Richard J. Ellis. Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation.

Abstract

The 1840 presidential election dazzles in textbooks and syntheses as a milestone in the history of American democracy. Less bitterly controversial than the 1824 contest, and vastly less portentous of bloodshed than the 1860 campaign, the 1840 election has captivated historians’ attention more for its pageantry than for its candidates, issues, or policy implications. Often, 1840 is framed as the moment when the Whigs descended from their aristocratic perch, copied the Democrats’ playbook, and finally got the ball rolling by appealing to the masses with songs, slogans, symbols, and a war hero atop the ticket. Whether this reflected the vitality of American political culture or the vacuity of American political ideas depends on one’s point of view. But the notion that the contest featured more style than substance remains pervasive, not least because the election’s two previous book-length treatments—published in 2016 and 1957, respectively—both accepted it. In this well-crafted new study, however, eminent presidential scholar Richard J. Ellis presents a compelling reinterpretation of the immediate and lasting importance of the storied Log Cabin campaign. Building on important work by historians such as Michael Holt on the primacy of economic issues and the dynamics of voter mobilization, and Mark Cheathem on antebellum electioneering, Ellis offers a detailed campaign study that will likely remain the standard on the subject for many years. In this persuasive retelling, the 1840 election appears just as colorful, much more innovative, dramatically more substantive, and more enduringly significant than ever before.