James Beauchamp (Champ) Clark Lapel Pin

Object Details

Speaker Champ Clark adapted a Missouri folk song—often called “The Houn’dawg Song” in the press—as the signature tune of his 1912 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The refrain of the song, “everytime I come to town/The boys keep kickin my dawg aroun’/Makes no diff’rence if he is a houn’/They gotta quit kickin’ my dawg around” was interpreted in the press as alternately an expression of Clark’s support of the humblest citizens (a hound being considered a lowly breed) and as an example of his lack of education and rough “Western” manners. Buttons were printed with both proper spelling and, as seen in this example, a version reflecting the pronunciation heard in the Ozark region of Missouri, where the song originated.