A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [80]
That morning, Blaine and Smith sat in “secret consultation” for several hours. The Republican nominee had the utmost faith in Zemro Smith’s discretion. Zemro’s brother Joseph had been secretary of the Republican state committee in Maine when Blaine was chairman. And it was said that Zemro owed his position at the Boston Journal to Blaine’s money and influence. As a Republican organ backing Blaine’s candidacy, the Journal could be depended on to aggressively investigate Grover Cleveland.
Smith caught the afternoon train back to Boston, arriving late that night. The next morning he went to his offices at the Journal and assigned one of his reporters to the story. The reporter was on the very next train to Buffalo, arriving on July 19, a Saturday. His first stop was the obvious one—the Free Baptist Church on Hudson Street, where he found Reverend George Ball in the rectory. Ball said he was “deeply impressed” that a journalist from Boston had come to Buffalo to investigate the allegations. The minister told the reporter that he was still in a state of “outrage” that Cleveland had won the nomination. But then Ball informed him that he had already given everything he had to John Cresswell of the Evening Telegraph, no doubt considerably alarming the newsman. Now he had competition to deal with. All he could do was pick up his pace and hope for the best.
Ball said he was aware that the “responsibility for the disclosures” would fall on his shoulders, but he believed it was his public duty. He didn’t have anything personal against Cleveland, he said. The Democratic nominee had always been an “obscure man” with a reputation in Buffalo as an “average lawyer,” and like the rest of the nation, Ball said, he had been amazed at the staggeringly swift trajectory of Cleveland’s political climb.
Since he’d launched his probe into Cleveland’s private life, however, the minister told the reporter, he was now of the opinion that Cleveland had “low associations.” Ball passed along several stories he had heard proving Cleveland’s “licentiousness and debauchery.” He also suggested that the Boston Journal investigate the circumstances of Oscar Folsom’s death in 1875. The real story, Ball insinuated, had yet to be told. The reporter steered the interview back around to the contents of Ball’s letter to the Chicago Advance, and Ball urged him to look into the allegations and determine for himself that he was speaking the truth. He also gave him the name of the man who had adopted Grover Cleveland’s illegitimate son—Dr. James E. King—and added that it was Dr. King who had been “instrumental in the kidnapping of the mother,” Maria Halpin. These were facts of “common repute” in Buffalo, the minister said. There were witnesses who could verify everything.
Ball remained seated as the reporter wrote his summary of the interview. It read as follows:
That Mr. Cleveland, about seven to ten years ago, accomplished the seduction of Maria Halpin, who was in the employ of Flint & Kent of Buffalo, in charge of their cloak and lace department; that the woman, so far as known, had borne an irreproachable character up to that time; that her employers, with whom she had been about four years, had a high regard for her and considered her a virtuous Christian woman; that Mr. Cleveland had her taken to the Lying-In Hospital during her confinement; that he afterward placed her and the child, a boy, with Mrs. William Baker, on Broadway, to board; that the woman became depressed and desperate and threatened his life; that he became apprehensive that she might attempt some injury to him or herself and appealed to the Chief of Police, Col. John Byrne, to keep her under surveillance; that Mr. Cleveland