William Henry Harrison

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"William H. Harrison" redirects here. This article is about the General and President. For his great-great-grandson, see William H. Harrison (Wyoming Congressman).

William Henry Harrison
9th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
Vice President	John Tyler (1841)
Preceded by	Martin Van Buren
Succeeded by	John Tyler
United States Senator from Ohio
In office March 4, 1825 – May 20, 1828
Preceded by	Ethan Allen Brown
Succeeded by	Jacob Burnet
1st Governor of Indiana Territory
In office May 13, 1800 – December 28, 1812
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	John Gibson
Born	February 9, 1773(1773-02-09) Charles City County, Colony of Virginia
Died	April 4, 1841 (aged 68) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Political party	Whig
Spouse	Anna Symmes Harrison
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania
Occupation	Soldier
Religion	Episcopal
Signature
Military service
Nickname(s)	Old Tippecanoe
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1791-1797, 1812-1814
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	Tecumseh's War/War of 1812 Battle of Tippecanoe Battle of the Thames

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military leader, politician, and the ninth President of the United States. He served as the first Governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. Representative and Senator from Ohio. Harrison first gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 and earning the nickname "Tippecanoe" (or "Old Tippecanoe"). As a general in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable contribution was a victory at the Battle of the Thames, which brought the war in his region to a successful conclusion.

When Harrison took office in 1841 at the age of 68, he was the oldest man to become President - a record that stood for 140 years, until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981 at the age of 69. Harrison died thirty-one days into his term — the briefest presidency in the history of the office. He was also the first U.S. President to die while in office. His death threw the country into a constitutional crisis.^[1]

[edit] Early years

Harrison was born into a prominent political family at the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County Virginia, the youngest of the seven children of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth Bassett. His father was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777), signed the Declaration of Independence (1776), and was Governor of Virginia (1781-1784).^[2] William Henry Harrison's brother, Carter Bassett Harrison, later became a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Virginia. Harrison's father-in-law was Congressman John Cleves Symmes. His stepmother-in-law was the daughter of New Jersey Governor William Livingston. He was the first cousin of Burwell Bassett on his mother's side. Harrison was the last president to be born a British subject.^[3]

At age 14 Harrison entered school. He first attended Hampden-Sydney College where he began to study medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush.^[4] He later attended the University of Pennsylvania.^[5] Harrison attended the University of Pennsylvania with the intention of becoming a physician, but did not receive a degree. He explained in his biography that he did not enjoy the profession of medicine, and when his father died in 1791, Harrison was left without money for further schooling. Harrison was 17 when his father died and he was left in the guardianship of Robert Morris, his mother having died years earlier.^[6]

[edit] Early Military Career

This portrait of Harrison originally showed him in civilian clothes as the Congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory in 1800, but the uniform was added after he became famous in the War of 1812.

Gov. Lee of Virginia heard Harrison's situation and persuaded Harrison to join the army. Within 24 hours of meeting and discussing his future with Lee, Harrison, at the age of 18, was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army, 11th U.S. Regt. of Infantry.^[7] He was first sent to Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army had been fighting the Northwest Indian War since 1785. At the time Cincinnati consisted of 25-30 log cabins. The army was demoralized from a defeat at the hands of Miami Tribe suffered just a few days before Harrison's arrival.^[8] Harrison once wrote' "I certainly saw more drunken men in those 48 hours...than I have in all of my previous life." Harrison reported that this shocked him enough to stay wary of alcohol, the cause of death of nearly four fifths of the infantry. He would spend much of his life in the Northwest Territory.^[9]

General "Mad Anthony" Wayne took command of the western army in 1792. Harrison was promoted to lieutenant that summer because of his strict attention to discipline. The following year he was promoted to serve as aide-de-camp.^[10] It was Wayne from whom Harrison learned how to successfully command an army on the American frontier. Harrison participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, which brought the Northwest Indian War to a close.^[11] Lieutenant Harrison was one of the signers of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which opened much of present-day Ohio to settlement by Americans.^[12]

Harrison resigned from the Army in the end of 1797 to become Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and acted as governor when Governor Arthur St. Clair was absent.^[13]

[edit] Congressman

In 1799 at age 26, Harrison was elected as the first delegate representing the Northwest Territory in the Sixth United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800.^[14] As delegate, he successfully promoted the passage of the Harrison Land Act, which made it easier for the average settler to purchase land in the Northwest Territory by allowing land to be sold in small tracts. This sudden availability of cheap land was an important factor in the rapid population growth of the Northwest Territory.^[15] Harrison resigned from Congress to become governor of the newly formed Indiana Territory after being appointed by President John Adams.The Indiana Territory consisted of the future states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and the eastern portion of Minnesota.^[16]

[edit] Governor

See also: History of slavery in Indiana

Harrison moved to Vincennes, the capital of the new territory, in 1800. While in Vincennes, Harrison built a plantation style home called Grouseland for its many birds. It was the first brick structure in the territory. The home served as the center of social and political life in the territory. The home has been restored and is a popular tourist attraction. He had built a second home near Corydon, the second capital, at Harrison Valley as well.^[17]

As governor, Harrison had wide ranging powers in the new territory including the authority to appoint all territory officials, the territorial legislature, and dividing the territory into districts. A primary responsibility as territorial governor was to obtain title to Native American lands so that white settlement could expand in the area and the region could attain statehood.^[18] Harrison was also extremely eager to expand the territory for personal reasons, as his own political fortunes were tied to Indiana's rise to statehood. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson granted Harrison authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians. Harrison oversaw the creation of thirteen treaties, purchasing more than 60,000,000 acres (240,000 km²) of land including much of present day Indiana from Native American leaders. The Treaty of Grouseland in 1805 was thought by Harrison to have appeased Native Americans. But tensions remained high on the frontier and became much greater after the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne, in which Harrison illegally purchased more than 2,500,000 acres (10,000 km²) of American Indian land.^[19]

In 1803 Harrison lobbied Congress to repeal the Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance to permit slavery in the Indiana Territory. He claimed it was necessary to make the region more appealing to settlers and ultimately make the territory economically viable. Congress suspended the article for ten years and the territories covered by the ordinance were granted the right to decide for their selves whether to permit slavery. That same year Harrison had indenturing legalized by the territorial legislature which he had appointed. He then proceeded to attempt to have slavery legalized outright in both 1805 and 1807. His attempts caused a significant stir in the territory. In 1809 he found himself at odds with the legislature when the abolitionist party came to power. They promptly rebuffed many of his plans for slavery and repealed the indenturing laws he had passed in 1803.^[20]

[edit] General

An Indian resistance movement against U.S. expansion had been growing around the Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (The Prophet). Tecumseh called upon Harrison to nullify the Treaty of Fort Wayne, warned against any whites moving onto the land, and continued to widen his Indian confederation. In 1811 Tecumseh's War began and Harrison was authorized to march against the confederacy and engaged them in the Battle of Tippecanoe.^[21] In the ensuing battle it was claimed that Harrison had a bullet pierce his hat. He ultimately won his famous victory at Prophetstown next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers. Harrison was publicly hailed as a national hero, despite the fact that his troops had greatly outnumbered the Indian forces and yet suffered many more casualties.^[22]

When Tecumseh's War merged with the War of 1812, Harrison remained in command of the army in Indiana. After the loss of Detroit, General James Winchester became the commander of the Army of the Northwest and Harrison was offered the rank or Brigadier General which he refused and resigned from the army. After a brief time in command President James Madison removed Winchester and made Harrison the commander on September 17, 1812. Harrison inherited an army made up of fresh recruits which he endeavored to drill. Initially he was greatly outnumbered and assumed a defensive posture. After receiving reinforcements in 1813 Harrison then advanced the army farther north to battle the Indian's and their new British allies.^[23] He won victories in Indiana and Ohio and retook Detroit before invading Canada and crushing the British at the Battle of the Thames, in which Tecumseh was killed.^[24][25]

After the Battle of Thames the Secretary of War divided the command of Harrison's army and assigned him to a backwater post and gave control of the front to one of his subordinates. Harrison had been having disagreements with Secretary of War John Armstrong over the lack of coordination and effectiveness of the invasion of Canada. When he was reassigned he promptly resigned from the army to prevent what he called an act that was "subversive [to] military order and discipline". His resignation was accepted in the summer of 1814.^[26]

After the war concluded, Congress made an investigation into the events of Harrison's resignation in which they decided that Harrison had been mistreated by the Secretary of War during his campaign and was justified in his resignation. They also awarded Harrison a gold medal for his service to the nation during the War of 1812. The Battle of Thames was one of the great American victories in the war, second only to the Battle of New Orleans.^[27][28][29]

[edit] Tecumseh's Curse

According to a legend, Tecumseh's brother had placed a curse on Harrison, claiming that every President to be elected in a year ending with the number zero (which happens every 20 years) would die in office. This Curse of Tecumseh is sometimes called the "zero-year curse". Remarkably, though there is no documentary evidence to prove the curse was made, it in fact "came true" for Harrison as well as for the next six eligible Presidents - Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy. Ronald Reagan's survival of an assassination attempt seems to have "broken the curse", and, so far, George W. Bush has evaded it.^[30]

The US has had three presidents in the same year two times. The first time was in 1841 when Martin van Buren ended his single term. William Henry Harrison was inaugurated and died a month later, with Vice President John Tyler stepping into the vacant office. The second time was in 1881, when Rutherford B. Hayes relinquished the office to James A. Garfield, who was assassinated. With the death of Garfield, Chester A. Arthur stepped into the Presidency.^[31]

[edit] Post-war life

After the war Harrison was appointed by President James Madison to serve as a commissioner to negotiate two treaties with the Indians tribes in the northwest. Both treaties where advantageous to the United States and gained a large tract of land in the west for settlement.^[32]

[edit] Senator and Ambassador

Harrison was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, serving from October 8, 1816, to March 4, 1819. He was elected and served in the Ohio State Senate from 1819 to 1821. He ran for governor of Ohio in 1820 but was defeated. In 1824, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until May 20, 1828. In the Senate he became known for his impassioned debates. Harrison was referred to by fellow westerners in Congress as a Buckeye, a term of endearment in respect of the Buckeye chestnut tree.^[33]

He resigned from the Senate in 1828 to become Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia serving in 1828 and 1829. He left for Columbia and resided in Bogota arriving December 22.^[34] He found the condition of the Columbia saddening and reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy and that he thought Simon Bolivar was about to become a despotic military dictator. While the minister in Columbia, Harrison wrote a lengthy letter of rebuke to Bolivar stating "...the strongest of all governments is that which is most free." He went on to call for Bolivar to refrain from terrorizing his enemies and encourage the development of a democracy. He was soon recalled from his position when the administration of President Andrew Jackson came to power. He arrived back in the United States in June.^[35][36]

[edit] Private Citizen

After Harrison returned to the United States in 1829, he settled on his farm in North Bend, Ohio, which was his adopted home state. There he entered a relative state of retirement having been continually in government service for nearly 40 years. Having accumulated no substantial wealth during his life he subsisted on his savings and a small income from pensions, but mostly from the income produced by his farm. He also gained some money from a biography he contributed to that was written by his biographer John Dawson and a second book written by James Hall entitled A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison that was published in 1836. By the time he began to run for President the second time there were already more than a dozen books on the life of Harrison in which he was hailed as a national hero.^[37]

On his farm, Harrison grew many acres of corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey. After a brief time of brewing he became disturbed by the effects his product made on its consumers and closed down the distillery. He even went so far as to address the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831 claiming that he had sinned in creating the whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and also stop producing liquors.^[38]

His private life only lasted a few years though and he returned to public life and the national stage in 1836 when he made an unsuccessful run for the presidency as the Whig candidate.^[39]

Chromolithograph campaign poster for William Henry Harrison

[edit] 1840 Presidential Campaign

Main article: United States presidential election, 1840

Harrison was the Northern Whig candidate for President in 1836, but lost the election to Martin Van Buren. He was the candidate again (and again faced Van Buren, now the incumbent President) in the 1840 election. Harrison was chosen over the more controversial members of the Whig party like Henry Clay. Harrison based his campaign heavily on his heroic military record and the weak U.S. economy brought on by the Panic of 1837. In a ploy to blame Van Buren for the depressed economy they nick-named him "Van Ruin".^[40]

The Democrats attempted to ridicule Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general," because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. When asking voters whether Harrison should be elected, they asked them what his name backwards was, which happens to be "No Sirrah." Democrats also cast Harrison as a provincial, out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider" than attend to the administration of the country. This strategy backfired, however, when Harrison and his vice presidential running-mate, John Tyler, immediately adopted both symbols, using the images in banners, posters, and even bottles of hard cider that were shaped like log cabins.^[41]

Poster of Harrison's accomplishments.

Their campaign was from then on marked by exaggeration of Harrison's connections to the common man. (Harrison came from an aristocratic Virginia family, but his supporters promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style of the popular Andrew Jackson.) A memorable example of these efforts was the Gold Spoon Oration delivered by a Whig congressman. Van Buren, by contrast, was presented as a wealthy elitist who spent taxpayers' money on champagne and crystal goblets from which to sip it.^[42]

An old Whig chant from the time of the election played up on this difference between candidates:

Old Tip he wore a home-spun coat, he had no ruffled shirt-wirt-wirt,
Old Matt he has the golden plate, and he's a little squirt-wirt-wirt!

People singing the chant were supposed to spit tobacco juice while singing the "wirt-wirt" parts.^[43]

The Whigs also played up Harrison's military record and reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. Their campaign slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," became one of the most famous in American politics.^[44]

On election day, Harrison won a landslide electoral victory, though the popular vote remained very close.^[45]

[edit] Presidency 1841

[edit] Shortest presidency

When Harrison arrived in Washington, he focused on showing that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe. He took the oath of office on March 4, 1841, an extremely cold and wet day. Nevertheless, he faced the weather without his overcoat and delivered the longest inaugural address in American history. At 8,444 words, it took nearly two hours to read (even after his friend and fellow Whig, Daniel Webster, had edited it for length). He then rode through the streets in the inaugural parade.^[46]

Most of his business during Harrison's month-long presidency involved heavy social obligations — an inevitable part of his high position and arrival in Washington — and receiving visitors who were seeking his favor in the hope that he would appoint them to the numerous offices the president then had at his disposal. Harrison and Clay had also disagreed about government patronage, which was entirely given at the discretion of the President. Harrison had tried to end the dispute by promising in his inaugural address not to use the power to enhance his own standing in the government; however, the very fact of his appointment to power sent scores of people to line up at the doors of the White House.^[46]

Harrison's only act of consequence was to call Congress into a special session, which he set to begin on May 31, 1841. He and Whig leader Henry Clay had disagreed over the necessity of the special session (which Harrison opposed, but Clay desired in order to immediately get his economic agenda underway), but Clay's powerful position in both the legislature and the Whig Party quickly forced Harrison to give in. He thus proclaimed the special session in the interests of "the condition of the revenue and finance of the country."^[47]

Harrison's tomb and memorial in North Bend, Ohio.

Harrison was the first sitting president to have his picture taken. The original daguerreotype has been lost, although copies of it exist.^[48]

On March 26, Harrison became ill with a cold. The presumptive story, which has become common knowledge despite its falsity, is that the inauguration day exposure was the cause of his illness. In fact, it was more than three weeks after the inauguration when Harrison began showing any sign at all of ill health, although the cold did worsen after Harrison was caught in a rain shower that day and rapidly turned to pneumonia and pleurisy.^[49] (According to the prevailing medical misconception of the times, microorganisms being still unknown, it was believed that his illness was directly caused by the bad weather, when, in fact, he was likely a victim of the virus that causes the common cold, exacerbated by the drastic pressures of his changing circumstances and the unceasing crush of office seekers.) He sought to rest in the White House, but could not find a quiet room because of the steady crowd of office seekers; in addition, his extremely busy social schedule made any rest time scarce.^[46]

Harrison's doctors tried various methods to cure him, applying opium, castor oil, Virginia snakeweed, and even actual snakes. But the treatments only made Harrison worse and he went into delirium. He died nine days after becoming ill,^[50] at 12:30 a.m., on April 4, 1841, of right lower lobe pneumonia, jaundice, and overwhelming septicemia, becoming the first American president to die in office. His last words were to his doctor, but assumed to be to John Tyler, "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." Harrison served the shortest term of any American president: only 30 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes.^[46]

Harrison's funeral took place in the Wesley Chapel in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1841. He was a founding member of Christ Church, Cincinnati. He was buried in North Bend, Ohio at the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial.^[51]

[edit] Legacy

The untimely death of Harrison was a disappointment to Whigs, who hoped to pass a revenue tariff and enact measures to support Henry Clay's American System. John Tyler, Harrison's successor and a long-time Democrat, abandoned the Whig agenda, leaving himself without a party.

Harrison's son, John Scott Harrison, was also elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio from 1853 to 1857. Harrison's grandson, Benjamin Harrison of Ohio, became the 23rd president in 1889, making them the only grandparent-grandchild pair of presidents to date. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison gave his inaugural address in the rain. Understanding his grandfather's mistakes, he asked his outgoing predecessor (and later his successor), Grover Cleveland, to hold an umbrella above his head, since he also delivered a long inaugural address.

Statue of Harrison on horseback in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He was the first, but not only, U.S. president to have no military vessel named after him. However, during the American Civil War, the Union Army named a post near Cincinnati "Camp Harrison."

Harrison County, Indiana; Harrison County, Mississippi; Harrison County, Iowa; Harrison County, Ohio; and William Henry Harrison High School are all named in honor of Harrison.

Harrison died nearly penniless. Congress voted to give his wife a pension payment of $25,000,^[52] equivalent to one year's worth of Harrison's salary.^[53]

[edit] Administration and Cabinet

[edit] Supreme Court appointments

none

[edit] States admitted to the Union

none

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] Sources

• Carnes ,Mark C & Mieczkowski, Yanek (2001). The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Campaigns. Routledge. ISBN 0415921392. 

• Cleaves, Freeman (1939). Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time. New York: Scribner's. 

• Burr, Samuel Jones (1840). The Life and Time of William Henry Harrison. R. W. Pomeroy. 

• Fowler, William M. (2005). Empires at War. St Martins Press. ISBN 0802777376. 

• Gresham, Matilda (1919). Life of Walter Quintin Gresham, 1832-1895. Rand, McNally & company. 

• Hall, James (1836). A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison, of Ohio. Key & Biddle. 

• Whiting, Isaac (1840). A Sketch of the Life and Public Services of William Henry Harrison. I. N. Whiting. 

[edit] External links

Ohio Portal

Indiana Portal

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

William Henry Harrison

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

William Henry Harrison

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

William Henry Harrison

• Extensive essay on William Henry Harrison and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
• William Henry Harrison Biography and Fact File
• White House biography
• biography by Appleton's and Stanley L. Klos
• William Henry Harrison at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Inaugural Address, via Wikisource

v • d • e Presidents of the United States George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Quincy Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin Van Buren · William Henry Harrison · John Tyler · James K. Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses S. Grant · Rutherford B. Hayes · James A. Garfield · Chester A. Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Howard Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren G. Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harry S. Truman · Dwight D. Eisenhower · John F. Kennedy · Lyndon B. Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · Jimmy Carter · Ronald Reagan · George H. W. Bush · Bill Clinton · George W. Bush

v • d • e United States Senators from Ohio Class 1: Smith • Meigs • Worthington • Kerr • Ruggles • Morris • Tappan • Corwin • Ewing • Wade • Thurman • Sherman • Hanna • Dick • Pomerene • Fess • Donahey • H. Burton • Huffman • K. Taft • Bricker • Young • R. Taft, Jr. • Metzenbaum • DeWine • S. Brown Class 3: Worthington • Tiffin • Griswold • Campbell • Morrow • Trimble • E. Brown • Harrison • Burnet • Ewing • Allen • Chase • Pugh • Chase • Sherman • Matthews • Pendleton • Payne • Brice • Foraker • T. Burton • Harding • Willis • Locher • T. Burton • McCulloch • Bulkley • R. Taft, Sr. • Burke • Bender • Lausche • Saxbe • Metzenbaum • Glenn • Voinovich

v • d • e Governors of Indiana Territorial Harrison • Posey State Jennings • Boon • W. Hendricks • Ray • Noble • Wallace • Bigger • J. Whitcomb • Dunning • Wright • Willard • Hammond • Lane • Morton • Baker • T. Hendricks • Williams • Gray • Porter • Gray • Hovey • Chase • Matthews • Mount • Durbin • Hanly • Marshall • Ralston • Goodrich • McCray • Branch • Jackson • Leslie • McNutt • Townsend • Schricker • Gates • Schricker • Craig • Handley • Welsh • Branigin • E. Whitcomb • Bowen • Orr • Bayh • O'Bannon • Kernan • Daniels

v • d • e Cabinet of President William Henry Harrison (1841 ) Vice President John Tyler (1841) Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1841) Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Ewing (1841) Secretary of War John Bell (1841) Attorney General John J. Crittenden (1841) Postmaster General Francis Granger (1841) Secretary of the Navy George Edmund Badger (1841)