Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland 1837–1908

Twenty-second and twenty-fourth president,1885–89 and 1893–97

Grover Cleveland’s election in 1884 made him the first Democratic president since the Civil War. His 414 vetoes during his first term set a record and established him as a strong president in an era otherwise dominated by Congress. In a more than symbolic assertion of executive power, Cleveland initiated the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act, which gave the Senate control over executive appointments. His foreign policy was also indicative of a strong presidency. He refused to acquiesce to demands by Americans in Hawaii to annex those islands, calling the U.S. military’s involvement in overthrowing its queen "an abuse of power." In 1895 he warned the British not to interfere in a boundary dispute involving Venezuela because the "United States is practically sovereign in the Western Hemisphere." Cleveland was the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms.

This is Eastman Johnson’s earliest image of Cleveland and was made while Cleveland was governor of New York.