President Van Buren hosted his successor at a White House dinner on February 13. [119] The doctor then gave him castor oil and medicines to induce vomiting, and diagnosed him with pneumonia in the right lung. He did give the longest inaugural speech ever one hour and 45 minutes. Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh's absence, and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation. Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed. He won the Electoral College by a landslide: 234 electoral votes to 60 for Van Buren. At Fort Meigs near the village of Toledo in Ohio, Harrisons forces withstood a siege by the British and their Native American allies led by Tecumseh. The popular vote was closer with Harrison getting 52.9 percent of the total. Although the Whig Party was in the minority in Illinios, Lincoln agreed with its policies and supported the party's [21], Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage, primarily because of her many pregnancies, yet she outlived William by 23 years, dying on February 25, 1864, at 88. [123], The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier. During his early military career, Harrison participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. Harrison told friends that he was so busy that he hardly had time to perform the necessary functions of nature., Harrison took daily walks around Washington, sometimes in the rain and cold. He would be promoted to the rank of major general in March 1813. As a last resort, a number of Native American "remedies" were tried, including one involving the use of live snakes. He was the first president-elect to arrive in the capital by train. He ran a successful horse-breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory. His critics called him His Accidency. Harrisons body lay in state for two days in the East Room of the White House. "[5] Matters eventually became cordial with the father-in-law, who later sold the Harrisons 160 acres (65ha) of land in North Bend, which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm. After funding for his education was discontinued in 1791, he joined the United States Army as a low-ranking officer. Learn about Old Tippecanoe's marches against Native Americans and brief term as president of the United States. On March 26, a team of doctors was summoned to treat the president for pneumonia, although he also displayed gastrointestinal symptoms. [105] He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government, and under no circumstance would he run for a second term. Harrison was hailed as a hero in the Battle of Tippecanoe and became known as Old Tippecanoe.. [133], Harrison's death called attention to an ambiguity in Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution regarding succession to the presidency. It left the former struck by Harrison's "deeply imbued principles of liberty". Contemporary presidents typically give speeches in the 2,000-3,000-word range. The Whig Ladies of Alexandria presented a pro-Harrison banner to the local Tippecanoe club, which carried it in a Harrison campaign parade. [137], Among Harrison's most enduring legacies is the series of treaties that he negotiated and signed with Indian leaders during his tenure as the Indiana territorial governor. He was also the first United States president to die in office, and a brief constitutional crisis They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory. "[5] Harrison was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), as witness to Wayne, the principal negotiator for the U.S.[12] Under the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Indians ceded a portion of their lands to the federal government, opening two-thirds of Ohio to settlement. Lucy Kenney of Fredericksburg was among the first women to be a paid political pamphleteer, writing two campaign pamphletson behalf of Harrison. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Webster had edited it for length. Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, a religious leader known as the Prophet who advocated a rejection of white culture and a return to a traditional way of life, began in 1808 recruiting a confederacy of tribes to a village known as Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River near present-day Lafayette, Indiana. I ask nothing more. Harrison's significance in presidential history does not lie in his brief term in office, but rather in the innovative campaign techniques designed by his party to secure him the office. [9], His father died in the spring of 1791, and he was placed in the care of Robert Morris, an intimate family friend in Philadelphia. As the day advanced, the procession made its appearance, coming slowly through the Avenue, carriage after carriage, in long succession, while thousands upon thousands followed on footall moving to the sound of melancholy music. Old Tip he wore a homespun coat, he had no ruffled shirt: wirt-wirt, [71][5], In 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army, assigning Harrison to an outlying post and giving control of the front to one of Harrison's subordinates. At age fifty-six, Harrison returned to his home in North Bend, Ohio. On January 26, 1841, Harrison left Cincinnati for the March 4 inauguration in Washington, D.C. On his 32nd In 1836, Vice President Martin Van Buren ran as the Democratic Party candidate to succeed Jackson. [142], Freehling refers to Harrison as "the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today". William Henry Harrison received a classical education at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he was a student from 1787 to 1790. President John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that Harrison, who he said had a lively and active but shallow mind, had become the greatest beggar and the most troublesome of all office-seekers. Nevertheless, on May 24, 1828, Adams named Harrison minister to Gran Colombia (which included present-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, and parts of Peru and Brazil). Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation, the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Harrison was promoted to captain in 1797 and, for a brief period, served as commander of Fort Washington, resigning from the army in June 1798. [57] Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. Sworn into office as president of the U.S. In fact, Harrison's condition had seriously weakened, and Cabinet members and family were summoned to the White Househis wife Anna had remained in Ohio due to her own illness. The Constitution clearly provided for the vice president to take over the "Powers and Duties of the said Office" in the event of a president's removal, death, resignation, or inability, but it was unclear whether the vice president formally became president of the United States, or simply temporarily assumed the powers and duties of that office, in a case of succession. [94][91][92], Harrison faced incumbent Van Buren as the sole Whig candidate in the 1840 election. Nebo, which is now the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial. William Henry Harrison becomes the commander of Fort Washington. He stepped into the barouche but the crowd pressed forward so impetuously, that the horses became frightened and reared frequently. ", "William Harrison: The American Franchise", "American TreasuresHarrison's Inauguration", "William Henry Harrison Inaugural Address", "William Harrison: March 4, 1841 Inaugural Address", "Letter from Harrison to R. Buchanan, Esq., March 10, 1841", "American History Series: The Brief Presidency of William Henry Harrison", "Pres. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [55] He donated $100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works, and later another $20 to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church. The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800. A group arrived in his office on March 16 to demand the removal of all Democrats from any appointed office, and Harrison proclaimed, "So help me God, I will resign my office before I can be guilty of such an iniquity! [116] A few days later, however, Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing reported to Harrison that federal funds were in such trouble that the government could not continue to operate until Congress' regularly scheduled session in December; Harrison thus relented, and proclaimed the special session on March 17, in the interests of "the condition of the revenue and finance of the country". His funeral on April 7 was the first for a sitting president. Harrison arrived in Washington on February 9, 1841, his sixty-eighth birthday. [43] The Territory's general assembly convened in 1810, and its anti-slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted. [120] Washington society had noticed his uncharacteristic absence from church on Sunday. In his address to the nation, Tyler did not give any personal consolation to Harrison's widow Anna or family members. Harrisons predecessor, Martin Van Buren, gave a speech of 3,800 words. In 1825, the Ohio Legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. FELLOW-CITIZENS: Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several Departments The speech is well over 8,000 words double that of any other. Anna Harrison, the only First Lady never to have lived in the White House, died in February 1864 and also was interred there. Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power, and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti-slavery population. [93] Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. He was the oldest man, at age 67, ever elected president up to that time, the last president born under British rule, and the first to die in officeafter only one months service. University of Kentucky, Copyright 2023. John Tyler (April 9, 1841), Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Charles Balthazar Julien Fvret de Saint-Mmin, William Henry Harrison 1840 presidential campaign, William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial, List of memorials to William Henry Harrison, List of presidents of the United States by previous experience, List of presidents of the United States who died in office, Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps, "William Henry Harrison: Life Before the Presidency", "Warren Harding and 5 other presidents who have faced 'love child' questions", "William Henry Harrison, 9th Pres. [32] The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and consisted of Ohio and eastern Michigan; the western section was named the Indiana Territory and consisted of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, a portion of western Michigan, and the eastern portion of Minnesota. Several monuments and memorial statues have been erected in tribute to Harrison. Delegates to the Whig Party convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominate William Henry Harrison as the 1840 presidential candidate, and former Virginia senator John Tyler as the vice presidential candidate. 01/17/2012 Book Details The president who served the shortest termjust a single monthbut whose victorious election campaign rewrote the rules for candidates seeking America's highest office William Henry Harrison died just thirty-one days after taking the oath of office in 1841. On April 9, Tyler gave a brief inaugural address. Many of them began to pull their weapons, representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town, which held a population of only 1,000. I bid farewell, if forever, fare thee well. Anna Harrison was in poor health and stayed home; she planned to join her husband in Washington in the spring. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, ending hopes of an Indian confederacy that could thwart westward expansion. Harrison named his cabinet and called for Congress to return on May 31 for a special session. [2] Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (17931799). [80] He arrived in Bogot on December 22, 1828, and found the condition of Colombia saddening. [5], Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he attended HampdenSydney College, a Presbyterian college in Virginia. [34][35] He had no authority to vote on legislative bills, but he was permitted to serve on a committee, to submit legislation, and to engage in debate. A brother, Carter Bassett Harrison, served six years in the House of Representatives. He died one month later of pneumonia, believed to have been brought on by prolonged exposure to the elements on his Inauguration Day. [119] The next day, Saturday, the doctor was called again, and arrived to find Harrison in bed with a "severe chill", after taking another early morning walk. [103] He intended to rely on the judgment of Congress in legislative matters, using his veto power only if an act were unconstitutional, and to reverse Jackson's spoils system of executive patronage. He attended Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County and the School of Medicine of the College of Philadelphia (todays University of Pennsylvania). Because her father objected to the match, the couple married in secret. [7][23], Professor Kenneth R. Janken, in his biography of Walter Francis White, claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African-American woman named Dilsia and gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal. The assertion is based upon the White family's oral history. At Fort Washington, Harrisons polish and coolness under fire impressed his commander, General Mad Anthony Wayne, who commanded the newly organized Legion of the United States, which had been formed to defend the countrys territorial claims against Indian tribes. President Thomas Jefferson reappoints William Henry Harrison governor of the Indiana Territory and later adds the District of Louisiana acquired in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France. He did not discuss the tariff and distribution. The first large Whig rally took place in Columbus, Ohio, on February 22, 1840, which was George Washingtons birthday, a traditional day for public celebrations and parades. [131][a] Tyler and his family moved into the White House one week after Harrison's funeral, before Harrison's 30 day time of mourning was over. He encouraged resistance by telling the tribes to pay white traders only half of what they owed and to give up all the white man's ways, including their clothing, muskets, and especially whiskey. All in all, Harrison committed to a weak presidency, deferring to "the First Branch", the Congress, in keeping with Whig principles.[105][104]. Some of Harrisons grown children lived in his house; one grandson born there was Benjamin Harrison, who in 1889 became the twenty-third president of the United States. Afterward he said that Harrison is as tickled with the Presidency as is a young woman with a new bonnet. Harrison joined Tyler in Richmond on February 22 to celebrate Washingtons birthday and then returned to his boyhood home of Berkeley to write his inauguration speech. William Henry Harrison's inaugural address lasted nearly two hours, but in the days before electronic media, oratory of such duration was common. He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes, with the nation acquiring millions of acres. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, the shortest presidency in United States history. He is the first president-elect to arrive in the capital by train. [32] In 1804, Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the District of Louisiana. [43], In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland, in tribute to the birds on the property. Behind the casket trotted the riderless Whitey, the symbol of a fallen hero. The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, a repudiation of Jackson's and Van Buren's policies, and the first and only formal articulation by Harrison of his approach to the presidency. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. [5] He was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1819 and served until 1821, having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820. [139] Harrison died nearly penniless, and Congress voted his wife Anna a presidential widow's pension of $25,000,[140] one year of Harrison's salary (equivalent to about $657,000 in 2021). [70] Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory. In Seneca Falls, New York, soon-to-be woman suffrage activist Amelia Bloomer helped her husband edit his Whig newspaper. [20] They honeymooned at Fort Washington, since Harrison was still on military duty. But Harrison, who had mounting debts, kept seeking higher-paying federal jobs. After hearing news of her husbands election, Anna Harrison said: I wish that my husbands friends had left him where he is, happy and contented in retirement.. Harrison served as general of the Army of the Northwest during the War of 1812 (18121815). In November 1791, at age 18, he enlisted in the army as an ensign in the 10th Regiment at Fort Washington near Cincinnati (in what is now Ohio). However, the death of his father caused Harrison to discontinue his studies. [97] Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College, 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. Harrison's concept of the presidency was very limited. Expand. President James Madison removed Winchester from command in September, and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits. There are public statues of him in downtown Indianapolis,[147] Cincinnati's Piatt Park,[148] the Tippecanoe County Courthouse,[149] Harrison County, Indiana,[150] and Owen County, Indiana. [119] On Friday, March 26, Harrison became ill with cold-like symptoms and sent for his doctor, Thomas Miller, though he told the doctor he felt better after having taken medication for "fatigue and mental anxiety". [86], About this time, he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison, and the two became friends. [32] Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth. Harrison was against devising financial schemes for the nation, rather he left that wholly to Congress. Exactly one month after taking the oath of office, Harrison was dead. Gen. James Winchester, whom Harrison had ordered to prepare to cross Lake Erie on the ice and surprise Fort Maiden, turned back to rescue the threatened American settlement at Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan), on the River Raisin, and there on January 22, 1813, was forced to surrender to Col. Henry A. Procter. Resisting the expansionism fostered by the treaties negotiated by Harrison, the Shawnee intertribal leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, who was known as the Prophet, organized an Indian uprising. W.H. Harrison then stood and declared: "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States, tells you, gentlemen, that, by God, John Chambers shall be governor of Iowa! John Symmes disapproved of the match despite Harrisons elite Virginia background because he had no occupation outside of the army and Symmes didnt want his daughter living the difficult life of a military wife in frontier forts. Webster attempted to press this decision at a March 25 cabinet meeting, and Harrison asked him to read aloud a handwritten note, which said simply "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States". The Whigs planned a traditional presidential campaign until a political attack forever changed campaigning. [2][6] He studied there for three years, receiving a classical education that included Latin, Greek, French, logic, and debate. The White House state rooms were still hung with black mourning crapes. They move into a log cabin on the Ohio River near Cincinnati. His army defeated the British, and Tecumseh was killed, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. The official cause of death was pneumonia. [5] Judge Symmes' doubts about him persisted, as he wrote to a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied. Harrison's daughter-in-law, Jane Irwin Harrison, widow of Harrison's son, had served as hostess of the White House in Anna's place while Harrison was President. Soon thereafter, funds were cut off for Harrisons schooling, and at age eighteen he joined the First Infantry of the U.S. Army as an ensign after receiving a recommendation from Virginia governor Henry Light-Horse Harry Lee. WebWilliam Henry Harrison was the first Whig to enter office, and the first President to die in office. He is the youngest man to hold the office to date and the first vice president to assume office after a president's death. Despite this, the contretemps continued until the president's death. Congress. Harrisons slogan, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, referring to his running mate, former U.S. senator from Virginia John Tyler, became one of the most famous campaign slogans. He and Clay had disagreed over the necessity of such a session, and Harrison's cabinet proved evenly divided, so the president initially vetoed the idea. A rope was brought, and attached to the carriage, by which the people drew it to the Marshall House. [22] The match was advantageous for Harrison, as he eventually exploited his father-in-law's connections with land speculators, which facilitated his departure from the army. . [5], Harrison was promoted to lieutenant after Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne took command of the western army in 1792, following a disastrous defeat under Arthur St. WebWilliam Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 April 4, 1841) was the 9th president of the United States. On April 4, 1841, having only served 31 days in office, President William Henry Harrison died. [76] President Madison appointed Harrison in June 1815 to help in negotiating a second treaty with the Indians that became known as the Treaty of Springwells, in which the tribes ceded a large tract of land in the west, providing additional land for American purchase and settlement. [21] Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne, sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family. In 1790, he entered what is now the University of Pennsylvania medical school in Philadelphia to study under Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He is assigned to Fort Washington in the village of Cincinnati in the future Ohio territory. [145] Harrison's grandson Benjamin Harrison of Indiana served as the 23rd president from 1889 to 1893, making William and Benjamin Harrison the only grandparent-grandchild pair of presidents.[146]. William Henry Harrison, our ninth president, was the first to have an inaugural parade, in 1841. They cast him as a provincial, out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider" than attend to the administration of the country. [73][74] After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that Armstrong had mistreated him during his military campaign and that his resignation was justified. Harrison grew up among the elite of Virginia. "[83] He also cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey, but closed it after he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers. WebWilliam Henry Harrison's inaugural address lasted nearly two hours, but in the days before electronic media, oratory of such duration was common. Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan marveled that the people had abandoned their ordinary business for the purpose of electioneering. At a rally in Richmond, a pickpocket being marched off to jail jumped on a box to deliver an impromptu speech for Old Tippecanoe. 100 Charlottesville, VA 22903 (434) 924-3296. WebWilliam Henry Harrison delivered the longest Inaugural address, at 8,445 words, on March 4, 1841a bitterly cold, wet day. His farm stretched over 2,800 acres and the original log cabin had been expanded to a twenty-two-room home to house his growing familythe Harrisons had ten children, and Anna Harrison was often in poor health because of frequent pregnancies. On December 4, 1839, the Whigs opened their first convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to choose a nominee for the 1840 presidential race. General William Henry Harrison leads American troops to victory over the British and their Native American allies in the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812. With his offensive operations having been thus checked, Harrison accomplished nothing that summer except to hold in check Procter, who besieged him at Fort Meigs (May 15), the American advance post after the disaster at the River Raisin. The following year Harrisons mother died. It was Harrisons ambition to become governor of the reconstituted, more-populous eastern portion of the territory. This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts. William Henry Harrison, (born February 9, 1773, Charles City county, Virginia [U.S.]died April 4, 1841, Washington, D.C., U.S.), ninth president of the United [111], Clay was not the only one who hoped to benefit from Harrison's election. Vice President Tyler rushed back from his Williamsburg house and was sworn in as the tenth president of the United States, becoming the first vice president to assume the presidency following the death of the president. [151] Numerous counties and towns also bear his name. Harrison rose to the rank of captain and in 1796 became the commander of Fort Washington. [11], On August 16, 1791, within 24 hours of meeting Lee, Harrison, age 18, was commissioned as an ensign in the Army and assigned to the First American Regiment. The house was his military headquarters from 1813 to 1814. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In his time as president, he delivered the longest inaugural speech in US history, followed by a swift and permanent exit from life and political office. "[97], Harrison came from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, yet his campaign promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style popularized by Andrew Jackson, while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy elitist.
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