The 1878 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 5. Former acting Governor Thomas Talbot, a Republican, defeated Benjamin Butler, who ran as an independent Greenback candidate with Democratic support. Butler's supporters secured a majority of delegates to the Democratic state convention, but his nomination was rejected by the state party committee after his supporters used violent tactics to exclude anti-Butler delegates from the convention hall.

Thomas Talbot was an American textile mill owner and politician from Massachusetts, United States. Talbot ran a major textile business, involving chemical dyeworks and the weaving of fabric, in Billerica that was a major local employer. As a Republican, he served in the state legislature, on the Massachusetts Governor's Council, and as the 29th lieutenant governor before serving for one partial term as acting governor of Massachusetts, and later for one full term as the 31st governor.