Connecticut western news., 1902-06-26
CLEVELAND'AND HILL
THEY MEET AT TIlDEN CLUB DIN-
 NER IN NEW YORK.

Democrats of All Factions Listen ts
 . Speech on Party Unity by the
 Former President of the United
 Stateh.
 Grover Cleveland, former president of the United States, and David B. Hill, former governor of New York, the foremost of eastern Democrats, met Thursday night for the first time In nearly six years in the reception room of the Tilden club, New York. Democratic unity in state and nation was the magnet that brought them to- gether and which brought about one of the most remarkable gatherings of Democrats this city has ever known. Two thousand representatives of all factions in the city, the state and the nation were present in the main apart ments to witness their greeting.
 Speeches were made by former Sen ator HilI, National Committeeman Tag gart of Indiana, Governor Montagu of Virginia and MT. Cleveland, all urging harmony.
 MT. Cleveland spoke in part as fol lows:
 "The Democratic party is very far from political insolvency, but no one here should be offended by the sugges- ton that It's capital and prospects have suffered serious injury since MT. Til den was elected president. Then and afterward northern Democratic states were not rare curiosities, northern Ia V extinct, were quite numerous, and northern Democratic governors, now almost never seen, were frequently en- countered.
 If this state of impairment exists, an instant duty presses upon the man. agers of the Democratic establishment and one which they cannot evade with honor. Those of us less prominent in the party, the rank and file, are long Ing to be led through old Democratic ways to old Democratic victories. We were never more ready to do enthusi- astic battle than now if we can only be marshaled outside the shadow of pre- destined defeat. Is 1t too much to ask our leaders to avoid paths that are known to lead to disaster? Is 1t too much to ask that proved errors be abandoned and that we be delivered from a body of death and relieved from the burden of issues which have been killed by the decrees of the Amer lean people? Ought we not to be fed upon something better than the husks of defeat? If these questions are met in an honest, manly fashion, believe it will be productive of the best kind of Democratic harmony. ......s
 "The Democratic harmony of which we hear so much cannot be effectively constructed by mathematical rule nor by a formal Agreement on the part of those who have been divided that there shall be harmony. It grows up natural ly when true Democratic principles are plainly announced, when Democratic purposes are honestly declared and when as a result of these confidence and enthusiasm stir the Democratic blood. It was such harmony as this, growing out of such conditions, which, with the battle cry of 'Tilden and Re form, gave us the Democratic victory of 1876 against odds great enough to discourage any but a harmonious De mocracy and against an opposing force brazen and desperate enough to take from us by downright robbery what the voters of the land gave to us.
 My days of political activity are past, and I shall not hereafter assume to participate fin party councils. I am absolutely content with retirement. but I still have one burning, anxious po- litical aspiration. I want to see before I die the restoration to perfect health and supremacy of that Democracy whose mission it Is to bless the people; a Democracy true to itself, untempted by clamor, unmoved by the gusts of popular passion and uncorrupted by offers of strange alliance; the Democ- racy of patriotism, the Democracy of safety, the Democracy of Tilden and the Democracy that deserves and wins success"