---
title: '1840: William Henry Harrison'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/elections/us-presidential/1840/
description: William Henry Harrison (Whig) defeated President Martin Van Buren (Democratic) in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign; this page holds four items for…
section: US presidential elections
---

![Illustration: a pre-1914 imperial intelligence-dossier collage of colonial telegraph logs, sepia field photography and empire maps.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-pre1914.jpg)

[US presidential elections](https://propagandaarchive.org/elections/us-presidential/)

# 1840: William Henry Harrison

- **When:** 1840

On this page

**In one line:** William Henry Harrison (Whig) defeated President Martin Van Buren (Democratic) in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign; this page holds four items for each, and none for James G. Birney (Liberty).

## Context

Harrison won 234 of 294 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60 [1]. The popular vote was 1,275,390 for Harrison and 1,128,854 for Van Buren [2]. The cross-check source ties Van Buren's weakness to the Panic of 1837 and reports that the Whigs largely avoided difficult national issues such as slavery and the national bank [3]. Birney ran for the Liberty Party; his vote and electoral count are not on the pages used here.

The "log cabin and hard cider" campaign grew from a Democratic newspaper's jibe that Harrison would sit in a log cabin with a barrel of hard cider and a pension; the Whigs took the image up and presented Harrison as a man of the common people and Van Buren as wealthy and aloof [3]. Both sides used lithographed cartoons, woodcuts, ribbons and badges, broadsides and rallies.

## Campaign literature

| Candidate (party) | Objects in the archive |
| --- | --- |
| William Henry Harrison (Whig) | 4 |
| Martin Van Buren (Democratic) | 4 |
| James G. Birney (Liberty) | 0 |

Harrison and Van Buren each have four objects. No 1840 Birney item was located. One Van Buren-side object, a New Orleans broadside, names no issuer and is filed under Van Buren by inference from its target, the Whigs. This does not show that nothing survives for Birney.

### William Henry Harrison (Whig)

- ['This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840/) (print, 1840): A Whig print by Thomas Sinclair shows Harrison greeting a one-legged veteran outside a log cabin with a "HARRISON & TYLER" flag, coonskin and two hard-cider barrels, while a farmer ploughs behind.
- [New England Whig Convention badge, Bunker Hill, 10 September 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-new-england-convention-badge-1840/) (object, September 10, 1840): A ribbon badge for the New England Whig Convention at Bunker Hill carries an oval bust of Harrison ringed by six state arms and the words "Ft MEIGS. THAMES" and "TIPPECANOE".
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (print, 1840): A Whig woodcut shows Van Buren's "Uncle Sam's Cab" overturning in the path of a locomotive made of a hard-cider barrel, a log cabin and Harrison's head, titled "The People's Line".
- ['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/) (cartoon, 1840): A Whig cartoon shows Van Buren as a fox fleeing hounds with cider-barrel bodies toward Harrison, who blocks the White House steps with a pitchfork.

### Martin Van Buren (Democratic)

- ['National Democratic Republican Nomination' broadside for Van Buren and Johnson, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-buren-johnson-democratic-nomination-broadside-1840/) (poster, 1840): A Democratic broadside carries an eagle with a "LIBERTY & EQUALITY" banderole, portraits of Van Buren and Johnson, biographies and battle scenes from Johnson's War of 1812 service.
- [Martin Van Buren portrait print with Jackson 'Veto U.S. Bank' and 'Ten Hours' columns, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/martin-van-buren-independent-treasury-portrait-1840/) (print, 1840): A Boston print shows a bust of Van Buren under the banner "INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND LIBERTY", flanked by columns for Jackson's "VETO U.S. BANK" and a workman's "TEN HOURS".
- ['Going up Salt River', Van Buren-friendly cartoon published by John Childs, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/going-up-salt-river-van-buren-childs-1840/) (cartoon, 1840): A cartoon shows Van Buren on the bank wishing Harrison, drawn as a donkey with a cider barrel tied to its tail and Clay, Webster and Wise riding him, "a quick voyage".
- ['Federal-Abolition-Whig Trap, to Catch Voters In', New Orleans broadside, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anti-whig-log-cabin-trap-broadside-new-orleans-1840/) (poster, 1840): A New Orleans broadside, addressed to the "People of Louisiana", shows a man on all fours sucking a "Hard Cider" barrel under a tilted log cabin, above text warning against Whig campaign methods.

### James G. Birney (Liberty)

No campaign literature for Birney in 1840 is catalogued in this archive; no 1840 Birney item was located.

## Techniques visible

The same definitions apply to every candidate. Each list below is generated from the `techniques` tags in the entries.

- [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/): Harrison (['This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840/), [New England Whig Convention badge, Bunker Hill, 10 September 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-new-england-convention-badge-1840/)); Buren (['National Democratic Republican Nomination' broadside for Van Buren and Johnson, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-buren-johnson-democratic-nomination-broadside-1840/), [Martin Van Buren portrait print with Jackson 'Veto U.S. Bank' and 'Ten Hours' columns, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/martin-van-buren-independent-treasury-portrait-1840/)). The tell is the same for each: the standing of a person, place, symbol or event is attached to a candidate.
- [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/): Harrison (['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/)); Buren (['Going up Salt River', Van Buren-friendly cartoon published by John Childs, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/going-up-salt-river-van-buren-childs-1840/), ['Federal-Abolition-Whig Trap, to Catch Voters In', New Orleans broadside, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anti-whig-log-cabin-trap-broadside-new-orleans-1840/)). The tell is the same for each: a derisive or loaded label, animal or ethnic image attached to a candidate, his backers or his opponents in place of an argument.
- [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/): Harrison (['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/), ['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/)). The tell is the same for each: a slogan, verse or picture announcing that the candidate is winning or that others are joining.
- [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/): Buren (['National Democratic Republican Nomination' broadside for Van Buren and Johnson, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-buren-johnson-democratic-nomination-broadside-1840/), [Martin Van Buren portrait print with Jackson 'Veto U.S. Bank' and 'Ten Hours' columns, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/martin-van-buren-independent-treasury-portrait-1840/)). The tell is the same for each: virtue words offered with no testable claim.
- [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/): Harrison (['This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840/)). The tell is the same for each: the candidate is presented through plain-living props or a frontier or farm persona.

## Sources

1. National Archives, "Electoral College: 1840 Election", https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1840
2. American Presidency Project, "Elections: 1840", https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/1840
3. Wikipedia, "1840 United States presidential election" (cross-check only), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1840_United_States_presidential_election
4. Library of Congress records for the objects described: [harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661360/), [harrison-new-england-convention-badge-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661362/), [peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661367/), [the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661385/), [van-buren-johnson-democratic-nomination-broadside-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003689251/), [martin-van-buren-independent-treasury-portrait-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/89707962/), [going-up-salt-river-van-buren-childs-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661384/), [anti-whig-log-cabin-trap-broadside-new-orleans-1840](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661363/).