President Grover Cleveland Upholds the Dignity of Labor
GENTLEMEN:
ALBANY,
N.Y., August 18,1884.
I
have received your communication, dated July 28, 1884, informing me of my
nomination to the office of President of the United States by the National
Democratic Convention, lately assembled at Chicago. I accept the nomination
with a grateful appreciation of the supreme honor conferred and a solemn sense
of the responsibility, which, in its acceptance, I assume.
A
true American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor
lies in honest toil. Contented labor is an element of national prosperity.
Ability to work constitutes the capital and the wage of labor the income of a
vast number of our population, and this interest should be jealously protected.
Our workingmen are not asking unreasonable indulgence.
In
a letter accepting the nomination to the office of Governor [of New York],
nearly two years ago, I made the following statement, to which I have steadily
adhered:
The
laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be
protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by
aggregated capital, and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care
of the State for honest toil, and be framed with a view of improving the
condition of the workingman.