Return to Presidents List
U.S Presidents — Grover Cleveland | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OVERVIEW
Name: Grover Cleveland
President: # 24 Term Number(s): 27 Term Length: 4 Took Office: March 4, 1893 Left Office: March 4, 1897 Age when Elected: 55 Party: Democratic Also Known As: "Uncle Jumbo, Old Veto" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Education: Clinton Liberal Academy
Occupation: Lawyer Other Governmental Position: 28th Governor of New York, 34th Mayor of Buffalo New York, Sheriff of Erie County New York. Military Service: None Religion: Presbyterian Spouse(s): Frances Folsom Cleveland (June 2, 1886) Children: Ruth Cleveland, Esther Cleveland, Marion Cleveland, Richard Folsom Cleveland, Francis Grover Cleveland
Birthdate: March 18, 1837
Birthplace: Caldwell, New Jersey Deathdate: June, 24 1908 Deathplace: Princeton, New Jersey Age at Death: 71 Cause of Death: Related to rheumatism Place of Internment: Princeton Cemetery at the Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey  Signature FIRST ELECTION
Election Year: 1892
Main Opponent: Benjamin Harrison Voter Participation: 74.70%
CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS
Vice President: Adlai E. Stevenson I
Secretary of State: Walter Q. Gresham (1893–1895), Richard Olney (1895–1897) Secretary of the Treasury: John G. Carlisle (1893–1897) Secretary of War: Daniel S. Lamont (1893–1897) Secretary of the Navy: Hilary A. Herbert (1893–1897) Secretary of the Interior: M. Hoke Smith (1893–1896), David R. Francis (1896–1897) Secretary of Agriculture: Julius Sterling Morton (1893–1897) Attorney General: Richard Olney (1893–1895), Judson Harmon (1895–1897) Postmaster General: Wilson S. Bissell (1893–1895), William L. Wilson (1895–1897) Supreme Court Assignments: Melville Weston Fuller (1888), Edward Douglass White (1894), Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1896) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY 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. 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 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 reelected 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 postcard 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. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Frances Folsom Cleveland Frances Folsom was born in Buffalo, New York, the only child of Emma C. Harmon and Oscar Folsom, who became a law partner of Cleveland's. As a devoted family friend, Cleveland bought "Frank" her first baby carriage. As administrator of the Folsom estate after his partner's death, though never her legal guardian, he guided her education with sound advice. When she entered Wells College, he asked Mrs. Folsom's permission to correspond with her, and he kept her room bright with flowers. Though Frank and her mother missed his inauguration in 1885, they visited him at the White House that spring. Their affection turned into romance—despite 27 years' difference in age—and the the wedding took place on June 2, 1886. Cleveland's scholarly sister, Rose Elizabeth, was her bachelor brother's hostess in 15 months of his first term of office. Rose gladly gave up the duties of hostess for her own career in education; and with a bride as first lady, state entertainments took on a new interest. Mrs. Cleveland's unaffected charm won her immediate popularity. She held two receptions a week, one on Saturday afternoons, when women with jobs were able to attend. After the president's defeat in 1888, the Clevelands lived in New York City, where baby Ruth was born. With his unprecedented reelection, the first lady returned to the White House as if she had been gone but a day. Through the political storms of this term, Mrs. Cleveland always kept her place in public favor. People took keen interest in the birth of Esther at the mansion in 1893, and of Marion in 1895. When the family left the White House, Mrs. Cleveland had become one of the most popular women ever to serve as hostess for the nation. The Clevelands had two sons while living in Princeton, New Jersey. Mrs. Cleveland was at her husband's side when he died at their home, Westland, in 1908. In 1913 she married Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a professor of archeology, and remained a figure of note in the Princeton University community until she died. She had reached her 84th year, nearly the age at which the venerable Mrs. Polk had welcomed her and her husband on a presidential visit to the South, and chatted of changes in White House life from bygone days. MAJOR EVENTS
1893: The Panic of 1893. An economic recession is caused by the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia and Reading railroads and the National Cordage Company.
1893: Pullman Strike. President Cleveland sends federal troops to break up the paralyzing railroad workers strike.
1893: Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 is repealed, ending silver as the basis for American currency.
1893: Chicago World's Fair.
1894: Coxey's Army marches on Washington to demand government action on job creation.
1895: British ignores America's Monroe Doctorine and threatens invasion of Venezuela. Cleveland sends war ships and Britain backs down.
1896: Utah joins the Union.
TRIVIA
1. Grover Cleveland would answer the White House phone himself.
2. Cleveland was the only president to be married in the White House.
3. In July 1893, Cleveland had surgery for a cancerous growth in his mouth, but the public was told he was on a fishing trip. It was not until 1917 that the truth was revealed.
4. Cleveland was the only president to be elected two nonconsecutive terms.
| |||||||||||||||||
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder