Is Donald Trump Channeling His Inner Grover Cleveland?
"It's deja vu all over again!" --Yogi Berra
There is talk that President Trump soon may send a federal presence to Chicago.
That’s precisely what Grover Cleveland did in 1894: he dispatched troops to Chicago to quell a railroad strike.
“A federal injunction having been issued, President Cleveland could now treat the strike and boycott as a federal issue, and he ordered troops into Chicago on July 3. ...Cleveland continued to send troops, even though the state militia seemed quite capable of handling the situation.” (1)
Illinois governor JB Pritzker has – dare I say? – railed against the present prospects. So is he unwittingly channeling his inner J.P. Altgeld?
“(Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld) was outraged and immediately wired the president (Cleveland), saying, “Surely the facts have not been correctly presented to you in this case, or you would not have taken the step, for it seems to me unjustifiable.” (1)
The so-called Pullman Strike turned violent.
“On July 6 some 6,000 rioters destroyed hundreds of railcars in the South Chicago Panhandle yards (of the Pullman Company). By that time, there were some 6,000 federal and state troops, 3,100 police, and 5,000 deputy marshals in the city, but they could not contain the violence. On July 7 national guardsmen, after having been assaulted, fired into a mob, killing between 4 and 30 people and wounding many others.” (1)
“Congress supported Cleveland’s use of troops, and the mainstream press, in Chicago and elsewhere, turned against...labor in general.” (1)
Anyone for a dollop of irony? Today is August 29, 2025; Labor Day is but three days away.
“Amid the crisis, on June 28 Pres. Grover Cleveland and Congress created a national holiday, Labor Day, as a conciliatory gesture toward the American (labor) movement.” (1)
I’ll close with this as a coda:
"I believe a rich plunderer like Pullman is a greater felon than a poor thief, and it has become no small part of the duty of this organization to strip the mask of hypocrisy from the pretended philanthropist and show him to the world as an oppressor of labor...The paternalism of the Pullman is the same as the interest of a slaveholder in his human chattels. You are striking to avert slavery and degradation." Eugene V. Debs, President of the American Railway Union, speech of May 16, 1894 (2)
National Guard troops at the Hotel Florence in Pullman, 1894. Photo credit: Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Sources:
(1) https://www.britannica.com/event/Pullman-Strike
(2) https://www.nps.gov/pull/learn/historyculture/the-strike-of-1894.htm
Background:
https://www.history.com/articles/labor-day-pullman-railway-strike-origins
https://www.nps.gov/pull/learn/historyculture/the-strike-of-1894.htm
https://www.library.illinois.edu/idhh-highlights/index.php/2019/09/12/honoring-labor-remembering-the-pullman-strike-and-boycott/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike
Visit the Pullman National Historic Park: https://www.nps.gov/pull/index.htm