The Gilded Age: The election of 1884

 

The Presidential campaign of 1884 is one of the most remembered in American History.  The Republican nominee was James G. Blaine.  He was christened with the nick name "Plumed Knight," but unhappy Republican reformers saw Blaine as a symbol of corruption.  These unhappy Republicans decided that they would bolt their own party and support a Democrat, as long as he was an honorable and decent man.  The man Grover Cleveland seemed to fit their qualifications.  He had started out as sheriff of Erie County.  Whilst there, he personally hung two murders, "to spare the sensitivities of his subordinates." (Digital History, The Election of 1884.) Cleveland was known as the "veto" Mayor of Buffalo for rejecting Political Graft.

Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine

As Governor, Grover Cleveland refused to be associated with Tammany Hall.

Tammany Hall, 1884.

The Republicans attacked Cleveland, waving the "bloody flag" because Cleveland had hired a substitute to take his place in the Civil War.  The Democrats fought back, however, attacking Blaine by publishing letters from a Boston bookkeeper, stating that Blaine had personally benefited from helping a railroad keep a land grant. Democrats would chant: 

"Blaine! Blaine! James G. Blaine!  The Continental Liar from the State of Maine!"

Then, the newspaper threw Cleveland a hard ball. The headline, "A Terrible Tale," caught many an eye, but it was the story beneath it that had made their eyes pop.  The newspaper conveyed the Grover Cleveland had a child out of wedlock.  The Republicans charged that Grover Cleveland had put the mother in the Insane Asylum, and had put the child in an orphanage. The Republicans would chant: "Ma, Ma, where's my pa?"  The Democrats would reply:  "Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!"  

Despite this, Blaine lost the popular vote anyway.  The phrase "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" had caused him to lose New York by 1,149 votes.  Although Cleveland had won by Popular vote, he lost the electoral vote to Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1888.

Benjamin Harrison.

Grover Cleveland was reelected in 1892, all thanks to a Third party movement: The Populists. But his second term was ruined by the economic depression of the mid 1890's.

In the end, Grover Cleveland's policies were repudiated by his own party. 

(Digital History, The Election Of 1884.)