Tip and Ty
Words: Alexander Coffman Ross
Tune: "Little Pigs"

What's the cause of this commotion, motion, motion,
Our country through?
It is the ball a-rolling along,
For Tippicanoe and Tyler too
For Tippicanoe and Tyler too,
And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van,
Van is a used up man;
And with them we'll beat little Van.

Like the rushing of mighty waters, waters, waters,
On it will go!
And in its course will clear the way
For Tippicanoe and Tyler too. (Cho.)

See the Loco standard tottering, tottering, tottering,
Down it must go!
And in its place we'll rear the flag
Of Tippicanoee and Tyler too. (Cho.)

"But of all the Whig songs which set the nation to tapping its feet on the way to the polls, none was more popular than "Tip and Ty," the comic glee which gave us the phrase "Tippicanoe and Tyler Too" and firmly established the power of singing as a campaign device. With rare exceptions, the authors of campaign ballads are best left in an obscurity from which one rescues them only with a resolute lack of charity. Still history has no right to exempt the first practitioner of the art form from a well-earned notoriety. Alexander Coffman Ross, who wrote the lyrics for "Tip and Ty" (to the tune of a minstrel number, "Little Pigs), was a jeweler in Zanesville, Ohio in 1840 when the political muse overcame him. A member of his local Tippicanoe Club as well as his church choir, and apparently an amateur clarenetist and singer of modest accomplishment, Ross introduced the song at a Whig meeting in Zanesville, where it was greeted, according to an observer, with "cheers, yells and encores." Later, Ross went on a business trip to New York, where he managed to introduce the song to a Whig rally. The ensuing pandemonium apparently launched the song on the road to nationwide popularity. The North American Review called it "in the political canvas of 1840 what the 'Marseillaise' was to the French Revolution. It sang Harrison into the presidency."

Ross' song, oddly enough, does not seem to have been copyrighted (an oversight future songwriters did not make); and a number of different versions of sheet music appeared, many with a great variety of verses. The version here seems to be Ross's original.

[Silber, Irwin, Songs American Voted By, (Harrisburg: Stackpole, 1971)]

Note: Better known as Tippicanoe and Tyler Too which became the signature phrase of the entire 1940 Whig campaign (and beyond.) Other sources attribute the words to Ohio politician John Greiner.