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Cleveland, holding up a printed copy of a bill he was considering vetoing, called out for Hudson, who couldn’t believe it. History was being made, and Cleveland wanted to debate some minor piece of legislation no one cared about. Hudson couldn’t take his eyes off that phone.

“It does not appear to me that you are giving me your attention,” Cleveland complained.

“Good heavens, Governor, how can you potter over these bills when any moment the announcement may be made of an event that will force you into the Democratic nomination for president?”

Cleveland gave Hudson a knowing smile. “Oh, neither Blaine nor Arthur will be nominated,” he said. He sounded certain. “The Republican situation demands the nomination of Edmunds. Edmunds will be nominated.” Blaine had a reputation for shady political wheeling and dealing. And Arthur was president by accident, having assumed the office following the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881. On the other hand, Edmund Edwards had an unblemished reputation as the squeaky-clean intellectual of the Senate.

At that moment, the telephone came to life. It was over.

“Blaine’s nominated!”

Everyone howled for joy, surrounding Cleveland, when Hudson saw something that unnerved him: Grover Cleveland’s face took on a “hard” expression; then a wave of gloom seemed to engulf him. The suggestion of a tear appeared at the corner of his eye.

“Now we’ll have you for the Democratic nominee,” someone shouted. The Democratic National Convention was just four weeks away.

Cleveland grabbed a pile of paperwork on his desk. “Go away, boys, and let me do my work as governor. You’re always trying to get me into a scrape.”

One month later, everyone would know just what Cleveland meant.

Dr. George W. Lewis could still remember the day when Maria Halpin came to see him. It had been eight years before, in 1876. Dr. Lewis was seeing patients in his medical office in Buffalo when Maria Baker, a regular patient of his, walked in with Maria Halpin. She told Dr. Lewis that her friend Mrs. Halpin needed his wise counsel.

Maria Halpin told Dr. Lewis her story: Grover Cleveland had raped her, and the son that had been conceived had been forcibly taken from her and placed in an orphanage. Cleveland had had her thrown into an insane asylum and wanted to run her out of town.

Lewis had gently explained that as a physician, there were limits to what he could do about her situation, and sent Mrs. Halpin and Mrs. Baker on their way. That was his first and last encounter with Maria Halpin.

Over the years, Dr. Lewis had said nothing about the episode. He had stood by when Grover Cleveland became mayor of Buffalo, and had kept his silence after Cleveland was elected governor of the state. Now Cleveland stood on the verge of winning the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

Dr. Lewis came from a colorful family; it was not in his nature to live timidly. His brother, Dr. Diocletian Lewis, was a well-known homeopathic physician who was prominent in the national temperance movement. Another brother, Loren Lewis, was a judge in Buffalo. All three Lewis brothers were fitness fanatics who worked out with dumbbells in an era when staying in top physical condition was unusual and considered a little eccentric. Judge Lewis’s wife, Charlotte, had founded the Ingle-side Home for unwed mothers, so the Lewis family was disposed to assist women in trouble.

In July 1884, Dr. Lewis decided the time had come to let somebody know about Maria Halpin and Grover Cleveland. He set his sights on a leading Buffalo churchman, Reverend George H. Ball, pastor of the Free Baptist Church on Hudson Street. Dr. Lewis told Ball everything he knew about Mrs. Halpin. The Baptist minister found the story truly unsettling. Could it be that the nation stood on the verge of electing a depraved libertine to the White House?

Ball was sixty-five years old and had a distinguished pedigree: He was a descendant of George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball. George Ball had grown up in Ohio, and as a young principal, he had taught a future president,