The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-03-25
CLEVELAND'S CAREER.
How 1t has Impressed Col. Thomas
Wentworth Higginson.

W entWOrth HlgglnSon.
Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the
author and anti-slavery agitator, writing
to the Springfield Republican of Presi-
dent Cleveand's strength of character,
pays him this high compliment:
1T now seems almost incredible when
we recall that one of the most prominent
of Massachusetts public men now in
Congress objected to Mr.. Cleveland,
when first nominated in 1884, on the
ground that he did not wish to see a
weak man in the presidential chair Sure
ly we have never had President since
Washington to whom the quality of
strength of character was so readily con-
coded even by his enemies. All the tradi-
tional fears as to the tendency of repub-
lies to put in office merely pl;able men
are refuted by his career. The impulsive
and obstinate Jackson had heretofore
been our national type of strength, but
Mr.. Cleveland has surpassed him in that
quality as completely as Jackson was the
superior in Willingness of manner. The
late Josiah Quincy, in his Figures from
the Past describes an old-fashiOned BOs-
tonian as reluctantly allowing his daugh-
tiers to look out of the window during
Jackson's triumphal passage through that
city. then as being induced to look out
once for himself, and then as being so
charmed by Jacksons personal bearing
as to remain and take part in the cheer
ing. Such tribute would be quite incon-
ceivable in the case of Mr.. Cleveland.
What adds to the interest is the fact
that this quality of strength is personal
in him and not the fruit of visible hered-
ity. i know that in my youth the quality
ha bitually attributed to his parental stock
by those who knew it was pliability rather
than especial vigor-'Cleveland versatil-
ity' it used to be called. But with him
the versatility was not conspicuous, while
the courage was ingram. Happening to
meet Miss Rose Cleveland in New York
just after the appearance of his celebrated
letter ON the tariff, at the close of his first
administration, ! was asked by her if his
friends in Massachusetts did not think
that it would defeat him. When | ex-
pressed the contrary opinion, she tran
gully said, We all think it WILL and
when | expressed some surprise that the
letter should, under such anticipations,
have been issued just then, she replied,
Then YOU don't know my brother
The modern American statesman most
unlike and most like Mr.. Cleveland was
probably Charles Summer Differing
widely as they did in tastes, habits and
education, the material of personal char
acter was much the same in both. They
had the same truthfulness. the same la
boriousness, the same high standard of
public duty, the same occasional obtuse-
ness, the same absence of humor, of fact
and of the velvet glove. Mr.. Cleveland
did not rouse the wrath Of England more
by his Venezuela message than did Sum-
ner by his almost equally blunt demand
for indirect damages in urging the Ala
bama claim, the only difference being
that Mr.. Cleveland ultimately carried his
point and Sumner did not.
Mr.. Cleveland's place in history is as Sc
cure as Lincoln's, though it suggests
less genial and lovable memory, and it is
possible that his faults may fade from
view as the memory of Lincoln's occa-
sional unseemliness of anecdote is fad
ing. Mr.. Cleveland has the defects of his
qualities; his conscientious laborious-
ness, for instance, has undoubtedly led
him sometimes to waste on small or i'm
practicable matters an amount of ex-
hausting toll which might have produced
larger results elsewhere. But those who,
like myself, worked hard to urge him as
a presidential nominee, first upon the
Democratic party, and then upon the ma
ton, may well rejoice at the unique ca
reer of one who has in the fine words of
Seneca, applied to him by Lowell, kept
his rudder true