Everything about Grover Cleveland totally explained
After his term as sheriff ended, Cleveland returned to private practice, opening a law firm with his friends Lyman K. Bass and
Wilson S. Bissell. Bass didn't spend much time at the firm, being elected to Congress in 1873, but Cleveland and Bissell soon found themselves at the top of Buffalo's legal community. Up to that point, Cleveland's political career had been honorable but unremarkable. As his biographer
Allan Nevins wrote "probably no man in the country, on March 4, 1881, had less thought than this limited, simple, sturdy attorney of Buffalo that four years later he'd be standing in
Washington and taking the oath as President of the United States."
Mayor of Buffalo
In the 1870s, the government of Buffalo had grown increasingly corrupt, with Democratic and Republican
political machines cooperating to share the
spoils. When, in 1881, the Republicans nominated a slate of particularly disreputable machine politicians, the Democrats saw the opportunity to gain the votes of disaffected Republicans by nominating a more honest candidate. The party leaders approached Cleveland and he agreed to run for
mayor, provided that the rest of the ticket was to his liking. When the more notorious politicians were left off of the Democratic ticket, Cleveland accepted the nomination. He took office
January 2 1882.
Cleveland's term as mayor was spent fighting the entrenched interests of the party machines. Among the acts that established his reputation was a veto of the street-cleaning bill passed by the
Common Council. The street-cleaning contract was open for bids, and the Council selected the highest bidder, rather than the lowest, because of the political connections of the bidder. The Council reversed themselves and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder. For this, and several other acts to safeguard the public funds, Cleveland's reputation as an honest politician began to spread beyond Erie County.
Governor of New York
As his reputation grew, state Democratic party officials began to consider Cleveland a possible nominee for governor.
Daniel Manning, a party insider who admired Cleveland's record, promoted his candidacy. With a split in the state Republican party, 1882 looked to be a Democratic year and there were several contenders for that party's nomination. Cleveland, in third place on the first ballot, picked up support in subsequent votes and emerged as the compromise choice. The Republican party remained divided against itself, and in the general election Cleveland emerged the victor, with 535,318 votes to Republican nominee
Charles J. Folger's 342,464. Cleveland's margin of victory was, at the time, the largest in a contested New York election, and the Democrats also picked up seats in both houses of the
legislature.
Continuing his opposition to unnecessary spending, Cleveland sent the legislature eight
vetos in his first two months in office. The first to attract attention was his veto of a bill to reduce the fares on
New York City elevated trains to five cents. The bill had broad support because the el trains' owner,
Jay Gould, was unpopular and his fare increases were widely denounced. Cleveland saw the bill as unjust—Gould had taken over the railroads when they were failing and had made the system solvent again. Moreover, Cleveland believed that altering Gould's franchise would violate the
Contract Clause of the
federal Constitution. After the veto, Roosevelt reversed himself, as did many legislators, and the veto was sustained. Tammany, under its boss,
John Kelly, hadn't supported Cleveland's nomination as governor, and disliked him all the more when Cleveland openly opposed the re-election of one of their State Senators. Losing Tammany's support was balanced, however, by gaining the support of Theodore Roosevelt and other reform-minded Republicans who helped Cleveland to pass several laws reforming municipal governments.
Election of 1884
Nomination for President
The Republicans convened in
Chicago and nominated former Speaker of the House
James G. Blaine of
Maine for President on the fourth ballot. Blaine's nomination alienated many Republicans who viewed Blaine as ambitious and immoral. Democratic party leaders saw the Republicans' choice as an opportunity to take back the White House for the first time since 1856 if the right candidate could be found. Tilden, however, was in poor health, and after he declined to be nominated, his supporters shifted to several other contenders. Cleveland, too, had detractors—Tammany remained opposed to him—but the nature of his enemies made him more friends still. Cleveland led on the first ballot, with 392 votes out of 820. On the second ballot, Tammany threw its support behind Butler, but the rest of the delegates shifted to Cleveland, and he was nominated.
Thomas A. Hendricks of
Indiana was selected as his running mate. The Mugwumps, including such men as
Carl Schurz and
Henry Ward Beecher, were more concerned with ideals than with party, and hoped that Cleveland would endorse their crusade for civil service reform and efficiency in government.
Each candidate's supporters cast aspersions on their opponents. Cleveland's supporters rehashed the old allegations that Blaine had corruptly influenced legislation in favor of the
Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad and the
Northern Pacific Railway, later profiting on the sale of bonds he owned in both companies. Although the stories of Blaine's favors to the railroads had made the rounds eight years earlier, this time Blaine's correspondence was discovered, making his earlier denials less plausible.
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?" 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. In New York, the Tammany machine, after vacillating, decided that they'd gain more from supporting a Democrat they disliked than a Republican who would do nothing for them. Blaine hoped that he'd have more support from
Irish Americans than Republicans typically did; while the Irish were mainly a Democratic constituency in the nineteenth century, Blaine's mother was Irish Catholic, and he'd been supportive of the
Irish National Land League while he was Secretary of State. The Irish, a significant group in three of the swing states, did appear inclined to support Blaine until one of his supporters, Samuel D. Burchard, gave a speech denouncing the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion". The Democrats spread the word of this insult in the days before the election, and Cleveland narrowly won all four of the swings states, including New York by just over one thousand votes. While the popular vote total was close, with Cleveland winning by just one-quarter of a percent, the electoral votes gave Cleveland a majority of 219–182. He also used his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as many departments had become bloated with political time-servers. Later in his term, as his fellow Democrats chafed at being excluded from the spoils, Cleveland began to replace more of the partisan Republican officeholders with Democrats. While some of his decisions were influenced by party concerns, more of Cleveland's appointments were decided by merit alone than was the case in his predecessors' administrations.
Cleveland reformed other parts of the government, as well. In 1887, he signed the act creating the
Interstate Commerce Commission. He and his
Secretary of the Navy,
William C. Whitney, undertook to modernize the
navy and canceled construction contracts that had resulted in inferior ships. Cleveland angered railroad investors by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by government grant.
Secretary of the Interior Lucius Q.C. Lamar 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. He vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for
American Civil War veterans, believing that if their pensions requests had already been rejected by the
Pensions Bureau, Congress shouldn't attempt to override that decision. 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. In 1887, Cleveland issued his most well-known veto, that of the Texas Seed Bill. After a drought had ruined crops in several Texas counties, the Congress appropriated $10,000 to purchase seed grain for farmers there.
Silver
One of the most volatile issues of the 1880s was whether the currency should be backed by
gold and silver, or by
gold alone. The issue cut across party lines, with western Republicans and southern Democrats joining together in the call for the free coinage of silver, and both parties' representatives in the northeast holding firm for the gold standard. Because silver was worth less than its legal equivalent in gold, taxpayers paid their government bills in silver, while international creditors demanded payment in gold, resulting in a depletion of the nation's gold supply. This angered Westerners and Southerners, who advocated for cheap money to help their poorer constituents. In reply, one of the foremost silverites,
Richard P. Bland, introduced a bill in 1886 that would require the government to coin unlimited amounts of silver, inflating the then-deflating currency. While Bland's bill was defeated, so was a bill the administration favored that would repeal any silver coinage requirement.
Tariffs
| "When we consider that 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, it's plain that the exaction of more than this is indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice... The public Treasury, which should only exist as a conduit conveying the people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expenditure, 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." |
| Cleveland's third annual message to Congress, December 6 1887. |
Another contentious financial issue at the time was the
protective tariff. While it hadn't been a central point in his campaign, Cleveland's opinion on the tariff was that of most Democrats: that the tariff ought to be reduced. Republicans generally favored a high tariff to protect American industries.
In 1886, a bill to reduce the tariff was narrowly defeated in the House. The tariff issue was emphasized in
the Congressional elections that year, and the forces of protectionism increased their numbers in the Congress. Nevertheless, Cleveland continued to advocate tariff reform. As the surplus grew, Cleveland and the reformers called for a tariff for revenue only. His message to Congress in 1887 (quoted at left) pointed out the injustice of taking more money from the people than the government needed to pay for its operating expenses. Republicans, as well as protectionist northern Democrats like
Samuel J. Randall, believed that without high tariffs American industries would fail, and continued to fight reformers' efforts.
Roger Q. Mills, the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, proposed a bill that would reduce the tariff burden from about 47% to about 40%. After significant exertions by Cleveland and his allies, the bill passed the House. Cleveland's
Secretary of State,
Thomas F. Bayard, negotiated with
Joseph Chamberlain of the
United Kingdom over fishing rights in the waters off
Canada, and struck a conciliatory note, despite the opposition of
New England's Republican Senators. Cleveland also withdrew from Senate consideration the
Berlin Conference treaty which guaranteed an open door for U.S. interests in
the Congo.
Marriage
Cleveland entered the White house as a bachelor, but didn't long remain one. In 1885, the widow and daughter of Cleveland's friend, Oscar Folsom, visited him in Washington. Folsom's daughter,
Frances, was a student at
Wells College, and when she returned to school Cleveland received her mother's permission to correspond with her. He was the second President to marry while in office, and the only President to have a wedding in the White House. This marriage was unusual because Cleveland was the executor of Oscar Folsom's estate and had supervised Frances' upbringing, but the public did not, in general, take exception to the match. At twenty-two years old, Frances was the youngest
First Lady in American history, but the public soon warmed to her beauty and warm personality. The Clevelands had five children:
Ruth (1891–1904);
Esther (1893–1980); Marion (1895–1977); Richard Folsom (1897–1974); and Francis Grover (1903–1995).
Administration and Cabinet
Supreme Court appointments
Cleveland successfully appointed two Justices to the
Supreme Court of the United States. The first,
Lucius Q.C. Lamar, was a former
Mississippi Senator then serving in Cleveland's Cabinet as Interior Secretary. When
William Burnham Woods died, Cleveland nominated Lamar to his seat in late 1887. While Lamar had been well-liked as a Senator, his service under the
Confederacy two decades earlier caused many Republicans to vote against him. Cleveland had previously offered to nominate Fuller to the
Civil Service Commission, but Fuller declined to leave his Chicago law practice. Fuller accepted the Supreme Court nomination, and the
Senate Judiciary Committee spent several months examining the little-known nominee. The Republicans nominated
Benjamin Harrison of
Indiana for President and
Levi P. Morton of New York for Vice President. Cleveland was easily renominated at the Democratic convention in
St. Louis. Vice President
Hendricks having died in 1885, the Democrats chose
Allen G. Thurman of Ohio to be Cleveland's running mate.
As in 1884, the election focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana. Unlike that year, when Cleveland triumphed in all four, in 1888 he won only two, losing his home state of New York by 14,373 votes. More notoriously, the Republicans were victorious in Indiana, largely as the result of fraud. Republican victory in that state, where Cleveland lost by just 2,348 votes, was sufficient to propel Harrison to victory, despite his loss of the nationwide popular vote.
Private citizen for four years
As Frances Cleveland left the White House, she told a staff member, "Now, Jerry, I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, for I want to find everything just as it's now, when we come back again." When asked when she'd return, she responded, "We are coming back four years from today." In the meantime, the Clevelands moved to New York City where Cleveland took a position with the law firm of Bangs,
Stetson, Tracy, and MacVeigh. Cleveland's income with the firm wasn't high, but neither were his duties especially onerous. While they lived in New York, the Clevelands' first child, Ruth, was born in 1891.
The Harrison administration worked with Congress to pass the
McKinley Tariff and the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act, two policies Cleveland deplored as dangerous to the nation's financial health. At first he refrained from criticizing his successor, but by 1891 Cleveland felt compelled to speak out, addressing his concerns in an open letter to a meeting of reformers in New York. The "silver letter" thrust Cleveland's name back into the spotlight just as the 1892 election was approaching.
Election of 1892
Democratic nomination
Cleveland's stature as an ex-President and recent pronouncements on the monetary issues made him a leading contender for the Democratic nomination. His leading opponent was
David B. Hill, who was by that time a Senator for New York. Hill united the anti-Cleveland elements of the Democratic party—silverites, protectionists, and Tammany Hall—but was unable to create a coalition large enough to deny Cleveland the nomination. For Vice President, the Democrats chose to balance the ticket with
Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, a silverite.
Campaign against Harrison
The Republicans renominated President Harrison, making the 1892 election a rematch of the one four years earlier. Unlike the elections of 1884 and 1888, the 1892 election was "the cleanest, quietest, and most creditable in the memory of the post-war generation." The issue of the tariff had worked to the Republicans' advantage in 1888, but the revisions of the past four years had made imported goods so expensive that now many voters shifted to the reform position. Many westerners, traditionally Republican voters, defected to the new
Populist Party candidate,
James Weaver, who promised free silver, generous veterans' pensions, and an
eight-hour work day. Finally, the Tammany Hall Democrats adhered to the national ticket, allowing a united Democratic party to carry New York. The result was a victory for Cleveland by wide margins in both the popular and electoral votes.
Second term as President (1893–1897)
Economic panic and the silver issue
Shortly after Cleveland's second term began, the
Panic of 1893 struck the stock market, and he soon faced an acute
economic depression. The panic was worsened by the acute shortage of gold that resulted from the free coinage of silver, and Cleveland called Congress into session early to deal with the problem. The debate over the coinage was as heated as ever, but the effects of the panic had driven more moderates to support repealing the free coinage provisions of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act. In the Senate, the repeal of free coinage was equally contentious, but Cleveland convinced enough Democrats to stand by him that they, along with eastern Republicans, formed a 48-37 majority. With the passage of the repeal, the Treasury's gold reserves were restored to safe levels. At the time the repeal seemed a minor setback to silverites, but it marked the beginning of the end of silver as a basis for American currency.
Tariff reform
Having succeeded in reversing the Harrison administration's silver policy, Cleveland sought next to reverse the effects of the
McKinley tariff. What would become the
Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was introduced by West Virginian Representative
William L. Wilson in December 1893. After lengthy debate, the bill passed the House by a considerable margin. The bill proposed moderate downward revisions in the tariff, especially on raw materials. The shortfall in revenue was to be made up by an
income tax of two percent on incomes in excess of $4,000. Many Senators, led by
Arthur Pue Gorman of
Maryland, wanted more protection for their states' industries than the Wilson bill allowed. The
Sugar Trust in particular lobbied for changes that favored it at the expense of the consumer. Cleveland was unhappy with the result, and denounced the revised measure as a disgraceful product of the control of the Senate by trusts and business interests. Even so, he believed it was an improvement over the McKinley tariff and allowed it to become law without his signature.
Labor unrest
The Panic of 1893 had damaged labor conditions across the United States, and the victory of anti-silver legislation worsened the mood of western laborers. A group of workingmen led by
Jacob S. Coxey began to march east toward Washington, D.C. to protest Cleveland's policies.
The
Pullman Strike had a significantly greater impact than Coxey's Army. A strike began against the
Pullman Company, and sympathy strikes, encouraged by
American Railway Union leader
Eugene V. Debs, soon followed. By June 1894, 125,000 railroad workers were on strike, paralyzing the nation's commerce. Because the railroads carried the
mail, and because several of the affected lines were in
federal receivership, Cleveland believed a federal solution was appropriate. Cleveland obtained an
injunction in federal court and when the strikers refused to obey it, he sent in federal troops to
Chicago, Illinois and other rail centers. Leading newspapers of both parties applauded Cleveland's actions, but the use of troops hardened the attitude of organized labor toward his administration.
Foreign policy
| "I suppose that right and justice should determine the path to be followed in treating this subject. If national honesty is to be disregarded and a desire for territorial expansion or dissatisfaction with a form of government not our own ought to regulate our conduct, I've entirely misapprehended the mission and character of our government and the behavior which the conscience of the people demands of their public servants." |
| Cleveland's message to Congress on the Hawaiian question, December 18 1893. |
In January 1893, a group of Americans living in
Hawai'i overthrew Queen
Liliuokalani and established a provisional government under
Sanford Dole. By February, the Harrison administration had agreed with representatives of the new government on a treaty of annexation and submitted it to the Senate for approval.
In his first term, Cleveland had supported free trade with Hawai'i and accepted an amendment that gave the United States a coaling and naval station in
Pearl Harbor. By December 1893, the matter was still unresolved, and Cleveland referred the issue to Congress.
Closer to home, Cleveland adopted a broad interpretation of the
Monroe Doctrine that didn't just simply forbid new
European colonies but declared an American interest in any matter within the hemisphere. When Britain and
Venezuela disagreed over the boundary between the latter nation and
British Guiana, Cleveland and Secretary of State
Richard Olney pressured Britain into agreeing to arbitration. A tribunal convened in
Paris in 1898 to decide the matter, and issued its award in 1899. The tribunal awarded the bulk of the disputed territory to British Guiana. By standing with a Latin American nation against the encroachment of a colonial power, Cleveland improved relations with the United States' southern neighbors, but the cordial manner in which the negotiations were conducted also made for good relations with Britain.
Cancer
In the midst of the fight for repeal of free silver coinage in 1893, Cleveland's doctor found a small ulcerated sore on the left surface of Cleveland's
hard palate. Initial biopsies were inconclusive; later the samples were proven to be a
malignant cancer. Because of the financial depression of the country, Cleveland decided to have surgery performed in secrecy to avoid further market panic. The surgery occurred on
July 1, to give Cleveland time to make a full recovery in time for the upcoming Congressional session.
Under the guise of a vacation cruise, Cleveland and his surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bryant, left for
New York. The surgeons operated aboard the yacht
Oneida as it sailed off
Long Island. The surgery was conducted through the President's mouth, to avoid any scars or other signs of surgery. The team, sedating Cleveland with
nitrous oxide and
ether, successfully removed parts of his
upper left jaw and hard palate. During another surgery, an
orthodontist fitted Cleveland with a hard rubber prosthesis that corrected his speech and restored his appearance. Even when a newspaper story appeared giving details of the actual operation, the participating surgeons discounted the severity of what transpired during Cleveland's vacation.
Administration and Cabinet
Supreme Court appointments
Cleveland's trouble with the Senate hindered the success of his nominations to the Supreme Court in his second term. In 1893, after the death of
Samuel Blatchford, Cleveland nominated
William B. Hornblower to the Court. Hornblower, the head of a New York City law firm, was thought to be a qualified appointee, but his campaign against a New York machine politician had made Senator
David B. Hill his enemy. Hill used all of his influence to block Peckham's confirmation, and on
February 16 1894, the Senate rejected the nomination by a vote of 32 to 41. Instead, Cleveland nominated
Rufus Wheeler Peckham, the brother of Wheeler Hazard Peckham, and the Senate confirmed the second Peckham easily. Instead, the Democratic party turned to a silverite,
William Jennings Bryan, for its nominee. Disappointed with the direction of their party,
pro-gold Democrats even invited Cleveland to run as a third-party candidate, but he declined this offer, as well.
After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement at his estate,
Westland Mansion, in
Princeton, New Jersey. For a time he was a trustee of
Princeton University, and was one of the majority of trustees who preferred
Andrew Fleming West's plans for the Graduate School and undergraduate living over those of
Woodrow Wilson, then president of the University. Conservative Democrats hoped to nominate him for another presidential term in
1904, but his age and health forced them to turn to other candidates. Cleveland still made his views known in political matters. In a 1905 article in
The Ladies Home Journal, Cleveland weighed in on the
women's suffrage movement, writing that "sensible and responsible women don't want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence."
Cleveland's health had been declining for several years, and in the autumn of 1907 he fell seriously ill. In 1908, he suffered a
heart attack and died. He is buried in the
Princeton Cemetery of the
Nassau Presbyterian Church.
Honors and memorials
Cleveland's portrait was on the U.S.
$1000 bill from 1928 to 1946. He also appeared on a $1000 bill of 1907 and the first few issues of the $20
Federal Reserve Notes from 1914.
Since he was both the 22nd and 24th President, he'll be featured on two separate dollar coins to be released in 2012 as part of the
Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005.
In 2006, Free New York, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research group, began raising funds to purchase the former Fairfield Library in
Buffalo, New York and transform it into the Grover Cleveland Presidential Library & Museum.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Grover Cleveland'.
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