Beschreibung:

CLEVELAND, GROVER (1837-1908), PRESIDENT . THE PUBLIC PAPERS OF GROVER CLEVELAND, TWENTY-SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 4, 1885 TO MARCH 4, 1889 . WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 1889. 4 O, BROWN CLOTH STAMPED IN BLIND, GILT SPINE, SLIGHT SCUFFING. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED: "Hon. Wayne MacVeagh from Grover Cleveland, May 1, 1892." A significant number of the official documents included here are vetoes of Congressional bills awarding pensions to Civil War veterans or their surviving spouses. Some are comic: John S. Bryant's application is denied because his record showed he had twice deserted, and his discharging officer noted: "Never has done a day's duty - is utterly worthless and unfit for Veteran Reserve Corps" (p.404). Some are heartbreaking: Cleveland denies a pension for Jane Potts, whose husband had been a POW "and endured for a long time the hardships of prison life" before committing suicide in 1882. Cleveland decides, based on neighbors' testimony, that "domestic trouble was the cause" and not "military services and prison experiences" (p. 407). There are a hundred such cases detailed here. Cleveland followed a policy of strict, even harsh frugality, awarding pensions only to those who (in his words) "have worthily suffered" in defense of the Union. Outraged G.A.R. advocates bitterly pointed out Cleveland's own non-existent war record: he elected the substitution route and paid a 32-year old Polish immigrant to serve in his stead.