After one of the dirtiest presidential election campaigns in U.S. history, Grover Cleveland’s victory in 1884 broke the Republicans’ twenty-four-year hold on the presidency, and Cleveland became known for his exceptional integrity.
The 1884 presidential election, which pitted Republican James G. Blaine against Democrat Grover Cleveland, was one of the dirtiest in U.S. history. The parties were evenly split as far as voter loyalties were concerned, so the race turned on the personal characters of the two major party nominees. The presidential election was won by Cleveland, a former mayor of Buffalo, New York, and the governor of New York. He was the first successful Democratic candidate for the presidency in twenty-four years. However, the voting was so close that a shift of six hundred votes in a single state would have reversed the outcome. During a time of electoral stalemate between the parties, narrow margins in the popular vote were typical. Public excitement in the campaign ran high, and spectacular episodes swayed the electorate throughout the campaign.
When the Republicans met in Chicago to nominate their candidate on June 3, 1884, the front-runner was the most popular figure of his time: James G. Blaine of Maine. The incumbent president, Chester A. Arthur
Blaine’s nomination was relatively easy. He was selected on the fourth ballot, and John A. Logan
Democratic Party campaign poster for Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks.
A month after the Republican convention, the Democratic Party met in Chicago. Sensing a victory after long years in the political wilderness, the Democrats had a fresh face in Grover Cleveland, who had gained a reputation in New York as a foe of corrupt politics and an enemy of an activist government. He had quarreled with the New York City political machine, Tammany Hall
The campaign that followed quickly became dirty. In July, news broke that Cleveland had been involved with a woman named Maria Halpin and that he might be the father of her illegitimate son. The story was true. Cleveland accepted responsibility for the child and paid for his upbringing. Republicans tried to capitalize on the episode in their political rallies. Marchers strode behind baby carriages and chanted, “Ma! Ma! Where’s My Pa?” Cleveland responded to the allegations by urging his supporters to tell the truth. By admitting what had happened right away, Cleveland defused the scandal.
Meanwhile, the Democrats charged Blaine with corruption concerning the Mulligan letters, and further revelations during the campaign added to the force of the allegations. In the giant rallies that they staged, the Democrats shouted together as they walked through the streets of towns and cities:
Burn this letter!
The overall electoral picture in 1884 gave the edge to the Democrats. Their base in the South was so solid that they had to win fewer northern states than the Republicans did. The economy had slipped into a mild recession that favored the party out of power. Because the Republicans had been in power so long, accumulated grievances against the federal government worked against them. As a result of the defection of the mugwumps, many of the newspapers and magazines in the East that ordinarily would have favored the Republican candidate were in the Democratic camp.
In response, the Republicans looked to capitalize on perceived areas of Democratic weakness. Cleveland did not enjoy much support from labor. Accordingly, the Republicans provided money for the Greenback-Labor Party
A source of worry for the Republicans was the Prohibition Party
Blaine became the central focus of the campaign. He wanted to make the protective tariff
To overcome these obstacles, Blaine decided to embark on a personal campaign swing. Although he was not the first presidential candidate to try this technique, it was an innovation for a major party candidate to woo the electorate directly. Democrats charged that Blaine was lowering the tone of the race for the White House. On the whole, the experiment was successful. Blaine drew large and enthusiastic crowds. The Republicans seemed to be ahead when they carried Maine and Vermont in September, and Ohio went Republican in October. (At that time, not all states voted for the president on the same days.)
The key state was New York, which Blaine had to carry to win. With reports coming in that the Democrats might win, Blaine decided to include New York on his speaking schedule. At the end of October, he spent a week in a determined effort to cover the vast expanses of the Empire State. He arrived in New York City on October 28 in a condition of near exhaustion.
On October 29, Blaine met with several hundred Protestant clergymen in his hotel lobby. When the designated speaker was delayed, the group called upon a Presbyterian minister named Samuel D. Burchard
Burchard’s statement caused an uproar, because it attacked Roman Catholicism
Election day on November 4 brought further problems for Blaine. In upstate New York, heavy rains kept Republican voters at home in an area where Blaine needed a big turnout. It was soon apparent that the election would be very close. Cleveland carried the Democratic South, and Blaine ran strongly in the Midwest. The key state was New York, whose returns trickled in slowly over several days. In the end, Cleveland won New York by a scant 1,149 votes. The Prohibition ticket had received 25,000 votes, the majority of which would have gone to Blaine under normal circumstances.
Cleveland won the 36 electoral votes of New York, and his total of 219 put him into the White House. Blaine’s total was 182 electoral votes. The popular vote was also close. Cleveland’s majority was less than 25,000 ballots. After the election, and in historical accounts since 1884, the episode involving the Reverend Burchard
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Crapol, Edward P. James G. Blaine: Architect of Empire. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2000. Biography of Blaine that pays special attention to his tenure as secretary of state, including his relations with Latin America and his attempts to upgrade the merchant marine and U.S. Navy. -
Gould, Lewis L. “1884.” In Running for President: The Candidates and Their Images, edited by Arthur Schlesinger et al. Vol. 1. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Brief account of the 1884 election that incorporates updated historical scholarship about the outcome of the Blaine-Cleveland race. -
Graff, Henry F. Grover Cleveland. New York: Times Books, 2002. Solid contribution to a series of brief presidential biographies. Graff depicts Cleveland as a decisive president, a man of action and uncompromising integrity. -
Jeffers, H. Paul. An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland. New York: William Morrow, 2000. Jeffers portrays Cleveland as a staunch reformer, a man of high moral character and courage who restored dignity to the presidency. -
Keller, Morton. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977. Useful for understanding how the Blaine-Cleveland contest grew out of the political culture of the late nineteenth century. -
McGerr, Michael. The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865-1928. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Discusses the 1884 election in the context of evolving campaign styles and methods of getting voters to the polls. -
Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1969. Readable, thorough account that places the 1884 election in the context of the battle between the Republicans and Democrats to secure a national majority. -
Welch, Richard. The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1988. Discusses how the election of 1884 brought Cleveland to national power and considers the political appeal that twice took him to the White House.
Twelfth Amendment Is Ratified
Birth of the Republican Party
Hayes Becomes President
Pendleton Act Reforms the Federal Civil Service
Birth of the People’s Party
McKinley Is Elected President
Chester A. Arthur; James G. Blaine; Grover Cleveland; Carl Schurz.