A History of Presidential Campaigns POLS 125: Political Parties & Elections

During the election of 1800, one of Thomas Jefferson’s political foes called him a “mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father… raised wholly on hoe-cake made of course-ground Southern corn, bacon and hominy, with an occasional change of fricasseed bullfrog.”

“I meddle not with elections. I leave the people to make their own President.” — Andrew Jackson

"Give him a barrel of hard cider, and... a pension of two thousand [dollars] a year... and... he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin." William Henry Harrison “Old Granny”

“Come swell the throng and join the song Make the circle wider Join the round for Harrison, Log Cabin and Hard Cider With Harrison our country’s won No treachery can divide her Thy will be done With Harrison, Log Cabin and Hard Cider …" Harrison Yankee Doodle harrison/childrens-historical-song/music/track/smithsonian

The Reluctant Candidate “People will never make a man President who is so importunate as to show by his life and conversation that he not only has an eye on, but is in active pursuit of the office…. No man who has laid himself out for it, and was unwise enough to let the people into his secret, ever yet obtained it. Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Scott, and a host of lesser lights, should serve as a guide-post to future aspirants.” Martin Van Buren, in a letter to his son, John, in 1858

“Douglas is going about peddling his opinions as a tin man peddles his ware. The only excuse for him is that as he is a small man, he has a right to be engaged in small business; and small business it is for a candidate for the Presidency to be strolling around the country begging for votes like a town constable.” — Newspaper editorial “It is not personal ambition that has induced me to take the stump this year. I say to you who know me that the presidency has no charms for me. I do not believe that it is my interest as an ambitious man to be President this year if I could. But I do love this Union. There is no sacrifice on earth that I would not make to preserve it.” —Stephen Douglas, 1860

“You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

Attack Ads, Circa 1800

From Broadsides to Broadcasts Over the course of 100 days in the campaign of 1896, William Jennings Bryan, by his own account, made 600 speeches in 27 states. He traveled over 18,000 miles to reach 5 million people. In a single fireside chat delivered while seated in his very own parlor a generation later, Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to reach 12 times that number by radio.

1975 Memo from Bob Mead to Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld

Which is it? The media are a “convenient scapegoat for our myriad ills” (Stuckey) OR The media distort politics with their “simple, character-driven narratives” (Peretz).

“Follow Me Around”

Creating an image…