Mourner in Chief Grover Cleveland and the death of Ulysses S. Grant

Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association Mourner in Chief: Grover Cleveland and the death of Ulysses S. Grant In 1884, America was in the middle of the period known as the Gilded Age. Titans of the railroad, steel, mining, and banking industries created the industrial engines to bring about massive economic growth, production, and wealth. There was also a downside as it was a time of gross social inequities and business and political scandals. A generation after the Civil War over a hundred years since its birth, the United States had become a formidable power on the world stage. The most popular man in America was Ulysses S. Grant, victorious general of the Union Army in the Civil War and twice president of the United States. Just as George Washington was the one figure that united a political divided country in its early years, Ulysses S. Grant was the most important person who was both admired and respected throughout the North and South, which was still divided a generation after the Civil War. In the north, he was the savior of the Union and liberator of four million enslaved. In the South, he was a generous and magnanimous victor. Grant was also arguably the most famous man in the world, having travelled the globe for two and a half years after leaving office and was given a hero welcome wherever he went. 1884 was also an election year and Governor of New York, Grover Cleveland was running as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. In opposition to the political scandals and graft of the Gilded Age, Grover Cleveland ran on a platform of honesty and integrity. His campaign motto was his political moral compass, “A Public Office is a Public Page 1 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association Trust.” But he had little experience, having risen like a rocket from his entry into politics as mayor of Buffalo two years earlier. Meanwhile his Republican opponent James G. Blaine of Maine Blaine’s resume was extensive with over two decades of public service. One of Cleveland’s detractors was Ulysses S. Grant who publicly stated that given his many years of experience, Blaine “ought to be elected,” while to support “a man of Governor Cleveland’s limited experience would be beneath the good sense of our people.”1 Though his administration was plagued by the sort of scandals and corruption that came to define the Gilded Age, Grant’s administration had several notable successes. The Treaty of Washington strengthened relations with Great Britain, and he ushered in the conservation movement with the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act. He also advocated for the rights of Native Americans and African Americans. In his inaugural address, Grant declared, “The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land—the Indians—[is] one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.” When former Confederate soldiers formed the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize free blacks in the South and reverse the gains made during Radical Reconstruction, Grant attacked the organization with the same ferocity he had demonstrated in Vicksburg and Shiloh years earlier. Thousands of Klan members were arrested, and the terrorist organization decimated. But five years out of office, Grant had suffered a tragic downfall. He began 1884 wealthy and healthy but by October he was bankrupt and mortally ill. In May, the great general had fallen victim to a what would later be known as a Ponzi scheme that left him not only destitute, but deep in debt. Five months later, the prolific cigar-smoker was diagnosed with advanced and inoperable tongue and throat cancer. Page 2 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association On the battlefield, Grant had faced death many times before and was stoic upon being told the grim news. His most pressing concern was for his family as he did not want to leave his beloved wife Julia and children burdened with debt. Many times, he had received offers to write his memoirs, but Grant did not believe himself to be a disciplined writer—and regardless, he humbly doubted the public was interested. Now, with the help of Mark Twain who offered him a generous publishing contact, Grant embarked upon his final battle –– to complete his memoirs before his death. Grant began writing in earnest in November. He could be found each day in his New York brownstone sitting at his desk. His preferred position was one leg crossed over the other and his body twisted to the right, so he faced the desk. He wore horn-rimmed glasses as well as a shawl and wool cap to keep warm. Grant preferred a pen over a pencil and wrote on manila sheet paper. He paid little attention on election day when Grover Cleveland completed his meteoric rise and became the 22nd President of the United States of America. When he was elected president, Grant was stripped of his title of “general,” as was appropriate for the civilian leader of the nation. Now, as he approached the end of his life, he asked President Chester Arthur to restore his military title. His presidency had been rife with scandal, and Grant himself had conceded in his farewell address, “Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit.” But that was not the case with his Civil War accomplishments. “General” was the title he cherished, and it was as General Grant, not President Grant, that he wanted to die. But his request was not just sentimental or symbolic. As general, he would receive a $13,500 annual pension, while as an ex-president he received none. More importantly, Julia would receive $5,000 a year as a general’s widow.2 These funds would be desperately needed by Page 3 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association his wife until royalties from the book began to arrive (and whether the book would ever generate a profit was not at all certain).3 Grant was concerned the new Democratic President-elect Grover Cleveland would not be sympathetic to his desperate situation so President Chester Arthur made Grant’s pension bill one of his top priorities. The Senate consented unanimously, and on March 4, 1885, in his last official act as president, Arthur ordered Grant to be notified by telegram of his reinstatement. Moments later, President Arthur escorted Grover Cleveland to his inauguration. Was Grant right to be concerned? As president, Grover Cleveland used his veto powers extensively including to block attempts to abuse the pension system due to false claims of wartime injuries. But denying a pension to America’s greatest hero was another story. In the second official act of his presidency Grover Cleveland signed Grant’s commission to General without protest. Over the following months as Grant’s health deteriorated, he continued to work on his memoirs. When the summer heat became oppressive, he relocated to a cottage in Mt. McGregor in upstate New York on June 16, 1885. There he embarked upon his final race against time to complete his writing before death claimed him. On July 19, he put the finishing touches on his 400,000-word manuscript, which would be published in two volumes as Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, was complete. Grant’s final battle was victorious. He could now die in peace, and he was ready. That same day, no longer able to speak, he wrote a note to his doctor, “There is nothing more I should do to [the book] now, and therefore I am not likely to be more ready to go than at this moment.”4 Page 4 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association Four days later, on July 23, 1885, Grant died peacefully in his bed surrounded by those he loved. The public outpouring of grief was immense. Less than five months in office, a grieving nation looked to President Grover Cleveland to be their Mourner in Chief. As president there were traditional responsibilities when a predecessor died, but Grover Cleveland was an ironic Mourner in Chief. Not only was he the first Democrat to serve as president since James Buchanan, but Cleveland was also the only president between the Civil War and William McKinley’s death in 1901 to not serve in the military. Although he supported the Union cause, the able-bodied Grover Cleveland had paid Polish immigrant George Brinski $300 to take his place in the Civil War. Grover Cleveland was also in unchartered territory. Not only was Grant perhaps the most universally beloved president since George Washington, but his death was long foreshadowed giving the president plenty of time to prepare for his inevitable role. Grover Cleveland would prove to be an admirable and empathetic Mourner-in-Chief. His first offer of condolences was for the widow, Upon hearing the news, President Cleveland sent a telegram: To Mrs. U. S. Grant, Mt. McGregor: Accept this expression of my heartfelt sympathy at this hour of your great affliction. The people of the nation mourn with you, and would reach if they could, with kindly comfort, the depths of sorrow which is yours alone, and which only the pity of God alone can heal. Grover Cleveland.5 That same day, he released a heartfelt proclamation to the nation: Page 5 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association The President of the United States has just received the sad tidings of the death of that illustrious citizen and ex-President of the United States, General Ulysses S. Grant, at Mount McGregor, in the State of New York, to which place he had lately been removed in the endeavor to prolong his life. In making this announcement to the people of the United States the President is impressed with the magnitude of the public loss of a great military leader, who was in the hour of victory magnanimous, amid disaster serene and self-sustained, who in every station, whether as a soldier or as a Chief Magistrate, twice called to power by his fellow-countrymen, trod unswervingly the pathway of duty, undeterred by doubts, single-minded and straightforward. The entire country has witnessed with deep emotion his prolonged and patient struggle with painful disease and has watched by his couch of suffering with tearful sympathy. The destined end has come at last, and his spirit has returned to the Creator who sent it forth. The great heart of the nation that followed him when living with love and pride bows now in sorrow above him dead, tenderly mindful of his virtues, his great patriotic services, and of the loss occasioned by his death. In testimony of respect to the memory of General Grant, it is ordered that the Executive Mansion and the several Departments at Washington be draped in mourning for a period of thirty days and that all public business shall on the day of the funeral be suspended; and the Secretaries of War and of the Navy will cause orders to be issued for appropriate military and naval honors to be rendered on that day. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 23d day of July 1885, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and tenth.6 Page 6 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association The tradition of the presidential proclamation dated back to John Quincy Adams who had the tragic responsibility to announce the simultaneous deaths of two of his predecessors who both died on July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson, and the president’s father John Adams. However, a presidential proclamation was by no means mandatory. When John Tyler died in 1862 on the precipice of taking office in the Confederate House of Representatives, President Abraham Lincoln chose to ignore his death and not issue a proclamation. Ulysses S, Grant had made three such proclamations during his administration for Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, and Andrew Johnson. Following Grant’s death, representatives from several locations vied for to be the site of Grant’s Tomb. New York City’s mayor won the honor after he aggressively lobbied the family, including a telegram to Julia on the day Grant died. After taking Grant’s son Fred to see several sites in New York City including Central Park, Mayor Grace persuaded him to choose Riverside Park, which he falsely believed would one day be the cultural center of the city. Immediately, there was public outcry as many believed Grant, the savior of the Union, should be buried on the hallowed grounds in the nation’s capital. Denied a national tomb, President Grover Cleveland was eager to have a funeral with national honors similar to those of the two assassinated presidents, Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield. Cleveland assigned Major General Winfield Scott Hancock to assist the family with the arrangements. Hancock’s responsibilities included the solemn task of transporting the body back to New York City and organizing the funeral events.7 Hancock had first met Grant when the two were students at West Point Military Academy. He was known as “Hancock the Superb” due to his handsome appearance and striking features and gained national fame at the Battle of Page 7 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association Gettysburg in 1863. It is unclear if politics had played a role, but Hancock was also a Democrat and had run for president in 1880. The funeral was held on August 8 and President Cleveland assisted Julia with the selection of pallbearers which included as symbol of reunification, Confederate Generals Simon Bolivar Buckner and Joseph Johnston and Union Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan. Indeed, the magnanimous General Grant’s death a generation after the Civil War provided the right man at the right moment to be a celebration of reunification and reconciliation as Blue and Grey veterans marched together in the seven-mile procession from Madison Square. The impressive spectacle of military forces was the largest ever gathered in United States history in peacetime. Former presidents Chester Arthur and Rutherford B. Hayes were in attendance, but the most prominent participant was the Commander-in-Chief Grover Cleveland. Before joining the procession, the three sat together at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. It was Cleveland’s first time meeting his two predecessors. Cleveland’s impressions are unknown, but Hayes recorded in his diary that he found President Cleveland, “plain, sensible, natural; in all respects well-appearing. His talk was friendly and assuring.” But Hayes, like Grant, commented on Cleveland’s thin resume before taking office and added, “He lacks experience, is not a great man, but he intends and anxiously wishes to do well.”8 Former presidents Hayes and Arthur sat together in the same carriage and enjoyed each other’s company for the five-hour ride.9 President Cleveland rode alone. Despite the somber occasion, the sight of the president elicited great applause from the crowd, but Cleveland remained gracious and dignified and sat in stoic silence, ignoring the cheers. The ceremony at Riverside Park was brief. Cleveland did not speak as only clergymen offered prayers and Page 8 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association readings from scripture. As the pallbearers carried the coffin into the temporary tomb, President Cleveland stood prominently to the right of the entrance, his top hat held over his heart. The funeral was the largest in American history, before or since. It was witnessed by 1.5 million people, more than the entire population of the city at the time. It was hailed as “a colossal and memorable demonstration.”10 It was not just an American phenomenon but an event of global significance, as a reporter stated: “Nothing approaching it in magnitude, solemnity or grandeur ever occurred before in the history of the world. It was not imposed on the public by any precedent; it was the spontaneous outcome of the national regard for a man whose generalship had perpetuated the Republic, and who had twice been its President.”11 Even before the funeral, wealthy citizens and Gilded Age elite titans of business gathered to discuss a grand tomb worthy of Ulysses S. Grant. The following year the Grant Monument Association was incorporated, and President Grover Cleveland was awarded a ceremonial position. But a monumental tomb cost a monumental amount of money, so over the following years the members of the Grant Monument Association engaged in various fundraising efforts. People donated nickels and dimes, children even held bake sales and fairs, and baseball games were played to raise money for the tomb. After a strong start, fundraising soon faltered. Two years later as the Association was struggling the New York Star joined the efforts. While the newspaper fell way short of its lofty goal it had a prominent donor in Grover Cleveland. While the president may have hoped his modest $10 contribution would set an example for others to follow, no good deed goes unpunished. One sarcastic reader criticized the donation as meager compared to how much Cleveland made per day from his $25,000 salary as president, “including the days he attempts to fish and holidays in which he is loafing from business.”12 Page 9 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association Finally, after twelve long years of fundraising woes, design failures, association lethargy and infighting, public resistance, and congressional efforts to relocate Grant’s body from New York City, the Tomb was completed. During this time, Grover Cleveland, who was inaugurated only five months after Grant’s death, had finished his first term, lost a re-election bid to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, won the presidency again in a rematch with Harrison in 1892, completed his second term and retired from political life. Grant’s Tomb is a spectacular neoclassical mausoleum. It was –– and remains –– the largest tomb in America. It towers 150 feet tall and the cavernous solemn interior features a sunken chamber where Ulysses and Julia’s coffins rest side by side for all eternity. But perhaps its most memorable feature is the inscription above the entrance, the great warrior general’s hopeful epitaph, “Let Us Have Peace.” Grant’s Tomb was dedicated on what would have been Grant’s 75th birthday, April 27, 1897. Seated beside President William McKinley and Grant’s widow, Julia, was Grover Cleveland. During the years it took to build Grant’s Tomb, Grover Cleveland had assuaged his detractors’ concern over his lack of experience and restored energy to the presidency, but most importantly, he did so with honestly and integrity. Historians have also looked favorably upon Grover Cleveland, and in the latest presidential poll he ranks the highest among all presidents between Lincoln and McKinley including Hayes and Grant.13 He had led the country during prosperity and through financial depression, and during one of our nation’s saddest moments, Grover Cleveland was America’s Mourner-in-chief. Grant’s Tomb immediately became the most popular destination in New York City. It was a must-see stop for tourists, New Yorkers frequently gazed upon the monument with reverence and pride, visiting dignitaries added it to their itineraries, and it became a popular Page 10 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association culture icon, appearing in movies and postcards. But as the Civil War generation passed into history, the visitors dwindled. A hundred years after the Civil War ended, as Grant’s reputation fell and as he faded from public memory, his neglected tomb fell into disrepair. Starting in the turbulent sixties, Grant’s Tomb was vandalized, desecrated, and besieged by junkies, criminals, and gang members until only the bravest souls ventured to see it. But like the man it was built to honor, Ulysses S. Grant’s Tomb is resilient. Over the past generation, Grant’s reputation and his tomb has risen from the ashes. It has been restored and secured and has returned much of its former glory. But unfortunately, many still dismiss it as an out-of-the-way attraction, unaware of its relevance and if they are familiar with it, it’s more likely due to the tired old Groucho Marx gag, “Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb?” But like the man, Grant’s Tomb also has an important and fascinating history. And people should know its story. Page 11 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association About the paper: This paper is a companion to a virtual lecture Louis presented to kick off the 2021 "Grover Cleveland Week" in New Jersey. The lecture can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drdpn_eXOLM About the author Louis L. Picone is the award-winning author of Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon as well as The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of the Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond and Where the Presidents Were Born: The History & Preservation of the Presidential Birthplaces. He holds a Masters Degree in History and also teaches American history at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Louis is a member of the Authors Guild, the American Historical Association, and is a trustee on the board of the Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association in Caldwell, New Jersey. More information about Louis at www.LouisPicone.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Academia.edu. Page 12 Louis L. Picone March 18, 2021 Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association Notes 1 “What Fools We Mortals Be,” Fremont Tri-Weekly Tribune (Nebraska), August 6, 1884. 2 Ronald C. White, American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant (New York: Random House, 2006), 641. 3 “Rare Historical Foresight Preserved Grant’s Upstate N.Y. Cottage,” Daily Gazette, May 28, 1990. 4 Mark Perry, Grant and Twain: The Story of an American Friendship (New York: Random House, 2005), 225–226. 5 “Cleveland’s Condolence,” Greenleaf Herald (Kansas), July 31, 1885, 6 Grover Cleveland, Proclamation 270—Announcing the Death of Ulysses S. Grant Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/205034. 7 “Riverside Park Chosen,” New York Times. 8 Williams, Charles Richard, ed., Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 4, 1881–1893 (Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1925), 230-231. 9 Williams, Charles Richard, ed., Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 4, 1881–1893 (Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1925), 231. Hayes commented, “President Arthur proved an excellent companion for such a drive—five hours.” 10 Samuel D. Page, The Riverside Souvenir: A Memorial Volume Illustrating the Nation’s Tribute to General U. S. Grant (New York: J. C. Derby, 1886). 11 Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries, Volume 14, September 1885, 246. 12 David M. Kahn, General Grant National Memorial Historical Resource Study (National Park Service, 1980), 41. 13 “Siena’s 6th Presidential Expert Poll 1982–2018,” Siena College Research Institute, accessed June 15, 2020, https://scri.siena.edu/2019/02/13/sienas-6th-presidential-expert-poll-1982-2018/. Full transparency: this author was among the “157 participating presidential scholars” who participated in the 2018 survey. Page 13