FROM JACKSON TO FILLMORE- 1832-1851 47 



thousand; but, as the central town of the State, it was 

 already a noted gathering-place for political conventions 

 and meetings. The great Whig mass-meeting held there, 

 in 1840, was long famous as the culmination of the cam- 

 paign between General Harrison and Martin Van Buren. 

 As a President, Mr. Van Buren had fallen on evil times. 

 It was a period of political finance; of demagogical 

 methods in public business; and the result was "hard 

 times, ' ' with an intense desire throughout the nation for a 

 change. This desire was represented especially by the 

 Whig party. General Harrison had been taken up as its 

 candidate, not merely because he had proved his worth 

 as governor of the Northwestern Territory, and as a 

 senator in Congress, but especially as the hero of sundry 

 fights with the Indians, and, above all, of the plucky little 

 battle at Tippecanoe. The most popular campaign song, 

 which I soon learned to sing lustily, was ' ' Tippecanoe and 

 Tyler, Too," and sundry lines of it expressed, not only 

 my own deepest political convictions and aspirations, but 

 also those cherished by myriads of children of far larger 

 growth. They ran as follows: 



" Oh, have you heard the great commotion-motion-motion 

 Rolling the country through ? 

 It is the ball a-rolling on 

 For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, 

 For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too ; 

 And with them we '11 beat little Van ; 

 Van, Van is a used up man ; 

 And with them we '11 beat little Van." 



The campaign was an apotheosis of torn-foolery. Gen- 

 eral Harrison had lived the life, mainly, of a Western 

 farmer, and for a time, doubtless, exercised amid his rude 

 surroundings the primitive hospitality natural to sturdy 

 Western pioneers. On these facts the changes were rung. 

 In every town and village a log cabin was erected where 

 the Whigs held their meetings ; and the bringing of logs, 

 with singing and shouting, to build it, was a great event ; 



