line — all these appealed in a surprising way
to the conscience as well as to the pockets
of the people. At once there came a
realizing sense of the dangers with which
we were threatened, and in spite of the
fact that at the succeeding election the
majority of the electoral votes was not cast
for the man who had written this messas^e
and emphasized this issue, the sentiment of
the country was shown by the fact that a
decided popular majority was cast in its
favor.
THE TABIFF-REFOBM MESS A GE. 217
It would be difficult to overestioiate the
effect of tills messa2:e. For one thin 2: it
took politics out of the ruts into which it
had fallen, and gave the country something
real, over which its voters might divide.
It showed that so far as Mr. Cleveland was
concerned, the war, glorious memory though
it was, should not be permitted to fasten
upon the country permanently a system of
taxation which had been devised merely
for the purpose of meeting an imperious
and temporary necessity. Then, too, it
gave fiscal questions a different standing.
Complaint was no longer made that a
speech on the tariff was dull, or that an ex-
position on the financial condition of the
country was of necessity stupid. In spite
of the result of the election in 1888, and
whatever may be the result of that of 1892
or any other that may follow, the good
effects of the message of 1887 cannot be
overestimated.
Probably no document of the same
length ever had so wide a reading in the
same sj)ace of time as this message.
It did not say anything new, but the man
218 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
wlio wrote it had the courasre to see the
peril into which the country had been
drawn by adherence to a dangerous policy,
and, seeing this, he was willing to stake his
political fortunes upon the correction of
these wron2:s.
It would, however, be a mistake to look
upon this message as nothing more than a
discussion of the tariff question. It was
truly this, and as such it was most intelli-
gent and effective ; but its influence upon
political discussion bids fair to be so far-
reaching that, in the end, it will insure not
only a change from a bad to a sound and
sensible fiscal system, but the practical re-
generation of our politics.
When the movement resulting from it is
carried to its logical conclusions, it means
that selfishness shall not add the power of
government to the force that it already
possesses. That message reorganized and
rejuvenated one political party. In the
course of time, it will have the same eft'ect
on all parties, however great or small they
may be, and on all sections or movements
that may be organized for the next quarter
THE TARIFF-REFORM MESS A GE. 219
of a century. Nominally, the man who
wrote it and brought this moral force into
politics was defeated for re-election, but in
reality he was the most successful public
man known to our history. The seeming
defeat of that day was not a defeat at all ;
it was a victory for moral principles in
politics and for a man who was ready to do
whatever lay in his power for those princi-
ples. It put new life into political discus-
sion, and took the country out and far
away from the old and sectional questions
that should have been dropped long before,
and brought to the front new problems of
every kind.
Mr. Cleveland has sometimes been criti-
cised for having delayed this message. But
nothing is clearer now than that the mes-
sage was timely, because it was necessary,
and that this necessity did not make itself
absolutely apparent until the period men-
tioned. The condition of things was bad
in 1885 and 1886, but there was little
then to indicate that the evils from
which the country was suffering were the
result of one serious abuse. Then, too,
220 A LIFE OF ORG VER CLEVELAND.
there were many other things to do besides
reforming the tariff. The principles of one
great party had been excluded from consid-
eration for twenty-five years. It was neces-
sary to reassert these before the country
could be aroused upon a great fiscal ques-
tion, to Avhich, ho\v^ever great or important
it may be, it is always difiicult to attract
universal attention. The President was
engaged during all these years in choosing
men who should assert these princi^jles.
He had very little time to study this ques-
tion in all its bearings. That lie had an
intelligent appreciation of it was shown
from the days of the Newark speech in
1884.
His personal relations to the question
were, howevei*, well illustrated by an in-
cident early in his career as President.
During these early days he talked with
Speaker (now Senator) John G. Carlisle of
Kentucky, on this issue. It was only
natural that such a man as Mr. Carlisle,
who had given so much attention to the
question of taxation, should desire to
impress his views strongly upon the Presi-
THE TARIFF-REFORM MESS A GE. 221
dent. In reply the latter said, in substance,
that he had had little opportunity to give
the matter careful study, but that his views
were in accord with the position his party
had assumed on the question of revenues.
He did not believe in using the power of
the government to help individuals or
interests, but averred that he had never
had a chance to give it the thought it
ought to have or that he intended to give it.
As the administration went on, his at-
tention was attracted to it, so that in 1887
he was able to make the study necessary
to write the historic message of that year.
He no doubt felt that in addition to his
own desire on this matter, a position
reached after long consideration, he was
almost driven to it by public necessity.
Then came that wonderful document, which,
slowly elaborated in his own mind, so far
as the details were concerned, was not
given to the public until after consultation
with the men entitled to know about it.
From that time forward nobody had any
reason to complain that Grover Cleveland
did not know something about the tariff
222 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
question, and tliat he was not interested
in it.
Apropos of this, the result of another
interview with Mr. Carlisle may proj)erly
be narrated. Just before the meetins: of
congress in December, 1888, after the elec-
tion, Mr. Cleveland sent for the Speaker of
the House to consult with him about the
tariff portion of his message. Before be-
ginning the conversation, as has been nar-
rated by the ex-Speaker himself, the Presi-
dent said :
" I have asked you to call and see me, Mr.
Speaker, in order that I may get your views
about that portion of my message wliich
deals with the tariff question. You know
that I have always been willing and anxious
to consult the wishes of the leaders of m}^
party on every public question ; that I have
tried to show that deference to their wishes
that their position demanded, and so far as
it was consonant with the interests of the
country, but I want to tell j^ou now that if
every other man in the country abandons
this issue I shall stick to it."
Certainly no])ody could conq^lain that
progress in knowledge between the time of
these two interviews had not been rapid.
THE TARIFF-REFORM MESSAGE. 223
It has been asserted many times that
Mr. Cleveland was defeated because of the
question of 1887, and that he deliberately
threw away the Presidency for this idea,
when, if he had enunciated the message
the year before, or left it until a year
later, he might have been re-elected.
That the message of 1887 enabled his op-
ponents to raise a large corruption fund is,
no doubt, true; but if that message had
not been sent to congress — if the countiy
had been permitted to drift, perhaps the
opposing party could not have raised so
much money. But it could have raised
enough for its purposes if an election
was to be won by corrupt methods. The
message of 1886 was positive enough on this
question, and would have enabled the oppos-
ing party to raise, if not so much, at least
enough to bring about the apparently in-
auspicious result that followed.
Whatever effect it may have had upon
his personal fortunes, nothing in the his-
tory of the country has had such a good
effect upon a political party as did this
message upon that of which Mr. Cleveland
224 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
was and has been for many years the
leader; so that it would have made very
little difference whether the party had gone
out of power in four years or in eighty if it
had no principles at the end of either or in
the intei'im. Mr. Cleveland gave it these,
or rather from his lofty position he reas-
serted them with such emphasis that
nothing can now stop the progress of the
ideas that he then enunciated until they
shall have been successful.
CHAPTER XIII.
CANVASS OF 1888 AND EETIEE^IENT.
Mr. Cleveland was renominated by the
convention of his party at St. Louis in
June, 1888, without a dissenting vote. He
would not permit any of the Federal
officeholders to take part either in the pre-
liminary proceedings or in those of the con-
vention itself. Every State in the Union
instructed its delegates to vote for him.
The campaign which resulted from this
was a bitter and uni'elenting; one on the
part of the Kepublicaus. They had known
CANVASS OF 1888 AXI) RETIREMEXT. 225
for four years wliat it was to be in the
minority. They had also felt what it was
to have a President of the United States
who represented the reverse of everything
that they themselves had emphasized dur-
ing the latter stages of the history of their
party. So they attempted to make use of
the tariff-reform message of the previous
year to raise the usual scare about the re-
duction of wages of workingmen. In this
they had little success, but as the canvass
progressed it became apparent that there
was not enough time to reach the farming
population of the country and to instruct
them fully in the meaning of tariff reform.
The desperation of Republican partisans
and the interests of certain classes of manu-
facturers enabled the managers to raise
large sums of money, which were used cor-
ruptly and with much effect in several of
the close States. In this way the vote of
Indiana was carried, and in the same way
the State of New York gave its electoral
vote to Mr. Harrison by a small majority.
Probably at no time in our history has
there been such a carnival of corruption as
226 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
was seen at that time. The success
achieved was, however, comparatively small
so far as public sentiment was concerned,
as the party successful in the elec-
toral college was unable to command a
majority of the votes of the United States.
While Mr. Harrison carried twenty States
with 233 electoral votes and Mr. Cleveland
eighteen States with 168 electoral votes,
Mr. Cleveland received 5,538,233 votes,
while Mr. Harrison received 5,440,216.
Mr. Cleveland did not indulge in any
wailing or repining over the result of the
election. Personally it was no disappoint-
ment. He had had a thorough trial of the
labor and difficulties attending his high
office. He felt, as perhaps no man in re-
cent times has felt, the gigantic responsi-
bilities of the office. He did not cliange
his method of transacting public business.
He gave the same careful attention to de
tails and still sho^ved the same positiveness
which he exhibited from the beginning of
his public career. He vetoed bills that did
not conform to his standard, and in many
respects did some of the best work of his
CANVASS OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT. 227
entire administration during the four
months intervening between the election
and the inauraration of his successor.
In the mean time he began to make
preparations for a return to the practice of
his profession, and made arrangements to
enter into partnership with Bangs, Stetson,
Tracy &, MacVeagh in New York. For
almost the first time in our recent history,
the defeat of a candidate for President did
not have the effect of directing public
attention away from him and toward his
successor. In fact, more than ever the pub-
lic heart seemed to turn to him, and he
was probably more popular on the day after
his defeat and in spite of it than he was the
day that he was renominated by acclama-
tion in the National Convention of his own
party.
Immediately after the inauguration of his
successor, Mr. Cleveland came to New York,
and, after remaining for a little time at
his hotel in order to make the necessary
preparations, settled down at No. 816
Madison Avenue. From the beginning
the greatest interest was manifested in his
228 A LIFE OF OROVER CLEVELAND.
movements. He commanded as much
attention as lie had when President, and it
was soon to be demonstrated that on cere-
monial occasions, when both were partici-
pants, he was shown more resj^ect than his
successful rival for President of the United
States. He was received into fellowship
by the members of his profession in New
York, wuth many of whom he had come
into contact during the days of his practice
in Buffalo and in the State courts. With
many others he had been thrown into rela-
tions during the six busy years of high
political office. He had challenged the
highest respect from these men, and it was
only natural that the leaders of the bar of
New York should feel it incumbent upon
them to welcome to his new residence the
man who had brought so much honor to
them and to their calling.
He declined nearly all invitations from
political organizations, especially from
those non-partisan in their character. He
no doubt saw clearly that if he permitted
himself to receive attentions from one
organization, he would find it impossible
CANVASS OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT. 229
to draw the line vihen others might seek to
render him the same honor. So he ac-
cepted only a single invitation, and made
but one speech in response to the welcome
extended to him. It was especially proper
that this should be given him by a club
or organization representing his own party.
So on the 27tli of April, after his re-
moval to New York, he made a speech
before the Democratic Club of the city of
New York, in which he reviewed briefly
the principles upon which he had con-
ducted himself during his political careei',
then temporarily closed. He asserted that
he had been honored by his party far be-
yond his deserts, and declared that no man
could deserve its highest honors. But he
said : " After six years of public service, I
return to you, my party friends. Six years
have I stood as your representative in the
State and nation, and now I return again
to the ranks, more convinced than ever
that the success of true Democracy is the
cause of the people — their safeguard and
their hope." He also declared that he
came without excuses or apologies, and with
230 .1 LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND.
no conviction of disloyalty. He reviewed
the work done by liis party, as usual
taking for himself only a modest share.
He insisted that as the party had rehabili-
tated itself as a party of principles that it
should continue its work in the same way,
and renew its fealty to the Constitution
and to the interests of the people.
In this speech he made one of the strong-
est declarations of his whole life, expres-
sive of the exalted idea that he had of
party usefulness and of the necessity of
a continual devotion to the public interests.
He said : " We know that we have es-
poused the cause of right and justice.
We know that we have not permitted
duty to country to wait upon expediency.
We know that we have not trafficked our
principles for success. We know that we
have not deceived the people with false
promises and pretenses; and we know
that we have not corrupted or betrayed
the poor with the money of the rich."
This sentence has been repeated again
and again. It has been made the text of
great political organizations working in-
CAMVAS8 OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT. 231
side the Democratic party and devoted to
its ideas and purposes. To it Mr. Cleve-
land owes much of the new position that
came to him in his own party after he left
the Presidency. As usual, he admonished
his hearers to remain steadfast to the
Democratic faith and to the cause of the
country, and insisted that if they were true
and loyal to these, " the day of triumph
would surely and quickly come, and the
victory be nobly and fairly won through
the invincible spirit of true Democracy."
His first appearance on a popular occasion
after his retirement from the Presidency was
at the Washino'ton inauo:uration Centennial
in New York on April 30 of the same year.
Few pageants more magniiicent have been
seen in this country than those that occu-
pied the attention of the people of that
great city, and of their guests, during the
three days of the Centennial celebrating
Washington's inauguration.
But they were more than this, as they
showed how a man who had done unselfish
and patriotic service could be received and
appreciated by his countrymen. Where-
232 A LIFE OF G ROVER CLEVELAND.
ever he appeared be was received with the
liveliest manifestations of delight and
enthusiasm ; and when he responded to a
toast at the banquet which concluded the
ceremonies there was no longer any doubt
about his position in the hearts of his
countrymen.
He made only a few speeches during
the summer, which he devoted to getting
as much rest as possible. After the long
period of hard work this was most grate-
ful. But on December 12, 1889, he made
what it is fair to call the greatest speech of
his life up to and including that time.
This was delivered in Boston before the
Merchants' Association of that city — a
body \vithout partisan leanings or affilia
tions. He chose for his suljject '' Political
Selfishness and its Antidotes," and in it he
took occasion to discuss on the most ele-
vated plane all the questions of the day
then pressing for settlement. He empha-
sized at considerable length the responsi-
bility of business men to the country, and
reminded them that perhaps the older mer-
chants, their predecessors in the commercial
CANVASS OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT. 233
organizations of Boston, had not been led
to depend upon the bounty or the liber-
ality of the government for the favor
which they deemed it but right and proper
they should win for themselves. He re-
ferred briefly to fiscal questions, and in-
sisted that the revenues of the country
should be levied and collected only because
the money resulting therefrom was needed
to defray the public expenses.
He dwelt with much plainness upon the
political corruption of the time, and re-
probated with severity the purchase of
votes by political managers or parties, as
well as their sale by the individual voter.
As a natural result from this, he advocated
with enthusiasm the enactment of laws
looldns: to a secret ballot, and it is due
no doubt quite as much to his honest and
open advocacy of this idea as to the
popular conception of the magnitude of
the evils involved that nearly two-thirds of
the States of the American Union have
since that time passed laws looking to a
reform of the ballot. In advocating this
idea, he declared : ^' There are no leaders in
234 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
this cause. Those who seem to lead the
movement are but swept to the front by
the surging force of patriotic sentiment.
It rises far above partisanship, and only the
heedless, the sordid, and the depraved re-
fuse to join in the crusade." He insisted,
too, that this reform was " predicated upon
the cool deliberation of political selfishness
in its endeavor to prostitute our suffrage
to the purposes of private gain." As the
advocacy of this had the natural effect al-
ready noted of arousing public sentiment
to the magnitude of the evil with which it
had to deal, so in the same speech he de-
clared anew his devotion to the cause of
civil service reform, and went so far as to
say that "it is to-day our greatest safe-
guard against the complete and disgrace-
ful degradation of our public service."
In spite of the fact that the speaker was
so well known throughout the countr}', and
so popular with every element of his
fellow-citizens, this speech had almost an
electrical eft'ect. It showed tlie country
that it had to deal ^vith no ordinary man,
and that it made but little difference
GANVA88 OF 1888 AND RETIREMENT- 235
whether he was President of the United
States or in private life. In the latter he
felt the responsibility of citizenship as in
the former he had felt the responsibility
of an official. This speech showed, too, a
great advance in many respects over any
previously made.
It was the longest political speech of
his entire career up to that time, and yet
it was brief enough to find universal publi-
cation, and to be read at every fireside in
the land. If he had not occupied a unique
position among his countrymen, this
speech of itself would have given it to
him, and I think I hazard nothing in as-
serting that, more than anything else, it cre-
ated the public sentiment that demanded
his renomination, a demand wdiich from
that time became resistless. It mattered
little thereafter what political managers
might do. It mattered little what plans the
manipulators of political caucuses might
attempt to carry out. The sentiment of
the American people was behind Grover
Cleveland, and it predetermined the action
of his party. From that time forward he
236 ,1 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
made many speeches, and it was soon
plain that here was a man who was not con-
fined to a single idea, but one whose lofty
ideas were not expressed merely for sel-
fish purposes, and who could see beyond
primaries and elections.
In November, 1890, he made a notable
speech at the banquet given in Columbus,
O., to Allen G. Thurman, on his seventy-
seventh birthday. This was indeed the
first partisan speech he made since the wel-
come that had been extended to him by
the Democratic Club. He followed this
up by another party speech, or rather
one reviewing the tariff agitation, de-
livered before the Keform Club of Kew
York, during Christmas week of 1890.
So, too, he went to Philadelphia and made
a speech on Jackson day, January 8, 1891.
It is not my purpose, ho^\ ever, to review
in detail the various speeches that Mr.
Cleveland has made. Those carefully pre-
pared, from March 4, 1889, to his nomi-
nation for the third time by his party on
June 23, 1892, amount to about forty.
Many were delivered befoi'e political
CANVASS OF 1888 AND RETIRE3Ib:ST. 237
organizations of one kind and another.
He showed the greatest willingness to do
w^hatever lay in his power to promote
every good object. By this time lie had
become known as the most successful of
after-dinner speakers, and the demands
made upon bis time were greater perhaps
than upon any of his contemporaries.
During the campaign of 1891 he made four
political speeches, two in his own city of
New York, one in Brooklyn, and one in
Boston, advocating the re-election of Wil-
liam E. Russell as Governor of Massachu-
setts. But a partisan speech of Mr. Cleve-
land's is not so different from his usual ad-
dresses as is the case with most men. He
does not take merely a partisan view of po-
litical questions, so that he rises to the same
lofty plane when he is addressing himself to
a gathering of his own political friends as
he does when he is speaking to an audience
made up of all the elements of his country-
men.
Perhaps his most notable speech during
the past year was that delivered before the
students of the University of Michigan at
238 A LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND.
Ann Harbor on Washington's Birthday,
February 22, of the present year. He took
for his topic " Sentiment in our National
Life," and treated it with such cogency
and from such a lofty point of view, that
he really gave to a subject long since
hackneyed a vigor and an interest that are
rare. There are passages in it that would
make the fortune of even the greatest
of our public speakers. After reviewing
the elements that enter into American
sentiment, and insisting that they should
be deeply imbedded in the minds and
hearts of his countrymen, and after insist-
ing, too, that we cannot outgrow dej^end-
ence upon sentiment, nor reach a stage of
our national development when it will be
less important than now, he em23hasized
his position in these notable utterances :
'' I beg you, therefore, to take with you
when you go forth to assume the obligations
of American citizenship, as one of the best