Murchison letter
The Murchison letter was a political scandal during the 1888 US presidential election between Grover Cleveland, the Democratic incumbent, and the Republican nominee, Benjamin Harrison. The letter was sent by Sir Lionel Sackville-West to "Charles F. Murchison," who was actually a 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 and turned many Irish-American voters away from Cleveland. That made him lose New York State 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