Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)/biography

Grover Cleveland
	Grover Cleveland
	;
24th President of the United States
	In office; March 4 1893 – March 4 1897
Vice President	Adlai E. Stevenson
Preceded by	Benjamin Harrison
Succeeded by	William McKinley
22nd President of the United States
	In office; March 4 1885 – March 4 1889
Vice President	Thomas A. Hendricks (1885, died in office),; None (1885-1889)
Preceded by	Chester A. Arthur
Succeeded by	Benjamin Harrison
31st Governor of New York
	In office; January 1 1883 – January 6 1885
Lieutenant	David B. Hill
Preceded by	Alonzo B. Cornell
Succeeded by	David B. Hill
Born	March 18, 1837; Caldwell, New Jersey
Died	June 24, 1908 (age 71); Princeton, New Jersey
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Frances Folsom Cleveland
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Presbyterian
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Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18 1837 – June 24 1908), the twenty-second and twenty-fourth President of the United States, was the only President to serve non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897). He was defeated for reelection in 1888 by Benjamin Harrison, against whom he ran again in 1892 and won a second term. He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era of Republican political domination between 1860 and 1912, after the American Civil War. His admirers praise him for his bedrock honesty, independence, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. As a leader of the Bourbon Democrats, he opposed imperialism, taxes, corruption, patronage, subsidies and inflationary policies.

Some of Cleveland's actions were controversial with political factions: his intervention in the Pullman Strike of 1894 in order to keep the railroads moving angered labor unions, and his support of the gold standard and opposition to free silver alienated the agrarian wing of the party. Furthermore, critics complained that he had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic disasters — depressions and strikes — in his second term. He lost control of his party to the agrarians and silverites in 1896.

Early life[]

PCLEV001-009 — An early, undated photograph of Grover Cleveland from the Cleveland Family Papers at the New Jersey Archives.

Cleveland was born in Caldwell to the Reverend Richard Cleveland and Anne Neal. He was the fifth of nine children, five sons and four daughters. He was named Stephen Grover in honor of the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell, where his father was pastor at the time. From 1841 to 1850, he lived in Fayetteville^[1], but as the church frequently transferred its ministers, the family moved many times, mainly around central and southern New York State.

He became involved in Democratic politics at the age of 19 when he worked for the presidential campaign of James Buchanan. Following Buchanan's single term, the next Democrat elected president would be Cleveland himself, almost thirty years later. During the American Civil War, Cleveland hired a replacement to avoid Lincoln's draft order of 1863.

As a lawyer in Buffalo, he became notable for his single-minded concentration upon whatever task faced him. He was elected sheriff of Erie County in 1870 and, while in that post, carried out at least two hangings of condemned criminals, refusing to delegate the unpleasant task to others. Political opponents would later hold this against him, calling him the "Buffalo Hangman." Cleveland stated that he wished to take the responsibility for the executions himself and not pass it along to subordinates.

Political career[]

In 1871 Grover Cleveland was elected Sheriff of Erie County, New York. At age 44, he emerged into a political prominence that carried him to the White House in three years. Running as a reformer, he was elected Mayor of Buffalo in 1881, with the slogan "Public Office is a Public Trust" as his trademark of office. One newspaper, in endorsing him, said it did so for three reasons: "1. He is honest. 2. He is honest. 3. He is honest." In 1882, he was elected Governor of New York, working closely with reform-minded Republican state legislator Theodore Roosevelt.

1884 campaign[]

Cleveland won the Presidency in the 1884 election with the unusual combination of support from both Democrats and reform-minded Republicans called "Mugwumps" who denounced his opponent, former Senator James G. Blaine of Maine, as corrupt.

The campaign was negative. To counter Cleveland's image of purity, his opponents reported that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo. The derisive phrase "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?", often chanted at Republican political rallies, rose as an unofficial campaign slogan for those who opposed him.

Cleveland admitted to paying child support in 1874 to Maria Crofts Halpin, the woman who claimed he fathered her child named Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Halpin was involved with several men at the time, including Cleveland's law partner and mentor, Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was named. (Cleveland may not have been the father and is believed to have assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them.) After Cleveland's election as President, Democratic newspapers added a line to the chant used against Cleveland and made it: "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa? Gone to the White House! Ha Ha!"

The desire for reform, blunders on behalf of Blaine, and voters' demand for honesty turned the tide for Cleveland. Cleveland's victory made him the first Democrat elected president since James Buchanan, who was elected in 1856.

First term as President (1885-1889)[]

Politics[]

Cleveland's administration might be characterized by his saying: "I have only one thing to do, and that is to do right". Cleveland faced a Republican Senate and often resorted to using his veto powers. Cleveland himself insisted that, as President, his greatest accomplishment was blocking others' bad ideas. He vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. Vetoing a bill to appropriate $10,000 to distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, he wrote: "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...." He also vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for American Civil War veterans. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland vetoed that, too. Cleveland used the veto far more often than any President up to that time. Once Cleveland told a friend that his principal duty and greatest service to the country was in preventing Congress from enacting bad bills. He also felt that if the constitution did not authorize it, he could not in good faith sign a bill into law.

Cleveland lived up to his reputation of running an efficient government. He demanded his administration get rid of extravagances and abuses.

In 1885, Cleveland ordered a military campaign against the Southwestern Apache tribe under Chief Geronimo; in 1886 Geronimo was captured.

President Cleveland angered railroad investors by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by government grant, involving the return of 81,000,000 acres (328,000 km²) which is the approximately equivalent to the areas of N.Y., N.J., Pa., Dela., Md., and Va.,combined. The Department of the Interior charged that the rights of way for this land must be returned to the public because the railroads failed to extend their lines according to agreements. The lands were forfeited and became part of public domain.

He signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting Federal regulation of the railroads.

Foreign policy[]

Cleveland was a committed isolationist who had campaigned in opposition to expansion and imperialism. He reversed policy and withdrew the treaty for the annexation of Hawaii negotiated by Benjamin Harrison from the consideration of the Senate. Cleveland often quoted the advice of George Washington's Farewell Address in decrying alliances, and he slowed the pace of expansion that President Chester Arthur had begun. Cleveland refused to promote Arthur's Nicaragua canal treaty, calling it an "entangling alliance". Free trade deals (reciprocity treaties) with Mexico and several South American countries died because there was no Senate approval. Cleveland withdrew from Senate consideration the Berlin Conference treaty which guaranteed an open door for U.S. interests in Congo.^[2]

As Fareed Zakaria argued, "But while Cleveland retarded the speed and aggressiveness of U.S. foreign policy, the overall direction did not change."^[2] Historian Charles S. Campbell argues that the audiences who listened to Cleveland and Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard's moralistic lectures "readily detected through the high moral tone a sharp eye for the national interest."^[3] Cleveland supported Hawaiian free trade (reciprocity) and accepted an amendment that gave the United States a coaling and naval station in Pearl Harbor. Naval orders were placed with Democratic industrialists rather than Republican ones, but the military buildup actually quickened.^[2]

In his second term Cleveland stated that by 1892, the U.S. Navy had been used to promote American interests in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Argentina, Brazil, and Hawaii. Under Cleveland, the U.S. adopted a broad interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine that did not just simply forbid new European colonies but declared an American interest in any matter within the hemisphere.^[4]

Crusade against protective tariff[]

In December 1887, Cleveland called on Congress to reduce high protective tariffs:

The theory of our institutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and enterprise, with only such deduction as may be his share toward the careful and economical maintenance of the Government which protects him... the exaction of more than this is indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice. This wrong inflicted upon those who bear the burden of national taxation, like other wrongs, multiplies a brood of evil consequences. The public Treasury... becomes a hoarding place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's use, thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country's development, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder.

He failed to lower tariffs when the Mills bill failed, and made it the central issue of his losing 1888 campaign, as Republicans under William McKinley claimed a high tariff was needed to produce high wages, high profits, and fast economic expansion.

Personal life[]

President cleveland wedding — Grover Cleveland was the second President married in office, and the only President married in the White House itself

On June 2, 1886, Cleveland married Frances Cornelia Folsom, the daughter of his former law partner, in the Blue Room in the White House. He was the second President to marry while in office, and the only President to have a wedding in the White House itself. This marriage was controversial because Cleveland was the executor of the Folsom estate and supervised Frances' upbringing. Folsom, at 21 years old, was the youngest First Lady in the history of the United States. Their children were Ruth Cleveland (1891-1904); Esther Cleveland (1893-1980); Marion Cleveland (1895-1977); Richard Folsom Cleveland (1897-1974); and Francis Grover Cleveland (1903-1995).that is so much

Significant events[]

In October 1886, Cleveland presided over the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.
American Federation of Labor was created (1886)
Haymarket Riot (1886)
Wabash (1886)
Interstate Commerce Act (1887)
Dawes Act (1887)

Administration and Cabinet[]

OFFICE	NAME	TERM

President	Grover Cleveland	1885–1889
Vice President	Thomas A. Hendricks	1885
Vice President	None	1885–1889

Secretary of State	Thomas F. Bayard	1885–1889

Secretary of the Treasury	Daniel Manning	1885–1887
Secretary of the Treasury	Charles S. Fairchild	1887–1889

Secretary of War	William C. Endicott	1885–1889

Attorney General	Augustus H. Garland	1885–1889

Postmaster General	William F. Vilas	1885–1888
Postmaster General	Donald M. Dickinson	1888–1889

Secretary of the Navy	William C. Whitney	1885–1889

Secretary of the Interior	Lucius Q. C. Lamar	1885–1888
Secretary of the Interior	William F. Vilas	1888–1889

Secretary of Agriculture	Norman J. Colman	1889

Supreme Court appointments[]

Cleveland appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States during his first term.

Lucius Q. C. Lamar – 1888
Melville Weston Fuller (Chief Justice) – 1888

1888 campaign[]

Cleveland-Thurman — Cleveland/Thurman campaign poster

Cleveland was defeated in the 1888 presidential election, in part due to fraud (See Blocks of Five). He actually led in the popular vote over Benjamin Harrison (48.6% to 47.8%), but Harrison won the Electoral College by a 233-168 margin, largely by squeaking out a barely-over-1% win in Cleveland's home state of New York; in fact, had Cleveland won his home state, he would have won the electoral vote by a count of 204-197 (201 votes then needed for victory). Note, though, that Cleveland earned 24 of his electoral votes in states that he won by less than 1% (Connecticut, Virginia, and West Virginia).

Cleveland thus became one of only four men to clearly win the popular vote but lose the presidency; there would not be another such election until Al Gore's narrow loss to George W. Bush in 2000. As Frances Cleveland and the ex-president left the White House, she assured the staff that they would return in four years.

1892 Campaign[]

The primary issues for Cleveland for the 1892 campaign were reducing the tariff and stopping free minting of silver which had depleted the gold reserves of the U.S. Treasury. Cleveland was elected again in 1892, thus becoming the only President in U.S. history to be elected to a second term which did not run in succession to the first.