Ohio History Journal

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THE OHIO DELEGATION AT THE

THE OHIO DELEGATION AT THE

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1888

by

 

 

EVERETT WALTERS

Instructor, Department of History, Ohio State University

 

When Governor Joseph Benson Foraker of Ohio arrived at

Chicago on June 16, 1888, to attend the National Republican Con-

vention, he found his fellow delegates in confusion. Despite the

Ohio delegation's commitment to Senator John Sherman by the

state convention of 1887, there was evidence that certain delegates

might break their pledge. The well organized Chicago boom for

James G. Blaine had led these Ohioans to believe that their old

favorite might secure the nomination. Other Ohio delegates were

backing a proposal that, if Sherman failed to receive an early

nomination, the Ohio vote should go to Congressman William

McKinley or to Governor Foraker. Would-be slate-makers glibly

predicted "Depew and McKinley," "Blaine and Foraker," and

"Depew and Foraker."   Lapel buttons of the latter combination

could be purchased on the Chicago streets.1 The Ohio vote ap-

peared as uncertain as it had been in 1880 and 1884.

Governor Foraker himself had been suspected of leading the

opposition to Sherman since 1887. His rise in Ohio politics had

been meteoric. His widely acclaimed 1887 Lincoln Day speech

in New York, his "No rebel flags will be returned while I am

governor" statement, his verbal attacks on President Cleveland,

and his bristling bloody-shirt oratory had won him a place in

national headlines. Such had been his Ohio following that the

Sherman adherents had demanded the Senator's endorsement for

the Presidency a full year before the national convention. Dur-

ing the spring of 1888 certain eastern and midwestern newspapers

played up Foraker's threat to Sherman, openly prophesying that

1 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, June 17, 1888.

228