When Walter Scott wrote his poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’ in 1810, it included a set of stanzas imitating a boat song composed in honor of a favorite chief of the Scottish Highlands. The first stanza begins ‘Hail to the Chief, Who in Triumph Advances.’ In 1811 several versions of the poem were made into plays. For one such version, James Sanderson, a prolific English songwriter set to music a number of the verses, including those of the boat song, which became popularized in the United States within a few years. Hail to the Chief was first associated with a Chief Executive on February 22, 1815, when it was played (under the title Wreaths for the Chieftain) to honor both the belated George Washington and the end of the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson was the first living president to be personally honored by Hail to the Chief, on January 9, 1829. The tune was among a number of pieces played for Martin Van Buren's inauguration ceremony on March 4, 1837, but it was Julia Tyler, the wife of President John Tyler, who first requested that the tune be played specifically to announce the President's arrival. |
 |  |  | | Prior to Hail to the Chief, one of the first laudatory songs composed for a president was by Declaration of Independence signer Francis Hopkinson, entitled Brother Soldiers All Hail to honor George Washington. When Washington was inaugurated in 1789, the event inspired the composition of The President’s March to which were added, nine years later, the words of “Hail Columbia.” | At the start of the nineteenth century, the first man in the first White House was John Adams. Several marches were written in his honor, the most widely circulated being Adams and Liberty, which was written to the same anacreontic melody as that used in The Star Spangled Banner. Adams was also saluted in the song Come Genius of Our Happy Land. Adams and Washington, written shortly before George Washington’s death, paid homage to both the old and the new chief. The author and composer was Peter A. Von Hagen, of Boston. | Songs about Thomas Jefferson, and the marches that paid tribute to him, were much in evidence on the occasion of his inauguration in 1801. However, when Jefferson acquired the enormous territory from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains in 1803, ardent admirer Michael Fortune wrote a song entitled The Acquisition of Louisiana. Simple and, to many, uninspiring as the melody may be, it reflects the country’s admiration of the foresight of its president.
|  |  |  | | Despite much calumny, Andrew Jackson emerged as the victor in the election of 1828. His reconstructed cabinet, known as the Kitchen Cabinet, inspired a writer who disapproved of Jackson and his cronies. In King Andrew, the verses were cleverly parodied from a popular children’s round of the time, Dame Durden. | Presidential campaign songs were introduced to the country on a massive scale by the Whig party in 1840. The candidate of the Whigs was William Henry Harrison, known familiarly as “Old Tippecanoe,” a reference to his earlier battles in the west with Indian tribes. His running mate was John Tyler of Virginia. In a campaign song stressing team effort, Harrison and Tyler were sung about in Tip and Ty. | One of the first songs written about Abraham Lincoln was a campaign piece called The Rail Splitters Polka. During the ensuing five years, scores of songs and instrumental music were composed in his honor. Additionally, Frederick Buckley, the proprietor of one of the minstrel troupes touring the country in the 1860s, arranged and introduced to his audiences a song in dialect, sung by the Buckley Serenaders, entitled We’ll Fight for Uncle Abe. | | Proceed to Page 2 |
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