Long before the Foothills communities formed the ignited Richard Nixon’s political career, political ‘dirty tricks’ in American politics were often the rule, rather than the exception.
Today, historians point to a political ‘dirty trick’ hatched in a Pomona general store 125 years ago as the key factor in America’s only interrupted presidency.
In 1888, as Democratic President Grover Cleveland faced Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison in a reelection bid, a Pomona horticulturist and Republican named George Osgoodby posed as a naturalized English citizen named “Charles Murchison” to query British Ambassador L. S. Sackville-West as to which candidate the Ambassador felt would best serve England’s interests in terms of relations with Canada and import tariffs.
Osgoodby hoped to ensnare the Ambassador into saying a time when America’s growing Irish population still harbored considerable antipathy towards the English.
“(T)here is every reason to believe, that while upholding the position (Cleveland) has taken, he will manifest a spirit of conciliation in dealing with the question involved…”
Fraud epidemic and organized
Upon receipt of Sackville’s response, Osgoodby contacted General Harrison Grey Otis, publisher of the an armed Osgoodby barricaded in his home fearing Democratic reprisals.
Otis publicized Sackville - West’s response, which Cleveland important electoral votes and the election.
Yet, the Murchison letter might be considered today the culprit in sealing Cleveland’s fate only because it was better publicized than another scandal other historians point to as the real lynchpin of the botched 1888 election. 1880s.
Votes bought 
Political bosses of both parties organized fraudulent voters into “colonizers” who were paid off and dispatched en mass to change the vote in questionable precincts. ‘Floaters’ sold their votes to party bosses and ‘repeaters’ were multiple voters who often used disguises.
When Democrats uncovered the vote-buying scheme, Republicans claimed it was a forgery and Harrison secured the necessary electoral votes before the truth was revealed.
Yet the ‘Murchison letter’ overtook the vote-buying scheme in the public imagination as the key to the stolen election because, unlike the vote-buying scandal, it spawned a popular song.
I’ve a letter from Pomona/Baby mine, baby mine. And to us it is a stunner, Baby mine, baby mine. Mr. Murchison had the zeal/To entrap an English veal, Which has made the (Democrats) squeal, Baby mine, baby mine. Mr. Sackville-West must go/Baby mine, baby mine, For he told the truth, you know/Baby mine, baby mine. He did the best he knew/For the Democratic crew/But he failed just by a few.
