Presidential Problems

Grover Cleveland came to politics not as a war hero, (like Garfield and Grant before him), but as a reformer. Cleveland worked as a lawyer to support his mother and sisters, and decided to hire a substitute to replace him for Civil War army service. This decision, though politically costly, didn't prevent a meteoric rise in politics based on a reform background several years later - beginning in 1881 with Cleveland's election to the Buffalo mayoralty, and culminating in his twice being elected to the presidency in 1884 and 1892.