Abstract: Summary: The first comprehensive study of our 22nd and 24th president in nearly seventy years. The only Democrat elected to the presidency between the Civil War and World War I rose to prominence through the ranks of mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York. Always concerned with the majority, never the favored few, Cleveland believed his ultimate allegiance was to the nation, not to a party, and he acted on his beliefs throughout his entire political life. Though at first considered an enemy of labor because of his firm handling of the bloody Chicago Pullman strike, his accomplishments include his heroic quest to improve the quality of life for American Indians, his battles against the railroads and big business to prevent the destruction of land, and his insistence on tariff reduction and remaining on the Gold Standard, which saved the nation from bankruptcy.--From publisher description.
Content Notes: pt. I. 1837-1881. Stephen -- "My mind revels in retrospection" -- Plans for college ended -- Why did Grover become a Democrat? -- A blessing in disguise -- Sheriff Cleveland -- pt. II. 1881-1884. The veto mayor -- "Let me rise or fall" -- A laundry list of promises -- The veto governor -- An exercise in circumlocution -- "Yes, I believe things are coming my way" -- pt. III. 1884. What should have been the focus -- "Ma! Ma! Where's my Pa?" -- "A dreadful self-inflicted penance" -- pt. IV. 1885-1888. "Henceforth I must have no friends" -- At times the pressure was almost unendurable -- "Good government is the main thing to be aimed at" -- On a collision course with the Senate -- Civilization, citizenship, assimilation -- Spoliation of the American West -- The currency issue splits the nation -- "She is a superior person" -- The Haymarket riot of 1886 -- "O, those ghouls of the press!" -- Taking on the corrupt Veterans Bureau -- "Calm scorn for sectional outbursts" -- A triumphant tour --Though disappointed, not discouraged -- The great tariff battle of 1888 -- pt. V. 1888-1889. The election was Cleveland's to lose -- A disastrous campaign -- First confrontation with a foreign power -- "The other party had the most votes" -- Trouble in Samoa -- "We are coming back just four years from today" -- pt. VI. 1889-1893. In retirement -- "I should like to know what pledge I have broken" -- The silver letter -- "The people are not dead but sleeping" -- Cleveland in his most truculent mood -- The most decisive victory since Lincoln's reelection -- pt. VII. 1893-1896. "The people got exactly what they wished" -- Divisive issues -- "I cannot get the men I want to help me" -- "I am ashamed of the whole affair" -- Arguably his finest moment -- A twenty-five-year secret -- "I know there is a God, but I do not know his purposes" -- The single most humiliating failure -- The Chicago Pullman strike of '94 -- "I am so depressed during these days" -- The crisis rapidly approaches flash point -- The Venezuelan boundary dispute -- The Democrats are driven into schism -- Detested within his own party -- Thrust aside -- pt. VIII. 1897-1907. "My poor old battered name" -- Lame duck -- The Princeton years -- "My beliefs and opinions are unsuited for the times" -- Public perception begins to change appreciably -- Cleveland's "true democracy" again in the ascendancy -- One more opportunity to exercise his statesmanship -- "You know how dearly I love you" -- Last words.
Notes: "Truman Talley books."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 458-463) and index.
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