The story of Benjamin Harrison is almost a retelling of the American log cabin to White House story, except his story stretched across four generations.
His great-grandfather had signed the Declaration of Independence, serving as a colonial leader and a colonel in the colonial militia. His grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was the Tippecanoe of “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!” — the winning campaign slogan for president in 1840. The fact that President Harrison died after only one month in office, succeeded by Virginia’s John Tyler, did not lessen the fame attached to the Harrison name and William Henry’s frontier military acclaim. Benjamin’s father, John Scott Harrison, served in the U.S. House of Representatives, so it is probably no surprise that the youngest Harrison, with little executive experience, was confident that he would continue the family’s proud work for the republic. That confidence was often perceived as aloof arrogance, and he was occasionally referred to as an “iceberg.”
So, how did Benjamin prepare himself for service in the young republic? He studied at home with private tutors, often disappearing for hours only to be discovered reading in his grandfather’s massive library, having forgotten family duties. He graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, married his college sweetheart, Caroline Lavinia Scott, and then began a law study, passing the Ohio bar in 1854. Benjamin joined the newly formed Republican Party and campaigned for Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. Eager to learn more about national issues and the law, Harrison spent time recording the decisions of the Indiana Supreme Court, his then residence.
The Civil War intervened, and Benjamin Harrison — descendant of heroic military leaders — could not sit home while the Union was fighting for its survival. He joined the Seventieth Indiana Infantry Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. By 1865, he had been promoted to Brigadier General, but he realized that the military life was not his calling. Having served with General Sherman during the “March to the Sea,” he was reminded each day of that campaign that war was not pretty, and waging war on civilians was extremely unpleasant, even if necessary.
So, it was back to practicing law for Benjamin Harrison. (Some folks are smiling since the law is sometimes an unpleasant work…)
He remained active in politics, campaigning unsuccessfully for Indiana governor in 1876 but being tapped by President Hayes to serve on the Mississippi River Commission, which garnered more political support. He became the chair of the Indiana delegation to the 1880 Republican National Convention and, approving of Hayes’s pledge to serve one term only, he supported James A. Garfield. Only a few months later, as Garfield was sworn in as president, Harrison took his oath as a new member of the U.S. Senate. He attracted attention as he pushed for pensions for Civil War veterans (a popular cause), statehood for Dakota (yes, only one at the time), civil service reforms, and an improved and stronger navy. As a leader from the Ohio River Valley region — an area already famous for agricultural production — he became a champion of land conservation, an interesting precursor to a later presidential figure.
Harrison was considered for the 1884 Republican nomination, but he instead chose to support Senator James Blaine in his unsuccessful bid to defeat Cleveland. Since he had broken with the Republican Party on the issue of Chinese immigration and had few friends in the now Indiana Senate (controlled by the Democratic Party), Harrison was unable to gain the votes to return to the U.S. Senate.
In 1888, Blaine threw his support to Harrison, and in a heated contest among almost 10 possible candidates, Harrison emerged with the presidential nomination. Cleveland promised to return captured battle flags to southern states in a sign of “national unity,” but that gesture stirred up the many Union veterans and voters, including Harrison. When the votes were counted, Cleveland had won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, 233 to 168. Eight months earlier, few would have predicted Benjamin Harrison as a future president, but president he was.
Harrison would serve his four years but fail to make a strong impact as president, although his administration did function efficiently and mostly effectively.
What would be his legacy? Several major actions:
1) Increased presidential authority in dealing with foreign powers in the realm of trade.
2) An attempt to regulate corporate giants via the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
3) The Sherman Silver Purchase Act (raise your hand if you collect silver certificates).
4) Two bills whose aim was to protect African-American suffrage rights.
5) A presidential authorization for the creation of protected forest reserves in Yellowstone.
Four years later, Harrison would fail to maintain his office after what the public perceived as a lack of fiscal control and understanding of “public tax” dollars by the wasteful “Billion Dollar” Congress. In an unusual occurrence, former President Cleveland would return to office, and Harrison would return home.
