rubber soul

22 and 24. GROVER CLEVELAND (Ma, Ma, where's your PA?)





Born: March 18, 1837, Caldwell, New Jersey
Died: June 24, 1908, Princeton, New Jersey

Terms: March 4, 1885- March 4, 1889, March 4, 1893- March 4, 1897
Political Party: Democrat

Vice President(s): Thomas Hendricks, Adlai Stevenson

First Lady: Ann Cleveland (sister) Frances Folsom Cleveland (married 1886)

Before the Presidency: The son of a minister, Cleveland grew up in central New York State. He had dreams of college but had to put it aside to support the family after his father died. He worked with his older brother in New York City then studied law in Buffalo while working as a clerk. It was there where he was admitted to the bar in 1858.

During the Civil War, he worked as an assistant district attorney for Erie County. He also got out of the war by paying a substitute $300. It was legal though obviously controversial, and it would be a factor in his political career later. Still, he was a good attorney with a photographic memory, and he took advantage of that when giving arguments in court.

The political career of sorts started in 1870 when he was elected Sheriff of Erie County. He also gained a bit of weight and might have been, after William Taft, the second heaviest President in history. He was a gregarious guy, not extremely cultured. He also stayed active in the Democratic Party.

Though Cleveland had been a sheriff, he tried to stay away from partisan politics and yet, would become Mayor of Buffalo by way of the Democratic machine there. It was a surprising endorsement as the new Mayor would be known quickly as a reformer as he exposed graft and corruption in some of the city’s services. He vetoed dozens of pork barrel bills and earned a reputation for honesty and efficiency. This got the attention of Democratic leaders in New York and the nominated him for Governor in 1882. He won the support of Tammany Hall (who would soon regret it) and he was elected that November.

And, as Governor, Cleveland went after, guess who, Tammany Hall. He was a workaholic and vetoed many a spending bill, especially those that were blatantly of the pork barrel variety. He became nationally known being the Governor of a prominent state and was already being talked about as a potential Presidential candidate in 1884.

Summary of offices held:

1871-1873: Sheriff or Erie County, New York

1882: Mayor, Buffalo, New York

1883-1885: Governor, New York


What was going on: 1885-1888: The Statue of Liberty, the Gilded Age, the Dawes Act, Great blizzard of 1888

1893-1896: Lizzie Borden, Coxey’s Army, Dreyfus Affair, Plessy vs Ferguson

Scandals within the administration: none that we know of

Why he was a good President: He was an advocate against corruption and, was a pretty solid administrator if nothing else. Plus, while not the greatest policy maker, he was at least honest.

Why he was a bad President: He was, at best, insensitive to racial concerns and pretty much was the President to give Jim Crow laws a green light in the South. For someone with excellent administrative skills, he did virtually nothing to alleviate the economic impact from the Panic of 1893.

What could have saved his Presidency: A more active approach to the Panic of 1893 and maybe a better Foreign Policy. The fact that we could have gotten to war with England in 1895 seems rather scary.

What could have destroyed his Presidency: A situation like Harrison would have with the Wounded Knee massacre. And, of course, there was the Panic of 1893 that nearly did.

Election of 1884: This would prove to be one of the ugliest campaigns in history. Cleveland came in early on as the favorite to take the Democratic nomination. He was lauded for his taking on of Tammany Hall plus, it was assumed New York, along with the South, would make Cleveland a shoo in for the White House.

Meanwhile, the Republicans were in disarray. The Stalwarts were staring to fade away, but Blaine remained the most powerful man in the Republican Party. But he now had a new faction to contend with, the Mugwumps, a group that really was reform minded and they were secretly supporting Cleveland.

In the end, Cleveland and Blaine were the opposing candidates and the mudslinging began in earnest. At first, the campaign was issue oriented as Blaine talked about Tariffs and Cleveland was emphasizing honesty in Government.

The Cleveland camp fired the first shot as they depicted Blaine in political cartoons as corrupt and even came up with a slogan: Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine.

Blaine’s camp responded with something a little more personal. Cleveland, in his younger days, was having a bit of fun sowing his wild oats, the result being having a child born out of wedlock.

So, the Blaine camp came up with the infamous: Ma, Ma, where’s your Pa?

Now the typical politician might have tried to cover the whole details up, but Cleveland fessed up to possibly having an illegitimate child, thus neutralizing the political damage.

As far as the accusations go. Both Cleveland and his law partner had slept with the woman in question which is why Cleveland had said his fatherhood was possible. The woman also suffered from mental health issues and was indeed committed, but that had nothing to do with Cleveland as the Republicans were suggesting. In any event, neither Cleveland nor his law partner would see the child, adopted by a couple later on, again.

In the end, Cleveland won just enough states to eke out a close victory.

And the Democrats crowed: Ma, Ma, where’s your pa? Gone to the White House ha, ha, ha.

First term: President Cleveland quickly earned a reputation as something of a miser when it came to public funding. He vetoed hundreds of Veteran’s Pension bills seeing them as fraudulent. He also denied drought relief to farmers in the West as he didn’t think it was the responsibility of the Government, this was no FDR.

On the other hand, he continued the crusade to end government corruption. He expanded the list of classified positions under the merit system among other things and he fought against attempts to weaken reform laws already on the books.

President Cleveland wasn’t known as an activist President and he only rarely advocated legislation to Congress, but he did approve of the streamlined Presidential Succession Act which established the order of Presidential succession after the Vice President. That would be law until 1947 when a new act to include the Speaker of the House and the President Pro-Tempore would be passed.

1886 was also something of an interesting year for President Cleveland as he became to first President to marry in the White House. It was also year he welcomed the Statue of Liberty from France.

But when it came to relations with minorities, Cleveland wasn’t so hot. He signed the Dawes act which divided tribal lands with the intention of assimilating the Natives to the American way of life. It backfired. It made the railroad barons happy though as that took the land that was divided and made them even more money.

It wasn’t a good time for African Americans either as Cleveland more or less let the South do its thing with the Jim Crow laws. The Chinese didn’t fare much better. Cleveland, at first, was reluctant to bar them from the US seeing them as an important workforce, but pressure from Western whites resigned him to think that their culture was way too different from American (read: white) culture for them to ever really assimilate . So, he signed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

He did, however, repeal the 1867 Tenure of Office act, deeming it unconstitutional, which it likely was.

Election of 1888: As the election of 1888 approached, it was obvious that Cleveland wasn't setting the country afire. He wasn’t unpopular by any means, but he wasn’t exactly a rock star either and he seemed beatable in this election.

The Republicans nominated former Senator Benjamin Harrison, yet another Civil War hero. Meanwhile, the only drama on the Democratic side was on who to choose for Vice President since Vice President Hendricks had died three years earlier, thus sparking the Presidential Succession Act. They would go with Allen Thurman of Ohio.

The general election was much more issue oriented than the previous one. The Republicans pushed for higher tariffs as usual and blasted Cleveland on his numerous vetoes (he holds the record for vetoes by any President to this day). Cleveland, meanwhile, campaigned on his civil service reform and the lowering of tariffs.

In the end, and this may be one of the arguments against an Electoral College, Cleveland won the popular vote by a close margin.

But Benjamin Harrison was going to be the new President because he won the Electoral College rather handily. Indiana (Harrison’s home state) swung back to the Republicans and Cleveland lost his state of New York narrowly (New Yorkers liked high tariffs apparently).

President Cleveland left the White House with dignity, but his First Lady and wife, Frances Folsom informed the staff. “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 is now when we come back again four years from today.”

She proved to be prophetic.

Election of 1892: Grover Cleveland emerged as the favorite in 1892. People had had enough of four years of Benjamin Harrison, and they missed the relatively good times of Cleveland’s term.

So, after some competition from the likes of David B. Hill of New York who had hoped to get some support from the South and Midwest, who were a little skeptical of Cleveland’s chances. As such, Cleveland would barely win on the first ballot.

The general election proved to be a bit easier as Harrison was quite unpopular with his high tariffs (and makes you wonder how McKinley ever got elected in 1896 considering it was his tariffs). Because of the economy, a new party called the Populists were created and they would have an effect on both candidates. Cleveland would win the popular vote again but this time with just a plurality, the Populists scoring eight percent of the vote.

The Electoral College though was a clean victory for Cleveland as he swept the South and lost only most of New England as well as a handful of other states.

And Grover Cleveland would make history as the only person (so far) to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Second Term: The honeymoon for President Cleveland ended just two months into his term as the Panic of 1893 hit. And of course, as is typical of Americans (and I bet all people actually), whoever is holding the ball at the time gets the blame, even if it was the predecessor who actually fumbled the ball.

The real question now, though was, what was President Cleveland going to do about it? Well, as noted earlier, he wasn’t any FDR, so if you expected economic help on a lower level, you wouldn’t want to hold your breath.

The Panic of 1893 affected other areas as strikes were on the rise. Gold reserves were at such a low point that Cleveland had to borrow $65 million in gold from J.P. Morgan, thus making Americans beholden to the very rich. On top of that there was the infamous Pullman Railroad strike of 1894. To say the least, that was handled badly as Cleveland sent in federal troops to break the strike, giving the affluent another victory.

Things weren’t going very well on the Foreign front either. The US threatened war with Britain over a border dispute with Venezuela citing the Monroe Doctrine. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and war was averted.

He also failed in Hawaii as he rejected annexation and tried to get Queen Liliuokalani reinstated. It was all well meaning as he was trying to save Hawaii from an overthrow by sugar interests. But neither side seemed exactly moral, and Cleveland simply washed his hands of the whole affair.

So, Cleveland was no more popular than Harrison had been by the mid-terms and the Republicans swept through to again take over Congress. As a result, Cleveland’s last two years were somewhat ineffective and even had opposition from a group known as Silverites, a group that would dominate the Democratic party very soon.

And, even as a pro-Gold faction tried to persuade Cleveland to run for a third term, he declined.

And left the White House an embittered man.

Post Presidency: While Cleveland’s popularity upon leaving the White House would make even Donald Trump blush, he would end up about as popular an ex-President as he had been when he lost in 1884. He arrived to a hero’s welcome in Princeton, New Jersey and the bitterness he felt after leaving the White House began to dissipate. He wrote a book about his most controversial Presidential decisions and became well-respected as an elder statesman. He often would comment on President Roosevelt’s administration, usually with civility, and twice would turn down drafts to run in 1900 and 1904.

His health began to decline after the death of his daughter, Ruth, and he would die of a gastro-intestinal disease in 1908.

Odd notes: Cleveland was affectionately known by his family as Uncle Jumbo

https://twitter.com/mental_floss/sta...38003107549186

Grover Cleveland allegedly paid to avoid conscription in the Civil War

https://facts.net/grover-cleveland-facts/

While President, he secretly had an operation to remove a cancerous tumor from his mouth.

Final Summary: History has been kind to Grover Cleveland and most historians tend to rate him as an above average President.

But I don’t see it. I mean the man all but opened the door for Jim Crow. He basically was no better than Herbert Hoover when it came to financial hardships. His foreign policy was pretty questionable as well as he nearly went to war with Britain over a dispute with Venezuela.

On the plus side, especially in his first term, he was a stanch advocate for civil service reform and, whatever you thought of the guy politically speaking, you couldn’t question the man’s integrity and honesty.

But he wasn’t a friend of minorities and, as a social liberal, I guess I have a hard time with that.

At least they named a candy bar after his daughter (for those who thought it was named after Babe Ruth).

Overall rating: First term: C
Second Term: D

https://millercenter.org/president/cleveland

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