Presidential Biographies: Benjamin Harrison
Another one of the forgotten Presidents, Benjamin Harrison fit the mold of many of the late 19th century presidents. He was Republican, he had fought in the Civil War, he had been an opponent of slavery and he believed in high tariffs, a measure intended to protect the American worker from foreign competition. He had been a lawyer, and by most accounts a very good litigation lawyer, but he was not a backslapper. In fact it is said that he had a cold personality, so much so that he was given the nickname "the human iceberg." As President he was criticized by his own party for not doling out patronage as generously as was expected of him. Despite this, he is described as a very principled man and his failure to win re-election is attributed to being a poor politician rather than a poor administrator.
One of the issues that Harrison was criticized by some for (and loved by others) was his program of pensions for Civil War veterans. Harrison was quick to push for the passage of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress. It provided pensions to disabled Civil War veterans (regardless of the cause of their disability). Harrison had the unique problem of the nation having a large federal budget surplus. Pension expenditures reached $135 million under Harrison (over $4.5 billion today), the largest expenditure of its kind to that point in American history. The problem was made worse because Pension Bureau commissioner James R. Tanner had a generous interpretation of the pension laws and it was later discovered that Tanner made lavish and illegal handouts. Harrison paid for that politically.
Harrison has at least two unique distinctions as President. Firstly he is (thus far) the only president to have had a grandfather who also was President (William Henry Harrison). He also holds the record for having the most new states admitted on his watch (six).
Harrison won his first election, defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland, despite losing the popular vote, thanks to a strategy to win four key swing states: New York, New Jersey, Indiana and Connecticut. But he would lose the rematch four years later, losing those four states and some others. Harrison's protectionist tariff was causing Americans to lose sales of their products abroad, as those countries passed retaliatory tariffs. Harrison had campaigned in support of a bill that would protect African-American voting rights. Cleveland opposed this and gained support in the south as a result. Harrison's wife Caroline died during the campaign and her husband ceased campaigning. He would lose the election and years later would lose the support of much of his family when he married his first wife's widowed niece, a woman 25 years his junior. The couple had a child together when Harrison was 63 years old.
The leading biography of Harrison is a two volume signature series set written by Harry Sievers and published in 1996. Volume 1 is called Benjamin Harrison: Hoosier Statesman and Volume 2 is called Benjamin Harrison: Hoosier President. A biography of Harrison that is purportedly written for younger students, but one that I found very enjoyable, is Ray Boomhower's 2018 book Mr. President: A Life of Benjamin Harrison. At a used book store I happened to find a short but reasonable biography of Harrison, published in 1969 and written by Elisabeth Myers simply called Benjamin Harrison.
Harrison's military career is examined, along with that of Zachary Taylor, in Richard McElroy's 2009 book Battlefield Presidents: Zachary Taylor and Benjamin Harrison and Their America. His presidency is critically reviewed in the University of Kansas Press's American Presidency in a 1987 volume written by Homer Socolofsky and Alan Spetter entitled The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. The same publisher has published a 2008 book as part of their American Presidential Elections series, written by Charles Calhoun, about the 1888 election, entitled Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888.
As with so many of the other Presidents of the 19th century, there is more to Benjamin Harrison than first meets the eye. It is easy to gloss over his life story as just another one of the forgotten Presidents. (He is included in Michael Gerhardt's wonderful 2013 book The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy.) But a closer inspection reveals that his is the life of a brave soldier, a skilled lawyer and advocate, and a principled public servant who genuinely cared for the lives of veterans, the rights of African-Americans, and the plight of hard-working Americans seeking to compete in what was rapidly becoming a global economy.
One of the issues that Harrison was criticized by some for (and loved by others) was his program of pensions for Civil War veterans. Harrison was quick to push for the passage of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress. It provided pensions to disabled Civil War veterans (regardless of the cause of their disability). Harrison had the unique problem of the nation having a large federal budget surplus. Pension expenditures reached $135 million under Harrison (over $4.5 billion today), the largest expenditure of its kind to that point in American history. The problem was made worse because Pension Bureau commissioner James R. Tanner had a generous interpretation of the pension laws and it was later discovered that Tanner made lavish and illegal handouts. Harrison paid for that politically.
Harrison has at least two unique distinctions as President. Firstly he is (thus far) the only president to have had a grandfather who also was President (William Henry Harrison). He also holds the record for having the most new states admitted on his watch (six).
Harrison won his first election, defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland, despite losing the popular vote, thanks to a strategy to win four key swing states: New York, New Jersey, Indiana and Connecticut. But he would lose the rematch four years later, losing those four states and some others. Harrison's protectionist tariff was causing Americans to lose sales of their products abroad, as those countries passed retaliatory tariffs. Harrison had campaigned in support of a bill that would protect African-American voting rights. Cleveland opposed this and gained support in the south as a result. Harrison's wife Caroline died during the campaign and her husband ceased campaigning. He would lose the election and years later would lose the support of much of his family when he married his first wife's widowed niece, a woman 25 years his junior. The couple had a child together when Harrison was 63 years old.
The leading biography of Harrison is a two volume signature series set written by Harry Sievers and published in 1996. Volume 1 is called Benjamin Harrison: Hoosier Statesman and Volume 2 is called Benjamin Harrison: Hoosier President. A biography of Harrison that is purportedly written for younger students, but one that I found very enjoyable, is Ray Boomhower's 2018 book Mr. President: A Life of Benjamin Harrison. At a used book store I happened to find a short but reasonable biography of Harrison, published in 1969 and written by Elisabeth Myers simply called Benjamin Harrison.
Harrison's military career is examined, along with that of Zachary Taylor, in Richard McElroy's 2009 book Battlefield Presidents: Zachary Taylor and Benjamin Harrison and Their America. His presidency is critically reviewed in the University of Kansas Press's American Presidency in a 1987 volume written by Homer Socolofsky and Alan Spetter entitled The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. The same publisher has published a 2008 book as part of their American Presidential Elections series, written by Charles Calhoun, about the 1888 election, entitled Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888.
As with so many of the other Presidents of the 19th century, there is more to Benjamin Harrison than first meets the eye. It is easy to gloss over his life story as just another one of the forgotten Presidents. (He is included in Michael Gerhardt's wonderful 2013 book The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy.) But a closer inspection reveals that his is the life of a brave soldier, a skilled lawyer and advocate, and a principled public servant who genuinely cared for the lives of veterans, the rights of African-Americans, and the plight of hard-working Americans seeking to compete in what was rapidly becoming a global economy.