Talk:1880 United States presidential election

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Featured article1880 United States presidential election is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Featured topic star1880 United States presidential election is the main article in the 1880 United States presidential election series, a featured topic. This is identified as among the best series of articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on November 3, 2015.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
October 6, 2015Featured article candidatePromoted
March 2, 2017Featured topic candidatePromoted
Current status: Featured article

Popular Vote Difference[edit]

The article suggest Garfield won by less than 2,000 votes, but the map says it was more like 9,000.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.19.101.114 (talk) 06:51, 21 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Electoral map[edit]

Explain the little bit of blue at the bottom of California, please.

Syd1435 05:47, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

5 California electors cast votes for the Democratic; one cast a vote for the Republican Garfield. -- Decumanus 05:51, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

Electoral picture peculiarity[edit]

Why is the graphic depiction of electoral votes skewed? Rarely nowadays does one see democratic votes colored red and and republican votes blue. --maru (talk) Contribs 20:51, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This post has been copied to Wikipedia talk:Style for U.S. presidential election, yyyy#Electoral picture peculiarity. Please direct your responses there.
DLJessup (talk) 21:37, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Georgia vote[edit]

What is the source for Georgia not voting until 11/8/1880? The New York Times ran an article on 11/6/1880 with this headline: "GEORGIA'S BOURBON SOLIDITY.; THE DEMOCRATS GIVE HANCOCK ABOUT 35,000, BUT ARE BADLY SHAKEN UP." Chronicler3 02:57, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The source is the National Archives. That datum was actually in the very first version of this page, which was essentially copy-and-pasted from the National Archives, and has survived ever since.
The confusion arises because they're not talking about the popular vote, but the electoral vote. Under the Constitution, electors are all supposed to cast their ballots on the same day, and, at the time, Congress had set that date to be the first Wednesday in December. There is a very strong argument that Georgia's electoral votes were constitutionally invalid and should not be included in the result.
DLJessup (talk) 16:01, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Response. Interesting. In 1856, the Electors in Wisconsin were not able to meet on the appointed date due to a heavy snow, and they did not meet until the next day. The National Archives page does not mention the 1856 incident but mentions a similar incident in 1880. Chronicler3 22:41, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My suspicion is that the Wisconsin electoral vote wasn't disputed in Congress in 1856, while the Georgia electoral vote in 1880 was so questioned. There are probably a few reasons for this:
  • The Wisconsin voters in 1856 were clearly working in good faith: they had attempted to meet on the appointed day, and, when they couldn't, they met as soon as they could. The Georgia voters, on the other hand, met a week late.
  • In 1880, the Civil War was still only fifteen years past, and Georgia was an ex-Confederate state in a Congress run by the Republicans. There would have been strong suspicion that Georgia had been up to some shenanigans.
DLJessup (talk) 15:13, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hancock[edit]

Hancock was not ridiculed as disloyal. In fact, the Republicans tended to avoid direct attacks on the general, focusing instead on his cronies.--Idols of Mud 21:21, 11 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Anti-Masons in 1880[edit]

The anti-masonic movement of the late nineteenth century re-entered politics before 1880. The first national convention of this second wave of Anti-Masons assembled in the Second Congregational Church building in Oberlin OH in 5/22-23/1872 and nominated Charles F. Adams for President. He declined to run, and no replacement nominee was chosen. In 1876, the party held its second national convention in Liberty Hall, Pittsburgh, from 6/8-10/1876, where they nominated James B. Walker for President. Walker received 459 votes in the election. Phelps was nominated in 1880, but I have not been seen any information on where the national convention was held. The 1884 ticket of the party dropped out of the race, and the 1888 ticket was the last one offered by the party. Sources: James T. Havel, US Presidential Candidates and the Elections; Ohio Elects the President; CQ's Presidential Elections Since 1789. Chronicler3 16:14, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

California's vote[edit]

There is an error regarding the second paragraph in this section. "Notably, Garfield won the presidency without California. No presidential candidate managed to reproduce this feat until Woodrow Wilson's victory in the 1912 election and no Republican presidential candidate managed to reproduce this feat until George W. Bush's victory in the 2000 election."

Either this is untrue or the map for the 1884 election (seen at the top of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1884) is. As California is clearly shown as being won by the losing candidate, James G. Blaine, and not the winning, Grover Cleveland.

Republican Presidential Ballot Infobox[edit]

This is becoming very, VERY, painful to do, not only because the information is incomplete, but it is SO repetitive. :p
Doing what I can to complete it with what I have, but I wish to store it here in case I might lose it. --Ariostos (talk) 16:16, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Not exactly sure how to properly size it, though at least we have it now. --Ariostos (talk) 16:38, 10 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]


Presidential Ballot
Ballot 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th
Ulysses S. Grant 304 305 305 305 - - 305 306 308 305 305 304 305 305 309 306 303 305 305 308
James G. Blaine 284 282 282 281 - - 281 284 282 282 281 283 285 285 281 283 284 283 279 276
John Sherman 93 94 93 95 - - 94 91 90 92 93 92 89 89 88 88 90 91 96 93
George F. Edmunds 34 32 32 32 - - 32 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31
Elihu B. Washburne 30 31 31 31 - - 31 32 32 32 32 33 33 35 36 36 36 35 32 35
William Windom 10 10 10 10 - - 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
James A. Garfield 0 1 1 1 - - 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Others 0 0 1 0 - - 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1
Presidential Ballot
Ballot 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 32nd 33rd 34th 35th 36th
Ulysses S. Grant 305 305 - - 302 303 306 307 305 306 308 309 309 312 313 306
James G. Blaine 276 275 - - 281 280 277 279 278 279 276 270 276 275 257 42
John Sherman 96 97 - - 94 93 93 91 116 120 118 117 110 107 99 3
George F. Edmunds 31 31 - - 31 31 31 31 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 0
Elihu B. Washburne 35 35 - - 35 36 36 35 35 33 37 44 44 30 23 5
William Windom 10 10 - - 10 10 10 10 7 4 3 3 4 4 3 0
James A. Garfield 1 1 - - 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 17 50 399
Others 1 1 - - 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

Notes; to keep track of "Others"

Benjamin Harrison: 1 vote - 3rd Ballot

Rutherford B Hayes: 1 vote - 10th, 11th, 12th Ballots

George W McCrary: 1 vote - 13th Ballot

Edmund J Davis: 1 vote - 17th Ballot

John F Hartranft: 1 vote - 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd Ballots

Philip H Sheridan: 1 vote - 30th Ballot

Roscoe Conkling: 1 vote - 31st Ballot

Results Table[edit]

Not sure why someone is removing the results-by-state table. Such a sortable table of results-by-state is found on every single MAIN presidential article up to and including 2012. Putting it in the sub-article further analyzing the results too is fine, but it most certainly belongs in the main article. Those who look up the 1880 election should be able to see which candidate won what state with what percentage by what margin just as they can for every other election. Or sort the table by my most and least Democratic or Republican based on margin or percentage. That's why these tables are found on every main presidential election article. Going into further elaboration about WHY the results turned out the way they did is fine for the sub-article. Inqvisitor (talk) 09:37, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

For one thing: it's not cited to a reliable source. That's a problem. If you can find a reliable source, great, let's use it, but I've come up empty so far. For another: it's huge and takes up way too much space in the article, which is why I moved it into a sub-article. --Coemgenus (talk) 10:02, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
the cite is Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836-1892 (Johns Hopkins Press, 1955) pp 247-57....a standard RS. It's useful so we should keep it in my opinion. Rjensen (talk) 11:37, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for that, Dr. Jensen. My main concern was having uncited material. There are a few libraries in my area that hold that book, including one to which I have alumni access. It will likely prove useful in this and future articles. Thanks again. --Coemgenus (talk) 12:03, 9 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations![edit]

Congratulations to all the contributors to this featured article. You deserve a lot of applause, recognition and appreciation. What a wonderful article.

  Bfpage |leave a message  09:32, 3 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Now a FA in Chinese Wikipedia[edit]

I have translated this article to Chinese Wikipedia here and promoted to FA status, and I want to thank User:Coemgenus for his effort to write this amazing article. --Jarodalien (talk) 13:53, 11 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Readjuster in Virginia[edit]

According to the county map of the 1880 election, a candidate with the last name of Readjuster won several counties in Virginia. Who on Earth is Readjuster? Also, according to both this article and the 1880 election in Virginia article, the popular votes were split 60.53% for Hancock and 39.47% for Garfield. Is this a mistake? Where those counties marked Readjuster really throwaway votes or are they suppose to go for either Hancock or Garfield? --JCC the Alternate Historian (talk) 21:10, 19 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the Readjuster Party was just a split of the Democrats in Virginia that year and not a person named Readjuster. According to the article, in Virginia, a split in the Democratic Party occurred over the payment of state debts led to two Democratic electoral slates being nominated, one by the regular debt-paying "Funder" Democrats, the other by the "Readjuster" or anti-debt paying faction of the party. The Republicans initially hoped the split could lead Garfield to win the state, but the results were otherwise. However both slates ended up being pledged to the Hancock-English ticket. The Readjuster ticket received 31,527 votes, but the Funder Democrats took 96,449 votes, enough to defeat the Republicans, whose slate had 84,020. --JCC the Alternate Historian (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Number format (mixed fraction) in "Garfield lingered for two-and-a-half months before dying on September 19, 1881."[edit]

@Tkbrett: MOS:FRAC says "Mixed numbers are usually given in figures"; there is no need to spell out the numbers. Also, spelled-out numbers often constitute an invitation for editors to add completely useless and distracting hyphens, as in this case. From any perspective, "two-and-a-half months" is wrong. Chris the speller yack 15:50, 27 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Makes sense. Thanks for explaining -- I'll revert myself. Tkbrett (✉) 16:45, 27 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]