Povey Prattle

Grover Cleveland was twice elected President of the United States, in 1884 and again in1892.   Since his terms in office were not consecutive he is counted as the 22 nd and the 24th President.   (He won a plurality of votes in the 1888 election, but his opponent, Benjamin  Harrison, having a majority in the Electoral College, became President). Cleveland was distantly related to Moses Cleaveland, for whom the American City of Cleveland is named.   (The lore is that the local newspaper requested the dropping of the “a”, so that the name could fit on the newspaper's masthead). Grover Cleveland was successively Sheriff of Erie County, NY; Mayor of Buffalo NY; Governor of New York State; and President of the United States of America Wikipedia has what seems to be a fair and balanced article on him. (see below)   Cleveland has never stood out as a great President. His virtues were in his diligence, hard work, honesty and incorruptibility.   He was in som...

When I moved to these United States in 1976 I would utter a wry chuckle at the time of presidential elections.  It seemed that Americans were hoping to elect a new George Washington every four years. Washington is of course at the top of most people’s list of “the greats”. (Not that he was without fierce critics in his own day.) We've  had very few great presidents.    We’ve also had some downright bad ones! Most of our presidents have been “fair to middling”.   With that in mind I have been reading a series of presidential biographies (from Times Books “The American Presidents” series, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, JR.) ,   concentrating on the "lesser knowns" I’ve just finished reading about Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland. Chester Arthur, born in Vermont in 1829 was a bon vivant, a gourmand and a (*) lover of fine things.  He became very wealthy as a result of his appointment as Collector of Custom in New York City ( 1871)  H...