Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][graphic][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][graphic][graphic][graphic][graphic][graphic][graphic][merged small][subsumed][merged small][subsumed]

contests; while the character of Har- to Harrison's candidacy by dwelling upon rison's canvass as a shouting campaign his victory at Tippecanoe.

One medallist managed to combine on the

[graphic]
[graphic][subsumed]
[graphic]

Campaign of 1848.

is shown by the inscriptions on the Harrison medals. Patriotic mottoes and extracts from public utterances of the candidate are not to be found. Instead of these we have, with the log-cabin and hard-cider designs referred to, mere catch-words, which seem to have been caught up by the medallists as they fell from the lips of heated partisans. Certainly no stroke of statesmanship is recalled by the exclamation "Go it, Tip! Come it, Tyler," found on one of the Harrison medals (9); nor any indication of the candidate's policy conveyed by the cries Tippecanoe and Tyler too!"-"The Log Cabin Candidate, the People's Choice" (13), which are conspicuous on others of the series. Political sentiments are as much wanting as they were in the first set of Jackson medals. Then, too, there is medallic evidence that the Whigs trumped the political trick with the very card-military successwhich the Democrats had played successfully in 1828, for they gave impetus

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

reverse of a small piece the symbols of Harrison's military glory and agricultural virtue with a humorous fling at the adversary. The design shows a pair of scales, one of which is branded "Loco," the other "Wigs," the latter, though it lacks one letter, outweighing the former. Beneath are the cabin and the barrel, a cannon, a pyramid of balls, and in the distance a file of soldiers, one of whom bears a standard. The contemptuous "Loco Foco" is again applied to Harrison's opponent in a rare little brass medal, issued by a medallist who evidently had a keen sense of humor. The design represents a steamboat flying a flag inscribed "1841," while the inscription tells us that the vessel is the "Steamboat Van Buren, for Salt River direct. Loco Foco Line" (15). medallist in the excitement of the campaign forgot his grammar and flooded the community with this announcement on metal: "Honesty and Integrity will meet its just Reward!"

[graphic]
[graphic]

Scott and Pierce Medals of 1852.

[graphic]

Cne

It seems to have occurred to political managers about this time that the "young man" might be turned into a

[blocks in formation]

concluding from this sally of wit that in the first "Young Men's" Convention there was not, as in many of the Young Men's conventions of to-day, a large contingent of bald pates and gray heads.

Van Buren's followers stood upon higher ground than Harrison's, and made their campaign one of principle. Financial distress had come down to their leader as a legacy of Jackson's attacks upon the United States Bank. The crash came early in Van Buren's term. Two hundred and fifty business houses in New York suspended before he had been in office a month, and the losses in New Orleans aggregated during two

[blocks in formation]

days $27,000,000. Van Buren's statesmanship was during his entire administration directed toward the relief of this financial distress, his favorite

measure

being the establishment of an independent treasury for the custody of the public funds. This measure, which received the sanction of Congress in 1840, was the rallying cry of his partisans. Most of the Van Buren medals for this campaign contain references to his financial policy. The reverse of one shows a safe guarded by a watch-dog, and the inscription: "Sub-Treasury and Democracy (11). The Democrats appealed from

[ocr errors]

popular clamor to the intelligence of the country. "The sober second thoughts of the People are O. K." says the inscription on one medal (14). Conspicuous in the design on the reverse of this medal is a safe, the inscription reading: "The Independent Sub-Treasury. The Choice of the People." Though Van Buren was defeated, time has vindicated his policy, for the independent treasury system is still in force. Thus the medals relating to the campaign of 1840 show the policies of the Democrats and their opponents to have been exactly the

[graphic]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small]
[graphic]
[subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

often in a republic as in a monarchy medium-sized bronze piece, dated 1838, the man on horseback draws all eyes which in the light of subsequent events

from the

man afoot.

Adams and
Van Buren

did not, as
did Jackson
and Harri-

son, appear upon political campaign medals in regimentals and astride a prancing

[subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

steed. Am I exaggerating in saying that in the series of political campaign medals our historians have ready to hand a philosophy of history wrought in metal?

Into this campaign the slavery question entered for the first time as a disturbing element. On this question the two great parties had effected a

Greeley Medal of 1872.

has a deep significance. It evidently

commemorates the organizing of the Liberty Party. On the obverse is a female slave kneeling and holding up her shackled arms, her

[graphic]
[graphic]

hands clasped beseechingly. "Am I
not a woman and a sister?" is her
pathetic appeal (7). This design and
inscription seem to have been graven
in bitter mockery of the reverse of the
medal, upon which we read: "United
States of America" and "Liberty." A
glance at this medal tells us that it
differs as thoroughly from the other
political medals so far examined as the
purpose and methods of the anti-slav-
ery agitators differed from those of the
truce through other political parties of those days.
the Missouri There is no clap-trap appeal to excited
Compromise. partisanship-nothing to bring an as-
But when Gar- semblage to its feet
rison began at or to awaken a re-
Boston in 1831 sponsive cheer. The
the issue of the tears of the shackled
Liberator, the woman fall rather
upon the fruitful soil
of humanity from
which spring up pity
and a deep sense of a
wrong to be righted.
The pathos, the cru-
elty of slavery, and its mockery of the
principles upon which our government
is founded stand out in bold relief from
this little circle of metal. The medallist
seems to have worked with the grim
earnestness of the leaders of the move-
ment. The agitation was not a mere
political flash-in-the- an. With the evi-
dence this medal affords of the lofty
spirit in which the anti-slavery move-
ment was inaugurated, can we wonder
that although two great parties never
dared face the question, it grew in im-
Caricature Tilden Medal of 1872. portance until it overshadowed every

abolition of slavery became the principle
of a party which was as determined as it
was small. The great majority of this
band separated from Garrison when he
began to advocate the dissolution of the
Union, and it organized about 1838 the
Liberty Party, which in 1840 and again
in 1844 nominated for the Presidency
James G. Birney,
who in 1834,
while residing in
Kentucky, had
shown his devo-
tion to the cause
by liberating his
own slaves, some
twenty in num-
ber. While there
is no Birney
medal, there is a

[graphic]
[graphic]

Garfield Medal of 1880.

[graphic]
« AnkstesnisTęsti »