The incumbent President, Martin Van Buren, was in trouble due tothe economic slump which followed the Panic of 1837. Van Buren,although the protege of Andrew Jackson, did not have much in commonwith Jackson. Harrison, on the other hand , was a war hero from hissuccesses in the War of 1812 and in Indian Wars. He had lived infrontier Indiana and the campaign denoted him as a "man of thepeople" like Jackson. (In actuality Harrison was from an oldaristocratic family in Virginia and grew up in mansion but helooked a lot more like Jackson that did the short, rather fat VanBuren,)