There are many interesting presidential elections in United States history, but very few involved so much controversy, scandals, and mud-slinging as the election of 1884. This election is also considered as one of the closest races between candidates up to the present time. With Grover Cleveland as the Democratic, and James G. Blaine as the Republican nominee, the campaign was wild and unrestrained. However, there are many issues, besides the personal ones, that influenced the election itself. For example, party political positions, nation's economy, social and cultural development, demographics, and major events at the time all characterize and help us better understand, the beginning, development, and final outcome of the election of 1884. .
A Party political position is one of the major factors in any presidential election. In the election of 1884, the Democratic and Republican parties were, as usual, the major parties. Thus, we will examine their positions on the major issues prior to the election. However, before we get into details of the election, it is important to mention that the Democratic Party has been struggling for last couple of decades. The last Democratic candidate to win the election was James Buchanan in 1856 (Cresswell 2). The critics, comments on the Democratic Party at the time were, for example, "To join the Democratic Party is to go down among the dead men at once, and to chain one's self to the dead past forever- (Summers 108). .
However, Democrats emerged very strong and determined to win the election. The Party's tactic in this election was not to concentrate on a certain issue; instead, what they did was to put distance between their beliefs and Republicans'. The result was not a party with no ideas, but a party with many ideas. Few topics that carried more importance than the other ones were: tax reductions, opposing the protective tariffs, and favoring more government control of big businesses.