tinuance of his help for the widow and her children ought to be secured. Accordingly he borrowed money to obtain a substitute.

No stone was left unturned by the Republican agents; no invention was too mean to discredit their opponent. The fact that he was outside the regular political ring was relied upon as proof of his obscurity, whilst gross imputations were made against his private life. Mr. Cleveland met these attacks with a calm indifference, which has had a distinct effect upon Presidential contests ever since; and there is some reason to hope that the marked absence of personality in the contests of 1888 and 1892 may indicate a permanent improvement.*

When the polling was over, some question was raised as to the actual figures from New York; but it was soon ascertained that the Republican domination had at length been broken. Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Hendricks were elected respectively President and Vice-President by 219 votes against 182 for Blaine and Logan. Of the thirty-eight States then voting, twenty went to Cleveland, including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, and Kentucky. For Blaine were Pennsylvania, the New England States, the North West and the transMississippi States, except Texas.

* After the election, it became known that a person whom Mr. Cleveland had appointed to the Post-office at Copiah, Mass., had published a gross libel upon Mr. Blaine, and the President at once cancelled the appointment.

F

NOTE TO CHAPTER V.

The mode of electing the President is prescribed by the Constitution, and differs from the ordinary direct vote of a city for a Mayor, or of a State for a Governor. Each State chooses a number of electors equal to the number of Senators and of Representatives combined, which the State sends to Congress. The number of Senators is always fixed at two for each State. The number of Representatives varies with the population of the State. The mode of appointing the electors has varied since 1789. They are now chosen by a ballot of the whole State on the understanding that they do not exercise any opinion of their own, but simply vote for a particular candidate named to each voter at the time of their election. Thus the success of the list of either party in New York, for instance, means that thirty-six votes go to the Democratic or Republican candidate, as the case may be.

Under this system, the Presidential candidate appeals to the whole mass of electors throughout the Union, now numbering over twelve million; but it is a consequence of the rule of double election that he may have a majority of the votes polled in the Union, and yet may lose the election because he has not a majority of the electors chosen by the States.

Mr. Cleveland, for instance, has always had a majority of voters since he first appeared as a Presidential candidate; but he was defeated on the second occasion because small majorities within New York and Indiana gave both these States, or fifty-one "electoral". votes, to General Harrison.

If there is not an absolute majority of the electors in favour of any one of the candidates, the choice passes to the House of Representatives, who vote by States.

CHAPTER VI.

FIRST PRESIDENCY, 1885-86.

Inauguration---Choice of Cabinet-Reconciling influence--Visit to the South--First Message, December, 1885-State of Parties in 49th Congress—Resumption of public lands-Limited power of President-Vetoes-Pension Bills-Public buildings- The Texas Seed Bill-Wedding, June 22nd, 1886.

HE triumph of 1884 did not work any change

THE
The the

in the character of Mr. Cleveland. At the White House, as at Buffalo and at Albany, he was the same unflinching champion of common sense and morality; but the faults of the legislative bodies are more inveterate at Washington; whilst the public, to whom the President appeals, is diffused over a much vaster area, and thus his capacity to secure the policy he aims at is less immediately operative. It is one of the peculiarities of American history, that in it date and number play a very important part. Anyone who has read the Constitution with some care, and fixed in his memory a few of the red-letter years of Republican history, such as the first election of Washington, has a convenient framework for his notes of the national story. Even death is not allowed to interfere with this Pythagorean order for more than a year or two. Tyler succeeds to Harrison, or Johnson to Lincoln,

Arthur to Garfield, without breaking the stated chronological sequence. The diligent arithmetician can count up Congresses as well as Presidents; for the term of each Congress was fixed in 1787, and the power of dissolution is not known to the Constitution.

A still more remarkable result of this numerical arrangement is, that the transfer of power is necessarily attended with considerable delay. As it must take place at a time fixed long beforehand, irrespective of the actual condition of public business, it is, perhaps, essential that there should be a certain interval between the notice of dismissal given to one Administration, and the installation of another.

The elections for Congress and the higher public offices, including the President, take place in the November of the fourth year of office of the current term, but the citizen then elected does not become President until the 4th March following; whilst the House of Representatives, which has been chosen on the same wave of opinion, is not generally called together until the December of the next year. Congress being only elected for two years, the President has, therefore, only the first and second years of his term of office in which his position as leader of the nation is assured him. It very rarely happens that the tide of public feeling at a Presidential election attains so high a mark in the Congressional pollings which occur in the middle of the Presidential term.

After Mr. Cleveland's election in November, 1884, he continued to rule the State of New York, from Albany, until January, when he resigned the office of Governor

into the hands of Mr. D. B. Hill, the Deputy-Governor. Meanwhile, President Arthur and Mr. Frelinghuyzen carried on the government of the Republic until March, 1885. Then came the installation of the new President, of whose personal appearance the reader may here like to have some details, beyond what the portrait reproduced in this volume supplies. When he entered on his great office he had not yet completed his 48th year. Considerably above the middle height, he does not appear so tall as he really is, having inherited, perhaps through his German grandmother, considerable bulk of frame. Dominating this massive figure is a countenance expressive of resolution in every trait. It is eminently the face of a man of action; but the expanse of forehead, and the penetrating, kindly glance, qualify the impatience of the mouth and the sternness of the brows.

On the 4th March, innumerable crowds attended him to the Capitol, where he took the oath of office prescribed by the Constitution. From the front of the Parliament House he delivered the address called the Inaugural, which, in its way, is the most interesting survival of Democratic ideas. It is not prescribed by the Constitution, it has no official recognition. It is the one occasion on which the President is supposed to speak to the nation at large in his own person. Custom has deprived him of the opportunity of addressing either House of Congress by word of mouth; but on the 4th of March, standing on the steps of the Capitol, he, the first citizen of the Republic, speaks to his friends and fellowcountrymen for the last time during his period of office.