On July 7th, 1893, Dan Lamont sent a telegram to Walter Gresham, the Secretary of State.

It read, The President is laid up with rheumatism in his knee and foot, but will be out in a day or two, no occasion for any uneasiness.

Lamont was the Secretary of War to President Grover, Cleveland, as well as a close friend,

and the telegram was a lie. Doctors had discovered a cancerous

tumor in Cleveland's mouth and news that the president of the United States

was suffering from cancer would have caused a panic.

And to avoid alarming the public, Cleveland and his aides decided that the President's

tumor would be removed in secret on a yacht owned by Cleveland's friend Benedict Elias.

Everyone in on the secret would pretend that Cleveland would, as he had done many times before,

board a yacht called the Oneida in order to sail from New York City to his

summer home in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. And so on July 1st, 1893, a

surgical team sworn to secrecy operated on President Cleveland who sat nearly

naked on a chair that had been tied to the mast in the yacht's small dark

saloon. There was no operating table. At 1.14 that afternoon,

surgeons began to remove the tumor from the nearly 300 pound patient who sat upright during the 90 minute surgery.

As far as most Americans were concerned, the president was enjoying a nice summer boat ride

with friends.

And that included the vice president, Adelaide Stevenson.

Never before had an American president submitted to such a major operation under

anesthesia.

Doctors removed not only the tumor from Cleveland's mouth, but also part of

his left jaw, his upper palate, and five teeth. Cleveland healed remarkably well and would go on to serve his second non-consecutive term in office.

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