How Harrison won America’s first modern presidential election
The enigmatic William Henry Harrison, whose birthday was 240
years ago this weekend, is best known for his premature death in
office. But the ninth president won his race in 1840 using
tactics familiar to most of us today. The race between Harrison
and Martin Van Buren was nasty, prolonged, and full of
gamesmanship. It also featured stump speeches, smear campaigns,
and dirty tactics—all of the things Americans love to hate about
modern politics. In the end, the Whig reform program championed
by Harrison died along with the newly sworn-in president in
April 1841. The nation was left with a constitutional crisis,
since the presidential succession was unclear. All that seemed
unthinkable a few months earlier, when Harrison defeated the
incumbent president, Van Buren, who was the close associate of
former Democratic president Andrew Jackson. Harrison’s first run
for office was in 1836, when he finished second to Van Buren
after the Whigs ran three pres