How did the Whigs promote William Henry Harrison's image in 1840?
How did the Democrats promote Martin Van Buren's image?
Why is the campaign of 1840 often cited as the first modern campaign?
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
Discuss the use of visual images, objects, and spectacle in the 1840 campaign.
Take a stand: Was the campaign of 1840 based more on substance or image?
Background
Many accounts portray the campaign of 1840 as almost exclusively about image,
and manufactured images at that. This lesson gives students the opportunity
to reflect on that point of view as they analyze campaign documents and accounts.
Though intended for the teacher, all or part of the following background information
may be useful for some students.
Hard times and falling prices for wheat and cotton played a large part in
the contest, but the main issue presented to the people was a manufactured
one. …Portraying their candidate (the Whig candidate, Harrison) as an honest
high-principled farmer who lived in a log cabin with the latch string always
out, a coon skin nailed to the door and a barrel of cider (sweet cider in
prohibition areas) for the refreshment of visitors… they contrasted this democratic
simplicity with the… luxury that surrounded "Sweet Sandy Whiskers" Van Buren
at the White House.
This hullabaloo undoubtedly swayed thousands of voters, but more effective
still was the Whig organization for the campaign., the outlines of which were
set up at Harrisburg [site of the Whig convention] and developed by Weed, who worked behind
the scenes as a political operative [Thurlow
Weed, 1797-1882, a New York journalist and founding editor of the Albany Evening
Journal, a pro-Whig-and later, pro-Republican-newspaper], and other party leaders… A Whig committee
composed of members of Congress and with headquarters in Washington used congressional
franks [the privilege of members of Congress to mail items free of charge]
to distribute speeches, handbills, and a pamphlet entitled "The Contest" which
told the voters they had to choose between "Harrison and Prosperity or Van
Buren and Ruin." There were Whig state committees and county committees and
a personal campaign committee to advise Harrison and handle his correspondence.
And there were numerous ratification meetings, Tippecanoe clubs, Victory Ball
marches and many campaign papers [most notably Horace Greeley's "Log Cabin."
At the height of the campaign, Greeley printed as many as 80,000 copies of
the "Log Cabin."].
—Glyndon G. Van Deusen ("The Whig Party," History of U.S. Political
Parties, Volume 1. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Ed. 4 vols. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1973. 343)
In the lesson, help your students build a vocabulary for talking about campaign
materials. To help you, the lesson builds an anticipatory set by looking at
late 20th-century materials, which are not that far removed from what students
will see in the campaign of 1840.
Campaigns as We Know Them
Help your students build a vocabulary they can use to describe the 1840 campaign
materials in the next activity. Begin by brainstorming with students any vocabulary
of contemporary political campaigns with which they are familiar (e.g., spin,
attack ad, position statement, propaganda, "on message," fund raising, etc.).
Share with students some or all of the following memorabilia from presidential
campaigns of the last half-century (NOTE: This selection of memorabilia is by
no means exhaustive. Make sure you discuss with the class other kinds of campaign-related
materials. Keep this lesson brief. Avoid discussion of modern political issues.
For purposes of this lesson, it is not necessary that students understand the issues and images in
the modern materials. Without any background, they will find it easy to distinguish
between issue- and image-based materials. Even referring to media unknown in 1840, the
methods and messages can be compared and contrasted. Finding ways to reach a
large audience, finding images with appeal and the ability to stay with the
voter was and is the point.):
Among the features of that period which excited my imagination were the enormous
mass meetings, with processions, coming in from all points of the compass,
miles in length, and bearing every patriotic device and political emblem.
Here the Whigs had infinitely the advantage. Their campaign was positive and
aggressive. On platform-wagons were men working at every trade which expected
to be benefited by Whig success; log cabins of all sorts and sizes, hard-cider
barrels, coon pens, great canvas balls, which were kept "a-rolling on," canoes,
such as General Harrison had used in crossing Western rivers, eagles that
screamed in defiance, and cocks that crowed for victory.
The Making of the Tippecanoe Image
Divide the class into small groups, and distribute an appropriate number of
the following documents to each group. Begin by discussing the advantages and
pitfalls of using primary sources and especially of using a necessarily limited
selection of materials. From the documents or images of objects, students will
attempt to analyze William Henry Harrison's campaign. What positions and/or
images were being communicated? How would we categorize such materials today?
In what ways is any particular document/object about substance? Image? Does
the campaign appear to have been more about substance or image?
Though students will use a contemporary political vocabulary to describe the
material, they should be aware that there are significant differences between
elections in 1840 and elections in the modern age. For example, in 1840 about
80 percent of all eligible voters participated. In 2000, despite an intensely
competitive presidential contest, only about 50 percent of all eligible voters
participated. If desired, students can use the Artifact
Analysis Worksheet or Written
Document Analysis Worksheet on the EDSITEment resource Digital
Classroom to help them analyze their assigned artifacts.
Discuss with the class how visual images, including symbols, were combined
with text to create a particular persona or "political image" of William Henry
Harrison. Which artifact best exemplifies the image-making at work in the campaign
of 1840?
Students who have completed the lesson should be able to discuss the following
effectively:
What positions and/or images are being communicated by the artifacts?
How important were symbols to the campaign?
What tactics are being used in each artifact discussed?
In what ways is any particular document/object about substance? Image?
Does the campaign appear to have been more about substance or image?
In what ways does the campaign of 1840 resemble and differ from modern campaigns?
If desired, have students write a one-page essay responding to one or more
of these questions. Alternatively, you could have students prepare an outline
of how they would present William Henry Harrison's political image if they were
serving as his campaign manager in a modern election, with current memorabilia
give-aways and media opportunities available to them.
Extending the Lesson
Today's presidential candidates choose campaign songs. For example, Bill
Clinton's campaign used Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow."
Before recorded music, songs were disseminated through song sheets. Many houses
had parlor pianos. People sat around the piano and sang, using song sheets.
Using American
Sheet Music 1820-1860 on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory, students can search for the term "Tippecanoe" to find the sheet
music for Harrison's campaign songs, as well as songs about candidates in
other elections, including Abraham Lincoln.
Parties hired writers to compose campaign biographies we might call "authorized
biographies." Interested students can learn more about Harrison from the campaign
biographies listed below, both available on the Abraham
Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource
American Studies at the University of
Virginia. What seems accurate? Inaccurate? How much is about substance?
Image?
Interested students can read more extensively about William Henry Harrison's
relationship with Native Americans in such documents as the following from
the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory:
Interested students can analyze the Ellen
Kay Bond Speech (complete transcript), available via a link from the EDSITEment
resource American Memory. For example, what does Bond mean
when she says, "It is your privilege to act, ours to feel; your duty to protect,
ours to inspire, to animate"? Bond's speech tends to emphasize Harrison's
accomplishments as a male leader, to enhance his image as a military man and
icon for "fathers and sons" of the country. What beliefs about the role of
women are implicit in her remarks? Compare and contrast Bond's point of view
with the 1834-36 texts by and about the Lowell Mill Girls on Uses
of Liberty Rhetoric Among Lowell Mill Girls, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Learner.org. Compare her speech
to the poem Woman's
Power on the EDSITEment resource Women's History Workshop.
A
POLITICAL MOVEMENT
[http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/IndexDisplayCartoonMedium.asp?
SourceIndex=People&IndexText=Harrison%2C+William+
Henry&UniqueID=6&Year=1840]
Untitled
Harrison letter sheet
[http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/IndexDisplayCartoonMedium.asp?
SourceIndex=People&IndexText=Harrison%2C+
William+Henry&UniqueID=2&Year=1840]
Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works. more
