Benjamin Harrison (President)

Benjamin Harrison

Republican Party

Prior offices

President of the United States

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Education

Other

Miami University

Personal

Birthplace

North Bend, Ohio

Profession

Attorney

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Benjamin Harrison (b. August 20, 1833, in North Bend, Ohio) was the 23rd President of the United States. He served from 1889 to 1893 and died on March 13, 1901, at the age of 67.

Harrison was a member of the Republican Party. His vice president was Levi P. Morton.

Prior to serving as president, Harrison worked as a lawyer. He was elected to the United States Senate representing Indiana as a member of the Republican Party in 1881 but lost re-election in 1887 to David Turpie (D). He also ran unsuccessfully for governor of Indiana in 1876. He was defeated by James D. Williams (D).

Biography

Timeline of life events

Below is an abbreviated outline of Harrison's professional and political career:

• 1833: Born in North Bend, Ohio
• 1852: Graduated from Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio
• 1853: Admitted to the bar
• 1854: Moved to Indianapolis, Indiana
• 1856: Joined the Republican Party
• 1860: Elected to the office of reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court
• 1862-1865: Served in the Union Army during the American Civil War
• 1864: Re-elected to the office of reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court
• 1876: Unsuccessfully ran for governor of Indiana
• 1881-1887: Served in the United States Senate
• 1888: Elected president of the United States
• March 13, 1901: Died of pneumonia in Indianapolis, Indiana

Before the presidency

Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio, on August 20, 1833, to John Scott Harrison and Elizabeth Irwin. Harrison was the grandson of U.S. President William Henry Harrison (1841) and the great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Harrison worked on the family farm as a child. He entered Farmer's College in College Hill, Ohio, when he was 15 years old, and later transferred to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1852. He studied law in Cincinnati and was admitted to the bar in 1853.

Harrison began his political career when he joined the Republican Party after its formation in 1856. He was elected to the office of reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court in 1860. His early political career was interrupted by the American Civil War. He joined the Union Army as a colonel of the Seventieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers and served until 1865 when he was honorably discharged at the rank of brigadier general. After the war, he served a second term as reporter for the Supreme Court.

Harrison practiced law until 1876 when he unsuccessfully ran as the Republican candidate in Indiana's gubernatorial election. In 1879, President Rutherford Hayes appointed Harrison to the newly formed Mississippi River Commission. In 1880, he served as chairman of the Indiana delegation at the Republican National Convention, in which James Garfield was nominated.

Harrison was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, where he supported the admission of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Idaho, as new states. He also supported the Republican Party's positions of providing pensions to Civil War veterans and education aid to Southerners, particularly the children of free blacks. He broke with the Republican Party line to oppose the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. He lost a Senate re-election bid in 1887.

At the Republican National Convention in 1888, Harrison was selected as the presidential candidate on the eighth ballot after party favorite James G. Blaine withdrew his name from consideration. In the general election on November 6, 1888, Harrison defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland. He won 58.1 percent of electoral votes (233 out of 401) but lost the popular vote by 100,456 votes—the third election in U.S. history where the winner lost the popular vote. Harrison's support was concentrated in the northern states and the far western states of California, Nevada, and Oregon.

Presidency

Major issues during Harrison's presidency included civil service reform, tariffs, and currency reform. He also oversaw the statehood of Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and the Dakotas.

Major legislation during Harrison's presidency included:

• The Dependent and Disability Pension Act (passed, 1890), which provided a pension to Union veterans and their families. The law cost over a billion dollars, and the legislative branch under Harrison's administration became known as the "Billion Dollar Congress."
• The Sherman Antitrust Act (passed, 1890), which attempted to increase economic competitiveness by outlawing monopolies, particularly multi-state corporations, and authorizing the federal government to establish procedures to dissolve trusts.
• The Sherman Silver Purchase Act (passed, 1890), which required the U.S. Treasury to increase its monthly silver purchase by 50 percent to 4,500,000 ounces per month at the market price. Upon implementation, the act contributed to the amount of money circulating and nearly depleted the Treasury's gold reserves. The act was an attempt to appeal to farmers considering membership in the Populist Party.
• The McKinley Tariff Act (passed, 1890), which increased tariff rates to 49.5 percent and expanded presidential powers by allowing the executive to conduct trade conventions, sign agreements to open foreign markets without congressional approval, and establish a federal bureaucracy to administer trade functions. Voters did not support the legislation, which resulted in the elevated prices of many goods, and House Republicans lost 93 seats in the midterm elections that year. According to Politico, the act helped lay the foundations for the financial panic of 1893.
• The Lodge Federal Elections bill (failed, 1891), would have allowed voters in a given precinct to petition a federal judge for federal control, rather than local control, of a national election. Bill sponsor Rep. Henry Cabot Lodge (R) said the bill would protect black and white voters from disenfranchisement: "The first step…toward the settlement of the negro problem and toward the elevation and protection of the race is to take it out of national party politics. This can be done in but one way. The United States must extend to every citizen equal rights." Harrison supported the bill, which passed the House but died in the Senate.

Allan B. Spetter, a professor emeritus of history at Wright State University, wrote, "No President since Lincoln pursued a more active foreign agenda than Benjamin Harrison." During his administration, Harrison oversaw the first Pan-American Congress (1889), in which delegates from 17 Latin American nations met in Washington D.C. and created the Pan American Union, which promoted cooperation between Latin America and the U.S. Harrison played a role in the Bering Sea controversy by ordering the interception of foreign (primarily Canadian) vessels in the Bering Sea. His administration paid an indemnity to the Italian government after a mob in New Orleans massacred Italian prisoners. Under the leadership of Secretary of State James Blaine, a tripartite protectorate between Germany, Britain, and the U.S. was established in Samoa. Harrison also attempted to annex Hawaii to the U.S. but was unable to do so before the end of his administration.

Harrison ran for re-election in 1892 but was defeated by Democrat Grover Cleveland, whom Harrison had defeated in 1888.

Post-presidency

After leaving office, Harrison returned to practicing law, including acting as counsel to Venezuela in the Anglo-Venezuelan Boundary Arbitration Commission. President William McKinley appointed Harrison to the International Court of Arbitration. He taught briefly at Stanford University and published a book, This Country of Ours, in 1897.

Personal

Harrison was married to Caroline Lavinia Scott from 1853 until her death in 1892. Together they had two children: Russell Benjamin Harrison and Mary "Mamie" Scott Harrison. In 1896, Harrison married Mary Scott Lord Dimmock, the niece of his first wife. They had one daughter, Elizabeth.

Elections

1888 presidential election

In 1888, Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland (D) in the general election for the United States presidency.

U.S. presidential election, 1888
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Republican	Benjamin Harrison/Levi Morton	47.8%	5,443,633	233
	Democratic	Grover Cleveland/Allen Thurman Incumbent	48.7%	5,538,163	168
	Prohibition	Clinton Fisk/John Brooks	2.2%	250,017	0
	Union Labor	Alson Streeter/Charles Cunningham	1.3%	149,115	0
Total Votes				11,380,928	401
Election results via: 1888 official election results

1892 presidential election

In 1892, Harrison lost to Grover Cleveland (D) in the general election for the United States presidency.

U.S. presidential election, 1892
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Republican	Benjamin Harrison/Whitelaw Reid Incumbent	43.1%	5,190,799	145
	Democratic	Grover Cleveland/Adlai Stevenson	46.1%	5,553,898	277
	Populist	James Weaver/James Field	8.5%	1,026,595	22
	Prohibition	John Bidwell/John Brooks	2.2%	270,889	0
Total Votes				12,042,181	444
Election results via: 1892 official election results

State of the Union addresses

Every year in office, the president of the United States addresses Congress on the present state of affairs as well as the administration's goals for the coming year. Following are transcripts from Harrison's State of the Union addresses.

• December 3, 1889
• December 1, 1890
• December 9, 1891
• December 6, 1892

See also

• Grover Cleveland
• Indiana
• Federal judges nominated by Benjamin Harrison

External links

• Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site website
• Official White House biography
• C-Span video on the Harrison presidency

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Grover Cleveland (D)	President of the United States 1889-1893	Succeeded by Grover Cleveland (D)