many indeed believed him to be the strongest man in the Republican party and were in favour of nominating him for the Presidency. At the Chicago Republican Convention which met, June 3, 1884, on the first ballot he received over half the votes, but was in the end defeated by James G. Blaine, to whom during the campaign which followed he gave his earnest and cordial support."

When he laid down his office he returned to the practice of law in New York City. He had, however, but a short time to live, and, in 1886, on November 18, died suddenly at his residence on Lexington Avenue from cerebral apoplexy and was buried at Albany, New York. His wife, Ellen Lewis Herndon, a daughter of Commander William Lewis Herndon of the United States Navy had died eight years before, January 12, 1880.

CHAPTER XIX.

PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND.

(TWO ADMINISTRATIONS, 1885-1889, 1893-1897.)

FOR twenty-four years the Republican party had held sway over the destinies of the country. With the retirement from office of the weakling Buchanan the Democratic party which had been the most powerful factor in American politics from the beginning of the century was hurled from office, and it looked as if the Democrats would not recover power until the generation which had fought for slavery and secession had passed away. But a man had arisen in New York State finely representative of the modern Democratic spirit, and although never having strongly identified himself with either of the great political parties he was chosen to fill the Presidential chair. This man was Grover Cleveland, Governor of New York State-a man who had so far made no brilliant speeches, written no great books, and led no armies into battle. He had proved himself a man of immense business capacity, honest, and with a stern sense of duty. The times demanded such a man. Long tenure of office had permitted great political corruption to find a home at Washington, and the people of the Union felt that

"it was time for a change." A Democrat with a war record against the Union or one of the Buchanan type, pretending neutrality, would never have been elected. A wise selection was made in choosing a man, no striking partisan, of proved business capacity and of clean hands.

Stephen Grover Cleveland, twenty-second President of the United States, was born at the little village of Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey, March 18, 1837. It is difficult to get information about his ancestors, but a few important facts have been discovered. In the first place the Clevelands were no late comers to America, but are almost as old as Massachusetts. One Moses Cleveland left Ipswich in the county of Suffolk in the year 1635. Why he left England is not known, but as the Clevelands have ever been a religious family it may have been that he came to New England, where he settled at Woburn, Massachusetts, on account of the social and religious oppression of the Puritans by the Stuarts. He left a numerous progeny, and from the Christian names of his descendants it can be inferred that Grover Cleveland came of a long line of sturdy New England Puritans. One of his ancestors, Aaron Cleveland, was a prominent anti-slavery Republican at the end of the eighteenth century, and was a man of considerable literary and oratorical power, coupled with great business capacity. It is no doubt from him that Grover Cleveland inherited much of his natural genius. His ancestors, too, were many of them connected with the church, or rather with religion, for the Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, the Congregationalist churches all have had Clevelands as clergymen or deacons. His grandfather was William Cleveland, a silversmith by trade. This

W

man was a deacon in the Congregational church for twenty-five years.

The second son of William Cleveland was Richard Falley, the father of Grover Cleveland. He was born in Norwich in 1804. At the early age of sixteen he entered Yale College and was a faithful and brilliant student, graduating in 1824 with high honours. He began work as a tutor in Baltimore, and there met Anne Neal the daughter of a publisher and merchant. He had decided to enter the ministry and soon after meeting Miss Neal left Baltimore for the Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1829, he was ordained and returned to claim the hand of the "sweet Southern girl" whose heart was still true to him. In all nine children were born to them, of whom Stephen Grover was the fifth. It is worthy of note that the first Democratic president after the great Civil war, the man who was to do so much to allay the bitterness that still existed between the North and the South, was on his father's side a Northerner and on his mother's possessed of Southern sympathies.

The young couple seemed to have been moved about a good deal during the first years of their married life. Richard Falley Cleveland's first charge was in Windham, Connecticut; his second at Portsmouth, Virginia; and his third at Caldwell, New Jersey. One Stephen Grover had been his immediate predecessor in this latter charge, and out of respect for his memory he christened his boy, born in the parsonage, after him. He had not yet found a permanent home, and, in 1841, moved from Caldwell to Fayetteville, a quaint, sleepy village near Syracuse, and from this year Grover Cleveland's

life has been identified with the State of New York.

The future president began his school life in Fayetteville, and was an apt, ambitious student, showing a particular liking for literature and the languages. The Clevelands had begun to look upon Fayetteville as home, when, in 1848, the father, whose health was not good, had an opportunity of accepting a home mission position and moved his family to Clinton in Oneida County. This was an advantageous move for his sons, and while here William, who was intended for the church, completed his college course, and Grover had the advantage of a good preparatory school for several years. When he was almost ready for college his father, who no doubt felt the education of nine children, four boys and five girls, a burden, advised him to try a year or two at business, and he returned to his old home at Fayetteville and entered the employ of a Deacon McViccar, who kept a general store. He worked here for a year for the magnificent salary of fifty dollars and had entered upon his second year at a salary of one hundred dollars. A President of the United States trained in a grocery store! It may not at first seem that such a place could have had much influence on his career. It must be remembered, however, that President Cleveland's strength lay in the power of application, in his business methods, and in his integrity; and the business training he received under Deacon McViccar may have done much to give him his bent. After all the village store is a microcosm of the United States. The States of the Union are but departments in the greatest commercial concern in the world.