in November been appealing to the country to support them in reducing the tariff.

In August, 1861, when President Lincoln was preparing for war with the Southern States, and the Government was in urgent need of money, Congress had levied a direct tax of $20,000,000 throughout the Union. The loyal States collected and paid their shares, but some four millions of the amount due from the Confederate States had never been paid. An agitation had been on foot for some time to return the amount paid to each of the States, with a view to its distribution among the original taxpayers. It was vain to point out that the tax was a perfectly legitimate one, involving no more oppression or hardship than any other impost of similar amount; and that, as regards the people who had paid, the greater number of them were dead, or not to be found. The bill offered a means of reducing the surplus by so many millions; the donation was welcome to the various State Treasuries; and might give employment to a number of active persons, like the pension agents, whose business Mr. Cleveland had so unkindly interfered with. When the bill was presented for the President's approval, a few days before he retired from office, he declared it to be unconstitutional. Congress could only appropriate money for certain definite purposes set out in the Constitution. There was no "debt due" to the people who had paid the tax; such an appropriation was not for the "public defence," nor could a "sheer bald gratuity, bestowed either upon States or upon individuals," be said to be for "the public welfare." The money which it was proposed to pay

away had been contributed by citizens, many of whom were not born when the direct tax was first levied; these people had the first claim upon the existing surplus if it was necessary to get rid of it.

On surrendering office to General Harrison, Mr. Cleveland determined to resume the pursuit of his profession, and took chambers at 816, Madison Avenue, New York. There he entered into partnership, according to the American system, with the firm of Bangs, Stetson, Tracy, and McVeagh. Mr. Hensel tells us he had secured, by his professional savings and judicious investments, a competent fortune; and his practice soon. produced a considerable income, which, however, would have been larger, had he not made it a rule to refuse retainers from the great financial and railway corporations.* He found ample employment in the business of arbitrations, whilst he became popular in the artistic and intellectual circles of New York.

It was at this time that his friends induced him to seek opportunities for indulging in his favourite amusement of fishing, at Buzzard's Bay, instead of in the Adirondacks; and he became the occupant of the residence known as "Gray Gables," where he was the neighbour of Mr. Jefferson, the celebrated actor. His visits to this place for fishing and duck shooting secured occasional relaxation from the labours of professional life.

With the purely local politics of the city of New York he scrupulously avoided any connection, but he did not affect unwillingness to take his share in public * HENSEL'S Cleveland pp. 319, 320.

life. The fact that he had been President did not, in his view, add to his authority, or discharge him from his public duties. In a speech at Sandwich, Massachusetts, he ridiculed the people who "are greatly disturbed every time an ex-President ventures to express an opinion upon any subject. Not a few appear to think we should simply exist, and be blind, deaf, and dumb the remainder of our days." At a banquet given in his honour by the Democratic Club of New York, he re-affirmed his theory of Democratic policy. "It insists," he tells us, "upon that equality before the law which concedes the care and protection of the Government to simple manhood and citizenship." From this affirmation. of Jeffersonian principles, he proceeded to contrast the history of the party with the shiftiness of the Republicans, and concluded an eloquent declaration of faith in the party with the following reference to the recent election :

"We know that we have not deceived the people with false promises or pretences, and we know that we have not corrupted and betrayed the poor with the money of the rich."

At Boston, Philadelphia, and other places, he from time to time delivered important speeches which cheered the spirits of his followers. Of the manifestoes published by him whilst out of office the most celebrated was that of February, 1891, when the advocates for the free coinage of silver were actively pressing their schemes. He was invited to attend a meeting at the Reform Club, New York, and, obliged to send a refusal, on account of

other engagements, he added, "It surely cannot be necessary for me to make a formal expression of my agreement with those who believe that the greatest peril would be invited by the adoption of the scheme embraced in the measure, now pending in Congress, for the unlimited coinage of silver at our mints." He went on to denounce "the dangerous and reckless experiment of free, unlimited, and independent silver coinage." There was nothing in the letter that might not have been expected from him as a matter of course, in view of the language of his speeches and messages on currency, but this declaration was received with wild enthusiasm. So familiar were the public with the trimming of ordinary political leaders, that amidst their dismay at the foolishness of the silver party, they hailed this simple, manly declaration as a promise of safety. "The silver letter" probably did more to ensure his success at the polls in 1892 than anything he had said or done since his retirement from office. The nation rejoiced to have among them a man of great position, who did not spend his time watching which way the winds of popularity were blowing, but, having formed his own opinion, had the courage to avow it.

CHAPTER X.

ELECTION FOR A SECOND TERM.

Questions before the country-Legislation during the Harrison Presidency-The Sherman Act-The McKinley Act-Dependent Pension Act—Great defeat of Republicans at election of Congress in 1890-Disappearance of Surplus-Party platforms—Sudden resignation of Mr. Blaine-Nominations of Harrison and ClevelandRe-election of Cleveland-Inaugural address-New Cabinet.

WH

HEN 1892 opened, all the signs of the political sky were in favour of a Democratic triumph. In the fifty-second Congress, which was then in its first session, the Republicans could only claim eighty-eight members out of a total of three hundred and thirty-two, so complete had been the reaction against the HarrisonBlaine administration at the election of 1890.

In order to understand the suddenness of this change after 1888, and the issues which were involved in the next Presidential contest, it will be necessary to glance briefly at the course of events whilst Mr. Cleveland had been devoting himself to his law business in Madison Avenue. General Harrison had been selected for the Presidential office on the ground of his personal popularity in Indiana, and his blameless character: most attractive of all his recommendations was his being a man of whom the professional politicians had no fears. He was not