Benjamin Harrison

Born in Ohio on August 20, 1833, Benjamin Harrison was the second child John and Elizabeth Harrison, a grandson of U.S. President William Henry Harrison and great-grandson of a Virginian signer of the Declaration of Independence. His father served briefly in the U.S. House of Representatives, but young Harrison grew up on a farm and was educated at a log schoolhouse and with a tutor. In his early teens, he attended Farmer’s College near Cincinnati, Ohio, and later went to Miami University in Oxford Ohio, graduating from university in 1852. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1854, just before moving to Indiana.

Harrison married Caroline Lavinia Scott on October 20, 1853, and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana, after receiving a large inheritance from a relative. The couple had two children and were consistently active in the Presbyterian church. In 1858, he formed a law partnership and office, and two years later became an elected reporter for the Indiana Supreme Court. Politically, Harrison supported the newly formed Republican Party and was active in state politics. 

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Harrison told the Ohio governor that he was willing to serve, and the governor asked him to recruit a regiment. Initially, Harrison declined to take command, saying he did not have military experience, but eventually he was commissioned as colonel of the 70^th Indiana Regiment and mustered into service with the unit. The regiment spent time guarding railroads in Tennessee and Kentucky before joining Army of the Cumberland and fighting in the Atlanta Campaign. Harrison commanded a brigade during that campaign and fought at Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, and Atlanta; General William T. Sherman praised Harrison’s leadership. He did not take part in the March to the Sea but saw action at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. A few weeks later in February 1865, Harrison received a promotion to brevet brigadier general of volunteers in recognition of his leadership at Resaca and Peachtree Creek. He mustered out of service at the end of the war with the 70^th Indiana Regiment in June 1865. 

Returning home, Harrison continued to serve as court reporter for the Indiana Supreme Court and continued his own law practice. He was appointed to represent the federal government in a high-profile civil case which had been referred from the Supreme Court back to the U.S. Circuit Court for Indiana. The case increased Harrison’s reputation, and he later campaigned for Republican party colleagues, noted for his speaking skills. In 1876, he ran for governor of Ohio and focused his platform on economic policy. He lost the election, but the following year took a leadership role to mediate an agreement between railroad workers and owners to prevent a wider-spread strike. Stepping into the national scene, Harrison served on the Mississippi River Commission in 1879 at President Rutherford B. Hayes’s request, and the following year, Harrison was a delegate at the Republican Nation Convention, casting a vote for candidate James A. Garfield. Selected by the state of Indiana, Harrison served a term in the U.S. Senate from 1881 to 1887, chairing several committees, advocating for Civil War veterans, supporting education for the freedmen’s children, and opposing the Chinese Exclusion Act. Gerrymandering in his home state led to Harrison losing his Senate re-election, and he returned to Indiana. 

At the Republican National Convention in 1888 on the eighth ballot, Harrison was nominated to run for president. He campaigned from his front porch, favoring protective tariffs. In November, Harrison won the election over his political opponent and presidential incumbent Grover Cleveland. At his inauguration in March 1889, President Benjamin Harrison avoided a long address (his grandfather had become ill and died after a lengthy inaugural speech) but projected hopes for national unity, economic prosperity, care for veterans, international peace, and welcoming territories to become states. He defied expectations and political party bosses when he selected his cabinet, choosing men for their Civil War service, religious beliefs, and home states.

Harrison oversaw the increase of pensions to disabled Civil War veterans through the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890. He signed the Sherman Antitrust Act into law and also signed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, hoping to find a compromise to the question of gold standard or free silver backing the United States currency. Harrison encouraged legislation that would protect voting rights for African American men and suggested that states should be held accountable if they violated civil rights, though his efforts did not pass in Congress. 

He encouraged the adoption of new technology, leading the way by having electricity installed in the White House and becoming the first president to have his voice recorded on a phonograph cylinder. Harrison pushed for new military technology to be used in the construction of new warships for the U.S. Navy; eventually ten warships with steel hulls and new armaments joined the fleet because of his administration. While he pressed for innovation, Harrison also signed the Land Revision Act of 1891 which allowed public lands to be set aside and increasing the size of national forests. Notably, six states joined the nation during Harrison’s administration: North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889), Idaho (1890) and Wyoming (1890). 

In foreign policy, he encouraged trade, hosted the First International Conference of American States, and worked on reciprocity treaties with Latin American countries. Harrison restored trade with European countries after Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act which allayed fears of food contamination. Diplomatic crises started in the Aleutian Islands over fishing rights and with Chile over refugee asylum but both were resolved through leadership and communication of intentions. 

Harrison’s decisions had not maintained his popularity with Republican Party leaders, who looked for another candidate for the 1892 election. However, Harrison determined to run to re-election, and the Democratic Party re-nominated Grover Cleveland, who had been president prior to Harrison’s election. Tragically, Caroline Harrison died of tuberculosis two weeks before the election; her long illness shadowed the election and had limited his active, personal campaigning. In November 1892, Cleveland won the election—making Benjamin Harrison the only president who was preceded and succeeded by the same president. 

Following his departure from the executive office, widower Harrison returned to Indiana. In the following years, he served in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, toured the country delivering political speeches supporting Republican candidates, serving on the Board of Trustees at Purdue University and writing articles about history and government. In 1896, he married Mary Scott Dimmick and had another daughter. Harrison undertook international peace efforts over a disputed border between the Republic of Venezuela and the United Kingdom’s British Guinea, and he attended The Hague’s First Peace Conference. 

Benjamin Harrison died of pneumonia at his home in Indianapolis on March 13, 1901. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery beside his first wife; when his second wife died in 1948, she was also buried beside him.