Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/698

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660'
CLEVELAND
CLEVELAND

of two jurists of repute and an umpire, the latter to be appointed by the king of Sweden in case the arbitrators should not agree upon one. All other claims, except those involving territory, were to go first before such a tribunal, but in case the decision should not be unanimous it was to be reviewed before a similar tribunal of five. Boundary questions were to go to a special court of six members three U. S. judges and three British judges. The treaty was to continue in force for five years, and thereafter until twelve months after either of the contracting parties should give notice to the other of a desire to terminate it.

On 1 Feb. the foreign relations committee of the senate reported favorably on this treaty with amendments that were regarded by the friends of the treaty as making it practically of no effect. Even in this form the treaty, on 5 May, failed to receive the two-thirds majority necessary for confirmation, the vote being 43 to 26. It was generally believed that personal hostility to Mr. Cleveland had much to do with the rejection. There had been for some time a feeling in the senate that the president and his secretary of state had not deferred sufficiently to the rights of that body in matters of foreign policy. Mr. Olney's statement in the Cuban matter, noticed above, had much to do with strengthening this feeling, and although the secretary's position in this matter was generally sustained by constitutional lawyers it doubtless had its effect in still further estranging many senators from the administration. Another difference of opinion of the same kind occurred in the case of certain extradition treaties negotiated by Secretary Olney with the Argentine Republic and the Orange Free State. In these treaties, by the president's desire, as was understood, a clause was incorporated providing for the surrender of American citizens to the authorities of a foreign country provided such citizens have been guilty of crime within the jurisdiction of the country that demands their return. This was intended to prevent this country from becoming an asylum for European criminals, who had been granted naturalization papers here and who should attempt to make their naturalization protect them from the consequences of their past criminal acts. But this plan has never been adopted by any other country, and the attempt to cause the United States to initiate it was not in accordance with public opinion. On 28 Jan., 1897, the senate ratified both treaties, but with amendments conferring discretionary power on the surrendering government in the matter of giving up its own citizens.

As the time for the meeting of the national democratic convention of 1896 drew nigh it became apparent that the advocates of the free coinage of silver would have a majority of the delegates. On 16 June Mr. Cleveland, in a published letter, condemned the free-silver movement, and called upon its opponents to do all in their power to defeat it. The convention was clearly opposed to Mr. Cleveland. Its platform was in effect a condemnation of his policy in the matters of the currency, the preservation of public order, civil-service reform, and Cuban policy. It declared for the free coinage of silver and nominated a pronounced free-silver advocate. In the canvass that followed Mr. Cleveland was favorable to the gold-standard wing of the party, which under the name of the national democrats held a separate convention and nominated Senator Palmer for the presidency.

One of the president's last official acts was his appearance at the sesquicentennial celebration of Princeton university, where he delivered an address that was widely praised. Soon afterward it was announced that he had purchased a house in the town of Princeton, and after the inauguration of his successor he removed thither with his family. There his son was born, 28 Oct., 1897. The picture on page 654 represents Mr. Cleveland's summer home at Buzzard's Bay, Mass.

Mr. Cleveland is as distinguished for forcible speech as for forcible action. His many addresses, both while in and out of office, are marked by clearness of thought and directness of expression, which, with his courage and ability, have always appealed to the best sentiments of the people, and have formed and led a healthy public opinion. He is notable for being the first public man in the United States to be nominated for the presidency thrice in succession. Equally remarkable is the fact that he has received this recognition although often at variance with his own party. His final withdrawal from public office was marked, as has been already said, by a general estrangement between him and many of those who had been once his followers, and despite this the popular feeling toward him throughout the country continued to be one of respect and esteem. Several campaign lives of Mr. Cleveland appeared during his three presidential contests. See also “President Cleveland,” by J. Lowry Whittle, in the “Public Men of the Day” series (1896).

President Cleveland married, in the White House (see illustration, page 652), on 2 June, 1886, Frances Folsom, daughter of his deceased friend and partner, Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo bar. Except the wife of Madison, Mrs. Cleveland is the youngest of the many mistresses of the White House, having been born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1864. She is also the first wife of a president married in the White House, and the first to give birth to a child there, their second daughter having been born in the executive mansion in 1893. — His youngest sister, Rose Elizabeth, b. in Fayetteville, N. Y., in 1846, removed in 1853 to Holland Patent, N. Y., where her father was settled as pastor of the Presbyterian church, and where he died the same year. She was educated at Houghton seminary, became a teacher in that school, and later assumed charge of the collegiate institute in Lafayette, Ind. She taught for a time in a private school in Pennsylvania, and then prepared a course of historical lectures, which she delivered before the students of Houghton seminary and in other schools. When not employed in this manner, she devoted herself to her aged mother in the homestead at Holland Patent, N. Y., until her mother's death in 1882. On the inauguration of the president she became the mistress of the White House, and after her brother's marriage she associated herself as part owner and instructor in an established institution in New York city. Miss Cleveland has published a volume of lectures and essays under the title “George Eliot's Poetry, and other Studies” (New York, 1885), and “The Long Run,” a novel (1886).