This Day In History August 1

Historical Events & Manuscripts on August 1

August 1, 1881

The dog days of summer are here: so warmed up, and slowed down, that even Congress has stopped doing nothing…

Frances Folsom Cleveland, circa 1886. Library of Congress.
August 1, 1885

Of course it was a huge secret: everyone remembers it. The girl was 21, the President 49; almost no one in the White House had an inkling. In Washington, no one knew a thing – but enough suspected, sooner or later, it was always a possibility: women hadn’t exactly been scarce in his background. In fact, running for president, the first time, there was an absolute media riot about his intimacy with a woman to whom he was not wed. Anyone who lived through it, would never forget. But not all presidential intrigues end in scandal, for as this letter from President Cleveland to his half-his-age secret fiancée attests, his led to the altar



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