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Grover Cleveland Presidential $1 Coin — 22nd President, 1885-1889
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897) and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents. He was the winner of the popular vote for president three times—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was the only Democrat elected to the presidency in the era of Republican political domination that lasted from 1861 to 1913.
One of nine children of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837 and raised in upstate New York. As a lawyer in Buffalo, he became notable for his single-minded concentration. Running as a reformer, he was elected mayor of Buffalo in 1881 and later, governor of New York. In June 1886 Cleveland married 21-year-old Frances Folsom; he was the only President married at the White House.
As the 22nd President, Cleveland vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. He also vetoed many private pension bills to Civil War veterans whose claims were fraudulent. He angered the railroads by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by government grant, forcing them to return 81,000,000 acres. Cleveland also signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting federal regulation of the railroads. Running for re-election in 1888, he won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote and the presidency to his Republican opponent, Benjamin Harrison.
Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs, Free Silver, inflation, imperialism and subsidies to business, farmers or veterans. His battles for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives of the era. Cleveland won praise for his honesty, independence, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. Cleveland relentlessly fought political corruption, patronage, and bossism. Indeed, as a reformer his prestige was so strong that the reform wing of the Republican Party, called "Mugwumps", largely bolted the GOP ticket and swung to his support in 1884.
Coinage Legislation under President Glover Cleveland (first term)
Act of August 4, 1886 — Made appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, and for other purposes (silver certificates)
Act of February 19, 1887 — An act for the retirement and re-coinage of the trade dollar
Act of March 2, 1889 — Sundry Civil Appropriation Law ("silver profit fund")
United States Mint Directors appointed by Grover Cleveland (first term)
• James Putnam Kimball of Pennsylvania — 1885 — 1889