Whig Candidates for the Presidency
date: label: Date made
content: 1837
name: label: depicted
content: Harrison, William Henry
label: depicted
content: Webster, Daniel
label: depicted
content: Clay, Henry
label: maker
content: Laurence, John
label: maker
content: Perruquier
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This 1837 print depicts the three leading Whig presidential candidates of 1836. While it was published after the election of Martin Van Buren as president, this print was most likely drawn on stone prior to the election. This is evidenced by Kentucky Senator, Henry Clay’s presence in the print. Clay was not on the official Whig ticket for this election, but he was someone thought likely to run given his hatred of the outgoing president, Andrew Jackson. Seated on a box labeled “Military Chest” next to fellow Whig, Daniel Webster, Clay cites the reasons why he should be president, swearing both on “party consistency” and “Old Kentuck” that he would be the right choice. While Clay might have felt that he was the right choice for the Whig ticket, his party did not, instead choosing to back General William Henry Harrison, and Massachusetts Senator, Daniel Webster (pictured in the image), as well as Hugh L. White.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Harrison seated on the left of the print, is depicted sitting on a large cannon ball in full military regalia to highlight his campaign platform of being “the Hero of Tippecanoe.” He was seen as lacking in political experience, but his military heroism appealed to the American voting public. Next to Harrison in the center, is Massachusetts Senator, Daniel Webster with his foot on the Constitution. He is wearing a sign around his neck, reading “Hartford Convention,” and holding a document labeled "U. States Bank recharter'd” in one hand, and a bag labeled “Specie Circular” on the other, from which coins pour out into hands labeled “Lo” “Co” “Fo” “Co.” In a long monologue, Webster speaks to the Whig’s desire to maintain the National Bank and how no matter who the candidate is “Nicholas Biddle will play the fiddle.” Nicholas Biddle was the President of the Second National Bank of the United States, and he found a great ally in Daniel Webster who agreed that Andrew Jackson’s plan to revoke the bank’s charter was unconstitutional. In this print, Biddle is represented by the devil floating behind the three men wearing a crown labeled “NICK.”
label: Description (Brief)
content: The devil (Biddle) is holding a wig over Webster’s head saying, “I swear that the wig will fit, for it hath great powers of extension and contraction, and is much improved by pressure.” This again is an allusion to Biddle’s influence over the Whig party, but in particular Webster, who was a firm constitutionalist as well as an outspoken advocate for the Second National Bank, represented in the image by his foot on the Constitution and the rolled paper reading "U. States Bank recharter'd.” Harrison and Webster as well as the third candidate White all ran against Vice President Martin Van Buren in the Election of 1836 on an anti-Jackson and anti-Democrat platforms, but ultimately, the Whig’s strategy of loading the ballot with candidates to split the vote only hurt their chances, resulting in Martin Van Buren’s election and four more years of Jacksonian Democracy.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Economy
label: Subject
content: U.S. National Government, executive branch
label: Subject
content: U.S. National Government, judiciary
label: Subject
content: Political Parties
label: Subject
content: Adornment
label: Subject
content: Uniforms, Military
label: Subject
content: Chronology: 1830-1839
label: Subject
content: Political Caricatures
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Peters Political Prints
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.3360
label: catalog number
content: 60.3360
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: image: 11 1/2 in x 16 3/8 in; 29.21 cm x 41.5925 cm