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

ates. tits not difficult to ascertain this with
reasonable accuracy, seeing that most OF the
associates are alive and accessible and
speak with noticeable eandor 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 snbjectwas, he was re-
ticent until he had mastered all its bearings
and then nothing could swerve him from his
conviction. It 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.n
THE FIRST STEP INTO PUBLIC LIFE.
In 1858 the question of who should be APP
pointed assistant district-attorney for the
county of Erie was warmly discussed by the
young lawyers in Messrs. Rogers q 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 1t.
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
4b,4s hat {ha ~ M Of
torney himself was rather disposed to let
youth and 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 time when a 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 a 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
in disputable 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 a 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, perem ptorily
adjourned the case and told Cleveland IT, go
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 a law partn ership with the late
I. K. Vanderpool, which lasted till 1869. He
afterwards associated himself with the late
A. P. 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 pubic 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. Bissell Mr.
BASES health not long afterwards proving
precarious he went to Colorado and the firm
became Cleveland & Bissell, to which part
nership Mr.. George j. Sicard was admitted
in 1881.
LEGAL DISTINCT ON.
It was while thus associated that Grover
Cleveland achieved his distinction as 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 distin-
guished by clear views, direct, simple logic
and a thorough mastery of all the intrcacies
of the cases, and his invariable 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 itself9from a municipal octopus,
WAS casting about for stanch reform leader.
MAYOR OF BUFFALO.
Grover Cleveland's election on Demo-
cratic and reform ticket in 1881 suddenly
lifted him from local into national promi-
ncnce. 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
confidence which the people had in the spec
ial fitness of their candidate to carry out the
reform and in his unassailable integrity.
THE CLEVELAND FAMILY.
The governors great-grandfsther, Aaron
Cleveland, was born Feb. 9, 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 q successful hat maker than as a YER
satile speaker, writer and actor in the poll
tics 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-
ishment. 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 1872 in
Norwich, became city missionary in Bos-
ton and was widely known as Father C!eve-
land. daughter, the youngest of thirteen
children. married the well-known DR.. Sam
ue H. Cox, whose son, Arthur Cleveland
Cox, is Episcopal bishop of western New
York
Aaron Cleyeland'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 1887. His
second son, Richard Falling Cleveland was
the governors father. He was born in Nor
wich, June 10, 1904 He was 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
teach, was ordained a Presbyterian minis
ter in 1928 and took charge of q church at