These "Mugwumps," as they were called, were as a class so addicted to personal invective that it was said of them with as much truth as wit that they brought malice into politics without even the excuse of partisanship.
But it was probably the enthusiastic support of this class which turned the scale in New York in the presidential election of 1884.
In the national conventions of that year, there was an unusually small amount of factional strife.

In the Republican convention, President Arthur was a candidate, but party sentiment was so strong for Blaine that he led Arthur on the first ballot and was nominated on the fourth by a large majority.

In the Democratic convention, Cleveland was nominated on the second ballot.

Meanwhile, his opponents had organized a new party from which more was expected than it actually accomplished.
It assumed the title Anti-Monopoly and chose the notorious demagogue, General Benjamin F.Butler, as its candidate for President.
During this campaign, the satirical cartoon attained a power and an effectiveness difficult to realize now that it has become an ordinary feature of journalism, equally available for any school of opinion.

But it so happened that the rise of Cleveland in politics coincided with the artistic career of Joseph Keppler, who came to this country from Vienna and who for some years supported himself chiefly as an actor in Western theatrical companies.