ELECTION #25, 1884. The NASTY-METER goes up to 8..

QUOTE from President Chester Arthur while speaking to a temperance reformer: "Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damn business."

Chester Arthur became president in 1881 when Garfield was assassinated after only three months in office. He was a pretty decent president but not good enough for some of the Republican kingmakers in his party.

The CANDIDATES in 1884.

REPUBLICAN: JAMES G. BLAINE.

James Blaine really wanted to be president. He finally got his turn in 1884. This eloguent Maine-born former Speaker of the House, senator, and secretary of state under Garfield inspired deliriums of passion in his rabid supporters - they were known as "Blainiacs." They dubbed him the "Plumed Knight" for his courage and integrity, but many in the know thought that he was on the take. It was a bad sign that the man he picked for his VP was Illinois Senator John Logan, who was suspected of corruption and known as "Black Jack."

DEMOCRAT: GROVER CLEVELAND.

Grover Cleveland was the former assistant district attorney and sheriff in Erie County, mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York. He had proved himself to be a tough crime fighter, prosecuting corruption unmercifully. He targeted politicians from both parties and consistently vetoed bills as both mayor and governor that favored politicians or the undeserving. He got the reputation for being honest - so honest that he was known as "ugly honest." For his VP he chose Hoosier Thomas Hendricks, Tilden's running mate in 1876, this move helped Indiana go for Cleveland in November.

The CAMPAIGN in 1884.

The campaign was ugly and nasty. At the Republican convention in June of 1884 the chaplain prayed that "the coming political campaign be conducted with the decency, intelligence, patriotism and dignity of temper which becomes a free and intelligent people." This was a total JOKE.
Several leading Republicans bolted from the Republican Party, including Mark Twain and the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. They were called Mugwumps by their enemies. The mugwumps reviled Blaine for curruption and for being under the thumb of Republican bosses. Blaine's dealings with the railroads (who pushed as much money into Washington as Wall street and defense contractors do today) were particular suspect. The Democrats discovered a letter that Blaine had written to a Boston railroad attorney. In the letter it looked like Blaine had been complicit in some shady business dealings. It didn't help that he signed off by saying "Burn this letter." The Democrats jumped on this by saying, "Burn this letter! Burn this letter!" and "Blaine, Blaine. James G. Blaine, the Continental liar from the state of Maine."
The Republicans had their own juicy comeback when it was published in the Buffalo Evening Telegraph newspaper that Grover Cleveland (a bachelor) had fathered a child with a 36 year old widow in 1874, ten years before the election. The Republicans went wild over this revelation by proclaiming, "The issue is evidently not between two great parties, but between the brothel and the family...between lust and law." and "We do not believe that the American people will knowingly elect to the Presidency a coarse debaucher who will bring his harlots with him to Washington." They called Cleveland a "lecherous beast, a moral leper, and an obese nincompoop." (He weighed about 250 pounds.) The Republicans now had their own chant, "Ma! Ma! Where's my Pa?"
But Cleveland played it smart and defused the Republican slam. He was an honest man and acknowledged he was supporting the chid (a boy that was now ten years old and had been adopted) and refused to say anymore about it. (Cleveland said privately that he questioned whether he really was the father.) The widow, (the mother), refused to give any interviews, and Cleveland's honesty helpd him get through the storm. Most Americans then as now-were more forgiving of lechery than hypocrisy.

The WINNER was GROVER CLEVELAND and he became the 22nd president of the U.S.

Cleveland got 4,874,621 popular votes and 219 electoral.
Blaine got 4,848,936 popular and 182 electoral.

There are two main reasons Blaine lost the election. The first one happened in New York on October 29, 1884, a few days before the vote. Blaine was at a breakfast meeting when a Presbyterian minister gave a speech before Blaine gave his. The minister said the Democrats were a party of "rum, Romanism, and rebellion," essentially slurring them as Irish Catholic drunks. I guess Blaine wasn't listening and when he got up to talk he didn't denounce the words of the minister. A Democrat at the meeting wrote down the words of the minister and raced down to party headquarters. They immediately printed thousands of handbills describing Blaine as a "Catholic-hater." In a city of Irish Catholic working-class immigrants, it did not sit well.
The second thing happened on the same day at an evening dinner at Delmonicos, a very high class restaurant in New York City. In attendance were Republican tycoons Jay Gould, John Jacob Astor, and Cyrus W. Field. The next day the headlines read, "The Royal Feast of Blaine and the Money Kings."
These two things caused Blaine to lose New York by only 1,149 votes. Blaine later said, "Had it not been for 'an ass in the shape of a preacher' I would have won New York and become president of the U.S."

With Cleveland winning his supporters could now gleefully shout to the Republicans, "Ma! Ma! Where's my pa?" "Gone to the White House! Ha! Ha! Ha!"