in the proof I have of the excellence of the methods and management of the school, and of the opportunities which those who attend have within their reach of obtaining a superior education.

"I never visit a school in these days without contrasting the advantages of the scholar of to-day with those of a time not many years in the past. Within my remembrance even, the education which is freely offered you was only secured by those whose parents were able to send them to academies and colleges. And thus, when you entered this school very many of you began where your parents left off.

"The theory of the State in furnishing more and better schools for the children, is that it tends to fit them to better perform their duties as citizens, and that an educated man or woman is apt to be more useful as a member of the community.

"This leads to the thought that those who avail themselves of the means thus tendered them are in duty bound to make such use of their advantages as that the State shall receive in return the educated and intelligent citizens and members of the community which it has the right to expect from its schools. You, who will soon be the men of the day, should consider that you have assumed an obligation to fit yourselves by the education, which you may, if you will, receive in this school, for the proper performance of any duty of citizenship, and to fill any public station to which you may be called. And it seems to me to be none the less important that those who are to be the wives and mothers should be educated, refined and intelligent. To tell the truth, I should be afraid to trust the men, educated though they should be, if they were not surrounded by pure and true woman

hood. Thus it is that you all, now and here, from the oldest to the youngest, owe a duty to the State which can only be answered by diligent study and the greatest possible improvement. It is too often the case that in all walks and places the disposition is to render the least possible return to the State for the favors which she bestows.

"If the consideration which I have mentioned fails to impress you, let me remind you of what you have often. heard, that you owe it to yourselves and the important part of yourselves to seize, while you may, the opportunities to improve your minds, and store into them, for your own future use and advantage, the learning and knowledge now fairly within your reach.

"None of you desire or expect to be less intelligent or educated than your fellows. But unless the notions of scholars have changed, there may be those among you who think that in some way or manner, after the school day is over, there will be an opportunity to regain any ground now lost, and to complete an education without a present devotion to school requirements. I am sure this is a mistake. A moment's reflection ought to convince all of you that when you have once entered upon the stern, uncompromising and unrelenting duties of mature life, there will be no time for study. You will have a contest then forced upon you which will strain every nerve and engross every faculty. A good education, if you have it, will aid you, but if you are without it, you cannot stop to acquire it. When you leave the school you are well equipped for the van in the army of life, or you are doomed to be a laggard, aimlessly and listlessly following in the rear.

"Perhaps a reference to truths so trite is useless here.

I hope it is. But I have not been able to forego the chance to assure those who are hard at work that they will surely see their compensation, and those, if any such there are, who find school duties irksome, and neglect or slightingly perform them, that they are trifling with serious things and treading on dangerous ground."

CHAPTER X.

THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION.

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, MCDONALD, RANDALL, THURMAN, MORRISON, CARLISLE, FIELD, BAYARD.

It was inevitable that immediately after his election men should begin to consider Governor Cleveland as a probable candidate for the Presidency. There are powerful circumstances which always tend to the nomination of a New Yorker by the Democratic National Convention. As long as the party is out of power these influences are likely to control. The vote of the State in the electoral college is necessary to success, and the wealth of the State must be relied upon to provide for the expenses of a campaign. It has happened, therefore, that since 1860 all the Democratic candidates for the Presidency, except one, have been New Yorkers, or residents of New York. For these reasons it is hardly possible for any one to come into special prominence in the politics of the State without being looked upon as a presidential possibility. This was particularly so when a citizen came into the governorship by a majority of nearly two hundred thousand.

The Governorship of New York had before been the theatre where great national reputation was won. In that office Horatio Seymour had gained a fame wider and more tenderly cherished than any Democrat of his time. He had never held any federal employment whatever. All his public life had been passed in the service of the State, and two terms as governor had made him the leader of his party, the recognized advocate of its cause, and, in 1868, its nominee for President.

In the Governorship, Samuel J. Tilden had made himself the most influential public man of the day. He took office during General Grant's second term at a time when public thought was given to federal affairs, and when Washington was the centre of political activities. Within six months after Governor Tilden came to Albany, that city had become the political centre, and he the most prominent man in public life. His ingenious, fertile and subtle intellect soon devised interesting and far-reaching policies most attractive to thoughtful men, especially to those who were influenced by the existing discontents, who sought a reform in the administration of affairs and aspired to higher and more intellectual political life. His career at Albany brought him a triumphant nomination to the Presidency, and carried him successfully through one of the most vehement contests ever known in this country.