Page:Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland.djvu/13

 PREFACE

Mr. Cleveland's consent, I have gathered into this volume a representative collection of the speeches, public papers, and letters of a man who has been for many years the most prominent figure in his country. It gives, I think, under a fair classification, his opinion on all the topics upon which he has spoken. I am sure that, by means of it, the reader will be able to form a complete estimate of his character as it is shown in his public utterances.

The matter has been classified under twenty-five chapter headings. No reader, however critical, can know better than myself how difficult it is to make such a classification strictly accurate; but, when it is considered that Mr. Cleveland has freely expressed his opinions, during the past ten years, upon every topic that interested his neighbors or his countrymen, and in every form common to public discussion, the result will, I am inclined to believe, be fairly satisfactory.

An attempt has been made, in the index, to indicate everything so plainly that no reader can have trouble in tracing what Mr. Cleveland has said upon any topic. Everything on the tariff question could not be placed in the chapter entitled "Taxation and Revenue." In his first message to the Common Council of Buffalo, and in speeches and letters accepting nominations, there are paragraphs giving his idea of the iii