Grover Cleveland (1837 - 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. [1] He was the first president elected to two non-consecutive terms, holding office from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897, and the only Democrat to win the presidency during a long era of Republican dominance. [2] A fiscal conservative who made heavy use of the veto, he built his reputation on opposition to patronage, tariffs and what he regarded as unsound currency. [3]
Early life and legal career
Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on 18 March 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey, the son of a Presbyterian minister, and grew up in upstate New York. His father's death when Cleveland was sixteen ended his hopes of further formal schooling. He settled in Buffalo, read law in a local firm and was admitted to the bar in 1859. [1]
He entered public life as assistant district attorney of Erie County and was elected county sheriff in 1870, an office in which he personally carried out two executions rather than delegate the task. [3]
Mayor, governor and the 1884 election
Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo in 1881, where his vetoes of corrupt contracts earned national notice, and was elected governor of New York the following year by a large margin. As governor he broke with the Tammany Hall political machine and continued to veto measures he considered wasteful. [2]
Nominated for president in 1884, he won a narrow victory over the Republican James G. Blaine. The campaign was notable for personal attacks, including revelations about a child Cleveland was alleged to have fathered, a charge he did not deny. [1]
First term
As president Cleveland pressed civil service reform, scrutinised veterans' pension claims and vetoed hundreds of private pension bills, and signed the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which created the first federal regulatory commission to oversee the railroads. He devoted his 1887 annual message entirely to the case for reducing the protective tariff, making it the central issue of the following year's campaign. [3]
In 1886 he married Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony, the only president to be married in the executive mansion. He lost the 1888 election to Benjamin Harrison in the Electoral College despite winning a plurality of the popular vote, and returned to law practice in New York City. [1]
Second term
Cleveland defeated Harrison in a rematch in 1892 and took office again in March 1893, weeks before the onset of a severe financial crisis known as the Panic of 1893. He secured repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in the belief that it was draining the gold reserve, a step that split his party, and arranged a bond sale through a banking syndicate led by J. P. Morgan to shore up federal gold holdings. [2]
In 1894 he sent federal troops to break the Pullman Strike, on the grounds that it obstructed the mails, an intervention that alienated organised labour. He withdrew the treaty to annex Hawaii, objecting to the overthrow of its monarchy, and invoked the Monroe Doctrine to press Britain to arbitrate a boundary dispute with Venezuela. [3]
Later life and legacy
Cleveland retired to Princeton, New Jersey, where he wrote, lectured and served as a trustee of Princeton University. He died there on 24 June 1908. He was later inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. [1]
Historians generally place him in the middle ranks of American presidents, crediting his personal integrity and independence while noting the limits of his response to industrial depression and his conservative view of the federal government's role. [2]
