ALS, four pages on two adjoining sheets, 5.25 x 6.5, Westland letterhead, December 26, 1897. Letter to to Thomas F. Bayard – Cleveland’s Secretary of State in his first term, and Ambassador to Great Britain during his second term. In full: “I have received your very kind letter and the verses which you enclosed. I thank you sincerely for both.
I do not know how it is but these lines and such as they are, seem to touch me much more directly than they used to do. My life seems to be measured in the past by the last twelve anxious troublous years, and I am not without thoughts of the falling night; but I can constantly be grateful to the Heavenly Power ‘Who hath made my house of life so pleasant.’ In the garish pleasures of my own home, surrounded by the love of wife and children I think of my official life as a grinding servitude that deprived me for the time of the only pleasure and comfort worth having.
The strange thing is that after the long bind I do not seem to regain my mental spring. I wonder if it will be always so. My wife says I am not yet completely rested, and I try to think this sweet comforter is right. I am glad to know that you are getting settled in your old home and I hope we shall soon fall in the way of behaving like near neighbors. With kind remembrances to Mrs. Bayard and conveying Mrs. Cleveland love to both you and her.” Letter is archivally sleeved in acid-free Mylar. In fine condition, with a hint of extremely mild edge toning and a light fingerprint smudge to first page.
America’s tired leader reflects on his many years of public service, including two non-consecutive terms in the White House. After leaving Washington, D.C., Cleveland lived in retirement at his estate, Westland Mansion, in Princeton, New Jersey, from which this letter was dispatched. To be sure, the “twelve anxious troublous years” referenced here were exactly that, as Cleveland used the presidential veto an astonishing 584 times. His intervention in the Pullman Strike of 1894 in order to keep the railroads moving angered labor unions, while his support of the gold standard and opposition to free silver upset some factions of the Democratic Party. Even so, he retained his reputation for honesty, allowing the former leader to comfortably rest “in the garish pleasures of my own home, surrounded by the love of wife and children” that he had been deprived of by his life of “grinding servitude.” Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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