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= Grover Cleveland =



Full Name: Stephen Grover Cleveland (Born March 18, 1837 - Died June 24, 1908)

Political Party: Democratic

Terms of Office: March 4, 1885 - March 4, 1889; March 4, 1893 - March 4, 1897 (two separate terms)

Vice Presidents: Thomas Hendricks*, first term; Adlai Stevenson, second term


 * Hendricks died a few weeks into his vice presidency, leaving the vice presidency vacant until the election of 1888

There was perhaps nothing truly great about Grover Cleveland's presidency, save that he was the only president to have served two nonconsecutive terms; however, the same could likely be said about the time period during which Cleveland was president. Most of his policies and decisions did not harm the nation, but nor did they effectively help it - for this reason, Cleveland is deserving of the grade of a C+.

During Cleveland's first term as president, he did not have many goals set for himself; he certainly had opinions and standpoints on current issues, but it seemed that for those opinions, he did nothing while voicing those opinions - for example, he believed the current protection tariff to be an "indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice", and yet he did not act on his belief. One goal he did have, however, was that of reformation. Cleveland attempted to accomplish this by signing into law the Interstate Commerce Act, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The ICC's mission was to regulate railroad rates, which at that time were favoring big businesses over small ones and farmers. The ICC lacked teeth, unfortunately, until Theodore Roosevelt's ascension to the presidency, and so Cleveland's goal was left dead in the water until then. His second term was more productive, however; Cleveland sought to ease the tensions of the Panic of 1893, as well as enforce his opinions on the ever-growing bimetallism issue. Cleveland tried to achieved both goals with one move by repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which was to make gold the only metal to back American currency, as well as increase the amount of gold in federal reserves. When the latter was not accomplished, Cleveland sold discounted gold bonds to Wall Street bankers to ensure that they would oversee the amount of gold being withdrawn from the treasury. For the most part, Cleveland's goals were completed, but they were not exactly completed in the most ambitious of ways.

In his first term, Cleveland and a majority Republican Congress were violently opposed toward each other. To that point, no other president had vetoed more bills than Cleveland did; in addition to the fact that Congress was mostly Republican, they also attempted to pass bills benefiting veterans of the Civil War, numbering in the hundreds. Cleveland vetoed every last one of them, saying that "[Money] should be devoted to the indemnification of those who in the defense of the Union... have worthily suffered..." The second term of Cleveland's presidency yielded more fruit, as he was able to unite both Democrats and some Republicans in doing his will, especially with the Panic of 1893 in which both parties were likely willing to concede with either side to solve the escalating problem.

Cleveland's most positive decision was that concerning the boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana - Cleveland and his Secretary of State Richard Olney successfully convinced Britain to negotiate for the disputed lands with Venezuela. Although most of the land was granted to Britain's colony, relations with both nations were improved. The British were impressed with America's assertiveness in assisting Venezuelan interests, and Venezuela (as well as other Latin American nations) was largely grateful for American assistance. The decision with the most negative impact was likely Cleveland's famed veto of the Texas Seed Act of 1887 - the act was to benefit farmers whose crops were destroyed by drought. Cleveland claimed that the Constitution did not allow such an act to be passed, famously saying that "...though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people." The message such an action would send is one that many likely disapproved of when Cleveland issued the veto.

The single action that would most affect the nation in the future was Cleveland's repealing of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. The battle between gold and silver had raged for years, before and during Cleveland's presidency. During his first term he was a stark supporter of the gold standard, but did nothing legislation-wise that enforced his views. In his second term, however, the Panic of 1893 was rampaging through the nation, and Cleveland saw a way to end bimetallism as well as cull the effects of the depression. Although it was seen as a slight setback for the silverites during the time, it was a precursor to further gold standard legislation that would lead to the demise of bimetallism for good in spite of the mass amounts of silver-supporting lobbyists that would greatly rise in fame for years to come, such as William Jennings Bryan.

To be honest, it is quite a task to be able to tell if Grover Cleveland left the country in a better state when he took his leave in 1897 (for good). Admittedly, some of his decisions amounted to positive ends, such as the conflict between Venezuela and Great Britain. Others were negative, such as the aforementioned Texas Seed Act veto. Still others are ultimately left up to one's opinion: how is one able to truly tell if bimetallism would have broken the nation's economy had Cleveland not repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act? In a very broad sense, Cleveland helped the country in a sense with the Sherman Act repealing and other decisions because it seemed to be a firm stance on the choice that assisted in silencing the question of bimetallism, which, had it gone unchecked, would have divided the nation greatly, much like slavery.

Sources

__The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__ by William A. Degregorio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland - Grover Cleveland on Wikipedia