University of Virginia Library

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON,

Ninth President of the United States, was born February 9, 1773,
and died April 4, 1841, in his 69th year.

On the banks of the James river, in Charles City county, Virginia,
lies the beautiful estate called Berkeley, for several generations the
home of the Harrisons. Here was born Benjamin Harrison, signer
of the Declaration of Independence, and his third son was William
Henry Harrison.

He received his scholastic education at Hampden-Sidney College,
and then began the study of medicine in Philadelphia. But about
that time an army was gathering to be sent against the Indians of the
Northwest, and young Harrison displayed an inclination toward military
life. At the age of nineteen he received from President Washington
an ensign's commission, and joined the army, under General
St. Clair. In 1792 he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and in 1794 he
fought under "Mad Anthony" Wayne, whose aid-de-camp he became.

In 1795, Harrison was commissioned captain and placed in command
at Fort Washington, now the site of Cincinnati. Here he was joined in
marriage with a daughter of John Cleves Symmes, a pioneer in that

locality, who first laid out the tract of country on which Cincinnati now
stands. Harrison's wife survived him more than twenty years, dying at
their home in North Bend, Ohio, February 26, 1864.

In 1797, Harrison was appointed secretary of the Northwestern Territory,
and resigned his military commission. Two years later, he was
elected the first delegate to Congress from the territory. General St. Clair
was then governor of the territory, which included the present States of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.

In 1801 the Northwestern Territory was divided, Indiana was erected
into a separate territorial government, embracing what is now the States of
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and William Henry Harrison
was appointed first governor of the new territory.

By consecutive re-appointments Harrison was continued chief magistrate
of Indiana until 1813. During this time he also held the official position
of commissioner of Indian affairs, and concluded thirteen important treaties
with the different Northwestern tribes. His knowledge of the Indian
character and the respect with which he was regarded by them on account
of his fighting qualities, enabled him to conduct these treaties greatly to
the advantage of the government.

Before the expiration of his last two years' service as governor, Harrison
had again distinguished himself by his military skill, and was again
embarked upon a military career. Among his other achievements was the
successful resistance of his troop of 800 men against a night attack of the
followers of Tecumseh, led on and incited by his brother, the Prophet.
This was the engagement on the night of the 6th and morning of the 7th
of November, 1811, made famous in subsequent history and song as the
"Battle of Tippecanoe."

As early as the spring of 1810 the hostile preparations of the Indians
of the Northwest, under direction of Tecumseh and his brother, induced
Governor Harrison to call them to account. In August they met the governor
in council at Vincennes, where the appearance of 700 disciplined
troop of militia somewhat abated the ardor of the brothers for an immediate
conflict. In the following year, however, Tecumseh succeeded in
forming a league of the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks against the
whites, and Harrison, using the discretionary power vested in him, gathered
a force from his own territory and from Kentucky, at Vincennes,
and late in September, 1811, marched up the Wabash valley toward the
town of the Prophet, near the junction of Tippecanoe creek and the
Wabash river. On the way he built a fort near the site of the present
city of Terre Haute, which was called Fort Harrison.

In the beginning of November, the governor and his troops encamped
on what became the battle-field of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh had gone south
to arouse the Indians of Florida, and the Prophet rashly undertook to give
battle to Harrison, believing the camp could be surprised and an easy and

bloody victory given his deluded followers. The result made Harrison
the popular hero of Tippecanoe.

Early in 1812, Harrison was brevetted major-general in the Kentucky
militia, and later in the same year, in September, was appointed brigadier
general of the regular United States army, with command of the Northwestern
division. In 1813, he received commission as major-general of
the regular army.

His services in the war with Great Britain were continued until 1814,
during which time the battle of the Thames, and other victories in the
lake country, were added to his laurels. In consequence of a misunderstanding
with Armstrong, secretary of war in 1814, General Harrison resigned
his commission, and retired to his farm at North Bend.

He, however, served the government as Indian commissioner in negotiating
the treaties of peace, and in 1816, resumed public life as member
of Congress, from the Cincinnati district. After serving in the House
three years, he was chosen, in 1819, to the State Senate of Ohio, and
served in that position five years.

In 1824 he became a member of the United States Senate from Ohio,
and was given the chairmanship of the military commission. In 1828
John Quincy Adams appointed him minister to Colombia, South America,
but Jackson recalled him during the first year of his administration.

For the twelve succeeding years General Harrison lived in private life,
his only public functions in that time being the discharge of the
duties of clerk of the court of Hamilton county, Ohio. In 1836 the
Whig party made him their candidate for the chief magistracy, and he
received 73 electoral votes. Van Buren, the Democratic candidate, and
the protege of the retiring president, Jackson, was elected; but the financial
depression which accompanied his administration rendered it unpopular,
and gave the Whigs an opportunity to gain the next election.

December 4, 1839, General Harrison received the nomination from the
Whig party, and the canvass which followed was the most remarkable one
that had been witnessed in American politics to that date. It was the
"log cabin and hard cider" campaign; the "Tippecanoe and Tyler too"
campaign. The press and politicians who rallied about Van Buren
brought forward as a slur against Harrison that he lived in a log cabin and
drank nothing but hard cider. The friends of Harrison caught up the
implied reproach and made it their rallying cry. Their political meetings
were held in halls on whose walls were inscribed the words, "log
cabin and hard cider," their processions were headed by banners bearing
the inscription, and accompanied by miniature log cabins borne in teams
or on the shoulders of Harrison supporters.

A wave of popular enthusiasm swept the country, landing William
Henry Harrison in the White House, March 4, 1841, with 234 electoral
votes, and stranding Martin Van Buren at Kinderhook, he having
received only 60 electoral votes.

The new president, a man of slender constitution and now almost three
score and ten years of age, entered upon his presidential duties after this
exciting campaign, only to fall a victim to an illness which in eight days
from its first appearance culminated in his death just one month from the
day on which he took the oath of office.