Description:

Cleveland Grover

4pp ALS on pistachio colored bifold paper with embossed "Indian Harbor, Greenwich, Connecticut, Telephone: 32" letterhead inscribed overall and signed by former U.S. President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) as "Grover Cleveland". In near fine condition with expected paper folds, each page measuring 4.5" x 6.875".


On October 24, 1901, Cleveland wrote John Sergeant Wise (1846-1913) from Indian Harbor, the shoreline Connecticut estate of his dear friend Commodore Elias Cornelius Benedict (1834-1920).


Cleveland wrote: "I am here for a few days trying to do something by way of diverting the thoughts of my old friend Commodore Benedict from the crushing affliction which has just undertaken him, in the death of his only son." Commodore Benedict's son Frederick Hart Benedict (1860-1901) had died in a motor vehicle accident near West Point, New York just five days earlier.


The ex-President continued: "Now for a suggestion: I had rather planned being with Commodore Benedict for a few days about the time you have fixed for your start for Cape Charles [around November 14, 1901]. I wish you could take us both and would allow us to enjoy your hospitality …  I wish we could hear from you frankly and without reservation very soon."


Cleveland hoped the trip would distract "an old friend in some affliction." But perhaps too Cleveland wanted to return Commodore Benedict's kindness. In 1893, Cleveland had convalesced aboard Benedict's 138-foot-long steam yacht Oneida after a secret surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his left jaw.


Elias Cornelius Benedict was a highly successful banker, stockbroker, and industrialist. He was an avid sportsman and Commodore of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Long Island. Benedict's 80-acre waterfront estate Indian Harbor near Greenwich, Connecticut featured a huge white stone Italianate mansion designed by architects Carrere & Hastings in 1895. He died here in 1920.


John Sergeant Wise served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The lawyer later served as a Virginia Congressman and wrote several books, notably his antebellum memoir The End of an Era (1899).


Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. President to have served non-consecutive presidential terms, the first between 1885 and 1889, and the second between 1893-1897. A Democrat, Cleveland first became involved in politics in his early 30s, while serving as Sheriff of Erie County, New York, Mayor of Buffalo, and later Governor of New York. Cleveland's administrations focused mainly on domestic issues, like corruption, the gold standard, tariff reform, and subduing labor unrest. After 1897, Cleveland retired to his estate Westland Mansion in Princeton, New Jersey.


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