full term of three years. There were no duties, however irksome, from
which he shrank; no responsibilities which he failed to meet in a
becoming manner; and when, on the first of January, 1874, his term
expired and he returned to his legal practice, it was with a larger
measure of popular esteem than he had ever before enjoyed.

In resuming professional labor he formed a partnership with his friend
and former antagonist, Lyman K. Bass, Mr. Wilson S. Bissel also becoming
a member of the firm. Now thirty-seven years of age, with mental powers
thoroughly developed, and a capacity for labor far greater than that
with which most men are favored, he was eminently well equipped for
substantial achievement in his chosen field of effort; and it is not too
much to say that, in the next seven years, during which he gave
uninterrupted attention to the work, he accomplished as much in the way
of honest professional triumph as any lawyer in Western New York. He
sought no mere personal distinction, but put his heart into his work,
and practically made his clients' interests his own. His judgment was
sound, his industry indefatigable, his integrity unquestioned. He was
eminently well fitted for judicial service, but could never be induced
to put himself in the way of preferment in that direction. He was
always the "working member" of the firms with which he was connected. As
an advocate, he made no pretensions to brilliancy; but in the
preparation of cases, and in the cogent statement of principles
involved, as well as in the effective presentation of pertinent facts,
he found no superiors, and few equals, among his associates at the bar.

Caring nothing for the pecuniary rewards of labor, beyond the provision
for his own modest wants and the comfort of those, in a measure,
depending upon his assistance, Mr. Cleveland has accumulated no large
fortune; although, with the opportunities at hand, had he made wealth