The Triumph of Old Tip

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON AND THE ELECTION OF 1840

Kenneth R. Stevens

he election of 1840 was still months away, One Whig couple produced triplets during the cam­ but the campaign was running at full polit­ paign and named them William, Henry, and Harrison. ical throttle. After more than a decade of In cities and towns across the nation, those who favored Democratic rule by “King Andrew” Jackson Harrison took part in parades, some reportedly three and his successor, Martin Van Buren, their miles long, pushing wheeled replicas of Old Tip’s log Topponents—who called themselves Whigs aftercabin the an­or rolling giant balls twelve or fifteen feet in di­ timonarchy party of England—sensed victory in the ameter and singing: upcoming contest. At huge rallies, with participants numbering in the thousands, supporters of Whig pres­ What has caused the great commotion, motion, motion Our country through? idential candidate William Henry Harrison, the hero It is the ball a rolling on. of the Battle of Tippecanoe, listened to spellbinding For Tippecanoe and Tyler too—Tippecanoe and orators such as wisecracking Ohio congressman Tom Tyler too. Corwin—dubbed the “Wagon Boy” because he had served as a teamster with Harrison during the War of In vain, Democrats protested against such unseemly 1812—and John W. Bear—the “Buckeye Blacksmith”— behavior, but the Whigs only laughed and chanted back: who demonstrated his skill with hammer and anvil while excoriating President Martin Van Buren and the The times are bad, and want curing; They are getting past all enduring; Democrats. On many occasions Harrison himself ap­ So let’s turn out Martin Van Buren peared before gatherings and became the first candi­ And put in old Tippecanoe! date in the history of American presidential politics to make a direct appeal to the voters. Certainly President Van Buren faced enormous dif­ The excitement was contagious. Farmers named ficulties as the canvass approached. He had hardly their horses or mules “Tip” and “Ty” in honor of Har­ taken office in 1837 when the country was beset by a rison and his running mate, John Tyler of Virginia. nationwide depression. Banks and businesses failed;

The Whigs had learned the lessons of Jacksonian politics well by the time they began to plan their strategy for the presidential election of 1840. Choosing an Indian fighter and war hero as their candidate and whipping up enthusiasm with rallies, torchlight parades, news­ papers, songs, slogans, and log-cabin symbolism, the Whigs surpassed their Democratic teachers in the art of cam­ paigning. American politics would never be the same.

14 Traces