Benjamin Harrison
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| “ | No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. | „ |
| ~ Benjamin Harrison |
Benjamin Harrison (August 20th, 1833 - March 13th, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States who served from 1889 to 1893, preceded and succeeded by Grover Cleveland. He was also the only president to be the grandson of a previous president; William Henry Harrison, his grandfather who served as the ninth president for the least amount of time.
Biography edit
Harrison was born on a farm by the Ohio River and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After moving to Indianapolis, he established himself as a prominent local attorney, Presbyterian church leader, and politician in Indiana.
During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army as a colonel, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a brevet brigadier general of volunteers in 1865. Harrison unsuccessfully ran for governor of Indiana in 1876. The Indiana General Assembly elected Harrison to a six-year term in the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1881 to 1887.
A Republican, Harrison was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Grover Cleveland. Hallmarks of Harrison's administration included unprecedented economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff, which imposed historic protective trade rates, and the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Harrison also facilitated the creation of the national forest reserves through an amendment to the Land Revision Act of 1891. During his administration six western states were admitted to the Union. In addition, Harrison substantially strengthened and modernized the U.S. Navy and conducted an active foreign policy, but his proposals to secure federal education funding as well as voting rights enforcement for African Americans were unsuccessful.
Due in large part to surplus revenues from the tariffs, federal spending reached one billion dollars for the first time during his term. The spending issue in part led to the defeat of the Republicans in the 1890 midterm elections. Cleveland defeated Harrison for reelection in 1892, due to the growing unpopularity of high tariffs and high federal spending. He returned to private life and his law practice in Indianapolis.
In 1899 he represented Venezuela in its British Guiana boundary dispute with the United Kingdom. Harrison traveled to the court of Paris as part of the case and after a brief stay returned to Indianapolis. He died at his home in Indianapolis on March 13, 1901 of complications from influenza and pneumonia.
Many have praised Harrison's commitment to African Americans' voting rights, but scholars and historians generally regard his administration as below average due to its corruption, as well as focused criticism on his signing of the McKinley Tariff. They rank him in the bottom half among U.S. presidents, though they do not question his commitment to personal and official integrity.
Villainy edit
Wounded Knee Massacre edit
Harrison's most notorious actions involve the repression of the Native Americans, most notably the Lakota Sioux. Many of them, previously confined to South Dakotan reservations, participated in a spiritual movement called the Ghost Dance, which would apparently make the white Americans leave the country and restore peace within the Indians.
Due to paranoia, Harrison, including many others in Washington, believed this was a militant movement used to rebel against the American government, and troops from the Seventh Cavalry clashed with them at the Wounded Knee. This would result in the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre, where at least 146 Sioux were killed, and all of them buried in a mass pit. Harrison ordered General Nelson Miles to investigate and to put 3500 federal troops into South Dakota to put an end to the uprising. The U.S. Army were then rewarded 20 Medals of Honor for the massacre.
Harrison believed this act to be successful and opened up millions of acres of Indian territory for white settlers, acquiring several states, and forced the Natives out of the land.
Overthrow of Hawaii edit
In 1893, Harrison signed a treaty that would allow the United States to annex Hawaii and overthrow its monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. Grover Cleveland opposed to the annexation and tried to stop the overthrow of the Hawaiian government, but was unsuccessful and Hawaii eventually became a US state.
Trivia edit
- Similarly to George Armstrong Custer, he was from a small town in Ohio and was in the American Civil War as a Union Soldier prior to his atrocities. However, Custer, unlike Harrison, was never President.
- He was of English, Scottish, Northern Irish, and Welsh descent.
- He was also a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a founding father who signed the United States Declaration of Independence.
- Benjamin Harrison V was the father of his grandfather William Henry Harrison.