he
outset, the old independents, headed by Curtis, and reinforced by
younger men like Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Theodore
Roosevelt, of New York, broke the slate of the National Committee and
seated a chairman of their own choice. But the regulars rallied,
controlled the platform, and made the nomination. Blaine and John A.
Logan were selected, the former accepting the honor with secret
misgivings, for he had a clear understanding of the intensity of the
opposition within the party. The reformers went home discouraged, many
of them determined not to let party regularity hold them to Blaine.

Out of the nomination of Blaine grew the "Mugwump" movement, whose
influence was greater than that of the last bolt. The origin of the name
"Mugwump" is not entirely clear, but it was well known as an opprobrious
epithet, and was applied now by party regulars to the "holier-than-thou"
reformers. One of the regulars later quoted Revelation at them: "Thou
art neither hot nor cold ... so, then, I will spew thee out of my
mouth." They were more offensive to Republicans than were the Democrats,
while the latter were bewildered but cynical. "I know that to-day we are
living in a very highly scented atmosphere of political reform," said
one of the Democratic Senators a little later, "I know that under the
saintly leadership of the Eatonian school of political philosophers we
are all ceasing to be partisans, that we no longer recognize party
obligations, party duty, party discipline, and party devoirs; that we
are all to become reconciled to a life of political monasticism; but I
will continue to have one failing, and that is in my humble way to be as
watchful and as vigilant of the purposes, designs, and craft of the
Republican leaders as I have endeavored to be in the past."

The Mugwumps left Chicago and at once opened negotiations with the
Democratic leaders. The _Nation_ and the _Evening Post_ were already
with them. _Harper's Weekly_, which had been a Union journal in the war,
and Republican ever since, abandoned the party ticket. George William
Curtis, its editor, led in the revolt, and the Mugwumps met at the house
of one of the Harpers for organization, on June 17, 1884. Their problem
was whether to nominate an independent ticket and be defeated, or to
support and help elect a Democratic President, in case the Democrats
should be willing to cooperate with them.

Not all the reformers turned from Blaine. Whitelaw Rei