He was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1880 and 1884 as a leading representative of New England and of the faction favoring civil service reform.

Edmunds was born in Richmond, Vermont and began to study law while still a teenager; he proved an adept student, and was admitted to the bar as soon as he reached the minimum required age of 21.

As a longtime member of the U.S. Senate, he served in a variety of leadership posts, including chairman of the committees on Pensions, the Judiciary, Private Land Claims, and Foreign Relations.

[1] He practiced in Burlington, and became active in politics by serving in local offices including Town Meeting Moderator.

[2][3][4] While practicing law, one of the students who studied under him was Russell S. Taft, who later served as Lieutenant Governor and as Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.

[11] Although considering himself devoted to the principles of the Republican Party,[11] like most congressional "Half-Breeds", Edmunds staunchly supported civil service reform.

[13] Edmunds was influential in providing for the electoral commission to decide the disputed presidential election of 1876 and served as one of the commissioners, voting for Republicans Rutherford B. Hayes and William A.

[15][16] In 1882 President Chester A. Arthur nominated Senator Roscoe Conkling to replace the retiring Ward Hunt as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

"[23] Edmunds took special delight in goading southern senators into blurting out statements that would embarrass the Democratic Party.

One southern correspondent in 1880 wrote, "When I look at that man sitting almost alone in the Senate, isolated in his gloom of hate and bitterness, stern, silent, watchful, suspicious and pitiless, I am reminded of the worst types of Puritan character... You see the impress of the purer persecuting spirit that burned witches, drove out Roger Williams, hounded Jonathan Edwards for doing his sacred duty, maligned Jefferson, and like a toad squatted at the ear of the Constitution it had failed to pervert.

When Edmunds ran for president in 1884, the other candidates included the eventual Republican nominee, James G. Blaine, a Half-Breed.

During the campaign, Edmunds touted his alliance with Thurman, which in turn was cited as a positive quality by cartoonist Thomas Nast, an anti-Blaine Mugwump and illustrator for Harper's Weekly.

[29][30] In 1884, Republicans who favored civil service reform, including Carl Schurz, George William Curtis, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, supported Edmunds for President over incumbent President Chester A. Arthur and former Senator James G. Blaine, hoping to build a groundswell for Edmunds if the two stronger candidates deadlocked.

On the first ballot he received 93 votes, once again carrying Vermont and Massachusetts, along with Rhode Island, a significant minority in New York, and scattered delegates from throughout the West.

[12] Indeed, Blaine's inclinations in the late 1870s were closer to that of the Stalwarts, evident in his hostility towards civil service reform and the policies pursued by Half-Breed Rutherford B.

[31] During the campaign, Edmunds stated:[11] It is my deliberate opinion that Senator Blaine acts as the attorney of Jay Gould.

Whenever [Allen G. Thurman] and I have settled upon legislation to bring the Pacific Railroad to terms of equity with the government, up has jumped Mr. James G. Blaine musket in hand, from behind the breastworks of Jay Gould’s lobby to fire in our faces.Edmunds' refusal to support Blaine consequentially led to immense opposition from Republicans who pushed to deny him re-election in the 1886 midterms.

There are honest, intelligent Republicans who believe he is guilty.When the election drew closer, newspapers covering the race became either increasingly supportive or opposing towards Edmunds.

A number of smaller papers split, and the Burlington Free Press affirmed its support for the incumbent senator.