September 23, 2025
Grover Cleveland
Class Description
Until Lincoln’s election in 1860, America was a Jeffersonian Republic. But after Lincoln’s counter-revolution, which remade the Union, Jeffersonian political thought fell by the wayside.
In the 1880s and 1890s Jeffersonian political thought made a brief comeback with Grover Cleveland, who tried to return the country to the Age of Jefferson. Yet Cleveland would be the last of these Jeffersonian political fathers and the last president to uphold these traditional American values.
As a mayor, governor, and president, Cleveland remained steadfast and committed to upholding Jeffersonian ideals at all costs. The Issues he faced as a public servant are relevant to the present day: public character and behavior of our candidates, the role of government in the everyday lives of the people, the burden of taxation, the distribution of wealth, government involvement in an economic depression, monetary policy, and complex foreign affairs.
By studying Cleveland’s policies and ideals, we can relearn those forgotten lessons of ancient times and restore the American republic of republics.
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Speaker Bio
Ryan Walters originally from Ellisville, Mississippi, the “capital” of the famous “Free State of Jones,” and is an independent historian who currently teaches American history at Collin College in North Texas.
He is the author of the The Last Jeffersonian: Grover Cleveland, The Path to Restoring the Republic, Remember Mississippi: How Chris McDaniel Exposed the GOP Establishment and Started a Revolution, Grover Cleveland: The Last Jeffersonian President, Apollo 1: The Tragedy That Put us on The Moon, and The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding.
He has appeared on CSpan, Breitbart Radio, the Dennis Prager Show, the Tom Woods Show, the Mark Davis Show, The History Unplugged Podcast, and many others. He has written for Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com, AntiWaracom,Mises.org, Confederate Veteran Magazine, Chronicles Magazine, Fee.org, and the Abbeville Institute, and he has spoken at numerous venues, including the Abbeville Institute Summer School and The Ludwig von Mises Institute.