Celebrate Grover Cleveland on Presidents Day



Today is Presidents Day, an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. It’s the best kind of American holiday: totally made-up! A day off work and school signifying nothing specific but encouraging shopping! Huzzah! USA! America!

This image (of George Washington, Abraham LIncoln and Grover Cleveland together as champions of America) is a perfect illustration of why we should remember and celebrate our Presidents. They aren’t all unthoughtful, selfish, corrupt, unAmerican liars fighting to destroy the rule of law and our Republic. For example: George saved us from monarchy; Abraham saved us from disunion (and slavery), and Grover was touted in this campaign poster as saving us from corruption. We could really use a president dedicated to saving us from corruption today.

When I was a kid (cue the nostalgic ‘’back in my day” theme music), America celebrated birthdays of the two presidents usually considered the Best Presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Back in the ‘60s, I’d never even heard of Grover Cleveland. (I’d never heard of Grover the blue Muppet, either, because well Seasame Street wasn’t yet on any maps.)

George Washington’s February 22nd birthday was first celebrated as a national holiday in 1885 (just weeks before President Grover Cleveland took the oath of office for the first time).  

Lincoln’s February 12th birthday was also celebrated in many places as a holiday, after his assassination. I believe seven states still take a day off on Lincon’s birthday: Kentucky (his birth state), Indiana (where he was raised), Illinois (his adopted home state), as well as Connecticut, New York, Ohio and Missouri. 

Fun Fact: The earliest known observance of Lincoln's birthday occurred in Grover Cleveland’s adopted town of Buffalo, NY, in 1873 or 1874 when Grover was active in city politics. Julius Francis, a Buffalo druggist, made it his life's mission to honor Lincoln and he repeatedly petitioned the U.S. Congress to establish Feb. 12 as a legal holiday.

As a first grader back in ‘68, I remember walking into Miss Dehay’s classroom at Village Elmentary School on Yulupa Avenue in Santa Rosa, California, and making construction paper cut-out silhouette artworks of both Lincoln and Washington on birthdays in February. George’s wavy powered wig. Lincon’s big top hat. Black paper cutout pasted to white paper. They hung on the wall above the chalkboard for a week or two, then we got to take them home, probably after George’s birthday. Later that year, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King would both be assassinated, just like Lincoln a hundred years earlier, for trying to form a more perfect union.

Then: FakeControversy! Someone decided it would be better to combine the birthdays and the new made-up presidential birthday holiday became popularly known as Presidents Day starting in 1971. Abe’s and George’s birthday holidays were combined and moved to the third Monday of February as part of the federal Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

So, we got a day off work and school to celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, but in true American fashion, never on their actual birthdays. 

Presidents Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents, past and present. So it’s definitely an excuse for me to celebrate Grover Cleveland.

Well, actually, Presidents Day is now popularly viewed as a day to get discounts on last season’s cars, linens, towels and sheets and other leftover, over-stocked mass produced items in the late-winter lull after the big Christmas season sales volume! But since Grover was also popular with the Wall Street corporate types for his defense of the Gold Standard and busting of unions, I suppose the capitalist version of President’s Day is just as good of an excuse to celebrate Average Grover Cleveland too. 

 In this blog, we’ll likely come back to other Actual Grover “holidays” that should be celebrated, including his birthday (March 18), his White House Wedding (June 2) his two inaugurations, his three Election Day victories and, finally, the day he died (June 24).

Happy President’s Day! Enjoy your discount on various Presidents’ Day Sales! And maybe, in addition to George and Abe, think for a minute about our favorite Average President, too: Stephen Grover Cleveland.



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