"Grover the Good" - Grover Cleveland’s Birthday

By Jordan Hillman, intern, National Portrait Gallery, Center for Electronic Research and Outreach Services

When one is asked to name the former presidents of the United States of America, Grover Cleveland is often among the forgotten. Yet the twenty-second president, born Stephen Grover Cleveland on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, was an interesting character. At the age of eighteen, Cleveland left New Jersey for the West in hopes of striking a fortune; however, a pit-stop in Buffalo, New York, stretched into a nearly thirty-year residency. There, he became the sheriff of Erie County, serving simultaneously as public executioner. As such, he was the only president to personally hang a man, putting to death two murderers.

In 1881 Cleveland got his political start as a reform mayoral candidate for the city of Buffalo, winning by a landslide. He became known as the “veto mayor,” doing away with the corruption in the city government through his rejection of underhanded attempts to pass shady decrees. To this day, a bronze statue of Cleveland stands outside of Buffalo City Hall. His stint as mayor was cut short, however, by his nomination as the Democratic candidate for governor, which he won with the largest majority of any governor up to that point.

Leading up to the national election of 1884, Cleveland, nicknamed “Grover the Good,” was the shoo-in for the Democratic presidential candidate because of his reputation for honesty. Just a week-and-a-half after the Democratic National Convention though, a story was printed in the Buffalo News with the headline “A Terrible Tale,” exposing Cleveland as the father of an illegitimate son. This revelation began one of the most unscrupulous elections in history, creating a war of personal accusations between Cleveland and the Republican candidate James G. Blaine. In the end, however, Cleveland prevailed.

As president, Grover Cleveland was unique. He was the first Democratic president to be elected after the Civil War. He personally answered the White House phone. He was the only president to be married and to have a child born in the White House. The “Baby Ruth” candy bar was named after his daughter Ruth, not Babe Ruth as is often thought. He was also the first president to moonlight as an actor, starring in A Capital Courtship, a photoplay in which he was filmed signing a bill into law. In his first term, Cleveland vetoed more than 400 bills, twice as many as the number vetoed by all previous presidents combined (and earning him the new nickname of “veto president”). He was also the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms in office; he lost the 1888 election, but won in 1892 to become the twenty-fourth—as well as the twenty-second—president.

While Cleveland is not necessarily known for the deeds of his presidency, he is remembered for his honest reputation and his efforts to maintain that reputation, both for himself and the government of the United States. Perhaps this can be best seen in the words of Cleveland in his first inaugural speech:

“Our citizens have the right to protection from the incompetency of public employees who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan service, and from the corrupting influences who promise and the vicious methods of those who expect such rewards; and those who worthily seek public employment have the right to insist that merit and competency shall be recognized instead of party subserviency or the surrender of honest political belief.”