Before the end of his first term, support for Harrison was waning even within the Republican Party. In , he lost his bid for reelection to Grover Cleveland by a wide margin; he remained active in public life as a lawyer and public speaker until his death in His father, John Harrison, was a farmer, and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison , was elected as the ninth president of the United States in , but died of pneumonia only one month after he took office.
Benjamin Harrison graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in and married Caroline Lavinia Scott the following year; the couple would go on to have two children. After studying law in Cincinnati, Harrison moved to Indianapolis, Indiana , in and set up his own law practice.
Though his father had warned Benjamin of the pressures of a life in politics, his wife encouraged his political ambitions. The young Harrison became active in state politics in Indiana, joining the fledgling Republican Party, which had been built on the opposition to slavery and its extension into the western territories. He supported the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. When the Civil War broke out in , Harrison joined the Union Army as a lieutenant in the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and he would attain the rank of brevet brigadier general by Four years later, he won the nomination but lost a close race in the general election.
From to , Harrison represented Indiana in the U. Senate , arguing for the rights of homesteaders and Native Americans against the expanding railroad industry and campaigning for generous pensions for Civil War veterans, among other issues. A highly principled and devoutly religious man, Harrison broke with the Republican Party to oppose the Chinese Exclusion Act of which aimed to close the United States to Chinese immigrants due to its violation of rights given to the Chinese under an earlier treaty; the act passed without his support.
Harrison lost his Senate seat after a Democratic victory in the Indiana state legislature in , only to gain the Republican nomination for president the following year. On the other hand, Harrison lent his support to the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the government to purchase 4.
Ohio Senator John Sherman sponsored both acts. Blaine displayed a growing American influence in world affairs. Harrison was unsuccessful, however, in his attempts to convince Congress to back the construction of a canal in Nicaragua, as well as in his efforts to annex Hawaii in Up for reelection in , Harrison struggled to overcome growing populist discontent, including a number of labor strikes.
The revelation that Caroline Harrison was seriously ill led to modest campaign efforts by both men and caused Harrison to limit his appearances in key swing states, contributing to the margin of his defeat. Caroline died of tuberculosis in late October, and two weeks later Harrison lost to Cleveland by an electoral vote of to , the most decisive victory in 20 years. After leaving the White House, Harrison returned to Indianapolis and his law practice. The Harrisons were one of Virginia's elite families and close friends of the Washingtons.
The Declaration of Independence bears the signature of William's father, Benjamin, who served three terms as governor of Virginia. William's mother, Elizabeth Bassett Harrison, hailed from one of the colony's earliest and most prestigious families. It is likely that some of William's memories were of his parents talking about General Washington and his marathon struggle against England.
After all, the family plantation lay just thirty miles from Yorktown, at the base of the peninsula where Washington trapped Cornwallis's army in the battle that sealed the British fate in the Revolutionary War.
Doubtless the eight-year-old boy hailed the passing Continental troops, stared in awe at the great man leading them, thrilled at the news of the siege of Yorktown, and celebrated when word came of the British surrender. William was the youngest of seven children, which under the laws and customs of the day limited his prospects. A family's property usually went to the eldest son, with younger male siblings entering the military, clergy, or trade. It was plain to William early in life that he would have to learn self-sufficiency.
It was equally plain he was ambitious. The boy enjoyed a solid education—tutored at home, then three years at Hampden-Sydney College in Hanover County, Virginia. Benjamin Harrison wanted his youngest child to be a doctor and sent him to Philadelphia to study under the tutelage of renowned physician Benjamin Rush. In , however, William's father died, leaving virtually all his estate to William's older brothers.
Short of money and not enthusiastic about a career in medicine, the young man quickly left medical school to pursue the military career he had always wanted. Virtually all of William's life, there had been armed conflict somewhere in America—the Revolution, skirmishes with Native Americans, land disputes with the Spanish and French. The military offered an opportunity for a bright, aspiring young man to make a name for himself.
Soon after leaving medical studies, Harrison used his family's connections with the Lee and Washington families to procure an officer's rank in an infantry division. The eighteen-year-old Harrison rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to his assigned post, Fort Washington in the Northwest Territory.
The young man had entered the army as an ensign, the lowest officer's rank, but he made a strong impression and quickly won promotion to lieutenant. The fort's commander, General Mad Anthony Wayne, made the handsome, polished Harrison his aide after a little more than a year of service there. Mad Anthony commanded Fort Washington, near present-day Cincinnati—an installation established to protect settlers against Native Americans and the British agents who incited them.
By , matters had reached the boiling point, and General Wayne readied the fort for a large-scale assault by Indian forces. Harrison fought bravely and well, winning a citation from General Wayne for his valor: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp. Lieutenant Harrison, who.
Captain Harrison took command of Fort Washington in Newcomers to the area near Fort Washington included twenty-year-old Anna Symmes. Her father had just been appointed judge for the region.
Anna was quickly smitten by the handsome young officer, but her father disapproved, thinking his daughter could make a richer match elsewhere. The young couple waited until Anna's father had to travel to another part of the territory; when he did, they found a justice of the peace and eloped.
When Judge Symmes returned and learned of the marriage, he shouted at Harrison, "How, sir, do you intend to support my daughter? For Harrison, the marriage was politically astute. The Symmes family had inside connections with the local land speculators, something the new son-in-law exploited. By , Captain Harrison saw the army as a career dead end and resigned his commission.
His father-in-law still saw little in Harrison to be impressed with, writing a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied. In , the territory could send a delegate to the United States Congress for the first time, and Harrison was elected to fill the post.
He played expertly to the voters by reforming land-buying policies allowing only large purchases. These enabled cash-strapped settlers to buy smaller lots on four-year installment plans.
By , the Harrisons had three of what would eventually be ten children, although only four would live to see their father in the White House. That year the Northwest Territory split into what were known as the Ohio and Indiana Territories, and President Adams named Harrison governor of the latter. This region was comprised of what would later be all or sections of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Harrison built a palatial home he called "Grouseland" near his headquarters in Vincennes.
The home came to be a political focal point for the territory, frequently hosting officials, friends, and meetings with Native Americans. William Henry Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory for twelve years. He speculated in land, invested in two mill enterprises, and had a reputation as an honest administrator. To his credit, he was instrumental in improving the roads and other infrastructure in the region. However, the primary task charged to him by Presidents Adams and Jefferson was to secure legal claims to as much territorial land from Native Americans as possible.
To many Native Americans of that era, the idea of owning land was a completely alien concept. To claim sole right to a plot of land seemed as absurd as claiming sole right to the air. Harrison took advantage of the Indians' communal approach to territory.
The governor pushed through seven treaties with Indians from through , most shamefully exploitative of Native American poverty, corrupt leadership, or inability to hold liquor. This culminated in late with a massive, largely fraudulent landgrab of 51 million acres. Harrison and his aides warmly received five minor chiefs from the Sac tribe, softened them up with alcohol, then persuaded them to sign away one-third of modern Illinois, as well as sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri, for one penny per two hundred acres.
The leading Native American chief in the region, Tecumseh, grew increasingly angry by the endless encroachments of settlers. He envisioned a grand alliance of Indian tribes, aided by the British, to stop it and began negotiating with other chiefs and Royal Army officers.
Despite their defeat in the Revolution, the British had never really given up on restoring America to rule by the Crown, and by this time they continued to assert themselves on the young nation's western frontiers.
Two British forts stood across the river from Detroit, and English agents were continually inciting Indian tribes to harass and attack settlers. In response, congressional leaders like Henry Clay began to push for war with Britain. Harrison, meanwhile, invited more than a thousand Native Americans for yet another round of land negotiations.
Although the U. After a dozen years as governor of the Indiana Territory, Harrison rejoined the Army when the War of began. He was made a brigadier general and placed in charge of the Army of the Northwest. Harrison scored a decisive victory against the British and their Indian allies in at the Battle of the Thames, near the southern section of present-day Ontario, Canada. The chieftain Tecumseh was killed during the battle, and the confederation of Indian tribes he led never again posed a serious threat in the region.
In , Harrison resigned from the Army as a major general, and moved with his family to a farm in North Bend, Ohio. Two years later, Harrison was elected to the U.
House of Representatives from Ohio. In , he became a state senator. Starting in , he spent three years as a U. He resigned his senate seat in to become U. In , Harrison was a Whig Party candidate for the U. Harrison lost the election to Democrat Martin Van Buren Four years later, the Whigs nominated Harrison again, with Virginia politician John Tyler as his running mate. His supporters used log cabin and cider barrel imagery on campaign memorabilia, including log-cabin-shaped bottles of whiskey from the E.
Van Buren, who was unpopular with Americans for his mismanagement of the financial crisis known as the Panic of , was painted by his opponents as an out-of-touch, wealthy elite. In fact, he came from humble roots while Harrison was well-educated and hailed from an established family. However, the tactics worked: Harrison won the presidency with an electoral vote of and approximately 53 percent of the popular vote.
The year-old Harrison was sworn into office on March 4, He was the oldest U. Harrison gave a lengthy inaugural address—the longest in history—and opted not to wear a coat or hat, despite the inclement weather. Four weeks later he was dead from pneumonia.
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