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.
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.
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
