 After his subsequent appointment as assistant postmaster general of the United States during Grover Cleveland's first administration (1885–89), he fired many Republican postal workers and replaced them with Southern Democrats.This earned him the enmity of the Republican-controlled Congress, but made him a favorite as Grover Cleveland's running mate in 1892, and he duly became vice president of the United States.In office, he supported the free-silver lobby against the gold-standard men like Cleveland, but was praised for ruling in a dignified, non-partisan manner.