d for Presidential electors on
different days, which rendered the contest more exciting as it
approached its close. There was no telegraphic communication, and
there were but few lines of railroad, so that it was some time
after a large State had voted before its complete and correct
returns could be received. At last all the back townships had been
heard from and the exultant Whigs were certain that they had elected
their candidates by a popular majority of over one hundred thousand!
Twenty States had given Harrison and Tyler two hundred and thirty-
four electoral votes, while Van Buren and Johnson had received but
sixty electoral votes in six States. The log cabins were the scenes
of great rejoicing over this unparalleled political victory, and
the jubilant Whigs sang louder than before:

"Van, Van, Van is a used-up man."

General William Henry Harrison was by birth and education a Virginian.
His father, Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, was the largest man in the old Congress of the
Confederation, and when John Hancock was elected President of that
body Harrison seized him and bore him in his arms to the chair.
On reaching manhood William Henry Harrison migrated to Ohio, then
the far West, and for forty years was prominently identified with
the interests, the perils, and the hopes of that region. Universally
beloved in the walks of peace, and somewhat distinguished by the
ability with which he had discharged the duties of a succession of
offices which he had filled, yet he won his greatest renown in
military service. But he had never abjured the political doctrines
of the Old Dominion, and his published letters and speeches during
the Presidential campaign which resulted in his election showed
that he was a believer in what the Virginians called a strict
construction of financial questions, internal improvements, the
veto-power, and the protection of negro slavery. His intellect
was enriched with classical reminiscences, which he was fond of
quoting in writing or in conversation. When he left his residence
on the bank of the Ohio for the seat of Government he compared his
progress to the return of Cicero to Rome, congratulated and cheered
as he passed on by the victorious Cato and his admiring countrymen.

On General Harrison's arrival at Washington, on a stormy afternoon
in February, 1841, he walked from the railroad station (then on
Pennsylvania Avenue) to the City Hall.