Evening journal., 1912-10-03
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The First Precedent That
Cleveland Broke as
President
By Holland.

On December. 6, 1887, President
Grover Cleveland sent to Congress
the annual message required of him
by law The message was devoted ex-
cllsively to one subject-namely
what Mr.. Cleveland regarded as ex
cessive taxation. It earnestly reel
ommender that Congress So legislatf
as to reduce to reasonable. limits thfe
taxation then imposed upon tiAe
American people.
At FIRST it was the manner In
which President Cleveland ignorJd
all the precedents established BY Mis-
predecessors that attracted attenrdbD
70 this message. Always before this
message, Presidents, in their annlBal
message TO Congress, had endeavdr
eo 70 make full reports respecting
me various administrative parties OF
the government and also respecttne
our foreign relations.
fhis message has often been Ire.
tlred from the presidency as onel OF
the most distinctive and impressive
acts OF his entire career. Yet there
were many friends of Mr.. Cleveland
who regarded another unprecedented
act OF his as even more impressive
and characteristic of Cleveland's bri.
ginality and courage than his taliff
message was. Moreover, this action
revealed an intellectual quality
which is very rare among public men.
When Cleveland stood upon khe
east portico of the capitol at Wash
ington TO take the oath of office and
to deliver his inaugural address on
March 4, 1885, | suppose there Were
not five persons who knew whaA |
knew TO be the fact, and that Wis
that he did not intend TO read his
inaugural address," said ColonS
Daniel S. Lamont to me shortly beA
fore he entered Cleveland's second
administration as Secretary Of War.
Colonel Lamont was Cleveland's priv.
ate secretary while he was governor
of New York and during his first
term as president
Il was with Cleveland a great deal
of the time when he was preparing
his inaugural address. He had re-
signed the governorship OF New York
and had taken a little house at AL,
bany about two months before his
inauguration.
Il never saw him work harder
than he did on the preparation Of
this inaugural address. He rewrote
many of the paragraphs a good many
times. He was exceedingly careful
about the punctuation. When he had
written a paragraph he would read
ii aloud. He told me that he did that
to see whether the meaning that he
intended to convey would be made
perfectly clear to those who listened
to the address.
"At least he finished the address
He read it over Just once. Then he
put the manuscript in his valise and
went to Washington with it-not that
he needed the manuscript himself
but because il would be needed by
the printers.
Il must confess that I was a little
astonished when he told me that he
did not intend to read that address
at the time of his inauguration.
told him that all Of his predecessors
had read their inaugural addresses.
and If he did not read his it would
be said that he had ignored the pre-
cedent
"'I don't care about the precedents.
he said. If ] read that address only
a few persons will hear IT, 1t won't
make any impression. II I speak il
without notes, it will seem to every
person before me as though | were
speaking directly to him
Il was not at all concerned about
his delivery of the address / mean
that | was not appreh.nsiye that he
would slip up and have tC take the
manuscript from his pocket / know
that he possessed a most extraordin-
airy verbal memory. / have heard Of
one OF two men who had a life gift,
but / never was brought into con-
tact with il until knew Cleveland.
All that it was necessary for him TO
do after he had prepared an address
was to read IL over once. In that
way II was firmly imprinted on his
memory. He did not miss one word
in the delivery Of his address at the
Inauguration.
so when ] hear people say that
Grover Cleveland broke tie pre-
cedents when he sent the taxation
message to Congress in December.
1887, ] reply; Yes, but that wasn't
the first precendent he broke. For
he was the first of all presidents 10
address directly the people al the
time Of inauguration, not reading
from manuscript the Inauguration
address,"
Copyright. 1912. by Z. J. Edwards
All rights reserved)
Tomorrow Mr. Edwards will tell
Of And Little Child Shall Lead