Can you win the White House with a song?

EDITORS: Photos available on request.

ANN ARBOR—Political parties have become increasingly imaginative in thinking of ways to appeal to voters and to promote party loyalty. Early in the country’s history, music became an essential part of the mix, which transformed presidential elections into the most citizen-involved aspect of the political process.

The earliest “political” music honoring the first U.S. presidents followed a long European tradition of formal compositions dedicated to the King celebrating special occasions. The University of Michigan’s Clements Library has moved forward from that time documenting some of the earliest political tunes in its current exhibit, “May the Best Man Win: Presidential Politics with a Song.” From “Here’s to You Harry Clay” to the “Douglas Schottisch,” song books and sheet music featuring quick steps, waltzes, polkas, marches, and mazurkas all designed to influence voters are highlighted in the display.

The election of 1800 pitted conservative New England Federalist John Adams against liberal southern Republican Thomas Jefferson. Not only did the race sharply divide public opinion, says John Dann, director of the Clements Library, it gave rise to the very first music slightly partisan in character.

Though women of the 19th century could not legally vote, they did become involved in the political enthusiasms of the day by playing songs on the parlor piano that represented their own sentiments or those of the men they were most interested in pleasing. If one of these political ditties turned out to be a timely “hit,” Dann says, the catchy tune could not only popularize a candidate, but that popular candidate could also promote the selling of a great deal of music, bringing a pleasant sound of success to the music publishing business.

Because the 1824 election brought claims that John Quincy Adams had been elected by a “corrupt bargain,” the Jacksonians began campaigning for the 1828 election immediately. “They used every possible technique to create new support,” says Dann. “They borrowed the methods of the camp meeting and religious revival and holding open-air rallies and torch light parades. Political organizers relied on fervent oratory, free whiskey, and rousing songs to attract converts and solidify party loyalty.”

By the 1830s the anti-slavery movement became well organized and increasingly radical in its demands for immediate emancipation. The American anti-slavery society published several songbooks, and a highly talented family group, the Hutchinsons, became the pre-eminent singers of the movement between the 1830s and the Civil War. Hutchinson pieces such as “Get Off the Track—A Song for Emancipation” became popular at Republican campaign rallies, and embodied a sense of moral righteousness, a quality that entered the thinking of politicians and political song writers as well in the years just before the Civil War.

The Republican political rallies and public meetings of the 1860 election engendered the same kind of public enthusiasm which had developed in 1828 and 1840, and song books and sheet music again emerged as a widely useful element in the campaign with such titles as “Just Wait Until
Neither the parlor nor the piano is commonly found in modern American homes. With them went the popular sheet music industry, which had encouraged political songs. “We live in a world increasingly cynical about politics and politicians,” says Dann, “and the kind of enthusiastic party loyalty which inspired political songs has pretty well gone the way of the five cent cigar. It would be hard to say whether we have gained or lost something along the way. But the music itself is historically important. It documents one of the elements which created and sustained the democratic system we continue to enjoy today.”

The Clements exhibit continues through Sept. 29 and is open Monday-Friday, 1-4:45 p.m. Admission is free.

Clements LibraryJohn Dann