Gen. Harrison, the nominee of the Whig Party, was then sixty-seven
years of age by the record, but the public opinion credited him with
several more years. His mental powers were not of superior quality,
and his life had not been of a sort to develop his faculties. He had
done good service in the Indian wars of the frontier and as commander
in the battle of Tippecanoe he had won a reputation as a soldier.
During the war of 1812, he commanded the army of the Northwest, and
with honor. He had had a seat in each House of Congress, he had
represented the government at the capital of a South American Republic,
and all with credit, and all without distinction. His career had been
sufficiently conspicuous to justify his friends in eulogies in the
party papers and speeches; and neither as good policy nor just
treatment should his opponents have been betrayed into criticisms of
his military and civil life. The Democrats were unwise enough to raise
an issue upon his military career, and the result was greatly to their
loss. His frontier life in a log cabin was also the subject of
ridicule at the opening of the campaign. The Whigs accepted the issue,
built log cabins on wheels and drew them over the country from one mass
meeting to another. The unfortunate remark was made by a writer or
speaker that if Harrison had a log cabin and plenty of hard cider he
would be content.
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