# 693 - 1931 12c Cleveland, brown violet

Issue Date: August 25, 1931
First City: Washington, DC

 

 

Issued as the U.S. spiraled into the Great Depression, the beautifully engraved Series of 1926-31 captures the spirit of America – the wisdom of our greatest leaders, the power of the majestic Niagara Falls, and the romance of the Wild West.  This achievement is even more impressive when one considers the limitations the Bureau of Engraving and Printing worked with during the worldwide Depression. 

 

“This series of definitive stamps represents, if not perfection, then at least a high degree of achievement by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.” – Noted philatelic author Gary Griffith

 

The Series of 1926-31 features the historic designs and patriotic symbolism of the Series of 1922.  However, the new series was printed on a rotary intaglio press, saving time and money as it was printed in continuous rolls.   The rolls were then threaded into a perforator, pulled through the machine under high tension, and perforated horizontally and vertically in a single step.  A 10-gauge perforation had been the standard used to prevent the paper from tearing during production.   To overcome complaints that stamps perforated 10 gauge were hard to separate, a quantity of the 2¢ stamps (U.S. #634, the first Series of 1926-31 denomination to be issued) were given experimental perforations of 11 x 101/2. 

 

The experiment was a success – the stamps were sturdy enough to withstand the production process yet easy to separate for postal use.  The Bureau of Engraving and Printing applied the compound perforations to the entire Series of 1926-31.  In fact, the compound perforation stamps were so successful the format was used for the next 10 years, including the 1938 Presidential and 1954 Liberty Series.

 

Death Of President Grover Cleveland

Stephen Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, on March 18, 1837.  He was a distant relative of General Moses Cleveland, the namesake of Cleveland, Ohio.  The future president was named after the first pastor of his father’s church.  However, he preferred to go by his middle name of Grover later in life.

The Cleveland family moved to Fayetteville, New York, in 1841, where Grover spent much of his childhood.  After his father died, Grover left school to help support his family.  Grover later set out west, stopping in Buffalo, New York, where he worked as a clerk in his uncle’s office and was introduced to the influential law partners of Rogers, Bowen, and Rogers.  He then worked as a clerk in their office before being admitted to the bar in 1859.

A major stepping-stone on Cleveland’s path to the presidency came in 1881.  Up to that point, the Republican Buffalo government had grown increasingly corrupt. 

So the Democrats sought out the most honest candidate they could find – Grover Cleveland.  Cleveland won the election by more than 3,500 votes.  He spent much of his term as mayor battling the interests of party machines.  Cleveland frequently worked to protect public funds, building his reputation as an honest politician.

Two years later, Cleveland was a natural choice for the Democratic presidential candidate.  He won the election of 1884 by one-quarter of a percent of the popular vote, and with an electoral vote of 219 to 182.  When he delivered his inaugural address the following March, he did so without the use of notes, which no other President had done before.

Cleveland worked to reform other parts of the government, such as in 1887, when he signed the legislation establishing the Interstate Commerce Commission.  He also worked with the secretary of the Navy to modernize and cancel construction contracts that resulted in faulty ships.  Squaring off against the Republican Senate, Cleveland used his veto power a great deal more than any other president up to that time.  He vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for Civil War veterans, believing Congress should not override the Pension Bureau’s decision.

While Cleveland looked forward to the peace of private life, his young wife, Frances, instructed the staff to take good care of the furniture and decorations, “for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back again.”  When asked when they would return, she said, “four years from today.”  Little did President Cleveland know just how right she would be.

While Cleveland happily enjoyed private life in New York City, President Harrison’s administration passed the McKinley Tariff and Sherman Silver Purchase Act.  Cleveland saw both of these policies as dangerous for the nation’s economy.  While he initially decided not to speak out about his outrage, he later felt it was his duty to address these concerns.  Cleveland submitted an open “silver letter” to a meeting of reformers in New York.  This letter made Cleveland a national name once again, just as the 1892 election approached.  He went on to win that election, returning to the White House as his wife had foretold.

Next, Cleveland then turned his attention to reversing the McKinley tariff.  Though he considered the new Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act to be “a disgraceful product of the control of the Senate by trusts and business interests,” he still considered it an improvement over the McKinley Tariff and allowed it to become law.

After leaving the White House in 1897, Cleveland retired to his estate at Westfield Mansion in Princeton, New Jersey.  He served briefly as a trustee of Princeton University and consulted with President Theodore Roosevelt during his time in office.  After several years of poor health, Cleveland became seriously ill in 1907 and suffered a heart attack the following year, dying on June 24.  His final words were, “I have tried so hard to do right.”