The writings and speeches of Grover Cleveland

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT by Pack Bros.,N. Y.

Introduction

The psent generation of readers, studious of the history of our eiier days, and curious as to the lives and ideas oi the men ho made that history, lias demanded new and com plete copctions of the works of the fathers of the republic. Two ntf editions of the writings of Washington compete for favoj; and when, in 1885, a change in party supremacy broughtjo the Presidency the representative of opinions Ionexclude from our national policy, an increased demand at oncejrose for the works of Thomas Jefferson. When the agitatk ; of a great fiscal problem was begun in earnest in 1887, t| advocates of the protective policy could find nothing better i< illustrate their theories than by a recurrence to the reft on Manufactures made by Alexander Hamilton, while pretary of the Treasury in the administration of our first Ijsident. Interest in the opinions of men in our later histor las also been revived until the works even of those withii ery recent times — always less accurately known than those ore remote— have been added to the list. This impulse 3 adorned our political literature with many studies of great due to the future historian, and has enabled the readef to-day to estimate, with some approach to accuracy, the cacter and achievements of the leaders of thought and actiorho have preceded him in the arena of politics.

N<pology, then, is necessary for bringing together the v iil IN TROD UCTION.

writings and speeches of a man who, during the past ten years, has so profoundly influenced the thought and action of his countrymen, and who has held, with the highe; it acceptance, the greatest official place in the gift of his fe How-men. Nor can it be deemed inappropriate if such a work is accompanied by a modest attempt to analyze in some di ;gree the character of the man, as shown by his public utteran ces, or to measure the elements that gave him, within so brief a time, a unique position in the affections of his countrymen, i md made him a power in a great nation.

In the rise and development of our public men, t he legislative body has been so conspicuous in their train ing that it might not unfairly be termed the fitting school for the Presidency. Of the twenty-three men who have fil led that august place, all but four saw service — most of them c :omparatively early in life — in Continental Congresses, in C Constitutional Conventions, in one or the other House of Con; jress, or in State Legislatures. Many of them were conspicuou s figures in such bodies, and the result in some instances was tl lat their aspirations were early directed toward the lofty plac e which they were finally called to fill.

Some were thus brought prominently before their country, men, in important positions, during a long term o I years. Thus, Washington did not reach the Presidency until fourteen years after he had become the most conspicuous soldh ;r of the New World ; nor Jefferson until a quarter of a century after he had made his name immortal by writing the Declaration of Independence. It was not until twenty-one years afte r he did his great work of collaboration in the writing of the " Federalist" that Madison became President. John Quincy Adams did notable diplomatic work thirty-one years prior to his elec-

INTRODUCTION. ix

tion as President ; and his rival and successor, Jackson, did not finally reach the goal of his ambition until thirty-twi after he had entered public life, as the first representative of the then new State of Tennessee, in the lower house of Congress. \\\ later times, James Buchanan's legislative career in Pennsylvania began forty-three years before his inauguration as President, while the like service of Abraham Lincoln, in Illinois, preceded his culminating success by twenty-seven years.

Without multiplying examples, it is plain that the public man who reaches this high office after such training must, of necessity, leave behind him, upon his retirement, a great body of writings and speeches. The genius of our institutions both permits and makes necessary the expression of opinion, by a public man, on a great variety of topics. It is only natural, however, that many of the early speeches of men thus trained should have little enduring value. In the inception of such service, entered upon in comparative youth and before the character is fully formed, speeches are made upon nearly every measure that may be introduced. These may contribute something to an intelligent understanding of an issue at the time, or even to its settlement ; but amid our rapidly changing political conditions, interest in both the speech and the question is soon lost. In most cases such oratorical efforts remain little more than temporary contributions to an issue restricted to a neighborhood or a State.

Grover Cleveland had none of this training in politi oratory. Until his inauguration as Mayor of Buffalo, in January, 1S82, his experience and discipline were entirely professional. While an assistant to the District Attorney of Erie County, New York— his first independent position as a

X IN TR OD UC TION.

lawyer — he was constantly engaged in the work belonging to a prosecuting officer. His speeches then had the same characteristics that have distinguished his public utterances since he came into political prominence. They were short, concise, carefully prepared, and never labored or showy either in matter or in delivery. His manner of speaking was earnest, well adapted, then as now, to both subject and audience. His cases were submitted with clear and direct statements of the law and the facts, and his arguments were made with such care that neither judge, jury, nor culprit had reason to complain of being bored with the loose, rambling legal talks so often indulged in by prosecuting officials.

From 1S66 to 1882 — with the exception of the years between 187 1 and 1874 — he was engaged in the active and unremitting practice of his profession. He had for his associates the best lawyers of the large city in which he lived, and as he was brought into contact, before the Courts, with the recognized leaders of his profession, he met his growing responsibilities with confidence and success. He proved himself equal to each new duty. He was actively engaged in politics only so far as an interest in local affairs or in the struggles of his party were involved. He seldom made a political speech, but his increasing professional labors kept him in constant training as a speaker, and he easily met the demands of his new position in this respect as in all others. He took part in memorial meetings held for the purpose of paying the last tribute of respect to members of his profession, and the earliest speech in this volume is that on the character of Oscar Folsom, his former partner and dearest friend, in July, 1875. He made others of the same kind, and achieved such success that he was called upon to bear his part on these occasions at his

INTRODUCTIOA \i

old home even aftei his election to the Governorship ol Ins State. His judgment of nun was shown to be just and dis criminating, and his habit of careful preparation stood him in

good stead. Another part of his training and practice thai contributed much to his skill in saying clearly what h< had in mind, was his work in drawing indictments and other law papers. To a natural facility for expression, he thus added a most exacting training.

It was not, then, a man untrained to clear and accurate statement, or unused to effective and eloquent speech, that astonished his neighbors and the people — always ready towelcome the advent of a man with ideas and character — by those vigorous messages which soon commanded attention from the people of a great State. As the result of this fitness for important place, Mr. Cleveland had an advantage never before enjoyed by a public man. Almost from the beginning of his career — it was only a year after these earliest messages until he had become Governor of the great State of New York — he was able to make his appeal to the waiting people of a nation, on all the great problems in which they were interested.

In spite of the demonstrated possession of effective oratorical powers, Mr. Cleveland made but few speeches before his inauguration as President. Into these he condensed much thought and food for thought. They were prepared with care, as neither then nor since has he permitted even the most exacting public duties to make him careless either as to thought or form. He knew what he wanted to say, or studied until he found out, and then showed that he could say it to advantage. His speeches were quotable. They were filled with epigrams and pithy sentences, easy of recollection for reader xii INTRODUCTION.

or hearer, and as they were short, everyone interested in the question was sure to read and to recommend them to his associates. His manner of delivery was earnest, and he early learned the art of putting himself into sympathetic relations with his audience. He did not speak until he felt that he had something his countrymen needed to be told, and was early recognized as a man who did not make speeches merely for the sake of talking, or with the purpose of attracting attention to himself. He showed a willingness to discuss the various and varied problems of our social and political life, without pushing himself forward or shirking the expression of opinion.

One of Mr. Cleveland's claims to distinction lies in the fact that he was the first President to take the country entirely away from the prejudices and traditions of the Civil War, while still preserving the great moral lessons that made it so real as an influence on national life and character. It was his good fortune to restore perfect confidence between the elements of a people long widely sundered. This had been talked about by every President and public man for a full score of years ; but his predecessors could not escape from their environment, or fully recognize the fact that old things had passed away and that all things were become new. The war left many problems, some of them more serious than a civilized nation had ever before known. But struggle or dream as he might, during the long period under discussion, no President could get away from prejudice and partisanship. The one great overmastering issue had been settled by the stern arbitrament of war. When it no longer remained as a reality it was still left to do duty as a tradition. Giant abuses had followed its settlement and in order to correct them th§

TNTRODUCTIOh iciii

courage of the soldier must give way to thai civ

so rare among men, aijid so valuable to a people. This could nol be found at once, and yet no perfect readjustmenl wa ■ pi until it was found, and the man representing it was installed in a commanding place.

Mr. Cleveland was elected President, and .is the result of his wisdom, prudence, and foresight the war became merely an episode in our country's history. It was a glorious memory ; not a living issue about which parties must divide or nun quarrel. The "conscious nationality," for which Lowell had longed, had come at last. The last canvass had been conducted on the ideas of twenty years before ; we now found a man whose patriotic aspirations were not bounded by the next election. Our national horizon was enlarged, and with this wider view, new thoughts and sentiments were aroused. The past was now so secure that both duty and necessity compelled a great people to look to the future with earnestness and hope. Coming thus into the new conditions which he did so much to create, there is nowhere in Mr. Cleveland's utterances any regret that the past had left problems for him and his generation to solve. He turns always with confidence and hope to the new duties that lie before his country or confront its leaders and people.

When courage, tempered by conscience, were combined with the power inhering in a great office, the value of the resulting service was simply incalculable. Mr. Cleveland has always impressed his countrymen with his belief that, however bad the conditions or the men they had produced, the virtue and intelligence of his countrymen were potent to save from the gravest perils. Yet he is not one of those who, call ing themselves optimists, affect to believe that things will com.

xiv INTRODUCTION.

right without an effort to make them s6; and as he has always emphasized the doctrine that the individual must work, and struggle with temptation and danger in order that he may find or create opportunity, so to him the nation, the State, or the community, is only an aggregation of units, and cannot escape, without effort, the consequences of weakness, selfishness, or wrongdoing.

He never looks upon a temporary abuse as a necessary effect or fixture of government by the people. So, always and everywhere, he emphasizes the necessity for patriotic effort. His exhortation to care and watchfulness shows how deeply seated is the sentiment of faith in the right. With him appeal lies to the good sense, the ingrained probity, the moral purposes of his fellow-men. He insists everywhere that if these are good in private life, and if the individual finds them desirable and necessary, it is still more important that the same principles shall animate the mass when it takes the form of organized society. His speeches and letters show not the least sign of demagogy. He no more appeals to the base passions of men when they are associated, than he would if they could be resolved into their original units.

His countrymen already know Mr. Cleveland as a man of tender heart, kindly toward his neighbors and the world, considerate of the interests of all, and indifferent to nothing human. They will find in his writings and speeches, here massed together, new and emphatic evidence of this sentiment. He is interested in political problems because, in his view, their discussion and right settlement will promote the happiness of his fellow-men. He insisted upon the honest and decent conduct of the affairs of a city, because he believed that the health, prosperity, and happiness of its people would

INTRODUCTION. xv

be promoted, and he has shown thai he believes the welfare of the people of a State or a great nation should be the in \ concern of the men chosen to direct its destinies.

He emphasizes, at all times, the duty of economy and thrift, both public and private, because of his conviction that a plain and prosperous people must be a contented and a happy one , and insists, with even more emphasis, that fine houses, great fortunes, and material prosperity should be only means to an end, and that end the greatest good of all. He saves the taxpayers' money from misappropriation, when convinced thai its expenditure is wrong or that it is about to be devoted to useless or questionable purposes. He refuses to permit the bestowal of a pension upon an unworthy claimant, because it would do violence to the sentiment of honesty that animates him. While his kindness of heart is everywhere apparent, in act as well as in speech, he does not permit himself to do an act of charity with money derived from taxation, when placed at his disposal by reason of his official position, even though it might commend itself as worthy if appeal were made to him as an individual.

So, while he is the most practical of men, he is made so because every action is dictated by honor and duty. This faculty has enabled him to appeal to his countrymen in his individual right. With exalted conceptions of the dignity of a great office, and the ability and courage to fix the very highest standard in act, as well as in theory, his countrymen have given him the perfect confidence that comes to few public men — a confidence that never comes to the servant of the people unless he is at the same time a high type of man, morally as well as intellectually.

A man of this kind deals only with the serious concerns of

XVI IN TROD I r C ' TION.

life. He does not take a light view of them. Though his sense of humor is keen, and he can hold unworthy men or groveling ideas up to ridicule in the most effective way, he could not make a joke on any question that had a moral issue in it, or on the character of George Washington. It is an interesting fact that such serious discussion should be welcomed from a man of elevated character with a great official dignity behind it. The number of public men who can command the attention of their countrymen upon the most important business problems is not large, and much of Mr. Cleveland's unquestioned popularity arises from the fact that he is the one President, since the war period, who has gained the unreserved confidence of his countrymen on great fiscal questions. Whatever men may think of his party affiliations or his views of public policy, there is agreement in the judgment that he will conduct the financial affairs of the nation with unquestioned safety. The secret of all this lies in the fact that he applies to every question as it affects the public the well-grounded moral principles which, according to his view, ought to govern men in their individual relations.

It has been fortunate for Mr. Cleveland and his countrymen that he was a man of mature years and thought before he began to speak, and that, from the beginning of his public career, he has never spoken at random. He did not have to conduct any oratorical experiments at the expense of his hearers in order to make his art useful. He was forty-four years old when, in those remarkable messages to the Common Council of Buffalo, he began a public career which, in a little more than three years, led him to the White House. He had learned to write and speak well while he was engaged modestly in the practice of his profession. But he

TNTRODUCTIOh xvii

had something infinitely better and more effective than for saying things plainly and well. He had something to say. He had gone in and oui before his neighbors, studying their needs and forming an opinion about the best way to correi I the evils that he saw about him. With this knowledge of the existence of abuses, and his habit of carefully studying every question as it came before him, he had no difficulty in mastering it in all its bearings and in suggesting a remedy.

His speeches and publie papers are not mere pointers on the politieal weather-vane, or the exposition of something thai has already become popular. He deems it his duty to direel attention to wrongs, and when he finds a great one he attaeks il with the same intelligence and energy that he shows when dealing with the many smaller ones included in it. He does not seek to alarm or to punish only petty offenders who are weak, in order to impress the public, while big and strong ones are left to escape. He shirks nothing. He will veto, ruthlessly, an ordinance awarding a city contract to a politieal and personal friend, when he knows that the bid is too high, or that bad methods have been employed to secure it. He cannot be induced to sign a bill for the reason that a political friend may think it useful to his own party. If his power is enlarged, he considers that his responsibility is increased in even a greater ratio. While he may condemn the cowardice that unnecessarily puts responsibility upon him, he does not shirk it and make excuse because a legislative body has dealt unfairly with him and the public interests. He applies to each case the test of morality as well as that of good sense, and emphasizes his belief that principle, as well as policy, is involved in every measure brought to him for action, and in every cause upon which he may be called to express an opinion.

XVlll INTRODUCTION.

His utterances have a consistency .seldom found in those of public men who have come to high places. This does not arise from an obstinate attachment to opinions simply because he has formed or expressed them. As he seeks to measure every question by its moral bearings, and has done so all his life, he is not forced to argue himself into the conclusion that the thing that was right when applied to the business management of his city, can be wrong because the affairs or the business of the United States are involved. He will not do a thing, or refuse to do it, in order to impress the public. So far as official action or the expression of opinion on any public question is concerned, his own candidacy for an office, or the seeking of support, is not in his thought. If votes come to him or his party because he has done an honest or a courageous thing, he welcomes them ; but if he is expected to win them by either doing a wrong or winking at it, he will not so much as consider it, and that would be a bold man who would dare propose it ; nor does he have to convince himself in order to carry out such a policy in a responsible place, or to avow his sympathy with a good cause. If the existence of an abuse is admitted, and measures are concerted to attack it, his countrymen are never left long in doubt about his attitude toward it, nor do they ask themselves whether he will have the courage to avow his convictions.

This is well shown by his position upon some of the important questions he has been called upon to deal with in executive place. As Mayor, Governor, and President, he has insisted that the abuse of the taxing power was the most serious known to government. In his speech, accepting the nomination of Mayor of Buffalo, he expressed the opinion that " much can be done to relieve our citizens from their

INTRODUCTION.

present load of taxation," and he insisted that "a more rigor-

ous scrutiny of all public expenditures will result in a greal saving to the community." The message of [887 is no more than this. There is a change of scene, the magnitudi oi the evils involved is greater, but the principle is the same. This insistence that none but necessary taxes shall be levied and that the resulting revenues musl be expended with economy, runs like a thread through everything that he has said, and has been a guiding principle in all that he has done ; and yet there is nowhere a suggestion of niggardliness, or of a desire or willingness to put up with bad work in order that a few dollars may be saved.

When, in 1882, he became a candidate for Governor, his attachment to the principle of a reformed civil service was as warm, his understanding of it as correct, and his arguments for it as strong as they are in his latest message, speech, or letter. He avowed his attachment to the doctrines of the Pendleton bill while it was pending and showed that he knew what it meant then as well as he did after he had applied its principles in a practical way, and had proved himself the best and most effective friend that genuine civil service reform ever had.

When an agitation looking to the reform of defective election laws was entered upon, he avowed his sympathy with it at the first opportunity, and that, too. when he was only a private citizen and had no responsibilities either to be shirked or assumed. He saw clearly that while abuses of the election laws were not causes, they were at least the most serious of the effects produced by a bad system.*

* The franchise is not debauched in the interest of g I laws and honest

government. It is by those who have special interests to subserve at the xx INTRODUCTION.

For many years, the free coinage of silver has been one of the most serious of our unsettled problems. The question had been juggled with so much, so many compromises and subterfuges had been resorted to that the public mind and conscience were much confused. To Mr. Cleveland it has always been plain. Its dangers were just as clear to his mind when he was first called upon to express his opinion upon it as they were in February, 1891, when he wrote a brief letter which revolutionized public sentiment and made impossible the adoption of such a policy by his party or Congress. In doing this he saw clearly what the interests of the masses of his countrymen demanded, and he fearlessly took his place on their side.

He has the knack of making new arguments as they are needed. He does not use all his ammunition at once. If there is to be only a skirmish, he knows that a musket may be as useful as a howitzer, so he saves something for another skirmish or the general engagement that is certain to follow. The greatest parliamentary orator of the last century had for a colleague a man whose only speech was " I say ditto to Mr. Burke." Mr. Cleveland does not resort to this even with himself. He is not content to repeat, year after year, the same recommendations on a given question. He brings to its discussion new resources. He became interested in the Indian problem, and set forth his opinions in his first message as President, with force and intelligence. In each succeeding message, special or annual, he treated italways from a different point of view. He had studied its new phases, in the meanpeople's expense, and not by those whose interests are in common with the masses, that the ballot is corrupted. There are no rich and powerful corporations interested in buying " floaters" or coercing employees to vote for a reformation of our tariff laws. — Interview) in the Nashville American, February 1 1, 1890.

INTRODUCTION. xxi

time, with the same care that he had taken while it was new and strange. When all his opinions on such a question are gathi red together, they acquire almost as much a connected form as if, after a careful study, he had written an essay upon it.

An advantage of classification according to subjects chronologically is that it shows no posing while in one (.line foi another of higher dignity. Close attention to the duty in hand, a careful study of existing conditions and surroundings, the waiting not for the morrow — all these are manifest, whether the office be Mayor, Governor, or President. In each, the same principles govern his action and his sayings; but there is nothing in his record while Mayor, or in his utterances while holding that office, to show that its incumbent was looking for higher honors; or in his policy or speeches, while Governor, to indicate that he thought the Presidency might be within his reach. In each, he attempts for himself to do his duty, and his exhortation to others is to watchfulness, economy, and strict attention to the work in hand of public service. One of the great men of history was wont to say that " No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going "; and its truth is certainly shown by the career of the man who became President of the United States, without looking for it or any of the places supposed to lead to it.

His speeches are all brief. He seizes upon the idea or point of first importance or of practical value, and presents it with skill and emphasis. He does not attempt to explain all the steps he has taken to reach a given conclusion. As he does not speak until he feels certain of his opinion upon a question, so, when he announces his conclusion, it has in it a positiveness akin to dogmatism. He does not permit official position, or the dignity of an office he has held, to tie his xxii INTRODUCTION.

tongue. Dealing, as he does, with principles and policies, rattier than with individuals, his wonted plainness' of speech is not affected by such an artificial dignity.

He puts himself directly in touch with the people, with no reference to anyplace he may have held, and is so accustomed to study the interest of the masses of his fellow-countrymen, rather than the desires of a class, that he has no reason fur concealment or evasion. He speaks to them in plain, simple .language, with never an attempt to " divide a hair 'twixt south and southwest side." He goes straight to his point. If he believes that some newspapers " violate every instinct of American manliness, and in ghoulish glee desecrate every sacred relation of private life," he says so, and he says it to the assembled representatives of the oldest and most dignified educational institution in his country. If he wishes to rebuke insolent partisanship, he does it by vetoing a measure favored by his party in his own city, and insists upon it in language that nobody can misunderstand or misinterpret. At the time that he defeated this bad purpose, he declared : " I believe in an open and sturdy partisanship ; but parties were made for the people, and I am unwilling, knowingly, to give my assent to measures purely partisan, which will sacrifice or endanger their interests."* In this case, the just precept accompanied the saving action, and as showing his consistency he epitomized this opinion many years later, by declaring, in an interview, that " party honesty is party expediency."