dent was untried and he had but a limited acquaintance with the national leaders of the party. Its rank and file not unnaturally expected that after their long exclusion from power the entire personnel of administration would be changed, or, as bluntly put, there would be a "clean sweep." The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Law was barely two years old. That it is now the fixed policy of the country is due in large measure to the firmness of Grover Cleveland during 1885. As governor he had recommended and was first to enforce the Civil Service Reform Law of New York state. The passage of that law had been helped by Theodore Roosevelt, then an assemblyman. In his inaugural address, President Cleveland declared "Civil service reform should be in good faith enforced." The pledge was followed by performance through his two administrations, and although this embittered some of the leaders and many of the followers of his party, it thoroughly uprooted the "spoils system." Again he was aided in this work by Theodore Roosevelt, then a United States civil service commissioner. The brunt of the struggle for this foundation of good government was borne by Grover Cleveland.
The keynote of his annual message of 1887 was "the simple and plain duty which we owe to the people, is, to reduce taxation to the necessary expenses of an economical operation of the Government." The message was devoted exclusively to tariff reduction. Mr. Cleveland was not a profound student of economic questions. The abstract issue between free trade and protection did not then especially interest him. He saw in excessive revenues, produced by a relatively high tariff, a temptation to extravagance, and as an administrator he recommended the obvious remedy. The tariff message of 1887 had two immediate effects. It raised economic questions again after nearly two generations to the first place in American politics, and it imperiled the reelection of President Cleveland, a risk consciously faced. Cleveland was defeated in 1888 by 65 electoral votes, although he had 100,000 plurality on the popular vote. New York state again decided the result.
Upon the inauguration of President Harrison, Mr. Cleveland removed to New York city and quietly resumed the practice of the law. On July 2, 1886, he had married Miss Frances Folsom, the daughter of his former law partner, a young lady whose personal beauty, affable manner and graces of mind and character added
