ABSTRACT
The election of 1888 was the third race in American history in which the candidate who won the popular vote lost the election (the others being the elections of 1824 and 1876). Cleveland polled 100,000 more votes than Harrison, especially because he won the entire South and solidified the Democratic lead in the Deep South, winning states there by large margins. But Harrison won the preponderance of states rich in electoral votes. He swept the West Coast states and the North, winning all the doubtful states except Connecticut and New Jersey These two states, plus Pennsylvania, were the only northern ones in Cleveland's column. (Cleveland even lost his home state, New York.) In all, Harrison won 20 states to Cleveland's 18 and beat Cleveland in the electoral college, 233 to 168. Curiously, many of the states that Harrison lost in the Northeast and the West were manufacturing states that favored protectionism, indicating that his endorsement of a high tariff had failed to resonate with voters there. Since the Republicans won not only the presidency but both houses of Congress as well, their victory was the most resounding of any in an era of close elections, and it offered an augury of the next three decades, during which the GOP was the dominant party in national politics. (The day after Harrison's victory, the New York Tribune congratulated the "Grand Old Party" on its victory, and the name stuck.) The Republican Congress, set to work on its mandate and in 1890 passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs to their highest levels in history
Frances Cleveland, the president's wife, gave instructions to White House servants that may have seemed implausible: "Take good care of the place.
