Grover Cleveland

Twenty-second president, 1885–1889

Twenty-fourth president, 1893–1897

The first president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, Grover Cleveland vetoed more legislation in his first four years—414 bills—than any prior president. In his rejection of a bill providing seeds to drought-stricken farmers, he explained, “I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering.” Cleveland argued that it was better for Americans to come to the aid of their fellow citizens than for the government to provide such assistance.

Cleveland lost his 1888 reelection bid to Benjamin Harrison but defeated him four years later and returned to the White House. Shortly before his second inauguration, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad experienced financial collapse, ...