Grover Cleveland was an honest and forthright president during a period marked by scandal and political patronage. His rapid political success was the result of his reputation as a reformer willing to oppose elites and special interest groups. He was not a great orator, but he had a strong moral code that was reflected in his public statements and papers. In foreign policy, Cleveland remained an anti-imperialist. His Fourth Annual Message to Congress explains the twenty-fourth U.S. president’s policy of nonintervention in the 1895 revolt against Spanish rule in Cuba. Intervention, he believed, would merely be an excuse to annex Cuba. He expressed his conviction that it was not proper for the United States to intervene but that future circumstances could compel the nation to take more forceful action—a statement seen as a warning to Spain.