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__President__ //Grover Cleveland// (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908)

__Party__ //Democrat//

__Terms__ //1885–1889 and 1893–1897//

__Vice Presidents__ //Thomas A. Hendricks// (Term 1-died) //Adlai E. Stevenson// (Term 2)

Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th president of the United States and Also the first Democratic president since the civil war, and people wondered if they should trust the future of America to the hands of a man from the “party of disunion”. He was also a very inconsistent person. One example is his racial views. While he spoke out against injustices on the Chinese in the west, he also sympathized with the South for not wanting to accept blacks into their society. However, in presidential affairs, Cleveland did fairly well and deserves a grade of a B+.

One of Cleveland’s goals was to rid out corruption in the government and he certainly did a good job in this. The way he made sure nothing corrupt was going on in Congress was he became a “watchdog”. He kept a close eye on Congress and when they presented him with a bill he decided whether to pass the bill or veto it, and much of the time it was the latter. A goal of Cleveland’s in his first term was to institute a lower tariff. In this he certainly succeeded, for when he proposed this to Congress and it was passed and both parties were happy about this.

During his presidency, Cleveland often used his veto power. In fact, he used his veto power more often than any other president had up to that point. This was due to the fact that Cleveland was a Democrat and Congress was a Republican majority, so they often had different views. He also made it a point to make sure there was no corruption going on in the government and kept Congress in check.

Cleveland’s most positive outcome was the decision to repeal the Sherman Silver Act. This was very important because during the Panic of 1893 the gold reserve in the Treasury was significantly decreasing due to people redeeming their legal tender notes from the banks for gold when what they had put in initially was silver. Cleveland knew that if he didn’t do something there would no longer be enough to back the $350 million in paper money. However he was too late, and though this did partially stop the loss of gold from the Treasury, he acted too late, which is Cleveland’s most negative outcome; The Panic of 1893. Because he waited too long to stop this, around eight thousand businesses collapsed within 6 months, while the unemployed then had to eat at soup kitchens and hoboes walked the streets. When the repeal finally was passed, the gold reserve had sunk to $41 million. Luckily for him though, an exceedingly wealthy man, J. P. Morgan came to the rescue and supplied the government with $65 million in gold. This not only supplied the much needed gold, but also gave them confidence when it came to America’s finance.

Cleveland’s presidency did not really have much of an impact on future presidents, and he is not one of the more prominent ones that we remember today. Mainly his presidency strengthened the power of the executive branch and led to the emergence of the modern presidency. Also, during his first presidency, he reduced the high protective tariffs which became one of the issues Harrison had to deal with when he took office.

Overall, Cleveland did a pretty descent job in his presidencies. He appealed to the people of America and was able to pull out of the Panic of 1893, even though he had a rocky start. Cleveland then rightfully has earned a B+ for his terms as president of the United States of America.

__Bibliography__

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/grovercleveland22 http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/cleveland/essays/biography/1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland