Editing Grover Cleveland (section)

==Political career in New York==

===Sheriff of Erie County===
[[Image:DSCN4468 buffaloclevelandstatue e.jpg|upright|thumb|A statue of Grover Cleveland outside [[Buffalo City Hall|City Hall]] in [[Buffalo, New York]]]]
From his earliest involvement in politics, Cleveland aligned with the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref>Nevins, 44–45</ref> He had a decided aversion to Republicans [[John Fremont]] and [[Abraham Lincoln]], and the heads of the Rogers law firm were solid Democrats.<ref>Tugwell, 32</ref> In 1865, he ran for [[District Attorney]], losing narrowly to his friend and roommate, [[Lyman K. Bass]], the Republican nominee.<ref name="nevins52" />

In 1870, with the help of friend Oscar Folsom, Cleveland secured the Democratic nomination for [[sheriff of Erie County, New York]].<ref name="nevins58">Nevins, 58</ref> He won the election by a 303-vote margin and took office on January 1, 1871, at age 33.<ref>Jeffers, 33</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Julie |date=2003 |title=American Presidents Year by Year |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uf8TBwAAQBAJ |publisher=Routledge |page=334 |isbn=978-0-7656-8046-4}}</ref> While this new career took him away from the practice of law, it was rewarding in other ways: the fees were said to yield up to $40,000, {{Inflation|US|40000|1871|fmt=eq}}, over the two-year term.<ref name="nevins58" />

Cleveland's service as sheriff was unremarkable. Biographer [[Rexford Tugwell]] described the time in office as a waste for Cleveland politically. Cleveland was aware of graft in the sheriff's office during his tenure and chose not to confront it.<ref>Tugwell, 36</ref> A notable incident of his term took place on September 6, 1872, when Patrick Morrissey was executed. He had been convicted of murdering his mother.<ref name="morrisey">Jeffers, 34; Nevins, 61–62</ref> As sheriff, Cleveland was responsible for either personally carrying out the execution or paying a deputy $10 to perform the task.<ref name="morrisey" /> In spite of reservations about the hanging, Cleveland executed Morrissey himself.<ref name="morrisey" /> He hanged another murderer, [[List of people executed in New York|John Gaffney]], on February 14, 1873.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1851-1900/gaffneyhanging/gaffneyhanging.html|title=The Execution of John Gaffney|access-date=March 27, 2008|website=The Buffalonian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006162510/http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1851-1900/gaffneyhanging/gaffneyhanging.html|archive-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref>

After his term as sheriff ended, Cleveland returned to his law practice, opening a firm with his friends Lyman K. Bass and [[Wilson S. Bissell]].<ref>Jeffers, 36; Nevins, 64</ref> Bass was later replaced by [[George J. Sicard]].<ref name="locTimeline">{{cite web |title=Timeline {{!}} Articles and Essays {{!}} Grover Cleveland Papers {{!}} Digital Collections |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/grover-cleveland-papers/articles-and-essays/timeline/ |website=www.loc.gov |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=December 12, 2023}}</ref> Elected to Congress in 1872, Bass did not spend much time at the firm, but Cleveland and Bissell soon rose to the top of Buffalo's legal community.<ref>Nevins, 66–71</ref> Up to that point, Cleveland's political career had been honorable and unexceptional. As biographer [[Allan Nevins]] wrote, "Probably no man in the country, on March 4, 1881, had less thought than this limited, simple, sturdy attorney of Buffalo that four years later he would be standing in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] and taking the oath as President of the United States."<ref>Nevins, 78</ref>

It was during this period that Cleveland began courting a widow, [[Maria Halpin]]. She later accused him of raping her.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/how-many-presidents-have-been-accused-sexual-assault-692766|title=Sexual misconduct allegations against presidents have a long history; George H.W. Bush is latest|date=October 25, 2017|website=Newsweek}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Jamie Lauren |last=Keiles |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/grover-cleveland-a-rapist-president/|title=Grover Cleveland, a Rapist President|date=August 26, 2015|website=[[vice.com|Vice]]}}</ref><ref name=SmithsonianProblemChild>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/president-clevelands-problem-child-100800/ |title=President Cleveland's Problem Child |first=Angela |last=Serratore |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |date=September 26, 2013}}</ref> It is unclear if Halpin was actually raped by Cleveland as some early reports stated or if their relationship was consensual.<ref name=":0">Huck, C., 2017. "[https://www.wittenberg.edu/sites/default/files/media/history/2017HistoryJournal.pdf The Halpin Affair: How Cleveland went from Scandal to Success]". ''Wittenberg History Journal'', vol. 46, p. 5, 8.</ref> In March 1876, Cleveland accused Halpin of being an alcoholic and had her child removed from her custody. The child was taken to the Protestant Orphan Asylum, and Cleveland paid for his stay there.<ref name=":0" /> Cleveland had Halpin admitted to the Providence Asylum. Halpin was only kept at the asylum for five days because she was deemed not to be insane.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Lachman|first=Charles|date=May 23, 2011|title=Grover Cleveland's Sex Scandal: The Most Despicable in American Political History|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/23/grover-clevelands-sex-scandal-the-most-despicable-in-american-political-history|access-date=July 3, 2020}}</ref> Cleveland later provided financial support for her to begin her own business outside of Buffalo.<ref name=":0" /> Although lacking irrefutable evidence that Cleveland was the father,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Neil A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfbt5NXvF64C&pg=PA183 |title=Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary |date=2005 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0816-2 |pages=183}}</ref> the child became a campaign issue for the [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] in Cleveland's first presidential campaign, where they smeared him by claiming that he was "immoral" and for allegedly acting cruelly by not raising the child himself.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Henry F. Graff 2002 61–63">{{cite book|author=Henry F. Graff|title=Grover Cleveland: The American Presidents Series: The 22nd and 24th President, 1885–1889 and 1893–1897|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BjE7XsSQxmAC&pg=PA61|year=2002|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|pages=60–63|isbn=978-0-8050-6923-5}}</ref>

===Mayor of Buffalo===
In the 1870s, the municipal government in Buffalo had grown increasingly corrupt, with Democratic and Republican [[political machine]]s cooperating to share the [[Spoils system|spoils]] of political office.<ref>Nevins, 79; Graff, 18–19; Jeffers, 42–45; Welch, 24</ref> When the Republicans nominated a slate of particularly disreputable machine politicians for the 1881 election, Democrats saw an opportunity to gain the votes of disaffected Republicans by nominating a more honest candidate.<ref>Nevins, 79–80; Graff, 18–19; Welch, 24</ref> Party leaders approached Cleveland, who agreed to run for [[List of mayors of Buffalo, New York|Mayor of Buffalo]] provided the party's slate of candidates for other offices was to his liking.<ref name="nevins80">Nevins, 80–81</ref> More notorious politicians were left off the Democratic ticket and he accepted the nomination.<ref name="nevins80" /> Cleveland [[1881 Buffalo mayoral election|was elected]] mayor that November with 15,120 votes, while his Republican opponent [[Milton Earl Beebe]] received 11,528 votes.<ref>Nevins, 83</ref> He took office on January 2, 1882.<ref name="LOC-Timeline">{{cite web | title=Timeline – Articles and Essays – Grover Cleveland Papers – Digital Collections | publisher=The Library of Congress | date=October 29, 1947 | url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/grover-cleveland-papers/articles-and-essays/timeline/ | access-date=April 2, 2023}}</ref>

Cleveland's term as mayor was spent fighting the entrenched interests of the party machines.<ref>Graff, 19; Jeffers, 46–50</ref> Among the acts that established his reputation was a veto of the street-cleaning bill passed by the [[Buffalo Common Council|Common Council]].<ref name="street">Nevins, 84–86</ref> The street-cleaning contract had been the subject of competitive bidding, and the Council selected the highest bidder at $422,000, rather than the lowest at $100,000 less, because of the political connections of the bidder.<ref name="street" /> Previous mayors had allowed similar bills in the past, but Cleveland's veto message said, "I regard it as the culmination of a most bare-faced, impudent, and shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people, and to worse than squander the public money."<ref>Nevins, 85</ref> The Council reversed itself and awarded the contract to the lowest bidder.<ref>Nevins, 86</ref> Cleveland also asked the state legislature to form a Commission to develop a plan to improve the sewer system in Buffalo at a much lower cost than previously proposed locally; this plan was successfully adopted.<ref>Tugwell, 58</ref> For this, and other actions safeguarding public funds, Cleveland began to gain a reputation beyond Erie County as a leader willing to purge government corruption.<ref>Nevins, 94–95; Jeffers, 50–51</ref>

===Governor of New York===
[[File:GCleveland.png|thumb|Gubernatorial portrait of Grover Cleveland]]
Democratic party officials started to consider Cleveland a possible nominee for [[Governor of New York]].<ref name="nevins94">Nevins, 94–99; Graff, 26–27</ref> [[Daniel Manning]], a party insider who admired Cleveland's record, was instrumental in his candidacy.<ref>Tugwell, 68–70</ref> With a split in the state Republican Party in 1882, the Democratic party was considered to be at an advantage; several men contended for that party's nomination.<ref name="nevins94" /> The two leading Democratic candidates were [[Roswell P. Flower]] and [[Henry Warner Slocum]]. Their factions deadlocked and the convention could not agree on a nominee.<ref>Graff, 26; Nevins, 101–103</ref> Cleveland, who came in third place on the first ballot, picked up support in subsequent votes and emerged as the compromise choice.<ref>Nevins, 103–104</ref> With Republicans still divided heading into [[1882 New York state election|the general election]], Cleveland emerged the victor, receiving 535,318 votes to Republican nominee [[Charles J. Folger]]'s 342,464.<ref>Nevins, 105</ref> Cleveland's margin of victory was, at the time, the largest in a contested New York election. The Democrats also picked up seats in both houses of the [[New York State Legislature]].<ref>Graff, 28</ref>

Cleveland brought his opposition to needless spending to the governor's office. He promptly sent the legislature eight vetoes in his first two months in office.<ref>Graff, 35</ref> The first to attract attention was his veto of a bill to reduce the fares on [[History of the New York City Subway#Early steam and elevated railroads|New York City elevated trains]] to five cents.<ref>Graff, 35–36</ref> The bill had broad support because the trains' owner, [[Jay Gould]], was unpopular, and his fare increases were widely denounced.<ref>Nevins, 114–116</ref> Cleveland saw the bill as unjust—Gould had taken over the railroads when they were failing and had made the system solvent again.<ref name="nevins116">Nevins, 116–117</ref> Cleveland believed that altering Gould's franchise would violate the [[Contract Clause]] of the [[United States Constitution|federal Constitution]].<ref name="nevins116" /> Despite the initial popularity of the fare-reduction bill, the newspapers praised Cleveland's veto.<ref name="nevins116" /> [[Theodore Roosevelt]], then a member of the [[New York State Assembly|Assembly]], had reluctantly voted for the bill with the intention of holding railroad barons accountable.<ref name="nevins117">Nevins, 117–118</ref> After the veto, Roosevelt and other legislators reversed their position, and Cleveland's veto was sustained.<ref name="nevins117" />

Cleveland's defiance of political corruption won him popular acclaim; it also brought the enmity of New York City's influential [[Tammany Hall]] organization and its boss, [[John Kelly (New York politician)|John Kelly]].<ref>Nevins, 125–126</ref> Tammany Hall and Kelly had disapproved of Cleveland's nomination for governor, and their resistance intensified after Cleveland openly opposed and prevented the reelection of [[Thomas F. Grady]], their point man in the State Senate.<ref>Tugwell, 77</ref> Cleveland also steadfastly opposed other Tammany nominees, as well as bills passed as a result of their deal-making.<ref>Tugwell, 73</ref> The loss of Tammany's support was offset by the support of Theodore Roosevelt and other reform-minded Republicans, who helped Cleveland pass several laws to reform municipal governments.<ref>Nevins, 138–140</ref> Cleveland closely worked with Roosevelt, who served as assembly minority leader in 1883; the municipal legislation they cooperated on gained Cleveland national recognition.<ref name=":2" />
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