Terrebonne County Louisiana Archives News.....Fifty Years Ago No. 11 (part 2) March 14, 1891
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Savanna King savanna18king@gmail.com August 11, 2023, 12:54 am

The Thibodaux Sentinel March 14, 1891
The National Bank had been killed by Andrew Jackson, and under Martin Van Buren 
the sub-treasury scheme of that party had been put in force.

At the same time banks had been established in every town, where a dozen men 
could be found, who were financially able to pay for the printing of a cartload 
of paper money. Bills of the sizes of 6 ¼ cents, 12 ½ cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, 
and one dollar were loaned to any one who could produce any suspicion of 
security, and circulated until they became as plentiful as leaves on the apple 
trees. Previous to this campaign, however, the underpinning of those banks was 
knocked out and the whole wildcat scheme came toppling down. Every man had 
plenty of money, and could not purchase a pound of coffee. A similar case was 
experienced at the collapse of the confederacy.

Farmers and others however had cribs full of corn, bins full of wheat, and pens 
full of hogs, upon which they could live, but the values of which fell so low 
that a whole year’s harvest would hardly fill an ordinary pocket book. 

Pork sold for 1 ½ cents per pound, and corn delivered on the river bank near 
Louisville, Kentucky, some of it hauled in wagons, for 15 miles, brought 11 
cents per bushel.

As a matter of course wages of laborers came down to the same level, and a wage 
earner on a farm was glad to realize from $100.00 to $125.00 for one years’ 
steady work.

At the very commencement of the campaign the Whigs seized upon the above facts, 
and charged that dismal state of affairs to the Locofoco Party, and what made it 
so much worse for the Locofocos, the charge was undoubtedly true. 

They were right in charging their opponents with this weapon, all along the 
line, but when they went so far as to promise, as a result from the success of 
Harrison, “two dollars a day and roast beef” to every laborer they hurled a 
Boomerang into the air that came flying back into their faces at a later period.

The whole campaign opened with a boom from the Atlantic to the Mississippi 
rivers–from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Never was such an array of oratorical 
talent thrown into motion.

The Whigs in the East were led by Webster, Choate, Evans, Everett, and Winthrok. 
In New York W.H. Seward, Millard Fillmore were in the advance. In the Southern 
States were Mangum, Archer, and a host of others. In Mississippi Prentiss, then 
the greatest orator of the age, was heard from every cross road.

Tennessee with her Henrys, her Jones aroused the people to action; Kentucky with 
Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, Tom Marshal and many others whose equals upon 
the stump were never found.

North of the Ohio river were Tom Corwin, “the wagon-boy of Ohio,” Schenck, Joe 
Marshal, Henry S. Lane. The terrific and sudden attack of the Whigs all along 
the line seem to have amazed and terrified the Locofocos. Although they brought 
forward such oratorical giants as Woodbury, Silas Wright, Buchanan, Calhoun, 
Douglas, Cave Johnson and others, the attack could not be sustained.

The Locofocos charged Harrison with being a mum candidate, belittled him as a 
solder and tried every means to divert the minds of the voters from the real 
issues.

Most of the State elections were held in August, and when the returns came in by 
the slow process of the mails in those days, the fate of the Locofocos was 
foretold, and they almost abandoned the field to the Whigs for the rest of the 
campaign.

The Whigs never ceased their labors until the ides of November arrived. The 
Whigs meant business from the beginning. Mass meetings and barbecues were held 
in every town: and immense poles were raised all over the country from 50 to 200 
feet in height, at the top of which floated in the breezes the flag of the 
party, and upon all such occasions speakers were on hand to arouse and enthuse 
the audiences.

And those audiences were not small, every Whig that could do so would turn out 
at such gatherings, and travel often ten, twenty or thirty miles. Young men and 
women formed glee clubs in every neighborhood, whose songs were interspersed 
with the proceedings at all assemblies.

The Whig candidates were known as “Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too” and hurrahs for 
Tip and Tyler were heard every hour in the day. A Whig plow boy seeing a 
stranger passing along the public highway would greet him with a shout of 
“hurrah for Tippecanoe and Tyler too” and would generally be greeted with a 
similar response, except the traveller was a Locofoco when the response, if any, 
would be a hurrah for Van Buren and Johnson.

At these mass meetings the Whigs would build small cottages with the old style 
door, the latch string on the outer side. Locks were not much used among the 
early settlers. Doors were fastened with a wooden latch on the inside. A string 
connected to it, extended upwards, passed through a hole, hung down on the 
outside, by means of which one desiring to enter could raise the latch and open 
the door. By drawing the string within, the door was locked. The latch string, 
hanging on the outside was always deemed an evidence of hospitality. This cabin 
was selected by the Whigs as one of the evidences of the simplicity and 
hospitality of their candidate who had dwelled in such buildings a great part of 
his life.

In addition to these cabins the Whigs always had innumerable barrels of cider, 
enough to satisfy the thirst of all who were present. Where all that cider came 
from is one of the conundrums that I have never been capable of solving. But it 
never failed. It was inexhaustible.

Barbecued beeves, sheeps, hogs &c., always fed the hungry without limit. The 
meats were prepared in primitive style. A ditch was cut about four feet deep, 
and four feet wide, of whatever length was deemed requisite. 

This was filled with solid wood and set on fire, on either side of the trench 
forked posts were driven into the ground opposite each other connected by a 
strong beam, resting in the forks. As soon as the wood was burned into coals the 
meats were hung to those beams, where they roasted well and thoroughly, and were 
food fit for any hungry human people.

From May until November these barbecues never ceased. Any one who would travel 
15 miles could visit one every week, and perhaps oftener.

[To be continued.]


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