---
title: Great Republican Harrison and Morton campaign ball, 1888
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-morton-campaign-ball-1888/
description: Cabinet photograph of a 14-foot-diameter, 42-foot-circumference campaign ball painted in bands and lettered with verses, held by men with poles.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Great Republican Harrison and Morton campaign ball, 1888](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/harrison-morton-campaign-ball-1888.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/harrison-morton-campaign-ball-1888.jpg)

# Great Republican Harrison and Morton campaign ball, 1888

Cabinet photograph of a 14-foot-diameter, 42-foot-circumference campaign ball painted in bands and lettered with verses, held by men with poles. The mount credits D. E. Brockett of Cumberland, Maryland, as designer and builder and Wm. B. Holmes of New York as publisher. A rolling ball that must be kept in motion presents the campaign as momentum (bandwagon), and the mount's verse, "Old Allegany in 1840 started the ball for Harrison", ties the 1888 candidate to the 1840 campaign (transfer).

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Visible on the ball: [...] Cleveland, You must face defeat, / [...] up Your old Bandanna; / You cannot beat Our Candidate / Who hails from INDIANA. / [...] to keep the STARRY FLAG, [...] the UNION over. / With dauntless heart [...] But where [...]. Printed on the mount: D. E. BROCKETT, CUMBERLAND, MD. DESIGNER AND BUILDER. / WM. B. HOLMES, PUBLISHER, 775 BROADWAY, N. Y. / GREAT REPUBLICAN HARRISON AND MORTON CAMPAIGN BALL, 1888. / "Old Allegany in 1840 / Started the ball for Harrison; / In '88 as they did then, / We roll it on for Gallant Ben. / Roll along, Roll away," / Keep the ball in motion; / The spirit of our men is up / From Rocky Hills to Ocean." / Circumference, 42 feet. Diameter, 14 feet. / (Copyright 1888.)
```

Lettering on the curved ball is partly hidden or foreshortened; those lines are marked [...]. The mount text is as printed (the first letters of 'We' are damaged in the original).

[← Not as heavy as Grover, perhaps, but then I have more lemons](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/campaign-lemon-squeezer-harrison-1888/) [Our nation's choice, Benjamin Harrison, Levi P. Morton →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-nations-choice-harrison-morton-1888/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)