A sensitive man is not happy as President. It is fight, fight, fight all the time. I looked forward to the close of my term as a happy release from c… - Grover Cleveland
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A sensitive man is not happy as President. It is fight, fight, fight all the time. I looked forward to the close of my term as a happy release from care. But I am not sure I wasn't more unhappy out of office than in. A term in the presidency accustoms a man to great duties. He gets used to handling tremendous enterprises, to organizing forces that may affect at once and directly the welfare of the world. After the long exercise of power, the ordinary affairs of life seem petty and commonplace. An ex-President practicing law or going into business is like a locomotive hauling a delivery wagon. He has lost his sense of proportion. The concerns of other people and even his own affairs seem too small to be worth bothering about.
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About
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (18 March 1837 – 24 June 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. He was one of only two presidents (along with Donald Trump) to be to serve nonconsecutive terms and to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents. He was the winner of the popular vote for president three times (in 1884, 1888, and 1892) and was one of the three Democrats (with Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson) to serve as president during the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Unknown author or not provided (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Birth Name:
Stephen Grover Cleveland
Alternative Names:
Grover Cleveland Jr.
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Stephen Grover Cleveland Jr.
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S. Grover Cleveland
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Stephen G. Cleveland
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President Cleveland
When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government.
Interest yourself in public affairs as a duty of citizenship, but do not surrender your faith to those who discredit and debase politics by scoffing at sentiment and principle, and whose political activity consists in attempts to gain popular support by cunning devices and shrewd manipulation.
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I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan, as proposed by this bill, to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose. I can find no warrant for that kind of appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people. The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.
