1888 Republican National Convention

1888 Republican National Convention

1888 presidential election
Nominees Harrison and Morton
Convention
Date(s)	June 19–25, 1888
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	Auditorium Theatre
Chair	Morris M. Estee
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Benjamin Harrison of Indiana
Vice Presidential nominee	Levi P. Morton of New York
Other candidates	John Sherman Russell A. Alger Walter Q. Gresham
Voting
Total delegates	832
Votes needed for nomination	417
Results (President)	Harrison (IN): 544 (65.38%) Sherman (OH): 118 (14.18%) Gresham (IN): 59 (7.09%) Alger (MI): 100 (12.02%) Blaine (ME): 5 (0.60%) McKinley (OH): 4 (0.48%) Douglass (MD): 1 (0.12%) Others: 1 (0.12%)
Results (Vice President)	Morton (NY): 592 (71.15%) Phelps (NJ): 119 (14.3%) Bradley (KY): 103 (12.38%) Bruce (MS): 11 (1.32%) Abstaining: 6 (0.72%) Walter S. Thomas: 1 (0.12%)
Ballots	8

The 1888 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at the Auditorium Building in Chicago, Illinois, on June 19–25, 1888. It resulted in the nomination of former Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for President and Levi P. Morton of New York, a former Congressman and Minister to France, for Vice President. During the convention, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak and became the first African-American to have his name put forward for a presidential nomination in a major party's roll call vote; he received one vote from Kentucky on the fourth ballot.

The ticket won in the election of 1888, defeating President Grover Cleveland and former Senator Allen G. Thurman from Ohio.

Issues addressed

Illustration of the convention

Issues addressed in the convention included support for protective tariffs, repeal of taxes on tobacco, support for the use of gold and silver as currency and support for pensions for veterans. The party also expressed its opposition to polygamy.^[1]

Presidential nomination

• 
  Former U.S. Senator
  Benjamin Harrison
  of Indiana
• 
  U.S. Senator
  John Sherman
  of Ohio
• 
  Governor
  Russell A. Alger
  of Michigan
• 
  Secretary of the Treasury
  Walter Q. Gresham
  of Indiana
• 
  U.S. Senator
  William B. Allison
  of Iowa
  (Withdrew after 7th Ballot)
• 
  NYC RR President
  Chauncey Depew
  of New York
  (Withdrew after 3rd Ballot)
• 
  U.S. Senator
  John J. Ingalls
  of Kansas
  (Not Formally Nominated)
• 
  Governor
  Jeremiah M. Rusk
  of Wisconsin
• 
  Representative
  William Walter Phelps
  of New Jersey
  (Not Formally Nominated)
• 
  Mayor
  Edwin Henry Fitler
  of Pennsylvania
  (Withdrew after 1st Ballot)
• 
  Representative
  William McKinley
  of Ohio
  (Not Formally Nominated)
  (Endorsed John Sherman)
• 
  Former Secretary of State
  James G. Blaine
  of Maine
  (Declined to Contest)

Vice Presidential nomination

Former Representative and Minister to France Levi P. Morton from New York was asked if he wanted the second spot. He had been asked in 1880, but had declined. This time Morton decided to accept. He was easily elected on the first ballot.

Accusation of delegate vote-buying

Illustration of the convention

Nearly a decade later, Ohio candidate John Sherman accused Michigan candidate, millionaire Russell A. Alger, of buying the votes of Southern delegates who had already confirmed their vote for Sherman. In Sherman's 1895 two-volume book "Recollections" he asserted, "I believe, and had, as I thought, conclusive proof, that the friends of Gen. Alger substantially purchased the votes of many of the delegates from the Southern States who had been instructed by their conventions to vote for me." Once accused, Alger submitted correspondence to the New York Times, who published one letter from 1888, written after the convention to Alger, where Sherman states, "if you bought some [votes], according to universal usage, surely I don't blame you." Later in the same New York Times article, Alger insisted neither he or friends bought a single vote. The article also quotes another delegate, James Lewis, who claimed that "the colored delegates of the South will unite on a Union soldier in preference" instead of a civilian.^[2]

When Sherman introduced his anti-trust legislation two years later, his main example of unlawful combination drew from a Michigan Supreme Court case involving Diamond Match Company and Alger's participation as president and stock holder.^[3]

See also

• History of the United States Republican Party
• List of Republican National Conventions
• U.S. presidential nomination convention
• United States presidential election, 1888
• 1888 Democratic National Convention

References

External links

• Republican Party platform of 1888 at The American Presidency Project
• Harrison acceptance letter at The American Presidency Project