Texas Seed was Unconstitutional

March 18 is a great day for birthdays.

Not only was John C. Calhoun born on that day, so was Grover Cleveland.

Most Americans don’t know anything about either man except the standard platitudes: racist, conservative, xenophobe, etc.

Or they might know Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as president. But that’s it.

Cleveland was a rock star of a president, a truly great conservative who understood his role and used his powers the way the founding generation intended.

Take for example his use of the veto. Cleveland vetoed more bills than any president before and, until Franklin Roosevelt assumed office, after.

But in contrast to Roosevelt who used it to guide legislation in his direction, Cleveland used it as a hammer to knock out unconstitutional bills.

Case in point, the Texas Seed Bill of 1887.

Cleveland had compassion for the poor Texas farmers devastated by a long term drought, but he vetoed a bill to provide $10,000 in relief because it was both unconstitutional and a poor use of federal taxpayer dollars.

Why? To paraphrase, it was not the job of the federal government to support the people.

Tell that to the 545 (with a few exceptions) tyrants in the federal government today.

Congress just passed the most expensive bill in American history, one that Cleveland would certainly have vetoed. But his view of government died out with the progressive movement and was buried under concrete like Jimmy Hoffa during the FDR administration and the “Second Bill of Rights” in 1945.

Cleveland promised to clean up corruption in Washington and to rein-in and out of control Congress. His results were mixed, but he can’t be blamed for not trying. The man was a veto machine. He was also booted out of office through voter fraud. 2016 wasn’t new in American history.

I discuss Cleveland’s veto in Episode 419 of The Brion McClanahan Show.