How Integrity And Restraint Made Cleveland One Of America’s Greatest Presidents

Most Americans today do not know much about Grover Cleveland. The fact that he was the only president to serve two discontinuous terms (1885–89 and 1893–97) has reduced him to an answer in trivia games. In this new biography of Cleveland, “A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland,” author Troy Senik makes a persuasive argument that Cleveland was one of America’s greatest presidents — and it’s worth remembering and appreciating the traits that made him great.

Cleveland’s life was a typical self-made American success story. He was born in a modest family in New Jersey and was the fifth of nine children. His father was a small-town minister and died of illness when Grover Cleveland was only 16 years old. After his father’s death and his older brothers joined the U.S. military, Cleveland became the sole breadwinner for his large family. He forwent college and took on a series of jobs instead. Cleveland could have easily lived a troubled life as a poor and uneducated man. Fortunately, with the help of one of his wealthy acquaintances, Cleveland became a law clerk at a prominent law firm in one of the most prosperous cities in the United States: Buffalo, New York.

As Cleveland worked his way up in the law firm, he began to show interest in politics by joining the Democratic Party. His reputation of “indomitable industry, unpretentious courage, and unswerving honesty” quickly caught party elders’ attention. Cleveland was not a natural politician. He was not a great orator, didn’t like to speak in public, and hated to spend time campaigning. Yet he seemed to possess incredible political luck — moving from the mayor of Buffalo to the governor of New York and the president of the United States within three years. Author Senik attributed Cleveland’s elevation “from the obscurity of a Buffalo law office to the presidency of the United States on the basis of one principle: integrity.” Cleveland’s political career peaked at a time when the public was sick of the corruption of both political parties. 

Cleveland was a firm believer in a limited government and the U.S. Constitution and saw himself as a fiduciary. His entire political career was guided by one principle: “Government exists to protect the welfare of the people as a whole. And any preference government sows to one individual over another is to be regarded as per se suspicious.”  

As a president, Cleveland was best known for issuing vetoes. In his first term, he issued 414 vetoes, “more than double the number of vetoes issued by all previous presidents combined.” He never hesitated to veto legislation that he viewed as exceeding constitutional limits, even if these bills were supported by his party or popular with the general public. 

One of his most famous vetoes was in 1887 against the Texas Seed Bill, which would appropriate $10,000 to allow the federal government to purchase seed grain and distribute it to Texas farmers who suffered from drought. In his message explaining the veto,

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