Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-06-24
Grover Cleveland is No More


Princeton this morning, one of the
most remarkable, as well as one of
the greatest of Americans passed away. |
His rise to fame was as spectacular
as it was meteOric. From sheriff of
Erie county and mayor of Buffalo, he
became in quick succession governor
of New York and two times president
of the United States, all within a com
paratiyely short space of time.
Scarcely more than couple of years
before he became president the first
time, he was little known even in his
own state outside of Erie county. His
election TO the gubernatorial chair of
the empire state, by the greatest ma
jOrity ever given a democrat, brought
him into prominence, and his first
nomination for the presidency in 1884,
resulted in his election over what was
regarded as the strongest ticket the
republicans had ever placed in the
field, composed as it was of James
G. Blaine and John A. Logan. Thrice
in succession he ran for the Office of
president. being defeated for re-
election in 1888 by Benjamin Harri
son. but his hold was so firmly fixed
on the affections of his party and the
American people that he was called
from the ranks of private life in 1892
and triumphed over his former
rival who was standing for sec
ond term. He was the first and only
democratic president since the close
of the var up to the present time; the
only man so far honored with three
nominations by his party, and the only
executive who served two different
terms with an intervening period.
Since going out of Office in 1896, he
has lived unpretentiously at Prince
ton, New Jersey, in which state he
took up his residence, and has spent
his latter years in literary pursuits,
and in the pastime of hunting and
fishing. Though out of politics in a
way his active life kept him in touch
with current events. He had been
frequent contributor to magazines on
various topics of public moment.
Spending his advancing years amid the
environments of a college town, he
was beloved by the student body,
while universally admired and re-
spected as. Americas first private
citizen"
So unprecedented was his elevation
to the greatest Office in the world that
he was termed a man of destiny for
there was not the magnetism in his
personality that goes so much to de-
velop the ideal in American politics.
Rather was he retiring, distant and
on the whole apparently Indifferent.
He was regarded as a man who had
dealt in cold hard facts. A man to
meet and fulfill conditions rather than
| theories. He was a logician all the
way through, yet stolid as his
nature was, so free as his
character seemed from the least tinge
of the sentimental, his first term in the
White house was attended by one of
the prettiest romanceS in American his
tory, in his marriage in the executive
mansion with his ward, Francis Fol-
som, one of the most beautiful of
American women, a contamination
| that all the world viewed with happi-
iness.
| The dominant traits of the Cleveland
character were his resolute WILL his
firmness of purpose, his courage of
conviction, and his indominable energy
Once convinced of the right, as he
saw it, nothing could change him. He
was president. In this respect he was
closer to the type that Jackson pre-.
scented than any man who had sat in
the White house in the first century OF
the republic. He was absolutely fear
less, standing above party considera
tons or other influences that would
swerve him from the path of duty as
he saw it.
: His administrations were diStin
guished by his stand for civil service
reform and tariff revision, and the en-
forcement of the Monroe doctrine. Hi:
. position in this latter respect for {
time threatened war with Grea
Britain, and it was during the CORE
ispondence relating to the subject tina
his secretary of state, Richard Olney
sent to England the famous ultimatCn
in which 1t was said that America wa
: supreme on this continent and its fla
was law. President Cleveland was read
: to sustain the declaration with the fore
of arms, and England backed down
He inaugurated the modern American
navy, which in the administration sue
+ lceeding his own wiped Spain off tn
S Western hemisphere, and out of whic
s. achievement America has today wa
g feet that is winning the admiration {
If the world powers.
I'll President Cleveland was opposed [
s the imperialistic doctrines that b,
D. |came fastened upon the country at th
s close of the Spanish-American wa
It holding them contrary to the spirit {
e the founders of the republic and Anne
h lean precepts and institutions, and ha
e lhe been president at the time, the pu
If ich&se and subsequent conquest of til