Between the disputed presidential election of 1876 and the dramatic contest of 1896, presidential elections were close contests in which minorparty candidates drew enough votes away from the Republicans and Democrats to ensure that neither major party candidate won a majority of the popular vote. The two major parties did all they could—legally and illegally —to ensure their own candidate's victory. Presidential elections in the 1880s were battles over political patronage, with little disagreement over issues between the two major parties.

Third Parties.

The issues-oriented politics of the 1880s came from a series of third parties that gained national followings with single-issue campaigns that pulled votes away from the major party candidates. The 1880 and 1884 elections marked the gradual decline of the Greenback-Labor Party, which favored increasing the supply of paper money and opposed a return to the gold standard. The party had its strongest showing...