We have another presidential birthday today: Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey on March 18, 1837. Cleveland is the only person to serve two non-consecutive terms as President of the United States. He was the 22nd and the 24th President, serving 1885-89 and again in 1893-97. His given name was Stephen Grover Cleveland. As a young man, Cleveland migrated to Buffalo, New York, where he was admitted to the bar in 1859 and became the assistant district attorney of Erie County (NY) in 1863. Cleveland paid $150 to a substitute to avoid military service during the Civil War. He became Sheriff of Erie County in 1871 and, as the law dictated, personally hanged at least two convicted murderers while serving in this office. He was then Mayor of Buffalo for most of 1882 and Governor of New York beginning in January 1883. Seeing his meteoric rise in New York and knowing the hindrances of many other frontrunners for the 1884 presidential nomination, the Democratic party tapped Cleveland as its presidential candidate in 1884. His Republican opponent was James G. Blaine of Maine, a former U.S. Senator and also Secretary of State under President James A. Garfield. The popular vote in this election was close, but Cleveland won a fairly decisive electoral victory, 219-182. As president, he created the Interstate Commerce Commission, supported the gold standard, advocated for a lower tariff, pursued non-intervention in foreign policy, and supported extending the Chinese Exclusion Act. On June 2, 1886, Cleveland, age 49, married Frances Folsom, age 21, in the White House. He is the only president to marry in the White House. Frances Folsom Cleveland is the youngest First Lady in U.S. history. The couple eventually had five children. Cleveland lost his 1888 bid for reelection to Benjamin Harrison. (Despite winning the popular vote, he lost the electoral vote.) Supposedly, Mrs. Cleveland told a White House staffer, Now, Jerry, 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 responded, We are coming back four years from today. She was correct. Cleveland spent the next four years as an attorney but was re-nominated for the presidency by the Democrats in 1892 and defeated Harrison. This time, he handily won both the popular and electoral votes. His second term was dominated by economic issues, especially the Panic of 1893 and subsequent depression. On July 1, 1893, President Cleveland had secret surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on the roof of his mouth. Cleveland left the White House for good on March 4, 1897 after Republican William McKinley was sworn in as the 25th President of the United States. Grover Cleveland died at age 71 on June 24, 1908. He is interred in Princeton, New Jersey. His wife, Frances, 28 years younger than he, lived until October 29, 1947.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 15:10:11 +0000
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