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Show Cleveland's View of Arthur He Had Sincere Admiration for Hl Predecessor and for His Skill and Courage In Handling a Difficult Dif-ficult Situation. Mr. George F. Parker, the biographer biograph-er of Grover Cleveland and his Intimate Inti-mate friend for years, had many opportunities oppor-tunities for confidential conversation with Mr. Cleveland, during which the latter spoke freely of men and events of the political generation with which he was identified. "On one occasion," said Mr. Parker, "when I was chatting with Mr. Cleveland Cleve-land it was while he was serving his first term as president some chance reference was made to his predecessor predeces-sor In the White House, Chester A. Arthur. Instantly, Mr. Cleveland spoke In a most tender and sympathetic manner of General Arthur, and when he had finished I was much Impressed by the earnestness and the cordiality of his appreciation of President Arthur and his administration." At this point I Interrupted to say that I had high authority for the statement state-ment that before Cleveland became governor of New York, and certainly after he had entered the executive mansion at Albany, he had sincere admiration ad-miration for General Arthur, primarily based on some business or professional profes-sional association of an earlier day. "That feeling," replied Mr. Farker, "Mr. Cleveland still more strongly entertained en-tertained after he had been some time in the presidency. His early experiences experi-ences in that office made it clear to him how very difficult the position of General Arthurr must have been when he entered the presidency, not as president-elect, but by virtue of constitutional constitu-tional succession. "I cannot undertake to repeat President Pres-ident Cleveland's precise words, but I can give you very clearly the substance sub-stance of his opinion respecting Gen- eral Arthur as president and the reasons rea-sons he gave for holding that opinion. He discovered that there were always embarrassments, some of them serious, seri-ous, awaiting a newly Inaugurated president. Frequently, these are difficult diffi-cult In case the succession passes to one of an opposite party. But General Gen-eral Arthur became president because of the assassination of President Garfield. Gar-field. Passion was aroused throughout through-out the country. Grievous factional disturbances had been created In the Republican party. It was an extraordinary extraor-dinary difficult responsibility that awaited General Arthur in view of the fact that he was recognized as one of the leaders of the Stalwart faction of the party, the faction that had placed Itself in opposition to the administration administra-tion of President Garfield. But Cleveland Cleve-land had a good opportunity for learning learn-ing how skilfully and with what gentle gen-tle firmness and a complete sense bf patriotic duty President Arthur met the responsibility. He was particularly particular-ly Impressed by General Arthur's display dis-play of moral courage when he vetoed the first river and harbor bill sent to him a bill outrageously crammed with 'pork.' And I distinctly remember remem-ber what Mr. Cleveiand said after he had told of the difficulties that had beset Arthur and pointed to the fact that by the end of his term the breach in his party had been healed and there was recognition in congress that a patriot, pa-triot, conscientious and earnestly patriotic pa-triotic citizen had been administering the government: " 'I do not think that the country as yet .ully realizes or appreciates the high character of the service of President Pres-ident Arthur. But I feel certain that when the accurate history of his administration ad-ministration and times is written there will come a full appreciation, which will be the abiding judgment of the American people.' " (Copyright, 1910. by E. J. Edward. All Rights Reserved.) |