The Whigs Boost Harrison and Tyler for the White House
In their quest for victory in 1840, Whig political strategists advanced a wide-ranging (and misleading) set of policies. This poster celebrates William Henry Harrison and John Tyler as candidates who would secure protective tariffs for American manufacturers — a policy that appealed to northern voters but one that Tyler opposed. It also promises to cut the size of the U.S. Army, which General Harrison did not favor. However, denouncing a large “Standing Army” would win votes in Virginia, where it recalled the fears of Radical Whig Patriots of 1776 and remained central to the states’ rights ideology espoused by Senator Tyler and other “Old Republicans.” Grouseland Foundation, Inc./Photo courtesy of “Fords the Art of Photography,” Vincennes, IN.