16 October—“Honor roll” is homonymous with “on a roll” and The Monitor is on a roll with noteworthy political campaign slogans. Most are entertaining in one way or another. In chronological order, then, with explication as deemed necessary by our editorial bored, here are some from the nineteenth century:

1844 Who is James K. Polk? versus Hurrah! Hurrah! The Country’s Risin’, for Henry Clay and Frelinghuysen! Relatively unknown Democrat Polk won against well-known Whig Clay, but rhyming Risin’ with Freylinghuysen was almost worthy of Cole Porter.

1852 Cute, clever We Polked you in ’44, We shall Pierce you in ’52 versus prosaic, unimaginative The Hero of many battles and First in war, first in peace (borrowed from you know whom) for Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, Commanding General of the U.S. Army, still on active duty during his Whig candidacy. Franklin Pierce won the White House back for Democrats despite the awful pun.

1856 Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont and Fremont and freedom versus We Po’ked ’em in ’44, we Pierced ’em in ’52, and we’ll Buck ’em in ’56. John C. Frémont, the first Republican presidential nominee, was a former army officer, later to return to military service during the Civil War and retire with two stars. Buck was Democrat James Buchanan’s nickname. Paronomasia trumped onomatopoeia, so Buchanan won. And how did Frémont actually pronounce his name?

1864 The common sense of Don’t change horses midstream helped get Abraham Lincoln re-elected.

1872 The inoffensive, biblical-sounding, subtly patriotic pun Grant Us Another Term got Republican Ulysses S. Grant re-elected over Liberal Republican, Democrat-endorsed Horace Greeley’s combative Turn the Rascals Out.

1884 Allegedly corrupt Republican Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine! The continental liar from the state of Maine! ran against Democrat Grover Cleveland, alleged father of an illegitimate child. Republicans accused Democrats of supporting Catholic immigrants and consumption of booze, as well as the Confederacy. Hence, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion and Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? When Cleveland was elected, Democrats gleefully added Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!

1888 Rejuvenated Republicanism helped get Benjamin Harrison elected. Time for it now. Yet again.

1892 Our choice: Cleve and Steve worked for Grover Cleveland and Adlai Stevenson and helped the Democrats take back the White House..

1896 Democrat William Jennings Bryan’s No Cross of Gold, No Crown of Thorns, alluding to his spirited opposition to the gold standard, lost to William McKinley’s old faithful Republican platitudes Patriotism, Protection, and Prosperity, returning the White House to the Grand Old Party.

1900 Four more years of the full dinner pail and Let Well Enough Alone got William McKinley re-elected, only to be assassinated several months after his re-inauguration in 1901. The voters obviously didn’t want to mess with a good thing but got a better one when Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took over for McKinley. And note that “Let well enough alone” is grammatically preferable to “Leave well enough alone” . . .