1888 United States presidential election in Tennessee

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1888 United States presidential election in Tennessee
  1884 November 6, 1888 1892  
Turnout19.69% of the total population Increase2.svg 2.83 pp [1]
  StephenGroverCleveland.jpg Benjamin Harrison 1896.jpg
Nominee Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New York Indiana
Running mate Allen Thurman Levi P. Morton
Electoral vote120
Popular vote158,699138,978
Percentage52.26%45.76%

Tennessee Presidential Election Results 1888.svg
County results

President before election

Grover Cleveland
Democratic

Elected President

Benjamin Harrison
Republican

The 1888 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 6, 1888, as part of the 1888 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. [2]

Contents

For over a century after the Civil War, Tennessee’s white citizenry was divided according to partisan loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the five West Tennessee Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne [3] voted Republican – generally by landslide margins – as they saw the Democratic Party as the “war party” who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight. [4] Contrariwise, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state’s secession was equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction. [5] After the state’s white landowning class re-established its rule in the early 1870s, black and Unionist white combined to forge adequate support for the GOP to produce a competitive political system for two decades, [6] although during this era the Republicans could only capture statewide offices when the Democratic Party was divided on this issue of payment of state debt. [6]

White Democrats in West Tennessee were always aiming to eliminate black political influence, and during the 1880s they attempted to do this by election fraud and stuffing of ballot boxes. [7] During the 1888 elections, this fraud increased substantially and the GOP’s fortunes showed a decline at the state level to just 35 out of 132 state legislators. [8] This would lead to much more drastic changes in the future, but in the presidential race Democratic nominee and incumbent President Grover Cleveland, running with the former Senator and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio Allen G. Thurman won only 52.26 percent of the popular vote, against former Indiana Senator Benjamin Harrison (R-Indiana), running with Levi P. Morton, the 31st governor of New York who gained 45.76 percent. Cleveland’s margin was, given the political changes taking place, only a small improvement over his 1884 win in Tennessee; however, he did re-establish the majority-black far southwestern part of the state as rock-ribbed Democratic until the party turned towards Civil Rights under Harry S. Truman.

The Union Labor Party chose Alson Streeter, a former Illinois state representative, and Charles E. Cunningham as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates and received 0.02% of the vote. The Prohibition Party ran brigadier general Clinton B. Fisk and John A. Brooks and received 1.97% of the vote.

Results

1888 United States presidential election in Tennessee [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Grover Cleveland (incumbent) 158,699 52.26%
Republican Benjamin Harrison 138,97845.76%
Prohibition Clinton Fisk 5,9691.97%
Labor Alson Streeter 48 [lower-alpha 1] 0.02%
Total votes303,694 100.00%

Results by county

1888 United States presidential election in Tennessee by county [9] [10]
CountyStephen Grover Cleveland
Democratic
Benjamin Harrison
Republican
Clinton Bowen Fisk
Prohibition
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %
Anderson 73329.59%1,74070.25%40.16%-1,007-40.65%2,477
Bedford 2,47553.21%1,98842.74%1884.04%48710.47%4,651
Benton 1,07562.65%64037.30%10.06%43525.35%1,716
Bledsoe 48242.47%65357.53%00.00%-171-15.07%1,135
Blount 1,00930.55%2,23767.73%571.73%-1,228-37.18%3,303
Bradley 99138.99%1,51859.72%331.30%-527-20.73%2,542
Campbell 55923.20%1,84576.59%50.21%-1,286-53.38%2,409
Cannon 1,10461.68%65836.76%281.56%44624.92%1,790
Carroll 1,87543.74%2,35654.96%561.31%-481-11.22%4,287
Carter 45319.22%1,79776.24%1074.54%-1,344-57.02%2,357
Cheatham 1,06375.50%30521.66%402.84%75853.84%1,408
Claiborne 95940.29%1,39258.49%291.22%-433-18.19%2,380
Clay 74960.80%47938.88%40.32%27021.92%1,232
Cocke 84230.19%1,94769.81%00.00%-1,105-39.62%2,789
Coffee 1,81875.09%53922.26%642.64%1,27952.83%2,421
Crockett 1,25351.84%1,08044.68%843.48%1737.16%2,417
Cumberland 42239.70%63259.45%90.85%-210-19.76%1,063
Davidson 9,71549.15%9,32147.16%7303.69%3941.99%19,766
DeKalb 1,46251.88%1,31046.49%461.63%1525.39%2,818
Decatur 86253.14%75746.67%30.18%1056.47%1,622
Dickson 1,51164.38%76532.59%713.03%74631.79%2,347
Dyer 2,01367.14%92530.85%602.00%1,08836.29%2,998
Fayette 3,81379.54%98020.44%10.02%2,83359.09%4,794
Fentress 24929.09%60270.33%50.58%-353-41.24%856
Franklin 2,36274.42%67421.24%1384.35%1,68853.18%3,174
Gibson 3,76363.06%1,89331.72%3115.21%1,87031.34%5,967
Giles 3,18158.79%2,10038.81%1302.40%1,08119.98%5,411
Grainger 93139.52%1,41660.10%90.38%-485-20.59%2,356
Greene 2,19542.97%2,72253.29%1913.74%-527-10.32%5,108
Grundy 90178.28%21618.77%342.95%68559.51%1,151
Hamblen 89141.42%1,21956.67%411.91%-328-15.25%2,151
Hamilton 3,90637.81%6,26460.63%1611.56%-2,358-22.82%10,331
Hancock 48028.29%1,21671.66%10.06%-736-43.37%1,697
Hardeman 1,91363.03%1,09936.21%230.76%81426.82%3,035
Hardin 1,20839.99%1,78559.09%280.93%-577-19.10%3,021
Hawkins 1,62441.46%2,26057.70%330.84%-636-16.24%3,917
Haywood 1,96253.14%1,72446.70%60.16%2386.45%3,692
Henderson 1,51245.93%1,77253.83%80.24%-260-7.90%3,292
Henry 2,10362.55%1,19735.60%621.84%90626.95%3,362
Hickman 1,50956.26%1,13742.39%361.34%37213.87%2,682
Houston 74573.98%25925.72%30.30%48648.26%1,007
Humphreys 1,44376.35%39520.90%522.75%1,04855.45%1,890
Jackson 1,58574.24%54525.53%50.23%1,04048.71%2,135
James 30834.26%58765.29%40.44%-279-31.03%899
Jefferson 80625.43%2,34874.07%160.50%-1,542-48.64%3,170
Johnson 18011.70%1,34787.52%120.78%-1,167-75.83%1,539
Knox 3,92937.94%6,12359.12%3052.94%-2,194-21.18%10,357
Lake 45083.33%5910.93%315.74%39172.41%540
Lauderdale 1,83855.76%1,43343.48%250.76%40512.29%3,296
Lawrence 1,08962.66%63336.42%160.92%45626.24%1,738
Lewis 25465.30%13233.93%30.77%12231.36%389
Lincoln 3,28572.21%1,08223.79%1824.00%2,20348.43%4,549
Loudon 53030.13%1,22669.70%30.17%-696-39.57%1,759
Macon 87943.91%1,12055.94%30.15%-241-12.04%2,002
Madison 3,20667.47%1,47931.12%671.41%1,72736.34%4,752
Marion 1,19844.68%1,48355.32%00.00%-285-10.63%2,681
Marshall 2,29171.08%78624.39%1464.53%1,50546.70%3,223
Maury 3,65854.27%2,83642.08%2463.65%82212.20%6,740
McMinn 1,36440.92%1,90157.04%682.04%-537-16.11%3,333
McNairy 1,52549.97%1,51149.51%160.52%140.46%3,052
Meigs 74055.31%58944.02%90.67%15111.29%1,338
Monroe 1,45750.70%1,39948.68%180.63%582.02%2,874
Montgomery 2,62853.53%2,16444.08%1172.38%4649.45%4,909
Moore 98084.63%1028.81%766.56%87875.82%1,158
Morgan 36929.52%86068.80%211.68%-491-39.28%1,250
Obion 2,98770.10%1,16727.39%1072.51%1,82042.71%4,261
Overton 1,18864.88%61433.53%291.58%57431.35%1,831
Perry 84961.57%52738.22%30.22%32223.35%1,379
Pickett 36246.95%40953.05%00.00%-47-6.10%771
Polk 67951.48%63548.14%50.38%443.34%1,319
Putnam 1,36162.15%81737.31%120.55%54424.84%2,190
Rhea 1,17745.27%1,41454.38%90.35%-237-9.12%2,600
Roane 84429.14%2,04270.51%100.35%-1,198-41.37%2,896
Robertson 2,20363.20%95227.31%3319.50%1,25135.89%3,486
Rutherford 3,30255.07%2,47941.34%2153.59%82313.73%5,996
Scott 16410.35%1,41889.46%30.19%-1,254-79.12%1,585
Sequatchie 35066.04%18033.96%00.00%17032.08%530
Sevier 48914.56%2,83084.25%401.19%-2,341-69.69%3,359
Shelby 11,93258.86%8,27740.83%640.32%3,65518.03%20,273
Smith 2,10864.96%1,10233.96%351.08%1,00631.00%3,245
Stewart 1,27769.29%53629.08%301.63%74140.21%1,843
Sullivan 2,25558.66%1,51339.36%761.98%74219.30%3,844
Sumner 2,77868.76%1,22830.40%340.84%1,55038.37%4,040
Tipton 2,35161.21%1,48638.69%40.10%86522.52%3,841
Trousdale 79271.29%31628.44%30.27%47642.84%1,111
Unicoi 8511.55%64587.64%60.82%-560-76.09%736
Union 52325.55%1,50173.33%231.12%-978-47.78%2,047
Van Buren 42377.05%10318.76%234.19%32058.29%549
Warren 1,97573.80%63623.77%652.43%1,33950.04%2,676
Washington 1,53442.12%2,00855.13%1002.75%-474-13.01%3,642
Wayne 77239.03%1,20460.87%20.10%-432-21.84%1,978
Weakley 2,76460.22%1,76438.43%621.35%1,00021.79%4,590
White 1,63476.36%44920.98%572.66%1,18555.37%2,140
Williamson 2,35858.85%1,49137.21%1583.94%86721.64%4,007
Wilson 2,51857.55%1,67638.31%1814.14%84219.25%4,375
Totals158,69952.26%138,97845.77%5,9681.97%19,7216.49%303,645

Notes

  1. These Union Labor votes were not separated by county but listed only as a state-wide total. [9]

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References

  1. "1888 Presidential Election Results Tennessee Total Population Turnout".
  2. 1 2 "1888 Presidential Election Results Tennessee".
  3. Wright, John K.; ‘Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps’; Geographical Review, vol. 22, no. 4 (October 1932), pp. 666-672
  4. Key (Jr.), Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York, 1949), pp. 282-283
  5. Lyons, William; Scheb (II), John M. and Stair Billy; Government and Politics in Tennessee, pp. 183-184 ISBN   1572331410
  6. 1 2 Kousser, J. Morgan; The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910, p. 104 ISBN   0-300-01973-4
  7. Kousser; The Shaping of Southern Politics, p. 110
  8. Kousser, J. Morgan; ‘Post-Reconstruction Suffrage Restrictions in Tennessee: A New Look at the V. O. Key Thesis’; Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 88, No. 4 (December 1973), pp. 655-683
  9. 1 2 "Presidential election of 1888 Popular Vote". Géoelections. (.xlsx file for €15)
  10. "Popular Vote for Clinton Fisk". Géoelections. (.xlsx file for €15)