By Edwin Cooney
Stephen Grover Cleveland was born Thursday, March 18th, 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey, the son of the Reverend Richard Falley and Ann (Neal) Cleveland. Richard Cleveland was a Presbyterian minister throughout his son’s youth. Young Cleveland was 16 when his father died in 1853. Later that year, a friend arranged for him to teach reading, writing and arithmetic at the New York Institute for the Blind. (He only taught there for a short time and I've read no details of what he taught or how he taught it!) By the 1860s, he was practicing law in Buffalo, New York.
The 1860s were Civil War years and Cleveland was certainly physically and mentally strong enough to fight, but when he was drafted in 1863, he legally, under the Conscription Act, paid a 32-year-old Polish immigrant, George Benninsky, $150 to go to war in his place.
By 1870, he was the elected sheriff of Erie County, New York. One of his duties as sheriff was that of executing convicted killers. Patrick Morrissey, who stabbed his mother to death, and Jack Gaffrey, who shot a man during a card game, were hanged by Grover Cleveland.
When Grover Cleveland ran for Mayor of Buffalo in 1881 and for Governor of New York in 1882, he was regarded as a reform-minded Democratic candidate.
There were two primary differences between the GOP and the Democratic Party in the 1880s. The Republicans’ idea of reform was to pay out large, private pensions to Civil War veterans. Reform-minded Democrats believed in cutting government costs at all levels. Republicans believed in a high tariff to protect industries from competition at home. Democrats believed that lower tariffs would increase agriculture markets abroad. However, both parties competed to put together the best Civil Service program.
In 1884, Governor Cleveland faced James G. Blaine, former Secretary of State under the late and martyred James A. Garfield. Both men were of high quality but each had a scandal.
It was revealed early in the campaign that Grover Cleveland had fathered a little boy named Oscar by a woman named Maria Halpin and was supporting the child. Governor Cleveland openly admitted it. James G. Blaine's "corruption" was financial and had to do with the misappropriation of public monies. Hence one commentator suggested that since Blaine was a superb citizen and since Cleveland was a superb public servant, each man should be encouraged by voters to continue serving in the aspects of life they best exemplified.
Grover Cleveland would serve two nonconsecutive terms as president, 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897. On Wednesday, June 2nd, 1886, Cleveland would become the second president to marry while in office. (John Tyler was the first president to so do on Wednesday, June 26th, 1844.) Cleveland's bride was the 21-year-old Frances Folsom, the daughter of one of Cleveland's late law partners, whom Cleveland had supported as a ward throughout her childhood in Buffalo, New York.
Cleveland's first term was marked by the strengthening of the civil service system, the creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Cleveland's introduction of the low tariff which led to his defeat by Benjamin Harrison in 1888. Cleveland won the popular vote, 5,534,488 to Harrison's 5,443,892. However, Cleveland won more states 20 to 18, but Harrison won the states with the most electoral votes, 232 to 168. In 1892, Cleveland won both the popular and the electoral vote, thereby becoming both our 22nd and 24th president.
Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, didn't believe that the government should serve the working man or any other man. In his second Inaugural Address, he asserted that the people should support the government rather than the other way around. Ironically, during his first administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first strictly regulatory federal agency ever created, was passed! Also, Cleveland, who considered himself a "working man's president" and who ultimately proclaimed Labor Day a national holiday, sent federal troops into Chicago in 1894 to quell the famous Pullman Strike. Grover Cleveland was also considered a “gold democrat” who was in opposition to the “silver democrats” who supported William Jennings Bryan in 1896. Nor was Cleveland sympathetic to labor as it developed under such leaders as Samuel Gompers and Eugene V. Debs.
Woodrow Wilson would eventually assert that Cleveland was ultimately more of a Republican than he ever was a Democrat.
Still, with all of these seeming contradictions, Grover Cleveland is considered a "near great president."
He and Francis would have three daughters and two sons. Their oldest daughter Ruth would always be known as "Baby" Ruth. Born between Cleveland's two terms in New York, her health was always frail and she died at age 12 in 1904. The “Baby Ruth” candy bar would be named after her.
Grover Cleveland would have still another distinction. He was the sixth cousin once removed of Ulysses S. Grant. Whether or not they ever met, I haven't a clue!
Grover Cleveland died at 8:40 p.m.on Wednesday, June 24th, 1908 at his Princeton, New Jersey home.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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