1873 Chicago mayoral election

November 4, 1873


Nominee	Harvey Doolittle Colvin	Lester Legrant Bond
Party	People's Party	Citizen's Union
Popular vote	28,791	18,540
Percentage	60.83%	39.17%

Mayor before election

Joseph Medill/Lester L. Bond
Fireproof /Citizen's Union

Elected mayor

Harvey Doolittle Colvin
People's Party

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The Chicago mayoral election of 1873 saw People's Party (campaigning under the label "Democratic People's Union") candidate Harvey Doolittle Colvin defeated Citizen's Union (campaigning under the label "Law and Order") candidate Lester Legrant Bond by a landslide nearly 34-point margin.^[1]^[2] Bond was the incumbent acting mayor, having taken office due to the extended absence of Joseph Medill.

The election took place on November 7.^[1]

Campaign

[edit]

A key issue in the election was the "beer question", regarding whether Chicago should enforce blue laws banning the sale of alcohol on sundays. The People's Party opposed the enforcement of blue laws, a stance which the Chicago Tribune would opine led to the People Party's victory in the city's elections.^[3] The People's Party was effectively the stand-in in the elections for the national Republican Party. However, thousands of the city's Republicans instead voted for the People's Party because they too opposed blue laws.^[3]

In the election, Bond was endorsed by all of the city's major newspapers, with the exception of the Chicago Times.^[4]

The defeat of Bond led to the dissolution of the Chicago-based Citizen's Union Party.^[2]

Results

[edit]

**1873 Chicago mayoral election**^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	People's Party	Harvey Doolittle Colvin	28,791	60.83
	Citizen's Union Party	Lester Legrant Bond (incumbent)	18,540	39.17
Turnout			47,331

References

[edit]

^ ^a ^b The Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year Book. Chicago: Chicago Daily News. 1911. p. 538.
^ ^a ^b Pierce, Bessie Louise (2007). History of Chicago, Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893. University of Chicago Press. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-226-66842-0. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Second Congressional. It's Political Status". Chicago Tribune. August 5, 1876. Retrieved February 4, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Pierce, Bessie Louise (2007) [1957]. A History of Chicago: Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 343–344. ISBN 978-0-226-66842-0.
^ The Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year Book for 1912. Chicago Daily News, Incorporated. 1911. p. 464. Retrieved May 12, 2020.

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v t e Mayors of Chicago
William B. Ogden (1837–38) Buckner Stith Morris (1838–39) Benjamin Wright Raymond (1839–40) Alexander Loyd (1840–41) Francis Cornwall Sherman (1841–42; 1862–65) Raymond (1842–43) Augustus Garrett (1843–44; 1845–46) Alson Sherman (1844–45) John Putnam Chapin (1846–47) James Curtiss (1847–48; 1850–51) Woodworth (1848–50) Walter S. Gurnee (1851–53) Charles McNeill Gray (1853–54) Isaac Lawrence Milliken (1854–55) Levi Boone (1855–56) Thomas Dyer (1856–57) John Wentworth (1857–58; 1860–61) John Charles Haines (1857–60) Julian Sidney Rumsey (1861–62) John Blake Rice (1865–69) Roswell B. Mason (1869–71) Joseph Medill (1871–73) Bond (1873¹) Harvey Doolittle Colvin (1873–76) Hoyne (1876²) Monroe Heath (1876–79) Carter Harrison III (1879–87; 1893) John A. Roche (1887–89) DeWitt Clinton Cregier (1889–91) Hempstead Washburne (1891–93) George Bell Swift (1893¹; 1895–97) John Patrick Hopkins (1893–95) Carter Harrison IV (1897–1905; 1911–15) Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne (1905–07) Busse (1907–11) William Hale Thompson (1915–23; 1927–31) William Emmett Dever (1923–27) Anton Cermak (1931–33) Frank J. Corr (1933¹) Edward Joseph Kelly (1933–47) Martin H. Kennelly (1947–55) Richard J. Daley (1955–76) Michael Anthony Bilandic (1976–77¹; 1977–79) Jane Byrne (1979–73) Harold Washington (1983–87) David Orr (acting 1987¹) Eugene Sawyer (1987–89) Richard M. Daley (1989–2011) Rahm Emanuel (2011–19) Lori Lightfoot (2019–23) Brandon Johnson (2023–present)
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¹ tenure as acting officeholder. ² Election declared null and void.

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