Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

In 1800s America the Republican Party split could have been much more dire. It seems,
from this little bit at least, they were more concerned with integrity than they are today.

"It’ll Do --- Impeachment did not prevail, but Trump still lost."

Grover Cleveland

president of United States

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Alternative Title: Stephen Grover Cleveland

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Thomas Nast cartoon picturing a Tammany Hall Tiger hampered by Grover Cleveland's
uncompromising honesty and independence from political bosses.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

In the 1884 presidential election .. https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1884 , the Democrats sought a candidate who would contrast sharply with Republican nominee James G. Blaine .. https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-G-Blaine , a longtime Washington insider whose reputation for dishonesty and financial impropriety prompted the Republican Mugwump .. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mugwump .. faction to bolt their party. Cleveland’s image was the opposite of Blaine’s, and he seemed likely to draw Mugwump votes to the Democratic ticket. As a result, Cleveland won the Democratic nomination with ease.

During the campaign, Cleveland’s image as the clean alternative to the supposedly sullied Blaine suffered serious damage when Republicans charged that the Democratic candidate had fathered a child out of wedlock some 10 years earlier. As Republicans joyously chortled, “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?,” Cleveland remained undaunted, and he instructed Democratic leaders to “tell the truth.” The truth, as Cleveland admitted, was that he had had an affair with the child’s mother, Maria Halpin, and had agreed to provide financial support when she named him as the father, though he was uncertain whether the child was really his. Meanwhile, Democrats, trying to contrast Cleveland’s reputation with Blaine’s, chanted “Blaine Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine!” Late in the campaign, Blaine experienced an embarrassment of his own, when a supporter at a rally in New York City described the Democrats as the party of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion”—a swipe at the city’s Irish Catholics, many of whom Blaine hoped to lure into his camp. Although Blaine was present when the fateful words were spoken, he did nothing to dissociate himself from the remark. The general election was determined by electoral votes from New York state, which Blaine lost to Cleveland by fewer than 1,200 votes.
Presidency

As president, Cleveland continued to act in the same negative capacity that had marked his tenures as mayor and governor. He nullified fraudulent grants to some 80 million acres (30 million hectares) of Western public lands and vetoed hundreds of pension bills that would have sent federal funds to undeserving Civil War veterans. Once again, Cleveland’s rejection of wasteful and corrupt measures endeared the president to citizens who admired his honesty and courage. He also received credit for two of the more significant measures enacted by the federal government in the 1880s: the Interstate Commerce Act (1887), which established the Interstate Commerce Commission, the first regulatory agency in the United States, and the Dawes General Allotment Act (1887), which redistributed Native American reservation land to individual tribe members.

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