Professor Dave again, let’s learn about Grover Cleveland.
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President, the first and only to serve
two non-consecutive terms in office.
He won the popular vote in three presidential elections – in 1884, 1888, and 1892 – and
was one of two Democrats, with Woodrow Wilson, to be elected president during the era of
Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.
Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Democrats who opposed high tariffs, inflation,
imperialism, and subsidies to business, farmers, or veterans.
His commitment to political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for conservatives
of the era.
He was noted for his honesty and integrity and for fighting political corruption.
As a reformer, Cleveland had such prestige that many Republicans abandoned their presidential
candidate and voted for Cleveland in the 1884 election.
Though Cleveland was renowned for his honesty, the Republicans found a skeleton in his closet,
alleging during the 1884 campaign that he had fathered an illegitimate child.
During their rallies they would chant, “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?”
When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland immediately admitted responsibility.
His direct admission defused the potential scandal and ultimately it did him little harm.
Meanwhile, the GOP candidate, James Blaine, had hoped to attract the Catholic vote that
ordinarily voted Democratic, since his mother had been a Catholic.
The electoral votes of closely contested New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut
would determine the election, and the Irish were leaning towards Blaine, until a prominent
Republican gave a speech attacking the Democrats as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.”
This slur alienated many Catholics and in they end, they provided the margin of victory
Cleveland needed to win the presidency.
Cleveland’s supporters amended the GOP chant with an addendum: “Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?
Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!”
Cleveland entered the White House as only the second presidential bachelor after Buchanan,
and his sister Rose acted as hostess for his first two years.
On June 2nd, 1886, Cleveland wed Frances Folsom in the Blue Room at the White House, the only
President ever to get married in a White House ceremony.
Soon after taking office, Cleveland was faced with the task of filling all the government
jobs for which the president had the power of appointment.
These jobs were typically filled under the spoils system, but Cleveland announced that
he would not fire any Republican who was doing his job well, and would not appoint anyone
solely on the basis of party service.
He also used his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as many departments
had become bloated with political time-servers.
Later in his term, as his fellow Democrats were upset at being excluded from the spoils,
Cleveland replaced some of the partisan Republican officeholders with Democrats.
While some of his decisions were influenced by party concerns, more of Cleveland’s appointments
were decided by merit alone than was the case in the administrations of his predecessors.
Cleveland faced a Republican Senate and often resorted to using his veto powers.
As a fiscal conservative he vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for American Civil
War veterans, believing that if their requests had already been rejected, Congress should
not attempt to override that decision.
Cleveland used the veto far more often than any president up to that time.
Cleveland, like a growing number of Northerners and nearly all white Southerners saw Reconstruction
as a failed experiment, and was reluctant to use federal power to enforce the 15th Amendment,
which guaranteed voting rights to African-Americans.
Though he appointed no black Americans to patronage jobs, he allowed Frederick Douglass
to continue in his post as recorder of deeds in Washington, D.C. and appointed another
black man to replace Douglass upon his resignation, which sparked a protest.
Cleveland ran for re-election and won the popular vote, but through voter fraud in Indiana,
he lost the Electoral College and was defeated by Benjamin Harrison.
As his wife left the White House, she told a staff member, “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.”
When asked when she would return, she replied, “We are coming back four years from today.”