Where's My Pa?

OK, after zooming through a century and a half of American political history, let's go over some of it in more detail.

The 1884 presidential election was an interesting one. A Republican streak of six consecutive presidential election victories was broken by the Democratic Governor of New York, Grover Cleveland.

I have already done some writing about a tendency to think that political life in our time is dirtier than was the case in the past. To further refute that point of view, I am linking to this description of the mud-slinging that characterized the 1884 campaign between Cleveland and Republican James G. Blaine of Maine (and yes, Democrats made use of that rhyme).

My fellow presidential trivia buffs will of course remember Cleveland as the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. He won the popular vote three times in a row, but in 1888 he lost in the electoral college to Republican Benjamin Harrison. That election made John Harrison the answer to another trivia question: Who was the only man to be the son of one president, and the father of another?