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  Harrison, William Henry
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationWhig  
<-  1840-01-01  
 
NameWilliam Henry Harrison
Address2 Cliff Road
North Bend, Ohio , United States
EmailNone
WebsiteNone
Born February 09, 1773
DiedApril 04, 1841 (68 years)
ContributorJake
Last ModifedJuan Croniqueur
Dec 20, 2023 09:54pm
Tags Army - Presbyterian -
Info“Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of two thousand a year on him, and my word for it,” a Democratic newspaper foolishly gibed, “he will sit … by the side of a ‘sea coal’ fire, and study moral philosophy. ” The Whigs, seizing on this political misstep, in 1840 presented their candidate William Henry Harrison as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic champagne-sipping Van Buren.

Harrison was in fact a scion of the Virginia planter aristocracy. He was born at Berkeley in 1773. He studied classics and history at Hampden-Sydney College, then began the study of medicine in Richmond.

Suddenly, that same year, 1791, Harrison switched interests. He obtained a commission as ensign in the First Infantry of the Regular Army, and headed to the Northwest, where he spent much of his life.

In the campaign against the Indians, Harrison served as aide-de-camp to General “Mad Anthony” Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, which opened most of the Ohio area to settlement. After resigning from the Army in 1798, he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory, was its first delegate to Congress, and helped obtain legislation dividing the Territory into the Northwest and Indiana Territories. In 1801 he became Governor of the Indiana Territory, serving 12 years.

His prime task as governor was to obtain title to Indian lands so settlers could press forward into the wilderness. When the Indians retaliated, Harrison was responsible for defending the settlements.

The threat against settlers became serious in 1809. An eloquent and energetic chieftain, Tecumseh, with his religious brother, the Prophet, began to strengthen an Indian confederation to prevent further encroachment. In 1811 Harrison received permission to attack the confederacy.

While Tecumseh was away seeking more allies, Harrison led about a thousand men toward the Prophet’s town. Suddenly, before dawn on November 7, the Indians attacked his camp on Tippecanoe River. After heavy fighting, Harrison repulsed them, but suffered 190 dead and wounded.

The Battle of Tippecanoe, upon which Harrison’s fame was to rest, disrupted Tecumseh’s confederacy but failed to diminish Indian raids. By the spring of 1812, they were again terrorizing the frontier.

In the War of 1812 Harrison won more military laurels when he was given the command of the Army in the Northwest with the rank of brigadier general. At the Battle of the Thames, north of Lake Erie, on October 5, 1813, he defeated the combined British and Indian forces, and killed Tecumseh. The Indians scattered, never again to offer serious resistance in what was then called the Northwest.

Thereafter Harrison returned to civilian life; the Whigs, in need of a national hero, nominated him for President in 1840. He won by a majority of less than 150,000, but swept the Electoral College, 234 to 60.

When he arrived in Washington in February 1841, Harrison let Daniel Webster edit his Inaugural Address, ornate with classical allusions. Webster obtained some deletions, boasting in a jolly fashion that he had killed “seventeen Roman proconsuls as dead as smelts, every one of them.”

Webster had reason to be pleased, for while Harrison was nationalistic in his outlook, he emphasized in his Inaugural that he would be obedient to the will of the people as expressed through Congress.

But before he had been in office a month, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia. On April 4, 1841, he died — the first President to die in office — and with him died the Whig program.

[Link]

JOB APPROVAL POLLS
DateFirmApproveDisapproveDon't Know
06/13/2007-06/24/2007 Rasmussen Reports 21.00% ( 0.0) 16.00% ( 0.0) 63.00% ( 0.0)

BOOKS
Title Purchase Contributor

EVENTS
Start Date End Date Type Title Contributor

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION
Importance? 9.33330 Average

FAMILY
Wife Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison 00, 1795-Apr 04, 1841
Daughter Elizabeth "Betsey" Bassett Harrison Short 1796-1846
Son John Cleves Symmes Harrison 1798-1830
Daughter Lucy Singleton Harrison Este 1800-1826
Son William Henry Harrison, Jr. 1802-1838
Son John Scott Harrison 1804-1878
Grandson Benjamin Harrison 1833-1901
Son Benjamin Harrison 1806-1840
Daughter Mary Symmes Harrison Thornton 1809-1842
Son Carter Bassett Harrison 1811-1839
Daughter Anna Tuthill Harrison Taylor 1813-1845
Son James Findlay Harrison 1814-1817
Father Benjamin Harrison 1726-1791
Brother Carter B. Harrison 1756-1808
Mother Elizabeth Harrison 1730-1792
Grandfather William Bassett IV 1708-1744
Uncle Burwell Bassett 1734-1793
1st Cousin Burwell Bassett 1764-1841
Father In-Law John C. Symmes 1742-1814

INFORMATION LINKS
Congressional Gold Medal Recipient William Henry Harrison  Discuss
President William Henry Harrison Inaugural Address March 4, 1841  Discuss
RACES
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  11/19/1840 TN US President Won 55.66% (+11.32%)
  11/19/1840 VT US President Won 63.88% (+28.42%)
  11/13/1840 RI US President Won 60.40% (+22.59%)
  11/12/1840 NC US President Won 57.68% (+15.36%)
  11/10/1840 ME US President Won 50.12% (+0.44%)
  11/10/1840 DE US President Won 54.99% (+10.09%)
  11/09/1840 AL US President Lost 45.62% (-8.77%)
  11/09/1840 MA US President Won 57.63% (+16.54%)
  11/04/1840 NJ US President Won 51.74% (+3.59%)
  11/04/1840 NY US President Won 51.18% (+3.00%)
  11/03/1840 LA US President Won 59.73% (+19.46%)
  11/02/1840 AR US President Lost 43.58% (-12.83%)
  11/02/1840 CT US President Won 55.50% (+11.09%)
  11/02/1840 IN US President Won 55.79% (+11.61%)
  11/02/1840 NH US President Lost 43.88% (-10.78%)
  11/02/1840 KY US President Won 64.20% (+28.40%)
  11/02/1840 MI US President Won 51.71% (+4.14%)
  11/02/1840 MD US President Won 53.83% (+7.66%)
  11/02/1840 GA US President Won 55.78% (+11.55%)
  11/02/1840 MS US President Won 53.43% (+6.86%)
  11/02/1840 VA US President Lost 49.35% (-1.30%)
  11/02/1840 IL US President Lost 48.91% (-2.00%)
  11/02/1840 MO US President Lost 43.68% (-12.63%)
  10/30/1840 PA US President Won 49.98% (+0.08%)
  10/30/1840 OH US President Won 54.10% (+8.54%)
  12/07/1839 US President - W Convention Won 46.39% (+14.11%)
  11/14/1838 US President - AM Convention Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  12/07/1836 US President Lost 24.83% (-32.99%)
  11/23/1836 US President National Vote Lost 36.63% (-14.19%)
  11/23/1836 RI US President Lost 47.77% (-4.44%)
  11/17/1836 NJ US President Won 50.53% (+1.05%)
  11/15/1836 VT US President Won 59.81% (+19.81%)
  11/10/1836 NC US President Lost 0.00% (-53.40%)
  11/07/1836 CT US President Lost 49.35% (-1.30%)
  11/07/1836 IL US President Lost 45.31% (-9.38%)
  11/07/1836 IN US President Won 55.55% (+11.09%)
  11/07/1836 KY US President Won 52.50% (+5.00%)
  11/07/1836 ME US President Lost 38.74% (-19.70%)
  11/07/1836 MD US President Won 53.72% (+7.45%)
  11/07/1836 NH US President Lost 24.99% (-50.03%)
  11/07/1836 DE US President Won 53.24% (+6.54%)
  11/07/1836 NY US President Lost 45.37% (-9.25%)
  11/04/1836 PA US President Lost 48.82% (-2.37%)
  11/04/1836 OH US President Won 52.10% (+4.20%)
  11/02/1836 MI US President Lost 35.51% (-28.99%)
  08/01/1836 US President - W Nominees Won 25.00% (+0.00%)
  05/04/1836 US President - AM Convention Lost 0.00% (-100.00%)
  02/24/1836 VT US President - AM Convention Won 59.43% (+44.00%)
  12/17/1835 PA US President - AM Convention Won 73.55% (+49.59%)
  05/24/1828 US Ambassador to Colombia Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  05/15/1828 President Pro Tempore Lost 28.89% (-28.89%)
  05/20/1826 President Pro Tempore Lost 13.73% (-27.45%)
  02/01/1825 OH US Senate Won 42.65% (+10.29%)
  10/08/1822 OH District 01 Lost 47.15% (-5.69%)
  10/10/1820 OH Governor Lost 8.90% (-62.41%)
  10/08/1816 OH District 01 Won 57.19% (+33.19%)
  10/08/1816 OH District 01 - Special Election Won 58.64% (+27.61%)
  05/13/1800 IN Territorial Governor Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  10/03/1799 NW Territorial Delegate - Initial Election Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
ENDORSEMENTS