Mark Twain Speaking

54. Mugwump Rally

186 MARK TWAIN SPEAKING -54The Mugwumps were not a third party. They were merely dissident Republicans , some of whom may not have cared much for Cleveland, the Democratic candidate, but who cared even less for the tarnished Blaine. Aided by good speakers like Carl Schurz and George William Curtis, the militant independents were articulate, and they stirred up enough dust to disturb party line Republicans. When a Mugwump rally, Mark Twain presiding, whooped things up in Hartford, the Courant, organ ofthe standpatters, did not deign to report the occasion. Remarks as Chairman Mugwump Rally, Allyn Hall, Hartford, October 20,1884 Ladies and gentlemen: This is an informal meeting. I am asked to preside, and I believe I am the only legally appointed officer. I know it is customary to read a long list ofvice-presidents, but I forgot all about it; so all gentlemen present, regardless of their political complexion, will be kind enough to act as vice-presidents. As far as my own political change of heart is concerned, I have not been convinced by any Democratic means. The opinion I hold of Mr. Blaine is due to the comments of the Republican press before the nomination. Not that they have said bitter or scandalous things, because Republican papers are above that, but the things they said did not seem to be complimentary, and seemed to me to imply editorial disapproval of Mr. Blaine and the belief that he was not qualified to be President of the United States. I had read those papers in the past, and what they said appeared to me to be convincing. The editors seemed to me to consider him unfit to be President of the United States, and, as I had confidence in the integrity of my friends, the editors of the local Republican press, these things reduced my estimate of Mr. Blaine to what it now is. The personality ofa man or his character gives immense weight to what he says or does. Take General Hawley'S paper, for instance, and what it has said of Blaine in the past. I consider I am a Mugwump constructed by General Hawley. It isjust a little indelicate for me to be here on this occasion before an MARK TWAIN SPEAKING 187 assemblage of voters, for the reason that the ablest newspaper in Colorado--the ablest newspaper in the world-has recently nominated me for President. It is hardly fit for me to preside at a discussion of the brother candidate; but the best among us will do the most repulsive things the moment we are smitten with a presidential madness. If I had realized that this canvass was to turn on the candidate's private character, I would have started that Colorado paper sooner. I know the crimes that can be imputed and proved against me can be told on the fingers of your hands-not all your hands, but only just simply the most of them. This cannot be said of any other presidential candidate in the field. Text / Composite, based upon: Boston Transcript, October 21, 1884; MTB, 2:781. The text is probably incomplete. Mark Twain, scheduled to introduce Carl Schurz, surely added appropriate remarks. a Mugwump constructed by General Hawley / Like other Republican papers, the Courant, managed by Hawley and Charles Dudley Warner, had denounced Blaine after the damning disclosures of 1876. Yet when Blaine was nominated for the presidency in 1884, the Courant, again like other Republican papers, swung around to support him. The switch was too much for Warner, who resigned as editor. ...