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Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org
Buy the Book
Maryland
History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice |
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National Convention of Whig Young Men Assembled at
the Canton Course Baltimore May 4th 1840
Drawn and lithographed by R.C. Long and A.C. Smith; Published by Geo.
Willig, Jr., Baltimore
1840
Lithograph |
In 1840 the Whig party placed William Henry Harrison in the White House
by adopting an innovative strategy: they systematically avoided the issues
of the day. Instead, they excelled at image-making. Harrison,
a planter with inherited wealth, was put forth as a self-made frontiersman.
When a Baltimore newsman snidely asserted that "Give him a barrel of hard
cider.and my word for it, he will sit the remainder of his days in his
log cabin.and study moral philosophy," the Whigs responded by portraying
Democratic presidential candidate Martin Van Buren as an effete New York
dandy and celebrated Harrison as a man of the people.
On May 4, the Democrats met at the Academy of Music in Baltimore to
ratify the nomination of Van Buren. Across town, the Whigs turned
their convention into a large, raucous party. They began their morning
with cannon fire and the blast of a single trumpet, then marched in a "vast
procession" past the Academy of Music, where their noise disrupted the
Democrats' proceedings. The parade, well-peppered with log cabin
floats and plenty of hard cider, terminated at the east Baltimore racetrack.
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