It was therefore a great day in his life when, on a trip to Washington in the autumn of 1885, he had an hour's private conversation with President Cleveland, and it was entirely characteristic of Page that he should make the conversation take the turn of a discussion of the so-called Southern question.
"In the White House at Washington," Page wrote about this visit, "is an honest, plain, strong man, a man of wonderfully broad information and of most uncommon industry.

He has always been a Democrat.

He is a distinguished lawyer and a scholar on all public questions.

He is as frank and patriotic and sincere as any man that ever won the high place he holds.

Within less than a year he has done so well and so wisely that he has disappointed his enemies and won their admiration.