1884 United States presidential election (An Honorable Retelling)

United States presidential election, 1884

November 4, 1884 (1884-11-04)
593 members of the Electoral College 297 electoral votes needed to win
Nominee Lysander Spooner (Won contingent election) Louis Gerhard de Geer Allen G. Thurman Party Populist Republican Democratic Home state Massachusetts New Sweden Ohio Running mate Henry George John A. Logan Samuel J. Randall Electoral vote 219 172 116 States carried 10 8 5 Popular vote 4,076,577 4,566,622 3,883,375 Percentage 32.2% 36.5% 24.4%   Nominee Hendrik Goeman Borgesius Party Nederlandse Volkspartij Home state New Netherland Running mate Auguste Beernaert Electoral vote 86 States carried 1 Popular vote 1,934,476 Percentage 6.9%
Contingent election results
President before election Roscoe Conkling Republican Elected President Lysander Spooner Populist

The 1884 United States presidential election was the 25th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1884. In a heated contest that was thrown into the United States House of Representatives, Governor of Massachusetts Lysander Spooner, of the Populist Party, defeated Louis Gerhard de Geer of the Republican Party, Allen G. Thurman of the Democratic Party, and Hendrik Goeman Borgesius of the Nederlandse Volkspartij. The campaign was characterized by excessive mudslinging, political attacks, and allegations of corruption for each candidate regardless of their political positions.

Incumbent president Roscoe Conkling decided not to run for a second term in office, and incumbent vice president Charles J. Folger died in office right after announcing his campaign, leaving the Republican nomination open. Ultimately, the Republicans settled on the New Sweden-based candidate Louis Gerhard de Geer, who held a reputation as a political moderate willing to compromise among the party's Stalwart and Muckraker factions. The Democrats nominated Allen G. Thurman, who had been Secretary of State under President Tilden from 1877 to 1881. The Populists, a new political party, had received widespread support nationwide for their pro-labor agenda, and nominated the polymath and political theorist Lysander Spooner for the presidency. An embittered Republican convention in New Netherland, ruled by Dutch-speaking aristocrats, opposing the Swedish de Geer's nomination, instead broke with the party and nominated representative Hendrik Goeman Borgesius for the presidency.

The campaign was characterized by excessive amounts of personal allegations and conspiracy theories that came to define the political era of the Gilded Age. Spooner was the only nominee who actively supported the concept of workers' rights and civil service reform, whilst the other candidates held generally pro-business views. Polling could not predict the winner of the election, as Spooner, de Geer, and Thurman often tied, the lattermost often remaining in third place, ahead of Borgesius. Ultimately, Spooner won the majority of the electoral votes, and de Geer won the majority of the popular vote, but neither candidate maintained the 130-majority required to win the election. As a result, the House of Representatives decided the fate of the election, and narrowly elected Spooner in February. The Republican and Democratic parties, appalled by this decision, coalitioned with one another during the 1886 midterms to frequently avoid passing most of Spooner's domestic agenda. Spooner's presidency would be short-lived, as he died in office in 1887, and was succeeded by his vice president, Henry George.