The Murchison letter was a political scandal during the 1888 United States presidential election between Grover Cleveland, the Democratic incumbent, and the Republican nominee, Benjamin Harrison.The fake letter historians believe tipped a presidential election The Washington Post
The letter was sent by the British ambassador to the United States, Sir Lionel Sackville-West, to "Charles F. Murchison", who was actually an American political operative posing as a British expatriate. In the letter, Sackville-West suggested that Cleveland was preferred as president from the British point of view.
The Republicans published this letter just two weeks before the election, causing many Irish American voters to turn away from Cleveland; he consequently lost New York and Indiana, and thus the presidency. Sackville-West was sacked as British ambassador.
History A California Republican, George Osgoodby, wrote a letter to Sir Lionel Sackville-West, the British ambassador to the United States, under the assumed name of "Charles F. Murchison", who described himself as a former Englishman who was now a California citizen and asked how he should vote in the upcoming presidential election. Sackville-West wrote back and indiscreetly suggested that Grover Cleveland, the Democratic incumbent, was probably the best man from the British point of view:
The Republicans published the letter just two weeks before the election, and it had a galvanizing effect on Irish-American voters exactly comparable to the "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" blunder of the previous presidential election:Charles W. Calhoun, Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888 (2008). by trumpeting Great Britain's support for the Democrats. That drove Irish American voters into the Republican fold, and Cleveland lost the presidency.
Aftermath Following the election, the lame-duck Cleveland administration brought about Sackville-West's removal as ambassador,Charles S. Campbell, Jr. "The Dismissal of Lord Sackville." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44:4 (March 1958), pp. 635–648. citing not only his letter—which could have been defended as a private correspondence unintended for publication—but also his subsequent interviews, such as one with a reporter for the New York Herald:
On October 1, Sackville-West had become Lord Sackville, due to the death of his brother Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Baron Sackville.
Cleveland returned to the White House by winning the 1892 election.
See also Anglophobia#United States Year of the Three Emperors
Notes
References
Further reading Brooks, George. "Anglophobia in the United States: Some Light on the Presidential Election." Westminster Review (130.1 (1888): 736-756 online, a primary source Campbell, Charles S. "The Dismissal of Lord Sackville." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44.4 (1958): 635-648 online. Hinckley, T. C. "George Osgoodby and the Murchison Letter." Pacific Historical Review (1958): 359–370. in JSTOR Newmark, Marco R. "The Murchison Letter Incident." The Quarterly: Historical Society of Southern California 27.1 (1945): 17–21. in JSTOR Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. A History of the United States since the Civil War. Volume V, 1888–1901 (1937). pp 58–64