Browsing the official White House website, which gives background on all U.S. presidents, we spotted a bit of wisdom from one of our less prominent commanders in chief, Democrat Grover Cleveland, who served from 1885-89 and 1893-97.
The website noted that President Cleveland vetoed a bill that would have spent taxpayer dollars to distribute seed to Texas farmers who were suffering through a drought.
His defense of that veto clearly spells out the constitutional and moral reasons for limiting the power of the federal government.
President Cleveland wrote, “I can find no warrant for such an 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 … .
“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.”
President Cleveland did not veto the seed bill out of any personal animosity toward farmers. Rather, he understood that it is not Washington’s job to ride to the rescue in the midst of every trouble that may confront individual Americans or groups of Americans. The Constitution just does not give that role to the federal government.
It is a pity that more elected officials in Washington today do not seem to understand that.