<p> Grover Cleveland - The Man Years - 1837 - 1908 First Term - 1885 - 1889 Second Term - 1893 - 1897</p><p>Material taken from Pictorial History of American Presidents by John and Alice Durant @ 1955.</p><p>Stephen Grover Cleveland (he dropped the “Stephen” at an early age) was the only president to be re-elected after leaving the White House. He was our 22nd and 24th Presidents. He was the first Democratic president since Buchanan, and like Buchanan came to the White House a bachelor. Grover was born in Caldwell, New Jersey where his father was the preacher in a small Presbyterian church. As his father’s income was small at age 12, Grover got a job at a store near his home and worked there for two years. Then he went back to his books. When he was 17 he began to teach in a home for the blind in New York City. His older brother, who was a minister like his father, was teaching there and very likely got him the place. What Grover wanted was to study law and after a while he became a clerk and copyist in a lawyer’s office in Buffalo, where he spent all his spare time in reading law books. At 22 he was admitted to the bar. His father had died and he had to help his mother, who had very little money. In 1863 he was made Assistant District Attorney for Erie County. Cleveland did not join the Boys in Blue in the Civil War. By the terms of the Conscription Act of 1863, a man eligible for the draft could avoid service by furnishing a substitute, or paying a commutation of $300.00. With two brothers in the army and a mother and two sisters to support, Grover decided to stay home. He paid $150.00 to a substitute who went off in his place. “Grover the Good,” as the Democrats called him, had little formal education, no wealth or family prestige, was not physically attractive. He weighed 260 pounds, was bull-necked, and had no gift for oratory. But he had an immovable, stubbornly honest character. Of great independence and courage, he was successively Sheriff of Erie County, New York. As Sheriff he personally hanged two murders rather than give the unpleasant task to his deputies. In 1881 he become Mayor of Buffalo. He was called the “veto mayor” because of the sledgehammer blows he delivered to Buffalo’s political grafters. Within a few months he had saved the city nearly $1,000,000. He then was elected governor of New York. He refused to do the bidding of Tammany, the New York City Democratic machine, and won the approval of the better element of both parties. The Presidential election of 1884 was quite a dirty one with both sides attacking eachothers moral character. Cleveland won by a narrow margin over James G. Blaine. When he took the oath of office Cleveland used a small, well-worn Bible that his mother had given to him when he left home. Cleveland was the hardest-working man in Washington. He stuck to his desk regularly until two or three o’clock in the morning, going over the details of his job. “He would rather do something badly for himself than have somebody else do it well.” said Tilden. Cleveland was not married, so his sister, Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland served as mistress of the White House. Cleveland, as well as Dr. Woodrow Wilson, married while in the White House. His bride was Frances Folsom, the daughter of his law partner and closest friend in Buffalo, Oscar Folsom. When Folsom was suddenly killed, being thrown from a buggy, Cleveland acted as executor of the estate and looked after the widow and her 11 year old daughter. For many years Cleveland saw a great deal of the two, but no one suspected that he had more than a paternal interest in Frances. When she graduated from Wells College he wrote her offering marriage, and the engagement soon followed. At the time she was a tall, graceful, dark-eyed young woman of 22. The President was 49. The marriage took place in the Blue Room on June 2, 1886, with fewer than 40 people present. The service had been revised and condensed by Cleveland and the word “obey” was omitted. As the ceremony closed, a salute of 21 guns thundered from the navy yard and all the church bells in the city rang out. When Mrs. Cleveland departed from the White House on March 4, 1889, an hour or so before the Harrisons moved in, she said to the staff, “Take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house…for I want to find everything just as it is now when we come back again. We are coming back just four years from today.” Cleveland moves back to New York City where he took up the law business again for the next four years till he was elected President again running against William Henry Harrison. Four years later to the day Cleveland drove up Pennsylvania Avenue by the side of the man who had taken the Presidency from him and was now returning it to him. Never before had a once- defeated President been able to enjoy such a triumph. In a complete Democratic sweep the party controlled both houses of Congress as well as the Presidency for the first time since the Civil War. Unfortunately for Cleveland the country was already beginning to fall into a depression that would last the full four years of the Cleveland’s second term. This depression was caused by the depletion of the nation’s gold reserve during the Harrison administration – but it would be Cleveland that would inherit the results and the depression. Upon leaving office Cleveland bought a mansion at Princeton, New Jersey, and made that city his home. While Cleveland was President…. On October 28, 1886, the bronze Statue of Liberty was unveiled at Bedloe’s Island, New York Harbor. The 225-ton statue, designed by the French sculptor, Frederic Bartholdi, was presented to the United States by the French government.</p>