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CHAP. XXXIV.

THE ELECTION OF CLEVELAND.

1817

feeling, and that a tide was setting in favor of Governor Cleveland, should he be the Democratic nominee. It is beyond question that the fact that Mr. Cleveland was the only candidate likely to attract Republican voters gave him from the first his strength in the Convention. On the second ballot he was nominated for the office of President, and Mr. T. A. Hendricks as VicePresident.

In the Democratic as in the Republican camp there were dissensions. A strong faction was resolutely opposed to the candidacy of Cleveland, and did its utmost to defeat him. The organ of this party was the New York Sun, and the candidate it put forward to draw votes from Cleveland was General Benjamin F. Butler. The campaign was carried on with unparalleled energy and with a disgraceful amount of personality and slander. It was seen from the first that the great State of New York would cast the decisive vote, and the activity of both parties was concentrated there. The result was that New York went Democratic by a small plurality-only 1,447 votes. Some delay took place in counting the votes, and for a day or two the suspense was great, but the count was formally announced on the 15th of November. The great party that had been in power for twenty-five years was defeated at the polls, and the administration entrusted to their rivals. In no country in the world, except in OUR COUNTRY, could such a transfer of all the functions of government from one party to an other have been effected without the slightest symptom of disturbance. On the 4th of March Grover Cleveland was inaugurated at Washington with the usual ceremonies, and nominated as his Cabinet: Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State; Daniel Manning, Secretary of the Treasury; William C. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy; William C. Endicott, Secretary of War; L. Q. C. Lamar, Secretary of the Interior; Augustus H. Garland, Attorney-General; and William F. Vilas,

Postmaster-General.

Of these men, Mr. Bayard belonged to a family one member of which had, from the time of the founding of our present form of government, always been a Senator from Delaware. He himself resigned the Senatorship to take office under President Cleveland. He had been a member of the Electoral Commission in 1877 which gave the Presidency to Mr. Hayes, and had, in addition to talent in debate, always displayed a judicial temper and a wide statesmanship. In 1880, and again in 1884, he had been spoken of as a probable candidate for the Presidency; in the latter year, indeed, at the first ballot of the Chicago Convention, 170 votes were given to Bayard against 392 for Cleveland. This nomination, therefore, to the first post in the new Democratic Cabinet was foreseen. Next in rank, but equal if not superior in importance to the office of Secretary of State, is that of the Secretary of

the Treasury. For this distinguished position Daniel Manning, of Albany, was nominated. He had been an editor of a powerful Democratic paper, and had had long experience in banking and financial affairs. Perhaps, however, these qualifications would not have raised him to the Treasury Department without the additional recommendation that he was the leader of the Democratic party in the State and credited with having the control of the Democratic nominating convention in the campaign just ended-a control which had resulted in the nomination of Grover Cleveland. He seems, as far as we are able to form any opinion of the secret history of the period, to have been the member of the Cabinet who had most influence on the Executive. The rest of his ministers Mr. Cleveland seems to have regarded as heads of departments to carry out the instructions of, the chief executive officer. The appointments of Mr. Endicott, Mr. Whitney, and Mr. Vilas elicited few remarks, but much hostile comment was made by the Republican journals on the nomination to high office of Mr. L. Q. C. Lamar of Georgia and Mr. Garland of Arkansas. Both had cast in their lots with the Southern Confederacy in the dreadful struggle that began at Fort Sumter and ended at Appomattox. The former had not only fought in the Southern armies, but had been dispatched by the President of the Confederate States on a diplomatic mission to Russia. Both had been in the Confederate Congress, but both, at the time of their nomination to Federal office, were members of the United States Senate. As the Southern States had consistently voted for the Democratic candidates, the dictates of policy suggested the nomination to office of men identified with the past as well as the present of the once seceding States, and perhaps no better representatives of the lost cause and the new South could be found than the two gentlemen in question.

The leading foreign diplomatic posts were assigned to Mr. E. J. Phelps, who became Minister to Great Britain, to Mr. R. M. McLane, who became Minister to France, and to Mr. Geo. Pendleton, who had himself long before been spoken of as a possible Vice-President, and now became envoy at Berlin. Of these, Mr. Phelps seems to have been the greatest success. The British mission is always a difficult post, and the position was not rendered more easy by the fact that the new Democratic Minister went as successor to one of the most brilliant and accomplished men our country has produced, Mr. James Russell Lowell, whose works are household words in England as well as here. Mr. Phelps had this advantage over his distinguished predecessor-he was a trained lawyer and a profound scholar in international law. It was doubtless this consideration, in view of the perplexities and troubles likely to arise from the fishery question, that prompted the selection of Mr. Phelps for an office where legal knowledge was of quite as much importance as

CHAP. XXXIV.

THE ELECTION OF CLEVELAND.

1819

diplomatic tact or social success. Two other diplomatic appointments led to considerable discussion and ill-feeling. Mr. A. R. Lawton was nominated to the Russian Mission, but his confirmation was opposed under the plea that he had been in the Confederate service and that his political disabilities had never been removed. Mr. Garland, the Attorney-General, indeed, gave an elaborate opinion to the contrary effect, but the result was that Mr. Lawton declined the nomination in order to save the Government from any embarrassment. The other case was one of much more general importance. Mr. A. M. Keiley was named Minister to the Quirinal, but the kingdom of Italy declined to receive him as a persona non grata. The true reason of the refusal was a speech that Mr. Keiley had made at a public meeting at Richmond called to protest against the occupation of Rome by the Italian troops, in which he had used decidedly intemperate language against the King of Italy and his advisers. Still, as no reason was given by the Italian Government for refusing to accept Mr. Keiley as our representative at the Quirinal, nothing more could be done beyond withdrawing his name. Then one great mistake was made, either by the President or by Mr. Bayard, the latter of whom ought to have been more versed in diplomatic intercourse: Mr. Keiley, rejected by Italy, was nominated to the Imperial Court of Austria. The time was very inopportune for such an appointment. An alliance, or at any rate a good understanding, had been formed between the Courts of Vienna and the Quirinal, and every effort was made on both sides to draw the two powers closer together. Mr. Keiley's presence at Vienna would, therefore, be almost as embarrassing to both as if he had been received at Rome. Again the unfortunate Keiley was declared a persona non grata, and then, with incredible want of tact, a protest was made by Mr. Bayard against the non-acceptance of an American citizen as an American minister, solely because he had been refused by a friendly power, and an inquiry made what other objection existed. With a want of the usual diplomatic tact, Count Kalnoky, the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, replied, with reference to Mr. Keiley's matrimonial relations: "The position," he wrote, "of a foreign envoy wedded to a Jewess by civil marriage would be untenable, and even impossible, in Vienna." More letters came from Mr. Bayard, but the Viennese Court remained inflexible. Mr. Keiley, like Mr. Lamar, was a representative of the South, a man of ability and political weight, who ought to have been spared such slights.

The minor appointments to minor positions under the Federal Government began at once to trouble the new administration. There was the strong party of old Democrats, hungry for the spoils of victory, who clamored for the immediate dismissal of old Republican office-holders. Great

was their wrath when, in consequence of a strong petition from most of the business houses of New York, Mr. Pearson was retained as postmaster at our commercial metropolis. There were the anti-Blaine Republicans, who had voted for Cleveland in the interest of Civil Service reform, and whom both the old parties designated as "Mugwumps." This strange word, first popularized at this epoch, is an old Narragansett Indian word, used in Elliott's translation of the Bible for chief or king, and was now applied to the Civil-service reformers and Independent Republicans to insinuate that they thought themselves better than other men, and bound to no allegiance. The "Mugwumps" in their turn were indignant at the nomination of Mr. Eugene Higgins as appointment clerk in the Treasury. He was described as an unscrupulous political worker and with a bad record, and his installation in such a position as that named was justly regarded as indicating a swerving on the part of the President from his earlier professions of a desire to reform the Civil Service-a desire proclaimed in his announcement that no removals from office would be made except in the case of heads of departments, for "cause" or for "offensive partisanship.”

It is advisable to go into these details respecting the formation of the administration of President Cleveland, as in them lie the causes why he did not succeed in procuring a re-election to a second term. It is the old story-a man cannot serve two masters.

The first business that attracted the attention of the President was the civil war raging in the Central American States, to the detriment of American interests in that quarter. A naval force was dispatched to the scene of disturbance, and a force of marines landed to protect life and property at Aspinwall, which had been occupied and burned by one of the factions. At home the failing health of General Grant continued to evoke universal sympathy. The last act of President Arthur had been to sign the bill restoring him to his rank in the army, but he was not destined to hold the honor long. He died on the 23d of July, and on the 8th of August his remains were brought from Mount MacGregor, where the death took place, to New York. The body lay in state for two days in the City Hall, and was then transported to a spot on the banks of the Hudson in Riverside Park, which the city had assigned for that purpose. The procession which accompanied the funeral car was immense. The President, Vice-President, and Cabinet were present, as well as ex-Presidents Hayes and Arthur; Generals Sherman and Sheridan, and hosts of his old comrades, came from far and near to pay the last honors to their chief; the Governors of all the States swelled the throng, and the Senate and House of Representatives were strongly represented. The military display comprehended detachments from all arms of the regular service,

CHAP. XXXIV.

THE ELECTION OF CLEVELAND.

1821

and contingents from the National Guard of many States, and from the Grand Army of the Republic and the veteran organizations..

The remarkable career of this famous military commander is found best related in his own "Personal Memoirs." Reared in obscurity and poverty, he obtained admission to West Point as a cadet; but seeing no present prospect of occupation as a soldier, he relinquished military life. The breaking out of the war in 1861 brought him from retirement, and he became a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers. Within four years of that time, he had been given the chief command of an army vaster than any that had been handled by any general of ancient or modern times. By unequaled energy, aided by a military genius for which few had given him credit, he won battle after battle till he eventually received the surrender of the Confederate commander-in-chief and his whole army. The last days of his life were, as already mentioned, embittered by his business connections and financial ruin. He was silent under obloquy, patient in reverses, fertile in resources, and tenacious to the verge of obstinacy. He was a firm friend to those whom he had once admitted to his friendship; and this noble quality was too often abused by those who had gained his confidence. In action he was imperturbable; in victory he exhibited unexampled modesty and clemency, without a thought of revenge or punishment. In political life, however, he was ambitious, easily led by his flatterers, and obstinate in his conceived opinions. Personally neither dishonest nor rapacious, he overlooked rapacity and dishonesty, or even pardoned them. Without taking wrongfully, he was open to the charge of accepting too freely; and it was his desire of wealth that led to his ruin. He was a great general, but not a man great enough to descend with dignity from a great position.

On the 28th of November the Vice-President, Mr. Hendricks, died suddenly. By his decease before the meeting of Congress the succession to the Presidency, in case of the death or disability of the President, was left undetermined. By the Constitution, the Congress has the power to provide for the case of the removal or death of either the President or Vice-President, but the Congress had not yet organized. When it did meet on the 7th of December the Senate elected Senator Sherman its President pro tempore, the acting Vice-President thus being the leader of the opposition to the President's policy. So great was the anxiety felt at this unexpected state of affairs that, by the advice of his Cabinet, the President declined to attend the funeral of his colleague. Various proposals had been made at various times with a view to settling beyond peril the question of succession. In the early part of 1883 a bill for this purpose was brought in, and as the death of Mr. Hendricks again called the attention of the Nation to this important

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