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Physically, he is of a large and powerful frame, deliberate and firm, but not slow in his motions. His manner and tone of voice are genial and agreeable. He is broad-minded and liberal in his habits of thought, and a man of conscience rather than a man of any sect or creed. All his surroundings and habits are those of Democratic simplicity.

Mr. Cleveland was chosen President at the election held Tuesday, November 8, 1884, receiving 219 electoral votes to 182 cast for James G. Blaine. He resigned the governorship of the State of New York upon the assembling of the Legislature in January, 1885.

He continued to reside in Albany until about the first of March following, when he went to Washington to prepare for his inauguration as President on March 4.

Since that time he has given close personal attention to the duties of his office, with occasional relief in the way of trips to different sections of the country. The most extensive of these was that to the West and South, during which he visited the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia. He also made a brief visit to Florida and South Carolina upon another trip.

On June 2, 1886, the President was married in the White House to Miss Frances Folsom, of Buffalo, New York.

CHAPTER V.

ALLEN G. THURMAN.

ALLEN GRANBERY THURMAN was born on November 13, 1813, in Lynchburg, Va., of good descent on both sides of his family. His mother was a half sister of William Allen, who became Governor of Ohio. His paternal grandfather, who was a Baptist minister, was a slaveholder by inheritance, but became conscientiously opposed to slavery, and resolved to free his negroes. He therefore removed to Ohio with them and his family, numbering three generations, when Allen G. Thurman was six years old.

A settlement was made in Chillicothe, where the boy's father at first taught school, and then engaged in woolen manufacture. The lad obtained his education at the Chillicothe Academy, where he was especially proficient in mathematics, and was graduated with high honors at the age of seventeen. He had also taken lessons in French from a poor French gentleman who, for a time, was an inmate of his father's house. After his graduation, his health, which had been delicate, was permanently invigorated by exercise in field sports, by his riding about the country as an assistant of the county tax assessor, and by cutdoor work as a member of land surveying parties.

Then he studied law in the offices of his uncle, William Allen, and Judge Swayne, of Columbus, O. During his period of study in the State capital he read law chiefly at night, as in the daytime he was acting as the private secretary of Gov. Lucas, and the duties of the position included much work which would now be assigned to a number of clerks. In 1835 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Chillicothe as the partner of his uncle, who, becoming engrossed in politics, soon left the care of his law business entirely to the young man.

Mr. Thurman applied himself with great industry to his profession, in which he quickly attained distinction. The circuit in which he practised embraced four counties, and nearly all the long journeys which he made to attend court were performed on horseback. On account of his devotion to his legal work, he several times declined requests to become a candidate for the Legislature, although he had always taken interest in public affairs, and was an earnest Democrat. In 1839 he made a visit to Washington, where his uncle was then a Senator from Ohio. There he passed six weeks, and was introduced by Senator Allen to many prominent men, including John C. Calhoun, who received the young lawyer with marked cordiality. He did not revisit Washington until 1842, when he went there to appear in a case before the United States Supreme Court. Three years afterwards, while he was absent from his Congressional district on professional business, its Democratic Convention nominated him for Congress without his solicitation or knowledge. Mr. Thurman was persuaded to accept the candidacy, and was elected after a personal canvass of the whole district, in which he frequently had public discussions with his Whig opponent

In the Twenty-ninth Congress he served on the Judiciary Committee, and delivered some able speeches on important questions. At the end of his term he declined a renomination, and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1851 he was elected, upon the Democratic ticket, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and from 1854 till 1856 he was the Chief Justice of that court. His services as a jurist largely enhanced his reputation with the bar and with the people of the State generally, but he declined a re election, as the meagre salary of the Judgeship was insufficient for proper support. Returning to the bar he found business pouring in upon him from all sides, and by his professional labors he gradually acquired a competence.

In 1867 he received the unanimous nomination of the Democratic State Convention for Governor of Ohio, and after a hotly contested campaign, in which he took an active part, was defeated by Rutherford B. Hayes. He had, however, cut down the Republican majority of 43,000 the year before to less than 3,000, and the Legislature elected was Democratic. In 1868 Mr. Thurman was chosen United States Senator from Ohio, succeeding Benjamin F. Wade, and he was re-elected in 1874. During his twelve years in the Senate he served on a number of the most important committees, and was recognized as one of the ablest leaders of the Democratic party. Much public attention was attracted by a number of his speeches in debate, including that on the Georgia Bill in 1869, the Geneva Award Bill, and the Pacific Railway Funding Bill. He served as a member of the Electoral Commission of 1876, and was appointed by President Garfield to the International Monetary Conference.

Mr. Thurman received votes for the nomination for President in the last three Democratic national conventions preceding the one just held. In the conventions. of 1880 and 1884 his name was formally presented on behalf of Ohio. On account of his unblemished character for personal integrity, he has always had the respect of his political opponents, and he has long possessed exceptional popularity among large numbers of the Democratic party, particularly in the Western States. His special followers have admiringly termed him "the old Roman," and the trifling fact that he has always retained the old-fashioned bandana as a part of his personal equipment has caused them to adopt that handkerchief as their badge of allegiance.

Since his retirement from the Senate, Mr. Thurman has taken but little active part in political affairs. He has continued to practice law, appearing in court in some important cases, but has intimated that he had no desire to return to public life.

In James G. Blaine's "Twenty Years of Congress," that Republican leader speaks of Mr. Thurman as follows:

"His rank in the Senate was established 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 argument, 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 contests 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 indulgence of romance and poetry. He was especially fond of the best French writers. He loved Molière and

Racine, and could quote with rare enjoyment the humorous scenes depicted by Balzac. 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 the genial side of his nature, and were a fitting 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 the respect of all with whom he had been associated during his twelve years of honorable service.”

CHAPTER VI.

CLEVELAND ON THE TARIFF.

REDUNDANT

THE PRESIDENT'S RECORD IN FAVOR OF REDUCING

REVENUE BY REDUCING BURDENSOME TAXES.

A Policy Which He Has Consistently Urged at All Times,
Both While He was a Candidate, and After
He Became President.

I.

MESSAGE TO NEW YORK LEGISLATURE, JANUARY 1, 1884.

The State of New York largely represents within her borders the development of every interest which makes a nation great. Proud of her place as leader in the community of States, she fully appreciates her immediate relations to the prosperity of the country; and justly realizing the responsibility of her position, she recognizes, in her policy and her laws, as of first importance, the freedom of commerce from all unnecessary restrictions. Her citizens have assumed the burden of maintaining, at their own cost and free to commerce, the waterway which they have built and through which the products of the great West are transported to the seaboard. At the suggestion of danger she hastens to save her northern forests, and thus preserve to commerce her canals and vessel-laden rivers. The State has become responsible for a bureau of immigration, which cares for those who seek our shores from other lands, adding to the nation's population and hastening to the development of its vast domain; while at the country's gateway a quarantine, established by the State, protects the nation's health.

Surely this great Commonwealth, committed fully to the interests of commerce and all that adds to the country's prosperity, may well inquire how her efforts and sacrifices have been answered; and she, of all the States, may urge that the interests thus by her protected, should, by the greater Government administered for all, bef ostered for the benefit of the American people.

Fifty years ago a most distinguished foreigner, who visited this country and studied its condition and prospects, wrote:

"When I contemplate the ardor with which the Americans prosecute commerce, the advantages which aid them and the success of their undertakings, I cannot help believing that they will one day become the first maritime power of the globe. They are bound to rule the seas as the Romans were to conquer the world. * * The Americans themselves now transport to their own shores nine-tenths of the European produce which they consume, and they also bring three-fourths of the exports of the New World to the European consumers. The ships of the United States fill the docks of Havre and Liverpool, whilst the number of English and French vessels which are to be seen at New York is comparatively small."

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