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Background
Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of the ninth
President of the United States, William Henry
Harrison. One of thirteen children, he lived on
his grandfather's 600 acre estate in North Bend,
Ohio. Family finances became strained and after
the death of his mother in 1850, Harrison enrolled
at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. He was admitted
to the bar in 1854, moved with his wife to Indianapolis,
and soon was working for the governor's son as
an attorney, where he became further connected
with the Republican Party. He won the elected
office of City Attorney before reluctantly joining
the Army during the Civil War. Harrison's unit
didn't see combat until 1864, and he was frequently
called away to do political work for the Republican
Party. After the war, Harrison turned down offers
to run for congress and invested himself in
his law practice, supporting not only his own
family, but three brothers as well. Harrison
played a leading role in the aftermath of the
Ex Parte Milligan Supreme Court case, in which
a civilian was suing the government for having
been illegally tried and convicted in a military
court by Union officers. Harrison was able to
get the monetary award reduced to only five
dollars. With his reputation growing, Harrison
finally agreed to run for governor of Indiana
in 1876, an election he lost. |
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Harrison was appointed Senator in 1881, where
he proved to not have the political prowess
to successfully navigate the complicated world
of backroom deals shifting alliances. He served
the party in minor roles, but then was denied
a second term after Democrats gained control
of the Indiana legislature.
In 1888, the Republicans were in need of a
scandal-free candidate to run against Grover
Cleveland. Harrison's knack for not taking any
clear positions on political issues also made
him a suitable candidate. The Republican press
then began a campaign to improve Harrison's
public image as being cold and impersonal (he
was known as, "the human iceberg), while
at the same time smearing Cleveland and his
record. One Republican trick turned the Irish
vote in New York against Cleveland, causing
him to lose his home state and the electoral
vote. Despite losing the popular vote, Benjamin
Harrison was now the president-elect. [1889
inaugural address] |
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Issue:
The Economy
Harrison believed his victory to be more the work
of divine intervention than that of shady political
machinations. His inaugural address was most memorable
for having been delivered in the pouring rain.
He followed the lead of the party bosses who had
manufactured his election and in 1890 he signed
the McKinley Tariff bill into law, which had a
drastic effect on the economy and led to Cleveland's
reelection two years later. Harrison also was
a supporter of the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase
Act, which required the federal government to
buy nearly all of the silver being mine in the
United States. Finally, Harrison signed the Sherman
Anti-Trust Act into law. While this legislation
would prove to be an important tool for breaking
up trusts under Theodore Roosevelt a decade later,
it was hardly enforced under Harrison's administration.
Domestic Agenda
On the other hand, Harrison advocated the conservation
of forest reserves. In the area of civil rights for |
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African Americans, Harrison endorsed two bills designed
to prevent southern states from denying African Americans
the vote, and he appointed the great and eloquent
former slave Frederick Douglass as ambassador to Haiti.
Foreign Policy
On the international front, Harrison was the most
active president since Abraham Lincoln. He convened
the first Pan-American Conference, in 1889. He negotiated
an American protectorate over the Samoan Islands,
and he continued the work of modernizing and expanding
the United States Navy into a world-class fleet. He
moved quickly and decisively where American interests
were threatened, taking the nation to the brink of
war with Chile over an assault on American sailors,
and standing firm against Britain and Canada to protect
the over-harvesting of fur seals in the Bering Sea.
Perhaps most importantly, he saw trade as an essential
part of the nation’s foreign policy and negotiated
a number of important reciprocal trade agreements
that set the pattern for American trade policy in
the 20th century. Harrison also advocated U.S. expansion
in the Pacific and the building of a canal across
Central America. |
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Later
Life
Not surprisingly, the poor economy in 1892, which
would turn into a real depression a year later,
prevented Harrison from winning a second term.
Harrison's wife died only a few weeks before the
election from tuberculosis, and Harrison returned
to Indianapolis, married his late wife's first
cousin (who was a widow 25 years his junior),
fathered one child, published his memoirs, and
died in 1901 from pneumonia. |
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