Grover Cleveland was a remarkable man. He had more political
courage of the General Jackson type than almost any man who ever
held great responsible positions. He defied Tammany Hall while
governor of the State, and repeatedly challenged the strongest
elements of his party while president. Threats of defeat or
retaliation never moved him. If he had once made up his mind
and believed he was right, no suggestions of expediency or of
popularity had any influence on him.
In personal intercourse he made friends and had great charm.
The campaign against him when he ran for governor of New York
was ruthlessly conducted. I considered the actions of his enemies
as unfair and that they would react in the canvass. I studiously
discredited all in my speeches, and begged our people not to
feature them.
I knew Mr. Cleveland, and as an evidence of my appreciation of
his character and ability, when the office of general counsel of
the New York Central Railroad at Buffalo became vacant, I offered
it to him, saying: "I am exceedingly anxious that you should
accept this place. I think, by an adjustment of the administration
of your office, you can retain your private practice, and this
will add about fifteen thousand dollars a year to your income."
Mr. Cleveland replied: "I have a very definite plan of life and
have decided how much work I can do without impairing my health,
and how much of additional responsibility I can assume. I have
accumulated about seventy-five thousand dollars and my practice
yields me an income which is sufficient for my wants and a prudent
addition for my old age to my capital. No amount of money whatever
would tempt me to add to or increase my present work."
I doubt if there were many lawyers in the United States who had
that philosophy or control of their ambitions. His annual income
from his profession was considerably less than the compensation
offered by the general counselship of the New York Central.
Cleveland was most satisfactory as president in his quick and
decisive judgment upon matters presented to him. There were no
delays, no revisions; in fact, no diplomatic methods of avoiding
a disagreeable decision. He told you in the briefest time and
in the clearest way what he would do.
A great social leader and arbiter in social affairs in New York
was very desirous that the president should reverse his judgment
in regard to an appointment affecting a member of his family.
I gave him a letter which procured him a personal and confidential
interview. When he came back to me he said: "That is the most
extraordinary man I ever saw. After he had heard me through, he
said he understood the matter thoroughly and would not change
his opinion or action. He has no social position and never had.
I tried to present its attractions and my ability to help him in
that regard, but he only laughed; yes, he positively laughed."
While President Hayes had difficulty with civil-service reform
and incurred the hostility of the Republican organization and
machine men, the situation with him was far less difficult than
it was with Cleveland, who was a sincere civil-service reformer,
and also an earnest Democrat. While a Democratic senator from
Ohio, Mr. Pendleton, had passed a bill during the Hayes
administration for reform in the civil service, the great majority
of the Democratic party believed in Secretary Marcy's declaration
that "to the victors belong the spoils."
There was an aggravation, also, growing out of the fact that the
Democrats had been out of office for twenty-four years. We can
hardly visualize or conceive now of their hunger for office.
The rule for rescuing people dying of starvation is to feed them
in very small quantities, and frequently. By trying this, the
president became one of the most unpopular of men who had ever
held office; in fact, so unpopular among the Democratic senators
and members of the House that a story which Zebulon Vance, of
North Carolina, told went all over the country and still survives.
Vance, who had a large proportion of the citizens of North Carolina
on his waiting list, and could get none of them appointed, said
that the situation, which ought to be one of rejoicing at the
election of a president by his own party, was like that of a client
of his who had inherited a farm from his father. There were so
many difficulties about the title and getting possession of it
and delay, that the son said: "I almost wished father had not died."
However, Mr. Cleveland, in his deliberate way did accomplish
the impossible. He largely regained favor with his party by
satisfying their demands, and at the same time so enlarged the
scope of civil-service requirements as to receive the commendation
of the two great leaders of the civil-service movement--George
William Curtis and Carl Schurz.
President Cleveland entered upon his second term with greater
popularity in the country than most of his predecessors. When he
retired from office, it was practically by unanimous consent.
It is among the tragedies of public life that he lost entirely the
confidence of his party and, in a measure, of the whole people
by rendering to his country the greatest public service.
A strike of the men on the railroads tied up transportation.
Railroads are the arteries of travel, commerce, and trade. To stop
them is to prevent the transportation of provisions or of coal,
to starve and freeze cities and communities. Cleveland used
the whole power of the federal government to keep free the
transportation on the railways and to punish as the enemies of the
whole people those who were trying to stop them. It was a lesson
which has been of incalculable value ever since in keeping open
these great highways.
He forced through the repeal of the silver purchasing law by every
source and pressure and the unlimited use of patronage. His party
were almost unanimous for the silver standard and resented this
repeal as a crime, but it saved the country from general bankruptcy.
Except in the use of patronage to help his silver legislation, he
offended his party by improving the civil service and retaining
Theodore Roosevelt as head of the Civil Service Commission.
These crises required from the president an extraordinary degree
of courage and steadfastness.
While Mr. Cleveland was in such unprecedented popular disfavor
when he retired to private life, his fame as president increases
through the years, and he is rapidly assuming foremost position
in the estimation of the people.
Mr. Cleveland had a peculiar style in his speeches and public
documents. It was criticised as labored and that of an essayist.
I asked him, after he had retired to private life, how he had
acquired it. He said his father was a clergyman and he had been
educated by him largely at home. His father was very particular
about his compositions and his English, so that he acquired a
ministerial style. The result of this was that whenever any of
the members of the local bar died, he was called upon to write
the obituary resolutions.
To take a leap over intervening years: After Mr. Cleveland retired
from his second term I used to meet him very frequently on social
occasions and formal celebrations. He soon left the practice of
law and settled in Princeton, where he did great and useful service,
until he died, as trustee of the university and a lecturer before
the students.
Riding in the same carriage with him in the great procession at
the funeral of General Sherman, he reminisced most interestingly
in regard to his experiences while president. Every little while
there would break out a cheer and then a shout in the crowd of
one of the old campaign cries: "Grover, Grover, four years more."
Mr. Cleveland remarked: "I noticed while president a certain
regularity and recrudescence of popular applause, and it was
the same in every place I visited." That cry, "Grover, Grover,
four years more!" would occur every third block, and during
our long ride the mathematical tradition was preserved.