Part 22 (2/2)

When first nominated for the Presidency, Mr Cleveland had little personal knowledge of public men outside of his own State

How rapidly he acquired the inforovernment was indeed a marvel It was no ”Cleveland luck” or haphazard chance that called into his first Cabinet such , Garland, Vilas, and Whitney It can safely be asserted that Mr Cleveland was an excellent judge of ned thele interview the ht in contact As an object lesson a better appointh office has rarely been reat court No less fortunate was his selection of Vilas to the responsible position of Postentleers to Mr Cleveland when he was first named for the Presidency His appointly illustrated his aptness in for a correct estimate of men from whom his appointees were to be chosen

No incumbent of the Presidency was ever less of a time-server than Cleveland ”Expediency” was a word scarcely known to his vocabulary

Recognizing alike the dignity and responsibility of the great office, he was in the highest degree self-reliant None the less he at all times availed himself of the wise counsel of his official advisers Inwithin their especial province their determination was, except in rare instances, conclusive In no sense was his ainst the ti opinionated, in the offensive sense of the word, the ulti taken counsel fro perhaps more than any other to his defeat in 1888 was his tariff-reduction ress one year prior to that election An abler state paper has rarely been put forth

It was a clear, succinct presentation of existing econouotten how proe was denounced by the entire opposition press as a ”free-trade manifesto,” and how this cry increased in voice and volume until the close of the Presidential contest And yet, in sending this ress, Mr Cleveland was entirely consistent with himself Its utterances were in clear accord with the platform upon which he had been nominated and with his letter of acceptance It is one of the anomalies of politics that the clear-cut sentenceshis defeat in 1888, were upon the banners of his triun of 1892

In the year last named, Mr Cleveland was for the third time the candidate of his party for the Presidency His nomination, by a two-thirds vote, was upon the first ballot, and marked an era in the history of national conventions His candidacy was bitterly antagonized by the delegation fro presented by Governor Abbott of New Jersey It is a fact of nificance that neither in the platform upon which he was nohtest departure from his ee of 1887 The salient issues of the ca ”Force bill”

From first to last Mr Cleveland was in close consultation with the leaders of his party and advised as to every detail of the contest The result was a vindication of his former administration and an unmistakable endorsement of the tenets of the Democratic faith

In this brief sketch, there can be but slight reference to the ied his attention

Aluration was the withdrawal from the Senate of the Hawaiian Annexation Treaty recently submitted by President Harrison for ratification Fir that the late United States Minister to the unfortunate island had at least acquiesced in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Governht , recalled the Annexation Treaty, as stated In hishas been done to a feeble and independent State” This alotten incident is now recalled only to es with foreign Governments

And yet history will truly say of him that, while just to other Governhts of his own This assertion finds verification in the Venezuelan e, which, for the moment, almost startled the country By many it was for the time believed to be the prelude to war In very truth, as the sequel proved, it was a e of peace It was a critical moment, and the necessity imperative for prompt, decisive action If the Monroe Doctrine was to be maintained, Great Britain could not be permitted arbitrarily to divest Venezuela of any portion of her territory The arbitration proposed by President Cleveland, resulting in peaceable adjustment, established eprecedent One sentence of the enerations: ”The Monroe Doctrine was intended to apply to every stage of our national life, and cannot become obsolete while our Republic endures”

I had excellent opportunities to know Mr Cleveland I was a member of the first and third conventions which naed in both the contests that resulted in his election As assistant Post his first terhbor to his counsels” I a official never filled public station In his appointments to office his chief aim was to subserve the public interests by judicious selections The question of rewarding party service, while by no nored, was irity and efficiency of the applicant He was patriotic to the core, and it was his earnest desire that the last vestige of legislation inimical to the Southern States should pass from the statute books

He did much toward the restoration of complete concord between all sections of the country

Mr Cleveland possessed a kind heart, and was ever just and generous in his dealings Wholly unostentatious himself, the humblest felt at ease in his presence Possibly no incureat office was more easily accessible to all classes and conditions Courteous at all tinity No one would have thought of an undue familiarity

He was a profound student of all that pertained to huht to the science of government, and was familiar with the best that had been written on the subject Caring little for the light literature of the day, his concern ith the practical knowledge bearing upon existing conditions and thatproble men in responsible positions He loved to talk of the founders of the Government, and of the matchless instrument, the result of their wise deliberations, declared by Gladstone, ”the iven time from the brain and purpose of man” The Constitution was in very truth ”the man of his counsel,” and, in my opinion, no statesed his profound admiration as did James Madison

Mr Cleveland was sociable in the best sense of that word, and the cares of state laid aside, in the coreeable companion While by no means the best of story-tellers himself, he had a keen appreciation of the humorous and ludicrous phases and incidents of life I shall not soon forget an evening I spent with hireatest story-teller of the age was at his best, and the delight of the occasion was, as Cleveland declared, ”beyond expression”

More than once I have been a guest in his hon of 1892, when his associate on the national ticket, I spent some days in conference with hiers yet He was the agreeable host, the gentleman; more than that, the tender, considerate husband, the kind, affectionate father It has never been htful home

I saw Mr Cleveland last upon the occasion of his visit to Arbor Lodge, Nebraska, to deliver an address at the unveiling of a statue of the late Sterling Morton, forriculture The address orthy of the occasion, and indeed a just and touching tribute to the memory of an excellent man, an able and efficient Cabinet Minister In my last conversation with Mr Cleveland upon the occasion ly of our old associates, many of whom had passed away I remember that the tears came to his eyes when the na our stay at Arbor Lodge, the beautiful Morton home, by invitation of the superintendent, Mr Cleveland visited the State Asylum for the Blind at Nebraska City In his brief address to the unfortunate inmates of the institution, Mr Cleveland mentioned the fact that in his early life he had been for some time a teacher in an asylum for the blind, and spoke of his profound interest in whatever concerned their welfare I have heard hie, or evinced such depth of feeling as upon this occasion

The passing of Cleveland ure in American history Take hiood citizenshi+p,” an expression frequently on his lips, to which he would have his countrymen aspire, was of the noblest, and no man had a clearer or loftier conception of the responsible and sacred character of public station

With him the oft-quoted words, ”A public office is a public trust,”

was no e place in history His adovernment will safely endure the test of tiht, He never can be shamed”

In victory or defeat, in office or out, he was true to his own self and to his ideals His early struggles, his firmness of purpose, his deter, his exalted aiiven hi inspiration to the oncoenerations of his countrymen

XIX A UNANIMOUS CHOICE FOR SPEAKER

A MEETING OF PROSPECTIVE SPEAKERS--DR ROGERS WITHIN SIGHT OF THE GOAL OF HIS AMBITION--HE STATES THE GROUND OF HIS HOPE--THE FOUNDATION PROVES TO BE ONLY SAND--A TEMPEST CALMED BY THE DOCTOR