Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/295

GROVER CLEVELAND 245 Cleveland was nominated for governor, in opposi tion to Charles J. Folger, then secretary of the U. S. treasury, nominated for the same office three days before by the republican state convention at Saratoga. In his letter accepting this nomination Mr. Cleveland wrote: "Public officers are the ser vants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made, and within the limits of a constitution which they have established. . . . We may, I think, reduce to quite simple elements the duty which public servants owe, by constantly bearing in mind that they are put in place to pro tect the rights of the people, to answer their needs as they arise, and to expend for their benefit the money drawn from them by taxation." In the canvass that followed, Cleveland had the advantage of a united democratic party, and in ad dition the support of the entire independent press of the state. The election in November was the most remarkable in the political annals of New York. Both gubernatorial candidates were men of character and of unimpeachable public record. Judge Folger had honorably filled high state and federal offices. But there was a wide-spread dis affection in the republican ranks largely due to the belief that the nomination of Folger (nowise ob noxious in itself) was accomplished by means of improper and fraudulent practices in the nominat ing convention and by the interference of the fed-