The Candidates

Meeting in Chicago in June 1884, the Republicans nominated James G. Blaine (Maine) for President and John A. Logan (Illinois) for Vice President. The reform wing of the Republicans, the Independents or Mugwumps, bolted immediately, regarding Blaine as inimical to the cause of good government. The Democrats, sensing an opportunity when their convention assembled in July, nominated the reform governor of New York, Grover Cleveland, for President, and Thomas A. Hendricks (Indiana) for Vice President. 

Crowding the field were various third party candidates. The Greenback, or Populist, Party, nominated Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts. John P. St. John, of Kansas, was nominated by the Prohibition Party. And the Equal Rights party made politcal history by nominating a woman for the presidency, Belva Lockwood.