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"Harrison administration" redirects here. For the administration of the 9th United States President, see William Henry Harrison § Presidency (1841).
Harrison (1895)

The presidency of Benjamin Harrison began on March 4, 1889, when Benjamin Harrison was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1893. Harrison, a Republican, took office as the 23rd United States president after defeating Democratic incumbent President Grover Cleveland in the 1888 election. Four years later he was defeated for re-election by Cleveland in the 1892 presidential election. Harrison is the only president to be preceded and succeeded by the same individual. Harrison is also the only president to be the grandson of another president.

Harrison and the Republican-controlled 51st Congress enacted the most ambitious domestic agenda of the late-nineteenth century. Hallmarks of his administration include the McKinley Tariff, which imposed historic protective trade rates, and the Sherman Antitrust Act, which empowered the federal government to investigate and prosecute trusts. Due in large part to surplus revenues from the tariffs, federal spending reached one billion dollars for the first time during his term. Harrison facilitated the creation of the National Forests through an amendment to the Land Revision Act of 1891, and substantially strengthened and modernized the Navy. He proposed, in vain, federal education funding as well as voting rights enforcement for African Americans during his administration. In foreign policy, Harrison sought tariff reciprocity in Latin America and increased U.S. influence across the Pacific. Harrison's presidency saw the addition of six new states, more than any other president.

Although many have praised Harrison's commitment to African Americans' voting rights, scholars and historians generally regard his administration as below-average, and rank him in the bottom half among U.S. presidents. Historians, however, have not questioned Harrison's commitment to personal and official integrity. With his ambitious domestic policy and assertive foreign policy, Harrison set a precedent for the more powerful presidencies of the 20th century.

Election of 1888 edit

Main article: United States presidential election, 1888
 
Harrison–Morton campaign poster

The initial favorite for the Republican nomination was the unsuccessful 1884 nominee, James G. Blaine of Maine. After Blaine wrote several letters denying any interest in the nomination, his supporters divided among other candidates, with John Sherman of Ohio as the leader among them.[1] Others, including Chauncey Depew of New York, Russell Alger of Michigan, and Harrison's old nemesis Walter Q. Gresham, now a federal appellate court judge in Chicago, also sought the delegates' support at the 1888 Republican National Convention.[1] Blaine did not publicly endorse any of the candidates as a successor; however, on March 1, 1888 he privately wrote that "the one man remaining who in my judgment can make the best one is Benjamin Harrison."[2]

After representing Indiana in the Senate from 1881 to 1887, Harrison lost re-election, but remained active in party politics.[3] In February 1888, Harrison announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, declaring himself (in reference to his lack of a power base) a "living and rejuvenated Republican." The words "Rejuvenated Republicanism" became the slogan of his presidential campaign.[4]

Harrison placed fifth on the first ballot of the 1888 Republican convention, with Sherman in the lead, and the next few ballots showed little change.[5] The Blaine supporters shifted their support among candidates they found acceptable, and when they shifted to Harrison, they found a candidate who could attract the votes of many other delegations.[6] He was nominated as the party's presidential candidate on the eighth ballot, by a count of 544 to 108 votes.[7] Levi P. Morton of New York was chosen as his running mate.[8]

 
Results of the 1888 election. Harrison won 233 of the 401 electoral votes and 47.8% of the popular vote.

Harrison's opponent in the general election was incumbent President Grover Cleveland. Harrison reprised a more traditional front-porch campaign, abandoned by his immediate predecessors; he received visiting delegations to Indianapolis and made ninety plus pronouncements from his home town.[9] The Republicans campaigned heavily in favor of protective tariffs, turning out protectionist voters in the important industrial states of the North. The election focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Harrison's home state of Indiana.[10] Harrison and Cleveland split these four states, with Harrison winning in New York and Indiana.[11] Voter turnout was 79.3%, reflecting a large interest in the campaign; nearly eleven million votes were cast.[12] Harrison received 90,000 fewer popular votes than Cleveland, but he carried the Electoral College 233 to 168.[13] Harrison was the third winning presidential candidate to lose the popular vote.

Although he had made no political bargains, his supporters had given many pledges upon his behalf. When Boss Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania heard that Harrison ascribed his narrow victory to Providence, Quay exclaimed that Harrison would never know "how close a number of men were compelled to approach...the penitentiary to make him President."[14] In congressional elections, the Republicans increased their membership in the House of Representatives by nineteen seats, winning control of the chamber.[15] The party also retained control of the Senate, giving one party unified control of Congress and the presidency for the first time since the 1874 elections. The Republican sweep allowed Harrison to pursue an ambitious legislative agenda in the resulting 51st United States Congress.[16]

Inauguration edit

 
Inauguration of Benjamin Harrison, March 4, 1889. Cleveland held Harrison's umbrella

Harrison was sworn into office on Monday, March 4, 1889 by Chief Justice Melville Fuller.[17] At 5' 6" tall, he was only slightly taller than Madison, the shortest president, but much heavier; he was the fourth (and last) president to sport a full beard[18] Harrison's Inauguration ceremony took place during a rainstorm in Washington D.C. Outgoing President Grover Cleveland attended the ceremony and held an umbrella over Harrison's head as he took the oath of office. Harrison's speech was brief – half as long as that of his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, whose speech holds the record for the longest inaugural address of a U.S. president.[17]

In his speech, Benjamin Harrison credited the nation's growth to the influences of education and religion, urged the cotton states and mining territories to attain the industrial proportions of the eastern states and promised a protective tariff. Concerning commerce, he said, "If our great corporations would more scrupulously observe their legal obligations and duties, they would have less call to complain of the limitations of their rights or of interference with their operations."[19] He called for the regulation of trusts, safety laws for railroad employees, aid to education, and funding for internal improvements.[16] Harrison also urged early statehood for the territories and advocated pensions for veterans, a statement that was met with enthusiastic applause. In foreign affairs, Harrison reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine as a mainstay of foreign policy, while urging modernization of the Navy and a merchant marine force. He gave his commitment to international peace through noninterference in the affairs of foreign governments.[20]

John Philip Sousa's Marine Corps band played at the Inaugural Ball inside the Pension Building with a large crowd attending.[21] After moving into the White House, Harrison noted, quite prophetically, "There is only a door – one that is never locked – between the president's office and what are not very accurately called his private apartments. There should be an executive office building, not too far away, but wholly distinct from the dwelling house. For everyone else in the public service there is an unroofed space between the bedroom and the desk."[22]

Administration edit

Cabinet edit

 
Harrison's cabinet in 1889
Front row, left to right: Harrison, William Windom, John Wanamaker, Redfield Proctor, James G. Blaine
Back row, left to right: William H. H. Miller, John W. Noble, Jeremiah M. Rusk, Benjamin F. Tracy
The Harrison cabinet
OfficeNameTerm
PresidentBenjamin Harrison1889–1893
Vice PresidentLevi P. Morton1889–1893
Secretary of StateJames G. Blaine1889–1892
John W. Foster1892–1893
Secretary of the TreasuryWilliam Windom1889–1891
Charles W. Foster1891–1893
Secretary of WarRedfield Proctor1889–1891
Stephen B. Elkins1891–1893
Attorney GeneralWilliam H. H. Miller1889–1893
Postmaster GeneralJohn Wanamaker1889–1893
Secretary of the NavyBenjamin F. Tracy1889–1893
Secretary of the InteriorJohn W. Noble1889–1893
Secretary of AgricultureJeremiah M. Rusk1889–1893

Harrison's cabinet choices alienated pivotal Republican operatives from New York to Pennsylvania to Iowa and prematurely compromised his political power and future.[23] He began by delaying the presumed nomination of James G. Blaine as Secretary of State so as to preclude Blaine's involvement in the formation of the administration, as had occurred in President Garfield's term.[24] Blaine and Harrison found common ground on most major policy issues, and Blaine played a major role in Harrison's administration.[25] In poor health, Blaine resigned from the cabinet in 1892, at which point he was replaced by John W. Foster, an experienced diplomat.[25] For the important position of Secretary of the Treasury, Harrison rejected Thomas C. Platt and Warner Miller, two powerful New York Republicans who fought for control of their state party. He instead selected William Windom, a native Midwesterner who lived in New York and who had served in the same position under Garfield.[26] New York Republicans were also represented by Benjamin F. Tracy, who was appointed Secretary of the Navy.[27] Former Governor Charles Foster of Ohio succeeded Windom upon the latter's death in in 1891.[25] Postmaster General John Wanamaker represented the powerful Pennsylvania Republicans, many of whom were disappointed that their state party did not receive a more prominent cabinet seat.[28] For the position of Secretary of the Agriculture, which had been established in the waning days of Cleveland's first presidency, Harrison appointed Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah M. Rusk.[29] John Noble, a railroad attorney with a reputation for incorruptibility, became the head of the scandal-plagued Department of the Interior.[30] Redfield Proctor, a native of Vermont who had played a key role in Harrison's nomination, was rewarded with the position of Secretary of War. Proctor resigned in 1891 to take a Senate seat, at which point he was replaced by Stephen B. Elkins.[30] Harrison's close friend and former law partner, William H. H. Miller, became Attorney General.[27] Senator Shelby Cullom's comment symbolizes Harrison's steadfast aversion to use federal positions for patronage: "I suppose Harrison treated me as well as he did any other Senator; but whenever he did anything for me, it was done so ungraciously that the concession tended to anger rather than please."[31]

Harrison's normal schedule provided for two full cabinet meetings per week, as well as separate weekly one-on-one meetings with each cabinet member.[32]

Judicial appointments edit

See also: List of federal judges appointed by Benjamin Harrison
 
Harrison appointed four Supreme Court justices, including David Josiah Brewer.

Harrison appointed four justices to the Supreme Court of the United States. The first was David Josiah Brewer, a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Brewer, the nephew of Justice Field, had previously been considered for a cabinet position.[33] Shortly after Brewer's nomination, Justice Matthews died, creating another vacancy. Harrison had considered Henry Billings Brown, a Michigan judge and admiralty law expert, for the first vacancy and now nominated him for the second.[33] For the third vacancy, which arose in 1892, Harrison nominated George Shiras. Shiras's appointment was somewhat controversial because his age—sixty—was older than usual for a newly appointed Justice.[33] Shiras also drew the opposition of Senator Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania because they were in different factions of the Pennsylvania Republican party, but his nomination was nonetheless approved.[33] Finally, at the end of his term, Harrison nominated Howell Edmunds Jackson to replace Justice Lamar, who died in January 1893. Harrison knew the incoming Senate would be controlled by Democrats, so he selected Jackson, a respected Tennessee Democrat with whom he was friendly to ensure his nominee would not be rejected.[33] Jackson's nomination was indeed successful, but he died after only two years on the Court.[33] The other Justices appointed by Harrison served past 1900, with Brewer the last to leave the Court, doing so in 1910.

Harrison signed the Judiciary Act of 1891, which abolished the circuit courts and created the courts of appeal. The act ended the practice of Supreme Court Justices "riding circuit," and the end of that custom combined with the creation of permanent intermediate appellate courts significantly reduced the workload faced by the Supreme Court.[34] Harrison appointed ten judges to the courts of appeal, two judges to the circuit courts, and 26 judges to the district courts. Because Harrison was in office when Congress eliminated the circuit courts in favor of the courts of appeals, he and Grover Cleveland were the only two Presidents to have appointed judges to both bodies.

Civil service reform and pensions edit

 
Political football

Civil service reform was a prominent issue following Harrison's election. Harrison had campaigned as a supporter of the merit system, as opposed to the spoils system.[35] Although some of the civil service had been classified under the Pendleton Act by previous administrations, Harrison spent much of his first months in office deciding on political appointments.[36] Congress was widely divided on the issue and Harrison was reluctant to address the issue in hope of preventing the alienation of either side. The issue became a political football of the time and was immortalized in a cartoon captioned "What can I do when both parties insist on kicking?"[37] Harrison appointed Theodore Roosevelt and Hugh Smith Thompson, both reformers, to the Civil Service Commission, but otherwise did little to further the reform cause.[38] Harrison largely ignored Roosevelt, who frequently called for an expansion of the merit system and complained about the administration of Postmaster General Wanamaker.[38]

Harrison quickly saw the enactment of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress.[39] In addition to providing pensions to disabled Civil War veterans (regardless of the cause of their disability), the Act depleted some of the troublesome federal budget surplus.[39] Pension expenditures reached $135 million under Harrison, the largest expenditure of its kind to that point in American history, a problem exacerbated by Pension Bureau commissioner James R. Tanner's expansive interpretation of the pension laws.[39] An investigation into the Pension Bureau by Harrison's Secretary of Interior John W. Noble found evidence of lavish and illegal handouts under Tanner.[40] Harrison, who privately believed that appointing Tanner had been a mistake, due to his apparent loose management style and tongue, asked Tanner to resign and replaced him with Green B. Raum.[41] Raum was also accused of accepting loan payments in return for expediting pension cases. [42] Harrison, having accepted a dissenting Congressional Republican investigation report that exonerated Raum, kept him in office for the rest of his administration.[42]

One of the first appointments Harrison was forced to reverse was that of James S. Clarkson as an assistant postmaster. Clarkson, who had expected a full cabinet position, began sabotaging the appointment from the outset, gaining the reputation for "decapitating a fourth class postmaster every three minutes". Clarkson himself stated, "I am simply on detail from the Republican Committee...I am most anxious to get through this task and leave." He resigned in September 1890.[41]

Tariff edit

 
Harrison and the Billion-Dollar Congress are portrayed as wasting the surplus in this cartoon from Puck.

Along with a stable currency, high tariffs were the central aspect of Harrison's economic policy. Harrison viewed high tariff levels as the key to ensuring a strong and equitable economy, since he thought that they could protect domestic manufacturing jobs against cheap, imported goods.[43] The tariff levels had been a major political issue since before the Civil War, and they had been the dominant matter of the 1888 election.[44] The high tariff rates had created a surplus of money in the Treasury, which led many Democrats (as well as the growing Populist movement) to call for lowering them.[45] Most Republicans preferred to maintain the rates, spend the surplus on internal improvements, and eliminate some internal taxes.[45] Republicans saw their victory in the 1888 election as a mandate, and a new tariff was the centerpiece of the party's domestic agenda, described by Socolofsky and Spetter as "the most ambitious legislative program of the late nineteenth century."[46]

Harrison took an active role in the tariff debate, hosting dinners parties in which he would cajole members of Congress for their support of the passage of a new tariff bill.[16] Representative William McKinley and Senator Nelson W. Aldrich introduced the McKinley Tariff, which sought to raise the tariff and make some rates intentionally prohibitive.[47] At Secretary of State James Blaine's urging, Harrison attempted to make the tariff more acceptable to other countries by urging Congress to add reciprocity provisions, which would allow the President to reduce rates when other countries reduced their own tariffs on American exports.[44] Harrison hoped that the reciprocity provisions would allow for the growth of U.S. exports.[48] The tariff was removed from imported raw sugar, and sugar growers in the United States were given a two cent per pound subsidy on their production.[47] Even with the reductions and reciprocity, the McKinley Tariff enacted the highest average rate in American history, and the spending associated with it contributed to the reputation of the Billion-Dollar Congress.[44] The reciprocity features of the bill delegated an unusually high amount of power to the president for the time, as the president was granted the power to unilaterally modify tariff rates.[44] The Harrison administration negotiated more than a dozen reciprocity agreements with European and Latin American nations in an attempt to expand U.S. trade.[49]

Antitrust laws and the currency edit

 
Senator John Sherman worked closely with Harrison, writing bills regulating monopolies and monetary policy.

Members of both parties were concerned with the growth of the power of trusts and monopolies, and one of the first acts of the 51st Congress was to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act, sponsored by Senator John Sherman of Ohio.[50] The Act passed by wide margins in both houses, and Harrison signed it into law.[50] The Sherman Act was the first Federal act of its kind, and marked a new use of federal government power.[51] While Harrison approved of the law and its intent, his administration was not particularly vigorous in enforcing it.[52] The Department of Justice was generally too understaffed to pursue complex antitrust cases, and enforcement was further hampered by the vague language of the act and narrow interpretation of judges.[53] However, the government successfully concluded a case during Harrison's time in office (against a Tennessee coal company), and initiated several other cases against trusts.[52]

One of the most volatile questions of the 1880s was whether the currency should be backed by gold and silver, or by gold alone.[54] The issue cut across party lines, with western Republicans and southern Democrats joining together in the call for the free coinage of silver, and both parties' representatives in the northeast holding firm for the gold standard.[55] Because silver was worth less than its legal equivalent in gold, taxpayers paid their government bills in silver, while international creditors demanded payment in gold, resulting in a depletion of the nation's gold supply.[55] Owing to worldwide deflation in the late 19th century, however, a strict gold standard had resulted in reduction of incomes without the equivalent reduction in debts, pushing debtors and the poor to call for silver coinage as an inflationary measure.[55]

The silver coinage issue had not been much discussed in the 1888 campaign and Harrison is said to have favored a bimetallist position.[50] However, his appointment of a silverite Treasury Secretary, William Windom, encouraged the free silver supporters.[56] Harrison attempted to steer a middle course between the two positions, advocating a free coinage of silver, but at its own value, not at a fixed ratio to gold.[57] This failed to facilitate a compromise between the factions. In July 1890, Senator Sherman achieved passage of a bill, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, in both houses.[57] Harrison thought that the bill would end the controversy, and he signed it into law.[58] The effect of the bill, however, was the increased depletion of the nation's gold supply, a problem that would persist until the second Cleveland administration resolved it.[59] The bill and the silver debate also split the Republican Party, leading to the rise of the Silver Republicans, an influential bloc of Western Congressmen who backed the free coinage of silver.[60] Many of these Silver Republicans would later join the Democratic Party.[60]

Civil rights edit

 
Harrison with Secretary Blaine and Representative Henry Cabot Lodge off the coast of Maine, 1889

In violation of the Fifteenth Amendment, many Southern states denied African-Americans the right to vote.[61] Harrison's Attorney General, William H. H. Miller, through the Justice Department, ordered the prosecutions for violation of voting rights in the South; however, white juries often failed to convict or indict violators.[62] Convinced that the "lily-white policy" of attempting to attract white Southerners to the Republican Party had failed, and believing that the disenfranchisement of African-American voters was immoral, Harrison sought to provide federal oversight of elections in the South. He endorsed the Federal Elections Bill, written by Representative Henry Cabot Lodge and Senator George Frisbie Hoar, which would have provided federal oversight over all elections to the House of Representatives. Southern opponents of the bill labeled it the "Force Bill," claiming that it would allow the U.S. Army to enforce voting rights, although the law did not contain such a provision. The bill passed the House in July 1890 on a largely party-line vote, but a vote on the bill was delayed in the Senate after Republican leaders chose to focus on other priorities such as the tariff. In January 1891, the Senate voted 35-34 to table consideration of the bill in favor of an unrelated bill backed by the Silver Republicans. While many Republicans had supported the bill, it also faced opposition from city-machine party bosses who feared oversight in their own wards, and many Republicans were willing to sacrifice the bill to focus on other priorities. The bill represented the last significant federal attempt to protect African-American civil rights until the 1930s. With the failure of the bill, several southern states were free to pass Jim Crow laws, resulting in the near-complete disenfranchisement of southern blacks.[63]

Following the failure to pass the bill, Harrison continued to speak in favor of African American civil rights in addresses to Congress.[64] 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."[65] Harrison also supported a bill proposed by Senator Henry W. Blair, which would have granted federal funding to schools regardless of the students' races.[66] Though similar bills had had strong Republican support during the 1880s, it was defeated in the Senate in 1890 after several Republicans voted against it.[67] Harrison also endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court ruling in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) that declared much of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional.[68]

1890 midterm elections edit

Main article: United States elections, 1890

By the end of the 51st Congress, Harrison and the Republican-controlled allies had passed one of the most ambitious peacetime domestic legislative programs in U.S. history,[69] but the results of the 1890 elections brought the pace of legislation to a sudden halt.[70] In the elections, Democrats took control of the House, ending the short-lived Republican majority in that chamber. Charles Frederick Crisp replaced Thomas Brackett Reed as Speaker of the House, and Republicans lost almost 100 seats. However, Republicans defended their Senate majority. The election saw the rise of the Populist Party, a third party consisting of farmers in the South and Midwest.[71]

National forests edit

In March 1891 Congress enacted and Harrison signed the Land Revision Act of 1891. This legislation resulted from a bipartisan desire to initiate reclamation of surplus lands that had been, up to that point, granted from the public domain, for potential settlement or use by railroad syndicates. As the law's drafting was finalized, Section 24 was added at the behest of Harrison by his Secretary of the Interior John Noble, which read as follows:

That the President of the United States may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof.[72]

Within a month of the enactment of this law Harrison authorized the first forest reserve, to be located on public domain adjacent to Yellowstone Park, in Wyoming. Other areas were so designated by Harrison, bringing the first forest reservations total to 22 million acres in his term.[73]

Harrison was also the first to give a prehistoric Indian Ruin, Casa Grande in Arizona, federal protection.[74]

Native American policy edit

During Harrison's administration, the Lakota Sioux, previously confined to reservations in South Dakota, grew restive under the influence of Wovoka, a medicine man, who encouraged them to participate in a spiritual movement called the Ghost Dance.[75] Many in Washington did not understand the predominantly religious nature of the Ghost Dance, and thought it was a militant movement being used to rally Native Americans against the government. On December 29, 1890, troops from the Seventh Cavalry clashed with the Sioux at Wounded Knee. The result was a massacre of at least 146 Sioux, including many women and children;[76] the dead Sioux were buried in a mass grave.[77] In reaction Harrison directed Major General Nelson A. Miles to investigate and ordered 3500 federal troops to South Dakota; the uprising was brought to an end.[75] Wounded Knee is considered the last major American Indian battle in the 19th century.[78] Harrison's general policy on American Indians was to encourage assimilation into white society and, despite the massacre, he believed the policy to have been generally successful.[79] This policy, known as the allotment system and embodied in the Dawes Act, was favored by liberal reformers at the time, but eventually proved detrimental to American Indians as they sold most of their land at low prices to white speculators.[80]

Technology and military modernization edit

 
The USS Texas, America's first battleship, built in 1892

During Harrison's time in office, the United States was continuing to experience advances in science and technology. Harrison was the earliest President whose voice is known to be preserved. That thirty-six-second recordingⓘ was originally made on a wax phonograph cylinder in 1889 by Gianni Bettini.[81] 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.[82]

The United States Navy fell into obsolescence following the Civil War, but reform and expansion had begun under President Arthur.[83] Nonetheless, when Harrison took office there were only two commissioned warships in the Navy. In his inaugural address he said, "construction of a sufficient number of warships and their necessary armaments should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care and perfection."[84] Harrison's support for naval expansion was aided and encouraged by several naval officers, who argued that the navy would be useful for protecting American trade projecting American power.[85] In 1890, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan published The Influence of Sea Power upon History, an influential work of naval strategy that called for naval expansion; Harrison strongly endorsed it, and Mahan was restored to his position of President of the Naval War College.[86] Harrison's Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy spearheaded the rapid construction of vessels, and within a year congressional approval was obtained for building of the warships Indiana, Texas, Oregon and Columbia. By 1898, with the help of the Carnegie Corporation, no less than ten modern warships, including steel hulls and greater displacements and armaments, had transformed the United States into a legitimate naval power. Seven of these had begun during the Harrison term.[87]

The United States Army had also been largely neglected since the Civil War, despite the continuing American Indian Wars. When Harrison took office, there were roughly 28,000 officers and enlisted men, and much of the equipment was inferior to that of European armies. Secretary of War Proctor sought to institute several reforms, including an improved diet and the granting of furloughs, resulting in a decline of the desertion rate. Promotions for officers began to be granted based on the branch of service (e.g. infantry or cavalry) rather than on a regimental basis, and those subject to promotion were required to pass examinations. The Harrison administration also re-established the position of United States Assistant Secretary of War to serve as the second-ranking member of the War Department. Harrison's reform efforts halved the desertion rate, but otherwise the army remained in largely the same state at the end of his tenure.[88]

Foreign policy edit

Latin America and Samoa edit

Harrison and Secretary of State Blaine were often not the most cordial of friends, but harmonized in an aggressive foreign policy and commercial reciprocity with other nations.[89] Perhaps most importantly, Blaine and Harrison shared the goal of replacing Britain as the dominant commercial power in Latin America.[90] Blaine's persistent medical problems warranted more of a hands-on effort by Harrison in the conduct of foreign policy. In San Francisco, while on tour of the United States in 1891, Harrison proclaimed that the United States was in a "new epoch" of trade and that the expanding navy would protect oceanic shipping and increase American influence and prestige abroad.[91] The First International Conference of American States met in Washington in 1889; Harrison set an aggressive agenda including customs and currency integration and named a bipartisan delegation to the conference, led by John B. Henderson and Andrew Carnegie. The conference failed to achieve any diplomatic breakthrough, due in large part to an atmosphere of suspicion fostered by the Argentinian delegation. It did succeed in establishing an information center that became the Pan American Union.[92] In response to the diplomatic bust, Harrison and Blaine pivoted diplomatically and initiated a crusade for tariff reciprocity with Latin American nations; the Harrison administration concluded eight reciprocity treaties among these countries.[93] On another front, Harrison sent Frederick Douglass as ambassador to Haiti, but failed in his attempts to establish a naval base there.[94]

In 1889, the United States, the United Kingdom and the German Empire were locked in a dispute over control of the Samoan Islands. The dispute had started in 1887 when the Germans tried to establish control over the island chain and President Cleveland responded by sending three naval vessels to defend the Samoan government. Harrison selected a bipartisan delegation that went to Berlin to negotiate an end to the stand-off, resulting in the Treaty of Berlin, which established a three-power protectorate in Samoa. Historian George H. Ryden's research indicates Harrison played a key role in determining the status of this Pacific outpost by taking a firm stand on every aspect of Samoa conference negotiations; this included selection of the local ruler, refusal to allow an indemnity for Germany, as well as the establishment of the three-power protectorate, a first for the U.S. These arrangements facilitated the future dominant power of the U.S. in the Pacific; Secretary of State Blaine played little part in the conference due to his ill health.[95]

European embargo of U.S. pork edit

Throughout the 1880s various European countries had imposed a ban on importation of United States pork out of an unconfirmed concern of trichinosis; at issue was over one billion pounds of pork products with a value of $80 million (annually). Harrison engaged Whitelaw Reid, minister to France, and William Walter Phelps, minister to Germany, to restore these exports for the country without delay. Harrison also successfully asked the congress to enact the Meat Inspection Act to eliminate the accusations of product compromise. The president also partnered with Agriculture Secretary Rusk to threaten Germany with retaliation – by initiating an embargo in the U.S. against Germany's highly demanded beet sugar. By September 1891 Germany relented, and was soon followed by Denmark, France and Austria-Hungary.[96]

Crises in Aleutian Islands and Chile edit

The first international crisis Harrison faced arose from disputed fishing rights on the Alaskan coast. Canada claimed fishing and sealing rights around many of the Aleutian Islands, in violation of U.S. law.[97] As a result, the United States Navy seized several Canadian ships.[97] In 1891, the administration began negotiations with the British that would eventually lead to a compromise over fishing rights after international arbitration, with the British government paying compensation in 1898[98]

In 1891, a diplomatic crisis emerged in Chile, otherwise known as the Baltimore Crisis. The American minister to Chile, Patrick Egan, granted asylum to Chileans who were seeking refuge during the 1891 Chilean Civil War. Egan, previously a militant Irish immigrant to the U.S., was motivated by a personal desire to thwart Great Britain's influence in Chile;[99] his action increased tensions between Chile and the United States, which began in the early 1880s when Secretary Blaine had alienated the Chileans in the War of the Pacific.

 
Attack on sailors from the USS Baltimore spawned the 1891 Chilean crisis.

The crisis began in earnest when sailors from the USS Baltimore took shore leave in Valparaiso and a fight ensued, resulting in the deaths of two American sailors and the arrest of three dozen others.[100] The Baltimore's captain, Winfield Schley, based on the nature of the sailors' wounds, insisted the sailors had been bayonet-attacked by Chilean police without provocation. With Blaine incapacitated, Harrison drafted a demand for reparations.[101] The Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Manuel Matta replied that Harrison's message was "erroneous or deliberately incorrect," and said that the Chilean government was treating the affair the same as any other criminal matter.[101]

Tensions increased to the brink of war – Harrison threatened to break off diplomatic relations unless the United States received a suitable apology, and said the situation required, "grave and patriotic consideration". The president also remarked, "If the dignity as well as the prestige and influence of the United States are not to be wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who in foreign ports display the flag or wear the colors."[102] The Navy was also placed on a high level of preparedness. [101] A recuperated Blaine made brief conciliatory overtures to the Chilean government which had no support in the administration; he then reversed course, joined the chorus for unconditional concessions and apology by the Chileans, who ultimately obliged, and war was averted. Theodore Roosevelt later applauded Harrison for his use of the "big stick" in the matter.[103][104]

Annexation of Hawaii edit

Hawaii commanded a strategic position in the Pacific, and the U.S. had reached a reciprocity treaty with the island nation in 1875.[105] In the last days of his administration, Harrison dealt with the issue of Hawaiian annexation. Following a coup d'état against Queen Liliuokalani, the new government of Hawaii led by Sanford Dole petitioned for annexation by the United States.[106] Harrison was interested in expanding American influence in Hawaii and in establishing a naval base at Pearl Harbor but had not previously expressed an opinion on annexing the islands.[107] The United States consul in Hawaii John L. Stevens recognized the new government on February 1, 1893 and forwarded their proposals to Washington. With just one month left before leaving office, the administration signed a treaty on February 14 and submitted it to the Senate the next day with Harrison's recommendation.[106] The Senate failed to act, and President Cleveland withdrew the treaty shortly after taking office.[108]

States admitted to the Union edit

When Harrison took office, no new states had been admitted to the Union in more than a decade, owing to Congressional Democrats' reluctance to admit states that they believed would send Republican members. Early in Harrison's term, however, the lame duck Congress passed bills that admitted four states to the union: North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889, Montana on November 8, and Washington on November 11.[109] The following year two more states held constitutional conventions and were admitted – Idaho on July 3 and Wyoming on July 10, 1890.[109] The initial Congressional delegations from all six states were solidly Republican, and played an important role in augmenting the Republican majority in the 51st Congress.[110] More states were admitted during Harrison's presidency than any other.

Vacations and travel edit

Harrison attended the three-day grand Centennial Celebration of the country in New York City on April 30, 1889. He made the following remarks "We have come into the serious but always inspiring presence of Washington. He was the incarnation of duty and he teaches us today this great lesson: that those who would associate their names with events that shall outlive a century can only do so by high consecration to duty. Self-seeking has no public observance or anniversary."[111]

The Harrisons made many trips out of the capital, which included speeches at most stops – including Philadelphia, New England, Indianapolis and Chicago. The President typically made his best impression speaking before large audiences, as opposed to more intimate settings.[112] The most notable of his presidential trips, theretofore unequaled, was a five-week tour of the west in the spring of 1891, aboard a lavishly outfitted train.[113] Harrison enjoyed a number of short trips out of the capital—usually for hunting—to nearby Virginia or Maryland.[114]

During the hot Washington summers, the Harrisons took refuge in Deer Park, Maryland and Cape May Point, New Jersey. In 1890, John Wanamaker joined with other Philadelphia devotees of the Harrisons and made a gift to them of a summer cottage at Cape May. Harrison, though appreciative, was uncomfortable with the appearance of impropriety; a month later, he paid Wanamaker $10,000 as reimbursement to the donors. Nevertheless, Harrison's opponents made the gift the subject of national ridicule, and Mrs. Harrison and the president were vigorously criticized.[115]

Election of 1892 edit

Main article: United States presidential election, 1892
 
1892 electoral vote results. Cleveland won the election with 277 of the 444 electoral votes and 46% of the popular vote.

The treasury surplus had evaporated and the nation's economic health was worsening – precursors to the eventual Panic of 1893.[116] Although Harrison had cooperated with Congressional Republicans on legislation, several party leaders withdrew their support for him because of his adamant refusal to give party members the nod in the course of his executive appointments. Specifically, Matthew Quay, Thomas Platt, Thomas Reed, and James Clarkson quietly organized the Grievance Committee, the ambition of which was to initiate a dump-Harrison offensive. They solicited the support of Blaine, without effect however, and Harrison in reaction resolved to run for re-election – seemingly forced to choose one of two options – "become a candidate or forever wear the name of a political coward".[117]

It was clear that Harrison would not be re-nominated unanimously.[118] Many of Harrison's detractors persisted in pushing for an incapacitated Blaine, though he announced that he was not a candidate in February 1892.[118] Some party leaders still hoped to draft Blaine into running, and speculation increased when he resigned at the 11th hour as Secretary of State in June.[119] At the convention in Minneapolis, Harrison prevailed on the first ballot, but encountered significant opposition, with Blaine and William McKinley both receiving votes on the lone ballot.[120] At the convention, Vice President Morton was dropped from the ticket, and was replaced by Ambassador Whitelaw Reid.

The Democrats renominated former President Cleveland, making the 1892 election a rematch of the one four years earlier. The tariff revisions of the past four years had made imported goods so expensive that now many voters shifted to the reform position.[121] Many westerners, traditionally Republican voters, defected to the Populist candidate, James Weaver, who promised free silver, generous veterans' pensions, and an eight-hour work day.[122] The effects of the suppression of the Homestead Strike rebounded against the Republicans as well, although the federal government did not take action.[122]

Harrison's wife Caroline began a critical struggle with tuberculosis earlier in 1892 and two weeks before the election, on October 25, it took her life.[123] Their daughter Mary Harrison McKee assumed the role of First Lady after her mother's death.[124] Mrs. Harrison's terminal illness and the fact that both candidates had served in the White House called for a low key campaign, and resulted in neither of the candidates actively campaigning personally.[125]

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.[126][127] Cleveland swept the four swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana, and also became the first Democrat since the Civil War to carry Wisconsin and Indiana.[128] Weaver had a strong showing for a third-party candidate, winning four Western states and taking 8.5% of the popular vote. In the congressional elections, Democrats retained control of the House and won a majority in the Senate. The resulting 53rd United States Congress was the only time between the Civil War and 1913 that Democrats had unified control of the presidency and both houses of Congress.

Historical reputation edit

File:Benjamin Harrison Memorial Statue.jpg
Benjamin Harrison Memorial Statue
Indianapolis, Indiana
Charles Niehaus & Henry Bacon, 1908

According to historian R. Hal Williams, Harrison had a "widespread reputation for personal and official integrity".[129] Closely scrutinized by Democrats, Harrison's reputation was largely intact when he left the White House.[129] Having an advantage few 19th Century Presidents had, Harrison's own party, the Republicans, controlled Congress, while his administration actively advanced a Republican program of a higher tariff, moderate control of corporations, protecting African American voting rights, a generous Civil War pension, and compromising over the controversial silver issue.[129] Historians have not raised "serious questions about Harrison's own integrity or the integrity of his administration." [129]

Following the Panic of 1893, Harrison became more popular in retirement.[130] His legacy among historians is scant, and "general accounts of his period inaccurately treat Harrison as a cipher".[131] More recently,

historians have recognized the importance of the Harrison administration—and Harrison himself—in the new foreign policy of the late nineteenth century. The administration faced challenges throughout the hemisphere, in the Pacific, and in relations with the European powers, involvements that would be taken for granted in the twentieth century.[131]

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.[132] The bi-partisan 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.[133] Harrison's support for African American voting rights and education would be the last significant attempts to protect civil rights until the 1930s.[133] Harrison's tenacity at foreign policy was emulated by politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt.[133]

References edit

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  114. ^ Socolofsky & Spetter, p. 166.
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  116. ^ Calhoun 2005, pp. 107, 126–127.
  117. ^ Socolofsky & Spetter, p. 81.
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  119. ^ Calhoun 2005, pp. 138–139.
  120. ^ Calhoun 2005, pp. 140–141.
  121. ^ Calhoun 2005, pp. 147–150.
  122. ^ a b Calhoun 2005, pp. 145–147.
  123. ^ Calhoun 2005, p. 149.
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  125. ^ Socolofsky & Spetter, pp. 198–199.
  126. ^ "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
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  131. ^ a b Socolofsky & Spetter, p. x.
  132. ^ Calhoun 2005, p. 166.
  133. ^ a b c Batten, p. 209

Books edit

Articles edit

  • Batten, Donna, ed. (2010). "Gale Encyclopedia of American Law". 5 (3 ed.). Detroit: 208–209. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Stuart, Paul (September 1977). "United States Indian Policy: From the Dawes Act to the American Indian Policy Review Commission". Social Service Review. 51 (3): 451–463. doi:10.1086/643524. JSTOR 30015511.
U.S. Presidential Administrations
Preceded by B. Harrison Presidency
1889–1893 		Succeeded by

Harrison, Benjamin

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