The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-25
EARL Y YEARS AND PUBLIC
 RECORD OF MR. CLEVELAND
His Fight For the Gold standard, His Bead r..us'' HI. Defiance of Great Britain Over the venezuela Boundary, His Support of Palmer sna Bucixner and His Home Life in princeten.

After an Interim of four years in prlvaIe llxe GroVsr CIeveIand returned lo W asnIng. ana was lnaugurated FresidenL or the united states on Marcil |. LsyS. Tor the seconu time. me Cleveland O. 1893 was very diIterent KroIn Lne CIevelanu Ol loS5. when ne began ms nrst term ne was altogether new to Washington and 10 national politics. he was practically an untraed man 4n the wider nelu oI statesiilan- snip and was but just competing ms 4sLn year In ls9S. at the very ma ture age of 5b. AIT. Cleveland mad en- Joyed a distinction uniaue in Amert- can hlstory--that or being elected President. renominated and defeated and again renominated ana elected. lie had served one tull term. with all the experience in nationa. and internation- al politics which that service entailed.
 In another and more popuiarly inter-
 esting sense the second advent Of Cleveland was different. He was now lands had a baby. little Ruth. born in New York October 5. 1891. Her death q few years after her parents retire ment to Princeton, N. J.; was mater a ing the second term further endeared herself to the American people
 Though Mir. Cleveland never pos ssss ss:ssd auats m vsk Which %s ca magnetism. he was undoubtedly the most popular American v his time when, he began his second term as and retired permanently to private life he was one of the most unpopular Americans for the time being. He nao cut loose from his party and become that amazingly unusual thing--an ex- ecutiye independent of the powers which made him. The great struggle for the maintenance of the gold stand cd the campaign of 1898 was taking definite shape. The President set him self obstinately toward maintaining 1883 he called an extra session of Con. gress and pushed through the repeal of the sherman act of 1890. under which the government was, was req1ires9, s, to pnTI- pI- ion. The Democracy at large was amazed and enraged at this action: though a very considerable portion Of It stood with the President on the n-
 To maintain the gold reserve Presi- dent Cleveland from time to time made large issues of government bonds: with New York bankers aroused a cy- clone of adverse criticism. Mir. Cleve- land. of course. was in the exact storm ment Mir. Cleveland wrote statement
 explaining the bond sales, defending his own course and declaring that he recalled these executive acts with the
 greatest satisfaction.
 PresldenI CisveIand in 1894 enhanced
 his immediate unpopularity by senalnB
 governments troops to Chicago tO pre-
 vent the obstruction Of Ine malls
 during the great railway strike, against
 the protest Of Governor Altgeid oI Il
 linois. who decIared that he was abe
 to cope with the situation without aid
 from the Federal government This
 was one of the mos sensational acts Of Cleveland's career. In 1895 he sent
 to the Senate message relating 10
 British claims in Venezuela which pris- tied with bulldog determination to insist upon the upholding of the Mon- roe doctrine even at the cost Of war between the United States and Eng
 land. Great Britain refused to submit to arbitration a certain boundary dls- puts with Venezuela. President Glove
 land advised the appointment of com
 boundary line between the two ecur-
 tries with a view to enforce an ac- eeptance of this line by Great Britain The Monroe doctrine having been ac- gatton by Secretary of State John
 Quincy Adams as a part and parcel of
 sacred American polity the entire na-
 tion stood by the Preident in his pluc-
 ky stand. Congress also stood by him. England drew in her horns and ac-
 cepted tho situation gracefully. Gro~ popular hero. However. his defeat for
 renominaion in 1896. had he desired the honor. was a foregone conclusion
 Tariff as an issue was tuInbled into LIldt NaAS 0CAOAC 0AA
 Cleveland had described as "innocu-
 ous desuetude." The free coinage Of
 silver was demanded by the Democrat.
 ic majority. Mir Cleveland supported
 the Palmer and Buei1ner gold Demo cratic" ticket When he handed over the governmental reins to President William McKinlev. March {. 1907, he stepped out of ofice forever.
 Mir. Cleveland settled for himself the problem as to what to do with an ex-Presidept by retiring gracefully to
 Princeton, N. j.. in the shadow of the | great university which he as poor | boy had vainly hoped to enter. Here he | built a home and grew old with his | family of bright young children grow | ing up about him. Two more girls
 and two boys were born.
 During and after his Presidential | terms the Cleveland fishing and l duck hunting expeditions supplied
 much material to the press.
 In 1903 Mir Cleveland was introduced | in St. Louis as the most distinguish | ed private citizen in the world" By that time his political opponents in
 both of the great parties, generally | speaking. had come to look upon him as a historical figure. and by the | vast majority of Americans the ven- | erable ex-President was regarded as a | true patriot an honest public servant | and an able chief executive.