Election of 1892: Grover Cleveland Makes a Third Run
Democratic Party: Grover Cleveland (New York) and Adlai Stevenson (Illinois)
Republican Party: Benjamin Harrison (Indiana) and Whitelaw Reid (New York)
People’s Party: James Weaver (Iowa) and James Field (Virginia)
Prohibition Party: John Bidwell (California) and James Cranfill (Texas)
Election Results:
Cleveland and Stevenson: 5.551 million popular votes, 277 electoral votes.
Harrison and Reid: 5.179 million popular votes, 145 electoral votes.
Weaver and Field: 1.024 million popular votes, 22 electoral votes.
Bidwell and Cranfill: 270,000 popular votes, 0 electoral votes.
Summary:
Benjamin’s one term in office was a rocky period for the Republican Party but their lack of more credible candidates for the White House led to Harrison’s easy renomination. The McKinley Tariff of 1890, which increased the protective tariff for American businesses, had consequentially raised the prices of goods while lowering the wages of the lower and middle class American. This discontent made the tariff issue an important one during the 1892 election and led to the nomination of former president Grover Cleveland by the Democratic Party.
Cleveland, who was a proponent of the gold standard, won nomination by promising to nominate a silverite (or proponent of silver currency) as his vice president. He did this by asking Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois to run and the Democratic Party covered their bases on the monetary issue. The Democrats attacked the McKinley tariff with much enthusiasm, attacking Harrison’s acceptance of a poor economic policy for the American people. The Republicans, utilizing a growing network of surrogate speakers, defended the McKinley tariff as a necessary measure against depression and worried about Cleveland’s “free trade” policies (“free trade” a considerable insult among politicians at this point). Displeased with the discourse on the American economy, a group of western and southern populists defected from the two major parties and formed the People’s (Populist) Party. This party was meant to counter the big business control over Washington and elect candidates who would favor pro-agrarian policies and keep the power with the people. They nominated former Greenback Labor standard bearer General James Weaver to run for president under the Populist banner.
The Democratic Party was far more organized in the field, having more enthusiasm within their ranks and more money at their disposal. Grover Cleveland was able to placate Democratic constituencies like labor and immigrants by condemning government efforts to stop worker organization and working against prohibition of alcohol. The increased frustration with the tariff’s effect on American productivity mixed with black disenfranchisement in the South (which worked against the Republican Party) and their push for prohibition to create a perfect storm for Grover Cleveland’s second term in office. The Populist Party won several states in the west which took key states away from the Republican Party. In the end, the Democrats regained the White House and took back both the House and the Senate but their success would be short lived as the Panic of 1893 was just around the corner.
