Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901)/Biography

Benjamin Harrison (, –, ) was the twenty-third , serving one term from  to. He had previously served as a senator from. His administration is best known for a series of legislation including the and federal spending that reached one billion dollars. attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress" and defeated the in the, as well as defeating Harrison's bid for reelection in. He is to date the only president from.

Early life and Civil War
A grandson of President and great-grandson of, Benjamin was born on  , in ,  as the second of eight children of  (later a U.S.  from ) and Elizabeth Ramsey Irwin. He attended, , where he was a member of the fraternity (later in life, he joined ) and graduated in 1852. He studied law in, then moved to in 1854. He was admitted to the bar and became reporter of the decisions of the.

On, Harrison, 20, married , 21, in. The wedding was performed by her father, Rev. John W. Scott. The Harrisons had two children, Russell Benjamin Harrison ( -  ) and Mary "Mamie" Scott Harrison McKee (  -  ). On, they suffered the tragedy of a miscarriage.

Harrison served in the during the  and was appointed Colonel of the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment in August 1862. The unit performed reconnaissance duty and guarded railroads in and  until   in 1864. Harrison was as a, and commanded a  at , , , Lost Mountain, , ,  and. Harrison was later transferred to the and participated in the  and the  in Washington D.C. before mustering out in 1865.

Politics
While in the field in October 1864, he was elected reporter of the and served four years. He was an unsuccessful candidate for  in 1876, being defeated by. He was appointed a member of the, in 1879, and elected as a Republican to the , where he served from , , to ,. He was chairman of the  and  ( and es).

Policies
After beating for the Republican presidential nomination, Harrison was elected President of the United States in 1888 in notoriously fraudulent balloting in New York and Indiana (See ). In the, Harrison received nearly 100,000 fewer popular votes than incumbent President but carried the  233 to 168. Although Harrison had made no political bargains, his supporters had given innumerable pledges upon his behalf. When Boss of  heard that Harrison ascribed his narrow victory to Providence, Quay exclaimed that Harrison would never know "how close a number of men were compelled to approach...the penitentiary to make him President." He was inaugurated on, , and served through ,. Harrison was also known as the "centennial president" because his inauguration was the of.

For Harrison, reform was a no-win situation. Congress was split so far apart on the issue that agreeing to any measure for one side would alienate the other. The issue became a popular of the time and was immortalized in a cartoon captioned "What can I do when both parties insist on kicking?" (featured below)

Harrison was proud of the vigorous foreign policy which he helped shape. The first met in  in 1889, establishing an information center which later became the. At the end of his administration, Harrison submitted to the Senate a treaty to annex ; to his disappointment, President Cleveland later withdrew it.

The most perplexing domestic problem Harrison faced was the issue. The high tariff rates in effect had created a surplus of money in the Treasury. Low-tariff advocates argued that the surplus was hurting business. Republican leaders in Congress successfully met the challenge. Representative and Senator  framed a still higher tariff bill; some rates were intentionally prohibitive.

Harrison tried to make the tariff more acceptable by writing in reciprocity provisions. To cope with the Treasury surplus, the tariff was removed from imported raw ; sugar growers within the United States were given two cents per pound bounty on their production.

In an attempt to battle trusts and monopolies, Harrison signed into effect the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in order to protect trade and commerce. This was the first Federal act of its kind.

Long before the end of the Harrison Administration, the Treasury surplus had evaporated and prosperity seemed about to disappear. Congressional elections in 1890 went against the Republicans, and party leaders decided to abandon President Harrison, although he had cooperated with Congress on party legislation. Nevertheless, his party renominated him in 1892, but he was defeated by Cleveland. Just two weeks earlier, on, , Harrison's wife, Caroline died after a long battle with. Their daughter,, continued the duties of the.

Significant events

 * (1890)
 * (1890)
 * (1890)
 * (1890)
 * (1890)

Supreme Court appointments
Harrison appointed the following Justices to the :


 * - 1890
 * - 1891
 * - 1892
 * - 1893

States admitted to the Union


When North and South Dakota were admitted to the Union, Harrison covered the tops of the bills and shuffled them so that he could only see the bottom. Thus, it is impossible to tell which was signed first, and which was the 39th and the 40th.

Harrison also made a push to have Hawaii annexed by the United States, but the annextion was not completed until after Harrison's time in office.

Post-presidency
After he left office, Harrison returned to Indianapolis. He married a widow, on,  in. She was also his deceased wife's niece. His two adult children Russell, 41 years old at the time, and Mary "Mamie", 38, did not attend the wedding because they disagreed. Their mother had only died three and a half years earlier. Benjamin and Mary had one child, Elizabeth (, -, ), who later married James Blaine Walker, a grandnephew of. Their daughter, Jane Harrison Walker, later married Newell Garfield, the great-grandson of President and his wife  and the grandson of. Harrison went to the at. He served as an attorney for the Republic of in the boundary dispute between Venezuela and the  in 1900. He also wrote a book entitled This Country of Ours about the federal government and the presidency.

Harrison developed the flu and a bad cold in February 1901. Despite treatment by steam vapor inhalation, Harrison's condition only worsened. Benjamin Harrison eventually died from and  on Wednesday,,  and is interred in. Incidentially, also holds the remains of three United States Vice-Presidents:, , and.

Legacy

 * The Benjamin Harrison Law School in Indianapolis was named in his honor. In 1944, acquired the school and renamed it .[[Image:BenjaminHarrisonUSpostageStamp12cents.jpg|thumb|right|Benjamin Harrison stamp]]
 * At Miami University, Harrison Hall houses the political science department and the Harrison Scholarship is school's most prestigious academic award.
 * In 1942, a United States named the  was launched.  She was torpedoed and scuttled in 1943.
 * A post,, was established after Harrison's death in Indianapolis, but it was closed in the 1990s.
 * Harrison Hall, a co-educational dormitory at, is named after President Harrison, who served on the Board of Trustees of Purdue University from , to ,.
 * The over the  in  is one of the longest vertical lift bridges in the  at 363  at its longest span.

Trivia

 * Benjamin Harrison is the only President who was the grandson of a past President.
 * From the time when Harrison was born on, until the death of Former U.S. President on , there were a total of 19 Presidents of the United States (Former, Current, and Future) living; which as of  is more than any other time period in U.S. history.
 * Benjamin Harrison might be the first President whose voice was recorded. This recording was originally made on a in 1889 and can be accessed below in the Media section. Some believe  was actually the first president, but the cylinder cannot be found.
 * Nicknames such as "Kid Gloves", "The Human Iceberg" and "Little Ben" were mocking titles given by his political rivals. "Little Ben" was also a name so-called by his regiment, the 70th Indiana Volunteers.
 * Harrison was the last President to wear a beard while in office but not the last to sport facial hair., and  all had s.
 * The, ,  was about the  between Harrison and rival, .  In the film, the campaign song, "" was modern and not really from that campaign.  The song was written by the.
 * Harrison had installed in the White House for the first time by Edison Electric Company, but he and his wife reportedly would not touch the light switches for fear of  and would often go to sleep with the lights on.
 * In April 1891, Harrison became the first President to travel across the United States entirely by train.
 * On, , Harrison became the first President to ever attend a game.
 * Harrison's roommate at, , became a six-term U.S. Congressman from and the second President of .  Harrison appointed him consul general in.
 * In 1892, Harrison and formed the only  composed of candidates that were also alumni of the same university, .  Like Harrison, Reid also had a building on Miami's campus named for him.  Reid Hall was a  until it was demolished in 2006 to make room for the new.
 * Benjamin Harrison was a member of the fraternity.
 * On, Mrs.  died being the last U.S. citizen alive born during the Harrison administration.
 * Harrison had six states admitted to the during his administration,, , , ,  and , the most of any administration since.