"The Government can never be restored and reformed except from inside, and by the active, intelligent agency of the Executive. We must hope that Providence 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 and life of our political system be preserved and invigorated.-SAMUEL J. TILDEN TO IROQUOIS CLUB, CHICAGO, MARCH 11TH, 1882.

"Cleveland's administration has been free from official or personal scandal; has been honest and clean. There have been no Star Route robberies; no navy jobberies; no War Department corruptions; no profligate waste by United States Marshals; no Treasury combinations or speculations; no corrupt operations in or through the Land Office. No American at home or abroad has had occasion to droop his eyes in shame because of any such things under Mr. Cleveland's administration. On the contrary, there has been a resolute effort to promote honest government, to increase efficiency, and to lessen expenses.-GEO. W. Childs, in the PHILADELPHIA Ledger, August, 1888.

COPYRIGHT.

1888.

The Sun Book and Job Printing Office, Baltimore.

PREFACE.

An attempt has been made in this text-book to present all the ideas and policies which the Democratic party has exemplified in the administration of the affairs of the Government during the past four years, and to illustrate the principles of the party as established during all the years of its growth and history.

While one important and absorbing question agitates the people of the country during the present campaign, it must not be forgotten that the party has behind it more than three years of successful administration, during which period the country has been prosperous, while its affairs have been carried on with honesty, economy, and efficiency. These have been so illustrated in every department of the Government that those chapters of this book devoted to the history of the Departments and the Bureau Service cannot be studied too closely.

This record forms an important part of the administration of President Cleveland. By this record it gained the confidence of the country, because it started out with the idea of conducting the business of the Government in a straightforward and efficient manner.

This is illustrated, in particular, in the general management of the Treasury Department and in every bureau forming a part of it. In each and all of these, as the brief and comprehensive tables submitted will show, a vastly increased amount of work has been done at a very marked reduction in cost. There is not only a proportionate reduction, but a real one, in spite of the accumulated work which the new administration found on the 4th of March, 1885, and of the business incident to the growth of the country. It has been so conducted as to insure efficiency and real economy. More work has been done by a smaller number of people and for less money than at any period of the same extent in the history of the Federal Government.

The facts concerning the reduction of the public debt, the maintenance of the public credit, and the distribution of the surplus funds of the Government may well be commended to Democratic speakers and writers.