The contest of 1888 differed from the Cleveland contest of 1884 in its freedom from vituperation and bitterness. It was conducted with earnestness and dignity on both sides. Neither of the candidates greatly enthused the rank and file of their party, as did Blaine and Hancock in former national conflicts, but they commanded not only the entire confidence and respect of their parties, but also of the whole country. Cleveland took little personal part in the conflict, but Harrison made a most vigorous and telling campaign by his almost daily speeches delivered to visiting delegations at Indianapolis, in which he discussed every phase of the public questions of the day. These addresses were doubtless carefully prepared and given to the associated press, but they were not only very able, but they were singularly versatile and adroit, and presented Harrison to the public in an entirely new light. I cannot recall another Presidential contest that was conducted on both sides with greater dignity and decency than that between Cleveland and Harrison in 1888. Nearly equal respect was shown to both candidates in the Garfield-Hancock contest of 1880, but the famous forgery of the Morey letter to control the vote of the Pacific States against Garfield and the Credit Mobilier scandal marred the dignity of that conflict.
The following table exhibits the popular and electoral vote of 1888:
| STATES. | Popular Vote. | Electoral Vote. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. | Grover Cleveland, New York. | Clinton B. Fisk, New Jersey. | Alson J. Streeter, Illinois. | Harrison and Morton. | Cleveland and Thurman. | |
| Alabama | 56,197 | 117,320 | 583 | —— | — | 10 |
| Arkansas | 58,752 | 85,962 | 641 | 10,613 | — | 7 |
| California | 124,816 | 117,729 | 5,761 | —— | 8 | — |
| Colorado | 50,774 | 37,567 | 2,191 | 1,266 | 3 | — |
| Connecticut | 74,584 | 74,920 | 4,234 | 240 | — | 6 |
| Delaware | 12,973 | 16,414 | 400 | —— | — | 3 |
| Florida | 26,657 | 39,561 | 423 | —— | — | 4 |
| Georgia | 40,496 | 100,499 | 1,808 | 136 | — | 12 |
| Illinois | 370,473 | 348,278 | 21,695 | 7,090 | 22 | — |
| Indiana | 263,361 | 261,013 | 9,881 | 2,694 | 15 | — |
| Iowa | 211,598 | 179,887 | 3,550 | 9,105 | 13 | — |
| Kansas | 182,934 | 103,744 | 6,768 | 37,726 | 9 | — |
| Kentucky | 155,134 | 183,800 | 5,225 | 622 | — | 13 |
| Louisiana | 30,484 | 85,032 | 160 | 39 | — | 8 |
| Maine | 73,734 | 50,481 | 2,691 | 1,344 | 6 | — |
| Maryland | 99,986 | 106,168 | 4,767 | —— | — | 8 |
| Massachusetts | 183,892 | 151,856 | 8,701 | —— | 14 | — |
| Michigan | 236,370 | 213,459 | 20,942 | 4,541 | 13 | — |
| Minnesota | 142,492 | 104,385 | 15,311 | 1,094 | 7 | — |
| Mississippi | 30,096 | 85,471 | 218 | 22 | — | 9 |
| Missouri | 236,257 | 261,974 | 4,539 | 18,632 | — | 16 |
| Nebraska | 108,425 | 80,552 | 9,429 | 4,226 | 5 | — |
| Nevada | 7,229 | 5,362 | 41 | —— | 3 | — |
| New Hampshire | 45,728 | 43,458 | 1,593 | 13 | 4 | — |
| New Jersey | 144,344 | 151,493 | 7,904 | —— | — | 9 |
| New York | 648,759 | 635,757 | 30,231 | 626 | 36 | — |
| North Carolina | 134,784 | 147,902 | 2,787 | 32 | — | 11 |
| Ohio | 416,054 | 396,455 | 24,356 | 3,496 | 23 | — |
| Oregon | 33,291 | 26,522 | 1,677 | 363 | 3 | — |
| Pennsylvania | 526,091 | 446,633 | 20,947 | 3,873 | 30 | — |
| Rhode Island | 21,968 | 17,530 | 1,250 | 18 | 4 | — |
| South Carolina | 13,736 | 65,825 | —— | —— | — | 9 |
| Tennessee | 138,988 | 158,779 | 5,969 | 48 | — | 12 |
| Texas | 88,422 | 234,883 | 4,749 | 29,459 | — | 13 |
| Vermont | 45,192 | 16,785 | 1,460 | —— | 4 | — |
| Virginia | 150,438 | 151,977 | 1,678 | —— | — | 12 |
| West Virginia | 77,791 | 79,664 | 669 | 1,064 | — | 6 |
| Wisconsin | 176,553 | 155,232 | 14,277 | 8,552 | 11 | — |
| Totals | 5,439,853 | 5,540,329 | 249,506 | 146,935 | 233 | 168 |
Cleveland lost his election in 1888 by his message to Congress, delivered a year before, making the tariff and revenue question the sole issue before the country. His message referred to no other question than the issue of reduced revenues and taxes. I saw him on Saturday night before the meeting of Congress, and with Speaker Carlisle, who was to be re-elected to the Speakership on the following Monday, earnestly urged him to modify his message. Carlisle was quite as positive as I was in assuring him that it would result in disaster to himself and his administration. His answer was that possibly we were right, but that it was a duty that should be performed, and while he might fall, he believed the country would vindicate him at an early day. He was a man who gave very serious thought to his official duties, performed them with great fidelity, and when convinced as to his duty none could dissuade him from his purpose. But for that message he would certainly have been re-elected President in 1888.
Cleveland entered the Presidency enjoying the confidence and respect of the country in a much larger degree than is usually accorded to new Presidents. His record as Mayor of Buffalo, as Governor of New York, and his political and official utterances generally were all in the line of the purest and best politics, and the sturdiness with which he maintained his convictions even against all considerations of expediency compelled the respect alike of friend and foe. No more conscientious man ever filled the Executive chair of the nation, and I doubt whether any other President gave such tireless labor to the duties of the office. His Cabinet officers were simply advisory as to the direction of their departments, and every question of importance came to him for final decision. I think he was as nearly capable of giving up the Presidency to maintain his convictions as any man who ever filled the position.
He certainly knew when he sent his tariff message to Congress against the advice of nearly all of those upon whose political judgment he most depended, that he was inviting political disaster, and that he was inviting it when the Republican leaders freely confessed their inability to defeat his re-election. He had inspired the interest of the best political elements of the country by his courageous support of civil service reform, that was then in its infancy. He did it with the full knowledge that he had a party behind him that was most unwilling to surrender the spoils of power to any sentiment, however sacred. I met him very often during his first term, and was sometimes invited to come to the Executive Mansion after ten o’clock at night, when he would willingly converse until the small hours in the morning. These habits were improved when the beautiful and accomplished wife came as mistress to the White House, and it was delightful to see his ordinarily rather heavy face brighten when he spoke of the woman who had brought into his life a measure of happiness to which he had ever before been stranger. I met him frequently during the contest of 1888, and while he hoped that he might be re-elected he was not confident. I saw him soon after his defeat, and no man ever bore great political disaster with such serene philosophy. He knew that his tariff message had defeated him, but he said that he believed it better that he should be thus defeated than not to have faced the issue as he did.
In reviewing the contest, he said that he had but a single unpleasant memory of it and its results, and that was that the malicious scandals of some of his most unscrupulous foes relating to his domestic life had brought sorrow to the “dear little woman,” to use his own expression, who deserved the respect and protection of every one. Some of the desperate Tammany leaders had formulated the scandals against Cleveland’s domestic life, distributed them broadcast in a circular at the St. Louis convention, and there are always many whose political prejudices make them welcome and accept such assaults upon a political nominee. I was much with Cleveland during his first and second terms of the Presidency, and also during the interval, and a more affectionate and devoted husband I have never seen. He was not a man to exhibit the arts of the demagogue, for to them he was an entire stranger, but I saw him tell the story of his home life more eloquently than words could ever have given it, when, on the 4th of March, 1893, as he was about to leave the large parlor of the Arlington, crowded with his many friends, to go to the inauguration ceremony, he stepped up to his wife, gave her a hearty kiss and affectionately patted her on the head, as he bowed himself off to accept the highest civil trust of the world.
Greatly as Cleveland’s tariff message had obstructed his election, he would have succeeded but for the perfidy of Tammany. He carried the country by nearly 100,000 popular majority, being much larger than the popular majority he received in 1884, but the electoral vote of New York lost him the Presidency. The betrayal of Cleveland by Tammany was clearly evident by the returns of the election in that State. Cleveland was at the head of the Democratic ticket for President, and Governor Hill, the favorite of Tammany, was on the same ticket for Governor, and he was re-elected by a majority of 19,171, while Cleveland lost the State by a majority of 14,373. Tammany and Mr. Dana, of the Sun, that was then the Tammany organ, had their revenge.
THE CLEVELAND-HARRISON-WEAVER CONTEST
1892