Symbolism, Economic Depression, and the Specter of Slavery: William Henry Harrison’s Speaking Tour for the Presidency

During the first electioneering speech ever given by a presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison displayed a flair for the dramatic as he refuted charges made against him by Martin Van Buren’s Democratic Party. Harrison gave the thirty-minute improvised speech from a platform in front of the National Hotel in Columbus, Ohio, on June 5, 1840. The former war hero started by denying the allegation that a “conscience-committee” kept him in a cage while they answered all of his campaign correspondence. Harrison also denounced claims that he belonged to the Federalist Party, sympathized with the abolition movement, or voted for the Missouri Compromise with reservations. The presidential candidate even demonstrated his preoccupation with European immigrants’ opinions by refuting a rumor from a Cincinnati-based German newspaper that accused him of running away from approaching Indians while serving under General Wayne in the early 1790s. The former Indian fighter joked that his detractors were apparently unaware “that the only possible security to young Harrison’s scalp . . . was in keeping out of the woods.” According to one source, this comment was followed by “loud and irrepressible laughter.” Finally, the speaker displayed his awareness of the importance of symbolism in the campaign. In February, the Baltimore Register had accused the candidate of being content with living in a log cabin and drinking hard cider on a modest monthly pension. Since then, the Whigs had spent considerable energy to turn it into an effective campaign theme—“The Log Cabin/Hard Cider” campaign. Harrison reminded his listeners that “It is true that a part of my dwelling house is a log cabin, but as to the hard cider—(pause).” According to the Ohio Confederate, “The laughter which followed the allusion to the ‘hard cider’ branch of the story, drowned the voice of the speaker.”¹

Harrison had a long history in Ohio. After being commended by General Anthony Wayne for valor at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, he received a promotion to captain a year later at an outpost located in North Bend, Ohio. Harrison married his wife, Anna, at North Bend before resigning from the military in 1798. One year later, the Northwest Territory elected Harrison as its first representative in Congress. When Ohio became a separate territory in 1801, President John Adams appointed Harrison governor of the Indiana Territory. After his performances at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 and the Battle of the Thames in 1813, Harrison started acquiring a national reputation as a war hero. In 1816, Ohio voters elected Harrison to the House of Representatives, where he remained for six years. After he lost his seat in the House in 1822, Harrison was chosen to represent Ohio as a U.S. senator. Six years later, President John Quincy Adams appointed the senator to be the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Colombia. After three years in Colombia, Harrison returned to North Bend to resume his career as a farmer and was elected as the clerk of courts for Hamilton County.² In 1836, the newly formed Whig Party ran Harrison as one of three regional candidates for the presidency. The western Whig candidate made several public appearances and brief speeches and surprised the party with a strong showing in the election. Harrison’s career, personality, and success in 1836 combined to help him become the Whig’s first national candidate in 1840.

Harrison most likely chose Ohio as the site for his campaign tour because it was his home state. (There is evidence that he gave only one speech out of state, in Carthage, Indiana.) And while there is no indication as to why Harrison chose to stay so close to home, his age during the campaign, sixty-seven, as well as the financial aspects of long-distance travel probably both served as factors in his decision. Certainly his brief appearances in Ohio during the presidential contest of 1836 helped prepare Harrison for his electioneering tour four years later, starting at the National Hotel in Columbus.

In his first speech directly to the...