Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1887 — CLEVELAND SPEAKS. [ARTICLE]

CLEVELAND SPEAKS.

An Interview with the President— Civii-Seryice Reform and Other Matters. I New York special. 1 President Cleveland has granted an interview to the representative of a New York paper who visited him for that purpose. Concerning recent events in Grand Army circles Mr. Cleveland said: “The soldier having laid down his arms, after making so many sacrifices and enduring so many hardships, having achieved such a vast and good work in perpetuating our republic, should be pre-eminently the best citizen. When he again in time of peace resumes his citizenship his desire for the peace and quiet of his country and its prosperity, entirely dependent upon these, should be emphasized by the very trials he has undergone. Ido not believe he can be carried away from the even plane of that good citizenship by the devices of unscrupulous men who would use him for partisan purposes.” Further, he said he did not fear there would be any overt acts in St. Louis in retaliation for the Wheeling incident, because it was contrary to what he knew to be the spirit of the municipal and commercial bodies which had invited him there, and which he believed to be the spirit of the whole people of St. Louis. With the progress of civil-service reform the President is very much pleased. “In the first year and a half of my administration,” said the President, “men came here by the hundreds, by the thousands, each company filling the room, and emptying it only to make way for another throng, and there was always the same formula: ‘I have come, Mr. President, to ask that be removed.’ ‘The reason,’ I would say. ‘Why, he is a Republican,’ would be the uniform answer. This repeated over and over again in each successive case with seemingly hopeless iteration. I had always—l could have—but the same answer: 'You must bring me proof of his unfitness as a public officer.’ I understood very well their inability to comprehend this. Knowing very well the process which had obtained here for so many years, 1 could but emphasize their inability. But now the formula is altogether changed. I have not heard that expression for many months past. It is now at the outset of every application for a change: ‘This man is unfit; a faithless public servant, and these are the reasons.’ Is not this a very great deal to have accomplished? Is not this a sufficient answer, for the time that has intervened, to those who may complain that more has not been accomplished?” Concerning the question of his renomination, Mr. Cleveland said: “It seems to be the universal belief that a President must desire a renomination. I cannot understand how any man who has served one term as President could have a personal ambition in securing a second term, with all its solemn responsibilities, its harassing duties, and its constant and grievous exactions upon his mental and physical strength. His consent, it seems to me, to accept a second term should rest only upon his sense of a solemn obligation as a citizen and an appreciation of his duty when called upon to bear his particular part of the burden of citizenship. Thus the office can have—at least, it can have for me—no personal allurements. I hope my present term may be concluded with profit to the country, and with as few mistakes on my own part as are incident to frail human nature.”