CLEVELAND's, INSISTENCE on doing what he thought right, rather than
what the politicians thought possible, was brave but not always wise. He
could obstruct his enemies; but he could not accomplish his own aims. He
destroyed the machinery of his party. "If it is the function of an American
statesman to search for the integrating ideas that make party combinations
tolerable," writes Professor Binkley, "then Cleveland does not answer the
description. One does not find him, like Lincoln, searching with superb
intelligence to discover the point of equilibrium among the conflicting
social forces of the nation and tolerant of all sorts and conditions of men." ¹
Cleveland opposed not only the old abuses in government, which had been
growing since Lincoln's day, but also the new demands for help to the
unfortunate. Whether these were sectional demands sweeping from the
West, or class demands rising from the trade unions, Cleveland set him-
self to break them. And for a time he was successful.

The first fight of the new President was waged against the Senate. It
was the old fight which Grant had refused, but which Hayes and Garfield
and Arthur had accepted to their honor. At last, under Cleveland, the
Senate was shorn of the powers which it had taken during the war on
Andrew Johnson and which it had used unchallenged during the years
when Grant the willing captive of the Stalwarts.

The Republicans had a majority in the Senate when Cleveland became
President. They meant to invoke the Tenure of Office Act to hamper the
Administration and to turn the presidency "into an office much like that
of the doge of Venice, one of ceremonial dignity without real power." ²
But they faced a man on whom they could not practice their subterfuges
and their frustrating tricks. Cleveland did not like to be balked. He could
break out of any traps devised by politicians, not because he was ingenious
but because he was impervious--and because (as William Allen White
discovered) he could summon "such virile hate, such courageous scorn,
such blustering bull-roaring indignation as would have made Washington
or Jackson in their profanest moments lift reverent hats in humble awe." ³

On the whole, these attributes are of small value to the leader of a
political party, who should usually be conciliatory, tolerant of selfishness,
patient before the immodesty of little men. Rage and stubbornness delight

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