Arizona republican., 1920-10-04
V. THE HARRIsoN-VAN BUREN
 RACE OF 1S40
Ry Frederic J. Haskin

WASHINGTON, D. C., Oct. "A l 'big meeting was in progress in Giles | county. Virginia, in November, 1S40. | The circuit riders were assisted by exhorters and there were many profess sions of conversion. One old woman in the neighborhood had held out against the efforts of the church. She was piecing a quilt-a quilt of 10000 pieces. At last after two years of toll. the quilt was finished, and she consented to go to meeting" On the way to the church she heard a great piece of news. When she got to the meeting she rushed to the 'mourners' bench" knelt for a space in prayer and then arose. shouting: Glory to Godl My quilt is finished; my soul is saved; and Tip pecanoe is elected!"
 To the whigs of 1s4O souls salvation and the election of William Henry Harrison were matters of equal i'm portance. The campaign was not so much of political campaign as it was Hallelujah chorus sung by the tri- umphant Wings. It was the most ex- citing political race of our history, and it ended by the overwhelming election of William Henry Harrison to be pres ident, and John Tyler to be vice presi- OeHl. It was lne IlTSL campaign which cartoons, emblems, popular slo- ~gans and political songs had a vogue, and it was the first in which a candi- date for president took the stump to appeal to the voters directly
 And have you heard the news from
 Maine?
 How it went,
 Hell-bent,
 For Governor Kent,
 And Tippecanoe and Tyler too.
 For Tippecanoe and Tyler, tool"
 That was one of the many great Whig. songs of the campaign. It has lived because of the alliterative lit of the refrain For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too" because of the memory of the tor nado of enthusiasm which greeted its appearance. It was in September of the campaign. Harrison was we'll in the lead, but the Van Buren admins tration and the old Jackson machine were straining to stem the Whig up- rising. The September elections in Maine were taken. as now. taken as straws to show the trend of the poli- tical air currents.
 Horace Greeley entered the arena of national politics in this year. He start ed a campaign paper in New York called "The Log Cabin" In every issue it printed from ten to twenty Whig campaign songs. On the day it pre- sented the glorious news of the re demption of Maine" for Maine had been a strong Democratic state, it also published the words and music of the song "Tippecapoe and Tyler, too"
 The Taunt that Turned
 The campaign of 1S40 is called the "Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign z It all came about because of the com placent superiority of the Democrats Van Buren had beaten Harrison in 1886. and when the Wings turned Gown their great Clay, and again nominated the venerable Harrison, the Democrats could do nothing but laugh. Having beaten Harrison once, they reasoned that it was utterly impossible for them to be beaten by Harrison. The sneers at the Whig candidate appeared ir every Democratic paper, but it re- mained for the Baltimore Republican to say:
 Give him barrel of hard cider, and settle pension of $2.000 a year or him, and. my word for it. he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin by the side of a sea-cold fire. and study moral philosophy" That para graph was not so cruel. perhaps. as the New York Evening Posts appeal to the ladies to send in second hand shoe: and hats so that the poverty stricker Harrison might appear in decent cloth ing before the people. but it struck tho Wings as utterly contemptible, the, | turned the tables, took up the, "harS cider" and "log cabin" sneers at thei candidate and proclaimed to the worlC that, as true Democrats. they wer' supporting a man who lived in lol cabin and drank hard cider-a thir, 1 Cincinnatus.
 The Whigs and their predecessors in opposition to the Democrats had ha excellent opportunity to judge of. tn efficacy of the hero in politics. Flo four presidential campaigns Andre1 Jackson had been unconquerable wit the people. In 1886 Harrison had bee a candidate, but tkere was little reI erence to his war record. But in 1S4 he was put forth by his ardent follow CTS as a real, true and genuine wa hero. He was the hero of the Battle C the Thames. of the battle of Fort Meig and he had overcome the mighty chief tain. Tecumseh, at the Battle of Tippe caone. The Democratic candidate fc vice president, Richard M. Johnson ( Kentucky. had slain Tecumseh wit his own hand, and a few of the younge Democrats tried to retaliate with John son as a hero. But it didn't go. John son was not popular to begin with. an 1s40 was distinctly not Democrat year.
 Hard Times Helped
 The panic of 1887. brought on h overspeculation and too much conf dence in the great governmental pro: perity as a prop for individual pro: perity, had reduced the nation to poN erty. Men were out of work. bank d. posits had been lost in bank wreck and the country was in a terrible cor dition. Whether rightly or wrongl the party in power was held to be r, sponsible and the Whig landslide W; inevitable
 When the Whigs met at HarrIsDul there were three candidates: Hem < Clay, the real soul of the party Wi liam Henry Harrison, and Winfie Scott. Thaddeus Stevens made first entry into the realm of practic; and dirty politics in this gaavel tion He was an anti Mason and soon convinced the convention that
 would be impossible to get the ant Mason vote for Clay, who was a Roy Arch Mason. With Clay eliminat the race was between Scott and Ha rison, both heroes of the war of 1Sl Both were born in Virginia, as w Clay. and curiously enough. it requir