Bill Jones made me do it!
pbfloyd
Posts: 745
After reading his post and pics of medals, I had an uncontrollable urge to buy one myself. I never even heard of these guys!!!!!!
0
Comments
Cool token!
"Ma, ma, where's my pa?" "Off to the White House, ha ha ha!"
Nifty!
-Amanda
I'm a YN working on a type set!
My Buffalo Nickel Website Home of the Quirky Buffaloes Collection!
Proud member of the CUFYNA
And you talk about my spelling.
<< <i>I had an uncontrollable urge to buy one myself. >>
That will happen.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
From the offical red book of morgan silver dollars
I wonder what the "faux pas" was?
<< <i>I wonder what the "faux pas" was? >>
One of faux pas was when the Blaine campaign decided to smear Cleveland by outing information about Cleveland having fathered an illegitimate child.
This was supposed to make people think Cleveland was immoral and not worthy of the office. (Remember, these were Victorian times.) That's the "Ma, ma, where's my pa?" stuff they came up with to try to link Cleveland to immorality. However, rather than engage in spin or counterattacks, Cleveland merely acknowledged it and accepted responsibility. This response earned Cleveland a considerable amount of sympathy rather than widespread scorn.
And when Cleveland won, his supporters taunted the Blaine camp's ridicule by adding, "Off to the White House, ha ha ha!"
Blaine's candidacy was also marred by a trail of corruption.
Edited to add: Don't listen to Ziggy! Blaine was a good man who had nothing to do with those negative campaigns funded by special interest PACs over which he had no control!
<< <i>He is the only Mainer ever to be nominated for the Presidency by a major political party. >>
If Muskie hadn't appeared to break down and cry in 1972, that might not be true any more. But unfortunately, that led to McGovern, and you know the rest.
The '72 election is the first one I remember. I remember seeing an electoral map which was ALL colored for Nixon except one tiny piece of the map shaded for McGovern -- Massachusetts. What a wipeout that was!
Ed Muskie was an outstanding man. Nasty questioning or articles by the Union Leader in Manchester, N.H., attacking his wife upset him, but he did not "break down." OK, we need to add a Muskie medal to this mix. Is there such a thing?
<< <i>Since when were the Republicans the party of protectionism? >>
From their very beginning (Around 1850). They were for high tarrifs and protectionism of American manufacturing. The Democrats were for low tarrifs, cheap imports and open markets. The question is at what point did they reverse their positions?
Condor already beat me to it about the Republican Party’s stand on protectionism. The party represented business interests, which benefited from keeping imported products out of the U.S. The Republicans came by the position honestly. The Whig Party, which is in many ways the father of the Republican Party took the same position.
Blaine was indeed tinted by corruption. In fact one cartoon of the period depicted him tattooed with it. It showed Blaine, wearing very scanty skivvies for the period with his body covered with the marks of his unsavory deals with businesses, especially the railroad industry. His aids and advisors are shown trying erase the telltale marks with sandpaper or covering them up with whitewash. Blaine tried all his life, but he could never escape the slogan, “Blaine! Blaine! The continental liar from the state of Maine!”
Cleveland might have fathered an illegitimate child. The mother was a mentally unstable lady who had an alcohol problem. She had been seeing several men, but when she got pregnant, Cleveland took responsibility because all of the other men were married. Cleveland was bachelor and was better able to assume the responsibility, which was an indicator of his near complete honesty.
Cleveland never took the child, who was boy, into his home, but he did provide for him financially. When the mother became mentally unstable and totally consumed by alcoholism, Cleveland went to court and had the child removed from her care. He was adopted by a well to do couple. As an adult Grover Cleveland’s “love child” became a medical doctor.
The scandals that were attached to Cleveland and Blaine left the votes with a tough choice. Would they vote for a man whose public life was spotless, but whose private life was scandalous – Cleveland? Or would be better to vote for a man whose public life was marked by bribes and payoffs, but whose private life was moral and decent? The voters chose Cleveland.
BTW 19th century token makes often issues pieces for more than one candidate. Here is the corresponding piece for Cleveland and Hendricks that goes with your Blain and Logan piece.
If you ever have a chance to see the cyclorama in Atlanta you should go. It is better presented than the one at the Gettysburg Battlefield. In one prominent spot you will see John Logan riding his horse into battle in a most heroic manner. I believe that Logan contributed funds to have that cyclorama painted, and of course saw to it that he was depicted in a good spot.
Like Blaine, Logan took money from the railroad industry, and his public record and reputation were far from spotless. He had presidential ambitions, but they never got beyond some delegate votes at a couple Republican conventions. This vice presidential nomination was the closest he ever came to the presidency.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
<< <i>So was this the first "lesser of two evils" vote for the Presidency? >>
No actually Cleveland is one of my favorite little known presidents. The guy was so honest that he had trouble functioning as a politician. His motto was “A public office is a public trust,” and he lived by it. One author called him the most apolitical president since George Washington. He was an honest breath of fresh air when politics were marked by dishonest politicians.
The crooked pols in Tammany Hall hated him. It was the reason why he had so much trouble winning New York State’s crucial electoral votes in his three runs for the presidency. He lost in 1888 because of that.
Historians rate Cleveland as a “near great” president for his first term. His second term was marred by the worst economic depression of the 19th century, the Panic of 1893. He also had a bout with cancer, which did not help the situation. Cleveland did not believe in big government programs or debasing the gold standard. For that reason money supply problems made the depression worse. He alienated so many Democrats that many of them were ready to disown him at the 1896 Democratic Convention. The result of the that was the rise of William Jennings Bryan and the “Free Silver” campaign.
The issuer went to the trouble of putting the classic 19th century mahogany finish on them. If you like that finish as opposed to red, which is my taste, these pieces are quite handsome. I own examples of both the Blaine and Cleveland pieces.
Quarterman Publishing, which printed it has been out of business for a long time.