1888 United States presidential election

Presidential electoral votes by state.

The U.S. presidential election of 1888 was held on November 6, 1888. Incumbent President Grover Cleveland received the greatest number of popular votes, but Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison's 233 electoral votes topped Cleveland's 168 to win the election. This marked the first time since the controversial election of 1876 that a President-elect failed to win the popular vote, a feat that would not be repeated until at least 1960 and possibly not until 2000.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Indiana's Benjamin Harrison won nomination receiving 544 delegate votes, defeating John Sherman (who received 249 delegates), Russell A. Alger (142) and Walter Q. Gresham (123). New York politician and financier Levi Morton was the party's Vice Presidential choice, receiving 592 delegate votes to beat William Walter Phelps (119 delegates) and William O. Bradley (103).

Democratic Party nomination

Grover Cleveland was unanimously renominated for President at the Democratic National Convention in Saint Louis. Ohio's Allen G. Thurman was chosen as the party's Vice Presidential nominee by a large margin, garnering 684 delegate votes to Isaac P. Gray's 101 and John C. Black's 36.

Other nominations

The Prohibition Party ticket of Clinton B. Fisk and John Brooks captured nearly a quarter million popular votes as the prohibition movement gained steam. Another group, the Union Labor Party, was formed with Alson J. Streeter as their nominee. The Union Labor Party garnered nearly 150,000 popular votes, but failed to gain widespread national support.

General election

Campaign

Cleveland set the main issue of the campaign when he proposed a dramatic reduction in tariffs in his annual message to Congress in December 1887.

Harrison was well funded by party activists and mounted an energetic campaign by the standards of the day, giving many speeches from his front porch in Indianapolis which were covered by the newspapers. Cleveland adhered to the tradition that presidential candidates did not campaign, and forbid his cabinet from campaigning as well, leaving his 75 year old vice presidential candidate Thurmond as the spearhead of his campaign.

Blocks of Five

William Wade Dudley (1842-1909), an Indianapolis lawyer, was a tireless campaigner, and prosecutor of Democratic election frauds. In 1888 Benjamin Harrison made Dudley Treasurer of the Republican National Committee. The campaign was the most intense in decades, with Indiana dead even. Although the National Committee had no business meddling in state politics, Dudley wrote a circular letter to Indiana's county chairmen, telling them to, "Divide the floaters into blocs of five, and put a trusted man with the necessary funds in charge of these five, and make them responsible that none get away and that all vote our ticket." Dudley promised adequate funding. His preemptive strike backfired when Democrats obtained the letter and distributed hundreds of thousands of copies in the last days of the campaign. Given Dudley's unsavory reputation, few people believed his denials. A few thousand "floaters" did exist in Indiana--men who would sell their vote for $2. They always divided 50-50 (or perhaps, $5000-$5000) and had no visible impact on the vote. The attack on "blocs of five" with the suggestion that pious General Harrison was trying to buy the election did enliven the Democratic campaign, and stimulated the nationwide movement to replace ballots printed and distributed by the parties with the secret Australian ballot.

The Murchison letter

A California Republican named George Osgoodby wrote a letter to Sir Lionel Sackville-West, the British ambassador to the United States, under the assumed named of "Charles F. Murchison". "Murchison" described himself as a former Englishman who was now a California citizen and asked how he should vote in the upcoming presidential election. Sir Lionel wrote back and indiscreetly suggested that Cleveland was probably the best man from the British point of view.

The Republicans published this letter just two weeks before the election, where it had an effect on Irish-American voters exactly comparable to the "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" blunder of the previous election: Cleveland lost New York state and the presidency. And Sackville-West was sacked as British ambassador.

Results

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Benjamin Harrison	Republican	Indiana	5,443,892	47.8%	233	Levi Parsons Morton	New York	233
Stephen Grover Cleveland	Democratic	New York	5,534,488	48.6%	168	Allen Granberry Thurman	Ohio	168
Clinton Bowen Fisk	Prohibition	New Jersey	249,819	2.2%	0	John Anderson Brooks	Missouri	0
Alson Jennes Streeter	Union Labor	Illinois	146,602	1.3%	0	Charles E. Cunningham	Arkansas	0
Alexander Stephens			8,519	0.1%	—	Other		—
Total			11,383,320	100%	401			401
Needed to win					201			201

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1888 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

See also

• American election campaigns in the 19th Century
• History of the United States (1865–1918)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• Third Party System

References

Primary sources

• Dawson, George Francis (1888). The Republican Campaign Text-book for 1888. New York: Brentano's.

Secondary sources

• James L Baumgarden, "The 1888 Presidential Election: How Corrupt?" Presidential Studies Quarterly 14 (Summer 1984): 416-27

• Jensen, Richard (1971). The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896.

• H. Wayne Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley: National Party

Politics, 1877-1896 (1969).

• Joanne R Reitano. The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate of 1888 1994
• Mark Wahlgren Summers. Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics (2004)

Web sites

• Shenkman, Rick (2004). "Who Played the First Dirty Tricks in American Presidential Politics?". History News Network. Retrieved April 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• 1888 popular vote by counties