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Apgar told Lamont that he was going to start paying careful attention to Grover Cleveland.

The next few weeks were electrifying. Apgar found himself consumed with the news out of Buffalo. Grover Cleveland was averaging two or three vetoes a week! Whenever he had to go out of town on state business, Apgar made sure his staff saved the Buffalo newspapers, and on his return, he voraciously consumed the stack of back issues.

Finally, on August 23, Apgar took the plunge. He wrote a letter to Cleveland, introducing himself and saying he had a matter to bring up that was perhaps presumptuous but of vital importance to Cleveland’s political future. “I deem it right, though I have not the honor of your personal acquaintance, to place before you some suggestions which seem to me worthy of your consideration,” Apgar wrote.

The condition of the Democratic Party, he informed Cleveland, was bleak. The party had lost the confidence of the people. It had “abandoned its principles and made dishonest alliances for the sake of temporary success, which even in most cases it has failed to secure.” Apgar asked Cleveland to come to Albany and meet with Daniel Manning, chairman of the Democratic state committee.

“Men come here daily from all parts of the state—active, earnest and influential men. They come not to receive orders from a boss but to consult one whom they look upon as representing their views,” Apgar told Cleveland. An alliance between Manning and Cleveland, Apgar said, would guarantee Cleveland the gubernatorial nomination on the first ballot at the state convention coming up in Syracuse in two months.

When he read Apgar’s letter, Grover Cleveland was intrigued. He had returned to Buffalo after burying his mother to find his political allies in a state of exhilaration and the editorial pages of the Democratic newspapers in the city urging him to run for governor. Cleveland wrote his response to Apgar on August 29.

“I am gratified with the interest you take in my candidacy... . You are quite right in believing that I am not actively seeking the nomination for governor. The efforts of my friends and neighbors in that direction were begun in my absence from the city.” While he found the attention to be “extremely pleasant,” Cleveland said he would regrettably have to decline meeting with Manning in Albany. It would be impossible to keep such a get-together private, Cleveland explained, and a Cleveland-Manning sit-down would inevitably lead to stories that “an understanding had been arrived at between us, and pledges which make me his man.” The Cleveland boom, such as it was, hinged on his reputation as a reformer of uncompromising integrity. He could not be labeled as another politician angling for higher office.

Apgar read Cleveland’s response in his office in Albany. It was written on gray paper in purple ink. Cleveland’s handwriting was small and delicate, surprisingly feminine for such a burly drinking man. An hour after opening the letter, Apgar showed it to another cunning Democratic Party operative, William Gorham Rice. Rice studied it and asked Apgar what he thought. Apgar had to admit that it was disappointing. Cleveland was not going to publicly declare. But as Apgar thought it through some more, he came to understand the shrewdness of Cleveland’s position. He was more convinced than ever: Here was a new type of politician he had been searching for—“a man for the hour.”

Back in Buffalo, Cleveland, with a wink and a nod, set to work marshalling his forces. He was in his office at City Hall when he sent word that he wanted to see the comptroller. Timothy Mahoney bounded upstairs to the mayor’s office, where Cleveland laid out the plan for his old neighborhood sidekick.

“Captain Tim, I want to be the Democratic candidate for governor this fall. I’d like your help.”

“You’ve already got it,” Mahoney answered.

“I understand that you are prominent in the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association?” The CMBA was a fraternal organization composed mainly of