Mugwumps in United States history, a contemptuous nickname given to a group of Republicans who bolted the party in 1884 and supported Grover Cleveland for President. The Mugwumps insisted that Cleveland was more favorably inclined toward civil service reform than was James G. Blaine, the Republican nominee. In political slang a mugwump is an independent who follows his principles rather than his party. The word comes from an Algonquian Indian language and means “big chief.”