After losing the 1888 presidential election to Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland left the nation's capital and moved to New York. However, he continued to keep a watchful eye on politics and grew more and more dissatisfied with Harrison's presidency and what he considered to be an unhealthy expansion of the central government's powers. Noticing how the voters expressed their disapproval of the "Billion Dollar Congress" in the 1890 congressional elections (the Democrats gained 78 seats in the House), Cleveland began to think seriously of running again for the presidency.

Yet another impetus for Cleveland's consideration of presidential campaigning was the character of New York Governor David B. Hill. Cleveland believed that Hill wanted the Democratic nomination so badly that he would "sell out" to all manner of anti-Democratic factions such as the free silver forces and protectionists. Another suitable candidate had to come to the fore, Cleveland thought, to protect the true Democratic faith.

Thus, by the winter of 1890/1891, Cleveland was ready to re-enter politics at the highest level. In February of 1891, Cleveland authored his "Silver Letter" -- a declaration of the importance of an "honest" national currency and his determination to ensure that such was the case.

Courting everyone from eastern capitalists to southerners, Cleveland used the press as a public relations tool. However, he fought an uphill battle since the editors of papers such as the Washington Post and New York Sun derided him on account of his weight, publicly referring to him as "the Stuffed Prophet" and "the elephantine economist."

Cleveland received 617 votes at the convention -- 10 more than he needed to in order to earn a two-thirds majority. In contrast, Governor Hill received only 114. Adlai Stevenson became Cleveland's running mate, and Cleveland became only the second Democrat ever to run in three consecutive presidential elections. The first was Cleveland's hero: Andrew Jackson. Cleveland's main opponent would be the incumbent -- Benjamin Harrison.

The presidential campaign of 1892 was remarkably free of personal attack. Some called it a dull campaign; others, a dignified one. And for the first and only time in history, both candidates of the major parties had previously occupied the nation's highest office.

Cleveland and Harrison held different opinions on major issues such as the tariff, the Homestead Strike, the federal supervision of elections, and the currency. It was the tariff, though, that received the most attention in the campaign.

The Populist Party also presented itself in the 1892 election. Having become organized in 1891 as a national party, the Populists offered James B. Weaver as a presidential candidate. Theirs was a class-conscious platform advocating federal assistance for the farmer and industrial laborer. They also espoused the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16:1.

Cleveland assumed a more active role in the 1892 campaign than he had in his earlier efforts. He refused speaking tours; he refused to "showcase" his beautiful young wife for political purposes; and he allegedly refused to accept an engagement at the Chicago World's Fair because Harrison's wife was ill and Cleveland knew that Harrison would be unable to accept similar engagements.

In the end, Cleveland came away with approximately 5,556,000 votes compared to Harrison's 5,175,000. Weaver compiled over one million votes. Thus, Cleveland joined Andrew Jackson and, later, Franklin D. Roosevelt as the only American presidents to achieve a popular plurality of votes in three consecutive elections (despite Cleveland's loss in the 1888 election, he had a popular plurality of votes).

Amassing 277 electoral votes to Harrison's 145 and Weaver's 22, Stephen Grover Cleveland became -- again -- the President of the United States.

To see the text of Grover Cleveland's Second Inaugural Address, click here.

To see a short bibliography of sources used in compiling this entry, click here.

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