Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
U.S. Presidential Election, 1884

U.S. presidential election, 1884

The U.S. presidential election of 1884 featured mudslinging and personal acrimony on a level never before seen. On November 4, 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland became the first Democrat elected to the Presidency since the Civil War, narrowly defeating Republican James Blaine. The race was decided in Cleveland's home state of New York, carried by the native son by just 1,100 votes - and awarding its electors, and the election, to Cleveland.

Nominations

Republican Party

Though it could have been his for the asking, incumbent President Chester Arthur did not actively seek the 1884 nomination. Though not widely known at the time, Arthur was suffering from Bright's disease and would die less than two years later. Meeting in Chicago, the GOP turned instead to James Blaine of Maine as their Presidential nominee, and John Logan as its Vice Presidential choice.

Democratic Party

Grover Cleveland of New York would be chosen as the Presidential nominee by the Democratic Party at its convention (also in Chicago), defeating a host of candidates who failed to claim the nomination in years past, including Thomas F. Bayard, Thomas Hendricks (who would be awarded the Vice Presidential nomination), Allen G. Thurman and Samuel J. Randall.

Greenback Party

The Greenback Labor Party dropped "Labor" from its name and chose Civil War hero Benjamin Franklin Butler as its Presidential nominee and Absolom West for Vice President.

Prohibition Party

What today bills itself as the nation's "oldest third party" nominates its third Presidential ticket, choosing John St. John for President and William Daniel for Vice President. The initial Prohibition Party platform was straightforward: an advocation for the criminalization of alcohol.

General election

Campaign

The issue of personal character marked this campaign. Former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine, had been prevented from getting the Republican presidential nomination during the previous two elections because of the stigma of the "Mulligan letters": in 1876, a Boston bookkeeper named James Mulligan had located some letters showing that Blaine had sold his influence in Congress to various businesses. In just one deal, he had received $110,150 from the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad for, among other things, securing a federal land grant. New York Governor Grover Cleveland, on the other hand, was known as "Grover the Good" for his personal integrity; in the space of the three previous years he had become, successively the Mayor of Buffalo and then the Governor of the state, cleaning up large amounts of Tammany Hall's graft. Thus, it was a huge shock when, on July 21st, the Buffalo Evening Telegraph reported that Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock, that the child had gone to an orphanage, and that the mother had been driven to an asylum. Cleveland's campaign decided that candor was the best approach to this scandal: they admitted that Cleveland had formed an "illicit connection" with the mother and that a child had been born and given the Cleveland surname. They also noted that there was no proof that Cleveland was the father, and claimed that, by assuming responsibility and finding a home for the child, he was merely doing his duty. Finally, they showed that the mother had not been forced into an asylum; her whereabouts were unknown. The Cleveland campaign's approach worked and the remained close through Election Day. In fact, many Republican reformers, put off by Blaine's scandals, worked for the election of Cleveland; these reformers were known as "Mugwumps". In the final week of the campaign, Blaine's campaign suffered a catastrophe. A group of New York preachers visited Blaine and made a speech castigating the Mugwumps. Their spokesman, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Burchard, made this fatal statement: "We are Republicans, and don't propose to leve our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion." Blaine did not notice Burchard's anti-Catholic slur, nor did the assembled newspaper reporters, but a Democratic operative did, and Cleveland's campaign managers made sure that it was widely publicized. The statement energized the Catholic vote in New York City heavily against Blaine, costing him New York state and the election.

Results

Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

See also


- President of the United States
- History of the United States (1865-1918)

External links


- [http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1884.htm 1884 popular vote by counties] Category:U.S. presidential elections Category:Close U.S. presidential elections Category:1884 elections

November 4

November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 57 days remaining.

Events


- 1576 - Eighty Years' War: In Belgium, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city was nearly destroyed).
- 1677 - The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange. They would later be known as William and Mary.
- 1842 - Abraham Lincoln, future US President, marries Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois.
- 1852 - Count Camillo Benso di Cavour became the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expanded to become Italy.
- 1861 - The University of Washington opens in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville - Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars in material.
- 1869 - The first issue of the scientific journal Nature is published.
- 1884 - U.S. presidential election, 1884: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his two non-consecutive terms.
- 1889 - Menelek of Shoa obtains the allegiance of a large majority of the Ethiopian nobility, paving the way for him to be crowned emperor.
- 1890 - City & South London Railway: London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.
- 1899 - Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published.
- 1918 - World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
- 1918 - The German Revolution begins when 40,000 sailors take over the port in Kiel.
- 1921 - The Sturmabteilung or SA is formally formed by Adolf Hitler
- 1922 - In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
- 1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States.
- 1928 - Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot dead over a poker game.
- 1939 - World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.
- 1942 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein - Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces on a five-month retreat.
- 1948 - T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 1952 - U.S. presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson.
- 1955 - The rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio after it was totally destroyed in World War II.
- 1956 - Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
- 1960 - Filming wraps on The Misfits, starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable -- the last film for both.
- 1966 - Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the Arno and Po rivers flood; 113 people die, 30,000 are rendered homeless, and countless Renaissance artworks and books are destroyed.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The United States turns control of the air base in the Mekong Delta over to South Vietnam.
- 1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins: Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (63 of whom are American).
- 1980 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin.
- 1989 - The congress of the Solidarity Party is inaugurated in Sweden. The congress decides, contrary to the proposal of the central committee, not to disband the party.
- 1993 - Jean Chrétien takes office as Prime Minister of Canada.
- 1993 - Bolivia becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1993 - A series of fires destroy 1000 homes in southern California, causing between 500 million and 1 billion USD of damage. Half of the fires turn out to be arson.
- 1993 - A China Airlines Boeing 747 overran Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon, injuring 22 people.
- 1995 - After attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings Square, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is mortally wounded by an extreme right-wing Israeli assassin. He dies of his wounds later that night in a Tel Aviv Hospital.
- 2001 - Hurricane Michelle hits Cuba, destroying crops and thousands of homes.
- 2001 - The Police Service of Northern Ireland is established.
- 2003 - The largest-ever solar flare is recorded.
- 2003 - Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy becomes the first person indicted under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He was eventually acquitted.

Births


- 1448 - King Alphonso II of Naples (d. 1495)
- 1470 - King Edward V of England, one of the two princes in the Tower
- 1575 - Guido Reni, Italian painter (d. 1642)
- 1631 - Mary of Orange, eldest daughter of Charles I of England and mother of William III of England (d. 1660)
- 1661 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (d. 1742)
- 1740 - Augustus Montague Toplady, author of hymn, "Rock of Ages"
- 1765 - Pierre Girard, French mathematician (d. 1836)
- 1836 - Henry J. Lutcher, Business leader (d. 1912)
- 1874 - Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak, Russian military commander (d. 1920)
- 1879 - Will Rogers, American humorist and entertainer (d. 1935)
- 1883 - Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (d. 1953)
- 1901 - Princess Bang-ja of Korea (d. 1989)
- 1908 - Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2005)
- 1909 - Skeeter Webb, baseball player (d. 1986)
- 1912 - Vadim Salmanov, Russian composer (d. 1978)
- 1913 - Gig Young, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1914 - Martin Balsam, American actor (d. 1996)
- 1916 - Walter Cronkite, American news broadcaster
- 1918 - Art Carney, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1923 - Freddy Heineken, Dutch businessman (d. 2002)
- 1929 - Doris Roberts, American actress
- 1930 - Dick Groat, baseball player
- 1932 - Thomas Klestil, President of Austria (d. 2004)
- 1937 - Loretta Swit, American actress
- 1944 - Scherrie Payne, American singer (The Supremes)
- 1946 - Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States
- 1946 - Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer (d. 1989)
- 1951 - Traian Băsescu, President of Romania
- 1953 - Carlos Gutierrez, American politician
- 1955 - Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland
- 1961 - Kathy Griffin, American comedienne and actress
- 1961 - Daron Hagen, American composer, conductor, and collaborative pianist
- 1961 - Ralph Macchio, American actor
- 1961 - Les Sampou, American musician
- 1965 - Wayne Static, American singer and guitarist (Static-X)
- 1969 - Matthew McConaughey, American actor
- 1969 - Sean Jean "Puff Daddy" Combs, American rapper
- 1972 - Luis Figo, Portuguese footballer
- 1972 - Tabassum Hashmi, Indian actress
- 1975 - Eduard Kokcharov, Russian handball player
- 1976 - Mario Melchiot, Dutch footballer
- 1986 - Alexz Johnson, Canadian singer

Deaths


- 1411 - Khalil Sultan, ruler of Transoxonia (b. 1384)
- 1584 - Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (b. 1538)
- 1652 - Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (b. 1597)
- 1669 - Johannes Cocceius, Dutch theologian (b. 1603)
- 1698 - Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician and mathematician (b. 1625)
- 1702 - John Benbow, English admiral (b. 1653)
- 1704 - Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist (b. 1654)
- 1781 - Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet (b. 1721)
- 1801 - William Shippen, American physician and delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1712)
- 1847 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (b. 1809)
- 1893 - Pierre Tirard, French politician (b. 1827)
- 1918 - Wilfred Owen, English poet (b. 1893)
- 1924 - Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)
- 1928 - Arnold Rothstein, American gambler (b. 1882)
- 1930 - Buddy Bolden, American musician (b. 1877)
- 1955 - Cy Young, baseball player (b. 1867)
- 1968 - Michel Kikoine, Belarusian painter (b. 1892)
- 1980 - Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (b. 1905)
- 1982 - Dominique Dunne, American actress (b. 1959)
- 1986 - Kurt Hirsch, German mathematician (b. 1906)
- 1995 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1922)
- 1999 - Malcolm Marshall, West Indian cricketer (b. 1958)
- 2003 - Richard Wollheim, British philosopher (b. 1923)

Holidays


- Roman festivals - start of the Ludi Plebeii
- R.C. Saints - Feast day of the following Roman Catholic Saints:
  - St. Charles Borromeo
  - St. Birrstan
  - St. Clarus
  - St. Emeric
  - St. Joannicus
  - St. Modesta
  - St. Nicander and Hermas
  - St. Philologus and Patrobas
  - St. Pierius
  - St. Vitalis
- Also see November 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Qudrat (Power) - First day of the 13th month of the Bahá'í calendar
- Italy - celebration of victory in WWI, the date of the Armed Forces
- Russia - Day of People’s Unity (or National Unity Day)

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/4 BBC: On This Day] ---- November 3 - November 5 - October 4 - December 4 - more historical anniversaries ko:11월 4일 ms:4 November ja:11月4日 simple:November 4 th:4 พฤศจิกายน

1884

1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar).

Events


- January 4 - The Fabian Society is founded in London.
- January 18 - Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
- February 1 - Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
- March 13 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
- April 22 - Colchester earthquake, England; the UK's most destructive.
- May 1 - the first proclamation of eight-hour workday by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. May 1st, called May Day or Labour Day, is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
- July 5 - Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
- August 5 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
- August 10 - A severe earthquake, magnitude 5.5, (intensity VII) occurs off the northeast Atlantic coast. The area affected extends from central Virginia to southern Maine, and west as far as Cleveland.
- October - International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
- October 6 - United States Naval War College established in Newport, Rhode Island.
- October 18 - University of Wales, Bangor (UK) founded.
- October 22 - The first woman recieves a degree from an Irish university. The degree is granted by the Royal University of Ireland.
- November 1 - The Irish Gaelic Athletic Association is founded in Thurles, Ireland.
- November 2 - Timisoara is the first town of Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
- November 4 - U.S. presidential election: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
- November 15 - The Berlin Conference which regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa begins (ends February 26, 1885).
- November 25 - British surgeon John Dooglee makes the first successful removal of a brain tumor.
- December 1 - American Old West - Near Frisco, New Mexico (now Reserve, New Mexico), deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys were terrorizing the area's Hispanos and Baca was working against them).
- December 6 - Washington Monument was completed.
- December 16 - World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Bechuanaland becomes British protectorate.
- Stefan-Boltzmann law reformulated by Ludwig Boltzmann.
- British Police officers go on armed patrol in London.
- Mark Twain writes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Environmental change


- The Water Hyacinth is introduced in the US and quickly becomes an invasive species

Births

January-March


- January 2 - Oscar Micheaux, American filmmaker and author (d. 1951)
- January 12 - Texas Guinan, American vaudeville performer (d. 1933)
- January 13 - Sophie Tucker, Russian-born singer and comedienne (d. 1966)
- January 21 - Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)
- January 23 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d. 1956)
- January 28 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, balloonist, and inventor (d. 1962)
- January 31 - Theodor Heuss, German politician and publicist (d. 1963)
- February 12 - Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1950)
- February 12 - Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist (d. 1957)
- February 13 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete and inventor (d. 1961)
- February 14 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)
- February 16 - Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (d. 1951)
- February 18 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
- February 22 - Abe Attell, American boxer (d. 1970)
- March 1 - Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician (b. 1820)
- March 13 - Sir Hugh Walpole, English novelist (d. 1941)
- March 17 - Alcide Nunez, American jazz musician (d. 1934)
- March 24 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
- March 25 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (d. 1950)
- March 26 - Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist (d. 1969)

April-December


- April 4 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander (d. 1943)
- April 6 - Walter Huston, actor (d. 1950)
- April 12 - Otto Fritz Meyerhof, Germn-born physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
- May 1 - Henry Norwest, Canadian World War I sniper (d. 1918)
- May 8 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States (d. 1972)
- May 10 - Olga Petrova English-born actress (d. 1977)
- May 14 - Claudius Dornier, German aircraft designer (d. 1969)
- May 27 - Max Brod, Austrian author (d. 1968)
- May 28 - Edvard Beneš, Austrian politician (d. 1948)
- July 12 - Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1920)
- July 23 - Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (d. 1950)
- August 23 - Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
- August 30 - Theodor Svedberg, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- September 17 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (d. 1920)
- October 11 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
- October 11 - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (d. 1962)
- November 19 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (d. 1942)
- November 20 - Norman Thomas, American social reformer (d. 1968)
- December 30 - Tojo Hideki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)

Exact month/day unknown


- M. Louise Gross, American politician and lobbyist (d. 1951)
- Claudius Dornier, German aeroplane builder

Deaths


- January 6 - Gregor Mendel, Austrian geneticist (b. 1822)
- January 25 - Johann Gottfried Piefke, German conductor and composer (b. 1815)
- March 21 - Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar (b. 1819)
- April 4 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist (b. 1858)
- May 12 - Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)
- May 13 - Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (b. 1809)
- June 25 - Hans Rott, Austrian composer (b. 1858)
- July 1 - Allan Pinkerton, American detective (b. 1819)
- July 10 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)
- November 25 - Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (b. 1818) Category:1884 ko:1884년 ms:1884 simple:1884 th:พ.ศ. 2427

United States/Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, founded in 1792, is the longest-standing political party in the world. It is one of the two major parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Currently it is the minority party in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. Democrats control 20 state legislatures, as do the Republicans (nine states have different parties in control of the upper and lower chambers, while Nebraska's unicameral legislature is elected on a nonpartisan basis). In 2005, the Democrats regained a majority of legislative seats nationwide. Of the two major U.S. parties, the Democratic Party is to the left of the Republican Party, though its politics are not as consistently leftist as the traditional social democratic and labor parties in much of the world. The Democratic Party is more notably factional than many major parties in the industrialized world, partly because American political parties in general do not have as much official power to control members as political parties in many other countries, and partly because the United States does not have a parliamentary goverment.

History

Beginnings

labor-1837).]] The Democratic Party's origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792. Today, that party is usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republican Party" to avoid confusion. After the disintegration of the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republicans were the only major party in American politics. For 20 years, different factions of the party contended for the presidency, whose candidates were nominated by congressional caucuses. In 1824, a particularly bitter election was thrown to the House of Representatives, and won by John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. Jackson, recovering from his defeat, gathered together prominent leaders, including Martin Van Buren of New York and even Vice President John C. Calhoun to support his next bid for the presidency. By the election of 1828, the unified party broke into two. One became the National Republican Party, and backed the incumbent President, and the other, which became known as the Democratic Party, after their insistence that the President hold a national mandate from the people, backed Andrew Jackson. The National Republican faction became the Whig Party (after their opposition to "King Andrew"), which would disintegrate in the 1850s when dissident Whigs and Northern Democrats formed the Republican Party.

Antebellum

Initially the Democratic Party was a coalition between Western pioneers in the Ohio River valley and Illinois - the "North West" of the U.S. at that time - and Southern planters and agrarians from the Jeffersonian coalition. This coalition was very similar to the one that Jefferson and Madison had worked to create, and lead to the belief that Jackson, and not John Quincy Adams, represented a continuous "Jeffersonian" tradition. This was in opposition to the Federalist and Hamiltonian conception of government which Adams was said to represent. The key issues were election access and the Bank of the United States. The Jeffersonians had opposed the first bank, but had allowed it to continue for 20 years of their time in power. The issue of the Bank, and tariffs would be the central domestic policy issue from 1828 to 1850, even though it was increasingly overshadowed by expansion and nativism in the run up to the Civil War. The Democratic Party would lose the presidency to William Henry Harrison, only to gain it back when his Vice President took office, and proceeded to enact many policies the party favored. James Polk would solidify the party's hold on power with a coalition that was increasingly based on holding a solid South and taking enough states in the North to win national power. The party also became increasingly associated with continuation of slavery, including pressing for more and more aggressive laws to enforce the recapture of enslaved individuals who had escaped, and for more of the Great Plains to be opened to slavery. This ran into the Missouri Compromise, which had set a free line, north of which slavery would be prohibited, in return for keeping a balance of power in the Senate. With the disintegration of the Whig Party in 1856 into two factions, the American Party of Millard Fillmore and the Republican Party whose first candidate was John Fremont, it seemed as if the Democratic Party would have a permanent dominance of political power.

Civil War and Reconstruction

In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Democratic Party became increasingly divided, with its Southern wing staunchly advocating the expansion of slavery into new territories, in opposition to the newly founded Republican Party, which sought to prohibit such expansion. Democrats in the Northern states joined the Republicans in opposing the expansion of slavery, and at the 1860 nominating convention the Party split and nominated two candidates (see U.S. presidential election, 1860). As a result, the Democrats went down to defeat with the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, a link in the chain of events leading up to the Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats divided into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Abraham Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. After 1864, the Democratic Party's main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party. The Democrats were shattered by the war but nevertheless benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Reconstruction ended, and the disenfranchisement of blacks was re-established, the region was known as the "Solid South" for nearly a century because it reliably voted Democratic and there was, in many places, effectively only one party, there being no significant Republican presence. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1885, the Democrats remained competitive, especially in the mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, and controlled the House of Representatives for most of that period. In the election of 1884, Grover Cleveland, the reforming Democratic Governor of New York, won the Presidency, a feat he repeated in 1892, having lost (but won the popular vote) in the election of 1888 (as had Samuel J. Tilden in the election of 1876).

Populism and Republican dominance

In the presidential election of 1896, widely regarded as a political realignment, Democrats favoring Free Silver defeated their conservative counterparts and succeeded in nominating William Jennings Bryan for the presidency (as did the agrarian Populist Party). Bryan, perhaps best known for his "Cross of Gold" speech delivered at the 1896 convention, waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern monied interests, but lost to Republican William McKinley in an election which was to prove decisive: the Republicans controlled the presidency for 28 of the following 36 years.

The New Deal

William McKinley The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression set the stage for a more progressive government and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the election of 1932, campaigning on a platform of "Relief, Recovery, and Reform". This came to be termed "The New Deal" after a phrase in his acceptance speech. The Democrats also swept to large majorities in both houses of Congress, and among state Governors. Roosevelt altered the nature of the Party, away from laissez-faire capitalism, and towards an ideology of economic regulation and insurance against hardship. After winning re-election in 1936, Roosevelt embarked on an ambitious legislative program that came to be called "The Second New Deal." He was stymied, however, by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as by the Supreme Court. Frustrated by the conservative wing of his own party, Roosevelt made an attempt to rid himself of it; in 1938, he actively campaigned against five incumbent conservative Democratic senators, and to appoint more justices to the Court. However, Roosevelt's attempt to chastise the conservatives failed when all five senators won re-election despite Roosevelt's efforts, and his attempts to add justices to the Court became derisively known as "Court Packing". Roosevelt's New Deal programs focused on job creation through public works projects as well as on social welfare programs such as Social Security. It also included sweeping reforms to the banking system, work regulation, transportation, communications, stock markets and attempts to regulate prices. His policies soon paid off by uniting a diverse coalition of Democratic voters called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), and liberals. This united voter base allowed Democrats to be elected to Congress and the presidency for much of the next 30 years. Under Roosevelt, the Democratic Party became identified more closely with modern liberalism, which included the promotion of social welfare, civil rights, and regulation of the economy.

Civil Rights Movement

In 1924 at the Democratic National Convention, a resolution denouncing the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan was introduced. After much debate, the resolution failed by just a single vote. This resolution later passed during the 1948 Democratic National Convention as part of a larger resolution endorsing civil rights. civil rights when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.]] The New Deal Coalition began to fracture as more Democratic leaders voiced support for civil rights, upsetting the party's traditional base of conservative Southern Democrats. After Harry Truman's platform showed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, many Southern Democratic delegates decided to split from the Party and formed the "Dixiecrats", led by South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond. Over the next few years, many conservative Democrats in the "Solid South" drifted away from the party. On the other hand, African Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican Party since its inception as the "anti-slavery party", shifted to the Democratic Party due to its New Deal economic policies. The national party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meanwhile, the Republicans were beginning their Southern strategy, which aimed to solidify the Republican Party's electoral hold over conservative white Southerners. Southern Democrats took notice of the fact that 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act on states rights grounds, and in the presidential election of 1964, Goldwater's only electoral victories outside his home state of Arizona were in the states of the Deep South. The degree to which the Southern Democrats had abandoned the party became evident in the 1968 Presidential election when every former Confederate state except Texas voted for either Republican Richard Nixon or independent George Wallace, the latter a former Southern Democrat. Defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey's electoral votes came mainly from the Northern states, marking a dramatic shift from the 1948 election 20 years earlier, when the losing Republican candidate's electoral votes were mainly concentrated in the Northern states.

1970s

In 1972, the Democrats nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern as the Party's presidential candidate on a platform which advocated, among other things, U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. McGovern was defeated in a landslide by incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, the former winning only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. By 1976, however, things had changed dramatically. Nixon, under criticism during the Watergate scandal, resigned from the presidency in 1974. Prior to that, his Vice President, Spiro Agnew had been forced out by a separate scandal. After Agnew resigned, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford, a Republican Representative from Michigan as Agnew's replacement. Thus, when Nixon resigned, Ford became the first President in the nation's history to have been neither elected President nor Vice President. Ford soon pardoned Nixon. Mistrust of the administration, complicated by a combination of economic recession and inflation, sometimes called "stagflation," led to Ford's defeat in 1976 to Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia. In 1980, Carter lost to Ronald Reagan after serving one term in office.

1980s

Instrumental in the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980, were Democrats who supported many conservative policies. The "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterwards, but they voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H. W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They were mostly white ethnics in the Northeast who were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion, and to his strong foreign policy. They did not continue to vote Republican in 1992 or 1996, so the term fell into disuse except as a reference to the 1980s. The term is not used to describe southern whites who became permanent Republicans in presidential elections. Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster analyzed white ethnic voters, largely unionized auto workers, in suburban Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for Kennedy in 1960 and 66 percent for Reagan in 1984. He concluded that Reagan Democrats no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially African Americans and the very poor. Bill Clinton targeted the Reagan Democrats with considerable success in 1992 and 1996. The failure to hold the Reagan Democrats and the white South led to the final collapse of the New Deal coalition. Reagan carried 49 states against former Vice President and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, a New Deal stalwart, in 1984. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, running not as a New Dealer but as an efficiency expert in public adminsitration, lost by a landslide in 1988 to Vice President George H. W. Bush. In response to these landslide defeats, the Democratic Leadership Council was created. It worked to move the Party rightwards to the ideological center. With the Party retaining left-of-center supporters as well as supporters holding moderate or conservative views on some issues, the Democrats became generally a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans.

1990s

catch all party In 1992, for the first time in 12 years, the United States elected a Democrat to the White House. They seemingly revived themselves only to lose both the House and Senate in the mid-year 1994 elections. While President Bill Clinton claimed and got credit for a balanced federal budget and welfare reform, congressional Republicans won on policy throughout the 1990’s. Clinton for example vetoed two welfare reform bills before signing the third, largely the same, right before the 1996 presidential elections. Labor unions, which had been steadily losing membership since the 1960s, found they had also lost political clout inside the Democratic Party: Clinton enacted the NAFTA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico over the strong objection of these labor unions, much to the disappointment of those on the left of the Party. When the DLC attempted to move the Democratic agenda in favor of more centrist positions, prominent Democrats from both the centrist and conservative factions (such as Terry McAuliffe) assumed leadership of the party and its direction. Some liberals and progressives felt alienated by the Democratic Party, which they felt had become unconcerned with the interests of the common people and left-wing issues in general. Some Democrats challenged the validity of such critiques, citing the Democratic role in pushing for progressive reforms.

21st century

During the 2000 Presidential election, the Democrats chose Vice President Al Gore to be the Party's candidate for the presidency. Although Gore and George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, clearly disagreed on issues such as abortion, gun control, environmentalism, gay rights, foreign policy, public education, trade unionism, alternative fuel research, global warming, judicial appointments, and affirmative action, some critics -- Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in particular -- asserted that Bush and Gore were too similar because they held the same views on free trade and reductions in government-funded social welfare. On election day, Gore won the popular vote by just over 500,000 votes, but lost in the electoral college by four votes. Some election observers blamed Nader's third-party candidacy for Gore's defeat. They pointed to the states of New Hampshire (4 electoral votes) and Florida (25 electoral votes), where Nader's total votes exceeded Governor Bush's margin of victory. In Florida, Nader received 97,000 votes; Bush defeated Gore by a mere 538. Winning either Florida or New Hampshire would have given Gore enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Florida by 538 votes in Florida in one of the most controversial elections, although he won the national popular vote.]] Republican Senators went from the majority in the 106th Congress to a split minority in the 107th Congress (with a Republican Vice President breaking a tie). However, when liberal Republican Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vermont) changed his party affiliation to unaffiliated and chose to quorum with the Democrats, majoritarian status went to the Democrats but they lost it again in 2002. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the nation's focus was changed to issues of national security. All but one Democrat voted with their Republican counterparts to authorize President Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Senatorial Democratic leader Tom Daschle pushed for his party to approve the USA PATRIOT Act and the invasion of Iraq. The Democrats were split over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and increasingly expressed concerns about both the justification and progress of the War on Terrorism and the domestic effects including threats to civil rights and civil liberties from the USA PATRIOT Act. In the wake of the financial fraud scandal of Enron and other corporations, Congressional Democrats were integral in pushing for and developing a legal overhaul of business accounting with the intention of preventing further accounting fraud. With job losses and bankruptcies across regions and industries increasing in 2001 and 2002, the Democrats generally campaigned on the issue of economic recovery. The Democrats began fielding Presidential candidates as early as December 2002, when Gore announced he would not run again in 2004. Ex-Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, an opponent of the war and a critic of the Democratic establishment, was the frontrunner leading into the Democratic primaries. Dean had immense grassroots support, especially from the left wing of the Party. John Kerry, a much more centrist figure, was nominated because he was seen as more "electable" than Dean. In the time from 2003 to 2004, layoffs of American workers occurring in various industries due to outsourcing, some Democrats (including Howard Dean and Senatorial candidate Erskine Bowles of North Carolina) began to refine their positions on free trade and some even questioned their past support for it. By 2004, the failure of George W. Bush's administration to find weapons of mass destruction, mounting combat casualties and fatalities in Iraq, and the lack of any end point for the War on Terror were frequently debated issues in the election. That year, Democrats generally campaigned on surmounting the jobless recovery, exiting Iraq, and counterterrorism. jobless recovery Despite strong campaigning, the Republican Party won across the board. Kerry lost both the popular and electoral vote. Republicans gained four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives. Also, for the first time since Barry Goldwater of Arizona won his first election to the Senate, the Democratic leader of the Senate lost re-election. In the end there were 3,660 Democratic state legislators across the nation to the Republicans' 3,557, and Democrats had gained governorships in Louisiana, New Hampshire and Montana. However, the Democrats lost the governorship of Missouri and a legislative majority in Georgia - which had once been a Democratic stronghold since Reconstruction. The most common hypothesis for why the Democrats lost was that the Republicans ran in opposition to gay rights and used state ballot initiatives against same-sex marriage to attract more so-called "values voters" to the polls.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_4] Other hypothesis include that the Democrats had been tagged with too negative of a public image [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_3] and that the Democrats failed to clearly articulate its true values, goals and issue positions.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_2] Flaws in the electoral systems in Ohio and Florida led some to speculate the validity of the results (Bush received a majority of votes in both states); these controversies led Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and several Democratic U.S. Representatives (including John Conyers of Michigan) to force a Congressional debate on the issue when the 109th Congress first convened and propose disapproving the election results, a proposal that the neither House approved. (See 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities.) Since then, many Democrats have voiced serious concern about the future of their party. Prominent Democrats began to rethink the party's direction, and a variety of strategies for moving forward were voiced. Some have suggested moving towards the right to regain seats in the House and Senate and possibly win the presidency in 2008. Others suggested that the party move more to the left and become a stronger opposition party. These debates were reflected in the 2005 campaign for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which Howard Dean won over the objections of many party insiders. Dean sought to move the Democratic strategy away from the establishment, and bolster support for the party's state and local chapters.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_6] When the 109th Congress convened, Democratic Senators chose Harry Reid of Nevada as their Minority Leader and Richard Durbin of Illinois to replace Reid as their Assistant Minority Leader. Reid convinced the Democratic Senators to vote more as a bloc on important issues, something which forced the Republicans to abandon their push for privatization of Social Security and instatement of the "nuclear option" to end judicial filibuster. The Senate did not vote on either proposal.

Factions

Centrists

Centrist Democrats identify with centrism and compromise. Though centrist Democrats differ on a variety of issues, they typically foster a mix of political views and ideas. Compared to other Democratic factions, they're mostly more supportive of the use of military force, and are more willing to end or reduce government sponsored initiatives, as indicated by their support for welfare reform and tax cuts. Prominent centrist Democrats in recent times have included former Arkansas governor and U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton, former First Lady/U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (New York), former U.S. Vice Pres. Al Gore (Tennessee), Gov. Tom Vilsack (Iowa), Gov. Mark Warner (Virginia), U.S. Sens. Joe Biden (Delaware), Joe Lieberman (Connecticut), Harry Reid (Nevada), and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards (North Carolina). This faction of Democrats are also affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council and are usually referred to as New Democrats.

Progressives

Many progressives are descendants of the New Left of Democratic Presidential candidate/Senator George McGovern of South Dakota; others were involved in the presidential candidacies of Howard Dean and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Progressive Democratic candidates for public office have had popular support as candidates in urban areas, the Northeast, the Midwest, and among African-Americans nationwide, though they have also been supported by other groups. Unifying issues among progressive Democrats have been opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, opposition to economic and social conservatism, support for universal healthcare and steering the Democratic Party in the direction of being a more forceful opposition party. Compared to other factions of the party, they've been most critical of the Republican Party, and most supportive of social and economic equality. Progressive Democrats have included Kucinich, Congressman John Conyers (Michigan), Congressman/civil rights activist John Lewis (Georgia), and late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (Minnesota).

Labor

One of the most important parts of the Democratic Party coalition is the labor vote. They supply a great deal of the money, grass roots political organization and base of support for the party. While Union membership has fallen over the last four decades, the labor union component of the party is still very important. The Union vote tends to be more protectionist than centrists in the party. The labor wing is concerned with issues such as the minimum wage, as well as protection of pensions, collective bargaining and access to health insurance. Prominent members of this wing include Andy Stern of SEIU. Other important union organizations in the Democratic coalition include AFSCME, UAW, and the AFL-CIO. Most of the members in this faction tend to identify more with the progressive faction of the party.

Liberals

Liberal Democrats are to the left of centrist Democrats. The liberal faction was dominant in the party for several decades, until centrist forces asserted primary control. Compared to conservatives and moderates, liberal Democrats generally have advocated fair trade and other less conservative economic policies, and a less militaristic foreign policy, and have a reputation of being more forceful in pushing for civil liberties. Liberals are increasingly identified as being part of the larger progressive wing of the party. Prominent liberal Democrats include U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold (Wisconsin), Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts) and Tom Harkin (Iowa) and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi (California).

Conservatives

The Democratic Party was once a very conservative party, with a very influential Southern wing, though this changed as conservatives started to join the Republican Party. Many on the conservative wing of the party were referred to by terms such as "yellow dog Democrats", "boll weevils", "Dixiecrats", and "Reagan Democrats". Conservatives who left the party were known to make candidacies against Democrats who desired ethnic integration; some went as far as to establish third parties in order to run against other Democrats in general elections. Eventually, most of the once large conservative faction switched to the Republican Party as it became more conservative in the late 60s and 70s. There remains, however, a viable conservative wing of the Democratic Party, one which was mostly southern. These Democrats have consisted typically of moderate conservatives who feel the Republican Party does not share the values they hold most important; these mostly include conservatives who disagree with the Republican Party's conservative views on trade, taxes and civil rights, who are critical of the policies and actions of the administration of George W. Bush, and who identify with the populism of past Democratic icons. Prominent conservative Democrats of recent time include U.S. Senators Ben Nelson (Nebraska) and Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) and Congressmen Ike Skelton (Missouri), Gene Taylor (Mississippi), Colin Peterson (Minnesota), and Jim Marshall (Georgia).

Notable groups

There are several ideological groups within the modern-day Democratic Party. As the party is made up of several groups with different ideologies, several sub-groups within the party have been set up to promote the ideologies each respective group holds. Although some of these factions do not have official organizations representing them, they are often well-represented within the party. African Americans have voted consistently for Democratic Party candidates in the 85 to 90% range, and as such can be considered a faction in the party. Democratic African American leadership coalesces around the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights activists and is generally considered liberal in outlook. Senator Barack Obama, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Congressman John Conyers are prominent leaders of this faction. The Democracy for America (DFA) political action committee generally supports fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates at all levels of government. It was founded by ex-Vermont Governor and current Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean during his presidential campaign; its current Chairman is James H. Dean, Howard Dean's brother. The DFA fights against the influence of the far-right on American politics and works to rebuild the Democratic Party "from the bottom up". One of the most influential factions is the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an influential non-profit organization that advocates centrist positions for the party. Members often self-identify under the word "New Democrat". Centrist party leaders founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale during the 1984 presidential election, believing the Democratic Party needed to reform its political philosophy if it was to ever retake the White House, a goal which had eluded the party since the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter. The DLC hails President Bill Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. However, critics contend that the DLC is effectively a powerful, corporate-financed mouthpiece within the Democratic Party that acts to keep Democratic Party candidates and platforms sympathetic to corporate interests and the interests of the wealthy. During the 20th century, this included the interests of finance capital with the involvement of the U.S. political families of Kennedy, Rockefeller and Roosevelt. The DLC was founded and continues to be led by Al From. Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa is the current chairman. The 21st Century Democrats is a political organization active since 2000 in assisting candidates it describes as "progressive" or "populist" in winning elections. Its strategy puts emphasis on training large numbers of organizers to work at the grassroots level and targeting specific campaigns it sees as important. It has strong ties to veterans of campaigns for the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone. The Congressional Progressive Caucus or CPC is a caucus of progressive Democrats, along with one independent, in the U.S. Congress. It is the single largest Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives, although it currently has no members from the Senate. Well-known members include Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The CPC advocates universal health care, fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into trade unions and engage in strike actions and collective bargaining, the abolition of significant portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the formation of a Department of Peace, the legalization of gay marriage, strict campaign finance reform laws, a complete pullout from the war in Iraq, a crackdown on corporate crime and what they see as corporate welfare, an increase in income tax on the wealthy, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government. [http://bernie.house.gov/pc/issues.asp] [http://www.house.gov/lee/CongressionalProgressiveCaucus/] As a key source of political contributions, volunteers, and field organizing expertise, Organized Labor holds significant sway in the Democratic Party. Former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt was a leading supporter of labor in Congress. Trade unions have often been a considerable source of support for the party, and several elections were lost when the Democratic candidates were viewed as less than sufficiently supportive of their interests. Civil libertarians also often support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state are more closely aligned to their own than the positions of the Republican Party, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose the "War on Drugs," protectionism, corporate welfare, immigration restrictions, governmental borrowing, and an interventionist foreign policy. The Democratic Freedom Caucus is an organised group of this faction. The Blue Dog Democrats are a congressional caucus of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, willing to broker compromises with the Republican leadership. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its thirty members some ability to change legislation. The name appears to be both a reference to several well-known Louisiana paintings featuring blue dogs, as well as a reference to the old "yellow dog" Democrats having been "choked blue." Traditionally, the color blue has been associated with conservative ideals, contributing to the caucus' name. The Progressive Democrats of America lends itself to the progressive ideology within the party. Founded by members of Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, it does not hold much sway in the Democratic Party, being considered more radically liberal than other factions.

Issues

The principles and values of any political party are difficult to define and apply generally to all members of the party. Some members may disagree with one or more plank of their party's platform. On the budget, the Democrats in the 2004 platform swore to halve the yearly federal budget deficit by 2009. They stated that they seek "a Constitutional version of the line-item veto to make it easier to root out pork-barrel spending." On a major issue affecting civil liberties, the USA PATRIOT Act, the Democratic agenda is to "change the portions of the Patriot Act that threaten individual rights, such as the library provisions." They further explained in their platform, "Our government should never round up innocent people only because of their religion or ethnicity, and we should never stifle free expression." The party is against racial profiling in the war against terror. On crime, Democrats place more focus on methods of prevention of crime rather than on what penalties are applied to crimes. They emphasize improved community policing and more on-duty police officers in order to help accomplish that. Their platforms for 2000 and 2004 also cite crackdowns on gangs and drug trafficking as preventive methods. The 2004 platform also calls for rehabilitation for prisoners, in order to "reintegrate former prisoners into our communities as productive citizens." Their platforms have also particularly addressed the issue of domestic violence, calling for strict penalties for offenders and protections for victims. On equality and nondiscrimination, citing that "a day's work is worth a day's pay," and that on average a woman continues to earn 77% of what a man does, the Democrats call for laws for equal pay. The Democrats wish to uphold the Americans with Disabilities Act to prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of physical or mental disability. The Democrats cite affirmative action as a method with which to redress past discrimination and to ensure equitable employment regardless of ethnicity or gender. On gay marriage, many Democrats have publicly supported civil unions or same sex marriage, but it is not yet an official position of the party as a whole, or any of the members of the party leadership in Congress. The legal standing of gay marriage is a subject of debate within the Democratic Party. In the campaigns for the Party candidacy for the 2004 presidential election, candidates were divided, with John Kerry supporting civil unions while Howard Dean supported same-sex marriage. Most Democrats support the continued legalization of same-sex marriage and/or unions and progress in their nationwide acceptance. Many Democrats consider gay marriage to be a civil right of Americans. On health care, Democrats typically call for "affordable health care," and many advocate an expansion of government funding in this area. In their 2004 platform, the Democrats affirmed the pursuit of federally funded zygotic stem-cell "research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering." On abortion, the Democrats believe that privacy is a constitutional right. Thus as a matter of privacy and gender equality, women should be allowed to control their fertility and pregnancy, including access to abortion, legalized under Roe v. Wade. Often supporters refer to a "right to choose," without a direct reference to abortion. Many Democratic politicians include in this right practical access to abortion through government subsidies. The party's proposal (in 2000 and 2004) for public policy on termination of pregnancy is for abortion to be "safe, legal and rare" - namely, keeping it legal by rejecting laws that include governmental interference in any individual matter, and reducing the number performed by promoting both knowledge of reproduction and incentives for adoption. On gun control, the Democratic Party has introduced various gun control measures over the last 100 years. Most notable of these is the National Firearms Act of 1934 (signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt), the 1939 Gun Control Act (also signed into law by FDR), the 1968 Gun Control Act (introduced by Senator Dodd and heavily endorsed by Senator Edward Kennedy), the Brady law of 1993 (signed by President Bill Clinton), and the Crime Control Act of 1994 (also signed by Bill Clinton). However, many Democrats, particularly rural Democrats and especially southern and western Democrats, have dissented and favored more freedom to possess firearms. In the national platform for 2004, the only statement explicitly favoring gun control was a plank calling for renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban .

Symbols

Assault Weapons Ban On January 19, 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" for the first time symbolized the Democratic Party as a donkey. Since then, the donkey has been widely used as a symbol of the Party. The DNC's official logo, pictured above, depicts a stylized kicking donkey. In the media, Democrats (and states which consistently vote Democratic) have relatively recently been depicted as blue, while Republicans, and the states in which they dominate, as red. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Democratic Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Ohio was the rooster, as opposed to the Republican eagle. This symbol still appears on Kentucky and Indiana ballots. For the majority of the 20th Century, Missouri Democrats used the Statue of Liberty as their ballot emblem. This meant that when Libertarian candidates received ballot access in Missouri in 1976, they could not use the Statue of Liberty, their national symbol, as the ballot emblem. Missouri Libertarians instead used the Liberty Bell until 1995, when the mule became Missouri's state animal. From 1995 to 2004, there was some confusion among voters, as the Democratic ticket was marked with the Statue of Liberty, and it seemed that the Libertarians were using a donkey. The Democratic Party draws on its history of politicians (Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton), programs (Social Security, minimum wage, Medicare) and goals (expanded health insurance, greater incomes for average U.S. citizens, progressive taxation, and an internationalist March 18, 1837–June 24, 1908) was the 22nd (1885–1889) and 24th (1893–1897) President of the United States, and the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was the only Democrat elected to the presidency in the era of Republican political domination between the American Civil War and the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Cleveland was a hard worker and was scrupulously honest at a time when many politicians were neither. Critics complained that he had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic problems in his second term. He lost control of his Democratic party to the agrarians and silverites in 1896.

Youth and early political career

Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey to the Rev. Richard Cleveland and Anne Neal. He was one of nine children. His father was a Presbyterian minister, and as the church frequently transferred its ministers, the family moved many times, mainly around central and western New York State. As a lawyer in Buffalo, he became notable for his single-minded concentration upon whatever task faced him. He was elected sheriff of Erie County, New York in 1870 and, while in that post, carried out at least two hangings of condemned criminals. Political opponents would later hold this against him, calling him the "Buffalo Hangman". Cleveland stated that he wished to take the responsibility for the executions himself, and not pass it along to subordinates. At 44, he emerged into a political prominence that carried him to the White House in three years. Running as a reformer, he was elected mayor of Buffalo in 1881, with the slogan "Public Office is a Public Trust" as his trademark of office. In 1882 he was elected Governor of New York.

First Term as President

Governor of New York Governor of New York Cleveland won the Presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans called "Mugwumps", who disliked the record of his opponent, Senator James G. Blaine of Maine. The campaign was relatively negative. To counter Cleveland's image of purity his opponents reported that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo.

Personal Life

Although Cleveland never publicly admitted or denied the rumor, he did admit to paying child support to Maria Crofts Halpin, the woman who claimed he fathered her child, who was named Oscar Folsom Cleveland, in 1874. Halpin was involved with several men at the time, including Cleveland's law partner and mentor, Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was named. Cleveland is believed to have assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them). After Cleveland's election as President, Democra