Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 179(specie). Two of the more important regional groups were the Southern
Alliance and the National Farmers’ Alliance of the Northwest.
But monopolies and trusts were not the only problem. Corruption
seemed to seep into every conceivable activity involving money, and it
took a variety of forms. Political machines in the cities chose candi-
dates for office who would perform as directed, and these machines
then rigged the elections. As more and more immigrants crowded into
the cities, they became easy targets not only for political bosses seeking
to build mass electorates, but also for industrial tycoons who operated
sweatshops and rarely paid a living wage.
In Congress there was continual disagreement over which issues and
reforms needed to be addressed, and which should take priority. At
first their main concerns involved hard money versus soft money, and
tariff protection. Among themselves, Democrats often divided over
tariff reform, most of them favoring a tariff for revenue, not for protec-
tion, but some, like those in Pennsylvania, argued in favor of protection.
The Republicans split over civil service reform, and the Mugwumps
took offense when the Republican National Convention nominated
Blaine for President in 1884 and John A. Logan of Illinois for Vice
President. The Mugwumps did not believe that Blaine would support
reform. Worse, he was tainted with corruption involving a railroad. So
they supported the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, a reform
mayor of Buffalo and former governor of New York, along with Thomas
A. Hendricks of Indiana. In a hotly contested campaign both candi-
dates were vilified: Blaine because he had allegedly lied about his in-
volvement in the railroad scandal—“Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine,
the Continental Liar from the State of Maine,” sang Democrats—and
Cleveland because he had allegedly fathered an illegitimate child: “Ma,
Ma, Where’s My Pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha,” laughed
the Republicans.
But what really damaged Blaine in this contest was a remark by the
Reverend Samuel D. Burchard that the Democratic Party was a party
of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” The remark was made in a New
York hotel room in Blaine’s presence, and he failed to disavow it. New
York ’s vast number of Irish-American Catholics took offense, and he
lost many pop ular votes. Cleveland won 219 electoral votes to Blaine’s
182 , becoming the fi rst Democratic President since James Buchanan.