(HOST) Recent events in the presidential campaign have reminded teacher and historian Vic Henningsen that, in politics, some things just don’t change.
(Henningsen) Does this sound familiar? A governor of New York consorting with a prostitute; a candidate damaged by a minister’s intemperate words; a presidential campaign in a dead heat.
Yes, 1884 was an exciting year.
Democrats nominated New York Governor Grover Cleveland, known as "Grover the Good" for his reform measures. Republicans chose Maine Congressman James G. Blaine, called "The Plumed Knight" for his regal bearing and shock of white hair.
Blaine’s questionable ties to big business outraged liberals, who bolted the party to support the Democratic candidate. Many prominent Republicans refused to campaign for Blaine and even loyalists wavered. Queried about his allegiance, one Senator assured a reporter: "I’m a Republican still . . . very still."
But division within the G.O.P. took a back seat to the sensational revelation that Cleveland had enjoyed a long-standing relationship with a well-known prostitute, one Maria Halpin of Buffalo, and had fathered an illegitimate son. Cleveland directed his advisors to "tell the truth": yes, there had been a relationship; yes there was a child; and Cleveland was supporting both mother and son. Further investigation suggested that there were several candidates for the paternity of Halpin’s son but, as the others were all married men, bachelor Cleveland took responsibility.
Voters weren’t happy about their choice: Democrat Cleveland was publicly honest; privately dubious; Republican Blaine was privately above reproach, but his conduct in Congress placed him in the back pocket of the railroads and the trusts. Rallies echoed with competing cries of "Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?" and "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the Continental liar from the State of Maine."
By fall the contest was in a dead heat, which would be decided in favor of whoever won New York’s 36 electoral votes. Those votes, in turn, would be determined by New York City, where on October 29th, Blaine attended a prayer breakfast with several hundred pro-Republican Protestant clergymen. In his keynote speech, Rev. Samuel D. Burchard, denounced the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." It’s not clear Blaine heard those words. He didn’t refer to them in his own speech and waited three days before distancing himself from the minister.
By then it was much too late, for Rev. Burchard had stepped on not one but two third rails: the ethnic and religious tensions brought by immigration and the scars of the Civil War. His widely reported characterization of the Democrats as a collection of boozy, Roman Catholic immigrants and Confederate sore losers outraged the city’s large population of Irish Catholic Union veterans. They turned out en masse for Cleveland, who won the city – and thus the state and the country – by fewer than 2000 votes.
In the end, Democrats chanted triumphantly:
Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?
Gone to the White House.
Ha, Ha, Ha!
And Republican Blaine was heard to say that he’d have been president . . . "if Rev. Burchard had been a missionary in China."