Lyr Add: Clay and Frelinghuysen

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clay and Frelinghuysen
From: cnd
Date: 06 Jul 16 - 10:47 PM

That's interesting: my book (Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History, 2nd ed, 1905) says the meeting was in 1834. It also adds that the chairman was conservative, and that loco-foco eventually became a common name for the Democrats of the time (as Wikipedia adds, by the election of 1840, but fell out of favor by the 1850s. Speaking of Wikipedia, their source [Encyclopedia Britannica] agrees with your book that it was 1835, and not mine).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clay and Frelinghuysen
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 03:19 AM

Locofoco

The new race is stiff, heady, and rebellious; they are fanatics in freedom; they hate tolls, taxes, turnpikes, banks, hierarchies, governors, yea, almost laws.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

"Formerly a familiar name for a member of the Democratic party; applied especially to the radical or equal rights section of that party, because at a meeting in Tammany Hall, New York, on 29 Oct. 1835, in which there was great diversity of sentiment, the chairman left his seat, and the lights were extinguished, with a view to dissolving the meeting; when those in favor of extreme measures produced loco-foco matches — then a comparatively recent invention, rekindled the lights, continued the meeting, and accomplished their object."

[The Encyclopedia Americana, 1920 ed.]

Subject: Lyr Add: Clay and Frelinghuysen
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 03:00 AM

Clay and Frelinghuysen
Tune: "Old Dan Tucker"

A first-rate rhyme was made of late,
By a Whig from the Buckeye State;
It goes to that familiar tune
Which Old Dan Tucker taught the coon.

Chorus:
Hurrah! Hurrah! The country's risin',
For Harry Clay and Frelinghuysen!
Hurrah! Hurrah! The country's risin',
For Harry Clay and Frelinghuysen!

There's no two names that can be found,
Although you search the country round,
More terror to that clan comprisin',
Than Harry Clay and Frelinghuysen. (Cho.)

The Loco's cause is out of season,
For it has neither rhyme nor reason;
The people tried and found it lacking,
Their promises had not good backing. (Cho.)

No doubt they'd rather hear us groan,
But that we'll leave to them alone;
For with Clay and Frelinghuysen,
The way we'll beat them is surprisin'. (Cho.)

Clay's a patriot through and through,
And so is Frelinghuysen too;
They are men of truth and candor,
Who can't be hurt by Loco slander. (Cho.)

When the Locos see them on our ticket,
'Tis a sight which they grow sick at,
For anything from humbug free
With Locos' systems don't agree. (Cho.)


From the Whig Banner Melodist

Not so surprisingly, the Whigs claimed (Daniel) Emmett as one of their own, though there is no hard evidence that the famous songwriter belonged to their party. They took "Dan Tucker" and created a jingle which enjoyed great popularity during the campaign and which also enjoyed the distinction of being one of the few songs to successfully devise a rhyme for Clay's running mate, Theodore Frelinghuysen.

[Silber, Irwin, Songs American Voted By, (Harrisburg: Stackpole, 1971, p.50)]