Bernard Gilliam - Phryne before the Chicago Tribunal

The Mugwumps were

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They were never formally organized. Typically they switched parties from the Republican Party by supporting Democratic candidate

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

in the presidential election of 1884. They switched because they rejected the long history of corruption associated with Republican candidate James G. Blaine. In a close election, the Mugwumps claimed they made the difference in New York state and swung the election to Cleveland. The jocular word "mugwump", noted as early as 1832, is from Algonquian ''mugquomp'', "important person, kingpin" (from ''mugumquomp'', "war leader"),On-line Etymological Dictionary
/ref> implying that they were "sanctimonious" or "holier-than-thou" in holding themselves aloof from party politics. 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 and most continued to support reform well into the 20th century. During the

Third Party System In the terminology of historians and political scientists, the Third Party System was a period in the history of political parties in the United States from the 1850s until the 1890s, which featured profound developments in issues of American n ...

, party loyalty was in high regard and independents were rare.

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

stunned his upper class New York City friends by supporting Blaine in 1884; by rejecting the Mugwumps, he kept alive his Republican party leadership, clearing the way for his own political aspirations.

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

and the Northeast 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. Their idealism and reform sensibilities led them to oppose the political corruption in the politics of the Gilded Age.Summers (2000)

Patronage and politics

Political patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

, also known as the

spoils system In politics and government, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends (cronyism), and relatives (nepotism) as a reward ...

, was the issue that angered many reform-minded Republicans, leading them to reject Blaine's candidacy. In the spoils system, the winning candidate would dole out government positions to those who had supported his political party prior to the election. Although the Pendleton Act of 1883 established the

United States Civil Service Commission The United States Civil Service Commission was a government agency of the federal government of the United States and was created to select employees of federal government on merit rather than relationships. In 1979, it was dissolved as part of t ...

and made competency and merit the base qualifications for government positions, its effective implementation was slow. Political affiliation continued to be the basis for appointment to many positions. In the early 1880s, the issue of political patronage split the Republican Party down the middle for several consecutive sessions of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. The party was divided into two warring factions, each with creative names. The side that held the upper hand in numbers and popular support were the Half-Breeds, led by Senator James Blaine of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

. The Half-Breeds supported civil service reform and often blocked legislation and political appointments put forth by their main congressional opponents, the Stalwarts, led by

Roscoe Conkling Roscoe Conkling (October 30, 1829April 18, 1888) was an American lawyer and Republican politician who represented New York in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He is remembered today as the leader of the ...

of New York. Blaine was from the reform wing of his own party, but the Mugwumps rejected his candidacy. This division among Republicans may have contributed to the victory in 1884 of

, the first President elected from the Democratic party since the Civil War. In the period from 1874 to 1894, presidential elections were closely contested at the national level, but the states themselves were mostly dominated by a single party, with Democrats prevailing in the South and the Republicans in the Northeast. Although the defection of the Mugwumps may have helped Cleveland win in New York, one of the few closely contested states, historians attribute Cleveland's victory nationwide to the rising power of urban immigrant voters.

Policies and laws

In Massachusetts, Mugwumps were led by Richard Henry Dana III, (1851–1931), the editor of the ''Civil Service Record.'' " They took credit for passing the state's 1884 civil service law, which was a stronger version of the federal Pendleton Act of 1883. Both laws were enacted to limit the effect of political patronage, thus disrupting the spoils system. The goal were improved morality and increased efficiency. It was also designed to contain the rising political power of the Irish Catholics. James C. Carter (1827–1905) was a leading New York lawyer and an influential legal theorist among fellow Mugwumps. Carter distrusted politicians and elected officials. Instead he put his trust in disinterested experts, especially judges. He equated

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

with custom, and his condemnation of legislation inconsistent with custom, reflected his Mugwumpism. He tried to synthesize traditional thinking with modernity. For example, Carter clung to support for active government intervention he learned from the antebellum Whigs, but he more and more embraced antigovernment positions typical of antebellum Jacksonians. He tried to synthesize traditional faith in timeless, objective moral principles with a more modern vision of evolving customary norms. Given growing problems of industrial urban society he saw the need for positive government but wanted judges to rule not politicians. A new class of experts needed new modes of training, and those were provided by the new American graduate schools, built along German models. A leading organizer was the German-trained scholar

Herbert Baxter Adams Herbert Baxter Adams (April 16, 1850 – July 30, 1901) was an American educator and historian who brought German rigor to the study of history in America; a founding member of the American History Association; and one of the earliest ed ...

(1850-1901), head of the history and political science department at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

1882–1901. He promoted mugwump reform at Hopkins and nationally. Under his direction, the faculty and advanced students worked for numerous reforms, including civil service reform in the Pendleton Act (1883), municipal reform with the New Charter of Baltimore (1895), the training of professional social workers, and efforts to solve labor unrest. Raymond Cunningham, argues that his reformism shows that the Mugwumps movement could attract affirmative and optimistic experts, rather than just suspicious or cautious patricians. In Chicago the Mugwump reformers worked through the Citizens' Association of Chicago, the Chicago Civic Federation, and the Municipal Voters' League. They opposed corruption, government subsidies, high taxes, and public enterprise. However they also wanted government to solve the problems of the rapidly growing metropolis. This was only possible if the voters were better informed. The newspapers adopted Mugwumpery as a way of building support for municipal reform among working-class voters in the two decades after the 1871 fire. The key leader was

Joseph Medill Joseph Medill (April 6, 1823March 16, 1899) was a Canadian-American newspaper editor, publisher, and Republican Party politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the ''Chicago Tribune'', and he was Mayor of Chicago from after the Great Chi ...

, owner and editor of the ''Chicago Tribune.''

Historical appraisals

Several historians of the 1950s through 1970s portrayed the Mugwumps as members of an insecure elite, one that felt threatened by changes in American society. These historians often focused on the social background and status of their subjects and the narratives they have written share a common outlook. Mugwumps tended to come from old

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

families of New York and New England and often from inherited wealth. They belonged to or identified with the emerging business and professional elite and were often members of the most exclusive clubs. Yet they felt threatened by the rise of machine politics, one aspect of which was the

; and by the rising power of both immigrants and of multi-millionaires in American society. They excelled as authors and essayists, yet their writings indicated their social position and class loyalties. In politics, they tended to be ineffectual and unsuccessful, unable and unwilling to operate effectively in a political environment where patronage was the norm. In his 1998 work, historian David Tucker attempts to rehabilitate the Mugwumps. According to Tucker, the Mugwumps embodied the

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

of the 19th century and their rejection by 20th-century historians, who embraced the government intervention of the New Deal and the

Great Society The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...

, is not surprising. To Tucker, their eloquent writings speak for themselves and are testament to a high minded civic morality. During the 2017 United Kingdom general election,

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Foreign Secretary

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

by writing in '' The Sun'' accused Labour Party Leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

of being a threat to the United Kingdom and described him as a "mutton-headed old mugwump". Charles-Anderson-Dana

Etymology

Dictionaries report that "mugguomp" is an Algonquian word meaning "person of importance" or "war leader". Charles Anderson Dana, the colorful newspaperman and editor of the now-defunct ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', is said to have given the Mugwumps their political moniker. Dana made the term plural and derided them as amateurs and public moralists. During the 1884 campaign, they were often portrayed as "fence-sitters", with part of their body on the side of the Democrats and the other on the side of the Republicans. Their "mug" on one side of the fence, and their "wump" (comic mispronunciation of "rump") on the other. Angry Republicans like

sometimes hinted they were homosexual, calling them "man milliners". The epithet "goody-goody" from the 1890s goo-goo, a corruption of "good government", was used in a similar derogatory manner. Whereas "mugwump" has become an obscure and almost forgotten political moniker, "goo-goo" was revived, especially in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, by the political columns of Mike Royko.

Notable Mugwumps

Charles Francis Adams Jr. Charles Francis Adams Jr. (May 27, 1835 – March 20, 1915) was an American author, historian, and railroad and park commissioner who served as the president of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890. He served as a colonel in the Union Arm ...

, president of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

* Henry Adams, author * Edward Atkinson, entrepreneur and business executive * Louis Brandeis, future Supreme Court Justice *

Charles William Eliot Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfor ...

, President of Harvard University *

Josiah Willard Gibbs Josiah Willard Gibbs (; February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American scientist who made significant theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in t ...

, professor of physics at Yale University * E.L. Godkin, editor of ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' *

Seth Low Seth Low (January 18, 1850 – September 17, 1916) was an American educator and political figure who served as the mayor of Brooklyn from 1881 to 1885, the president of Columbia University from 1890 to 1901, a diplomatic representative of t ...

, Republican mayor of Brooklyn in 1884 who lost his party's support due to his backing Cleveland. *

, owner and editor of the ''Chicago Tribune.'' *

Thomas Nast Thomas Nast (; ; September 26, 1840December 7, 1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was a critic of Democratic Representative "Boss" Tweed and ...

, political cartoonist * Carl Schurz, former Senator from Missouri and Secretary of the Interior as well as editor of the '' Saturday Evening Post'' * Moorfield Storey, lawyer and NAACP president from 1909 to 1915. * William Graham Sumner, social scientist, Yale University * Mark Twain, author self-identified as a Mugwump in his essay '' Christian Science''Kay Moser McCord, "Mark Twain's Participation in Presidential Politics." ''American Literary Realism, 1870-1910'' (1983): 262-271
online
/ref> *

Horace White Horace White (October 7, 1865 – November 27, 1943) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was the 37th Governor of New York from October 6, 1910 to December 31, 1910. Life He attended Syracuse Central High School, Cornell Un ...

, editor of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Blodgett, Geoffrey T. (1966). ''The Gentle Reformers: Massachusetts Democrats in the Cleveland Era''. Harvard University Press
online
* Blodgett, Geoffrey T. "The Mind of the Boston Mugwump," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 48, No. 4. (Mar. 1962), pp. 614–634
JSTOR
* Butler, Leslie. ''Critical Americans: Victorian Intellectuals and Transatlantic Liberal Reform'' (2009), a major recent study * Cunningham, Raymond. "'Scientia Pro Patria': Herbert Baxter Adams and Mugwump Academic Reform at Johns Hopkins, 1876-1901." ''Prospects'' (1990), Vol. 15, pp 109–144. * Grossman, Lewis A. "James Coolidge Carter and Mugwump Jurisprudence." ''Law and History Review'' 20.3 (2002): 577–629
online
* Hofstadter, Richard. "The Age of Reform" (1956). Vintage Books, New York. *

Hoogenboom, Ari Ari Arthur Hoogenboom (November 28, 1927 – October 25, 2014) was professor emeritus of history at Brooklyn College at the City University of New York. He was a scholar of the Gilded Age, particularly regarding the life and presidency of Rutherf ...

(1961). ''Outlawing the Spoils: A History of the Civil Service Reform Movement, 1865–1883'' (1982).
online
* McCord, Kay Moser. "Mark Twain's Participation in Presidential Politics." ''American Literary Realism, 1870-1910'' (1983): 262–271
online
* McFarland, Gerald W. ''Mugwumps, Morals and Politics, 1884–1920'' (1975). . . * McFarland, Gerald W., ed. ''Moralists or Pragmatists?, The Mugwumps, 1884–1900'' (1975). . . * Miller, Edward H. "They Vote Only for the Spoils: Massachusetts Reformers, Suffrage Restriction, and the 1884 Civil Service Law." ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' (2009): 341-36
online
* Nevins, Allan. ''Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage'' (1932), the Democrat who Mugwumps supporte
online
* Muzzey, David Saville. ''James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days'' (1934), the Mugwumps' great enem
online
* Poteat, R. Matthew (2006). "Mugwumps" in the ''Encyclopedia of American political parties and elections'' (by Larry Sabato, Howard R. Ernst), p. 233. . * Sperber, Hans. and Travis Trittschuh. ''American Political Terms: An Historical Dictionary'' (1962), pp. 276–77. * Sproat, John G. (1968). ''The Best Men: Liberal Reformers in the Gilded Age'' (1982). . * Summers, Mark Wahlgren. ''Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884'' (2000). * Summers, Mark Wahlgren. ''Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics'' (U of North Carolina Press. 2004). * Thomas, Samuel J. (2004) "Mugwump cartoonists, the papacy, and Tammany Hall in America's gilded age." ''Religion and American Culture'' 14.2 (2004): 213–250
online
* Thomas, Samuel J. (2001) "Holding the Tiger: Mugwump Cartoonists and Tammany Hall in Gilded Age New York." ''New York History'' (2001): 155–182
online
* Tucker, David M. (1998). ''Mugwumps: Public Moralists of the Gilded Age''. . * White, Richard. ''The republic for which it stands: The United States during reconstruction and the gilded age, 1865-1896'' (Oxford UP, 2017).

External links

* * {{Authority control Political history of the United States Political party factions in the United States Republican Party (United States) terminology 1884 in American politics Defunct American political movements Party switching Political terminology of the United States Classical liberalism Liberalism in the United States Civil service reform in the United States