Wilfred McClay Reveals How Grover Cleveland Rose From Obscure Attorney to President in Four Years
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Wilfred McClay Reveals How Grover Cleveland Rose From Obscure Attorney to President in Four Years
Wilfred McClay examines the extraordinary political rise of Grover Cleveland, who went from unknown Buffalo attorney in 1881 to President of the United States in 1885. Cleveland achieved what only two other presidents have accomplished: winning the popular vote in three consecutive elections. His secret wasn't wealth or connections, but unassailable integrity in an era of rampant corruption. McClay explores how Cleveland's refusal to compromise his principles, even when it cost him politically, made him both a nightmare for politicians and a hero to voters, ultimately making him the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and 24th President.
In 1881, Grover Cleveland was an obscure Buffalo, New York attorney. In 1885, he was President of the United States. No one in public life has ever risen higher, faster. He did it not by dint of a great fortune or great connections, but by virtue of his virtue. He was a man of unassailable integrity. He did what he thought was right, no matter the political cost.
In an era notorious for rampant corruption, Cleveland's integrity drove his fellow politicians crazy and made him a hero to voters. The proof: he won the popular vote in three consecutive presidential elections, a feat accomplished by only two other presidents—Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt. Cleveland also won the Electoral College vote in the first and third of those elections, making him the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.
Early Life and Career
Born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, Cleveland was the fifth of nine children. His father was a minister from a line of ministers stretching back at least four generations. But Cleveland took up the law, where his indefatigable work habits and attention to detail served him well. By his mid-20s, he'd established himself as a leading attorney in Buffalo.
He was a workaholic and seems to have had little interest in marriage or family. He preferred to spend his free time visiting Buffalo taverns for beer and bratwurst.
The Political Career Begins
It was in one such tavern that his political career began. There, Cleveland was dragooned by local Democratic power brokers into running for city mayor, a privilege that better-connected prospects had already turned down. The mayor's office was known to be a sinkhole of corruption. That, as it turned out, made it the right job for Cleveland.
In a matter of months, Cleveland took on the city's entrenched interests, canceling bad contracts and cutting wasteful spending. Could Cleveland take this clean-up-the-city act to the state level? Democratic Party leaders thought so. After only a year as Buffalo's mayor, he was the Democrats' candidate for governor of New York. Drawing voters from both parties, he won that election in a landslide.
He did for New York what he did for Buffalo: slashing budgets, vetoing pork barrel spending, and refusing to appoint machine lackeys to government positions.
The Path to the White House
What was left to conquer? Well, the Democrats hadn't won a presidential election since 1856—almost three decades. Could Cleveland get them back to the White House? The answer was yes. Just like the voters of New York, the American people wanted someone to clean up Washington.
But first he had to get elected, and that wouldn't be easy. The Republicans had uncovered a skeleton in Cleveland's closet: a plausible allegation that he'd fathered a child out of wedlock in Buffalo. True to character, Cleveland never denied it. And much to the Republicans' surprise, it actually strengthened Cleveland's reputation—he would not lie.
Cleveland won the 1884 election, but just barely. Fifteen months into his term, at age 49, he finally took a wife, marrying the daughter of his late law partner. He was the only president to marry in the White House.
First Term: Governing With Integrity
Cleveland governed with the same unyielding integrity he'd shown in Buffalo and Albany. He issued 414 vetoes, many of them for spending that he deemed unnecessary. His fealty to the law was almost absolute. When white settlers agitated to break a treaty with the Winnebago and Crow Creek tribes in the Dakota Territory, Cleveland said no.
Such principled positions—and the inflexible way he pursued them—did not help him when he ran for re-election in 1888. He failed to carry even his own state of New York and lost to the Republican Benjamin Harrison. His wife Frances, however, was confident they would return. She told the White House butler, "Take good care of all the furniture. We're coming back four years from today."
The Unprecedented Return
Four years later, in 1893, they did. The American people had missed Cleveland's dedication to limited and honest government. His moment of vindication, however, didn't last long. When the railroad boom went bust and commodity prices collapsed, the Panic of 1893 was on. It was the worst economic depression in American history until the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The Panic completely overwhelmed Cleveland's second term. His party believed that the way out of the crisis was to coin more silver, but Cleveland had always been a strong defender of the gold standard. He wasn't going to change now.
A Principled Exit
By the time 1896 rolled around, Cleveland no longer represented the views of his own party. Their loyalty had shifted to people like William Jennings Bryan, the leader of the pro-silver movement. It was a sad ending to an admirable political career. He had been defeated twice: first by Harrison, and then by the economy.
And yet Cleveland is a sterling example of what principled and impartial dedication to public service looks like. Journalist H.L. Mencken, who rarely had a nice word to say about anyone, had a nice word for Cleveland: "He came into office his own man, and he went out without yielding anything of that character."
