Log Cabin Campaign

The first campaign to really resemble modern campaigns was the Log Cabin campaign of 1840.  In this campaign, William Henry Harrison was running against Incumbent Martin Van Buren. Harrison took a unique approach to this campaign. He started a very active campaign were he gave speeches across the country to various large groups of voters.  This had not really been done before in American Presidential campaigns.  Harrison painted himself as being from a log cabin, and he also touted his military success against the Indians. He painted Van Buren as an elite who was not in touch with the people.  This idea that Harrison was the log cabin candidate appealed to many voters and helped propel him to much success over his adversary.  Also, Harrison blamed Van Buren for the economic depression.  All of these factors along with many get out the vote campaigns including songs and other things trying to get people to vote Harrison and the Whigs came out on top of the election.  The final electoral count was 234-60 with an 80% of eligible voters turning out.  This was the largest turnout ever and showed a shift from the previous campaigns where campaigning really did not happen.  Click This link and this link to look at some ads from Harrison's campaign. Tomorrow I will have a post about the election of 1860 between Lincoln and Douglass.