Grover Cleveland By Jake Rosenthal

Date Of Birth Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18th, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey.

Family Grover Cleveland was born fifth out of nine children. His mother was Ann Neal Cleveland and his father was Richard F. Cleveland, minister of the Presbyterian church.

Early Life Grover Cleveland lived in Fayetteville, New York for part of his childhood, and Clinton, New York until his father died when he was sixteen. Cleveland had dreams of going to college, but the death of his father took college from him. He had to help support his family, so he went to work as a clerk with his older brother, and when the civil war started, he became the assistant district attorney in Eric County.

Life before office To avoid fighting in the war, he paid 300$ for a substitute to fight for him. Even though some people called him a slacker for backing out of the war, he proved himself a hard working lawyer at the office. He presented his arguments by memory in court, and later in life, he presented his inaugural address without notes, something no president had ever done before.

Life before office Cleveland was elected sheriff of Eric county, but he only held that job for three years before returning to practicing law. Just a few years after he returned to the office, the Buffalo City Democratic Committee asked him to run for mayor. He won the election and became Mayor of the town in 1881, and had great success. Seeing his potential, the democratic party nominated him to be governor of New York.

Campaign of 1884 While he was the governor of New York, he fought against a corrupt political company called Tammany Hall, which won him the votes of most middle class voters. His hard working attitude won him the votes of many others. The fact that his opponent, James G. Blaine, had many enemies, helped him win the vote of many others as well. Cleveland took the election by a popular vote of 48.5% to 48.2%, and received 219 electoral votes.

First term video Cleveland’s first term is summarized in this short video.

Campaign of 1888 In his campaign for reelection, Cleveland was up against Benjamin Harrison. He won the popular vote 47.9% to 48.6%, but he lost in the electoral college 233 votes to 168 votes.

Campaign of 1892 In 1892, Cleveland was once again up against Harrison, but he was also against James B. Weaver, the candidate from the newly formed populist party. Cleveland won the election with about 46 percent of the popular vote for him, about 43 percent for Harrison, and about 8 percent for Weaver. He also won in the electoral college with 277 votes for him, 145 for Harrison, and 22 for Weaver.

Presidential life Grover Cleveland was the only president to serve two terms; he was the 22nd president and the 24th. He was the only president to get married while in office, and he also used the presidential veto the most times out of any president.

After Office After moving out of the White House, Cleveland moved to a house in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was treated like royalty by the other citizens. When Cleveland’s oldest daughter, Ruth, died, he was filled with a great sadness and died on March 24th,1908. His final words were “I have tried so hard to do right.”

Personal Life Cleveland was born to a Presbyterian family. His father died when he was 16, meaning he had to begin to help the family. He married Frances Folsom while he was president, which was never done before.

Accomplishments To this day, Grover Cleveland is the only president to have two nonconsecutive terms in office. He had two vice presidents: Thomas A. Hendricks in his first term, and Adlai Stevenson in his second.

Cleveland Song!

Works Cited http://www.biography.com/people/grover-cleveland-9251050/videos/grover-cleveland-first-term-26303555675 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm-AWB8HP3E http://millercenter.org/president/cleveland/essays/biography/print http://electricneedleroom.bandcamp.com/track/grover-cleveland