1884 Presidential Election of Grover Cleveland: Topics in Chronicling America
A guide for researching the topic of the election of 1884 in which Grover Cleveland won the first of his two non-consecutive presidential terms, in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.
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About Chronicling America
Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Introduction
The future of the tariff system weighed on voters’ minds as they cast ballots in the presidential election of 1884. Incumbent President Chester A. Arthur bowed out of a bid for re-election, leading to a contest between New York Gov. Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine, a former U.S. Senator from Maine. Accusations of voter fraud in New York from both parties meant that final results were not certified until mid-November; however, Cleveland ultimately proved victorious and began the first of his two non-consecutive terms. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
Timeline
July 8, 1884
The Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago.
July 11, 1884
Grover Cleveland named nominee; Thomas Hendricks to be his running mate.
November 1884
Votes are cast; claims of fraud delay declaration of winner. Cleveland eventually announced winner.