Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was born on August 20, 1833 on a farm by the Ohio River below Cincinnati. He attended Miami University in Ohio and read law in Cincinnati. 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, Caroline's father performed the ceremony. They then moved to Indianapolis, where he practiced law and campaigned for the Republican Party.
The Harrisons had two children, Russell Benjamin Harrison, and Mary "Mamie" Scott Harrison. After the Civil War--he was Colonel of the 70th Volunteer Infantry--Harrison became a pillar of Indianapolis, enhancing his reputation as a brilliant lawyer. The Democrats defeated him for Governor of Indiana in 1876 by unfairly stigmatizing him as "Kid Gloves" Harrison. But without letting this defeat him he served in the United States Senate, where he championed Indians, homesteaders, and Civil War veterans.
In the Presidential election of 1889, Harrison received 100,000 fewer popular votes than Cleveland, but carried the Electoral College 233 to 168. Although Harrison had made no political bargains, his supporters had given innumerable pledges upon his behalf. When Boss Matt 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."
Harrison was proud of the vigorous foreign policy which he helped shape. The first Pan American Congress met in Washington in 1889, establishing an information center which later became the Pan American Union. At the end of his administration Harrison submitted to the Senate a treaty to annex Hawaii; to his disappointment, President Cleveland later withdrew it. Substantial appropriation bills were signed by Harrison for internal improvements, naval
Benjamin Harrison was born on August 20, 1833 on a farm by the Ohio River below Cincinnati. He attended Miami University in Ohio and read law in Cincinnati. 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, Caroline's father performed the ceremony. They then moved to Indianapolis, where he practiced law and campaigned for the Republican Party.
The Harrisons had two children, Russell Benjamin Harrison, and Mary "Mamie" Scott Harrison. After the Civil War--he was Colonel of the 70th Volunteer Infantry--Harrison became a pillar of Indianapolis, enhancing his reputation as a brilliant lawyer. The Democrats defeated him for Governor of Indiana in 1876 by unfairly stigmatizing him as "Kid Gloves" Harrison. But without letting this defeat him he served in the United States Senate, where he championed Indians, homesteaders, and Civil War veterans.
In the Presidential election of 1889, Harrison received 100,000 fewer popular votes than Cleveland, but carried the Electoral College 233 to 168. Although Harrison had made no political bargains, his supporters had given innumerable pledges upon his behalf. When Boss Matt 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."
Harrison was proud of the vigorous foreign policy which he helped shape. The first Pan American Congress met in Washington in 1889, establishing an information center which later became the Pan American Union. At the end of his administration Harrison submitted to the Senate a treaty to annex Hawaii; to his disappointment, President Cleveland later withdrew it. Substantial appropriation bills were signed by Harrison for internal improvements, naval