Passed Presidents - # 22 & 24 – Grover Cleveland

Just returned from a grand trip to three western state capitols and the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  Future stories to follow.

We have one more Dead President to do in June and the Final Five next month.  No time to tell a coherent story about Steven Cleveland so I’ll just list a few of his interesting facts...which I guess is what I do anyway.

- Born in New Jersey and moved to New York as a child.  Called ‘Big Steve’, he decided to use his middle name early in life.

S. Grover Cleveland grave, Princeton, NJ [27 November 2006]

- Cleveland was the only president to serve separate, non-consecutive terms...the only guy who was TWO presidents...Numbers 22 and 24.  Since he was two presidents in one, this is a good place to note that one of his nicknames was ‘Uncle Jumbo.’  He lived in a time when the poor were under-nourished and skinny and men with a physique like his were admired and called ‘prosperous.’  Funny how we are now in the ‘Thin is in’ era, yet there is more apparent ‘prosperity’ than ever.  Anyway, ‘Uncle Jumbo’ (think New Jersey again) might have some ‘splainin’ to do if he ran for president today.

- He was a dedicated and honest public servant...apparently at a time when that was rare.  Given the Gilded Age corruption and moneyed interests of the time, this strict conservative, reformer of a Democrat vetoed more bills than all 22 previous presidents combined.  His honesty and steadfast values have no doubt contributed to his solid middle-ground ranking among our presidents.

- I suspect his historical ranking would have jumped a place or two had he not written the following opinion on the burgeoning women’s suffrage movement in 1905:

"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."

Really?

- Cleveland is probably the only president who has personally killed people (not counting former combat soldiers and Andrew Jackson’s duels).  As the sheriff of Erie County, NY, he was the official executioner and personally hanged a couple of capital criminals.  From there, he was elected Mayor of Buffalo and Governor of New York.

- His likeness is on our old $1000 bills...like we have so many of them lying around.

S. Grover Cleveland grave, Princeton, NJ [27 November 2006]

A rather modest grave with no mention

of his positions or achievements.

- Cleveland was the only president who was married in the White House.  At age 21, Francis Folsom, the daughter of his former law partner, was 27 years younger than the groom but, hey, Uncle Jumbo was the president.  She later became the first presidential widow to remarry and died 39 years after her first husband passed.

- Early in his second term, Cleveland and his doctors traveled secretly to New York City where they repaired to a friend’s yacht and performed surgery offshore in the East River.  A cancerous growth was removed from his jaw and he was fitted with a rubber prosthesis.  After a few weeks of convalescence, he returned to the job.  The public was never informed.  Let’s see a president try that today.

- Cleveland retired to New Jersey and died 106 years ago today in Princeton, where he is buried.  Also buried in the same cemetery - Paul Tulane, who gave so much to a Louisiana university, they named it after him and former VP Aaron Burr, whose father was an early president of Princeton University.

 S. Grover Cleveland

22^nd and 24th President; Served 1885-1889 & 1893-1897

Born: March 18, 1837, Caldwell, NJ

Died: June 24, 1908, Princeton, NJ

Grave Location: Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, NJ

Date Visited: 11/27/2006

PS – A ‘When I Am King’ footnote.  In order to make it easier to remember where the Last Resting Places of our presidents are, I will switch two grave sites.  Cleveland should be in Cleveland.  It would be so much easier to remember that way.

“Who was Grover Cleveland?”

“I don’t know but I’m certain he’s buried in Cleveland!”

The trade will send James Garfield from Cleveland to New Jersey where he died anyway.

Seems reasonable to me.

Passed Presidents - # 11 - James K. Polk

James Knox Polk was the last strong president before the union dissolved into civil war.  Four boobs followed him and allowed the nation to crumble until Lincoln put it back together...at the cost of over 700,000 lives.  Polk insisted at the outset of his tenure that he would not run for a second term.  Good thing since his retirement period was the shortest of any president.  He lived a mere 103 days after leaving the White House and died at 53 on this date in 1849.

The president’s grave with the Tennessee capitol in the background 
(13 June 2005)

Polk is the only president who was also Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He was later elected Governor of Tennessee.  The 1844 presidential election was a contentious affair.  Incumbent John Tyler had ticked off his Whig Party so much, they refused to nominate him.  At the Democratic Party convention, former president Martin Van Buren and other contenders could not get enough votes to clinch the deal.  Polk emerged as our first ‘dark horse’ candidate and broke the deadlock.  He accepted the nomination and promised to serve but a single term so the party could unite behind a new leader in just four years.

Polk’s single term was eventful.  Our first postage stamps were introduced and the California gold rush began.   The Department of the Interior and Smithsonian Institution were created.  The Oregon Treaty settled the border with Canada in the northwest and Wisconsin, Iowa and Texas became states. 

Of course, the Texas annexation led to what many consider Polk’s greatest achievement...if you look past the lame pretext for going to war with Mexico.  We were the bigger, more powerful country.  When General Zachary Taylor took his army into disputed Texas territory and the Mexicans defended what they believed to be their land, we beat them up and took their land.  Within a few months, Mexico was conquered and the peace treaty gave us forty percent of their country.  Our ‘Manifest Destiny’, the right to claim and settle the entire western frontier, was achieved as the U.S. now owned all the land to the Pacific Ocean.

’

 American Progress’ by John Gast

Westward-striding Columbia leads the way illustrating the

popular belief that America was destined to trample its way

across the continent, stringing rail and telegraph lines...

settling and cultivating...because it was the thing to do.

Everyone alive today knows we are a nation of fifty states...’Sea to Shining Sea’ and all that.  There was a time when the country ended not far from the east coast.  The interior was sparsely settled by Native Americans and colonists from other countries.  We tend to downplay that the French were exploring the Midwest when our colonies were just being established.  And we totally ignore that the Spanish had thriving colonies in the southwest before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.  Polk and the American people believed that ‘Might Makes Right’ and the rest of the continent was ours for the taking.

James Polk Grave, Nashville, TN (13 June 2005)

Mr. Polk is the only president buried on the grounds of a state capitol.  He was not a healthy guy and apparently came from less-than-fit stock.  While all nine of his siblings lived to maturity, six died before age forty.  Being a workaholic also explains his short retirement.  This quote from his diary should be included in every business management training course as an example of how not to delegate:

“The public has no idea of the constant accumulation of 
business requiring the President’s attention.  No President who 
performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any 
leisure.   If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to 
subordinates, constant errors will occur.  I prefer to supervise 
the whole operations of the Government myself rather 
than entrust the public business to subordinates.”

The First Lady lived 42 years after her husband died (13 June 2005)

Sarah Polk was no shrinking violet.  She was educated and independent.  She was an indispensable advisor to her husband throughout his career and was visited for her counsel by state and national politicians for the rest of her life.  A strict Presbyterian, she banned dancing and hard liquor from the White House and refused to attend the theater.  The Widow Polk wore black the rest of her 42 years, one of the longest any First Lady survived her husband.

I visited the grave the day before seeing The Hermitage and Andrew Jackson’s last resting place and the day after seeing Andrew Johnson’s.  It was a memorable week that began my Dead Presidents Quest in earnest as I had left the work-a-day life just three months before.

 James Knox Polk

11th President; Served 1845-1849

Born: November 2, 1795, Pineville, NC

Died: June 15, 1849, Nashville, TN

Grave Location: State Capitol, Nashville, TN

Date Visited: 6/13/2005

Passed Presidents - # 7 – Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was one of the presidents I visited on that first, glorious road trip right after retirement.  He died on this date, one hundred sixty nine years ago.  As are three of his predecessors in the Oval Office, Jackson is buried at his plantation home.  The Hermitage is located just outside of Nashville.  One can find two presidents in the Tennessee capital.  The other happens to be the next one to be presented...just as he was the next one seen on that trip in 2005.  Tune in again on June 15^th.

Old Hickory was our first bad-ass president...maybe our only real one.  He quit school at age thirteen to fight in the Revolution.  He fought at least thirteen duels.  He was the object of the first presidential assassination attempt.  It was said he had so many bullets in him, he rattled.  He certainly was the first president that did not come from privilege or a comfortable background.  When he ran for office, he cultivated that log cabin, man-of-the-people image...our first ‘Joe Six-pack’ president.  And when he was elected, he essentially solidified the spoils system that many future presidents worked hard to eliminate.

The Hermitage, Nashville, TN (14 June 2005)

Following his momentous victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, Jackson became wildly popular with the people.  After briefly serving in Congress and as the military governor of the Florida Territory, he ran for president in 1824.  The election had to be decided by the House of Representatives since none of the four candidates won a majority of the Electoral College votes.  While Jackson had the most popular votes among the four, the House elected John Quincy Adams after House Speaker and candidate Henry Clay threw his support to him.  When Adams appointed Clay his Secretary of State, this ‘corrupt bargain’ infuriated Jackson and his supporters enough to foil most of President Adams’ agenda and resulted in Jackson’s election in 1828...and again in 1832. 

Uncle Alfred’s Grave (14 June 2005)

Generations of Jackson descendants are buried in the

family cemetery.  None are found closer to the president’s

grave than Uncle Alfred.  The former slave lived 98 years and

worked at the Hermitage for 56 years after Jackson died.

Jackson believed in slavery but he also supported the preservation of the Union.  Vice President Calhoun and the State of South Carolina tried to officially void a tariff law and expanded the idea that a state could nullify any federal law it didn’t like.  Jackson threatened to send troops into the state and made it clear that no state can nullify federal law..  This period was called the Nullification Crisis.  It reminds me of a memorable quote from Ken Burns’ great Civil War documentary.  Someone said South Carolina was too small to be a country and too big to be an insane asylum.

Curiously, although he adopted two Native American children, he was no friend of indigenous Americans.  He led armies against various tribes before he was president and signed The Indian Removal Act in 1830...no ambiguity in that law’s title.  Thousands of Creek and Cherokee died on the ‘Trail of Tears’ as they were forced to migrate to Oklahoma to make way for white settlers.

Graves of Andrew and Rachel Jackson, Nashville, TN (14 June 2005)

The Jacksons provide another interesting and sad First Lady story.  Andrew met his wife, Rachel when he first moved to Nashville...long before he was anybody, so to speak.  She was separated from a jealous, abusive husband at the time.  When they thought the divorce was final, they married.  When it turned out the divorce was not final, there was some scandal and they married again in 1794.  Political opponents threw charges of bigamy and adultery at them for the rest of his career.  Defending her honor was the cause of many of Jackson’s duels.  Some might find that more endearing than bad-ass...except for the part about maybe killing someone or getting killed yourself.  I’m glad we don’t do that anymore.

Then, after dealing with this nonsense again in the 1828 election, he won a huge victory...only to have Rachel suddenly die before he traveled to Washington to be sworn in.  For eight years, two nieces served as the hostess in the White House.  Jackson never forgave his rivals for the stress they put on his wife.

Andrew Jackson

7th President; Served 1829-1837

Born: March 15, 1767, Waxhaw, SC

Died: June 8, 1845, Nashville, TN

Grave Location: Plantation Home (The Hermitage), Nashville, TN

Date Visited: 6/14/2005

“I have only two regrets:

that I have not shot Henry Clay

or hanged John C. Calhoun.”

Andrew Jackson

All American Nice Guy

Passed Presidents - # 40 – Ronald Reagan

In the spring of 2004, I made plans to be in Reno for another bowling Nationals tournament and then join Becky in Los Angeles.  I would finally get close enough to shoot Richard Nixon’s grave...the one farthest from home...a major catch.  A colleague at work joked that if I was lucky, Ronald Reagan would pass by then and I could get two.  Damned if that didn’t happen.

Our 40^th president died ten years ago today.  Ten years before that, in 1994, he sadly communicated to the nation that he had Alzheimer’s disease and was withdrawing from public life.  He died at 93.  Only Jerry Ford lived longer...by just 45 days.

The Gipper is one of only six presidents buried west of the Mississippi River.  As with Nixon, Reagan is interred on the grounds of his presidential library and museum. 

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA (21 June 2004)

Ronnie’s was not the typical career arc of American presidents.  After college, he was a radio sports announcer and then a successful Hollywood actor.  For eight years, he was head of the Screen Actors Guild.  Yes, the guy who every GOP pol can’t mention without genuflecting, was a union boss...and staunch Democrat at the time. 

But, once he became a Republican, the man carved out a place for himself on the conservative side and earned national attention.  However, that was when ‘conservative’ meant ‘right of center’, not right of Attila the Hun.

Ronnie and Rex (15 May 2011)

Taken from photos of presidents and their pets;

from an exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Reagan was twice elected governor of California...and so was ‘Ah-nuld’.  Makes me appreciate how the bluest of states can still be fine with moderate, Republican governors.  Reagan raised taxes and approved a liberalized abortion law.  When he was president, he actually WORKED with Democrats...to reach agreements...and get things DONE.  Shocking.

His two terms were dynamic and full of events and names that linger to this day.  The end of the Cold War with the Soviets.  ‘Reaganomics’.  Supply side and ‘trickle-down’ economics.  Iran-Contra.  “Just say No.”  Jelly beans.  Ollie North.  The Grenada invasion.  The ‘Star Wars’ or Strategic Defense Initiative.  The bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut.  Defeating Walter Mondale in 1984 with the biggest electoral landslide in history.  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” 

‘Dutch’ Greets Visitors (21 June 2004)

So soon after the president’s burial and 
the remembrances were still piled high

Ronald Reagan’s legacy continues to be debated.  There were times when I thought he was a dim bulb, but he really knew how to connect with the people.  He changed Washington and the way we did things.  This is not the place to go on about whether all the changes were good (not all of them were) but I do appreciate that Saint Reagan had some positions that today’s GOP wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot tea bag.  I doubt he would have a place in the Republican Party today.

Ronald Reagan

40th President; Served 1981-1989

Born: February 6, 1911, Tampico, IL

Died: June 5, 2004, Los Angeles, CA

Grave Location: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and 
Museum, Simi Valley, CA

Date Visited: 6/21/2004

  

The 2004 images are scanned from slides.  I hope one day to return and make better digital versions...especially at the Reagan site.  He was interred only a few days before and the final tomb exterior was not yet finished.

Passed Presidents - # 15 – James Buchanan

Sorry, Bill Coleman.  Pretty picture time is over for now.  It’s back to the Dead Presidents Quest.  The anniversary date schedule will take us on a two-month, ten-site blitz that will end on my birthday.  By July 31, all 39 last resting places of the nation’s departed Chief Executives will be documented and we will be done with that topic...until the next one meets his maker.

One hundred forty six years ago today, James Buchanan, the last of the 13 presidents born in the 18^th century, passed.  He was also one of six and the last president who also served as Secretary of State.  In fact, he had as good a résumé as anyone who held the office.  By the time he was inaugurated at age 65, he was ten years a Congressman, ten years a Senator and also Minister to Russia and Britain...not that any of it helped his presidential legacy.

Inscription on James Buchanan Grave, Lancaster, PA (27 October 2005)

Buchanan lived most of his life in central Pennsylvania.  The only president from the Keystone State lived, died and is buried in Lancaster.  Unlike most of the graves I tracked down on this ten-year odyssey, Lancaster is close to home.  We paid our respects on a nice autumn day trip, cruising around Amish Country to photograph old covered bridges.

Wheatland, the President’s Home in Lancaster, PA (27 October 2005)

Many surveys place Buchanan at the head of their Bottom Ten list.  After all, the nation broke up while he was in the White House.  I suspect that placement was also influenced by the fact that he was our only unmarried president...but it appears he was not a George Clooney kind of bachelor.  While serving in Congress, Buchanan lived many years with Alabama Senator William Rufus King.  It was said that he and the flamboyant Southerner were inseparable.  Andrew Jackson, not one to mince words, called them “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy.”  In this current era of right wing hostility toward gays, I’d like to think we had our first gay president over 150 years ago.  You’d think we would have made more progress by now.

 

Commemorative Medallion at Buchanan’s Grave [27 October 2005]

After the British burned Washington, Buchanan joined a

company of volunteers to take the fight to the invaders.  The

group was disbanded after one brief mission.  That still made

him the last president to have served in the War of 1812.

Like Franklin Pierce and Millard Fillmore before him, Buchanan was a do-nothing president who found it easier to appease the slave states than take steps to civilize and unify our growing nation.  His single term was marked by economic problems, the awful Dred Scott Decision, the “Bloody Kansas” conflicts and John Brown’s raid.  Open warfare was inevitable and he did nothing to stop it.  It’s hard to rise above last place in the rankings when the worst event in American history happened on your watch.  By the time he left office, seven states had seceded.  The rest of that history belongs to Abraham Lincoln. 

 

 James Buchanan

15^th President; Served 1857-1861

Born: April 23, 1791, Cove Gap, PA

Died: June 1, 1868, Lancaster, PA

Grave Location: Woodward Hill Cemetery, Lancaster, PA

Date Visited: 10/27/2005

"My dear sir, if you are as happy on

entering the White House as I am on leaving,

you are a very happy man indeed.”

To Abraham Lincoln at Lincoln’s inauguration,

March 4, 1861