Because of his fame as a frontier hero, of the circumstance that a part of his home at North Bend, Ohio, had formerly been a log cabin, and of the story that cider, not wine, was served on his table, Harrison was derisively called by his opponents the " log cabin and hard cider " candidate; the term was eagerly accepted by the Whigs, in whose processions miniature log cabins were carried and at whose meetings hard cider was served, and the campaign itself has become known in history as the "log cabin and hard cider campaign."
These men and their followers were never weary of ridiculing the timid caution of the aged statesman who sacrificed everything to perpetuate an inglorious peace and derisively nicknamed his adherents " Night-caps " (a term subsequently softened into " Caps "), themselves adopting the sobriquet " Hats," from the threecornered hat worn by officers and gentlemen, which was considered happily to hit off the manly self-assertion of the opposition.