H.G. — 1886 upset

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts about the 19th century politics of Henry G. Burleigh of Ticonderoga and Whitehall.

It was a get-out-the-vote miracle that made Republican newspaper editor Anna McArthur cringe.

“It is enough to make a man denounce our system of government,” McArthur editorialized in the Nov. 5. 1886 issue of The Granville Sentinel.

Just three days before the election, Democrats recruited Edward W. Greenman, a little-known former deputy county clerk from Troy, who defeated two-term incumbent Republican Henry G. Burleigh of Whitehall in New York’s 18th Congressional District.

“Tuesday’s election in this county was characterized with quietness and general Republican apathy, a light party vote being pulled,” McArthur reported. “The Democracy,” as Democrats were sometimes called in hat era, “however, was out in force.”

Burleigh carried his home town of Whitehall, a Democratic stronghold, and all of Washington County, but Greenman chalked up an unsurmountable lead in the more populous Rensselaer County.

Burleigh said the timing of his opponent entering the race was a factor, as word did not reach rural communities in time before the election.

Republican voters, thinking Burleigh had no opponent, stayed home on Election Day.

The Knights of Labor mustered a huge voter turnout for Greenman in Troy.

Democratic organization was a key factor, but Republican infighting also played a role.

“By double deal and political assault upon the most influential man in their congressional district, certain Republicans have struck down the Hon. Henry G. Burleigh in a cowardly and unmanly manner,” editorialized The Glens Falls Times, a Republican newspaper. “”Jealously was the prime motive that instigated the unexpected assault.”

The descension dated back to the 1884 Republican National Convention, when Burleigh was a key supporter of incumbent President Chester Arthur, who lost the nomination to former Speaker of the House James Blaine.

Blaine lost the general election to Democrat Grover Cleveland, New York’s governor, who barely carried New York to secure enough electoral college votes to win the election.

Cleveland won by just 37 electoral votes, with a razor thin lead of about half-of-a percentage point in the national popular vote.

Counting and verification of votes was controversial, with Republicans claiming fraud and inaccuracy.

In 1886, Rensselaer County Republicans alleged that Burleigh, a wealthy business man, had not done enough, financially or politically, to help Blaine in New York.

There was evidence of dissatisfaction days after the 1884 election.

“Washington County Republicans threaten to give Congressman H.G. Burleigh a ‘cold shoulder’ should he come up for election again,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls, a politically independent newspaper, reported on Nov. 17, 1884. “It is said he exerted himself but very little during the recent campaign and permitted Whitehall — his town — to go against Blaine. The more charitably inclined of his party say the congressman is not to blame — he could not ‘stem the tide.’”

The scapegoat drum roll persisted two years later as the 1886 campaign season heated up.

The Troy Budget, a Republican newspaper, accused Burleigh of being disloyal to the Republican party, a claim the Troy Times, another Republican newspaper, disputed.

“But no man has the right to slander,” the latter paper said in an editorial, republished Oct. 1, 1886 in The Granville Sentinel. “There has been a good deal of this in private circulation against Mr. Burleigh. But now that it has been given publicity, it is only just to him that this lie should be nailed.”

Burleigh said he campaigned for Blaine at Whitehall, Fort Ann, Granville and Ticonderoga.

“The defeat of Mr. Blaine cannot be laid at my door,” Burleigh said.

The Democratic party was unable to field a candidate at their nominating convention on Oct. 19.

J.M. Barnett, a delegate from Fort Ann, urged fellow delegates not to leave Burleigh unchallenged.

“We want a candidate to vote for. If you can’t get a strong man, give us a weak man,” he said.

“There is no man in Rensselaer County who will accept the nomination,” said Gideon Reynolds, a Rensselaer County delegate. “If you (Washington County) will give us a man, we will vote for him.”

Democrats met again Oct. 26, and still could not field a candidate.

Rep. John Swinburne, an incumbent Republican who represented the Albany area, also lost re-election in 1886.

“Like Burleigh, Congressman Swinburne is slaughtered in the Albany District by the forces of Democracy,” The Granville Sentinel editorialized. “A man of brains and statesmanship evidently has no business running for Congress.”

Greenman, the last-minute candidate who defeated Burleigh, served one term and did not seek re-election.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.