Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 - June 24, 1908), the twenty-second and twenty-fourth President of the United States, was the only President to serve non-consecutive terms. He was defeated for reelection in 1888 by Benjamin Harrison, against whom he ran again in 1892 and won a second term.He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era of Republican political domination that lasted from 1860 to 1912. Cleveland's admirers praise him for his honesty, independence, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism.
As a leader of the Bourbon Democrats, he opposed imperialism, taxes, corruption, patronage, subsidies and inflationary policies.
Some of Cleveland's actions were controversial with political factions. Such criticisms include: his intervention in the Pullman Strike of 1894 in order to keep the railroads moving (a move that angered labor unions), his support of the gold standard and opposition to free silver, which alienated the agrarian wing of the Democrats. Furthermore, critics complained that he had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic disasters - depressions and strikes - in his second term. He lost control of his party to the agrarians and silverites in 1896, and thus his political career was over. He passed away in 1908, the first president to reach into the twentieth century.