The 1888 presidential campaign was characterized mainly by arguments over the tariff. High tariff duties had been the norm since the Civil War and Republicans had little desire to lower them--in the pre-income tax days, they were the Federal government's largest source of revenue and as the Federal government of the 19th century was comparatively tiny against its modern equivalent, tariffs brought in far more money than could be spent. The Treasury was running an alarming budget surplus by the time Grover Cleveland was president. To try and rectify this issue, Cleveland fell back on the traditional Democrat plank of lower tariffs, which was popular with the agrarian South and West. In his State of the Union message in December 1887, he outlined his proposal for tariff reduction. With the upcoming election in mind, Cleveland remarked "What's the use of running if you don't stand for something?"High tariffs caused equally high prices for the American consumer and the old argument that they also led to higher wages for the American worker no longer won many adherents. Although Democrats were worried that Cleveland's tariff plan was a bad idea, they renominated him at their convention in St. Louis in June as there were no other viable candidates to replace him with. The Republican convention, held in Chicago a week later, nominated Indiana governor and Civil War officer Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison.
The general campaign was mainly wangling over tariffs and some further probing of Cleveland's personal life. Coming into the White House a bachelor, he had married Frances Folsom, his beautiful 21 year old ward, and GOP propaganda made the absurd accusation that he had beaten her in drunken fits. In addition, the GOP played up Harrison's war service against Cleveland's non-service. The Irish-American bloc came into play once again when the British ambassador to the US unwisely remarked that Cleveland's free trade plan would be most excellent for London. Out of fear that he would be seen as a British lackey and lose the critical Irish vote, Cleveland was forced to recall the ambassador. Vast amounts of Republican "soap" (bribe money) was dumped into Indiana and other key swing states.On Election Day, Harrison pulled through with 233 electoral votes to Cleveland's 168, but the latter got 90,000 more popular votes. This was the first presidential election since the modern two party system was born in 1828 that the winner failed to get the popular vote. Cleveland was also the first president since Martin Van Buren to lose his reelection bid.
>>18361456>>18361462I hate that retard Cleveland and his high tariffs i hope he never go back into power !
The South was generally pro-free trade although it did have certain lobbying groups especially Louisiana sugar planters and Florida citrus growers who favored tariffs.
>lose Presidency even though you won the election>win the next one anyway, unprecedented comeback>it's a poison chalice that destroys your party for a generation even though your opponent would have done the same thingGod cursed Grover Cleveland so He could destroy the Bourbon Democrats and make way for His chosen agent Bryan
>>18361505>>lose Presidency even though you won the electionHe did not win the election.
>>18361505Winning the election means winning the electoral vote.
>>18361505Bryan gave the nomination to Wilson in 1912, screw him.
I forgot how biased these get after the Civil War
>>18361918>I forgotHow? This sperg has been recycling them for almost 5 years
>>18361918>I forgot how biased these get after the Civil Warsay what?
The coin act of 1874 is what ruined america. Tariffs couldn't patch that system.
>>18361993that was when Congress suspended minting of silver dollars because silver mining companies were miffed that the government wasn't paying them sufficient prices so they quit selling them silver. bimetallism was abandoned and many critics called it "The Crime of '73." later in the decade new silver deposits were discovered and silver dollars were revived in 1878.
It's interesting how much of contemporary chudonomics is relitigating the controversies of this era even though so little about the present resembles this time
>>18362041lol as if anyone is gonna support trump's tariffs after he's gone
>>18362391Gold buggery and anti immigration are also notable features of the Gilded Age GOP that have flourished over the last decade
>>18362589yeah but instead of irish and italians or scandinavians you get indians, mexicans and negros
>>18362041Modern politics are so different from 1880s and the two parties so removed from their present incarnations that comparisons are simply an asspull that don't work.
>>18362589Anti-immigration sentiments of that age led to the 1924 immigration act so hopefully you're right :-)
>>18362041there are even /pol/shits calling for the return of black lynchings
>>18362965Nah, lynchings suck as a status quo. TND is much more profound than that.
>>18362965That's not interesting. What's interesting is that they combine that with McKinleynomics which is both not an obviously natural combination and not a politically or substantively obvious combination of policies itself
>>18362980It makes perfect sense when you understand the friend/enemy distinction, but that's associated with a heckin' nazi so you refuse to even analyze it.
The progressive reformers of that era were, notably, families like the Roosevelts who constituted the "old" elite class of antebellum days, one-time Federalist families who felt their place had been usurped by the noveau rich that emerged in the post-1865 years and sought to knock them down a peg or two.
