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FAREWELL, my little sweetheart,
Now fare you well and free ;
I claim from you no promise,

You claim no vows from me.
The reason why ?-the reason
Right well we can uphold-
I have too much of silver,
And you've too much of gold!

A puzzle, this, to worldlings,
Whose love to lucre flies,
Who think that gold to silver
Should count as mutual prize!
But I'm not avaricious,

And you're not sordid-souled; I have too much of silver,

And you've too much of gold.

Upon our heads the reason
Too plainly can be seen:
I am the Winter's bond-slave,
You are the Summer's queen;
Too few the years you number,
Too many I have told;

I have too much of silver,
And you've too much of gold.

You have the rose for token,
I have dry leaf and rime;
I have the sobbing vesper,
You, morning bells at chime.
I would that I were younger,
(And you grew never old)—
Would I had less of silver,
But you no less of gold!

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PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MEDALS.

By Gustav Kobbe.

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MERICAN numismat- the partisans of the former, still smarting under his defeat by Adams four years previous, made a rattling canvass for Old Hickory. The medallists, scenting a chance for a rushing business at the large Jackson meetings held during this campaign, struck off medals bearing his likeness and spirited mottoes or references to his military career, by wearing which his partisans showed their devotion to their hero's cause. Ever since then political canvasses have been periods of great activity for our die-sinkers. An unbroken numismatic record of the Presidential campaigns from that of 1828 to those of our own time has been preserved to us through the enthusiasm of several collectors, foremost among them Mr. Robert Hewitt, formerly an officer of the American Numismatic and Archæological Society of New York, which also has many valuable "Campaigners" in its cabinet. The series of Presidential Campaign Medals is unique. It was not fashioned mechanically and unemotionally in the mint like our own and foreign coinage. The medals bear evidence of having been struck off in the heat and passion of the hour. The political excitement with which the air quivered, the very shouts of contending partisans seem to have passed into the metal through the burin as it graved line after line of some striking design or letter after letter of some ringing campaign cry which in one terse sentence reflected the spirit of the canvass.

ists have an advantage over their brethren of other countries; for the political institutions peculiar to the United States have originated a branch of numismatic art not represented in the numismatics of any other nation. The coinage of foreign countries usually bears the likeness of the rulers of the nation. Had the precedent been followed in the United States it would have made necessary innovations in our coinage at intervals of four or eight years; whereas the so-called Washington cent is the only coin of the United States bearing a Presidential likeness.

Our medallists have sought to make up for the absence from our coinage of portraits of those who have been our chief magistrates, and their work in this direction has resulted in what is known among collectors as the series of Political Medals and Tokens. This consists of such pieces as bear the likeness of any President or Vice-President of the United States or of any of the unsuccessful candidates for those offices. For instance, beginning with the inauguration of Washington, the national government has commemorated the coming in of each Administration by having struck off at the mint large silver medals, called Indian medals because they are presented to the chiefs of certain tribes as pledges of friendship. The mint issues also "Presidential medals" which bear the bust of the successful candidate and the date of his election. Besides the mint medals there are many "Politicals," which have been struck off on the order of societies or individuals or by medallists as business ventures.

A large subdivision of the "Politicals," known as Presidential Campaign Medals, or "Campaigners" for short, we owe to the business enterprise of our medallists. In the second campaign between Jackson and John Quincy Adams

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The campaign medal of earliest date (1824) is not a genuine "Campaigner but a John Quincy Adams "Presidential," through which a hole has been punched. Its battered condition is evidence that it was worn. The theory of the Numismatic Society, to whose cabinet it belongs, is that some partisan of Adams in the campaign of 1828 punched the hole through it and wore it, so that Jackson's supporters should not have the monopoly of outward manifestations of their inward political faith.

The Jacksonian series is not limited

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are distinctly and emphatically civil, military prowess excites popular admiration and throws a glamour around a public man beside which the halo of statesmanship grows dim, is shown by the fact that the most popular medallic design with Jackson's partisans was a representation of the battle of New Orleans, his chief military exploit. On

questions of the time or to his position toward them. His supporters seem to have relied solely upon his military renown as a charm; and they were not mistaken in its powers. For Old Hickory's candidacy was so popular that tradespeople issued brass medallets (numismatically known as tokens), usually bearing on their obverse a bust of Jacksuch pieces son and on the reverse, in compliment as did not to him, a profile of Washington, and bear it it the name and business of the firm in was usually conspicuous lettering. Thus the hero at least re- of New Orleans, in company with the ferred to. Father of his Country, "boomed" hardThus, on ware, military goods, oysters, and drugs; the reverse and even a mixture for soothing shriekof a large ing infants was advertised on the reverse of a military bust of the irascible old warrior from Tennessee.

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The military character of the Jackson medals of 1828 makes

Jackson Campaign Medals, 1824-28-'32.*

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medal of white-metal-a metal
resembling pewter and much
used by medallists-there is,
enclosed in a wreath of oak and laurel, the
following inscription: "General Jack
son, the gallant and successful defender
of New Orleans and candidate for the
Presidency of the United States of
America, 1828." In fact, his renown as
a soldier seems to have entirely obscured
his political reputation; for there is
no medallic evidence that he was sup-
ported as the exponent of any special

*The illustrations are from pieces in the cabinets of Robert Hewitt, William Poillon, and the American Numismatic and Archæological Society of New York.

VOL. IV.-34

the politi-
cal char-
acter of
those of the
following
campaign
the more
marked.
The battle

of New Orleans disappears from the medals and in its place we find evidence of genuine political warfare. The metallic circles surround such mottoes as "The

the "great expounder" on the reverse. The medal was evidently struck in honor of Webster, though it is difficult to construe the curious design as complimentary. Jackson had been the first "man of the people" to occupy the Presidential chair, and in the campaign of 1836 the Democratic party was extolled by its orators as the party of the "people," and the farmer's vote was flattered by Van Buren's partisans. There is striking evidence of this policy on two of the most important Van Buren medals of this year. On the reverse of one

Bank must perish!" and "The Union must and shall be preserved!" These refer of course to Jackson's opposition to the rechartering of the United States Bank and to his determined resistance to the South Carolina Nullifiers-positions he held as firmly as he did the ramparts of cotton bales at New Orleans. As the medallists, in order that their productions might meet with a ready sale, have always adopted those designs and mottoes with which the political atmosphere was charged, the Jackson medals of the period referred to prove that political

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pluck can also excite popular enthusiasm; and that while Jackson went into the White House in 1828 on what may in a double sense be termed glittering generalities, he owed his re-election to the strain of political "must" which was developed in his character by the crisis which confronted him during his first term.

The campaign of 1836 was a five-cornered fight. The opponents of Jackson's financial policy assumed the name of Whigs. The Democrats nominated Van Buren, an ardent partisan of Jackson, who was elected. The electoral votes of the opposition were distributed among Harrison, 73, Hugh L. White, 26, Daniel Webster, 14, and Willie P. Mangum, 11. The most interesting medal of this campaign is a brass Webster piece of medium size, on the reverse of which is an old woman riding on a broom-stick and wielding a crutch (5). With this design goes the inscription: "We all have our hobbies." It might be supposed that the medal was a relic of the days when the advocates of female suffrage put forth their first tentative efforts, were it not for a profile of

of these-a large white-metal piece-a plough and other agricultural implements are conspicuously grouped in front of a temple of Liberty (4); and the reverse of the other shows a man ploughing and the inscription: "The Democracy who can justly appreciate Liberty and Equality" (6).

Four years later Van Buren and Harrison again met in the political arena. This canvass was one of the most exciting in our history. Every expedient was resorted to by politicians of both parties to play upon popular feeling, and the whole country was aroused The Whigs conducted what has come down to us as "the shouting campaign." The

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Democrats having sneered at Harrison for living in a log cabin with nothing but hard cider to drink, his partisans raised the cry for the "log cabin and hard cider candi

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Medal Commemorating the Organization of the Liberty Party, 1838.

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date." This

touched the

popular imagination, and people fairly went wild with enthusiasm and hard cider; for from the

As the Harrison canvass progressed, it grew so exciting that in one Massachusetts

town, for instance, a church was turned over to Harrison's partisans. They built a log cabin on wheels and drew it to the church with eighty yoke of oxen, young girls on horseback, each representing a State, riding in advance bearing green boughs and banners and strewing the road with flowers, while the whole procession shouted:

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thus made capital

out of his military exploits as well as out of the simplicity of his daily walk.

There is striking numismatic evidence of the ex

barrel which the candidate proclaimed he was ready to tap for any one who entered his cabin, cider seemed to flow all over the country. Log cabins and barrels were features at nearly all the Harrison meetings, and were also borne in the large processions organized by Harrison's supporters, the first political processions in our history-on which occasions the barrels were usually found to be more persuasive orators than the speakers. The Harrison medals (8, obv. and rev., 13) faithfully record the popularity of the barrel, for the medallists even suspended their regard for perspective, and in their representations of Harrison's primitive home made the barrel so conspicuous an object in the surrounding landscape that beside it the mountains dwindle to mounds and the trees to bushes.

cumstance that the medallic series bearing upon it is much larger numerically than any relating to any of the previous

Harrison and Van Buren Medals of the Campaign of

1840.

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