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.