William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison
Born	William Henry Harrison 9 2, 1773
Birthplace	Charles City County, Virginia, British America
Died	Template:Death date and age Washington, D.C., United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Military officer, politician
Title	9th President of the United States
Known for	Ninth President of the United States; shortest presidential term in U.S. history (31 days); Battle of Tippecanoe; Battle of the Thames
Education	Hampden–Sydney College; University of Pennsylvania (attended)
Spouse(s)	Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison
Children	10
Awards	Congressional Gold Medal (for the Battle of the Thames)

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth President of the United States from March 4 to April 4, 1841. His presidency, lasting only 31 days, remains the shortest in American history, and he was the first president to die in office. A scion of the prominent Harrison family of Virginia, he was the son of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia, and the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, who would become the 23rd president. Harrison's career spanned military service during the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe" for his role at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. His political career included service as the first governor of the Indiana Territory, a member of the United States House of Representatives, a United States senator from Ohio, and minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia. In 1840, he won the presidency on the Whig Party ticket with the famous campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," defeating incumbent Martin Van Buren. Harrison delivered a lengthy inaugural address on a cold, wet day and fell gravely ill shortly thereafter, dying on April 4, 1841. His death precipitated a constitutional crisis over presidential succession that was not fully resolved until the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967. He was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies.

Early Life

William Henry Harrison was born on February 9, 1773, at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, a tidewater estate along the James River. He was the youngest of seven children born to Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth Bassett Harrison. His father was a prominent planter and political figure who served in the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and served as governor of Virginia from 1781 to 1784. The Harrison family was among the most established in Virginia's colonial aristocracy, tracing its lineage to early English settlers in the colony.

Harrison grew up on the family plantation during the tumultuous years of the American Revolution and the early republic. His upbringing was shaped by the political culture of Virginia's planter class, and he was exposed from a young age to the ideals of republican government. The Berkeley Plantation, where he was born, had been in the Harrison family for generations and would later become notable as the site where "Taps" was composed during the Civil War.

Benjamin Harrison V died in 1791, when William was eighteen years old. The loss of his father influenced the trajectory of Harrison's life significantly. Although he had initially studied medicine, he abandoned that course after his father's death and instead pursued a military career, a decision that would define much of his subsequent public life.

Education

Harrison received his early education through private tutoring at Berkeley Plantation, as was customary for children of the Virginia gentry. In 1787, at the age of fourteen, he enrolled at Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia, where he studied classics and history for approximately three years. His father, who valued education, subsequently directed him toward the study of medicine, and Harrison moved to Richmond, Virginia, to study under Dr. Andrew Leiper before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia to study medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the foremost physicians in the early republic.

Harrison's medical studies were cut short following the death of his father in 1791. With diminished financial resources and a desire to pursue a different path, he obtained a commission as an ensign in the First Infantry of the United States Army in August 1791, at the age of eighteen. This decision marked the end of his formal education and the beginning of his military career on the northwestern frontier.

Career

Military Service in the Northwest Indian War

Harrison's military career began in earnest when he traveled to the Northwest Territory in 1791, joining the forces engaged in the ongoing conflict with Native American confederacies in the Ohio Valley. He served under General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and quickly distinguished himself as a capable junior officer. In 1794, Harrison participated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a decisive American victory near present-day Toledo, Ohio, that effectively ended the Northwest Indian War. The subsequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened vast tracts of the Northwest Territory to American settlement.

Harrison rose to the rank of captain during his frontier service and served as aide-de-camp to General Wayne. His experiences during this period gave him an intimate knowledge of frontier conditions, Native American diplomacy, and the challenges of governing newly acquired territories—knowledge that would prove valuable in his later political career.

Secretary of the Northwest Territory and Congressional Delegate

In 1798, Harrison resigned his military commission and was appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory by President John Adams, serving under Governor Arthur St. Clair. In this capacity, he acted as the territory's chief administrative officer in the governor's absence. The following year, in 1799, the territorial legislature elected him as the Northwest Territory's non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives. Harrison served in this role from October 1799 to May 1800, during which he successfully championed the Harrison Land Act of 1800, which made it easier for settlers to purchase land in the Northwest Territory by allowing purchases of smaller tracts and on credit terms.

Governor of the Indiana Territory

In 1800, when Congress divided the Northwest Territory, President John Adams appointed Harrison as the first governor of the newly created Indiana Territory, a vast administrative unit that initially encompassed present-day Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota. Harrison assumed office on January 10, 1801, at the age of twenty-seven, establishing his capital at Vincennes.

During his twelve-year tenure as governor, Harrison wielded considerable authority over the territory's civil and military affairs. One of his primary responsibilities was negotiating land cession treaties with Native American tribes. Through a series of treaties—including the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1803, the Treaty of Vincennes in 1804, the Treaty of Grouseland in 1805, and the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809—Harrison acquired millions of acres of land from various tribes, including the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and others, for the United States government. These treaties, while advancing American expansion, were deeply controversial. Many Native American leaders contested the legitimacy of the agreements, arguing that the signatories did not have authority to cede tribal lands.

The most prominent opposition came from the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (known as "The Prophet"), who sought to build a pan-Indian confederacy to resist further American encroachment. Tecumseh argued that no single tribe had the right to sell land that belonged collectively to all Native peoples. Tensions between Harrison's government and Tecumseh's confederacy escalated throughout the late 1800s and early 1810s.

Battle of Tippecanoe

In November 1811, while Tecumseh was away recruiting allies in the South, Harrison led a force of approximately one thousand soldiers to confront the confederacy at Prophetstown, near the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers in present-day Indiana. On November 7, 1811, warriors under Tenskwatawa's command launched a pre-dawn attack on Harrison's encampment. The ensuing Battle of Tippecanoe resulted in an American victory, though casualties were significant on both sides. Harrison's forces subsequently destroyed Prophetstown.

The battle did not end Native American resistance in the region, but it elevated Harrison to national prominence. He earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe," which would follow him throughout his political career and eventually become the basis of his presidential campaign slogan. The battle also reinforced Harrison's reputation as a frontier military leader capable of defending American settlements.

War of 1812

When the War of 1812 broke out, Harrison was commissioned as a brigadier general and later promoted to major general in command of the Army of the Northwest. Tecumseh's confederacy had allied with the British, and the war in the Northwest became a struggle for control of the Great Lakes region and the surrounding territories.

Harrison's most significant military achievement during the war came at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario). Following Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, which secured American control of the lake, Harrison led an invasion force into Canada. At the Battle of the Thames, Harrison's army routed a combined British and Native American force. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, effectively destroying his confederacy and ending organized Native American resistance in the Northwest for the remainder of the war.

The victory at the Thames made Harrison one of the most celebrated military figures of the war and earned him a Congressional Gold Medal. He resigned his military commission in 1814 and returned to civilian life.

Postwar Political Career

After the War of 1812, Harrison settled in North Bend, Ohio, on a farm along the Ohio River. He entered Ohio politics and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1816, representing Ohio's 1st congressional district. He served in the House from October 1816 to March 1819.

Harrison was subsequently elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1819, serving from December 1819 to December 1821. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1822 before being elected to the United States Senate in 1824, where he served from March 1825 to May 1828.

In 1828, President John Quincy Adams appointed Harrison as the United States minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia (the nation comprising present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama). Harrison arrived in Bogotá in February 1829, but his tenure was brief. The newly inaugurated President Andrew Jackson recalled him in September 1829, and Harrison returned to his farm in North Bend.

Presidential Campaigns

After his return from Colombia, Harrison lived in relative obscurity on his Ohio farm for several years, serving as clerk of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas to supplement his income. The emerging Whig Party, however, identified him as a potential presidential candidate due to his military fame and frontier credentials.

In the 1836 presidential election, the Whig Party adopted a strategy of running multiple regional candidates rather than a single nominee. Harrison was one of four Whig candidates, and he received the most electoral votes among them, carrying seven states. However, Democrat Martin Van Buren won the presidency with a majority of the electoral vote.

By 1840, the Whigs had unified behind Harrison as their sole presidential nominee. The party selected John Tyler of Virginia as his running mate, creating a ticket that balanced Harrison's western identity with Tyler's southern credentials. The campaign of 1840 became one of the most innovative and energetic in American history to that point. The Whigs employed the famous slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," organized massive rallies, distributed campaign memorabilia including log cabins and hard cider (symbols meant to portray Harrison as a man of the people), and utilized songs, slogans, and spectacle on an unprecedented scale.

The 1840 campaign was notable for its avoidance of substantive policy discussion. The Whigs largely declined to articulate a detailed platform, instead focusing on Harrison's personal image and attacking Van Buren's handling of the economic Panic of 1837. Harrison won decisively, capturing 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60.

Presidency and Death

William Henry Harrison was inaugurated as the ninth President of the United States on March 4, 1841, at the age of sixty-eight, making him the oldest person to assume the presidency up to that time. His inaugural address, at approximately 8,445 words, was the longest in presidential history. He delivered the address outdoors on a cold, rainy day without wearing an overcoat or hat.

Harrison's cabinet included Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, and the new president signaled his intention to defer to Congress on legislative matters, in keeping with Whig philosophy that emphasized congressional supremacy over executive power. However, Harrison had little opportunity to implement any policies.

Approximately three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell seriously ill. He developed symptoms including fatigue, anxiety, and what physicians described as a cold. His condition rapidly deteriorated, progressing to pneumonia and pleurisy. For generations, the traditional account held that Harrison contracted pneumonia from exposure to the cold and rain during his inauguration ceremony. However, modern medical analysis has questioned this narrative. A 2014 study published in The New York Times by researchers suggested that Harrison's illness and death may have been caused by enteric fever (typhoid), potentially linked to the contaminated water supply near the White House, where sewage from a marsh located nearby may have tainted the drinking water.

Harrison's physicians employed the standard treatments of the era, including opium, castor oil, leeches, and Virginia snakeweed, but his condition continued to worsen. He died on April 4, 1841, at 12:30 a.m., exactly 31 days after taking office. His last words were reportedly directed at his successor, though spoken to his attending physician: "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."

Harrison's death created a constitutional crisis of the first order. The Constitution stated that in the event of the president's death, "the powers and duties" of the office would "devolve on the Vice President," but it was ambiguous as to whether the vice president became the actual president or merely an acting president. Vice President John Tyler asserted that he had become president in full, not merely an acting president exercising presidential powers. After some debate, Congress acquiesced to Tyler's interpretation, establishing the "Tyler Precedent" that governed presidential succession until the Twenty-fifth Amendment was ratified in 1967.

Personal Life

On November 25, 1795, Harrison married Anna Tuthill Symmes, the daughter of Judge John Cleves Symmes, a prominent landowner and politician in the Northwest Territory. Judge Symmes initially opposed the marriage, doubting Harrison's ability to support his daughter, but the couple married without his consent while the judge was away on business.

William and Anna Harrison had ten children together: Elizabeth Bassett, John Cleves Symmes, Lucy Singleton, William Henry Jr., John Scott, Benjamin, Mary Symmes, Carter Bassett, Anna Tuthill, and James Findlay. Their son John Scott Harrison later became a member of the United States House of Representatives and was the father of Benjamin Harrison, who served as the 23rd President of the United States—making William Henry and Benjamin Harrison the only grandfather-grandson pair to both serve as president.

Anna Harrison did not accompany her husband to Washington for his inauguration, planning instead to join him in the spring. She thus never served as First Lady during Harrison's brief presidency; their daughter-in-law, Jane Irwin Harrison, served as White House hostess during the 31-day term. Anna Harrison survived her husband by more than two decades, dying in 1864 at the age of eighty-eight.

Harrison's farm at North Bend, Ohio, served as the family homestead for decades. Despite his prominent political career, Harrison faced persistent financial difficulties throughout his life, particularly after his return from Colombia in the late 1820s. His appointment as clerk of the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas was partly driven by the need for income.

Recognition

Harrison received the Congressional Gold Medal for his victory at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812, one of the highest civilian honors bestowed by the United States Congress.

In 2009, the United States Mint issued a Presidential $1 coin bearing Harrison's likeness as part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program, which honored all deceased former presidents.

Harrison's home and burial site in North Bend, Ohio, is maintained as the Harrison Tomb State Memorial, a state historic site administered by the Ohio History Connection. The tomb, situated on a hill overlooking the Ohio River, is marked by a prominent obelisk monument.

The C-SPAN television network featured Harrison in its "Life Portrait" series on American presidents, documenting his life and brief presidency.

Grouseland, Harrison's former gubernatorial mansion in Vincennes, Indiana, has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark and serves as a museum. The home, built between 1803 and 1804, was the center of Harrison's administration of the Indiana Territory and the site of his famous confrontation with Tecumseh in 1810.

The Library of Congress maintains a collection of William Henry Harrison papers, documenting his military, political, and personal correspondence.

Vincennes University in Indiana, the oldest institution of higher learning in the state, has historical connections to Harrison's tenure as territorial governor.

Legacy

William Henry Harrison's legacy occupies an unusual place in American history. His presidency, at 31 days, was too brief for him to enact any significant policies or leave a legislative mark, and he is often omitted from historical rankings of presidential performance due to the brevity of his tenure. Nevertheless, his impact on American history extends well beyond his time in office.

As governor of the Indiana Territory for over a decade, Harrison was instrumental in the process of American westward expansion. The land cession treaties he negotiated with Native American tribes opened millions of acres to American settlement and were foundational to the development of what became the states of Indiana, Illinois, and beyond. These treaties, however, remain deeply controversial in historical assessment, as they were often conducted under duress or with leaders who lacked full authority to cede lands, and they contributed to the dispossession and displacement of Native American peoples across the Northwest.

Harrison's military victories, particularly at Tippecanoe and the Thames, had lasting consequences for the balance of power in the Northwest. The death of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames ended the most significant organized resistance to American expansion in the region and permanently altered the political landscape of the Great Lakes frontier.

The 1840 presidential campaign in which Harrison was elected is considered a turning point in American political history. The "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" campaign pioneered many of the techniques of modern mass politics, including the use of slogans, songs, rallies, and image-based campaigning. The Whig strategy of marketing Harrison as a log cabin and hard cider candidate—despite his actual patrician Virginia origins—established a template for populist campaign imagery that persists in American politics.

Perhaps Harrison's most consequential legacy was his death itself. The succession crisis that followed established the precedent that a vice president who assumes office upon the death of a president becomes the president in full, rather than merely an acting president. This "Tyler Precedent" governed presidential succession for more than a century until it was codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution in 1967.

The question of what caused Harrison's death has continued to generate scholarly interest. While the traditional narrative attributed his death to pneumonia contracted during his inauguration, the 2014 analysis suggesting enteric fever as the actual cause has prompted a reassessment of the circumstances surrounding his death and the public health conditions in Washington, D.C., during the antebellum period.

Harrison remains a member of one of the most prominent political dynasties in American history. As the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the grandfather of a future president, he represents a direct link between the founding generation and the Gilded Age presidency of Benjamin Harrison.