 Commentator Jeff Jacoby notes that, "Not since George Washington had a candidate for President been so renowned for his rectitude." The Republicans found a refutation buried in Cleveland's past. Aided by sermons from an opportunistic preacher named George H. Ball, they charged that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo, and chanted, "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland immediately instructed his supporters to "Above all, tell the truth." Cleveland admitted to paying child support in 1874 to Maria Crofts Halpin, the woman who claimed he fathered her child, who she had named Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Halpin had been involved with several men at the time, including Cleveland's friend and law partner, Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was named. Cleveland did not know which man was the father; he assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them. Shortly before the 1884 election, the Republican media published an affidavit from Halpin in which she stated that until she met Cleveland, her "life was pure and spotless", and "there is not, and never was, a doubt as to the paternity of our child, and the attempt of Grover Cleveland, or his friends, to couple the name of Oscar Folsom, or any one else, with that boy, for that purpose is simply infamous and false."
