either in right or equity, for the return of the tax in said bill mentioned, and because I believe its execution would cause actual injustice and unfairness.

"GROVER CLeveland.

"Executive Mansion, March 2d, 1889."

It

This veto killed the bill for the time being. was passed over the veto in the Senate, but failed to be brought up in the House. It is well here to state, in conclusion of this subject, that this mode of getting rid of a Treasury surplus, checked by the action of President Cleveland, was accomplished in the next Congress, under a Republican administration. A similar bill was passed by the Senate during the first session of the Fifty-first Congress, and by the House on February 4th, 1891, during the second session, and became a law by the signature of President Harrison. As finally passed it provides that the money repaid to the States and Territories shall be held in trust for the benefit of the individuals from whom it was collected. Six years are allowed to file claims. Any portion of it not claimed by that time becomes the property of the State. In view of the ravages of death, and the many changes which have taken place within the past 30 years, the probability is that the claims will be few, and the States will fall heir to the bulk of this money.

This veto, as we have said, was the last important official act of President Cleveland. Two

days afterward, on March 4th, 1889, he surrendered the office of President and the executive mansion to his successor, and retired to private life, having made himself a name for unflinching honesty and a high sense of official responsibility during his Presidential career, which will live long in history, and place his record among that of the American Presidents most noted for probity and non-partisan public spirit.

I

CHAPTER XX.

IN PRIVATE LIFE.

N the whole history of mankind there have been few stories as remarkable as that of

Grover Cleveland. In 1880, a private citizen of an interior city, of no higher public importance than any other of the 50,000,000 inhabitants of the United States; in 1884, the President of the greatest republic the world has ever known, the elected ruler of the most prosperous nation upon the globe. It seemed almost the work of magic. No doubt Dame Fortune had a hand in it, but character had as much, and the admiration of the American people for unapproachable integrity in office had the most. It was his record for unflinching honesty and a high public spirit as Mayor of Buffalo that in two years made him Governor of New York, that stepping-stone to the Presidency of the United States. His integrity and ability in this office gave him the nomination for President, and the Democratic party carried him successfully into this exalted office, though his opponent was the most eminent statesman in the Republican ranks.

Four years had now passed, during which President Cleveland had shown such ability, in