mated. But the thought that has troubled me is: Can I well perform my duties, and in such a manner as to do some good to the people of the State? I know there is room for it, and I know that I am honest and sincere in my desire to do well, but the question is whether I know enough to accomplish what I desire. The social life which seems to await me has also been a subject of much anxious thought. I have a notion that I can regulate that very much as I desire, and if I can I shall spend very little in the purely ornamental part of the office. In point of fact, I will tell you, first of all others, the policy I intend to adopt, and that is to make the matter a business engagement between the people of the State and myself, in which the obligation on my side is to perform the duties assigned me with an eye single to the interest of my employers. I shall have no idea of re-election or of any higher political preferment in my head, but be very thankful and happy if I can well serve one term as the people's Governor. Do you know that if mother were alive I should feel so much safer? I have always thought her prayers had much to do with my success. expect you to help me in that way. Give my love to with you, and believe me, I sha!! Your affectionate brother, GROVER CLEVELAND. The State election in Ohio took place in October and was carried by the Republican candidates for State offices. Mr. Blaine made an electioneering tour through that State during the latter part of September, and the most active efforts were put forth to secure a favorable result. The Democrats carried Georgia and West Virginia, so that the State elections which had long been supposed to influence the general result at the Presidential election, were deemed an offset to each other, Indiana having ceased to be an October State. The election was held on November 4th, 1884, resulting in the choice of electors as follows: For some days after the election an attempt was made to represent the result as doubtful because the plurality in the State of New York was small. But the effort was so decidedly the last expiring hope of a defeated party that it produced no other feeling stronger than disgust and a determination that no such fraudulent result as that of 1876 should be declared. In four days after the election the result was universally accepted. The managers of the defeated party, in their intense disappointment, vented their rage partly upon the Prohibitionists, and to some degree upon the luckless speech of Rev. Dr. Burchard; their deepest resentment, however, was exhibited against the so-called "Mugwumps," for whom no terms of reproach were deemed too violent. The Independent Republicans, who had vainly protested against Blaine's nomination and had contributed to his defeat at the polls, received the abuse now heaped upon them with great complacency and hopefully looked to the new Administration for their vindication. The Democrats over the whole country celebrated their victory with jubilees, barbecues, parades, and varied methods of popular rejoicing. The celebration of 1876 had been premature; but now the triumphant party gave vent to dem onstrations of unqualified and unrestrained joy. Amid all this, in many quarters, were heard the warning voices of discreet leaders, pointing out that the victory should be interpreted as a triumph of the better elements of all parties, and a narrow escape of the Government from threatened perils rather than a mere partisan achievement. Speculation was rife as to how a comparatively untried man would meet and deal with the great responsibilities of an office coming to him under the peculiar circumstances of the campaign of 1884. CHAPTER IX. PREPARING FOR THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM-THE SILVER QUESTION. HE interval between the retirement of TH chair of New York, which David B. Hill, the Lieutenant-Governor, was now called upon to fill, and the inauguration of a Democratic Administration at the Federal capital, was busily occupied with consultations and plans for the reorganization in Federal power of a party virtually excluded from it for nearly a quarter of a century. Chief in all such councils and first among all counselors of the President-elect, then and ever since, was and has been Colonel Daniel S. Lamont, who was soon to be translated from the position of Private Secretary to the Governor of New York to that of Private Secretary to the President of the United States. A young man, trained in the best school of New York politics, experienced in journalism, quick to perceive the value and character of men, discreet in speech, and efficient in commanding the largest share of information from any visitor, whether he has an axe to grind or comes merely as an interested |