were desirable. I should qualify all this by saying that Governor Cleveland did not promise to reappoint Mr. Pearson, but indicated that his personal inclination lay that way.
Governor Cleveland is strongly opposed to the silver coinage, and from some remarks which he made I infer that he has no liking for the pending treaties.
The impression I got of Governor Cleveland is that he is an honest, true-hearted, single-minded man, who has mastered the civil service question and is inflexible in his intention to carry out that reform in the spirit of his recent letter, but that as to the great mass of National questions, which will come up for daily treatment, his information is extremely defective and that he is liable to make many and even serious mistakes unless his daily advisers and associates are men of experience, training and proved political ability.
P.S. Please write me what you think of Curtis's objections.
TO SILAS W. BURT
In reply to your question as to how the appointment of Mr. Daniel Manning as Secretary of the Treasury would strike me, I have to say that while I think the appointment could be defended I do not think that it would be considered, either in the Democratic party or out of it, as “putting the best foot foremost.” What Governor Cleveland wants is not a Cabinet that can be defended but one that commends itself affirmatively and strongly to intelligent public opinion. The opinion that is formed of the Administration during the first sixty days will be the governing opinion of the succeeding three years and ten months.
My opinion of Mr. Manning, derived from a single interview with him, is altogether favorable, and this opinion has been confirmed by all that I have learned from others; but he is not one of the three or four foremost
