The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-29
A VISIT TO MR.. CLEVELAND.
Col. A. K, Mcclure Calls on the Presi-
dent-Elect.a at His Office in Albany.
Another Description of the Governors Per-
sOnal Appearance-A Business Executive
Talk Regarding Cabinet Positions.
A. X. Mcclure. in Philadelphia Times.

A. X. Mcclure, in Philadelphia Times.
met Grover Cleveland to-day for the first
time, and as l have no man to put into office,
none to keep out of Office, and nothing in the
form of political favor that could be personally
desired or accepted, there was nothing to conceal
in an interview with the President-elect. Inter
ested only in the general success of his admins
tration by the faithful fulfllment of the pledges
made by him and for him in the campaign, there
was nothing to say to him that has not been al
ready said in the editorial columns of the Times,
and there was nothing said or expected to be
said, that the public could not know. With the
wrangles of faction in Pennsylvania, OF else
where, independent journalism has no part to
play, and with the admission exclusion of par
ticular individuals in forming the Cabinet. be-
you'd the question of public fitness, those who
gave independent and patriotic support to Grover
Cleveland feel no vital interest.
The one theme that is the burden of most of
those who crowd the Albany executive chamber
the partition of honors and spoils-was the
one topic mutually forgotten in my very pleasant
interview with the man who is about to make
the most successful national administration of
I
ton failures respectable by the browning presi-
Dental failure of history. No man understands
better than Grover Cleveland that more is ex-
pected of him in benefcent results to the whole
country than has been expected of. any Presi-
dent since Lincoln, and it is the intelligent
| Judgment of the Nation that his path to great
and substantial success is so plain that common
! intelligence, common honesty, and the courage
that they should ever be parent to, are all the
| qualities essential to a conspicuously successful
| Cleveland administration. He will have no
grave perplexing problems of craftsmanship to
solve. He needs only to fulfill his public pledge,
repeatedly given in the campaign, and fortified
by high example in his record as ex ecutive of
city and State, that public Office is public
trust, and that honest government, administered
on sound business principles, is the brightest
jewel of free institutions and the arrangements
of disappointed friends, the surges of faction,
| and the assaults Bipartisan rancOr, will be i'm
| potent to dim the luster of his achievements.
Most persons who have known Governor
! Cleveland only by his campaign portraits, will
| be very agreeably disappointed in the genial
| frankness that brightens his face when In con-
| versatiop with visitors. He evidently has never
been in the picture business himself to boom
his political fortunes, and the hardened lines OF
| his face, which are given even in the best cam
paign portraits, the natural result of an un-
| willing subject for the artist. He plainly shows
that the art of wreathing his features with
smiles to make an attractive picture has been
neglected in his education. All his portraits
give him heavy, obstinate appearance, indi-
eating sluggish temperament and sow-mov-
| ing intellectual organization but If the Pho
| tographer had caught him unaware, when IN
conversation, he would have been pictured as
he really is-a delightful and ready converse
tionalist. and with a face that bears the unmis-
taxable impress of frankness, manliuess and un-
| common keenneSS of perception. His features
are soft, his hair light auburn, his eyes bright
and merry, and he must at once teach all who
meet him that he is stranger to assembling.
He has abundant caution. but he does not
| shrink from possible misunderstanding as Lin
| coin did He does not employ words to conceal
| ideas, but he talks freely and pointedly on sub
| iects he chooses to discuss, and always means to
| be understood He does not talk about the per-
| sonnet of his Cabinet, for the good reason that
he has made no Cabinet, and is not likely to
| make one, OR any part of one, for weeks to come;
| nor does he declare any purpose or policy that
would provoke antagonisms, and possibly re
| quire reconsideration when he becomes PreSi-
dent; but he discusses with the utmost candor
and evidently with pleasure, all questions relat
| ing TO the public administration of the govern
ment In listening to him while at his guberna-
torial desk-interrupted NJ and then by subor-
dinates, who understand that executive duties
are not to be postponed-it is difficult to realize
that he is about to assume the gravest response
bilities and wear the highest civil honors of the
world His modest and hearty goodfellowship
make him the same, save IN giving graver
thoughts to graver duties, whether citizen, sher-
| iff mayor, Governor or President.
The one subject on which there is the most
public concern touching Clevelands coming adj
ministration is the one that he discusses with
| equal freedom and emphasis. | refer to the
great business interests Of the whole country
He is natural business executive. He loves
! business fidelity, he believes in business meth
Iov Colt fill
peated pledges to conduct the administration of
| the government on thorough business principles
| He does not merely look to business admins
tration as the limit of his duty in enforcing hon
| est government He carries his business states
| manshp to the extent of business legislation to
promote healthy and enduring business pros
perity, and madcap theorists, who would revo-
| lutionize and destroy will be as resolutely
| halted by President Cleveland as will the job
pers and proAigates who have so deeply stained
| every department of national authority
He understands that tariff revision is to be
| one of the duties of his administration, as the
national platforms of both parties have alike de-
manded it; but if either tariff monopolists or
| free trade dreamers expect to enlist the new adj
| mi nstration in their cause they will be disap-
| pointed. The same practical business methods
that he applies to all public duties he will fifty
apply to the revision of the tariff and he will
seek to do it in the most practical and business
| like way He looks to the legitimate and sub
stantial revival of all the legitimate business in
| terests of the whole country as one of the fore
most duties of his rule and [ shall be greatly
disappointed if he does not SO assure the country
by his selection for Secretary of the Treasury.
| He does not affect to underestimate the special
Importance of that appointment He does not
hesitate to say that, however other Cabinet Off
GERS might invite criticism points of
POLITICAL and even financial difference, the
man charged with the portfolio to which
the country must look for the harmony
of revenues and industry must command the
trust Of the Nation in his practical ability and
| conservative noliev ViavinO tha tariff from,