e antislavery sentiment. But the men
who held these sentiments were largely members of the Whig and
Democratic parties. In the hope of drawing them from their parties, and
inducing them to act together, the antislavery conventions about 1838
began to urge the formation of an antislavery party, which was finally
accomplished at Albany, N.Y., in April, 1840, where James G. Birney was
nominated for President, and Thomas Earle for Vice President. No name
was given to the new organization till 1844, when it was christened
"Liberty party."

%352. The Log Cabin, Hard Cider Campaign%.--The candidate of the
Democrats (Martin Van Buren) was a shrewd and skillful politician. The
candidate of the Whigs (Harrison) was the ideal of a popular favorite.
To defeat him at such a time, when the people were angry with the
Democrats, would have been hard, but they made it harder still by
ridiculing his honorable poverty and his Western surroundings. At the
very outset of the campaign a Democratic newspaper declared that
Harrison would be more at home "in a log cabin, drinking hard cider and
skinning coons, than living in the White House as President." The Whigs
instantly took up the sneer and made the log cabin the emblem of their
party. All over the country log cabins (erected at some crossroads, or
on the village common, or on some vacant city lot) became the Whig
headquarters. On the door was a coon skin; a leather latch string was
always hanging out as a sign of hospitality, and beside the door stood a
barrel of hard cider. Every Whig wore a Harrison and Tyler badge, and
knew by heart all the songs in the _Log Cabin Songster_. Immense mass
meetings were held, at which 50,000, and even 80,000, people attended.
Weeks were spent in getting ready for them. In the West, where
railroads were few, the people came in covered wagons with provisions,
and camped on the ground days before the meeting. At the monster meeting
at Dayton, O., 100,000 people were present, covering ten acres of
ground.[1]

[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren_, pp. 323-335.]

[Illustration: William H. Harrison]

%353. William Henry Harrison, Ninth President; John Tyler, Tenth
President%.--Harrison was triumphantly elected, and inaugurated March
4, 1841. But his career was short, for on April 4 he died,[2] and John
Tyler took his place. Tyler had never been a Whig. He had always been a
Democrat. Nevertheless, the Whigs, confident of his aid, tried to carry
out certain r