Notwithstanding the exceptional violence and novel ingenuity of the attacks made upon him, Blaine met them with such ability and address that everywhere he augmented the ordinary strength of his party, and his eventual defeat was generally attributed to an untoward event among his own adherents at the close of the campaign.At a political reception in the interest of Blaine among New York clergymen, the Reverend Dr.Burchard spoke of the Democratic party as "the party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion."Unfortunately Blaine did not hear him distinctly enough to repudiate this slur upon the religious belief of millions of American citizens, and alienation of sentiment caused by the tactless and intolerant remark could easily account for Blaine's defeat by a small margin.He was only 1149 votes behind Cleveland in New York in a poll of over 1,125,000 votes, and only 23,005votes behind in a national poll of over 9,700,000 votes for the leading candidates.Of course Cleveland in his turn was a target of calumny, and in his case the end of the campaign did not bring the customary relief.He was pursued to the end of his public career by active, ingenious, resourceful, personal spite and steady malignity of political opposition from interests whose enmity he had incurred while Governor of New York.
The situation which confronted Cleveland when he became President was so complicated and embarrassing that perhaps even the most sagacious and resourceful statesman could not have coped with it successfully, though it is the characteristic of genius to accomplish the impossible.But Cleveland was no genius; he was not even a man of marked talent.He was stanch, plodding, laborious, and dutiful; but he was lacking in ability to penetrate to the heart of obscure political problems and to deal with primary causes rather than with effects.The great successes of his administration were gained in particular problems whose significance had already been clearly defined.In this field, Cleveland's resolute and energetic performance of duty had splendid results.
