Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-25
Cleveland as Governor

And six months after he became
mayor of Buffalo the Democratic party
of his state whirled around him in a
cyclone OF enthusiasm. and made him
governor of New York.
This enthusiasm the real man Cleve-
land could no more inspire than ne
could fit from flower to flower. Yet
the people of his state, who had never
seen him, who knew nothing OF his
personality, made governor of New
York an ideal creature of their own
conjuring who bore Grover Clevelands 8
name. But the real Cleveland went to
Albany with almost no acquaintance
with public men, without familiarity
with the affairs of the state, with no
constructive plan for running his ad-
ministration, and with no known ca
paclty for the work before him. The
only attribute common to the ideal
Cleveland whom the people chose, and
| to the real Cleveland who took the Of
flee in 1883, was honesty-plain, un-
swerving honesty.
But he was swept onward by the
tidal power that was moving in the
protesting hearts of the people. He
became man Of destiny because ne
embodied the destiny of the people,
the spirit of the times. He did not
make the wave, he rose with 1t.
was brutal, unplanned-a barbaric
yawp of disgust. Cleveland was that
revolt In flesh and blood. He sat at his
desk twelve or fourteen hours day,
a big man, rather logy in person, with
a heavy German jaw, nose with
fight in II, a broad forehead under
which peered two pale blue, guileless,
inquiring eyes, like 'embers In banked
fire. He did not look the part or a
statesman, hardly that of governor
And when he took up the days busi-
ness he did not try to direct or man
age it. He took 1t as 1t came, and
when there was a piece of work unnt
he threw it out without any manifes-
tation of emotion, whether 1t was a
party caucus measure or private
bill.
month Grover Cleveland sat at his
desk at Albany, measuring the work,
selecting the good, rejecting the bad.
At the end of the legislative session
his veto pile was astonishingly large,
and a number of gentlemen engaged in
the gentle art of public larceny were
amazingly mad. But the blue eyes OF
the big man at the desk did not bat
under their sluggish lids; the heavy,
muscular hand went scratching away
at its work. and the people did not
know when it was time to cheer, for he
gave them no sign.
He worked this way for two years.
with no sense of scenic effect, stage
business or curtain time. Occasionally
he did +. a great thing. but he did IT
without any relation to anything else,
and merely because 1t was part OF tne
days work. 1t was without climax
and sometimes passed without ap-
plause.
Candidate of Revolt
But it was all honest, ana all true,
and all brapve in perfectly impersonai
sort of way, as a rock in a fortress is
brave because 1t cannot realize danger
nor avoid it. This spectacle was most
remarkable in American political, life.
Nothing like IL had ever been seen De-
fore. For two years, as governor OF
New York, Grover Cleveland stood the
one strong, looming figure in the ma
ton. The Democratic party was chiefly
chattering DAVIS, and the Republicans
were under the leadership of the brill
liant, vacillating Blaine, whom they
idolized. But the soul of the people
was sick of politics, and was nauseated
at all politicians. Cyclonic conditions
prevailed everywhere. The electric
spirit of protest against things as they
were was so thick that sparks or pro-
family snapped from the conversation
of rnild-mannered men at the slightest
irritation, and Cleveland had gathered
the electricity of discomfort from IA
wide area. When the tornado broke In
the campaign and election of 1884, it
took up Grover Cleveland, the Demo-
cratic candidate for president. and
hurled him into the White House.
Stranger to Washington
When he landed in washington-the
second time in his life he had ever
been in the town--he was literally an
unknown knight. He might have
passed undisguised through the in
auguration throng, and not citizen III
a hundred would have known him. The
man was so utterly without vanity that
he had never been 1.-The subject of this
sketch" in the local biographical annals
of Buffalo. Not a speech, hardly a
scrap of all the writing he had done
| until he entered the gubernatorial Of
flee, was available for the newspaper
writer's of the time. There were no
anecdotes about him to illuminate his
character. He had lived q life as
prosaic as an index to an auditors re-
port. In the campaign against Mr..
Blaine, preceding the presidential cleo
! tion, the only story told on Cleveland