TWENTY YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC CHAPTER I THE RETURN OF THE DEMOCRACY On the fourth day of March, 1885, Grover Cleveland of New York took the oath prescribed by the Constitution and became, in doing so, the twenty-second President of the United States. As he paused for a moment, after pronouncing the solemn words, and looked out over the multitude which filled the vast expanse before the Capitol, he must have felt, unimaginative though he was, a thrill of irrepressible emotion. Three years before, his name had been unknown beyond the limits of the provincial city where he lived. Now, the tumultuous cheers that drowned even the thunder of saluting cannon, acclaimed him as the elected ruler of the mightiest republic upon earth. He had accomplished the impossible. He had succeeded where men of large experience and wide renown had ignominiously failed. He had led to victory a political party which seemed to have incurred the fate of perpetual banishment from power. And, in achieving this, he, a country lawyer with no especial knowledge of statecraft or of national policies, had defeated the most brilliant, the most resourceful, and the most passionately loved of all American party leaders. |