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Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837–June 24, 1908) was the
22nd (1885–1889) and 24th (1893–1897) President of the United States, and
the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.
Biography
Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey to Rev
Richard Cleveland and Anne Neal. He was one of nine children. His father was a Presbyterian minister. He was raised in upstate New York. As a
lawyer in Buffalo, he became notable for his single-minded
concentration upon whatever task faced him.
At 44, he emerged into a political prominence that carried him to the White House in three years. Running as a reformer, he
was elected Mayor of Buffalo in 1881, and later, Governor of New York.
Cleveland won the Presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans, the "Mugwumps," who disliked the record of his opponent James Blaine of Maine.
A bachelor, Cleveland was ill at ease at first with all the comforts of the
White House. "I must go to dinner," he wrote a friend, "but I wish it was to eat a pickled herring, a Swiss cheese and a chop at
Louis' instead of the French stuff I shall find." In June 1886, Cleveland married
21-year-old Frances Folsom; he was the second President to be
married while in office (after John Tyler), and the only President to be
married in the White House.
Cleveland vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. Vetoing a bill to appropriate $10,000 to
distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, he wrote: "Federal aid in
such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national
character. . . . "
He also vetoed many private pension bills to American Civil
War veterans whose claims were fraudulent. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by
military service, Cleveland vetoed it, too.
He angered the railroads by ordering an investigation of western lands they held
by Government grant. He forced them to return 81,000,000 acres (328,000 kmē). He also signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting Federal
regulation of the railroads.
In December 1887, he called on Congress to reduce high protective tariffs. Told that he
had given Republicans an effective issue for the campaign of 1888, he retorted, "What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless
you stand for something?" But Cleveland was defeated in 1888; although he won a larger
popular majority than the Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison,
he received fewer electoral votes.
Elected again in 1892,
Cleveland faced an acute depression. He dealt directly with the Treasury crisis rather than with business failures, farm mortgage
foreclosures, and unemployment. He obtained repeal of the mildly inflationary Sherman Silver Purchase Act and, with the aid of Wall Street, maintained the Treasury's gold reserve.
When railroad strikers in Chicago violated an injunction, Cleveland sent Federal
troops to enforce it. "If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a post card in Chicago," he
thundered, "that card will be delivered." Cleveland also forced the United
Kingdom to accept arbitration of a disputed boundary in Venezuela.
Cleveland ran for the Democratic nomination in 1896, but the Democrats nominated
William Jennings Bryan.
After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in 1908 from what was believed
to be mental insanity.
(Sources: White House biography
Medical
History of President Grover Cleveland )
Cleveland's portrait was on the U.S. $1000 bill from 1928 to 1946. He also appeared on a $1000 of 1907, and the first few
issues of Federal
Reserve Notes from 1914, on the $20.
Significant events during presidencies
Related articles
External links
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