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Indiana University 
to work up a little needed enthusiasm as is indicated by a 
meeting of the “Administration” forces in Pennsylvania, on 
April 21, 1840.®® 
The campaign was soon in full blast. It was a memorable 
one. Beginning immediately after the nomination of Harri- 
son and Tyler, at Harrisburg in the preceding December, 
the popular enthusiasm had rapidly increased. The Whig 
papers likened the movement, not inaptly, to the spread of 
the “prairie fires”. The Whig leaders, of course, aided it 
with all the appliances that political skill or experience could 
suggest; and the Democrats, as not infrequently happens to 
those on the unpopular side of a controversy, found their 
arguments and even their ridicule of the Whig candidate 
turned to his advantage. Someone, alluding to pioneer habits 
in the West, had suggested that Harrison be given a log cabin 
and plenty of hard cider to drink, implying that that condi- 
tion of life was more befitting for him than the White House. 
It was an unfortunate sneer for the Democrats, for it supplied 
the spark that only was needed to kindle popular sympathy 
into a blaze. The Whigs fanned the flame. He became the 
“log cabin candidate”. The log cabin became the emblem of 
his pioneer life, of his military services, of his kindred feel- 
ings with the farmers, of his unrequited toil for his country. 
A log cabin sprang up in nearly every city — a clubhouse and 
rallying-place for Whigs. Log cabin raisings and house- 
warmings were held with music and political speeches. Log 
cabin medals were struck, and passed from hand to hand. 
Miniature log cabins were carried in processions and dis- 
played on platforms. Log cabin pictures were hung in the 
barrooms and parlors. Log cabin magazines and songbooks 
found ready sale. Ladies made log cabin fancy work for 
fairs, and children had little log cabins of wood, tin, and con- 
fectionery. The Whig state committee, of New York, got 
up a campaign newspaper, to be published simultaneously 
in New York and Albany, and named it the Log Cabin, call- 
ing Horace Greeley to the editorial chair. This special organ 
of the Whigs had a popularity equaled by no campaign 
paper before or since. For him it was the stepping-stone 
to fame and fortune; for the energy and skill displayed in 
Niles’ Register, LVIII, 164-166, 
