Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)

Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), was the only president who served two terms that did not directly follow each other. He won the presidency in 1884, but lost it four years later to Benjamin Harrison. He ran against Harrison again in 1892 and won a second term. Cleveland was the first Democratic president elected after the American Civil War (1861-1865). This very fact showed that wartime issues had lost some of their force in defining party loyalties. Cleveland’s victory also was a protest against the politics-as-usual of the spoils system. His honesty and common sense helped restore confidence in the government. These qualities had served him in his earlier successes as a lawyer, sheriff, and mayor, and as governor of New York.

As president, Cleveland had the courage to say "No." He said it often—to farmers who sought easy money to pay their debts, to manufacturers who wanted high protective tariffs, and to veterans who wanted looser requirements for getting a pension. These "No's" made Cleveland unpopular in his time, but have added to the respect with which history holds him.

This big, good-humored man, called "Uncle Jumbo" by his relatives, occupied the White House during a time of swift social and economic change. The growing strength of labor unions and farm organizations created new problems for government.

Cleveland lacked the experience and vision to find completely satisfactory answers to all the problems. In 1894, he attempted to settle a labor strike by force—the legal force of court injunctions and the physical force of army troops. Cleveland clung steadfastly to his faith in "sound" money and a low tariff as a cure for the nation's other economic ills. Although Cleveland's intentions were good, his methods fell short of success.

The era of the western frontier was drawing to a close when Cleveland took office. Settlers in the southwestern United States breathed easier when federal troops captured the Apache warrior Geronimo. Jacob Riis shocked a complacent public with newspaper stories of how "the other half" lived in rundown slums.

During Cleveland’s second term, the Duryea brothers built America’s first automobile. A Kansas preacher, Charles M. Sheldon, wrote In His Steps (1896), one of the world’s all-time best sellers. Americans of the Gay Nineties enjoyed Victor Herbert’s early operettas. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, they applauded John Philip Sousa’s band and rode the first Ferris wheel ever built. But it was also a time of great hardship. The urban poor lived crowded together in slums. A depression slowed the economy to a near standstill, and unemployment soared.