CLEVELAND, STEPHEN GROVER President of the United States from 1885 to 1889, and again from 1893 to 1897, was born, the fifth in a family of nine children, in Caldwell, Essex county, N.J., on March 18, 1837. His father, Richard F. Cleveland, a Presbyterian clergyman, was a descend ant of Moses Cleveland, who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1635. The family removed to Fayetteville, N.Y., and afterwards to Clinton, N.Y. It was intended that young Grover should be educated at Hamilton college, but this was prevented by his father's death in 1852. After working sev eral years he set out for Cleveland, O., but stopped near Buffalo, N.Y., to work for his uncle. In 1855 he became a clerk in a Buffalo law office and in 1859 was admitted to the bar. When the Civil War began, the three Cleveland brothers drew lots to see which should remain at home to support their mother ; the lot fell to Grover, and when he was drafted he hired a substitute.
In 1863 he was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie county, of which Buffalo is the chief city. This was his first pub lic office, and it came to him, as, apparently, all later preferments, without any solicitation of his own. Two years later (1865) he was the Democratic candidate for district attorney, but was de feated. In 1869 Cleveland was nominated by the Democratic Party for the office of sheriff, and, despite the fact that Erie county was normally Republican, was elected. The years im mediately succeeding his retirement from the office of sheriff in 1873 he devoted to the practice of law, coming to be recognized as one of the leaders of the western New York bar. In the autumn of 1881 he was nominated by the Democrats for mayor of Buffalo. The city government had been characterized by ex travagance and maladministration, and a revolt of the inde pendent voters at the polls overcame the usual Republican ma jority and Cleveland was elected. As mayor he attracted wide attention by his independence and businesslike methods, and under his direction the various departments of the city govern ment were thoroughly reorganized. His ability received further recognition when in 1882 he was nominated, by the strategy of his campaign managers, as candidate for governor. The Republi can Party in the State was at that time weakened by quarrels within its ranks, and this advantage was greatly increased by the Republicans' nomination for governor of Charles J. Folger (1818 84), then secretary of the Treasury, about whose nomination the cry of Federal interference was raised as a result of the methods employed in securing his nomination. All this, together with the popularity of Cleveland, brought about Cleveland's election by the unprecedented plurality of 192,8S4. As governor, Cleveland's course was marked by the stern qualities he had dis played in his other public positions. The demands of party leaders were made subordinate to public interest. He promoted the passage of a good civil service law. All bills passed by the legislature were subjected to the governor's laborious scrutiny, and the veto power was used without fear or favour.
In 1884 the Democratic Party had been out of power in na tional affairs for 23 years. In this year, however, the generally disorganized state of the Republican Party, weakened by the defection of a large group of Independents, known as "Mug wumps," gave the Democrats an unusual opportunity. Upon a platform which called for radical reforms in the administrative departments, the civil service and the national finances, Cleve land was nominated for president, despite the opposition of the Tammany delegation. The nominee of the Republican Party, James G. Blaine (q.v.), of Maine, had received the nomination only after a contest in which violent personal animosities were aroused. The campaign that followed was one of the bitterest political contests in American history. Cleveland was accused of favouring the South because he had avoided war service and his private life was attacked; on the other side Blaine was asso ciated with certain political scandals in Washington. The result was close, but Cleveland carried New York and was elected by an electoral majority of 219 to 182.
Cleveland's first term was uneventful, but was marked by firm ness, justice and steady adherence on his part to the principles which he deemed salutary to the nation. He was especially con cerned in promoting a non-partisan civil service. He stood firmly by the "Pendleton bill" (1883), designed to classify the sub ordinate places in the service, and to make entrance and promo tion depend upon competitive examination of applicants. It applied only to clerkships, but the president was authorized to add others to the classified service from time to time. He added 11,757 during his first term.
President Cleveland made large use of the veto power upon bills passed by Congress, vetoing or "pocketing" during his first term 413 bills, more than two-thirds of which were private pen sion bills. The most important bill vetoed was the Dependent Pension bill, a measure opening the door, by the vagueness of its terms, to frauds upon the Treasury. Many of these bills were supported by Democrats, and Cleveland's opposition further alienated party leaders. In 1887 there was a large and growing surplus in the Treasury. About two-thirds of the public revenue was derived from duties on imports, in the adjustment of which the doctrine of protection to native industry had a large place. Cleveland attacked the system with great vigour in his annual message of 1887. He did not propose the adoption of free trade, but the Administration tariff measure, known as the Mills bill, passed the House, and although withdrawn owing to amendments in the Republican Senate, it alarmed and exasperated the pro tected classes, among whom were many Democrats.
In the following year (1888) the Democrats renominated Cleveland, and the Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. The campaign turned on the tariff issue, and Harri son was elected, receiving 233 electoral votes to 168 for Cleve land who, however, received a popular plurality of more than 100,000. Cleveland then resumed the practice of law in New York.
Congress had passed a law in 1878 requiring the Treasury de partment to purchase a certain amount of silver bullion each month and coin it into silver dollars to be full legal tender, and no date was fixed for this operation to cease, both parties being in favour of this policy. Cleveland had written a letter for publi cation bef ore he became president, saying that a financial crisis of great severity must result if this coinage were continued and expressing the hope that Congress would speedily put an end to it. In 1890 Congress, controlled by the Republican Party, passed the McKinley bill, by which the revenues of the Government were reduced by more than $60,000,000 annually. At this same time expenditures were largely increased by liberal pension legis lation, and the Government's purchase of silver bullion almost doubled by the provisions of the new Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.
In 1892 Cleveland was nominated for president a third time in succession. President Harrison was nominated by the Republi cans, who had lost strength due to the passage of the McKinley bill. Cleveland received 277 electoral votes and Harrison and 2 2 were cast for James B. Weaver, of Iowa, the candidate of the "People's" party. Cleveland's second term embraced some notable events. The most important was the repeal of the silver legislation. Nearly $600,000,000 of "fiat money" had been thrust into the channels of commerce in addition to $346, 000,000 of legal tender notes that had been issued during the Civil War. A reserve of $100,000,000 of gold had been accumu lated for the protection of these notes. In April 1893 the reserve fell below this sum. President Cleveland called an extra session of Congress to repeal the silver law. The House promptly passed the repealing act. In the Senate there was a protracted struggle. The Democrats now had a majority of that body and they were more pro-silver than the Republicans. The president had under taken to coerce his own party to do something against its will, and it was only by the aid of the Republican minority that the passage of the repealing bill was at last made possible (Oct. 30). The mischief, however, was not ended. The deficit in the Treas ury made it inevitable that the gold reserve should be used to meet current expenses; holders of legal tender notes presented them for redemption ; borrowing was resorted to by the Govern ment; bonds were issued and sold to the amount of $162,000,000; the business world was in a state of constant agitation; commer cial distress was widespread ; wages were reduced in many em ployments, accompanied by labour troubles. The centre of disturbance was the Pullman strike at Chicago, whence the dis order extended to the Pacific coast, causing riot and bloodshed in many places. After waiting a reasonable time, as he conceived, for Gov. Altgeld of Illinois to act, Cleveland, on July 6, despite Gov. Altgeld's protest, directed the military forces of the United States to clear the way for trains carrying the mails. The rioters in and around Chicago were dispersed in a single day, and within a week the strike was broken.
Another important event was the action of the Government regarding the question of arbitration between Great Britain and Venezuela (q.v.). On Dec. 17, 1895, President Cleveland sent to Congress a special message calling attention to Great Britain's action in regard to the disputed boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and declaring the necessity of action by the United States to prevent an infringement of the Monroe Doctrine. Congress at once appropriated funds for an American commission to investigate the matter. The diplomatic situation became very acute for the moment. Negotiations with Great Britain ensued, and before the American commission finished its work Great Britain had agreed (Nov. 1896) to arbitrate on terms which safeguarded the national dignity on both sides.
Cleveland's independence and party difficulties were shown during his second term in his action in regard to the tariff legisla tion of his party in Congress. A tariff bill introduced in the House by William Lyne Wilson, of West Virginia, was so amended in the Senate through the instrumentality of Senator Arthur Pue Gorman and a coterie of anti-Administration Democratic senators that, although unwilling to veto it, the president signi fied his dissatisfaction with its too high rates by allowing it to become a law without his signature. He carried the fight with this group of senators to the Senate by letters in which he de nounced their lack of support. Cleveland's second administra tion began by vigorous action in regard to Hawaii ; he at once withdrew from the Senate the annexation treaty which President Harrison had negotiated, and started an attempt to restore the dethroned queen, Liliuokalani, but was not successful, owing to Hawaiian opposition.
During his second term Cleveland added no less than 44,004 places in the civil service to the classified list, bringing the whole number up to 86,932. Toward the end of this term the president became very much out of accord with his party on the free-silver question, in consequence of which the endorsement of the admin istration was withheld by the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1896. In the ensuing campaign the president and his cabinet, with the exception of Hoke Smith (b. 1855), secretary of the interior, who resigned, gave their support to Palmer and Buckner, the national, or "Sound Money" Democratic nominees.
Cleveland's second term expired on March 4, 1897, and he then retired into private life, universally respected and con stantly consulted, in the university town of Princeton, N.J., where he died on June 24, 1908. He was a trustee of Princeton university and Stafford Little lecturer on public affairs. Chosen in 1905 as a member of a committee of three to act as trustees of the majority of the stock of the Equitable Life Assurance Com pany, he promoted the reorganization and the mutualization of that company, and acted as rebate referee for it and for the Mutual and New York Life insurance companies. He published Presidential Problems (1904), made up in part of lectures at Princeton university, and Fishing and Hunting Sketches (1906). BIBLIOGRAPHY.-R. E. McElroy's authorized biography of Cleveland, Grover Cleveland, the Mara and the Statesman (1923), is a compre hensive work. W. O. Stoddard's Grover Cleveland (1888; "Lives of the Presidents" series) , and J. L. Whittle's Grover Cleveland (1896; "Public Men of To-day" series) , are judicious volumes ; and "Cam paign Biographies" (1884) were written by W. Dorsheimer, F. E. Goodrich, P. King and D. Welch ; Grover Cleveland, a Study in Political Courage (192 2) is interesting but perhaps too favourable, while the study of Cleveland by H. L. Stoddard in As 1 Knew Them (192 7) takes a somewhat opposite view-point. A large amount of magazine literature has been devoted to President Cleveland's career. G. F. Parker had a series of articles in The Saturday Evening Post on Aug. 28, 192o, April 7, 1923, June 9, 1923, Nov. Io, 1923, March 29, 1924, under the titles "Grover Cleveland's Career in Buffalo," "Grover Cleveland's First Administration as President," "Grover Cleveland's Second Administration as President," "Grover Cleve land's Life in Princeton," and "Grover Cleveland's One Business Venture." See articles by Woodrow Wilson (Atlantic Monthly, vol. lxxix.: "Cleveland as President") ; Carl Shurz (McClure's Magazine, vol. ix.: "Second Administration of Grover Cleveland") ; William Allen White (McClure's, vol. xviii.; "Character Sketch of Cleveland") ; Gamaliel Bradford (Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 192o: "Grover Cleve land") ; Walter B. Stevens (Missouri Historical Review, Jan. 1927) : "When Cleveland Came to St. Louis"; and Henry L. Nelson (North American Review, vol. clxxxviii.) . Also Jesse L. Williams, Mr. Cleve land: A Personal Impression (1909) ; G. W. Parker, Recollections of Grover Cleveland (1909) ; C. H. Armitage, Grover Cleveland as Buffalo Knew Him (192 7) ; G. C. Griffin, Writings on American History (1906-23).