GROVER CLEVELAND | 1885-1889, 1893-1897
The first Democrat elected after the Civil War, Grover Cleveland was the only president to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later.
One of nine children of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, on March 18,1837. He was raised in upstate New York. As a lawyer in Buffalo, he was known for his single-minded concentration upon whatever task faced him. He emerged into a political prominence that carried him to the White House in three years. Cleveland won the presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans, the "Mugwumps," who disliked the record of his Republican opponent.
Cleveland pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. He vetoed many private pension bills to Civil War veterans whose claims were fraudulent. When Congress passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland vetoed it. After vetoing a bill to appropriate $10,000 to distribute seed grain among drought-stricken farmers in Texas, the president 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. . . "
Cleveland angered the railroads by forcing them to return 81,000,000 acres of western lands they held by government grant. He then signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting federal regulation of the railroads. Calling on Congress to reduce high protective tariffs, he was told that he had given Republicans an issue for the next campaign. He retorted, "What is the use of being elected or reelected unless you stand for something?" Cleveland was defeated in 1888 by Republican Benjamin Harrison.
Elected again in 1892, Cleveland faced a depression. He dealt directly with the Treasury crisis rather than with business failures, farm mortgage foreclosures, and unemployment. With the aid of Wall Street, he maintained the Treasury's gold reserve. When railroad strikers in Chicago violated an injunction, Cleveland sent federal troops to enforce it.
His blunt treatment of the railroad strikers stirred the pride of many Americans. So did the vigorous way in which he forced Great Britain to accept arbitration of a disputed boundary in Venezuela. But his policies during the depression were generally unpopular. The Democratic Party deserted him and nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1896.
