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A pamphlet from the 1840 Whig Party convention held on Bunker Hill. Library of Congress photo

From the Archdiocesan Archives

Bishop Fenwick goes to see the Whigs

Friday, September 6, 2024Culture

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Today, the Whig party is largely forgotten, perhaps only known as a punchline for a failed political party. In 1840, that was not the case.

Boston experienced election fever 184 years ago when the Whig Convention came to town. The Bishop of Boston Benedict Joseph Fenwick was in attendance and wrote about the hubbub brought by thousands of disgruntled Whig supporters.
Today, the Whig party is largely forgotten, perhaps only known as a punchline for a failed political party. In 1840, that was not the case. The U.S. quickly found itself with a two-party system between the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson. By 1815, the Federalist Party had essentially dissolved, and there was an opening for a new political party. The tumultuous election of 1824 led to a split in the Democratic-Republicans between those who supported incumbent President John Quincy Adams and those who supported Andrew Jackson. Henry Clay used his political power to throw the election to Adams, allegedly in exchange for the job of secretary of state. Jackson labeled it the "corrupt bargain," and would win in a landslide four years later.

Clay soon helped mobilize a party of politicians who opposed Jackson's growing power. The term "Whig" came from British politics and attempted to portray Jackson as a king. Jackson's decision to eliminate the national bank further emboldened his opponents. By 1840, the party was fully established as a major political power. Massachusetts sent 10 Whig Party members to the House of Representatives, including former President Adams, and sent two Whig senators, John Davis and Daniel Webster.
The 1839 Whig National Convention saw William Henry Harrison emerge as the party's nominee for president, having defeated Clay and fellow War of 1812 hero Winfield Scott, and soon a revolutionary campaign began. He gave a speech for one thing, something unheard of by presidential candidates before him. Opponent Martin Van Buren and his Democratic Party tried to color Harrison as old and out of touch, so the Whig Party ran with it. They painted Harrison as a folksy old man who lived in log cabins. This principle is hammered on his and vice-presidential nominee John Tyler's campaign song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." The song attacks Van Buren while endorsing Harrison as the man to beat: "Sure, let 'em talk about hard cider, cider, cider and Log Cabins too. T'will help to speed the ball for Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Supporters would even build log cabins and drink cider at campaign stops.
The Whig State Central Committee called for a convention in September to be celebrated at Bunker Hill. The goal was to help raise the spirits of Whig supporters with election fever. From a manifest of a Whig meeting in February, they resolved "that when this meeting adjourns, it adjourn to meet on Bunker Hill, on the tenth of September next, and that the remainder of the People of the Commonwealth be invited to meet us there" and join the committee in recognizing Harrison, Tyler, and local candidates as the men for the job.
The convention was to occur at Bunker Hill, whose monument was still under construction after over a decade of woes. Construction began in 1825, with Webster giving an address to over 15,000 people eager to see Bunker Hill memorialized: "Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered," Webster said. By 1840, thousands had been spent and the monument was still under construction.
It doesn't seem the state of Bunker Hill bothered the fervent Whig supporters, though. On Sept. 10, 1840, the Whig Convention came to Bunker Hill. Bishop Fenwick was there and wrote about the occasion in his journal: "Great Whig Convention. More than 20,000 persons assemble on Bunker Hill to express their dissatisfaction with the present Government. A number of speeches are made both there and afterwards in different Halls in the City. The Procession, is said, to have been the finest ever before made."
Silk badges with Harrison's face on them were handed out. It's unknown who gave speeches that day, but Harrison had some serious politicians behind him. Clay and Webster toured the country on Harrison's behalf. A young Abraham Lincoln spoke to thousands in Illinois. Henry Wilson of Natick was so inspired by the party and Harrison that he became a campaigner and was himself elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In 1873, he became the vice president under President Ulysses S. Grant.
Whether that convention in Bunker Hill made all the difference is not known, but Harrison would carry Massachusetts on the way to the White House. It appeared his presidency would be marked by Whig infighting, with Clay jockeying for control over Harrison's decisions. In his inaugural address, Harrison himself spoke out against party infighting: "It is union that we want, not of a party for the sake of that party, but a union of the whole country for the sake of the whole country."
The rest of Harrison's story has become an American urban legend. So, the story goes, Harrisons' inaugural address in freezing weather with no hat on led to pneumonia, and he died in 30 days. His last words to his doctor, and presumably meant for Vice President Tyler, were "I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."
This story is not entirely accurate. A 2014 study examined Harrison's condition and studied the water in the White House. Washington, D.C., had no sewer system until 1850, so the water was tainted by human excrement. Per the New York Times, "Given the character and course of his fatal illness, his untimely death is best explained by enteric fever. Pneumonia was a secondary diagnosis -- as Harrison's hapless doctor perhaps suspected all along."
As for Bishop Fenwick, the rest of his September evening was spent with dinner and light rain. From his journal: "The Bishop dines with Reverend Mr. Haskins, a converted Protestant Minister in company with Dr. Greene and the Russian Consul. A shower in the evening." In the years ahead, Fenwick and his successors would fend with the Know Nothing Party, an anti-Catholic political party that rose from the ashes of the Whigs.

Matthew Radulski is an archivist for the Archdiocese of Boston.