The Mugwumps were
Republican 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
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
by supporting
Democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**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
James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830January 27, 1893) was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative ...
. 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 to the west and by the Canadian province ...
and the Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
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, 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 rewa ...
, 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
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on January 16, 1883. The act mandates that most positions within the federal gover ...
of 1883 established the United States Civil Service Commission 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. 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 U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...
. The Half-Breeds supported civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
reform and often blocked legislation and political appointments put forth by their main congressional opponents, the Stalwarts
The Stalwarts were a faction of the Republican Party that existed briefly in the United States during and after Reconstruction and the Gilded Age during the 1870s and 1880s. Led by U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling—also known as "Lord Roscoe"—S ...
, 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 Re ...
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 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 ...
, 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 omniprese ...
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 (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 consiste ...
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
The Civic Federation is a Chicago-based non-partisan research organization focused on governments in the Chicago area and the state of Illinois. The Civic Federation's mission is to help local and state governments reduce their costs and improve ...
, 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, 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 Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
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 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 rewa ...
; 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 ...
of the 19th century and their rejection by 20th-century historians, who embraced the government intervention of the New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
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 University ...
, 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
The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing Co ...
, 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 (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the pol ...
of being a threat to the United Kingdom and described him as a "mutton-headed old mugwump".
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'', 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 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 Re ...
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 =
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, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, by the political columns of Mike Royko
Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago. Over his 30-year career, he wrote over 7,500 daily columns for the ''Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', and the ''Chicago ...
.
Notable Mugwumps
* Charles Francis Adams Jr., 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 Pac ...
and the American Historical Association
* Henry Adams, author
* Edward Atkinson, entrepreneur and business executive
* Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
Starting in 1890, he helped develop the "right to privacy" concept ...
, future Supreme Court Justice
* Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard University
* Josiah Willard Gibbs, professor of physics at Yale University
* E.L. Godkin
Edwin Lawrence Godkin (2 October 183121 May 1902) was an Irish-born American journalist and newspaper editor. He founded ''The Nation'' and was the editor-in-chief of the ''New York Evening Post'' from 1883 to 1899.Eric Fettman, "Godkin, E.L." ...
, editor of '' The Nation''
* Seth Low, Republican mayor of Brooklyn in 1884 who lost his party's support due to his backing Cleveland.
* Joseph Medill, owner and editor of the ''Chicago Tribune.''
* Thomas Nast, political cartoonist
* Carl Schurz, former Senator from Missouri and Secretary of the Interior as well as editor of the ''Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...
''
* Moorfield Storey, lawyer and NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
president from 1909 to 1915.
* William Graham Sumner
William Graham Sumner (October 30, 1840 – April 12, 1910) was an American clergyman, social scientist, and classical liberal. He taught social sciences at Yale University—where he held the nation's first professorship in sociology—and becam ...
, social scientist, Yale University
* Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, 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, 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 ...
''
See also
* Goo-goos
* U.S. Civil Service Reform
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 (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