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William Henry Harrison

February 15, 2024

"William H. Harrison" redirects here. For other people, see William Harrison and William Henry Harrison (disambiguation).

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration as president in 1841, making his presidency the shortest in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causing a brief constitutional crisis since presidential succession was not then fully defined in the United States Constitution. Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies and was the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.

William Henry Harrison
Official White House portrait by James Lambdin, 1835
9th President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
Vice PresidentJohn Tyler
Preceded byMartin Van Buren
Succeeded byJohn Tyler
United States Minister to Gran Colombia
In office
February 5, 1829 – September 26, 1829
President
Preceded byBeaufort Taylor Watts
Succeeded byThomas Patrick Moore
United States Senator
from Ohio
In office
March 4, 1825 – May 20, 1828
Preceded byEthan Allen Brown
Succeeded byJacob Burnet
Member of the Ohio Senate
from the Hamilton County district
In office
December 5, 1819 – December 2, 1821
Preceded byEphraim Brown
Succeeded byEphraim Brown
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Ohio's 1st district
In office
October 8, 1816 – March 3, 1819
Preceded byJohn McLean
Succeeded byThomas R. Ross
1st Governor of the Indiana Territory
In office
January 10, 1801 – December 28, 1812
Appointed byJohn Adams
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byThomas Posey
Delegate to the
U.S. House of Representatives
from the Northwest Territory's
at-large district
In office
March 4, 1799 – May 14, 1800
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byWilliam McMillan
2nd Secretary of the Northwest Territory
In office
June 28, 1798 – October 1, 1799
GovernorArthur St. Clair
Preceded byWinthrop Sargent
Succeeded byCharles Willing Byrd
Personal details
Born(1773-02-09)February 9, 1773
Charles City County, Virginia, British America
DiedApril 4, 1841(1841-04-04) (aged 68)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Cause of deathEnteric fever
Resting placeHarrison Tomb State Memorial
Political party
Spouse
​
(m. 1795)​
Children10, including John
Parent
RelativesHarrison family of Virginia
Education
Occupation
  • Soldier
  • politician
Awards
Signature
Military service
Branch/service
Years of service
  • 1791–1798
  • 1811
  • 1812–1814
RankMajor general
UnitLegion of the United States
CommandsArmy of the Northwest
Battles/wars

Harrison was born into the Harrison family of Virginia at their homestead, Berkeley Plantation. He was a son of Benjamin Harrison V, a Founding Father of the United States. During his early military career, Harrison participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. Later, he led a military force against Tecumseh's confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe". He was promoted to major general in the Army during the War of 1812, and led American infantry and cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada.

Harrison's political career began in 1798, with an appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, he was elected as the territory's non-voting delegate in the United States House of Representatives. He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes, with the nation acquiring millions of acres. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where, in 1816, he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House of Representatives. In 1824, he was elected to the United States Senate, though his Senate term was cut short by his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in 1828.

Harrison returned to private life in North Bend, Ohio, until he was nominated as one of several Whig Party nominees for president in the 1836 United States presidential election; he was defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. Four years later, the party nominated him again, with John Tyler as his running mate, under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too". Harrison defeated Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election. Just three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and died days later. After resolution of an ambiguity in the constitution regarding succession to the powers and duties of the office, Tyler became president. Harrison is often omitted in historical presidential rankings due to his brief tenure, with the rankings where he is ranked placing him significantly below average. However, he is remembered for his Indian entreaties, and also his inventive election campaign tactics.

Early life and education

Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison. Born on February 9, 1773, at Berkeley Plantation, the home of the Harrison family of Virginia on the James River in Charles City County,[1] he became the last United States president not born as an American citizen.[2] The Harrisons were a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s.[3] His father was a Virginia planter, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence.[3] His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–1784) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War.[3] Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–1799).[4] William Henry often referred to himself as a "child of the revolution", as indeed he was, having grown up in a home just 30 mi (48 km) from where Washington won the war against the British in the Battle of Yorktown.[5]

Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he attended Hampden–Sydney College, a Presbyterian college in Hampden Sydney, Virginia.[3][6] He studied there for three years, receiving a classical education that included Latin, Greek, French, logic, and debate.[7][8] His Episcopalian father removed him from the college, possibly for religious reasons, and after brief stays at an academy in Southampton County, Virginia, and with his elder brother Benjamin in Richmond, he went to Philadelphia in 1790.[9]

His father died in the spring of 1791, and he was placed in the care of Robert Morris, a close family friend in Philadelphia.[10] He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During his time at Penn, he studied with Doctor Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father of the United States and a Penn professor of chemistry and medicine and William Shippen Sr.[10] His older brother inherited their father's money, so he lacked the funds for his further medical schooling, which he had also discovered he didn't prefer.[5] He therefore withdrew from Penn, though school archives record him as a "non-graduate alumnus of Penn's medical school class of 1793".[10] With the influence of his father's friend, Governor Henry Lee III, he embarked upon a military career.[11]

Early military career

On August 16, 1791, within 24 hours of meeting Lee, Harrison, age 18, was commissioned as an ensign in the Army and assigned to the First American Regiment.[12] He was initially assigned to Fort Washington, Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War.[13] Biographer William W. Freehling says that young Harrison, in his first military act, rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to Fort Washington.[5]

Harrison was promoted to lieutenant after Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne took command of the western army in 1792, following a disastrous defeat under Arthur St. Clair.[12] In 1793, he became Wayne's aide-de-camp and acquired the skills to command an army on the frontier;[6] he participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which ended the Northwest Indian War.[14] He received the following commendation from Wayne for his role in the battle: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp ... Lieutenant Harrison, who ... rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction ... conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory."[5] Harrison was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), as witness to Wayne, the principal negotiator for the U.S.[12] Under the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Indians ceded a portion of their lands to the federal government, opening two-thirds of Ohio to settlement.[15][16]

At his mother's death in 1793, Harrison inherited a portion of his family's Virginia estate, including approximately 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land and several slaves. He was serving in the Army at the time and sold the land to his brother.[17] Harrison was promoted to captain in May 1797 and resigned from the Army on June 1, 1798.[18]

Marriage and family

Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio in 1795 when he was 22. She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes, who served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War and as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation.[19] Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna but was refused, so the couple waited until Symmes left on business. They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory.[20] They honeymooned at Fort Washington, since Harrison was still on military duty.[21] Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne, sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family. Harrison responded, "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir".[22] The match was advantageous for Harrison, as he eventually exploited his father-in-law's connections with land speculators, which facilitated his departure from the army.[5] Judge Symmes' doubts about him persisted, as he wrote to a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied."[5] Matters eventually became cordial with the father-in-law, who later sold the Harrisons 160 acres (65 ha) of land in North Bend, which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm.[21]

Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage, primarily because of her many pregnancies, yet she outlived William by 23 years, dying on February 25, 1864, at 88.[7][23]

The Harrisons had ten children:

  • Elizabeth Bassett (1796–1846)
  • John Cleves Symmes (1798–1830), who married the only surviving daughter of Zebulon Pike
  • Lucy Singleton (1800–1826)
  • William Henry Jr. (1802–1838)
  • John Scott (1804–1878), father of future U.S. president Benjamin Harrison[24]
  • Benjamin (1806–1840)
  • Mary Symmes (1809–1842)
  • Carter Bassett (1811–1839)
  • Anna Tuthill (1813–1865)
  • James Findlay (1814–1817)[25]

Professor Kenneth R. Janken, in his biography of Walter Francis White, claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African-American woman named Dilsia and gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal. The assertion is based on the White family's oral history.[26][27] In her 2012 biography of Harrison, author Gail Collins describes this as an unlikely story, although White believed it to be true.[28]

Political career

Harrison began his political career when he temporarily resigned from the military on June 1, 1798, and campaigned among his friends and family for a post in the Northwest Territorial government.[12] His close friend Timothy Pickering was serving as Secretary of State, and along with Judge Symmes' influence, he was recommended to replace Winthrop Sargent, the outgoing territorial secretary.[5] President John Adams appointed Harrison to the position in July 1798.[12] The work of recording the activities of the territory was tedious, and he soon became bored, and sought a position in the U. S. Congress.[29]

U.S. Congress

 
An engraved portrait print of Harrison at age 27, as a delegate member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Northwest Territory by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, c. 1800[30][31]

Harrison had many friends in the eastern aristocracy and quickly gained a reputation among them as a frontier leader. He ran a successful horse-breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory.[12] Congress had legislated a territorial policy that led to high land costs, a primary concern for settlers in the Territory; Harrison became their champion to lower those prices. The Northwest Territory's population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799, and Harrison ran for election.[32] He campaigned to encourage further migration to the territory, which eventually led to statehood.[33]

Harrison defeated Arthur St. Clair Jr. by one vote to become the Northwest Territory's first congressional delegate in 1798 at age 26, and served in the Sixth United States Congress from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800.[34][35] He had no authority to vote on legislative bills, but he was permitted to serve on a committee, to submit legislation, and to engage in debate.[36] He became chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and promoted the Land Act of 1800, which made it easier to buy Northwest Territory land in smaller tracts at a lower cost.[32] Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth.[37]

Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections.[32] The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and included present-day Ohio and eastern Michigan; the western section was named the Indiana Territory and included present-day Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, a portion of western Michigan, and an eastern portion of Minnesota. The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800.[38]

On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory, based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances.[39] He served in this capacity for twelve years.[40] His governorship was confirmed by the Senate and he resigned from Congress to become the first Indiana territorial governor in 1801.[32][41]

Indiana territorial governor

See also: History of slavery in Indiana and Indiana Territory

Harrison began his duties on January 10, 1801, at Vincennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory.[42] Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and they reappointed him as governor in 1803, 1806, and 1809.[32] In 1804, Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the District of Louisiana. He conducted the district's affairs for five weeks until the Louisiana Territory was formally established on July 4, 1805, and Brigadier General James Wilkinson assumed the duties of governor.[43]

In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland, in tribute to the birds on the property.[19] The 26-room home was one of the first brick structures in the territory;[44] and it served as a center of social and political life in the territory during his tenure as governor.[45] Harrison founded a university at Vincennes in 1801, which was incorporated as Vincennes University on November 29, 1806.[46] The territorial capital was eventually moved to Corydon in 1813, and Harrison built a second home at nearby Harrison Valley.[47]

Harrison's primary responsibility was to obtain title to Indian lands that would allow future settlement and increase the territory's population, a requirement for statehood. He was also eager to expand the territory for personal reasons, as his political fortunes were tied to Indiana's eventual statehood.[5] While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf, and acquiring two milling operations, he was credited as a good administrator, with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure.[5]

When Harrison was reappointed as the Indiana territorial governor on February 8, 1803, he was given expanded authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians.[32] The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis with Quashquame required the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri. Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands, especially their leader Black Hawk.[48] Harrison thought that the Treaty of Grouseland (1805) appeased some of the Indians, but tensions remained high along the frontier.[49] The Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809) raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than 2.5 million acres (10,000 km2) from the Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, and Eel River tribes. Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty.[50] Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government, as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison.[5]

He pursued the treaty process aggressively, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders, so as to gain political favor with Jefferson before his departure.[51] Biographer Freehling asserts that the Indians perceived the ownership of land was as common to all, just as the air that is breathed. In 1805, Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51,000,000 acres from the Indians, after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol, for no more than a dollar per 20,000 acres ($19.54 in 2022), and comprising two-thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri.[5]

In addition to resulting tensions with the Indians, Harrison's pro-slavery position made him unpopular with the Indiana Territory's abolitionists, as he tried in vain to encourage slavery in the territory. In 1803, he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory.[52] Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood, the proposal failed.[53] Lacking the suspension of Article VI, in 1807 the territorial legislature, with Harrison's support, enacted laws that authorized indentured servitude and gave masters authority to determine the length of service.[54]

President Jefferson, primary author of the Northwest Ordinance, made a secret compact with James Lemen to defeat the nascent pro-slavery movement supported by Harrison.[55] He donated $100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works, and later (in 1808) another $20 ($366.00 in 2022) to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church.[55] In Indiana, the planting of the anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory.[55]

The Indiana Territory held elections to the legislature's upper and lower houses for the first time in 1809. Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power, and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti-slavery population.[43] The Territory's general assembly convened in 1810, and its anti-slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted.[56] After 1809, the Indiana legislature assumed more authority and the territory advanced toward statehood.

Army general

Tecumseh and Tippecanoe

Main articles: Tecumseh's War and Battle of Tippecanoe

Indian resistance to American expansion came to a head, with the leadership of Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa ("The Prophet"), in a conflict that became known as Tecumseh's War.[57] Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes that they would be protected by the Great Spirit and that no harm could befall them if they rose up against the settlers. He encouraged resistance by telling the tribes to pay white traders only half of what they owed and to give up all the white man's ways, including their clothing, muskets, and especially whiskey.[57] Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. Madison dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate, sending a letter to Tecumseh saying, "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash."[5]

 
1915 depiction of Tecumseh, believed to be copying an 1808 sketch

In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. They were dressed in war paint, and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes.[58] The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland, where they met Harrison. Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly, and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate, arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify it and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty.[5] Tecumseh informed Harrison that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty if they carried out its terms and that his confederation of tribes was growing rapidly.[59] Harrison said that the individual tribes were the owners of the land and could sell it as they wished. He rejected Tecumseh's claim that all the Indians formed one nation and said that each tribe could have separate relations with the United States if they chose to do so. Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation.[59]

Tecumseh launched an "impassioned rebuttal", in the words of one historian, but Harrison was unable to understand his language.[59] Tecumseh then began shouting at Harrison and called him a liar.[5] A Shawnee friendly to Harrison cocked his pistol from the sidelines to alert Harrison that Tecumseh's speech was leading to trouble, and some witnesses reported that Tecumseh was encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of them began to pull their weapons, representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town, which held a population of only 1,000. Harrison drew his sword, and Tecumseh's warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense.[59] Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison, and he countered Tecumseh's arguments, telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified.[60] After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States.[61]

Harrison was concerned that Tecumseh's actions would endanger the statehood of Indiana, as well as his political future, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages".[5] Tecumseh was traveling in 1811, leaving Tenskwatawa in charge of Indian forces. Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh's absence, and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation.[62] Despite being 13 years removed from military action, Harrison convinced Madison and Eustis to allow him to assume command.[5] He led an army north with 950 men to intimidate the Shawnee into making peace, but the tribes launched a surprise attack early on November 7 in the Battle of Tippecanoe.[63] Harrison countered and defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers; the battle became famous and he was hailed as a national hero. Although his troops had suffered 62 dead and 126 wounded during the battle and the Shawnee just 150 casualties, the Shawnee prophet's vision of spiritual protection had been shattered. Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed.[64][65]

When reporting to Secretary Eustis, Harrison had informed him of the battle near the Tippecanoe River and that he had anticipated an attack. A first dispatch had not been clear which side had won the conflict, and the secretary interpreted it as a defeat until the follow-up dispatch clarified the situation.[66] When no second attack came, the Shawnee defeat had become more certain. Eustis demanded to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against the initial attack, and Harrison said that he had considered the position strong enough. The dispute was the catalyst of a disagreement between Harrison and the Department of War, which continued into the War of 1812.[67] Freehling says that Harrison's rusty skills resulted in his troops setting campfires the night before the battle, exposing their position to a surprise attack and casualties.[5]

The press did not cover the battle at first, until one Ohio paper misinterpreted Harrison's first dispatch to mean that he was defeated.[68] By December, however, most major American papers carried stories on the battle victory, and public outrage grew over the Shawnee.[69] Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms, and Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. Congress declared war on June 18, 1812, and Harrison left Vincennes to seek a military appointment.[70]

War of 1812

 
This portrait of Harrison originally showed him in civilian clothes as a congressional delegate in 1800; the uniform was added after service in the War of 1812.

The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians in the Northwest. Harrison briefly served as a major general in the Kentucky militia until the government commissioned him on September 17 to command the Army of the Northwest.[70] He received federal military pay for his service, and he also collected a territorial governor's salary from September until December 28, when he formally resigned as governor and continued his military service. Authors Gugin and St. Clair claim the resignation was forced upon him.[70] Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory.[70]

The Americans suffered a defeat in the siege of Detroit. General James Winchester offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. President James Madison removed Winchester from command in September, and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits.[70] He received orders to retake Detroit and boost morale, but he initially held back, unwilling to press the war northward.[5] The British and their Indian allies greatly outnumbered Harrison's troops, so Harrison constructed a defensive position during the winter along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio. He named it Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio governor Return J. Meigs Jr. He then received reinforcements in 1813, took the offensive, and led the army north to battle. He won victories in the Indiana Territory as well as Ohio and recaptured Detroit before invading Upper Canada (Ontario). His army defeated the British, and Tecumseh was killed, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. It was considered to be one of the great American victories in the war, second only to the Battle of New Orleans, and secured a national reputation for Harrison.[71][5]

In 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army, assigning Harrison to an outlying post and giving control of the front to one of Harrison's subordinates.[72] Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the lack of coordination and effectiveness in the invasion of Canada, and Harrison resigned from the army in May.[73][74] After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that Armstrong had mistreated him during his military campaign and that his resignation was justified. Congress awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the war.[75]

Harrison and Michigan Territory's Governor Lewis Cass were responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with the Indians.[76] President Madison appointed Harrison in June 1815 to help in negotiating a second treaty with the Indians that became known as the Treaty of Springwells, in which the tribes ceded a large tract of land in the west, providing additional land for American purchase and settlement.[35]

Postwar life

Ohio politician and diplomat

 
Poster lauding Harrison's accomplishments

Harrison resigned from the army in 1814, shortly before the conclusion of the War of 1812, and returned to his family and farm in North Bend, Ohio.[5] Freehling claims that his expenses then well exceeded his means and he fell into debt, that Harrison chose "celebrity over duty", as he sought the adulation found at parties in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, and that he became an office seeker.[5] He was elected in 1816 to complete John McLean's term in the House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 1st congressional district until 1819. He attempted to secure the post as Secretary of War under President Monroe in 1817 but lost out to John C. Calhoun. He was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia.[5] He was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1819 and served until 1821, having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820.[35] He ran in the 1822 election for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to James W. Gazlay.[5][77] He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824, and was an Ohio presidential elector in 1820 for James Monroe[78] and for Henry Clay in 1824.[79]

Harrison was appointed in 1828 as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia, so he resigned from Congress and served in his new post until March 8, 1829.[80] He arrived in Bogotá on December 22, 1828, and found the condition of Colombia saddening. He reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy, and that Simón Bolívar was about to become a military dictator.[80] He wrote a letter of polite rebuke to Bolívar, stating that "the strongest of all governments is that which is most free" and calling on Bolívar to encourage the development of democracy. In response, Bolívar wrote that the United States "seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom", a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America.[80]

Freehling indicates Harrison's missteps in Colombia were "bad and frequent", that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Colombian affairs, by publicly opposing Bolivar, and that Colombia sought his removal. Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position.[5] Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Colombia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome."[81] A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr.

Harrison, after leaving his post but while still in the country, wrote his roughly ten-page letter to Bolivar, which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies. It left the former struck by Harrison's "deeply imbued principles of liberty". Burr describes the letter as "replete with wisdom, goodness, and patriotism…and the purest of principles".[81][82]

Private citizen

Harrison returned to the United States and his North Bend farm, living in relative privacy after nearly four decades of government service. He had accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime, and he lived on his savings, a small pension, and the income produced by his farm. Burr references M. Chavalier, who encountered Harrison in Cincinnati at this time, and described Harrison as "poor, with a numerous family, abandoned by the Federal government, yet vigorous with independent thinking".[83]

In May 1817, Harrison served as one of the founding vestry members of the Episcopal congregation, Christ Church in downtown Cincinnati (now Christ Church Cathedral).[84] Harrison went on to serve as a vestry member through 1819, and then again in 1824.[84]

Local supporters had come to Harrison's relief, by appointing him Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County, where he worked from 1836 until 1840.[85] Chevalier remarked, "His friends back east talk of making him President, while here we make him clerk of an inferior court."[83] He also cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey, but closed it after he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers. In an address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, he said that he had sinned in making whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors.[86]

About this time, he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison, and the two became friends. Harrison wrote at the time, "we might look forward to a day when a North American sun would not look down upon a slave."[87] DeBaptiste became his valet, and later White House steward.[88]

Burr closes his account of Harrison by describing an event, denied by some of his friends—a reception given the general at Philadelphia, in 1836. According to Burr, "Thousands and tens of thousands crowded Chesnut street wharf upon his arrival, and greeted him with continual cheering as he landed. He stepped into the barouche but the crowd pressed forward so impetuously, that the horses became frightened and reared frequently. A rush was made to unharness the animals when the General spoke to several of them and endeavored to prevent it; but the team was soon unmanageable, and it became necessary to take them off. A rope was brought, and attached to the carriage, by which the people drew it to the Marshall House. This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts. Pennsylvanians fought under the hero, and they loved him. We speak particularly on this point, because we were eyewitnesses of all that passed."[89]

1836 presidential campaign

Main article: 1836 United States presidential election

Harrison was the western Whig candidate for president in 1836, one of four regional Whig party candidates. The others were Daniel Webster, Hugh L. White, and Willie P. Mangum. More than one Whig candidate emerged in an effort to defeat the incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren, who was the popular Jackson-chosen Democrat.[90] The Democrats charged that, by running several candidates, the Whigs sought to prevent a Van Buren victory in the electoral college, and force the election into the House.[91] In any case the plan, if there was one, failed. In the end, Harrison came in second, and carried nine of the twenty-six states in the Union.[90][91][92]

Harrison ran in all the non-slave states except Massachusetts, and in the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Mangum in South Carolina.[93] Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes.[91] A swing of just over 4,000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state's 30 electoral votes to Harrison and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives.[94][91][92]

1840 presidential campaign

Main article: William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign
 
1840 Electoral Vote Map

Harrison faced incumbent Van Buren as the sole Whig candidate in the 1840 election. The Whigs saw in Harrison a born southerner and war hero, who would contrast well with the aloof, uncaring, and aristocratic Van Buren.[90] He was chosen over more controversial members of the party, such as Clay and Webster; his campaign highlighted his military record and focused on the weak U.S. economy caused by the Panic of 1837.[95]

The Whigs blamed Van Buren for the economic problems and nicknamed him "Van Ruin".[95] The Democrats, in turn, ridiculed the elder Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They noted for the voters what Harrison's name would be when spelled backwards: "No Sirrah". They cast him 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 when Harrison and running mate John Tyler adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. Their campaign used the symbols on banners and posters and created bottles of hard cider shaped like log cabins, all to connect the candidates to the "common man".[96] Freehling relates that, "One bitter pro-Van Buren paper lamented after his defeat, 'We have been sung down, lied down and drunk down.' In one sentence, this described the new American political process."[97]

Harrison came from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, yet his campaign promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style popularized by Andrew Jackson, while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy elitist.[96] A memorable example was the Gold Spoon Oration that Pennsylvania's Whig representative Charles Ogle delivered in the House, ridiculing Van Buren's elegant White House lifestyle and lavish spending.[98] The Whigs invented a chant in which people would spit tobacco juice as they chanted "wirt-wirt", and this also exhibited the difference between candidates from the time of the election:[90]

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

The Whigs boasted of Harrison's military record and his reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. The campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" became one of the most famous in American politics.[99] While Van Buren campaigned from the White House, Harrison was on the campaign trail, entertaining with his impressions of Indian war whoops, and took people's minds off the nation's economic troubles. In June 1840, a Harrison rally at the site of the Tippecanoe battle drew 60,000 people.[90] The Village of North Bend, Ohio, as well as the alumni of Ohio State University claim that the state's use of the nickname "Buckeyes" began with Harrison's campaign message.[100][101] Voter turnout shot to a spectacular 80%, 20 points higher than the previous election.[97] Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College, 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. The popular vote margin was much closer, at fewer than 150,000 votes, though he carried nineteen of the twenty-six states.[99][102]

Presidency (1841)

Inauguration

 
Painting by Albert Gallatin Hoit, 1840

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe and that he was a better educated and more thoughtful man than the backwoods caricature portrayed in the campaign. He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.[103] He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history[103] at 8,445 words. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Webster had edited it for length.[104] Freehling opines that speeches like this were actually common at the time, and that its irony was rich, as Harrison, "a lifelong office seeker, elected by deeply partisan politics, criticized both".[105]

The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, a repudiation of Jackson's and Van Buren's policies, and the first and only formal articulation by Harrison of his approach to the presidency.[105] The address began with Harrison's sincere regard for the trust being placed in him:

However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country.[106]

Harrison promised to re-establish the Bank of the United States and extend its capacity for credit by issuing paper currency in Henry Clay's American system.[103] He intended to rely on the judgment of Congress in legislative matters, using his veto power only if an act were unconstitutional, and to reverse Jackson's spoils system of executive patronage.[105] He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government, and under no circumstance would he run for a second term. He condemned the financial excesses of the prior administration and pledged not to interfere with congressional financial policy. All in all, Harrison committed to a weak presidency, deferring to "the First Branch", the Congress, in keeping with Whig principles.[105][104]

He addressed the nation's already hotly debated issue of slavery. As a slaveholder himself, he agreed with the right of states to control the matter:

The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one state from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding…The attempt of those of one state to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions.[106]

As he was about to conclude his remarks, Harrison incorporated his reliance upon the country's freedom of religion while taking pains to present himself as part of the religious mainstream rather than a dissenter or member of a minority faith:

I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time.[106]

Harrison's lengthy speech offered vague clues about what his presidency would offer to the people of the United States. He declared he would only serve for one term in office and not abuse his veto power. Harrison was against devising financial schemes for the nation, rather he left that wholly to Congress. He was against agitating the Southern United States on the slavery question. He did not discuss the tariff and distribution. He said little of the national bank, except he mentioned he was open to paper money, rather than metallic currency. Harrison's concept of the presidency was very limited. This followed closely with Harrison's Whig political ideology. [107]

Following the speech, he rode through the streets in the inaugural parade,[103] stood in a three-hour receiving line at the White House, and attended three inaugural balls that evening,[108] including one at Carusi's Saloon entitled the "Tippecanoe" ball with 1,000 guests who had paid $10 per person (equal to $312 in 2021).[109]

The press of patronage

Clay was a leader of the Whigs and a powerful legislator, as well as a frustrated presidential candidate in his own right, and he expected to have substantial influence in the Harrison administration. He ignored his own platform plank of overturning the "spoils" system and attempted to influence Harrison's actions before and during his brief presidency, especially in putting forth his own preferences for Cabinet offices and other presidential appointments. Harrison rebuffed his aggression, saying, "Mr. Clay, you forget that I am the President."[110] The dispute escalated when Harrison named as Secretary of State Daniel Webster, Clay's arch-rival for control of the Whig Party. Harrison also appeared to give Webster's supporters some highly coveted patronage positions. His sole concession to Clay was to name his protégé John J. Crittenden to the post of Attorney General. Despite this, the contretemps continued until the president's death.[111]

Clay was not the only one who hoped to benefit from Harrison's election. Hordes of office applicants came to the White House, which was then open to any who wanted a meeting with the president. Most of Harrison's business during his month-long presidency involved extensive social obligations and receiving visitors at the White House. He was advised to have an administration in place before the inauguration but declined, wanting to focus on the festivities. As such, job seekers awaited him at all hours and filled the Executive Mansion, with no process for organizing and vetting them.[103]

Harrison wrote in a letter dated March 10, "I am so much harassed by the multitude that calls upon me that I can give no proper attention to any business of my own."[112] U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia Alexander Hunter recalled an incident in which Harrison was besieged by office seekers who were preventing him from getting to a cabinet meeting; when his pleas for their consideration were ignored, Harrison finally "accepted their petitions, which filled his arms and pockets".[113] Another anecdote of the time recounted that the halls were so full one afternoon that in order to get from one room to the next, Harrison had to be helped out a window, walked the length of the White House exterior, and then helped in through another window.[113]

Harrison took seriously his pledge to reform executive appointments, visiting each of the six cabinet departments to observe its operations and issuing through Webster an order that electioneering by employees would be considered grounds for dismissal.[103] He resisted pressure from other Whigs over partisan patronage. A group arrived in his office on March 16 to demand the removal of all Democrats from any appointed office, and Harrison proclaimed, "So help me God, I will resign my office before I can be guilty of such an iniquity!"[114] His own cabinet attempted to countermand his appointment of John Chambers as Governor of the Iowa Territory in favor of Webster's friend James Wilson. Webster attempted to press this decision at a March 25 cabinet meeting, and Harrison asked him to read aloud a handwritten note, which said simply "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States". Harrison then stood and declared: "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States, tells you, gentlemen, that, by God, John Chambers shall be governor of Iowa!"[115]

Harrison's only other official decision of consequence was whether to call Congress into a special session. He and Clay had disagreed over the necessity of such a session, and Harrison's cabinet proved evenly divided, so the president initially vetoed the idea. Clay pressed him on the special session on March 13, but Harrison rebuffed him and told him not to visit the White House again, to address him only in writing.[116] A few days later, however, Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing reported to Harrison that federal funds were in such trouble that the government could not continue to operate until Congress' regularly scheduled session in December; Harrison thus relented, and proclaimed the special session on March 17, in the interests of "the condition of the revenue and finance of the country". The session would have begun on May 31 as scheduled if Harrison had lived.[117][118]

Death and funeral

 
An illustration depicting the death of Harrison, April 4, 1841

Harrison had been physically worn down by many persistent office seekers and a demanding social schedule.[107] On Wednesday, March 24, 1841, Harrison took his daily morning walk to local markets, without a coat or hat. Despite being caught in a sudden rainstorm, he did not change his wet clothes upon return to the White House.[119] On Friday, March 26, Harrison became ill with cold-like symptoms and sent for his doctor, Thomas Miller, though he told the doctor he felt better after having taken medication for "fatigue and mental anxiety".[119] The next day, Saturday, the doctor was called again, and arrived to find Harrison in bed with a "severe chill", after taking another early morning walk. Miller applied mustard plaster to his stomach and gave him a mild laxative, and he felt better that afternoon.[119] At 4:00 a.m. Sunday, March 28, Harrison developed severe pain in the side and the doctor initiated bloodletting; the procedure was terminated when there was a drop in his pulse rate. Miller also applied heated cups to the president's skin to enhance blood flow.[119] The doctor then gave him castor oil and medicines to induce vomiting, and diagnosed him with pneumonia in the right lung.[119] A team of doctors was called in Monday, March 29, and they confirmed right lower lobe pneumonia.[120] Harrison was then administered laudanum, opium, and camphor, along with wine and brandy.[121]

No official announcements were made concerning Harrison's illness, which fueled public speculation and concern the longer he remained out of public view.[120] Washington society had noticed his uncharacteristic absence from church on Sunday.[113] Conflicting and unconfirmed newspaper reports were based on leaks by people with contacts in the White House.[119] A Washington paper reported on Thursday, April 1, that Harrison's health was decidedly better. In fact, Harrison's condition had seriously weakened, and Cabinet members and family were summoned to the White House—his wife Anna had remained in Ohio due to her own illness.[119] According to papers in Washington on Friday, Harrison had rallied, despite a Baltimore Sun report that his condition was of a "more dangerous character".[119] A reporter for the New York Commercial indicated that "the country's people were deeply distressed and many of them in tears."[119]

In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words, to his attending doctor, assumed to be for Vice President John Tyler:[119] "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."[122] Harrison died at 12:30 a.m. on April 4, 1841, Palm Sunday, nine days after becoming ill and exactly one month after taking the oath of office;[119] he was the first president to die in office.[120] Harrison's wife Anna was still in Ohio packing for the trip to Washington when she learned of her loss.[123] Anna never moved into the White House. Harrison's daughter-in-law, Jane Irwin Harrison, widow of Harrison's son, had served as hostess of the White House in Anna's place while Harrison was president.[124]

The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier. [125] Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases (2014), examining Miller's notes and records showing that the White House water supply was downstream of public sewage, and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to "enteric fever" (typhoid or paratyphoid fever).[126][127]

A 30-day period of mourning commenced following the president's death. The White House hosted various public ceremonies, modeled after European royal funeral practices. An invitation-only funeral service was also held on April 7 in the East Room of the White House, after which Harrison's coffin was brought to Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where it was placed in the Public Vault.[128] Solomon Northup gave an account of the procession in Twelve Years a Slave:

The next day there was a great pageant in Washington. The roar of cannon and the tolling of bells filled the air, while many houses were shrouded with crape, and the streets were black with people. As the day advanced, the procession made its appearance, coming slowly through the Avenue, carriage after carriage, in long succession, while thousands upon thousands followed on foot—all moving to the sound of melancholy music. They were bearing the dead body of Harrison to the grave…. I remember distinctly how the window glass would break and rattle to the ground, after each report of the cannon they were firing in the burial ground.[129]

That June, Harrison's body was transported by train and river barge to North Bend, Ohio, and he was buried on July 7 at the summit of Mt. Nebo, which is now the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial.[130]

Tyler's accession to office

On April 5, Fletcher Webster, the son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, notified Tyler that Harrison had died in office. Tyler had been visiting family in Williamsburg. Tyler arrived in Washington on the morning of April 6.[131] That same day, Tyler was sworn into office in front of Harrison's cabinet, officially beginning his presidency. On April 9, Tyler gave a brief inaugural address. In his address to the nation, Tyler did not give any personal consolation to Harrison's widow Anna or family members. Tyler did compliment Harrison by saying Harrison had been elected for a "great work" of purging the federal government of corruption.[132][a] Tyler and his family moved into the White House one week after Harrison's funeral, before Harrison's 30 day time of mourning was over. The White House state rooms were still hung with black mourning crapes.[131][133][124]

Impact of Harrison's death

 
The William Henry Harrison Memorial in North Bend, Ohio

Harrison's death called attention to an ambiguity in Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution regarding succession to the presidency. The Constitution clearly provided for the vice president to take over the "Powers and Duties of the said Office" in the event of a president's removal, death, resignation, or inability, but it was unclear whether the vice president formally became president of the United States, or simply temporarily assumed the powers and duties of that office, in a case of succession.[134]

Harrison's cabinet insisted that Tyler was "Vice President acting as President". Tyler was resolute in his claim to the title of President and in his determination to exercise the full powers of the presidency.[135] The cabinet consulted with Chief Justice Roger Taney and decided that, if Tyler took the presidential oath of office, he would assume the office of president. Tyler obliged and was sworn into office on April 6, 1841. Congress convened, and on May 31, 1841, after a short period of debate in both houses, passed a joint resolution, which confirmed Tyler as president for the remainder of Harrison's term.[136] The precedent that Congress set in 1841 was followed on seven occasions when an incumbent president died, and it was written into the Constitution in 1967 through Section One of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.[137]

Legacy

Historical reputation

 
Harrison (on left) at Tippecanoe County Courthouse, Lafayette, Indiana

Among Harrison's most enduring legacies is the series of treaties that he negotiated and signed with Indian leaders during his tenure as the Indiana territorial governor.[7] As part of the treaty negotiations, the tribes ceded large tracts of land in the west which provided additional acreage for purchase and settlement by the nation.[35][138]

Harrison's long-term impact on American politics includes his campaigning methods, which laid the foundation for modern presidential campaign tactics.[139] Harrison died nearly penniless, and Congress voted his wife Anna a presidential widow's pension of $25,000,[140] one year of Harrison's salary (equivalent to about $709,000 in 2022).[141] She also received the right to mail letters free of charge.[142]

Freehling refers to Harrison as "the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today".[143] Harrison, age 68 at the time of his inauguration, was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at age 69.[144]

Harrison's son John Scott Harrison represented Ohio in the House of Representatives between 1853 and 1857.[145] Harrison's grandson Benjamin Harrison of Indiana served as the 23rd president from 1889 to 1893, making William and Benjamin Harrison the only grandparent-grandchild pair of presidents.[146]

Honors and tributes

Main article: List of memorials to William Henry Harrison

Several monuments and memorial statues have been erected in tribute to Harrison. There are public statues of him in downtown Indianapolis,[147] Cincinnati's Piatt Park,[148] the Tippecanoe County Courthouse,[149] Harrison County, Indiana,[150] and Owen County, Indiana.[151] Numerous counties and towns also bear his name.

The Village of North Bend, Ohio, honors Harrison every year with a parade to celebrate his birthday.[152] The Gen. William Henry Harrison Headquarters in Franklinton, Ohio, commemorates Harrison. The house was his military headquarters from 1813 to 1814.[153] On February 19, 2009, the U.S. Mint released the ninth coin in the Presidential $1 Coin Program, bearing Harrison's likeness.[154][155]

 
Equestrian statue of Harrison in Cincinnati, by Louis Rebisso
 
2009 presidential dollar coin
 
1950 postal issue of Harrison commemorating Indiana's statehood

Notes

  1. ^ Full Text: "FELLOW-CITIZENS: Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several Departments of the deeply regretted death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States. Upon him you had conferred your suffrages for the first office in your gift, and had selected him as your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such errors and abuses as had manifested themselves from time to time in the practical operation of the Government. While standing at the threshold of this great work he has by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence been removed from amongst us, and by the provisions of the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vitally important task have devolved upon myself." John Tyler (April 9, 1841)[132]

See also

References

Citations

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Bibliography

  • Bolívar, Simón (1951). Bierck, Harold A. Jr. (ed.). Selected Writings of Bolívar. Vol. II. New York: Colonial Press. ISBN 978-1-60635-115-4. compiled by Lecuna, Vicente, translated by Bertrand, Lewis
  • Burr, Samuel Jones (1840). The Life and Times of William Henry Harrison. New York: R. W. Pomeroy. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  • Calhoun, Charles William (2005). Benjamin Harrison: The 23rd President 1889–1893. The American Presidents. Vol. 23. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8050-6952-5.
  • Carnes, Mark C.; Mieczkowski, Yanek (2001). The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Campaigns. Routledge Atlases of American History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-92139-8. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  • Cleaves, Freeman (1939). Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-9457-0701-1.
  • Collins, Gail (2012). William Henry Harrison: The 9th President, 1841. New York: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 978-0-8050-9118-2.
  • Dowdey, Clifford (1957). The Great Plantation. New York: Rinehart & Co. OCLC 679792228.
  • Greene, Meg (2007). William H. Harrison. Breckenridge, CO: Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 978-0-8225-1511-1. Retrieved November 21, 2021.; for children
  • Greiff, Glory-June (2005). Remembrance, Faith and Fancy: Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87195-180-9.
  • Gugin, Linda C.; St. Clair, James E., eds. (2006). The Governors of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press and the Indiana Historical Bureau. ISBN 978-0-87195-196-0. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  • Hall, James (1836). A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison, of Ohio. Philadelphia: Key & Biddle. LCCN 11019326. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  • Hopkins, Callie. "John Tyler and the Presidential Succession". whitehousehistory.org. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  • Langguth, A. J. (2007). Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-3278-1. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  • Madison, James H.; Sandweiss, Lee Ann (2014). Hoosiers and the American Story. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87195-363-6.
  • McCormick, Richard P. (2002). "William Henry Harrison and John Tyler". In Graff, Henry (ed.). The Presidents: A Reference History (7th ed.). Macmillan Library Reference USA. pp. 139–151. ISBN 978-0-684-80551-1.
  • Owens, Robert M. (2007). Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3842-8.; also see online book review
  • Remini, Robert V. (1997). Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04552-8. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  • Taylor, William Alexander; Taylor, Aubrey Clarence (1899). Ohio statesmen and annals of progress: from the year 1788 to the year 1900 ... Vol. 1. Columbus: Westbote Co. LCCN 01011959.
  • "Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  • Tyler, John (April 9, 1841). "Address Upon Assuming the Office of President of the United States". Retrieved August 8, 2022.

Further reading

  • Barnhart, John D.; Riker, Dorothy L. (1971). Indiana to 1816, the colonial period. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau. OCLC 154955.
  • Booraem, Hendrik (2012). A Child of the Revolution: William Henry Harrison and His World, 1773–1798. Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-1-6127-7643-9.
  • Borneman, Walter R. (2005). 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. New York: HarperCollins (Harper Perennial). ISBN 978-0-06-053113-3.
  • Cheathem, Mark R. (2018). The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. ISBN 9781421425986.
  • Ellis, Richard J. (2020). Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation. U of Kansas Press. ISBN 978-0-7006-2945-9.
  • Graff, Henry F. (2002). The Presidents: A Reference History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. OCLC 1036830795.
  • Jortner, Adam (2012). The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1997-6529-4.
  • Peckham, Howard Henry (2000). William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe. Carmel, IN: Patria Press. ISBN 978-1-8828-5903-0. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  • Peterson, Norma Lois (1989). The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. U of Kansas Press.
  • Pirtle, Alfred (1900). The Battle of Tippecanoe. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co./ Library Reprints. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-7222-6509-3. as read to the Filson Club.
  • Shade, William G. (2013). "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too: William Henry Harrison and the rise of popular politics". In Silbey, Joel H. (ed.). A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861. pp. 155–72.
  • Skaggs, David Curtis (2014). William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country: Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0546-9.

External links

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February 15, 2024
william, henry, harrison, william, harrison, redirects, here, other, people, william, harrison, disambiguation, february, 1773, april, 1841, american, military, officer, politician, served, ninth, president, united, states, harrison, died, just, days, after, i. William H Harrison redirects here For other people see William Harrison and William Henry Harrison disambiguation William Henry Harrison February 9 1773 April 4 1841 was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration as president in 1841 making his presidency the shortest in U S history He was also the first U S president to die in office causing a brief constitutional crisis since presidential succession was not then fully defined in the United States Constitution Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies and was the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison the 23rd president of the United States William Henry HarrisonOfficial White House portrait by James Lambdin 18359th President of the United StatesIn office March 4 1841 April 4 1841Vice PresidentJohn TylerPreceded byMartin Van BurenSucceeded byJohn TylerUnited States Minister to Gran ColombiaIn office February 5 1829 September 26 1829PresidentJohn Quincy AdamsAndrew JacksonPreceded byBeaufort Taylor WattsSucceeded byThomas Patrick MooreUnited States Senatorfrom OhioIn office March 4 1825 May 20 1828Preceded byEthan Allen BrownSucceeded byJacob BurnetMember of the Ohio Senate from the Hamilton County districtIn office December 5 1819 December 2 1821Preceded byEphraim BrownSucceeded byEphraim BrownMember of the U S House of Representatives from Ohio s 1st districtIn office October 8 1816 March 3 1819Preceded byJohn McLeanSucceeded byThomas R Ross1st Governor of the Indiana TerritoryIn office January 10 1801 December 28 1812Appointed byJohn AdamsPreceded byOffice establishedSucceeded byThomas PoseyDelegate to theU S House of Representativesfrom the Northwest Territory sat large districtIn office March 4 1799 May 14 1800Preceded byConstituency establishedSucceeded byWilliam McMillan2nd Secretary of the Northwest TerritoryIn office June 28 1798 October 1 1799GovernorArthur St ClairPreceded byWinthrop SargentSucceeded byCharles Willing ByrdPersonal detailsBorn 1773 02 09 February 9 1773Charles City County Virginia British AmericaDiedApril 4 1841 1841 04 04 aged 68 Washington D C U S Cause of deathEnteric feverResting placeHarrison Tomb State MemorialPolitical partyDemocratic Republican before 1828 Whig from 1836 SpouseAnna Symmes m 1795 wbr Children10 including JohnParentBenjamin Harrison V father RelativesHarrison family of VirginiaEducationHampden Sydney CollegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaOccupationSoldierpoliticianAwardsCongressional Gold MedalThanks of CongressSignatureMilitary serviceBranch serviceUnited States Army Indiana Territory militiaYears of service1791 179818111812 1814RankMajor generalUnitLegion of the United StatesCommandsArmy of the NorthwestBattles warsNorthwest Indian War Siege of Fort Recovery Battle of Fallen Timbers Tecumseh s War Battle of Tippecanoe War of 1812 Siege of Fort Wayne Battle of the ThamesHarrison was born into the Harrison family of Virginia at their homestead Berkeley Plantation He was a son of Benjamin Harrison V a Founding Father of the United States During his early military career Harrison participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War Later he led a military force against Tecumseh s confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 where he earned the nickname Old Tippecanoe He was promoted to major general in the Army during the War of 1812 and led American infantry and cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada Harrison s political career began in 1798 with an appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory In 1799 he was elected as the territory s non voting delegate in the United States House of Representatives He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes with the nation acquiring millions of acres After the War of 1812 he moved to Ohio where in 1816 he was elected to represent the state s 1st district in the House of Representatives In 1824 he was elected to the United States Senate though his Senate term was cut short by his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in 1828 Harrison returned to private life in North Bend Ohio until he was nominated as one of several Whig Party nominees for president in the 1836 United States presidential election he was defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren Four years later the party nominated him again with John Tyler as his running mate under the campaign slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler Too Harrison defeated Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election Just three weeks after his inauguration Harrison fell ill and died days later After resolution of an ambiguity in the constitution regarding succession to the powers and duties of the office Tyler became president Harrison is often omitted in historical presidential rankings due to his brief tenure with the rankings where he is ranked placing him significantly below average However he is remembered for his Indian entreaties and also his inventive election campaign tactics Contents 1 Early life and education 1 1 Early military career 1 2 Marriage and family 2 Political career 2 1 U S Congress 2 2 Indiana territorial governor 3 Army general 3 1 Tecumseh and Tippecanoe 3 2 War of 1812 4 Postwar life 4 1 Ohio politician and diplomat 4 2 Private citizen 4 3 1836 presidential campaign 4 4 1840 presidential campaign 5 Presidency 1841 5 1 Inauguration 5 2 The press of patronage 6 Death and funeral 6 1 Tyler s accession to office 6 2 Impact of Harrison s death 7 Legacy 7 1 Historical reputation 7 2 Honors and tributes 8 Notes 9 See also 10 References 10 1 Citations 10 2 Bibliography 11 Further reading 12 External linksEarly life and educationHarrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth Bassett Harrison Born on February 9 1773 at Berkeley Plantation the home of the Harrison family of Virginia on the James River in Charles City County 1 he became the last United States president not born as an American citizen 2 The Harrisons were a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s 3 His father was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress 1774 1777 and who signed the Declaration of Independence 3 His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia 1781 1784 in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War 3 Harrison s older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives 1793 1799 4 William Henry often referred to himself as a child of the revolution as indeed he was having grown up in a home just 30 mi 48 km from where Washington won the war against the British in the Battle of Yorktown 5 Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he attended Hampden Sydney College a Presbyterian college in Hampden Sydney Virginia 3 6 He studied there for three years receiving a classical education that included Latin Greek French logic and debate 7 8 His Episcopalian father removed him from the college possibly for religious reasons and after brief stays at an academy in Southampton County Virginia and with his elder brother Benjamin in Richmond he went to Philadelphia in 1790 9 His father died in the spring of 1791 and he was placed in the care of Robert Morris a close family friend in Philadelphia 10 He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania During his time at Penn he studied with Doctor Benjamin Rush a Founding Father of the United States and a Penn professor of chemistry and medicine and William Shippen Sr 10 His older brother inherited their father s money so he lacked the funds for his further medical schooling which he had also discovered he didn t prefer 5 He therefore withdrew from Penn though school archives record him as a non graduate alumnus of Penn s medical school class of 1793 10 With the influence of his father s friend Governor Henry Lee III he embarked upon a military career 11 Early military career On August 16 1791 within 24 hours of meeting Lee Harrison age 18 was commissioned as an ensign in the Army and assigned to the First American Regiment 12 He was initially assigned to Fort Washington Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War 13 Biographer William W Freehling says that young Harrison in his first military act rounded up about eighty thrill seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia s streets talked them into signing enlistment papers and marched them to Fort Washington 5 Harrison was promoted to lieutenant after Major General Mad Anthony Wayne took command of the western army in 1792 following a disastrous defeat under Arthur St Clair 12 In 1793 he became Wayne s aide de camp and acquired the skills to command an army on the frontier 6 he participated in Wayne s decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20 1794 which ended the Northwest Indian War 14 He received the following commendation from Wayne for his role in the battle I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide de camp Lieutenant Harrison who rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory 5 Harrison was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville 1795 as witness to Wayne the principal negotiator for the U S 12 Under the terms of the treaty a coalition of Indians ceded a portion of their lands to the federal government opening two thirds of Ohio to settlement 15 16 At his mother s death in 1793 Harrison inherited a portion of his family s Virginia estate including approximately 3 000 acres 12 km2 of land and several slaves He was serving in the Army at the time and sold the land to his brother 17 Harrison was promoted to captain in May 1797 and resigned from the Army on June 1 1798 18 Marriage and family Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend Ohio in 1795 when he was 22 She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes who served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War and as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation 19 Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna but was refused so the couple waited until Symmes left on business They then eloped and were married on November 25 1795 at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood treasurer of the Northwest Territory 20 They honeymooned at Fort Washington since Harrison was still on military duty 21 Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family Harrison responded by my sword and my own right arm sir 22 The match was advantageous for Harrison as he eventually exploited his father in law s connections with land speculators which facilitated his departure from the army 5 Judge Symmes doubts about him persisted as he wrote to a friend He can neither bleed plead nor preach and if he could plow I should be satisfied 5 Matters eventually became cordial with the father in law who later sold the Harrisons 160 acres 65 ha of land in North Bend which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm 21 Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage primarily because of her many pregnancies yet she outlived William by 23 years dying on February 25 1864 at 88 7 23 The Harrisons had ten children Elizabeth Bassett 1796 1846 John Cleves Symmes 1798 1830 who married the only surviving daughter of Zebulon Pike Lucy Singleton 1800 1826 William Henry Jr 1802 1838 John Scott 1804 1878 father of future U S president Benjamin Harrison 24 Benjamin 1806 1840 Mary Symmes 1809 1842 Carter Bassett 1811 1839 Anna Tuthill 1813 1865 James Findlay 1814 1817 25 Professor Kenneth R Janken in his biography of Walter Francis White claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African American woman named Dilsia and gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal The assertion is based on the White family s oral history 26 27 In her 2012 biography of Harrison author Gail Collins describes this as an unlikely story although White believed it to be true 28 Political careerHarrison began his political career when he temporarily resigned from the military on June 1 1798 and campaigned among his friends and family for a post in the Northwest Territorial government 12 His close friend Timothy Pickering was serving as Secretary of State and along with Judge Symmes influence he was recommended to replace Winthrop Sargent the outgoing territorial secretary 5 President John Adams appointed Harrison to the position in July 1798 12 The work of recording the activities of the territory was tedious and he soon became bored and sought a position in the U S Congress 29 U S Congress nbsp An engraved portrait print of Harrison at age 27 as a delegate member of the U S House of Representatives from the Northwest Territory by Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint Memin c 1800 30 31 Harrison had many friends in the eastern aristocracy and quickly gained a reputation among them as a frontier leader He ran a successful horse breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory 12 Congress had legislated a territorial policy that led to high land costs a primary concern for settlers in the Territory Harrison became their champion to lower those prices The Northwest Territory s population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799 and Harrison ran for election 32 He campaigned to encourage further migration to the territory which eventually led to statehood 33 Harrison defeated Arthur St Clair Jr by one vote to become the Northwest Territory s first congressional delegate in 1798 at age 26 and served in the Sixth United States Congress from March 4 1799 to May 14 1800 34 35 He had no authority to vote on legislative bills but he was permitted to serve on a committee to submit legislation and to engage in debate 36 He became chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and promoted the Land Act of 1800 which made it easier to buy Northwest Territory land in smaller tracts at a lower cost 32 Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent and this became an important factor in the Territory s rapid population growth 37 Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections 32 The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and included present day Ohio and eastern Michigan the western section was named the Indiana Territory and included present day Indiana Illinois Wisconsin a portion of western Michigan and an eastern portion of Minnesota The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800 38 On May 13 1800 President John Adams appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances 39 He served in this capacity for twelve years 40 His governorship was confirmed by the Senate and he resigned from Congress to become the first Indiana territorial governor in 1801 32 41 Indiana territorial governor See also History of slavery in Indiana and Indiana Territory Harrison began his duties on January 10 1801 at Vincennes the capital of the Indiana Territory 42 Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were members of the Democratic Republican Party and they reappointed him as governor in 1803 1806 and 1809 32 In 1804 Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the District of Louisiana He conducted the district s affairs for five weeks until the Louisiana Territory was formally established on July 4 1805 and Brigadier General James Wilkinson assumed the duties of governor 43 In 1805 Harrison built a plantation style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland in tribute to the birds on the property 19 The 26 room home was one of the first brick structures in the territory 44 and it served as a center of social and political life in the territory during his tenure as governor 45 Harrison founded a university at Vincennes in 1801 which was incorporated as Vincennes University on November 29 1806 46 The territorial capital was eventually moved to Corydon in 1813 and Harrison built a second home at nearby Harrison Valley 47 Harrison s primary responsibility was to obtain title to Indian lands that would allow future settlement and increase the territory s population a requirement for statehood He was also eager to expand the territory for personal reasons as his political fortunes were tied to Indiana s eventual statehood 5 While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf and acquiring two milling operations he was credited as a good administrator with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure 5 When Harrison was reappointed as the Indiana territorial governor on February 8 1803 he was given expanded authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians 32 The 1804 Treaty of St Louis with Quashquame required the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands especially their leader Black Hawk 48 Harrison thought that the Treaty of Grouseland 1805 appeased some of the Indians but tensions remained high along the frontier 49 The Treaty of Fort Wayne 1809 raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than 2 5 million acres 10 000 km2 from the Potawatomi Delaware Miami and Eel River tribes Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty 50 Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison 5 He pursued the treaty process aggressively offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders so as to gain political favor with Jefferson before his departure 51 Biographer Freehling asserts that the Indians perceived the ownership of land was as common to all just as the air that is breathed In 1805 Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51 000 000 acres from the Indians after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol for no more than a dollar per 20 000 acres 19 54 in 2022 and comprising two thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri 5 In addition to resulting tensions with the Indians Harrison s pro slavery position made him unpopular with the Indiana Territory s abolitionists as he tried in vain to encourage slavery in the territory In 1803 he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory 52 Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood the proposal failed 53 Lacking the suspension of Article VI in 1807 the territorial legislature with Harrison s support enacted laws that authorized indentured servitude and gave masters authority to determine the length of service 54 President Jefferson primary author of the Northwest Ordinance made a secret compact with James Lemen to defeat the nascent pro slavery movement supported by Harrison 55 He donated 100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works and later in 1808 another 20 366 00 in 2022 to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church 55 In Indiana the planting of the anti slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison s efforts to legalize slavery in the territory 55 The Indiana Territory held elections to the legislature s upper and lower houses for the first time in 1809 Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti slavery population 43 The Territory s general assembly convened in 1810 and its anti slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted 56 After 1809 the Indiana legislature assumed more authority and the territory advanced toward statehood Army generalTecumseh and Tippecanoe Main articles Tecumseh s War and Battle of Tippecanoe Indian resistance to American expansion came to a head with the leadership of Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa The Prophet in a conflict that became known as Tecumseh s War 57 Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes that they would be protected by the Great Spirit and that no harm could befall them if they rose up against the settlers He encouraged resistance by telling the tribes to pay white traders only half of what they owed and to give up all the white man s ways including their clothing muskets and especially whiskey 57 Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes and asked Madison to fund military preparations Madison dragged his feet and Harrison attempted to negotiate sending a letter to Tecumseh saying Our Blue Coats U S Army soldiers are more numerous than you can count and our hunting shirts volunteer militiamen are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash 5 nbsp 1915 depiction of Tecumseh believed to be copying an 1808 sketchIn August 1810 Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes They were dressed in war paint and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes 58 The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland where they met Harrison Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes He asked Harrison to nullify it and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty 5 Tecumseh informed Harrison that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty if they carried out its terms and that his confederation of tribes was growing rapidly 59 Harrison said that the individual tribes were the owners of the land and could sell it as they wished He rejected Tecumseh s claim that all the Indians formed one nation and said that each tribe could have separate relations with the United States if they chose to do so Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation 59 Tecumseh launched an impassioned rebuttal in the words of one historian but Harrison was unable to understand his language 59 Tecumseh then began shouting at Harrison and called him a liar 5 A Shawnee friendly to Harrison cocked his pistol from the sidelines to alert Harrison that Tecumseh s speech was leading to trouble and some witnesses reported that Tecumseh was encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison Many of them began to pull their weapons representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town which held a population of only 1 000 Harrison drew his sword and Tecumseh s warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense 59 Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison and he countered Tecumseh s arguments telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace Before leaving Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified 60 After the meeting Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States 61 Harrison was concerned that Tecumseh s actions would endanger the statehood of Indiana as well as his political future leaving it the haunt of a few wretched savages 5 Tecumseh was traveling in 1811 leaving Tenskwatawa in charge of Indian forces Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh s absence and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation 62 Despite being 13 years removed from military action Harrison convinced Madison and Eustis to allow him to assume command 5 He led an army north with 950 men to intimidate the Shawnee into making peace but the tribes launched a surprise attack early on November 7 in the Battle of Tippecanoe 63 Harrison countered and defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers the battle became famous and he was hailed as a national hero Although his troops had suffered 62 dead and 126 wounded during the battle and the Shawnee just 150 casualties the Shawnee prophet s vision of spiritual protection had been shattered Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed 64 65 When reporting to Secretary Eustis Harrison had informed him of the battle near the Tippecanoe River and that he had anticipated an attack A first dispatch had not been clear which side had won the conflict and the secretary interpreted it as a defeat until the follow up dispatch clarified the situation 66 When no second attack came the Shawnee defeat had become more certain Eustis demanded to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against the initial attack and Harrison said that he had considered the position strong enough The dispute was the catalyst of a disagreement between Harrison and the Department of War which continued into the War of 1812 67 Freehling says that Harrison s rusty skills resulted in his troops setting campfires the night before the battle exposing their position to a surprise attack and casualties 5 The press did not cover the battle at first until one Ohio paper misinterpreted Harrison s first dispatch to mean that he was defeated 68 By December however most major American papers carried stories on the battle victory and public outrage grew over the Shawnee 69 Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms and Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs Congress declared war on June 18 1812 and Harrison left Vincennes to seek a military appointment 70 War of 1812 nbsp This portrait of Harrison originally showed him in civilian clothes as a congressional delegate in 1800 the uniform was added after service in the War of 1812 The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians in the Northwest Harrison briefly served as a major general in the Kentucky militia until the government commissioned him on September 17 to command the Army of the Northwest 70 He received federal military pay for his service and he also collected a territorial governor s salary from September until December 28 when he formally resigned as governor and continued his military service Authors Gugin and St Clair claim the resignation was forced upon him 70 Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory 70 The Americans suffered a defeat in the siege of Detroit General James Winchester offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general but Harrison wanted sole command of the army President James Madison removed Winchester from command in September and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits 70 He received orders to retake Detroit and boost morale but he initially held back unwilling to press the war northward 5 The British and their Indian allies greatly outnumbered Harrison s troops so Harrison constructed a defensive position during the winter along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio He named it Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio governor Return J Meigs Jr He then received reinforcements in 1813 took the offensive and led the army north to battle He won victories in the Indiana Territory as well as Ohio and recaptured Detroit before invading Upper Canada Ontario His army defeated the British and Tecumseh was killed on October 5 1813 at the Battle of the Thames It was considered to be one of the great American victories in the war second only to the Battle of New Orleans and secured a national reputation for Harrison 71 5 In 1814 Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army assigning Harrison to an outlying post and giving control of the front to one of Harrison s subordinates 72 Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the lack of coordination and effectiveness in the invasion of Canada and Harrison resigned from the army in May 73 74 After the war ended Congress investigated Harrison s resignation and determined that Armstrong had mistreated him during his military campaign and that his resignation was justified Congress awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the war 75 Harrison and Michigan Territory s Governor Lewis Cass were responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with the Indians 76 President Madison appointed Harrison in June 1815 to help in negotiating a second treaty with the Indians that became known as the Treaty of Springwells in which the tribes ceded a large tract of land in the west providing additional land for American purchase and settlement 35 Postwar lifeOhio politician and diplomat nbsp Poster lauding Harrison s accomplishmentsHarrison resigned from the army in 1814 shortly before the conclusion of the War of 1812 and returned to his family and farm in North Bend Ohio 5 Freehling claims that his expenses then well exceeded his means and he fell into debt that Harrison chose celebrity over duty as he sought the adulation found at parties in New York Washington and Philadelphia and that he became an office seeker 5 He was elected in 1816 to complete John McLean s term in the House of Representatives representing Ohio s 1st congressional district until 1819 He attempted to secure the post as Secretary of War under President Monroe in 1817 but lost out to John C Calhoun He was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia 5 He was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1819 and served until 1821 having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820 35 He ran in the 1822 election for the United States House of Representatives but lost to James W Gazlay 5 77 He was elected to the U S Senate in 1824 and was an Ohio presidential elector in 1820 for James Monroe 78 and for Henry Clay in 1824 79 Harrison was appointed in 1828 as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia so he resigned from Congress and served in his new post until March 8 1829 80 He arrived in Bogota on December 22 1828 and found the condition of Colombia saddening He reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy and that Simon Bolivar was about to become a military dictator 80 He wrote a letter of polite rebuke to Bolivar stating that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free and calling on Bolivar to encourage the development of democracy In response Bolivar wrote that the United States seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America 80 Freehling indicates Harrison s missteps in Colombia were bad and frequent that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Colombian affairs by publicly opposing Bolivar and that Colombia sought his removal Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829 and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position 5 Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Colombia a military despotism and that his liberal opinions his stern republican integrity and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister which rendered his situation extremely irksome 81 A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr Harrison after leaving his post but while still in the country wrote his roughly ten page letter to Bolivar which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies It left the former struck by Harrison s deeply imbued principles of liberty Burr describes the letter as replete with wisdom goodness and patriotism and the purest of principles 81 82 Private citizen Harrison returned to the United States and his North Bend farm living in relative privacy after nearly four decades of government service He had accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime and he lived on his savings a small pension and the income produced by his farm Burr references M Chavalier who encountered Harrison in Cincinnati at this time and described Harrison as poor with a numerous family abandoned by the Federal government yet vigorous with independent thinking 83 In May 1817 Harrison served as one of the founding vestry members of the Episcopal congregation Christ Church in downtown Cincinnati now Christ Church Cathedral 84 Harrison went on to serve as a vestry member through 1819 and then again in 1824 84 Local supporters had come to Harrison s relief by appointing him Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County where he worked from 1836 until 1840 85 Chevalier remarked His friends back east talk of making him President while here we make him clerk of an inferior court 83 He also cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey but closed it after he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers In an address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831 he said that he had sinned in making whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors 86 About this time he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison and the two became friends Harrison wrote at the time we might look forward to a day when a North American sun would not look down upon a slave 87 DeBaptiste became his valet and later White House steward 88 Burr closes his account of Harrison by describing an event denied by some of his friends a reception given the general at Philadelphia in 1836 According to Burr Thousands and tens of thousands crowded Chesnut street wharf upon his arrival and greeted him with continual cheering as he landed He stepped into the barouche but the crowd pressed forward so impetuously that the horses became frightened and reared frequently A rush was made to unharness the animals when the General spoke to several of them and endeavored to prevent it but the team was soon unmanageable and it became necessary to take them off A rope was brought and attached to the carriage by which the people drew it to the Marshall House This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts Pennsylvanians fought under the hero and they loved him We speak particularly on this point because we were eyewitnesses of all that passed 89 1836 presidential campaign Main article 1836 United States presidential election Harrison was the western Whig candidate for president in 1836 one of four regional Whig party candidates The others were Daniel Webster Hugh L White and Willie P Mangum More than one Whig candidate emerged in an effort to defeat the incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren who was the popular Jackson chosen Democrat 90 The Democrats charged that by running several candidates the Whigs sought to prevent a Van Buren victory in the electoral college and force the election into the House 91 In any case the plan if there was one failed In the end Harrison came in second and carried nine of the twenty six states in the Union 90 91 92 Harrison ran in all the non slave states except Massachusetts and in the slave states of Delaware Maryland and Kentucky White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts and Mangum in South Carolina 93 Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes 91 A swing of just over 4 000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state s 30 electoral votes to Harrison and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives 94 91 92 1840 presidential campaign Main article William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign nbsp 1840 Electoral Vote MapHarrison faced incumbent Van Buren as the sole Whig candidate in the 1840 election The Whigs saw in Harrison a born southerner and war hero who would contrast well with the aloof uncaring and aristocratic Van Buren 90 He was chosen over more controversial members of the party such as Clay and Webster his campaign highlighted his military record and focused on the weak U S economy caused by the Panic of 1837 95 The Whigs blamed Van Buren for the economic problems and nicknamed him Van Ruin 95 The Democrats in turn ridiculed the elder Harrison by calling him Granny Harrison the petticoat general because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended They noted for the voters what Harrison s name would be when spelled backwards No Sirrah They cast him 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 when Harrison and running mate John Tyler adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols Their campaign used the symbols on banners and posters and created bottles of hard cider shaped like log cabins all to connect the candidates to the common man 96 Freehling relates that One bitter pro Van Buren paper lamented after his defeat We have been sung down lied down and drunk down In one sentence this described the new American political process 97 Harrison came from a wealthy slaveholding Virginia family yet his campaign promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style popularized by Andrew Jackson while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy elitist 96 A memorable example was the Gold Spoon Oration that Pennsylvania s Whig representative Charles Ogle delivered in the House ridiculing Van Buren s elegant White House lifestyle and lavish spending 98 The Whigs invented a chant in which people would spit tobacco juice as they chanted wirt wirt and this also exhibited the difference between candidates from the time of the election 90 Old Tip he wore a homespun coat he had no ruffled shirt wirt wirt But Matt he has the golden plate and he s a little squirt wirt wirt The Whigs boasted of Harrison s military record and his reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe The campaign slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler Too became one of the most famous in American politics 99 While Van Buren campaigned from the White House Harrison was on the campaign trail entertaining with his impressions of Indian war whoops and took people s minds off the nation s economic troubles In June 1840 a Harrison rally at the site of the Tippecanoe battle drew 60 000 people 90 The Village of North Bend Ohio as well as the alumni of Ohio State University claim that the state s use of the nickname Buckeyes began with Harrison s campaign message 100 101 Voter turnout shot to a spectacular 80 20 points higher than the previous election 97 Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College 234 electoral votes to Van Buren s 60 The popular vote margin was much closer at fewer than 150 000 votes though he carried nineteen of the twenty six states 99 102 Presidency 1841 Inauguration nbsp Painting by Albert Gallatin Hoit 1840When Harrison came to Washington he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe and that he was a better educated and more thoughtful man than the backwoods caricature portrayed in the campaign He took the oath of office on Thursday March 4 1841 a cold and wet day 103 He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat rode on horseback to the grand ceremony and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history 103 at 8 445 words It took him nearly two hours to read although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Webster had edited it for length 104 Freehling opines that speeches like this were actually common at the time and that its irony was rich as Harrison a lifelong office seeker elected by deeply partisan politics criticized both 105 The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda a repudiation of Jackson s and Van Buren s policies and the first and only formal articulation by Harrison of his approach to the presidency 105 The address began with Harrison s sincere regard for the trust being placed in him However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country 106 Harrison promised to re establish the Bank of the United States and extend its capacity for credit by issuing paper currency in Henry Clay s American system 103 He intended to rely on the judgment of Congress in legislative matters using his veto power only if an act were unconstitutional and to reverse Jackson s spoils system of executive patronage 105 He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff not to enhance his own standing in government and under no circumstance would he run for a second term He condemned the financial excesses of the prior administration and pledged not to interfere with congressional financial policy All in all Harrison committed to a weak presidency deferring to the First Branch the Congress in keeping with Whig principles 105 104 He addressed the nation s already hotly debated issue of slavery As a slaveholder himself he agreed with the right of states to control the matter The lines too separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one state from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding The attempt of those of one state to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy the certain harbingers of disunion violence and civil war and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions 106 As he was about to conclude his remarks Harrison incorporated his reliance upon the country s freedom of religion while taking pains to present himself as part of the religious mainstream rather than a dissenter or member of a minority faith I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals religious liberty and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time 106 Harrison s lengthy speech offered vague clues about what his presidency would offer to the people of the United States He declared he would only serve for one term in office and not abuse his veto power Harrison was against devising financial schemes for the nation rather he left that wholly to Congress He was against agitating the Southern United States on the slavery question He did not discuss the tariff and distribution He said little of the national bank except he mentioned he was open to paper money rather than metallic currency Harrison s concept of the presidency was very limited This followed closely with Harrison s Whig political ideology 107 Following the speech he rode through the streets in the inaugural parade 103 stood in a three hour receiving line at the White House and attended three inaugural balls that evening 108 including one at Carusi s Saloon entitled the Tippecanoe ball with 1 000 guests who had paid 10 per person equal to 312 in 2021 109 The press of patronage Clay was a leader of the Whigs and a powerful legislator as well as a frustrated presidential candidate in his own right and he expected to have substantial influence in the Harrison administration He ignored his own platform plank of overturning the spoils system and attempted to influence Harrison s actions before and during his brief presidency especially in putting forth his own preferences for Cabinet offices and other presidential appointments Harrison rebuffed his aggression saying Mr Clay you forget that I am the President 110 The dispute escalated when Harrison named as Secretary of State Daniel Webster Clay s arch rival for control of the Whig Party Harrison also appeared to give Webster s supporters some highly coveted patronage positions His sole concession to Clay was to name his protege John J Crittenden to the post of Attorney General Despite this the contretemps continued until the president s death 111 The Harrison cabinetOfficeNameTermPresidentWilliam Henry Harrison1841Vice PresidentJohn Tyler1841Secretary of StateDaniel Webster1841Secretary of the TreasuryThomas Ewing1841Secretary of WarJohn Bell1841Attorney GeneralJohn J Crittenden1841Postmaster GeneralFrancis Granger1841Secretary of the NavyGeorge Edmund Badger1841Clay was not the only one who hoped to benefit from Harrison s election Hordes of office applicants came to the White House which was then open to any who wanted a meeting with the president Most of Harrison s business during his month long presidency involved extensive social obligations and receiving visitors at the White House He was advised to have an administration in place before the inauguration but declined wanting to focus on the festivities As such job seekers awaited him at all hours and filled the Executive Mansion with no process for organizing and vetting them 103 Harrison wrote in a letter dated March 10 I am so much harassed by the multitude that calls upon me that I can give no proper attention to any business of my own 112 U S Marshal of the District of Columbia Alexander Hunter recalled an incident in which Harrison was besieged by office seekers who were preventing him from getting to a cabinet meeting when his pleas for their consideration were ignored Harrison finally accepted their petitions which filled his arms and pockets 113 Another anecdote of the time recounted that the halls were so full one afternoon that in order to get from one room to the next Harrison had to be helped out a window walked the length of the White House exterior and then helped in through another window 113 Harrison took seriously his pledge to reform executive appointments visiting each of the six cabinet departments to observe its operations and issuing through Webster an order that electioneering by employees would be considered grounds for dismissal 103 He resisted pressure from other Whigs over partisan patronage A group arrived in his office on March 16 to demand the removal of all Democrats from any appointed office and Harrison proclaimed So help me God I will resign my office before I can be guilty of such an iniquity 114 His own cabinet attempted to countermand his appointment of John Chambers as Governor of the Iowa Territory in favor of Webster s friend James Wilson Webster attempted to press this decision at a March 25 cabinet meeting and Harrison asked him to read aloud a handwritten note which said simply William Henry Harrison President of the United States Harrison then stood and declared William Henry Harrison President of the United States tells you gentlemen that by God John Chambers shall be governor of Iowa 115 Harrison s only other official decision of consequence was whether to call Congress into a special session He and Clay had disagreed over the necessity of such a session and Harrison s cabinet proved evenly divided so the president initially vetoed the idea Clay pressed him on the special session on March 13 but Harrison rebuffed him and told him not to visit the White House again to address him only in writing 116 A few days later however Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing reported to Harrison that federal funds were in such trouble that the government could not continue to operate until Congress regularly scheduled session in December Harrison thus relented and proclaimed the special session on March 17 in the interests of the condition of the revenue and finance of the country The session would have begun on May 31 as scheduled if Harrison had lived 117 118 Death and funeral nbsp An illustration depicting the death of Harrison April 4 1841Harrison had been physically worn down by many persistent office seekers and a demanding social schedule 107 On Wednesday March 24 1841 Harrison took his daily morning walk to local markets without a coat or hat Despite being caught in a sudden rainstorm he did not change his wet clothes upon return to the White House 119 On Friday March 26 Harrison became ill with cold like symptoms and sent for his doctor Thomas Miller though he told the doctor he felt better after having taken medication for fatigue and mental anxiety 119 The next day Saturday the doctor was called again and arrived to find Harrison in bed with a severe chill after taking another early morning walk Miller applied mustard plaster to his stomach and gave him a mild laxative and he felt better that afternoon 119 At 4 00 a m Sunday March 28 Harrison developed severe pain in the side and the doctor initiated bloodletting the procedure was terminated when there was a drop in his pulse rate Miller also applied heated cups to the president s skin to enhance blood flow 119 The doctor then gave him castor oil and medicines to induce vomiting and diagnosed him with pneumonia in the right lung 119 A team of doctors was called in Monday March 29 and they confirmed right lower lobe pneumonia 120 Harrison was then administered laudanum opium and camphor along with wine and brandy 121 No official announcements were made concerning Harrison s illness which fueled public speculation and concern the longer he remained out of public view 120 Washington society had noticed his uncharacteristic absence from church on Sunday 113 Conflicting and unconfirmed newspaper reports were based on leaks by people with contacts in the White House 119 A Washington paper reported on Thursday April 1 that Harrison s health was decidedly better In fact Harrison s condition had seriously weakened and Cabinet members and family were summoned to the White House his wife Anna had remained in Ohio due to her own illness 119 According to papers in Washington on Friday Harrison had rallied despite a Baltimore Sun report that his condition was of a more dangerous character 119 A reporter for the New York Commercial indicated that the country s people were deeply distressed and many of them in tears 119 In the evening of Saturday April 3 Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious and at 8 30 p m he uttered his last words to his attending doctor assumed to be for Vice President John Tyler 119 Sir I wish you to understand the true principles of the government I wish them carried out I ask nothing more 122 Harrison died at 12 30 a m on April 4 1841 Palm Sunday nine days after becoming ill and exactly one month after taking the oath of office 119 he was the first president to die in office 120 Harrison s wife Anna was still in Ohio packing for the trip to Washington when she learned of her loss 123 Anna never moved into the White House Harrison s daughter in law Jane Irwin Harrison widow of Harrison s son had served as hostess of the White House in Anna s place while Harrison was president 124 The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier 125 Jane McHugh and Philip A Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases 2014 examining Miller s notes and records showing that the White House water supply was downstream of public sewage and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to enteric fever typhoid or paratyphoid fever 126 127 A 30 day period of mourning commenced following the president s death The White House hosted various public ceremonies modeled after European royal funeral practices An invitation only funeral service was also held on April 7 in the East Room of the White House after which Harrison s coffin was brought to Congressional Cemetery in Washington D C where it was placed in the Public Vault 128 Solomon Northup gave an account of the procession in Twelve Years a Slave The next day there was a great pageant in Washington The roar of cannon and the tolling of bells filled the air while many houses were shrouded with crape and the streets were black with people As the day advanced the procession made its appearance coming slowly through the Avenue carriage after carriage in long succession while thousands upon thousands followed on foot all moving to the sound of melancholy music They were bearing the dead body of Harrison to the grave I remember distinctly how the window glass would break and rattle to the ground after each report of the cannon they were firing in the burial ground 129 That June Harrison s body was transported by train and river barge to North Bend Ohio and he was buried on July 7 at the summit of Mt Nebo which is now the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial 130 Tyler s accession to office On April 5 Fletcher Webster the son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster notified Tyler that Harrison had died in office Tyler had been visiting family in Williamsburg Tyler arrived in Washington on the morning of April 6 131 That same day Tyler was sworn into office in front of Harrison s cabinet officially beginning his presidency On April 9 Tyler gave a brief inaugural address In his address to the nation Tyler did not give any personal consolation to Harrison s widow Anna or family members Tyler did compliment Harrison by saying Harrison had been elected for a great work of purging the federal government of corruption 132 a Tyler and his family moved into the White House one week after Harrison s funeral before Harrison s 30 day time of mourning was over The White House state rooms were still hung with black mourning crapes 131 133 124 Impact of Harrison s death nbsp The William Henry Harrison Memorial in North Bend OhioHarrison s death called attention to an ambiguity in Article II Section 1 Clause 6 of the Constitution regarding succession to the presidency The Constitution clearly provided for the vice president to take over the Powers and Duties of the said Office in the event of a president s removal death resignation or inability but it was unclear whether the vice president formally became president of the United States or simply temporarily assumed the powers and duties of that office in a case of succession 134 Harrison s cabinet insisted that Tyler was Vice President acting as President Tyler was resolute in his claim to the title of President and in his determination to exercise the full powers of the presidency 135 The cabinet consulted with Chief Justice Roger Taney and decided that if Tyler took the presidential oath of office he would assume the office of president Tyler obliged and was sworn into office on April 6 1841 Congress convened and on May 31 1841 after a short period of debate in both houses passed a joint resolution which confirmed Tyler as president for the remainder of Harrison s term 136 The precedent that Congress set in 1841 was followed on seven occasions when an incumbent president died and it was written into the Constitution in 1967 through Section One of the Twenty fifth Amendment 137 LegacyHistorical reputation nbsp Harrison on left at Tippecanoe County Courthouse Lafayette IndianaAmong Harrison s most enduring legacies is the series of treaties that he negotiated and signed with Indian leaders during his tenure as the Indiana territorial governor 7 As part of the treaty negotiations the tribes ceded large tracts of land in the west which provided additional acreage for purchase and settlement by the nation 35 138 Harrison s long term impact on American politics includes his campaigning methods which laid the foundation for modern presidential campaign tactics 139 Harrison died nearly penniless and Congress voted his wife Anna a presidential widow s pension of 25 000 140 one year of Harrison s salary equivalent to about 709 000 in 2022 141 She also received the right to mail letters free of charge 142 Freehling refers to Harrison as the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today 143 Harrison age 68 at the time of his inauguration was the oldest person to assume the U S presidency a distinction he held until 1981 when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at age 69 144 Harrison s son John Scott Harrison represented Ohio in the House of Representatives between 1853 and 1857 145 Harrison s grandson Benjamin Harrison of Indiana served as the 23rd president from 1889 to 1893 making William and Benjamin Harrison the only grandparent grandchild pair of presidents 146 Honors and tributes Main article List of memorials to William Henry HarrisonSeveral monuments and memorial statues have been erected in tribute to Harrison There are public statues of him in downtown Indianapolis 147 Cincinnati s Piatt Park 148 the Tippecanoe County Courthouse 149 Harrison County Indiana 150 and Owen County Indiana 151 Numerous counties and towns also bear his name The Village of North Bend Ohio honors Harrison every year with a parade to celebrate his birthday 152 The Gen William Henry Harrison Headquarters in Franklinton Ohio commemorates Harrison The house was his military headquarters from 1813 to 1814 153 On February 19 2009 the U S Mint released the ninth coin in the Presidential 1 Coin Program bearing Harrison s likeness 154 155 nbsp Equestrian statue of Harrison in Cincinnati by Louis Rebisso nbsp 2009 presidential dollar coin nbsp 1950 postal issue of Harrison commemorating Indiana s statehoodNotes Full Text FELLOW CITIZENS Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several Departments of the deeply regretted death of William Henry Harrison late President of the United States Upon him you had conferred your suffrages for the first office in your gift and had selected him as your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such errors and abuses as had manifested themselves from time to time in the practical operation of the Government While standing at the threshold of this great work he has by the dispensation of an all wise Providence been removed from amongst us and by the provisions of the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vitally important task have devolved upon myself John Tyler April 9 1841 132 See alsoCurse of Tippecanoe List of presidents of the United States List of presidents of the United States by previous experience List of presidents of the United States who died in office Presidents of the United States on U S postage stamps Second Party SystemReferencesCitations Dowdey 1957 pp 291 315 William Henry Harrison Touring Ohio Heart of America Retrieved November 18 2021 a b c d Smith Howard Riley Edward M eds 1978 Benjamin Harrison and the American Revolution Virginia in the Revolution Williamsburg VA Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission pp 59 65 OCLC 4781472 Carter Bassett Harrison Biographical Directory of the United States Congress U S Congress Retrieved September 14 2016 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Freehling William October 4 2016 William Henry Harrison Life Before the Presidency Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved March 8 2019 a b W H Harrison biography Perrysburg Ohio Retrieved November 13 2021 a b c Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 18 Madison amp Sandweiss 2014 p 45 Owens 2007 p 14 a b c Rabin Alex January 25 2017 A Penn graduate in the Oval Office The Daily Pennsylvanian Retrieved April 3 2019 Langguth 2007 p 16 a b c d e f Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 19 Owens 2007 pp 14 16 22 Owens 2007 pp 23 26 Nelson Paul David 1985 Anthony Wayne Soldier of the Early Republic Bloomington IN Indiana University Press p 282 ISBN 0253307511 Owens 2007 pp 21 28 30 Owens 2007 p 39 Burr 1840 pp 67 69 a b Madison amp Sandweiss 2014 p 46 Owens 2007 pp 38 39 a b Owens 2007 p 40 Dole Bob 2001 Great Presidential Wit I Wish I was in this Book New York Scribner p 222 ISBN 978 0 7432 0392 0 Owens 2007 p 56 John Scott Harrison U S Congress Retrieved January 26 2022 William Henry Harrison Fast Facts Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia September 26 2016 Retrieved March 9 2019 Janken Kenneth Robert 2003 White The Biography of Walter White Mr NAACP New York The New York Press p 3 ISBN 978 1 5658 4773 6 Phillips Amber August 13 2015 Warren Harding and 5 other presidents who have faced love child questions Washington Post Collins 2012 p 103 Greene 2007 p 44 de Saint Memin Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret William Henry Harrison 9th Pres of United States Library of Congress Retrieved August 5 2016 Biographical Sketch William Henry Harrison National Park Service Retrieved August 5 2016 a b c d e f Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 20 Indiana Territory PDF The Indiana Historian Retrieved November 13 2021 William Henry Harrison Biography About The White House Presidents The White House Archived from the original on January 22 2009 Retrieved November 6 2021 a b c d William Henry Harrison 1773 1841 Biography United States Congress Retrieved February 4 2009 Owens 2007 pp 45 48 Langguth 2007 p 161 Owens 2007 pp 47 48 Owens 2007 pp 50 51 Indiana Territorial Governor Indiana Historical Bureau December 15 2020 Retrieved November 28 2021 Owens 2007 p 50 53 Owens 2007 p 53 a b Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 21 Grouseland National Register of Historic Places Retrieved November 13 2021 Grouseland Historic Vincennes Retrieved November 13 2021 History Vincennes University Vincennes University Archived from the original on August 16 2016 Retrieved November 8 2021 Griffin Frederick Porter 1972 National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form Corydon Historic District PDF Retrieved November 30 2021 Owens 2007 pp 87 89 Owens 2007 p 104 106 Treaty of Fort Wayne 1809 Smithsonian Magazine Retrieved November 13 2021 Landry Alysa September 13 2018 William Henry Harrison Shady Treaty Maker quoting Owens Indian Country Today Retrieved November 14 2021 Owens 2007 pp 68 69 Owens 2007 pp 69 72 Freedom s Early Ring Illinois Periodicals Online Retrieved December 1 2021 a b c Peck J M 1915 The Jefferson Lemen Compact Chicago Univ of Chicago Press Retrieved March 28 2010 A Brief History of Race and Politics in Indiana Capitol amp Washington February 25 2021 Retrieved December 1 2021 a b Langguth 2007 pp 158 160 Langguth 2007 p 164 a b c d Langguth 2007 p 165 Langguth 2007 p 166 Tecumseh Ohio History Central Retrieved November 21 2021 Langguth 2007 p 167 Langguth 2007 p 168 Langguth 2007 p 169 Pirtle Alfred 1900 The Battle of Tippecanoe Louisville John P Morton amp Co p 158 ISBN 978 0 7222 6509 3 Owens 2007 pp 219 220 Dillon John Brown 1859 A History of Indiana Bingham amp Doughty pp 466 471 ISBN 978 0 253 20305 2 Owens 2007 p 220 Owens 2007 pp 220 222 a b c d e Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 23 Langguth 2007 pp 257 70 Burr 1840 pp 232 244 Langguth 2007 pp 290 91 Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 24 Presidential Series William H Harrison National Guard Retrieved June 18 2020 Treaty with the Wyandots Delawares Shawnees Senecas and Miamis 1814 Ohio History Central Retrieved December 1 2021 A New Nation Votes Tufts Digital Collections and Archives January 11 2012 Retrieved March 5 2022 Taylor amp Taylor 1899 p 102 Taylor amp Taylor 1899 p 145 a b c Bolivar 1951 p 732 a b Hall 1836 p 301 Burr 1840 p 256 a b Burr 1840 p Appendix a b Morris J W 1969 Christ Church Cincinnati 1817 1967 Cincinnati Lithographing Ohio Press History of the Clerk of Courts Office Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Archived from the original on June 14 2007 Retrieved December 6 2011 Burr 1840 pp 257 258 Schweikart Larry Allen Michael 2004 A Patriot s History of the United States Norwalk Conn Easton Press p 233 ISBN 1 59523 001 7 Tobin Jacqueline L 2008 From Midnight to Dawn The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad Detroit Anchor pp 200 209 ISBN 978 1 4001 0354 6 Burr 1840 pp 264 265 a b c d e Freehling William October 4 2016 William Henry Harrison Campaigns and Elections Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved January 20 2022 a b c d U S Presidential Election of 1836 Britannica Retrieved January 20 2022 a b Shepperd Michael How Close Were The Presidential Elections Michigan State University Retrieved February 11 2009 Ershkowitz Herbert B 2020 American Presidential Campaigns and Elections New York Routledge ISBN 978 1 3154 9713 6 USA Election Polls Pennsylvania 1836 Pennsylvania Election Results Home Archived from the original on November 17 2008 Retrieved January 20 2022 a b Carnes amp Mieczkowski 2001 p 39 a b Carnes amp Mieczkowski 2001 pp 39 40 a b Freehling William October 4 2016 William Harrison The American Franchise Charlottesville Virginia University of Virginia Miller Center Retrieved January 22 2022 Bradley Elizabeth L 2009 Knickerbocker The Myth behind New York New Brunswick NJ Rivergate pp 70 71 ISBN 978 0 8135 4516 5 Retrieved November 9 2021 a b Carnes amp Mieczkowski 2001 p 41 Buckeyes Village of North Bend Tippecanoe and Buckeyes Too Ohio State Univ Alumni Assoc August 29 2016 Archived from the original on May 28 2022 Retrieved January 21 2022 Gugin amp St Clair 2006 p 25 a b c d e f American Treasures Harrison s Inauguration Library of Congress August 2007 Retrieved September 21 2009 a b William Henry Harrison Inaugural Address Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States Bartleby Retrieved February 11 2009 a b c d Freehling William October 4 2016 William Harrison Domestic Affairs Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved January 22 2022 a b c Freehling William October 4 2016 William Harrison March 4 1841 Inaugural Address Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved January 20 2022 a b McCormick 2002 p 140 Inaugural Ball Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies June 10 2013 Archived from the original on February 25 2016 Current Value of 10 from 1841 CPI Inflation Calculator Retrieved April 7 2019 The annexation of Texas Magazine of American History VIII 6 379 June 1882 Remini 1997 pp 511 515 Letter from Harrison to R Buchanan Esq March 10 1841 Shapell Manuscript Foundation Archived from the original on June 18 2012 Retrieved November 9 2021 a b c Whitcomb John amp Claire 2002 Real Life at the White House 200 Years of Daily Life at America s Most Famous Residence New York Routledge p 81 ISBN 978 0 415 93951 5 Woollen William Wesley 1975 Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana New York Ayer Publishing p 51 ISBN 978 0 405 06896 6 Remini 1997 pp 520 521 American History Series The Brief Presidency of William Henry Harrison Voice of America News Retrieved June 21 2009 Brinkley Alan Dyer Davis 2004 The American Presidency Boston Houghton Mifflin ISBN 978 0 618 38273 6 Retrieved June 21 2009 Pres W H Harrison Proclamation 45B Convening an Extra Session of the Congress American Presidency Project Retrieved November 9 2021 a b c d e f g h i j k Shafer Ronald G October 6 2020 In 1841 pneumonia killed the president Washington Post Retrieved December 13 2021 a b c Freehling William October 4 2016 William Henry Harrison Death of the President Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved March 9 2019 Collins 2012 p 123 William Henry Harrison Key Events Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia October 7 2016 Retrieved March 9 2019 Anna T S Harrison The White House Retrieved December 13 2021 a b The White House Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison Cleaves 1939 p 152 McHugh Jane Mackowiak Philip A March 31 2014 What Really Killed William Henry Harrison The New York Times Retrieved August 27 2014 McHugh Jane Mackowiak Philip A June 23 2014 Death in the White House President William Henry Harrison s Atypical Pneumonia Clinical Infectious Diseases Oxford Univ Press 59 7 990 995 doi 10 1093 cid ciu470 PMID 24962997 William Henry Harrison Funeral April 7 1841 Washington D C White House Historical Association Retrieved March 9 2019 Twelve Years a Slave Narrative of Solomon Northup Library UNC Chapel Hill 1997 Retrieved November 10 2021 William Henry Harrison Memorial Columbus Ohio Ohio History Connection Retrieved March 9 2019 a b Hopkins John Tyler and the Presidential Succession a b John Tyler April 9 1841 Upon Assuming the Office of President of the United States McCormick 2002 pp 141 142 Feerick John Essays on Article II Presidential Succession The Heritage Guide to the Constitution The Heritage Foundation Retrieved June 12 2018 A controversial President who established presidential succession Constitution Daily National Constitution Center March 29 2017 Retrieved March 11 2019 Rankin Robert S February 1946 Presidential Succession in the United States The Journal of Politics 8 1 44 56 doi 10 2307 2125607 JSTOR 2125607 S2CID 153441210 Abbott Philip December 2005 Accidental Presidents Death Assassination Resignation and Democratic Succession Presidential Studies Quarterly 35 4 627 645 doi 10 1111 j 1741 5705 2005 00269 x JSTOR 27552721 Madison amp Sandweiss 2014 p 47 Greene 2007 p 100 Damon Allan L June 1974 Presidential Expenses American Heritage 25 4 Archived from the original on January 7 2009 Retrieved February 10 2009 1634 1699 McCusker J J 1997 How Much Is That in Real Money A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States Addenda et Corrigenda PDF American Antiquarian Society 1700 1799 McCusker J J 1992 How Much Is That in Real Money A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States PDF American Antiquarian Society 1800 present Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Consumer Price Index estimate 1800 Retrieved May 28 2023 First Lady Biography Anna Harrison National First Ladies Library 2009 Archived from the original on October 9 2018 Retrieved February 11 2009 Freehling William October 4 2016 William Henry Harrison Impact and Legacy Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved March 9 2019 Freehling William October 4 2016 William Henry Harrison Life In Brief Charlottesville Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Retrieved March 8 2019 Harrison John Scott 1804 1878 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved June 18 2008 Calhoun 2005 pp 43 49 Greiff 2005 pp 12 164 The Harrison Monument Cincinnati The Monumental News 8 7 July 1896 Greiff 2005 p 243 Greiff 2005 p 131 Greiff 2005 p 206 William Henry Harrison Birthday Tribute Village of North Bend Ohio Retrieved November 10 2021 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form File Unit National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records Ohio 1964 2013 National Park Service Archived from the original on February 25 2021 Retrieved May 17 2020 The United States Mint Coins and Medals Program U S Mint Archived from the original on August 8 2016 Retrieved July 28 2016 Circulating Coins Production Figures U S Mint Retrieved July 28 2016 Bibliography Bolivar Simon 1951 Bierck Harold A Jr ed Selected Writings of Bolivar Vol II New York Colonial Press ISBN 978 1 60635 115 4 compiled by Lecuna Vicente translated by Bertrand Lewis Burr Samuel Jones 1840 The Life and Times of William Henry Harrison New York R W Pomeroy Retrieved September 14 2016 Calhoun Charles William 2005 Benjamin Harrison The 23rd President 1889 1893 The American Presidents Vol 23 New York Macmillan ISBN 978 0 8050 6952 5 Carnes Mark C Mieczkowski Yanek 2001 The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Campaigns Routledge Atlases of American History New York Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 92139 8 Retrieved November 10 2021 Cleaves Freeman 1939 Old Tippecanoe William Henry Harrison and His Time New York Charles Scribner s Sons ISBN 978 0 9457 0701 1 Collins Gail 2012 William Henry Harrison The 9th President 1841 New York Henry Holt and Co ISBN 978 0 8050 9118 2 Dowdey Clifford 1957 The Great Plantation New York Rinehart amp Co OCLC 679792228 Greene Meg 2007 William H Harrison Breckenridge CO Twenty First Century Books ISBN 978 0 8225 1511 1 Retrieved November 21 2021 for children Greiff Glory June 2005 Remembrance Faith and Fancy Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana Indianapolis Indiana Historical Society Press ISBN 978 0 87195 180 9 Gugin Linda C St Clair James E eds 2006 The Governors of Indiana Indianapolis Indiana Historical Society Press and the Indiana Historical Bureau ISBN 978 0 87195 196 0 Retrieved November 10 2021 Hall James 1836 A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison of Ohio Philadelphia Key amp Biddle LCCN 11019326 Retrieved November 16 2021 Hopkins Callie John Tyler and the Presidential Succession whitehousehistory org Retrieved August 16 2022 Langguth A J 2007 Union 1812 The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1 4165 3278 1 Retrieved November 20 2021 Madison James H Sandweiss Lee Ann 2014 Hoosiers and the American Story Indianapolis Indiana Historical Society Press ISBN 978 0 87195 363 6 McCormick Richard P 2002 William Henry Harrison and John Tyler In Graff Henry ed The Presidents A Reference History 7th ed Macmillan Library Reference USA pp 139 151 ISBN 978 0 684 80551 1 Owens Robert M 2007 Mr Jefferson s Hammer William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy Norman OK University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0 8061 3842 8 also see online book review Remini Robert V 1997 Daniel Webster The Man and His Time W W Norton amp Company ISBN 0 393 04552 8 Retrieved November 10 2021 Taylor William Alexander Taylor Aubrey Clarence 1899 Ohio statesmen and annals of progress from the year 1788 to the year 1900 Vol 1 Columbus Westbote Co LCCN 01011959 Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison whitehouse gov Retrieved August 16 2022 Tyler John April 9 1841 Address Upon Assuming the Office of President of the United States Retrieved August 8 2022 Further readingBarnhart John D Riker Dorothy L 1971 Indiana to 1816 the colonial period Indianapolis Indiana Historical Bureau OCLC 154955 Booraem Hendrik 2012 A Child of the Revolution William Henry Harrison and His World 1773 1798 Kent State University Press ISBN 978 1 6127 7643 9 Borneman Walter R 2005 1812 The War That Forged a Nation New York HarperCollins Harper Perennial ISBN 978 0 06 053113 3 Cheathem Mark R 2018 The Coming of Democracy Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson ISBN 9781421425986 Ellis Richard J 2020 Old Tip vs the Sly Fox The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation U of Kansas Press ISBN 978 0 7006 2945 9 Graff Henry F 2002 The Presidents A Reference History New York Charles Scribner s Sons OCLC 1036830795 Jortner Adam 2012 The Gods of Prophetstown The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 1997 6529 4 Peckham Howard Henry 2000 William Henry Harrison Young Tippecanoe Carmel IN Patria Press ISBN 978 1 8828 5903 0 Retrieved November 10 2021 Peterson Norma Lois 1989 The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler U of Kansas Press Pirtle Alfred 1900 The Battle of Tippecanoe Louisville John P Morton amp Co Library Reprints p 158 ISBN 978 0 7222 6509 3 as read to the Filson Club Shade William G 2013 Tippecanoe and Tyler Too William Henry Harrison and the rise of popular politics In Silbey Joel H ed A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837 1861 pp 155 72 Skaggs David Curtis 2014 William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812 Johns Hopkins Univ Press ISBN 978 1 4214 0546 9 External linksListen to this article 53 minutes source source nbsp This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 28 March 2019 2019 03 28 and does not reflect subsequent edits Audio help More spoken articles United States Congress William Henry Harrison id H000279 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress William Henry Harrison Papers Library of Congress William Henry Harrison Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol XI 9th ed 1880 p 495 William H Harrison at Ohio History Central Papers of William Henry Harrison 1800 1815 Collection Guide Indiana Historical Society Announcement of William Henry Harrison Impending Death Archived June 10 2014 at the Wayback Machine Essays on Harrison each member of his cabinet and First Lady William Henry Harrison Biography and Fact File Biography by Appleton s and Stanley L Klos Life Portrait of William Henry Harrison from C SPAN s American Presidents Life Portraits May 10 1999 In 1841 Anthony Philip Heinrich wrote The President s 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