John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

It was in September, 1882, that Dana first announced his opposition to Grover Cleveland, who had just been nominated by the Democratic party of New York as their candidate for governor of the State. As the Sun remained a free and, at times, an intolerant critic of that distinguished man, so long as he held public office, it is interesting to note that it based its opposition primarily on the ground that

It is not usually a wise thing in politics, any more than in war, to take a private from the ranks and at one bound to promote him to be commander-in-chief; yet that is what has been done in the case of Grover Cleveland.

While it is true that Cleveland at the time of his election to the office of governor was without national experience or prominence of any kind, he was destined as governor, and afterwards as president, to reveal himself as a man of honesty, courage, and independence. Although a lawyer accustomed to city life, his intellectual growth had been slow, hence his character was neither fully developed nor fully understood till his public career was drawing to a close. Besides, it should be remembered that Dana was a firm friend of Tilden, and, so long as his faculties were unimpaired, naturally regarded him as the legitimate leader of his party. Both Cleveland and Dana were famed for their independence as well as for their impatience of restraint, and these qualities made it probable that their initial divergence, whatever its cause, would not only grow wider, but continue to the end. So far as can now be ascertained, no adequate effort was ever made to open the eyes of either to the real merits of the other, or to bring them together in support of policies and measures which both had sincerely at heart.