View source for Grover Cleveland

{{Short description|President of the United States (1885–1889; 1893–1897)}}
{{redirect|President Cleveland|ships named after him|SS President Cleveland{{!}}SS ''President Cleveland''}}
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{{Use American English|date=June 2023}}
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{{Infobox officeholder
| image = StephenGroverCleveland.jpg
| caption = Cleveland in 1892
| order = 22nd & 24th
| office = President of the United States
| vice_president = [[Adlai Stevenson I]]
| term_start = March 4, 1893
| term_end = March 4, 1897
| predecessor = [[Benjamin Harrison]]
| successor = [[William McKinley]]
| vice_president1 = {{plainlist|
* {{longitem|[[Thomas A. Hendricks]]<br />(Mar–Nov 1885)}}
* Vacant (1885–1889){{Efn|Vice President Hendricks died in office. As this was prior to the adoption of the [[Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-fifth Amendment]] in 1967, a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration.}}
}}
| term_start1 = March 4, 1885
| term_end1 = March 4, 1889
| predecessor1 = [[Chester A. Arthur]]
| successor1 = Benjamin Harrison
| order2 = 28th
| office2 = Governor of New York
| lieutenant2 = David B. Hill
| term_start2 = January 1, 1883
| term_end2 = January 6, 1885
| predecessor2 = [[Alonzo B. Cornell]]
| successor2 = [[David B. Hill]]
| order3 = 35th
| office3 = Mayor of Buffalo
| term_start3 = January 2, 1882
| term_end3 = November 20, 1882
| predecessor3 = [[Alexander Brush]]
| successor3 = [[Marcus M. Drake]]
| order4 = 17th
| office4 = Sheriff of Erie County
| term_start4 = January 1, 1871
| term_end4 = December 31, 1873
| predecessor4 = Charles Darcy
| successor4 = [[John B. Weber]]
| birth_name = Stephen Grover Cleveland
| birth_date = {{birth date|1837|3|18}}
| birth_place = [[Caldwell, New Jersey]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1908|6|24|1837|3|18}}
| death_place = [[Princeton, New Jersey]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Princeton Cemetery]]
| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| other_party = [[National Democratic Party (United States)|National Democratic]]
| father = [[Richard Falley Cleveland]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Frances Cleveland|Frances Folsom]]|June 2, 1886|<!--Omission per Template:Marriage instructions-->}}
| relatives = {{indented plainlist|
* [[Richard Falley Jr.]] (great-grandfather)
* [[Rose Cleveland]] (sister)
* [[Philippa Foot]] (granddaughter)
}}
| children = 6, including [[Oscar Folsom Cleveland|Oscar]], [[Ruth Cleveland|Ruth]], [[Esther Cleveland|Esther]], [[Richard F. Cleveland|Richard]] and [[Francis Cleveland|Francis]]
| occupation = {{hlist|Politician|lawyer}}
| signature = Grover Cleveland Signature 1882.svg
| signature_alt = Cursive signature in ink
| module = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Alleged Grover Cleveland voice.wav|title=Alleged recording of Grover Cleveland|type=speech|description=During his [[1892 United States presidential election|1892 election campaign]]. The authenticity is in doubt and the recording has also been attributed to [[William Jennings Bryan]]'s [[Cross of Gold speech]].<br />Recorded 1892 (if authentic)}}
}}
'''Stephen Grover Cleveland''' (March 18, 1837{{snd}}June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th [[president of the United States]], serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] elected president after the [[American Civil War]] and the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms.

Born in [[Caldwell, New Jersey]], Cleveland was elected [[mayor of Buffalo]] in 1881 and [[governor of New York]] in 1882. While governor, he closely cooperated with [[New York State Assembly|state assembly]] minority leader [[Theodore Roosevelt]] to pass reform measures, winning national attention.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Grover Cleveland Birthplace |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/grover_cleveland_birthplace.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240404084138/https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/grover_cleveland_birthplace.html |archive-date=April 4, 2024 |access-date=May 18, 2023 |publisher=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref> He led the [[Bourbon Democrats]], a pro-business movement opposed to [[History of tariffs in the United States#Civil War|high tariffs]], [[free silver]], [[inflation]], [[imperialism]], and [[subsidies]] to businesses, farmers, or [[Social history of soldiers and veterans in the United States|veterans]]. His crusade for political reform and [[fiscal conservatism]] made him an icon for American conservatives of the time.<ref>Blum, 527</ref> Cleveland also won praise for honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to [[classical liberalism]].<ref>Jeffers, 8–12; Nevins, 4–5; Beito and Beito</ref> His fight against political corruption, patronage, and [[bossism]] convinced many like-minded Republicans, called "[[Mugwumps]]", to cross party lines and support him in the [[1884 United States presidential election|1884 presidential election]], which he narrowly won against Republican [[James G. Blaine]].

During [[First presidency of Grover Cleveland|his first presidency]], Cleveland signed the [[Interstate Commerce Act of 1887]], which made the [[rail transport|railroad industry]] the first industry subject to federal regulation by a regulatory body,<ref name="NatArchive2021">{{cite web  |date=September 8, 2021 |title=Interstate Commerce Act (1887) |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/interstate-commerce-act |access-date=December 31, 2024}}</ref> and the [[Dawes Act]], which subdivided [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribal communal landholdings into individual allotments. This policy led to Native Americans ceding control of about two-thirds of their land between 1887 and 1934.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics |volume=2: Hispanic Americans and Native Americans|publisher=Greenwood |year=2000|isbn=9781573561495|editor-last=Schultz|editor-first=Jeffrey D.|pages=608|editor-last2=Aoki|editor-first2=Andrew L.|editor-last3=Haynie|editor-first3=Kerry L.|editor-last4=McCulloch|editor-first4=Anne M.}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/07/26/745731823/the-u-s-has-nearly-1-9-billion-acres-of-land-heres-how-it-is-used |title=The U.S. Has Nearly 1.9 Billion Acres of Land. Here's How It is Used |publisher=NPR |date=July 26, 2019 |last1=Smith |first1=Stacey Vanek}}</ref> In the [[1888 United States presidential election|1888 election]], Cleveland won the [[popular vote]] but lost the [[United States Electoral College|electoral college]] and therefore the election to [[Benjamin Harrison]]. He returned to New York City and joined a [[law firm]].

In a rematch against Harrison for the [[1892 United States presidential election|1892 election]], Cleveland won both the popular vote and electoral college, returning him to the White House. One month before [[Second presidency of Grover Cleveland|his second presidency]] began, the [[Panic of 1893]] sparked a severe national depression. An [[anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]], Cleveland opposed the push to [[Republic of Hawaii#End and annexation of the Republic|annex Hawaii]], launched [[Blount Report|an investigation]] into [[Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom|the 1893 coup]] against Queen [[Liliʻuokalani]], and called for her restoration.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Ronald Jr. |date=2021 |title=Special Rights of Citizenship and the Perpetuation of Oligarchic Rule in the Republic of Hawai'i, 1894–1898 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/840140 |journal=Hawaiian Journal of History |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=71–110 |doi=10.1353/hjh.2021.0002 |s2cid=244917322 |issn=2169-7639|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=1893 |title=Grover Cleveland on the Overthrow of Hawaii's Royal Government |url=https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1283 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215125158/https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1283 |archive-date=December 15, 2023 |access-date=May 16, 2023 |publisher=[[University of Houston]]}}</ref> Cleveland intervened in the 1894 [[Pullman Strike]] to keep the railroads moving, angering [[Illinois]] Democrats and [[Labor history of the United States|labor unions]] nationwide; his support of the [[gold standard]] and opposition to free silver alienated the [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] wing of the Democrats.<ref name="tugwell">Tugwell, 220–249</ref> Critics complained that Cleveland had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic disasters—[[Economic depression|depressions]] and [[List of US strikes by size|strikes]]—in his second term.<ref name="tugwell" /> Many voters blamed the Democrats, opening the way for a [[1894 United States House elections|Republican landslide in 1894]] and for the agrarian and free silver (silverite) seizure of the Democratic Party at the [[1896 Democratic National Convention|1896 Democratic convention]]. By the end of his second term, he was highly unpopular, even among Democrats.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnIhCwAAQBAJ&dq=grover+cleveland+extremely+unpopular+after+second+term&pg=PA2 |title=President-Making in the Gilded Age: The Nominating Conventions of 1876–1900 |first=Stan M. |last=Haynes |page=2 |year=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-2305-4}}</ref>

After leaving the White House, Cleveland served as a trustee of [[Princeton University]]. He joined the [[American Anti-Imperialist League]] in protest of the 1898 [[Spanish–American War]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=The Spanish-American War: The United States Becomes a World Power |url=https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/spanish-american-war-the-united-states-becomes-a-world-power/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211214155/https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/spanish-american-war-the-united-states-becomes-a-world-power/ |archive-date=December 11, 2023 |access-date=May 16, 2023 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |quote=In June 1898, the American Anti-Imperialist League was formed ... Its members included former President Grover Cleveland.}}</ref> He died in 1908.

==Early life==

===Childhood and family history===
[[File:Caldwell Presbyterian Church Manse, Caldwell, NJ.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|Caldwell Presbyterian parsonage, [[Grover Cleveland Birthplace|birthplace]] of Grover Cleveland in [[Caldwell, New Jersey]]]]
Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837, in [[Caldwell, New Jersey]], to Ann (née Neal) and [[Richard Falley Cleveland]].<ref>Nevins, 8–10</ref> Cleveland's father, originally from [[Connecticut]], was a [[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregational]] and [[Presbyterianism in the United States|Presbyterian]] minister.<ref>Graff, 3–4; Nevins, 8–10</ref> His mother was from [[Baltimore]] and was the daughter of a bookseller.<ref>Graff, 3–4</ref> On his father's side, Cleveland was descended from English ancestors who first emigrated to [[Massachusetts]] from [[Ipswich, England|Ipswich]], England, in 1635.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nevins |first1=Allan |title=Grover Cleveland; a study in courage |date=1933 |publisher=[[Dodd, Mead & Co.]] |page=6 |url=https://archive.org/details/groverclevelands0000nevi_h6d0/page/6/mode/2up?q=England |access-date=August 20, 2025 |quote=The Clevelands had originated in northeastern England. The first of the name to arrive in America was a Moses Cleveland who in 1635 reached Massachusetts from Ipswich.}}</ref> On his mother's side, Cleveland was descended from Anglo-Irish Protestants and German [[Quakers]].<ref>Nevins, 9</ref> Cleveland was distantly related to General [[Moses Cleaveland]], after whom the city of [[Cleveland]], Ohio, was named.<ref>Graff, 7</ref>

Cleveland, the fifth of nine children, was named Stephen Grover in honor of the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Caldwell, where his father was pastor at the time. He became known as Grover in his adult life.<ref>Nevins, 10; Graff, 3</ref> In 1841, the Cleveland family moved to [[Fayetteville, New York]], where Grover spent much of his childhood.<ref>Nevins, 11; Graff, 8–9</ref> Neighbors later described him as "full of fun and inclined to play pranks",<ref>Nevins, 11</ref> and fond of outdoor sports.<ref>Jeffers, 17</ref>

In 1850, Cleveland's father Richard moved his family to [[Clinton, Oneida County, New York|Clinton, New York]], accepting a job there as district secretary for the [[American Home Missionary Society]].<ref>Nevins, 17–19</ref> Despite his father's dedication to his missionary work, his income was insufficient for the large family. Financial conditions forced him to remove Grover from school and place him in a two-year mercantile apprenticeship in Fayetteville. The experience was valuable, though brief. Grover returned to Clinton and his schooling at the completion of the apprentice contract.<ref>Tugwell, 14</ref> In 1853, missionary work began to take a toll on Richard's health. He took a new work assignment in [[Holland Patent, New York]], and moved his family once again.<ref name="nevins21">Nevins, 21</ref> Shortly after, Richard Cleveland died from a [[gastric ulcer]]. Grover was said to have learned about his father's death from a boy selling newspapers.<ref name="nevins21" />

===Education and moving west===
[[File:Grover Cleveland young photo.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Early and undated photograph of Cleveland]]
{{Grover Cleveland series}}
Cleveland received his elementary education at the Fayetteville Academy and the [[Clinton, Oneida County, New York#History of education|Clinton Grammar School]] (not to be confused with the Clinton Liberal Institute).<ref>Nevins, 18–19; Jeffers, 19</ref> After his father died in 1853, he again left school to help support his family. Later that year, Cleveland's brother William was hired as a teacher at the [[New York Institute for the Blind]] in New York City, and William obtained a place for Cleveland as an assistant teacher. Cleveland returned home to Holland Patent at the end of 1854, where an elder in his church offered to pay for his college education if he promised to become a minister. Cleveland declined, and in 1855 he decided to move west.<ref>Nevins, 23–27</ref>

He stopped first in [[Buffalo, New York]], where his cousin [[Lewis F. Allen]] gave him a clerical job.<ref>Nevins, 27–33</ref> Allen was an important man in Buffalo, and he introduced Cleveland to influential men there, including the partners in the [[law firm]] of Rogers, Bowen, and Rogers.<ref>Nevins, 31–36</ref> Cleveland later took a clerkship with the firm, began to [[read the law]] with them, and was admitted to the [[Bar examination in the United States|New York bar]] in 1859.<ref name="graff14">Graff, 14</ref>

===Early career and the American Civil War===
Cleveland worked for the Rogers firm for three years before leaving in 1862 to start his own practice.<ref>Graff, 14–15</ref> In January 1863, he was appointed assistant [[district attorney]] of [[Erie County, New York]].<ref>Graff, 15; Nevins, 46</ref> With the [[American Civil War]] raging, Congress passed the [[Conscription Act of 1863]], requiring able-bodied men to serve in the army if called upon, or else to hire a substitute.<ref name="graff14" /> Cleveland chose the latter, paying $150, {{Inflation|US|150|1863|fmt=eq}}, to George Benninsky, a [[Polish people|Polish]] immigrant, to serve in his place.<ref>Graff, 14; Nevins, 51–52</ref> 

As a lawyer, Cleveland became known for his single-minded concentration and dedication to hard work.<ref name="nevins52">Nevins, 52–53</ref> In 1866, he successfully defended some participants in the [[Fenian raids#Canada West|Fenian raid]], working ''[[pro bono]]'' (free of charge).<ref>Nevins, 54</ref> In 1868, Cleveland attracted professional attention for his winning defense of a [[libel]] suit against the editor of Buffalo's ''Commercial Advertiser''.<ref>Nevins, 54–55</ref> During this time, Cleveland assumed a lifestyle of simplicity, taking residence in a plain [[boarding house]]. He devoted his growing income to the support of his mother and younger sisters.<ref>Nevins, 55–56</ref> While his personal quarters were austere, Cleveland enjoyed an active social life and "the easy-going sociability of hotel-lobbies and [[Western saloon|saloons]]".<ref>Nevins, 56</ref> He shunned the circles of higher society of Buffalo in which his uncle-in-law's family traveled.<ref>Tugwell, 26</ref>

==Political career in New York==

===Sheriff of Erie County===
[[Image:DSCN4468 buffaloclevelandstatue e.jpg|upright|thumb|A statue of Grover Cleveland outside [[Buffalo City Hall|City Hall]] in [[Buffalo, New York]]]]
From his earliest involvement in politics, Cleveland aligned with the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref>Nevins, 44–45</ref> He had a decided aversion to Republicans [[John C. Frémont]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]], and the heads of the Rogers law firm were solid Democrats.<ref>Tugwell, 32</ref> In 1865, he ran for [[District Attorney]], losing narrowly to his friend and roommate, [[Lyman K. Bass]], the Republican nominee.<ref name="nevins52" />

In 1870, with the help of friend Oscar Folsom, Cleveland secured the Democratic nomination for [[sheriff of Erie County, New York]].<ref name="nevins58">Nevins, 58</ref> He won the election by a 303-vote margin and took office on January 1, 1871, at age 33.<ref>Jeffers, 33</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Julie |date=2003 |title=American Presidents Year by Year |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uf8TBwAAQBAJ |publisher=Routledge |page=334 |isbn=978-0-7656-8046-4}}</ref> While this new career took him away from the practice of law, it was rewarding in other ways: the fees were said to yield up to $40,000, {{Inflation|US|40000|1871|fmt=eq}}, over the two-year term.<ref name="nevins58" />

Cleveland's service as sheriff was unremarkable. Biographer [[Rexford Tugwell]] described the time in office as a waste for Cleveland politically. Cleveland was aware of graft in the sheriff's office during his tenure and chose not to confront it.<ref>Tugwell, 36</ref> A notable incident of his term took place on September 6, 1872, when Patrick Morrissey was executed. He had been convicted of murdering his mother.<ref name="morrisey">Jeffers, 34; Nevins, 61–62</ref> As sheriff, Cleveland was responsible for either personally carrying out the execution or paying a deputy $10 to perform the task.<ref name="morrisey" /> In spite of reservations about the hanging, Cleveland executed Morrissey himself.<ref name="morrisey" /> He hanged another murderer, [[List of people executed in New York|John Gaffney]], on February 14, 1873.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1851-1900/gaffneyhanging/gaffneyhanging.html|title=The Execution of John Gaffney|access-date=March 27, 2008|website=The Buffalonian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006162510/http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1851-1900/gaffneyhanging/gaffneyhanging.html|archive-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref>

After his term as sheriff ended, Cleveland returned to his law practice, opening a firm with his friends Lyman K. Bass and [[Wilson S. Bissell]].<ref>Jeffers, 36; Nevins, 64</ref> Bass was later replaced by [[George J. Sicard]].<ref name="locTimeline">{{cite web |title=Timeline {{!}} Articles and Essays {{!}} Grover Cleveland Papers {{!}} Digital Collections |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/grover-cleveland-papers/articles-and-essays/timeline/ |website=www.loc.gov |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=December 12, 2023}}</ref> Elected to Congress in 1872, Bass did not spend much time at the firm, but Cleveland and Bissell soon rose to the top of Buffalo's legal community.<ref>Nevins, 66–71</ref> Up to that point, Cleveland's political career had been honorable and unexceptional. As biographer [[Allan Nevins]] wrote, "Probably no man in the country, on March 4, 1881, had less thought than this limited, simple, sturdy attorney of Buffalo that four years later he would be standing in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] and taking the oath as President of the United States."<ref>Nevins, 78</ref>

It was during this period that Cleveland began courting a widow, [[Maria Halpin]]. She later accused him of raping her.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/how-many-presidents-have-been-accused-sexual-assault-692766|title=Sexual misconduct allegations against presidents have a long history; George H.W. Bush is latest|date=October 25, 2017|website=Newsweek}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Jamie Lauren |last=Keiles |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/grover-cleveland-a-rapist-president/|title=Grover Cleveland, a Rapist President|date=August 26, 2015|website=[[vice.com|Vice]]}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> It is unclear if Halpin was actually raped by Cleveland or if their relationship was consensual.<ref name=":0">Huck, C., 2017. "[https://www.wittenberg.edu/sites/default/files/media/history/2017HistoryJournal.pdf The Halpin Affair: How Cleveland went from Scandal to Success]". ''Wittenberg History Journal'', vol. 46, p. 5, 8.</ref> In March 1876, Cleveland accused Halpin of being an alcoholic and had her child removed from her custody. The child was taken to the [[Protestant Orphans' Asylum|Protestant Orphan Asylum]], and Cleveland paid for his stay there.<ref name=":0" /> Cleveland had Halpin admitted to the Providence Asylum. Halpin was only kept at the asylum for five days because she was deemed not to be insane.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Lachman|first=Charles|date=May 23, 2011|title=Grover Cleveland's Sex Scandal: The Most Despicable in American Political History|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/23/grover-clevelands-sex-scandal-the-most-despicable-in-american-political-history|access-date=July 3, 2020}}</ref> Cleveland later provided financial support for her to begin her own business outside of Buffalo.<ref name=":0" /> Although lacking irrefutable evidence that Cleveland was the father,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Neil A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfbt5NXvF64C&pg=PA183 |title=Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary |date=2005 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0816-2 |pages=183}}</ref> the child became a campaign issue for the [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] in Cleveland's first presidential campaign, where they smeared him by claiming that he was "immoral" and for allegedly acting cruelly by not raising the child himself.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Henry F. Graff 2002 61–63">{{cite book|author=Henry F. Graff|title=Grover Cleveland: The American Presidents Series: The 22nd and 24th President, 1885–1889 and 1893–1897|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BjE7XsSQxmAC&pg=PA61|year=2002|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|pages=60–63|isbn=978-0-8050-6923-5}}</ref>

===Mayor of Buffalo===
In the 1870s, the municipal government in Buffalo had grown increasingly corrupt, with Democratic and Republican [[political machine]]s cooperating to share the [[Spoils system|spoils]] of political office.<ref>Nevins, 79; Graff, 18–19; Jeffers, 42–45; Welch, 24</ref> When the Republicans nominated a slate of particularly disreputable machine politicians for the 1881 election, Democrats saw an opportunity to gain the votes of disaffected Republicans by nominating a more honest candidate.<ref>Nevins, 79–80; Graff, 18–19; Welch, 24</ref> Party leaders approached Cleveland, who agreed to run for [[List of mayors of Buffalo, New York|Mayor of Buffalo]] provided the party's slate of candidates for other offices was to his liking.<ref name="nevins80">Nevins, 80–81</ref> More notorious politicians were left off the Democratic ticket and he accepted the nomination.<ref name="nevins80" /> Cleveland [[1881 Buffalo mayoral election|was elected]] mayor that November with 15,120 votes, while his Republican opponent [[Milton Earl Beebe]] received 11,528 votes.<ref>Nevins, 83</ref> He took office on January 2, 1882.<ref name="LOC-Timeline">{{cite web | title=Timeline – Articles and Essays – Grover Cleveland Papers – Digital Collections | publisher=The Library of Congress | date=October 29, 1947 | url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/grover-cleveland-papers/articles-and-essays/timeline/ | access-date=April 2, 2023}}</ref>

Cleveland's term as mayor was spent fighting the entrenched interests of the party machines.<ref>Graff, 19; Jeffers, 46–50</ref> Among the acts that established his reputation was a veto of the street-cleaning bill passed by the [[Buffalo Common Council]].<ref name="street">Nevins, 84–86</ref> The street-cleaning contract had been the subject of competitive bidding, and the Council selected the highest bidder at $422,000, rather than the lowest at $100,000 less, because of the political connections of the bidder.<ref name="street" /> Previous mayors had allowed similar bills in the past, but Cleveland's veto message said, "I regard it as the culmination of a most bare-faced, impudent, and shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people, and to worse than squander the public money."<ref>Nevins, 85</ref> The Council reversed itself and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder.<ref>Nevins, 86</ref> Cleveland also asked the state legislature to form a Commission to develop a plan to improve the sewer system in Buffalo at a much lower cost than previously proposed locally; this plan was successfully adopted.<ref>Tugwell, 58</ref> For this, and other actions safeguarding public funds, Cleveland began to gain a reputation beyond Erie County as a leader willing to purge government corruption.<ref>Nevins, 94–95; Jeffers, 50–51</ref>

===Governor of New York===
[[File:GCleveland.png|thumb|Gubernatorial portrait of Grover Cleveland]]
Democratic party officials started to consider Cleveland a possible nominee for [[Governor of New York]].<ref name="nevins94">Nevins, 94–99; Graff, 26–27</ref> [[Daniel Manning]], a party insider who admired Cleveland's record, was instrumental in his candidacy.<ref>Tugwell, 68–70</ref> With a split in the state Republican Party in 1882, the Democratic party was considered to be at an advantage; several men contended for that party's nomination.<ref name="nevins94" /> The two leading Democratic candidates were [[Roswell P. Flower]] and [[Henry Warner Slocum]]. Their factions deadlocked and the convention could not agree on a nominee.<ref>Graff, 26; Nevins, 101–103</ref> Cleveland, who came in third place on the first ballot, picked up support in subsequent votes and emerged as the compromise choice.<ref>Nevins, 103–104</ref> With Republicans still divided heading into [[1882 New York state election|the general election]], Cleveland emerged the victor, receiving 535,318 votes to Republican nominee [[Charles J. Folger]]'s 342,464.<ref>Nevins, 105</ref> Cleveland's margin of victory was, at the time, the largest in a contested New York election. The Democrats also picked up seats in both houses of the [[New York State Legislature]].<ref>Graff, 28</ref>

Cleveland brought his opposition to needless spending to the governor's office. He promptly sent the legislature eight vetoes in his first two months in office.<ref>Graff, 35</ref> The first to attract attention was his veto of a bill to reduce the fares on [[History of the New York City Subway#Steam railways|New York City elevated trains]] to five cents.<ref>Graff, 35–36</ref> The bill had broad support because the trains' owner, [[Jay Gould]], was unpopular, and his fare increases were widely denounced.<ref>Nevins, 114–116</ref> Cleveland saw the bill as unjust—Gould had taken over the railroads when they were failing and had made the system solvent again.<ref name="nevins116">Nevins, 116–117</ref> Cleveland believed that altering Gould's franchise would violate the [[Contract Clause]] of the [[United States Constitution|federal Constitution]].<ref name="nevins116" /> Despite the initial popularity of the fare-reduction bill, the newspapers praised Cleveland's veto.<ref name="nevins116" /> [[Theodore Roosevelt]], then a member of the [[New York State Assembly|Assembly]], had reluctantly voted for the bill with the intention of holding railroad barons accountable.<ref name="nevins117">Nevins, 117–118</ref> After the veto, Roosevelt and other legislators reversed their position, and Cleveland's veto was sustained.<ref name="nevins117" />

Cleveland's defiance of political corruption won him popular acclaim; it also brought the enmity of New York City's influential [[Tammany Hall]] organization and its boss, [[John Kelly (New York politician)|John Kelly]].<ref>Nevins, 125–126</ref> Tammany Hall and Kelly had disapproved of Cleveland's nomination for governor, and their resistance intensified after Cleveland openly opposed and prevented the reelection of [[Thomas F. Grady]], their point man in the State Senate.<ref>Tugwell, 77</ref> Cleveland also steadfastly opposed other Tammany nominees, as well as bills passed as a result of their deal-making.<ref>Tugwell, 73</ref> The loss of Tammany's support was offset by the support of Theodore Roosevelt and other reform-minded Republicans, who helped Cleveland pass several laws to reform municipal governments.<ref>Nevins, 138–140</ref> Cleveland closely worked with Roosevelt, who served as assembly minority leader in 1883; the municipal legislation they cooperated on gained Cleveland national recognition.<ref name=":2" />
{{Clear}}

==Election of 1884==
{{Main|1884 United States presidential election|Grover Cleveland 1884 presidential campaign}}

===Nomination for president===
{{main|1884 Democratic National Convention}}

[[File:Bernard Gilliam - Phryne before the Chicago Tribunal.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|An anti-Blaine cartoon presents him as the "tattooed man", with many indelible scandals.]]
In June 1884, the Republican Party convened their [[1884 Republican National Convention|national convention]] in [[Chicago]], selecting former U.S. House Speaker [[James G. Blaine]] of [[Maine]] as their nominee for president. Blaine's nomination alienated many Republicans, including the [[Mugwumps]], who viewed Blaine as ambitious and immoral.<ref name="nevins185">Nevins, 185–186; Jeffers, 96–97</ref> The Republican standard-bearer was further weakened when the Conkling faction and President [[Chester Arthur]] refused to give Blaine their strong support.<ref>Tugwell, 88–89</ref> Democratic party leaders believed the Republicans' choice gave them an opportunity to win the White House for the first time since 1856 if the right candidate could be found.<ref name="nevins185" />

Among the Democrats, [[Samuel J. Tilden]] was the initial front-runner, having been the party's nominee in the [[1876 United States presidential election|contested election of 1876]].<ref name="nevins146">Nevins, 146–147</ref> After Tilden declined a nomination due to his poor health, his supporters shifted to several other contenders.<ref name="nevins146" /> Cleveland was among the leaders in early support, and [[Thomas F. Bayard]] of [[Delaware]], [[Allen G. Thurman]] of [[Ohio]], [[Samuel Freeman Miller]] of [[Iowa]], and [[Benjamin Butler (politician)|Benjamin Butler]] of [[Massachusetts]] also had considerable followings, along with various [[favorite son]]s.<ref name="nevins146" /> Each of the other candidates had hindrances to his nomination: Bayard had spoken in favor of [[secession]] in 1861, making him unacceptable to Northerners; Butler, conversely, was reviled throughout the [[Southern United States]] for his actions during the American Civil War; Thurman was generally well-liked, but was growing old and infirm, and his views on the [[Bimetallism|silver question]] were uncertain.<ref>Nevins, 147</ref>

Cleveland, too, had detractors—Tammany remained opposed to him—but the nature of his enemies made him still more friends.<ref>Nevins, 152–153; Graff, 51–53</ref> Cleveland led on the first ballot, with 392 votes out of 820.<ref>Nevins, 153</ref> On the second ballot, Tammany threw its support behind Butler, but the rest of the delegates shifted to Cleveland, who won. Thomas A. Hendricks of [[Indiana]] was selected as his running mate.<ref name="nevins154">Nevins, 154; Graff, 53–54</ref>

===Campaign against Blaine===
Corruption in politics was the central issue in 1884; Blaine had over the span of his career been involved in several questionable deals.<ref>Tugwell, 80</ref> Cleveland's reputation as an opponent of corruption proved the Democrats' strongest asset.<ref>Summers, ''passim''; Grossman, 31</ref> William C. Hudson created Cleveland's contextual campaign slogan "A public office is a public trust."<ref>Tugwell, 84</ref> Reform-minded Republicans called "[[Mugwump]]s" denounced Blaine as corrupt and flocked to Cleveland.<ref name="mugwump">Nevins, 156–159; Graff, 55</ref> The Mugwumps, including such men as [[Carl Schurz]] and [[Henry Ward Beecher]], were more concerned with morality than with party, and felt Cleveland was a kindred soul who would promote civil service reform and fight for efficiency in government.<ref name="mugwump" /> At the same time that the Democrats gained support from the Mugwumps, they lost some blue-collar workers to the [[United States Greenback Party|Greenback-Labor party]], led by ex-Democrat Benjamin Butler.<ref>Nevins, 187–188</ref> In general, Cleveland abided by the precedent of minimizing presidential campaign travel and speechmaking; Blaine became one of the first to break with that tradition.<ref>Tugwell, 93</ref>

The campaign focused on the candidates' moral standards, as each side cast aspersions on their opponents. Cleveland's supporters rehashed the old allegations that Blaine had corruptly influenced legislation in favor of the [[Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad]] and the [[Union Pacific Railway]], later profiting on the sale of bonds he owned in both companies.<ref name="blaine">Nevins, 159–162; Graff, 59–60</ref> Although the stories of Blaine's favors to the railroads had made the rounds eight years earlier, this time Blaine's correspondence was discovered, making his earlier denials less plausible.<ref name="blaine" /> On some of the most damaging correspondence, Blaine had written "Burn this letter", giving Democrats the last line to their rallying cry: "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine, 'Burn this letter!{{'"}}<ref>Graff, 59; Jeffers, 111; Nevins, 177, Welch, 34</ref>[[File:Another voice for Cleveland - F.B. LCCN95522869 - restoration2.jpg|thumb|An anti-Cleveland cartoon highlights the Halpin scandal.|left]]

Regarding Cleveland, commentator [[Jeff Jacoby (columnist)|Jeff Jacoby]] notes that, "Not since George Washington had a candidate for President been so renowned for his rectitude."<ref>{{cite news|first=Jeff|last=Jacoby|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/02/15/presidents-day-grover-cleveland-most-honest-president-them-all/CmhndHa3aA1t0cvAfjB6LL/story.html|title='Grover the good'—the most honest president of them all|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=February 15, 2015|access-date=November 8, 2024|pages=2–15}}</ref> But the Republicans found a refutation buried in Cleveland's past. Aided by the sermons of Reverend [[George H. Ball]], a minister from Buffalo, they made public the allegation that Cleveland had fathered a child while he was a lawyer there,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lachman|first1=Charles|title=A Secret Life: The Sex, Lies, and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland|date=2011|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|pages=195–216|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jz8Zj58-xugC|access-date=October 14, 2016|chapter= Chapter 9 – "A Terrible Tale"|isbn=978-1-61608-275-8}}</ref> and their rallies soon included the chant "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?".<ref>Tugwell, 90</ref> When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland immediately instructed his supporters to "Above all, tell the truth."<ref name="Henry F. Graff 2002 61–63" /> He admitted to paying child support in 1874 to Maria Crofts Halpin, the woman who asserted he had fathered her son Oscar Folsom Cleveland and he assumed responsibility.<ref name="Henry F. Graff 2002 61–63" /> Shortly before the [[1884 United States presidential election|1884 election]], the Republican media published an affidavit from Halpin in which she stated that until she met Cleveland, her "life was pure and spotless", and "there is not, and never was, a doubt as to the paternity of our child, and the attempt of Grover Cleveland, or his friends, to couple the name of Oscar Folsom, or any one else, with that boy, for that purpose is simply infamous and false."<ref>{{cite book|last=Lachman|first=Charles|title=A Secret Life: The Sex, Lies, and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland|date=2011|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|pages=285–288|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jz8Zj58-xugC|isbn=978-1-61608-275-8}}</ref>

[[File:ElectoralCollege1884.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|The results of [[1884 United States presidential election|the 1884 election]]]]

The electoral votes of closely contested New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut would determine the election.<ref>Welch, 33</ref> In New York, the Tammany Democrats decided that they would gain more from supporting a Democrat they disliked than a Republican who would do nothing for them.<ref>Nevins, 170–171</ref> Blaine hoped that he would have more support from Irish Americans than Republicans typically did; while the Irish were mainly a Democratic constituency in the 19th century, Blaine's mother was Irish Catholic, and he had been supportive of the [[Irish National Land League]] while he was Secretary of State.<ref>Nevins, 170</ref> The Irish, a significant group in three of the [[swing state]]s, did appear inclined to support Blaine until a Republican, [[Samuel D. Burchard (clergyman)|Samuel D. Burchard]], gave a speech pivotal for the Democrats, denouncing them as the party of "Rum, [[Romanism]], and Rebellion".<ref>Nevins, 181–184</ref> The Democrats spread the word of this implied anti-Catholic insult on the eve of the election. They also blistered Blaine for attending a banquet with some of New York City's wealthiest men.<ref>Tugwell, 94–95</ref>

After the votes were counted, Cleveland narrowly won all four of the swing states, including New York by 1,200 votes.<ref name="leip1884">{{Leip PV source 2|year=1884| as of=January 27, 2008}}, {{National Archives EV source|year=1888| as of=January 27, 2008}}</ref> While the popular vote total was close, with Cleveland winning by just one-quarter of a percent, the electoral votes gave Cleveland a majority of 219–182.<ref name="leip1884" /> Following the electoral victory, the "Ma, Ma&nbsp;..." attack phrase gained a classic riposte: "Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"<ref>Graff, 64</ref>

==First presidency (1885–1889)==
{{Main|First presidency of Grover Cleveland}}

===Reform===
[[File:Cleveland Tariffs (edit).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Cleveland portrayed as a tariff reformer]]

Soon after taking office, Cleveland was faced with the task of filling all the government jobs for which the president had the power of appointment. These jobs were typically filled under the [[spoils system]], but Cleveland announced that he would not fire any Republican who was doing his job well, and would not appoint anyone solely on the basis of party service.<ref>Nevins, 208–211</ref> He also used his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as many departments had become bloated with political time-servers.<ref>Nevins, 214–217</ref> Later in his term, as his fellow Democrats chafed at being excluded from the spoils, Cleveland began to replace more of the partisan Republican officeholders with Democrats;<ref>Graff, 83</ref> this was especially the case with policymaking positions.<ref>Tugwell, 100</ref> While some of his decisions were influenced by party concerns, more of Cleveland's appointments were decided by merit alone than was the case in his predecessors' administrations.<ref>Nevins, 238–241; Welch, 59–60</ref>

Cleveland also reformed other parts of the government. In 1887, he signed an act creating the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]].<ref>Nevins, 354–357; Graff, 85</ref> He and [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[William C. Whitney]] undertook to modernize the [[United States Navy|Navy]] and canceled construction contracts that had resulted in inferior ships.<ref>Nevins, 217–223; Graff, 77</ref> Cleveland angered railroad investors by ordering an investigation of Western lands they held by government grant. [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[Lucius Q. C. Lamar]] charged that the rights of way for this land must be returned to the public because the railroads failed to extend their lines according to agreements. The lands were forfeited, resulting in the return of approximately {{convert|81000000|acre|km2|abbr=on}}.<ref name="rrgrants">Nevins, 223–228</ref>

Cleveland was the first Democratic president subject to the [[Tenure of Office Act (1867)|Tenure of Office Act]] which originated in 1867; the act purported to require the Senate to approve the dismissal of any presidential appointee who was originally subject to its advice and consent. Cleveland objected to the act in principle and his steadfast refusal to abide by it prompted its fall into disfavor and led to its ultimate repeal in 1887.<ref>Tugwell, 130–134</ref>

===Vetoes===
{{CSS image crop|Image = CLEVELAND, Grover-President (BEP engraved portrait).jpg |bSize = 315|cWidth = 220|cHeight = 250|oTop = 70|oLeft = 47|Location = right|Description = [[Bureau of Engraving and Printing]] (BEP) engraved portrait of Cleveland as president}}
As Congress and its Republican-led Senate sent Cleveland legislation he opposed, he often resorted to using his veto power.<ref>Graff, 85</ref> He vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for American Civil War veterans, believing that if their pensions requests had already been rejected by the [[Pension Bureau]], Congress should not attempt to override that decision.<ref>Nevins, 326–328; Graff, 83–84</ref> When Congress, pressured by the [[Grand Army of the Republic]], passed [[Dependent and Disability Pension Act|a bill granting pensions]] for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland also vetoed that.<ref>Nevins, 300–331; Graff, 83</ref> In his first term alone, Cleveland used the veto 414 times, which was more than four times more often than any previous president had used it.<ref>See [[List of United States presidential vetoes]]</ref> In 1887, Cleveland issued his most well-known veto, that of the [[Texas Seed Bill]].<ref name="nevins331">Nevins, 331–332; Graff, 85</ref> After a drought had ruined crops in several Texas counties, Congress appropriated $100,000 ({{Inflation|US|100000|1887|fmt=eq}}) to purchase seed grain for farmers there.<ref name="nevins331" /> Cleveland vetoed the expenditure. In his veto message, he espoused a theory of limited government:
{{blockquote|I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. 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, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland |publisher=Cassell Publishing Co |year=1892 |location=New York |page=450 |chapter=Cleveland's Veto of the Texas Seed Bill |chapter-url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cleveland's_Veto_of_the_Texas_Seed_Bill |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Writings_and_Speeches_of_Grover_Cleveland.djvu}} {{isbn|978-0-217-89899-7}}.</ref>}}

===Silver===
One of the most volatile issues of the 1880s was whether the currency should be backed by [[Bimetallism|gold and silver]], or by [[gold standard|gold alone]].<ref>Jeffers, 157–158</ref> The issue cut across party lines, with Western Republicans and Southern Democrats joining in the call for the free coinage of silver, and both parties' representatives in the northeast holding firm for the gold standard.<ref name="nevins201">Nevins, 201–205; Graff, 102–103</ref> Because silver was worth less than its legal equivalent in gold, taxpayers paid their government bills in silver, while international creditors demanded payment in gold, resulting in a depletion of the nation's gold supply.<ref name="nevins201" />

Cleveland and Treasury Secretary [[Daniel Manning]] stood firmly on the side of the gold standard, and tried to reduce the amount of silver that the government was required to coin under the [[Bland–Allison Act]] of 1878.<ref>Nevins, 269</ref> Cleveland unsuccessfully appealed to Congress to repeal this law before he was inaugurated.<ref>Tugwell, 110</ref> Angered Westerners and Southerners advocated for cheap money to help their poorer constituents.<ref>Nevins, 268</ref> In reply, one of the foremost silverites, [[Richard P. Bland]], introduced a bill in 1886 that would require the government to coin unlimited amounts of silver, inflating the then-deflating currency.<ref name="nevins273">Nevins, 273</ref> While Bland's bill was defeated, so was a bill the administration favored that would repeal any silver coinage requirement.<ref name="nevins273" /> The result was a retention of the ''status quo'', and a postponement of the resolution of the free-silver issue.<ref>Nevins, 277–279</ref>

===Tariffs===
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 0em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" |"When we consider that the theory of our institutions guarantees to every citizen the full enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and enterprise, with only such deduction as may be his share toward the careful and economical maintenance of the Government which protects him, it is plain that the exaction of more than this is indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice&nbsp;... The public Treasury, which should only exist as a conduit conveying the people's tribute to its legitimate objects of expenditure, becomes a hoarding place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's use, thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country's development, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder."
|-
| style="text-align: left;" | '''''Cleveland's third annual message to Congress''',<br />December 6, 1887.''<ref>{{cite book |title=The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland |publisher=Cassell Publishing Co |year=1892 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/writingsandspee01clevgoog/page/n116 72]–73 |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsandspee01clevgoog }} {{isbn|978-0-217-89899-7}}.</ref>
|}
Another contentious financial issue at the time was the protective [[tariff]]. These tariffs had been implemented as a temporary measure during the civil war to protect American industrial interests but remained in place after the war.<ref>[https://millercenter.org/president/grover-cleveland/key-events "Grover Cleveland: Key Events"] University of Virginia Miller Center. Retrieved June 3, 2019.</ref> While it had not been a central point in his campaign, Cleveland's opinion on the tariff was that of most Democrats: that the tariff ought to be reduced.<ref name="nevins280">Nevins, 280–282, Reitano, 46–62</ref> Republicans generally favored a high tariff to protect American industries.<ref name="nevins280" /> American tariffs had been high since the Civil War, and by the 1880s the tariff brought in so much revenue that the government was running a surplus.<ref>Nevins, 286–287</ref>

In 1886, a bill to reduce the tariff was narrowly defeated in the House.<ref>[[William Ralls Morrison|Morrison]] Tariff Bill of 1886. 1886 [[Congressional Record]], Vol. 17, Part 6, Page [https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-CRECB-1886-pt6-v17/GPO-CRECB-1886-pt6-v17-8-2 5830] (June 17, 1886).</ref><ref>Nevins, 287–288</ref> The tariff issue was emphasized in [[1886 United States House elections|the Congressional elections that year]], and the forces of protectionism increased their numbers in the Congress, but Cleveland continued to advocate tariff reform.<ref>Nevins, 290–296; Graff, 87–88</ref> As the surplus grew, Cleveland and the reformers called for a tariff for revenue only.<ref>Nevins, 370–371</ref> His message to Congress in 1887 (quoted at right) highlighted the injustice of taking more money from the people than the government needed to pay its operating expenses.<ref>Nevins, 379–381</ref> Republicans, as well as protectionist northern Democrats like [[Samuel J. Randall]], believed that American industries would fail without high tariffs, and they continued to fight reform efforts.<ref>Nevins, 383–385</ref> [[Roger Q. Mills]], chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, proposed a bill to reduce the tariff from about 47% to about 40%.<ref name="graff88">Graff, 88–89</ref> After significant exertions by Cleveland and his allies, the bill passed the House but not the Senate.<ref name="graff88" />

===Foreign policy, 1885–1889===
Cleveland was a committed [[isolationism|noninterventionist]] who had campaigned in opposition to expansion and imperialism. He refused to promote the previous administration's [[Nicaragua canal]] treaty, and generally was less of an expansionist in foreign relations.<ref>Nevins, 205, 404–405</ref> Cleveland's Secretary of State, [[Thomas F. Bayard]], negotiated with [[Joseph Chamberlain]] of the United Kingdom over fishing rights in the waters off Canada, and struck a conciliatory note, despite the opposition of [[New England]]'s Republican Senators.<ref>Nevins, 404–413</ref> Cleveland also withdrew from Senate consideration of the [[Berlin Conference|Berlin Conference treaty]] which guaranteed an open door for U.S. interests in [[Congo Free State|the Congo]].<ref name="wealth">Zakaria, 80</ref>

===Military and naval policy, 1885–1889===
[[File:Grover Cleveland Portrait.jpg|thumb|Cleveland in 1888]]
Cleveland's military policy emphasized self-defense and modernization. In 1885 Cleveland appointed the [[Board of Fortifications]] under [[Secretary of War]] [[William Crowninshield Endicott|William C. Endicott]] to recommend a new [[seacoast defense in the United States|coastal fortification]] system for the United States.<ref name="Berhow, pp. 9-10">Berhow, pp. 9–10</ref><ref name="cdsg.org">{{Cite web|url=http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis4.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204073357/http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis4.htm|url-status=dead|title=Endicott and Taft Boards at the Coast Defense Study Group website|archive-date=February 4, 2016}}</ref> No improvements to U.S. coastal defenses had been made since the late 1870s.<ref>Berhow, p. 8</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis3.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204073359/http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis3.htm|url-status=dead|title=Civil War and 1870s defenses at the Coast Defense Study Group website|archive-date=February 4, 2016}}</ref> The Board's 1886 report recommended a massive $127&nbsp;million construction program (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|.127|1886|r=1}}&nbsp;billion in {{Inflation-year|US}}) at 29 [[Harbor Defense Command|harbors and river estuaries]], to include new breech-loading rifled guns, mortars, and [[submarine mines in United States harbor defense|naval minefields]]. The Board and the program are usually called the Endicott Board and the Endicott Program. Most of the Board's recommendations were implemented, and by 1910, 27 locations were defended by over 70 forts.<ref>Berhow, pp. 201–226</ref><ref>[http://cdsg.org/fort-and-battery-list/ List of all US coastal forts and batteries] at the Coast Defense Study Group website</ref> Many of the weapons remained in place until scrapped in World War II as they were replaced with new defenses. Endicott also proposed to Congress a system of examinations for Army officer promotions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/sw-sa/Endicott.htm|title=William Crowninshield Endicott, from Bell, William Gardner (1992), ''Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army'', Center of Military History, US Army|access-date=May 13, 2016|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081532/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Sw-SA/Endicott.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> For the Navy, the Cleveland administration, spearheaded by [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[William Collins Whitney]], moved towards modernization, although no ships were constructed that could match the best European warships. Although completion of the four steel-hulled warships begun under the previous administration was delayed due to a corruption investigation and subsequent bankruptcy of their building yard, these ships were completed in a timely manner in [[naval shipyard]]s once the investigation was over.<ref>Bauer and Roberts, p. 141</ref> Sixteen additional steel-hulled warships were ordered by the end of 1888. These ships played a vital role during the [[Spanish–American War]] of 1898, and many later served in World War&nbsp;I. Among them were the "second-class [[battleship]]s" {{USS|Maine|ACR-1|2}} and {{USS|Texas|1892|2}}, designed to match modern armored ships recently acquired by South American countries from Europe, such as the [[Brazilian battleship Riachuelo|Brazilian battleship ''Riachuelo'']].<ref>Bauer and Roberts, p. 102</ref> Eleven [[protected cruiser]]s (including the famous {{USS|Olympia|C-6|2}}), one [[armored cruiser]], and one [[monitor (warship)|monitor]] were also ordered, along with the experimental cruiser {{USS|Vesuvius|1888|2}}.<ref>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 101, 133, 141–147</ref>

===Civil rights and immigration===
Under Cleveland, gains in civil rights for African Americans were limited.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bergeson-Lockwood |first=Millington W. |chapter=A Recognized and Respected Part of the Body Politic: Grover Cleveland and Pursuit of Patronage |date=May 21, 2018 |title=Race Over Party |pages=86–108 |url=https://academic.oup.com/north-carolina-scholarship-online/book/16963/chapter/174239650 |access-date=July 27, 2024 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |doi=10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640419.003.0006 |isbn=978-1-4696-4041-9|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Like a growing number of Northerners and nearly all white Southerners, he saw [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] as a failed experiment,<ref>{{Cite journal |date=Spring 2001 |title=Grover Cleveland: A Powerful Advocate of White Supremacy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2679168 |journal=[[The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education]] |issue=31 |pages=53–54 |doi=10.2307/2679168 |jstor=2679168 |access-date=July 27, 2024 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and was reluctant to use federal power to enforce the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]] of the [[U.S. Constitution]], which guaranteed voting rights to African Americans.<ref name="welch65">Welch, 65–66</ref> Cleveland appointed no black Americans to patronage jobs, but allowed [[Frederick Douglass]] to continue in his post as [[recorder of deeds]] in Washington, D.C., and appointed another black man ([[James Campbell Matthews]], a former New York judge) to replace Douglass upon his resignation.<ref name="welch65" /> His decision to replace Douglass with a black man was met with outrage, but Cleveland claimed to have known Matthews personally.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blacksandpresidency.com/grovercleveland.php |title="No Force bill! No Negro Domination in the South!": President Grover Cleveland and the Return to Power of the Democratic Party |website=African-Americans & the Presidency |first=Christopher Brian |last=Booker |year=2014 |access-date=November 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017175406/http://www.blacksandpresidency.com/grovercleveland.php |archive-date=October 17, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Although Cleveland had condemned the "outrages" against Chinese immigrants, he believed that Chinese immigrants were unwilling to [[Cultural assimilation|assimilate]] into white society.<ref>Welch, 72</ref> Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard negotiated an extension to the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]], and Cleveland lobbied the Congress to pass the [[Scott Act (1888)|Scott Act]], written by Congressman [[William Lawrence Scott]], which prevented the return of Chinese immigrants who left the United States.<ref name="welch73">Welch, 73</ref> The Scott Act easily passed both houses of Congress, and Cleveland signed it into law on October 1, 1888.<ref name="welch73" />

===Native American policy===
[[File:HenryLDawes.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Henry L. Dawes]] wrote the [[Dawes Act]], which Cleveland signed into law.]]

Cleveland viewed Native Americans as [[wards of the state]], saying in his first inaugural address that "[t]his guardianship involves, on our part, efforts for the improvement of their condition and enforcement of their rights."<ref name="welch70">Welch, 70; Nevins, 358–359</ref> He encouraged the idea of cultural assimilation, pushing for the passage of the [[Dawes Act]], which would allow lands held in trust by the federal government for the tribes to instead be distributed to individual tribe members.<ref name="welch70"/> While a conference of Native leaders endorsed the act, in practice the majority of Native Americans disapproved of it.<ref>Graff, 206–207</ref> Cleveland believed the Dawes Act would lift Native Americans out of poverty and encourage their assimilation into white society. It ultimately weakened the tribal governments and allowed individual Indians to sell land and keep the money.<ref name="welch70" /> The act led to Native Americans ceding control of about 100 million acres of land between 1887 and 1934, which was around "two-thirds of the land base they held in 1887."<ref name=":7"/><ref name=":8"/>

In the month before Cleveland's 1885 inauguration, President Arthur opened four million acres of [[Ho-Chunk]] and [[Crow Creek Indian Reservation|Crow Creek]] lands in the [[Dakota Territory]] to white settlement by executive order.<ref name="B141">Brodsky, 141–142; Nevins, 228–229</ref> Tens of thousands of settlers gathered at the border of these lands and prepared to take possession of them.<ref name="B141"/> Cleveland believed Arthur's order to be in violation of treaties with the tribes, and rescinded it on April 17 of that year, ordering the settlers out of the territory.<ref name="B141"/> Cleveland sent in eighteen [[company (military unit)|companies]] of Army troops to enforce the treaties and ordered General [[Philip Sheridan]], at the time Commanding General of the U.S. Army, to investigate the matter.<ref name="B141"/>

===Marriage and children===
{{main|Wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom}}

[[File:Frances Folsom Cleveland.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Frances Folsom Cleveland, {{Circa|1886}}]]
Cleveland was 47 years old when he entered the White House as a bachelor. His sister [[Rose Cleveland]] joined him, acting as hostess for the first 15 months of his administration.<ref>Brodsky, 158; Jeffers, 149</ref> Unlike the previous bachelor president [[James Buchanan]], Cleveland did not remain a bachelor for long. In 1885, the daughter of Cleveland's friend Oscar Folsom visited him in Washington.<ref name="graff78">Graff, 78</ref> [[Frances Cleveland|Frances Folsom]] was a student at [[Wells College]]. When she returned to school, President Cleveland received her mother's permission to correspond with her, and they were soon engaged to be married.<ref name="graff78" /> The [[Wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom|wedding]] occurred on June 2, 1886, in the [[Blue Room (White House)|Blue Room]] at the White House. Cleveland was 49 years old at the time; Frances was 21.<ref>Graff, 79</ref> He was the second president to wed while in office{{efn|[[John Tyler]], who married his second wife [[Julia Gardiner Tyler|Julia Gardiner]] in 1844, was the first.}} and remains the only president to marry in the White House. This marriage was unusual because Cleveland was the executor of Oscar Folsom's estate and had supervised Frances's upbringing after her father's death; nevertheless, the public took no exception to the match.<ref>Jeffers, 170–176; Graff, 78–81; Nevins, 302–308; Welch, 51</ref> At 21 years, Frances Folsom Cleveland was and remains the youngest [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] in history, and soon became popular for her warm personality.<ref>Graff, 80–81</ref>

The Clevelands had five children: [[Ruth Cleveland|Ruth]] (1891–1904), [[Esther Cleveland|Esther]] (1893–1980), Marion (1895–1977), [[Richard F. Cleveland|Richard]] (1897–1974), and [[Francis Cleveland|Francis]] (1903–1995). British philosopher [[Philippa Foot]] (1920–2010) was their granddaughter.<ref>{{cite news|first=William |last=Grimes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/us/10foot.html |title=Philippa Foot, Renowned Philosopher, Dies at 90 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 9, 2010 |access-date=November 8, 2024}}</ref> Ruth contracted [[diphtheria]] on January 2, 1904, and died five days after her diagnosis.<ref name="Quinn">{{cite book|last1=Quinn|first1=Sandra L.|last2=Kanter|first2=Sandford|date=1995|title=America's Royalty: All the Presidents' Children|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|page=[https://archive.org/details/americasroyaltya00quin_0/page/131 131]|isbn=0-313-29535-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/americasroyaltya00quin_0/page/131}}</ref> The [[Curtiss Candy Company]] would later assert that the "[[Baby Ruth]]" candy bar was named after her.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/baby-ruth/ |title=Baby Ruth |first=David |last=Mikkelson |website=[[Snopes]] |date=February 21, 2007 |accessdate=June 24, 2008}}</ref> Cleveland also claimed paternity of a child with Maria Crofts Halpin, [[Oscar Folsom Cleveland]], who was born in 1874.<ref name=":9">{{cite magazine |last = Serratore |first = Angela |title = President Cleveland's Problem Child |magazine = [[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian Magazine]] |date = September 26, 2013 |url = https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/president-clevelands-problem-child-100800/ |access-date = August 15, 2023}}</ref>

===Administration and Cabinet===
[[File:Cleveland First Cabinet (edited).png|thumb|upright=1.65|alt=Cleveland First Cabinet|Cleveland's first Cabinet. <br />Front row, left to right: Thomas F. Bayard, '''Cleveland''', Daniel Manning, [[Lucius Q. C. Lamar]] <br /> Back row, left to right: [[William F. Vilas]], [[William C. Whitney]], [[William C. Endicott]], [[Augustus H. Garland]] ]]

{{Infobox U.S. Cabinet
| Name = First Cleveland
| align = none
| President = Grover Cleveland
| President start = 1885
| President end = 1889
| Vice President = [[Thomas A. Hendricks]]
| Vice President date = 1885
| Vice President 2 = None
| Vice President start 2 = 1885
| Vice President end 2 = 1889
| State = [[Thomas F. Bayard]]
| State start = 1885
| State end = 1889
| Treasury = [[Daniel Manning]]
| Treasury start = 1885
| Treasury end = 1887
| Treasury 2 = [[Charles S. Fairchild]]
| Treasury start 2 = 1887
| Treasury end 2 = 1889
| War = [[William Crowninshield Endicott]]
| War start = 1885
| War end = 1889
| Justice = [[Augustus Hill Garland]]
| Justice start = 1885
| Justice end = 1889
| Post = [[William Freeman Vilas]]
| Post start = 1885
| Post end = 1888
| Post 2 = [[Donald M. Dickinson]]
| Post start 2 = 1888
| Post end 2 = 1889
| Navy = [[William Collins Whitney]]
| Navy start = 1885
| Navy end = 1889
| Interior = [[Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar]]
| Interior start = 1885
| Interior end = 1888
| Interior 2 = [[William Freeman Vilas]]
| Interior start 2 = 1888
| Interior end 2 = 1889
| Agriculture = [[Norman Jay Coleman]]
| Agriculture date = 1889
}}

===Supreme Court appointments===
{{main|List of federal judges appointed by Grover Cleveland}}

[[Image:Melville Weston Fuller Chief Justice 1908.jpg|upright|thumb|left|Chief Justice [[Melville Fuller]].]]
During his first term, Cleveland successfully nominated two justices to the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]. The first, [[Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar|Lucius Q. C. Lamar]], was a former [[Mississippi]] senator who served in Cleveland's Cabinet as Interior Secretary. When [[William Burnham Woods]] died, Cleveland nominated Lamar to his seat in late 1887. Lamar's nomination was confirmed by the narrow margin of 32 to 28.<ref>Daniel J. Meador, "Lamar to the Court: Last Step to National Reunion" ''Supreme Court Historical Society Yearbook 1986'': 27–47. {{ISSN|0362-5249}}</ref>

[[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] [[Morrison Waite]] died a few months later, and Cleveland nominated [[Melville Fuller]] to fill his seat on April 30, 1888. Fuller accepted. The [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] spent several months examining the little-known nominee, before the Senate confirmed the nomination 41 to 20. Cleveland was the second Democratic president to appoint a Chief Justice, after [[Andrew Jackson]].<ref>Willard L. King, ''Melville Weston Fuller – Chief Justice of the United States 1888–1910'' (1950)</ref><ref>Nevins, 445–450</ref>

== Election of 1888==
{{Main|1888 United States presidential election|Grover Cleveland 1888 presidential campaign}}

[[File:1888DemocraticPoster 2.png|thumb|Poster President Cleveland and [[Allen G. Thurman]] of Ohio (1888)]]
[[File:ElectoralCollege1888.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Results of the [[1888 United States presidential election|1888 election]]]]
The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison, the former U.S. Senator from Indiana for president and [[Levi P. Morton]] of New York for vice president. Cleveland was renominated at the [[1888 Democratic National Convention|Democratic convention in St. Louis]].<ref name="graff90">Graff, 90–91</ref> Following Vice President [[Thomas A. Hendricks]]' death in 1885, the Democrats chose [[Allen G. Thurman]] of Ohio to be Cleveland's new running mate.<ref name="graff90" />

The Republicans gained the upper hand in the campaign, as Cleveland's campaign was poorly managed by [[Calvin S. Brice]] and [[William H. Barnum]], whereas Harrison had engaged more aggressive fundraisers and tacticians in [[Matthew Quay|Matt Quay]] and [[John Wanamaker]].<ref>Tugwell, 166</ref>

The Republicans campaigned heavily on the tariff issue, turning out protectionist voters in the important industrial states of the North.<ref>Nevins, 418–420</ref> Further, the Democrats in New York were divided over the gubernatorial candidacy of [[David B. Hill]], weakening Cleveland's support in that swing state.<ref>Nevins, 423–427</ref> A [[Murchison letter|letter from the British ambassador]] supporting Cleveland caused a scandal that cost Cleveland votes in New York.

As in 1884, the election focused on the swing states of New York, [[New Jersey]], [[Connecticut]], and [[Indiana]]. But unlike that year, when Cleveland had triumphed in all four, in 1888 he won only two, losing his home state of New York by 14,373 votes. Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote – 48.6 percent vs. 47.8 percent for Harrison – but Harrison won the Electoral College vote easily, 233–168.<ref>{{Leip PV source 2|year=1888| as of=February 18, 2008}}, {{National Archives EV source|year=1888| as of=February 18, 2008}}</ref> The Republicans won Indiana, largely as the result of a fraudulent voting practice known as [[Blocks of Five]].<ref>Nevins, 435–439; Jeffers, 220–222</ref> Cleveland continued his duties diligently until the end of the term and began to look forward to returning to private life.<ref>Nevins, 443–449</ref>

==Between presidencies (1889–1893)==
As Frances Cleveland left the White House, she told a staff member, "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."<ref>Nevins, 448</ref> 

In the meantime, the Clevelands moved to New York City, where the former president took a position with the law firm of Bangs, [[Francis Lynde Stetson|Stetson]], Tracy, and MacVeigh. This affiliation was more of an office-sharing arrangement, though quite compatible.{{clarify|reason=Compatible with what?|date=August 2023}} Cleveland's law practice brought only a moderate income, perhaps because he spent considerable time at [[Gray Gables]], the couple's vacation home at  [[Buzzards Bay|Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts]], where fishing became his obsession.<ref>Tugwell, 175</ref> 

In February 1890, Cleveland sold "Oak View", the 26.5-acre country estate that he had purchased for $21,500 four years earlier in a rural part of northwest Washington, D.C. He sold it for $140,000 (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|140000|1890|r=-2}}}} today) to [[Francis G. Newlands|Francis Newlands]], who was assembling the land that would become upper [[Connecticut Avenue|Connecticut Avenue NW]] and the [[Chevy Chase, Maryland|Chevy Chase]] suburbs.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 28, 1890 |title=He Sells Oak View––Ex-President Cleveland Parts With His Pretty Summer Home |url=https://www.clevelandparkhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/He-Sells-Oak-View.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250605140842/https://www.clevelandparkhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/He-Sells-Oak-View.pdf |archive-date=June 5, 2025 |newspaper=Washington Post |pages=6–7}}</ref> Another developer soon named the area [[Cleveland Park]].<ref name="Williams">{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Kimberly Prothro |year=2001 |title=Cleveland Park Historic District brochure |url=https://planning.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/op/publication/attachments/Cleveland_Park_Brochure.pdf |publisher=D.C. Preservation League}}</ref>

While the Clevelands lived in New York, their first child, Ruth, was born in 1891.<ref>Nevins, 450; Graff, 99–100</ref>

The Harrison administration worked with Congress to pass the [[McKinley Tariff]], an aggressively protectionist measure, and the [[Sherman Silver Purchase Act]], which increased money backed by silver;<ref>Tugwell, 168</ref> these were among policies Cleveland deplored as dangerous to the nation's financial health.<ref>Graff, 102–105; Nevins, 465–467</ref> At first he refrained from criticizing his successor, but by 1891 Cleveland felt compelled to speak out, addressing his concerns in an open letter to a meeting of reformers in New York.<ref>Graff, 104–105; Nevins, 467–468</ref> The "silver letter" thrust Cleveland's name back into the spotlight just as the 1892 election was approaching.<ref>Nevins, 470–471</ref>

==Election of 1892==
{{Main|1892 United States presidential election|Grover Cleveland 1892 presidential campaign}}

===Nomination for president===
{{main|1892 Democratic National Convention}}

Cleveland's enduring reputation as chief executive and his recent pronouncements on the monetary issues made him a leading contender for the Democratic nomination.<ref>Nevins, 468–469</ref> His leading opponent was David B. Hill, a Senator for New York.<ref name="nevins470">Nevins, 470–473</ref> Hill united the anti-Cleveland elements of the Democratic party—silverites, protectionists, and Tammany Hall—but was unable to create a coalition large enough to deny Cleveland the nomination.<ref name="nevins470" /> Despite some desperate maneuvering by Hill, Cleveland was nominated on the first ballot at the party convention in Chicago.<ref>Tugwell, 182</ref>

For vice president, the Democrats chose to balance the ticket with [[Adlai E. Stevenson I|Adlai E. Stevenson]] of Illinois, a silverite.<ref>Graff, 105; Nevins, 492–493</ref> Although the Cleveland forces preferred [[Isaac P. Gray]] of Indiana for vice president, they accepted the convention favorite.<ref>William DeGregorio, ''The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents'', Gramercy 1997</ref> As a supporter of [[United States Note|greenbacks]] and [[free silver]] to inflate the currency and alleviate economic distress in the rural districts, Stevenson balanced the otherwise [[Hard money (policy)|hard-money]], [[gold-standard]] ticket headed by Cleveland.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Adlai_Stevenson.htm |title=U.S. Senate: Art & History Home > Adlai Ewing Stevenson, 23rd Vice President (1893–1897) |publisher=Senate.gov |date= n.d.|access-date=May 30, 2011}}</ref>

===Campaign against Harrison===
[[File:ElectoralCollege1892.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Results of the [[1892 United States presidential election|1892 election]]]]
The Republicans renominated President Harrison, making the 1892 election a rematch of the one four years earlier. Unlike the turbulent and controversial elections of 1876, 1884, and 1888, the 1892 election was, according to Cleveland biographer Allan Nevins, "the cleanest, quietest, and most creditable in the memory of the post-war generation",<ref>Nevins, 498</ref> in part because Harrison's wife, [[Caroline Harrison|Caroline]], was dying of tuberculosis.<ref>Calhoun, 149</ref> Harrison did not personally campaign at all. Following Caroline Harrison's death on October 25, two weeks before the national election, Cleveland and all of the other candidates stopped campaigning, thus making Election Day a somber and quiet event for the whole country as well as the candidates.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Matuz |first1=Roger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ge4uEQAAQBAJ&q=1892%20presidential%20election%20somber |title=The Presidents Fact Book: The Achievements, Campaigns, and Legacies of Every President |last2=Harris |first2=Bill |last3=Craughwell |first3=Thomas J. |date=2025-03-04 |publisher=Workman Publishing Company |isbn=979-8-89414-094-0 |language=en}}</ref>

The issue of the tariff had worked to the Republicans' advantage in 1888. Now, however, the legislative revisions of the past four years had made imported goods so expensive that by 1892, many voters favored tariff reform and were skeptical of big business.<ref>Nevins, 499</ref> Many Westerners (traditionally Republican voters), defected to [[James B. Weaver]], the candidate of the new [[Populist Party (United States)|Populist Party]]. Weaver promised free silver, generous veterans' pensions, and an [[eight-hour work day]].<ref>Graff, 106–107; Nevins, 505–506</ref> The Tammany Hall Democrats adhered to the national ticket, allowing a united Democratic party to carry New York.<ref>Graff, 108</ref> At the campaign's end, many Populists and labor supporters endorsed Cleveland following an attempt by the Carnegie Corporation to break the union during the [[Homestead strike]] in Pittsburgh and after a similar [[Coal Creek War|conflict between big business and labor at the Tennessee Coal and Iron Co]].<ref>Tugwell, 184–185</ref>

The final result was a victory for Cleveland by wide margins in both the popular and electoral votes, and it was Cleveland's third consecutive popular vote plurality. Cleveland's victory made him the first U.S. president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.<ref>{{Leip PV source 2|year=1892|as of=February 22, 2008}}, {{National Archives EV source|year=1892|as of=February 22, 2008}}</ref>{{efn|The only other to do so is [[Donald Trump]], who began his nonconsecutive second term in 2025.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ogwude |first1=Haadiza |last2=Page |first2=Susan |date=January 20, 2025 |title=Is Donald Trump the oldest president sworn into office? A look at his historic feats |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/01/20/who-is-the-oldest-president-to-be-sworn-in-donald-trump/77776042007/ |access-date=January 20, 2025}}</ref>}}
{{clear}}

==Second presidency (1893–1897)==
{{Main|Second presidency of Grover Cleveland}}

===Economic panic and the silver issue===
[[File:It can not pass while he is there - Dalrymple. LCCN2012648637.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Caricature of Cleveland as [[Bimetallism|anti-silver]]]]
Shortly after Cleveland's second term began, the [[Panic of 1893]] struck the stock market, leaving Cleveland and the nation to face an [[economic depression]].<ref>Graff, 114</ref> The panic was worsened by the acute shortage of gold that resulted from the increased coinage of silver, and Cleveland called Congress into special session to deal with the problem.<ref name="nevins526">Nevins, 526–528</ref> The debate over the coinage was as heated as ever, and the effects of the panic had driven more moderates to support repealing the coinage provisions of the [[Sherman Silver Purchase Act]].<ref name="nevins526" /> Even so, the silverites rallied their following at a convention in Chicago, and the House of Representatives debated for fifteen weeks before passing the repeal by a considerable margin.<ref>Nevins, 524–528, 537–540. The vote was 239 to 108.</ref> In the Senate, the repeal of silver coinage was equally contentious. Cleveland, forced against his better judgment to lobby the Congress for repeal, convinced enough Democrats—and along with eastern Republicans, they formed a 48–37 majority for repeal.<ref>Tugwell, 192–195</ref> Depletion of the Treasury's gold reserves continued, at a lesser rate, and subsequent bond issues replenished supplies of gold.<ref>Welch, 126–127</ref> At the time the repeal seemed a minor setback to silverites, but it marked the beginning of the end of silver as a basis for American currency.<ref>{{cite book |title=Monetary Policy in the United States: An Intellectual and Institutional History |last=Timberlake |first=Richard H. |year=1993 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago, Illinois |isbn=978-0-226-80384-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/monetarypolicyin0000timb/page/179 179] |url=https://archive.org/details/monetarypolicyin0000timb/page/179}}</ref>

===Tariff reform===
[[File:Grover Cleveland and Wilson-Gorman Tariff Cartoon.jpg|thumb|Cleveland's humiliation by [[Arthur P. Gorman|Gorman]] and the sugar trust]]

Having succeeded in reversing the Harrison administration's silver policy, Cleveland sought next to reverse the effects of the [[McKinley Tariff]]. The [[Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act]] was introduced by West Virginian Representative [[William Lyne Wilson|William L. Wilson]] in December 1893.<ref>Festus P. Summers, ''William L. Wilson and Tariff Reform: A Biography'' (1974)</ref> After lengthy debate, the bill passed the House by a considerable margin.<ref>Nevins, 567; the vote was 204 to 140</ref> The bill proposed moderate downward revisions in the tariff, especially on raw materials.<ref name="nevins564">Nevins, 564–566; Jeffers, 285–287</ref> The shortfall in revenue was to be made up by an [[income tax]] of two percent on income above $4,000 ({{Inflation|US|4000|1893|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="nevins564" />

The bill was next considered in the Senate, where it faced stronger opposition from key Democrats, led by [[Arthur Pue Gorman]] of Maryland, who insisted that more protection for their states' industries be added.<ref>Lambert, 213–215</ref> The bill passed the Senate with more than 600 amendments attached that nullified most of the reforms.<ref>The income tax component of the Wilson-Gorman Act was partially ruled unconstitutional in 1895. ''See [[Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.]]''</ref> The [[American Sugar Refining Company|Sugar Trust]] in particular lobbied for changes that favored it at the expense of the consumer.<ref>Nevins, 577–578</ref> Cleveland was outraged with the final bill, and denounced it as a disgraceful product of the control of the Senate by trusts and business interests.<ref>Nevins, 585–587; Jeffers, 288–289</ref> Even so, he believed it was an improvement over the McKinley tariff and allowed it to become law without his signature.<ref>Nevins, 564–588; Jeffers, 285–289</ref>

===Voting rights===
In 1892, Cleveland had campaigned against the [[Lodge Bill]],<ref>James B. Hedges (1940), "North America", in [[William L. Langer]], ed., ''An Encyclopedia of World History'', Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Part V, Section G, Subsection 1c, p. 794.</ref> which would have strengthened [[voting rights in the United States|voting rights protections]] through the appointing of federal supervisors of congressional elections upon a petition from the citizens of any district. The [[Enforcement Act of 1871]] had provided for a detailed federal overseeing of the electoral process, from registration to the certification of returns. Cleveland succeeded in ushering in the 1894 repeal of this law (ch. 25, 28 Stat. 36).<ref>Congressional Research Service (2004), ''The Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation – Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 28, 2002'', Washington: Government Printing Office, "Fifteenth Amendment", "Congressional Enforcement", "Federal Remedial Legislation", p. 2058.</ref>

===Labor unrest===
[[File:John t morgan.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[John Tyler Morgan]], Senator from [[Alabama]], opposed Cleveland on free silver, the tariff, and the Hawaii treaty, saying of Cleveland that "I hate the ground that man walks on."<ref>Nevins, 568</ref>]]

The Panic of 1893 had damaged labor conditions across the United States, and the victory of anti-silver legislation worsened the mood of western laborers.<ref name="coxey">Graff, 117–118; Nevins, 603–605</ref> A group of workingmen led by [[Jacob S. Coxey]] began to march east toward Washington, D.C., to protest Cleveland's policies.<ref name="coxey" /> This group, known as [[Coxey's Army]], agitated in favor of a national roads program to give jobs to workingmen, and a weakened currency to help farmers pay their debts.<ref name="coxey" /> By the time they reached Washington, only a few hundred remained, and when Coxey and other protest leaders were arrested the next day for walking on the lawn of the [[United States Capitol]], the group scattered.<ref name="coxey" /> Even though Coxey's Army may not have been a threat to the government, it signaled a growing dissatisfaction in the West with Eastern monetary policies.<ref>Graff, 118; Jeffers, 280–281</ref>

===Pullman Strike===

{{Main|Pullman Strike}}

The Pullman Strike had a significantly greater impact than Coxey's Army. A strike began against the [[Pullman Company]] over low wages and twelve-hour workdays, and sympathy strikes, led by [[American Railway Union]] leader [[Eugene V. Debs]], soon followed.<ref>Nevins, 611–613</ref> By June 1894, 125,000 railroad workers were on strike, paralyzing the nation's commerce.<ref>Nevins, 614</ref> Because the railroads carried the [[U.S. Postal Service|mail]], and because several of the affected lines were in [[Bankruptcy in the United States|federal receivership]], Cleveland believed a federal solution was appropriate.<ref>Nevins, 614–618; Graff, 118–119; Jeffers, 296–297</ref> Cleveland obtained an injunction in federal court, and when the strikers refused to obey it, he sent federal troops into Chicago and 20 other rail centers.<ref>Nevins, 619–623; Jeffers, 298–302. See also ''[[In re Debs]]''.</ref> "If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postcard in Chicago", he proclaimed, "that card will be delivered."<ref>Nevins, 628</ref> Most governors supported Cleveland except Democrat [[John P. Altgeld]] of Illinois, who became his bitter foe in 1896. Leading newspapers of both parties applauded Cleveland's actions, but the use of troops hardened the attitude of organized labor toward his administration.<ref>Nevins, 624–628; Jeffers, 304–305; Graff, 120</ref>

Just before the 1894 election, Cleveland was warned by Francis Lynde Stetson, an advisor: "We are on the eve of [a] very dark night, unless a return of commercial prosperity relieves popular discontent with what they believe [is] Democratic incompetence to make laws, and consequently [discontent] with Democratic Administrations anywhere and everywhere."<ref>Francis Lynde Stetson to Cleveland, October 7, 1894, in Allan Nevins, ed. ''Letters of Grover Cleveland, 1850–1908'' (1933) p. 369</ref> The warning was appropriate, for in the Congressional elections, Republicans won their biggest landslide in decades, taking full control of the House, while the Populists lost most of their support. Cleveland's factional enemies gained control of the Democratic Party in state after state, including full control in Illinois and Michigan, and made major gains in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and other states. Wisconsin and Massachusetts were two of the few states that remained under the control of Cleveland's allies. The Democratic opposition were close to controlling two-thirds of the vote at the 1896 national convention, which they needed to nominate their own candidate. They failed for lack of unity and a national leader, as Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld had been born in Germany and was ineligible to be nominated for president.<ref>[[Richard J. Jensen]], ''The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–96'' (1971) pp.&nbsp;229–230</ref>

===Foreign policy, 1893–1897===
{{further|Blount Report|Morgan Report|Venezuelan crisis of 1895}}
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 0em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" |"I suppose that right and justice should determine the path to be followed in treating this subject. If national honesty is to be disregarded and a desire for territorial expansion or dissatisfaction with a form of government not our own ought to regulate our conduct, I have entirely misapprehended the mission and character of our government and the behavior which the conscience of the people demands of their public servants."
|-
| style="text-align: right;" | '''''Cleveland's message to Congress on the Hawaiian question''', December 18, 1893''.<ref name="nevins560">Nevins, 560</ref>
|}
[[File:His Little Hawaiian Game Checkmated political cartoon 1894 (retouched).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''His Little Hawaiian Game Checkmated'', from ''[[Judge (magazine)|Judge]]'', 1894]]
When Cleveland took office, he faced the question of Hawaiian annexation. In his first term, he had supported free trade with the [[Hawaiian Kingdom]] and accepted an amendment that gave the United States a coaling and naval station in [[Pearl Harbor]].<ref name="wealth" /> A treaty of peace and friendship existed between the United States and Hawai'i.<ref name=":4" /> In the intervening four years, however, Honolulu businessmen of European and American ancestry had denounced Queen [[Liliuokalani]] as a tyrant who rejected constitutional government. In January 1893 they [[Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom|overthrew her]], set up a [[Provisional Government of Hawaii|provisional government]] under [[Sanford B. Dole]], and sought to join the United States.<ref name="nevins549">Nevins, 549–552; Graff 121–122</ref>

The Harrison administration had quickly agreed with representatives of the new government on a treaty of annexation and submitted it to the Senate for approval.<ref name="nevins549" /> However, the presence in Honolulu of [[U.S. marines|U.S. Marines]] from the [[USS Boston (1884)|USS ''Boston'']] while the coup unfolded, deployed at the request of U.S. Minister to Hawaii [[John L. Stevens]], caused serious controversy.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kinzer |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3o2BaNiJksC&q=%22john+l.+stevens%22&pg=PA9 |title=Overthrow |date=April 4, 2006 |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company]] |isbn=9780805078619 |location=New York |pages=30 |access-date=August 31, 2015}}</ref> Five days after taking office on March 9, 1893, Cleveland withdrew the treaty from the Senate and sent former Congressman [[James Henderson Blount]] to Hawai'i to investigate the situation.<ref name="blount">Nevins, 552–554; Graff, 122</ref>

Cleveland agreed with [[Blount Report|Blount's report]], which found the [[native Hawaiians]] to be opposed to annexation;<ref name="blount" /> the report also found U.S. diplomatic and military involvement in the coup.<ref name=":4" /> It included over a thousand pages of documents.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1894. Appendix 2: Affairs in Hawaii. |date=January 1895 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2021666777/ |access-date=May 19, 2023 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] }}</ref> A firm [[American Anti-Imperialist League|anti-imperialist]],<ref name=":3" /> Cleveland opposed American actions in Hawaii and called for the queen to be restored; he disapproved of the new provisional government under Dole.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> But matters stalled when Liliuokalani initially refused to grant amnesty as a condition for regaining her throne, saying she would either execute or banish the new leadership in Honolulu. Dole's government was in full control and rejected her demands.<ref name="nevins558">Nevins, 558–559</ref> By December 1893, the matter was still unresolved, and Cleveland referred the issue to Congress.<ref name="nevins558" /> Cleveland delivered a message to Congress dated December 18, 1893, rejecting annexation and encouraging Congress to continue the American tradition of nonintervention (see excerpt at right).<ref name="nevins560" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cleveland |first=Grover |title=President's message relating to the Hawaiian Islands. December 18, 1893. |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/06039135/ |access-date=May 2, 2024 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cleveland |first=Grover |date=December 18, 1893 |title=President's message relating to the Hawaiian Islands. |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1894app2/ch7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601231400/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1894app2/ch7 |archive-date=June 1, 2023 |website=[[Office of the Historian]], [[U.S. Department of State]]}}</ref> He expressed himself in forceful terms, saying the presence of U.S. forces near the Hawaiian [[Aliʻiōlani Hale|government building]] and [[ʻIolani Palace|royal palace]] during the coup was a "substantial wrong" and an "act of war," and lambasted the actions of minister [[John L. Stevens|Stevens]].<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> Cleveland described the incident as the "subversion of the constitutional Government of Hawaii," and argued "it has been the settled policy of the United States to concede to people of foreign countries the same freedom and independence in the management of their domestic affairs that we have always claimed for ourselves."<ref name=":5" />

The [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] adopted a resolution against annexation and voted to censure the U.S. minister.<ref name=":5" /> However the Senate, under Democratic control but opposed to Cleveland, commissioned and produced the [[Morgan Report]], which contradicted Blount's findings and found the overthrow was a completely internal affair.<ref>Welch, 174</ref> Senator [[John Tyler Morgan]] of Alabama, chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]], oversaw the report. It declared that the "action of the Queen in an effort to overturn the constitution of 1887...amounted to an act of abdication on her part."<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=The Morgan Report, pp. 363–398 |url=https://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=363-398 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231212202248/https://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=363-398 |archive-date=December 12, 2023 |access-date=May 18, 2023 |website=morganreport.org}}</ref> The "constitution of 1887" mentioned in the report was the so-called [[1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom|Bayonet Constitution]], which King [[Kalākaua|Kalakaua]] had signed under pressure that year.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wong |first1=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sY8iLDyCltMC |title=Hawaii's Royal History |last2=Rayson |first2=Ann |publisher=Bess Press |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-935848-48-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sY8iLDyCltMC&pg=PA196 196]}}</ref> The Morgan Report said that the troops landed on Oahu from the USS ''Boston'' gave "no demonstration of actual hostilities," and described their conduct as "quiet" and "respectful."<ref name=":6" /> The United States already had a presence in the region, and acquired exclusive rights to enter and establish a naval base at [[Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard|Pearl Harbor]] in 1887, when the [[Reciprocity Treaty of 1875]] was renewed during Cleveland's first term.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 {{!}} Hawaii-United States |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Reciprocity-Treaty-of-1875 |access-date=May 18, 2023}}</ref> Cleveland dropped his push to restore the queen, and went on to recognize and maintain diplomatic relations with the new [[Republic of Hawaii]] under President Dole, who took office in July 1894.<ref>McWilliams, 25–36</ref>

Closer to home, Cleveland adopted a broad interpretation of the [[Monroe Doctrine]] that not only prohibited new European colonies, but also declared an American national interest in any matter of substance within the hemisphere.<ref>Fareed Zakaria, ''From wealth to power: The unusual origins of America's world role'' (Princeton University Press, 1999) pp.  145–146</ref> When Britain and [[Venezuelan crisis of 1895|Venezuela]] disagreed over the boundary between Venezuela and the colony of [[British Guiana]], Cleveland and Secretary of State [[Richard Olney]] protested.<ref>Graff, 123–125; Nevins, 633–642</ref> British Prime Minister [[Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Robert Cecil]] and the British ambassador to Washington, [[Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote|Julian Pauncefote]], misjudged how important the dispute was to Washington, and to the anti-British Irish Catholic element in Cleveland's Democratic Party. They prolonged the crisis before accepting the American demand for arbitration.<ref>Paul Gibb, "Unmasterly Inactivity? Sir Julian Pauncefote, Lord Salisbury, and the Venezuela Boundary Dispute", ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'', Mar 2005, Vol. 16 Issue 1, pp. 23–55</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1841667|title = Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 47|issue = 2|pages = 259–277|last1 = Blake|first1 = Nelson M.|year = 1942|doi = 10.2307/1841667}}</ref> An international tribunal in 1899 awarded the bulk of the disputed territory to British Guiana.<ref>Graff, 123–125</ref> But by standing with a Latin American nation against the encroachment of a colonial power, Cleveland improved relations with Latin America. The cordial manner in which the arbitration was conducted also strengthened relations with Britain and encouraged the major powers to consider [[arbitration]] as a way to settle their disputes.<ref>Nevins, 550, 633–648</ref>

===Military policy, 1893–1897===
The second Cleveland administration was as committed to military modernization as the first, and ordered the first ships of a navy capable of offensive action. Construction continued on the Endicott program of [[Seacoast defense in the United States|coastal fortifications]] begun under Cleveland's first administration.<ref name="Berhow, pp. 9-10" /><ref name="cdsg.org" /> The adoption of the [[Krag–Jørgensen]] rifle, the U.S. Army's first bolt-action repeating rifle, was finalized.<ref>Bruce N. Canfield "The Foreign Rifle: U.S. Krag–Jørgensen" ''American Rifleman'' October 2010 pp. 86–89, 126, 129</ref><ref>Hanevik, Karl Egil (1998). Norske Militærgeværer etter 1867</ref> In 1895–1896 Secretary of the Navy [[Hilary A. Herbert]], having recently adopted the aggressive naval strategy advocated by Captain [[Alfred Thayer Mahan]], successfully proposed ordering five [[battleship]]s (the {{sclass|Kearsarge|battleship|5}} and {{sclass|Illinois|battleship|4}}es) and sixteen [[torpedo boat]]s.<ref>Friedman, pp. 35–38</ref><ref>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 162–165</ref> Completion of these ships nearly doubled the Navy's battleships and created a new torpedo boat force, which previously had only two boats. The battleships and seven of the torpedo boats were not completed until 1899–1901, after the Spanish–American War.<ref>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 102–104, 162–165</ref>

===Cancer===
[[File:Eastman Johnson - Grover Cleveland - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Official portrait of President Cleveland by [[Eastman Johnson]], {{circa|1891}}]]
In the midst of the fight for repeal of free-silver coinage in 1893, Cleveland sought the advice of the White House doctor, Robert O'Reilly,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lib.arizona.edu/hsl/materials/collections/secret-illness/cleveland |title=Grover Cleveland – Secret surgery |publisher=University of Arizona – University Libraries |access-date=October 3, 2024}}</ref> about soreness on the roof of his mouth and a crater-like edge ulcer with a granulated surface on the left side of Cleveland's [[hard palate]]. Clinical samples were sent anonymously to the [[National Museum of Health and Medicine|Army Medical Museum]]. The diagnosis was an [[epithelioma]], rather than a [[malignant]] cancer.<ref name="Renehan">{{cite journal |title=The oral tumours of two American presidents: what if they were alive today? |first1=Andrew |last1=Renehan |first2=John C. |last2=Lowry |journal=J R Soc Med |date=July 1995 |volume=88 |issue=7 |pages=377–383 |pmc=1295266 |pmid=7562805}}</ref>

Cleveland decided to have surgery secretly, to avoid further panic that might worsen the financial depression.<ref>Nevins, 528–529; Graff, 115–116</ref> The surgery occurred on July 1, to give Cleveland time to make a full recovery in time for the upcoming Congressional session.<ref>Nevins, 531–533</ref> Under the guise of a vacation cruise, Cleveland and his surgeon, [[Joseph D. Bryant]], left for New York. The surgeons operated aboard the ''[[USS Adelante (SP-765)|Oneida]]'', a yacht owned by Cleveland's friend [[Elias Cornelius Benedict]], as it sailed off [[Long Island]].<ref>Nevins, 529</ref> The surgery was conducted through the President's mouth, to avoid any scars or other signs of surgery.<ref name="nevins530">Nevins, 530–531</ref> The team, sedating Cleveland with [[nitrous oxide]] and [[Diethyl ether|ether]], successfully removed parts of his [[Maxilla|upper left jaw]] and hard palate.<ref name="nevins530" /> The size of the tumor and the extent of the operation left Cleveland's mouth disfigured.<ref name="nevins532">Nevins, 532–533</ref> During another surgery, Cleveland was fitted with a hard rubber dental prosthesis that corrected his speech and restored his appearance.<ref name="nevins532" /> A cover story about the removal of two bad teeth kept the suspicious press placated.<ref>Nevins, 533; Graff, 116</ref> Even when a newspaper story appeared giving details of the actual operation, the participating surgeons discounted the severity of what transpired during Cleveland's vacation.<ref name="nevins532" /> In 1917, one of the surgeons present on the ''Oneida'', [[William Williams Keen]], wrote an article detailing the operation.<ref name="Keen" />

Cleveland enjoyed many years of life after the tumor was removed, and there was some debate as to whether it was actually malignant. Several doctors, including Keen, stated after Cleveland's death that the tumor was a [[carcinoma]].<ref name="Keen">{{cite book |title=The Surgical Operations on President Cleveland in 1893 |last=Keen |first=William W. |year=1917 |publisher=G. W. Jacobs & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/surgicaloperati00keengoog}} The lump was preserved and is on display at the [[Mütter Museum]] in [[Philadelphia]]</ref>
Other suggestions included [[ameloblastoma]]<ref>{{cite journal |author=Hardig WG. |title=Oral surgery and the presidents – a century of contrast |journal=J Oral Surg |year=1974 |volume=32 |pages=490–493 |pmid=4601118 |issue=7}}</ref> or a benign salivary mixed tumor (also known as a [[pleomorphic adenoma]]).<ref>{{cite journal |author=Miller JM. |title=Stephen Grover Cleveland |journal=Surg Gynecol Obstet |year=1961 |volume=113 |pages=524–9 |pmid=13770838 }}</ref>
In the 1980s, analysis of the specimen finally confirmed the tumor to be [[verrucous carcinoma]],<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Brooks JJ |author2=Enterline HT |author3=Aponte GE. |title=The final diagnosis of President Cleveland's lesion |journal=Trans Stud Coll Physic Philadelphia |year=1908 |volume=2 |issue=1}}</ref> a low-grade epithelial cancer with a low potential for [[metastasis]].<ref name="Renehan" />
{{Clear}}

===Administration and cabinet===
[[Image:Cleveland Second Cabinet.png|thumb|right|upright=1.65|Cleveland's last Cabinet. <br />Front row, left to right: [[Daniel S. Lamont]], [[Richard Olney]], Cleveland, [[John G. Carlisle]], [[Judson Harmon]] <br /> Back row, left to right: [[David R. Francis]], William Lyne Wilson, [[Hilary A. Herbert]], [[Julius S. Morton]] ]]

{{Infobox U.S. Cabinet
| Name = Second Cleveland
| align = none
| President = Grover Cleveland
| President start = 1893
| President end = 1897
| Vice President = [[Adlai E. Stevenson I]]
| Vice President start = 1893
| Vice President end = 1897
| State = [[Walter Q. Gresham]]
| State start = 1893
| State end = 1895
| State 2 = [[Richard Olney]]
| State start 2 = 1895
| State end 2 = 1897
| Treasury = [[John G. Carlisle]]
| Treasury start = 1893
| Treasury end = 1897
| War = [[Daniel S. Lamont]]
| War start = 1893
| War end = 1897
| Justice = [[Richard Olney]]
| Justice start = 1893
| Justice end = 1895
| Justice 2 = [[Judson Harmon]]
| Justice start 2 = 1895
| Justice end 2 = 1897
| Post = [[Wilson S. Bissell]]
| Post start = 1893
| Post end = 1895
| Post 2 = [[William Lyne Wilson]]
| Post start 2 = 1895
| Post end 2 = 1897
| Navy = [[Hilary A. Herbert]]
| Navy start = 1893
| Navy end = 1897
| Interior = [[M. Hoke Smith]]
| Interior start = 1893
| Interior end = 1896
| Interior 2 = [[David R. Francis]]
| Interior start 2 = 1896
| Interior end 2 = 1897
| Agriculture = [[Julius Sterling Morton]]
| Agriculture start = 1893
| Agriculture end = 1897
}}
{{Clear}}

===Judicial appointments===
{{main|List of federal judges appointed by Grover Cleveland}}

Cleveland's trouble with the Senate hindered the success of his nominations to the Supreme Court in his second term. In 1893, after the death of [[Samuel Blatchford]], Cleveland nominated [[William B. Hornblower]] to the Court.<ref name="nevins569">Nevins, 569–570</ref> Hornblower, the head of a New York City law firm, was thought to be a qualified appointee, but his campaign against a New York machine politician had made Senator David B. Hill his enemy.<ref name="nevins569" /> Further, Cleveland had not consulted the Senators before naming his appointee, leaving many who were already opposed to Cleveland on other grounds even more aggrieved.<ref name="nevins569" /> The Senate rejected Hornblower's nomination on January 15, 1894, by a vote of 24 to 30.<ref name="nevins569" />

Cleveland continued to defy the Senate by next appointing [[Wheeler Hazard Peckham]] another New York attorney who had opposed Hill's machine in that state.<ref name="nevins570">Nevins, 570–571</ref> Hill used all of his influence to block Peckham's confirmation, and on February 16, 1894, the Senate rejected the nomination by a vote of 32 to 41.<ref name="nevins570" /> Reformers urged Cleveland to continue the fight against Hill and to nominate [[Frederic René Coudert, Sr.|Frederic R. Coudert]], but Cleveland acquiesced in an inoffensive choice, that of Senator [[Edward Douglass White]] of [[Louisiana]], whose nomination was accepted unanimously.<ref name="nevins570" /> Later, in 1895, another vacancy on the Court led Cleveland to consider Hornblower again, but he declined to be nominated.<ref name="nevins572">Nevins, 572</ref> Instead, Cleveland nominated [[Rufus Wheeler Peckham]], the brother of Wheeler Hazard Peckham, and the Senate confirmed the second Peckham easily.<ref name="nevins572" />

===States admitted to the Union===
No new states were [[Admission to the Union|admitted to the Union]] during Cleveland's first term. On February 22, 1889, {{age in days|Feb 22, 1889|March 4, 1889}} days before leaving office, the [[50th United States Congress|50th Congress]] passed the [[Enabling Act of 1889]], authorizing [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Montana]], and [[Washington (state)|Washington]] to form state governments and to gain admission to the Union. All four officially became states in November 1889, during the first year of the [[Benjamin Harrison administration]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Today in History: November 11|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov11.html|website=loc.gov|publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Today in History: November 2|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov02.html|website=loc.gov|publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref> During Cleveland's second term, the [[53rd United States Congress]] passed an Enabling Act that permitted [[Utah]] to apply for statehood. Cleveland signed it on July 16, 1894.<ref>{{cite book |title=Monetary Policy in the United States: An Intellectual and Institutional History |last=Timberlake |first=Richard H. |year=1993 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-80384-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/monetarypolicyin0000timb/page/77 77] |url=https://archive.org/details/monetarypolicyin0000timb/page/77}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Struggle For Statehood Chronology|url=https://historytogo.utah.gov/struggle-statehood-chronology/|last=Thatcher|first=Linda |website=historytogo.utah.gov|year=2016|publisher=State of Utah|access-date=March 18, 2020}}</ref> Utah joined the Union as the 45th state on January 4, 1896.<ref>{{cite web|title=Struggle For Statehood Chronology|url=http://www.historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehood_and_the_progressive_era/struggleforstatehoodchronology.html|last=Thatcher|first=Linda|website=historytogo.utah.gov|date=2016|publisher=State of Utah|access-date=December 19, 2024|archive-date=April 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420100616/http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehood_and_the_progressive_era/struggleforstatehoodchronology.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Election of 1896 and retirement (1897–1908)==
[[File:Grover Cleveland - NARA - 518139 (cropped) (2).jpg|thumb|upright|left|Cleveland in 1904]]
Cleveland's agrarian and silverite enemies took control of state Democratic parties over the course of his second term, such that Cleveland's pro-gold ideology was marginalized outside of urban areas in solidly Democratic states such as Arkansas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Niswonger |first=Richard L. |date=1975 |title=Arkansas and the Election of 1896 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40027649 |journal=[[The Arkansas Historical Quarterly]] |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=41–78 |doi=10.2307/40027649 |jstor=40027649 |access-date=August 15, 2024 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> They gained control of the national Democratic Party in [[1896 United States presidential election|1896]], repudiated his administration and the gold standard, and nominated William Jennings Bryan on a free-silver platform.<ref>Nevins, 684–693</ref><ref>R. Hal Williams, ''Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s'' (1993)</ref> Cleveland silently supported the [[National Democratic Party (United States)|Gold Democrats]]' third-party ticket that promised to defend the gold standard, limit government, and oppose high tariffs, but he declined their nomination for a third term.<ref>Graff, 128–129</ref> The party won only 100,000 votes in the general election, and [[William McKinley]], the Republican nominee, triumphed over Bryan.<ref>{{Leip PV source 2|year=1896| as of=February 23, 2008}}</ref> Agrarians nominated Bryan again in [[1900 United States presidential election|1900]]. In [[1904 United States presidential election|1904]], the conservatives, with Cleveland's support, regained control of the Democratic Party and nominated [[Alton B. Parker]].<ref>Nevins, 754–758</ref>

[[File:McKinley sworn in.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.2|Outgoing President Cleveland, at right, stands nearby as William McKinley is sworn in as president by Chief Justice [[Melville Fuller]].]]

After leaving the White House on March 4, 1897, Cleveland lived in retirement at his estate, [[Westland Mansion]], in [[Princeton, New Jersey]].<ref>Graff, 131–133; Nevins, 730–735</ref> He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1897.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Grover+Cleveland&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=February 28, 2024 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> For a time, he was a trustee of [[Princeton University]], and was one of the majority of trustees who preferred the dean [[Andrew Fleming West]]'s plans for the Graduate School and undergraduate living over those of Woodrow Wilson, then president of the university.<ref>Graff, p. 131; Alexander Leitch, ''A Princeton Companion'', Princeton Univ Press, 1978, "[http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/cleveland_grover.html Grover Cleveland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626001650/http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/cleveland_grover.html |date=June 26, 2013 }}"</ref> Cleveland consulted occasionally with President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) but was financially unable to accept the chairmanship of the commission handling the [[Coal Strike of 1902]].<ref>Nevins, 748–751</ref> Cleveland still made his views known in political matters. In a 1905 article in ''The Ladies Home Journal'', Cleveland weighed in on the [[women's suffrage]] movement, writing that "sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence."<ref>''Ladies Home Journal'' 22, (October 1905), 7–8</ref>

In 1906, a group of New Jersey Democrats promoted Cleveland as a possible candidate for the [[United States Senate]]. The incumbent, [[John F. Dryden]], was not seeking reelection, and some Democrats felt that the former president could attract the votes of some disaffected Republican legislators who might be drawn to Cleveland's statesmanship and conservatism.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dryden Forces Gather to Make Their Fight|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1906/11/11/archives/dryden-forces-gather-to-make-their-fight-conference-of-south-jersey.html|access-date=March 4, 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 11, 1906}}</ref>

{{anchor|Death}}

== Death ==
[[File:Grover Cleveland's latest portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|right|The last known photograph of Cleveland by [[Underwood & Underwood]] (1907)]]
Cleveland's health had been declining for several years, and in the autumn of 1907, he fell seriously ill.<ref name="graff135">Graff, 135–136; Nevins, 762–764</ref> In 1908, he suffered a [[heart attack]] and died on June 24 at age 71 in his [[Westland Mansion|Princeton residence]].<ref name="graff135" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Grover Cleveland Home: Westland, New Jersey |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/grover_cleveland_home.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903123659/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/grover_cleveland_home.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 3, 2014 |website=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=December 18, 2020}}</ref> His last words were, "I have tried so hard to do right."<ref>Jeffers, 340; Graff, 135. Nevins makes no mention of these last words.</ref> He is buried at [[Princeton Cemetery]] of the [[Nassau Presbyterian Church]].<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Roberts | first1 = Russell | title = Discover the Hidden New Jersey | publisher = Rutgers University Press | year = 1995 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JSV6vZkLt1wC | access-date = August 22, 2012 | isbn = 978-0-8135-2252-4}}</ref>

==Honors and memorials==
In his first term in office, Cleveland sought a summer house to escape the heat and smells of Washington, D.C. He secretly bought a farmhouse, Oak View (or Oak Hill), in a then rural upland part of the District of Columbia, in 1886, and remodeled it into a [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne style]] summer estate. He sold Oak View upon losing his bid for reelection in 1888. Not long thereafter, suburban residential development reached the area, which came to be known as Oak View, and then Cleveland Heights, and eventually [[Cleveland Park]].<ref>Kimberly Prothro Williams, ''Cleveland Park Historic District'' brochure, D.C. Preservation League, 2001.</ref> The Clevelands are depicted in local murals.<ref>See, ''e.g.''{{cite web|url=http://www.clevelandparkdc.org/cphistory.htm |title=A Brief History of Cleveland Park |publisher=Cleveland Park Historical Society |access-date=April 8, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126221758/http://www.clevelandparkdc.org/cphistory.htm |archive-date=November 26, 2011}}</ref>

Grover Cleveland Hall at [[Buffalo State University]] in New York is named after Cleveland. Cleveland was a member of the first board of directors of the then Buffalo Normal School.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wwwu.buffalostate.edu/tour/tours/view/campus/15 |title=Buffalo State College Cleveland Hall |access-date=November 11, 2009 |archive-date=July 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130702161609/http://wwwu.buffalostate.edu/tour/tours/view/campus/15 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Grover Cleveland Middle School (Caldwell, New Jersey)|Grover Cleveland Middle School]] in his birthplace, Caldwell, New Jersey, was named for him, as is [[Grover Cleveland High School (Buffalo, New York)]], the town of [[Cleveland, Mississippi]], and [[Mount Cleveland (Alaska)|Mount Cleveland]] in Alaska.<ref>{{cite web|title=The geology, Geochemistry, and Petrology of the recent Magmatic Phase of the Central and Western Aleutian Arc|url=http://www.avo.alaska.edu/pdfs/cit1997_5.0.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182209/http://www.avo.alaska.edu/pdfs/cit1997_5.0.pdf |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=live|publisher=[[University of Wyoming]]|access-date=September 9, 2010|first=James D. |last=Myers|format=Unpublished manuscript|year=1994|page=41}}</ref>

In 1895, he became [[List of United States presidential firsts#Grover Cleveland (1885–1889, 1893–1897)|the first U.S. president to be filmed]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.presidentsgraves.com/grover%20cleveland%20twenty-fourth%20president.htm |title=Grover Cleveland 24th President |publisher=Presidentsgraves.com |date=June 24, 1908 |access-date=October 17, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801195145/http://www.presidentsgraves.com/grover%20cleveland%20twenty-fourth%20president.htm |archive-date=August 1, 2012 }}</ref> The first U.S. postage stamp to honor Cleveland appeared in 1923. His only two subsequent stamp appearances have been in issues devoted to the full roster of U.S. Presidents, released, respectively, in 1938<ref>{{cite web |title=Grover Cleveland |url=http://usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=1d57ccdb172aa69de437d5a52d2029e4f6250db2&Grover_Cleveland |website=usstampgallery.com |access-date=November 29, 2024}}</ref> and 1986.<ref>{{cite web |title=Grover Cleveland |url=http://www.usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=d2dabe53b5d9efcbb902371d12ade4148d0a9635&Grover_Cleveland |website=usstampgallery.com |access-date=November 29, 2024}}</ref>

Cleveland's portrait was on the U.S. [[Large denominations of United States currency|$1000 bill]] of series 1928 and series 1934. He also appeared on the [[United States twenty dollar bill#Federal Reserve history|$20]] [[Federal Reserve Note]] of series 1914 and the $20 [[Federal Reserve Bank Note]] of series 1915 and series 1918. Since he was both the 22nd and 24th president, he was featured on two separate dollar coins released in 2012 as part of the [[Presidential $1 Coin Program|Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005]].<ref>{{cite web |title=2012 Presidential $1 Coins |url=https://www.coinnews.net/presidentialdollars/2012-presidential-1-coins/ |website=coinnews.net |publisher=CoinNews Media Group LLC. |access-date=November 29, 2024 |archive-date=May 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250512190403/http://www.coinnews.net/presidentialdollars/2012-presidential-1-coins/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2013, Cleveland was inducted into the [[New Jersey Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kuperinsky |first=Amy |date=January 15, 2014 |title=New Jersey Hall of Fame inducts Grover Cleveland, Whitney Houston |url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2014/01/new_jersey_hall_of_fame_class_of_2013_inducted.html |access-date=March 12, 2024 |publisher=[[NJ.com]]}}</ref>

{| style="margin:auto"
| [[File:US-$1000-GC-1934-Fr.2409.jpg| thumb|upright=1.4|Grover Cleveland on a [[United States one thousand-dollar bill|$1000]] [[Gold Certificate]] (1934) ]]
| &nbsp;
| [[File:Grover Cleveland, 1931 & 1938 issues.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6| Grover Cleveland Postal Issues of 1931 & 1938]]
|}

==See also==
* [[Grover Cleveland Birthplace]]
* [[List of children of presidents of the United States#Grover Cleveland and Maria Halpin|Child with Maria Halpin]]
* [[List of children of presidents of the United States#Grover and Frances Cleveland|Children with Frances Cleveland]]
* [[List of presidents of the United States]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | last = Bauer | first = K. Jack | author-link = K. Jack Bauer | author2=Roberts, Stephen S. | title = Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants | publisher = Greenwood Press | year = 1991 | location = [[Westport, Connecticut]] | isbn = 978-0-313-26202-9 }}
* Bard, Mitchell. "Ideology and Depression Politics I: Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)" ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1985 15(1): 77–88. {{ISSN|0360-4918}}
* [[David T. Beito|Beito, David T.]] and [[Linda Royster Beito|Beito, Linda Royster]]. "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896–1900". ''Independent Review'' 4 (Spring 2000), 555–575.
* {{cite book | editor-last1 = Berhow | editor-first1 = Mark A. | title = American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide |edition=Third | location = McLean, Virginia | publisher = CDSG Press | year = 2015 | isbn = 978-0-9748167-3-9}}
* {{cite journal|jstor = 1841667|title = Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 47|issue = 2|pages = 259–277|last1 = Blake|first1 = Nelson M.|year = 1942|doi = 10.2307/1841667}}
* Blodgett, Geoffrey. "Ethno-cultural Realities in Presidential Patronage: Grover Cleveland's Choices" ''New York History'' 2000 81(2): 189–210. {{ISSN|0146-437X}} when a German American leader called for fewer appointments of Irish Americans, Cleveland instead appointed more Germans
* Blodgett, Geoffrey. "The Emergence of Grover Cleveland: a Fresh Appraisal" ''New York History'' 1992 73(2): 132–168. {{ISSN|0146-437X}} covers Cleveland to 1884
* Blum, John. ''The National Experience'' (1993) {{ISBN|978-0-15-500366-8}}
* Brodsky, Alan. ''Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character'', (2000). {{ISBN|978-0-312-26883-1}}
* {{cite book|title=Benjamin Harrison|author=Calhoun, Charles William|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8050-6952-5|publisher=Macmillan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mLuIx6z1qcC&q=benjamin+harrison}}
* Cleaver, Nick. ''Grover Cleveland's New Foreign Policy: Arbitration, Neutrality, and the Dawn of American Empire'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
* DeSantis, Vincent P. "Grover Cleveland: Another Look". ''Hayes Historical Journal'' 1980 3(1–2): 41–50. {{ISSN|0364-5924}}, argues his energy, honesty, and devotion to duty—much more than his actual accomplishments established his claim to greatness.
* Dewey, Davis R. '' National Problems: 1880–1897'' (1907), [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9950113 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608025727/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9950113 |date=June 8, 2012 }}
* Doenecke, Justus. "Grover Cleveland and the Enforcement of the Civil Service Act" ''Hayes Historical Journal'' 1984 4(3): 44–58. {{ISSN|0364-5924}}
* Dunlap, Annette B. ''Frank: The Story of Frances Folsom Cleveland, America's Youngest First Lady'' (2015) [https://www.amazon.com/Frank-Cleveland-Americas-Youngest-Excelsior/dp/1438428189/ excerpt]
* Dupont, Brandon. "'Henceforth, I Must Have No Friends': Evaluating the Economic Policies of Grover Cleveland". ''Independent Review'' 18.4 (2014): 559–579. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24563170 online]
* Faulkner, Harold U. ''Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890–1900'' (1959), [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8541336 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120726123153/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=8541336 |date=July 26, 2012 }}
* Ford, Henry Jones. ''The Cleveland Era: A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics'' (1921), [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext02/cleve10.txt short overview online]
* Gould, Lewis. ''America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1914'' (2001) {{ISBN|978-0-582-35671-9}}
* Graff, Henry F. ''Grover Cleveland'' (2002). {{ISBN|978-0-8050-6923-5}}, short biography by scholar
* Grossman, Mark, ''Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed'' (2003) {{ISBN|978-1-57607-060-4}}.
* Haeffele-Balch, Stefanie, and Virgil Henry Storr. "Grover Cleveland against the special interests". ''The Independent Review'' 18.4 (2014): 581–596. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24563171 online]
* Hirsch, Mark D. ''William C. Whitney, Modern Warwick'' (1948), biography of key political associate
* Hoffman, Karen S. "'Going Public' in the Nineteenth Century: Grover Cleveland's Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act" ''Rhetoric and Public Affairs'' 2002 5(1): 57–77. [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rhetoric_and_public_affairs/summary/v005/5.1hoffman.html in Project MUSE]
* {{cite journal|jstor=2114113|title=The Depression of the Nineties|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=16|issue=2|pages=137–164|last1=Hoffmann|first1=Charles|year=1956|doi=10.1017/S0022050700058629|s2cid=155082457 }}
* Hoffmann, Charles. ''Depression of the nineties; an economic history'' (1970)
* Jeffers, H. Paul, ''An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland'' (2000), {{ISBN|978-0-380-97746-8}}.
* {{cite journal|jstor = 2711386|title = Presbyterianism, Jacksonianism and Grover Cleveland|journal = American Quarterly|volume = 18|issue = 4|pages = 615–636|last1 = Kelley|first1 = Robert|year = 1966|doi = 10.2307/2711386}}
* Klinghard, Daniel P. "Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and the emergence of the president as party leader". ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 35.4 (2005): 736–760.
* Lambert, John R. ''Arthur Pue Gorman'' (1953)
* Lindsey, Almont. ''The Pullman Strike'' (1942) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.522921 online]

* Lynch, G. Patrick "U.S. Presidential Elections in the Nineteenth Century: Why Culture and the Economy Both Mattered". ''Polity'' 35#1 (2002) pp.&nbsp;29–50. focus on election of 1884
* McElroy, Robert. ''Grover Cleveland, the Man and the Statesman: An Authorized Biography'' (1923) Vol. I, Vol. II, old fashioned narrative
* McFarland, Gerald W. ''Mugwumps, morals, & politics, 1884–1920'' (1975) {{ISBN|978-0-87023-175-9}}
* McWilliams, Tennant S., "James H. Blount, the South, and Hawaiian Annexation". ''Pacific Historical Review'' 1988 57(1): 25–46.
* Merrill, Horace Samuel. ''Bourbon Leader: Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party'' (1957) 228 pp
* Morgan, H. Wayne. ''From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896'' (1969).
* [[Allan Nevins|Nevins, Allan]]. ''Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage'' (1932) Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, the major resource on Cleveland.
* Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. ''A History of the United States since the Civil War. Volume V, 1888–1901'' (Macmillan, 1937).  791 pp; comprehensive old-fashioned political history
* Pafford, John M. ''The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland'' (Simon and Schuster, 2013). [https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Conservative-Rediscovering-Grover-Cleveland/dp/1621570371/ref=monarch_sidesheet excerpt]
** Dwight D. Murphey, "The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland" ''The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies'' 38#4 (Winter 2013): 491–500. review
* Reitano, Joanne R. ''The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate of 1888'' (1994). {{ISBN|978-0-271-01035-9}}.
* Rhodes, James Ford. ''History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850: 1877–1896'' (1919) [https://archive.org/details/historyunitedst04rhodgoog online complete]; old, factual and heavily political, by winner of Pulitzer Prize
* Senik, Troy. ''A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland'' (Threshold Editions, 2022).
* Sturgis, Amy H. ed. ''Presidents from Hayes Through McKinley: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents'' (Greenwood, 2003).
* Summers, Mark Wahlgren. ''Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884'' (2000). {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4849-4}}. campaign techniques and issues [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104865169 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123070223/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104865169 |date=November 23, 2011 }}
* [[Rexford Guy Tugwell|Tugwell, Rexford Guy]], ''Grover Cleveland'' Simon & Schuster, Inc. (1968).
* Walters, Ryan S. ''Grover Cleveland: The Last Jeffersonian President'' (2021) [https://www.amazon.com/Grover-Cleveland-Last-Jeffersonian-President/dp/1733407529/ excerpt]
* Welch, Richard E. Jr. ''The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland'' (1988) {{ISBN|978-0-7006-0355-8}}, scholarly study of the presidential years
* [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson, Woodrow]], ''Mr. Cleveland as President'' ''Atlantic Monthly'' (March 1897): pp.&nbsp;289–301 online; Wilson later became president
* [[Fareed Zakaria|Zakaria, Fareed]] ''From Wealth to Power'' (1999) Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-691-01035-9}}.
{{refend}}

::'''Primary sources'''
{{refbegin}}
* Cleveland, Grover. ''The Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland'' (1892) [https://archive.org/details/writingsandspee01clevgoog online edition]
* Cleveland, Grover. ''Presidential Problems.'' (1904) [https://archive.org/details/presidentialpro00clevgoog online edition]
* Nevins, Allan ed. ''Letters of Grover Cleveland, 1850–1908'' (1933)
* {{cite book |author=National Democratic Committee |url=https://archive.org/details/campaigntextboo01goog |title=Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party |publisher=National Democratic committee |year=1896}}, handbook of the Gold Democrats, who admired Cleveland
* Sturgis, Amy H. ed. ''Presidents from Hayes through McKinley, 1877–1901: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents'' (2003) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102138409 online edition]
* Wilson, William L. ''The Cabinet Diary of William L. Wilson, 1896–1897'' (1957) [https://www.questia.com/library/book/the-cabinet-diary-of-william-l-wilson-1896-1897-by-william-l-wilson.jsp online edition]
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=Grover Cleveland |n=no |b=no |s=Author:Grover Cleveland |v=no}}

'''Letters and speeches'''
* [http://millercenter.org/president/speeches#cleveland Text of a number of Cleveland's speeches] at the [[Miller Center of Public Affairs]]
* [http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/vc19810.htm Finding Aid to the Grover Cleveland Manuscripts, 1867–1908] at the [[New York State Library]]. Retrieved May 11, 2016
* [http://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/groverclevelandlet/ 10 letters written by Grover Cleveland in 1884–86]
* [http://www.shapell.org/Collection/Presidents/Cleveland-Grover Grover Cleveland Personal Manuscripts]

'''Media coverage'''
* {{New York Times topic|new_id=person/grover-cleveland}}

'''Other'''
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/cleveland/index.html Grover Cleveland: A Resource Guide], [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/BECHS/lists/3508848?view=&count=100&se=ts&sd=asc&qt=sort_ts_asc%20target= Grover Cleveland]: A bibliography by the [[Buffalo History Museum]]
* [https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=ztsjq7JTPJAg.kFIhQuktgFMA Grover Cleveland Sites in Buffalo, NY]: A Google Map developed by The [[Buffalo History Museum]]
* [https://www.slideshare.net/BuffaloHistory/top-five-urban-legends-about-grover-cleveland-in-buffalo Top Five Urban Legends About Grover Cleveland in Buffalo]: A slide deck by the Buffalo History Museum.
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/64060012/ Index to the Grover Cleveland Papers at the Library of Congress]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080318185934/http://millercenter.org/index.php/academic/americanpresident/cleveland Essay on Cleveland and each member of his cabinet and First Lady], Miller Center of Public Affairs
* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?151466-1/life-portrait-grover-cleveland "Life Portrait of Grover Cleveland"], from [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[American Presidents: Life Portraits]]'', August 13, 1999
* [https://www.c-span.org/video/?157925-1/honest-president Interview with H. Paul Jeffers on ''An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland''], ''[[Booknotes]]'' (2000)
* {{Gutenberg author | id=1654| name=Grover Cleveland}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11294}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Grover Cleveland}}
* {{iMDb name|0166479}}

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