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Grover Cleveland Born: March 18, 1837 Death: June 24, 1908 Democrat Term 1//:// 1885-1889 Term 2: 1893-1897 Vice President By Term: Thomas A. Hendricks, Adlai E. Stevenson

Upon entering his presidency, Cleveland was the first Democrat to serve in the presidential office since James Buchanon in the pre-Civil War period. As a man who acted on morals and principles of his conscience before politics, he tried to do a fair job in his role as president but he could have taken a more assertive approach to the problems going on in the country and for this I would give him a grade of a "C". Although he took a more passive approach to the issues in his first presidency, he acted with a little more aggression in his second term but this proved to be not good enough.

When Cleveland first stepped into office for his first term, he had quite a few issues that he wanted to tackle and movements that he wanted to put through. Cleveland was a staunch believer in the laissez-faire policy, so he wished to continue on in this mindset which greatly pleased businesspeople. He showed his dedication to this when he vetoed a bill which would have provided seeds to farmers who were affected by a severe drought in Texas. Cleveland also wished to further close the gap between the North and South chasm that was still looming. He did this by putting two former Confederates into his cabinet. Military pensions were also in great need of being dealt with. In order to make sure the pensions went to only the derserving people, he read every bill and vetoed quite a few to reach an acceptable agreement. Last but not least, he wished to do something about the tariff issue. The tariff was so high that an embarrassing surplus had been building up inside the Treasury. Out of spending the money on things such as pensions and lowering the tariff, Cleveland chose to do the latter. When Cleveland entered his second presidency, his primary goal was to handle the depression of 1893 that had hit right after he got in office. Alarmed by the deteriorating state of the economy, Cleveland had to act fast. He repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in order to keep gold from draining out all together. This strategy was not working as the gold reserve still sank to a measely $41 million. Thinking fast, Cleveland struck a deal with banker J.P. Morgan who loaned the government $65 million in gold with a commission of $7 million. Cleveland later felt the need to tackle the tariff issue once again. Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff in 1894 in the hopes of lowering tariffs. Yet by the time it passed completely through Congress, it had done nothing of benefit.

Cleveland's relationship with Congress was a seemingly fickle one based on the decisions that he made. When Cleveland entered his first term as president, he ended up firing 120,000 federal employees, 40,000 of which were Republican which gave the Democrats more power in a slightly predominant Republican Senate. Although Cleveland had fair Democratic strength, he and Congress didn't always agree. When Cleveland decided to lower the tariff the first time, his fellow Democrats did not support this at all. The Republicans however were enthralled at the temerity of his actions. Another prime example that showed the differences between Cleveland and his Democratic party is the Wilson-Gorman Tariff. Cleveland drew up the tariff in order to reduce the McKinley Tariff. The Senate did not agree with this notion and with Democrat Arthur P. Gorman leading the way, various other duties were tacked on to the bill. Cleveland tended to use his veto power often because of the Republican majority that sat in the Senate. On that note Cleveland was also known to veto any laws that did not coincide with his laissez-faire policy like the Texas Seed Bill because he believed strongly in free enterprise.

Perhaps one of the most memorable policies that had a postive impact that Cleveland supported was that of isolationism. Cleveland recognized the need for America to be self-sufficient at the time and did not want to get entangled in world affairs. It is probably a good thing that he held up the isolationist mentality because the depression of 1893 may have had a disasterous effect on the world's economy. Cleveland did however step out of this idealism to help draw the boundary in Venezuela because the territory was being disputed over by Britain and Venezuela. Cleveland also decided not to annex Hawaii nd stay out of Cuba during Spanish rule. Although the issues of Hawaii and Cuba were left to his predecessors, it was better for America at the time that they not intervene.

This policy of isolationism was beneficial to America in external affairs, but internally Cleveland still had problems. During the Depression of 1893, Cleveland had a huge responsibilty to put the nation back on its feet. Unfortunately he did not handle it in an efficient enough way. His repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was perhaps one of the most negative actions that he could have taken. Even though this act was put in place to keep America strictly on the gold standard, it dropped the gold reserve to $41 million dollars at one point, which later led to Cleveland having to essentially borrow money from one of the top bankers in the country, J.P. Morgan. Cleveland did handle this financial crisis well in any shape or form.

Even though Cleveland chose to back off of businesses and let them grow as they may, he did pass one act that would change industry forever. The Interstate Commerce Act helped to regulate the issues on railroad abuse and discrimination. Under this act, the following conditions had to be fulfilled in the railroad industry- shipping rates that were set had to be "reasonable and just", these rates also had to be published, secret rebates were illegal and discrimination against small markets was also made illegal. This act also allowed certain businesses to be investigated if any suspicious behavior was going on. From this point on, the railroad industry had boundaries and this limited its monopolizing abilities. Even though it is still a big industry in America today, it no longer can have supreme rule over the economy.

During his presidency, Cleveland did not have the smoothest ride, yet he could have acted more aggressively and efficiently. Faced with many problems that could have turned into prosperity in disguise, he did not make the right decisions and he lost his chances. Even though he could have done a better job in the position he was in, he didn't leave the country in a worse state but he didn't leave it in a better state and for this I give him a "C".

[] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xQVAJh5S-8cJ:www.answers.com/topic/grover-cleveland+cleveland-britain+venezuela&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. William A. DeGregorio. Barricade Books. Fort Lee, NJ. 2009.

The American Pageant. David M. Kennedy Lizabeth Cohen Thomas A. Bailey. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. 2002.