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Show I WHY DANA OPPOSED CLEVELAND. CLEVE-LAND. C-!. A. K. McClure in the Saturday Evening Post.) 5 Charles A. Dana, then editor of the Is'ew Tork Sun. became estranged front Mr. Cleveland the year before - nhe presidential flection of 1SS4. He 3iad earnestly supported Cleveland for governor in JSS2. but when a movement was made by Mr. Manning to organize organ-ize the state for Cleveland in 184. Dana was implacable in his opposition. 1 met him several times before Cleveland Cleve-land was nominated, and he always discussed the question with an unusual degree of acrimony. Soon after Cleveland's nomination I ; was spending a f.-w days at Saratoga, find was watching Dana's paper with i much interest, for be was very much 7isirruntlc-d. He did not at first'deHare himself aggressively against Cleveland's Cleve-land's election, but one morning at Saratoga, in taking up the Sun. I found ono of Dane's terrible deliverances acainst Cleveland that left no nossible -.nance for a reconciliation. I telegraphed tele-graphed to Mr. Dana and asked him to meet me at his office at 3 o'clock that afternoon, and called there on my way home. Mr. Dana had gone too far to recede, but I tried to temper his- bitterness, bit-terness, as I thought it would do great harm, not only to Cleveland, but to bis own newspaper as well, then one of the most prosperous in the country. Mr. Dana was petulent and violent fn his expressions against Cleveland, and j paid that he had decided to support General Rutler. It was not unli! I met Clevela'- at x Albany, soon after his election, t: I learned the cause of the estrangt : between Cleveland and Dana, and the statement given by Mr. Cleveland was subsequently confirmed by Air. Dana. Dana had very earnestly supported Cleveland's nomination and election for governor in 3 8:82, and after the election be wrote a personal letter to Cleveland, asking the appointment of a friend to the position of adjutant general. Cleveland Cleve-land received that letter as he receive, thousands of other letters recommend ing appointments, instead of-recognizing the claim Mr. Dana had upon him for the courtesy of an answ er. Beecher had a candidate for the same position, and Cleveland gave it to .Beecher's man without any explanation whatever what-ever to Dana, who felt that he had been discourteously treated by Cleveland. Cleve-land. Mr. Dana gave no open sign of his disappointment, but some time after Cleveland's inauguration, when it became be-came known that Dana felt grieved at the governor, some mutual friends intervened and proposed to Cleveland that he should invite Dana to join Avith some acquaintances to dine at the executive ex-ecutive mansion. To this Cleveland readily assented. Dana was informed that Cleveland would tender such an invitation if it would be accepted, and he promptly assented. Cleveland then became involved in the pressing duties of the legislature, and allowed the session to close without extending the promised and expected invitation to Dana. Mr. Cleveland told me that he was entirely to blame for neglect in both instances, as Dana would doubtless doubt-less have been satisfied if be had courteously cour-teously informed him of hia convictions convic-tions which required him to appoint another for adjutant general: and he had no excuse to offer but that of neglect neg-lect for not inviting Dana to dinner. Dana naturally assumed that Cleveland Cleve-land had given him deliberate affront, and Cleveland could make no satisfactory satisfac-tory explanation. As governor and as president he was fiist of all devoted to his official duties, which ' he discharged dis-charged with rare fidelity, and he gave little time even to the common courtesies courte-sies which most governors and presidents presi-dents would recognize as justly belonging belong-ing to their friends. Efforts-were made to conciliate Dana, but he never would discuss the question. When Cleveland's Cleve-land's election was announced, and the Republicans were disposed to dispute the vote of New York, Dana came out boldly and declared that Cleveland was elected and that no violent measures sthould be tolerated to deprive him of the honor conferred upon him. |