Buffalo State College:

Buffalo NY

01 December, 2021

12:13 PM

Description

Press release from Buffalo State College: David A. Carson November 30, 2021 The political and personal connections between Governor/President Grover Cleveland and Buffalo Evening News founder Edward Hubert Butler provide the story line of the Cleveland-Butler papers, which are part of the Archives and Special Collections in SUNY Buffalo State College's E. H. Butler Library. Butler Library, which was named for E. H. Butler in 1950, has in its archives 10 letters that Cleveland wrote to Butler between 1884, when Cleveland was governor of New York, and 1886, when he was president. The letters focus primarily on the presidential election of 1884 and the scandals that plagued Cleveland and his Republican opponent, James G. Blaine. Blaine had been tied to corruption in politics and business for years. Cleveland was in the middle of his own scandal after a Buffalo minister alleged that Cleveland was paying child support to Maria Crofts Halpin for a child that Cleveland fathered out of wedlock. (Halpin supported the allegations and Cleveland didn't deny them.) The letters Cleveland wrote to Butler reveal a man who was sickened by the scandal but was determined to ride it out by simply not commenting on it publicly. He was successful and was elected in 1884 and again in 1892. But the letters also reveal a personal connection between Cleveland and Butler. Cleveland interrupted his campaign to extend his sympathies and support for Butler's sister, who was gravely ill. And Cleveland also expressed his deep concern for the city of Buffalo after a "terrific storm" left many of its citizens homeless and destitute in the fall of 1886. This collection is important because of the Buffalo relationships and because of the connections both men had with Buffalo State. The letters can be found through the Digital Commons or through the Buffalo State library. About E. H. Butler and the Butler Family Papers Butler Library's Archives and Special Collections houses the Butler Family Papers—250 liner feet of personal correspondence and papers, photographs, and business records spanning from 1880 to 1956. The Cleveland-Butler letters are part of that collection. For more than a century, the Butler family played a prominent role in national, state, and local business, politics, and cultural affairs. Edward Hubert Butler Sr. founded the Buffalo Evening News (then the Buffalo Sunday News) in 1873 and served as its editor and publisher until his death in 1914. His son, Edward H. Butler Jr., published the paper until his death in 1956, and Edward Jr.'s widow, Kate Robinson Butler, ran the paper until she died in 1974. New Buffalo Normal School Replaces Outgrown Original Buffalo Normal School Held Opening Ceremony 150 Years Ago Today Transforming Lives for 150 Years: Memoir of a 1914 Graduate Pomp, Pageantry Seize the Day in 1869 Normal School Cornerstone Laying This press release was produced by Buffalo State College. The views expressed here are the author's own.