hardship to 
 any pordon of the people. 
 
 But our present tariff laws, the vicious. Inequi- 
 table and illogical source of unnecessary taxation, 
 ought to be at once revised and amended. These 
 laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the 
 price to consumers of all articles Imported and 
 subject to duty, by precisely the sum paid for such 
 duties. Thus the amount of the duty measures the 
 tax paid by those who purchase for use these im- 
 ported articles. Many of these things, however, 
 are raised or manufactured In our own country, 
 and the dudes now levied upon foreign goods and 
 products are called protection to these home 
 manufactures, because they render it possible for 
 those of our people who are manufacturers, to 
 make these taxed articles and sell them for a price 
 equal to that demanded for the imported goods 
 that have paid customs duty. So it happens that 
 while comparatively a few use the Imported articles, 
 millions of our people, who never use and never 
 saw any of the foreign products, purchase and use 
 
5 rA- DEMOCRA TIC PRLXCIPLES. 
 
 things of the same kind made in this country, and 
 pay therefor nearly or quite the same enhanced 
 price which the duty adds to the imported articles. 
 Those who buy imports pay the duty charged there- 
 on into the public treasury, but the great majority 
 of our citizens, who buy domestic articles of the 
 same class, pay a sum at least approximately equal 
 to this duty to the home manufacturer. This ref- 
 erence to the operation of our tariff laws is not 
 made by way of instruction, but in order that we 
 may be constantly reminded of the manner in 
 which they impose a burden upon those who con- 
 sume domestic products as well as those who con- 
 sume imported articles, and thus create a tax upon 
 all our people. 
 
 It is not proposed to entirely relieve the country 
 of this taxation. It must be extensively continued 
 as the source of the Government's income ; and 
 in a readjustment of our tariff the interests of 
 American labor ensraeed in manufacture should 
 be carefully considered, as well as the preservation 
 of our manufacturers. It may be called protection, 
 or by any other name, but relief from the hard- 
 ships and dangers of our present tariff laws should 
 be devised with especial precaution against imperil- 
 ing the existence of our manufacturing interests. 
 But this existence should not mean a condition 
 which, without regard to the public welfare or a 
 national exigency, must always insure the realiza- 
 tion of immense profits instead of moderately 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. ^\ ^• 
 
 profitable returns. As the volume and diversity 
 of our national activities increase, new recruits are 
 added to those who desire a continuation of the 
 advantages which they conceive the present system 
 of tariff taxation direcdy affords them. So stub- 
 bornly have all efforts to reform the present con- 
 dition been resisted by those of our fellow-cidzens 
 thus engaged, that they can hardly complain of the 
 suspicion, entertained to a certain extent, that 
 there exists an organized combinadon all along 
 the line to maintain their advantage. 
 
 We are in the midst of centennial celebradons, 
 and with becoming pride we rejoice in American 
 skill and ingenuity, in American energy and en- 
 terprise, and in the wonderful natural advantages 
 and resources developed by a century's nadonal 
 growth. Yet when an attempt is made to jusdfy a 
 scheme which permits a tax to be laid upon every 
 consumer in the land for the benefit of our manu- 
 facturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for 
 governmental regard, it suits the purposes of ad- 
 vocacy to call our manufactures infant industries, 
 still needing the highest and greatest degree of 
 favor and fostering care that can be wrung from 
 Federal legisladon. 
 
 It is also said that the increase in the price of 
 domesdc manufactures resuldng from the present 
 tariff is necessary in order that higher wages may 
 be paid to our workingmen employed in manufac- 
 tories, than are paid for what is called the pauper 
 
546 DEMOCRA TIC PR I NCI PL ES. 
 
 labor of Europe. All will acknowledge the force 
 of an argument which involves the welfare and 
 liberal compensation of our laboring people. Our 
 labor is honorable in the eyes of every Ameri- 
 can citizen ; and as it lies at the foundation of our 
 development and progress, it is entitled, without 
 affectation or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. 
 The standard of our laborers' life should not be 
 measured by that of any other country less fa- 
 vored, and they are entitled to their full share of 
 all our advantaores. 
 
 By the last census it is made to appear that of 
 the 17,392,099 of our population engaged in all 
 kinds of industries 7,670,493 are employed in 
 agriculture, 4,074,238 in professional and personal 
 service (2,934,876 of whom are domestic servants 
 and laborers), while 1,810,256 are employed in 
 trade and transportation, and 3,837,1 12 are classed 
 as employed in manufacturing and mining. 
 
 For present purposes, however, the last number 
 given should be considerably reduced. Without 
 attempting to enumerate all, it will be conceded 
 that there should be deducted from those which it 
 includes 375,143 carpenters and joiners, 285,401 
 milliners, dressmakers and seamstresses, 172,726 
 blacksmiths, 1 33, 756 tailors and tailoresses, 102,473 
 masons, 76, 241 butchers, 4 1,309 bakers, 2 2,083 plas- 
 terers, and 4891 engaged in manufacturing agri- 
 cultural implements, amounting in the aggregate to 
 1,214,023, leaving 2,623,089 persons employed in 
 
DEMOCRA TIC PRTNCrPL f S. 547 
 
 such manufacturing Industries as are claimed to be 
 benefited by a high tariff. 
 
 To these the appeal Is made to save their em- 
 ployment and maintain their wages by resisting a 
 change. There should be no disposition to answer 
 such suggestions by the allegation that they are in 
 a minority among those who labor, and therefore 
 should forego an advantage, in the Interest of low 
 prices for the majority ; their compensation, as it 
 may be affected by the operation of tariff laws, 
 should at all times be scrupulously kept in view ; 
 and yet with slight reflection they will not overlook 
 the fact that they are consumers with the rest; 
 that they, too, have their own wants and those of 
 their families to supply from their earnings, and 
 that the price of the necessaries of life, as well as 
 the amount of their wages, will regulate the meas- 
 ure of their welfare and comfort. 
 
 But the reduction of taxation demanded should 
 be so measured as not to necessitate or justify 
 either the loss of employment by the working- 
 man nor the lessening of his wages ; and the 
 profits still remaining to the manufacturer, after a 
 necessary readjustment, should furnish no excuse 
 for the sacrifice of the Interests of his employes 
 either In their opportunity to work or In the dimi- 
 nution of their compensation. Nor can the worker 
 in manufactures fail to understand that while a 
 high tariff is claimed to be necessary to allow the 
 
548 
 
 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 payment of remunerative wages, It certainly re^ 
 suits In a very large increase in the price of nearly 
 all sorts of manufactures, which, In almost count- 
 less forms, he needs for the use of himself and his 
 family. He receives at the desk of his employer 
 his wages, and perhaps before he reaches his 
 home Is obliged, in a purchase for family use of 
 an article which embraces his own labor, to return 
 in the payment of the increase in price which the 
 tariff permits, the hard-earned compensation of 
 many days of toil. 
 
 The farmer and the agriculturist who manufac- 
 ture nothing, but who pay the Increased price which 
 the tariff Imposes, upon every agricultural Imple- 
 ment, upon all he wears and upon all he uses and 
 owns, except the Increase of his flocks and herds, 
 and such things as his husbandry produces from 
 the soil. Is Invited to aid in maintaining the pres- 
 ent situation ; and he is told that a high duty on 
 imported wool is necessary for the benefit of those 
 who have sheep to shear. In order that the price 
 of their wool may be increased. They of course 
 are not reminded that the farmer who has no sheep 
 is by this scheme obliged, In his purchases of cloth- 
 ing and woolen goods, to pay a tribute to his 
 fellow farmer as well as to the manufacturer and 
 merchant; nor Is any mention made of the fact 
 that the sheep owners themselves and their house- 
 holds must wear clothing and use other articles 
 
DEMO CRA lie PR INC I PL ES. 549 
 
 manufactured from the wool they sell at tariff 
 prices, and thus as consumers must return their 
 share of this increased price to the tradesman. 
 
 I think it may be fairly assumed that a large 
 proportion of the sheep owned by the farmers 
 throughout the country are found In small flocks 
 nnmbering from twenty-five to fifty. The duty on 
 the grade of imported wool which these sheep 
 yield is ten cents each pound if of the value of 
 thirty cents or less, and twelve cents If of the value 
 of more than thirty cents. If the. liberal estimate 
 of six pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty 
 thereon would be sixty or seventy-two cents, and 
 this may be taken as the utmost enhancement of 
 its price to the farmer by reason of this duty. 
 Eighteen dollars would thus represent the in- 
 creased price of the wool from twenty-five sheep 
 and thirty-six dollars that from the wool of fifty 
 sheep ; and at present values this addition 
 would amount to about one-third of its price. If 
 upon its sale the farmer receives this or a less 
 tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands charged 
 with precisely that sum, which in all its changes 
 will adhere to it, until it reaches the consumer. 
 When manufactured Into cloth and other goods 
 and material for use, its cost is not only increased 
 to the extent of the farmer's tariff profit, but a fur« 
 ther sum has been added for the benefit of the 
 manufacturer under the operation of other tariff 
 laws. In the meantime the day arrives when the 
 
550 DEMOCRATIC PRINCJPLES. 
 
 farmer finds it necessary to purchase woolen 
 goods and material to clothe himself and family 
 for the winter. When he faces the tradesman for 
 that purpose he discovers that he is obliged not 
 only to return in the way of increased prices his 
 tariff profit on the wool he sold, and w^hich then 
 perhaps lies before him in manufactured form, but 
 that he must add a considerable sum thereto to 
 meet a further increase in cost caused by a tariff 
 duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is 
 aroused to the fact that he has paid upon a moder- 
 ate purchase, as a result of the tariff scheme, which, 
 when he sold his wool seemed so profitable, an 
 increase in price more than sufficient to sweep 
 away all the tariff profit he received upon the wool 
 he produced and sold. 
 
 When the number of farmers engaged in wool- 
 raising is compared with all the farmers in the 
 country, and the small proportion they bear to our 
 population is considered ; when it is made appa- 
 rent that, in the case of a large part of those who 
 own sheep, the benefit of the present tariff on 
 wool is illusory ; and, above all, when it must be 
 conceded that the increase of the cost of living 
 caused by such tariff becomes a burden upon those 
 with moderate means and the poor, the em.ployed 
 and unemployed, the sick and well, and the young 
 and old, and that it constitutes a tax which, with 
 relentless grasp, is fastened upon the clothing of 
 every man, woman and child in the land, reasons 
 
DEMOCRA TIC FRINCIPLES. 5 5 1 
 
 are suggested why the removal or reduction of 
 this duty should be Included in a revision of our 
 tariff laws. 
 
 In speaking of the increased cost to the con- 
 sumer of our home manufactures, resulting from 
 a duty laid upon imported articles of the same 
 description, the fact is not overlooked that com- 
 petition among our domestic producers sometimes 
 has the effect of keeping the price of their pro- 
 ducts below the highest limit allowed by such duty. 
 But it is notorious that this competition is too 
 often strangled by combinations quite prevalent 
 at this time, and frequendy called trusts, which 
 have for their object the regulation of the supply 
 and price of commodides made and sold by mem- 
 bers of the combinadon. The people can hardly 
 hope for any consideration in the operation of 
 these selfish schemes. 
 
 If, however, in the absence of such combination, 
 a healthy and free compedtion reduces the price 
 of any particular dutiable article of home produc- 
 tion below the limit which it might otherwise reach 
 under our tariff laws, and if, with such reduced 
 price, its manufacture continues to thrive, it is 
 entirely evident that one thing has been discovered 
 which should be carefully scrutinized in an effort 
 to reduce taxation. 
 
 The necessity of combination to maintain the 
 price of any commodity to the tariff point, fur- 
 nishes proof that some one is willing to accept 
 
552 DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 
 
 lower prices for such commodity, and that such 
 prices are remunerative; and lower prices prO" 
 duced by competition prove the same thing. Thus 
 where either of these conditions exist, a case would 
 seem to be presented for an easy reduction of 
 taxation. 
 
 The considerations which have been presented 
 touching our tariff laws are intended only to en- 
 force an earnest recommendation that the surplus 
 revenues of the Government be prevented by the 
 reduction of our customs duties, and, at the same 
 time, to emphasize a suggestion that in accom- 
 plishing this purpose, we may discharge a double 
 duty to our people by granting to them a measure 
 of relief from tariff taxation in quarters where it 
 is most needed and from sources where it can 
 be most fairly and justly accorded. 
 
 Nor can the presentation made of such consid- 
 erations be, with any degree of fairness, regarded 
 as evidence of unfriendliness toward our manu- 
 facturing interests, or of any lack of appreciation 
 of their value and importance. 
 
 These interests constitute a leading and most 
 substantial element of our national greatness and 
 furnish the proud proof of our country's progress. 
 .But if in the emergency that presses upon us our 
 manufacturers are asked to surrender something 
 for the public good and to avert disaster, their pa- 
 triotism, as well as a orrateful recoo^nition of advan- 
 tag^es already afforded, should lead them to wilHng 
 
DEMO CRA rrC PRINCIPL US. 553 
 
 cooperation. No demand Is made that they shall 
 forego all the benefits of governmental regard ; 
 but they cannot fail to be admonished of their 
 duty, as well as their enlightened self-interest and 
 safety, when they are reminded of the fact that 
 financial panic and collapse, to which the present 
 condition tends, afford no greater shelter or pro- 
 tection to our manufactures than to our other im- 
 portant enterprises. Opportunity for safe, care- 
 ful and deliberate reform is now offered ; and none 
 of us should be unmindful of a time when an 
 abused and Irritated people, heedless of those who 
 have resisted timely and reasonable relief, may 
 Insist upon a radical and sweeping rectification of 
 their wrongs. 
 
 The difficulty attending a wise and fair revision 
 of our tariff laws is not under-estimated. It will 
 require on the part of the Congress great labor 
 and care, and especially a broad and national con- 
 templation of the subject, and a patriotic disregard 
 of such local and selfish claims as are unreasonable 
 and reckless of the welfare of the entire country. 
 
 Under our present laws more than four thousand 
 articles are subject to duty. Many of these do not 
 In any way compete with our own manufactures, 
 and many are hardly worth attention as subjects 
 of revenue. A considerable reduction can be 
 made In the aggregate, by adding them to the free 
 list. The taxation of luxuries presents no features 
 of hardship ; but the necessaries of life used and 
 
554 DEMO CRA TIC PR I NCI PL ES. 
 
 consumed by all the people, the duty upon which 
 adds to the cost of livlngr in every home, should 
 be greatly cheapened. 
 
 The radical reduction of the duties imposed upon 
 raw material used in manufactures, or its free Im- 
 portation, Is of course an important factor In any 
 effort to reduce the price of these necessaries ; It 
 would not only relieve them from the Increased 
 cost caused by the tariff on such material, but the 
 manufactured product being thus cheapened, that 
 part of the tariff now laid upon such product, as 
 a compensation to our manufacturers for the 
 present price of raw material, could be accord- 
 ingly modified. Such reduction, or free Importa- 
 tion, would serve, beside, to largely reduce the 
 revenue. It Is not apparent how such a change 
 can have any Injurious effect upon our manufac- 
 turers. On the contrary, It would appear to give 
 them a better chance in foreign markets with the 
 manufacturers of other countries, who cheapen 
 their wares by free material. Thus our people 
 might have the opportunity of extending their 
 sales beyond the limits of home consumption — 
 saving them from the depression. Interruption In 
 business, and loss caused by a glutted domestic 
 market, and affording their employes more certain 
 and steady labor, with its resulting quiet and con- 
 tentment. 
 
 The question thus imperatively presented for 
 solution should be approached In a spirit higher 
 
BE MOCK A TIC PRINCIPLES. 555 
 
 than partisanship and considered m the light of 
 that regard for patriotic duty which should char- 
 acterize the action of those intrusted with the weal 
 of a confiding people. But the obligation to 
 declared party policy and principle is not wanting 
 to urge prompt and effective action. Both of the 
 great political parties now represented in the 
 Government have, by repeated and authoritative 
 declarations, condemned the condition of our laws 
 w^hich permit the collection from the people of 
 unnecessary revenue, a"d have, in the most solemn 
 manner, promised its correction ; and neither as 
 citizens nor partisans are our countrymen in a 
 mood to condone the deliberate violation of these 
 pledges. 
 
 Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not 
 be improved by dwelling upon the theories of pro- 
 tection and free trade. This savors too much of 
 bandying epithets. It is a condition which con- 
 fronts us — not a theory. Relief from this condi- 
 tion may involve a slight reduction of the advan- 
 tages which we award our home productions, but 
 the entire withdrawal of such advantages should 
 not be contemplated. The question of free trade 
 is absolutely irrelevant ; and the persistent claim 
 made in certain quarters, that all efforts to relieve 
 the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation 
 are schemes of so-called free-traders, is mischiev- 
 ous and far removed from any consideration for 
 the public good. 
 
556 DEMOCRA TIC FKIXCIPL ES. 
 
 The simple and plain duty which we owe die 
 people is to reduce taxation to the necessary ex- 
 penses of an economical operation of the Govern- 
 ment, and to restore to the business of the country 
 the money which we hold in the Treasury through 
 the perversion of governmental powers. These 
 things can and should be done with safety to all 
 our industries, without danger to the opportunity 
 for remunerative labor which our workingmen 
 need, and with benefit to them and all our people, 
 by cheapening their means of subsistence and 
 increasing the measure of their comforts. 
 
 The Constitution provides that the President 
 " shall, from time to time, give to the Congress 
 information of the state of the Union." It has 
 been the custom of the Executive, in compliance 
 with this provision, to annually exhibit to the Con- 
 gress, at the opening of its session, the. general 
 condition of the country, and to detail, with some 
 particularity, the operations of the different Ex- 
 ecutive Departments. It v/ould be especially agree- 
 able to follow this course at the present time, and 
 to call attention to the valuable accomplishments 
 of these Departments during the last fiscal year. 
 But I am so much impressed with the paramount 
 importance of the subject to which this communi- 
 cation has thus far been devoted, that I shall 
 forego the addition of any other topic, and only 
 urge upon your immediate consideration the 
 "state of the Union" as shown in the present 
 
DEMOCKA TIC FRINCIPL ES. 557 
 
 condition of our treasury and our general fiscal 
 situation, upon which ever)^ element of our safety 
 and prosperity depends. 
 
 The reports of the heads of Departments, which 
 will be submitted, contain full and explicit infor- 
 mation touchlnof the transaction of the business 
 intrusted to them, and such recommendations 
 relating to legislation in the public Interest as they 
 deem advisable. I ask for these reports and 
 recommendations the deliberate examination and 
 action of the Legislative branch of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 There are other subjects not embraced In the 
 departmental reports demanding legislative con- 
 sideration and which I should be glad to submit. 
 Some of them, however, Iiave been earnestly pre- 
 sented in previous messages, and as to them I 
 beg leave to repeat prior recommendations. 
 
 As the law makes no provision for any report 
 from the Department of State, a brief history of 
 the transactions of that important Department, 
 together with other matters whfch it may here- 
 after be deemed essential to commend to the 
 attention of the Congress, may furnish the occa- 
 sion for a future communication. 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 Washington, 
 
 December i6, 1S87, 
 
THE 
 
 Citizen's Handbook 
 
 OF 
 
 Valuable Facts for Campaign Work. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. 
 
 563 
 
 TABIiES or PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIOIMS. 
 
 8TTMMASY OF POPTTLAR AIH) ELECTORAL VOTES FOR PRESL 
 DENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1789- 
 1876. 
 
 <s 
 
 03 
 
 r-; 
 
 POLmCAL 
 
 Party. 
 
 * Presidents. 1 
 
 * Vice-Presidents. 
 
 B.i = 
 
 6 
 I 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 Vote. | 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 « 
 
 ^1 
 1 
 
 OS 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 Popular. 
 
 1 
 
 1^ 
 
 i 
 3 
 
 irs9 tio 
 
 73 
 
 135 
 138 
 
 138 
 
 
 George Washington 
 John Adams . . 
 
 
 69 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 
 Joiin Jay 
 
 It. H. Harrison 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 Ijohn Kutledge 
 
 John Hancock 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 :::::::.::." 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 George Clinton. . 
 Samuel Iluiitint^don 
 iJohii Jlilton 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ■ ■" 
 
 
 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 
 
 J imt'9 Armstrong. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Benjamin. Lincoln.. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Federalist.. 
 Federalist.. 
 Republican 
 
 Edward Telfair. .. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 
 
 4 
 132 
 
 
 4 
 
 170? 
 
 Georee Washington 
 John Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 George Clinton 
 
 
 
 
 
 "SO 
 
 
 Ttiomr.9 Jcffvrson. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Aaron Lurr. ....... 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Federalist. . 
 Republican 
 Federalist.. 
 Republican : 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 
 
 3 
 71 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 1796 
 
 John Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 JTIioma:* Jefferson.. 
 JThoma^ I'mckney.. 
 
 
 
 :::;■ 
 
 68 
 
 
 A;ircn Burr 
 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 
 Samu 1 Adams 
 
 
 
 
 
 1=1 
 
 
 
 Oiiver Ellsworth .. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ ■ " 
 
 11 
 
 
 :Ge()r""o Clinton. .. 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 John" Jay 
 
 
 ::;:::;::';::! 
 
 
 <> 
 
 
 
 1 James Iredell 
 
 
 ! i 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 George Washington 
 John Henry 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 ? 
 
 
 1 
 
 Repnblican 
 Republican 
 Federalist.. 
 Federalist..! 
 I 
 
 '\ 
 
 
 is. Johnson 
 
 Charles C. Piackney 
 
 Thomas Jcffereon. . 
 
 
 1 
 
 ::::;. ;':r: 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 i«on 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 Aaroa Burr 
 
 
 
 
 ira 
 
 
 
 
 «i5 
 
 
 Charles C.Pinckney 
 
 
 
 
 
 f4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • Previous to the eloction of 1S04 each elector voted for two candiilates for President ; the 
 one receiving tlie Ineliest number of votes, i£' a majority, was declared elected President; 
 and the next highest Vice-President. 
 
 t Three States out of thirteen did not vote. viz. : New York, which had not passed an elec- 
 toral law ; and North Carolina and Rhode Island, which had not adopted the Constitution. 
 
 X There having been a tie vote, tlie choice devolved upon the House of Representatives, 
 A choice was made on the 36th ballot, which w.is as follows: Jefferson — Georgia, Kentucky. 
 Maryland, New Jersev. New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, aha 
 V'rglnia— 10 States -.Burr — Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jlwupsbire, Mid Rhode IsiiUid 
 >^ Smte:i \ Uiaak^D«iHwar6 aud tivuth CWolku— ;j idtat6». 
 
5^4 
 
 POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES. 
 
 1804 
 
 2312 
 
 181G 
 
 182G 
 
 1824 
 
 1828 
 
 1832 
 
 19 
 
 24 
 
 a4 
 
 26 
 
 poutical 
 Party. 
 
 17GR( publican 
 Federalist.. 
 
 ITG Republican 
 Federalist. . 
 
 218 
 
 221 
 
 235 
 
 201 
 
 Republican 
 Federalist. . 
 
 Republican 
 Federalist. . 
 
 Republican 
 Opposition. 
 
 Republican, 
 Coalition. 
 Repul)liran 
 Republican. 
 
 261 Democratic 
 Nat.Repuh 
 
 288 Democratic 
 Nat.Iiepub. 
 
 Anti-Mason 
 
 294 Democratic 
 
 Whig 
 
 Whig 
 
 Whig 
 
 Whig 
 
 Presidents. 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 Vote. 
 
 Thomag Jefferson. . 15 
 Charles C. l-inckney! 2 
 
 James Madison. ..'12 
 Charles CPinckneyi 5 
 George Clinton . . 
 
 Popular. 
 
 Vacancy 
 
 James Madison 11 
 
 De Witt Clinton. 
 Vacancy 
 
 James Monroe. 
 Rufus King 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 James Monroe. . 
 John Q. Adams. 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 Andrew Jackson. . . 
 
 John Q. Adams 
 
 [Wm. H. Crawford.. 
 Heiiry Clay 
 
 Vacancy 
 
 Andrew Jackson, 
 jjohii Q. Adams . 
 
 155.872 
 105,3^1 
 44,282 
 4(i,58: 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 George Clinton.. 
 jRufut* King 
 
 George Clinton.. 
 
 Rufus King 
 
 John Langdon.. 
 James Madison. 
 James Monroe.. 
 
 1£8 Elbridgc Gerry. 
 
 69 I Ji.reu Ingcrsoll. 
 
 1 
 
 231 
 
 647,231 178 
 5U'.i.cy7 83 
 
 Andrew Jackson. . . 15 
 
 Henry Clay I T 
 
 -.ohn Floyd ( , 1 
 
 William Wirt.... J , 1 
 
 Vacancies. 
 
 Martin Viin Buren. 15 
 Wm II. Harrison "1 : 7 
 Hugh L. White.. I 2 
 Daniel Webster.. [ 1 
 iW. P. Mangum... J 1 
 
 687,502 
 530,189 
 
 33,108 
 
 D. D. Tompkins. 
 John E. Howard 
 James Ross . . . 
 •luhn Marshall.. 
 Robi. G. Harper. 
 
 D. D. Tompkins. 
 Kich. J-tockton.. 
 Dai.icl Rodney. 
 K(-bt. G. Harper 
 Richard Rush. .. 
 
 John C. Calhoun 
 Nathun yanford. 
 Nathaniel Macon 
 Andrew Jackson 
 jM. Van Buren 
 I Henry Clay.. 
 
 John C. Calhounini 
 Richard Rush.. b3 
 William Smith.. 7 
 
 IM. Van Buren. .. 
 John bergeaiit. . . 
 
 Henry Lee 
 
 Amos Elmaker. 
 I William Wilkinu 
 
 761,549 170 R. M. Johnpont. 
 731 Francis Granger. 
 
 2(j John Tvler 
 
 14i William Smith.. 
 
 "li 
 
 736,656 
 
 * No choice having been made by the Elector.il College, the choice devolved upon tha 
 House of Representatives. A choice wu3 ni.ide on the tir.>.l Imllot, which was as follows: 
 Adams— Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisinna. Maiie, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mis- 
 Bouri. ^'e^v Hampshire. New York, Oliio. Rhode Island, and Vermont— 13 states; Jackson- 
 Alabama, Indiniia, Mississippi, Kew .Jersey. Pennsylvania. South Carolina, and Tennescie— 
 7 States; Crawf.rd— Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia— 4 .St:ites. 
 
 t Xo candidate having received a majoritv of the votes of the Electoral College, the oen« 
 ftte elected K. M. Jokaaoo Yiee-Presideut, wlio rtu:eivea3a vgtcs : Frunud Uraogcrreceiyed iSi 
 
POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES. 
 
 565 
 
 u 
 
 > 1 
 
 
 
 ifi 
 
 ^ ■ 
 
 
 « ' 
 
 
 
 _ ] 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 t-i 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1840' 
 
 1844 26^75 
 
 1&18 30 
 
 I802; 
 
 185C 
 
 1860 33 
 
 poltttcax 
 Party. 
 
 Whig 
 
 Democratic 
 Lioerty 
 
 Premden 1 s. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 Wm. II. Harrison.. 
 Martin Van B;iren. 
 James G. Birney... 
 
 Democratic James K. Polk.. 
 
 \Vtii<; I Henry Clay 
 
 Liberty [James G. Birney 
 
 290, Whi;? [Zachary Taylor. . 
 
 IDemocratic Leuis (Jass. 
 iFrce JSoil. 
 
 VoTiJ. 
 
 •236 
 
 290 
 
 53a 
 
 1334 *3G :]14 
 
 18C8 +37 
 
 1872 
 
 1876 
 
 SB 
 
 Democratic 
 
 Whi- 
 
 Free Deia . . 
 
 Democratic, 
 Repal)iicau. 
 America;! . . 
 
 Republican. 
 Democnitic, 
 Cons. Union 
 Lid. Dem... 
 
 Republican. 
 Dcmocia;ic 
 
 larrtii V an Buren. 
 
 Franklin Pierce... 
 
 Wi:;lield Scott 
 
 Jolia 1*. Uaie 
 
 James Buchanan. . 
 Jolui C. Ficinoiit. 
 Millard Fillmore. . 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 J C. Bieckiuridjre. 
 
 John Jkll 
 
 S. A. Duii-las 
 
 Abra!\am Lincnlr,. 
 
 (xeo. B. McClelian. 
 
 Vacancies 
 
 317 Republican. 'Ulyspcs S. Grant. .. 
 Democratic, iiorat o Seymuur .. 
 j \ acanties 
 
 366 Republican. luiysses S. Grant... 
 
 Dem. & Lib. 'Horace Greeley 
 
 Democratic. 'Cliaile- U'Couor. .. 
 
 Temperance Jam. s Black 
 
 'riio.t«. A. Hendricks 
 
 B. Gratz Brown 
 
 Charles J Jenkins. 
 
 H David Davis 
 
 Pop'olar. 3 
 
 3 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 1.275,017 234 John Tyler 234 
 
 1.128,702 60 R.M.John.son.. 4S 
 
 L. W. Tazewell. 
 James K. Polk.. 
 
 $ Kot Counted. 
 
 4.0-33,950 
 
 18801 38 369 
 
 81,740 
 9..J22 . . 
 2,636 . , 
 
 1884 
 
 38 
 
 369 Republican. Rutherford B.IIayes 
 I Democratic. jS ^mutl J. Tilden. . 
 Greenback.. 1 Peter Coop r . . 
 Prohibition iGreen Ciay Smith.. 
 jScattering 
 
 KepuDilcan.. James A. Garneld...'19 
 |Democratic.]WinfleldS.Hancockil9 
 Greenback..'. James B. Weaver 
 I iScattering 
 
 Dernoi-raiic (.rover Cleveland. .j'iO 4,9U 017''1 
 Repuhlioaii .Taine.s d. Blaine Il8:4,S-i8..'.3lTs 
 
 1,337.243 170 Geo. M. Dallas.. 170 
 1,2',)9.( 08 lu5 T. Freiinghuysen 1.5 
 
 02,30u,...i 
 
 I I] •••!•- 
 
 1.363,101 16:3 Millard Fillmore i6J 
 
 l,y2J..>44 l:i7 Wra. O. Butler.. jl^I 
 
 5i91,263| ... I Chas. F. Adams. . . . 
 
 l.fi01.474'2ol Wm. R. King... 254 
 
 1,386.7781 42, Wm. .\. (Jrauam 42 
 
 136,149 ...j Geo. W. Julian.. i . .. 
 
 1.819.109 171' J. C. Breckinr'ge 174 
 
 l.:Mi.-.<;ti4 114 Wm. L. Dayion. 114 
 
 87.,534j 8 A. J. Donei'son..! 8 
 
 1,^66,"52 180 n::nnibal Hamlin 180 
 
 84>.763; 72 Jo.-epli Lan2 , 72 
 
 58.!.581| 39 Edward Everett. I 39 
 
 1,37..,157| 12 II. V. Johnson.., 18 
 
 2,216.067 212 Ami rew Johnson 218 
 
 1,8U8. 
 
 3.015,071 
 
 21, G. li. Pendleton.; 21 
 
 bl. 
 
 81 
 
 214 Schuyler Colfa:: 214 
 2.70»,(il3| 80 F. P. Bla.r, Jr..., m 
 '•••• ^i,i j 23 
 
 3,597.070 286 Henry Wirson. . . 099 
 
 i,834.079 
 2 J. 408 
 5,608 
 
 , .. ; B. Grafz Brown, 
 
 , . . GvO. W. Ji.liau., 
 , .. A. 11. Colquiil. . 
 42 Jolin M. Palmer 
 IS ;T. E. Bramlcttc. 
 ii ,W. S. Groe?beck| 
 1, Willis B.Machcnl 
 ..In. P. Banks 
 
 Banks | 1 
 
 14 
 
 185 Wm. A. Wheoler 1S5 
 
 4,281.885184 |T. A. llendricKs 184 
 
 4.449,053 214[ Chester A.Artliuri2l4 
 
 4,442,030,155 
 307,30o 
 12,576 
 
 iPioiiioiiiotijJohn P. St. .lonu....' 
 
 'Greenback..iBenj. F. Butler ' 
 
 ! 'Seatleriiio- 
 
 151.S09 
 
 13?.S2V 
 
 ll,:!;j 
 
 Wm. II. English- 155 
 B. J. Chambers..! 
 
 *T. .•\7Hei"i".7rick>i2i9 
 John A. Lo-an.. 182 
 
 Wiiliaiii l>aiiiel.. 
 
 A. M WV.st I.. .. 
 
 t Three States did not vgte, vu.: Mississippi. Texas, aad Tirgiaia. 
 
c^^ NATIONAL ELECTIONS. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 
 
 The Presidential election will take place on Tuesday, 
 November 6th, 1888. The Constitution prescribes that each 
 State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof 
 may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number 
 of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be 
 entitled in Congress. For the election this year the electors 
 by States will be as follows : 
 
 States. Electoral States. Electoral 
 
 Vote. , Vole. 
 
 Alabama 10 Missouri 16 
 
 Arkansas 7 Nebraska 5 
 
 California 8 Nevada 3 
 
 Colorado 3 New Hampshire 4 
 
 Connecticut 6 New Jersey 9 
 
 Delaware 3 New York 36 
 
 Florida 4 North Carolina II 
 
 Georjiia i2()hio 23 
 
 Illinois 22 (Jregon 3 
 
 Indiana 15 Pennsylvania 30 
 
 Iowa 13 Rhode Island 4 
 
 Kansas •, 9 Siiuth Carolina 9 
 
 Kentucky 13 Tennessee 12 
 
 I>ouisiana 8 Texas I3 
 
 Maine 6 Vermont 4 
 
 Maryland 8 Virginia 12 
 
 Massachusetts 14 West Virginia 6 
 
 Michigan 13 Wisconsin ii 
 
 Minnesota 7J 
 
 Mississippi 9! Total 401 
 
 Necessary to a choice, 201. 
 
 No Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of 
 profit or trust under the United States, shall be an elector. 
 In all the States, the laws thereof direct that the people shall 
 choose the electors. The Constitution declares that the day 
 when electors are chosen shall be the same throughout the 
 United States. The electors shall meet in their respective 
 States on the first Wednesday in December, and vote by ballot 
 for President and Vice-President, one of whom at least shall 
 not be an inhabitant of the same State as themselves. 
 
QUALIFICATIOXS FOR VOTERS. 
 QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS. 
 
 567 
 
 States. 
 
 Requirement 
 
 as t ) 
 Citizenship. 
 
 Residence 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 California . .. 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Connecticut., 
 Delaware 21 
 
 Florida j2i 
 
 Georgia '21 
 
 Illinois |2i 
 
 Indiana I21 
 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 ^Iaine 
 
 Maryland 
 
 ^Lissachusetts. 
 
 Michi.^an 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Mississippi. ... 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada 
 
 N. Hampshire 
 New Jersey... 
 
 New York 
 
 N. Carolina... 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Oregon.. 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 Rhode Island 
 
 S. Carolina 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Texas 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Virginia 
 
 W. Virginia... 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 21 Citizens or declared intention. 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Citizens or declared fntention. 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual County taxpayers 
 
 J United States citizens or 1 
 
 j^ declared intention J 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 
 Free white male citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Actual citizens 
 
 Citizens 
 
 Citizens or declared intention. 
 
 Citizens or declared i4itention. 
 
 2 1 j Actual citizens 
 
 2iJCitizens or declared intention. 
 2i|citizens or declared intention. 
 21 Citizens or declared intention. 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Ciiizens or declared intention. 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual tax- paying citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Citizens or declared intention, 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Actual citizens 
 
 21 Citizens or declared intention 
 
 I yr. 
 I yr 
 lyr 
 
 6 mo 
 I yr. 
 I yr. 
 
 1 yr. 
 
 lyr. 
 
 ji yr. 
 
 !6mo 
 6 mo 
 
 2 yr.- 
 I yr 
 
 3 mo 
 I yr 
 I 
 
 Regis tratioiu 
 
 3 mo No law. 
 6 mo Prohibited, 
 gods Required. 
 Required. 
 
 6 mo 
 I mo 
 
 6 mo 
 
 6 mo 
 gods 
 6ods 
 6ods 
 
 r yr 
 6 mo 
 
 6 mo 
 
 gods 
 
 3 mo 
 4mo 
 6 mo 
 I yr.l6od 
 
 6moj 
 
 6m« 3ods 
 
 5 mo 
 
 I yr, 4 mo 
 I >r. 
 I yr. 
 I yr. 
 6 mo 
 I yr. 
 lyr. 
 lyr. 
 lyr. 
 I yr. 
 lyr. 
 I yr. 
 I yr. 
 lyr. 
 
 Required. 
 Not required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 No law. 
 
 Required. 
 
 No law. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Req'd in cities 
 
 Not required. 
 
 No law. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Req'd in cities 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Req'd in cities 
 
 Req'd in cities 
 
 Required. 
 
 Not required. 
 
 6ods 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 6 mo j Not required. 
 6 mo Prohibited. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Required. 
 
 Prohibited. 
 
 Required. 
 
 6ods 
 
 Note.— In several States women are permitted to vote 
 tioa of directors, eta 
 
 on the school qvwstions, sdeo 
 
;68 
 
 HOMES OF THE PRESTDEXTS. 
 
 PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Presi- 
 dential 
 Term. 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 9 
 lo 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 '3 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 i6 
 
 17 
 i8 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 22 
 
 23 
 24 
 
 25 
 
 Name. 
 
 Qualified. 
 
 Born. 
 
 Died. 
 
 George Washington. April 30, 
 George Washington.. March 4, 
 
 John Adams March 4, 
 
 Thomas Jefferson ...j March 4, 
 
 Thomas Jefferson jMarch 4, 
 
 James Madison j March 4, 
 
 James Madison [March 4, 
 
 James Monroe iMarch 4, 
 
 James Monroe hSIarch 5, 
 
 [ohn Quincy Adams. March 4, 
 
 Vndrew Jackson March 4, 
 
 Andrew Jackson March 4, 
 
 Martin Van Buren... March 4, 
 \Vm. H. Harrison.* March 4, 
 
 [ohn Tyler April 6 
 
 fames K. Polk March 4, 
 
 Zichary Taylor"^ March 5 
 
 Millard Fillmore July 9, 
 
 Franklin Pierce March 4, 
 
 James Buchanan March 4, 
 
 Abraham Lincoln — March 4, 
 Abraham Lincoln *.. March 4, 
 
 Andrew Johnson April 15, 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant . ... 'March 4, 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant 1 March 4, 
 
 Rutherford B. IIayes|March 5, 
 fames A. Garfield'^...! March 4, 
 Chester A. Arthiir. ...|Sept'r 20, 
 Grover Cleveland March 4, 
 
 1735: 
 
 ;7S9 peb. 22, 17 
 
 1797 Oct. 19 
 
 ;^- April 2. 1743' 
 
 ;^^9,March5,i75i| 
 
 ;S^7!^April28,i75s| 
 iS25ljuly II, 1767^ 
 ;^^9|M.r. 15, 1767' 
 1837 1 Dec. 5, 1782 
 iSiijFeb. 9,. 1773 
 1841 Mar. 29,1790; 
 
 1845 
 1849 
 1S50 
 1853 
 1857 
 1861 
 1S65 
 1S65 
 1S69 
 1S73 
 1S77 
 
 Nov. 2, 1795 
 Nov. 24, 1784 
 Jan. 7, 1800 
 Nov. 23, 1804 
 April 22, 1 79 1 
 
 Dec. 14, 
 July 4, 
 July 4, 
 fune 28, 
 
 J»iy 4, 
 
 Feb. 2j, 
 June 8, 
 
 July 24, 
 April 4, 
 Jan. 17, 
 June 15, 
 July 9> 
 
 Oct. 8 
 June I, 
 
 April 15, 
 July 30. 
 July 23, 
 
 1799 
 1S26 
 1826 
 
 1S36 
 
 i8-i8 
 
 145 
 
 1862 
 1841 
 1S62 
 1849 
 1850 
 
 1S69 
 1S6S 
 
 1S65 
 
 1S75 
 [8S5 
 
 Total number of incumbents, 21. 
 
 Feb. 12, 1809 
 
 Dec. 29, iSoS 
 
 April 27, 1S22 
 
 . . Oct. 4, 1822! 
 , 1881 |Nov. 19, i83iLSept. 19, 1881 
 1881 |nct. 5, 18.30I 
 1S85 Mar. 1 8, 1837 
 
 * Died in o 
 
 )ffice. 
 
 HOMES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Native State. 
 
 Whence Elected. 
 
 I Massachusetts. 
 Tenn- s ee. 
 New Ycrk. 
 Ohio. 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 Washington _ Virginia | Virginia. 
 
 Air.ms Massnehuselts Massachusetts. 
 
 Jsffjrson j Virginia 1 Virginia. 
 
 Iiladison ' | •' 
 
 Monroe ^ ] " 
 
 Aiims, J. Quincy | Massachusetts.. 
 
 Jickson „ !N<'rth Carolina. 
 
 Van Buren New York 
 
 Harrison (Virginia 
 
 Tyler ' 
 
 Polk I North Carolina iT.nnessee. 
 
 Taylor Virgini i Loui-i -na. 
 
 Fillmore iNew York New York. 
 
 Pi-rce !. New Hampshire... New ll.mpshire. 
 
 Buchanan Pennsylvania P nr.sylvania. 
 
 Lincoln Kenturky Illinois. 
 
 Johnson N'^rth Carolina Tennessee. 
 
 Grant |Ohio Illinois. 
 
 Hives ^ I " „..,Ohio. 
 
 Garfield I " | " 
 
 Arthur New York New York. 
 
 jCleveland ...„ New Jersey New York. 
 
riCE PRESIDENTS, ^59 
 
 VICE-FRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Vice- 
 Fres. 
 Term. 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 10 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 20 
 
 21 
 22 
 
 23 
 24 
 
 Name. 
 
 John Adams 
 
 John Adams 
 
 Thomas Jefferson 
 
 Aaron Burr 
 
 George CHnton . 
 
 George Clinton* 
 
 Willi im II. Crawfordf, 
 
 Elbridge Gerry* 
 
 John Gaillard* 
 
 Uaniell). Tompkins.... 
 Daniel D. Tompkins... 
 
 John C. Calhoun 
 
 John C Calhount 
 
 Hugh L. Whitef 
 
 Martin V.inBuren 
 
 Richard M. Johnson... 
 
 John Tyler?.. 
 
 Simuel L. Southardf .. 
 Willie P. Mangumf..., 
 
 George M. Dallas , 
 
 Millard Fillmore? 
 
 William R. Kingf 
 
 William R. King* 
 
 David R. Atchisonf ... 
 
 Jesse D. Bright t 
 
 John C. Breckenridge. 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin 
 
 Andrew Johnson § 
 
 Lafayette S. Fosterf ... 
 Benjamin F. Wadef .. 
 
 Schuyler Colfax 
 
 Henry Wilson* 
 
 Thomas W. Ferry f.... 
 William A. Wheeler... 
 ChsiSter A. Arthur^.... 
 
 David Davisf 
 
 George F. Edmundsf., 
 Thos. A. Hendricks*.. 
 John Shermanf 
 
 Qualified. 
 
 June 3. 1 7891 
 
 Dec. 2,1793/ 
 
 March 4, 1797 
 
 March 4, 1801 
 
 March 4, 1805 \ 
 
 March 4, 1809 j 
 
 April 10, 1S12 
 
 March 4, 1813 
 
 Nov. 25, 1S14 
 
 March 4, 18 17 
 
 March 5, 1821 
 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 March 4, 1829 
 
 Dec. 28, 1832 
 
 March 4, 1833 
 
 March 4, 1837 
 
 March 4, 1 84 1 
 
 April 6, 1841 
 
 May 31, 1842 
 
 March 4, 1845 
 
 March 5 1S49 
 
 July II, 1850 
 
 March 4, 1853 
 
 April 18, 1853 
 
 Dec. 5, 1854 
 
 March 4, 1857 
 
 March 4, 1861 
 
 March 4, 1 865 
 
 April 15, 1S65 
 
 March 2, 1867 
 
 March 4, 1869 
 
 March 4, 1873 
 
 Nov. 22, 1875 
 
 March 5, 1877 
 
 March 4, 1881 
 
 Oct. 13, 1881 
 
 March 3, 1883 
 
 March 4, i8cS5 
 
 Dec. 7, 1885 
 
 Born. 
 
 1735 
 
 1743 
 1756 
 
 1739 
 1772 
 1744 
 
 1744 
 
 1773 
 1782 
 1780 
 1790 
 
 1787 
 1792 
 1792 
 1800 
 
 1786 
 
 1807 
 1812 
 182I 
 1809 
 1808 
 1806 
 1800 
 1823 
 1812 
 1827 
 1819 
 1830 
 1815 
 1828 
 1819 
 1823 
 
 Died. 
 
 1S26 
 
 1826 
 1836 
 
 1812 
 
 1834 
 1814 
 
 1826 
 
 1825 
 
 1850 
 
 1840 
 1862 
 1850 
 1862 
 1842 
 1861 
 1864 
 1869 
 
 1853 
 1886 
 1875 
 1875 
 
 1875 
 1880 
 1878 
 1885 
 1875 
 
 1887 
 1886 
 1886 
 
 1 88s 
 
 * Died in office, t Acting Vice-Presiden 
 X Resigned the Vice-Presidency, g Became 
 
 t and President ^ro 
 President. 
 
 tent, of the Senate. 
 
 CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 George Washington: April 30, 1789— March 4, 1797 (two terms). 
 
 Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson, appointed Sept. 26, 1789 
 
 Edmund Randolph, 
 Timothy Pickering, 
 
 Jan. 2, 1794 
 Dec. 10, 179J 
 
570 
 
 CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Secretary of Treasury 
 
 .* Alexander Hamilton, 
 
 appointed Sept. ir, 
 
 1789 
 
 « « 
 
 OHver Wolcott, 
 
 *< 
 
 Feb. 2, 
 
 179S 
 
 War: 
 
 Henry Knox, 
 
 « 
 
 Sept. 12, 
 
 ,1789 
 
 « « 
 
 Timothy Pickering, 
 
 « 
 
 Jan. 2, 
 
 1795 
 
 « <« 
 
 James JNIc Henry, 
 
 «( 
 
 Jan. 27, 
 
 1796 
 
 Postmazter- General: 
 
 Samuel Osgood, 
 
 « 
 
 Sept. 26, 
 
 1 75*9 
 
 <( (( 
 
 Timothy Pickering, 
 
 « 
 
 Aug. 12, 
 
 1791 
 
 " " 
 
 Joseph Habersham, 
 
 €t 
 
 Feb. 25, 
 
 1795 
 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 Edmund Randolph, 
 
 tt 
 
 Sept. 26, 
 
 1789 
 
 « <( 
 
 William Bradford, 
 
 « 
 
 Jan. 27, 
 
 1794 
 
 « « 
 
 Charles Lee, 
 
 <« 
 
 Dec. 10, 
 
 1795 
 
 John Adams: March 
 
 4, 1797— March 4, 1801 
 
 : (one term 
 
 ■). 
 
 
 Secretary of State: 
 
 Timothy Pickering, 
 
 appointed 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1797 
 
 a (( 
 
 John Marshall, 
 
 (( 
 
 May 13, 
 
 iSoo 
 
 " Treasury. 
 
 • Oliver Wolcott, 
 
 (< 
 
 March 4, 
 
 J 797 
 
 it « 
 
 Samuel Dexter, 
 
 (( 
 
 Jan. I, 
 
 iSoi 
 
 ^^n- 
 
 James Mc Henry, 
 
 « 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1797 
 
 <• <( 
 
 Samuel Dexter, 
 
 t( 
 
 May 13, 
 
 1800 
 
 « « 
 
 Rodger (Iriswold, 
 
 it 
 
 Feb. 3, 
 
 1801 
 
 *« Navy: 
 
 Benjamin Stoddart, 
 
 « 
 
 May 21, 
 
 1798 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 
 Joseph Habersham, 
 
 <« 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1797 
 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 Charles Lee, 
 
 4( 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1797 
 
 H (( 
 
 Theophilus Parsons, 
 
 <( 
 
 Feb. 20, 
 
 1 801 
 
 Thomas Jefferson: : 
 
 March 4, i So i— March . 
 
 ^, 1809 (two terms). 
 
 
 Secreta?y of State : 
 
 James Madison, 
 
 appointed ^Llrch 5, 
 
 1801 
 
 " Treasury: 
 
 ■ Albert Gallatin, 
 
 <( 
 
 May 14, 
 
 iSoi 
 
 War: 
 
 Henry Dearborn, 
 
 « 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1 801 
 
 " Navy: 
 
 Benjamin Stoddert, 
 
 <t 
 
 March 4, 
 
 i8oi 
 
 <« <( 
 
 Robert Smith, 
 
 tt 
 
 July 15. 
 
 iSoi 
 
 <i « 
 
 J. Crowninshield, 
 
 " 
 
 March 3, 
 
 1S05 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 
 Joseph Habersham, 
 
 « 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1801 
 
 " u 
 
 Gideon Granger, 
 
 (( 
 
 Nov. 28, 
 
 i8oi 
 
 Attor7iey- General: 
 
 Levi Lincoln, 
 
 « 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1801 
 
 (( <( 
 
 Robert Smith, 
 
 " 
 
 March 3, 
 
 1805 
 
 <( « 
 
 John Breckinridge, 
 
 (( 
 
 Aug. 7, 
 
 1805 
 
 <« « 
 
 Ccesar A. Rodney, 
 
 « 
 
 Jan. 28. 
 
 1807 
 
 James Madison: March 4, 1809— March 4, 181 7 (two terms). 
 
 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 Robert Smith, 
 
 appointed 
 
 March 6, 
 
 1809 
 
 « <( 
 
 James Munroe, 
 
 « 
 
 April 2, 
 
 1811 
 
 " Treasury 
 
 .• Albert Gallatin, 
 
 tt 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1809 
 
 tt « 
 
 George W. Campbell, 
 
 ft 
 
 Feb. 9, 
 
 1814 
 
 «< i< 
 
 Alexander J. Dallas, 
 
 tt 
 
 Oct. 6, 
 
 1814 
 
 <( (( 
 
 William H. Crawford, 
 
 ft 
 
 Oct. 22, 
 
 1816 
 
 War: 
 
 William Eustis, 
 
 tt 
 
 March 7, 
 
 1809 
 
 « (< 
 
 John Armstrong, 
 
 tt 
 
 Jan. 13, 
 
 1813 
 
 «( « 
 
 James Monroe, 
 
 tt 
 
 Sept. 27, 
 
 1814 
 
 «« « 
 
 William IL Crawford, 
 
 tt 
 
 Aug. I, 
 
 1815 
 
 «* iVaz/^/.- 
 
 Paul Hamilton, 
 
 ft 
 
 March 7, 
 
 1809 
 
 M (( 
 
 William Jones, 
 
 tt 
 
 Jan. 12, 
 Dec. 19, 
 
 1813 
 
 « M 
 
 B. W. Crowninshield, 
 
 *t 
 
 1814 
 
CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS, 
 
 571 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 Gideon Granc^er, 
 Return J. Meiji^s, Jr., 
 Cces;ir A, Rodney, 
 William Pinkney, 
 Richard Rush, 
 
 appoi 
 
 ited 
 
 March 4, iSo^ 
 
 March 17, 1S14 
 
 March 4, )Sc;9 
 
 Dec. II, 181 1 
 
 1 eb. 10, 1S14 
 
 James I^Ionroe: March 4, 1S17— March4, 1825 (two terms). 
 
 Secretary of S'ate. 
 
 " Treasury 
 
 « War : 
 
 " Navy : 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 Aitortiey- General: 
 
 John Quincy Adams, 
 William H. Crawford, 
 George Graham, 
 John C. Calhoun, 
 B. W, Crowninshield, 
 Smith Thompson, 
 Samuel L. Southard, 
 Return J. Meigs, \r., 
 John McLean, 
 Richird Rush, 
 William Wirt, 
 
 appointed March 5, 1817 
 
 March 5, 1817 
 
 ad interim. 
 
 Oct. 8, 1817 
 
 March 4, 181 7 
 
 Nov. 9^1818 
 
 Sept. 16, 1823 
 
 March 4, 1817 
 
 June 26, 1823 
 
 March 4, 181 7 
 
 Nov. 13, 1817 
 
 John Quincy Adams: March 4, 1S25 — March 4, 1829 (one term). 
 Secretary of State : Henry Clay, appointed March 7, 1825 
 
 " March 7, 1825 
 
 7>r^7J«rj/,- Richard Rush, 
 '* War: James Barbour, 
 
 « « Peter B. Porter, 
 
 " Navy : Samuel L. Southard, 
 
 Postmaster- General: John McLean, 
 Attorney- General : William Wirt, 
 
 March 7, 1825 
 May 26, 1828 
 March 4, 1825 
 March 4, 1825 
 March 4, 1825 
 
 Andrew Jackson 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 " War: 
 
 " Navy : 
 
 « « 
 
 (( « 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 (< « 
 
 Atto7-ney- General: 
 
 Martin Van Buren 
 iiecretary of State : 
 " Treasury 
 
 «• War. 
 
 March 4, 1829 — March 4, 
 Martin Van Buren, 
 Edward Livingston, 
 " Louis McLane, 
 
 " John Forsyth, 
 
 Treasury : Samuel D. Ingham, 
 ** Louis McLane, 
 
 " William J. Duane, 
 
 " Roger B. Taney, 
 
 Levi Woodbury, 
 John H. Eaton, 
 Lewis Cass, 
 John Branch, 
 Levi Woodbur}', 
 Mahlon Dickerson, 
 William T. Barry, 
 Amos Kendall, 
 John M. Berrien, 
 Roger B. Taney, 
 Benjamin F. Butler, 
 
 March 4, 1837 — March 
 John Forsyth, 
 Levi Woodbury, 
 Joel R. Poinsett, 
 
 1837 (two terms), 
 appointed March 6, 
 " May 24, 
 
 1829 
 1831 
 
 1833 
 1834 
 1S29 
 
 May 29, 
 " June 27, 
 
 " March 6, 
 
 •* Aug. 2, 1 83 1 
 
 ** May 29, 1S33 
 
 Sept. 23, 1833 
 
 . " June 27, 1834 
 
 •' March 9, 1829 
 
 ** Aug. I, 1831 
 
 <* March 9, 1829 
 
 May 23, 1831 
 
 June 30, 1834 
 " March 9. 1 829 
 
 " May I, 1835 
 
 " March 9, 1829 
 
 " July 20, 1831 
 
 Nov. 15, 1833 
 
 4, 1 84 1 (one term), 
 appointed March 4, 1 837 
 " March 4, 1837 
 
 *' March 7, 1837 
 
57« 
 
 CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Secretary of Navy: 
 
 Mahlon Dickerson, 
 
 appointed March 4, 
 
 1S37 
 
 " " 
 
 James K. Paulding, 
 
 " 
 
 June 25, 
 
 1838 
 
 postmaster- General: 
 
 Amos Kendal, 
 
 <« 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1837 
 
 H (( 
 
 ■ ohn M. Niles, 
 
 i( 
 
 May 25, 
 
 1840 
 
 Attorney- General: ^ 
 
 benjamin F. Butler, 
 
 (( 
 
 March 4, 
 
 1837 
 
 <4 (< 
 
 PVlix Grundy, 
 
 « 
 
 July 5. 
 
 1838 
 
 « « 
 
 Henry D. Gilpin, 
 
 « 
 
 Jan. II, 
 
 1840 
 
 William H. Harrison: March 4, 1841 — April 6, 1841 (partial term). 
 
 Secretary of State: 
 
 Daniel Webster, 
 
 appointed March 5, 
 
 1841 
 
 '• Treasury 
 
 .• '1 homas Ewing, 
 
 « 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1841 
 
 War: 
 
 John Bell, 
 
 « 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1841 
 
 '• i\'"«Z/J.- 
 
 George E. Badger, 
 
 « 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1841 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 
 Francis Granger, 
 
 « 
 
 March 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 John J. Crittenden, 
 
 i< 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1 841 
 
 John Tyler : April 6 
 
 i, 1 841— March 4, 1845 (partial term). 
 
 
 5><rr^/««rvf?/^A//<f/ 
 
 Dafiiel Webster, 
 
 appoir 
 
 ited April 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 « « 
 
 Hugh S. Legare, 
 
 <( 
 
 May 9, 
 
 1843 
 
 « <( 
 
 Abel P. Upshur, 
 
 « 
 
 July 24, 
 
 1843 
 
 « « 
 
 John C. Calhoun, 
 
 « 
 
 March 6, 
 
 1844 
 
 " Treasury 
 
 .• Thomas Ewing, 
 
 <( 
 
 April 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 u u 
 
 Walter Forward, 
 
 « 
 
 Sept. 13, 
 
 1 841 
 
 (« « 
 
 John C. Spencer, 
 
 « 
 
 March 3, 
 
 1843 
 
 « « 
 
 George M. Bibb, 
 
 « 
 
 June 15, 
 
 1844 
 
 " T'^rtr.- 
 
 John Bell, 
 
 « 
 
 April 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 <« i< 
 
 John C. Spencer, 
 
 « 
 
 Oct. 12, 
 
 1841 
 
 <« <« 
 
 James M. Porter, 
 
 « 
 
 March 8, 
 
 1843 
 
 <« « 
 
 William Wilkins, 
 
 « 
 
 June 15, 
 
 1844 
 
 « TV^rz/)// 
 
 George Fl Badger, 
 
 *• 
 
 April 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 «i << 
 
 Abel P. Upshur, 
 
 " 
 
 Sept. 13, 
 
 1841 
 
 <i . <• 
 
 David Henshaw, 
 
 <( 
 
 July 24, 
 
 1843 
 
 <i « 
 
 Thomas W. Gilmer, 
 
 « 
 
 Feb. 15, 
 
 1844 
 
 (< K 
 
 John Y. Mason, 
 
 « 
 
 March 14, 
 
 1844 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 
 Francis Granger, 
 
 « 
 
 April 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 .4 .< 
 
 Charies A. Wickliffe^ 
 
 « 
 > 
 
 Sept. 13, 
 
 1841 
 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 John J. Crittenden, 
 
 « 
 
 April 6, 
 
 1841 
 
 « « 
 
 Hugh S. Legare, 
 
 « 
 
 Sept. 13, 
 
 1841 
 
 «< <( 
 
 John Nelson, 
 
 *' 
 
 July I, 
 
 1843 
 
 James K. Polk: March 4, 1845— March 5. i 
 
 849 (one 
 
 term). 
 
 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 James Buchanan, 
 
 appointed March 6, 
 
 1845 
 
 " Treasury . 
 
 .• Robert J. Walker, 
 
 " 
 
 March 6, 
 
 1845 
 
 War: 
 
 William L, Marcy, 
 
 << 
 
 March 6, 
 
 1845 
 
 *• Navy: 
 
 George Bancroft, 
 
 << 
 
 March 10, 
 
 1845 
 
 tt « 
 
 John Y. Mason, 
 
 «« 
 
 Sept. 9, 
 
 1846 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 
 Cave Johnson, 
 
 (( 
 
 March 6. 
 
 1845 
 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 John Y. Mason, 
 
 « 
 
 March 6, 
 
 1845 
 
 « « 
 
 Nathan Clifford, 
 
 « 
 
 Oct. 17, 
 
 1846 
 
 M «« 
 
 Isaac Toucey, 
 
 <• 
 
 June 21, 
 
 1848 
 
CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 573 
 
 Zachary Taylor : March 5, 1849 — J^^y 9» ^^S^ (partial term). 
 Sici-etary of Stale : John M. Clayton, appointed March 7, 1849 
 
 Treasury 
 
 « rr.zr .• 
 
 ** Interior : 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 Attorney- General : 
 
 William M. Meredith, 
 Gev-'-ge W. Crawford, 
 William B. Preston, 
 Thomas Ewing, 
 Jacob Collamer, 
 Reverdy Johnson, 
 
 March 8, 1849 
 March 8, 1849 
 March 8, 1849 
 March 8, 1849 
 March 8, 1849 
 March 8, 1849 
 
 Millard Fillmore; July 9, 1850 — March 4, 
 
 Sea-etary of State : 
 <« u 
 
 ** "treasury 
 
 ** IVar : 
 
 ** Navy : 
 
 " Interior : 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 (< <( 
 
 Attorney- General : 
 
 Daniel Webster, 
 Edward Everett, 
 Thomas Corwin, 
 Charges M. Conrad, 
 W^illiam A. Graham, 
 John P. Kennedy, 
 Alex. H. H. Stuart, 
 Nathan K. Hall, 
 Samuel D. Hubbard, 
 John J, Crittenden, 
 
 1853 (partial term). 
 
 fppointed July 22, 1850 
 
 « Nov. 6, 1852 
 
 *' July 23, 1850 
 
 Aug. 15, 1850 
 
 " July 22, 1850 
 
 « July 22, 1852 
 
 " Sept. 12, 1850 
 
 ^' July 23, 1850 
 
 " Aug. 31, 1852 
 
 " July 22, 1850 
 
 Franklin Pierce: March 4, 1853 — March 4, 18^7 (one term). 
 
 Secretary of Slate : W^illiam L. Marcy, 
 
 " Treasury : James Guthrie, 
 
 « War: 
 
 ** A'avy: 
 
 " Interior: 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 Jefferson Davis, 
 James C. Dobbin, 
 Robert McClelland, 
 James Campbell, 
 Caleb Gushing, 
 
 appointed March 7, 
 " March 7, 
 
 ** March 5, 
 " March 7, 
 " March 7, 
 " March 5, 
 
 «853 
 1S53 
 
 1853 
 1853 
 1853 
 1853 
 
 March 7, 1853 
 
 James Buchanan: March 4, 1857 — March 4, 
 
 ^cretary of State. 
 
 « War: 
 
 ** Navy: 
 
 ** Interior 
 
 postmaster- General: 
 
 Attorney- General: 
 
 Lewis Cass, 
 Jeremiah S. Black, 
 Treasury: Howell Cobb, 
 
 Philip F. Thomas, 
 " John A. Dix, 
 
 John B. Floyd, 
 Joseph Holt, 
 Isaac Toucey, 
 Jacob Thompson, 
 Aaron V. Brown, 
 Joseph Holt, 
 Horatio King, 
 Jeremiah S. Black, 
 Edwin M. Stanton, 
 
 1861 (one term). 
 
 appointed March 6, 
 
 " Dec. 17, 
 
 " March 6, 
 
 " Dec. 12, 
 
 ♦' Jan. 1 1, 
 
 « March 6, 
 
 « Jan. 18, 
 
 « March 6, 
 
 ** March 6, 
 
 ^ March 6, 
 
 " March 14, 
 
 ** Feb. 12, 
 
 « March 6, 
 
 " Dec. 20, 
 
 1857 
 1S60 
 
 1863 
 1S61 
 
 1857 
 1861 
 
 1857 
 
 1857 
 1857 
 1859 
 i86r 
 1857 
 i860 
 
 Abraham Lincoln: March 4, 1861 — April 15, 1865 (one term and a 
 part^. 
 
 Se<retarv of State : William W. Seward, appointed March 5, 1861 
 
 *« ' treasury: Salmon P. Chase, " March 7, i86i 
 
574 
 
 CABIXETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Secretary 
 
 ' of Treasury 
 
 .• William P. Fessenden, 
 
 appointed July i 
 
 , 1864 
 
 « 
 
 (( 
 
 Hugh McCulloch, 
 
 << 
 
 March 7, 
 
 . 1865 
 
 « 
 
 ;r.?r/ 
 
 Simon Cameron, 
 
 " 
 
 March 5, 
 
 , 1861 
 
 « 
 
 " 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton, 
 
 << 
 
 Jan. 15, 
 
 , 1S62 
 
 t( 
 
 Navy : 
 
 Gideon Welles, 
 
 «< 
 
 March 5, 
 
 , 1S61 
 
 «< 
 
 Interior: 
 
 • Caleb B. Smith, 
 
 «< 
 
 March 5, 
 
 , 1861 
 
 *< 
 
 <( 
 
 John P. Usher, 
 
 " 
 
 Jan. 8. 
 
 . 1S63 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 
 Montgomery Blair, 
 
 *( 
 
 March 5, 
 
 , i86i 
 
 (t 
 
 << 
 
 William Dennison, 
 
 t< 
 
 Sept. 24, 
 
 . 1864 
 
 Attorney- 
 
 General : 
 
 Edward Bates, 
 
 »< 
 
 March 5^ 
 
 ,1861 
 
 (t 
 
 (< 
 
 Titian J. Coffey, ad int. 
 
 << 
 
 June 22, 
 
 1863 
 
 «( 
 
 *• 
 
 James Spec^ 
 
 «( 
 
 Dec. 2, 
 
 1864 
 
 Andrew 
 
 Johnson: April 15, 1865 — March 4, 
 
 1869 (partial term). 
 
 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 William \\. Seward, 
 
 appoini 
 
 ted April 15, 
 
 1865 
 
 « 
 
 (( 
 
 Elihu B. Washburne, 
 
 (( 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1869 
 
 *« 
 
 Treasury 
 
 .• Hugh McCulloch, 
 
 " 
 
 April 15, 
 
 1865 
 
 (( 
 
 War: 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton, 
 
 " 
 
 April 15, 
 
 1865 
 
 <« 
 
 it 
 
 Ulysses S. (J rant, ad int., " 
 
 Aug. 12, 
 
 )868 
 
 M 
 
 «« 
 
 Lorenzo Thomas, 
 
 »« 
 
 Feb. 21, 
 
 1868 
 
 M 
 
 « 
 
 John M. Schofield, 
 
 (C 
 
 May 28, 
 
 1868 
 
 M 
 
 Navy : 
 
 Gideon Welles, 
 
 »' 
 
 April 15, 
 
 1865 
 
 ♦« 
 
 Interior : 
 
 John P. Usher, 
 
 •< 
 
 April 15, 
 
 1S65 
 
 «< 
 
 " 
 
 James Harlan, 
 
 « 
 
 May 15 
 
 1865 
 
 « 
 
 «( 
 
 Orville H. Browning, 
 
 *< 
 
 July 27, 
 
 1866 
 
 Postmaster- General: 
 
 William Dennison, 
 
 *< 
 
 April 15, 
 
 1865 
 
 << 
 
 << 
 
 Alexander W. Randall, 
 
 " 
 
 July 25. 
 
 1866 
 
 <4//£»r«(?y- 
 
 General: 
 
 lames Speed, 
 
 '« 
 
 Aprd 15, 
 
 1865 
 
 (( 
 
 '♦ 
 
 rlenry Stanbery, 
 
 *< 
 
 luiy 23, 
 
 1866 
 
 << 
 
 *< 
 
 William M. Evarts, 
 
 *• 
 
 July 15. 
 
 1868 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant: March 4, 1869— March 5, 
 
 1877 (two terms). 
 
 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 Hamilton Fish, appointed March ii, 
 
 1869 
 
 " 
 
 Treasury : 
 
 • George S. Boutwell, 
 
 « 
 
 March II, 
 
 1869 
 
 *( 
 
 " 
 
 William A. Richardson, 
 
 «< 
 
 March 17, 
 
 ^^11 
 
 «( 
 
 (( 
 
 Benjamin H. Bristow, 
 
 " 
 
 June 4, 
 
 I. 74 
 
 M 
 
 «< 
 
 Lot M. Morrill, 
 
 " 
 
 Jaiy 7. 
 
 1876 
 
 «( 
 
 fF^r.' 
 
 John A. Rawlins, 
 
 «♦ 
 
 March 11, 
 
 1869 
 
 •< 
 
 " 
 
 William W. Belknap, 
 
 *< 
 
 Oct. 25, 
 
 1869 
 
 *< 
 
 »< 
 
 Alphonso Taft, 
 
 ♦< 
 
 March 8, 
 
 1876 
 
 H 
 
 << 
 
 James D. Cameron, 
 
 *• 
 
 May 22, 
 
 1S76 
 
 «« 
 
 Navy : 
 
 Adolph E. Borie, 
 
 *< 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1869 
 
 ♦< 
 
 " 
 
 George M. Robeson, 
 
 «< 
 
 June 25, 
 
 1S69 
 
 M 
 
 Interior : 
 
 Jacob D. Cox, 
 
 *( 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1869 
 
 M 
 
 <( 
 
 Columbus Delano, 
 
 " 
 
 Nov. I, 
 
 1870 
 
 *< 
 
 « 
 
 Zachariah Chandler, 
 
 (« 
 
 Oct. 19, 
 
 1875 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 
 John A. J. Creswell, 
 
 <i 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1869 
 
 « 
 
 <( 
 
 Marshall Jewell, 
 
 " 
 
 Aug. 24, 
 
 1874 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 James N. Tyner 
 
 *< 
 
 July 12, 
 
 1876 
 
 iittorney- ( 
 
 General : 
 
 E. Rockwood Hoar, 
 
 n 
 
 March 5, 
 
 1869 
 
 « 
 
 « 
 
 Amos T Akerman, 
 
 « 
 
 June 23, 
 
 1870 
 
 (« 
 
 <4 
 
 George H. Williams, 
 
 " 
 
 Dec. 14, 
 
 1871 
 
 M 
 
 C( 
 
 Edwards Pierrepont, 
 
 n 
 
 April 26, 
 
 1875 
 
 M 
 
 •• 
 
 Alphonso Taft, 
 
 «( 
 
 May 29, 
 
 1876 
 
575 
 
 RUTHERFORD B. Hayes : March 5, i877-M.a-cli 4, iSSi (one term). 
 
 Secretary of State ; 
 
 «' Treasury : 
 
 •' Pl^ar : 
 
 »< A^avy : 
 
 tt '< 
 
 " Interior : 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 
 Attorney- Getierai : 
 James A. Garfield : 
 
 Secretary of State : 
 
 •* Treasury. 
 
 War: 
 " Navy : 
 
 " Interior : 
 
 Postmaster- General : 
 Attorney- General : 
 
 Chester A. Arthur, 
 Secretary -^f State : 
 •< Treasury 
 
 " War: 
 
 «« Navy : 
 
 " Interior , 
 
 Poi tmaster- General : 
 
 Attorney- General . 
 
 William M. Evarls, 
 John Sherman, 
 George W. McCrary, 
 Alexander Ramsey, 
 Richard W. Thompson 
 Nathan Goff, Jr., 
 Carl Schurz, 
 David McK. Key, 
 Horace Maynard, 
 Charles Dcvens, 
 
 appointed March 12, 
 March 8, 
 
 1S77 
 1877 
 187/ 
 
 March 12, 
 
 Dec. 10, 1879 
 March 12, 1877 
 
 Jan. 6, 
 March 12, 
 March 12, 1877 
 
 June 2, i88o 
 March 12, 1877 
 
 1881 
 1877 
 
 March 4, 1 88 1— September 19, 1881 (partial term). 
 
 James G. Blaine, appointed March 5, 1 88 1 
 
 • William Windom, " March 5, 1 881 
 
 Robert T. Lincoln, 
 William H. Hunt, 
 Samuel j. Kirkwood, 
 Thomas L. James, 
 Wayne MacVeagh, 
 
 March 5, 1881 
 March 5, 1 88 1 
 March 5, 1881 
 March 5, 1 88 1 
 March 5, 1S81 
 
 September 20. 18S1 - March 4, 1885 (partial term). 
 F. T. Frelinghu>sen, appointed Dec. 12. 1881 
 
 Charles J, Folger, 
 Walter Q. Gresham, 
 Hugh McCulloch, 
 Robert T. Lincoln, 
 William E. Chandler, 
 Henry M. Telhr, 
 Timothy O Howe, 
 Walter Q Gresham, 
 Frank Hatton, 
 Beijamin H. Brewster, 
 
 Oct. 27, 1 88 1 
 Sept, 24, 1884 
 
 Oct. 28, 18x4 
 Sept, 20, 1 88 1 
 April I, 1882 
 April 6, 1882 
 
 Dec. 20. 1881 
 April 3, 1883 
 
 Oct. 14, 1884 
 
 Dtc. 19, 1881 
 
 Grovfr Cleveland, March 4, 1SS5— 
 Secretary of State : Thomas F. Bayard 
 
 Postmaster- General 
 Attorney- General : 
 
 Treasury : Daniel Manning, 
 
 Charles S, Fairchild, 
 War : William C. Endicolt, 
 
 Navy: William C. Whitney, 
 Interior : Lucius Q. C. Lamar, 
 " William F. Vilas, 
 
 William F. Vilas, 
 Don M. Dickinson, 
 Augustus H, GarLnd, 
 
 appointed 
 
 March 
 March 
 April 
 March 
 March 
 March 
 
 Jan. 
 March 
 
 Jan. 
 March 
 
 6, 1885 
 6, 1885 
 I, 1887 
 6, 1885 
 6, 1885 
 6, icS85 
 
 16, 1888 
 6, 1885 
 
 16, 1888 
 6, 1S85 
 
576 
 
 CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 
 
 Entered the Army. 
 
 General Philip II. Sheridan 1853 
 
 (John M. Schofield i8s3 
 
 \ Oliver O. Howard 1854 
 
 Alfred H.Terry 1865 
 
 lohn Gibbon 1847 
 
 GeorjTe Crook 1852 
 
 Nelson A. Miles 1866 
 
 (Limited by law to six) 1 David S. Stanley 1852 
 
 Thomas H. Ruger 1^54 
 
 [ Orlando A. Willcox 1847 
 
 Major-Gen erals — 
 
 (Limited by law to three). 
 
 Brigad ier Generals- 
 
 CIIIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. 
 
 Name. 
 
 David D. Porter 
 
 Stephen C. Rowan. .. 
 
 John Lt-e Davis 
 
 James E. jouett 
 
 Ralph Chandler 
 
 Lewis A. Kimberly... 
 
 Bancroft G herardi 
 
 Daniel L. Braine 
 
 George E Belknap... 
 David B. Harmony... 
 
 A. E. K. Benham 
 
 John Irwin 
 
 James A. Greer 
 
 Anron W. Weaver..., 
 William P. McCann., 
 
 James H. Gillis 
 
 William E. Fitzhugh. 
 George Brown... 
 
 Whence 
 
 Ap- 
 poii.ted. 
 
 Original 
 
 Entry 
 
 into 
 
 Service. 
 
 Penn 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana. . 
 
 Ky 
 
 N.Y 
 
 Illinois.... 
 
 Mass 
 
 Texas 
 
 N. H 
 
 Penn 
 
 N. Y 
 
 Penn 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Ky 
 
 Penn 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana .. 
 
 829 
 
 826 
 841 
 841 
 84=; 
 846 
 S46 
 846 
 847 
 
 847 
 847 
 
 847 
 848 
 848 
 848 
 848 
 848 
 849 
 
 Rank. 
 
 Admiral. 
 Vice-Admiral. 
 
 Rear-Admirals, 
 *" active list (6). 
 
 Commodores, 
 active list (10) 
 
 COMMANDERS OF THE U. S. ARMY— 1775-1884. 
 
 Major-Gencral George Wa<;hington„ IM"^ '^5» *775i ^^ December 23, 1783. 
 
 Major-General Henry Knox December 23, 1783, to June 20, 1784. 
 
 Li-Utenani-Colonel Josiah Harmer, gener- 
 al-! n chief by brevet September, 17S8 t> March, 1791. 
 
 Major-General Arthur St. Clair IVIarch 4, 1791, to March, 1792. 
 
 ^f .ijor-General Anth ny Wayne April 11, 1792, t ) December 15, 1796. 
 
 Major-General James Wilkinson December 15, J7,<6, to July 1798. 
 
 Li eutenant-Gener.d George Washington. ..July 3, 179B, to his death, December 14, 1795. 
 
 M »j )r-(»eneral James Wilkinson June, 1800, to Jnnuary. i8t2. 
 
 M.ijor-General Henry Dearborn January 27, iSia, to June, 1815. 
 
 Af ijor-General Jacob Brown June, 1815. to February 2t, 1828 
 
 M xjor-General Alexander Macomb Slay 24, 1828, to June, 1841. 
 
 M.ijor-General WiiifieldScott{brevet Lieu- 
 
 tenant-General June, 1841, to November i. 1861. 
 
 Maj< >r-General George l^McCIellan "November 1. 1861, to March 11, 1862. 
 
 ^L^jor-General Henry W. Halleck July ri, 1862, t > March 12, 1864. 
 
 Lieutenant Gcner-tl Ulysses S. Grant Al irrh 12 1864. tj July 23, i.s66, and as Gen- 
 eral t ) March 4, 1069. 
 
 General William T. Sherman March 4. 1869, to November i, 1S83. 
 
 Lieutenant-General Philip H. Sheridan ....Since N:>vember i. 13S3. 
 
SPEAKERS. 
 
 S77 
 
 SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.* 
 
 Name. 
 
 State. 
 
 Con- 
 gress 
 
 F. A. Muhlenberg [ Penrsylvania... 
 
 Jonathan Trumbull -Connecticut 
 
 F. A. Muh'enbcrg i'ennsylvania ... 
 
 Jonathan Dayton J New Jersey 
 
 Theodore Sedgwick 
 Nathaniel Macon. ^... 
 
 Joseph B. Varnum.. 
 Henry Clay 
 
 Lnngdon Cheves. 
 Henry Clay 
 
 Fohn W Taylor New York 
 
 Mas-^achusetts.. 
 Xorth Carolina, 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 Kentucky 
 
 South Carolina. 
 Kentucky 
 
 'hilip P Barbour. 
 
 Henry Clay 
 
 John W.Taylor 
 
 Andr w Stevenson. 
 
 John Bell 
 
 James K. Polk. 
 
 Virginia. 
 Kentucky.. 
 New York. 
 Virginia 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Robert M. T. Hunter Virginia 
 
 John White Kentucky 
 
 John W. Jones [Virginia 
 
 John W. Davis Indiana 
 
 R ibtrt C. Winthrop [Massachusetts 
 
 Howell Cobb Georgia 
 
 Linn Boyd Kentucky 
 
 Nathaniel P. B.-inks Massachusetts.. 
 
 Jimes L. Orr South Carolina. 
 
 Wm. Pennington New Jersey 
 
 GaUisha A. Grow Pennsylvania... 
 
 Schuyler Colfax Indiana 
 
 James G. Blaine. 
 
 Maine. 
 
 Michael C. Kerr Indiana 
 
 Samuel J. Randall Pennsylvania. 
 
 ]. Warren Keifer., 
 
 Ohio. 
 
 John G. Carlisle \ Kentucky. 
 
 ist 
 
 2d 
 
 i;'h 
 
 mh 
 6th 
 7th 
 8th 
 9th 
 loth 
 nth 
 i2th 
 ,3th 
 13th 
 I4ih 
 I5ih 
 1 6th 
 i6ch 
 17th 
 18th 
 19th 
 
 20lh 
 
 21st 
 22:1 
 
 23d 
 
 23! 
 
 24th 
 25:h 
 26th 
 27th 
 28th 
 29th 
 30th 
 
 32J 
 
 ^A 
 34th 
 
 35th 
 
 36th 
 
 37th 
 
 38th 
 
 39th 
 
 40th 
 
 41st 
 
 42d 
 
 43'i 
 44th 
 44 th 
 4^th 
 46th 
 47th 
 4ith 
 
 Term of Service. 
 
 April 1, 
 
 October 24, 
 December 2, 
 December 7, ; 
 May 15. 
 
 December 2, 
 December 7, 
 October 17, 
 December 2, 
 October 20, 
 May 22, 
 
 November 4, 
 .May 24, 
 
 January 19, 
 December 4, 
 December i, 
 December 6, 
 November 15. 
 December 4, 
 December 1, 
 December 5, 
 December 3, 
 December 7, 
 December 5, 
 December 2, 
 June 2, 
 
 December 7, 
 Septembers, 
 Decemberi6, 
 May 31. 
 
 December 4, 
 December i, 
 December 6, 
 December 22, 
 D.cember i, 
 December 5, 
 February 2, 
 December 7, 
 February i, 
 Jii'-y 4. 
 
 Deeember 7, 
 December 4, 
 March 4, 
 March 4, 
 March 4, 
 December 1, 
 December 6, 
 December 4, 
 October 15, 
 March 18, 
 j December 5, 
 Decembers, 
 
 1789, to March 4 
 1 791 
 
 179 
 
 1797 
 
 '799 
 
 , to March . 
 _, to March 4, 
 J5, to Marcli 4, 
 to March 3, 
 to March 4, 
 to Mar:h 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to Jan'y 19, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 tJ March 4, 
 to May 15, 
 to M.irch 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 
 803. 
 1805, 
 .807. 
 1809, 
 i8it, 
 t8.3. 
 .814, 
 18.5, 
 t8i7, 
 1S19. 
 
 1823, 
 1825 
 1827 
 1829, 
 1831, 
 1833, 
 '834, 
 
 to March 
 
 '837, 
 1839, 
 1841. 
 t843, 
 '845, 
 t847, 
 1849 
 1851 
 185^, 
 1856, 
 18.7, 
 1863, 
 1861, 
 1863, 
 1865, 
 J 867 
 1869 
 1871 
 •873, 
 i875. 
 1876, 
 '877, 
 1879, 
 
 to March 4, 
 to M.irch 4, 
 to June 2, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to M.irch 4, 
 , to March 4, 
 I, to March 4, 
 
 to M: 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 , to March 4, 
 to Man h 4, 
 to Aug. 20, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to March 4, 
 to 
 
 823 
 825 
 827 
 829 
 83t 
 833 
 ^34 
 835 
 837 
 839 
 841 
 843 
 845 
 847 
 849 
 Sst 
 853 
 855 
 837 
 859 
 861 
 863 
 865 
 867 
 S69 
 871 
 S73 
 875 
 876 
 877 
 379 
 881 
 883 
 
 * Not including Speakers /r^ tetn. 
 
 CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATION OF THE STATES. 
 I. Ratio of Representatives and Popul.ation. 
 
 By Constitution, 1789 One to 30,000. 
 
 " First Census, from March 4th, 1793 •* 33,ooo. 
 
 " Second " " " 1803 " 33'000- 
 
 « Third " ♦* " 1813 " 35,ooo. 
 
578 
 
 COXGRESSIONAL REPRESENTA TIOK. 
 
 By Fourth Census, from March 4th, 1823 One ta 40,000. 
 
 " Fifth " " " 1833 " 47.700. 
 
 " Sixth " " " 1843 " 70,680. 
 
 " Seventh " " " 1853 " 93.423- 
 
 " Eighth " " " 1803 " 127,381. 
 
 " Ninth " " " 1873 " 131,425. 
 
 " Tenth " •* " 1883 " 154,325. 
 
 II. Representatives from Each State Under Each Census. 
 
 States. 
 
 Consii- 
 
 lution, 
 
 1789. 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Georgi i 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 New York 
 
 North Carolina... 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 South Carolina.... 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maine 
 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Michigan 
 
 California 
 
 p'lorida 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Minnesota. 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Texas 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Nevada 
 
 Colorado 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 Whole number. 
 
 ■^ ■^.'•^ 
 
 65 
 
 6 6 
 
 io5|i4i 
 
 4 
 I 
 8 
 6 
 II 
 3 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 2 
 6 
 
 13 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 6 
 
 5 
 7 
 2 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 
 i8i'2i3 240 223 237 243 293 325 
 
SUPREME COURT. 
 
 579 
 
 Chief Justices and Associate Justices of 
 the U. S. Supreme Court.* I 
 
 State Whence Appointed. 
 
 Term of 
 Ser\ice. 
 
 John Jayt 
 
 John Rulledgef 
 
 WiUiaiii Gushing § 
 
 James Wilson | 
 
 John Blair f 
 
 Robert H. Harrison f .. 
 
 James Iredell I , 
 
 Thomas John.son-j- 
 
 William Patterson^ 
 
 John Rutledge I 
 
 Samuel Chase ^ 
 
 Oliver Ellsworth f . 
 ]^u»hrod Washington I . 
 
 Alfred Moore f , 
 
 John Marshall^ 
 
 William Johnson |....,, 
 BrocUholst Livingston { 
 Thomas Todd^ 
 
 New York. 
 
 South Carolina... 
 Massachussetts. . . . 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Virgmia 
 
 Maryland 
 
 North Carolina... 
 
 Maryland 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 South Carolina, ., 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina... 
 
 Virginia 
 
 South Carolina... 
 
 New York 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Joseph Story § 'Massachusetts.... 
 
 Maryland 
 
 New York 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Maryland 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 .Alabama 
 
 Virginia 
 
 New York 
 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Massachusetts.... 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Maine 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Gabriel Duval f 
 Smith Thompson^.... 
 
 Robert Trimble § 
 
 John McLean ^ 
 
 Henry Baldwin^ 
 
 James M. Wayne ^ ... 
 Roger B. Taney g.. 
 Philip P. Barbour^... 
 
 John Catron^ 
 
 John McKinley^ 
 
 Peter V. Daniel I 
 
 Samuel Nelson f 
 
 Levi Woodbury § 
 
 Robert C. Grierf 
 
 Benjamin R. Curtis f 
 John A. Campbellf ... 
 
 Nathan Clifford^ 
 
 Noah H. Swaynef ... 
 
 Samuel F. Miller jlowa 
 
 David Davis f 'Illinois 
 
 Stephen J. Field California 
 
 Salmon P. Chase g „ Ohio 
 
 William vStrongf Pennsylvania. 
 
 Joseph P. Biadley JNew Jersey.. 
 
 Ward Hunt JNew York 
 
 Morrison R. Waiteg Ohio 
 
 John ^L Ilarkin iKentucky 
 
 William B. Woods Georgia 
 
 Stanley Matthews • Ohio 
 
 Horace Gray Massachusetts 
 
 Samuel Blatchford New York.... 
 
 -Lucius Q. C. Lamar Mississippi...., 
 
 * Chief Justices in heavy type 
 
 1789-I795 
 1789 1791 
 1789-1810 
 I 789- 1798 
 1789 1796 
 1789 1790 
 1 790- 1 799 
 
 179I-1793 
 1793 i8o5 
 
 1795 1795 
 1796-181 1 
 1796-iSoi 
 1798-1829 
 1 799- 1 804 
 iboi-1835 
 1 804- 1 834 
 1806 1823 
 1 807-1826 
 181 1 1845 
 1811-1836 
 1823-1845 
 1826-1828 
 1829-1861 
 1830 1846 
 1835-1867 
 1 836- 1 864 
 1836-1S41 
 1837-1865 
 1837-1852 
 1841- 1860 
 1845-1872 
 184^1851 
 1846 1869 
 1851-1857 
 1853-1861 
 1858-1881 
 1S61-1881 
 1862- 
 1862-1877 
 1863- 
 1864-1873 
 1870-1880 
 1870- 
 1872-1882 
 1874-1S88 
 1877- 
 1880-18S7 
 i88i- 
 !i88i- 
 ^1882- 
 1888- 
 
 9 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 31 
 
 5 
 34 
 30 
 17 
 19 
 34 
 25 
 22 
 
 2 
 32 
 16 
 32 
 28 
 
 5 
 28 
 
 15 
 19 
 
 27 
 6 
 
 23 
 6 
 8 
 
 23 
 20 
 
 f Resigned. J Presided one term. ^ Died in office. 
 
^8o 
 
 WHERE OUR CHIEF OFFICERS CAME FROM. 
 
 WHERE OUR CHIEF OFFICERS CAME FROM. 
 From the beginning of the Government in JjSg to 1884. 
 
 States. 
 
 1 
 
 1 c 
 Ah 
 
 1 *j 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
 C/3 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 is 
 
 r 
 
 "2 
 
 <? 
 
 >. 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 E wi 
 
 5:/) 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 rt 
 
 S. 
 CO 
 
 2' 
 
 e 
 H 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Calilbrnia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 15 
 4 
 
 Delaware 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Florida 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Georgia 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 I 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 .1 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 H 
 
 Illinois 
 
 2 
 
 ..... 
 
 8 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 II 
 
 5 
 
 Kansas 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 23 
 4 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 I 
 
 ' 
 
 
 Maine. , 
 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 5 
 5 
 
 I 
 5 
 4 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 I 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 Maryland 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Alichigan 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 36 
 6 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Missouri 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 3 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nevada 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■■■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 "5 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 2 
 6 
 2 
 5 
 
 3 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 
 I 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 Q 
 
 New York 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 41 
 10 
 
 Ohio 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 26 - 
 
 Oregon 
 
 I 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 ' 
 
 ' 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 38 
 2 
 
 South Carolina . 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 ^4 
 
 Tt-nnessee 
 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 Texas 
 
 I 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Virginia 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 40 
 
 West Vircrinia 
 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Total 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 20 29 
 
 34 
 
 P'' 
 
 30 
 
 1;;;;; 
 
 114 
 
 2 
 30 
 
 38 
 
 49 
 
 I 
 50 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 3^ 
 
OUR REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD. 
 
 581 
 
 OUR REPRESENTATIVES AEROAD. 
 
 Country. 
 
 Name asd Rank. 
 
 Residence. 
 
 Salary, 
 
 Argentine Republic. 
 Austria-Hungary ... 
 
 Belgium 
 
 Bolivia 
 
 B.iyliss W. Hanna, M. R. and C. G * 
 Alex. R. Lawton, E. E. and M. P.f 
 
 Lambert Tree, Minister Res 
 
 S. S. Carlisle, I\I R. and C. G 
 
 Thomas J. Jarvis, L. L. and M. P.... 
 
 Henry C. Hall, E. E. and M. P 
 
 Wm. R. Roberts, E. E. and M. P 
 
 Charl s l>-nby, E. E. and M. P 
 
 Dahn.y 11. Maurey, Minister Res... 
 Hugh A. 1 )in>.moi e, M . K . and C. G. 
 Rasmus P. Anderson, M R.andC.G. 
 Robert I\I. McLai.e, K. E. and M. P. 
 Geo. If. Pendleton, E. E. and M. P. 
 KdwarJ J. Phelps, E. E. and M. P... 
 
 George \\'. Merrill, AJ-nister Res 
 
 J. E. W. Thompson, M. R. and C. G. 
 
 John B. Stalio, K. E. atid M. P 
 
 Richard P liub'j-rd, E. E. andM. P. 
 
 C. H. J. Tavlor, M. R. and G. G 
 
 Edward S. iV.ng?, E. E. and M. P.... 
 Isaac Dell, Jr., Minister Rcs 
 
 Buenos A>Tes 
 
 Vienna .. 
 
 ^7,500 
 
 
 5,000 
 12,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 io,coo 
 
 12,000 
 
 7,500 
 
 5,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 17.500 
 
 17,500 
 
 17,500 
 
 7.500 
 
 5,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 12 000 
 
 La Paz 
 
 Brazil 
 
 Central American 
 
 Rio de Janeiro 
 
 Chili 
 
 Santiago 
 
 China... 
 
 Peking 
 
 Bog ta 
 
 Corea . ^ 
 
 Seoul 
 
 Denmark 
 
 France . 
 
 Coi.enhagen 
 
 Pars 
 
 Germany 
 
 Great Brit:rm 
 
 Purlin 
 
 London 
 
 Hayti 
 
 Italy 
 
 J^Pan 
 
 Liberia 
 
 Port au Prince 
 
 Rome 
 
 Yeddo... 
 
 Monrovia . 
 
 Mexico 
 
 Mexico . . 
 
 Netherlands 
 
 TheHaguo 
 
 Montevideo 
 
 7,500 
 
 5,000 
 5,000 
 
 Paragu-iy and Uni- 
 
 _ guay 
 
 Persia 
 
 Tohn E. Bacon, Charge d'AfF ires 
 
 '■-.. Spencer Pratt, AL R. and C. G.... 
 
 Teheran 
 
 Peru 
 
 CharesW linck, K E. and M P . 
 
 
 
 EdwurdP. C.Lewis, M. U.andC.G. 
 
 Lisbon 
 
 
 Koumania, Servia, 
 and Greece 
 
 Walter Fearn, M. R. and C. G 
 
 Geo V. N. Lothrop, E. E. and M. P. 
 lacobT. Child, M. R. and C. G... 
 jabez L. M. Curry, E. E. and M. P.. 
 
 Rufus Magee, Minister Res 
 
 Boyd Winchester, M. R. and C. G.... 
 
 Oscar S. Strauss, F. E. and M. P 
 
 Charles L. Scott, M. R. and C. G 
 
 Hucharest 
 
 6.100 
 
 
 St. Petershuig 
 
 I>,500 
 5,OTO 
 I2,Ct>0 
 
 
 Spain 
 
 Madrid 
 
 Sto kholm 
 
 Sweden and Norway 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Turkey 
 
 Venezuela 
 
 7.5^ 
 5,oo.-> 
 7.5<^ 
 7,5C« 
 
 Berne... 
 
 Constamlinople .... 
 Caracas 
 
 
 
 * M. R,, Minister Resident; C. G., Consul General. 
 
 f E. E. and M. P., Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. 
 
582 
 
 OUR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ABROAD, 
 
 OUR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ABROAD. 
 
 Country. 
 
 Argentine Republic 
 Austria-Hungary.... 
 
 Celg-.um 
 
 Brazil ~. 
 
 Chili 
 
 China ^ 
 
 Costa Rica 
 
 Denmark 
 Ecuador... 
 France 
 
 Germany ........ 
 
 Great Britain. , 
 
 Guatemala . 
 
 H.iwaii 
 
 Hayti 
 
 Italy.... 
 Japan .. 
 Mexico 
 
 NetherlanHj 
 Nicaragua.. 
 
 Portus^al , 
 Russia ... 
 
 Spain. 
 
 ■^enor Don Vincente G. Quesada .... 
 
 Don Severe Ygarzabal 
 
 Chevalier Schmit von Tavera 
 
 Count I ippe Weissenfeld 
 
 Mr. de I'.oundcr de Melsbrueck 
 
 Jount Gaston d'Arschot 
 
 Raron de Itajuba 
 
 Senhor Don Jose Kerriera da Costa. 
 
 Senor r)on Domingo Gana 
 
 "-icnor He'ittam Mathieu 
 
 .Mr Chang Yen Hoon 
 
 Mr. SlmCheon Pon 
 
 Senor Pedro Perez Zeiedon ; 
 
 ^eiior Don Fcderico I3alio 
 
 Mr P. L. E. de lijvenorn .... 
 
 ^efior Don Antonio Flores (absent) , 
 
 Mr. Theodore Roustan 
 
 Count Maurice Sala 
 
 Mr. H. vun Alvenslebea 
 
 Karon von Zedtwitz 'Charge d'Affaires. 
 
 The Hon. Sir L. S. Sadkvilie West JE. E. and M. P. 
 
 Hon Henry Fxlwardes iFirst Secietary. 
 
 '^efi^r Don Francisco Lainfiesta E. E. and M. P. 
 
 Mr. H. A. P Carter lE. E. and M. P. 
 
 Mr. Stephen Preston E. E. and M. P. 
 
 Mr. Charles A. Preston ;Sccretarv of Legation 
 
 B.irondeFava E. E. and M P. 
 
 Rank. 
 
 *E. E. and M. P. 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 
 E. E. and M. P. 
 Coimci'or of Legation. 
 
 F. E. andM. P. 
 (, ouncilor ot LegatiDH. 
 E. E and M. P. 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 E. F. and M. P. 
 Secretary. 
 E. E. and M. P. 
 Secretary of Legation, 
 E. E. andM. P. 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 M. R. snd C. G. 
 E. E. and Nf. P. 
 E. E. andM. P. 
 Fiist Secretary. 
 E E. and M. P. 
 
 I,e Comte Alb'-rt de Foresta ... 
 Mr. lusammi Riuichi Kuki .... 
 
 Mr. Shiro Akabane 
 
 ienor Don Matias Romero 
 
 -^eiior Don Cayetano Romero. 
 Mr G. de Weckherlin. .. 
 -iefi^r Don Horacio Guzman .. 
 Seiijr Don Roman Mayorga... 
 
 Vfr. ChTr1<-s de Stnive (absent) .. 
 
 Baron Kosen 
 
 -^enor Don Emilio de Nfuruaga ... 
 Senor D n Miguel Gtircia Florez 
 
 Sweden and Norway Mr L de R euterskiold 
 
 jMr. Sigurd Ibsen 
 
 Switzerland Colonel Emile Frey 
 
 jMajor Karl Kloss 
 
 Turkey Mavroyeni Bey 
 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 
 E. E. andM. P. 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 
 F. E. and M. P. 
 First Secretary. 
 F. E. andM. P. 
 E. E.and M. P. 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 E. E. and M. P. 
 
 E. E. aidM. P. 
 Charge d Afif. ad int. 
 E. E. andM. P. 
 First Secretary. 
 E. E. and M. P. 
 Attache. 
 E. E. and M. P. 
 Secretary of Legation. 
 E. E. and M. P. 
 
 Venezuela Senor Jose Antonio Olavarria ^Charge d'Affaires. 
 
 I 
 
 * Envoy E.ttraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. 
 
PA Y OF CHIEF OFFICERS U. S. A'A VY. 
 
 5S3 
 
 PAY OF THE CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. 
 
 Admiral $ 
 
 Vice-Admiral 
 
 Rear- Admirals 
 
 Commodores 
 
 Captains... 
 
 Commanders 
 
 Lieutenant- Commanders — 
 
 First four years 
 
 After four years 
 
 Lieutenants — First five years 
 
 After five years 
 
 Masters — First five years 
 
 After five years 
 
 Ensigns — First five years 
 
 After five years 
 
 Midshipmen 
 
 Cadet Midshipmen 
 
 Mates , 
 
 Medical and Pay Directors, Inspectors, and 
 
 Chief Engineers 
 
 Fleet Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engineers. 
 Surgeons, Paymasters, and Chief Engineers — 
 
 First five years 
 
 Second five years 
 
 Third five years 
 
 Fourth five years 
 
 Aftertwenty years 
 
 Passed Assistant Surgeons, Paymasters, and 
 
 Engineers — First five years 
 
 After five years 
 
 Assistant Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engi- 
 neers — 
 
 First five years 
 
 After five years 
 
 Chaplains — Fir^t five years 
 
 After five years 
 
 Boatswains, Gunners, Carpenters, and Sail- 
 makers — 
 
 First three years 
 
 Second three years 
 
 Third three years 
 
 Fourth three years 
 
 After twelve years 
 
 Cadet Engineers (after examination) | 
 
 At Sea. 
 
 On Shore 
 
 
 Diiiy. 
 
 13,000 
 
 $i3,coo 
 
 9,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 6,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 4,500 
 
 3-500 
 
 3-500 
 
 3,000 
 
 2,800 
 
 2,400 
 
 3,000 
 
 2,600 
 
 2,400 
 
 2,000 
 
 2,600 
 
 2,200 
 
 1,800 
 
 1,500 
 
 2,000 
 
 i,7co 
 
 1,200 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,400 
 
 1,200 
 
 I,OCO 
 
 800 
 
 500 
 
 500 
 
 900 
 
 700 
 
 4,400 
 
 
 4,400 
 
 
 2,800 
 
 2,400 
 
 3,200 
 
 2,800 
 
 3.500 
 
 3.200 
 
 3.700 
 
 3,600 
 
 4,200 
 
 4,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 1,800 
 
 2,200 
 
 2,000 
 
 1,700 
 
 1,400 
 
 1,900 
 
 1,600 
 
 2,500 
 
 2,000 
 
 2,800 
 
 2,300 
 
 1,200 
 
 900 
 
 1,300 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,400 
 
 1,300 
 
 1,600 
 
 1,300 
 
 1,800 
 
 1,600 
 
 1,000 
 
 800 
 
 On Leave 
 
 )r W; iting 
 
 Orders 
 
 ;$ 1 3,000 
 6,000 
 4,000 
 3,000 
 2,800 
 
 2,300 
 
 2,000 
 2,200 
 1,600 
 1,800 
 1,200 
 1,400 
 
 800 
 
 1,000 
 600 
 500 
 500 
 
 2,000 
 2,400 
 2,600 
 2,800 
 3,000 
 
 1,500 
 1,700 
 
 1,000 
 1,200 
 1,000 
 1.900 
 
 700 
 
 800 
 
 900 
 1,000 
 1,200 
 
 600 
 
j-gj^ PA YMENTS FOR PENSIONS. 
 
 PAY OF CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 
 
 
 Pay of Officers in Active Service. 
 
 Grade or Rank. 
 
 Yearly Pay. 
 
 
 First 5 
 years 
 service. 
 
 After 5 
 
 years 
 
 service. 
 
 After 10 
 
 years 
 service. 
 
 After 15 
 
 years 
 service. 
 
 After 20 
 
 years 
 service. 
 
 General... 
 
 ^13,500 
 11,000 
 7,500 
 5,500 
 3,500 
 3,000 
 2,500 
 2,000 
 1,800 
 1,800 
 1,800 
 1,600 
 1,500 
 1,500 
 1,400 
 1,500 
 
 10 /. C. 
 
 20 /. C. 
 
 30/. c 
 
 40 p. c. 
 
 Lieutenant-Genera} 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Brigadier-General 
 
 
 
 
 
 53,850 
 3,300 
 2,750 
 2,200 
 1,980 
 1,980 
 1,980 
 1,760 
 1,650 
 1,650 
 1,540 
 1,650 
 
 54,200 
 3,600 
 3,000 
 2,400 
 2,160 
 2^160 
 2,160 
 1,920 
 1,800 
 1,800 
 1,680 
 1,800 
 
 54,500 
 3,900 
 3,250 
 
 2,600 
 
 2,340 
 2,340 
 2,340 
 
 2,080 
 
 1,950 
 1.950 
 
 1,820 
 1,950 
 
 54,500 
 4,000 
 3,500 
 
 2 800 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel.. ., 
 
 Major 
 
 Captain, mounted 
 
 Captain, not mounted 
 
 2,520 
 2,520 
 2,520 
 2,240 
 2,100 
 2,100 
 1,960 
 2,100 
 
 Regimental Adjutant 
 
 Regimental Quartermaster 
 
 1st Lieutenant, mounted 
 
 1st Lieutenant, not mounted... 
 
 2d Lieutenant,, mounted 
 
 2d Lieutenant, not mounted. . 
 Chaplain 
 
 PAYMENTS FOR PENSIONS IN 1883. 
 
 
 Pcnsioiis paid during the Year. 
 
 Number of 
 Pensioners. 
 
 Status. 
 
 For Regular' . f °^ , 
 Pension. A'-J„°' 
 
 Salary and 
 
 Expenses 
 
 of Pension 
 
 Agents. 
 
 Total 
 Disburse- 
 ments. 
 
 1882. 
 
 1883. 
 
 Maine 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Dollars. Dollars. 
 
 I 1,948,453-54 521.47 
 4,045.320.08; 4,091.60 
 5.863,544.76 5,26x30 
 5.636,155.64, 8.431-57 
 
 1 2,087.440.80 4,216.72 
 3,616,997.31 1.413-73 
 2.753,227.40' 2,760.28 
 5,100,^07.50 4,126.67 
 2,842,400.69 7-483-83 
 i.6oo,37o.s6 7 35~.6o 
 3,282,322.78 3,51-5.42 
 
 1 2,809,535.73 3.965-93 
 3,176,762.17 5.364-72 
 5.054975-95 4,081.47 
 ^:A -no 66 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 11,938.11 
 18.858.60 
 22,643.97 
 23,562.99 
 13.264.55 
 14,358.56 
 14,039.04 
 17.483.^3 
 15,379-76 
 8-353-37 
 14,391 13 
 19,205.99 
 
 17,997 49 
 13 224.50 
 5.859-22 
 19.240.51 
 16,438.17 
 22,915.73 
 
 Doilars. 
 
 1,960.913.121 
 
 4,063,270.28 
 5,891,449.03 
 5 668,150.20; 
 2,104,922.07 
 3.632,769.60 
 2,772,026.72 
 5,122,117.40 
 2,865,264.28 
 1,616,077.13 
 3,300,229.33 
 2,832,707.65 
 3,200,124.38 
 3,072,281 92 
 414,238.88 
 4,109.995.89 
 4.199,115.66 
 3,601,319.31 
 
 11,526 
 22,004 
 
 23,557 
 26,163 
 11,028 
 13.860 
 
 13.033 
 16,017 
 18,715 
 16,250 
 
 20,962 
 15,193 
 20.324 
 
 11,827 
 23,495 
 25854 
 27,686 
 
 New Hampshire... 
 
 Iowa ..~,... 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Tennessee. .« 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 New York 
 
 Penn.sylvania 
 
 Pennsylvania^ 
 
 11,007 
 16,051 
 13,080 
 20.921 
 17,189 
 7,001 
 14.65.7 
 16,141 
 
 16,006 
 2,191 
 
 New York"'.!!""!... 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Oist. of Columbra.. 
 
 4,o83. 557-37 2,198.01 
 4,174,62448 8,D53.oi 
 3,572,433-21 6,970.37 
 
 22,338 
 17,525 
 21,393 
 
 60,064.09.2^ 70808.70 
 
 Total payment for pensions in 1887 
 
 154.92 60,431.972 .85 285,697 303,658 
 ^ .^...~. $75,0 9,102 
 
BALAXCE OF TRADE, 
 
 585 
 
 BALANCE OF TRADE- 
 
 Showing our imports, our exports, and the excess either way for 
 
 twenty years. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Merchandise at Gold Value. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 E.xports. 
 
 Excess. 
 
 1868.. 
 1869.. 
 1870.. 
 1871 .. 
 1872.. 
 1873 . 
 1874.. 
 
 1875 • 
 
 1876 . 
 
 1877 . 
 1878., 
 
 1879. 
 1880. 
 1881 . 
 1882. 
 1883. 
 
 1884. 
 
 1885. 
 
 1886 
 
 1887 
 
 $3-7436,440 
 
 4i7'5o6,379 ; 
 
 435 958408 : 
 
 520,223,084 I 
 
 626,505,077 ' 
 
 642,136,210 
 
 567,406,342 
 
 533'005-436 
 
 460,741,191 
 
 451.323,126 
 
 437,o5',532 
 445.777 J75 
 667,954.746 
 642,664,628 
 7-'4,639'574 
 723,180,914 
 667,697,693 
 
 577,527.329 
 655.436.136 
 692.319,768 
 
 1281,952.899 
 286,117,697 
 392,771,768 
 442,820,178 
 444,177,586 
 522,479,317 
 586,283.040 
 513,441.711 
 
 540.3"^4,67i 
 602,475,220 
 694,848,496 
 
 710,439,441 
 835.638,658 
 902,367,346 
 750.542,257 
 823,839,402 
 740,513,609 
 
 742,189.755 
 679.524,830 
 716,183,211 
 
 Imports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Experts 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 ^75,483.541 
 131,388,682 
 43,186,640 
 77,403.500 
 182,417 491 
 119,656,2-8 
 18876,698 
 
 19.563.725 
 79,623,480 
 152,152,094 
 
 257,796,964 
 264,661,666 
 167,683,912 
 259,702,718 
 
 25,902,683 
 100,658,488 
 
 72,815,916 
 164,662,426 
 
 44,088,694 
 
 23.863,443 
 
 Specie. 
 
 Year. 
 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 187I 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 Excess. 
 
 ;Ji4,i88.368 
 19,807,876 
 
 26,419.179 
 
 21,270,024 
 
 872 13.743.689 
 
 21,480,937 
 28 454.906 
 20,900,727 
 .5,936,681 
 40,774.414 
 29,821,314 
 20,296,000 
 93,034,310 
 110,575.497 
 42,472,390 
 
 28,489.39^ 
 37,426,262 
 
 43.242,323 
 38,593 656 
 60,170,792 
 
 1873 
 1874 
 1875- 
 1876. 
 
 1877. 
 1878. 
 
 1879. 
 1880. 
 1881. 
 
 882. 
 
 883, 
 1884. 
 1885 
 1886 
 1887 
 
 $93-784,102 
 
 57.1.^8380 
 
 58,155,666 
 
 98,441,988 
 
 79,877.534 
 
 84,608.574 
 
 56,630,405 
 
 92,132,142 
 
 56,506 302 
 
 56,162,237 
 
 33.733,225 
 
 24,997,441 
 
 17,142,919 
 
 19,406,847 
 
 49,417,479 
 
 31,820,333 
 
 67,133.383 
 
 42,231.525 
 
 72,463.4«o 
 
 35.997.691 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Imports 
 
 Exports 
 
 Imports 
 
 $79,595,734 
 37.330,501 
 31,736480 
 77.171.964 
 66,133,845 
 63.127,637 
 
 28,175.499 
 71,231,425 
 40,569,^)21 
 
 15.387,753 
 
 3.911,911 
 
 4,701,441 
 
 75,89^391 
 
 91,168,650 
 
 6,945.089 
 
 3.330,942 
 
 29,707,121 
 
 1,010,798 
 
 33.869,754 
 
 24.173.101 
 
586 
 
 REVENUES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Year Ended 
 June 30. 
 
 858. 
 
 859. 
 860. 
 861. 
 862. 
 863. 
 864. 
 865. 
 866 
 867. 
 868. 
 869. 
 870 
 871. 
 872. 
 873- 
 874. 
 875. 
 876. 
 
 877. 
 878. 
 
 879. 
 880. 
 881. 
 882. 
 883. 
 
 863. 
 
 864 
 
 865. 
 
 866. 
 
 867. 
 
 868. 
 
 869. 
 
 870. 
 
 871. 
 
 872., 
 
 873 
 
 S74.. 
 
 S75. 
 
 876.. 
 
 877. 
 878.. 
 
 879.. 
 880.. 
 881., 
 882., 
 
 Amount 
 collected. 
 
 ^41,789,620.96 
 
 49.565,824.38 
 
 53,1^7,511.87 
 
 39,582,125.64 
 
 49,056,397.62 
 
 69,059,642.40 
 
 102,316,152.99 
 
 84 928,260.60 
 
 179,046,651.58 
 
 176,417,810.88 
 
 164,464,599.56 
 
 180,048,426.63 
 
 194,538,374.44 
 206,270,408.05 
 216,370,286.77 
 188,089.522.70 
 163,103,833.69 
 157 167,722.35 
 148,071,984.61 
 
 130,956,49307 
 130,170,680.20 
 137.250,047 70 
 186,522,064.60 
 198 159076.02 
 220,410,730.25 
 214,706,496.93 
 
 Expense 
 of collecting. 
 
 Per cent, 
 of cost. 
 
 ^37,640,787.95 
 109,741,134.10 
 209,464,215.25 
 309,226,813.42 
 266,027,537.43 
 191,087,589.41 
 158,356,460.86 
 184,899.756.49 
 143,098,153.63 
 130,642,177.72 
 
 ii3,729.3H.i4 
 102,409,784.90 
 110,007,493.58 
 116,700,732.03 
 118,630,407.83 
 110,581.624.74 
 113.561,610.58 
 124,009,37392 
 135,264,385.51 
 146,497,595.45 
 883 144,720,368.98 
 
 ^2,903,336.89 
 3,407,931.77 
 3,337,188.15 
 
 2,843,455.84 
 3,276,560.39 
 3.181,026.17 
 4,192,582.43 
 5,415,449.32 
 5,342,469.99 
 5,763,979-01 
 7,641,116.68 
 5,388,082.31 
 6,233,747-68 
 6,568,350.61 
 6,950,173-88 
 7,077,864.70 
 7.321,469.94 
 7,028, 521. J;'o 
 6,704,858.09 
 6,501,037.57 
 5,826,974.32 
 5,477,421.52 
 6,023,253.53 
 6,383,288.10 
 6,506,359.26 
 6,593,509-43 
 
 ;gio8, 685.00 
 
 253,372.99 
 385,239.52 
 5,783,128.77 
 7,335,029.81 
 8,705,366.36 
 7,257,176.11 
 7,253,439.81 
 
 7,593-714-17 
 5,694,116.86 
 5,340,230.00 
 4,509,976.05 
 4,289,442.71 
 3,942,613.72 
 
 3,556,943.85 
 3,280,162 22 
 3,527,956.56 
 3,657,105.10 
 4,327,793.24 
 4.097,241.34 
 4,424,707,39 
 
 6-94 
 6.85 
 6.27 
 7.18 
 6.67 
 4.60 
 4.09 
 
 6-39 
 2.98 
 3.26 
 
 4-65 
 2.99 
 3-20 
 3-i8 
 3.21 
 3-76 
 4-49 
 4-47 
 4-53 
 4.96 
 
 4-47 
 3.99 
 3.23 
 3.22 
 
 2.95 
 3-07 
 
 0.29 
 0.23 
 0.18 
 1.87 
 2.77 
 
 4-55 
 4.59 
 3-92 
 530 
 4-36 
 4.69 
 4.40 
 3-89 
 3.38 
 2.99 
 2.96 
 3.16 
 
 2-95 
 3.20 
 2.79 
 305 
 
PUBLIC DEBT OF THE LWITED STATES. 
 
 587 
 
 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 \To fanuary ist of each year to 1842. To July jst,from 184^-1883'] 
 
 179I ^75.463,476 52' 
 
 1792 77,227,924 66 
 
 1793 80,352,634 04: 
 
 1794 78,427,404 77 
 
 1795 80,747,587 39 
 
 1796 83,762,172 07 
 
 1797 82,064,479 3Z 
 
 1798 79,228,529 12 
 
 1799 78,408,669 77 
 
 1800 82,976,294 35 
 
 1801 83,038,050 80 
 
 1802 86,712,632 25 
 
 1803 77,054,686 30 
 
 1804 86,427,120 88 
 
 1805 82,312,150 50 
 
 1806 75,723,270 66 
 
 1807 69,218,398 64 
 
 1808 65,196,317 97 
 
 1809 57,023,192 09 
 
 1810 53.173,217 52 
 
 i8ri 48,005,587 76 
 
 1812 45,209,737 90 
 
 1813 ... 55,962,827 57 
 
 1814 81,487,846 24 
 
 1815 99,833,660 15 
 
 1816 127,334,933 74 
 
 1817 123,491,965 16 
 
 1818 103,466,633 83 
 
 1819 95,529,648 28 
 
 1820 91,015,566 15 
 
 1821 89,987,427 66 
 
 1822 93,546,676 98 
 
 1823 90,875,877 28 
 
 1824 90,269,777 77 
 
 1825 83,788,432 71 
 
 1826 81,054,059 99 
 
 1827 73,987,357 20 
 
 1828 67,475,043 87 
 
 1829 58,421,413 67 
 
 1830 48.565,406 50 
 
 ^831 39,123,191 68 
 
 ^^832 24,322,235 18 
 
 1833 7,001,698 83 
 
 1834 4,760,082 08 
 
 ^835 37,513 05 
 
 1^36 336,957 ^Z 
 
 1837 3,308.124 07 
 
 1838 ;^io,434,22i 14 
 
 1839 3,573.343-82 
 
 ^40 5,250,875 54 
 
 ^41 13,594,480 73 
 
 M2 20,601,226 28 
 
 843 32,742,922 00 
 
 844 23,461,652 50 
 
 ^45 15,925,303 01 
 
 846 15,550,202 97 
 
 f47 38,826,534 77 
 
 848 47,044,862 23 
 
 849 63,061,858 69 
 
 ^50 63,452,773 55 
 
 851 68,304,796 02 
 
 852 66,199,341 71 
 
 853 59,803,117 70 
 
 854 42,242,222 42 
 
 855 35,586,858 56 
 
 ^56 31,972,537 90 
 
 857 28,699,831 85 
 
 858 44,911,881 03 
 
 859 58,496,837 88 
 
 860 64,842,287 88 
 
 861 90,580,873 72 
 
 862 524,176,412 13 
 
 863 1,119,772,138 63 
 
 864 1,815,784,370 57 
 
 865 2,680,647,869 74 
 
 866 2,773,236,173 69 
 
 867 2,678,126,103 87 
 
 868 2,611,687,851 19 
 
 869 2,588,452,213 94 
 
 870 2,480,672,427 81 
 
 871 2,353,211,332 32 
 
 872 2,253,251,328 78 
 
 873 2,234,482,993 20 
 
 874 2,251,690,468 43 
 
 875 - 2,232,284,531 95 
 
 876 2,180,395,067 15 
 
 877 2,205,301,392 10 
 
 878 2,256,205,892 53 
 
 879 2,245,495,072 04 
 
 880 2,120,415,370 63 
 
 881 2,069,013,569 58 
 
 882 1,918,312,994 03 
 
 883 1,884,171,728 07 
 
 884 1,838,904,607 57 
 
 885 1,872.3:0.557 14 
 
 886 i,7S3.438.697 78 
 
 887 1,700,7; 1,784 68 
 
^SS POST-OFFICE. 
 
 BUSINESS OF THE POST-OFFICE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 
 
 18S7. 
 
 Number of post-offices in the United States 55,^57 
 
 Number of Presidential post-ofnces* 2,336 
 
 Length of public mail routes 377,442 
 
 Length of railroad routes 130,949 
 
 Length of steamboat routes 10. 597 
 
 Length of other routes (Star service) 235,89b 
 
 Aggregate cost of service $28,031,106 
 
 Postage stamps, envelopes, and cards sold j^45,67o,984 
 
 Number of registered letters 12,524,421 
 
 Feeson registered matter jS>i,034,677 
 
 Dead letters received 5.578,965 
 
 Cost of free-delivery $4,618,692 
 
 Receipts of postage on local matter $6,691,253 
 
 Number of money orders (domestic) 9,232,177 
 
 Amount of money orders (domestic) $117,462,661 
 
 Fees for money orders (domestic) $912,876 
 
 Number of money orders (foreign) 615,405 
 
 Amount of money orders (foreign) $9.035>530 
 
 Fees for money orders (foreign) $II2 093 
 
 Cost of the ocean mail service $425,818 
 
 Number of postal-notes issued 6,307,552 
 
 Amount of postal -notes issued $11,768,825 
 
 Amount of fees for postal-notes.. $189,844 
 
 * Where the salary exceeds $t,ooo per annum, and Postmasters are appointed by the 
 President and confirmed by the Senate. 
 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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