Thank you to a friend, David Chaudoir, for today’s review of Troy Senik’s book, A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland. David is a writer and an anthropologist.

A MAN OF IRON: THE TURBULENT LIFE AND IMPROBABLE PRESIDENCY OF GROVER CLEVELAND by Troy Senik

Reviewed by David Chaudoir

Stephen Grover Cleveland entered the world on March 18, 1837, just two weeks after Martin Van Buren was sworn in as the eighth president of the United States. Born in Caldwell, New Jersey and spending most of his childhood in Fayetteville, New York, Cleveland’s inauspicious beginnings—the son of a financially struggling Presbyterian minister who died young—portended nothing about his future and almost accidental rise to political prominence and the presidency.

A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland (Threshold Editions, 2022) isTroy Senik’s comprehensive biography of the 22nd and 24th president of the United States of America. Cleveland, largely known for being the only man elected to two nonconsecutive terms and not much else, comes vividly alive here.

The saying “What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right” could be the epithet of Cleveland’s life. In fact, the through line of Senik’s biography is Cleveland’s unapologetic resolve to act upon his informed convictions. This sometimes put him at odds with his own Democratic party (the political parties of the late 19th century bear little resemblance to their present-day namesakes) and often positioned him as a Constitutionalist.

Known as a workaholic who routinely put in 19-hour days, Cleveland’s reputation for integrity was time and again the trait that made him the favorite to unify a Democratic party while simultaneously attractive to reformist Republicans. From his time as sheriff in Erie County, New York to being mayor of Buffalo to governor of the State of New York, Grover Cleveland was not susceptible to the rampant corruption of public officials during that time (“There’s no difference between a Democratic thief or a Republic thief,” he’s cited as saying). Among his notable ambitions was stamping out party patronage in the civil service in all of the offices he held, especially at the federal level.

Senik gives an exhaustive yet judiciously pruned overview of Cleveland’s rapid ascent from sheriff to mayor to governor to president. Democrats were desperate to field a candidate who could win in an era when the Republican party controlled everything. Before Cleveland, the last Democrat to be elected president was James Buchanan (another bachelor) prior to the Civil War. In fact, Cleveland was the only Democrat elected between 1856 and Woodrow Wilson in 1912.

Major issues of the late 19th century seem quaint by today’s standards: tariff reform (tariffs accounted for 90% of federal revenue before 1863 and to varying degrees thereafter until the implementation of systematic income and corporate taxes in the 20th century); the gold standard (vs. the Free Silver Movement, a group of senators and others with vested interest in silver mines who wanted the United States to move away from the gold standard, something Cleveland vehemently opposed); railroad strike (wherein Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago to crush the strikers—to the favor of railroad barons like Pullman); civil service reform; and U.S. expansionism and foreign policy (the Hawaiian revolution; and interfering in a conflict between the U.K. and Venezuela over border disputes).

Cleveland’s loss to Benjamin Harrison of Indiana in 1888 was due in large part to the positions the 22nd president held on tariffs. He also didn’t campaign (not wholly unusual in that era) and forbade his cabinet to campaign on his behalf. This was also a period in history when Indiana’s electoral votes were more integral to the presidential election that they are today. Although Cleveland lost the election, he won the popular vote (something repeated only four other times in history: Andrew Jackson in 1824, Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, Al Gore in 2000, and Hillary Clinton in 2016).

Grover Cleveland’s biography is fertile ground for presidential trivia buffs. 1) He entered his first term as a bachelor, but married after two years (although he isn’t the only president to get married while in office—John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson both remarried while president—he remains the only president to get married in the White House). Cleveland’s wife and first lady, the former Frances Folsom, was the young daughter of his law partner. She was an extraordinarily popular first lady, the most popular since Dolly Madison, and can be seen as a predecessor to Jackie Kennedy. 2) Cleveland had major surgery on his upper palate but insisted it be done on a boat at sea to prevent the press from finding out. 3) He was a doting and devoted husband and father. 4) He vetoed more bills than any other president except Franklin D. Roosevelt. 5) Cleveland’s re-election as the 24th president is remarkable because it was the first and only time that both nominees had been previously elected to the presidency. 6) Finally, Grover Cleveland is the last president for whom there is no voice recording (the ones online claiming authenticity are fake). These are just examples of some of the intriguing vignettes Senik explores in A Man of Iron.

The principal takeaway about President Grover Cleveland is that he was honest, steadfast, and a fighter against government waste—qualities that contemporary voters claim they want in an executive leader, but which ultimately didn’t serve to further Cleveland’s legacy. He strengthened the executive office and didn’t think it was a president’s place to push legislation.  For this, and for his focus on honoring the public trust and stamping out corruption, Cleveland is mostly remembered as a “guardian” president.

Troy Senik’s book is not a hagiography; he readily reveals Cleveland’s shortcomings, of which there were many. But, A Man of Iron really shines in its meticulous attention to detail and accuracy in portraying the historical time period.

A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland by Troy Senik. Threshold Editions, 2022. ISBN 9781982140748 (hardcover), 384p.