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In the past, most Irish-Catholic voters had aligned themselves with the
Democratic party. In 1884, Republican presidential nominee James Blaine hoped to
siphon off some of those votes for himself. John Kelly, the boss of Tammany
Hall, the influential Democratic machine in New York City, had been a political
enemy to Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland ever since the governor shut him
out of state patronage. In this cartoon, Kelly auctions off the Irish vote to
the highest bidder, Democrat or Republican. The image represents the fear among
Democrats that Kelly would undermine Cleveland's campaign, as he had done to the
1880 presidential campaign of Democratic nominee, Winfield Hancock. Thomas
Hendricks, Cleveland's vice-presidential running mate, however, smoothed over
relations between Kelly and the National Democratic Committee. Cleveland would
go on to win New York, and thereby the presidency, by a narrow margin. |
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Warning
1860
