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Grover Cleveland Born: March 18, 1837 Died: June 24, 1908 Democratic Party First Term: March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1889 Second Term: March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897 Vice Presidents: Thomas Hendricks (1st term) – Adlai Stevenson (2nd term)

American Identity:

Similar to most presidents in the past, Grover Cleveland suffered some hardship before he was president. His father died when he was a teenager and he had to go home a support the family. Later, he moved west and looked to find a better job. Eventually, Cleveland worked his way up through hard work and dedication and became the Mayor of Buffalo, New York and then the governor of New York. Throughout this, he learned that you had to be independent and work to make yourself happy and courage and pride in his work and actions. When depression hit the United States in Cleveland’s second term, Cleveland didn’t have a lot to offer to help, but his strong reputation as an honest and courageous person helped him survive and get through the hardships. Many say that Grover Cleveland was one of the most honest and independent presidents and he used these things to better the nation. Cleveland set a great example by not getting in any trouble as president or representing the United States in a negative way. Grover Cleveland possessed some of the talents that many others did not have.

Rating:

As president of the United States, Grover Cleveland deserves a D for his presidency because of the amount of bills he vetoed and severely hurting the Democratic Party in the future elections with the Depression of 1893. Also, he opposed imperialism and expanding the nation so he did little activity in foreign nations to help the economy. Finally, despite his honesty, courage and relentlessness against high tariffs and political corruption, Cleveland was heavily criticized for his lack of ability to help the nation when they were in need, such as in the national depression or strikes across the workforce.

One of Cleveland’s goals in his first presidential address was to represent all of the people and not just one specific group. He wanted to let the farmers have a say and the workers and the businessmen. These people have the rights to vote for the president and follow the laws to live a good life and all of them deserve an equal say in government. He also wanted to keep a distinction between the federal and the state governments and the people. Each one has its own powers and Cleveland was going to do his best in the executive branch of the national government. In his second address, one stand out thing he said was that the government would try to keep a stable currency. Ironically, a financial depression broke out right in the beginning of his second term. Finally, he said that he has trust in his Cabinet and all of the people around him and they would work together to make the best decisions possible. Overall, Grover Cleveland wanted to let everyone have a say and use all of those opinions to help improve the United States.

As stated above, Cleveland had a very good relationship with his cabinet. He had confidence in them and placed some of the responsibilities in their hands to help him with decisions. When he started his presidency, he did not remove all of the Republicans in Congress with the spoils system. Instead, he kept all of the hard working and good Republicans in his opinion in Congress and replaced a few of the bad ones. This goes back to Cleveland’s honesty and trust in his administration. He knew that anyone would help him out to make the right decisions no matter which party they were in. Finally, Cleveland got a huge privilege of appointing four Supreme Court justices throughout his two terms. This was huge for the Republicans because these people were in for life and could help make decisions for their party. He also appointed over forty federal judges around the country. Cleveland had a lot of power within his cabinet, but he also spread the power out throughout the people he trusted in his administration.

In addition, Cleveland’s first presidency wasn’t the most eventful. One of the positives in this term was the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. This group regulated the trade of goods over railroads from state to state and made sure there were no unfair rates or trusts and monopolies occurring that would make unfair markets. However, Grant angered the railroads by sending people to investigate the western lands. On the other hand, Cleveland backed the gold standard rather than the silver standard that was wanted by many people and supported lower tariffs. Since the Civil war, Tariffs were very high because of the Republicans in office and them supporting American industries. Cleveland worked to pass acts to lower these tariffs, but no significant ones were passed. Cleveland was not for imperialism and expanding into foreign land and was not the most accepting with other races. He was slow to accept blacks and grant them jobs and saw the Chinese as people who couldn’t be joined into the white society. Finally, the biggest flaw in his first term was the amount of laws the vetoed. He vetoed a law to help grant pensions for disabilities and another for Civil War veterans. Cleveland used this power far more than any other president around him and delayed the improvements for these things in the future.

In his second term, Cleveland was forced to deal with a depression right off the bat. There was a lack of gold available and many people blamed the panic on the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Building on his last term, Cleveland passed a bill that reversed the effects on the McKinley tariff. This lowered the prices and helped revise the tariff on raw materials. Later, Coxey’s army formed and wanted more jobs available for the workingmen and weaker currency to help the farmers pay their debts. This showed the West’s agitation with the East’s businesses. In Chicago, Pullmans Strike broke out when a ton of railroad workers went on strike and refused to negotiate. This ended when Cleveland sent troops there and got the workers to return to their jobs. This greatly affected the commerce and showed Cleveland’s willingness to use his power. Finally, Cleveland showed a little bit of foreign policy when he denied the annexation of Hawaii. He wanted to keep the country away from any out of country distractions and focus on the problems with in the country. A side note to everything is the states that were admitted into the Union under Cleveland. He let none enter during his first term and after Harrison admitted six in between his two terms, Cleveland admitted Utah into the Union in his second term. Cleveland had a lot of problems within the country and didn’t handle some of them the best way he could have.

Looking into the future, the decision that had the greatest impact was Cleveland’s lack of foreign relations. As soon as McKinley took over, he annexed Hawaii and looked to help the Philippines and go to war with Spain. This was one of the main problems with having a Democrat in office and then many years of Republicans with McKinley and Roosevelt. To his defense, it was wise of him to focus within the country for a short while and let other more aggressive presidents deal with other countries. If Cleveland would have dealt more with other countries, the future would be different in a way we can’t really predict. Also, if Cleveland would not have changed some of the tariffs, the North would have been a lot more successful with their industries and the South would be struggling to keep up with the demands. Finally, Cleveland and his strong veto habits strengthened the power of the executive branch over the whole government and showed the world that the president has the final decision over everything. Cleveland contradicted many of the other presidents around him and stunted the growth of the nation by not expanded out of the country.

In the end, Grover Cleveland deserves a D for his presidency. On the positive side, he had great trust in his people, established a few good commissions and tariffs and stayed focus on the problems within the country. However, he used his veto power too much which could have passed laws to help the country. Also, he didn’t expand in a time where the other big countries were and it was necessary to grow the economy. President Cleveland made history by serving two non-consecutive terms, but made many decisions that turn out to not help the United States, therefore receiving the grade of a D.

Works Cited

"American President: Grover Cleveland: A Life in Brief." //Miller Center//. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. . "Grover Cleveland: Inaugural Address." //The American Presidency Project//. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. . "Grover Cleveland." //NNDB: Tracking the Entire World//. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. . "Grover Cleveland." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. . "Grover Cleveland." //The White House//. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .