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A MAN OF IRON by Troy Senik

A MAN OF IRON

The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland

by Troy Senik

Pub Date: Sept. 20th, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982140-74-8
Publisher: Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster

Robust biography of an overlooked president.

There aren’t many good reasons that Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) is largely forgotten alongside such fellow presidents as Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce, yet there he is. Granted, writes former George W. Bush speechwriter Senik, he “didn’t look like a president. He looked like a foundry foreman.” Bulky, but with an oddly high-pitched and nasal voice, he had a quick temper accentuated by the habit of pounding his fist on a table to make an objection known. Cleveland certainly has demerits on his resume. For one, surrounded by Civil War generals who entered politics, he paid a Polish immigrant (who, happily, survived the war unscathed) to take his place, leading to the charge that he “was an unpatriotic elite who bought his way out of the war.” The elite part is wrong, Senik holds, for Cleveland was a working man who was more or less swept into politics without having much in the way of political ambition, and one who “was perpetually sensitive to the fact that his mandate was to rise above reflexive party loyalty.” As both governor of New York and president, he forged coalitions that frequently had more Republican than Democratic support, and many of his positions, especially on fiscal matters, were conservative. Yet, as Senik enumerates, he also established progressive policies, including requiring corporations to file quarterly financial reports and pressing for penal reforms to limit the use of force in prison, since “he suspected the authorities were exceeding the letter of the law.” He opposed the plot to overthrow the government of independent Hawaii, and he had a determinedly anti-imperialist bent. Freely exercising his veto power, his central conviction was that “government exists to protect the welfare of the people as a whole.” Practical rather than ideological, he got plenty done.

A capably written introduction to a political leader who, though no rock star, deserves to be better known.