ARTHUR, CLEVELAND, AND ELAINE -1881-1884 207 



to see a good point, strong to maintain it, he was evidently 

 a born leader of men. His speeches were simple, clear, 

 forcible, and aided at times in rescuing the self-respect 

 of the body. 



This Republican convention having adjourned, the Na- 

 tional Democratic Convention met soon afterward in the 

 same place and nominated Grover Cleveland of New York. 

 He was a man whom I greatly respected. As already 

 stated, his career as sheriff of Erie County, as mayor of 

 Buffalo, and as governor of the State of New York had 

 led me to admire him. He had seemed utterly inca- 

 pable of making any bid for mob support; there had 

 appeared not the slightest germ of demagogism in him ; 

 he had refused to be a mere partizan tool and had stead- 

 ily stood for the best ideals of government. As governor 

 he showed the same qualities which had won admiration 

 during his previous career as sheriff and mayor. He 

 made as many appointments as he could without regard 

 to political considerations, and it was remarked with won- 

 der that when a number of leading Democratic " workers " 

 and " wheel-horses " came to the executive chamber in 

 Albany in order to dictate purely partizan appointments, 

 he virtually turned them out of the room. Most amazing 

 thing of all, he had vetoed a bill reducing the fare on the 

 elevated railroads of New York, in the face of the earnest 

 advice of partizans who assured him that by doing so he 

 would surely array against him the working-classes of 

 that city and virtually annihilate his political future. 

 To this his answer was that whatever his sympathies for 

 the working-people might be, he could not, as an honest 

 man, allow such a bill to pass, and, come what might, he 

 would not. He had also dared, quietly but firmly, to resist 

 the chief "boss" of his party in New York City, and he 

 had consequently to brave the vials of Celtic wrath. The 

 scenes at the convention which nominated him were stir- 

 ring, and an eminent Western delegate struck a chord in 

 the hearts of thousands of Republicans as well as Demo- 

 crats when he said, "We love him for the enemies he has 



