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home and to the friends of his youth and manhood in Buffalo. On October 2d, 1884, after the longest interval of absence during his thirty years residence there, he was received with such an ovation of enthusiasm as testified that his hold upon the affections and esteem of his fellow-townsmen had not weakened. For the people of that great city, Henry Martin, President of the Manufacturers' and Tradesmen's Bank, welcomed him, and, in a speech of reply, Governor Cleveland, referring to the significance of the greeting, said with great pathos :

"It tells me that my neighbors are still my friends. It assures me that I have not been altogether unsuccessful in my efforts to deserve their confidence and attachment. In years to come, I shall deem myself not far wrong if I still retain their good opinion; and if surrounding cares and perplexities bring but anxiety and vexation, I shall find solace and comfort in the memory of the days spent here, and in recalling the kindness of my Buffalo friends."

To the great business men's meeting in New York, to which Mr. Tilden sent a letter of characteristic strength, Mr. Cleveland spoke with entire acceptability,, and in his Newark, N. J., speech, near the close of the campaign, he thus foreshadowed what has come to be the supreme issue of political discussion in the closing years of his first term:

"It is quite plain, too, that the people have a

right to demand that no more money should be taken from them directly or indirectly for public uses than is necessary for an honest and economical administration of public affairs. Indeed, the right of the Government to exact tribute from the citizens is limited to its actual necessities, and every cent taken from the people beyond that required for their protection by the Government is no better than robbery. We surely must condemn, then, a system which takes from the pockets of the people millions of dollars not needed for the support of the Government, and which tends to the inauguration of corrupt schemes and extravagant expenditures.

"The Democratic party has declared that all taxation shall be limited by the requirements of an economical Government. This is plain and direct; and it distinctly recognizes the value of labor and its right to governmental care when it further declares that the necessary reduction in taxation and limitation thereof to the country's needs should be effected without destroying American labor, or the ability to compete successfully with foreign labor, and without injuring the interests of our laboring population."

In the last speech of the 1884 campaign, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, he said:

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The world does not present a more sublime spectacle than a nation of freemen determining their own cause, and the leader whom they follow at such a time may well feel a sober, solemn sense

of responsibility. The plaudits of his fellows he should feel, but only to feel more intensely what a serious thing it is to have in keeping their hopes and their confidence."

Two years before, when there opened to him the wide prospect of election to the Gubernatorial chair of New York, he had, in the privacy of his own family circle, written the following letter, which accidentally came to light in the campaign of 1884, only to disclose his modest and yet selfreliant character, his consecration to public duty, and utter disregard of any other consideration than the conscientious exercise of solemn trust:

MAYOR'S OFFICE, BUFFALO, N. Y., '

November 7th, 1883.

MY DEAR BROTHER-I have just voted. I sit here in the Mayor's office alone, with the exception of an artist from Frank Leslie's newspaper, who is sketching the office. If mother were here I should be writing to her, and I feel as if it were time for me to write to some one who will believe what I write. I have been for some time in the atmosphere of certain success, so that I have been sure that I should assume the duties of the high office for which I have been named. I have tried hard in the light of this fact to properly appreciate the responsibilities that will rest upon me, and they are much-too much underesti

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