Grover Cleveland

The major questions of foreign policy confronting Cleveland were the annexation of Hawaii and the Venezuela-British Guiana boundary dispute. In both matters he took firm positions based on American traditions, standing against imperialism and for the Monroe Doctrine, the position that the United States alone should look after political affairs in the western hemisphere. United States presidents had held this position since James Monroe first adopted it in 1823.

In Hawaii, Cleveland was confronted by a rebellion organized by white businessmen and aided by American minister to Hawaii John L. Stevens. The rebellion began after Queen Liliuokalani, who was opposed to the growing influence of American-owned industries on the islands, chose to disregard a constitution that the businessmen had forced her brother to accept when he was king. The queen was removed and a provisional government was set up. Cleveland, when informed that the Hawaiian people were against annexation to the United States, decided not to submit an annexation treaty to the Senate. The provisional government announced the creation of the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894, and Cleveland officially recognized it as an independent country the following month (see Hawaii: The Growth of U.S. Domination).

In a long dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana about their boundary, the United States tried to persuade the British to reach a peaceful settlement with the Venezuelans through arbitration. In 1895 U.S. Secretary of State Richard Olney sent a strongly worded note to the British government insisting that Britain and Venezuela accept an offer from the United States to mediate the dispute. When the note was rejected, Cleveland lost his patience and dispatched to Congress a blistering message written in collaboration with Olney. The letter was almost a threat of war, so strong was its language in warning Britain not to take aggressive action in the western hemisphere. The message, usually called the Olney Corollary, in effect greatly enlarged the scope of the Monroe Doctrine because it asserted that the United States considered even such small matters as boundary disputes vital to its security. Britain and Venezuela finally settled the boundary dispute by arbitration.

Consistent with his strong stand against British interference, Cleveland himself refused to meddle in the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898) against Spain, despite strong pressure from American imperialists. Revolts and conspiracies against the Spanish regime had dominated Cuban political life throughout the 19th century. The Cuban struggle for independence had become an active revolution in 1895 because Spain failed to institute reforms promised to the Cuban people in 1878. In response the Spanish drove much of the population into confinement camps, in which thousands died of disease and malnutrition. Many Americans strongly sympathized with the Cuban cause, but Cleveland was determined not to involve his country in a war. He made Spain an offer, in April 1896, to act as mediator in the dispute. Spain declined, and the revolution continued.

As Cleveland neared the end of his term, it was evident that he had lost control of the Democratic Party. When the party nominated Nebraska Congressman and journalist William Jennings Bryan for president on a silver platform in 1896, Cleveland’s supporters, called the national, or gold, Democrats, nominated a rival candidate for president. Cleveland did not get involved in the campaign, and the Republican candidate, Ohio Congressman William McKinley, easily defeated both Democratic nominees.

After turning over the presidential office to McKinley on March 4, 1897, Cleveland retired to a home he had bought in Princeton, New Jersey. He became a member of the Anti-Imperialist League, which, in 1898, opposed the annexation of the Philippines. In 1904 there was talk of a third term for Cleveland, but he discouraged it. In that year he published a book called Presidential Problems, a defense of his administrations.

During his last years, Cleveland served as a trustee of Princeton University. There he met the university’s president and future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), and they became close friends. After a three-month illness, Grover Cleveland died on June 24, 1908, at his Princeton home. His last words were, “I have tried so hard to do right!”