H. Paul Jeffers

An Honest President: the Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland H. Paul Jeffers Library, Unabridged Library edition

[Library Edition Audiobook CD in vinyl case.]

[Read by Raymond Todd]

Today, Grover Cleveland is chiefly known as the only president to have been elected to two non-consecutive terms. But in his day, Cleveland was a renowned reformer: an enemy of political machines who joined forces with Theodore Roosevelt to fight powerful party bosses, a moralist who vetoed bills he considered blatant raids on the Treasury, and a vigorous defender of the Monroe Doctrine who resisted American imperialism.

Cleveland's career in office was plagued by scandal and a gossip-mongering press. During his first presidential bid, he was persecuted for fathering a child out of wedlock, a charge Cleveland readily admitted. At the age of forty-nine, he married his twenty-one-year-old ward, though after the nation's initial surprise, she became the most popular first lady of her day.

On his deathbed, Cleveland would sum up his career simply: ''I have tried so hard to do right.''