Although Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote, Republican Benjamin Harrison won the election with a majority in the Electoral College. As Frances Cleveland left the White House, she told a staff member, "Now, Jerry, I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, for I want to find everything just as it is now, when we come back again." When asked when she would return, she responded, "We are coming back four years from today."

After his appointment as assistant postmaster general of the United States during Cleveland's first administration, Adlai Stevenson fired many Republican postal workers and replaced them with Southern Democrats. This earned him the enmity of the Republican-controlled Congress, but made him a favorite as Grover Cleveland's running mate, and in 1892, he became vice president of the United States.

On May 11, 1894, a strike began against the Pullman Company over low wages and twelve-hour workdays, and sympathy strikes, led by American Railway Union leader Eugene V. Debs, soon followed. By June 1894, 125,000 railroad workers were on strike, paralyzing the nation's commerce. Because the railroads carried the mail, and because several of the affected lines were in federal receivership, Cleveland obtained an injunction in federal court, and when the strikers refused to obey it, he sent federal troops into Chicago and 20 other rail centers.

Facing a Republican Senate, Cleveland resorted to using his veto powers far more than any prior president. In fact, he vetoed more bills in his two terms than all other presidents to that date combined--a total of 584 vetoes (including 238 pocket vetoes), seven of which were overridden by Congress.

When he discovered a tumor in his mouth, he underwent surgery to remove part of his jaw and hard palate. The size of the tumor and the extent of the operation left Cleveland's mouth disfigured, but he was later fitted with a hard rubber dental prosthesis that corrected his speech and restored his appearance.

No new states were admitted to the Union during Cleveland's first term. On February 22, 1889, 10 days before he left office, Congress passed the Enabling Act of 1889, authorizing North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington to form state governments and to gain admission to the Union. All four officially became states in November 1889, during the first year of Benjamin Harrison's administration. During Cleveland's second term, Congress passed an Enabling Act that permitted Utah to apply for statehood. Cleveland signed it on July 16, 1894, and Utah joined the Union as the 45th state on January 4, 1896.

Cleveland nominated 41 lower federal court judges in addition to his four Supreme Court justices.

In 1908, he suffered a heart attack and died on June 24 at age 71. His last words were, "I have tried so hard to do right."