defects not to the
governmental system itself but to the character of those acting in
it. Burke, as long ago as 1770, remarked truly that "where there is a
regular scheme of operations carried on, it is the system and not any
individual person who acts in it that is truly dangerous." But it is an
inveterate habit of public opinion to mistake results for causes and
to vent its resentment upon persons when misgovernment occurs. That
disposition was bitterly intense at this period. "Turn the rascals out"
was the ordinary campaign slogan of an opposition party, and calumny
formed the staple of its argument. Of course no party could establish
exclusive proprietorship to such tactics, and whichever party might be
in power in a particular locality was cast for the villain's part in the
political drama. But as changes of party control took place, experience
taught that the only practical result was to introduce new players into
the same old game. Such experience spread among the people a despairing
feeling that American politics were hopelessly depraved, and at the same
time it gave them a deep yearning for some strong deliverer. To this
messianic hope of politics may be ascribed what is in some respects the
most remarkable career in the political history of the United States.
The rapid and fortuitous rise of Grover Cleveland to political eminence
is without a parallel in the records of American statesmanship,
notwithstanding many instances of public distinction attained from
humble beginnings.

The antecedents of Cleveland were Americans of the best type. He was
descended from a colonial stock which had settled in the Connecticut
Valley. His earliest ancestor of whom there is any exact knowledge
was Aaron Cleveland, an Episcopal clergyman, who died at East Haddam,
Connecticut, in 1757, after founding a family which in every generation
furnished recruits to the ministry. It argues a hereditary disposition
for independent judgment that among these there was a marked variation
in denominational choice. Aaron Cleveland was so strong in his
attachment to the Anglican church that to be ordained he went to
England--under the conditions of travel in those days a hard, serious
undertaking. His son, also named Aaron, became a Congregational
minister. Two of the sons of the younger Aaron became ministers, one
of them an Episcopalian like his grandfather. Another son, William,
who became a prosperous silversmith, was for many years a deac