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Show PRESIDENTIAL FORTUNES. , A Democratic friend does not like the state ment made by us last week that Mr. Cleveland went out of office leaving the country a business wreck, but at the same time he himself had gathered gath-ered together a private fortune exceeding that of all his predecessors. It is rather of a startling statement; it would be scandalous if untrue. But let us see. It is .undisputed that he had nothing when elected sheriff of Erie county, N. Y. That office could not much more than support a gentleman, gentle-man, neither could the mayoralty of Buffalo. No honest mayor in any city In tho Union ever made very much more than a living out of the office Neither did any honest man ever save more than a trifle out of the salary paid the Governor of New York state. It seems clear, then, that when Mr. Cleveland ascended to the Presidency he had no estate worth handling. Then he must have made his money while President and during tho four years interem between his two terms. When he left the office those who know best his business busi-ness affairs said he was worth $5 000,000; that the bulk of it all had been accumulated during the eight previous years and the larger part in the four immediately preceeding years years of terrible ter-rible depression throughout the entire country. Now as to his predecessors. Washington died possessed of property which eventually 'yielded about $1,000,000. All his life he had owned a large tract of poor Virginia land, which could have yielded him ittle more than a living. He owned the land on which the city of Washington Wash-ington stands and the sale of the lots made his money. John Adams had an estate worth perhaps $50,000; he probably saved $50,000 more from his office as President, for those were simple days and a dollar went much farther than at present. Thomas Jefferson had 2,000 acres of poor Virginia Vir-ginia land. He married an heiress and owned in land and slaves property worth $200,000 Neither James Madison nor John Quincy Adams, nor James Monroe, nor Jackson, nor Van Buren, nor Winiam Henry Harrison, nor John Tyler, nor Polk, nor Taylor, nor Fllmore, nor Pierce, had to exceed fortunes of $100,000 each. Some had not nearly that amount. James Buchanan was ac- counted rich, and may have heen worth $200,000. Lincoln may have heen worth $50,000 when he B died. Johnson perhaps as mucn more; Grant B may have retired from the olllce worth $100,000; Hayes with possibly $125,000; Garfield with pos-I pos-I gHjy $25,000; Arthur with possoIy $200,000; Har- rison with $200,000; McKinley with perhaps $50,-fl $50,-fl 000, and Roosevelt has what he possessed when fl he took the offlce with possibly a trifle iriore. The fl fortunes of all former Presidents of tlie United B States did not amount to more than $3,500,000 and B still some of them were not only reasonably in-B in-B telligent men, but they had what are called finan-B finan-B cial heads on their shoulders. Salmon P. Chase B floated the bonds and issued the greenbacks dur-B dur-B Ing the great war, but whether he was worth B os much when his office as Secretary of the B Treasury expired as when he assumed the office B is doubtful. It is said that during Mr. Cleve-B Cleve-B land's first term Secretary Whitney and Dan La-B La-B mont carried some stock for Mr. Cleveland and B made him a good deal of money. That was B through friendship and was entirely legitimate, B but during his last term there ere no stocks the B advance of which could make any man much B money, with the exception of the Standard Oil, B tho Havemeyer Sugar stocks and a few others. B The rule was that men wno dealt in stocks dur-B dur-B ins those four terrible years grew poorer every B day. Some gentlemen made an immense killing B in those days on the purchase and sale of Gov-B Gov-B ernment bonds and the newspapers those gentle-B gentle-B men control are eager to accomplish Mr. Cleve-B Cleve-B land's re-election. fl Considering that they want him, comes dan- B gerously near being a reproach upon Mr. Cleve- B land when we consider further the state of the B country when he retired from his great office in B I89?. Still men have often been misjudged. Vic- B. tor Hugo gives the last words of the dying old fl Conventionist, who had lived alone in a fl hovel and despised for years. They are godcf B reading for us all: B "I have passed my life In meditation, study B and contemplation. I was sixty years of age when B my country called me and commanded to con- fl cern myself with its affairs. I oDeyed. Abuses B existed. I combatted them; tyrannies existed, I de- fl stroyed them; rights and principles existed, I pro- B claimed and confessed them. Our territory was B invaded, I defended it; France was menaced, I of- B fered my breast. I was not rich, I am poor. I B have been one of the masters of the state; the vaults of the treasury were encumbered with B specie to such a degree that we were forced to shore up the walls, which were on the point of bursting beneath the weight of gold and silver; I dined in Dead Tree street, at twenty-two sous. I have succored the oppressed. I have com- forted the suffering. I tore hie cloth from the altar, it is true, but it was to bind up the wounds of my country. I have always tipheld the march B forward of the human race, forward toward the light, and I have sometimes resisted progress B without pity. i hilve done my duty ac. B cording to my powers, and all the good that I H was able. After which I was hunted down, per-B per-B sued, persecuted, blackened, jeered at, scorned, B cursed, proscribed. What is it that you Jm have come to ask me?" |