When the Harrison and Tyler campaign came on in 1840, Greeley, having come to be considered a valuable member of the party, was made the editor of another political journal, the Log Cabin. This title was the result of an article that, at the time of Harrison's nomination, the Baltimore American had written:
"Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of two thousand a year upon him, and, our word for it, he will sit for the remainder of his days contented in a log cabin." This sneer was the basis of a historic battlecry, which was first used at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1840, with the result that "the log cabin and hard cider" became the slogan of the Whig party.
In his biography of Henry Clay, Carl Schurz declared that "there has never been a presidential canvass in which there has been less thought." The parades, the songs and the log cabin cries were all part of an extraordinary excitement, but that excitement meant that the people were tired of the party in power and their ebullience was simply the outward evidence of their intention to throw off their bonds.
Greeley claimed much credit for the Whig victory that followed. He asserted that the Log Cabin had helped arouse most of the enthusiasm, citing the fact that it achieved the phenomenal circulation of 80,000.'[1] He therefore determined to try a greater field and, with a capital of $1,000, lent him by a Whig friend, he brought out the Tribune on April 10, 1841.
When the Tribune appeared, the Courier and Enquirer, the New York American, the Express, and the Commercial Advertiser were Whig papers, all in the six-cent class. The Evening Post and the Journal of Commerce leaned to the Democratic party, while the Sun and the Herald,
- ↑ Busy Life, 134.
