* The allusion was to the Mulligan letters, which had been made
public by Mr. Blaine himself when it had been charged that they
contained evidence of corrupt business dealings. The disclosure
bad been made four years before and ample opportunity had existed
for instituting proceedings if the case warranted it, but nothing
was done except to nurse the scandal for campaign use.


Notwithstanding the exceptional violence and novel ingenuity of
the attacks made upon him, Blaine met them with such ability and
address that everywhere he augmented the ordinary strength of his
party, and his eventual defeat was generally attributed to an
untoward event among his own adherents at the close of the
campaign. At a political reception in the interest of Blaine
among New York clergymen, the Reverend Dr. Burchard spoke of the
Democratic party as "the party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion."
Unfortunately Blaine did not hear him distinctly enough to
repudiate this slur upon the religious belief of millions of
American citizens, and alienation of sentiment caused by the
tactless and intolerant remark could easily account for Blaine's
defeat by a small margin. He was only 1149 votes behind Cleveland
in New York in a poll of over 1,125,000 votes, and only 23,005
votes behind in a national poll of over 9,700,000 votes for the
leading candidates. Of course Cleveland in his turn was a target
of calumny, and in his case the end of the campaign did not bring
the customary relief. He was pursued to the end of his public
career by active, ingenious, resourceful, personal spite and
steady malignity of political opposition from interests whose
enmity he had incurred while Governor of New York.