Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland
24th President of the United States
Term of office March 4, 1893 - March 4, 1897
Political party	Democratic
Vice President	Adlai E. Stevenson
Preceded by	Benjamin Harrison
Succeeded by	William McKinley
22nd President of the United States
Term of office March 4, 1885 - March 4, 1889
Vice-Presidents	Thomas Hendricks (1885) None (1885-1889)
Preceded by	Chester A. Arthur
Succeeded by	Benjamin Harrison
Born	March 18, 1837 Caldwell, New Jersey
Died	June 24, 1908 Princeton, New Jersey
Spouse	Frances Folsom Cleveland
Religion	Presbyterian

Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States of America, and was unique in that he was the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was elected in 1884, defeated for reelection in 1888, then elected to a second term in 1892. Cleveland was the only Democrat elected president between James Buchanan in 1856 and Woodrow Wilson in 1912.

Cleveland was best known in his time for his honesty and courage, his leadership of the business-oriented Bourbon Democrats, and his opposition to the leftist forces that were overwhelming the Democratic party. In the 21st century some conservatives praise his values. Cleveland supported the gold standard and lower tariffs, and opposed imperialism, corruption, patronage, veterans' pensions, high taxes and silver-based inflation. It has been said that Cleveland was the last small government president the Democrats ever elected.

Cleveland's first term (1885-1889) was uneventful, but his second term (1893-97) was filled with economic crises and political upheavals. Cleveland was famous for breaking the Pullman strike of 1894, which was paralyzing much of the national transportation grid west of Detroit. He was repudiated by his Democratic Party in 1896, as it nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1896, 1900 and 1908; Bryan lost each time. However the Democrats nominated Cleveland supporters Alton Parker in 1904 (he lost), and Wilson in 1912 (he won).

Early Career

Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey on March 18, 1837; he had five brothers and four sisters. His father Richard Falley Cleveland was a Yale graduate and a Presbyterian clergyman, of Yankee descent. Cleveland's Puritan ancestors had moved to Massachusetts from England in 1635. Grover's mother, Ann Neal Cleveland, was the daughter of a Baltimore publisher. In 1841 the parents moved to Fayetteville, N.Y., and later to Clinton, N.Y., where Richard Cleveland died in 1853. Young Grover Cleveland was a mediocre student in high school; he never attended college. He worked for a time in a general store and then in an asylum for the blind. He moved to the growing lake city of Buffalo, N.Y. clerked in a law office and after a few years of tutorials was admitted to the Buffalo bar in 1859. He was the chief support for his widowed mother, so when he was drafted during the Civil War he hired a substitute; it later proved a political embarrassment.

Cleveland, a Democrat active in local affairs, in 1863 was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie County, N.Y., which included the city of Buffalo. In 1865 he lost the election for District Attorney and became a partner in a private law practice, earning an about $10,000 a year (triple the average for lawyers). In 1871 he was elected Erie County sheriff and established a reputation as an honest and capable public official. In 1881, as the reform candidate for mayor of Buffalo, Cleveland was easily elected. He instituted numerous reforms, emphasizing efficiency and economy in his administration. Friends called him the "veto mayor" because of his repeated use of the veto power to slow the spending by the city council.

Elected governor of New York 1882

The Republican Party in New York state was disorganized and in bad odor after a series of scandals. The Democrats realized they needed a perfectly honest candidate to win, onewithout connections to big vity machines in New York, Brooklyn, Buffalo or Albany. Cleveland fit the need and was elected by 193,000. At Albany, the state capital, was attacked by machine politicians, especially those of Tammany Hall (the Democratic organization in New York City), by refusing to give out patronage jobs sought by local party leaders trying to reward their best workers. Cleveland cooperated with Republican leader Theodore Roosevelt to clean up state politics.

Elected president 1884

Reform was the theme at the national level in 1884, and Cleveland, governor of the largest and closest state, won the Democratic nomination for president as a new face with a sterling reputation "We love him most for the enemies he has made," exulted one delegate. The GOP nominated long-time Congressional leader James G. Blaine for president. Blaine was an able legislator, but was surrounded by whiffs of scandal. A Republican faction calling itself "Mugwumps" broke with Blaine and supported Cleveland.

The election of 1884 saw an intensely fought very close contest that turned on the electoral vote of New York. Cleveland crusaded against the corruptions represented by long-time Washington insider James G. Blaine, the GOP candidate. Part of Blaine's problem centered around a suspicious letter which terminated with the words, "burn this letter." Blaine's detractors marched and chanted, "Burn, Burn, Burn this letter!" The discovery that Cleveland -- a bachelor--was paying child support gave the GOP a moralistic counter-issue of its own, and a chant, “Ma! Ma! Where’s my Pa?”

Blaine had made inroads into the Irish Catholic vote, normally 90+% Democratic, but blundered when a Protestant minister introduced him and denounced the Democratic party as the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion." That is, the Democrats were the party of saloons, Catholics and Confederates; Catholics resented the slur and Blaine should have immediately repudiated it but failed to do so. Blaine lost his gains among Catholics at the last minute, and lost some Republican support to a prohibitionist candidate. Cleveland's narrow margin in New York state proved decisive, as he won the national popular vote by only 29,000 votes. In a very close election any number of small, almost random factors could be seen as decisive. Victory gave Democrats a new response, "Gone to the White House! Ha Ha Ha!"

Marriage

Grover Cleveland in June 1886 married Frances Folsom Cleveland in the White House. This was the second time a president had married while in office. The Clevelands had three children while in office.

Actions as President

Cleveland refused to replace efficient Republican office-holders, angering patronage hungry local Democratic leaders but gaining the admiration of reformers. To signal the end of the Civil War era, he appointed two southerners to the cabinet, and returned Confederate battle flags that had been captured during the war. Union veterans were angry at him, an anger that intensified when he energetically vetoed hundreds of private pension bills based on dubious wartime claims. He vetoed a bill to give $10,000 to distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, and said: "Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character."

In 1886 Geronimo was captured by the Army, ending the Indian wars. In October 1886, Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty, a project for which he asked some federal funding. In 1887 he signed the Interstate Commerce Act, passed unanimously by Congress in response to demands for some form of railroad regulation. The Act had little or no regulatory impact, but did tend to bury the issue.

Lowering the tariff

In 1887 Cleveland began to crusade against the high protective tariff, as an evil combination of corruption, inefficiency, and unnecessary taxation. He wanted a lower tariff “for revenue only” (it funded most of the federal government). Republicans, in alliance with industry, argued that a high tariff made for high wages, high profits, and faster economic expansion. Cleveland failed to lower the tariff in 1888 when the Mills Bill was defeated. In 1890 the Republicans raised rates again in the McKinley Tariff, which proved politically disastrous for the GOP. Historians conclude that the tariff made a difference in the woolen industry (where Britain was a lower-cost provider), and possibly in steel, In other areas the U.S. was the world-wide low-cost produced and tariffs made little economic difference. American wages were higher, but efficiency was greater and so prices were lower. The tariff was an important political issue because it symbolized the Republican dedication to rapid industrialization and GOP support from factory owners and factory workers.

Navy Buildup

The U.S. Navy was in deplorable condition by 1884, and Cleveland supported a systematic rebuilding of modern steel ships. The new warships proved highly effective against Spain in the war of 1898.

1888 campaign

Cleveland lost the 1888 Presidential Election to Republican Benjamin Harrison. Apart from endless discussions of the tariff, there were no major issues, as both parties rallied their armies of voters and the GOP did a slightly better job. Harrison won the Electoral College by a 204-197 margin, but Cleveland won the popular vote. Out of office, he moved to New York City, joining the prestigious Bangs, Stetson, Tracy and McVeigh law firm. Cleveland enjoyed a busy, lucrative practice, chiefly as a referee appointed by the courts.

1892 campaign

The Democrats won a landslide in the Congressional elections of 1890, attacking the McKinley Tariff, and the efforts of the GOP in Wisconsin and Illinois to shut down many religious schools. Cleveland easily defeated Harrison in 1892, and the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress.

Second term

Depression

Within weeks after Cleveland took office on March 4, 1893, the economy went into a tailspin. Every sector was hurt—farming, manufacturing, railroads, retail trade, and banking.

Silver and gold

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the government to buy 4,500,000 ounces of silver each month, and to pay for it with the issue of new paper money. Conservatives denounced this as a wasteful subsidy to the silver miners and mine owners, and that it endangered the gold standard because there was not gold in the treasury to redeem all of the new government notes. Using all his powers of persuasion and patronage, Cleveland forced the repeal of the law in October, 1893.

The depression continued to worsened, reaching a nadir in mid-1894. Prices, trade and profits continued to fall, and unemployment reached 20%. Some 156 railroads with 30,000 miles of track went bankrupt along with 800 banks and many small businesses.

Wilson Gorman tariff

Cleveland tried to lower the tariff in 1893-94 and result was a fiasco. The House did vote much lower rates, but protectionist Democrats in the Senate raised them again, and added an income tax, leaving Cleveland's main campaign issue in shambles. He allowed the "Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act" to become law without his signature in 1894.

Pullman Strike

Deep in the depression, in summer 1894 the Pullman strike, based in Chicago, was an attempt by workers tried to stop all trains, including those carrying the U.S. mail. Noting that the mail is a constitutional duty of the federal government, Cleveland rejected the demands by Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld, a fellow Democrat, to stay out. Cleveland had the strike leaders arrested and sent the army to reopen the rail system. "If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postcard in Chicago that card will be delivered," he roared.

Hawaii

At first Cleveland did not support the revolutionaries in Hawaii who in 1894 overthrew the queen and established a Democracy. In fact, he tried to discredit their actions via the controversial Blount Report issued by James Henderson Blount under his direction. Later, however, he supported the revolutionaries when the Queen demanded the death of every single one.

1896

Radical agrarians took over the Democratic party in 1896 and nominated firebrand William Jennings Bryan who denounced Cleveland, industrialists and bankers. Bryan called for inflation by putting more money in circulation; his plan was to legislate cheap silver into legal currency at the ratio of 16 oz of silver to one oz of gold, hence the silverite slogan “16 to 1.” . Many of Cleveland's closest associates bolted the Democratic party and formed the "Gold Democrats"; many Cleveland supporters voted for republican candidate William McKinley. Cleveland himself remained silent.

Retirement

Cleveland, nicknamed 'the Growler', retired to Princeton, New Jersey. Some people wanted him to run again in 1904, but he was too old. Sometimes President Theodore Roosevelt asked him for advice, but Cleveland refused to head Roosevelt’s Coal Commission in 1893 because it meant selling his railroad stocks.

Cleveland died on June 24, 1908 from a heart and kidney disease, with his wife at his side. He is buried in the Princeton Cemetery.

Honors and memorials

He will be on two dollar coins to be released in 2012 like every other president will, except one for each presidency.

Trivia

• The baseball player Grover Cleveland Alexander was named after him.

• Cleveland's grandson is a Presidential impersonator.

• Cleveland's granddaughter Foot is a philosopher at Oxford.

• Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt were the only police officials to become president.

• Grover Cleveland's last words were "I have tried so hard to do right."

Bibliography

Biographies

• Blodgett, Geoffrey. "The Emergence of Grover Cleveland: a Fresh Appraisal" New York History 1992 73(2): 132-168. ISSN 0146-437X cover Cleveland to 1884
• Brodsky, Alyn. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character (2000) - 496 pages; popular biography excerpt and text search
• DeSantis, Vincent P. "Grover Cleveland: Another Look." Hayes Historical Journal 1980 3(1-2): 41-50. Issn: 0364-5924, argues his energy, honesty, and devotion to duty - much more than his actual accomplishments established his claim to greatness.
• Graff, Henry F. Grover Cleveland (2002), 155pp; short scholarly biography
• Jeffers, H. Paul. An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland. 2000. 385 pp.
• McElroy, Robert. Grover Cleveland, the Man and the Statesman: An Authorized Biography (1923) old, but useful online edition v 1; online edition vole 2
• Markel, Rita J. Grover Cleveland (2006) 112pp; pre-high-school level excerpt and text search
• Merrill, Horace Samuel. Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party (1957), short hostile biography by liberal scholar; generally hostile online edition
• Nevins, Allan. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage (1932) Pulitzer Prize biography; very well written and thorough
• Whittle, James Lowry. Grover Cleveland (1896) 240 pages; old but fairly reliable study by British expert online edition

Specialized scholarly studies

• Bard, Mitchell. "Ideology and Depression Politics I: Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)" Presidential Studies Quarterly 1985 15(1): 77-88.
• Beito, David T., and Linda Royster Beito, "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900," Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555-75. online edition, liberatrian perspective
• Blake, Nelson M. "Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy." American Historical Review 1942 47(2): 259-277. in Jstor
  • LaFeber, Walter/ "The Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy: A Reinterpretation," American Historical Review,’’ Vol. 66, No. 4 (Jul., 1961), pp. 947-967 in JSTOR, left-wing view
• Blodgett, Geoffrey. "Ethno-cultural Realities in Presidential Patronage: Grover Cleveland's Choices" New York History 2000 81(2): 189-210. ISSN 0146-437X; when a German American leader called for fewer appointments of Irish Americans, Cleveland instead appointed more Germans
• Campbell, Ballard C. The Growth of American Government: Governance From The Cleveland Era to the Present. (1995). 289 pp., argues that Cleveland began the steady expansion of federal role
• Dewey, Davis Rich. Financial History of the United States (1902) 530 pages Financial+History+of+the+United+States&pg=PP1&ots=d82Sy5IWWh&sig=0KRSKOCcrBBjzIOHEdEUXI3wbz8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
• Dewey, Davis R. National Problems: 1880-1897 (1907), survey of era online edition
• Doenecke, Justus. "Grover Cleveland and the Enforcement of the Civil Service Act," Hayes Historical Journal 1984 4(3): 44-58. ISSN 0364-5924, by conservative historian
• Faulkner, Harold U. Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890-1900 (1959), scholarly survey of decade, online edition
• Ford, Henry Jones. The Cleveland Era: A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics (1921), short overview online
• Hirsch, Mark D. William C. Whitney, Modern Warwick (1948), good scholarly biography of close aide online edition
• Hoffman, Karen S. "'Going Public' in the Nineteenth Century: Grover Cleveland's Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act" Rhetoric & Public Affairs 2002 5(1): 57-77. in Project Muse
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971), by a conservative historian
• Kelley, Robert. "Presbyterianism, Jacksonianism and Grover Cleveland." American Quarterly 1966 18(4): 615-636. Jstor, on Cleveland’s religion and its political implications
• Klinghard, Daniel P. "Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and the Emergence of the President as Party Leader." Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 35, 2005 online edition
• McCarthy, G. Michael. "The Forest Reserve Controversy: Colorado under Cleveland and McKinley," Journal of Forest History, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr., 1976), pp. 80-90 in JSTOR
• Meador, Daniel J. "Lamar to the Court: Last Step to National Reunion" Supreme Court Historical Society Yearbook 1986: 27-47. ISSN 0362-5249
• Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896 (1969), thorough scholarly survey online edition
• Summers, Festus P. William L. Wilson and Tariff Reform, a Biography (1953) online edition, admires Cleveland
• Summers, Mark Wahlgren. Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884 (2000) campaign techniques and issues online edition
• Welch, Richard E. Jr. The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland (1988) standard scholarly overview of his two administrations
• Wilson, Woodrow, Mr. Cleveland as President Atlantic Monthly (March 1897): pp. 289-301 online Woodrow Wilson became President in 1912; he was a Cleveland supporter and this is a favorable essay.

Primary sources

• Grover Cleveland, The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland, edited by George Frederick Parker (1982) 571 pages online edition, coverage to 1892
• Grover Cleveland, Presidential problems (1904) memoirs, online edition from Questia; free online edition from Google
• President Cleveland Message about Hawaii December 18, 1893 - Cleveland's message where he tried to discredit the Hawaiian Revolution. It was contradicted by the Morgan Report issued by Congress in 1894.
• National Democratic Committee. Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party (1896) a fierce defense of Cleveland written by Gold Democrats who supported Cleveland and opposed Bryan and McKinley http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=LCCN09032461&id=VIwkzQzzbl4C&vq=wilson&dq=Democratic+%22campaign+text+Book%22&pg=PP19&printsec=4&lpg=PP19 online from Google]
• Nevins, Allan, ed. Letters of Grover Cleveland, 1850-1908 (1934), major collection of his letters
• Parker, George Frederick. Recollections of Grover Cleveland, (1911) - 427 pages online edition
• Sturgis, Amy H. ed. Presidents from Hayes through McKinley, 1877-1901: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents (2003) online edition
• William L. Wilson; The Cabinet Diary of William L. Wilson, 1896-1897 1957

External links

• Good scholarly essay on Cleveland with short essays on cabinet members and Mrs Cleveland; from U of Vorginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs