48 POLITICAL LIFE-I 



its front door must have a wooden latch on the inside; 

 but the latch-string must run through the door; for the 

 claim which the friends of General Harrison especially 

 insisted upon was that he not only lived in a log cabin, but 

 that his latch-string was always out, in token that all his 

 fellow-citizens were welcome at his fireside. 



Another element in the campaign was hard cider. 

 Every log cabin must have its barrel of this acrid fluid, 

 as the antithesis of the alleged beverage of President Van 

 Buren at the White House. He, it was asserted, drank 

 champagne, and on this point I remember that a verse 

 was sung at log-cabin meetings which, after describing, 

 in a prophetic way the arrival of the "Farmer of North 

 Bend" at the White House, ran as follows : 



" They were all very merry, and drinking champagne 

 When the Farmer, impatient, knocked louder again j 

 Oh, Oh, said Prince John, I very much fear 

 We must quit this place the very next year." 



"Prince John" was President Van Buren 's brilliant 

 son ; famous for his wit and eloquence, who, in after years, 

 rose to be attorney-general of the State of New York, and 

 who might have risen to far higher positions had his prin- 

 ciples equaled his talents. 



Another feature at the log cabin, and in all political 

 processions, was at least one raccoon; and if not a live 

 raccoon in a cage, at least a raccoon skin nailed upon the 

 outside of the cabin. This gave local color, but hence 

 came sundry jibes from the Democrats, for they were 

 wont to refer to the Whigs as "coons," and to their log 

 cabins as "coon pens." Against all these elements of 

 success, added to promises of better times, the Democratic 

 party could make little headway. Martin Van Buren, 

 though an admirable public servant in many ways, was 

 discredited. M. de Bacourt, the French Minister at Wash- 

 ington, during his administration, was, it is true, very 

 fond of him, and this cynical scion of French nobility 



