The Beginning of Spin: Myth and Mass Politics on the Frontier

Andrew Jackson was so popular in Arkansas that the Crittenden faction did not dare oppose him directly. They labeled themselves the People's Party and made no attempt to openly associate with the Whigs. Little was to be gained by open association since the citizens of Arkansas Territory were not entitled to vote in the national elections.

All that changed in 1836. Crittenden had died, shifting de facto party leadership to Albert Pike, editor of the leading opposition paper, the Arkansas Advocate. In ideology and temperament Pike, was a truer Whig than others in the faction. 1836 also marked the end of Jackson's term. The new Democratic candidate was New Yorker Martin Van Buren, the consummate political insider and veteran of countless smoke-filled rooms. Van Buren was not nearly as attractive a candidate on the frontier as Jackson had been. Moreover, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate was Richard Johnson, a relative of virtually every member of the Family in Arkansas.

This was to be the first national election in which Arkansans could vote. Pike saw a chance to take advantage of resentment against the Family and suspicion of Van Buren by hitching his faction's fortunes to one of the Whig presidential hopefuls. The question was which one. Unable to agree on a single choice, the party had offered up a smorgasbord of regional options. Surprisingly, the transplanted Bostonian and ex-mountain-man passed over William Henry Harrison, the logical "Western" candidate, in favor of the pro-slavery Hugh Lawson White, the "Southern" favorite. In the wake of PIke's and the Whigs' role in engineering the compromise on proportional representation in the delta versus the highlands, this choice of candidate won the Whigs many adherents among delta planters and river merchants. However it was not enough to prevent Van Buren from carrying Arkansas 2,547 to 1,251. The six counties that White carried were all along the Mississippi, White, and Arkansas Rivers.

This trend would continue throughout the history of the Whigs in Arkansas. The party would never carry a county in Arkansas outside of those on the Mississippi or one of Arkansas's internal navigable rivers. Moreover the number of votes the Whigs received was almost in direct proportion to the wealth and number of slaves in the county in question. The Whigs seemed to appeal disproportionately to planters and merchants, a phenomenon that seemed almost independent of overt ideology. If the Whigs came, by default, to be a party of the delta, it seems the result of their utter inability to make a dent in the Democratic hegemony in the highlands, a control that rested on the legacy of Jackson and the enormous popularity of Yell.

Though the Whigs attempted to introduce the issue of slavery into Arkansas politics, it wasn't until the 1850s that it gained any real traction. It had virtually no impact in the highlands where the inhabitants considered themselves Westerners rather than Southerners. Faced with the same problem throughout the frontier, the Whigs came to realize that if they were to compete, they would have to find a way to out-folksy the party of Old Hickory. The result was political myth-making on a grand scale.

The first evidence of the Whig's new frontier pastiche was the emergence of the character, Davy Crockett. What was unique about Crockett was not the rather ordinary Tennessee politician, but rather the larger than life mythological persona that was created around him. The Crockett of legend was largely the product of the Crockett's Almanac. This crude but extraordinary frontier publication was a triumph of American folk art. The Almanacs employed colorful woodcuts and blended irony, dialect, and self-parody into an entirely new breed of American humor.

Like the legends of Archibald Yell, the Crockett myths worked precisely because everyone involved knew that they were to be taken with an enormous dose of salt. By thoroughly divorcing form from substance and elevating the former, the Crockett myths helped launch a new era of mass politics in America. Had Crockett survived the Alamo, they might have propelled him to the presidency. Not long after his death, the allegedly autobiographical Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas was published. The account was reputedly based on a manuscript found on his body, though it was generally acknowledged to have been penned by the leading Whig writers of the day - among them Arkansas's Albert Pike and Charles Fenton Noland. The following excerpt is a lecture on politics supposedly delivered by Crockett in Little Rock while en route to Texas. It was said to be based on a study of the career of Andrew Jackson:
"Attend all public meetings, and get some friend to move that you take the chair; if you fail in this attempt, make a push to be appointed secretary; the proceedings of course will be published, and your name will be introduced to the public. Intrigue until you are elected an officer of the militia; this is a second step toward promotion, and can be accomplished with ease, as I know of an instance of an election being advertised, and no one attending, the innkeeper at whose house it was to be held, having a military turn, elected himself colonel of his regiment.

"If your ambition or circumstances compel you to serve your country, and earn three dollars a day, by becoming a member of the legislature, you must first publicly avow that the constitution of the state is a shackle upon free and liberal legislation; and therefore of little use in an enlightened age. There is policy in this measure, for by making the constitution a mere dead letter, your headlong proceedings will be attributed to a bold and unshackled mind; whereas it might otherwise be thought they arise from sheer mulish ignorance.

"When the day of election approaches, visit your constituents far and wide. Treat liberally, and drink freely, in order to rise in their estimation though you fall in your own. True, you may be called a drunken dog by some of the clean shirt and silk stocking gentry, but the real roughnecks will style you a jovial fellow their vote is certain and frequently counts double.

"Promise all that is asked, and more if you can think of anything. Offer to build a bridge or a church, or divide a county, create a batch of offices, make a turnpike, or any thing they like. Promises cost nothing, therefore deny no one who has a vote or sufficient influence to obtain one,

"...Rail against taxes of all kinds, office holders, and bad harvest weather; and wind up with a flourish about the heroes who fought and bled for liberties in times that tried men's souls. To be sure you run the risk of being considered a bladder of wind, or an empty barrel; but never mind that, you will find enough of the same fraternity to keep you in countenance. "...These few directions, if properly attended to, will do your business; and when once elected, why a fig for the promises, the bridges, the churches, the taxes, the offices, and the subscriptions, for it is absolutely necessary to forget all these before you can be a thorough-going politician, and a patriot of the first water."
This new faux frontierism of the Whigs also gave rise to a uniquely Arkansas expression. The fictional Col. Pete Whetstone was the creation of Arkansas Whig humorist Charles Fenton Noland. Beginning in the late 1830s and continuing through the 1840s, letters from the mythical Arkansas backwoodsman regularly appeared in the Spirit of the Times, the leading sporting publication of the day.

In the following, Legislative candidate Whetstone - who has a habit of referring to himself in the third person - is responding to remarks by his opponent, an oration that had ended with a Latin quotation:
"You all know Jim Whetstone - Pete's father; he has fought, bled and died for his country. He was a democrat; Pete is a strap of the same leather. Lawyer McCampbell says Pete is a sinner. He tells a lie. Pete loves God, fears the devil, and hates snakes. He doesn't play cards, except when the truck is up. He doesn't horse race, except for fun, and when there's a sure chance to win. He doesn't drink liquor except bald face whiskey, just to encourage our own 'still houses.

"As to that strange tongue that lawyer McCampbell speaks, I can say nothing. It ain't Shawnee, Creek, or Cherokee maybe its Dutch. Pete never flies higher than he can roost. You all know him, and if you don't want him to go to the Rock, just say so. Pete has a couple of gallons over at the doggery; step over and drink."
The beneficiary of the Whig's new strategy was William Henry Harrison, whom the party wrapped in every conceivable symbol of the west - log cabins, hard cider, and coonskins. Remarkably, it worked.

The following excerpt is from the Gazette of May 13, 1840:
"After publication being made in the Whig papers of at this place, and posting handbills with the cut of a log cabin on which the names of the Harrison candidates are emblazoned, the whole being baited with an enticing cut of a barrel of cider, calling on every [true Whig] in Pulaski County to attend on Wednesday, the 13th of May, and assist in the rearing of a pine pole and log cabin in honor of the immortal Harrison. There was at no time a very great collection, say no more than a hundred persons, and of that number a considerable portion were Democrats, who came as onlookers. The first thing was to raise the pole; proclamation was made that when it was raised, the barrel of cider would be tapped. Upon which information the pole was walked into, and it began slowly and feebly to raise its head. After raising by degrees for a short time, it commenced going slower and slower until it caught on dead center, and looked like a race horse that had started around the track and had the misfortune to let down on the back stretch. Now was the time for exertion. All the hands had hold, and by the help of the 'old tars' who gave the word, they at length succeeded in standing their pole erect. The flag was now raised, after which they waved their hats, and gave a faint huzza. The order of the day was now the cider, and I assure you that the enthusiasm which appeared at the raising of the pole to be negative was now changed to a positive quantity, so close was the barrel hemmed in, and so eager was each to drink before the other. In the crowd you might see the mechanic and laborer mingling with lawyer and merchant, all aiming at one thing, all aspiring to one place, and that was who should get the first pull of the cider. So the matter proceeded until the log cabin was finished. As near as I can count, it took three barrels of cider to raise the cabin, which I think will be sufficient proof that they are greater enthusiasts for drinking cider than raising cabins, for a dozen men could take a gallon of good Democrat whiskey, which would be a plentiful supply, and raise a better house in less time.

"If ever there was a candidate who stood need of more hobbies on which to ride into office, or a party whose genius was more prolific at inventing hobbies of all sorts, than the Whig Party, they have never come under my observation.

"The Whigs have said that Gen. Harrison lives in a log cabin; but any person who will take the trouble to examine will find that he lives in a house which consists of nine large rooms, and out buildings in proportion.

"They have said that he drinks hard cider; but I have been informed by a gentleman who is well acquainted with him that no man is a better judge of wine or a dearer lover of old brandy than this same Gen. Harrison. "
It is worth noting, however, that despite the success of this strategy nationally, it simply did not work in Arkansas due to the Democratic stranglehold in the highlands. In all the elections of the antebellum period, the river counties were up for grabs and the Whigs won their share. The Democratic control of the highland counties was never seriously in jeopardy.