1888 United States presidential election

The 1888 United States presidential election was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former Senator from Indiana, defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York. It was the third of five U.S. presidential elections (and second within 12 years) in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote.

1888 United States presidential election

November 6, 1888

401 members of the Electoral College
201 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout79.3%[1] 1.8 pp
 
Nominee Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Indiana New York
Running mate Levi P. Morton Allen G. Thurman
Electoral vote 233 168
States carried 20 18
Popular vote 5,443,892 5,534,488
Percentage 47.8% 48.6%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes those won by Harrison/Morton, blue denotes states won by Cleveland/Thurman. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election

Grover Cleveland
Democratic

Elected President

Benjamin Harrison
Republican

Cleveland, the first Democratic president since the American Civil War, was unanimously re-nominated at the 1888 Democratic National Convention. He was the first incumbent president to win re-nomination since Ulysses S. Grant was nominated to a second term in 1872. Harrison, the grandson of former President William Henry Harrison, emerged as the Republican nominee on the eighth ballot of the 1888 Republican National Convention. He defeated other prominent party leaders such as Senator John Sherman and former Governor Russell Alger.

Tariff policy was the principal issue in the election, as Cleveland had proposed a dramatic reduction in tariffs, arguing that high tariffs were unfair to consumers. Harrison took the side of industrialists and factory workers who wanted to keep tariffs high. Cleveland's opposition to Civil War pensions and inflated currency also made enemies among veterans and farmers. On the other hand, he held a strong hand in the South and border states, and appealed to former Republican Mugwumps.

Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote, but Harrison won the election with a majority in the Electoral College. Harrison swept almost the entire North and Midwest, and narrowly carried the swing states of New York and Indiana.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Republican Party (United States)
1888 Republican Party ticket
Benjamin Harrison Levi P. Morton
for President for Vice President
Former U.S. Senator
from Indiana
(1881–1887)
Former United States Ambassador to France
(1881–1885)
Campaign
Grover Cleveland-Benjamin Harrison presidential (1888) campaign poster about the trade policy of the two candidates. The map supports the work of the Harrison campaign.

The Republican candidates were former Senator Benjamin Harrison from Indiana; Senator John Sherman from Ohio; Russell A. Alger, the former governor of Michigan; Walter Q. Gresham from Indiana, the former Secretary of the Treasury; Senator William B. Allison from Iowa; and Chauncey Depew from New York, the president of the New York Central Railroad.

By the time Republicans met in Chicago on June 19–25, 1888, frontrunner James G. Blaine had withdrawn from the race because he believed that only a harmonious convention would produce a Republican candidate strong enough to upset incumbent President Cleveland. Blaine realized that the party was unlikely to choose him without a bitter struggle. After he withdrew, Blaine expressed confidence in both Benjamin Harrison and John Sherman. Harrison was nominated on the eighth ballot.

The Republicans chose Harrison because of his war record, his popularity with veterans, his ability to express the Republican Party's views, and the fact that he lived in the swing state of Indiana. The Republicans hoped to win Indiana's 15 electoral votes, which had gone to Cleveland in the previous presidential election. Levi P. Morton, a former New York City congressman and ambassador, was nominated for vice-president over William Walter Phelps, his nearest rival.

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic Party (United States)
1888 Democratic Party ticket
Grover Cleveland Allen G. Thurman
for President for Vice President
22nd
President of the United States
(1885–1889)
Former U.S. Senator from Ohio
(1869–1881)
Campaign

Democratic candidates:

The Democratic National Convention held in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 5–7, 1888, was harmonious. Incumbent President Cleveland was re-nominated unanimously without a formal ballot. This was the first time an incumbent Democratic president had been re-nominated since Martin Van Buren in 1840.

After Cleveland was re-nominated, Democrats had to choose a replacement for Thomas A. Hendricks. Hendricks ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1876, but won the office when he ran again with Cleveland in 1884. Hendricks served as vice-president for only eight months before he died in office on November 25, 1885. Former Senator Allen G. Thurman from Ohio was nominated for vice-president over Isaac P. Gray, his nearest rival, and John C. Black, who trailed behind. Gray lost the nomination to Thurman primarily because his enemies brought up his actions while a Republican.[2]

The Democratic platform largely confined itself to a defense of the Cleveland administration, supporting reduction in the tariff and taxes generally as well as statehood for the western territories.

Presidential Ballot
Unanimous
Grover Cleveland822
Vice Presidential Ballot
1stAcclamation
Allen G. Thurman684822
Isaac P. Gray101
John C. Black36
Blank1

Nominees

1888 Prohibition Party ticket
Clinton B. Fisk John A. Brooks
for President for Vice President
Brigadier General
from New Jersey
Pastor
from Missouri
Campaign

The 5th Prohibition Party National Convention assembled in Tomlinson Hall in Indianapolis, Indiana. There were 1,029 delegates from all but three states.[3]

Clinton B. Fisk was nominated for president unanimously. John A. Brooks was nominated for vice-president.[4]

Nominees

1888 Union Labor Party ticket
Alson Streeter Charles E. Cunningham
for President for Vice President
State Senator
from Illinois
Activist
from Arkansas
Campaign

The Union Labor Party National Convention assembled in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Union Labor Party had been formed in 1887 in Cincinnati.

The convention nominated Alson Streeter for president unanimously. Samuel Evans was nominated for Vice President but declined the nomination. Charles E. Cunningham was later selected as the vice-presidential candidate.

The Union Labor Party garnered nearly 150,000 popular votes, but failed to gain widespread national support. The party did, however, win two counties.

Presidential Ballot
Ballot1st
Alson Streeter220

Source: US President – UL Convention. Our Campaigns. (February 11, 2012).

United Labor Party nomination


The United Labor Party convention nominated Robert H. Cowdrey for president on the first ballot. W.H.T. Wakefield of Kansas was nominated for vice-president over Victor H. Wilder from New York by a margin of 50–12.[5]

Greenback Party

The Greenback Party was in decline throughout the entire Cleveland administration. In the election of 1884, the party failed to win any House seats outright, although they did win one seat in conjunction with Plains States Democrats (James B. Weaver) and a handful of other seats by endorsing the Democratic nominee. In the election of 1886, only two dozen Greenback candidates ran for the House, apart from another six who ran on fusion tickets. Again, Weaver was the party's only victor. Much of the Greenback news in early 1888 took place in Michigan, where the party remained active.

In early 1888, it was not clear if the Greenback Party would hold another national convention. The fourth Greenback Party National Convention assembled in Cincinnati on May 16, 1888. So few delegates attended that no actions were taken. On August 16, 1888, George O. Jones, chairman of the national committee, called a second session of the national convention. The second session of the national convention met in Cincinnati on September 12, 1888. Only seven delegates attended. Chairman Jones issued an address criticizing the two major parties, and the delegates made no nominations.

With the failure of the convention, the Greenback Party ceased to exist.[6]

American Party nomination

The American Party held its third and last National Convention in Grand Army Hall in Washington, DC. This was an Anti-Masonic party that ran under various party labels in the northern states.

When the convention assembled, there were 126 delegates; among them were 65 from New York and 15 from California. Delegates from the other states bolted the convention when it appeared that New York and California intended to vote together on all matters and control the convention. By the time the presidential balloting began, there were only 64 delegates present.

The convention nominated James L. Curtis from New York for president and James R. Greer from Tennessee for vice-president. Greer declined to run, so Peter D. Wigginton of California was chosen as his replacement.[7]

Equal Rights Party nomination

The second Equal Rights Party National Convention assembled in Des Moines, Iowa. At the convention, mail-in ballots were counted. The delegates cast 310 of their 350 ballots for the following ticket: Belva A. Lockwood for president and Alfred H. Love for vice-president.

Love was later replaced with Charles S. Wells NY.[8]

Industrial Reform Party nomination

The Industrial Reform Party National Convention assembled in Grand Army Hall, Washington, DC. There were 49 delegates present.

Albert Redstone won the endorsement of some leaders of the disintegrating Greenback Party. He told the Montgomery Advertiser that he would carry several states, including Alabama, New York, North Carolina, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.[9]

General election campaign

Issues

Tariff reform was the main issue of the election.

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. Cleveland contended that the tariff was unnecessarily high and that unnecessary taxation was unjust taxation. The Republicans responded that the high tariff would protect American industry from foreign competition and guarantee high wages, high profits, and high economic growth.

The argument between protectionists and free traders over the size of the tariff was an old one, stretching back to the Tariff of 1816. In practice, the tariff was practically meaningless on industrial products, since the United States was the low-cost producer in most areas (except woolens), and could not be undersold by the less efficient Europeans. Nevertheless, the tariff issue motivated both sides to a remarkable extent.

Besides the obvious economic dimensions, the tariff argument also possessed an ethnic dimension. At the time, the policy of free trade was most strongly promoted by the British Empire, and so any political candidate who ran on free trade instantly was under threat of being labelled pro-British and antagonistic to the Irish-American voting bloc. Cleveland neatly neutralized this threat by pursuing punitive action against Canada (which, although autonomous, was still part of the British Empire) in a fishing rights dispute.

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 that were covered by the newspapers. Cleveland adhered to the tradition of presidential candidates not campaigning, and forbade his cabinet from campaigning as well, leaving his 75-year-old vice-presidential candidate Thurman 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 Blocks 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 pre-emptive strike backfired when Democrats obtained the letter and distributed hundreds of thousands of copies nationwide 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, $5,000-$5,000) and had no visible impact on the vote. The attack on "blocks of five" with the suggestion that pious General Harrison was trying to buy the election did enliven the Democratic campaign, and it stimulated the nationwide movement to replace ballots printed and distributed by the parties with secret ballots.[10][11]

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 name of "Charles F. Murchison," describing 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 in the "Murchison letter" 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 and Indiana (and as a result, the presidency). Sackville-West was removed as British ambassador.[12]

Election results

Results by county indicating the percentage lead of each candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Cleveland (Democratic), shades of red are for Harrison (Republican), and shades of green are for Streeter (Union Labor).

The election focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Harrison's home state of Indiana.[13] Harrison and Cleveland split these four states, with Harrison winning by means of notoriously fraudulent balloting in New York and Indiana.[14][15]

Had Cleveland won his home state, he would have won the electoral vote by an electoral count of 204-197 (201 electoral votes were needed for victory in 1888). Instead, Cleveland became the third of only five candidates to obtain a plurality or majority of the popular vote but lose their respective presidential elections (Andrew Jackson in 1824, Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, Al Gore in 2000, and Hillary Clinton in 2016).

Cleveland bested Harrison in the popular vote by slightly more than ninety thousand votes (0.8%), aided by disenfranchisement of Republican blacks in the South. Harrison won the Electoral College by a 233-168 margin, largely by virtue of his 1.09% win in Cleveland's home state of New York.

Four states returned results where the winner won by less than 1 percent of the popular vote. Cleveland earned 24 of his electoral votes from states he won by less than one percent: Connecticut, Virginia, and West Virginia. Harrison earned fifteen of his electoral votes from a state he won by less than 1 percent: Indiana. Harrison won New York (36 electoral votes) by a margin of 1.09%. Despite the narrow margins in several states, only two states switched sides in comparison to Cleveland's first presidential election (New York and Indiana).

Of the 2,450 counties/independent cities making returns, Cleveland led in 1,290 (52.65%) while Harrison led in 1,157 (47.22%). Two counties (0.08%) recorded a Streeter plurality while one county (0.04%) in California split evenly between Cleveland and Harrison.

Upon leaving the White House at the end of her husband's first term, First Lady Frances Cleveland is reported to have told the White House staff to take care of the building since the Clevelands would be returning in four years. She proved correct, becoming the only First Lady to preside at two nonconsecutive administrations.

This was the last election in which the Republicans won Colorado and Nevada until 1904 and the last in which the Republicans won Kansas until 1900. It was also the last election until 1968 when bellwether Coös County, New Hampshire did not support the winning candidate.[16]

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 47.80% 233 Levi Parsons Morton New York 233
Stephen Grover Cleveland (Incumbent) Democratic New York 5,534,488 48.63% 168 Allen Granberry Thurman Ohio 168
Clinton Bowen Fisk Prohibition New Jersey 249,819 2.20% 0 John Anderson Brooks Missouri 0
Alson Jenness Streeter Union Labor Illinois 146,602 1.31% 0 Charles E. Cunningham Arkansas 0
Other 8,519 0.07% 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. Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005.

Popular vote
Cleveland
48.63%
Harrison
47.80%
Fisk
2.20%
Streeter
1.31%
Others
0.21%
Electoral vote
Harrison
58.10%
Cleveland
41.90%

Geography of results

Results by state

Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836–1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57.[17]

States/districts won by Cleveland/Thurman
States/districts won by Harrison/Morton
Grover Cleveland
Democratic
Benjamin Harrison
Republican
Clinton Fisk
Prohibition
Alson Streeter
Union Labor
Margin State Total
State electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % #
Alabama 10 117,314 67.00 10 57,177 32.66 - 594 0.34 - - - - -60,137 -34.35 175,085 AL
Arkansas 7 86,062 54.80 7 59,752 38.04 - 614 0.39 - 10,630 6.77 - -26,310 -16.75 157,058 AR
California 8 117,729 46.84 - 124,816 49.66 8 5,761 2.29 - - - - 7,087 2.82 251,339 CA
Colorado 3 37,549 40.84 - 50,772 55.22 3 2,182 2.37 - 1,266 1.38 - 13,223 14.38 91,946 CO
Connecticut 6 74,920 48.66 6 74,584 48.44 - 4,234 2.75 - 240 0.16 - -336 -0.22 153,978 CT
Delaware 3 16,414 55.15 3 12,950 43.51 - 399 1.34 - - - - -3,464 -11.64 29,764 DE
Florida 4 39,557 59.48 4 26,529 39.89 - 414 0.62 - - - - -13,028 -19.59 66,500 FL
Georgia 12 100,493 70.31 12 40,499 28.33 - 1,808 1.26 - 136 0.10 - -59,994 -41.97 142,936 GA
Illinois 22 348,351 46.58 - 370,475 49.54 22 21,703 2.90 - 7,134 0.95 - 22,124 2.96 747,813 IL
Indiana 15 261,013 48.61 - 263,361 49.05 15 9,881 1.84 - 2,694 0.50 - 2,348 0.44 536,949 IN
Iowa 13 179,877 44.51 - 211,603 52.36 13 3,550 0.88 - 9,105 2.25 - 31,726 7.85 404,135 IA
Kansas 9 102,745 31.03 - 182,904 55.23 9 6,779 2.05 - 37,788 11.41 - 80,159 24.21 331,149 KS
Kentucky 13 183,830 53.30 13 155,138 44.98 - 5,223 1.51 - 677 0.20 - -28,692 -8.32 344,868 KY
Louisiana 8 85,032 73.37 8 30,660 26.46 - 160 0.14 - 39 0.03 - -54,372 -46.92 115,891 LA
Maine 6 50,472 39.35 - 73,730 57.49 6 2,691 2.10 - 1,344 1.05 - 23,258 18.13 128,253 ME
Maryland 8 106,188 50.34 8 99,986 47.40 - 4,767 2.26 - - - - -6,202 -2.94 210,941 MD
Massachusetts 14 151,590 44.04 - 183,892 53.42 14 8,701 2.53 - - - - 32,302 9.38 344,243 MA
Michigan 13 213,469 44.91 - 236,387 49.73 13 20,945 4.41 - 4,555 0.96 - 22,918 4.82 475,356 MI
Minnesota 7 104,385 39.65 - 142,492 54.12 7 15,311 5.82 - 1,097 0.42 - 38,107 14.47 263,285 MN
Mississippi 9 85,451 73.80 9 30,095 25.99 - 240 0.21 - - - - -55,356 -47.81 115,786 MS
Missouri 16 261,943 50.24 16 236,252 45.31 - 4,539 0.87 - 18,626 3.57 - -25,691 -4.93 521,360 MO
Nebraska 5 80,552 39.75 - 108,425 53.51 5 9,429 4.65 - 4,226 2.09 - 27,873 13.76 202,632 NE
Nevada 3 5,149 41.94 - 7,088 57.73 3 41 0.33 - - - - 1,939 15.79 12,278 NV
New Hampshire 4 43,456 47.84 - 45,728 50.34 4 1,593 1.75 - - - - 2,272 2.50 90,835 NH
New Jersey 9 151,508 49.87 9 144,360 47.52 - 7,933 2.61 - - - - -7,148 -2.35 303,801 NJ
New York 36 635,965 48.19 - 650,338 49.28 36 30,231 2.29 - 627 0.05 - 14,373 1.09 1,319,748 NY
North Carolina 11 147,902 51.79 11 134,784 47.20 - 2,840 0.99 - - - - -13,118 -4.59 285,563 NC
Ohio 23 396,455 47.18 - 416,054 49.51 23 24,356 2.90 - 3,496 0.42 - 19,599 2.33 840,361 OH
Oregon 3 26,522 42.88 - 33,291 53.82 3 1,677 2.71 - - - - 6,769 10.94 61,853 OR
Pennsylvania 30 446,633 44.77 - 526,091 52.74 30 20,947 2.10 - 3,873 0.39 - 79,458 7.97 997,568 PA
Rhode Island 4 17,530 42.99 - 21,969 53.88 4 1,251 3.07 - 18 0.04 - 4,439 10.89 40,775 RI
South Carolina 9 65,824 82.28 9 13,736 17.17 - - - - - - - -52,088 -65.11 79,997 SC
Tennessee 12 158,699 52.26 12 138,978 45.76 - 5,969 1.97 - 48 0.02 - -19,721 -6.49 303,694 TN
Texas 13 234,883 65.70 13 88,422 24.73 - 4,749 1.33 - 29,459 8.24 - -146,461 -40.97 357,513 TX
Vermont 4 16,788 25.65 - 45,192 69.05 4 1,460 2.23 - 1,977 3.02 - 28,404 43.40 65,452 VT
Virginia 12 152,004 49.99 12 150,399 49.46 - 1,684 0.55 - - - - -1,605 -0.53 304,087 VA
West Virginia 6 78,677 49.35 6 78,171 49.03 - 1,084 0.68 - 1,508 0.95 - -506 -0.32 159,440 WV
Wisconsin 11 155,232 43.77 - 176,553 49.79 11 14,277 4.03 - 8,552 2.41 - 21,321 6.01 354,614 WI
TOTALS: 401 5,538,163 48.63 168 5,443,633 47.80 233 250,017 2.20 - 149,115 1.31 - -94,530 -0.83 11,388,846 US

Close states

Margin of victory less than 1% (39 electoral votes):

  1. Connecticut, 0.22%
  2. West Virginia, 0.32%
  3. Indiana, 0.44%
  4. Virginia, 0.53%

Margin of victory between 1% and 5% (150 electoral votes):

  1. New York, 1.09% (tipping point state)
  2. Ohio, 2.33%
  3. New Jersey, 2.35%
  4. New Hampshire, 2.50%
  5. California, 2.82%
  6. Maryland, 2.94%
  7. Illinois, 2.96%
  8. North Carolina, 4.59%
  9. Michigan, 4.82%
  10. Missouri, 4.93%

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (93 electoral votes):

  1. Wisconsin, 6.01%
  2. Tennessee, 6.49%
  3. Iowa, 7.85%
  4. Pennsylvania, 7.97%
  5. Kentucky, 8.32%
  6. Massachusetts, 9.38%
Business advertising card with an election theme

In 1968 the Michael P. Antoine Company produced the Walt Disney Company musical film The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band which centers around the election of 1888 and the annexing and subdividing of the Dakota Territory into states (which was a major issue of the election).

See also

Footnotes

  1. "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara.
  2. Jacob Piatt Dunn, George William Harrison Kemper, Indiana and Indianans (p. 724).
  3. Case, George (1889). "The Prohibition Party: Its Origin, Purpose and Growth". Magazine of Western History. V.9 1888/1889. 9: 707 via Hathi Trust.
  4. Haynes, Stan M. (November 24, 2015). President-Making in the Gilded Age: The Nominating Conventions of 1876-1900. McFarland. p. 157. ISBN 9781476663128.
  5. "US President UtL Convention Race – May 15, 1888". Our Campaigns. January 28, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  6. "US President GNB Convention Race – May 16, 1888". Our Campaigns. December 4, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  7. "US President Am Convention Race – Aug 14, 1888". Our Campaigns. January 28, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  8. "US President ER Convention Race – May 16, 1888". Our Campaigns. January 28, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  9. "US President IRf Convention Race – Feb 22, 1888". Our Campaigns. November 4, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  10. Jensen, Winning of the Midwest (1971) ch 1
  11. "The Vote That Failed". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  12. Charles S. Campbell, Jr. "The Dismissal of Lord Sackville." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44:4 (March 1958), pp. 635–648.
  13. Socolofsky & Spetter 1987, p. 10.
  14. Calhoun 2008, p. 43.
  15. Socolofsky & Spetter 1987, p. 13.
  16. The Political Graveyard; Coös County Votes for President
  17. "1888 Presidential General Election Data – National". Retrieved May 7, 2013.

References

Secondary sources

  • Baumgarden, James L. (Summer 1984). "The 1888 Presidential Election: How Corrupt?". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 14: 416–27.
  • Bourdon, Jeffrey Normand. "Trains, Canes, and Replica Log Cabins: Benjamin Harrison's 1888 Front-Porch Campaign for the Presidency." Indiana Magazine of History 110.3 (2014): 246-269. online
  • Calhoon, Robert M. (2010). "Gilded Age Statecraft". Reviews in American History. 38 (1): 99–103. doi:10.1353/rah.0.0172. JSTOR 40589751. S2CID 145017507.
  • Calhoun, Charles W. (2008). Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1596-4.
  • Gaines, Brian J. (March 2001). "Popular Myths about Popular Vote-Electoral College Splits". PS: Political Science and Politics. 34: 70–75. doi:10.1017/s1049096501000105.
  • Jensen, Richard (1971). The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-39825-0. online free
  • Morgan, H. Wayne (1969). From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-2136-1.
  • Nevins, Allan. Grover Cleveland: a study in courage (1933), the standard biography
  • Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. A History of the United States since the Civil War. Volume V, 1888–1901 (1937). pp 1–74.
  • Reitano, Joanne R. (1994). The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate of 1888. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01035-5.
  • Shenkman, Rick (2004). "Who Played the First Dirty Tricks in American Presidential Politics?". History News Network. Retrieved April 4, 2005.
  • Sievers, Harry. Benjamin Harrison: from the Civil War to the White House, 1865–1888 (1959), standard biography
  • Socolofsky, Homer E.; Spetter, Allan B. (1987). The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0320-6.
  • Summers, Mark Wahlgren (2004). Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2862-9. excerpt and text search

Primary sources

  • Dawson, George Francis (1888). The Republican Campaign Text-book for 1888. New York: Brentano's. Democratic campaign text Book.
  • The campaign text book of the Democratic party of the United States, for ...1888 (1888) full text online, the compilation of data, texts and political arguments used by stump speakers across the country
  • Cleveland, Grover. Letters and Addresses of Grover Cleveland (1909) online edition
  • Cleveland, Grover. The Letters of Grover Cleveland (1937), edited by Allan Nevins.
  • Harrison, Benjamin. Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President of the United States (1890), contains his 1888 campaign speeches full text online
  • Chester, Edward W A guide to political platforms (1977) online
  • Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840–1964 (1965) online 1840–1956
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