422 
Indiana University 
The abundance of Whig candidates, which made the opposi- 
tion to Van Buren formidable, on the other hand made the 
election of any one of them almost impossible. Democrats 
credited the Whigs with trying to throw the election into 
the House by running Webster in the North, White in the 
South, and Harrison in the West. But the wiser of the 
Whig leaders saw that as long as they had 4 candidates in 
the held it would be possible for the ‘‘Humbugs” to over- 
whelm them in detail.^® Political arguments and personal 
attacks upon Van Buren were the order of the day. “A 
hame of political delusion has passed over the land and Martin 
Van Buren is decreed to be the Phoenix that is to rise out of 
it. The mountain of Jacksonism has been in labor and this 
cunning mouse is brought forth.”^® The two fundamental 
principles of Van Burenism were declared to be: hrst, that 
the government of the people should be carried on by a party 
organization; and, second, that the benehts of government 
belonged not to the people but to the party. Democrats 
countered with abuse and built up their organization. The 
organization which had been established in Ohio and Indiana 
before 1835 was now extended to Illinois. No efforts were 
spared to overwhelm this “loose compound of Hartford Con- 
vention Federalism, and Royal Arch Masonry”.^® 
Illinois did not take so readily to the Democratic system 
of organization and expressed disapproval of any conven- 
tion system being forced upon the American people by the 
Van Buren party, such being destructive of the freedom of 
the elective franchise, opposed to representative institutions, 
and dangerous to the liberties of the people.^^ Aside from 
personalities and review of the respective records of the 
two candidates, the campaign of 1836 centered around the 
discussion of the specie circular and Land Distribution Bill. 
The hero worship and wild enthusiasm which played such 
an important part in the campaign of 1840 had not yet been 
aroused to any great extent.^^ The Democrats were eager 
38 Western Sun, November 21, 1835 ; Scioto Gazette, August 5, 1835. 
33 From address of Ross County Whigs, Scioto Gazette, September 9, 1835. 
^3 For party -work in Ohio and Indiana see Western Hemisphere (Cincinnati, Ohio), 
September 16, 1835; Indiana Democrat (Indianapolis), November 21, 1835. 
Ford, History of Illinois, 206. 
^3 Still, 'when a young man at Columbus, Ohio, said that the ladies of Chillicothe 
had voted Harrison a petticoat as the most suitable emblem of his military prowess, 
and while the story went the rounds of the Democratic papers, there was no lack of 
valient defense for the General. The author of the story was stigmatized as a “liar 
