The second-time-around President
With the murky sex scandal...‘Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?’
If you think history never repeats itself, you don’t know the story of Grover Cleveland.
Donald Trump was delighted to remind everyone on Wednesday morning that he was going to be the 45th and the 47th President of the United States. Winning non-consecutive elections is highly unusual, but not unique. Let me tell you the story of the only other candidate to achieve it: Stephen Grover Cleveland (and, in passing, of his fascinating sister Rose).
Grover and Rose were two of the nine children of Richard Cleveland, a Presbyterian pastor, educated at Yale and Princeton, descended from generations of Presbyterian ministers. Grover was born on 18 March 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey. Their father’s calling meant frequent house moves for the family – from New Jersey to Fayetteville, New York, and before Rose, the youngest, was seven, the family had moved again, some 40 miles to Clinton and then in 1853 to Holland Patent, near Utica, where her father took charge of the Presbyterian church. They had no sooner arrived, however, when Richard died of complications from a gastric ulcer and the family fell on hard times.
The eldest Cleveland boy William had followed his father into the church, and one older sister, Anna, was working as a missionary in Ceylon, but this change of fortune was particularly tough for Stephen Grover Cleveland, the fifth child. He had harboured ambitions to become a lawyer but now at the age of 16, with his two youngest sisters Susan and Rose still in education, he was required to abandon his plans and look for work to support them and his mother.
At first he found employment as a dormitory supervisor at a school for the blind in New York, but in 1855 he travelled upstate to join an uncle in business in Buffalo, eventually becoming a clerk in a local law firm. He obviously knew how to work hard and make an impression, for by 1859, he had recovered lost time and was admitted to the Bar. Cleveland remained in Buffalo for more than twenty years building a legal practice, at the same time becoming increasingly involved in local politics. Two of his brothers, Cecil and Fred, fought for the Union in the Civil War but Grover, although he was drafted, did the same as many middle class professionals, and paid a Polish immigrant $150 to fight for him. No mention of bone spurs, just cash.
In 1863 he had his first taste of political life as Assistant District Attorney, but he failed to win the senior office of DA the following year and reverted to his secular bachelor life. He was by now a successful lawyer, known in Buffalo for hard graft and a raucous social circle. In 1871 he was elected Sheriff of the prosperous industrial Erie County, and the next two years were the financial making of him as he made a (legitimate) fortune, estimated at $60,000, in legal fees and revenues. But in 1872, at the height of this success, the family suffered a double tragedy when his brothers Cecil and Fred, both of whom had survived the Civil War unscathed, were drowned in a steamship accident on their way to the Bahamas to open a hotel they had bought. Not surprisingly their mother Anne was desolate, having to take what consolation she could from reports from survivors that the brothers were heroes: they had last been seen helping others into the lifeboats, rather than saving themselves.
Meanwhile Grover’s ambitions grew and he rose dramatically from Mayor of Buffalo (1882), to Governor of New York State (1883), to President of the United States (1885), in a mere three and a half years. Perhaps no-one was more surprised than he by this meteoric rise – it was certainly not his previously expressed ambition or intention. There just didn’t seem to be any other sensible Democrat candidates. However, even as his Presidential nomination was being finalised at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, a scandal broke that threatened to derail him completely. Letters were sent to all the Chicago newspapers by a Buffalo-based cleric, the Reverend George Ball, accusing Cleveland not just of fathering a child out of wedlock, but of coercing and imprisoning the child’s mother, incarcerating her in a lunatic asylum, and kidnapping the child. His letter concluded ‘This I know to be true, for I have it confirmed by…Mr Whitney, her attorney, and by Mrs Wm Baker, where the woman boarded.’
According to several affidavits sworn and deposited in 1884, Cleveland had met and seduced Maria Halpin, a widowed shop assistant, while he was serving as Sheriff of Erie County in December 1873. The outcome of this liaison was a baby boy, who could not be found by the press these ten years later, as the doctor who had attended the birth had subsequently adopted him. He was to be known for the rest of his life as James King. But his given name at birth was Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Worse still, Maria Halpin claimed that Cleveland had forced himself on her. [1]
Maria said that when she discovered she was pregnant she had written to Grover and that he had at first promised marriage. At the confinement he had arranged for a Dr James King to attend as obstetrician, and had placed the baby with foster parents, related to King by marriage. After a year the baby was returned to Maria, who was constantly threatening Cleveland with exposure, still trying to force him to marry her – but in 1876 she was persuaded to place the boy in an orphanage, with a promise that Grover would pay $5 a week for his keep. Just six weeks later she stole the little boy away. Her story, supported by witnesses, was that an infuriated Grover then tracked her down, and sent men to take the child by force. Maria was committed to a lunatic asylum with a diagnosis of mania and symptoms of alcohol poisoning. Eventually a happier settlement was reached – Maria left Buffalo with a cheque for $500, and Oscar was adopted by Dr King and re-named. According to Cleveland’s biographer, Charles Lachman, baby James eventually qualified as a doctor and practised in Buffalo, dying in 1947 with the secret of his parentage never revealed.
The explosion of this story into the press in 1884 was massively embarrassing to Cleveland on two levels. Not only was he running for President, he had other more personal fish to fry – he was finally planning, at the age of 47, to embark on marriage – and to a girl he had known since she was a baby, who was nearly 30 years his junior. Frances Folsom, born in 1864, was the only daughter of one of Grover Cleveland’s closest friends, Oscar Folsom, a lawyer in Buffalo who had been killed in a carriage accident in 1872. It was this same Oscar Folsom for whom Maria Halpin had named her baby, which was to further complicate the murky rumours swirling around Cleveland as presidential candidate. On Folsom’s early death, Grover Cleveland became executor of his will, and although he was not made Frances’s Guardian, as her mother was still alive, he took a very keen interest in the girl’s education.
In 1882, when Grover was running for office as Mayor of Buffalo, Frances was admitted to Wells College, Aurora, New York, one of the first Liberal Arts Colleges for women in America. Throughout her successful student career Cleveland wrote to her, visited when he could, and regularly sent flowers. Frances shared a room with Katherine (‘Pussy’) Willard, the niece of Frances Willard, a leading light in the linked causes of the temperance and Women’s Suffrage movements. As Grover was resolutely opposed to both these campaigns, Frances must have found herself in some difficult situations.
When the story of the Halpin baby broke, on 21 July 1884, Frances and her widowed mother Emma were staying with Grover Cleveland and his two sisters Mary and Rose in the Governor’s House in Albany. By coincidence, this was Frances’ 20th birthday. Grover retreated from public view while the newspapers seethed with excitement – but eventually the Democratic party machine got its act together and promoted the story that Cleveland had indeed had a youthful indiscretion with Mrs Halpin, if a man in his thirties can be described as youthful, but that he had not been her only lover. The story they spun was that when Maria announced her pregnancy, Grover, as the only bachelor in his social circle, decided to do the honourable thing, or at least to make an effort to support the woman, and thus shield one or two of his married friends from scandal. The hinted suggestion was that the child may have been Folsom’s – he was after all no longer around to defend himself. It is hard to imagine how poor Mrs Folsom and her daughter would have felt about this, committed as they were by this time to the Cleveland camp.
Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa???
Eventually the press tracked down Maria Halpin and, furious at the way she was being portrayed, she swore two separate affidavits naming Cleveland as the father, claiming that ‘he accomplished [my] ruin by the use of force and violence and without my consent’ - a pretty clear accusation of rape. Some of this testimony was published and widely promoted in the Republican press. Republican supporters haunted Cleveland’s rallies with placards reading ‘Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?’. But by then the Democrat campaign was on a roll and the accusations were dismissed by Cleveland’s staff as forgeries, with mud being flung in all directions, particularly at poor Maria. Interestingly, Lachman notes that Cleveland never actually denied the tale himself. But it is not surprising that with this scandal lapping at his feet, Cleveland would want to look highly respectable when he came into possession of the White House. With no wife to turn to, he chose the most upright and respectable available relation – his youngest sister Rose. On 17 January 1885, with the presidency secured, he announced that Rose would take the place of First Lady.
Grover and Rose moved into the White House on inauguration on 4 March 1885 and the Press immediately began to focus on this rather unconventional First Lady. We do have a lovely description of her, courtesy of the New York Times, during her second reception at the White House. The New York Times reported that Miss Cleveland wore a dress of black satin, with an entire overdress of Spanish lace. The satin bodice was cut low and sleeveless, and the transparent lace revealed the shoulders and arms. ‘In person, Miss Cleveland is of medium stature and build, with a shapely and highly intellectual face - good-looking but not pretty.’
Rose Cleveland did not fit easily into Washington high society during her tenure as First Lady. It was generally felt that she was a bluestocking, more interested in pursuing scholarly endeavors than in entertaining Cabinet members’ wives and foreign dignitaries. Rumour had it that she amused herself by mentally conjugating Greek verbs during White House receptions. In some ways the public exposure was to be good for promoting Rose’s new career as a writer, but she did not enjoy the constant duties of a political hostess. The attention from the Press must have been tiresome - as a schoolmistress and bluestocking from out of town, it would have been an unlooked-for burden. Rose tried to stay true to her own interests and political beliefs. One of her causes was the Temperance Movement - she had written an article for a temperance magazine in 1882 – ‘it is only a strong man who can keep his wine glass upside down’ - and had taken the Pledge herself. She hosted a delegation from Frances Willard’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union for tea at the White House, despite the fact that the Prohibition Party had fielded a candidate against her brother in the Election – and Grover was certainly not a teetotaler.
The Press also began to notice that she kept ‘different company’ from the usual First Lady. She stirred up some controversy by visiting the theatre in Washington ‘with a lady friend and without a male escort.’ After just six weeks the strain began to tell and on 29 April, having cancelled all White House receptions for the rest of the social season, Rose left on a short trip to New York. There is evidence that she and Grover had fallen out when she had warned him against appointing ‘too many Catholics’ to the Administration – her Presbyterian upbringing had left marks. On 30 April 1885 Grover wrote to his sister Mary ‘Of course I don’t know what Libbie’s ideas are, and perhaps there may be something in the May Hastings [his niece] scheme. Libbie went to New York yesterday and I hope she will have a rest. She’d had a pretty hard time here. Annie [Mrs EP Hastings, his oldest sister] I expect will return with her and stay a short time. I hope the newspapers will not spoil her.’
Rose did return to Washington, but it turned out to be a very short-lived arrangement, as by August 1885 Grover was secretly engaged to the young and beautiful Frances Folsom. Once the engagement was arranged, Frances was whisked away to Europe by her mother – but by the time the two women returned the following year, the various rumours around Grover’s marital intentions were running wild. Grover decided to pre-empt the speculation by marrying Frances just a few days after she got off the boat. But first he had to endure, or perhaps enjoy, being teased a little. Frances stayed in New York before the wedding, and the President had to pay a visit to attend Decoration Day ceremonies. As the Presidential cavalcade passed the hotel where Frances was staying, and watching from a balcony, the band struck up ‘For he’s going to marry YumYum’ from The Mikado, which had just finished a triumphant run on Broadway. Cleveland tipped his hat, Frances waved her handkerchief, and the crowd went wild.
The wedding was held in The White House on 2 June 1886, organised at short notice by Rose. The ceremony was held at 6pm, and although hundreds gathered outside, the wedding party itself numbered just 30. Rose had arranged for flowers everywhere, and a wedding march played by The Marine Band conducted by de Sousa. Grover Cleveland was described by the British Ambassador, Cecil Spring-Rice, as 5 foot high and 4 foot wide, but he admitted that Frances was a real beauty.
The day after the wedding, Rose moved out, returning to Holland Patent. The New York Times reported that she had always planned to revert to her literary existence. But her life whenever she was in the United States would henceforward be prone to press interest, and increasingly she travelled abroad. She had now more financial independence to do this: ‘Her career as first lady of the land was a social success, and her literary ability has earned her considerable money and a fair reputation as a writer. The book of "Studies" by which she became known as an author, was succeeded by other works.’
She had published two books while living in the White House. Her first successful publication was a volume of her lectures and essays under the title George Eliot's Poetry, and other Studies (New York, 1885), shortly followed by her only published novel called The Long Run (1886) – a love story. It is likely that she had started writing the novel well before her brother’s election – but her celebrity no doubt made it easier to find a publisher. The essays, which she now dedicated ‘respectfully and affectionately’ to her fellow countrywomen, had been prepared as lectures earlier in her career.
These books paid well. Studies sold over 25,000 copies. Rose went on to write several self-improvement tracts, such as the introductions to three volumes: "You and I: Or Moral, Intellectual and Social Culture", "How to Win: A Book for Girls" (1887) and "Social Mirror: A Complete Treatise on the Laws, Rules and Usages that Govern our Most Refined Homes and Social Circles". For just a few months, in 1886, she was appointed as editor to the Chicago-based magazine Literary Life, and announced that her editorial policy was to speak to her countrywomen and ‘make my talk very simple and earnest and sincere’, but within a few months she fell out with the proprietor, Mr Elder, who had got himself into financial difficulties.
The Cleveland family took care of Rose, but it must have been increasingly difficult for them to cope with the turn her life was to take after she left the White House. The Collected Letters of Grover Cleveland 1850-1908, edited by Allan Nevins, were published in 1933, and by this time Rose had almost vanished from the official records. She is referred to only briefly in letters as ‘Libbie’, and if the President received any letters from Libbie, they did not make it into the published collection.
The fact is that Rose would never have fitted into polite Washington society, and had no interest in the usual social fabric: her passions were reserved for the women in her world, and in January 1890 she met Evangeline Marrs Simpson, who became the love of her life. Evangeline was a wealthy widow, and had one more marriage in her, to Bishop Henry Whipple of Minnesota. But when she was widowed for a second time, she reunited with Rose, and they left America to spend the rest of their lives together, in Bagni di Lucca, Tuscany, where today they share a well-tended burial plot - with a third woman, the British artist Nelly Erichsen.
Which takes me neatly back to the start of my writing life! If you want to know more about Rose, Evangeline and Nelly, read on…
[1] Much of this is taken from ‘A Secret Life’ by Charles Lachman 2011. There is also a good edition of the love letters of Evangeline and Rose, ‘Precious and Adored’, by Lizzie Ehrenhalt and Tilly Laskey
Brilliant writing. Crisp and clear and compelling. But what a delight to discover something I hadn't known before. Evangeline was married to Bishop Whipple of Minnesota! The intersection with my own research on the Ojibway in Minnesota collides with the story of Cleveland's sister Rose.
Cleveland is probably best known to most Americans as the guy on the $1000 bill- if they ever get possession of one.