Matt+K.+-+GC+-+SP10

Grover Cleveland-(March 18,1837-June 24,1908)

Political Party: Democrat Terms: 1884-1888 and 1892-1896 Vice Presidents: Thomas Andrews Hendricks and Adlai Ewing Stevenson

President Grover Cleveland deserves a B+ for his presidency because even though he was not always right on with his decision making he did make some very good choices which turned out to be quite beneficial to the country. During his time in office, Cleveland helped in the beginning of federal regulation of commerce, fought against what he saw as private abuses of federal money, and he was known for acting upon his own conscience despite opposition within his party. Cleveland had many goals during his presidency. They included federal regulation of commerce, the private abuses of federal money, and the well being of the citizens of the United States. One of the acts concerning these goals was the Interstate Commerce Act passed in 1887 creating the Interstate Commerce Commission. This commission's job was to regulate interstate railroad rates; it was the first federal regulatory agency and it this helped out in many areas. In 1893, Cleveland vetoed the treaty which would have annexed Hawaii because he felt that America was wrong in helping with the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani. In the Panic of 1893, Thousands of businesses failed and riots broke out, but the government did almost nothing to help because it was not seen as constitutionally allowed. To help, Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act because he wanted to keep the country on the gold standard. Cleveland succeeded in this by selling gold bonds to Wall Street. This helped bring the country out of a deep depression. Cleveland did not have a very good relationship with Congress. They didn’t exactly see eye to eye. When making decisions neither side was willing to make a compromise. By the end of Cleveland’s presidency he had used a total of 584 vetoes, 414 of them in his first term, more than twice as much as all the presidents combined had in the past. Cleveland was also the only Democratic president to be in office during the Republican rule in Congress. One of the main disagreements that Cleveland and Congress had was what to do with the tariff. Cleveland wanted to decrease the tariff and Congress wanted to keep it high. The action that had the most positive outcome was Cleveland’s decision to repeal the Sherman Silver Act and sell gold bonds to Wall Street. The repeal of the Sherman Silver Act and the selling of gold bonds to Wall Street was the most positive action because this decision is the one that brought the United States out of the mild depression of 1893. Without this decision having been made the country could have gotten even further into a depression and many other detrimental things could have occurred. I am not really sure which action of the President’s administration had the most negative outcome. There were some bad events that took place though, such as the “Panic of 1893” and some people believe that repealing the Sherman Silver Act was not a good way to handle the situation, but the way I look at, he was able to move the United States out of a mild depression that could have gotten a lot worse had it not been for his actions. Another bad event that occurred during his presidency was the Pullman Strike in 1894, The Pullman Palace Car Company had reduced wages and the workers broke out in violence. Cleveland solved this problem by ordering federal troops to arrest Debs (the leader of the strike) eventually ending the strike. The Country was better off at the end of Grover Cleveland’s presidency than at the beginning. Cleveland had managed to pull the country out of a depression, make improvements in the areas of federal regulation of commerce, the private abuses of federal money, and foreign affairs. Although some parts of Cleveland’s presidency were a little shaky he did pretty well for the most part which is why he deserves a B+ for his presidency.

"American President: Grover Cleveland: A Life in Brief." //Miller Center of Public Affairs//. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

// Estoric.com - A Stan Klos Company //. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

"Grover Cleveland." //The White House//. Web. 16 Apr. 2010. .