Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-07-24


ter December night when the lad had walk
ed out to Black Rock through the sleet and
snow: "This is pretty cold weather for you
to be travelling without an overcoat."
"Oh,n says the young man, "l'm going to
buy one when 1 earn the money"
"Why, look at your feet; they must be
s'Oh, that's nothing. Pm getting some
copying to do now and Ill have pair OF
boots by and BY"
In those days boys had to demonstrate
what was in them before they received
many favors.
"You Just 20 right over there to the tail
or's and get the stoutest overcoat he's got.
Dye hear"
Very likely Grover had begun to demon
strate what was in him, but whether to the
mind of the uncle it was a capacity for COM
piling herd books or the capacity to con-
tain Blackstone cannot now be learned.
Four years in the Office of Rogers, Bow
en- & Rogers as student equipped him
with sufficient elementary knowledge and
experience to become managing clerkat the
end of that time. And so four years more
pass. In 1868 the question of who should be
appointed Assistant District Attorney for the
county of Erie was warmly discussed by
the young lawyers in Messrs. Rogers and
|
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 we'll can
vassed they all agreed that he was the per-
son that ought to have it, and they urged
him to accept it. This simple incident
speaks volumes for the already developed
character of the young man. He was ap-
pointed and from that moment his public
record began. During the three years that
he was in the District Attorneys Office
the great bulk of it's duties fell upon his
shoulders, and then it was that his enor-
nous vital strength and tireless industry
made themselves felt. So we'll and faithful
ly had he conducted the affairs of the coun-
ty, that at the end Of three years, which
brings our narrative up to 1865, he was NOM
mated by the Democrats for the District At
torneyship. In the canvass that followed,
he was beaten by the Republican candidate,
Lyman X. Bass.
His next venture was in 1869, when he
made a successful race for sheriff OF Erle
county, the duties of which office he dis
charged with customary faithfulness. The
interim from 1865 to his election to the office
of sheriff was devoted to the practice OF the
law.
When his term of Office as sheriff ended,
he turned his attention to the practice OF
his profession. He took an interest, but no
part in politics until 1881, when his neigh
bors, casting about for strong and avalla.
BILE man to nominate for Mayor, pitched
upon him. Buffalo was not a great city, but
in the matter of municipal corruption and
combinations it could have given points to
others with many times it's number OF peo-
ple twas rng-ridden. Itsrevenues were
stolen or wasted and no Mayor had been
found for many years who had at once the
ability and the boldness necessary to attack
these abuses.
But Grover Cleveland, elevated to this
position by a majority OF 1900, entered T7d
cheerfully and earnestlyupon his work. tie
had not sought the position. He had not
been an active political worker in the ac-
cepted sense of that word. He knew moth
ing about the manipulation of caucuses
and conventions. He was connected with
no halls or other organizations for extortlng
public plunder from the officers chosen by
the popular voice, and his political expert
ence had been confined to a single term IN
the comparatively unimportant Office OF
sheriff of the county eleven years before.
But he succeeded where other men had
faltered or failed. And what was the Sc
cret ofthissuccess? Itwas simply due to the
fact that the day he became Mayor of Buffalo
in name he also became Mayor in fact. He
did not enter upon it's duties to register the
elicts of party caucus or to obey the orders
of party bosses. He lookedupon the office OF
Mayor as business agency of the people OF
his city. He attacked corrupt combinations
in manner which soon convinced the
trading members of City Council that ne
understood each item of a bill and that he
had determined to reject all corrupt or un-
necessary expenditures and administer the
city business as faithfully as if it were his
own. He used the veto power with intel
ligent persistence. Schemes comforting spe-
cial privileges or making unWise, eXtrava-
CANT or sentimental appropriations or for
unnecessarily increasing offices, were relent-
lessly slaughtered. The people of Buffalo,
accustomed to the waste and protigacy in
cident to municipal government, discovered
that they had at last found man who looked
upon office as something more than mere
play-spell or an opportunity to reward his
friends, and they noised his fame abroad.
They made such a showing and SO sue
cessfully convinced the Democrats of the
state of their earnestneSS and the worth
of their man that Mr.. Cleveland was nomi-
mated for Governor over Well-knoWn and
active competitors. His reputation, merely
local as it had been, was still found quite
large enough to spread out over State.
The campaign was remarkable even for New
York, with its astonishing and kaleldlScOp-
ic changes in politics. Many of the leading
Republicans of the State ranged themselves
on the side of Cleveland's candidacy. The
independent element of all parties came to
his support; factions in his own party dis
appeared, and the resulting majority of one
hundred and nincty-two thousand, the larg-
est ever given a candidate for Governor in
any State in the Union, carried Mr.. Cleve-
land into the eGovernorship. Thus heplain,
plodding citizen of Buffalo, whose capacity
was neither generally known nor suspected
outside the limits of his community, be-
came one of the leading men of the country
in less than year after he had emerged
from his hiding-place.
AS Governor he has carried out the simple
business policy he had inaugurated and ad-
hered to as Mayor. His first message
was rather halting. 1t was evident that he
scarcely felt sure of his ground. The inter-
ests of the State of New York were large and
extensive and as he had never been called
upon to make special study of them the
easy and nonchalant dogmatism so common
to Gubernatorial messages was lacking.
But when it came to action he made no
serious misstep. He watched the course of
the Legislature closely and pruned it's work
merciessly. He exercised the veto power
with wise discretion and was especially in
telligent and watchful in all legislation re-
lating to municipal affairs. Before the ses-
| sion was half over he had secured the i'll