William Henry Harrison is best remembered as the president who lived for only month. Ironically his 1840 election campaign produced more political items than any candidate until Abraham Lincoln ran in 1860 and 1864. His political medalets, as a group, are quite common although there are some rare varieties. They provide the beginning collector with opportunities to become acquainted with political medalet collecting for a reasonable sum of money. As a younger man, William Henry Harrison won two famous battles as a military general. In 1811, he defeated the Indians in the Battle of Tippecanoe. In 1813, he followed that success with a victory over the British in the Battle of the Thames. The Whigs saw how Andrew Jackson’s victories over the Indians and the British at the Battle of New Orleans had made him a national hero. They puffed up William Henry Harrison’s resume to duplicate that political strategy. In addition the Whigs made Harrison “a man of the people.” In reality his grandfather had been an upper class Virginia planter who had signed the Declaration of Independence. Harrison lived in a nice home in Ohio surrounded by a prosperous farm. The Whigs painted Harrison as a man of simple tastes who lived in a log cabin and liked to drink hard cider. Thus the “log cabin and hard cider campaign was born. Harrison’s Democratic opponent, Martin Van Buren, was in political trouble. The Panic of 1837, a particularly bad economic depression, had started soon after Van Buren took office. The timing indicated that Van Buren had not been responsible for it, but his inability to end it left him politically vulnerable. In contrast to Harrison’s image as a cider sipping, simple farmer, the Whigs pictured Van Buren as a perfumed dandy who had brought “gambling devices” into the White House. The source of this “sin” was a billiards table. The Whig also distributed copies of this paper mechanical device which emphasized the elitist image they wish to hang on Van Buren. Here are a few of the many medalets that the Harrison campaign issued in 1840. While the Democrats were holding their presidential nominating convention in Baltimore, the Whigs held a counterdemonstration. The young Whigs marched though the streets, shouting at the top of their lungs, to disrupt the Democrats' proceedings. At one point, and angle Democrat knocked one of the young Whigs on the head and killed him. The Whigs took up a collection and donated over $1,300 to his widow and children. This piece features a younger looking William Henry Harrison on the obverse. Harrison was actually 67 years old, which was a fairly advanced age for the time. The reverse features the classic log cabin images. The is the cabin with a cannon, farm tools and a cider barrel outside. An American flag is flying above the cabin, and there are six soldiers lined up beside the cabin. One of the Whig images showed Harrison welcoming veterans, who had fought with him, into his humble home. The famous phrase "Tippecanoe and Tyler too!" never appeared on a Harrison token. This piece is as close the campaign came to using it on a campaign piece. This is an example of small (24 mm) Harrison campaign medal. This general design is quite common. These are among to the most common of all 19th century presidential campaign medals. I have more information if you would like, but this is a good start.
Benjamin Harrison, who was president from 1889 to 1893, was the grandson of William Henry Harrison. As you can see, there have been more "in the family" connections with the presidency than John and John Quincy Adams, and George H. W. and George W. Bush. When Benjamin ran for president in 1888, his campaign harkened back to his grandfather's run. One of the neat items was that a die that was used in 1840 was used again in 1800. Here is the 1840 William Henry Harrison medalet. And here is the same reverse die that was used again in 1888. Here is another example of where Benjamin Harrison used the log cabin image.
Thanks, great write-up. Mine is like the fourth one you posted. Embellishment of a candidate for political gain is certainly nothing new!
