This note on the back of the portrait was written just twelve days after her marriage to Grover.

 

Portrait of Cleveland and his second Cabinet.

A contemporary political cartoon titled “A Business Administration – No Time For Nonsense”.

This article, published in 1982, details Grover Cleveland’s brief bout of cancer, and the secret surgery that was undertaken to remove it. Cleveland and his doctors and staff kept the secret so well, full details weren’t known until 1950. In order to conduct the surgery, a visit to a friend’s yacht was planned, and doctors sneaked onboard in the middle of the night from small boats.

"…The result of all these examinations was best summed up by the reaction of Daniel S. Lamont, secretary of war and good friend of the president, 'My God, sir, I think the President is doomed!' Lamont then went to work planning the surgery.
    "When Grover Cleveland learned that he had cancer, he appeared less upset about the outcome than did the doctors who reported the grim news. The president’s greatest concern was that the public might find out. 'We cannot risk any leak that might touch off a panic,' he warned his jittery medical team. 'If a rumor gets around that I am ‘dying’ then the country is dead too. We must have secrecy.'”