| After Lincoln’s death many musical elegies and funeral marches were composed, and Lincoln’s favorite poem, Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud, was set to music several times. One particularly moving tribute to Lincoln was written by Septimus Winner and entitled A Nation Mourns Her Martyr’d Son. | Andrew Johnson had the thankless task of picking up the pieces of the states of the Union after Lincoln’s assassination. He enjoyed his share of laudatory marches, but after he vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, he became the subject of music such as The Veto Galop and Andy Veto. | The popularity of Ulysses S. Grant as presidential candidate after the close of the Civil War made him unbeatable in 1868. One piece of campaign music written by W. O. Fiske, Grant at the Head of the Nation, dismisses other generals as possible candidates.
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| The campaign of 1876 marked a bitter struggle for the presidency by Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Both sides resorted to spirited campaign songs to whip up enthusiasm. One example is We’ll Blow Our Horn for Hayes, composed by Charles E. Prior and Samuel N. Mitchell. | Bachelor Grover Cleveland was first nominated for president in 1884. The opposition attempted to discredit him by focusing on his illegitimate child, born to widow Maria Helpin, and his profligate lifestyle. Songwriter H. R. Monroe joined those ranks with a sly song entitled Ma, Ma, Where’s My Pa? Up in the White House, Dear. | In some instances campaign song-writers felt that the name of the presidential nominee was helpful to the candidate’s cause. For example, in 1888 Grover Cleveland’s running-mate was the popular senator from Ohio, Allen S. Thurman, whose trade-mark was a red bandanna handkerchief, eliciting the campaign song Wave High the Red Bandanna.
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