sary to a successful
administration of the government was indeed a marvel. It was no
"Cleveland luck" or haphazard chance that called into his first Cabinet
such men as Bayard, Manning, Garland, Vilas, and Whitney. It can safely
be asserted that Mr. Cleveland was an excellent judge of men and of
their capacity for the particular work assigned them. As if by
intuition, he thoroughly understood after a single interview the men
with whom he was brought in contact. As an object lesson a better
appointment to high office has rarely been made than that of Fuller
to the chief justiceship of the great court. No less fortunate was
his selection of Vilas to the responsible position of Postmaster-General.
And yet both of these gentlemen were personally strangers to Mr. Cleveland
when he was first named for the Presidency. His appointments to important
diplomatic positions likewise strikingly illustrated his aptness
in forming a correct estimate of men from whom his appointees were
to be chosen.

No incumbent of the Presidency was ever less of a time-server than
Cleveland. "Expediency" was a word scarcely known to his vocabulary.
Recognizing alike the dignity and responsibility of the great
office, he was in the highest degree self-reliant. None the less he
at all times availed himself of the wise counsel of his official
advisers. In matters falling within their especial province their
determination was, except in rare instances, conclusive. In no
sense was his mind closed against the timely counsel of his friends.
Far from being opinionated, in the offensive sense of the word, the
ultimate determination, however, was after "having taken counsel
from himself."

The incident contributing perhaps more than any other to his defeat
in 1888 was his tariff-reduction message to Congress one year prior
to that election. An abler state paper has rarely been put forth.
It was a clear, succinct presentation of existing economic conditions;
in very truth an unanswerable argument for tariff reduction. It
is not yet forgotten how promptly this message was denounced by
the entire opposition press as a "free-trade manifesto," and how
this cry increased in voice and volume until the close of the
Presidential contest. And yet, in sending this message to Congress,
Mr. Cleveland was entirely consistent with himself. Its utterances
were in clear accord with the platform upon which he had been
nominated and with his letter of acceptance