THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1888

By Edward Stanwood.

ALTHOUGH Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President of the United States, was a great-grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a grandson of William Henry (Tippecanoe) Harrison, ninth President, he was not regarded so highly as was Blaine as a Presidential possibility, on the eve of the Republican National Convention of 1888. In fact, the Republican nomination would have gone to Blaine had he not positively declared his unwillingness to accept it. Consequently the Convention, held in Chicago, nominated Harrison on the eighth ballot, and he defeated Grover Cleveland in a vigorous campaign.

His administration was characterized by a firm defense of American interests in foreign affairs and a general promotion of industry and of governmental effectiveness.

This account is taken from Stanwood's authoritative "History of Presidential Elections," by permission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Company.

SIX months before the meeting of the nominating conventions it seemed to be certain that the Presidential contest of 1888 would be between the same candidates who had been pitted against each other in 1884 Cleveland and Blaine. The President made no public manifestation of his wish to be nominated for reelection, but it was not necessary that he should do so. It appeared to be the well-nigh universal wish of his party that he should be again the leader of their forces, and he was understood to be entirely willing to accept the position.

On the other hand, the desire of the Republicans that Blaine should head the ticket once more found overwhelming expression among them. The unanimity of the sentiment was surprising. It is probably safe to say that had the delegates to the Convention been elected in December, 1887, there would not have been chosen a dozen in all the country who would have preferred any other candidate to Blaine. Great, therefore, was the confusion into which the party was thrown by the withdrawal of Blaine from the contest. On January 25, 1888, he addressed, from Florence, Italy, a letter to the chairman of the Republican National Committee, in which, on account of "considerations entirely personal to myself," he announced that his name would not be presented to the National Convention. At the same time he congratulated the party upon its cheering prospects, foretold that the tariff was to be the great issue of the canvass, and expressed confidence that the result could not be in doubt. Republicans were dismayed by this letter, for while they all agreed that it was a genuine and sincere refusal to accept the nomination, yet many of his friends, in the earnestness of their wish that he should be again the candidate, persuaded themselves that he would accept the mandate of the party if it were to be expressed with great unanimity. But while these excessively zealous champions persisted in their purpose to choose and send to the Convention delegates who were for Blaine, "first, last, and all the time," the acceptance of his withdrawal as a finality by the party at large resulted in the coming forward of many candidates. The unwillingness of Blaine's most ardent friends to give up the hope of nominating him placed that gentleman in a position of embarrassment from which he extricated himself by a second letter, dated at Paris, May 17, in which he reiterated that he "could not accept the nomination without leaving in the minds of thousands (friends of other candidates) the impression that I had not been free from indirection, and therefore I cannot accept it at all."

Two conventions were held simultaneously in Cincinnati beginning on the 15th of May. These conventions were held by two factions of the Labor party, known respectively as the "Union Labor" and the "United Labor" parties.

The National Prohibition party began its convention at Indianapolis on May 20. The gathering was a large one. It was estimated that there were at least four thousand members of the party in attendance on the convention, besides the delegates. Nearly all the States were represented and the committees on credentials reported that there were one thousand and twenty-nine delegates present.

The Democrats assembled in National Convention at St. Louis on the 5th of June. Notwithstanding the certainty of Cleveland's nomination there was an enormous gathering of prominent members of the party from North and South.

For the first time since 1840, when Martin Van Buren was nominated for reelection by resolution, and not by the individual votes of delegates, there was no voting for a candidate for President. A motion was made and carried with great enthusiasm to place Grover Cleveland in nomination for a second term. The death of Vice-President Hendricks in the first year of his term had left the second place on the ticket open to a contest. Several candidates had appeared, but before the convention met the sentiment of the delegates was setting strongly in favor of Allan G. Thurman, of Ohio.

The Republican Convention was held at Chicago June 19. John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, was the temporary chairman, and M. M. Estes, of California, was the permanent president.

The withdrawal of Blaine, as had been explained, had left the field open for all contestants, and not only was there an unusually large number of "favorite sons," but several prominent gentlemen, who were not brought forward as candidates by the delegates representing the respective States of their residence, were mentioned as possible candidates in case the contest should be long and the difficulty of agreeing upon a nominee great. Pervading the Convention at all times, up to the moment that a nomination was effected, was a feeling that the name of Blaine might be presented in such a way, at a critical period, that the Convention would be carried away by an outburst of irrepressible enthusiasm, and that he would be summoned to lead the party again by a call so vociferous that he could not decline. Blaine gave no countenance or help to this movement. At the very opening of the Convention, having learned that some of his indiscreet friends were making unauthorized use of his name, and were assuming what he would do in certain contingencies, Blaine requested the London correspondent of the "New York Tribune" to say that all rumors "pretending to give letters or dispatches, from him or any of his party, touching political topics of any kind may be promptly discredited unless signed by Mr. Blaine himself," and, further, that he had written nothing concerning the Presidential nominations except the two published letters from Florence and Paris, and that he had held no correspondence of any kind with any one on political subjects. Even this did not prevent many men from thinking that the nomination of Blaine was the most probable outcome of the contest. Some of the delegates persisted in voting for him from first to last; and the Blaine stampede was the event which the whole country expected. But the fitting moment for it never came, and the judgment of the cooler members of the Convention was against it at all times, chiefly because they saw, what Blaine had said so clearly, that he could not honorably accept the nomination, even if it were to be thrust upon him.

The votes were divided among thirteen candidates, and even on the fourth trial the number had been reduced only to ten.

The session of the Convention was one of the longest in the history of the country. It began on June 19. The platform was adopted on the 21st. Two votes for Presidential candidate were taken on the 22d, three on the 23d, and three on the 25th (the 24th was Sunday). The history of former Conventions was repeated; the leading candidate did not greatly increase his vote, and a concentration took place gradually upon one who had at the beginning a small but a compact and aggressive body of followers. General Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, was nominated upon the eighth vote. . . . Levi P. Morton, of New York, was nominated for Vice-President on the first vote.

The joint committee for counting the votes was held in the hall of the House of Representatives February 13, 1889. The proceedings were devoid of striking incident. . . . When the vote for Indiana was reported, the vote of the President-elect's own State, there was applause, which was quickly suppressed. Mr. Manderson, the first of the Senate tellers, reported the state of the vote in detail, and in a summary; the presiding officer repeated the summary, and added a formula, drawn from the law, that this announcement of the state of the vote "is, by law, a sufficient declaration" that Benjamin Harrison, of the State of Indiana, had been elected President, and Levi P. Morton, of the State of New York, Vice-President, for the ensuing term.