Distribution of votes in the 1884 US presidential election

The 1884 US presidential election was contested by the Democratic Party's Grover Cleveland and the Republican Party's James G. Blaine. The election was the 25th presidential election in US presidency, and it is remembered for the personal attacks and allegations of corruption that took place during the campaign. Grover Cleveland was initially seen as a pure and noble candidate, earning the nickname "Grover the Good" during his tenure as Mayor of Buffalo and as Governor of New York. In July 1884, the Republican Party uncovered evidence of an illegitimate child fathered by Cleveland while he was working as a lawyer in Buffalo, and while Cleveland admitted to paying child support, he stated that the child's paternity had never been established. Shortly before the election, Blaine's campaign published an affidavit, supposedly from the mother of Cleveland's child, where she stated that Cleveland had raped her and had lied about the child in order to protect his career. Despite all of these allegations and rumors, Cleveland remained popular across the country.

Blaine's corruption

Cleveland's campaign was able to counter these allegations by highlighting his opponent's questionable past. James G. Blaine was one of the most influential figures in US politics in the late 1800s, however he already had a decade-long reputation of corruption, including public letters claiming that he sold his influence in Congress for more than 100,000 dollars, in return for giving land to railroad companies. In the week leading up to the election, Blaine attended a party where speakers openly spoke using anti-Catholic rhetoric, and Cleveland's campaign used this information to galvanize support among the large Irish and Catholic population in New York, which ultimately swung the election in his favor.

Results

As with many elections during this era, the popular vote was extremely close, with the candidates being split by just 0.2 percent of the vote (fewer than 26,000 votes). Cleveland emerged victorious, and was named the 22nd President of the United States, taking a 48.5 percent share of the popular vote and just under 55 percent of the electoral vote. While the two major candidates took almost 97 percent of the total votes, the majority of the remaining votes were split between John St. John of the Prohibition Party and Benjamin Butler of the Greenback Party, who each received roughly 1.5 percent of the remaining votes.