d, the successor
of Horace Greeley on the New York _Tribune_, remained regular. Lodge
went back to Massachusetts and persuaded himself to take part in the
canvass. Roosevelt, discouraged by the nomination of Blaine, remained
regular, but stepped out of the campaign and began his ranch life in the
Far West. With him, as with many others, it was a matter of conviction
that reform, to be effective, must be urged within the party. But enough
of the reformers went with the Mugwumps to lessen Blaine's chances of
election.
When the Mugwumps made overtures for fusion to the Democratic leaders,
they had in mind as a candidate a young Democratic lawyer who had
appeared as Mayor of Buffalo in 1881 and had been elected as reform
Governor of New York in 1882. He had secured the aid of independent
reformers in that campaign,--men who resented the candidacy of Folger
and the intrusion of the National Administration in local politics. As
governor he had speedily established his reputation for stubborn honesty
and independent judgment. Grover Cleveland had become, like Tilden, the
most promising candidate in a party that had no admitted leader.
The opposition from two elements in his party, at the Democratic
Convention in Chicago, strengthened Cleveland as the candidate of
reform. Ben Butler, who had himself been nominated for the Presidency by
an Anti-Monopoly Convention, denounced him as a foe of labor; and such
was Butler's reputation that his enmity was one of Cleveland's assets.
John Kelly, the chief of Tammany Hall, opposed him, too, having learned
to know him as Governor of New York. Well might Cleveland's friends say,
"We love him for the enemies he has made." They nominated him on the
second ballot, selecting Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, to run with
him. Their platform was full of reform, even of the tariff, but on the
latter subject it was less specific than the tariff reformers had hoped.
As the parties stood in 1884, personal character meant more than
platform or party name. Cleveland possessed qualities that made his
appeal to independents quite as strong as it was to Democrats. With
older brothers in the army he had supported his mother during the war,
and had kept clear of copperheadism. He stood for sound money; he
believed in a tariff for revenue; he had proved his devotion to civil
service reform; he lacked the factional enemies who weakened the
candidacy of a prominent leader like Blaine; and his peculiar app
|