Happy Birthday Benjamin Harrison
On August 20, 1833 (191 years ago today) Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States, was born. Harrison was the first (and so far the only) grandson of a former President to also become President. His grandfather was William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States, and his great-grandfather, also named Benjamin Harrison, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
President Benjamin Harrison (no middle name) was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, at age 21, eventually becoming a popular politician there. His legacy is quite prominent in Indianapolis, where his Presidential museum is located (which I was lucky enough to visit in 2010.) Like Paul Ryan, Harrison was a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (Harrison was in class of 1852, Ryan graduated well after that). After completing college, Harrison took up the study of law as a legal apprentice in the Cincinnati, Ohio at the law office of Storer & Gwynne. Before completing his law studies, Harrison returned to Oxford to marry Caroline Lavinia Scott. She was the daughter of the college president, John Witherspoon Scott, a Presbyterian minister. On October 20, 1853, they married with Caroline's father performing the ceremony. The couple would later have two children, Russell Benjamin Harrison (August 12, 1854 - December 13, 1936), and Mary "Mamie" Scott Harrison (April 3, 1858 - October 28, 1930).
During the Civil War, Harrison served the Union as a Brigadier General in the XX Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. In 1864, Harrison and his regiment joined William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and moved to the front lines. He commanded the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the XX Corps at the Battles of Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Lost Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, Marietta, Peachtree Creek and Atlanta. When Sherman's main force began its March to the Sea, Harrison's brigade was transferred to the District of Etowah and participated in the Battle of Nashville. On March 22, 1865, Harrison earned his final promotion, to the rank of Brigadier General. He marched in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. before leaving the army on June 8, 1865.
After the war Benjamin Harrison unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Indiana. He was later elected to the U.S. Senate by the Indiana legislature. In 1888 he was chosen as the Republican candidate for President on the 8th ballot after garnering the support of Maine Senator James G. Blaine, a powerhouse in the party. In the election Harrison defeated the Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland.
His administration is remembered most for economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act, and for annual federal spending that reached one billion dollars for the first time. Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress." Grover Cleveland was able to use the issue, along with the growing unpopularity of the high tariff, to defeat the Republicans, in both the 1890 mid-term elections and in Harrison's bid for re-election in 1892. During the 1892 election campaign, Harrison's wife Caroline died in October, and when this happened, both he and Cleveland suspended their campaigning.
One of Harrison's most forward-thinking and progressive ideas was his unsuccessful push for federal funding for education of African-American children as well as legislation to protect voting rights for African Americans. He also saw the admittance of six states into the Union.
After his defeat, Harrison returned to private life in Indianapolis. He later represented the Republic of Venezuela in an international case against the United Kingdom. In 1900, he traveled to Europe as part of the case and, after a brief stay, returned to Indianapolis.
In 1896 Harrison, then 62 years old, remarried, to Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, the niece and former secretary of his deceased wife. A widow, she was 37, 25 years younger than him and younger than both of his children. Harrison's two children were adults, and both Russell, 41 years old at the time, and Mary (Mamie) McKee, 38, disapproved of the marriage and did not attend the wedding. Benjamin and Mary had one child together, Elizabeth (born on February 21, 1897).
Benjamin Harrison died on March 13, 1901 from complications from influenza. He is buried in Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery. He is buried next to both of his wives.