I knew four years ago how well devised were the principles of true Democracy for the successful operation of a government by the people and for the people; but I did not know how absolutely necessary their application then was for the restoration to the people of their safety and prosperity. I knew then that abuses and extravagances had crept into the 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 generous 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 of the land. And yet I will not be denied the privilege of asserting 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 understanding God has given me, seemed most conducive 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 honored me, and that I will in due time signify such acceptance in the usual formal manner.

MR. THURMAN'S ACCEPTANCE.

On the 28th of June the committee presented its letter of notification of his nomination as Vice-President to Mr. Thurman, at Columbus, Ohio, and he made the following response:

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:

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 unsought and undesired by me; not that I undervalued a distinction which any man of our party, however eminent, might highly prize, but simply because I had ceased to be ambitious for public life.

But when I am told in so earnest and impressive a manner that I can still render service to the good cause to which I have ever been devoted—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, and by a fervent hope that the party may long continue to be able to serve the republic, 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 fulfil 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 blest by an able and honest administration of the general Government. 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, and 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 high degree dangerous to honest and constitutional government.

I suppose, gentlemen, that I need say no more to-day. In due time, and in accordance with established usage, I will transmit to your chairman a written acceptance of my nomination with such observations upon public questions as may seem to me to be proper.

2

CHAPTER IV.

SKETCH OF GROVER CLEVELAND.

Grover CleveLAND, President of the United States, was born in Caldwell, Essex county, New Jersey, on March 18, 1837. The house in which he was born, a small two-story wooden building, is still standing. It was the parsonage of the Presbyterian Church, of which his father, Richard Cleveland, at the time was pastor.

The family is of New England origin, and for two centuries has contributed to the professions and to business, men who have reflected honor on the name. Aaron Cleveland, President CLEVELAND's great grandfather, was born in Massachusetts, but subsequently moved to Philadelphia, where he became an intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin, at whose house he died. He left a large family of children, who in time married and settled in different parts of New England. A grandson was one of the small American force that fought the British at Bunker Hill. He served with gallantry throughout the Revolution, and was honorably discharged at its close as a Lieutenant in the Continental army. Another grandson, William Cleveland, a son of a second Aaron Cleveland, who was distinguished as a writer and a member of the Connecticut legislature, was GROVER CLEVELAND'S grandfather. William Cleveland was a silversmith in Norwich, Connecticut. He acquired by industry some property and sent his son, Richard Cleveland, the father of GROVER CLEVELAND, to Yale College, where he graduated in 1824. During a year spent in teaching at Baltimore, Maryland, after graduation, he met Miss Anne Neale, daughter of a Baltimore book publisher, of Irish birth. He was earning his own way in the world at the time and was unable to marry; but in three years he completed a course of preparation for the ministry, secured a church in Windham, Connecticut, and married Anne Neale. Subsequently he moved to Portsmouth, Va., where he preached for nearly two years, when he was summoned to Caldwell, N. J., where was born GROVER CLEVELAND. When he was three years old (1841) the family moved to Fayetteville, Onondago county, New York. Here GROVER CLEVELAND lived, until he was fourteen years old, the rugged, healthful life of a country boy. His frank, generous manner made him a favorite among his companions, and their respect was won by the good qualities in the germ which his manhood developed. He attended the district school of the village and was for a short time at the academy. His father, however, believed that boys should be taught to labor at an early age, and before he had completed the course of study at the academy he began to work in the village store at $50 for the first year and the promise of $100 for the second year. His work was well done, and the promised increase of pay was granted in the second year.

Meanwhile his father and family had moved to Clinton, the seat of Hamilton college, where his father acted as agent to the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, preaching in the church es of the vicinity. Hither GROVER came at his father's request shortly after the beginning of his second year at the Fayetteville

store, and resumed his studies at the Clinton Academy. After three years spent in this town, the Rev. Richard Cleveland was called to the village church of Holland Patent. He had preached here only a month when he was suddenly stricken down and died without an hour's warning. The death of the father left the family in straitened circumstances, as Richard Cleveland had spent all of his salary of $1,000 per year, which was not required for the necessary expenses of living upon the education of his children, of whom there were nine, GROVER being the fifth. GROVER was hoping to enter Hamilton College, but the death of his father made it necessary for him to earn his own livelihood. For the first year (1853-4) he acted as assistant teacher and bookkeeper in the institution for the Blind in New York city. In the winter of 1854 he returned to Holland Patent, where the generous people of that place, Fayetteville and Clinton had purchased a home for his mother, and in the following spring, borrowing twenty-five dollars he set out for the West to earn his living. Reaching Buffalo he paid a hasty visit to an uncle, Mr. Lewis F. Allen, a well-known stock farmer, living at Black Rock, a few miles distant. He communicated his plans to Mr. Allen, who discouraged the idea of the West and finally induced the enthusiastic boy of seventeen to remain with him and help him prepare a catalogue of blooded short-horn cattle, known as "Allen's American Herd Book," a publication familiar to all breeders of cattle. For this work young CLEVELAND was to receive fifty dollars, and his uncle further agreed to secure a position for him in a lawyer's office as a clerk or copyist. His ambition had turned toward the law ever since his days in the Clinton Academy, and it was partially in the hope of finding some opportunity to begin the study of the law that he had first decided to go West. After several unsuccessful efforts he secured a place with Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, one of the leading law firms in the county. He entered that office accordingly in August, 1855, and after serving a few months without pay was paid four dollars a week—an amount barely sufficient to meet the necessary expenses of his board in the family of a fellow student in Buffalo, with whom he took lodgings. Shortly afterward he took a small room in the attic of the Southern Hotel, then a favorite stopping place with drovers and farmers.

Life at this time with Grover Cleveland was a stern battle with the world. He took his breakfast by candle light with the drovers, and went at once to the office, where the whole day was spent in work and study. Usually he returned again at night to resume reading which had been interrupted by the duties of the day. In this manner the foundations of legal knowledge were laid deep and firm at the same time that habits of industry and close application were acquired. Gradually his employers came to recognize the ability, trustworthiness and capacity for hard work in their young employee, and by the time that he was admitted to the bar (1859) he stood high in their confidence. A year later he was made confidential and managing clerk, and in the course of three years more his salary had been raised to $1,000. In 1863 he was appointed Assistant District Attorney of Erie County in recognition of his abilities and his services to the Democratic party.

Since his first vote had been cast in 1858 he had been a staunch Democrat, and had enrolled himself among the young men of his ward to do duty at the polls on election day. It may be stated here that until he was chosen Governor he always made it his duty, rain or shine, to stand at the polls and give out ballots to Democratic voters. During the first year of his term as Assistant District Attorney, the Democrats desired especially to carry the Board of Supervisors. The old Second

Ward in which he lived was Republican ordinarily by 250 majority, but at the urgent request of the party Grover Cleveland consented to be the Democratic candidate for Supervisor, and came within thirteen votes of an election. The three years spent in the District Attorney's office were devoted to assiduous labor and the extension of his professional attainments. So vigorously was crime prosecuted and so efficiently did he administer the office that he was nominated for District Attorney in 1865, with one voice by the Democrats. The Republicans nominated Mr. Lyman K. Bass, a particular friend of Cleveland's, in order to divide the young men's vote then beginning to be a prominent factor in Buffalo politics. The election was closely contested, but Bass won by about 500 majority, although Cleveland polled more than the party vote in all the city wards. When he retired from the position of Assistant District Attorney, on January, 1866, he formed a law partnership with the late Isaac V. Vanderpoel, ex-State Treasurer, under the firm name of Vanderpoel & Cleveland. Here the bulk of the work devolved on Cleveland's shoulders, and he soon won a good standing at the bar of Erie County. In 1869 Mr. Cleveland formed a partnership with ex-Senator A. P. Laning and ex-Assistant United States District Attorney Oscar Folsom, under the firm name of Laning, Cleveland & Folsom. During these years he began to earn a moderate professional income; but the larger portion of it was sent to his mother and sisters at Holland Patent, to whose support he had contributed ever since 1860.

In 1870, at the urgent solicitation of the Democracy and against his own wishes, he consented to be the candidate for Sheriff. The election was closely contested, but Mr. Cleveland and the entire Democratic ticket was elected by a good majority.

At the expiration of his official term as Sheriff (January 1, 1874), Mr. Cleveland resumed the practice of the law, associating himself with the Hon. Lyman K. Bass, his former competitor, and Mr. Wilson S. Bissell. The firm was strong and popular, and soon commanded a large and lucrative practice. Ill-health forced the retirement of Mr. Bass in 1879, and the firm became Cleveland & Bissell. In 1881 Mr. George J. Sicard was added to the firm.

In the autumn election of 1881 the Democrats of Buffalo nominated Grover Cleveland for Mayor on a platform pledging the party to administrative reform and economy in the expenditures of the city. He was elected by a majority of over 3,500-the largest majority ever given a candidate for Mayor-and the Democratic city ticket was successful, although the Republicans carried Buffalo by over 1,000 majority for their State ticket. Grover Cleveland's administration as Mayor fully justified the confidence reposed in him by the people of Buffalo, evidenced by the great vote he received.

It was his courageous devotion to the interests of the people and his great executive abilities which, in the summer and fall of 1882, gave him prominence before the Democracy of the State as a candidate for Governor. The Democratic State Convention met at Syracuse, on September 22, 1882, and nominated Grover Cleveland for Governor on the third baliot. The campaign that followed was auspicious from the beginning, and terminated with a triumphant victory. Cleveland was elected Governor over Charles J. Folger, ex-Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and at the time Secretary of the Treasury, by a majority of 192,000, by far the largest ever given in this State, and the largest ever given in any State in the Union. He was inaugurated on January 1, 1883.