1888 United States presidential election

For related races, see 1888 United States elections.

1888 United States presidential election

November 6, 1888
All 401 electoral votes of the Electoral College 201 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	79.3% 1.8 pp
x200px Nominee Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland Party Republican Democratic Home state Indiana New York Running mate Levi P. Morton Allen G. Thurman Electoral vote 233 168 States carried 20 18 Popular vote 5,443,892 5,534,488 Percentage 47.8% 48.6%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes those won by Harrison/Morton, blue denotes states won by Cleveland/Thurman. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Grover Cleveland Democratic Elected President Benjamin Harrison Republican

The 1888 United States presidential election was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former Senator from Indiana, defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York. It was the third of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote.

Cleveland, the first Democratic president since the American Civil War, was unanimously re-nominated at the 1888 Democratic National Convention. He was the first incumbent president to win re-nomination since Ulysses S. Grant was nominated to a second term in 1872. Harrison, the grandson of former President William Henry Harrison, emerged as the Republican nominee on the eighth ballot of the 1888 Republican National Convention. He defeated other prominent party leaders such as Senator John Sherman and former Governor Russell Alger.

Tariff policy was the principal issue in the election, as Cleveland had proposed a dramatic reduction in tariffs, arguing that high tariffs were unfair to consumers. Harrison took the side of industrialists and factory workers who wanted to keep tariffs high. Cleveland's opposition to Civil War pensions and inflated currency also made enemies among veterans and farmers. On the other hand, he held a strong hand in the South and border states, and appealed to former Republican Mugwumps.

Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote, but Harrison won the election with a majority in the Electoral College. Harrison swept almost the entire North and Midwest, and narrowly carried the swing states of New York and Indiana.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1888 Democratic National Convention

Democratic Party Ticket, 1888
Grover Cleveland	Allen G. Thurman
for President	for Vice President
200x200px
22nd President of the United States (1885–1889)	Former U.S. Senator from Ohio (1869–1881)
Campaign

Democratic candidates:

• StephenGroverCleveland.jpg

  President Grover Cleveland

The Democratic National Convention held in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 5–7, 1888, was harmonious. Incumbent President Cleveland was re-nominated unanimously without a formal ballot. This was the first time an incumbent Democratic president had been re-nominated since Martin Van Buren in 1840.

After Cleveland was re-nominated, Democrats had to choose a replacement for Thomas A. Hendricks. Hendricks ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1876, but won the office when he ran again with Cleveland in 1884. Hendricks served as vice-president for only eight months before he died in office on November 25, 1885. Former Senator Allen G. Thurman from Ohio was nominated for vice-president over Isaac P. Gray, his nearest rival, and John C. Black, who trailed behind. Gray lost the nomination to Thurman primarily because his enemies brought up his actions while a Republican.

The Democratic platform largely confined itself to a defense of the Cleveland administration, supporting reduction in the tariff and taxes generally as well as statehood for the western territories.

Presidential Ballot
	Unanimous
Grover Cleveland	822

Vice Presidential Ballot
	1st	Acclamation
Allen G. Thurman	684	822
Isaac P. Gray	101
John C. Black	36
Blank	1

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1888 Republican National Convention

Republican Party Ticket, 1888
Benjamin Harrison	Levi P. Morton
for President	for Vice President
200x200px
Former U.S. Senator from Indiana (1881–1887)	Former U.S. Representative for New York's 11th (1879–1881)
Campaign
400px

File:Yale Publishing Co, The Whole Story in a Nutshell! 1888 Cornell CUL PJM 1096 01.jpg

Grover Cleveland-Benjamin Harrison presidential (1888) campaign poster about the trade policy of the two candidates. The map supports the work of the Harrison campaign.

The Republican candidates were former Senator Benjamin Harrison from Indiana; Senator John Sherman from Ohio; Russell A. Alger, the former governor of Michigan; Walter Q. Gresham from Indiana, the former Secretary of the Treasury; Senator William B. Allison from Iowa; and Chauncey Depew from New York, the president of the New York Central Railroad.

By the time Republicans met in Chicago on June 19–25, 1888, frontrunner James G. Blaine had withdrawn from the race because he believed that only a harmonious convention would produce a Republican candidate strong enough to upset incumbent President Cleveland. Blaine realized that the party was unlikely to choose him without a bitter struggle. After he withdrew, Blaine expressed confidence in both Benjamin Harrison and John Sherman. Harrison was nominated on the eighth ballot.

The Republicans chose Harrison because of his war record, his popularity with veterans, his ability to express the Republican Party's views, and the fact that he lived in the swing state of Indiana. The Republicans hoped to win Indiana's 15 electoral votes, which had gone to Cleveland in the previous presidential election. Levi P. Morton, a New York City banker, was nominated for vice-president over William Walter Phelps, his nearest rival.

Prohibition Party nomination

Main article: 1888 Prohibition Party National Convention

Prohibition candidates:

• Clinton B. Fisk, U.S. Brigadier General from New Jersey

Candidates gallery

• 

  Brigadier General Clinton B. Fisk from New Jersey

File:1888ProhibitionPoster.png

Prohibition campaign poster

The 5th Prohibition Party National Convention assembled in Tomlinson Hall in Indianapolis, Indiana. There were 1,029 delegates from all but three states.

Clinton B. Fisk was nominated for president unanimously. John A. Brooks was nominated for vice-president.

Union Labor Party nomination

Main article: 1888 Union Labor Party National Convention

Union Labor candidates:

• Alson Streeter from Illinois

• AlsonStreeter.png

  Alson Streeter from Illinois

File:Union Labor Campaign Poster 1888.jpg

Streeter/Cunningham campaign poster

The Union Labor Party National Convention assembled in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Union Labor Party had been formed in 1887 in Cincinnati.

The convention nominated Alson Streeter for president unanimously. Samuel Evans was nominated for Vice President but declined the nomination. Charles E. Cunningham was later selected as the vice-presidential candidate.

The Union Labor Party garnered nearly 150,000 popular votes, but failed to gain widespread national support. The party did, however, win two counties.

Presidential Ballot
Ballot	1st
Alson Streeter	220

Source: US President – UL Convention. Our Campaigns. (February 11, 2012).

United Labor Party nomination

The United Labor Party convention nominated Robert H. Cowdrey for president on the first ballot. W.H.T. Wakefield of Kansas was nominated for vice-president over Victor H. Wilder from New York by a margin of 50–12.

Greenback Party

The Greenback Party was in decline throughout the entire Cleveland administration. In the election of 1884, the party failed to win any House seats outright, although they did win one seat in conjunction with Plains States Democrats (James B. Weaver) and a handful of other seats by endorsing the Democratic nominee. In the election of 1886, only two dozen Greenback candidates ran for the House, apart from another six who ran on fusion tickets. Again, Weaver was the party's only victor. Much of the Greenback news in early 1888 took place in Michigan, where the party remained active.

In early 1888, it was not clear if the Greenback Party would hold another national convention. The fourth Greenback Party National Convention assembled in Cincinnati on May 16, 1888. So few delegates attended that no actions were taken. On August 16, 1888, George O. Jones, chairman of the national committee, called a second session of the national convention. The second session of the national convention met in Cincinnati on September 12, 1888. Only seven delegates attended. Chairman Jones issued an address criticizing the two major parties, and the delegates made no nominations.

With the failure of the convention, the Greenback Party ceased to exist.

American Party nomination

The American Party held its third and last National Convention in Grand Army Hall in Washington, DC. This was an Anti-Masonic party that ran under various party labels in the northern states.

When the convention assembled, there were 126 delegates; among them were 65 from New York and 15 from California. Delegates from the other states bolted the convention when it appeared that New York and California intended to vote together on all matters and control the convention. By the time the presidential balloting began, there were only 64 delegates present.

The convention nominated James L. Curtis from New York for president and James R. Greer from Tennessee for vice-president. Greer declined to run, so Peter D. Wigginton of California was chosen as his replacement.

Equal Rights Party nomination

The second Equal Rights Party National Convention assembled in Des Moines, Iowa. At the convention, mail-in ballots were counted. The delegates cast 310 of their 350 ballots for the following ticket: Belva A. Lockwood for president and Alfred H. Love for vice-president.

Love was later replaced with Charles S. Wells NY.

Industrial Reform Party nomination

The Industrial Reform Party National Convention assembled in Grand Army Hall, Washington, DC. There were 49 delegates present.

Albert Redstone won the endorsement of some leaders of the disintegrating Greenback Party. He told the Montgomery Advertiser that he would carry several states, including Alabama, New York, North Carolina, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri.

General election campaign

Main article: Grover Cleveland Presidential campaign, 1888

Issues

File:1888TariffReform.png

Tariff reform was the main issue of the election.

Cleveland set the main issue of the campaign when he proposed a dramatic reduction in tariffs in his annual message to Congress in December 1887. Cleveland contended that the tariff was unnecessarily high and that unnecessary taxation was unjust taxation. The Republicans responded that the high tariff would protect American industry from foreign competition and guarantee high wages, high profits, and high economic growth.

The argument between protectionists and free traders over the size of the tariff was an old one, stretching back to the Tariff of 1816. In practice, the tariff was practically meaningless on industrial products, since the United States was the low-cost producer in most areas (except woolens), and could not be undersold by the less efficient Europeans. Nevertheless, the tariff issue motivated both sides to a remarkable extent.

Besides the obvious economic dimensions, the tariff argument also possessed an ethnic dimension. At the time, the policy of free trade was most strongly promoted by the British Empire, and so any political candidate who ran on free trade instantly was under threat of being labelled pro-British and antagonistic to the Irish-American voting bloc. Cleveland neatly neutralized this threat by pursuing punitive action against Canada (which, although autonomous, was still part of the British Empire) in a fishing rights dispute.

Harrison was well-funded by party activists and mounted an energetic campaign by the standards of the day, giving many speeches from his front porch in Indianapolis that were covered by the newspapers. Cleveland adhered to the tradition of presidential candidates not campaigning, and forbade his cabinet from campaigning as well, leaving his 75-year-old vice-presidential candidate Thurman as the spearhead of his campaign.

Blocks of Five

William Wade Dudley (1842–1909), an Indianapolis lawyer, was a tireless campaigner and prosecutor of Democratic election frauds. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison made Dudley Treasurer of the Republican National Committee. The campaign was the most intense in decades, with Indiana dead even. Although the National Committee had no business meddling in state politics, Dudley wrote a circular letter to Indiana's county chairmen, telling them to "divide the floaters into Blocks of Five, and put a trusted man with the necessary funds in charge of these five, and make them responsible that none get away and that all vote our ticket." Dudley promised adequate funding. His pre-emptive strike backfired when Democrats obtained the letter and distributed hundreds of thousands of copies nationwide in the last days of the campaign. Given Dudley's unsavory reputation, few people believed his denials. A few thousand "floaters" did exist in Indiana—men who would sell their vote for $2. They always divided 50-50 (or perhaps, $5,000-$5,000) and had no visible impact on the vote. The attack on "blocks of five" with the suggestion that pious General Harrison was trying to buy the election did enliven the Democratic campaign, and it stimulated the nationwide movement to replace ballots printed and distributed by the parties with secret ballots.

Murchison letter

A California Republican named George Osgoodby wrote a letter to Sir Lionel Sackville-West, the British ambassador to the United States, under the assumed name of "Charles F. Murchison," describing himself as a former Englishman who was now a California citizen and asked how he should vote in the upcoming presidential election. Sir Lionel wrote back and in the "Murchison letter" indiscreetly suggested that Cleveland was probably the best man from the British point of view.

The Republicans published this letter just two weeks before the election, where it had an effect on Irish-American voters exactly comparable to the "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" blunder of the previous election: Cleveland lost New York and Indiana (and as a result, the presidency). Sackville-West was removed as British ambassador.

Election results

File:PresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Cleveland (Democratic), shades of red are for Harrison (Republican), and shades of green are for Streeter (Union Labor).

The election focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Harrison's home state of Indiana. Harrison and Cleveland split these four states, with Harrison winning by means of notoriously fraudulent balloting in New York and Indiana.

1888 marked the third election in U.S. history in which the winning candidate received fewer popular votes than the runner-up. Grover Cleveland defeated Benjamin Harrison in the popular vote by slightly more than ninety thousand votes (0.8%), aided by disenfranchisement of Republican blacks in the South. Harrison, however, won the Electoral College by a 233-168 margin, largely by virtue of his 1.09% win in Cleveland's home state of New York.

Had Cleveland won his home state, he would have won the electoral vote by an electoral count of 204-197 (201 electoral votes were needed for victory in 1888). Instead, Cleveland became the third of only five candidates to win the popular vote but lose their respective presidential elections (Andrew Jackson in 1824, Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, Al Gore in 2000, and Hillary Clinton in 2016).

Four states returned results where the winner won by less than 1 percent of the popular vote. Cleveland earned 24 of his electoral votes from states he won by less than one percent: Connecticut, Virginia, and West Virginia. Harrison earned fifteen of his electoral votes from a state he won by less than 1 percent: Indiana. Harrison won New York (36 electoral votes) by a margin of 1.09%. Despite the narrow margins in several states, only two states switched sides in comparison to Cleveland's first presidential election (New York and Indiana).

Of the 2,450 counties/independent cities making returns, Cleveland won in 1,290 (52.65%) while Harrison carried 1,157 (47.22%). Two counties (0.08%) recorded a Streeter plurality while one county (0.04%) in California split evenly between Cleveland and Harrison.

Upon leaving the White House at the end of her husband's first term, First Lady Frances Cleveland is reported to have told the White House staff to take care of the building since the Clevelands would be returning in four years. She proved correct, becoming the only First Lady to preside at two nonconsecutive administrations.

This was the last election in which the Republicans won Colorado and Nevada until 1904 and the last in which the Republicans won Kansas until 1900. It was also the last election until 1968 when bellwether Coös County, New Hampshire did not support the winning candidate.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Pct		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote
Benjamin Harrison	Republican	Indiana	5,443,892	47.80%	233	Levi P. Morton	New York	233
Grover Cleveland (Incumbent)	Democratic	New York	5,534,488	48.63%	168	Allen G. Thurman	Ohio	168
Clinton B. Fisk	Prohibition	New Jersey	249,819	2.20%	0	John A. Brooks	Missouri	0
Alson Streeter	Union Labor	Illinois	146,602	1.31%	0	Charles E. Cunningham	Arkansas	0
Other			8,519	0.07%	—	Other		—
Total			11,383,320	100%	401			401
Needed to win					201			201

Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

Popular vote
Cleveland			48.63%
Harrison			47.80%
Fisk			2.20%
Streeter			1.31%
Others			0.21%

Electoral vote
Harrison			58.10%
Cleveland			41.90%

Geography of results

File:1888 Electoral Map.png

650px

• 1888nationwidecountymapshadedbyvoteshare.svg

  Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Cartographic gallery

• PresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of presidential election results by county

• DemocraticPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of Democratic presidential election results by county

• RepublicanPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of Republican presidential election results by county

• OtherPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Map of "other" presidential election results by county

• CartogramPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of presidential election results by county

• CartogramDemocraticPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county

• CartogramRepublicanPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county

• CartogramOtherPresidentialCounty1888Colorbrewer.gif

  Cartogram of "other" presidential election results by county

Results by state

Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836–1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57.

States won by Cleveland/Thurman

States won by Harrison/Morton

		Grover Cleveland Democratic			Benjamin Harrison Republican			Clinton Fisk Prohibition			Alson Streeter Union Labor			Margin		State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	#
Alabama	10	117,314	67.00	10	57,177	32.66	-	594	0.34	-	-	-	-	-60,137	-34.35	175,085	AL
Arkansas	7	86,062	54.80	7	59,752	38.04	-	614	0.39	-	10,630	6.77	-	-26,310	-16.75	157,058	AR
California	8	117,729	46.84	-	124,816	49.66	8	5,761	2.29	-	-	-	-	7,087	2.82	251,339	CA
Colorado	3	37,549	40.84	-	50,772	55.22	3	2,182	2.37	-	1,266	1.38	-	13,223	14.38	91,946	CO
Connecticut	6	74,920	48.66	6	74,584	48.44	-	4,234	2.75	-	240	0.16	-	-336	-0.22	153,978	CT
Delaware	3	16,414	55.15	3	12,950	43.51	-	399	1.34	-	-	-	-	-3,464	-11.64	29,764	DE
Florida	4	39,557	59.48	4	26,529	39.89	-	414	0.62	-	-	-	-	-13,028	-19.59	66,500	FL
Georgia	12	100,493	70.31	12	40,499	28.33	-	1,808	1.26	-	136	0.10	-	-59,994	-41.97	142,936	GA
Illinois	22	348,351	46.58	-	370,475	49.54	22	21,703	2.90	-	7,134	0.95	-	22,124	2.96	747,813	IL
Indiana	15	261,013	48.61	-	263,361	49.05	15	9,881	1.84	-	2,694	0.50	-	2,348	0.44	536,949	IN
Iowa	13	179,877	44.51	-	211,603	52.36	13	3,550	0.88	-	9,105	2.25	-	31,726	7.85	404,135	IA
Kansas	9	102,745	31.03	-	182,904	55.23	9	6,779	2.05	-	37,788	11.41	-	80,159	24.21	331,149	KS
Kentucky	13	183,830	53.30	13	155,138	44.98	-	5,223	1.51	-	677	0.20	-	-28,692	-8.32	344,868	KY
Louisiana	8	85,032	73.37	8	30,660	26.46	-	160	0.14	-	39	0.03	-	-54,372	-46.92	115,891	LA
Maine	6	50,472	39.35	-	73,730	57.49	6	2,691	2.10	-	1,344	1.05	-	23,258	18.13	128,253	ME
Maryland	8	106,188	50.34	8	99,986	47.40	-	4,767	2.26	-	-	-	-	-6,202	-2.94	210,941	MD
Massachusetts	14	151,590	44.04	-	183,892	53.42	14	8,701	2.53	-	-	-	-	32,302	9.38	344,243	MA
Michigan	13	213,469	44.91	-	236,387	49.73	13	20,945	4.41	-	4,555	0.96	-	22,918	4.82	475,356	MI
Minnesota	7	104,385	39.65	-	142,492	54.12	7	15,311	5.82	-	1,097	0.42	-	38,107	14.47	263,285	MN
Mississippi	9	85,451	73.80	9	30,095	25.99	-	240	0.21	-	-	-	-	-55,356	-47.81	115,786	MS
Missouri	16	261,943	50.24	16	236,252	45.31	-	4,539	0.87	-	18,626	3.57	-	-25,691	-4.93	521,360	MO
Nebraska	5	80,552	39.75	-	108,425	53.51	5	9,429	4.65	-	4,226	2.09	-	27,873	13.76	202,632	NE
Nevada	3	5,149	41.94	-	7,088	57.73	3	41	0.33	-	-	-	-	1,939	15.79	12,278	NV
New Hampshire	4	43,456	47.84	-	45,728	50.34	4	1,593	1.75	-	-	-	-	2,272	2.50	90,835	NH
New Jersey	9	151,508	49.87	9	144,360	47.52	-	7,933	2.61	-	-	-	-	-7,148	-2.35	303,801	NJ
New York	36	635,965	48.19	-	650,338	49.28	36	30,231	2.29	-	627	0.05	-	14,373	1.09	1,319,748	NY
North Carolina	11	147,902	51.79	11	134,784	47.20	-	2,840	0.99	-	-	-	-	-13,118	-4.59	285,563	NC
Ohio	23	396,455	47.18	-	416,054	49.51	23	24,356	2.90	-	3,496	0.42	-	19,599	2.33	840,361	OH
Oregon	3	26,522	42.88	-	33,291	53.82	3	1,677	2.71	-	-	-	-	6,769	10.94	61,853	OR
Pennsylvania	30	446,633	44.77	-	526,091	52.74	30	20,947	2.10	-	3,873	0.39	-	79,458	7.97	997,568	PA
Rhode Island	4	17,530	42.99	-	21,969	53.88	4	1,251	3.07	-	18	0.04	-	4,439	10.89	40,775	RI
South Carolina	9	65,824	82.28	9	13,736	17.17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-52,088	-65.11	79,997	SC
Tennessee	12	158,699	52.26	12	138,978	45.76	-	5,969	1.97	-	48	0.02	-	-19,721	-6.49	303,694	TN
Texas	13	234,883	65.70	13	88,422	24.73	-	4,749	1.33	-	29,459	8.24	-	-146,461	-40.97	357,513	TX
Vermont	4	16,788	25.65	-	45,192	69.05	4	1,460	2.23	-	1,977	3.02	-	28,404	43.40	65,452	VT
Virginia	12	152,004	49.99	12	150,399	49.46	-	1,684	0.55	-	-	-	-	-1,605	-0.53	304,087	VA
West Virginia	6	78,677	49.35	6	78,171	49.03	-	1,084	0.68	-	1,508	0.95	-	-506	-0.32	159,440	WV
Wisconsin	11	155,232	43.77	-	176,553	49.79	11	14,277	4.03	-	8,552	2.41	-	21,321	6.01	354,614	WI
TOTALS:	401	5,538,163	48.63	168	5,443,633	47.80	233	250,017	2.20	-	149,115	1.31	-	-94,530	-0.83	11,388,846	US

Close states

Margin of victory less than 5% (189 electoral votes):

1. Connecticut, 0.22%
2. West Virginia, 0.32%
3. Indiana, 0.44%
4. Virginia, 0.53%
5. New York, 1.09% (tipping point state)
6. Ohio, 2.33%
7. New Jersey, 2.35%
8. New Hampshire, 2.50%
9. California, 2.82%
10. Maryland, 2.94%
11. Illinois, 2.96%
12. North Carolina, 4.59%
13. Michigan, 4.82%
14. Missouri, 4.93%

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (93 electoral votes):

1. Wisconsin, 6.01%
2. Tennessee, 6.49%
3. Iowa, 7.85%
4. Pennsylvania, 7.97%
5. Kentucky, 8.32%
6. Massachusetts, 9.38%

In popular culture

File:TradeCardPrezCampaignThemeAdvertClevelandHarrison1888.jpg

Business advertising card with an election theme

In 1968 the Michael P. Antoine Company produced the Walt Disney Company musical film The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band which centers around the election of 1888 and the annexing and subdividing of the Dakota Territory into states (which was a major issue of the election).

See also

• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• History of the United States (1865–1918)
• 1888 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1888 and 1889 United States Senate elections
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• Inauguration of Benjamin Harrison
• Third Party System

References

Secondary sources

• Calhoon, Robert M. "Gilded Age Statecraft," Reviews in American History Volume 38, Number 1, March 2010 in Project MUSE
• online free
• Nevins, Allan. Grover Cleveland: a study in courage (1933), the standard biography
• Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. A History of the United States since the Civil War. Volume V, 1888–1901 (1937). pp 1–74.
• Sievers, Harry. Benjamin Harrison: from the Civil War to the White House, 1865–1888 (1959), standard biography
• excerpt and text search

Primary sources

• The campaign text book of the Democratic party of the United States, for ...1888 (1888) full text online, the compilation of data, texts and political arguments used by stump speakers across the country
• Cleveland, Grover. Letters and Addresses of Grover Cleveland (1909) online edition
• Cleveland, Grover. The Letters of Grover Cleveland (1937), edited by Allan Nevins.
• Harrison, Benjamin. Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third President of the United States (1890), contains his 1888 campaign speeches full text online

External links

• United States presidential election of 1888 at Encyclopædia Britannica
• Presidential Election of 1888: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• 1888 popular vote by counties
• How close was the 1888 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Election of 1888 in Counting the Votes
• The Vote That Failed. Smithsonian Magazine article on Indiana in the 1888 election.