Benjamin Harrison

Biography

B. Harrison is born on August 20th, 1833 in North Bend, in the State of the Ohio. He is the grandson of W.H. Harrison, ninth president of the United States of America, the back grandson of the one of the signatory of the declaration of independence and his/her father was elected twice with the Senate. Private tutors ensure his primary education in the school built by his/her father for his 14 children. At 19 years, it is graduate Miami university with Oxford, Ohio. It begins its studies of right and is allowed with the bar of the State of Indiana from which he becomes secretary of the Supreme court. October 20th, 1853 he marries Caroline Laviana Scott Harrison, a friend of college, with which he has two children.

He engages in the army of the Union in August 1862 during the American Civil War and is demobilized in 1865 with the Brigadier general rank of . He occupies then several official functions of which that of secretary of the Supreme court of Indiana before being elected with the Sénat of 1881 to 1887. President Garfield offers a station in his government to him. He is charged with the territories of the United States (North Dakota and of the South, Montana, Washington and Idaho) from which he signs besides the admission in the Union as States when he is itself chair.

B. Harrison is 55 years old when he becomes the republican candidate with the presidential elections of 1888. It does not obtain the majority of the popular vote but is elected thanks to a vast majority of the Great Electors.

Presidency

1889

March 4th: nomination of Benjamin Harrison as a twenty-third chair of the United States of America.

March 23rd: Harrison signs a decree allowing the colonists (white) to settle in the territory of Oklahoma.

November 2nd, 8th and 11th: admission of four new States within the Union: North Dakota and of the South, Montana, Washington.

December: Beginning of the conference of the States of the American continent which will finish in 1890.

1890

Harrison starts a tour of more than: 15000 kilometers on the west coast during which he will make 140 speeches in 30 days.

July 3rd and 10th: admission of two new States within the Union: Idaho, Wyoming.

Harrison makes vote four very important laws: the law Sherman against the industrial conglomerates and for the promotion of competition, a law allowing to increase the quantity of currency in circulation which was intended to prevent the bankruptcy of many farmers, a law increasing the customs duties of protectionist nature which will have as a consequence the raising of prices, and finally a law granting a pension to war wounded of secession.

December 29th: last battle carried out by the American army against the Indians. This date marks the end of the conquest of the West and that of the redistribution of the grounds of the Indian tribes.

1892

January 1st: opening of the center of immigration of Elect Island, close to New York, which will become the point of passage of most of the immigrants during the XIXe century.

November: Harrison is again the candidate of the Republican party. He is beaten with the elections by the democratic candidate, former president Grover Cleveland, which is presented for the third time.

Foreign politics

Harrison is particularly proud of his voluntarist foreign politics. He organizes the first conference of the States of the American continent and creates an information center which will give rise to the Union of the States of the American continent. He places the Samoa islands under American protectorate and tries to make some in the same way with Hawaii. He uses the Navy to make pressure on the government of Chile and negotiates the fishing rights in the Bering Strait with Canada and the United Kingdom.

Interior policy

Harrison signs the first federal law regulating the industrial conglomerates, the law Sherman. Its objective is to exert a certain control on their activities but it will be really used only one decade later per Theodore Roosevelt. Its interventions on the economy, in particular the increase in the customs duties and the use of money-metal to beat currency are probably at the origin of the financial panic of 1893 and its defeat to the elections.

Policy concerning the civic rights, the minorities and immigration

Harrison supports the passage of a law guaranteeing the right to vote of the Blacks, in particular in the States of the South which try to impose criteria of education to be able to vote. He supports also assistance measures federal for the schooling of the Blacks.

Its mandate sees the end of the conquest of the West. The last battle between the American army and the Sioux ends in a massacre. The ground of the Indian tribes are redistributed and opened with the establishment of the white colonists.

Policy partisane

At the time of the countryside of 1888 Harrison agrees to discuss with all the groups which require it. He is elected thanks to the voice of the electoral College although the popular vote is in favor of the outgoing president, Grover Cleveland. This last will take its revenge later four years.

Reprocess

B. Harrison withdraws political life. It remarie on April 6th, 1896 with Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, the niece of his first wife died during her last electoral campaign It takes again its activity of lawyer and will be the lawyer Venezuela in the dispute of border which opposes it to the the United Kingdom in 1900. He dies one year later on March 13rd, 1901 at 67 years.

Anecdotes

Harrison receives his nomination the day of the hundredth birthday of that of George Washington what will be worth to him the nickname of “president of the centenary”.

Simple: Benjamin Harrison

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