Editing Grover Cleveland (section)

===Military policy, 1885–1889===
[[File:Grover Cleveland Portrait.jpg|thumb|Cleveland in 1888]]
Cleveland's military policy emphasized self-defense and modernization. In 1885 Cleveland appointed the [[Board of Fortifications]] under [[Secretary of War]] [[William Crowninshield Endicott|William C. Endicott]] to recommend a new [[seacoast defense in the United States|coastal fortification]] system for the United States.<ref name="Berhow, pp. 9-10">Berhow, pp. 9–10</ref><ref name="cdsg.org">{{Cite web|url=http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis4.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204073357/http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis4.htm|url-status=dead|title=Endicott and Taft Boards at the Coast Defense Study Group website|archive-date=February 4, 2016}}</ref> No improvements to U.S. coastal defenses had been made since the late 1870s.<ref>Berhow, p. 8</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis3.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204073359/http://cdsg.org/old/cdsghis3.htm|url-status=dead|title=Civil War and 1870s defenses at the Coast Defense Study Group website|archive-date=February 4, 2016}}</ref> The Board's 1886 report recommended a massive $127&nbsp;million construction program (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|.127|1886|r=1}}&nbsp;billion in {{Inflation-year|US}}) at 29 [[Harbor Defense Command|harbors and river estuaries]], to include new breech-loading rifled guns, mortars, and [[submarine mines in United States harbor defense|naval minefields]]. The Board and the program are usually called the Endicott Board and the Endicott Program. Most of the Board's recommendations were implemented, and by 1910, 27 locations were defended by over 70 forts.<ref>Berhow, pp. 201–226</ref><ref>[http://cdsg.org/fort-and-battery-list/ List of all US coastal forts and batteries] at the Coast Defense Study Group website</ref> Many of the weapons remained in place until scrapped in World War II as they were replaced with new defenses. Endicott also proposed to Congress a system of examinations for Army officer promotions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/sw-sa/Endicott.htm|title=William Crowninshield Endicott, from Bell, William Gardner (1992), ''Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army'', Center of Military History, US Army|access-date=May 13, 2016|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081532/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Sw-SA/Endicott.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> For the Navy, the Cleveland administration, spearheaded by [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[William Collins Whitney]], moved towards modernization, although no ships were constructed that could match the best European warships. Although completion of the four steel-hulled warships begun under the previous administration was delayed due to a corruption investigation and subsequent bankruptcy of their building yard, these ships were completed in a timely manner in [[naval shipyard]]s once the investigation was over.<ref>Bauer and Roberts, p. 141</ref> Sixteen additional steel-hulled warships were ordered by the end of 1888. These ships played a vital role during the [[Spanish–American War]] of 1898, and many later served in World War&nbsp;I. Among them were the "second-class [[battleship]]s" {{USS|Maine|ACR-1|2}} and {{USS|Texas|1892|2}}, designed to match modern armored ships recently acquired by South American countries from Europe, such as the [[Brazilian battleship Riachuelo|Brazilian battleship ''Riachuelo'']].<ref>Bauer and Roberts, p. 102</ref> Eleven [[protected cruiser]]s (including the famous {{USS|Olympia|C-6|2}}), one [[armored cruiser]], and one [[monitor (warship)|monitor]] were also ordered, along with the experimental cruiser {{USS|Vesuvius|1888|2}}.<ref>Bauer and Roberts, pp. 101, 133, 141–147</ref>