mugwump

(noun)

A Republican political activist who bolted from the U.S. Republican Party by supporting Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland in the presidential election of 1884.

Related Terms

  • James G. Blaine
  • Grover Cleveland
  • Tariff Act of 1890

(noun)

An independent neutral politician, especially in reference to the 1884 U.S. presidential election.

Related Terms

  • James G. Blaine
  • Grover Cleveland
  • Tariff Act of 1890

Examples of mugwump in the following topics:

  • Reform and Scandal: The Campaign of 1884

    • The so-called Mugwumps, reformist Republicans, left the Republican party in anger at Blaine's nomination in the 1884 presidential election.
    • These Republicans, called mugwumps, withdrew from the convention and declared that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if he were an honest man.
    • After the election, mugwump survived for more than a decade as an epithet for a party bolter in American politics.
    • Many Mugwumps became Democrats or remained Independents; most continued to support reform well into the twentieth century.
    • New England and the Northeastern United States had been a stronghold of the Republican Party since the Civil War era, but the Mugwumps considered Blaine to be an untrustworthy and fraudulent candidate.
  • The Scurrilous Campaign

    • They were correct, as reform-minded Mugwump Republicans denounced Blaine as corrupt and flocked to Cleveland.
    • The Mugwumps, including such men as Carl Schurz and Henry Ward Beecher, were more concerned with morality than with party politics, and felt Cleveland was a kindred soul who would promote civil service reform and fight for efficiency in government.
    • However, even as the Democrats gained support from the Mugwumps, they lost some blue-collar workers to the Greenback-Labor party, led by Benjamin F.
    • After the election, the term "Mugwump" survived for more than a decade as an epithet for a party bolter in American politics.
    • Many Mugwumps became Democrats or remained Independents; most continued to support reform well into the twentieth century.
  • The Election of 1888

    • On the other hand, he held a strong hand in the South and border states, and appealed to former Republican Mugwumps.
  • Republican Reform Under Harrison

    • On the other hand, he held a strong hand in the South and border states, and appealed to former Republican Mugwumps.
  • The Bourbons and the Redeemers

    • The anticorruption theme earned the votes of many Republican Mugwumps in 1884.
  • Politics in the Gilded Age

    • Accordingly, there were widespread calls for reform, such as the Civil Service Reform led by the Bourbon Democrats and Republican Mugwumps.
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