The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bay State Monthly, Volume II. No. 2,
November, 1884, by Various

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Title: The Bay State Monthly, Volume II. No. 2, November, 1884

Author: Various

Release Date: October 14, 2004 [EBook #13741]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BAY STATE MONTHLY, ***

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[Illustration: Engraved by Geo. E. Perine, New York. Grover Cleveland]

THE

BAY STATE MONTHLY.

_A Massachusetts Magazine_.

VOL. II.

NOVEMBER, 1884.

No. 2.

* * * * *

GROVER CLEVELAND.

By HENRY H. METCALF.

Save only that of Ulysses S. Grant, no name in America has come from
comparative obscurity into national eminence in so short a time as that
of GROVER CLEVELAND.

The fame of Grant was wrought out through the exigencies of a great
civil war, in which the unity of the Republic was the issue involved.
The distinction which Cleveland has achieved comes of valiant service in
another field of conflict, wherein the issue involves the perpetuity and
dominance of the great principles which constitute the framework and
fibre of republican government itself. Under ordinary circumstances,
probably, neither Grant nor Cleveland would have risen above the plane
of every-day life. The same, too, might perhaps justly be said even of
Washington. In the history of human progress it will be seen that every
great crisis involving the triumph of the principles and tendencies
which make for the moral, social, or political advancement of mankind
has developed a leader endowed with the special qualities demanded by
the occasion.

The brilliant and self-assertive men who press forward to leadership in
ordinary times, whether impelled by mere love of notoriety, personal
ambition, or an honest desire to promote the welfare of their
fellow-men, seldom become masters of the situation when a supreme
emergency arises. They may set in motion great contending forces; they
may precipitate conflicts whose ultimate outcome brings inestimable
benefit to ma