Studies in American History 
175 
it and its wide circulation opened the way for its successor, 
the New York Tribune. 
All the appliances and appurtenances of the log cabin came 
into favor. There was the barrel of hard cider, to stand by 
the door; there was the coon skin to be nailed by its side; 
there was the latchstring to admit the welcome guest, and 
it was remembered that Harrison told his old soldiers that 
they would never find the door shut or the latchstring pulled 
in. There was the rye-and-Indian bread; and there was the 
string of dried apples, and pumpkins, and bunches of corn 
and peppers, hanging from the roof ; and there was the broom 
at the door, typical of the purpose of the Whigs to make a 
clean sweep. Nothing was wanting to point the contrast 
between “the poor man’s friend” and the “rich man’s candi- 
date”, but to recount, as Whig stump-speakers did, with gusto, 
the items of national expense for “gilt candelabra, porcelain 
vases, satin chairs, and damask sofas”, in “Van Buren’s 
palace”, the White House at Washington.®^ 
But the log cabin was not the only ad captandum argument 
at the service of the Whigs. Taking a lesson from their own 
crushing defeats by the hero of New Orleans, they proceeded 
to hoist flags, fire salutes, and declaim panegyrics on the 
“hero of the Thames”, the “defender of Fort Meigs”, the 
“victor of Tippecanoe”. Tippecanoe, besides being the lead- 
ing exploit of the military chieftain, was a good sonorous 
name for the orators to pronounce, ore rotundo, and clubs to 
sing in swelling chorus. For, by this time, the irresistible 
and irrepressible enthusiasm had burst out in song ; campaign 
songs, campaign songsters, glee clubs, and Harrison minstrels 
were now in vogue. Popular airs and national anthems were 
pressed into service. English and Scotch ballads and negro 
melodies were adapted to new words. The familiar strains 
of the Star-Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle, the Marseillaise 
Hymn, Scots wha hae, Paddy Carey, the Bonnets of Blue, 
McGregor’s Gathering , and Old Rosin and Bow, resounded 
thru halls and streets, to the words of political songs — The 
Buckeye Cabin, The Hero of the Thames, Old Fort Meigs, 
Tippecanoe Gathering, Old Tip, and Up Salt River.^^ 
Seward, Autobiography, 495, 496. 
^-Ihid., 496. 
83 /bid., 496. 
