My new favorite Democrat is Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), the only man to serve two non-consecutive terms as President, first from 1885–1889 and then from 1893–1897. (Cleveland also won the popular vote for President in 1888, but Benjamin Harrison won the Electoral College 233 to 168.) True, he doesn’t sound much like a modern-day Democrat. According to Wikipedia, Cleveland “opposed imperialism, taxes, subsidies and inflationary policies,” and also “worked against corruption, patronage, and bossism.” Instapundit points to a column at the website Threedonia that reprints a couple of remarkable letters from Cleveland. The first was written in 1885 to a young man seeking a government job:
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND I cannot attempt to answer all the letters addressed to me by those both old and young who ask for places. But if you are the boy I think you are your letter is based upon a claim to help your mother and others who are partly dependent upon your exertions. I judge from what you write that you now have a situation in a reputable business house. I cannot urge you too strongly to give up all idea of employment in a public office and to determine to win advancement and promotion where you are. There are no persons so forlorn and so much to be pitied as those who have learned in early life to look to public positions for a livelihood. It unfits a man or boy for any other business and is apt to make a kind of respectable vagrant of him. If you do well in other occupations and thus become valuable to the people they will find you out when they want a good man for public service. You may be sure that I am as you say the friend of every boy willing to help himself but my experience teaches me that I cannot do you a better service than to advise you not to join the great army of office seekers. I never sought an office of any kind in my life and if you live and follow my advice I am certain that you will thank me for it some day
Yours truly,
GROVER CLEVELAND
Government employment “unfits a man or boy for any other business and is apt to make a kind of respectable vagrant of him.” How’s that for a useful thought on Labor Day?
Nor was Cleveland’s common sense confined to his private correspondence. Here he is in 1887 responding to a bill that sought to provide government-funded relief to some parts of Texas suffering from a drought:
To THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES I return without my approval House bill number ten thousand two hundred and three entitled An Act to enable the Commissioner of Agriculture to make a special distribution of seeds in drought stricken counties of Texas and making an appropriation therefor. It is represented that a long continued and extensive drought has existed in certain portions of the State of Texas resulting in a failure of crops and consequent distress and destitution Though there has been some difference in statements concerning the extent of the people’s needs in the localities thus affected there seems to be no doubt that there has existed a condition calling for relief and I am willing to believe that notwithstanding the aid already furnished a donation of seed grain to the farmers located in this region to enable them to put in new crops would serve to avert a continuance or return of an unfortunate blight And yet I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan as proposed by this bill to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose.
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should I think be steadfastly resisted to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the government the government should not support the people.
The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthen the bonds of a common brotherhood.
It is within my personal knowledge that individual aid has to some extent already been extended to the sufferers mentioned in this bill. . .
“I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.”
“A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should I think be steadfastly resisted.”
“The expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character.”
Moreover, that “expectation of paternal care” also “weakens the kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthen the bonds of a common brotherhood.”
Why do these home truths need constantly to be rediscovered? Commentators like Charles Murray pointed them out for us in the 1970s and 1980s. Murray wrote about the terrible effects of well-meaning but misguided welfare policies (increased dependency, corruption, inefficiency, erosion of the spirit of individual philanthropy). Back in 1943, Friedrich Hayek made a cognate observation in The Road to Serfdom when he pointed out that the most important effects of extensive government control was psychological, “an alteration of the character of the people.” Hayek’s point — and Cleveland’s — was that we are the creatures as well as the creators of the institutions we inhabit.
As we enjoy this Labor Day, I hope we will have occasion to pause and reflect about the meaning labor and the enabling properties of hard work. I hope, too, we will spare a moment for a kindly thought about President Cleveland. As Glenn Reynolds remarks, “Mister, we could use some men like Grover Cleveland again.”
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29 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » My Favorite Democrat: Labor Day Thoughts:[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]
Sep 7, 2009 - 5:30 am 2. tanstaafl:There are no persons so forlorn and so much to be pitied as those who have learned in early life to look to public positions for a livelihood.
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit…Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character…
Thanks, Labor Day thoughts that don’t burn my ears with their smarminess and vapidity.
The whole notion of the Nanny state stepping in for our small (and large) dilemmas is a travesty. Not to mention, as Cleveland notes, destructive to character.
How far we’ve come. Or descended.
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
~James Madison
Sep 7, 2009 - 7:02 am 3. My Favorite Democrat: Labor Day Thoughts windows Mobile power:[...] [...]
Sep 7, 2009 - 7:35 am 4. J.J. Sefton:” ‘As Glenn Reynolds remarks, “Mister, we could use some men like Grover Cleveland again.’ ”
Grover Cleveland just doesn’t have quite the ring as “Hoi-bit Hoover.”
Happy Labor Day, Roger.
Sep 7, 2009 - 8:08 am 5. Calvin Ball:That was before the lobbyist industry took off. There are always good-paying private sector jobs for retired civil servants these days.
Sep 7, 2009 - 9:01 am 6. Poor Citizen:Working people dont cause other people to want to start or create a union. Never did and never will. Bad management, low pay, hazardous working conditions and profits before people do. And presidents dont help to create unions either. Unions help to create presidents. And happy labor day. If you watch t.v. drive or shop today, thank a worker.
Sep 7, 2009 - 9:27 am 7. bibio44:This Labor Day blog brought to you by … The Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
Sep 7, 2009 - 10:07 am 8. David Thomson:“If you watch t.v. drive or shop today, thank a worker.”
I will thank all workers who contributed to my ability to watch TV and shop for quality items of all kinds. You, however, appear willing to appreciate only those wearing the proverbial blue shirts. I desire, on the other hand, to congratulate those scientists, scholar, inventors, and night cleaning people who helped to pull this off. If you earn a living—then you are also a “worker.” Your interpretation sounds a bit too tinged with Marxism.
I have only recently began to appreciate Grover Cleveland. There is biography regarding him that I own somewhere in the back of my property. It’s time I actually read it.
Sep 7, 2009 - 10:17 am 9. uburoisc:Poor Citizen, at this point most unions are not in the private sector, but in the public sector, and to say they are organized because of their poor working conditions is risible. The single largest reason most states, cities, and municipalities are facing outright bankruptcy is because the public employees unions act as a voting bloc to pressure politicians to provide an utterly unsustainable level of wages, benefits, and pensions for government workers. Essentially, the treasury is being raided by an organized gang of government unions who demand more and more every election cycle. This Labor Day I will once again view them as a parasitic drain on my hard work, retiring at 55 with 80% of pay, and full benefits, while I pay higher and higher taxes, destroying the capital I need to save to start my own venture. Better off getting my wife a job with the goverment so I can stick my fat stout in the taxpayer largesse before it’s all gone.
Sep 7, 2009 - 10:31 am 10. Calvin Ball:If these trolls work on Labor Day, Soros must really be a slavedriver. You guys need to organize. Call it the Brotherhood of Trolls, or ‘BOT’ for short.
Sep 7, 2009 - 10:36 am 11. Jim Alexander:Roger…..Ok, I am now officially a Grover Cleveland democrat. Thank you for highlighting the Presidents heartfelt positions & writings, here on Labor Day. The struggle for thought leadership in the Democratic Party is so far removed from the sentiments of Mr. Cleveland that I fear it cannot be saved. That aside – am now a Roots Democrat and will endevor to spread the faith:)
Sep 7, 2009 - 12:11 pm 12. Snorri Godhi:Grover Cleveland deserves all the praise he gets, and much more.
However, he is not likely to replace Truman as my favorite Democrat. Whatever his flaws, if it weren’t for Truman, we might all be speaking Russian.
Sep 7, 2009 - 12:14 pm 13. Basil Ransom:In Willa Cather’s “Professor’s House,” a robust character from the West, Tom Outland, spends some time in Washington at the home of a federal employee named Bixby:
“He wasn’t lazy, he wasn’t a fool, and he meant to be honest; but he was intimidated by that miserable sort of departmental life. He didn’t know everything else. He thought working in a store or a bank not respectable. Living with the Bixbys gave me a sense of low-spiritedness I had never known before….I used to walk for hours…and watch the Washington monument colour with those beautiful sunsets, until the time when all the clerks streamed out of the Treasury building and the War and Navy. Thousands of them, all more or less like the couple I lived with. They seemed to me like people in slavery, who ought to be free. I remember the city chiefly by those…sad sunsets.”
Sep 7, 2009 - 12:55 pm 14. Northern Light:Oh come off it, Roger.
If you had been alive in 1884 you would have branded Cleveland a dangerous Marxist and voted for James G. Blaine.
Sep 7, 2009 - 1:42 pm 15. Patrick Of Atlantis:Very good. I read a similar post on Threedonia.com. The more I learn about past Presidents, the more they impress me. There are the famous ones whose names and deeds are well known and there are less famous ones such as Polk and Coolidge and Cleveland who are also great.
Sep 7, 2009 - 5:14 pm 16. Labor Day thoughts from the President « Public Secrets:[...] Day thoughts from the President President Cleveland, that [...]
Sep 7, 2009 - 5:28 pm 17. Inrptrn:Who knew democrats were once capable of such restraint, foresight, and respect for the constitution and the people it protects? A sobering reminder of how far left we have gone as I pass my last labor day as a federal employee. Placating tyrants, apologizing for our cultural heritage, shitting on history, destroying the dignity and individual freedoms of our people. Some other fool will have to do this government’s bidding. Scores of brain-washed wards of the state are lining up as I type.
Sep 7, 2009 - 6:24 pm 18. Danee Garone:I’d support a man like Grover Cleveland for President regardless of political party. He was a man who thought with common sense and with respect to the constitution, capitalism and the free market. He upheld the idea of the American dream of improving you and your family’s station in life by yourselves. Not with the help of the government. The government of this nation is in place purely to allow people to achieve the American dream, not to achieve it for them.
Sep 7, 2009 - 6:37 pm 19. David Thomson:“Who knew democrats were once capable of such restraint, foresight, and respect for the constitution and the people it protects?”
The Democrats were the party of free trade during that era. Grover Cleveland apparently lost his reelection bid to the Republican candidate because he was adamantly opposed to protectionist legislation. Also, never forget that Herbert Hoover signed the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law! The Republicans have often been the party representing big business at the expense of the mom and pops.
Sep 7, 2009 - 9:39 pm 20. Poor Citizen:Ok no. 8 David T.
I usually dont respond to Luny robots, however, I will make an exception in your case. You need the assistance. Trust me.
Anyway, short and simple for you. I am no Marxist (please look it up). I dont care what color of shirt workers wear but apparantly, you do. And if me, or anyone…was a Marxist, they would have been expelled for “just being tinged” Marxism has little room for Tingy types. Im a teacher and the above lesson was brought to for free.
Sep 7, 2009 - 11:25 pm 21. Harris Tweed:Poor Poor Citizen — you make no sense. For example, if you put people before profits, you’ll lose your business.
Here’s a thought — why don’t the unions start their own businesses. Let’s see them build and run a shirt factory or an investment firm. That way they wouldn’t have to suck the blood out of the rest of us.
Sep 8, 2009 - 6:50 am 22. Fish The Verb:Poor Citizen
Anyone born into poverty who can only chose amongst doing nothing and starving to death, stealing, or taking a job in the worst of working conditions, should choose wisely. Two out of three choices do not beef up the resume for a better job.
Sep 8, 2009 - 8:38 am 23. urbanleftbehind:#14
….and Grover Cleveland was the recipient of one a Blaine supporter’s macaca moment: “We are Republicans – we are not the party of Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion!” – Dr. Samuel Burchard. That was the first national election – 1884 – where Catholics were in sufficient numbers to swing the vote.
Sep 8, 2009 - 11:54 am 24. myth buster:6. You’re right, working people don’t, but I wouldn’t call union thugs “working people.” I don’t many of them have ever worked an honest day in their lives.
Sep 8, 2009 - 3:06 pm 25. Lee:It seems that all the good Democrats are dead.
Does this mean that the only good Democrats are dead Democrats?
Sep 8, 2009 - 3:55 pm 26. Old Soldier:Snorri Godhi: Is that a joke? Truman?
The President who appointed Louis Johnson Sec of Defense – who literally destroyed the U.S. military after WWII. And tried to disband the Marine Corps.
Together, Truman and Johnson came within a hair’s breath of losing the Korean War outright. Luckily the USMC pulled their bacon out of the fire.
Truman is hugely overrated.
Sep 9, 2009 - 9:59 am 27. Tom DeGisi:Often when a union organizes a place the union is good for most of the members and bad for everyone else. Some unions go through a phase where they are good for the union leadership and bad for everyone else. But eventually the union overreaches and then becomes bad for everyone.
In the past unions were more beneficial. I think the many labor laws which give unions a priviledged status have worked to their detriment. How many organizations are there who can walk in, and by a simple vote force everyone into a contract? That’s obscene power, and obsence power corrupts obscenly.
Yours,
Sep 9, 2009 - 7:01 pm 28. Sulla:Tom
Grover Cleveland was one of Harry Truman’s favorite Presidents. And don’t forget that Cleveland signed the act that made Labor Day a federal holiday.
Sep 9, 2009 - 10:18 pm 29. Redmund Sum:Poor Citizen: Are you a teacher? Before you go to your school tomorrow, you should pick up a book on English grammar and study it. And you should stop calling people names. We expect better of our teachers. Or we should.
Sep 10, 2009 - 10:50 pm