Show au 00 O d tales Tale md traditions tradition 14 f 9 political history IT FRANK I 1 alf mr ELMO SCOTT scon WATSON ROOSTER CROW THE IT HE gooding tavern in greeni field ind indhar has long since disappeared but betit it deser deserves vesto to be remembered as the birthplace of a familiar emblem of one of the major political parties a symbol that is still in use after nearly a century back in the thirties it was owned by joseph chapman an ardent democrat who had the habit of imitating a rooster when exulting over victories by his party so when his political enemies won they taunted bhim him by shouting now cro crow chapman crowl in 1840 chapman was a candidate for the state legislature from hancock county in that year democratic prospects were far from bright the country still remembered the panic of 1837 and blamed president van buren for it moreover the singing whigs were making a powerful appeal to the vo voters with their shouts of tippecanoe and tyler tool and their log cabin and hard cider symbols in the midst of the campaign george pattison editor of the indianapolis diana di polls constitution wrote a letter to william sebastian of greenfield in which he said 1 I have been informed by a democrat that in in one part of your county 30 van buren men have turned for harrison please let me know if such be the fact I 1 think such a deplorable plo rable state af facts can not aie exist if so I 1 will visit hancock and address the people relative to the policy of the democratic party I 1 have not time to spare but I 1 will ref eat or sleep or rest rast so long as anything faan an be done ido for hea heavens vens sake stir up the de mo cracy see chapman tell him not to do as he did heretofore he used to create unnecessary unnecessary alarms 1 he must crow we ve have much to crow over I 1 wu will insure this county to give a democratic majority of votes spare no pains this letter accidentally fell into the fil hands ands of the whigs and was published in art aft indianapolis paper with a vieito view to ridiculing the democrats but it proved to be a boomerang for the whigs crow Chap chapman min crowl became the slogan of the indiana democrats and spread all over the country when the thet indiana Andiana sentinel was hatm launched ched in 1841 it carried at the top of its front page the picture of a proud rooster and under it was the slogan crow chapman crowt crowl other democratic newspapers began carrying the same picture and slogan and soon the rooster crowing proudly whether ill in victory or defeat became the accepted symbol of the democratic party despite the later popularity of the donkey it is still a favorite symbol thanks to john chapman or of greenfield ind who taught his As fellow democrats how to crow WINNING WITH BUCKEYES HEN martin van buren WHEN bosom friend and bucce successor ss or to fiery andrew jackson undertook to succeed himself in the white house in the race of 1840 something new in political history was nar the result van buren not only was defeated he insured the election of gen william henry harrison ot 0 ohio and he endowed ohio with the name of the buckeye state which flourishes today it all came about when the cry was taken up by van burens buren a campaigners paig ners that harrison was mo more ie perfectly fitted to live in a log cabin and drink hard cider than to go to washington as the nations head what a boomerang that proved to bel be the only background for the attack was that when the hero of tippecanoe retired from battle he selected a site overlooking the ohio river in the southwestern part of the state I 1 built a double log house and finished it with shining white clapboards Oh ohioans loaris naturally rally resented the slur on their habits of living including the charge of tippling miniature log cabins symbolic of pioneer life and the vigor igor which pushed civilization westward from the im more ore effete east made their appearance ahr throughout the s tate state these cabins j yere ere reproduced from buckeye logs so were the canes carried aby by thousands of marchers barchers mar chers who participated in parades to ta advance ithe ahe candidacy of harrison i the cabins were mounted on within each was a horny handed frontiersman q quaffing quaff ua ing hard cider van burenda burena Buren wa s not neglected while this wa was going on he was attack attacked edby by the ohioans as as d a snob with a penchant axt for europea customs by th time the buckeye Buc keyt pa rades popularized ap east of 0 f la ef gawen managers realized zed their mistake a e and trie tried d in vai vain rito to stem the tide it was too lite late gen harrison won the election landsdown hands down wd ohio has been known ever since as the buckeye state 0 western newspaper New paper union |