So politics tends to bring up a lot of rumors and whisper campaigns and the presidential election of 1884 wasn't any different.

Some have said it's one of the nastiest campaigns in American history, but we'll let you be the judge.

The Republican nominee that year was James Blaine, who was a long-time politician.

Blaine had been accused of taking bribes from railroad companies when he'd been Speaker of the House.

And Blaine's opponents taunted him about his unethical business deals with this little

ditty.

Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the Continental Liar from the State of Maine.

Vicious. The Democratic nominee in 1884 was a newcomer, New York Governor Grover

Cleveland. So several days after the Democratic Convention, the Buffalo Evening Telegraph published an

expose titled A Terrible Tale, a Dark Chapter in a Public Man's History.

The story reported that a decade earlier, Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child

with a buffalo woman named Maria Halpin.

The story was a little more complicated than that might seem.

In the language of the day, Halpin had bestowed her favors

upon several prominent men in Buffalo. So here's the thing. All of the others were

married and Cleveland was a bachelor. Cleveland wasn't the only possible father, but what Cleveland did

was essentially took the fall for his friends, including his married law

partner Oscar Folsom. He took responsibility for the child who was actually named

Oscar Folsom Helpen. Cleveland arranged for the boy to be adopted, and when Helpen had a mental

breakdown, she was institutionalized.

So the Blame campaign, Cleveland's opponent, came up with a famous taunt.

Ma, where's my Pa?

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