Grover Cleveland and the Abscessed Tooth Decision

Grover Cleveland always resented media intrusion.

The Return of Cleveland

Just about all historians rate Cleveland’s second go-round (1893-7) as far less successful than his first. Mr. and Mrs. C. returned to the White House with a baby and another on the way. Frances Cleveland was still their media darling, but now as a matron with children, not pestered as much.

The big problem was the economy. The country was in the throes of one of its worst recessions, panics, downturns, or whatever phrases were used in the early ‘90s. The stock market had tumbled. Huge companies were folding. Small businesses were gobbled up by bigger companies, forcing thousands of workers out of jobs and homes. Hundreds of thousands of poor immigrants jammed our cities. Strikes were rampant. Crime was rampant. Farmers, along with the poor, had gravitated to “populism,” demanding free coinage of silver (bi-metalism), certain to lead…