(1885-1889); (1893-1897)

Wife - Frances Folsom (1864-1947)

Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks (1885-1889)

Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson (1893-1897)

In the administration of a government pledged to do equal and exact justice to all men there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the protection of the freedmen in their rights or their security in the enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution and its amendments. All discussion as to their fitness for the place accorded to them as American citizens is idle and unprofitable except as it suggests the necessity for their improvement.

-- March 4, 1885

Cleveland was among a number of Presidents with no military service -- others include John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and William J. Clinton. During the Civil War Grover Cleveland paid a substitute to take his place in the military. This was perfectly legal at the time and widely done. His brothers were in the military and he was the only son at home.

Presidential Fact Sheet