Murchison letter


The Murchison letter was a political scandal during the 1888 United States presidential election between Grover Cleveland, the Democratic incumbent, and the Republican nominee, Benjamin Harrison.
The letter was sent by the British ambassador to the United States, Sir Lionel Sackville-West, to "Charles F. Murchison", who was actually an American political operative posing as a British expatriate. In the letter, Sackville-West suggested that Cleveland was preferred as president from the British point of view.
The Republicans published this letter just two weeks before the election, causing many Irish American voters to turn away from Cleveland; he consequently lost New York and Indiana, and thus the presidency. Sackville-West was sacked as British ambassador.

History

A California Republican, George Osgoodby, wrote a letter to Sir Lionel Sackville-West, the British ambassador to the United States, under the assumed name of "Charles F. Murchison", who described himself as a former Englishman who was now a California citizen and asked how he should vote in the upcoming presidential election. Sackville-West wrote back and indiscreetly suggested that Grover Cleveland, the Democratic incumbent, was probably the best man from the British point of view:
The Republicans published the letter just two weeks before the election, and it had a galvanizing effect on Irish-American voters exactly comparable to the "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" blunder of the previous presidential election: by trumpeting Great Britain's support for the Democrats. That drove Irish American voters into the Republican fold, and Cleveland lost the presidency.

Aftermath

Following the election, the lame-duck Cleveland administration brought about Sackville-West's removal as ambassador, citing not only his letter—which could have been defended as a private correspondence unintended for publication—but also his subsequent interviews, such as one with a reporter for the New York Herald:
On October 1, Sackville-West had become Lord Sackville, due to the death of his brother Mortimer Sackville-West, 1st Baron Sackville.
Cleveland returned to the White House by winning the 1892 election.