Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

This article is about the campaign song of the Whig Party for the 1840 presidential election. For the presidential campaign of the Whig Party, see William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign.
A score of the song as published by G. E. Blake of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", originally published as "Tip and Ty", was a popular and influential campaign song of the Whig Party's colorful Log Cabin Campaign in the 1840 United States presidential election. Its lyrics sang the praises of Whig candidates William Henry Harrison (the "hero of Tippecanoe") and John Tyler, while denigrating incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren.

Folk music critic Irwin Silber wrote that the song "firmly established the power of singing as a campaign device" in the United States, and that this and the other songs of 1840 represent a "Great Divide" in the development of American campaign music.[1] The North American Review at the time even remarked that the song was, "in the political canvas of 1840 what the Marseillaise was to the French Revolution. It sang Harrison into the presidency."[2]

Today, the slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler Too is better remembered than the song.

  1. ^ Silber, Irwin (1971). Songs America Voted By. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books.
  2. ^ As cited in Silber.