Chapter 5

State & Municipal Mugwumpery

Mugwump orthodox underwent marked modification in the
1890s. This transformation was scarcely apparent at the na-
tional level, where Mugwumps continued to admire that arch-
foe of innovation, Grover Cleveland. In state and local poli-
tics, however, Cleveland's Mugwump allies often identified
themselves with the era's incipient progressivism. This is not
to say that the Mugwumps were the primary instigators of
state and local progressivism in the 1890s, for in many cases
they were not. But that they participated in progressive causes
at all is remarkable, given their defensive reaction nationally
to the crisis of the nineties.

Having referred to some causes as "progressive," let me
hasten to add how conscious I am that the term may have
very loaded connotations, especially in the light of recent

-81-