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Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. In the years before his presidency, he served as a mayor and governor in New York state, winning fame as an anti-corruption crusader. Cleveland is the only president in U.S. history to serve non-consecutive presidential terms.[b] He won the popular vote in three presidential elections—1884, 1888, and 1892. Benjamin Harrison won the electoral college vote, and thus the presidency, in 1888. Cleveland was one of two Democrats elected president (followed by Woodrow Wilson in 1912) in an era when RSoon after taking office, Cleveland was faced with the task of filling all the government jobs for which the president had the power of appointment. These jobs were typically filled under the spoils system, but Cleveland announced that he would not fire any Republican who was doing his job well, and would not appoint anyone solely on the basis of party service.[110] He also used his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as many departments had become bloated with political time-servers.[111] Later in his term, as his fellow Democrats chafed at being excluded from the spoils, Cleveland began to replace more of the partisan Republican officeholders with Democrats;[112] this was especially the case with policymaking positions.[113] While some of his decisions were influenced by party concerns, more of Cleveland's appointments were decided by merit alone than was the case in his predecessors' administrations Republicans dominated the presidency between 1861 and 1933.
Cleveland also reformed other parts of the government. In 1887, he signed an act creating the Interstate Commerce Commission.[115] He and Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney undertook to modernize the navy and canceled construction contracts that had resulted in inferior ships