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The Republican party had been supreme in the national government for a quarter of a century, and there seemed no reason to doubt that Blaine, its candidate in the campaign of 1884, would at last realize his consuming ambition to be elected President.  He had an immense personal prestige, he had outlived the taint of corruption attached to him during the administration of Grant, and he had for years been preparing and strengthening himself for this contest.  So he entered it confidently.

But a new issue had arisen—­that of the protective tariff, which, originally a war revenue measure, had been formally adopted as a principle of Republicanism, which was hailed by its adherents as a new and brilliant economic device for enriching everybody at nobody’s expense, and which had really enriched a few at the expense of the many.  The Democrats, with considerable hesitation and ambiguity, pronounced against it, arraigned the Republican party for corruption, and named as their nominee Grover Cleveland, of New York.

Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837, the son of a clergyman whose early death threw him upon his own resources.  He started west in search of employment, stopped at Buffalo, and afterwards made it his home.  He studied law while working as a clerk and copyist, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and in the late seventies was elected mayor of Buffalo on a reform ticket.  Almost at once, the country’s eyes were fastened upon him.  Elected as a reform mayor, he continued to be one after his induction into office.  He actually seemed to think that the promises and pledges made by him during his campaign were still binding upon him, and astounded the politicians by proceeding to carry those promises out.  So scathing were the veto messages he sent in, one after another, to a corrupt council, that they awakened admiration and respect even among his opponents.  The messages, written in the plainest of plain English, aroused the people of the city to the way in which they had been robbed by dishonest officials, they rallied behind him, and his reputation was made.  In 1882, his party wanted a reform candidate for governor, and they naturally turned to Cleveland, and he was elected by a plurality of two hundred thousand.

He found the same condition of things on a larger scale at Albany as at Buffalo—­a corrupt machine paying political debts with public money—­and here, again, he showed the same astonishing regard for pre-election pledges, the same belief in his famous declaration that “a public office is a public trust,” and bill after bill was vetoed, while the people applauded.  And with every veto came a message stating its reasons in language which did not mince words and which all could understand.  He showed himself not only to be entirely beyond the control of the political machine of his own party, but also to possess remarkable moral courage, and he became naturally and inevitably the Democratic candidate