Politics as the Gilding Crumbles

In truth, it was not because of Russell A. Alger, or any activities carried out by him or his supporters, as his opponents claimed. It was not because of John Sherman, or Benjamin Harrison, or devious Southern Democrats as Alger's supporters claimed. And it was not due to Grover Cleveland being a good president, or the solid campaign work of Vice Presidential nominee Allen G. Thurman, or support for free trade and the gold standard. No, the truth of the matter was that the man who caused it was none of the above. Oh, some supporters of Alger pointed their fingers at him, but usually due to his lack of campaigning for the Republican nominee, or his giving credence to Sherman's claims, or him fighting Alger at the convention. In fact, in the last of their charges they were dead wrong: James G. Blaine did not ruin Alger by running against him. In fact, it was Blaine's failed run that gave Alger the nomination in the first place.

Many would regard the idea of Blaine not running as preposterous. After all, he had run three times before, winning the nomination once, and he would run one last time in 1892 afterwards. The man was clearly ambitious towards the presidency. Yet he was afraid in 1888, afraid that Cleveland could win reelection if the Republican convention was too full of strife. He strongly considered dropping out of the running, endorsing either Sherman or Harrison, or maybe letting his supporters choose between the two. Yet in the end, Blaine's ambition won through, and he decided to stay in the race all the way to the convention.

Had Blaine dropped out before the convention, his supporters probably would have gone to Sherman and Harrison, most likely letting one of the two accumulate enough support to win the nomination. However, by staying in the running, he took support away from both of them, leaving the convention deadlocked. As former Governor Russell Alger of Michigan accumulated the rest of the delegates, the Harrison-Blaine-Sherman block remained divided for ballot after ballot. When Harrison and Blaine did finally drop out, Sherman narrowly lost out on the next ballot to Alger. The Republican Party would nominate Alger for President, with Levi P. Morton of New York as his running mate.
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Russell A. Alger, the 1888 Republican Presidential Nominee

Alger/Morton was not a doomed ticket from the start by any means, even with the contentious convention. The Republican Party, with a good dose of party unity, could have beaten Cleveland. Yet as he sat back in his office in Ohio, Senator John Sherman angrily decided that the truth was more important than partisanship. He announced that Alger had robbed him of the nomination, that the Michigan governor had bribed southern delegates pledged to the Ohioan senator. Harrison and Blaine could have stepped in and spoken for party unity, yet both remained silent. This added one more issue in the campaign, an issue which worked in Cleveland's favor. Had the fight been on free trade and the gold standard alone, with hints of Prohibition and Mormon prejudice, Alger might have won.

Alger swore to the grave that the Southern delegates who admitted to having taken bribes had, in truth, been bribed by Democrats. Their finances were indeed shady, and it is quite possible that the Democrats gave them some money to confess. Whether their confessions were valid or not, no one will ever know. But with the headlines shouting about the bribery case, the publication of the Murchinson letter, which portrayed Cleveland as being favored by the British, was buried in the back pages. A more prominent letter could have lowered Cleveland's margins amongst the Irish.

When the newspapers proclaimed the results of the election a few days later, Cleveland and his friends lifted their glasses of Bourbon in a toast to the American people.

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Grover Cleveland/Allen Thurman: 5,828,271 votes (51.2%), 276 Electoral Votes

Russell Alger/Levi Morton:
5,145,270 votes (45.2%), 125 Electoral Votes


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Negative coattails from Alger's defeat certainly hurt the Republican Party in the 1888 congressional elections. Furthermore, the attempts by his supporters to claim that the real reason for Southern delegates switching their votes was that black Republicans simply preferred Union veterans allowed Southern Democrats to paint a picture of Alger being "the black man's candidate", losing the Republicans their few votes amongst white Southerners. Grover Cleveland's second term would begin with the Democratic Party having a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives, and, thanks to Vice President Thurman, a narrow majority in the United States Senate.

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Allen G. Thurman of Ohio, 22nd Vice President of the United States, cast the tiebreaker vote in many partisan votes in the US Senate

Despite the Democratic Majority, Grover Cleveland was still forced into using his power of veto. Once again, Congress attempted to pass a law that attempted to expand the pensions of civil war veterans to noncombatants and veterans' children, and once again Cleveland vetoed the law, which died as its supporters could not gain the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Cleveland's veto. The President had less luck vetoing the antitrust act, which received massive bipartisan support and was passed into law by a margin well over two-thirds.

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John Sherman, Writer of the Sherman Antitrust Act

Cleveland knew that allowing the new states of Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, and the two Dakotas (which some Democrats thought were only divided by Republicans wanting extra senate seats) would probably give the Republican Party a majority in congress. Knowing that the Democratic Party would probably lose congress in the midterms anyways, Cleveland decided not to block the admission of the new states, but to delay them for a couple years until he had most of his agenda pushed through the Democratic congress. Western farmers, both in the to-be-admitted states, other territories, and already admitted states, were enraged by Cleveland's actions, and would curse both him and the Democratic Party for years. The Republicans, already dominant in these states, did receive a boost in support; however, the growing Farmers' Alliances, and various other new political groups rising out of the collapse of the Greenbacks, also experienced a surge in popularity.


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A symbol of the Farmers' Alliance

Cleveland managed to accomplish minor civil service reforms and preserve the Gold Standard (through the help of the many Gold Republicans). However, as promised in his campaign, the main issue of his presidency would be tariff reductions, which would prove to be the defining battle of the 51st Congress...
 
This is what happens when I start a timeline the last weekend of summer before school. I have plans for this to get updated eventually.
 

katchen

Banned
The Democrats are in a position to insist upon fewer, bigger Western states. One State of Dakota, for instance, instead of North Dakota and South Dakota. Utah, more likely to vote Democrat, admitted with Southern Idaho. Maybe Wyoming extends north to the Canadian border. Washington admitted with Northern Idaho and possibly mountainous Montana. New Mexico Territory (or Arizona and New Mexico ) admitted in 1890 instead of 1912 OTL, offsetting the Republican northern plains states as a price of their admittance. The Republicans don't have the statehood issue all their way ITTL. Thus, three Republican states. Three Democratic states admitted in 1890.
 
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