Grover Cleveland, the twenty-second and twenty-forth President of the United States, was a portly man with slicked-back hair and a thick, drooping mustache. Known only to his closest relatives as "Uncle Jumbo," Cleveland was a good-natured man who would allow himself to overcome his somber manner every once and a while. Throughout his career, Grover Cleveland liked to be in control. No matter how minor or distasteful a job was, if it fell under his jurisdiction he would insist on doing it himself. While he was serving as sheriff, it was not uncommon for him to personally pull the lever during state executions. While he was serving as President, it was not unheard of for him to answer the White House phone. President Cleveland's inability to delegate responsibility resulted in a White House work week that consisted primarily of fifteen-hour days. Grover Cleveland earned the distinction of being the first President to serve two non-consecutive terms and the first to hold a wedding ceremony in the White House. During his first term, Cleveland fought waste and corruption by way of the veto, vetoing almost every bill put before him on the grounds of unnecessary expense. During his second term, the United States was in a severe depression, and the first strains of unrest within a society transformed by the industrial revolution were being felt in the form of widespread labor strikes. Throughout his political career, Cleveland had always supported the interests of the small farmer and the independent business man over that of big business, but in the big business and labor disputes of the second term of his Presidency, he consistently sided with big business. President Cleveland did not see labor strikes as a symptom of a much larger problem, but rather as a collection of isolated incidents of mob rule that should be suppressed for the public good.
Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 15, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey. He was the fifth child of nine born to Ann Neal and Richard F. Cleveland. Ann Neal was the daughter of a successful publisher. Richard Cleveland was a Presbyterian minister who was related to Moses Cleveland, the founder of Ohio. Grover legally dropped the first name "Stephen" at an early age. When Richard Cleveland died in 1853, Grover moved to New York City to join his older brother who was teaching at the New York Institute for the Blind. Grover taught at the blind school for a year before returning to his family's home in Holland Patent, New York. Largely because of the name, Grover developed a fondness for Cleveland, Ohio and decided to move there. On his way west, Grover stopped in Buffalo to visit some relatives. His uncle, Lewis Fallen, persuaded Grover to stay in Buffalo by offering him free room and board and a job as a farmhand. After a few months of farm work, Grover took a job as an apprentice clerk in the law firm of Rogers, Bowen, and Rogers. Grover Cleveland passed the bar in 1859 and was promoted to chief clerk of Rogers, Bowen, and Rogers.
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Grover's two older brothers were drafted into the Union army, and Grover inherited the responsibility of supporting his mother and younger siblings. Later, when Grover himself was drafted, he paid a substitute $300 to fight in his stead. Though his actions were entirely within the confines of the law, Grover Cleveland's decision not to fight in the Civil War would be a political sore spot for years to come.
Grover Cleveland was appointed to fill a vacancy in the position of assistant district attorney of Erie County, New York in 1863. He ran for re-election in 1865, but was defeated.
In 1871 Cleveland was elected sheriff of Buffalo, New York. He served one two year term before returning to his private law practice, later founding the firm of Bass, Cleveland, and Bissel.
Cleveland ran as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Buffalo in 1881. As mayor, Cleveland sought to rid the city's government of waste and corruption, and did so by conducting the business of government independence of party interest. Cleveland's success in Buffalo won him the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in 1882. The Republican candidate was Secretary of State Charles J. Folger, who was running at the request of President Chester A. Arthur. In spite of the President's support, Grover Cleveland beat Charles J. Folger by a landslide in the general election. Through a generous exercise of his power of veto, Governor Cleveland sought to do for the state what he had done for Buffalo. In a combined effort with Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican member of the New York State Assembly, Cleveland began to pass legislation against the abuses of power which had been so prevalent in the New York State Government under the spoils system politics of the Conkling years. Governor Cleveland's success in New York won him the Democratic nomination for President in 1884.
The Presidential campaign of 1884 very quickly became a mud-slinging contest. Though Cleveland's opponent, the Republican Senator James G. Blaine, had not served in the military either, the Republicans immediately began questioning Cleveland's character for buying his way out of the Civil War. The Democrats retaliated by exploiting the "Mulligan letters," which implicated Senator Blaine in a railroad scandal. The Republicans returned fire by disclosing that Cleveland was supporting a child which he had fathered out of wed-lock. When the accusations reached the Cleveland campaign, Grover Cleveland helped his case and earned the respect of voters by simply confessing. The Cleveland campaign gained momentum when it secured the support of Republican reformers, or "mugwumps," who favored Cleveland over Blaine for his record as a reformer in New York. On the eve of the election, a New York clergyman campaigning for Blaine declared that Democrats represented "rum, Romanism, and rebellion." The statement was seen by Catholics as a direct insult. The Blaine campaign quickly apologized for the statement, but the damage was already done. The Catholic vote gave Grover Cleveland a small but crucial edge over Blaine in the popular election and in the electoral college. Grover Cleveland became the twenty-second President of the United States on March 4, 1885.
During his first term, President Cleveland implemented and expanded the jurisdiction of the Pendleton Civil Service Act passed during the Hayes Administration. Just as he had done as governor of New York, President Cleveland used the power of the veto to curtail unnecessary spending and to fight governmental corruption. He vetoed a number of bills, including a private pension bill for Civil War veterans that provided medical coverage for all veterans regardless of whether or not their ailment was a result of the war. President Cleveland supported a low tariff that would benefit farmers and a dollar based on the gold standard. He also signed into law the Interstate Commerce Act which regulated interstate railroads and canals.
In a White House ceremony, President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom, the daughter of one of his former law partners in Buffalo. The wedding took place on June 2, 1886; President Cleveland was forty nine, and Folsom was twenty one. The couple had three daughters, and two sons. Two of Cleveland's children were born during his second term. Before Frances Folsom, the duties of White House Hostess had been performed by the President's younger sister, Rose Cleveland.
President Cleveland was nominated for re-election by the Democratic party in 1888. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison, grandson of ninth President William Henry Harrison. Though President Cleveland beat Harrison in the popular vote, he lost in the electoral college. Grover Cleveland moved with his new bride to New York City where he returned to practicing law.
Grover Cleveland won the Democratic nomination again in 1892. The Republicans nominated President Harrison, and a third party, which called itself the People's Party, nominated James Baird Weaver. Cleveland won easily in the electoral college, but secured less than half of the popular vote because of the presence of the third-party candidate. Grover Cleveland became the twenty-fourth President of the United States on March 4, 1893.
Shortly after President Cleveland took office for the second time, a severe financial crash plunged the nation into a depression. President Cleveland believed that the crash had been the result of inflation and a lack of confidence in the dollar, brought about by the instituting of silver based currency. In October of 1893, the President called Congress in to an emergency session and had the Sherman Silver Purchase Act repealed. President Cleveland's actions split the Democratic Party, but did not ease the depression.
In the spring of 1894, 500 of the nation's unemployed led by James Coxey, marched on the Capitol. They were met by police in riot gear who promptly arrested Coxey and then proceeded to break up the gathering by way of force. When a strike by workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company began to disrupt the service of the Chicago Post Office, President Cleveland ordered federal troops into the area to put down the strikers, despite the objections of John H. Altgeld, the governor of Illinois.
The economy got worse as the federal gold reserve was approaching bankruptcy. Congress issued a bond that was designed to restore the nation's gold reserve, but the measure did very little. Early in 1895, a group of bankers lead by J.P. Morgan co-signed a bond issue guaranteeing the federal government $62 million to be paid in gold.
In foreign affairs, President Cleveland blocked the ratification of the treaty drawn up by the Harrison Administration which provided for the annexation of Hawaii and professed the United States' neutrality in the conflict between Spain and Cuba. In 1895 Secretary of State Richard Olney convinced Britain to submit to an arbitrary third party in settling its dispute with Venezuela. The matter was finally settled in 1899.
President Cleveland failed to obtain the Democratic nomination in 1896. He left office on March 4, 1897 and settled in Princeton, New Jersey. He spent his retirement writing articles and books on politics and giving lectures. In 1901 he became a member of the board of trustees at Princeton University, later advancing to the position of board of trustees president in 1904. Then in 1907 he became president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Grover Cleveland died of a heart attack on June 24, 1908.
