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

(noun)

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

Related Terms

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.