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TO THE VOTERS

; OF THE

' <^itan5 013 l)emcci{atic ^ai^ty,

THE PARTY OF WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, JACKSON AND THEIR
ILLUSTRIOUS COMPEERS ;

THE PARTY THAT HAS ALWAYS BATTLED FOR PRINCIPLES
AND OFFICIAL INTEGRITY ;

THE PARTY WHOSE NAME IS SYNONYMOUS WITH ALL THAT IS
ENNOBLING IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY;

THIS TOLUME IS DEDICATED,

IN THK HOPE AND WITH THE SINCERE CONVICTION THAT IN NOVEMBER,
1892, ITS ILLUSTRIOUS STANDARD-BEARERS,

GROVER CLEVELAND

AND

ADLAI E. STEVENSON,

WILL BE ELECTED TO THE HIGHEST OFFICES IN THE GIFT OF THE

PEOPLE, THAT THE PARTY OF CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES MAY

B£ SUPPLANTED BY THE PARTY OF HONESTY AND INTEGRITY.




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ONLY AUTHORIZED AND OFFICIAL FDITION.



As a Man, the Noblest and Purest of his Times. As a Citizen,

the Grandest of his Nation. As a Statesman, the

Idol of Millions of People.



THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF THE
GREAT REFORM PRESIDENT,

GROVER CLEVELAro

EMBRACING

A Full Account of his Early Life; his Struggles with Poverty and Efforts
to obtain an Education; his Ambition as a Student; his Early
Political Career and Rapid Advancement ; his Able and
Patriotic Record as Governor of the Great Em-
pire State ; his Brill/ant Administra-
tion as President, etc., etc.

BY COLONEL JOHN RANDOLPH GRADY,

The Disiinguished and Popular Wrifer^"^

TO WHICH IS ADDED
The Life and Public Services of

ADLAI E. STEVENSON.

The work also contains an account of the election and administration of every
President from Washington to the present time, and fine portraits of all of them, with a
history of the Democratic Conventions from 1832, and a large amount of valuable sta-
tistical matter, giving the returns of the votes cast at all our Pre-idential elections.



Embellished with Fine Portraits and Numerous other
Attractive Engravings.



NK^?\r YORK:

"W. J. HOLLAND,

107 DUANE SX.



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by

J. R. JONES,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.



PREFACE.



The Democratic National Convention, to nominate candi-
dates for the office of President and Vice-President of the
United States, met at Chicago on the 21st day of June, 1892.
The party was represented by its ablest men, who either as
delegates or as members of political clubs, or as advisers, par-
ticipated in its deliberations. The Convention nominated for
the high office of President of the United States,

EX-PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND.

No person can point to an act of Mr. Cleveland's thkt can
be construed as a bid for the nomination or as an effort to se-
cure it. The Democratic party has great cause to be proud
of the moral sense and political sagacity of its leaders, who,
on account of Mr. Cleveland's admirable record and char-
acter, have nominated him for the Presidency, the highest
office in the gift of the people.

There was in the great Democratic Convention no real hos-
tility to Mr. Cleveland. All opposition to him was coupled
with the highest respect and admiration for the man, and was
induced only by local attachment to other candidates. Those
who favored other candidates naturally tried their best to
promote the candidacy of their friends, but they had no ob^
jection to Mr. Cleveland.

The hearty satisfaction with which the nomination of Grovei
Cleveland has been received is a guarantee of his election in
November. It arises from the general conviction that one o|
the chief issues of the election is honest and efficient adminis-
tration, with sole regard to the public welfare. Indeed, he

(iii)



iv PREFACE.

owes his nomination to his spotless character, his career as an
executive officer, and to the universal respect and confidence
which his conduct has inspired. He was elected Mayor of
Buffalo when the intelligent sentiment of the city demanded
a reform policy, and a man able and courageous enough to
enforce it. He was the candidate of citizens who were re-
solved that the city government should be conducted for the
general welfare, and not for the benefit of rings and traders.
He discharged his duties without regard to private interests
or his own political or personal profit. He held his office aa
a public trust, baffling jobbery of all kinds, vetoing doubtful
schemes or questionable laws upon clear constitutional and in-
disputable grounds, and by his direct, honorable, and ener-
getic course winning the cordial regard of his fellow-citizens.
It was natural that in the decline of great party issues and
in the alarming and dangerous progress of corrupt political
methods, the voters of New York, hearing of the administra-
tor of the government of one of the chief cities of the State
as a man possessing the very qualities which promised the
overthrow of political corruption should have willingly sup-
ported him for Governor of the State. His vast and unpre-
cedented majority attested his popularity in his own State.

Frank and plain in manner, scorning political charlatanry
and the arts of the demagogue, his appointments to office, hia
thorough study of laws submitted to him, his vetoes based
upon constitutional grounds and wholly unmindful of per-
sonal views and wishes, his hearty co-operation with every meas-
.ure to promote reform in the civil service, and his wise and
'energetic part in the purification of the unclean and corrupt
municipal government of the city of New York, naturally
attracted the attention of the country to a public officer in a
most dignified and responsible" position whose career shows the
qualities which the political situation especially requires.

Mr. Cleveland's nomination for the Presidency in 1884, and
his subsequent election, were in the direct line of his success-
ful political career which had made him the most distinguished



PREFA.CE. V

exponent of the principles of the Democratic party in the
Empire State. The party naturally looked to him in 1892 to
be its leader on the platform of tariff reform.

With Grover Cleveland as its candidate the Democratic
party appeals with unmistakable directness to the moral sense
of the people of the United States. Shall the next President
be a man who has weakly yielded to temptation, or a man who
has unswervingly adhered to the right against great tempta-
tions to do wrong ? A man who begs pecuniary rewards of
those his official action has enriched, or one who defies cor-
rupt dictation and seeks only by a just course to deserve the
approval of all honorable and right-thinking men ?

It is not only in what he clearly represents, but in what he
opposes, that Grover Cleveland is strong before the American
people. His career has made him the exponent of clean and
honest politic?. He has been severely tried in the important
and responsible positions he has occupied. He has resisted
the importunities of designing politicians, and defeated the
plans of selfish schemers. All members of his own party
who are not striving for private gains, which are in conflict
with the public good, are outspoken in his praise ; and he has
won the good opinion of all men who are not so biased by
partisanship as to have lost the power to commend upright
conduct in a political adversary.

Could a candidate find stronger recommendation than this
in the opinion of voters whose political actions are shaped
solely by considerations of the public good ? The official
acts which have won for Mr. Cleveland the intense hostility of
all jobbers and disreputable men, are the very acts which have
most strongly commended him to the support of honest voters.

Mr. Cleveland's associate on the Democratic Presidential
ticket is the Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson. Few men have greater
personal popularity than this gentleman, who was Assistant
Postmaster-General under Cleveland. He is genial, always
true to his friends, and possesses those qualities which give
men a strong hold on the people.



VI PREFACE.

This ticket is one of the strongest ever presented by the
Democratic party and will be elected by a large majority.

It is but natural that their countrymen should desire to
know the means by which these great men have risen, by
their own ability and integrity, to the proudest positions in
the Republic, that of being the candidates of the grand old
Democratic party for the office of President and Vice-Presi-
flunt of the United States. To meet this demand the author
has prepared this volume.

The records of Grover Cleveland and the Hon. Adlai E.
Stevenson are presented in this book clearly and without
partiality, that all men may see that their claims to the love
and confidence of the American people are justified by their
meritorious and faithful service, their ability and integrity,
and fearless performance of their arduous and trying duties
in all positions to which they have been elected by the peonle.





^^-2^-t^O^



C^/^C^^t^^jUk^^\y^J2£



THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES



OP



GROVER CLEVELAND,

NOMINATED BY THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION FOR THB
OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.



CHAPTER I.

fiis Birth and Parentage— His Father a Preset*
TERiAN Minister— The House where He was Born—
His Relatives— He finds Employment in a Country
Store— Highly Recommended by his Employer— Hb
Attends the Academy at Clinton, Oneida County,
K. Y.— Teaches in an Asylum for the Blind— Hb
GOES TO Buffalo, N. Y.— Clerk and Law Student^
A Self-Made Man— Admitted to the Bar— Assist*
ANT District-Attorney for Erie County — Nomx-
KATED FOR District-Attorney.

The Hon. Groyer Cleveland, the ex-President
of the United States, who is presented to the
voters of the different States of the Union by the
National Democratic Convention which met at
Chicago on the 21st day of June, 1892, as its candi-
date for the high office of President of the United
States, was born at Caldwell, Essex County, New
Jersey, now a town of 2,700 inhabitants, about
nine miles from Newark, on the 18th day of
March, 1837. He is a descendant of a New Eng-

B (17)



18 STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND.

land family, that traces its lin'sage through more
than two hundred years in this country. His
family has been noted for religious knowledge,
having had several distinguish<^d representatives
in the clerical profession.

THE HOUSE WHERE GROVER CLEVELAND WAS BORN.

The first house that is seen in the little village
of Caldwell approaching from Montclair is situated
on the left-hand side of the road. For years the
old-fashioned house, with its quaint gable-ends and
ivy-covered porch, has only attracted the attention
of the villagers as the parsonage of the First Pres-
byterian church, but lately it has become of more
interest. It is the birthplace of the Democratic
candidate for President, Stephen Grover Cleveland.
The Rev. C. T. Berry, the pastor of the church,
lives in the old parsonage, and thither the writer
went for information. The house sets back from the
road about a hundred feet, and two noble ash trees
stand like sentinels before it. The grounds, which
contain about two acres, are well kept, and the
whole place has an air of neatness and respeo
tability. The house itself is a two-story-and-
a-half, with a front porch and low windows. The
front door opens into a spacious hall and the rooms
on each side of it are cosy and comfortable. The
ceilings are low. The doors are very wide and the
whole place savors of antiquity.

"I have had a great many interested callers/'



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 19

said Mr. Berry. " This is the house in which Pres-
ident Cleveland was born. It was first occupied
by Stephen Grover, a former pastor of the church.
In 1834 Mr. Grover resigned the pastorate, and
Richard F. Cleveland was called on May 13th of
the same year. Mr. Cleveland had many children,
one of whom, William M., became a minister and
went to Long Island. In the old church baptismal
record we find the record of the birth and baptizing
of the Democratic nominee;" and Mr. Berry pointed
to an entry which reads as follows : " Stephen
Grover Cleveland, baptized July 1, 1837; born
March 18th, 1837."

"During his six years' pastorate," said Mr
Berry, " Mr. Cleveland's father had a child bap-
tized every year. When Grover Cleveland was
elected Governor of New York I wrote and told
him that I had these interesting facts, and he sent
me a very graceful reply. Here is the room in
which Governor Cleveland was born," and Mr.
Berry pushed open a door and led the reporter into
a room now used as a library. The room was
about fifteen feet square, with two windows and a
low ceiling.

Marcus Harrison, an old resident of Caldwell,
said that he remembered when Parson Cleveland
lived down in the old parsonage. " It would be
impossible," he added, "to keep account of his
children. Young Grover, as we called him, was
then just toddling around in frocks. He was named



20 STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND,

after Stephen Grover, the predecessor of his father
in the pastorate of the church."

As intimated by Dr. Berry's remarks, there is
quite a rivalry between the residents of the two
ends of the village over the birthplace of the
President. An old house that stands on the other
side of the town is pointed out by some of those
residing near it as his birthplace, but there is no
doubt that the parsonage the Rev. Mr. Berry
occupies is entitled to the honor.

THE CLEVELAND HOMESTEAD.

At Holland Patent, N. Y.
On the first corner as one passes through the vil-
lage of Holland Patent, on the road from Utica
to Trenton Falls, stands an old brown house. The
structure shows at a glance that it was built years
ago, when carpenters put beams in wooden houses
and when balloon frames were unknown. The
upright part is two stories, and its proportions
offer commodious accommodations for a large family.
A generous wing affords a sitting-room and other
apartments. It was to this house that, over thirty
years ago, the Rev. R. F. Cleveland brought his
family. He came to occupy the pulpit of the
Presbyterian church at Holland Patent as the
regular pastor. A man of more than ordinary
ability, possessed of a fine voice, a bright mind,
and a clear head, he found favor with his parish-
ioners. He was a Presbyterian in all that the



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 21

term implies, and believed the teachings of that
church. Pie was withal a man of broad and liberal
Culture and liberal in ideas as well. As he went
in and out among his people they came to admire
his personal and social qualities in a degree second
only to their admiration for his talents as displayed
in the desk. His home-life was a model of con-
sistency and uprightness, and he brought up his
children in the way they should go. Well educated
himself, he secured for them the same advantages.
By precept and example he sought to make of them
such men and women as in after life would be a
credit to the name he had given them. One has to
talk but a moment to any of the older residents of
Holland Patent to learn the esteem in which they
hold the memory of the Rev. Mr. Cleveland. Un-
fortunately for the church which prospered under
his guidance, and for the members who reverenced
and loved him, in less than six months from the
commencement of his labors in that village the
pastor ended his work on earth, and a village of
mourners followed his mortal remains to the cem-
etery and laid them to rest.

Mrs. Anna Cleveland was left with a family of
nine children to watch over and prepare for the
duties of active life. The children were of no
ordinary cast. As a white-haired man who had
lived a neighbor to them for thirty years said yes-
terday, " Such a woman could not have bad chil-
dren." Mrs. Cleveland was in all respects a su-



22 STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND.

perior woman. In appearance she was dignified
and with a kindly face, and at any gathering she
would be noticed. Her children loved and re-
spected her, and to the day of her death bestowed
upon her the tokens of their affection. Home to
them was always the most attractive place on earth,
a very haven of rest. And so she lived until
April 19th, 1882, when, at the age of seventy-eight
years, her life-work was ended, and she, too, was
laid to rest in the village burial-plot.

The children of the family in the order of their
ages are : Mrs. Hastings, who married a missionary
to the Island of Ceylon. The Rev. William
Cleveland, who is now preaching with great ac-
ceptance in the village of Forestport, in this county.
The Hon. Grover Cleveland, who is for the sec-
ond time a candidate for the Presidency of the
United States. Richard Cecil Cleveland, who was
lost at the burning of the ship Missouri, off the
Island of Abaco, Oct. 22d, 1872. Mrs. Hoyt,
whose husband was formerly of Theresa, but is now
a business man in Fayetteville. Mrs. Louisa Bacon,
a most amiable and attractive lady, whose husband
is an architect in Toledo, Ohio. Lewis Frederick
Cleveland, who had marked ability as a business
man. He was, moreover, a jovial and wonderfully
agreeable gentleman, who made friends wherever
he went. He leased a large boarding house at
Nassau and made it very popular. Frederick was
drowned with his brother at the burning of the



STEPHEN GPvOVER CLEVELAND. 23

Missouri. Mrs. Susan Youmans lives at Walrutb
Wayne county. Her husband has re2)resented his
district in the State Legislature. He is also a
heavy owner in Holstein stock. Miss Elizabeth
Cleveland remains at the old homestead. When
Mr. Cleveland was governor she was his guest in
Albany. Miss Cleveland is a talented lady and
has great ability as a writer.

AT HIS OLD HOME.

Mr. Cleveland has not been much in Holland
Patent, as from the time his parents moved there
to the present he has been elsewhere occupied.
But never did he allow a long time to elapse
without paying a visit to his mother, for whom he
had the tenderest affection. When home he was
always doing something to render the house or
grounds more attractive. He held it sufficient re-
ward if the result of his efforts warranted and re-
ceived his mother's commendation. At least twice
each year he took the time to visit the old home-
stead. When in Holland Patent he often took his
gun and with a neighbor, who is an expert with
gun and rod, would pass a day in the forest and
fields. A gentleman who often hunted with Mr.
Cleveland said recently : " He was a good shot, just
as he was good at whatever he undertook." An-
other characteristic which is very noticeable is that
Gi:over Cleveland is a very plain man, and not
given to any false pride on account of his station.



24 STEPHEN GROYER CLEYELAND.

As Mayor of Buffalo or Governor of the State he
was the same among his friends at Holland Patent
as, when a law student making his way in the
world, he came here for a brief vacation. He is
essentially a man of the people, and looks on all
men as equal. The people of that village know
him as a man and for him they all have a kindly
word. The news of his nomination was joyfully
received, and many an old-time Kepublican will
vote for Grover Cleveland.

The graves of the Kev. Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland
are side by side in a well-kept lot of the Holland
Patent Cemetery. The children have erected a
beautiful monument to mark the spot. The ston^
bears this inscription :

Kev. R. F. CLEVELAND.

Pastor at

Holland Patent,

Died Oct. 1, 1853,

Aged 49 years.



ANNA NEAL,

Wife of

R. F. Cleveland,

Died July 10, 1882,

Aged 78 years.
Her children rise up
And call her blessed.

The same stone also bears an inscription to the
memory of the brothers, Richard C. and Lewis F.,
aged thirty-seven and thirty-one years respectively,




DAVID B. HILL.



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 25

who were drowned at sea when the steamship
Missouri was burned off the island of Abaco^ Oct.
22d, 1872. Below are the words :

" Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their
death they were not divided."

Said a man who knew both the brothers : ^^ Their
action at the burning of the ship was characteristic
of the whole family. When the ship caught fire
there was a panic among the passengers. The
officers of the vessel were incompetent and as
frightened as the rest. Amid the confusion Cecil
found his brother Fred, and together they stood by
when the boats were lowered and helped the terror-
stricken passengers into them, doing the work the
recreant Captain should have done. When the
boats were filled there was no room for them, and
together they went down."

MR. Cleveland's parentage.

Mr. Cleveland's great-grandfather, Aaron Cleve-
land, was a Congregational preacher of Norwich,
Connecticut. He was a strong man, both mentally
and physically, and a hundred years ago he was
the author of many radical anti-slavery papers
which attracted much attention. A great-uncle
of the Governor, known as " Father Cleveland,"
was for many years a city missionary in and about
Boston. Grover Cleveland's grandfather, William
Cleveland, was a merchant of his native town of
Norwich, Conn., where he brought up a large



26 STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND.

family, one of his children being Kichard Cleve-
land, father of the present Democratic nominee for
the Presidency. Richard was born at Norwich and
was educated for the ministry, embracing the Pres-
byterian faith. Another of Aaron's sons, William,
a silversmith, was deacon of the Congregational
Church at Norwichtown for twenty-five years pre-
vious to his death in 1837. The youngest of Aaron
Cleveland's thirteen children was the wife of Dr.
Samuel H. Coxe, whose son, Arthur Cleveland
Coxe, became Episcopal Bishop of Western New
York. Grover Cleveland's father was Richard
Falling Cleveland, the second son of Wm. Cleve-
land, the son of the silversmith. After graduating
at Yale in 1824, Mr. Cleveland's father taught school
in Baltimore, studied theology at Princeton, and
became a Presbyterian clergyman at Windham,
near Norwich, in 1828. He married a daughter of
Abner Neal, of Baltimore, in 1829, preached a short
time in Portsmouth, Va., and then settled in Cald-
well, Essex county, N. J., where Grover Cleveland
was born in 1837. The baptismal name was Ste-
phen Grover Cleveland, but at an early age the
Stephen was dropped, and afterward the Governor
has been known as Grover Cleveland.

Mr. Cleveland's parents had nine children. Anna,,
the eldest, was the wife of Dr. Hastings, missionary
to Ceylon ; William N. is a Presbyterian minister
at Forestport, N. Y. ; Mary became Mrs. W. E.
Hoytj Cecil and Frederick were proprietors of a



STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 27

popular winter resort at Nassau, and lost their
lives at the burning of the steamship Missouri off
the Bahamas in 1872; Margaret became Mrs. N.
B. Bawn ; Susan is the wife of L. Youmans, and
another sister, Rose, is unmarried.

Grover Cleveland has only the most shadowy
recollection of his native town, for, when he was
but three years of age, his father with a large fam-
ily and a small income moved by way of the Hud-
son River and Erie Canal to Fayetteville, Oneida
county, N. Y. in search of an increased income
and a more extended field of labor.

Fayetteville was then the most straggling of
country villages — about five miles from Pompey
Hill where Governor Seymour was born. Here
the boy Grover Cleveland first went to school in
the good old-fashioned way, and presumably distin-
guished himself after the manner of all village boys
in doing all the things that he ought not to do.

At the age of fourteen, Grover, having gone
through the course of study at the village school,,
was very anxious to secure the advantages of an
academic training; but his father could not see
things in the same light. He was hardly able to
support his family, and wanted his boy to become
self-supporting as soon as possible.

CLEVELAND GENEALOGY.

The nomination of Grover Cleveland as the
Democratic candidate for President has led us to



28 STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND.

make some investigation of his genealogy, with the
following results:

Moses Cleveland came to this country an ap^
prentice to a ''joyner" in 1635, and established
himself in Woburn in 1648. He married Ann,
daughter of Edward Winn, Sept. 26, 1648.