. Cleveland began his first independent work as a
lawyer, and on leaving the office of the firm that had been his teachers
and associates, he accepted the office of assistant district attorney of
Erie County, to which he had been appointed. For this he give up a
salary of $1,000, and took one of $600, but he did this because he saw
that the training and experience of such an office would be worth more
to him than money. It was while he held this office that he was drafted
into the army, and being convinced that he was more useful in his office
than he could be as a soldier, he sent a substitute, borrowing the money
for the bounty from his superior, the district attorney. This money,
says Mr. Parker, he was not able to pay back until the close of his term
as assistant district attorney, and until the war itself was over. Two
of his brothers entered the army in 1861, and served through the war.

From this time Mr. Cleveland's rise was rapid, and made by great
strides, each new position the result of the satisfactory way in which
he had filled the one previously held. He was indeed defeated in his
first contest, that for district attorney of Erie County. In 1870 he
accepted the nomination of his party for the office of sheriff of Erie
County. It was not usual for lawyers to accept this office, and Mr.
Cleveland did not take it until after much deliberation and consultation
with his party friends. He was finally moved to accept the nomination
for the practical reasons that the place would give him leisure for
much-needed study in his profession, and that it would also enable him
to lay up a little money. He held the office for the full term, and
returned to the practice of the law in 1874, becoming a member of the
firm of Bass, Cleveland, & Bissell. Mr. Bass was the opponent who had
defeated him in the contest for district attorney, and Mr. Bissell is
now the Postmaster-General in the cabinet of his former law-partner.

In 1881, Mr. Cleveland was nominated for the office of Mayor of Buffalo,
and was elected by a majority of thirty-five hundred, the largest which
had ever been given in Buffalo for that office. It was a time of great
excitement, for the government of the city had fallen into very bad
hands, and in the election of Mr. Cleveland party lines were disregarded
to an unusual degree. His fearless and energetic administration of this
office; his resolute refusal to give any support to those fictions of
politicians an