How William Henry Harrison Became President
William Henry Harrison was the youngest son of Benjamin Harrison V, a Virginia politician and one of the men who had signed the Declaration of Independence. If his father would have had his way, William Henry would have become a doctor. His father had sent the teen-aged William to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for medical training. But William Henry Harrison had other ideas. He did enter the University of Pennsylvania in 1790, where he studied medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush, but he did not enjoy the subject. Shortly after Harrison started these studies, his father died in 1791, leaving young William without funds for further schooling. Eighteen years old, Harrison was left in the guardianship of his father's friend Robert Morris.
Governor Henry Lee of Virginia was a friend of Harrison's father. When the Governor learned of Harrison's predicament after his father's death, Governor Lee persuaded Harrison to join the army. Within 24 hours of meeting with Lee, Harrison was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army, 1st Infantry Regiment at the age of 18. He was first assigned to Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory, where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War.
The commander of the army in the west was General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, who took command in 1792 following a disastrous defeat under its previous commander, Arthur St. Clair. Harrison impressed his commander and was promoted to lieutenant that summer because of his strict attention to discipline. The next year he was selected as an aide-de-camp to Wayne, who served as a mentor to Harrison. Harrison participated in Wayne's victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, which brought about the end of the Northwest Indian War. Lieutenant Harrison was one of the signers of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which resulted in the ceding of lands by Native Americans and opened much of present-day Ohio to settlement.
Harrison's mother died in 1793, and William Henry Harrison inherited a portion of the family's estate, including about 3,000 acres of land and several slaves. He was still in the army at the time, so he sold his land to his brother. In 1795 at the age of 22, Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes, of North Bend, Ohio. She was the daughter of Judge John Cleves Symmes, a prominent figure in the state. The couple were married in 1795, against the wishes of Judge Symes.
Harrison resigned from the army in 1798 and used his connections to lobby for a post in the Northwest Territorial government. With the aid of his close friend, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, he was appointed as Secretary of the Territory. Harrison frequently acted as governor during the absences of Governor (and former General) Arthur St. Clair.
Harrison ran for Congress, in 1799, and at age 26, Harrison defeated the son of Arthur St. Clair in the election. He was elected as the first delegate representing the Northwest Territory in the Sixth United States Congress. He served from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800. As a delegate from a territory (not a state) he could not vote on bills but was allowed to serve on a committee, submit legislation, and debate. He successfully promoted the passage of the Harrison Land Act, a law which made it easier for the average settler to buy land in the Northwest Territory by allowing land to be sold in small tracts. This resulted in availability of inexpensive land, which led to rapid population growth in the Northwest Territory.
Harrison was a member of the committee that decided how the Northwest Territory would be divided. The committee recommended splitting the territory into two segments, creating the Ohio Territory and the Indiana Territory. The bill passed and the two new territories were created in 1800. Without informing Harrison, President John Adams nominated him to become governor of the new territory. Harrison was confirmed by the Senate the following day. Harrison accepted the position only after receiving assurances from the supporters of Thomas Jefferson that he would not be removed from office after they gained power in the upcoming elections if Jefferson won. Gaining such assurances, he then resigned from Congress. The Indiana Territory was more than just the present day state of Indiana, it also included the future states of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and the eastern portion of Minnesota.
Harrison moved to Vincennes, the capital of the newly established Indiana Territory, on January 10, 1801. There he built a plantation style home he named Grouseland for its many birds. It was one of the first brick structures in the territory. The home served as the center of social and political life in the territory. As governor, Harrison had the power to appoint all territorial officials, and the territorial legislature, and to control the division of the territory into political districts. He was also given responsibility to obtain title to Indian lands. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson granted Harrison authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians.
Harrison supervised the negotiation of 13 treaties, through which the territory bought more than sixty million acres of land from Indian tribes. The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis to the surrender by the Sauk and Meskwaki nations of much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri. This caused considerable resentment from by many of the Sauk, especially Black Hawk. It caused the Sauk to side with the British during the War of 1812. The 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne also caused problems. Harrison purchased over 2.5 million acres from the Miami tribe, who claimed ownership of the land. The land was inhabited by Shawnee, Kickapoo, Wea, and Piankeshaw peoples. The tribes living on the lands were furious and sought to have the treaty overturned but were unsuccessful.
In 1803, Harrison lobbied Congress to repeal Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance, which would permit slavery in the Indiana Territory. He claimed it was necessary to make the region more appealing to settlers and to make the territory economically viable. Congress suspended the article for 10 years, but left it up to the territories covered by the ordinance to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery. Harrison had the appointed territorial legislature authorize slavery and he attempted to have slavery legalized in the territory in both 1805 and 1807. In 1809, when the legislature was popularly elected for the first time, the abolitionist party came to power and they immediately blocked his plans for slavery and repealed the laws he had passed in 1803.
The Indian resistance movement against U.S. expansion was growing, thanks to the leadership of the Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (The Prophet). This led to what became known as Tecumseh's War. Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes to rise up against the white settlers. In August of 1810, Tecumseh led 400 armed warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland where they met Harrison. Tecumseh insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was not valid because one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify the treaty. Harrison disagreed and said the Miami were the owners of the land and had the authority to sell it. The meeting became heated and Tecumseh spoke in his own language, encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of the warriors began to pull their weapons. Harrison drew his sword and according to some reports, Tecumseh's warriors backed down after the officers had pulled their firearms in defense of Harrison. Chief Winnemac, who was friendly to Harrison, told the warriors that since they had come in peace, they should return home peacefully. Tecumseh told Harrison that unless the treaty was nullified, he would seek an alliance with the British. After the meeting, Tecumseh worked to build an alliance of tribes to battle the United States.
Harrison was authorized by Secretary of War William Eustis to march against Tecumseh's alliance as a show of force. Harrison led an army of more than 1,000 men north. The tribes launched a surprise attack on Harrison's army early on the morning of November 6, in what became known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown, next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers. Harrison was hailed as a national hero and the battle became famous. However, his troops had greatly outnumbered the attackers, and suffered a disproportionate number of casualties during the battle.
Following the battle, a dispute arose between Secretary Eustis and Harrison. Eustis wanted to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against attacks. Harrison replied that he had considered the position strong enough. The dispute led to ongoing friction between Harrison and the Department of War that continued into the War of 1812. At a time of high tensions between the United States and Great Britain, many Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes and supplying them with firearms. Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. A few months later, the U.S. declared war against Britain.
The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians and Harrison was kept in command of the army in Indiana. After the loss of Detroit, General James Winchester became the commander of the Army of the Northwest. He offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. President James Madison removed Winchester and made Harrison the commander on September 17, 1812. Harrison's forces were greatly outnumbered by the British with their Indian allies. In the winter of 1812–13, Harrison constructed a defensive position at in northwest Ohio named Fort Meigs. After receiving reinforcements in 1813, Harrison took the offensive. He led the army north to battle the Shawnee and the British and won victories in Indiana and Ohio. He also recaptured Detroit, before invading Canada. He defeated the British at the Battle of the Thames, a battle in which Tecumseh was killed.
In spite of Harrison's success, Secretary of War John Armstrong subsequently gave control of this theater of the war to one of Harrison's subordinates. Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the effectiveness in the invasion of Canada. When Harrison was reassigned, he promptly resigned from the army. After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that he had been mistreated by the Secretary of War during his campaign, and that his resignation was justified. They awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the War of 1812.
Harrison had returned to North Bend after he was replaced as Governor of Indiana Territory. In 1814 he was appointed by President James Madison to serve as a commissioner to negotiate two treaties with the Indian tribes in the Northwest. The treaties were settled on terms advantageous to the United States.
Harrison was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to finish the term of John McLean of Ohio, serving from October 8, 1816, to March 4, 1819. He was then elected and served in the Ohio State Senate from 1819 to 1821, but he lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820. In 1822 he ran for the U.S. House, losing by only 500 votes to James W. Gazlay. In 1824 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until May 20, 1828. In 1817, Harrison was offered the post of Secretary of War under President James Monroe, but declined the offer.
In 1828 Harrison served as minister plenipotentiary (ambassador) to Colombia and served in that post until March 8, 1829 when he was replaced by the new administration. He was in Columbia at the time when Simon Bolivar was taking power.
After Harrison returned to the United States in 1829, he returned on his farm in North Bend, Ohio. While there he established a distillery to produce whiskey, but disliked the effects of alcohol on its consumers, and closed the distillery. In a later address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, Harrison said he had sinned in making whiskey, and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquor.
In 1836, Harrison ran for President for the first time. Harrison was the Northern Whig candidate for president in 1836, one of only two times in American history when a major political party intentionally ran more than one presidential candidate. (The other time was in 1860 when the Democrats ran two candidates.) Vice President Martin Van Buren was considered likely to win the election against an individual Whig candidate. The Whig Party decided that its best chances for victory was to run four candidates (once in each region) in order to prevent Van Buren from winning the 148 electoral votes he needed for election. Their plan was for the election to result in no candidate receiving a majority of electoral votes, which would in turn force the House of Representatives to decide the election. They hoped the Whigs would control the House after the general elections. This strategy failed, both because Van Buren won a majority of votes, and because the Democrats retained a majority in the House following the election. Harrison ran in all the free states except Massachusetts, and the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. Hugh L. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Willie P. Mangum in South Carolina. Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. But it almost worked because 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 then been decided in the House of Representatives.
The election elevated Harrison's profile and he was selected as the Whig candidate in the election of 1840. Once again his opponent was Van Buren, now the incumbent president. Harrison based his campaign on his heroic military record and on the weak U.S. economy, caused by the Panic of 1837. In spin designed to blame Van Buren for the depressed economy, the Whigs nicknamed him "Martin Van Ruin". The Democrats ridiculed Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They also played on what his name spelled backwards was: "No Sirrah". Democrats portrayed Harrison as an out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider". This strategy backfired. Whigs adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. They used the images to portray their candidate as a man of the people. Although Harrison had come from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, in this campaign he was promoted as a humble frontiersman and war hero, in the style of the popular Andrew Jackson. Van Buren, by contrast, was presented as a wealthy elitist. Their campaign slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too", became one of the most famous in American politics. On election day, Harrison won a huge majority in the electoral college and captured 53% of the popular vote, to 47% for Van Buren.
Unfortunately for Harrison he did not have much time to savor the victory. He died 31 days into his term, holding the record for the briefest presidency to date.
Governor Henry Lee of Virginia was a friend of Harrison's father. When the Governor learned of Harrison's predicament after his father's death, Governor Lee persuaded Harrison to join the army. Within 24 hours of meeting with Lee, Harrison was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army, 1st Infantry Regiment at the age of 18. He was first assigned to Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory, where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War.
The commander of the army in the west was General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, who took command in 1792 following a disastrous defeat under its previous commander, Arthur St. Clair. Harrison impressed his commander and was promoted to lieutenant that summer because of his strict attention to discipline. The next year he was selected as an aide-de-camp to Wayne, who served as a mentor to Harrison. Harrison participated in Wayne's victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, which brought about the end of the Northwest Indian War. Lieutenant Harrison was one of the signers of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which resulted in the ceding of lands by Native Americans and opened much of present-day Ohio to settlement.
Harrison's mother died in 1793, and William Henry Harrison inherited a portion of the family's estate, including about 3,000 acres of land and several slaves. He was still in the army at the time, so he sold his land to his brother. In 1795 at the age of 22, Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes, of North Bend, Ohio. She was the daughter of Judge John Cleves Symmes, a prominent figure in the state. The couple were married in 1795, against the wishes of Judge Symes.
Harrison resigned from the army in 1798 and used his connections to lobby for a post in the Northwest Territorial government. With the aid of his close friend, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, he was appointed as Secretary of the Territory. Harrison frequently acted as governor during the absences of Governor (and former General) Arthur St. Clair.
Harrison ran for Congress, in 1799, and at age 26, Harrison defeated the son of Arthur St. Clair in the election. He was elected as the first delegate representing the Northwest Territory in the Sixth United States Congress. He served from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800. As a delegate from a territory (not a state) he could not vote on bills but was allowed to serve on a committee, submit legislation, and debate. He successfully promoted the passage of the Harrison Land Act, a law which made it easier for the average settler to buy land in the Northwest Territory by allowing land to be sold in small tracts. This resulted in availability of inexpensive land, which led to rapid population growth in the Northwest Territory.
Harrison was a member of the committee that decided how the Northwest Territory would be divided. The committee recommended splitting the territory into two segments, creating the Ohio Territory and the Indiana Territory. The bill passed and the two new territories were created in 1800. Without informing Harrison, President John Adams nominated him to become governor of the new territory. Harrison was confirmed by the Senate the following day. Harrison accepted the position only after receiving assurances from the supporters of Thomas Jefferson that he would not be removed from office after they gained power in the upcoming elections if Jefferson won. Gaining such assurances, he then resigned from Congress. The Indiana Territory was more than just the present day state of Indiana, it also included the future states of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and the eastern portion of Minnesota.
Harrison moved to Vincennes, the capital of the newly established Indiana Territory, on January 10, 1801. There he built a plantation style home he named Grouseland for its many birds. It was one of the first brick structures in the territory. The home served as the center of social and political life in the territory. As governor, Harrison had the power to appoint all territorial officials, and the territorial legislature, and to control the division of the territory into political districts. He was also given responsibility to obtain title to Indian lands. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson granted Harrison authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians.
Harrison supervised the negotiation of 13 treaties, through which the territory bought more than sixty million acres of land from Indian tribes. The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis to the surrender by the Sauk and Meskwaki nations of much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri. This caused considerable resentment from by many of the Sauk, especially Black Hawk. It caused the Sauk to side with the British during the War of 1812. The 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne also caused problems. Harrison purchased over 2.5 million acres from the Miami tribe, who claimed ownership of the land. The land was inhabited by Shawnee, Kickapoo, Wea, and Piankeshaw peoples. The tribes living on the lands were furious and sought to have the treaty overturned but were unsuccessful.
In 1803, Harrison lobbied Congress to repeal Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance, which would permit slavery in the Indiana Territory. He claimed it was necessary to make the region more appealing to settlers and to make the territory economically viable. Congress suspended the article for 10 years, but left it up to the territories covered by the ordinance to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery. Harrison had the appointed territorial legislature authorize slavery and he attempted to have slavery legalized in the territory in both 1805 and 1807. In 1809, when the legislature was popularly elected for the first time, the abolitionist party came to power and they immediately blocked his plans for slavery and repealed the laws he had passed in 1803.
The Indian resistance movement against U.S. expansion was growing, thanks to the leadership of the Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (The Prophet). This led to what became known as Tecumseh's War. Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes to rise up against the white settlers. In August of 1810, Tecumseh led 400 armed warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland where they met Harrison. Tecumseh insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was not valid because one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify the treaty. Harrison disagreed and said the Miami were the owners of the land and had the authority to sell it. The meeting became heated and Tecumseh spoke in his own language, encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of the warriors began to pull their weapons. Harrison drew his sword and according to some reports, Tecumseh's warriors backed down after the officers had pulled their firearms in defense of Harrison. Chief Winnemac, who was friendly to Harrison, told the warriors that since they had come in peace, they should return home peacefully. Tecumseh told Harrison that unless the treaty was nullified, he would seek an alliance with the British. After the meeting, Tecumseh worked to build an alliance of tribes to battle the United States.
Harrison was authorized by Secretary of War William Eustis to march against Tecumseh's alliance as a show of force. Harrison led an army of more than 1,000 men north. The tribes launched a surprise attack on Harrison's army early on the morning of November 6, in what became known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown, next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers. Harrison was hailed as a national hero and the battle became famous. However, his troops had greatly outnumbered the attackers, and suffered a disproportionate number of casualties during the battle.
Following the battle, a dispute arose between Secretary Eustis and Harrison. Eustis wanted to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against attacks. Harrison replied that he had considered the position strong enough. The dispute led to ongoing friction between Harrison and the Department of War that continued into the War of 1812. At a time of high tensions between the United States and Great Britain, many Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes and supplying them with firearms. Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. A few months later, the U.S. declared war against Britain.
The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians and Harrison was kept in command of the army in Indiana. After the loss of Detroit, General James Winchester became the commander of the Army of the Northwest. He offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. President James Madison removed Winchester and made Harrison the commander on September 17, 1812. Harrison's forces were greatly outnumbered by the British with their Indian allies. In the winter of 1812–13, Harrison constructed a defensive position at in northwest Ohio named Fort Meigs. After receiving reinforcements in 1813, Harrison took the offensive. He led the army north to battle the Shawnee and the British and won victories in Indiana and Ohio. He also recaptured Detroit, before invading Canada. He defeated the British at the Battle of the Thames, a battle in which Tecumseh was killed.
In spite of Harrison's success, Secretary of War John Armstrong subsequently gave control of this theater of the war to one of Harrison's subordinates. Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the effectiveness in the invasion of Canada. When Harrison was reassigned, he promptly resigned from the army. After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that he had been mistreated by the Secretary of War during his campaign, and that his resignation was justified. They awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the War of 1812.
Harrison had returned to North Bend after he was replaced as Governor of Indiana Territory. In 1814 he was appointed by President James Madison to serve as a commissioner to negotiate two treaties with the Indian tribes in the Northwest. The treaties were settled on terms advantageous to the United States.
Harrison was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to finish the term of John McLean of Ohio, serving from October 8, 1816, to March 4, 1819. He was then elected and served in the Ohio State Senate from 1819 to 1821, but he lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820. In 1822 he ran for the U.S. House, losing by only 500 votes to James W. Gazlay. In 1824 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until May 20, 1828. In 1817, Harrison was offered the post of Secretary of War under President James Monroe, but declined the offer.
In 1828 Harrison served as minister plenipotentiary (ambassador) to Colombia and served in that post until March 8, 1829 when he was replaced by the new administration. He was in Columbia at the time when Simon Bolivar was taking power.
After Harrison returned to the United States in 1829, he returned on his farm in North Bend, Ohio. While there he established a distillery to produce whiskey, but disliked the effects of alcohol on its consumers, and closed the distillery. In a later address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, Harrison said he had sinned in making whiskey, and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquor.
In 1836, Harrison ran for President for the first time. Harrison was the Northern Whig candidate for president in 1836, one of only two times in American history when a major political party intentionally ran more than one presidential candidate. (The other time was in 1860 when the Democrats ran two candidates.) Vice President Martin Van Buren was considered likely to win the election against an individual Whig candidate. The Whig Party decided that its best chances for victory was to run four candidates (once in each region) in order to prevent Van Buren from winning the 148 electoral votes he needed for election. Their plan was for the election to result in no candidate receiving a majority of electoral votes, which would in turn force the House of Representatives to decide the election. They hoped the Whigs would control the House after the general elections. This strategy failed, both because Van Buren won a majority of votes, and because the Democrats retained a majority in the House following the election. Harrison ran in all the free states except Massachusetts, and the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. Hugh L. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Willie P. Mangum in South Carolina. Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. But it almost worked because 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 then been decided in the House of Representatives.
The election elevated Harrison's profile and he was selected as the Whig candidate in the election of 1840. Once again his opponent was Van Buren, now the incumbent president. Harrison based his campaign on his heroic military record and on the weak U.S. economy, caused by the Panic of 1837. In spin designed to blame Van Buren for the depressed economy, the Whigs nicknamed him "Martin Van Ruin". The Democrats ridiculed Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They also played on what his name spelled backwards was: "No Sirrah". Democrats portrayed Harrison as an out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider". This strategy backfired. Whigs adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. They used the images to portray their candidate as a man of the people. Although Harrison had come from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, in this campaign he was promoted as a humble frontiersman and war hero, in the style of the popular Andrew Jackson. Van Buren, by contrast, was presented as a wealthy elitist. Their campaign slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too", became one of the most famous in American politics. On election day, Harrison won a huge majority in the electoral college and captured 53% of the popular vote, to 47% for Van Buren.
Unfortunately for Harrison he did not have much time to savor the victory. He died 31 days into his term, holding the record for the briefest presidency to date.