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.

C.

Marriage

In early June 1886, the 49-year-old president married Frances Folsom, daughter of a former law partner. Cleveland was the first president to be married in the White House. The couple had three daughters and two sons.

D.

Major Legislation

During his first term, Cleveland supported two major pieces of legislation. One was the Dawes Act of 1887, also called the Allotment Act. This act attempted to change the Native Americans’ communal way of living and replace it with a sense of individualism by distributing tribal lands to individual Native Americans. The act failed to achieve its goal. Instead, much of the land fell into the hands of whites, further impoverishing a decreasing Native American population (see Native Americans of North America).

The second major bill was the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which said that charges on railroads must be “reasonable and just.” This law established the principle of federal regulation of the economy. It created the Interstate Commerce Commission but did not give it sufficient powers to regulate railroads effectively.

Cleveland also wanted to reduce the huge surplus then in the U.S. Treasury. He felt that the soundest way to do this was to lower the tariff, a tax on imports. Industries in Northern urban areas and banking interests tended to favor such tariffs because they helped domestic businesses by increasing the cost of imported goods; agricultural areas in the West and the South tended to oppose them because they made it harder for people to buy cheap foreign goods such as clothing. Cleveland presented his position on the tariff in a message to Congress late in 1887, but Congress did not act, and the tariff question became a major issue in the election of 1888.

E.

Election of 1888

In 1888 the Democratic Party split over the tariff issue and over Cleveland’s generally conservative position. However, Cleveland was renominated by the Democrats. His Republican opponent was Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. The Republican platform favored more high tariffs. Cleveland received only 168 electoral votes to Harrison’s 233. Nevertheless, the defeated president received about 100,000 more popular votes than did Harrison.

F.

Election of 1892

When Cleveland left public office in 1889, he returned to New York City and resumed his law practice. Three years later, the Democrats again turned to him as their party’s greatest vote-getter. At their national convention Cleveland was nominated on the first ballot.

In his third presidential campaign, Cleveland stood his ground against western Democrats who demanded free coinage of silver. The unrestricted, or free, coinage of silver would have increased the amount of money available, causing the value of the dollar to decline. Farmers in the South and the West supported free silver because they relied heavily on credit and would have been able to repay their loans much more easily. Western mining companies also favored free silver because it increased the market for their silver. Banks would have received money that was worth less than the money they had loaned; financial interests therefore opposed free silver. Because Cleveland refused to advance the free silver cause, many southern and western Democrats called Cleveland a “bloated Wall Street puppet.”

The Republicans in their campaign defended their high-tariff policy against repeated and strong Democratic criticism, but that was not enough. Despite the arguments within his own party, Cleveland decisively defeated President Harrison, 277 electoral votes to 145.