Presidents in Retirement: Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland is unique in that (so far) he is the only President to have served non-consecutive terms in office, and therefore he had two periods of what some would call retirement. Just like another President from New York, Cleveland left office after failing to win re-election, telling everyone that he would be back. Or at least that's what his wife was saying. When Frances Cleveland left the White House in March of 1889, she told a member of the White House Staff, "Now, Jerry, I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back again." When asked when she would return, she responded, "We are coming back four years from today."
In between his two terms as President, Cleveland moved to New York City, where he practiced law with the firm of Bangs, Stetson, Tracy, and MacVeigh. Cleveland's law practice brought only a moderate income, perhaps Cleveland did not devote himself to making the practice of law as his primary activity. Cleveland spent a lot of time at his vacation home at Buzzard Bay called Gray Gables. Cleveland loved to fish and he did a lot of it there.
While the couple lived in New York, the Clevelands' first child, Ruth, was born in 1891. Whether or not Cleveland planned another run for the White House, he didn't like the way the Harrison administration was running things. President Benjamin Harrison worked with Congress to pass the McKinley Tariff, an extremely protectionist measure, as well as the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, a bill that increased the supply of money backed by silver. Cleveland believed that both of these policies were dangerous to the nation's financial health. By 1891 Cleveland felt compelled to speak out, against these policies. He wrote a letter that was read out at a meeting of reformers in New York criticizing both of these policies. Whether it was Cleveland's intention or not, this put Cleveland's name back into the spotlight just as the 1892 election was approaching. The Democrats selected him as their Presidential candidate on the first ballot at their convention, and Cleveland went on to win the rematch against Harrison and become President gain.
Cleveland's second term didn't go so well. When a recession hit the nation in 1893, Cleveland lost considerable popularity. Cleveland's enemies, those who opposed the gold standard, gained control of the party in 1896 and they were highly critical of his administration. They nominated William Jennings Bryan, who ran on a free-silver platform. Cleveland could not support them and silently supported a group known as the Gold Democrats who ran a third-party ticket that promised to defend the gold standard, limit government, and oppose high tariffs. This group asked Cleveland to be their candidate, but he declined their offer. William McKinley, the Republican nominee, handily defeated Bryan.
Cleveland left the White House following the inauguration of McKinley on March 4, 1897. They two were very collegial with one another and Cleveland was even good enough to hold McKinley's hat while McKinley took the oath of office. Cleveland then retired to his estate, called Westland Mansion, located in Princeton, New Jersey.
In Princeton, Cleveland was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1897. He also served as a trustee of Princeton University. He was one of the majority of trustees who voted for the plans proposed by Dean Andrew Fleming West for the Graduate School and undergraduate living quarters, over those proposed by Woodrow Wilson, who was then president of the university.
Cleveland consulted occasionally with President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted Cleveland to serve as chairman of the commission dealing with the Coal Strike of 1902, but Cleveland declined that offer.
Cleveland wrote a 1905 article in The Ladies Home Journal on the subject of the women's suffrage movement. He wrote, "sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence." He was on the wrong side of history.
In 1906, a group of New Jersey Democrats wanted Cleveland to run for the US Senate, but Cleveland declined that offer as well.
Cleveland had been in bad 's health for several years. In the fall of 1907 he became seriously ill. In 1908, he suffered a heart attack and died on June 24 at age 71 in his Princeton residence. His last words were said to be, "I have tried so hard to do right." Cleveland was buried in the Princeton Cemetery of the Nassau Presbyterian Church.