Grover Cleveland, I

Abstract

Cleveland had no military service, and thus broke the pattern of electing Civil War generals. He was a reformer, an advocate of clean government, and was not overly partisan. As the first Democratic president since the war, he favored the South, which contained his party’s base. He maintained Jacksonian small-government attitudes, however unsatisfactory they had become, and believed government assistance to citizens to be improper, even in natural disasters. He was a strong president who succeeded in securing complete repeal of the Tenure of Office Act. Despite his orientation toward business, he was concerned about its power and thus signed the Interstate Commerce Act. His term strengthened both the federal government in general, and the presidency in particular.