248 JLIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS in the first ballot, Cleveland received 683 votes, and, on motion of Thomas A. Hendricks (subsequently nominated for the vice-presidency), the vote was made unanimous. He was officially notified of his nomination by the convention committee at Albany, July 29, and made a modest response, promising soon to signify in a more formal manner his ac ceptance of the nomination, which he did by letter on August 18, 1884. In it he said, among other things : "When an election to office shall be the selection by the voters of one of their number to assume for a time a public trust, instead of his dedication to the profession of politics; when the holders of the ballot, quickened by a sense of duty, shall avenge truth betrayed and pledges broken, and when the suffrage shall be altogether free and uncorrupted, the full realization of a government by the people will be at hand. And of the means to this end, not one would, in my judgment, be more effective than an amendment to the constitution disqualify ing the president from re-election. . . . "A true American sentiment recognizes the dig nity 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 num ber of our population, and this interest should be jealously protected. Our working-men are not
