50 Fun Facts About Grover Cleveland

Cleveland was the first president to serve which kind of terms?

He was the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and the 24th from 1893 to 1897, with Benjamin Harrison in between; Donald Trump became the second in 2025.

Which two numbers does Cleveland hold in the presidential sequence?

Because of the double count, he got two separate Presidential $1 coins in 2012.

In which state was Cleveland born?

He was born in Caldwell in 1837, the fifth of nine children of a Presbyterian minister.

What was Cleveland's actual first name, which he dropped in adult life?

He was named for the first pastor of the Caldwell church where his father preached.

Cleveland's early career was built in which city?

He went there in 1855 for a clerical job from his cousin and was admitted to the New York bar in 1859.

How did Cleveland avoid serving in the Civil War after the 1863 Conscription Act?

Polish immigrant George Brinski took his place; hiring a substitute was legal under the act.

What grim duty did Cleveland perform personally as sheriff of Erie County?

He could have paid a deputy $10 to do it; he executed Patrick Morrissey in 1872 and John Gaffney in 1873 himself.

Cleveland was elected mayor in which year?

Democrats ran him as an honest man against a slate of machine hacks; he took office in January 1882.

As mayor, Cleveland made his name vetoing a padded contract for what?

The council had chosen the highest bidder at $422,000; he called it "a most bare-faced, impudent, and shameless scheme".

Which future president worked with Governor Cleveland as assembly minority leader?

Their municipal reform bills gave Cleveland national recognition and cost him the support of Tammany Hall.

As governor, Cleveland vetoed a bill cutting fares on whose elevated trains?

He thought the five-cent fare violated the Contract Clause; the papers praised the veto and Roosevelt reversed himself.

Reform Republicans who backed Cleveland in 1884 were known by what name?

Carl Schurz and Henry Ward Beecher were among them; they cared more about morality than party.

Whom did Cleveland narrowly defeat in the 1884 presidential election?

Democrats chanted "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine".

What was Cleveland's 1884 campaign slogan?

William C. Hudson coined it; Cleveland's reputation against corruption was the Democrats' strongest asset.

What did Republicans chant at rallies in 1884 about Cleveland's alleged child?

He told supporters to "Above all, tell the truth"; after he won, Democrats answered "Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

A Republican's slur calling Democrats the party of what helped Cleveland win New York?

Samuel D. Burchard's phrase offended Irish Catholic voters on the eve of the election; Cleveland took the state by 1,200 votes.

By how many votes did Cleveland carry New York in 1884?

He won all four swing states and the electoral vote 219–182, with a popular margin of a quarter of a percent.

Who was Cleveland's first-term vice president?

Hendricks died in 1885; Thurman was the running mate in 1888 and Stevenson in 1892.

Which 1887 act signed by Cleveland made railroads the first federally regulated industry?

It created the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first federal regulatory body of its kind.

Which act signed by Cleveland broke Native American tribal lands into allotments?

Native Americans ceded about two-thirds of their 1887 land base, roughly 100 million acres, by 1934.

How many times did Cleveland use the veto in his first term alone?

That was more than four times as many as any previous president; most were private Civil War pension bills.

Cleveland's most famous veto rejected seed aid for drought-hit farmers in which state?

His message argued "though the people support the government, the government should not support the people."

On the great monetary question of the 1880s, Cleveland stood firmly for what?

His hard-money stance split him from the agrarian wing, which seized the party and nominated Bryan in 1896.

Cleveland was the second president to marry in office and the only one to marry where?

The Blue Room ceremony took place on June 2, 1886; he was 49 and the bride was 21.

What was the name of Cleveland's bride, still the youngest First Lady ever?

She was the daughter of his late law partner; Cleveland had been executor of the estate and overseen her upbringing.

How old was Cleveland's bride at their 1886 wedding?

She had been a student at Wells College when she visited the White House in 1885.

Which candy bar did its maker claim was named for Cleveland's daughter?

Ruth Cleveland died of diphtheria in 1904, aged 12, five days after her diagnosis.

Which British philosopher was Cleveland's granddaughter?

Foot, who lived from 1920 to 2010, was born to Cleveland's daughter Esther.

Whom did Cleveland appoint Chief Justice in 1888?

The Senate spent months examining the little-known nominee before confirming him 41 to 20.

In 1888 Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the presidency to whom?

He took 48.6 percent to Harrison's 47.8 but lost the Electoral College 233–168, including his home state of New York.

What did Frances Cleveland tell a staff member as she left the residence in 1889?

She asked him to take good care of the furniture and ornaments, and she was right.

Who was Cleveland's running mate in the 1892 election?

The Illinois silverite balanced the gold-standard ticket; his grandson was the Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956.

Which Populist candidate drew Western votes away from the Republicans in 1892?

Weaver promised free silver, generous pensions and an eight-hour day; Cleveland won both popular and electoral votes.

Which financial crisis struck just before Cleveland's second term began?

He called Congress into special session and forced through repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act's coinage clauses.

Cleveland allowed which 1894 tariff to become law without his signature?

The Senate had attached more than 600 amendments; he called the result a disgraceful product of the trusts.

What was the name of the protest march on Washington that Cleveland faced in 1894?

Its leaders were arrested for walking on the Capitol lawn and the few hundred remaining marchers scattered.

Cleveland sent federal troops into Chicago in 1894 to break which labor action?

He vowed that if it took the entire army and navy "to deliver a postcard in Chicago, that card will be delivered."

Which Illinois governor became Cleveland's bitter foe over the use of troops in 1894?

German-born Altgeld could never run for president himself, which helped Cleveland's enemies fail to unite in 1896.

Which union leader led the sympathy strikes that paralyzed the railroads in 1894?

By June 1894 some 125,000 railroad workers were out; Cleveland got a federal injunction against them.

Cleveland withdrew a treaty to annex which territory and backed its deposed queen?

He called the landing of Marines during the 1893 coup an "act of war" but Dole's government would not budge.

Whom did Cleveland send to Honolulu in 1893 to investigate the overthrow of the queen?

Blount's report found U.S. involvement in the coup; a Senate report under Morgan later contradicted him.

Cleveland invoked the Monroe Doctrine in a border row between Britain and which country?

Britain eventually accepted arbitration; an 1899 tribunal gave most of the land to British Guiana anyway.

Where was Cleveland's secret 1893 cancer surgery performed?

Surgeons removed part of his upper left jaw through his mouth aboard the Oneida; a story about two bad teeth covered it.

Which state joined the Union in 1896 after Cleveland signed its enabling act?

It became the 45th state on January 4, 1896; no states were admitted during his first term.

Cleveland spent his retirement in which university town?

As a trustee he sided against university president Woodrow Wilson over plans for the graduate school.

What were Cleveland's reported last words in 1908?

He died of a heart attack at 71 and is buried in Princeton Cemetery.

Cleveland was the first U.S. president to be captured by which technology?

He was filmed in 1895, two years before leaving office.

Cleveland's portrait appeared on which high-denomination U.S. bill in 1928 and 1934?

He had earlier appeared on $20 notes of the 1914–1918 series.

Cleveland was the first Democrat elected president since which year?

James Buchanan, elected in 1856, was the last Democrat to win before the Civil War.

In 1905 Cleveland wrote that "sensible and responsible women do not want" to do what?

He argued men's and women's roles had been "assigned long ago by a higher intelligence".