Grover Cleveland

The Complete State of the Union Addresses of Grover Cleveland (Dodo Press)

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), the twentysecond and twenty-fourth President of the United States, was the only President to serve non-consecutive terms (1885-1889 and 1893-1897). He was defeated for reelection in 1888 by Benjamin Harrison, against whom he ran again in 1892 and won a second term. He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era of Republican political domination between 1860 and 1912, after the American Civil War. His admirers praise him for his bedrock honesty, independence, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. As a leader of the Bourbon Democrats, he opposed imperialism, taxes, corruption, patronage, subsidies and inflationary policies. Some of Cleveland's actions were controversial with political factions. Such criticisms include but are not limited to: his intervention in the Pullman Strike of 1894 in order to keep the railroads moving (a move which angered labor unions), his support of the gold standard, and opposition to free silver which alienated the agrarian wing of the Democrats.