M'Clellan Campaign Songs, No. 1, a four-song Democratic songbook of 1864

M'Clellan Campaign Songs, No. 1 is an 1864 Democratic songbook published in New York by Wm. A. Pond & Co. and sold by the American News Company. Its cover sets an engraved oval portrait of George B. McClellan over four song titles, from "Forward March for Little Mac" to "Little Mac Is on de Track."

The cover

This is the cover of a songbook, not a single sheet. An engraved oval portrait of McClellan sits at the top, and the four song titles are listed beneath it, followed by the publisher's and distributor's lines. On the Library of Congress copy, the archive notes, someone has written the date "Oct. 4 1864" by hand.

M'CLELLAN

Campaign Songs

No. 1. FORWARD MARCH FOR LITTLE MAC.

" 2. LITTLE MAC AND PENDLETON.

" 3. THE HEAD OF THE NATION McCLELLAN SHALL BE.

" 4. LITTLE MAC IS ON DE TRACK.

New-York:

Published by WM. A. POND & CO., 547 Broadway.

SOLD BY

AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY,

121 NASSAU STREET.

1864.

How the songs sell

Only the titles are transcribed, so this page reads only the titles. The archive tags them for bandwagon and glittering generalities. Two of the four put the candidate in motion, marching forward and running on a track, and invite the singer to come along. The third simply announces the result: McClellan "shall be" head of the nation. No reason is given on the cover, and a song is not the place a reader would expect one. The fourth title is printed in dialect spelling, "de track." The record does not describe the lyrics inside, and this page does not guess at them.

A songbook works differently from a poster. A poster is looked at; a song is sung, often in a crowd, and the singer repeats the claim in his own voice. A cover that promises four such songs is selling repetition.

Who published it

The archive files the issuer as a corporation. Wm. A. Pond & Co. was a New York publisher at 547 Broadway, and the American News Company at 121 Nassau Street sold the book. The "No. 1" on the cover suggests a series, but the record does not say whether more numbers followed. There is no party imprint in the transcription.

The 1864 race on this site

Another Democratic song, Little Mac, came out as a single sheet from J. F. Feeks of New York, with verses mocking Lincoln. The Republicans answered with prints like Siebert's Union and Liberty! And Union and Slavery!, and the Democratic side also sold Bromley's Abolition Catastrophe. The Civil War print case study and the campaign print hub set the wartime election in context.