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STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND was born March 18, 1837, the fifth of nine children to Richard Falley Cleveland and Ann Neal Cleveland. He was named after Stephen Grover, the previous minister of the church where his father was now pastor. In 1842, the family moved to Fayetteville, New York, a small farming community on the Erie Canal, where his father became pastor of the Presbyterian church. Young Cleveland attended the local school and at 13 attended the Clinton Liberal Institute in nearby Clinton, New York. His father died suddenly on October 1, 1853 and at 16 young Cleveland lost any hopes for college. His older brother William was a teacher at the New York Institute for the Blind and Cleveland was hired on as a teacher. In 1855, Cleveland left his teaching post. He decided to look for work in Cleveland Ohio as he wanted to be a lawyer and the west had always intrigued him. On his way, he stopped to visit his uncle, Lewis Allen a wealthy and nationally famous cattle breeder in Buffalo, New York. Allen convinced Cleveland to remain in Buffalo, gave him a job and by 1859 after studying law with friends of his uncle’s, Cleveland was admitted to the New York bar. He immediately offered a job with Rodgers, Bowen and Rodgers, which was where he had studied law, and he accepted. As the Civil War broke out, Cleveland was ever mindful of the support he provided for his mother and sisters. When he was drafted he borrowed money to hire a substitute to serve in his place, which was a common practice permitted under the law.
In 1862, Cleveland was elected Democratic Supervisor of his Buffalo ward and in 1863, he was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie County. He crusaded against crime and corruption and made a name for himself. In 1870, Cleveland ran for Sheriff of Buffalo, and won the election and as Sheriff he continued his crusade against corruption. His term ended in 1873, and he returned to practicing law. He becomes one of Buffalo’s most successful attorneys, owing more to hard work than brilliant talent.
In 1881Cleveland was asked him to run for mayor of Buffalo by the Democratic Party because of his work against corruption and he accepted. At forty-four, he was single and moderately wealthy and easily won the election and took office in 1882. Mayor Cleveland fought the city aldermen who were a corrupt circle of politicians from both parties. He vetoed bills in an attempt to cut the political graft that was rampant. He became know as the “veto mayor”.
The party leaders of New York needed a new face in order to reconcile a deadlock for the nomination of a new Governor. Cleveland was chosen, and running on his reputation for being an honest politician, he won the election without making a single campaign speech. As Governor, Cleveland continued his campaign against corruption and he also continued to liberally apply his veto power.
In 1884, the Republicans nominated James G. Blain, who had been accused of accepting bribes, for president. In July 1884, the Democrats nominated Cleveland for president, deciding that with his irrefutable public record, he would win the votes of both the democrats and the Republicans who were unhappy with their party’s choice for candidate. The campaign inspired many personal attacks, with Blain being accused of aiding the railroads at public expense and Cleveland being accused of fathering a illegitimate child, which Cleveland courageously acknowledged. Ten years before Cleveland's presidency, store clerk Maria Halpin named him as the father of her illegitimate son. Cleveland won the election by a slim margin over Blaine. The electoral votes were Cleveland 219 to Blaine’s 182.
Cleveland was inaugurated March 4, 1885 and continued his independent and conscientious but conservative course. He continued to fill government posts with qualified people, not party loyalists and he persuaded Congress to repeal an act that kept incompetent officeholders in office because of the length of their service. He found himself continually at odds with the Republican controlled Senate.
On June 2, 1886, 49-year-old Cleveland became the first and only president to be married in the White House. Cleveland's bride was his ward, Frances Folsom, the 22-year-old daughter of his late law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom. For years, Cleveland acted as executor of Folsom's estate, but no one suspected his interest in Frances until he proposed marriage after her graduation from Wells College. The wedding ceremony took place in the Blue Room with fewer than 40 people present. The couple had five children: Ruth Cleveland (1891-1904); Ester Cleveland (1893-1980); Marion Cleveland (1895-1977); Richard Folsom Cleveland (1897-1974) and Francis Grover Cleveland (1903-1995).
In the election of 1888, Cleveland was running against Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. Although Cleveland received 100,000 more popular votes than Harrison, he lost the election in electoral votes receiving 168 against Harrison’s 233.
Cleveland returned to New York City and resumed his law practice in 1889. However, three years later the Democrats once again nominated him. His Republican opponent was again Benjamin Harrison. Despite arguments within his own party, Cleveland decisively defeated President Harrison 277 electoral votes to 145. Cleveland became the only President to be reelected after defeat.
On March 4, 1893, Cleveland once more took the presidential oath. The Depression of 1893 struck his administration hard. Some Democrats saw salvation in free coinage of silver, but Cleveland was able to persuade Congress to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in an effort to improve the economic situation. However, by focusing on monetary policy rather than on direct assistance to the needy, Cleveland lost the support of his party.
The Democratic party was split by the end of Cleveland’s second term. They had nominated both William Jennings Bryan and a rival candidate for president. Cleveland removed himself from the campaign and the Republican candidate, William McKinley easily defeated both Democratic nominees.
On March 4, 1897, Cleveland turned the presidency over to McKinley and retired to a home he had purchased in Princeton, New Jersey. He remained a public figure, lecturing and writing and engaging in business affairs, most notably as a Trustee of the Equitable Life Assurance Society and as President of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents. He died in Princeton on June 24, 1908.
Grover
Cleveland
Transcript:
Sept. 11, 1900
Msrs. A.S. Abell
Company
Gentlemen:
I hope that I have not grown heedless of any duty I owe my countrymen;
but I am not inclined to publicly declare my strengths and opinions in the
political situation. This I
supposed was quite clearly expressed in my note recently published in the New
York Herald.
For a number of years, I have been abused and ridiculed by professed
democrats, because I have not hesitated to declare that Bryanism is not
Democracy. I have had the
consolation of seeing those who professed to share my belief run to cover, and
of noting a more headlong rush after anti-democratic vagaries.
My opinions have not changed. Why
then should I speak when bedlam is at its height?
Perhaps I am too strong in my opinions.
At any rate I should say (?) things; and all to no purpose except to add
to the volume of abuse which, undefended, I have so long borne.
I received this morning a clipping from a German newspaper, containing my
note to the Herald with this comment: “That was wise.
That part of the American people who most need instruction at this time,
would not listen to Grover Cleveland; but the only thanks they would give him
for his well meant (?) would be to open upon him a new bombardment of poison and
dish; the other part do not seem to be taught by any one (?) to vote right next
November.”
Think about it. You are not
however to suppose for a moment that I could be induced to do anything in aid of
McKinleyism or any phase of Republicanism.
I suppose it is a case of being “damned if I do, and damned if I
don’t”; but I have made up my mind that I am entitled to decline enlistment
in the war between Bryanism and McKinleyism.
This communication is strictly confidential.
It is written because I cannot ignore your letter.
Yours truly
Presidents
of the Continental Congress
United Colonies of The United States
Peyton
Randolph
September 5, 1774 to October 22, 1774
and May 20 to May 24, 1775
Henry Middleton
October 22, 1774 to October 26, 1774
John
Hancock
October 27, 1775 to July 1, 1776
Presidents
of the Continental Congress
United States of America
John
Hancock
July 2, 1776 to October 29, 1777
Henry
Laurens
November 1, 1777 to December 9, 1778
John
Jay
December 10, 1778 to September 28, 1779
Samuel
Huntington
September 28, 1779 to February 28, 1781
Presidents of the United States
in Congress Assembled
Samuel
Huntington
1st President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to July 6, 1781
Thomas
McKean
2nd President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
July 10, 1781 to November 5, 1781
John
Hanson
3rd President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 5, 1781 to November 4, 1782
Elias
Boudinot
4th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 4, 1782 to November 3, 1783
Thomas
Mifflin
5th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 3, 1783 to June 3, 1784
Richard
Henry Lee
6th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 30, 1784 to November 23, 1785
John
Hancock
7th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 23, 1785 to June 6, 1786
Nathaniel
Gorham
8th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
June 1786 - November 13, 1786
Arthur
St. Clair
9th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
February 2, 1787 to October 29, 1787
Cyrus
Griffin
10th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789
Presidents of the United States
under the
United States Constitution
George
Washington (F)
John
Adams (F)
Thomas Jefferson (D-R)
James Madison (D-R)
James Monroe (D-R)
John Quincy Adams (D-R)
Andrew
Jackson (D)
Martin
Van Buren (D)
William H. Harrison (W)
John Tyler (W)
James K. Polk (D)
David Atchison (D)*
Zachary Taylor (W)
James
Buchanan (D)
Abraham Lincoln (R)
Jefferson Davis (D)**
Andrew Johnson (R)
Ulysses S. Grant (R)
Rutherford
B. Hayes (R)
James
A. Garfield (R)
Chester Arthur (R)
Grover
Cleveland (D)
Benjamin
Harrison (R)
Grover Cleveland (D)
William McKinley (R)
Theodore Roosevelt (R)
William H. Taft (R)
Wilson Woodrow (D)
Warren
G. Harding (R)
Calvin
Coolidge (R)
Herbert C. Hoover (R)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)
Harry S. Truman (D)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
John F. Kennedy (D)
Lyndon B. Johnson (D)
Richard M. Nixon (R)
Gerald R. Ford (R)
James Earl Carter, Jr. (D)
Ronald Wilson Reagan (R)
George H. W. Bush (R)
William Jefferson Clinton (D)
George W. Bush (R)
*President for One Day
**President Confederate States of America
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