St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-08

ates. 1t is not difficult to ascertain this with
reasonable accuracy, seeing that most OF the
associates are alive and accessible and
speak with noticeable candor and unanmity.
Said one of them to the writer: "Grover
won our admiration by his three traits OF
indomitable industry, unpretentious courage
and answering honesty. | never saw
more thorough man at anything he under
took. Whatever he subject was, he was re-
ticent until he had mastered all its bearings
and then nothing could swerve him from his
conviction. 1t was this quality of intellectu-
al integrity more than anything else perhaps
that made him afterwards listen to and res
pected when more brilliant men who were
opposed to him were applauded and forgot
ten''
THE FIRST STEP INTO PUBLIC LIFE.
In 1868 the question of who should be ap-
pointed assistant district-attorney for the
county of Erie was warmly discussed by the
young lawyers in Messrs. Rogers 81 Bowen's
offices. There were several that were both
eligible and anxious, but it does not appear
that young Cleveland advanced his own
claims. Indeed, it is fact that after the
matter had been pretty well canvassed they
all agreed that he was the person that ought
to have it and they urged him to accept it.
This simple incident speaks volume for the
already developed character of the young
man. He was appointed and from that mo-
ment his public record began. During the
three years that he was in the district-at-
torney's Office the great bulk of its duties fell
upon his shoulders, and then it was that his
enormous vital strength and tireless industry
made. themselves felt. One may say now
hat II ic wall ,,arhapc that tho 6ictript- at-
torney himself was rather disposed to let
youth aud vigor shoulder the great part of
the responsibility 1t was just the training
that young Cleveland needed and he went in
to it with his coat off.
1t was during the performance of the duties
of this office, and at a time when large
number of important cases with which he
alone was thoroughly familiar were demand
ing his attention, that he was drafted. There
was no question at all of what his duty was.
He promptly supplied substitute. So well
and faithfully had he conducted the affairs of
the county that at the enc of three years he
was nominated by the Democrats for the
district-attorneyship. Here, again, it is an
indisputable fact that he did not solicit the
nomination, hesitated to accept it, and did
not turn his hand over to secure his election.
1t is said in Buffalo that on the day of cleo
ton he was trying case in court while his
friends were electioneering for him on the
street, and the judge on the bench, who was
presumably an admirer Of his, peremptorily
adjourned the case and told Cleveland t. 90
and attend to his own interests.
In the canvass that followed he was beaten
by the Republican candidate, Lyman K
Bass. This was in 1865. In 1865 Mr.. Cleve-
land formed law partnership with the late
1. X. Vanderpool, which lasted till 1869. He
afterwards associated himself with the late
A. z. Lansing and the late Oscar Folsom.
The latter association, however, ended at the
expiration of two years. owing to Mr.. Cleve
land having been nominated and elected in
1869 to be
SHERIFF OF ERIE COUNTY.
In that important position he earned an
additional need of public respect for his
courageous disregard Of partisan interests
and his conscientious regard for the public
welfare. At the close of his term he formed
partnership with his former antagonist,
Lyman X. Bass, and Wilson s. Bisscll. Mr..
Bass's health not long afterwards proving
prccarious he went to Colorado and the firm
became Cleveland Il Blssell, to which part
ncrship Mr.. George j. Scard was admitted
in 1881.
LEGAL DISTINCTION.
1t was while thus associated that Grover
Cleveland achieved his distinction as a law
yer second to few in the western part of the
state for legal acumen and intellectual hon
esty. His jury and bench trials were distn-
guished by clear views, direct, simple logic
and thorough mastery of all the intricacies
of the eases, and his iuvariablc avoidance
of extrinsic issues and purely technical de-
vices secured for him the respect of his own
profession and the admiration of the public.
These qualities, combined with the fidelity
| and independence of his official action while
in office, brought him prominently before
the public of Buffalo when that city, unable
to extricate itself from a municipal octopus,
was casting about for stanch reform leader.
MAYOR OF BUFFALO.
Grover Cleveland's election on a Demo
cratic and reform ticket in 1881 suddenly
lifted him from local into national promi-
hence The incidents of that election and
subsequent administration are familiar
| throughout the country The election itself
was almost unparalleled triumph, seeing that
it was secured by the largest majority ever
known, thus demonstrating the unbounded
confidence which the people had in the spec
al fitness of their candidate to carry out the
reform ana in his unassailable integrity
THE CLEVELAND FAMILY.
The governors great-grandfsther, Aaron
Cleveland, was born Feb. 8, 1744, in East
Haddam, the chief of the many Haddams
! that skirt the connecticut river below Mid
dletown. He lived and carried on business
| in Norwich for the greater part of an active
life. The local records are quite full of him,
less as successful hat maker than as a YER
satile speaker, writer and actor in the poll
| ties of his time. We hear of him making
the first opposition to slavery and introduce
ing bill into the Connecticut legislature,
where he represented Norwich for its abol-
ishmeut. Afterwards he turns up in Yer
! mont as Congregational minister. He fl
nally died in New Haven in 1915, regarded
by every one as stanch Anti slavery Re-
publican. His son Charles, born in 1772 in
Norwich, became a city missionary in Bos-
ton and was widely known as Father Cleve-
land. a daughter, the youngest OF thirteen
children, married the well-known Dr. Sam
ue II. Cox, whose son, Arthur Cleveland
Cox, is Episcopal bishop of western New
York.
Aaron Cleveland's second son, William.
the grandfather of the governor, was silver
smith by trade and lived for the greater part
of his life at Beacon Hill, on the outskirts of
Norwich. He was deacon Of the Congrega-
tional church for twenty-five years. He
died at Black Rock, Buffalo, in 1897. His
second son, Richard Falling Cleveland, was
the governors father. He was born in Nor
wich, June 10, 1904. He was a thin, pale
and intellectual boy. He entered Yale in
| 1920 and graduated in 1924, with sixty-sev-
en- others, nearly all of whom are now dead
He went almost Immediately to Baltimore to
| teaeh was ordained Presbyterian minis