“A beautiful goblet of White House champagne” or “An ugly mug of log-cabin hard cider”
Of the losing Whig candidates in 1836, William Henry Harrison was most successful, so he was chosen to oppose incumbent Martin Van Buren. The Democrats must have been elated: Harrison was old - older by 20 years than Van Buren. And he hadn’t really been involved in the Washington political scene for years. Even with the financial crisis of 1837 it probably seemed like Van Buren could secure a second term.
The law of unintended consequences played out shortly thereafter when a Democratic newspaper in Baltimore openly dismissed Harrison’s candidacy, implying he was a simpleton, ready to be put out to pasture:
“Give him a barrel of hard cider, and settle a pension of $2,000 on him, and our word for it, he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin by the side of the sea-coal fire and study moral philosophy.”
The image of Harrison as a log cabin-dwelling “every man,” enjoying a good cider and a warm fire, was exactly what the Whigs needed to energize the masses. Hedging their bets, Van Buren was portrayed as a blue-blooded dandy, aloof and unresponsive to the concerns of the common man. In reality he was born to a humble Dutch farming family and left school at age 14.
Martin Van Buren mechanical pull-tab card from the Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center. H/T to ceyths, where I first found it.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
retrocampaigns: “A beautiful goblet of White House champagne” or... 11
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