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. They invited women to Harrison rallies and parades, where they waved white handkerchiefs as the marchers passed. How long was William Henry Harrison This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts. William Henry Harrison [153] On February 19, 2009, the U.S. Mint released the ninth coin in the Presidential $1 Coin Program, bearing Harrison's likeness. Harrison wrote at the time, "we might look forward to a day when a North American sun would not look down upon a slave. Inaugural Speeches Ranked By Word Count - WFYI In an address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, he said that he had sinned in making whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors. WebAt 68 years, 23 days of age at the time of his inauguration, he was the oldest president-elect to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981 . William Henry Harrison received a classical education at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he was a student from 1787 to 1790. [38], On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory, based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances. William Henry Harrison Inaugural Address Length - Presidents of the United States After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where, in 1816, he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House of Representatives. Although his troops had suffered 62 dead and 126 wounded during the battle and the Shawnee just 150 casualties, the Shawnee prophet's vision of spiritual protection had been shattered. But Harrison, who had mounting debts, kept seeking higher-paying federal jobs. Old Tip he wore a homespun coat, he had no ruffled shirt: wirt-wirt, President Thomas Jefferson reappointed Harrison as governor of the Indiana Territory in 1801 and in 1804 added most of the Louisiana Purchase to the territory for one year. He attended Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County and the School of Medicine of the College of Philadelphia (todays University of Pennsylvania). [91] A swing of just over 4,000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state's 30 electoral votes to Harrison and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives. Deaths from pneumonia in Washington, D.C. Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from the Northwest Territory, Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives. WebTranscript. Later, he led a military force against Tecumseh's confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe". Harrison was born into the Harrison family of Virginia at their homestead, Berkeley Plantation. [5] Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Columbia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. [119] The doctor then gave him castor oil and medicines to induce vomiting, and diagnosed him with pneumonia in the right lung. WebWithin five minutes of an infantry attack toward the Indian lines and a mounted militia attack towards the British center, the British retreated in panic, led by their general Henry Proctor, who reportedly galloped past his men in the retreat back towards Moraviantown. [39] He served in this capacity for twelve years. 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. Whig leader Thomas Elder designed a campaign that leaned heavily on imagery and relied on big rallies to build enthusiasm for the candidate. View this answer. [32][41], Harrison began his duties on January 10, 1801, at Vincennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. [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". Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed. William Henry Harrison is born at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, the youngest of seven children of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Elizabeth Bassett Harrison. 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). W.H. On June 6, 1840, on the steps of the National Hotel in Columbus, Harrison became the first presidential candidate to give a campaign speech for himself, which was considered shocking. William Henry Harrison was inaugurated as the ninth president of the United States on March 4, 1841, but died thirty-one days later, making him the shortest-serving U.S. president. 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. He disputed that the Indian leaders who signed the Treaty of Greenville had the authority to sell lands he believed were held in common by all tribes. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. [99] While Van Buren campaigned from the White House, Harrison was on the campaign trail, entertaining with his impressions of Indian war whoops, and took people's minds off the nation's economic troubles. Brief Summary of William Henry Harrison [50] Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government, as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison. Tyler had been visiting family in Williamsburg. [113] Conflicting and unconfirmed newspaper reports were based on leaks by people with contacts in the White House. All in all, Harrison committed to a weak presidency, deferring to "the First Branch", the Congress, in keeping with Whig principles.[105][104]. He ignored his own platform plank of overturning the "spoils" system and attempted to influence Harrison's actions before and during his brief presidency, especially in putting forth his own preferences for Cabinet offices and other presidential appointments. [90][91][92], Harrison ran in all the non-slave states except Massachusetts, and in the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. Analyzing structure in "Address to General William Henry 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. During his early military career, Harrison participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. Congress. We invite you to learn more about Indians in Virginia in our Encyclopedia Virginia. He had accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime, and he lived on his savings, a small pension, and the income produced by his farm. [90] The Village of North Bend, Ohio as well as the alumni of Ohio State University claim that the state's use of the nickname "Buckeyes" began with Harrison's campaign message. WebHistorical Marker #1329 in Union County identifies the location of Abraham Lincoln's 1840 speech on behalf of Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison. On November 25, 1795, Harrison eloped with twenty-year-old Anna Tuthill Symmes, the well-educated daughter of John Cleves Symmes, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey who was one of southwestern Ohios biggest land speculators. - Pleads to Harrison to take everything he has said into consideration. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, and the British-Indian alliance was permanently destroyed. [37], Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections. [5] The British and their Indian allies greatly outnumbered Harrison's troops, so Harrison constructed a defensive position during the winter along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio. He was promoted to major general in the Army during the War of 1812, and led American infantry and cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada. When he was fourteen, he was sent to Hampden-Sydney College, where he was educated in the classics. 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 then received reinforcements in 1813, took the offensive, and led the army north to battle. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Within days, he had a cold, which developed into pneumonia. The White House state rooms were still hung with black mourning crapes. [59] Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison, and he countered Tecumseh's arguments, telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace. [67] Freehling says that Harrison's rusty skills resulted in his troops setting campfires the night before the battle, exposing their position to a surprise attack and casualties. "[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. "[114] His own cabinet attempted to countermand his appointment of John Chambers as Governor of the Iowa Territory in favor of Webster's friend James Wilson. 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. William Harrison: Death of the President | Miller Center [84] Harrison went on to serve as a vestry member through 1819, and then again in 1824. William Henry Harrison | American Presidents - C He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty. [113], Harrison took seriously his pledge to reform executive appointments, visiting each of the six cabinet departments to observe its operations and issuing through Webster an order that electioneering by employees would be considered grounds for dismissal. INAUGURAL ADDRESS Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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. In 1803, he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory. Harrison resigned from the army in 1798 and was appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory by President John Adams. He advanced to Detroit, reoccupied the territory surrendered by Gen. William Hull, and on October 5, 1813, decisively defeated the British and their Indian allies at the Battle of the Thames, in Ontario, Canada. In 1798 Pres. [134], Harrison's cabinet insisted that Tyler was "Vice President acting as President". In 1831, Harrison closed his farms corn distillery after his son William Henry Harrison Jr. became an alcoholic. WebCreate your account. [5] While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf, and acquiring two milling operations, he was credited as a good administrator, with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure. WebWilliam Henry Harrison 1841. Van Buren didnt attend the inauguration, following the lead set by the two other one-term presidents, John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams. He played no role in picking his running mate, former Virginia senator John Tyler, who grew up right down the road from Harrison in Charles City County. [18], Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio in 1795 when he was 22. Troops led by William Henry Harrison defeat Native Americans led by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe near the Tippecanoe River in Indiana. [7] As part of the treaty negotiations, the tribes ceded large tracts of land in the west which provided additional acreage for purchase and settlement by the nation. Harrison briefly served as a major general in the Kentucky militia until the government commissioned him on September 17 to command the Army of the Northwest. He was also the first United States president to die in office, and a brief constitutional crisis resulted as presidential succession was not then fully defined in the United States Constitution. Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation. [52] Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood, the proposal failed. President James Madison appointed Harrison general of the Army of the Northwest after the United States had suffered several early defeats near Canada in the War of 1812 against the British. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified. A rope was brought, and attached to the carriage, by which the people drew it to the Marshall House. Democrats mocked him as General Mum and said the Whigs were keeping their aged candidate locked in an Iron Cage. Then Harrison accepted an invitation to speak at a celebration of the siege at Fort Meigs. General James Winchester offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. [119] At 4:00a.m. Sunday, March 28, Harrison developed severe pain in the side and the doctor initiated bloodletting; the procedure was terminated when there was a drop in his pulse rate. Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands, especially their leader Black Hawk. He regularly worked until after midnight and spent much of his time fending off office seekers, who could walk right into the White House. The following year Harrisons mother died. Could words have killed our ninth president? Harrison grew up among the elite of Virginia. He was against agitating the Southern United States on the slavery question. [55] In Indiana, the planting of the anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory.[55]. But he was far from young now, and when he followed the address with a round of receptions in his wet clothing, it resulted in a bad chill. In Seneca Falls, New York, soon-to-be woman suffrage activist Amelia Bloomer helped her husband edit his Whig newspaper. But researchers in 2014 proposed a different reason. ", "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. [60] After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States. [57] Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. It continues See full answer below. [119] A team of doctors was called in Monday, March 29, and they confirmed right lower lobe pneumonia. Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly, and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate, arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. It was a cold and windy day, but Harrison didnt wear a coat or hat. Lieutenant Harrison, who rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory. His vice president, John Tyler, assumes the office of president. [119] A Washington paper reported on Thursday, April 1, that Harrison's health was decidedly better. He was the first president-elect to arrive in the capital by train. 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! On March 4, 1841, he gave a record-breaking inaugural speechan hour and Instead, in May 1800, Adams appointed Harrison governor of the newly created Indiana Territory, which comprised, until 1809, a much larger area than the present state of Indiana. [106], Harrison's lengthy speech offered vague clues about what his Presidency would offer to the people of the United States. [12] He was initially assigned to Fort Washington, Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War. [69] Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms, and Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. "[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. His son died seven years later; eight of the ten Harrison children would die by 1846, a high toll even by nineteenth-century standards. Jefferson directed Harrison to buy land for white settlement from the Native Americans, instructing him in a February 1803 letterto provide the tribes with effectual protection against wrongs from our own people, but to use trade to run up debt with the Indians so they would lop off some of their lands and sell them. [127] Solomon Northup gave an account of the procession in Twelve Years a Slave: The next day there was a great pageant in Washington. 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. [133], Harrison's death called attention to an ambiguity in Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution regarding succession to the presidency. 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. [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. [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. [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. [43], In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland, in tribute to the birds on the property. [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. Harrison negotiated the 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne under which the United States acquired about 2.5 million acres of land from the Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Miami, Kickapoo, and Eel River tribes. William Henry Harrison marries Anna Tuthill Symmes in North Bend, Ohio. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome. Inauguration of William Henry Harrison - Wikipedia Harrison, Proclamation 45BConvening an Extra Session of the Congress", "William Henry Harrison: Death of the President", "What Really Killed William Henry Harrison? In summary, President Harrisons speech mainly discussed how the Harrison was assigned to Fort Washington in the small village of Cincinnati in the future Ohio Territory. After funding for his education was discontinued in 1791, he joined the United States Army as a low-ranking officer. [117][118], Harrison had been physically worn down by many persistent office seekers and a demanding social schedule. [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. (White House Historical Association) It is unlikely, however, that the long-winded speech caused the presidents Speaking from the deck of the steamship Ben Franklin, he said, perhaps presciently, Fellow-citizens; perhaps this may be the last time I have the pleasure of speaking to you on earth or seeing you. He said little of the national bank, except he mentioned he was open to paper money, rather than metallic currency. Harrison was the Whig Party nominee for president in 1840 and ran a groundbreaking campaign, becoming the first presidential nominee to campaign in person and to make widespread use of imagery with the Log Cabin and Hard Cider strategy. [144], Harrison's son John Scott Harrison represented Ohio in the House of Representatives between 1853 and 1857. [128], That June, Harrison's body was transported by train and river barge to North Bend, Ohio, and he was buried on July 7 at the summit of Mt. William Henry Harrison had the longest inaugural address at 8,460 words and took one hour and 45 minutes to deliver. In summary, President Harrisons speech mainly discussed how the people of the United States has the rights to individual liberties and how it is the duty of the president to protect those liberties through the Constitution. In 1805, Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51,000,000 acres from the Indians, after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol, for no more than a penny per 200 acres, and comprising two-thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri. 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.