Grover Cleveland Project

Grover Cleveland 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 New Jersey in 1837. 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.

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Cleveland won the Presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans, the "Mugwumps," who disliked the record of his opponent James G. 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 only President 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 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. 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's 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. His party deserted him and nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1896. After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in 1908. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland

http://www.americanpresident.org/history/grovercleveland/ http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/gcleveland.html http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0760607.html http://www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/22.asp http://www.nyise.org/history/grover.htm http://www.presidentsusa.net/cleveland.html

Quotes

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves. Grover Cleveland A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil. Grover Cleveland After an existence of nearly 20 years of almost innocuous desuetude, these laws are brought forth. Grover Cleveland After an existence of nearly twenty years of almost innocuous desuetude these laws are brought forth. Grover Cleveland He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. Grover Cleveland He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich that they in turn may care for the laboring poor. Grover Cleveland Honor lies in honest toil. Grover Cleveland I have considered the pension list of the republic a roll of honor. Grover Cleveland I have tried so hard to do the right. Grover Cleveland I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness

and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid. Grover Cleveland I would rather the man who presents something for my consideration subject me to a zephyr of truth and a gentle breeze of responsibility rather than blow me down with a curtain of hot wind. Grover Cleveland It is a condition which confronts us - not a theory. Grover Cleveland It is better to be defeated standing for a high principle than to run by committing subterfuge. Grover Cleveland Minds do not act together in public; they simply stick together; and when their private activities are resumed, they fly apart again. Grover Cleveland No man has ever yet been hanged for breaking the spirit of a law. Grover Cleveland Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. Grover Cleveland Party honesty is party expediency. Grover Cleveland Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made. Grover Cleveland Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours. Grover Cleveland The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people. Grover Cleveland The ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those aboard. Grover Cleveland The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board. Grover Cleveland

The United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity. Grover Cleveland Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people. Grover Cleveland When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government. Grover Cleveland Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust. Grover Cleveland

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/grover_cleveland/ Accomplishments Grover Cleveland (Dem)

Interstate Commerce Act - rein in railroads (but commisioners were all railroad people, so nothing happened) Knights of Labor dissolved

· Wabash case 1886

· supported laissez· Dawes faire Severalty Grover Act 1887 Cleveland · * “although · Interstate · Haitian Commerce revolution Democrat the 1885people Act 1887 1888-89 1889 support the gov’t, · vetoed the gov’t bill for 1 term should not pensions support of the veterans people” of Civil War 1887

· American Federation of Labor created 1886

Dawes Severalty Act - Largely destroys Indian governments

Wabash case defeat for populists who wanted to control railways