Grover Cleveland

B

Governor of New York

As governor, Cleveland demonstrated the same stubborn honesty and independence that he had shown in his other offices. Most state governments at this time operated on the spoils system, in which winning politicians gave government jobs to those loyal party members who had helped them get elected. Cleveland, however, appointed people to office based on their skills. When politicians demanded jobs to reward their services to the Democratic Party, he would frustrate them by saying, “I don’t know that I understand you.”

Cleveland liberally applied the veto to laws passed by the legislature. The most famous of these was his veto in 1883 of the Five Cent Fare bill, which would have lowered transit fares in New York City in violation of the transit company’s charter. Afterward he said, “I shall be the most unpopular man in the state of New York.” He later broke with Tammany Society, also called Tammany Hall, the Democratic political machine in New York City, when he vetoed its bill for revising the city charter.

C

Election of 1884

In 1884 the Republicans nominated Maine Congressman and former Secretary of State James G. Blaine for president. A group of Republicans who favored national reform were furious at Blaine’s nomination, since he had been accused of accepting bribes from railroad companies. These independents, derisively called Mugwumps (meaning “big chiefs”), appealed to the voters to support any Democrat who ran against Blaine, as long as he was honest. They believed, as did almost every politician, that the candidate carrying New York state in the November election would win the presidency, and that was Cleveland’s strength. The anti-Blaine independents could rally around Cleveland since his public record was unassailable.

At the Democratic National Convention in July 1884, Cleveland was nominated for president. The Cleveland-Blaine presidential campaign inspired many personal attacks by both sides, as well as by the smaller parties. Republican editors and orators charged that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child, which Cleveland courageously acknowledged. Democrats, for their part, accused Blaine of trying to aid the railroads at public expense.

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Various factors combined to give Cleveland a slim victory over Blaine. Voters in New York City went heavily Democratic, in part because of an unfortunate statement by the Reverend Samuel D. Burchard, a Blaine supporter. Burchard called the Democrats the party of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion,” an insulting reference to Irish Americans, Roman Catholics, and Southerners, who all generally supported the Democratic Party. The statement lost Blaine any chance of getting the Irish American vote in New York City. The Mugwumps supported Cleveland because of Blaine’s political past. Even the Prohibition Party candidate received 25,000 votes that normally would have gone to the Republican candidate.

New York’s 36 electoral votes swung the election to Cleveland. He won the state’s vote by only about 1000 in a total vote of more than 1,000,000, and the national election by 219 electoral votes to Blaine’s 182.

IV

President of the United States

Cleveland was inaugurated March 4, 1885, and he immediately showed his independence and disregard for the opinion of his supporters in the selection of his advisers and heads of departments, called the Cabinet. His secretary of state was Thomas F. Bayard, an advocate of lower tariffs (taxes) on imported goods, which offended Democrats, who wanted higher tariffs (see Tariffs, United States). His selection of William C. Whitney, a financier, for secretary of the Navy was denounced by those who feared the power of big business. The president drew hostile comments from Northerners when he made Lucius Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi secretary of the interior and Augustus H. Garland of Arkansas attorney general because both men had served the Confederacy.

A

Civil Service

The president further demonstrated his independence by promising no “relaxation on my part” in enforcing the law regulating government employment, called the Pendleton Act of 1883. Cleveland more than doubled the number of government jobs that came under the Civil Service Commission; these jobs were given to people who were qualified to fill the positions, rather than to party loyalists, as was usually the case at that time. He also persuaded the Congress of the United States to repeal the Tenure-of-Office Act that since 1867 had restricted presidents in removing incompetent officeholders. Ultimately, however, pressure from the Democratic Party forced Cleveland to make concessions. By the end of his term, faithful Democrats filled most federal jobs.

B

Pension Bills

Cleveland was harassed by countless pension bills passed by Congress. These bills granted money to people Congress felt were deserving, usually Civil War veterans. He vetoed more than 200 private pension bills, arguing that money would be given to people who didn’t deserve it. He also vetoed a general pension bill that would have awarded pensions to all disabled Union veterans, regardless of the cause of their disability. The Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization of the Union Army, was outraged, and its leaders reminded the president that he had not been a soldier during the Civil War.

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