Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison was born on August 20, 1833, in North Bend, OhioOhioOhio is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital is Columbus. It joined the Union in 1803 as the 17th state, the first carved from the Northwest Territory, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 11,799,448.Open the full entry, the second child of his parents. His father, John Scott Harrison, was a farmer who served in Congress; his mother, Elizabeth Irwin Harrison, was a strict Presbyterian.⁠[1][2]

His grandfather was the ninth president, William Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison (1773–1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as governor of Indiana Territory, U.S. representative and U.S. senator before becoming the ninth president of the United States in 1841. He died on his 32nd day in office, the first president to die in office.Open the full entry, and his great-grandfather was Benjamin Harrison V of Virginia, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He grew up on The Point, a 600-acre farm in North Bend next to his grandfather’s large estate, and was taught in a log schoolhouse and by a tutor.⁠[3][4][2]

He spent two years at Farmers’ College, a preparatory school in Cincinnati, where he met Caroline Lavinia Scott, and then attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, graduating with honors at 19 on June 24, 1852. He was a founding member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.⁠[1][3][5][6]

After graduating he studied law in the Cincinnati office of Storer and Gwynne, whose partner Bellamy Storer was a former Whig congressman. On October 20, 1853, he married Caroline Lavinia Scott, and in 1854 he passed the Ohio bar examination.⁠[1][5][7]

The couple considered Chicago or the Cincinnati area before settling on Indianapolis, Indiana, encouraged in part by his cousin William Harrison Sheets, and arrived in April 1854. Building a practice proved hard, and through U.S. Marshal John L. Robinson he was appointed court crier at $2.50 a day.⁠[5][3]

In 1855 he formed a law partnership with William Wallace, and in 1857 he was elected Indianapolis City Attorney. At 28 he became an elder of the First Presbyterian Church. As a Republican he supported John C. Frémont in 1856 and Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry in 1860.⁠[5][3][4]

In 1860 he was elected Reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court and took William Fishback as his new law partner. He later said it was the only political office he ever sought voluntarily, and he valued the work as a postgraduate legal education.⁠[5]

In 1862 Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton asked him to raise the 70th Indiana Infantry, and he was commissioned its colonel. He arranged for his reporter’s post to be filled in his absence, but Democrats claimed he had abandoned it.⁠[3][5]

The regiment guarded railroads in TennesseeTennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state in the southeast-central United States, with its capital at Nashville. It was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 6,910,840 residents.Open the full entry and KentuckyKentuckyKentucky is a U.S. state bordered by Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to the north, West Virginia and Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south and Missouri to the west; its capital is Frankfort and its largest city is Louisville. It entered the Union on June 1, 1792, as the 15th state and the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains, and had a population of 4,505,836 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry before joining the Army of the Cumberland in the Atlanta Campaign; commanding a brigade, he fought at Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, and Atlanta, and he saw action at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864.⁠[2]

In February 1865 he was made a brevet brigadier general of volunteers for his leadership at Resaca and Peachtree Creek, and in June 1865 he mustered out with the 70th Indiana. Returning to Indianapolis, he resumed the reporter’s post, which he had won again in the 1864 election, and after that term went into full-time private practice.⁠[2][3]

In 1871 President Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant (1822–1885) was an American soldier and politician who commanded the Union armies in the final years of the Civil War (1864–1865) and served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.Open the full entry appointed him to defend the federal government in the Milligan case, which raised his reputation. Over his career he argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.⁠[6][2]

In 1876 he won the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana; Democrats branded him “Kid Gloves” Harrison, and he narrowly lost to the Democrat James D. Williams.⁠[3][8][1]

During the railroad strike of July 1877 he led a citizens’ militia company in Indianapolis, while saying the workers had legitimate grievances. Later that year he succeeded Oliver P. Morton as leader of Indiana’s Republicans.⁠[3]

In 1879 he joined the Mississippi River Commission at President Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) was an American lawyer, soldier and politician who served as a U.S. representative and governor of Ohio and was the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881.Open the full entry’s request, and in 1880 he attended the Republican National Convention as a delegate and voted for James A. GarfieldJames A. GarfieldJames A. Garfield (1831–1881) was an American educator, soldier and politician who rose to major general in the Civil War, served for many years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the 20th president of the United States in 1881, dying in office after being shot.Open the full entry.⁠[2][4]

In 1880 the Indiana legislature chose him for the U.S. Senate (senators were not popularly elected until 1913), and he served from 1881 to 1887.⁠[4][1]

In the Senate he backed veterans’ pensions, protective tariffs, a modern navy, and conservation of Western lands, and defended homesteaders and Native Americans against the railroads. In 1882 he broke with his party to vote against the Chinese Exclusion Act, arguing that it violated rights guaranteed by the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. He also introduced a bill to protect land along the Colorado River that laid groundwork for Grand Canyon National Park, established in 1919.⁠[4][9][3]

In 1887 Democrats gained control of the Indiana legislature, which did not return him to the Senate.⁠[4]

At the Republican National Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1888, among seven candidates, Harrison, everyone’s second choice, was nominated on the eighth ballot after the front-runner, Senator John Sherman of Ohio, faltered; James G. Blaine threw his support to Harrison after failing to win the nomination himself. The convention chose the New York banker Levi P. Morton as his running mate.⁠[10]

He ran a “front-porch” campaign, giving short speeches only to carefully selected delegations and reporters who came to his home in Indianapolis. The campaign centered on the protective tariff.⁠[10][8][2][11]

He received 5,439,853 popular votes to 5,540,309 for the Democratic incumbent, Grover ClevelandGrover ClevelandGrover Cleveland (1837–1908) was an American politician and Democrat who served as President of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897, as the 22nd and 24th president, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.Open the full entry, but won the electoral vote 233 to 168, helped by lavish campaign spending in the swing states of New York and Indiana. The Pennsylvania Republican boss Matt Quay mocked his claim that Providence had decided the result, saying Harrison would never know how close a number of men came to prison to make him president.⁠[9][8]

On March 4, 1889, he took the oath as the 23rd President of the United States on the East Portico of the Capitol, administered by Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller. Rain fell all day and he was sworn in under an umbrella; he kept his inaugural address short, avoiding a long speech like his grandfather’s. Levi P. Morton was sworn in as the 22nd vice president.⁠[12][2]

His first secretary of state was James G. Blaine (succeeded by John Watson Foster from June 29, 1892); the treasury secretary was William Windom (Charles Foster from February 24, 1891); the secretary of war was Redfield Proctor (Stephen Benton Elkins from December 24, 1891); the navy secretary was Benjamin Franklin Tracy; the attorney general was William Henry Harrison Miller; the interior secretary was John Willock Noble; and the agriculture secretary was Jeremiah McLain Rusk.⁠[9]

Six states joined the Union during his administration: North DakotaNorth DakotaNorth Dakota is a state in the north-central United States; its capital is Bismarck. It was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 39th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 779,094.Open the full entry, South DakotaSouth DakotaSouth Dakota is a U.S. state bordered by North Dakota to the north, Minnesota and Iowa to the east, Nebraska to the south, and Wyoming and Montana to the west. Its capital is Pierre and its largest city is Sioux Falls. It was admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, as the 40th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 886,667 residents.Open the full entry, MontanaMontanaMontana is a state in the northwestern United States, with the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Great Plains in the east; its capital is Helena and its largest city is Billings. Montana became the 41st U.S. state on November 8, 1889, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 1,084,225 residents.Open the full entry, and Washington in 1889, and IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the northwestern United States, often classed as a Mountain state and also considered part of the Pacific Northwest; its capital and largest city is Boise. It was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,839,106.Open the full entry and WyomingWyomingWyoming is a U.S. state, the ninth largest by area, with its capital at Cheyenne. Wyoming was admitted to the Union on July 10, 1890, as the 44th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 576,851 residents.Open the full entry in 1890.⁠[2][3]

In October 1889 he convened the first modern Pan-American Conference. Held in Washington, D.C., under Secretary of State James G. Blaine, the First International Conference of American States (1889–1890) created the International Union of American Republics, later the Pan-American Union.⁠[13][9]

His administration negotiated reciprocal trade agreements with key trading partners, which the Miller Center’s essay says set the pattern for twentieth-century U.S. trade policy. He arranged a three-power protectorate over the Samoan Islands with Germany and Great Britain, and he held firm against Britain and Canada over the overharvesting of seals in the Bering Sea; in 1892 Blaine negotiated a treaty with Britain to arbitrate that dispute.⁠[13][9]

An incident in Valparaíso, Chile, in which U.S. sailors were harmed nearly led to war; Chile apologized and paid $75,000. A mob in New Orleans killed eleven Sicilian immigrants, causing a serious dispute with Italy. He also backed the naval buildup begun under Chester A. ArthurChester A. ArthurChester A. Arthur (1829–1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as collector of the Port of New York, became vice president in 1881 and, after the assassination of James A. Garfield that year, succeeded him as the 21st president of the United States, serving until 1885.Open the full entry, aiming for a world-class fleet of seven armored ships.⁠[13]

In 1890 he signed the Sherman Antitrust Act, sponsored by Senator John Sherman of Ohio, the first federal law to prohibit business combinations in restraint of trade and to regulate giant corporations. Fines were capped at $5,000 and enforcement resources were limited, and in 1895 the Supreme Court removed suits against manufacturers from its scope. Later presidents, including Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was an American Republican politician, writer, naturalist, and soldier who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 and received the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.Open the full entry, Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was an American scholar and politician who served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey and was the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, leading the country through World War I and proposing the League of Nations.Open the full entry, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, strengthened and used the law, which remains in effect.⁠[9][14]

The McKinley Tariff of 1890, introduced by Representative William McKinleyWilliam McKinleyWilliam McKinley (1843–1901) was an American Republican politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Governor of Ohio before becoming the 25th President of the United States (1897–1901), leading the country through the Spanish-American War; he was assassinated in 1901.Open the full entry of Ohio with his support, was the highest protective tariff in U.S. history to that time, raising rates by an average of 49.5 percent and giving the president new foreign-trade powers, including reciprocity agreements; Harrison added the reciprocity provisions. To reduce the Treasury surplus, the duty on imported raw sugar was removed and American sugar growers received a bounty of two cents a pound.⁠[14][8]

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of the same year, a concession to Western silver interests in return for their support of the tariff, required the Treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver a month; holders quickly redeemed the resulting certificates for gold, nearly depleting the Treasury’s supply.⁠[14]

He signed the Dependent and Disability Pension Act of 1890, increasing pensions for disabled Civil War veterans. The so-called “Billion-Dollar Congress” appropriated $1 billion for the first time outside wartime, spending heavily on pensions, internal improvements, naval expansion, and steamship subsidies, and the Treasury surplus vanished; House Speaker Thomas B. Reed answered critics with “This is a billion-dollar country.”⁠[2][8][9]

In the 1890 congressional elections Republicans suffered heavy losses and Democrats regained the House by a wide margin; party leaders began distancing themselves from him, and he had little influence over legislation in his last two years.⁠[8][9]

He signed the Land Revision Act of 1891, which allowed public lands to be set aside as national forests, and used it to establish the first U.S. forest reserve at Yellowstone, Wyoming.⁠[14][2]

Republican leaders looked for another candidate, but he chose to seek reelection. At the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis he was renominated on the first ballot despite a revolt by party regulars, with James G. Blaine and William McKinley showing significant strength in the balloting.⁠[2][9][10]

On October 25, 1892, two weeks before the election, his wife, Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison, died of tuberculosis in the White House. Her illness and death distracted him during the campaign, in which neither candidate campaigned much.⁠[10][4][3][9]

In November 1892 he lost the rematch with Grover Cleveland, who led by about 375,000 popular votes and won the electoral vote 277 to 145; the Populists drew about one million voters and 22 electoral votes. Populist discontent and strikes, especially the violent steel strike at Homestead, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaPennsylvania (officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States; its capital is Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are its two great metropolitan areas. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, the second state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 13,002,700.Open the full entry, in July 1892, contributed to his defeat. He is the only president both preceded and succeeded by the same man.⁠[10][9][2]

After Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893, he sent the Senate a treaty to annex HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry, but it was not ratified before his term ended, and his successor, Grover Cleveland, withdrew it. The Miller Center’s essay states that he sent 150 Marines to protect the white settler government that had overthrown the queen.⁠[9][8][13]

His term ended on March 3, 1893, and he returned to his law practice in Indianapolis. In 1893 the Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry law school hired him as one of its first law professors, and he lectured on constitutional law.⁠[9][3]

After leaving office he belonged to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, toured the country speaking for Republican candidates, served on the Board of Trustees of Purdue University, and wrote articles on history and government.⁠[2]

On April 6, 1896, at 62, he married Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, a widow nearly 30 years his junior who was his late wife’s niece and had cared for her. They had one daughter.⁠[7][4][9]

In 1898–1899 he served as lead counsel for Venezuela in its boundary arbitration with Great Britain, and he attended the First Peace Conference at The Hague.⁠[9][2]

He died of pneumonia at his home in Indianapolis on March 13, 1901, aged 67. That year his series of lectures at Stanford University was published as Views of an Ex-President.⁠[9]

He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis beside his first wife; his second wife, who died in 1948, was later buried beside him.⁠[2][7]

His first wife, Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison, was born in 1832. They had two children: a son, Russell Benjamin (1854–1936), and a daughter, Mary Scott (1858–1930), later Mary Harrison McKee. Outgoing and fond of holidays, Caroline Harrison put up the first White House Christmas tree.⁠[7][3][4]

His second wife, Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, was born in 1858; their daughter, Elizabeth, lived from 1897 to 1955.⁠[7]

He stood about 5 feet 6 inches tall; Democrats called him “Little Ben,” and Republicans replied that he was big enough to wear the hat of his grandfather, “Old Tippecanoe.” He was so reserved in private that he was called “the human iceberg.”⁠[8][4]

He endorsed two bills to protect the voting rights of African Americans in the South: the Force Bill of Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, which would have established federal supervision of congressional elections, and the Blair Education Bill of Henry W. Blair, a New Hampshire Republican, which proposed federal aid to education; neither passed. He also proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn an 1883 Supreme Court decision, which Congress likewise did not pass. He appointed Frederick Douglass U.S. minister to Haiti.⁠[14][3][4][11]

Days after taking office he signed a proclamation opening Native American land in OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a U.S. state whose capital is Oklahoma City. It was admitted to the Union on November 16, 1907, as the 46th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,959,353.Open the full entry to white settlement, and he pressed the Sioux to give up 11 million acres and the Crow 1.8 million acres in the Dakotas and Montana. On December 29, 1890, U.S. Army troops killed about 150 Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee.⁠[3]

The residence he had built on North Delaware Street in Indianapolis by 1875 is now the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, open to the public, with a collection of about 10,000 objects related to his life and career.⁠[3][15]

The Miller Center’s essays note that historians traditionally saw him as a party bosses’ puppet of average rank, but that since the 1960s they have rated him more favorably: he is credited with advancing the United States toward world power more than any earlier president and served as a model for the young Theodore Roosevelt, while historians fault him for failing to grasp domestic conditions and suggest that the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act he supported may have helped cause the Panic of 1893. The writer Henry Adams called him the best president since Abraham Lincoln.⁠[16][4]

He was the last Civil War general to serve as president.⁠[9]

Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site: Official website: https://bhpsite.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15]