Benjamin Harrison

• Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was

the 23rd President of the United States, serving one term from 1889 to
1893.
• Harrison was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis,
Indiana at the age of 21, where he became a prominent state
politician.
• During the American Civil War Harrison served as a Brigadier
General in the XX Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.
• After the war he unsuccessfully ran for the governorship of Indiana, but
was later appointed to the U.S. Senate from that state.
• Harrison, a Republican, was elected to the presidency in 1888,
defeating the Democratic incumbent, Grover Cleveland.
• He is the only president from the state of Indiana.
• His presidential administration is most remembered for its economic
legislation, including the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act,
and for annual federal spending that reached one billion dollars for the
first time.
• Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress", and used the issue,
along with the growing unpopularity of the high tariff, to defeat the
Republicans, both in the 1890 mid-term elections and in Harrison's bid
for reelection in 1892.
• He also saw the admittance of six states into the Union.
• After failing to win reelection in 1892, he returned to private life at his
home in Indianapolis where he remarried, wrote a book, and later
represented theRepublic of Venezuela in an international case against
the United Kingdom.
• In 1900, he traveled to Europe as part of the case and, after a brief
stay, returned to Indianapolis where he died the following year from
complications arising from influenza.
• On June 6, 1959, the United States Postal Service released a
12¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Harrison.
• After his marriage in 1853, Harrison returned to live on his father's
farm where he finished his law studies.
• In the same year, he inherited $800 after the death of an aunt, using
the money to move to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1854.
• He was admitted to the bar there and began practicing law in the office
of John H. Ray.
• The same year he became a crier for the Federal Court in Indianapolis,
making $2.50 per day.
• He was responsible for passing through the streets and declaring
announcements from the court.
• While in Indianapolis, Benjamin Harrison was both the first President of
the University Club, a private gentlemen's club, and the first President
of the Phi Delta Theta Alumni Club of Indianapolis, the fraternity's first
such club.
• Both clubs were still in existence in 2008.
• Harrison grew up in a Whig household and was himself a supporter of
Whig politics in his early life.
• He joined the Republican Party shortly after its formation in 1856 and
that year campaigned on behalf of the Republican presidential
candidate John C. Frémont.
• He won election to become Indianapolis City Attorney in the same
election, a position that paid an annual salary of $400.
• In 1858 Harrison entered into a law partnership, opening an office as
Wallace & Harrison.
• Harrison was the Republican candidate for the position of reporter of
the Indiana Supreme Court in 1860, his first foray into politics.
• Although this office was not political, he was an active supporter of his
party's platform.
• During the election he debated Thomas Hendricks, the Democratic
candidate for governor and future Vice President of the United States,
on behalf of the Republican Party.
• After his law partner William Wallace was elected county clerk in 1860,
Harrison opened a new firm with William Fishback, named Fishback &
Harrison, where he worked until his entry into the army.