8 'Che Conservative *
FOU NEIJUASKA YOUTH AND SKL.I-
Tin : CONSKKVATIVI : reproduces n
biography of President Olovclniul which
is n lesson in industry , frugality and
persistent pluck. No good father or
mother , no conscientious teacher can
deprecate any part of this little sketch.
It shows with what earnest , hearty and
self-reliant independence JMr. Cleveland
began his working and useful life. It
shows how a strict adherence to honesty
and economy made the strong angles
and ineffaceable lines in his character
and at last dominated Mr. Cleveland in
every oflicial function.
Courage , honesty , industry and fidelity
to duty these are the factors which
develop strong men and all American
youth should cultivate them.
GKOVKK CLEVELAND
was born in Caldwell , Essex county ,
N. J. , March 18 , 1837. On the paternal
side , ho is of English origin. Moses
Cleveland emigrated from Ipswich ,
county of Suffolk , England , in 1035 ,
and settled at Woburn , Mass. , where he
died in 1701. His descendant William
Cleveland was a silversmith and watch
maker at Norwich , Conn. Richard
Falley Cleveland , son of the latter
named , was graduated at Yale in 1824 ,
was ordained to the Presbyterian minis
try in 1829 , and in the same year mar
ried Ann Neal , daughter of a Baltimore
merchant of Irish birth. These two
were the parents of Grover Cleveland.
The Presbyterian parsonage at Caldwell ,
where he was born , was first occupied
by the Rev. Stephen Grover , in whose
honor he was named ; but the first name
was early dropped , and he has been
si-ice known as Grover Cleveland.
"When he was 4 years old his father
accepted a call to Fayetteville , near
Syracuse , N. Y. , where the son had
common and academic schooling , and
afterwards was a clerk in a country
store. The removal of the family to
Clinton , Oneida county , gave him addi
tional educational advantages in the
academy there. In his seventeenth
year ho became a clerk and an assistant
teacher in the New York Institution for
the Blind , in Now York City , in which
his elder brother , William , a Presbyter
ian clergyman , was then a teacher. In
1855 ho left Holland Patent , in Oneida
county , where his mother at that time
resided , to go to the West in search of
employment. On his way he stopped
at Black Rook , now a part of Buffalo ,
and called on his uncle , Lewis F. Allen ,
who induced him to remain and aid
him in the compilation of a volume of
the American Herd Book , receiving for
six weeks' service -$00. Ho afterwards ,
and while studying law , assisted in the
preparation of several other volumes of
this work , and the preface to the fifth
volume (1801) ( ) acknowledges his ser
vices. In August , 1855 , ho secured a
place as clerk and copyist for the law
firm of Rogers , Bowen & Rogers , in
Buffalo , began to read Blackstone , and
in the autumn of that year was receiv
ing $4 per week for his work. He was-
admitted to the bar in 1851) ) , but foi
three years longer remained with the
firm that first employed him , acting a *
managing clerk at a salary of $000 , a
part of which he devoted to the support
of his widowed mother , who died iu
J882. Was appointed assistant district
attorney of Erie county January 1 ,
1803 , and held the office for three years.
At this time the Civil war was raging.
Two of his brothers were in the army ,
and his mother and sisters were largely
dependent upon him for support.
Unable himself to enlist , he borrowed
money and sent a substitute to the war.
and it was not till long after the wai
that he was able to repaj7 the loan. In
1805 , at the age of 28 , ho was the demo
cratic * candidate for district attorney ,
but was defeated by the republican
candidate , his intimate friend , Lyman
K. Ba&s. Ho then became the la\\
partner of Isaac V. Yanderpool , and in
1809 became a member of the firm of
Lanning , Cleveland & Folsom. He
continued a successful practice till 1870 ,
when ho was elected sheriff of Erie
county. At the expiration of his three
years' term he formed a law partnership
with his personal friend and political
antagonist , Lymaii K. Bass , the firm
being Bass , Cleveland & Bissell , and ,
after the forced retirement , from failing
health , of Mr. Bass , Cleveland &Bissell.
Iu 1881 ho was nominated the demo
cratic candidate for mayor of Buffalo ,
and was elected by a majority of 3,580 ,
the largest ever given to a candidate in
that city. In the same election the
republican state ticket was carried in
Buffalo by an average majority of over
1,000. He entered upon the office
January 1 , 1882 , and soon became
known as the "Veto Mayor , " using that
prerogative fearlessly in checking un
wise , illegal , and extravagant expendi
tures. By his vetoes ho saved the city
nearly § 1,000,000 in the first half year of
his administration. He opposed giving
$300 of the taxpayers' money to the
Firemen's Benevolent Society on the
ground that such an appropriation was
not permissible under the terms of the
state constitution and the charter of the
city. He vetoed a resolution diverting
§ 300 from the Fourth of July appro
priations to the observance of Decora
tion Day for the same reason , and
immediately subscribed one-tenth of the
sum wanted for the purpose. His
administration of the office won tributes
to his integrity and ability from the
press and the people irrespective of
party. On the second day of the demo
cratic state convention at Syracuse ,
September 22 , 1882 , on the third ballot ,
was nominated for governor in oppo
sition to the republican candidate ,
Charles J. Folger , then secretary of the
United States treasury. Ho had the
united support of his own party , while
the republicans were not united on his
opponent , and at the election in Novem
ber ho received a plurality over Mr.
Folger of 192,854. His state adminis
tration was only an expansion of the
fundamental principles that controlled
his official action while mayor of
Buffalo. In a letter written to his
brother on the day of his election he
announced a policy he intended to adopt ,
and afterwards carried out , "that is , to
make the matter a business engagement ,
between the people of the state and
myself , in which the obligation on my
> ide is to perform the duties assigned
me with an eye single to the interest of
my employers. "
The democratic national convention
met at Chicago July 8 , 1884. On July
11 ho was nominated as their candidate
for president. The republicans made
James G. Elaine their candidate , while
Benjamin F. Butler , of Massachusetts ,
was the labor and greenback candidate ,
and John P. St. John , of Kansas , was
the prohibition candidate. At the elec
tion , November 4 , Mr. Cleveland re
ceived 219 and Mr. Elaine 182 electoral
votes. He was unanimously renomi-
nated for the presidency by the national
democratic convention in St. Louis on
June 0 , 1888. At the election in Novem
ber he received 108 electoral votes , while
283 were cast for Benjamin Harrison ,
the republican candidate. Of the popu
lar vote , however , he received 5,540,829 ,
and Mr. Harrison received 5,489,853.
At the close of his administration , March
4,1889 , he retired to New York City ,
where he reentered upon the practice of
his profession. It soon became evident ,
however , that he would be prominently
urged as a candidate forrenomination in
1892. At the national democratic con
vention which met in Chicago June 21 ,
1892 , ho received more than two-thirds
of the votes on the first ballot. At the
election in November he received 277 of
the electoral votes , while Mr. Harrison
received 145 and Mr. James B. Weaver ,
the candidate of the people's party , 22.
Of the popular vote Mr. Cleveland re
ceived 5,558,142 , Mr. Harrison 5,180,981 ,
and Mr. Weaver 1,080,128. He retired
from office March 4 , 1897 , and removed
to Princeton , N. J. , where he has since
resided. He is the first of our presidents
who served a second term without being
elected as his own successor. President
Cleveland was married in the White
House on Juno 2 , 1880 , to Miss Frances
Folsom , daiighter of his deceased friend
and partner , Oscar Folsom , of the Buf
falo bar. Mrs. Cleveland was the
youngest ( except the wife of Mr. Madi
son ) of the many mistresses of the White
House , having been born in Buffalo , N.
Y. , in 1804. She is the first wife of a
president married in the White House ,
and the first to give birth to a child
there , their second daughter ( Esther )
having been born in the executive man
sion in 1893.
