they constituted a party, willing to make an issue with the Democrats on that subject.

What the canvass had been from the beginning it continued to be to the end. On the part of the Whigs it was a season of great and enthusiastic meetings and stumpspeeches. So far was it from being true that General Harrison was shut up by his political friends, that he even appeared on the stump himself, at several places in Ohio, and spoke at length. It is commonly supposed, at the present day, and sometimes said, that no candidate of a great party ever advocated his own election to the presidency in public addresses; but General Harrison did so in September and October, 1840, at Urbana, Dayton, Chillicothe, Columbus, and other places. In an address at Carthage, on August 20, he explicitly asserted the right of the people to discuss any subject, and to petition Congress for the redress of any grievance, including that of slavery; and for this he was roundly denounced as an Abolitionist. The Democrats were unable to understand, and still more unable to look with patience upon, the shouting campaign of the Harrison men. They affected to treat the party and its candidate with contempt, but they were really very angry and very much alarmed. As State after State upon whose electoral vote they had counted gave the Whigs a majority, they became more desperate. They could not and would not believe what was going to happen, and predicted that "the bubble would burst" before November. That was a time when political slang was more current than it was ever before or has been since. The phrases, "Crow, Chapman, crow," "The ball is rolling on," "Clear the kitchen," with numerous variations, and similar expressions, are still remembered by the men, now old, who took part in that famous

canvass. The Whig song to the tune of "The Little Pig's Tail" has become historical, with its chorus:

"For Tippecanoe and Tyler too— Tippecanoe and Tyler too; And with them we'll beat little Vån, Van,

Van is a used up man;

And with them we'll beat little Van."

The shouts of the Whigs over their success in Vermont, Kentucky, Maine, Ohio, and other States had hardly ceased ringing when the presidential election began. The choice of all the electors was not then made on one day, as it is now, but in each State at a time fixed by the legislature. It was required, however, to be made within thirty-four days preceding the meeting of the electors. The election began in Pennsylvania and Ohio, on the 30th of October, and ended in North Carolina, on the 12th of November, so far as popular elections were concerned. South Carolina, whose legislature made the choice of the electors for that State, appointed them a fortnight later. But it was evident as soon as the returns of Pennsylvania were in, showing a large gain for the Whigs, even since the State election, four weeks before, that Harrison was to be President. The popular vote was as follows:—

The electoral count was conducted in the usual manner, and there was no incident to mark the proceedings. The result was declared as follows:

XVI.

THE FIRST "DARK HORSE."

THE canvass for the election of 1844 may be said to have begun before Harrison was inaugurated as President on the 4th of March, 1841. The Democrats, disgusted as well as angry at the success of the Whigs, ascribing it in one breath to fraud and in the next to the momentary madness of the people, were resolved to bring forward Mr. Van Buren again, and to elect him. The spirit of the party at that time is illustrated by an incident. A St. Louis paper placed Mr. Van Buren's name at the head of its columns as a candidate in 1844, and "nailed its colors to the mast," almost as soon as the result of the election of 1840 was known. Thereupon Senator Benton wrote a letter of commendation to the editor, saying that the Democratic party had won a victory twice before, after its only two national defeats, by adopting at once the candidate in whose person it had suffered a reverse. Mr. Benton, it is true, had been an ardent admirer and unwavering follower of Jackson, and had transferred his allegiance in all its fervor to Jackson's political heir; but, as subsequent events indicated, an overwhelming majority of the party took the same view of political policy and duty during the next three years.

The Whigs were doomed to a sad disappointment. One month after General Harrison took the oath of office he died, and John Tyler became President. Congress was summoned in extra session on the 31st of May, 1841. Among the first subjects to which the attention of Congress was called by the President was the question what