Grover Cleveland, 24nd President of the United States

Born: March 18, 1837, Caldwell, New Jersey, United States
Died: June 24, 1908 (age 71 years), Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Presidential terms: March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1889, March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897
Spouse: Frances Cleveland (m. 1886–1908)
Party: National Democratic Party
Vice presidents: Adlai Stevenson I (1893–1897), Thomas A. Hendricks (1885)
President number: 22, 24
Website: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/bios/grover-cleveland

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland, 24nd President of the United States

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 - June 24, 1908) served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. He was the first Democrat to win election to the presidency after the Civil War and the first of two U.S. presidents to serve nonconsecutive terms.

Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo in 1881 and governor of New York in 1882. While governor, he closely cooperated with state assembly minority leader Theodore Roosevelt to pass reform measures, winning national attention. He led the Bourbon Democrats, a pro-business movement opposed to high tariffs, free silver, inflation, imperialism, and subsidies to businesses, farmers, or veterans. His crusade for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives of the time. Cleveland also won praise for honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. His fight against political corruption, patronage, and bossism convinced many like-minded Republicans, called "Mugwumps", to cross party lines and support him in the 1884 presidential election, which he narrowly won against Republican James G. Blaine.

During his first presidency, Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 which made the railroad industry the first industry subject to federal regulation by a regulatory body, and the Dawes Act which subdivided Native American tribal communal landholdings into individual allotments. This policy led to Native Americans ceding control of about two-thirds of their land between 1887 and 1934. In the 1888 election, Cleveland ran against Benjamin Harrison, winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college and therefore the election. After his loss, he returned to New York City and joined a law firm.

In the 1892 election, Cleveland defeated Harrison in both the popular vote and electoral college, restoring him to the White House. One month before his second administration began, the Panic of 1893 sparked the most severe national depression in U.S. history until the Great Depression in the 1930s. An anti-imperialist, Cleveland opposed the push to annex Hawaii, launched an investigation into the 1893 coup against Queen Liliʻuokalani, and called for her to be restored. Cleveland intervened in the 1894 Pullman Strike to keep the railroads moving, angering Illinois Democrats and labor unions nationwide; his support of the gold standard and opposition to free silver alienated the agrarian wing of the Democrats. Critics complained that Cleveland had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic disasters—depressions and strikes—in his second term. Many voters blamed the Democrats, opening the way for a Republican landslide in 1894 and for the agrarian and Silverite seizure of the Democratic Party in the 1896 election. By the end of his second term, he was severely unpopular, even among Democrats.

After leaving the White House, Cleveland served as a trustee of Princeton University and continued to voice his political views. Cleveland joined the American Anti-Imperialist League in protest of the 1898 Spanish-American War. He died in 1908. Cleveland is typically ranked as an average or below-average U.S. president, due to his handling of the Panic of 1893 and the legacy of the Dawes Act.

 

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