Neptune's Needle

Twenty-second and twenty-fourth president of the United States.

Cleveland was the first Democrat to occupy the White House since James Buchanan left office in 1861. William C. Whitney was his secretary of the navy. A priority in his administration was correction of the mismanagement in the Navy Department, to which Congress had assigned the task of building a modern, steel-plated navy during the preceding Chester A. Arthur administration. Cleveland's support of this goal in his first and second administrations was critical to the American naval victory in the Spanish-American War.

The president turned down river and harbor appropriations. Cleveland surprised the country midway in his first term by launching a frontal attack on the tariff. Cleveland warned that "unnecessary taxation" imposed by existing customs duties were a "peril" to the nation.

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Compiler

Peter Richards