He rambled on for one hour and 45 minutes, uttering 8,845 words. Congress. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, and the British-Indian alliance was permanently destroyed. After funding for his education was discontinued in 1791, he joined the United States Army as a low-ranking officer. Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position. Behind the casket trotted the riderless Whitey, the symbol of a fallen hero. For a few months after the division in 1804 of the Louisiana Purchase into the Orleans Territory and the Louisiana Territory, Harrison also acted as governor of the Louisiana Territory (all of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 33rd parallel), the largest jurisdiction ever exercised by a territorial official in the United States to that date. [70] Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory. [26][27] In her 2012 biography of Harrison, author Gail Collins describes this as an unlikely story, although White believed it to be true. In subsequent years Harrison held several government positions. It is possible that he was already feeling unwell, for in addressing supporters before leaving for the White House, he said he probably would not see any of them again. Benjamin Harrison was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and in 1781 he became the fifth elected governor of Virginia. "[112] U.S. He is assigned to Fort Washington in the village of Cincinnati in the future Ohio territory. [12] In 1793, he became Wayne's aide-de-camp and acquired the skills to command an army on the frontier;[6] he participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which ended the Northwest Indian War. 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. [4] William Henry often referred to himself as a "child of the revolution", as indeed he was, having grown up in a home just 30mi (48km) from where Washington won the war against the British in the Battle of Yorktown. A rush was made to unharness the animals when the General spoke to several of them and endeavored to prevent it; but the team was soon unmanageable, and it became necessary to take them off. [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. Inaugural Address | The American Presidency Project His vice president, John Tyler, assumes the office of president. [20] They honeymooned at Fort Washington, since Harrison was still on military duty. "[5], In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. 9 minutes. A first dispatch had not been clear which side had won the conflict, and the secretary interpreted it as a defeat until the follow-up dispatch clarified the situation. WebAn illustrated chronology of key events in the life of William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), ninth president of the United States. 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 . Harrison rose to the rank of captain and in 1796 became the commander of Fort Washington. In fact, Harrison's condition had seriously weakened, and Cabinet members and family were summoned to the White Househis wife Anna had remained in Ohio due to her own illness. The Northwest Territory's population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799, and Harrison ran for election. Although the Whig Party was in the minority in Illinios, Lincoln agreed with its policies and supported the party's More than 30,000 people converged on the state capital for a parade featuring log cabins and canoes on wheels and a ten-foot-high rolling ball that inspired the phrase Keep the ball rolling. A jeweler from a nearby town wrote a song with a lyric that became the campaigns slogan: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too. The Whigs mounted elaborate rallies across the nation and log cabinthemed election merchandise took the country by storm, becoming the first campaign logo. "[110] The dispute escalated when Harrison named as Secretary of State Daniel Webster, Clay's arch-rival for control of the Whig Party. Most of Harrison's business during his month-long presidency involved extensive social obligations and receiving visitors at the White House. William Henry Harrison | Biography, Presidency, & Facts Harrison, after leaving his post but while still in the country, wrote his roughly ten-page letter to Bolivar, which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies. [12] His close friend Timothy Pickering was serving as Secretary of State, and along with Judge Symmes' influence, he was recommended to replace Winthrop Sargent, the outgoing territorial secretary. They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 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. [93] Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. [70] He received orders to retake Detroit and boost morale, but he initially held back, unwilling to press the war northward. Harrison was promoted to captain in 1797 and, for a brief period, served as commander of Fort Washington, resigning from the army in June 1798. The speech is well over 8,000 words double that of any other. [100][101] Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified. 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. They were dressed in war paint, and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes. During his early military career, Harrison participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed. . [90] The Democrats charged that, by running several candidates, the Whigs sought to prevent a Van Buren victory in the electoral college, and force the election into the House. He is the youngest man to hold the office to date and the first vice president to assume office after a president's death. President James Madison removed Winchester from command in September, and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits. William Harrison At age fifty-six, Harrison returned to his home in North Bend, Ohio. Tecumseh was killed in the battle, ending hopes of an Indian confederacy that could thwart westward expansion. Harrison was against devising financial schemes for the nation, rather he left that wholly to Congress. William Henry Harrison negotiates the Treaty of Fort Wayne, under which the United States acquires 2.5 million acres of land from Native American tribes. [86], About this time, he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison, and the two became friends. "[87] DeBaptiste became his valet, and later White House steward. Encyclopedia Virginia946 Grady Ave. Ste. Van Buren won easily, but Harrison was the top Whig vote getter. The session would have begun on May 31 as scheduled if Harrison had lived. Gazlay. Harrison drew his sword, and Tecumseh's warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense. Anna Harrison, the only First Lady never to have lived in the White House, died in February 1864 and also was interred there. On December 4, 1839, the Whigs opened their first convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to choose a nominee for the 1840 presidential race. [129], On April 5, Fletcher Webster, the son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, notified Tyler that Harrison had died in office. Hordes of office applicants came to the White House, which was then open to any who wanted a meeting with the president. 9th Long the defender of my country's [105] He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government, and under no circumstance would he run for a second term. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served from October 1816, to March 3, 1819, when he was elected to the Ohio Senate (18191821). Resisting the expansionism fostered by the treaties negotiated by Harrison, the Shawnee intertribal leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, who was known as the Prophet, organized an Indian uprising. [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. The Village of North Bend, Ohio, honors Harrison every year with a parade to celebrate his birthday. [70], The Americans suffered a defeat in the siege of Detroit. Emeritus Professor of Humanities At sixty-seven, Harrison was the oldest person to run for president at the time. 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. Old Tip he wore a homespun coat, he had no ruffled shirt: wirt-wirt, His army defeated the British, and Tecumseh was killed, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. But Matt he has the golden plate, and he's a little squirt: wirt-wirt! [143] Harrison, age 68 at the time of his inauguration, was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at age 69. [39] He served in this capacity for twelve years. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity. [135] The cabinet consulted with Chief Justice Roger Taney and decided that, if Tyler took the presidential oath of office, he would assume the office of president. William Henry Harrison's inaugural address lasted nearly two hours, but in the days before electronic media, oratory of such duration was common. [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. Hoping to deny the Democrats an electoral majority, the newly formed Whig Party picked Harrison as one of the partys four candidates because of his name recognition. Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee tribe. In 1803 Harrison also became a special commissioner charged with negotiating with Native Americans on the subject of boundary or lands. Succumbing to the demands of land-hungry whites, he negotiated a number of treaties between 1802 and 1809 that stripped Indians of millions of acres of landin the southern part of the present state of Indiana and portions of the present states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Harrison died just past midnight on the morning of April 4, 1841, thirty-two days after being inaugurated. The following year Harrison was sent to Congress as a territorial delegate. He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. Contemporary presidents typically give speeches in the 2,000-3,000-word range. The first large Whig rally took place in Columbus, Ohio, on February 22, 1840, which was George Washingtons birthday, a traditional day for public celebrations and parades. Nebo, which is now the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial. [68] By December, however, most major American papers carried stories on the battle victory, and public outrage grew over the Shawnee. Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh's absence, and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation. Just three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and died days later. Harrison arrived in Washington on February 9, 1841, his sixty-eighth birthday. Thus ended resistance in the Northwest. 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. [113] Conflicting and unconfirmed newspaper reports were based on leaks by people with contacts in the White House. Harrison was assigned to Fort Washington in the small village of Cincinnati in the future Ohio Territory. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Mangum in South Carolina. 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. "[119], In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30p.m. he uttered his last words, to his attending doctor, assumed to be for Vice President John Tyler:[119] "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. [70] He received federal military pay for his service, and he also collected a territorial governor's salary from September until December 28, when he formally resigned as governor and continued his military service. It was a pivotal American victory in the war, and Harrison was celebrated as the hero of the Battle of the Thames. [107] On Wednesday, March 24, 1841, Harrison took his daily morning walk to local markets, without a coat or hat. [57] Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. [32] Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth. [18], Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio in 1795 when he was 22. For other people, see, Articles related to William Henry Harrison, Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from, Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's, Full Text: "FELLOW-CITIZENS: Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several Departments of the deeply regretted death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States. 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. [109], Clay was a leader of the Whigs and a powerful legislator, as well as a frustrated presidential candidate in his own right, and he expected to have substantial influence in the Harrison administration. [83], In May of 1817, Harrison served as one of the founding vestry members of the Episcopal congregation, Christ Church in downtown Cincinnati (now Christ Church Cathedral). [42] Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and they reappointed him as governor in 1803, 1806, and 1809. [57] Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes that they would be protected by the Great Spirit and no harm could befall them if they rose up against the settlers. Mary Steger of Richmond wrote excitedly to a friend about the events at the local Log Cabin Whig headquarters and said, I never took so much interest in politics in my life. Democrats derided these women as shameless and reminded them that their husbands represented them in politics, but Whigs argued that womens presence could purify the public sphere. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, the shortest presidency in United States history. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Eustis demanded to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against the initial attack, and Harrison said that he had considered the position strong enough. A modern theory is that he died from typhoid fever contracted from bacteria ingested through the White House water supply, which likely was contaminated by a nearby depository for raw sewage. William Henry Harrison Inaugural Speech Analysis | ipl.org The Inaugural Address - White House Historical Association
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