Hello and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series for today we will be discussing the Election of 1840. Martin Van Buren is looking for re-election, but he has to go up against the Whig Party’s William Henry Harrison in a rematch of sorts in what becomes the most modern election in all of the 19th Century.

The Panic of 1837

As you may recall from the 1836 election, Martin Van Buren became the eighth President of the United States by campaigning off the success of his predecessor Andrew Jackson. Unfortunately for the newly elected president and the country as a whole, the next four years would see a number of problems emerge starting off with “The Panic of 1837”.

The origins of this panic can be traced all the way back to Andrew Jackson, who as we discussed in the 1832 article was against the idea of renewing the charter for the Second National Bank. Combined with Great Britain’s decision to increase interest rates when it came to overseas trading with the U.S. led to a huge financial crisis with many Americans losing jobs as well as producers of cotton and other goods seeing their profits rapidly decline.

Handed with one of the worst economic struggles in early American History, President Van Buren would be re-nominated by the Democratic Party pretty easily but the same could not be said for his Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson. Johnson was still disliked by many Democrats for sleeping with his female slaves, but things got worse when he decided to leave the White House for nine months to recuperate his fortune as a result of the panic of 1837.

The Democrats soon decided to kick Johnson off the ticket before the 1840 election, however their hopes of finding someone else to be Van Buren’s running mate were unsuccessful. Making this the first and only time in U.S. election History in which one of the major candidates didn’t have a running mate nominated on the ticket.

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

While the president attempts to deal with the issues both in and out of his own party, the Whigs have returned for another go at the presidency and they nominate William Henry Harrison again as their candidate. Unlike the last election, Harrison will be the only presidential candidate running for the Whigs and the man himself promises to serve one term if elected President.

Harrison’s running mate this time was Virginia Senator John Tyler who also ran as the running mate for several of the Whig candidates back in the 1836 election.

The Whig strategy this time was to not only ignore growing issues like slavery and westward expansion, but to also promote Harrison’s reputation as a war hero who fought in the Battle of the Thames and crushed an Indian uprising led by the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh in the Battle of Tippecanoe, which led to Harrison being referred to as ‘Old Tippecanoe’.

Manufactured Image & Mudslinging

In addition to propping up Harrison’s record as a war hero, the Whigs are also producing campaign songs and merchandise that include Harrison’s image…or rather the image they want to present to the American people, which is that of an old-timey common man who lived in a log cabin and drank hard cider.

Similar to how Jackson’s exploits as a military man helped to endure him to many Americans, the Whigs are using the same strategy for Harrison which focuses more on the person’s background and social status instead of concerning over policy issues aka ‘Identity Politics’ .

Both parties are looking to make this election more of a personality contest while also talking trash about the opposition.

The Democrats would criticize the Whigs for nominating someone who was deemed by the standards of the time ‘too old’ to become the president as Harrison was in his late 60’s and some felt that having him as commander-in-chief might be too dangerous due to his age.

Democrats are using printed media to call out Harrison on his vague responses to major issues by calling him ‘General Mum’ and ‘The Petticoat General’ while also promoting Van Buren by using the word O.K. as a nickname to mean ‘Old Kinderhook’ as the incumbent president hailed from Kinderhook New York.

The Whigs responded back using political cartoons to attack the Democrats and bringing up claims that Martin Van Buren was a rich out-of-touch elitist who allowed the economy to falter on his watch leading some to call him ‘Martin Van Ruin’; Little did most Americans at the time know that it was Harrison himself who was richer than Van Buren.

A pretty modern election by today’s standards as both sides are using baseless claims against their opponent, ignoring the major issues and making the campaigns more about image than anything else.

The Election of 1840: The Results and Harrison’s Presidency

By the time all of the votes had been counted, it became very clear that William Henry Harrison had easily won; Receiving 234 electoral votes and 52.9% of the popular vote. Martin Van Buren got 60 electoral votes and 46.8% of the popular vote, making Van Buren the first one-term president in the history of the Democratic Party.

The 67-year old went to his own inauguration riding a horse without wearing a hat or coat during some reportedly rainy conditions. Harrison would go on to give a very long speech and combined with the fact that he wasn’t wearing anything to cover himself from the rain, led many people to believe for a time that this was what caused the president to catch a cold and ultimately die.

This of course isn’t exactly true as Harrison would indeed get sick and die, but not from giving a long speech in the rain. Rather this came as a result of drinking contaminated water within the White House as the water supply was connected to places that contained garbage and other disgusting things. Upon drinking the water, Harrison would get typhoid and later died as a result of septic shock at the age of 68.

Harrison only served 31-32 days in office which makes him the president to serve the shortest tenure in American History.

The Transfer of Power

With William Henry Harrison dead, many were uncertain as to who would lead the country as the U.S. had never experienced something like this before. The Constitution claimed that in case of the president’s removal, death or resignation, the obligations of said office would be passed down to the Vice President.

By this logic, John Tyler believed he was now the new President of the United States of America, however many in Harrison’s cabinet and the Whig Party as a whole interpreted this to mean that Tyler was the “Acting President” meaning that he would proceed with the duties of President but he was still considered the Vice President.

Ultimately, Tyler would have his way and officially became the tenth President of the United States, creating a precedent that wouldn’t be rectified into law until 1968. Tyler’s harshest critics instead refer to him as “His Accidency”, which would be just one of the many issues the new President would face during his time in office.

Be sure to leave your thoughts down below in the comment section and be sure to follow Lace ‘Em Up on Twitter @laceemupoffice you can follow me also on Twitter @hakeemfullerton and I’ll see you in the next article.