1880 The 1880 Presidential election reminds me very much of the Knights who say Ni! from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and their obsession with shrubbery. Republican presidential candidate James Garfield sported a fine beard, as did Democratic vice-presidential candidate William H. English. The Democratic main contender, Winfield Scott Hancock, had a luxuriant moustache but at the time of the election a cleanshaven chin (it's not very clear from the campaign caricatures, but Hancock's biographer David Jordan emailed to put me right), whereas Garfield's running mate on the Republican ticket, Chester A. Arthur, boasted an amazing set of mutton-chop sideburns (so long that they look rather like a scarf in the campaign literature). Overall the Republican ticket was hairier than the Democrats, and they won the popular vote by a hair's breadth though with a solid margin in the electoral college. Garfield was assassinated a few months after taking office, and the bewhiskered Arthur served the rest of his term.