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=Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908)=

First Term: March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1889 (22nd President) Vice President: Adlai Ewing Stevenson I Second Term: March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897 (24th President) Vice President: Thomas Andrews Hendricks

Outline:
Stephen Grover Cleveland, more commonly referred to as Grover Cleveland, displayed many qualities that made him a great character for president. It’s also evident the people liked him too because he won the popular vote for three elections. This is very believable seeing that he was all for the people, being a democrat. Overall I would give Cleveland a B- for his efforts in reform and his decisions as president.

Grover was the first democrat to go into office for awhile. One of his goals/duties was to appoint people for positions in the government. Being ever fair to the people he stated “I will not fire any Republican who is doing their job well”. He said this even thought under the spoils system he had every right to fire some republicans and fill all the open positions with Democrats. Another goal of his was to lower the protective tariffs. This was a big issue in his campaign, and being a democrat he wanted to lower the taxes, because he felt it was robbing the people to keep allowing the treasury to build up, when American people were paying high tariff rates.

Cleveland and his congress didn’t have a very good relationship most of the time during his first term. This was because most of them were republicans and proposed bills that didn’t agree with his values as a democrat. He became known as the veto president because he vetoed so many bills that the senate proposed. The main thing he vetoed was private pension bills for the veterans of the civil war. His most famous veto was the veto of Texas seed bill. This was when there was a bad drought and congress proposed to buy new grain for the farmers. He had a better relationship with congress when he used the spoils system to replace some republicans with democrats. It also affected his success in appointing new Supreme Court judges in his second term.

President Cleveland’s worst decisions were the decisions he made in the Depression. He repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act which had the US treasury tank, going from 100 million to 41 million. Then Cleveland talked a bank into loaning the government 65 million dollars. This provided only temporary support and in the long run was worse because the government had to pay 7 million dollars on that money. Overall it was said that he failed to help the country out of the economic crisis that bestowed us.

Cleveland’s best decisions were more in his first term. His best decision was to believe in and enforce the Gold Standard Act. When Harrison became president in between Cleveland’s terms he signed into the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, this depleted the gold from the treasury. Cleveland had to deal with this in his second term, as well as the failing economy and tired workers.

President Cleveland had a successful first term. The fact that he supported the Gold Standard, even though he was a republican, the whole way through and lowered the protective tariff will always be remembered in American history. American money being backed by gold continued to affect Americans long after Grover was out of office.

The Country was better off at the end of Grover’s first term. One of the main important things he did was to lower the protective tariff, which helped out the American people and drained some of the surplus of gold in the treasury. Also he always exhibited courage and honesty during his presidency. He always did what he thought would be the best for the people. While his second term was rather downhill, with the depression he didn’t have much time to react. The depression flamed up the moment he got into office. That is why I would give him a B-.

Works Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland

__American Pageant : Advanced Placement__. Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Division, 2001.
Chapter 23, Pages: 516- 525