CLEVELAND 



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CLEVELAND 



Altgeld insisted that the President had no 

 right to order out Federal troops for service in 

 a state except at the request of the governor. 



In the midst of the panic and depression 

 Cleveland urged a revision of the tariff in ac- 

 cordance with the Democratic campaign prom- 

 ises. The Wilson Bill, framed in the House 

 according to the President's suggestion, was 

 so materially altered in the Senate that Cleve- 

 land refused to sign it. He allowed it to be- 

 come a law (1894) without his signature, but 

 issued a statement criticising some of the 

 Democratic Senators who had not supported 

 their party. This split in the Democracy was 

 followed by Republican victories at the polls 

 in November, 1894, and for the last two years 

 of his term the new Republican majority pre- 

 vented Cleveland from securing any important 

 legislation. 



In his foreign policy Cleveland was no less 

 energetic and firm than at home. Almost his 

 first act in 1893 was to withdraw from the 



Senate the Hawaiian annexation treaty nego- 

 tiated in Harrison's administration. He se- 

 cured a treaty with China which marked the 

 beginning of the "open door" policy. But per- 

 haps his greatest act, which has left the deepest 

 impress on American history, was his famous 

 Venezuela message, sent to Congress on Decem- 

 ber 17, 1895. Cleveland's Secretary of State, 

 Richard Olney, had urged Great Britain to 

 arbitrate its dispute with Venezuela over the 

 British Guiana-Venezuela boundary, but Great 

 Britain insisted that the Monroe Doctrine did 

 not apply to the issue. Thereupon Cleveland/ 

 sent a brief message, in which he declared that 

 the Monroe Doctrine was the vital issue at 

 stake, and intimated that the United States 

 would go to war to maintain it. The excite- 

 ment in Great Britain and the United States 

 grew intense, but after several diplomatic ex- 

 changes the English government agreed to arbi- 

 trate the boundary dispute; this was accom- 

 plished to the satisfaction of all concerned. 



The Private Citizen 



The Venezuela message was Cleveland's last 

 important act as President. When he retired 

 to private life in 1897 there was probably no 

 more unpopular man in the United States. He 

 had offended his own party by his stand on the 

 silver and tariff issues; he had won the enmity 

 of labor by his action during the strike ; he was 

 even disliked by the bankers and financiers 



CLEVELAND MEMORIAL TOWER 

 At Princeton University. 



because his Venezuela message had upset the 

 stock markets. Yet Cleveland was fortunate 

 enough to outlive the bitterness of these years, 

 and long before his death he was universally 

 respected and recognized as one of the greatest 

 of the Presidents. The policies for which he 

 had fought and had been jeered at were carried 

 out by his Republican successors, and even 



his few mistakes were excused in the light of 

 his undoubted honesty of purpose. From 1897 

 until his death he made his home in Princeton, 

 N. J., where he took an active interest in the 

 university, especially the graduate school. He 

 was a lecturer and a trustee of the university 

 for ten years, and the beautiful tower of 

 the graduate school is a memorial to him. 



In 1895, following the exposure of insurance 

 scandals in New York, Cleveland became one 

 of the trustees of the Equitable Life Assurance 

 Society, one of the largest insurance companies 

 in the United States. Nothing is better testi- 

 mony to Cleveland's reputation than the re- 

 newal of public confidence in this and other 

 companies after he assumed this responsibility. 

 The hero of Paul Leicester Ford's The Hon- 

 orable Peter Stirling is in part a characteriza- 

 tion of Grover Cleveland. A.B.H. 



Other Items of Interest. A Republican of 

 high standing, who opposed Cleveland in many 

 ways, declared that his treatment of the Vene- 

 zuela question was "the most signal victory of 

 American diplomacy in modern times." 



During his second Presidential candidacy 

 Cleveland was referred to by his opponents as 

 "The Perpetual Candidate" and "The Stuffed 

 Prophet." 



The lectures delivered during his later years 

 at Princeton University were published as 

 Presidential Problems. 



