View source for Mugwumps

{{Short description|Dissident Republican activists in 1884}}
{{About|dissident 1884 Republicans in the United States|other uses|Mugwump (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox political party
| leader      = [[Henry Adams]]<br>[[Edward Atkinson (activist)|Edward Atkinson]]<br>[[Charles Francis Adams Jr.]]
| foundation  = [[1884 United States presidential election|1884]]
| ideology    = [[Anti-corruption]]<br>[[Classical liberalism]]<br>[[Liberalism in the United States|Liberalism]]<br>Pro-[[United States federal civil service|civil service]] reform<br>Pro-[[Grover Cleveland|Cleveland]]
| dissolution = {{circa}} [[1894 United States elections|1894]]
| predecessor = [[Liberal Republican Party (United States)|Liberal Republican Party]]<br>[[Half-Breeds (politics)|Half-Breed]] faction of the [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]
| split       = [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]<br>[[Half-Breeds (politics)|Half-Breed]] faction
| merged      = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]<br>[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]
| national    = [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]
| colors      =
| country     = the United States
}}
[[File:Bernard Gilliam - Phryne before the Chicago Tribunal.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|1884 cartoon by [[Bernhard Gillam]] in ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' magazine which ridicules [[James G. Blaine]] as the man tattooed with many indelible scandals. A parody of ''[[Phryne Before the Areopagus]]'', an 1861 painting by French artist [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]].]]

The '''Mugwumps''' were [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They famously [[Party switching|switched parties]] from the Republican Party by supporting the [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidate [[Grover Cleveland]] in the [[1884 United States presidential election]]. They switched because they rejected the long history of corruption associated with the Republican candidate [[James Blaine|James G. Blaine]]. Despite never formally organizing, the Mugwumps claimed that their influence was the reason that Grover Cleveland won a close election in New York, which in turn gave him enough [[United States Electoral College|electoral college]] votes to win the presidency. The jocular word "mugwump," noted as early as 1832 and applied to these activists derisively, is from [[Massachusett language|Algonquian]] ''mugquomp'', "important person, kingpin" (from ''mugumquomp'', "war leader"),<ref name=etymo>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mugwump On-line Etymological Dictionary]; [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-mugwump.html ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology''. 1996]</ref> implying that Mugwumps were sanctimonious or "holier-than-thou"<ref>''The American Pageant:  A History of the Republic'', Thirteenth Edition. Advanced Placement edition</ref> in refusing to be beholden to [[Partisan (politics)|partisanship]].

After the election, "mugwump" survived for more than a decade as an epithet for a [[wikt:bolter|party bolter]] in American politics. Many Mugwumps became Democrats or remained independents, and most continued to support reform well into the 20th century.<ref>Tucker (1998)</ref> During the [[Third Party System]], party loyalty was in high regard, and independents were rare. [[Theodore Roosevelt]] 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.<ref>Henry F. Pringle, ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography.'' (1931) p. 88.</ref>

[[New England]] and the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]] 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 rampant political corruption of the [[Gilded Age]].<ref name="Summers 2000">Summers (2000)</ref>

Mugwumps tended to be Anglo-Saxon Protestants who had been educated at prestigious universities.<ref name=james-c-carter>Lewis A. Grossman,  "James Coolidge Carter and Mugwump Jurisprudence." ''Law and History Review'' 20.3 (2002): 577–629.</ref> They felt that the government should be an aristocracy, led by elites who resist influence outside of the public good, as well as the influence of populism.<ref name=james-c-carter/>

== Patronage and politics ==
[[File:Edwin Godkin.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Many editors supported the cause, such as [[Edwin Lawrence Godkin|E.L. Godkin]]]]

[[Patronage in the Gilded Age|Political patronage]], also known as the [[spoils system]], 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]] 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.<ref>Hoogenboom (1961)</ref>

In the early 1880s, the issue of political patronage split the Republican Party down the middle for several consecutive sessions of [[United States Congress|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 (politics)|Half-Breeds]], led by Senator [[James Blaine]] of [[Maine]]. The Half-Breeds supported [[civil service]] reform and often blocked legislation and political appointments put forth by their main congressional opponents, the [[Stalwarts (politics)|Stalwarts]], led by [[Roscoe Conkling]] of [[New York (state)|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]], 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 (state)|New York]], one of the few closely contested states, historians attribute Cleveland's victory nationwide to the rising power of urban immigrant voters.<ref name="Summers 2000"/>

==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 goals were improved morality and increased efficiency. The 1884 law was also designed to contain the rising political power of the Irish Catholics.<ref>Edward H. Miller, "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): 341–363 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542837 online].</ref>

[[James C. Carter]] (1827–1905) was a leading New York lawyer and an influential legal theorist among fellow Mugwumps. Carter distrusted elected officials, accusing them of being faithful to special interests that help elect them, rather than to the public good. He was a proponent of anticodification, which is the idea of using judicial precedent to practice law instead of codifying the law itself. Carter was influenced by the concept of the "positive liberal state" from the Whigs, as well as by the Jacksonian skepticism of government actions "such as protective tariffs, bounties, and subsidies, by which a government confers favours".<ref name=james-c-carter/>

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]] 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 Mugwump movement could attract affirmative and optimistic experts, rather than just suspicious or cautious patricians.<ref>Raymond Cunningham, "'Scientia Pro Patria': Herbert Baxter Adams and Mugwump Academic Reform at Johns Hopkins, 1876–1901." ''Prospects'' (1990), Vol. 15, pp 109–144.</ref>

In Chicago, the Mugwump reformers worked through the Citizens' Association of Chicago, the [[Chicago Civic Federation]], 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.''<ref>David Paul Nord, "The Paradox of Municipal Reform in the Late Nineteenth Century." ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' 66.2 (1982): 128–142.</ref>

== Historical appraisals ==
[[File:A " bogus" cremation for the benefit of the "life-long Democrats" LCCN2011661357.jpg|thumb|''A "bogus" cremation for the benefit of the "life-long Democrats" ''1885 cartoon by [[Joseph Keppler]] from ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' magazine|alt= Illustration shows a group of men, some identified by name "Blackburn, D.B. Hill, Mclaughlin, Thurman, Jones, Hedden, [and] Hendricks" and some by association with quills behind their ears "Sun" Charles A. Dana, "Cincinnati Enquirer" John R. McLean, "World" Joseph Pulitzer, and "Star", with the newspaper editors pushing a wrapped figure labeled "This is the Mugwump! And don't you forget it!" into a crematorium labeled "Bourbon Crematory for Disbelievers in the Spoils System"; Hendricks stands on the right, next to an urn labeled "For Mugwump Ashes" and the others observe from the left. Puck and the figure representing "The Independent Party" are watching from a window in the background.]]
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.<ref>Blodgett (1966) and Hofstadter (1956)</ref>

Mugwumps tended to come from old [[Protestant]] 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]]; 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]] of the 19th century and their rejection by 20th-century historians, who embraced the government intervention of the [[New Deal]] and the [[Great Society]], is not surprising. To Tucker, their eloquent writings speak for themselves and are testament to a high minded civic morality.
[[File:Charles-Anderson-Dana.png|thumb|200px|[[Charles Anderson Dana]]]]

== Etymology ==
Dictionaries report that "mugguomp" is an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] word meaning "person of importance"<ref name=etymo/> or "war leader".<ref name="Khomami">{{cite news|last1=Khomami|first1=Nadia|title=What is a mugwump? An insult that only Boris Johnson would use|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/27/mugwump-what-is-insult-boris-johnson-corbyn-only-use|work=The Guardian|date=27 April 2017|language=en}}</ref> The Indianapolis ''Sentinel'' pinned the moniker on the Independents in 1872, but it was [[Charles Anderson Dana]], the colorful newspaperman and editor of the now-defunct ''[[The Sun (New York City)|New York Sun]]'', who revived it in March 1884, after which it achieved far wider currency.<ref>[[David Saville Muzzey]], [https://archive.org/details/jamesgblainepoli0000muzz/page/293/mode/1up?view=theater ''James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days'', p.293, n.2], Dodd, Mead & Co., 1934.</ref> Dana made the term plural and derided them as amateurs and public moralists.<ref>Sperber and Trittschuh, pp. 276–67</ref>

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]] sometimes hinted they were homosexual, calling them "man milliners".<ref>Allan Nevins, ''Grover Cleveland'' p. 178; Muzzey, ''Blaine'' p. 160</ref>

The epithet "goody-goody" from the 1890s [[goo-goos|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]], by the political columns of [[Mike Royko]].<ref>Sperber and Trittschuh, pp. 173–74.</ref>

== Notable Mugwumps ==
*[[Charles Francis Adams Jr.]], president of the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] and the [[American Historical Association]]
* [[Henry Brooks Adams|Henry Adams]], author
* [[Edward Atkinson (activist)|Edward Atkinson]], entrepreneur and business executive
* [[Louis Brandeis]], future Supreme Court Justice
* [[Charles William Eliot]], President of Harvard University
* [[Josiah Willard Gibbs]], professor of physics at Yale University
* [[Edwin Lawrence Godkin|E.L. Godkin]], editor of ''[[The Nation]]''
* [[Seth Low]], Republican mayor of Brooklyn in 1884 who lost his party's support due to his backing Cleveland.<ref>L. E. Fredman, "Seth Low: theorist of municipal reform." ''Journal of American Studies'' 6.1 (1972): 19–39 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27552970 online].</ref><ref name=kurland>{{cite book|title=Seth Low: the Reformer in an Urban and Industrial Age|page=48|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01Y6kqNdKZQC&q=seth+low+and+blaine&pg=PA48|last1=Kurland|first1=Gerald|year=1971|publisher=Ardent Media}}</ref>
* [[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]]''
* [[Moorfield Storey]], lawyer and [[NAACP]] president from 1909 to 1915.<ref>William B. Hixson, "Moorfield Storey and the Struggle for Equality." ''Journal of American History'' 55.3 (1968): 533–554 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1891012 online].</ref>
* [[William Graham Sumner]], social scientist, Yale University
* [[Mark Twain]], author self-identified as a Mugwump in his essay ''[[Christian Science (book)|Christian Science]]''<ref>Kay Moser McCord, "Mark Twain's Participation in Presidential Politics." ''American Literary Realism, 1870–1910'' (1983): 262–271. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27746102 online]</ref>
* [[Horace White (writer)|Horace White]], editor of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''

== See also ==
* {{annotated link|Carpetbagger}}
* {{annotated link|Civil service reform in the United States}}
* {{annotated link|Goo-goos}}
* {{annotated link|Never Trump}}
* {{annotated link|Reagan Democrat}}
* {{annotated link|Republican In Name Only}}
* {{annotated link|Scalawag}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
* Blodgett, Geoffrey T. (1966). ''The Gentle Reformers: Massachusetts Democrats in the Cleveland Era''. Harvard University Press. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_0674347501 online]
* Blodgett, Geoffrey T. "The Mind of the Boston Mugwump," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 48, No. 4. (Mar. 1962), pp.&nbsp;614–634. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1893145 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1556320 online]
* [[Richard Hofstadter|Hofstadter, Richard]] (1956). ''The Age of Reform''. (New York: Vintage Books).
* [[Ari Hoogenboom|Hoogenboom, Ari]] (1961). ''Outlawing the Spoils: A History of the Civil Service Reform Movement, 1865–1883'' (1982). {{ISBN|0-313-22821-3}}. [https://archive.org/details/outlawingspoilsh0000hoog online]
* McCord, Kay Moser. "Mark Twain's Participation in Presidential Politics." ''American Literary Realism, 1870-1910'' (1983): 262–271. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27746102 online]
* McFarland, Gerald W. ''Mugwumps, Morals and Politics, 1884–1920'' (1975). . {{ISBN|0-87023-175-8}}.
* McFarland, Gerald W., ed. ''Moralists or Pragmatists?, The Mugwumps, 1884–1900'' (1975). . {{ASIN| B000FHABUC}}.
* 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): 341-363 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542837 online].
* [[Allan Nevins|Nevins, Allan]] (1932). ''Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage'', the Democrat whom Mugwumps supported [https://archive.org/details/groverclevelands0000nevi_h6d0 online]
* Muzzey, David Saville. ''James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days'' (1934), the Mugwumps' great enemy [https://archive.org/details/jamesgblainepoli0000muzz online].
* Poteat, R. Matthew (2006). "Mugwumps" in the ''Encyclopedia of American political parties and elections'' (by Larry Sabato, Howard R. Ernst), p.&nbsp;233. {{ISBN|978-0-8160-5875-4}}.
* Sperber, Hans. and Travis Trittschuh. ''American Political Terms: An Historical Dictionary'' (1962), pp.&nbsp;276–77.
* Sproat, John G. (1968). ''The Best Men: Liberal Reformers in the Gilded Age'' (1982). {{ISBN|0-226-76990-9}}.
* Summers, Mark Wahlgren (2000). ''Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884''. (University of North Carolina Press).
* Summers, Mark Wahlgren (2004). ''Party Games: Getting, Keeping, and Using Power in Gilded Age Politics'' (University of North Carolina Press).
* 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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rac.2004.14.2.213 online]
* Thomas, Samuel J. (2001) "Holding the Tiger: Mugwump Cartoonists and Tammany Hall in Gilded Age New York." ''New York History'' (2001): 155–182. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42677783 online]
* Tucker, David M. (1998). ''Mugwumps: Public Moralists of the Gilded Age''. (University of Missouri Press). {{ISBN|0-8262-1187-9}}.
* White, Richard. (2017). ''The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896'' (Oxford University Press).

== External links ==
{{wiktionary}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Mugwump|short=x}}
* {{cite NIE|wstitle=Mugwump|year=1905|short=x}}

{{Grover Cleveland|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of political parties in the United States]]
[[Category:Political party factions in the United States]]
[[Category:Republican Party (United States) terminology]]
[[Category:1884 in American politics]]
[[Category:Defunct American political movements]]
[[Category:Party switching]]
[[Category:Political terminology of the United States]]
[[Category:Classical liberalism]]
[[Category:Liberalism in the United States]]
[[Category:Civil service reform in the United States]]
[[Category:History of the Republican Party (United States)]]