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United States Presidents

Grover Cleveland, 
1885 - 1889 & 1893 - 1897

	Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth President Democrat Vice Presidents -  Thomas A. Hendricks (1885-1889) Adlai E. Stevenson ( 1893-1897) Born: March 18, 1837 Caldwell, New Jersey Occupation: Lawyer, Governor Married Frances Folsom Died: June 24, 1908 Princeton, New Jersey

Early Years:  Cleveland attended a one-room school.  He then went to the Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York, where he was a good student because of hard work rather than natural brilliance. 

His Presidency:  During his first term there were tariff problems, and the Republican Senate was uncooperative. During his second term, Cleveland's integrity angered many in his own party.  There were conflicts over the minting of silver coins and his use of federal soldiers to break up railroad strikes.  Though unable to be very effective, Cleveland is remembered for his patriotism, honesty and courage, as well as being the hardest working president.

His Life:   The First Democrat elected after the Civil War, Grover Cleveland was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later.

One of nine children of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837. He was raised in upstate New York. As a lawyer in Buffalo, he became notable for his single-minded concentration upon whatever task faced him.

At 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, and later, Governor of New York.

Cleveland won the Presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans, the "Mugwumps," who disliked the record of his opponent James G. Blaine of Maine.

A bachelor, Cleveland was ill at ease at first with all the comforts of the White House. "I must go to dinner," he wrote a friend, "but I wish it was to eat a pickled herring a Swiss cheese and a chop at Louis' instead of the French stuff I shall find." In June 1886 Cleveland married 21-year-old Frances Folsom; he was the only President married in the White House.

Cleveland 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 many private pension bills to Civil War veterans whose claims were fraudulent. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland vetoed it, too.

He angered the railroads by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by Government grant. He forced them to return 81,000,000 acres. He also signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting Federal regulation of the railroads.

In December 1887 he called on Congress to reduce high protective tariffs. Told that he had given Republicans an effective issue for the campaign of 1888, he retorted, "What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?" But Cleveland was defeated in 1888; although he won a larger popular majority than the Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison, he received fewer electoral votes.

Elected again in 1892, Cleveland faced an acute depression. He dealt directly with the Treasury crisis rather than with business failures, farm mortgage foreclosures, and unemployment. He obtained repeal of the mildly inflationary Sherman Silver Purchase Act and, with the aid of Wall Street, maintained the Treasury's gold reserve.

When railroad strikers in Chicago violated an injunction, Cleveland sent Federal troops to enforce it. "If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a post card in Chicago," he thundered, "that card will be delivered."

Cleveland's blunt treatment of the railroad strikers stirred the pride of many Americans. So did the vigorous way in which he forced Great Britain to accept arbitration of a disputed boundary in Venezuela. But his policies during the depression were generally unpopular. His party deserted him and nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in 1908.

Did you know?  As a boy, Cleveland learned to fish and it became his favorite sport.   

Quotations

"Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."

Grover Cleveland

What is the use of being elected or reelected, unless you stand for something?"

Grover Cleveland

"It is the responsibility of the citizens to support their government. I is not the responsibility of the government to support its citizens."

Grover Cleveland

"A man is known by the company he keeps, and also by the company from which he is kept out."

Grover Cleveland

"The admitted right of a government to prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned, even where there is not treaty stipulation on the subject." 

Grover Cleveland (On immigration)

"Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and affairs and a reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness."

Grover Cleveland

"He who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen . . . should share with him. . . . Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust."

Grover Cleveland

Part honesty is party expediency." 

Grover Cleveland (Interview in New York Commercial Advertiser, September 1889)

"This dreadful, damnable office-seeking hangs over me and surrounds me—and makes me feel like resigning."

Grover Cleveland

"I mistake the American people if they favor the odious doctrine that there is no such thing as international morality; that there is one law for a strong nation and another for a weak one."

Grover Cleveland

"The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their Government its functions do not include the support of the people."

Grover Cleveland

"The ship of democracy which has weathered any storms may sink through the mutiny of those aboard."

Grover Cleveland

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