Mr. Clemens makes Baby Ruth intercede in behalf of Mr. Mason, and he is retained in his place—Mr. Clemens’s letter to Ex-PresidentⒶapparatus note Cleveland— Mr. Cleveland as sheriff, in Buffalo—As MayorⒶapparatus note he vetoes ordinance of railway corporation—Mr. Clemens and Mr. Cable visit GovernorⒶapparatus note Cleveland at Capitol, Albany—Mr. Clemens sits on the bells and summons sixteenⒶapparatus note clerks—The Lyon of St. Mark.
I was very anxious to keep him in his place, but at first I could not think of any way to help him, for I was a mugwump.Ⓐapparatus note We, the mugwumps, a little company made up of the unenslaved of both parties, the very best men to be found in the two great parties—that was our idea of it—voted sixty thousand strong for Mr. Cleveland in New York and elected him. Our principles were high, and very definite. We were not a party; we had no candidates; we had no axes to grind. Our vote laid upon the man we cast it for no obligation of any kind. By our rule weⒶapparatus note could not ask for office; we could not accept office. When voting, it was our duty to vote for the best man, regardless of his party name. We had no other creed. Vote for the best man—that was creed enough.
Such being my situation, I was puzzled to know how to try to help Mason, and, at the same time, save my mugwump purity undefiled. It was a delicate place. But presently, out of the ruck of confusions in my mind, rose a sane thought, clear and bright—to wit: since it was a mugwump’s duty to do his best to put the best man in office, necessarily it must be a mugwump’s duty to try to keepⒶapparatus note the best man in when he was already there. My course was easy now. It might not be quite delicate for a mugwump to approach the President directly, but I could approach him indirectly, with all delicacy, since in that case not even courtesy would require him to take notice of an application which no one could prove had ever reached him.
[begin page 390]Yes, it was easy and simple sailing now. I could lay the matter before Ruth, in her cradle, and wait for results. I wrote the littleⒶapparatus note child, and said to her all that I have just been saying about mugwump principles and the limitations which they put upon me. I explained that it would not be proper for me to apply to her father in Mr. Mason’s behalf, but I detailed to her Mr. Mason’s high and honorable record and suggested that she take the matter in her own hands and do a patriotic work which I felt some delicacy about venturing upon myself. I asked her to forget that her father was only President of the United States, and her subject and servant; I asked her not to put her application in the form of a command, but to modify itⒶapparatus note, and give it the fictitious and pleasanter form of a mere request—that it would be no harm to let him gratify himself with the superstition that he was independent and could do as he pleased in the matter. I begged her to put stress, and plenty of it, upon the proposition that to keep Mason in his place would be a benefaction to the nationⒺexplanatory note; to enlarge upon that, and keep still about all other considerations.
In due time I received a letter from the PresidentⒺexplanatory note, written with his own hand, signed by his own hand, acknowledging Ruth’s intervention and thanking me for enabling him to save to the country the services of so good and well-tried a servant as Mason, and thanking me, also, for the detailed fulness of Mason’s record, which could leave no doubt in any one’s mind that Mason was in his right place and ought to be kept there.Ⓐapparatus note
In the beginning of Mr. Cleveland’s second term a very strong effort to displace Mason was made, and Mason wrote me again. He was not hoping that we would succeed this time, because the assault upon his place was well organized, determined, and exceedingly powerful, but he hoped I would try again and see what I could do. I was not disturbed. It seemed to me that he did not know Mr. Cleveland or he would not be disturbed himself. I believed I knew Mr. Cleveland, and that he was not the man to budge an inch from his duty in any circumstances, and that he was a GibraltarⒶapparatus note against whose solid bulk a whole Atlantic of assaulting politicians would dash itself in vain.
I wrote Ruth Cleveland once moreⒺexplanatory note. MasonⒶapparatus note remained in his place; and I think he would have remained in it without Ruth’s intercession.Ⓐapparatus note There have been other PresidentsⒶapparatus note since, but Mason’s record has protected him, and the many and powerful efforts to dislodge him have all failed. Also, he has been complimented with promotions. He was promoted from Consul General in Frankfort to Consul GeneralⒶapparatus note at Berlin, our highest consular post in Germany. A year ago he was promoted another step—to the consul-generalship in Paris, and he holds that place yet.
Ruth, the child, remained not long in the earth to help make it beautiful and to bless the home of her parents. But, little creature as she was, she didⒶapparatus note high service for her country, as I have shown,Ⓐapparatus note and it is right that this should be recorded and remembered.
In accordance with the suggestion made in Gilder’s letter (as copied in yesterday’s talk)Ⓐapparatus note I have written the following note to Ex-President Cleveland.Ⓐapparatus note
Honored Sir: YourⒶapparatus note patriotic virtues have won for you the homage of half the nation and the enmity of the other half. This places your character as a citizen upon a summit as high as Washington’s. The verdict is unanimous and unassailable. The votes of both sides are necessary in cases like these, and the votes of the one side are quite as valuable [begin page 391] as are the votes of the other. Where the votes are all in a publicⒶapparatus note man’s favor the verdict is against him. It is sand, and history will wash it away. But the verdict for you is rock, and will stand.
S. L. ClemensⒶapparatus note
As of date March 18/06Ⓔexplanatory note.Ⓐapparatus note
When Mr. Cleveland was a member of aⒶapparatus note very strong and prosperous firm of lawyers, in Buffalo, just before the seventies, he was elected to the mayoraltyⒶapparatus note. Presently a formidably rich and powerful railway corporation worked an ordinance through the city government whose purpose was to take possession of a certain section of the city inhabited altogether by the poor, the helpless, and the inconsequential, and drive those people out. Mr. Cleveland vetoed the ordinance. The other members of his law firm were indignant, and also terrified. To them the thing which he had done meant disaster to their business. They waited upon him and begged him to reconsider his action. He declined to do it. They insisted. He still declined. He said that his official position imposed upon him a duty which he could not honorably avoid; therefore he should be loyal to it; that the helpless situation of these inconsequential citizens made it his duty to stand by them and be their friend, since they had no other; that he was sorry if this conduct of his must bring disaster upon the firm, but that he had no choice; hisⒶapparatus note duty was plain, and he would stick to the position which he had taken. They intimated that this would lose him his place in the firm. He said he did not wish to be a damage to the co-partnership, therefore they could remove his name from it, and without any hard feeling on his partⒺexplanatory note.
During the time that we were living in Buffalo in ’70 and ’71, Mr. Cleveland was sheriffⒺexplanatory note, but I never happened to make his acquaintance, or even see him. In fact, I suppose I was not even aware of his existence. Fourteen years later, he was become the greatest man in the State. I was not living in the State at the time.Ⓐapparatus note He was Governor, and was about to step into the post of President of the United States. At that time I was on the public highway in company with another bandit, George W. Cable. We were robbing the public with readings from our works during four months—and in the course of time we went to Albany to levy tribute, and I saidⒶapparatus note “We ought to go and pay our respects to the Governor.”
So Cable and I went to that majestic Capitol building and stated our errand. We were shown into the Governor’s private office, and I saw Mr. Cleveland for the first time. We three stood chatting together. I was born lazy, and I comforted myself by turning the corner of a table into a sort of seat. Presently the Governor said,
“Mr.Ⓐapparatus note Clemens, I was a fellow citizen of yours in Buffalo a good many months, a good while ago, and during those months you burst suddenly into a mighty fame, out of a previous long continuedⒶapparatus note and no doubt proper obscurity—but I was a nobody, and you wouldn’t notice me nor have anything to do with me. ButⒶapparatus note now that I have become somebody, you have changed your style, and you come here to shake hands with me and be sociable. How do you explain this kind of conduct?”
“Oh,” I said, “itⒶapparatus note is very simple, your Excellency. In Buffalo you were nothing but a sheriff. I was in society. I couldn’t afford to associate with sheriffs. But you are a Governor,Ⓐapparatus note now, and you are on your way to the Presidency. It is a great difference, and it makes you worth while.”
There appeared to be about sixteen doors to that spacious room. From each door a young [begin page 392] man nowⒶapparatus note emerged, and the sixteen lined up and moved forward and stood in front of the Governor with an aspect of respectful expectancy in their attitude. No one spoke for a moment. Then the Governor said,
“YouⒶapparatus note are dismissed, gentlemen. Your services are not required. Mr. Clemens is sitting on the bells.”
There was a cluster of sixteen bell-buttonsⒶapparatus note on the corner of the table; my proportions at that end of me were just right to enable me to cover the whole of that nest, and that is how I came to hatch out those sixteen clerksⒺexplanatory note.
While I think of it—last year when we were summering in that incomparable region, that perfection of inland grace and charm and loveliness which is not to be found elsewhere on the planet—the New Hampshire hills—our nearest neighbors were the Abbott Thayers, that family of gifted artists, old friends of mine. They lived down hill in a break in the forest, a quarter or a half-mile away; and for a few days they had as guests a couple of bright and lovely young fellows, to wit: Bynner, the young poet, a member of McClure’s magazine staff, and Guy FaulknerⒶapparatus note, of the staff of another of the magazines. I had never seen them, but as their trade and mine was the same, they wanted to come and see me. They discussed the proprieties of this invasion a day or two and tried to make up their minds. They knew Miss Lyon, my secretary, very wellⒺexplanatory note. At last one of them said “Oh come, it’ll be all right. Let’s go up and see the lions.” The other said “But how do we know that the old lion is there just now?” To this remark came the reply “Well, we can see the Lyon of St. Mark, anyway.”
I wrote the little child . . . to keep Mason in his place would be a benefaction to the nation] Clemens made his plea for Mason in a second letter to one-year-old Ruth Cleveland, probably written in January or early February 1893, before the formal beginning of her father’s second term:
My dear Ruth,—
I belong to the Mugwumps, & one of the most sacred rules of our order prevents us from asking favors of officials or recommending men to office, but there is no harm in writing a friendly letter to you & telling you that an infernal outrage is about to be committed by your father in turning out of office the best Consul I know (& I know a great many) just because he is a Republican and a Democrat wants his place. . . .
I can’t send any message to the President, but the next time you have a talk with him concerning such matters I wish you would tell him about Captain Mason & what I think of a Government that so treats its efficient officials. (1 Jan–15 Feb 1893 to Ruth Cleveland, MTB , 2:864)
I received a letter from the President] In reply—probably after Cleveland’s 4 March 1893 inauguration—Clemens received a “tiny envelope” with a note in President Cleveland’s hand:
Miss Ruth Cleveland begs to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Twain’s letter and say that she took the liberty of reading it to the President, who desires her to thank Mr. Twain for her information, and to say to him that Captain Mason will not be disturbed in the Frankfort Consulate. The President also desires Miss Cleveland to say that if Mr. Twain knows of any other cases of this kind he will be greatly obliged if he will write him concerning them at his earliest convenience. (Cleveland to SLC, MTB , 2:864)
Mason remained consul general at Frankfurt through 1898.
beginning of Mr. Cleveland’s second term . . . Mason wrote me again . . . wrote Ruth Cleveland once more] Mason’s second letter requesting Clemens’s aid is also lost. But Clemens replied on 25 February 1893, promising to “inquire after that letter I sent to Mr. Cleveland” (IaDmE). If he wrote a third letter, it has not survived.
Honored Sir . . . March 18/06] The manuscript of this letter—written to honor Cleveland’s birthday on 18 March—survives in the Cleveland Papers at the Library of Congress (DLC). The text of the letter in this dictation, however, was transcribed by Hobby from Clemens’s own security copy (now in NN-BGC), which omits the original’s letterhead (“21 Fifth Avenue”), the date and salutation (“March 6, 1906. | Grover Cleveland, Esq. | Ex-President”), and the complimentary close (“With the profoundest respect”).
When Mr. Cleveland . . . his part] The incident Clemens describes has not been identified. On another occasion, however, Cleveland refused an offer from the New York Central Railroad that his Buffalo law partner, Wilson S. Bissell (1847–1903), wanted to accept. In about 1880 Chauncey M. Depew, president of the railroad, tried to persuade the firm to become its general counsel in western New York. Cleveland claimed that “if they accepted they would . . . practically be at the disposal of the railroad with its many interests and its large volume of work—acquiring land, defending damage suits, representing it in all its dealings with the city and, of course, with the other cities and towns of western New York” (Tugwell 1968, 47; Depew 1922, 124–25, 227). After Cleveland took up his post as mayor of Buffalo in 1882, he became known as the “veto mayor” for his refusal to adopt civic bills and award contracts whose overriding purpose was to enrich a ring of corrupt politicians, companies, and contractors at the expense of the city (Tugwell 1968, 53–61; Lynch 1932, 74, 85–95).
in Buffalo in ’70 and ’71, Mr. Cleveland was sheriff] From 1871 through 1872 Cleveland was sheriff of Erie County, New York, of which Buffalo was the county seat.
There was a cluster of sixteen bell-buttons . . . I came to hatch out those sixteen clerks] While Clemens was on his 1884–85 reading tour with Cable, he wrote about this incident to his wife:
On the train, Dec. 3/84.
We arrived at Albany at noon, & a person in authority met us & said Gov. Cleveland had expressed a strong desire to have me call, as he wanted to get acquainted with me. So as soon as we had fed ourselves the gentleman, with some additional escort, took us in two barouches to the Capitol, & we had a quite jolly & pleasant brief chat with the Presidentelect. He remembered me easily, having seen me often in Buffalo, but I didn’t remember him, of course, & I didn’t say I did. He had to meet the electors at a banquet in the evening, & expressed great regret that that must debar him from coming to the lecture; so I said if he would take my place on the platform I would run the banquet for him; but he said that that would be only a one-sided affair, because the lecture audience would be so disappointed. Then I sat down on four electrical bells at once (as the cats used to do at the farm,) & summoned four pages whom nobody had any use for. (CU-MARK)
Abbott Thayers . . . knew Miss Lyon, my secretary, very well] Clemens’s neighbors were the artists Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921) and his second wife, Emeline (Emma) Beach Thayer (1850–1924), and his three children by his first marriage, Mary (b. 1876), Gerald (1883–1939), and Gladys (1886–1945). Emma Beach Thayer was Clemens’s old shipmate and friend from the Quaker City voyage in 1867. Witter Bynner (1881–1968), who later won fame as a poet, had been an editor for S. S. McClure, publisher of the muckraking McClure’s Magazine, since his graduation from Harvard in 1902. Barry Faulkner (1881–1966), an artist and former classmate of Bynner’s at Harvard, was a cousin and student of Abbott Thayer’s. (Clemens evidently misremembered his first name.) They had first introduced themselves to Isabel Lyon at Ceccina’s Restaurant in New York City on 3 May 1905 (link note following 2?–7 Feb 1867 to McComb, L2, 15; AskART 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d; Patricia Thayer Muno, personal communication, 30 July 2008; Lyon 1905, 108–9, 123, 276).
Source documents.
SLC to Cleveland MS copy of letter, in Clemens’s hand, 6 March 1906 to Cleveland, NN-BGC: ‘Honored Sir: . . . March 18/06.’ (390.39–391.5).TS1 (incomplete) Typescript, leaves numbered 410–17 (418 is missing), made from Hobby’s notes and SLC to Cleveland, and revised: ‘Tuesday . . . of that’ (389 title–392.7).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 548–57, made from the revised TS1 and further revised.
TS4 Typescript, leaves numbered 798–807, made from the revised TS1.
NAR 7pf Galley proofs of NAR 7, typeset from the revised TS2 and further revised, ViU (the same extent as NAR 7).
NAR 7 North American Review 183 (7 December 1906), 1092–95: ‘I was . . . kept there.’ (389.22–390.18); ‘In accordance . . . March 18/06.’ (390.37–391.5); ‘During the . . . sixteen clerks.’ (391.21–392.8).
The page missing from TS1 was discarded by Paine when he edited the dictation for MTA. Hobby incorporated the revisions that Clemens made on TS1 into TS2, and they were incorporated into TS4 as well. TS4 has no authority for the text that survives in TS1. Where TS1 is missing, however, TS4 was collated, because TS2 and TS4 derive independently from TS1 and therefore either may incorporate authorial readings not present in the other. They contain no variants, confirming the readings of the missing portion of TS1.
Hobby’s source for Clemens’s letter to Grover Cleveland was almost certainly his fair copy of the original letter, now in the Berg Collection in the New York Public Library. It contains one substantive variant from TS1 (‘public man’ instead of ‘man’ at 5.12), which has been adopted here. The fair copy omits the letterhead, date, salutation, and complimentary close (‘With the profoundest respect’) of the original letter, which is in the Library of Congress (DLC).
Harvey reviewed TS2 for possible publication in the NAR and selected three excerpts. Clemens revised TS2 to serve as printer’s copy for NAR 7, where it is combined with excerpts from the ADs of 5 March and 23 March 1906. TS2 was cut into several pieces, and only the text to be typeset was sent to the NAR. The second excerpt (‘In accordance . . . March 18/06.’) was cut out from the middle of page 552 and placed third of the three excerpts in the installment. An NAR editor renumbered the pages of the printer’s copy to assist the typesetters. Clemens retained the remaining pieces, writing ‘Some of this had been used’ on them. As a result, his words are discontinuous now that TS2 has been reassembled in its original order.
Marginal Notes on TS2 Concerning Publication in the NAR