[Rum, Romanism, Rebellion] Samuel Burchard Cost James Blaine The Presidency; Offers Article For Publication

SAMUEL BURCHARD was born in upstate New York. He attended Centre College and Union Theological Seminary and was assigned to a New York City Presbyterian Church.  Burchard was asked to join fellow Protestants ministers who had gathered to praise presidential candidate James Blaine. At the event, Burchard denounced Democrats as the party of “rum, Romanism and rebellion.” Translation: The Democratic Party was controlled by boozers, Catholics and ex-Confederates.  When the Democratic newspapers ran the phrase, Blaine’s campaign suffered a mortal wound from which it would never recover.  In one of the closest elections in American history, Democrat Grover Cleveland carried New York by a mere 1,149 votes and the national popular vote by two tenths of one percent. Cleveland won New York state and the election.

EDWARD BOK (October 9, 1863 – January 9, 1930) was an American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of Ladies’ Home Journal for 30 years.  During his editorship, the Journal became the first magazine in the world to have one million subscribers. From 1884 – 1887, Bok was the editor of The Brooklyn Magazine and in 1886, he founded the Bok Syndicate Press.

Offering a one-page, 4 ¾ x 8, ALS, from Burchard to Bok, marked private, 24 W 40^th St., New York, July 22 [n.y.] and lined with a black border, indicating a period of mourning. “I have just returned from a ten days tarrying in the Country & find yours of the 15^th.

“My answer to your request may be too late for use. It has been hastily written, but such as it is, it is at your disposal to use or refuse, to elect or reject, to take a part or the whole, to put it into the ‘Syndicate’ or into the wastebasket.

“Yours respectfully

“S.B. Burchard”

Folds, even toning.

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