22. Votes were bought in Indiana in the election of 1888
During the election of 1888 Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison was in jeopardy of losing the state of Indiana, his own home state and one critical to his campaign for office. The Treasurer of the Republican Party, W. W. Dudley, distributed a circular throughout the state in which he directed local operatives to, “Divide the floaters into blocks of five” and keep them under the supervision of a “trusted man with necessary funds” (floaters were voters known to sell their votes to either party). At the same time his candidate, Harrison, was campaigning in Indiana on the promise of an honest and open election.
The circular was discovered by a Cleveland supporter, and delivered to Democratic newspapers. When it was published Dudley, a former US Marshal (who had arrested several Democrats on charges of vote buying a decade earlier) filed suits for libel against all publishers. He also announced that the document was a forgery perpetrated by the Democrats and the Cleveland campaign. Harrison carried Indiana in the election, one which featured widespread voter fraud, vote buying, and illegal voting. Cleveland used his defeat to lead the charge to change the way Americans voted across the nation.