Grover Cleveland

Biography

Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, in 1837. His father's death in 1853 cut short his schooling, and in 1855 he moved to Buffalo, New York, where he clerked for a law firm, read law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. A Democrat from the start of his career, he served as an assistant district attorney of Erie County and was elected county sheriff, holding the office from 1871 to 1873.

Buffalo Democrats nominated him for mayor in 1881 as an honest alternative to machine politicians. In office he vetoed inflated city contracts and gained a reputation for fighting corruption, which carried him to the governorship of New York in 1882. As leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats he opposed high tariffs, free silver and subsidies, and in 1884 he narrowly won the presidency, helped by reform-minded Republicans despite a scandal over a child he had fathered.

During his first term he signed the Interstate Commerce Act and the Dawes Act. He won the popular vote in 1888 but lost in the electoral college to Benjamin Harrison, then defeated Harrison in 1892, becoming the first president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. His second term was dominated by the depression that followed the Panic of 1893. He defended the gold standard, intervened in the 1894 Pullman Strike to keep the railroads running, and opposed annexing Hawaii after the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani.

He left office in 1897 unpopular even within his own party. He retired to Princeton, New Jersey, served as a trustee of Princeton University, joined the American Anti-Imperialist League in 1898, and died at Princeton in 1908.