GROVER CLEVELAND

[Library of Congress]

1837-1908

22nd and 24th President (1885-1889 and 1893-1897)

Biographical Data
Religious Views
Quotations
Unverified Quotations
References, Links, & Further Reading

Education: little formal education

Occupation: lawyer

Political Affiliation: Democrat

Religious Affiliation: Presbyterian

Summary of Religious Views:

Cleveland was the son of a Presbyterian minister, but he seems not to have been especially religious himself. He was quite tolerant of other religions, with the exception of Mormonism, but even there his real objection seems to have been to polygamy rather than the religion itself.

Views on Religion & Politics:

Some authorities assert that Cleveland's Calvinist upbringing strongly shaped his political views, but other authorities see no such connection.

Quotations:

Cleveland's entries in his diary following the death, on 6 January 1904, of his daughter Ruth:

"I had a season of great trouble in keeping out of my mind the idea that Ruth was in the cold, cheerless grave instead of in the arms of her Saviour." -- 10 January 1904

"It seems to me I mourn our darling Ruth's death more and more. So much of the time I can only think of her as dead, not joyfully living in heaven." -- 11 January 1904

"God has come to my help and I am able to adjust my thought to dear Ruth's death with as much comfort as selfish humanity will permit." -- 15 January 1904

"I know that human prejudice -- especially that growing out of race and religion -- is cruelly inveterate and lasting." -- The Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Jews in America: Address Delivered at Carnegie Hall, 30 November 1905

"I have quite often, lately, found myself longing for the rest of idleness, and and the peace of inactivity; and I have sometimes even given entrance to the thought that these were my due. But you have written words to me that will help me to constantly appreciate the fact that God who has blessed me above all other men, and directed all my ways, deserves my service, and every good cause deserves my best endeavour, as long as my life and strength shall last.

"I know as no one else can know my limitations, and how fixed and inexorable they are . . . but I shall trust God, as I have in the past, for strength and opportunity for further usefulness." -- letter to Rev. Wilton Merle Smith, D.D., 21 March 1906

References, Links, & Further Reading: Books, Articles, Links

Books

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Works by Grover Cleveland

Presidential Problems, Century, 1904; reprint
The Independence Of The Executive, Princeton Univ. Press, 1913
The Self Made Man in American Life, Crowell, 1897
ed. by George F. Parker, Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland, Cassell, 1892; reprint
ed. by Allan Nevins, The Letters of Grover Cleveland 1850-1908, Houghton Mifflin, 1933

Biographies

Alyn Brodsky, Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character, Truman Talley Books, 2000
Henry Jones Ford, The Cleveland Era, A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics, Yale Univ. Press, 1919, reprint
Henry F. Graff, Grover Cleveland (The American Presidents), Times Books, 2002
Joseph R. Hollingsworth, The Whirligig of Politics: The Democracy of Cleveland and Bryan, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1963
John Marszalek, ed. by Carol B. Fitzgerald, Grover Cleveland: A Bibliography (Bibliographies of the Presidents of the United States), Greenwood Press, 1988
Robert McNutt McElroy, Grover Cleveland: The Man And the Statesman, 2 vols., Harper and Brothers, 1923
Horace Samuel Merrill, Bourbon Leader: Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party, Little, Brown, 1957
Allan Nevins, Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage, Dodd, Mead, 1932
George F. Parker, Recollections Of Grover Cleveland, Century, 1909; reprint, Ayer, 1970
Troy Senik, A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland, Threshold Editions, 2022
Robert I. Vexler, Grover Cleveland 1837-1908: Chronology, Documents, Bibliographical Aids, Oceana Pub., 1968
Richard E. Welch, Jr., The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland (American Presidency Series), Univ. Press of Kansas, 1988

Articles

Works by Grover Cleveland

"The Independence of the Executive, I," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 85, Iss. 512, June 1900, pp. 721-732
"The Independence of the Executive, II," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 86, Iss. 513, July 1900, pp. 1-14

Biographies

Anonymous, "Cleveland in His Hours of Ease," Harper's Weekly, Vol. 51, 8 June 1907
Henry H. Metcalf, "Grover Cleveland," The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 2, Iss. 2, November 1884, pp. 61-69
Woodrow Wilson, "Mr. Cleveland as President," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 79, Iss. 473, March 1897, pp. 289-301

Links

Works by Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland (American Presidency Project)
First Inaugural Address (AMDOCS)
First Inaugural Address of Grover Cleveland (Avalon Project -- Yale Law School)
Second Inaugural Address (AMDOCS)
Second Inaugural Address of Grover Cleveland (Avalon Project -- Yale Law School)
President Cleveland's Message on Relations with the Nation of Hawaii (1893) (Nation of Hawai'i)
The Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Jews in America: Address Delivered at Carnegie Hall, Thanksgiving Day, 1905

Biographical Sites

Grover Cleveland (POTUS)
Grover Cleveland (White House)
Grover Cleveland (American President)
Grover Cleveland (USA Presidents)
Life Portrait of Grover Cleveland (C-SPAN)
Grover Cleveland (Medical History of the Presidents of the United States)
Grover Cleveland (Baseball Almanac)

Religious Views

Grover Cleveland from The Religious Beliefs Of Our Presidents, by Franklin Steiner (Internet Infidels)