rving as
deputy, he was unanimously selected by the Democratic Nominating
Convention as candidate for district attorney. The county was strongly
Republican, but young Cleveland received a support beyond his party
strength and was beaten, by a few hundred majority only, by the
Republican nominee, Lyman K. Bass, then and since his warm personal
friend.

Upon the expiration of his term of service as deputy district attorney,
in January, 1866, he entered actively into practice, having formed a
partnership with the late Isaac K. Vanderpoel, a prominent lawyer and
ex-State treasurer. The burden of the labor fell to the share of the
junior partner, and through his close attention to the interests of
clients the business of the firm soon became extensive and the income
fairly remunerative. Three years later the partnership was dissolved,
through the election of Mr. Vanderpoel as police judge, and soon after
the new firm of Cleveland, Laning, & Folsom was formed. In 1870 Mr.
Cleveland was urged by leading Democrats of Erie county to accept the
party nomination for sheriff. The proposition was by no means in
accordance with his desires or inclinations. The office, although a most
important one in a large and populous county, and commanding liberal
compensation in fees, was a most thankless one in many respects: its
duties, always delicate and exacting, sometimes disagreeable in the
extreme, and its responsibilities great. It was felt, however, that the
acceptance of this nomination by one who so thoroughly commanded the
confidence of the people, and whose professional training and experience
gave him superior qualification for the office, would insure to the
county ticket of the party, with due care in the selection of other
candidates, the strength necessary to success in the election. As a
loyal member of the party to whose principles he had ever been devotedly
attached, and in the support of whose cause he had labored in every
consistent capacity since becoming a voter, he finally yielded, accepted
the nomination, and, as had been hoped, was duly elected along with the
entire ticket. He administered the office, upon which he entered in
January following, upon strict business principles, and to the eminent
satisfaction of the courts, the bar, and the public at large, during the
full term of three years. There were no duties, however irksome, from
which he shrank; no responsibilities which he failed to meet in a
becoming manner