page_title: William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign
section_title: Keeping the ball rolling (April to August 1840)
hierarchical_section_title: William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign / Campaign / Keeping the ball rolling (April to August 1840)
caption_attribution_description: English: Exhibit in the National Museum of American History, Washington, DC, USA. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction.
context_page_description: In 1840, William Henry Harrison was elected President of the United States. Harrison, who had served as a general and as United States Senator from Ohio, defeated the incumbent president, Democrat Martin Van Buren, in a campaign that broke new ground in American politics. Among other firsts, Harrison's victory was the first time the Whig Party won a presidential election. A month after taking office, Harrison died and his running mate John Tyler served the remainder of his term, but broke from the Whig agenda, and was expelled from the party.
  Harrison was born into wealth in 1773. He started a military career before using his father Benjamin Harrison V's connections to gain office on the frontier. After a decade as governor of Indiana Territory, Harrison made his reputation fighting the Native Americans, notably at the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe and, once the War of 1812 began, the British. He was triumphant over both at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. After the war, he was elected to Congress from Ohio and served in a variety of federal offices over the next two decades.
context_section_description: The campaign was generally administered by a group of Whig congressmen in Washington, including Clay, who pooled their mailing lists; there were organizations in each county tasked with running the local campaign and getting out the vote. Much work was also done by the new political bosses, like Thurlow Weed of New York, who also took charge of much of the fundraising. Greeley, by then editor of the widely circulated Harrison campaign journal, The Log Cabin, worried that the constant demands for money would drive the wealthy from politics; this did not occur. Much of the money came from those, such as land speculators, who would benefit from the internal improvements to transportation that were backed by the Whigs. Funding for local operations was expected to be raised locally, sometimes through arrangements like kickbacks from Pennsylvania canal contractors, something implemented by Thaddeus Stevens. Erie Canal workers were expected to pay a toll to Weed to finance Whig operations. Feeling that every hand was needed to defeat Van Buren, Whig leaders allowed women to help: although they could not vote, they could influence men. This was the first time that an American political party included women in campaign activities on a widespread scale.
  In April, the Whigs used the House of Representatives for an attack on President Van Buren. Charles Ogle of Pennsylvania, a law student and political disciple of Thaddeus Stevens, utilized a debate on White House renovations to spend three days accusing Van Buren of living in luxury at considerable public expense: "If he is vain enough to spend his money in the purchase of rubies for his neck, diamond rings for his fingers, Brussels lace for his breast, filet gloves for his hands, and fabrique de broderies de bougram à Nancy handkerchiefs for his pocket—if he chooses to lay out hundreds of dollars in supplying his toilet with 'Double Extract of Queen Victoria', Eau de Cologne, Corinthian Oil of Cream ... if, I say, Mr. Van Buren sees fit to spend his cash in buying these and other perfumes and cosmetics for his toilet, it can constitute no valid reason for charging the farmers, laborers and mechanics of this country with bills for HEMMING HIS DISH RAGS, FOR HIS LARDING NEEDLES, LIQUOR STANDS, AND FOREIGN CUT WINE COOLERS". Democrats called Ogle's address the "Omnibus of Lies"; Whigs called it the "Gold Spoons speech" and reprinted it in large numbers, attempting to paint Van Buren, who was in fact of far more humble birth than Harrison, as an aristocratic dandy being challenged by a man of the people.
  The 1840 Democratic National Convention opened at Baltimore's Music Hall on May 4, 1840. A subdued affair, it was greatly overshadowed by a huge "Whig Young Men" gathering that took place in Baltimore at the same time, featuring speeches by Senators Clay and Webster. President Van Buren was nominated for a second term, but the convention made no endorsement for vice president. The incumbent, Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky was controversial because he had lived with an African American woman and had tried to introduce their children into society, and the influential former president, Andrew Jackson, insisted that Johnson be dumped from the ticket. Johnson, who had fought under Harrison during the War of 1812, was popular in the western states as an Indian fighter (he was alleged to be the one who killed Tecumseh), and Van Buren stalled. The lack of an endorsement left the matter up to state parties, and Johnson's rivals soon withdrew, leaving him as the de facto  vice presidential candidate.
  The huge crowds that Harrison's campaign events attracted were unprecedented, though Jackson's campaigns for the presidency had seen rallies on a smaller scale. These gatherings both promoted the Whig ticket and were themselves entertainment for the participants, thus attracting even more attendees; as New York Governor William H. Seward, a Whig, put it, "nothing attracts a crowd so rapidly as the knowledge that there is a crowd already." The Democrats were shocked by the outpouring of support,
caption: Pitcher from the 1840 campaign bearing Harrison's portrait
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-RX100M3", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DSC-RX100M3 v1.00", "Image DateTime": "2016:06:21 16:43:29", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "296", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "20948", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5735", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:03:27 11:15:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:03:27 11:15:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-163/80", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "147/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3548", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4106", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "5472", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3648", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "20800", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "40", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "dd1e6d473940ec219df6e85ebe36d232", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[44/5, 257/10, 9/5, 14/5]"}