Benjamin Harrison: 25 Surprising Facts About America’s Forgotten President


 

Benjamin Harrison was an American politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. A Republican, Harrison was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote. Benjamin Harrison is often overshadowed by more famous presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. However, Harrison was a significant figure in American history, and his presidency was marked by a number of important achievements.

Although many historians have praised Harrison’s personal integrity and commitment to minority voting rights, scholars and historians generally rank Harrison in the bottom half of U.S. presidents. 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. Let’s delve into 25 Surprising Facts About Benjamin Harrison, best known as  America’s Forgotten President. 

1. Harrison was the first president to be born in Ohio

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. Harrison later became the first President to win an election after a Republican nomination in Ohio.

2. Harrison was the only president to be the grandson of another president

Albert Gallatin Hoit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a Founding Father. Harrison was seven years old when his grandfather was elected U.S. president.

William Henry Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration as president in 1841, making his presidency the shortest in U.S. history.  Henry 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.

3. Harrison studied law and worked as an attorney before entering politics

After his college graduation in 1852, Harrison studied law with Judge Bellamy Storer of Cincinnati, but before he completed his studies, he returned to Oxford, Ohio, to marry Caroline Scot. Harrison and his wife returned to live at The Point, his father’s farm in southwestern Ohio, while he finished his law studies. Harrison was admitted to the Ohio bar in early 1854.

Harrison began practising law in the office of John H. Ray in 1854. He also served as a Commissioner for the U.S. Court of Claims. In 1858, Harrison entered into a law partnership with William Wallace to form the law office of Wallace and Harrison.  After Wallace, his law partner, was elected county clerk in 1860, Harrison established a new firm with William Fishback, Fishback and Harrison. The new partners worked together until Harrison entered the Union Army after the start of the American Civil War.

4. Harrison served in the Union Army during the Civil War

Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harrison entered the Union Army after the start of the American Civil War. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for more recruits for the Union Army; Harrison wanted to enlist, but worried about how to support his young family. While visiting Governor Oliver Morton, Harrison found him distressed over the shortage of men answering the latest call.

Morton asked Harrison if he could help recruit a regiment, although he would not ask him to serve. Harrison recruited throughout northern Indiana to raise a regiment. Morton offered him the command, but Harrison declined, as he had no military experience. Morton commissioned Harrison as a colonel in 1862, and the newly formed 70th Indiana was mustered into federal service in 1862. 

5. Benjamin won the presidency despite losing the popular vote

A Republican, Harrison was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote.

In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to be formed every 4 years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves a majority there, a contingent election is held by the House of Representatives to elect the president and by the Senate to elect the vice president.

6. Harrison won the presidency by defeating the incumbent, Grover Cleveland

Frederick Gutekunst, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harrison’s opponent in the general election was incumbent President Grover Cleveland. The Republicans campaigned heavily in favour of protective tariffs, turning out protectionist voters in the important industrial states of the North. 

The election took place on Tuesday, November 6, 1888; it focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Harrison’s home state of Indiana. Harrison and Cleveland split the four, with Harrison winning New York and Indiana. Voter turnout was 79.3%, reflecting large interest in the campaign; nearly eleven million votes were cast. Harrison received 90,000 fewer popular votes than Cleveland but carried the Electoral College 233 to 168.

 7. Harrison was a supporter of civil rights for African Americans

Harrison highly spoke in favor of African American civil rights in addresses to Congress. He severely questioned the states’ civil rights records, arguing that if states have the authority over civil rights, then “we have a right to ask whether they are at work upon it.”

Harrison also supported a bill proposed by Senator Henry W. Blair, which would have granted federal funding to schools regardless of the students’ races. He also endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court ruling in the Civil Rights Cases in 1883 that declared much of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. None of these measures gained congressional approval.

8. The first electric lights in the White House were installed during Harrison’s presidency

Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During Harrison’s time in office, the United States was continuing to experience advances in science and technology. A recording of his voice is the earliest extant recording of a president while he was in office.

Harrison also had electricity installed in the White House for the first time by Edison General Electric Company, but he and his wife would not touch the light switches for fear of electrocution and would often go to sleep with the lights on.

9. Harrison became the only president to be defeated in a re-election campaign in 1892

The Democrats renominated former President Cleveland, making the 1892 election a rematch of the one four years earlier. Cleveland ultimately won the election by 277 electoral votes to Harrison’s 145 and also won the popular vote by 5,556,918 to 5,176,108.

This was the most decisive presidential election in 20 years. It gave Harrison the distinction of being the only president whose predecessor and successor were the same man.

10. Following the Panic of 1893, Harrison became more popular in retirement

1896 Pach Brothers studio photograph of United States President Benjamin Harrison.

Closely scrutinized by Democrats, Harrison’s reputation was largely intact when he left the White House. Following the Panic of 1893, Harrison became more popular in retirement. Many recent historians have recognized the importance of the Harrison administration in influencing the foreign policy of the late nineteenth century.

Historians have often given Secretary of State Blaine credit for foreign-policy initiatives but historian Charles Calhoun argues that Harrison was more responsible for the success of trade negotiations, the buildup of the steel Navy, overseas expansion, and emphasis on the American role in dominating the hemisphere through the Monroe Doctrine.

11. Harrison is one of the least well-known presidents among the general public

A 2012 article in the New York Times selected Harrison as the “most forgotten president.” Harrison is the only president to be preceded and succeeded by the same individual. He is also the only president to be the grandson of another president. Polls of historians and political scientists have generally ranked Harrison as a below-average president.

A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Harrison as the 32nd best president. A 2017 C-SPAN poll of historians ranked Harrison as the 30th best president. Historian Allan B. Spetter writes, Because of his lack of personal passion and the failure of anything truly eventful, such as a major war, during his administration, Harrison, along with every other President from the post-Reconstruction era to 1900, has been assigned to the rankings of mediocrity. He has been remembered as an average President, not among the best but certainly not among the worst.

12. Harrison was known as the Centennial President

Ramon de Elorriaga, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harrison was known as the Centennial President because his inauguration celebrated the centenary of the first inauguration of George Washington in 1789.

The centennial anniversary of Washington’s inauguration as president fell on April 30, 1889. In observance of the occasion, President Benjamin Harrison followed the itinerary of one hundred years before, from the Governor’s mansion in New Jersey to the foot of Wall Street, in New York City, to old Saint Paul’s Church, on Broadway, and to the site where the first Chief Magistrate first took the oath of office.

13. Harrison’s legacy includes his role in passing the McKinley Tariff 

Hallmarks of Harrison’s administration include the McKinley Tariff. The tariff raised the average duty on imports to almost 50%, an increase designed to protect domestic industries and workers from foreign competition, as promised in the Republican Platform.  

In the 1888 election, the Republicans were victorious with the election of Benjamin Harrison and majorities in both the Senate and the House. For the sake of holding the party line, the Republicans felt obligated to pass stronger tariff legislation. The Tariff Act of 1890, commonly called the McKinley Tariff, was an act of the United States Congress, framed by then-Representative William McKinley, that became law on October 1, 1890. 

14. Harrison published a book called This Country of Ours in 1897

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1896, some of Harrison’s friends in the Republican party tried to convince him to seek the presidency again, but he declined. He traveled around the nation making appearances and speeches in support of William McKinley’s candidacy for president.

Harrison wrote a series of articles about the federal government and the presidency which were republished in 1897 as a book titled This Country of Ours.

15. Harrison was a devout Presbyterian who regularly attended church services while in office

Harrison was an active Presbyterian and served as an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis and on a special committee on creed revision in the national Presbyterian General Assembly.

Harrison and his wife became members and assumed leadership positions at Indianapolis’s First Presbyterian Church. Harrison first joined a Presbyterian church at college and, like his mother, became a lifelong Presbyterian.

16. Harrison signed the Sherman Antitrust Act into law which is still in effect today

Popular Graphic Arts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is a United States law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. It was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison on July 2, 1890.

The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses.

17. Harrison was a skilled orator and was known for his eloquent speeches

The President typically made his best impression speaking before large audiences, as opposed to more intimate settings.

Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States from 1889 to 1893, elected after conducting one of the first front-porch campaigns by delivering short speeches to delegations that visited him in Indianapolis.

18. Harrison was responsible for the creation of the Forest Reserve Act

Joseph Gray Kitchell (1862–1945)[1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Forest Reserve Act of 1891, was a federal law signed in 1891 by President Benjamin Harrison. The law gives the President of the United States the authority to unilaterally set aside forest reserves from land in the public domain.

Under the act, President Harrison issued proclamations establishing 13 million acres of land as forest reserves; President Grover Cleveland proclaimed 25 million acres and President William McKinley 7 million acres. In 1907 a law was passed limiting presidential authority to designate forest reserves in certain states and renamed the existing forest reserves as national forests.

19. After leaving office, Harrison became a professor of law at Stanford University

After he left office, Harrison visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in June 1893. After the Expo, Harrison returned to his home in Indianapolis.

Harrison had been elected a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in 1882 and was elected as commander president of the Ohio Commandery on May 3, 1893. For a few months in 1894, Harrison lived in San Francisco, California, where he gave law lectures at Stanford University.

20. Harrison was known for his commitment to veterans’ issues

unattributed, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

While in the Senate, In 1881, the major issue confronting Senator Harrison was the budget surplus. Democrats wanted to reduce the tariff and limit the amount of money the government took in; Republicans instead wanted to spend the money on internal improvements and pensions for Civil War veterans. Harrison took his party’s side and advocated for generous pensions for veterans and their widows.

After being sworn into office as President, Harrison urged early statehood for the territories and advocated pensions for veterans, a call that met with enthusiastic applause. Harrison quickly saw the enactment of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress. In addition to providing pensions to disabled Civil War veterans, the Act depleted some of the troublesome federal budget surplus. Pension expenditures reached $135 million under Harrison, the largest expenditure of its kind to that point in American history.

21. Harrison established the Board on Geographical Names in 1890

By executive order, Harrison established the Board on Geographical Names in 1890. The board was tasked with standardizing the spelling of the names of communities and municipalities within the United States; most towns with apostrophes or plurals as part of their names were rewritten as singular e.g. Weston’s Mills became Weston Mills and places that ended in “burgh” were truncated to end in “burg.” In one particularly controversial case, a city in Pennsylvania was shortened from Pittsburgh to Pittsburg, only to reverse the decision 20 years later after local residents continued to use the “Pittsburgh” spelling.

22. The Benjamin Harrison Memorial statue was erected to honor him

In 1908, the people of Indianapolis erected the Benjamin Harrison Memorial statue, created by Charles Niehaus and Henry Bacon, in honor of Harrison’s lifetime achievements as a military leader, U.S. Senator, and President of the United States.

The statue occupies a site on the south edge of University Park, facing the Birch Bayh Federal Building and United States Courthouse across New York Avenue.

23. Harrison’s tenacity in foreign policy was emulated by politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt

Harrison’s presidency belongs properly to the 19th century, but he clearly pointed the way to the modern presidency that would emerge under William McKinley. The bipartisan Sherman Anti-Trust Act signed into law by Harrison remains in effect over 120 years later and was the most important legislation passed by the Fifty-first Congress. 

Harrison’s support for African American voting rights and education would be the last significant attempts to protect civil rights until the 1930s. Harrison’s tenacity in foreign policy was emulated by politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt.

24. Harrison was memorialized on several postage stamps and dollar coins

United States Mint, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harrison was memorialized on several postage stamps. The first was a 13-cent stamp issued on November 18, 1902, with the engraved likeness of Harrison modelled after a photo provided by his widow. 

In all Harrison has been honoured on six U.S. Postage stamps, more than most other U.S. Presidents. Harrison also was featured on the five-dollar National Bank Notes from the third charter period, beginning in 1902. In 2012, a dollar coin with his image, part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program, was issued.

25. Theodore Roosevelt dedicated Fort Benjamin Harrison in the former president’s honor in 1906

Fort Benjamin Harrison was a U.S. Army post located in suburban Lawrence Township, Marion County, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis, between 1906 and 1991. It is named for the 23rd United States president, Benjamin Harrison. 

The federal government decommissioned Fort Harrison in 1991 and transferred 1,700 of its 2,500 acres to Indiana’s state government in 1995 to establish Fort Harrison State Park. The site has been redeveloped to include residential neighborhoods and a golf course.

So while Benjamin Harrison has been judged harshly by historians, he was a significant figure in American history. As we have highlighted in the article, Harrison made significant contributions to America and built a solid legacy during his tenure as the 23rd President of the United States of America. Many of his contributions continue to outlive him as his presidency was marked by a number of important achievements.  

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