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Stephen Grover Cleveland Birth: March 18th, 1837 Death: June 24, 1908 In office: 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 Party: Democrat Vice President: Thomas A. Hendricks (first term) Adlai E. Stevenson (second term)

Grover Cleveland was admired for his honorable personality and that is the major reason he won the presidency in 1885. Cleveland made advancements in the Navy and created the Interstate Commerce Commission. He had a very hands off policy when dealing with foreign affairs, which lead to some miss opportunities but also missed disputes. Cleveland although did little to help prevent racism. For the most part Grover Cleveland was a good president but a few mistakes gives him the grade of a C+.

Cleveland supported the gold standard and wanted to lower the tariff but not get ride of it. He accomplished both of these goals, although the first more so than the second. The gold standard was caused by the Panic of 1893, which was because of the shortage of gold. The shortage was caused because of the free coinage of silver. In order to solve this problem he pushed congress to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Which they later did after much debate. The gold standard was further pushed along when gold bonds were sold to Wall Street bankers in exchange for their agreement to check the amount of gold. His second goal to lower the tariff was accomplished but not to the degree that he would have liked with the Wilson-Gorman Act, 1894. It lowered the tariff from 48 percent to 41 percent.

Cleveland had with a few exceptions a horrible relationship with congress. He vetoed more bills than any other president. Cleveland vetoed many bills giving pensions to civil war vets. He then later vetoed a bill giving pensions that weren’t caused by serving in the military. Possibly the largest veto was the veto of the Texas Seed Bill which would have bought grain from farmers. This may be explained by the fact that the Democrats were only the majority party for a quarter of his presidency. He when trying to pass a bill to lower the tariff the bill was rejected by congress. The same happened to the Bland-Allison Act, which attempted to lessen the amount of silver in circulation.

The most positive action by Cleveland was the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. This prevented a lot of corruption that was present in the railroad companies at that time. It prevented railroad companies from discriminating in their rates between companies. He also forced railroads to return some plots of land because they failed to meet the agreements made.

Cleveland’s most negative action, or rather lack there of, was the way he dealt with racial issues. He viewed the reconstruction as a failure. He did next to nothing to enforce the fifteenth Amendment and didn’t hire any of the blacks that helped him win his presidency to office. Although let Frederick Douglass stay in office and replaced him with another black man when he resigned. The Scott Act was also passed as an effect of Cleveland, which said that if Chinese immigrants left the U.S. they could not return.

The country was much the same minus few exceptions. Cleveland’s strong veto power limited the amount of change that happened. He did although successfully get America through the Panic of 1893 create the Interstate Commerce Commission, stayed out of foreign affairs, establish the gold standard and lower the tariff. On the negative he did little to reduce racism, missed out on some foreign opportunities. For these reasons he deserves a C+.

__Work cited__

DeGregorio, William A. __The Complete Book of U.S Presidents__. 7th ed. Grover Cleveland. New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc., 2009. "Grover Cleveland." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 14 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

"Interstate Commerce Commission." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 10 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. .

"Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present." //United States Senate//. United States Senate, 2010. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. < []. >.