- When
- 1840
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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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 (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: Harrison ('This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840, New England Whig Convention badge, Bunker Hill, 10 September 1840); Buren ('National Democratic Republican Nomination' broadside for Van Buren and Johnson, 1840, Martin Van Buren portrait print with Jackson 'Veto U.S. Bank' and 'Ten Hours' columns, 1840). The tell is the same for each: the standing of a person, place, symbol or event is attached to a candidate.
- Name-calling: Harrison ('The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840); Buren ('Going up Salt River', Van Buren-friendly cartoon published by John Childs, 1840, 'Federal-Abolition-Whig Trap, to Catch Voters In', New Orleans broadside, 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: Harrison ('The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840, 'The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 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: Buren ('National Democratic Republican Nomination' broadside for Van Buren and Johnson, 1840, Martin Van Buren portrait print with Jackson 'Veto U.S. Bank' and 'Ten Hours' columns, 1840). The tell is the same for each: virtue words offered with no testable claim.
- Plain folks: Harrison ('This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840). The tell is the same for each: the candidate is presented through plain-living props or a frontier or farm persona.
Sources
- National Archives, "Electoral College: 1840 Election", https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1840
- American Presidency Project, "Elections: 1840", https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/1840
- Wikipedia, "1840 United States presidential election" (cross-check only), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1840_United_States_presidential_election
- Library of Congress records for the objects described: harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840, harrison-new-england-convention-badge-1840, peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840, the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840, van-buren-johnson-democratic-nomination-broadside-1840, martin-van-buren-independent-treasury-portrait-1840, going-up-salt-river-van-buren-childs-1840, anti-whig-log-cabin-trap-broadside-new-orleans-1840.