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Showing posts with the label William Henry Harrison

Keep the Ball Rolling!

In 1840, the United States was facing its 14th presidential election, ready to give President Martin Van Buren a second term, or to elect its ninth president.  The feeling was that the Democratic-Republicans (or the Democrats, as they came to be known) would win again.  Of course they would!  Only three times had the United States elected a man who wasn’t a Democratic-Republican.  There was John Adams, a Federalist, elected in 1796, and George Washington, elected in 1789 and reëlected in 1792, who claimed no party affiliation.  For forty years, the Democrats had had a solid grip on the Executive Mansion (or, as it would later be called, the White House).  Every election following the creation of the Electoral College in 1804 had gone for the Democrats.  Could nothing be done to break their grip on power? The Whig Party hoped there might be something it could do.  The Whigs were founded in 1833, so this was to be their second presidential election.  Their first presidential elect

The Curse of Tecumseh

Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, who started it all.  Maybe. According to legend, presidents elected during years ending in zero will die in office.  This did happen to a long string of American presidents who were elected in zero years, so it was widely attributed to the Curse of Tecumseh.  This Curse has its roots in the Battle of Tippecanoe, which took place in Indiana in 1811.  American forces were led by General William Henry Harrison, who were victorious over the Shawnee people and their allies in the war.  The allied peoples rallied together to stop American westward expansion following a shady treaty that Harrison had negotiated with Tecumseh, the leader of the Shawnee, before the war. Following the defeat, legend has it that Tecumseh’s brother, popularly known as The Prophet, put a curse on Harrison and all other presidents elected in years ending with the same digit as he was.  This seems unlikely, since the war ended in 1811, and Harrison wasn’t elected president