In 1881, local businessmen asked Cleveland, a young lawyer, to run for mayor of Buffalo, New York.
He agreed and won the Democratic nomination and the election. As mayor, Cleveland exposed
city corruption and with a reputation for honesty and hard work, he won the New
York gubernatorial race in 1882. Governor Cleveland used his power to take on the Tammany Hall,
a political machine based in New York City, even though it had supported him in the election.
Within a year, the Democrats were looking to Cleveland as a pragmatic
reformer who might win the presidency in 1884.
In the election of 1884, Cleveland appealed to middle-class voters of both parties as someone
who would fight political corruption and big-money interests. Many people saw Cleveland's
Republican opponent, James G. Blaine, as a puppet of Wall Street and the powerful railroads.
A Republican group of reform-minded businessmen and professionals,
hated Blaine and embraced Cleveland's efforts at battling corruption.
Cleveland had a sex-scandal to live down before the election. He was accused of fathering a son
out of wedlock. He admitted the charge might be true and admitted his affair with Maria Halpin in 1874.
By confronting the charges, Cleveland retained the loyalty of his supporters,
and won the election by the narrowest of margins.
After two years in office as a bachelor President, Cleveland announced his marriage to
a twenty-one-year-old Frances Folsom, the daughter of his former law partner.
The press had a field day satirizing the relationship between the old bachelor and the
recent college graduate, who quickly became the most popular first lady since Dolley
Madison. Respecting her husband's wishes, she never
used her popularity to advance a political causes.
When he ran for reelection in 1888, the Republicans raised lots of money from the nation's
manufacturers and spent it lavishly, helping to ensure victory for their candidate,
Benjamin Harrison. The election thus marked the beginning of a new era in campaign financing.
Though Cleveland actually won a larger share of the popular vote, Harrison defeated Cleveland
in the Electoral College.
Cleveland did not see himself as an activist President with his own agenda to pursue,
but as a guardian or watchdog of Congress. Several important pieces of legislation
became law during his terms, most notably bills controlling the railroads and distributing
land to Native Americans, however, he did not initiate any of it.
Cleveland's opposition to temperence won the support of the Irish, German, and East European
voters who migrated to the United States by the tens of thousands in the 1880s. Although he spoke
out against injustices being visited on the Chinese in the West, he sympathized with Southern
reluctance to treat African Americans as social or political equals. Native Americans, he thought,
should assimilate into white society as quickly as possible through federal aid for education and
private land grants. He did not speak out against female suffrage, but he never supported a
woman's right to vote.
He was hard-working, honest, independent, and he strengthening the power
of the executive branch in relation to Congress. He helped the emergence of the modern
presidency that began with Theodore Roosevelt.
