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Stephen Grover Cleveland


 * Born**: March 18, 1837
 * Died**: June 24, 1908
 * Political Party**: Democratic
 * First Term of Office**: March 4, 1885 - 1889
 * Vice President**: Thomas A. Hendricks
 * Second Term of Office**: March 4, 1893 - 1897
 * Vice President**: Adlai E. Stevenson


 * Presidential Evaluation**

On a grade scale of A-F, Stephen Grover Cleveland deserves a B+. Cleveland took all the necessary steps to set up America for a brighter future. During his presidency, he put railroaders in their place, vetoed bills that put too much on the government, helped fight protective tariffs, and handled the economy properly. The only mistake that he made was isolating America and avoiding expansion.

Cleveland's main goal during his two terms as President was to keep the nation politically, economically, and socially secure. He did what was best for the country at the time, even if it didn't go hand-in-hand with the belief's of the rest of the Democratic Party. Politically, Cleveland was not a supporter of the spoils system. If someone did their job well they reattained their spot in the government. He stayed true to his classic liberal beliefs throughout his presidency, mainly, limited government. His vetoing of the Texas Seed Bill is a great example of this. Cleveland realized that it should not be up to the government to fix every little problem going on in the states. The more that the government aided the states in issues that they had nothing to do with, the more that the states would rely on them for minuscule things. The states needed to learn how to recover from natural problems; like Texas with it's drought. Vetoing the bill was not a mistake, it was merely an example of Cleveland standing by his core belief of limited government. Economically, Cleveland had many things that he felt needed changing. One of the first actions of his presidency was signing the act that created the Interstate Commerce Commission. Along with the Secretary of the Navy, he got rid of the contracts that led to the construction on poor battle ships. He also put the corrupted railroaders in their place. The railroads were not extending their lines as they agreed to and as a result they had to forfeit 81 million acres of land to the public. Cleveland was not in favor of protective tariffs. He hated the fact that because of the unnecessary heights of the tariffs the government had a surplus of money. Cleveland thought that it was enough for the people to pay for how much it costs to run the government and that's all. He saw the financial threat in this and addressed it in his third annual message to Congress.

Cleveland had a complicated relationship with Congress. His party (Democratic) in general was not happy with Cleveland's refusal to support the spoils system. He was up against a Republican Senate but never forgot his veto power. Cleveland vetoed more bills than any of the previous United States Presidents. At the time Republicans were looking to give pensions for disabilities to veterans that were not the effects military service, but Cleveland refused to support the bill. The veto of the Texas Seed Bill was one of his more famous vetoes. Republicans that were in favor of the protective tariffs were also an issue with Congress. They wanted the tariffs to support American industries, but Cleveland didn't like the result being an excess of government profits. In 1886 there was a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, so even compromises that were suggested by one house often failed in the other. Even a simple bill to reduce tariffs on raw materials from 40 to 47 percent did not pass in the Democratic House. During his second term as President, different problems had started to arise. Cleveland called Congress into session early to deal with the economic depression after the Panic of 1893. This is when the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was debated and repealed. Later on in Cleveland's term, he encouraged Congress not maintain the non-intervention tradition in regards to Hawaii, because at the time Congress was considering annexing Hawaii (against the majority Hawaiian desire).

The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act which was created during Harrison's presidency, definitely had the most positive impact on the nation at the time and in the future. The free distribution of silver was costing the government money because they had to buy great amounts of silver, which then drove up the price of metals. During the Panic of 1893 the gold reserve fell below 100 million dollars. By calling Congress into session early, Cleveland helped to ensure a solution to the problem. He helped to convince Democrats and eastern Republicans to stand by him to get the act repealed and then successfully obtained the majority vote. The result of this repeal was one of the first major pushes towards the gold-standard and away from silver in American currency.

Cleveland's beliefs against expansion and intervention caused unnecessary isolationism within the nation and therefore had the most negative impact. One could go as far to say that it was Cleveland that inspired the need for neutrality throughout Woodrow Wilson's presidency which was a partial cause of the United States initial involvement in WW1. He let his general "disapproval" of expansion affect his decision making abilities. The Hawaii annexation debate is an example of this. Cleveland tried to push this idea onto Congress, his main argument being that non-intervention was a tradition.

Cleveland did many things that impacted other presidents. Luckily, there were moments during his presidency were the anti-foreign affairs beliefs did not show. He enforced the Monroe Doctrine when Britain and Venezuela were disputing over the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, Cleveland pushed for Britain to agree to arbitration, and after a meeting in Paris everything worked out well. Latin American relations with the United States were improved because the United States stuck by them, but British relations improved as well because of the proper way that the situation was handled. Sadly, another result of the situation was more attempts at imperialism later on with other countries in the western hemisphere.

Overall, Cleveland did a great job as President of the United States during both of his terms. He was not afraid to cross party lines if he thought he was doing what was best for the country at the time. He faced many hardships. Congress had their own agenda and he had to think of ways to work with and around them, he did this brilliantly. As President he handled the small economic issues very well, thinking of the future when making his decisions. His only large mistake was increasing the risk of isolationism for the country later on. Taking all of these facts into consideration, Stephen Grover Cleveland deserves a B+ for his efforts as president.


 * Bibliography**

Austin, Bill. "Famous Speeches - Grover Cleveland - First Inaugural Address ". Famous Speeches. 12 April 2008 <[]>.

Bailey, Thomas A., Lizabeth Cohen, and David M. Kennedy. __The American Pageant__. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

"Grover Cleveland". Wikipedia. 12 April 2008 <[]>.

Smith, Carter. __Presidents, All You Need To Know__. New York: Hylas Publishing, 2005.