Editing Thomas F. Bayard (section)

===Election of 1884===
[[File:Interstate Industrial Exposition Building.png|thumb|Both the Republicans and Democrats held their conventions at Chicago's Interstate Industrial Exposition Hall in 1884.]]
{{main|1884 United States presidential election}}
Despite his rebukes at the Democratic national conventions in 1876 and 1880, Bayard was again considered among the leading candidates for the nomination in 1884.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=310}} Tilden again was ambiguous about his willingness to run, but by 1883 New York's new governor, [[Grover Cleveland]], began to surpass Tilden as a likely candidate.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=310}} After Tilden definitively bowed out in June 1884, many of his former supporters began to flock to Bayard.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=314}} Many Democrats were concerned with Cleveland's ability to carry his home state after he, like Tilden before him, became embroiled in a feud with the Tammany Hall wing of the party.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=317}} At the same time, the Tammany Democrats became more friendly to Bayard.{{sfn|Blodgett 1992|p=151}}

By the time the Democrats had assembled in Chicago on July 8, 1884, to begin their convention, the Republicans had already picked their nominee: [[James G. Blaine]] of [[Maine]]. Blaine's nomination turned many reform-minded Republicans (known as [[Mugwump]]s) away from their party. Bayard and Cleveland, seen as honest politicians, were the Democrats most favored by the renegade Republican faction.{{sfn|Blodgett 1992|pp=149–150}} Bayard was optimistic at the start of [[1884 Democratic National Convention|the convention]], but the results of the first ballot ran heavily against him: 170 votes to Cleveland's 392.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=332}} The reason was the same as in 1880: as Representative [[Robert S. Stevens (politician)|Robert S. Stevens]] of New York said, "I believe if he were President his Administration would be one in which every American citizen would take pride. I believe he is a patriot, but it would be a suicidal attempt to nominate him. His [1861] Dover speech would be sent into every household in the North."{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=325}} The voting the next day demonstrated the point, as Cleveland was nominated on the second ballot.{{sfn|Tansill 1946|p=332}}

The resulting campaign between Cleveland and Blaine focused more on scandal and mudslinging than the issues of the day.{{sfn|Welch 1988|p=33}} In the end, Cleveland eked out a narrow victory. Carrying New York was crucial for the Democrat; a shift of just 550 votes in that state would have given the election to Blaine.{{sfn|Welch 1988|pp=40–41}} Instead, Cleveland carried his home state and a Democrat was elected president for the first time since 1856.