The Election of 1840: Impact of the Caroline Affair and Economic Crisis

1. The Election of 1840 Revised by: Me (In honor of Tia)

2. DEMS Martin Van Buren

3. 1837 Caroline Affair The Caroline was an American steamship that had been aiding rebels in Canada. Canadian militia, on orders of the British, seized the Caroline in American waters. They set the ship on fire, and sent it hurling over the Niagra Falls. These actions strained US relations with Great Britian almost to the point of war.

5. Van Buren Taking the Blame for His Own and Jackson's Monetary Policies

6. DEMS  Richard Mentor Johnson, VP

7. THE PANIC OF 1837 • a major bank crisis awaited the incoming administration ofMartin Van Buren, in early 1837. Banks restricted credit and called in loans. Depositors rushed to their local institutions and attempted to withdraw their funds.Unemployment soon touched every part of the nation and food riots occurred in a number of large cities. Construction companies were unable to meet their obligations, sparking the failure of railroad and canal projects, and the ruin of thousands of land speculators.

8. Van Buren was philosophically opposed to direct government action in combating the nation’s economic ills, a position that probably cost him reelection in 1840. The Whigs, however, capitalized on the misery, electing William Henry Harrison as their first President. The impact of the depression, however, lingered until 1843.

9. WHIGS William Henry Harrison

10. Harrison • "Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of two thousand a year on him, and my word for it," a Democratic newspaper foolishly gibed, "he will sit ... by the side of a 'sea coal' fire, and study moral philosophy. " The Whigs, seizing on this political misstep, in 1840 presented their candidate William Henry Harrison as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic champagne-sipping Van Buren.

11. WHIGS John Tyler, VP

12. “Tippecanoe, and Tyler,Too!”

13. “Log Cabin” Campaign Pin, 1840

14. A Harrison Bandana

15. “Log Cabin & Cider” Campaign

16. “Stop That Barrel”

17. William Henry Harrison Campaign Song • “Tip and Ty”(Words and Music by "A member of the Fifth Ward Club“, published 1840) • What has caus'd this great com-mo-tion, mo-tion, mot-ion our coun-try through, It is the ball that's rol-ling on, For Tip-pi-ca-noe, and Ty-ler too, • For Tip-pi-ca-noe, and Ty-ler too, And with them we'll beat lit-tle Van, Van, Van is a us'd up man, And with them we'll beat lit-tle Van.

18. “TIP AND TY”

19. 1840 Election Results