

CLEVELAND, GROVER. 



147 



accomplished by constantly bearing in mind that we 

 are the trustees and agents of our fellow-citizens, 

 holding their funds in sacred trust, to be expended 

 for their benefit ; that we should itt all times be pre- 

 pared to render an honest account of them, touching 

 the manner of their expenditure ; and that the affairs 

 of the city should be conducted, as far as possible, 

 upon the same principles as a good business man 

 manages his private concerns. 



He soon became known as the "veto Mayor," 

 using that prerogative fearlessly in checking 

 unwise, illegal, or extravagant expenditure of 

 the public money, and enforcing strict com- 

 pliance with the requirements of the State 

 Constitution and the city charter. By vetoing 

 extravagant appropriations he saved the city 

 nearly $1,000,000 in the first six months of his 

 administration. He opposed giving $500 of 

 the tax-payers' money to the Firemen's Benev- 

 olent Society, on the ground that such appro- 

 priation was not permissible under the terms 

 of the State Constitution and the charter of 

 the city. He vetoed a resolution diverting 

 $500 from the Fourth-of-July appropriation 

 to the observance of Decoration-day for the 

 same reason, and immediately subscribed one 

 tenth of the sum wanted for the purpose. In 

 brief, he vetoed every exorbitant or illegal 

 appropriation. During his mayoralty the city 

 celebrated the semi-centenary of its corporate 

 existence. His admirable, impartial adminis- 

 tration during his entire term of office won 

 tributes to his integrity and ability from the 

 press and the people, irrespective of party. 



On the second day of the State Democratic 

 Convention at Syracuse, Sept. 22, 1882, on the 

 third ballot, by a vote of 211 out of 382, Grover 

 Cleveland was nominated for Governor, in op- 

 position to Charles J. Folger, then Secretary 

 of the United States Treasury, nominated for 

 the same office three days before by the State 

 Republican Convention at Saratoga. In his 

 letter of acceptance, two weeks afterward, Mr. 

 Cleveland wrote : 



Public officers are the servants and agents of the 

 people, to execute the laws which the people have 

 made, and within the limits of a Constitution which 

 they have established. . . . We maVj I thinkj reduce 

 to quite simple elements the duty which public serv- 

 ants owe, by constantly bearing in mind that they 

 are put in place to protect the rights of the people, to 

 answer their needs as they arise, and to expend for 

 their benefit the money drawn from them by taxation. 



In the canvass that followed, Cleveland had 

 the advantage of a united Democratic party 

 and in addition the support of the entire Inde- 

 pendent press of the State. The election in 

 November was the most remarkable in the po- 

 litical annals of New York. Both gubernato- 

 rial candidates were men of character and of un- 

 impeachable public record. Judge Folger had 

 honorably filled high State and Federal offices. 

 But there was a wide-spread disaffection in the 

 Republican ranks largerly due to the belief that 

 the nomination of Folger (nowise obnoxious 

 in itself) was accomplished by means of im- 

 proper and fraudulent practices in the nominat- 

 ing convention, and by the interference of the 



Federal Administration. What were called the 

 "half-breeds" largely stayed away from the 

 polls, and in a total vote of 918,894 Cleveland 

 received a plurality of 192,854 over Folger, 

 and a majority over all, including Greenback, 

 Prohibition, and scattering, of 151,742. 



On the last day of December he went to 

 Albany, and on the day following, dispens- 

 ing with the usual parade, he walked with a 

 friend through the streets from the Execu- 

 tive Mansion to the Capitol, and took the oath 

 of office. He entered upon his office, in the 

 words of his inaugural address, "fully appre- 

 ciating his relations to the people, and deter- 

 mined to serve them faithfully and well." 

 The very beginning of his administration was 

 marked by radical reforms in the Executive 

 Chamber. Persons having business with the 

 Governor were immediately and informally 

 admitted, without running a gantlet of clerks 

 and door-keepers. Less rich than many former 

 Governors, with private means of not more 

 than $50,000, Governor Cleveland lived upon 

 and within his official salary, simply and un- 

 ostentatiously, keeping no carriage, and daily 

 walking to and from his duties at the Capitol. 



Among the salient acts of his administration 

 were his approval of a bill to submit to the 

 people a proposition to abolish contract labor 

 in the prisons, and when so submitted the sys- 

 tem was abolished by an overwhelming major- 

 ity; his veto of a bill that permitted wide lati- 

 tude in the investments into which directors of 

 savings-banks might put deposits; and the veto 

 of a similar bill allowing like latitude in the 

 investment of securities of fire-insurance com- 

 panies. He vetoed a bill that was a bold effort 

 to establish a monopoly by limiting the right 

 to construct certain street railways to com- 

 panies heretofore organized, to the exclusion 

 of such as should hereafter obtain the consent 

 of property-owners and local authorities. His 

 much-criticised veto of the "five-cent-fare" 

 bill, which proposed to reduce the rates of 

 fare on the elevated roads in New York city 

 from ten cents to five cents for all hours in the 

 day, was simply and solely because he consid- 

 ered the enactment illegal, and a breach of the 

 plighted faith of the State. The general rail- 

 road law of 1850 provides for an examination 

 by State officers into the earnings of railroads 

 before the rates of fare can be reduced ; and as 

 this imperative condition had not been complied 

 with previous to the passage of the bill, he 

 vetoed it. He vetoed the Buffalo Fire Depart- 

 ment bill because he believed its provisions 

 would prevent the " economical and efficient 

 administration of an important department in 

 a large city," and subject it to partisan and 

 personal influences. In the second year of his 

 administration he approved the bill enacting 

 important reforms' in the appointment and ad- 

 ministration of certain local offices in New 

 York city. His State administration was only 

 an expansion of the fundamental principles 

 that controlled his official action while Mayor 



