Stephen Grover Cleveland (March
18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who
was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, the only
president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in
office (1885–1889 and 1893–1897). He won the popular vote for
three presidential elections—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was one
of two Democrats (with Woodrow Wilson) to be elected president during
the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.
Born to a Presbyterian minister,
Cleveland grew up in upstate New York. In 1881, he was elected Mayor
of Buffalo and later, governor of New York. Cleveland was the leader
of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs; Free
Silver; inflation; imperialism; and subsidies to business, farmers,
or veterans. His crusade for political reform and fiscal conservatism
made him an icon for American conservatives of the era. Cleveland
won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment
to the principles of classical liberalism. He fought political
corruption, patronage, and bossism. As a reformer, Cleveland had such
prestige that the like-minded wing of the Republican Party, called
"Mugwumps", largely bolted the GOP presidential
ticket and swung to his support in the 1884 election.
As his second administration began,
disaster hit the nation when the Panic of 1893 produced a severe
national depression, which Cleveland was unable to reverse. It ruined
his Democratic Party, opening the way for a Republican landslide in
1894 and for the agrarian and silverite seizure of the Democratic
Party in 1896. The result was a political realignment that ended the
Third Party System and launched the Fourth Party System and the
Progressive Era.
Cleveland was a formidable policymaker,
and he also drew corresponding criticism. His intervention in the
Pullman Strike of 1894 to keep the railroads moving angered labor
unions nationwide in addition to the party in Illinois; his support
of the gold standard and opposition to Free Silver alienated the
agrarian wing of the Democratic Party. Critics complained that
Cleveland had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the
nation's economic disasters—depressions and strikes—in his second
term. Even so, his reputation for probity and good character
survived the troubles of his second term. Biographer Allan Nevins
wrote, "[I]n Grover Cleveland, the greatness lies in typical
rather than unusual qualities. He had no endowments that thousands of
men do not have. He possessed honesty, courage, firmness,
independence, and common sense. But he possessed them to a degree
other men do not." By the end of his second term, public
perception showed him to be one of the most unpopular U.S.
presidents, and he was by then rejected even by most Democrats.
Today, Cleveland is considered by most historians to have been a
successful leader, generally ranked among the upper-mid tier of
American presidents.
Early life
Childhood and family history
Stephen Grover Cleveland was
born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, to Ann (née Neal)
and Richard Falley Cleveland. Cleveland's father was a
Congregational and Presbyterian minister who was originally from
Connecticut. His mother was from Baltimore and was the daughter of a
bookseller. On his father's side, Cleveland was descended from
English ancestors, the first of the family having emigrated to
Massachusetts from Cleveland, England in 1635. His father's maternal
grandfather, Richard Falley Jr., fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill,
and was the son of an immigrant from Guernsey. On his mother's side,
Cleveland was descended from Anglo-Irish Protestants and German
Quakers from Philadelphia. Cleveland was distantly related to
General Moses Cleaveland, after whom the city of Cleveland, Ohio, was
named.
Cleveland, the fifth of nine children,
was named Stephen Grover in honor of the first pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church of Caldwell, where his father was pastor at the
time. He became known as Grover in his adult life. In 1841, the
Cleveland family moved to Fayetteville, New York, where Grover spent
much of his childhood. Neighbors later described him as "full
of fun and inclined to play pranks," and fond of outdoor
sports.
In 1850, Cleveland's father moved to
Clinton, New York, to work as district secretary for the American
Home Missionary Society. Despite his father's dedication to his
missionary work, the income was insufficient for the large family.
Financial conditions forced him to remove Grover from school into a
two-year mercantile apprenticeship in Fayetteville. The experience
was valuable and brief, and the living conditions quite austere.
Grover returned to Clinton and his schooling at the completion of the
apprentice contract. n 1853, when missionary work began to take a
toll on his health, Cleveland's father took an assignment in Holland
Patent, New York (near Utica) and the family moved again. Shortly
after, he died from a gastric ulcer, with Grover reputedly hearing of
his father's death from a boy selling newspapers.
Education and moving west
Cleveland received his elementary
education at the Fayetteville Academy and the Clinton Liberal
Academy. After his father died in 1853, he again left school to help
support his family. Later that year, Cleveland's brother William was
hired as a teacher at the New York Institute for the Blind in New
York City, and William obtained a place for Cleveland as an assistant
teacher. He returned home to Holland Patent at the end of 1854, where
an elder in his church offered to pay for his college education if he
would promise to become a minister. Cleveland declined, and in 1855
he decided to move west. He stopped first in Buffalo, New York, where
his uncle, Lewis F. Allen, gave him a clerical job. Allen was an
important man in Buffalo, and he introduced his nephew to influential
men there, including the partners in the law firm of Rogers, Bowen,
and Rogers. Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United
States, had previously worked for the partnership. Cleveland later
took a clerkship with the firm, began to read the law, and was
admitted to the New York bar in 1859.
Early career and the Civil War
Cleveland worked for the Rogers firm
for three years, then left in 1862 to start his own practice. In
January 1863, he was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie
County. With the American Civil War raging, Congress passed the
Conscription Act of 1863, requiring able-bodied men to serve in the
army if called upon, or else to hire a substitute. Cleveland chose
the latter course, paying $150 (equivalent to $3,115 in 2019) to
George Benninsky, a thirty-two-year-old Polish immigrant, to serve in
his place. Benninsky survived the war.
As a lawyer, Cleveland became known for
his single-minded concentration and dedication to hard work. In 1866,
he successfully defended some participants in the Fenian raid,
working on a pro bono basis (free of charge). In 1868, Cleveland
attracted professional attention for his winning defense of a libel
suit against the editor of Buffalo's Commercial Advertiser. During
this time, Cleveland assumed a lifestyle of simplicity, taking
residence in a plain boarding house; Cleveland dedicated his growing
income instead to the support of his mother and younger sisters.
While his personal quarters were austere, Cleveland enjoyed an active
social life and "the easy-going sociability of hotel-lobbies
and saloons." He shunned the circles of higher society of
Buffalo in which his uncle's family traveled.
Political career in New York
Sheriff of Erie
County
From his earliest involvement in
politics, Cleveland aligned with the Democratic Party. He had a
decided aversion to Republicans John Fremont and Abraham Lincoln, and
the heads of the Rogers law firm were solid Democrats. In 1865, he
ran for District Attorney, losing narrowly to his friend and
roommate, Lyman K. Bass, the Republican nominee. ] In 1870, with the
help of friend Oscar Folsom, Cleveland secured the Democratic
nomination for Sheriff of Erie County, New York. He won the election
by a 303-vote margin and took office on January 1, 1871 at age 33.
While this new career took him away from the practice of law, it was
rewarding in other ways: the fees were said to yield up to $40,000
(equivalent to $853,667 in 2019) over the two-year term.
Cleveland's service as sheriff was
unremarkable; biographer Rexford Tugwell described the time in office
as a waste for Cleveland politically. Cleveland was aware of graft in
the sheriff's office during his tenure and chose not to confront it.
A notable incident of his term took place on September 6, 1872, when
Patrick Morrissey was executed, who had been convicted of murdering
his mother. As sheriff, Cleveland was responsible for either
personally carrying out the execution or paying a deputy $10 to
perform the task. In spite of reservations about the hanging,
Cleveland executed Morrissey himself. He hanged another murderer,
John Gaffney, on February 14, 1873.
After his term as sheriff ended,
Cleveland returned to his law practice, opening a firm with his
friends Lyman K. Bass and Wilson S. Bissell. Elected to Congress in
1872, Bass did not spend much time at the firm, but Cleveland and
Bissell soon rose to the top of Buffalo's legal community. Up to
that point, Cleveland's political career had been honorable and
unexceptional. As biographer Allan Nevins wrote, "Probably no
man in the country, on March 4, 1881, had less thought than this
limited, simple, sturdy attorney of Buffalo that four years later he
would be standing in Washington and taking the oath as President of
the United States."
It was during this period that
Cleveland began courting a widow, Maria Halpin. She later accused him
of raping her. He accused her of being an alcoholic and consorting
with men. In an attempt to discredit her, he had her
institutionalized, and their child taken away and raised by his
friends. The institution quickly realized that she did not belong
there, and released her. The illegitimate child became a campaign
issue for the GOP in his first presidential campaign.
Mayor of Buffalo
In the 1870s, the municipal government
in Buffalo had grown increasingly corrupt, with Democratic and
Republican political machines cooperating to share the spoils of
political office. In 1881 the Republicans nominated a slate of
particularly disreputable machine politicians; the Democrats saw the
opportunity to gain the votes of disaffected Republicans by
nominating a more honest candidate. The party leaders approached
Cleveland, and he agreed to run for Mayor of Buffalo, provided that
the rest of the ticket was to his liking. When the more notorious
politicians were left off the Democratic ticket, Cleveland accepted
the nomination. Cleveland was elected mayor with 15,120 votes, as
against 11,528 for Milton C. Beebe, his opponent. He took office
January 2, 1882.
Cleveland's term as mayor was spent
fighting the entrenched interests of the party machines. Among the
acts that established his reputation was a veto of the
street-cleaning bill passed by the Common Council. The
street-cleaning contract was open for bids, and the Council selected
the highest bidder at $422,000, rather than the lowest of $100,000
less, because of the political connections of the bidder. While this
sort of bipartisan graft had previously been tolerated in Buffalo,
Mayor Cleveland would have none of it. His veto message said, "I
regard it as the culmination of a most bare-faced, impudent, and
shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people, and to worse
than squander the public money." The Council reversed
itself and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder. Cleveland also
asked the state legislature to form a Commission to develop a plan to
improve the sewer system in Buffalo at a much lower cost than
previously proposed locally; this plan was successfully adopted. For
this, and other actions safeguarding public funds, Cleveland's
reputation as a leader willing to purge government corruption began
to spread beyond Erie County.
Governor of New York
New York Democratic party officials
began to consider Cleveland a possible nominee for governor. Daniel
Manning, a party insider who admired Cleveland's record, was
instrumental in his candidacy. With a split in the state Republican
party in 1882, the Democratic party was considered to be at an
advantage; there were several contenders for that party's nomination.
The two leading Democratic candidates were Roswell P. Flower and
Henry W. Slocum. Their factions deadlocked, and the convention could
not agree on a nominee. Cleveland, in third place on the first
ballot, picked up support in subsequent votes and emerged as the
compromise choice. The Republican party remained divided against
itself, and in the general election Cleveland emerged the victor,
with 535,318 votes to Republican nominee Charles J. Folger's 342,464.
Cleveland's margin of victory was, at the time, the largest in a
contested New York election; the Democrats also picked up seats in
both houses of the New York State Legislature.
Cleveland brought his opposition to
needless spending to the governor's office; he promptly sent the
legislature eight vetos in his first two months in office. The first
to attract attention was his veto of a bill to reduce the fares on
New York City elevated trains to five cents. The bill had broad
support because the trains' owner, Jay Gould, was unpopular, and his
fare increases were widely denounced. Cleveland, however, saw the
bill as unjust—Gould had taken over the railroads when they were
failing and had made the system solvent again. Moreover, Cleveland
believed that altering Gould's franchise would violate the Contract
Clause of the federal Constitution. Despite the initial popularity of
the fare-reduction bill, the newspapers praised Cleveland's veto.
Theodore Roosevelt, then a member of the Assembly, had reluctantly
voted for the bill to which Cleveland objected, in a desire to punish
the unscrupulous railroad barons. After the veto, Roosevelt reversed
himself, as did many legislators, and the veto was sustained.
Cleveland's defiance of political
corruption won him popular acclaim, and the enmity of the influential
Tammany Hall organization in New York City. Tammany, under its boss,
John Kelly, had disapproved of Cleveland's nomination as governor,
and their resistance intensified after Cleveland openly opposed and
prevented the re-election of their point man in the State Senate,
Thomas F. Grady. Cleveland also steadfastly opposed nominees of the
Tammanyites, as well as bills passed as a result of their deal
making. The loss of Tammany's support was offset by the support of
Theodore Roosevelt and other reform-minded Republicans who helped
Cleveland to pass several laws reforming municipal governments.
Election of 1884
Nomination for president
The Republicans convened in Chicago and
nominated former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine of Maine for
president on the fourth ballot. Blaine's nomination alienated many
Republicans who viewed Blaine as ambitious and immoral. The GOP
standard bearer was weakened by alienating the Mugwumps, and the
Conkling faction, recently disenfranchised by President Arthur.
Democratic party leaders saw the Republicans' choice as an
opportunity to win the White House for the first time since 1856 if
the right candidate could be found.
Among the Democrats, Samuel J. Tilden
was the initial front-runner, having been the party's nominee in the
contested election of 1876. After Tilden declined a nomination due
to his poor health, his supporters shifted to several other
contenders. Cleveland was among the leaders in early support, and
Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, Allen G. Thurman of Ohio, Samuel
Freeman Miller of Iowa, and Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts also had
considerable followings, along with various favorite sons. Each of
the other candidates had hindrances to his nomination: Bayard had
spoken in favor of secession in 1861, making him unacceptable to
Northerners; Butler, conversely, was reviled throughout the South for
his actions during the Civil War; Thurman was generally well liked,
but was growing old and infirm, and his views on the silver question
were uncertain. Cleveland, too, had detractors—Tammany remained
opposed to him—but the nature of his enemies made him still more
friends. Cleveland led on the first ballot, with 392 votes out of
820. On the second ballot, Tammany threw its support behind Butler,
but the rest of the delegates shifted to Cleveland, who won. Thomas
A. Hendricks of Indiana was selected as his running mate.
Campaign against Blaine
Corruption in politics was the central
issue in 1884; indeed, Blaine had over the span of his career been
involved in several questionable deals. Cleveland's reputation as an
opponent of corruption proved the Democrats' strongest asset.
William C. Hudson created Cleveland's contextual campaign slogan "A
public office is a public trust." Reform-minded Republicans
called "Mugwumps" denounced Blaine as corrupt and
flocked to Cleveland. The Mugwumps, including such men as Carl Schurz
and Henry Ward Beecher, were more concerned with morality than with
party, and felt Cleveland was a kindred soul who would promote civil
service reform and fight for efficiency in government. At the same
time the Democrats gained support from the Mugwumps, they lost some
blue-collar workers to the Greenback-Labor party, led by ex-Democrat
Benjamin Butler. In general, Cleveland abided by the precedent of
minimizing presidential campaign travel and speechmaking; Blaine
became one of the first to break with that tradition.
The campaign focused on the candidates'
moral standards, as each side cast aspersions on their opponents.
Cleveland's supporters rehashed the old allegations that Blaine had
corruptly influenced legislation in favor of the Little Rock and Fort
Smith Railroad and the Union Pacific Railway, later profiting on the
sale of bonds he owned in both companies. Although the stories of
Blaine's favors to the railroads had made the rounds eight years
earlier, this time Blaine's correspondence was discovered, making his
earlier denials less plausible. On some of the most damaging
correspondence, Blaine had written "Burn this letter",
giving Democrats the last line to their rallying cry: "Blaine,
Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of
Maine, 'Burn this letter!"
Regarding Cleveland, commentator Jeff
Jacoby notes that, "Not since George Washington had a
candidate for President been so renowned for his rectitude."
But the Republicans found a refutation buried in Cleveland's past.
Aided by the sermons of Reverend George H. Ball, a minister from
Buffalo, they made public the allegation that Cleveland had fathered
an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer there, and their rallies
soon included the chant "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?".
When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland immediately instructed
his supporters to "Above all, tell the truth."
Cleveland admitted to paying child support in 1874 to Maria Crofts
Halpin, the woman who asserted he had fathered her son Oscar Folsom
Cleveland and he assumed responsibility. Shortly before the 1884
election, the Republican media published an affidavit from Halpin in
which she stated that until she met Cleveland, her "life was
pure and spotless", and "there is not, and never
was, a doubt as to the paternity of our child, and the attempt of
Grover Cleveland, or his friends, to couple the name of Oscar Folsom,
or any one else, with that boy, for that purpose is simply infamous
and false."
Results of the 1884 election
The electoral votes of closely
contested New York, New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut would
determine the election. In New York, the Tammany Democrats decided
that they would gain more from supporting a Democrat they disliked
than a Republican who would do nothing for them. Blaine hoped that
he would have more support from Irish Americans than Republicans
typically did; while the Irish were mainly a Democratic constituency
in the 19th century, Blaine's mother was Irish Catholic, and he had
been supportive of the Irish National Land League while he was
Secretary of State. The Irish, a significant group in three of the
swing states, did appear inclined to support Blaine until a
Republican, Samuel D. Burchard, gave a speech pivotal for the
Democrats, denouncing them as the party of "Rum, Romanism,
and Rebellion." The Democrats spread the word of this
implied Catholic insult on the eve of the election. They also
blistered Blaine for attending a banquet with some of New York City's
wealthiest men.
After the votes were counted, Cleveland
narrowly won all four of the swing states, including New York by 1200
votes. While the popular vote total was close, with Cleveland winning
by just one-quarter of a percent, the electoral votes gave Cleveland
a majority of 219–182. Following the electoral victory, the "Ma,
Ma ..." attack phrase gained a classic riposte: "Gone
to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
First presidency (1885–1889)
Reform
Soon after taking office, Cleveland was
faced with the task of filling all the government jobs for which the
president had the power of appointment. These jobs were typically
filled under the spoils system, but Cleveland announced that he would
not fire any Republican who was doing his job well, and would not
appoint anyone solely on the basis of party service. He also used
his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as
many departments had become bloated with political time-servers.
Later in his term, as his fellow Democrats chafed at being excluded
from the spoils, Cleveland began to replace more of the partisan
Republican officeholders with Democrats; this was especially the
case with policy making positions. While some of his decisions were
influenced by party concerns, more of Cleveland's appointments were
decided by merit alone than was the case in his predecessors'
administrations.
Cleveland also reformed other parts of
the government. In 1887, he signed an act creating the Interstate
Commerce Commission. He and Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney
undertook to modernize the navy and canceled construction contracts
that had resulted in inferior ships. Cleveland angered railroad
investors by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by
government grant. Secretary of the Interior Lucius Q. C. Lamar
charged that the rights of way for this land must be returned to the
public because the railroads failed to extend their lines according
to agreements. The lands were forfeited, resulting in the return of
approximately 81,000,000 acres (330,000 km2).
Cleveland was the first Democratic
president subject to the Tenure of Office Act which originated in
1867; the act purported to require the Senate to approve the
dismissal of any presidential appointee who was originally subject to
its advice and consent. Cleveland objected to the act in principle
and his steadfast refusal to abide by it prompted its fall into
disfavor and led to its ultimate repeal in 1887.
Vetoes
Cleveland faced a Republican Senate and
often resorted to using his veto powers. He vetoed hundreds of
private pension bills for American Civil War veterans, believing that
if their pensions requests had already been rejected by the Pension
Bureau, Congress should not attempt to override that decision. When
Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill
granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service,
Cleveland also vetoed that. Cleveland used the veto far more often
than any president up to that time. In 1887, Cleveland issued his
most well-known veto, that of the Texas Seed Bill. After a drought
had ruined crops in several Texas counties, Congress appropriated
$10,000 (equivalent to $284,556 in 2019) to purchase seed grain for
farmers there. Cleveland vetoed the expenditure. In his veto
message, he espoused a theory of limited government:
I can find no warrant for such an
appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the
power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the
relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related
to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard
the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be
steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly
enforced that, though the people support the government, the
government should not support the people. The friendliness and
charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their
fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite
lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the
expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and
weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents
the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct
which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.
Silver
One of the most volatile issues of the
1880s was whether the currency should be backed by gold and silver,
or by gold alone. The issue cut across party lines, with western
Republicans and southern Democrats joining together in the call for
the free coinage of silver, and both parties' representatives in the
northeast holding firm for the gold standard. Because silver was
worth less than its legal equivalent in gold, taxpayers paid their
government bills in silver, while international creditors demanded
payment in gold, resulting in a depletion of the nation's gold
supply.
Cleveland and Treasury Secretary Daniel
Manning stood firmly on the side of the gold standard, and tried to
reduce the amount of silver that the government was required to coin
under the Bland–Allison Act of 1878. Cleveland unsuccessfully
appealed to Congress to repeal this law before he was inaugurated.
Angered Westerners and Southerners advocated for cheap money to help
their poorer constituents. In reply, one of the foremost silverites,
Richard P. Bland, introduced a bill in 1886 that would require the
government to coin unlimited amounts of silver, inflating the
then-deflating currency. While Bland's bill was defeated, so was a
bill the administration favored that would repeal any silver coinage
requirement. The result was a retention of the status quo, and a
postponement of the resolution of the Free Silver issue.
Tariffs
"When we consider that the
theory of our institutions guarantees to every citizen the full
enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and enterprise, with only
such deduction as may be his share toward the careful and economical
maintenance of the Government which protects him, it is plain that
the exaction of more than this is indefensible extortion and a
culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice ... The public
Treasury, which should only exist as a conduit conveying the people's
tribute to its legitimate objects of expenditure, becomes a hoarding
place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's use,
thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country's
development, preventing investment in productive enterprise,
threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of public
plunder."--Cleveland's third annual message to
Congress, December 6, 1887.
Another contentious financial issue at
the time was the protective tariff. These tariffs had been
implemented as a temporary measure during the civil war to protect
American industrial interests but remained in place after the war.
While it had not been a central point in his campaign, Cleveland's
opinion on the tariff was that of most Democrats: that the tariff
ought to be reduced. Republicans generally favored a high tariff to
protect American industries. American tariffs had been high since
the Civil War, and by the 1880s the tariff brought in so much revenue
that the government was running a surplus.
In 1886, a bill to reduce the tariff
was narrowly defeated in the House. The tariff issue was emphasized
in the Congressional elections that year, and the forces of
protectionism increased their numbers in the Congress, but Cleveland
continued to advocate tariff reform. As the surplus grew, Cleveland
and the reformers called for a tariff for revenue only. His message
to Congress in 1887 highlighted the injustice of taking more money
from the people than the government needed to pay its operating
expenses. Republicans, as well as protectionist northern Democrats
like Samuel J. Randall, believed that American industries would fail
without high tariffs, and they continued to fight reform efforts.
Roger Q. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,
proposed a bill to reduce the tariff from about 47% to about 40%.
After significant exertions by Cleveland and his allies, the bill
passed the House. The Republican Senate failed to come to agreement
with the Democratic House, and the bill died in the conference
committee. Dispute over the tariff persisted into the 1888
presidential election.
Foreign policy, 1885–1889
Cleveland was a committed
non-interventionist who had campaigned in opposition to expansion and
imperialism. He refused to promote the previous administration's
Nicaragua canal treaty, and generally was less of an expansionist in
foreign relations. Cleveland's Secretary of State, Thomas F. Bayard,
negotiated with Joseph Chamberlain of the United Kingdom over fishing
rights in the waters off Canada, and struck a conciliatory note,
despite the opposition of New England's Republican Senators.
Cleveland also withdrew from Senate consideration the Berlin
Conference treaty which guaranteed an open door for U.S. interests in
the Congo.
Military policy, 1885–1889
Cleveland's military policy emphasized
self-defense and modernization. In 1885 Cleveland appointed the Board
of Fortifications under Secretary of War William C. Endicott to
recommend a new coastal fortification system for the United States.
No improvements to US coastal defenses had been made since the late
1870s. The Board's 1886 report recommended a massive $127 million
construction program (equivalent to $3.6 billion in 2019) at 29
harbors and river estuaries, to include new breech-loading rifled
guns, mortars, and naval minefields. The Board and the program are
usually called the Endicott Board and the Endicott Program. Most of
the Board's recommendations were implemented, and by 1910, 27
locations were defended by over 70 forts. Many of the weapons
remained in place until scrapped in World War II as they were
replaced with new defenses. Endicott also proposed to Congress a
system of examinations for Army officer promotions. For the Navy,
the Cleveland administration spearheaded by Secretary of the Navy
William Collins Whitney moved towards modernization, although no
ships were constructed that could match the best European warships.
Although completion of the four steel-hulled warships begun under the
previous administration was delayed due to a corruption investigation
and subsequent bankruptcy of their building yard, these ships were
completed in a timely manner in naval shipyards once the
investigation was over. Sixteen additional steel-hulled warships
were ordered by the end of 1888; these ships later proved vital in
the Spanish–American War of 1898, and many served in World War I.
These ships included the "second-class battleships" Maine
and Texas, designed to match modern armored ships recently acquired
by South American countries from Europe, such as the Brazilian
battleship Riachuelo. Eleven protected cruisers (including the famous
Olympia), one armored cruiser, and one monitor were also ordered,
along with the experimental cruiser Vesuvius.
Civil rights and immigration
Cleveland, like a growing number of
Northerners (and nearly all white Southerners) saw Reconstruction as
a failed experiment, and was reluctant to use federal power to
enforce the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed
voting rights to African Americans. Though Cleveland appointed no
black Americans to patronage jobs, he allowed Frederick Douglass to
continue in his post as recorder of deeds in Washington, D.C. and
appointed another black man (James Campbell Matthews, a former New
York judge) to replace Douglass upon his resignation. His decision to
replace Douglass with a black man was met with outrage, but Cleveland
claimed to have known Matthews personally.
Although Cleveland had condemned the
"outrages" against Chinese immigrants, he believed that
Chinese immigrants were unwilling to assimilate into white society.
Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard negotiated an extension to the
Chinese Exclusion Act, and Cleveland lobbied the Congress to pass the
Scott Act, written by Congressman William Lawrence Scott, which
prevented the return of Chinese immigrants who left the United
States. The Scott Act easily passed both houses of Congress, and
Cleveland signed it into law on October 1, 1888.
Native American policy
Henry L. Dawes wrote the Dawes Act,
which Cleveland signed into law.
Cleveland viewed Native Americans as
wards of the state, saying in his first inaugural address that
"[t]his guardianship involves, on our part, efforts for the
improvement of their condition and enforcement of their rights."
He encouraged the idea of cultural assimilation, pushing for the
passage of the Dawes Act, which provided for distribution of Indian
lands to individual members of tribes, rather than having them
continued to be held in trust for the tribes by the federal
government. While a conference of Native leaders endorsed the act,
in practice the majority of Native Americans disapproved of it.
Cleveland believed the Dawes Act would lift Native Americans out of
poverty and encourage their assimilation into white society. It
ultimately weakened the tribal governments and allowed individual
Indians to sell land and keep the money.
In the month before Cleveland's 1885
inauguration, President Arthur opened four million acres of Winnebago
and Crow Creek Indian lands in the Dakota Territory to white
settlement by executive order. Tens of thousands of settlers
gathered at the border of these lands and prepared to take possession
of them. Cleveland believed Arthur's order to be in violation of
treaties with the tribes, and rescinded it on April 17 of that year,
ordering the settlers out of the territory. Cleveland sent in
eighteen companies of Army troops to enforce the treaties and ordered
General Philip Sheridan, at the time Commanding General of the U. S.
Army, to investigate the matter.