Benjamin Harrison

1
Benjamin Harrison

• Republican Party
• 1889-1893
• 23rd President of the United States

http//www.authentichistory.com/1865-1897/3-gilded
/5-harrison/index.html
2
Occupational and Educational Background
Benjamin Harrison

• Born on August 20, 1833 to John Scott Harrison
  and Elizabeth Ramsey Irwin
• Attended Farmers College (1847-1850) and Miami
  University (1850-1852) in Ohio
• Pursued an interest in law and politics by means
  of being a lawyer
• Served as a colonel during the Civil War
  (1861-1865)
• Became an increasingly influential figure in
  Indianapolis politics (1860s-1870s)
• Lost in the election for the position of governor
  of Indiana (1876)
• Elected into Senate (1880s)
• Succeeded in the presidential election of 1888

http//www.potus.com/bharrison.html
http//www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?pagegrG
Rid451
http//www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/benjami
nharrison
3
The Executive Board
Levi P. Morton

• Executive Board
• Vice President Levi P. Morton (1889-1893)
• Secretaries of State James G. Blaine (1889-1892)
  and John W. Foster (1892-1893)
• Cabinet Members
• Secretary of the Treasury William Windom
  (1889-1891) and Charles Foster (1891-1893)
• Secretary of War Redfield Proctor (1889-1891)
  and Stephen B. Elkins (1891-1893)
• Attorney General William H. H. Miller
  (1889-1893)
• Postmaster General John Wanamaker (1889-1893)
• Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy
  (1889-1893)
• Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble
  (1889-1893)
• Secretary of Agriculture Jeremiah M. Rusk
  (1889-1893)
• States Admitted into the Union
• North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana
  (1889), Washington (1889), Idaho (1890) and
  Wyoming (1890)

http//www.potus.com/bharrison.html
http//www.enotes.com/topic/Levi_P._Morton
4
Election of 1888
Benjamin Harrison

• Candidates

• Reasons for the Win

• With policies approving of raised tariffs for the
  benefit of the public as a whole, Harrison failed
  to acquire southern Americas votes, where
  resentments against steep taxes ran high.
  However, Harrison managed to win the election by
  gaining more electoral votes from the northern
  states, who held far less intense resentments for
  the taxes intended to benefit the nation.

• Benjamin Harrison (R) 5,447,129 popular votes
  233 electoral votes
• Grover Cleveland (D) 5,537,857 popular votes
  168 electoral votes
• Clinton B. Fisk (PRO) 249,506 popular votes 0
  electoral votes
• Anson J. Streeter (ULP) 146,935 popular votes 0
  electoral votes

The American Pageant 12th Edition, page A59
http//www.info-antike.de/regent/regent-e/usa.htm
http//archive.fairvote.org/e_college/controversia
l.htm1888
5
http//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/67673/Re
sults-of-the-American-presidential-election-1888-P
residential-Candidate-Political
6
Election of 1892
Grover Cleveland

• Candidates

• Reasons for the Loss

• Following his term of presidency, Harrison
  initiated a civil service reform and supported
  the McKinley Tariff, both of which lost him
  popular support. On account of many republican
  candidates winning elections since the Civil War
  (1861-1865), the stage was set for Democrat
  Grover Cleveland to win his second term (first
  from 1884-1888) of presidency.

• Grover Cleveland (D) 5,555,426 popular votes
  277 electoral votes
• Benjamin Harrison (R) 5,182,690 popular votes
  145 electoral votes
• James B. Weaver (PP) 1,029,846 popular votes 22
  electoral votes
• John Bidwell (PRO) 264,133 popular votes 0
  electoral votes

The American Pageant 12th Edition, page A59
http//www.u-s-history.com/pages/h788.html
http//scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.a
sp?t1m1c34s265ai76693archyssd11/8/200
8
7
http//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/67674/Re
sults-of-the-American-presidential-election-1892-P
residential-Candidate-Political
8
Benjamin Harrison Becomes President, 1889
Benjamin Harrison

• Description/Provision Crediting last-minute
  victories in Indiana and New York, Harrison won
  the election in 1888 against Democrat Grover
  Cleveland, although Cleveland held 90,000 more
  popular votes than Harrison.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact
  Continuing the trend of mostly republican
  presidents following the Civil War (1861-1865),
  Harrison came into presidency of the United
  States for four years (1888-1892) with his
  demonstration that electoral votes hold more
  value than popular votes and with his republican
  devotion to taxing the public for the benefit of
  the nation.

http//www.history.com/topics/benjamin-harrison
http//www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPageo
utput.cfmfile_id5067
9
First Pan-American Conference, 1889

• Description/Provision A conference between the
  United States and several Latin American
  countries with intentions to promote more
  peaceful trade in the American continents.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact Fearing
  potential political and economic manipulation,
  the Latin American countries involved in the
  Conference agreed to relations with the Americas
  that allowed for rejection of any terms that
  appeared to impend their independence.
  Additionally, for future conferences, the
  delegates established the International Bureau of
  American Republics (Pan-American Union).

http//millercenter.org/president/events/10_02
http//althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Pan-American_Unio
n_(Franz's_World)
10
Jane Addams Establishes Hull House, 1889
Jane Addams

• Description/Provision Addams creation of a home
  to aid in the solutions of life in a great city,
  to help our neighbors build responsible,
  self-sufficient lives for themselves and their
  families for European immigrants and poor
  working class members in Chicago, Illinois.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The Hull
  House promoted a sense of belonging in society,
  equality amongst all individuals and hope in
  opportunities to pursue a better life in America.
  Addams effort, in addition to the efforts of
  other citizens throughout history, set the
  precedent for a nation founded on life, liberty
  and the pursuit of happiness.

http//www.hullhouse.org/aboutus/history.html
http//www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/youth-out
reach/peace-heroes/addams-jane.htm
11
T. Thomas Fortune Finds the Afro-American League,
1890
T. Thomas Fortune

• Description/Provision Born a slave and, later,
  freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863,
  T. (Timothy) Thomas Fortune founded the
  Afro-American League, one of the first societies
  dedicated to granting equal rights to all in the
  United States.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The
  founding of this equal rights organization
  spurred the discoveries of both the Niagara Falls
  Movement (1905) and the National Association for
  the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909).
  In accordance with other efforts, these
  organizations promoted future legislation for
  equality in America.

http//www.blackpast.org/?qaah/fortune-t-thomas-1
856-1928
http//www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/newbios/nw
sppr/Biogrphs/fortune/fortune.html
12
Billion Dollar Congress, 1890
Thomas B. Reed

• Description/Provision Having earned control over
  both houses in Congress, the republicans, under
  the direction of Speaker of the House Thomas B.
  Reed, formed the 51st Congress, which also became
  known as the Billion Dollar Congress for its
  limitless spending.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The
  Congress, relying on the 1 billion surplus in
  the National Treasury, is responsible for the
  establishment of the Dependent and Disability
  Pensions Act (1890), the McKinley Tariff (1890)
  and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890), which
  ultimately led to the creation of other
  governmental-based financial assistance programs
  in America.

http//www.apnotes.net/ch23.html
http//www.answers.com/topic/thomas-brackett-reed
http//www.course-notes.org/vocabulary/term/quotBi
llion_Dollarquot_Congress
13
Dependent and Disability Pensions Act, 1890

• Description/Provision The Act granted financial
  assistance to veterans of war and their families
  in cases where the veteran was harmed or injured
  and, therefore, could not perform manual labor
  for a living.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The Act,
  allowing many veterans and their families to live
  in modest but stable means, served as the
  foundation for future government assistance
  programs, such as those for students seeking to
  attend higher institutions of learning.

http//www.vareficenter.com/veterans-affairs-histo
ry.html
http//americanhistory.about.com/od/benjaminharris
on/p/pbharrison.htm
14
McKinley Tariff, 1890
William McKinley

• Description/Provision With sponsorship from
  Republican Ohio Senator William McKinley, the
  McKinley Tariff placed a 48-50 tax on
  manufactured goods.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The
  Congress passed the Tariff with the help of a
  compromise with the democratic minority in
  Congress, who sought the passing of the Sherman
  Silver Purchase Act. The McKinley Tariff,
  however, proved fatal to farmers, as they were
  now forced to pay steep prices for agricultural
  equipment and sell their goods in the highly
  competitive world market. The combination of
  these two results led to the removal of many
  republicans in the next congress candidate
  election and Harrisons loss in the election of
  1892.

http//smallbusiness.chron.com/mckinley-tariff-act
-733.html
http//www.visitingdc.com/president/william-mckinl
ey-picture.htm
15
Blaine-Harrison Reciprocity Provision, 1890
James G. Blaine

• Description/Provision Stemming from both the
  First Pan-American Conference and the McKinley
  Tariff, the provision, an idea suggested by
  Speaker of the State and Coordinator of the
  Pan-American Congress of 1889 James G. Blaine,
  granted Harrison the right to manipulate the
  tariffs on foreign products.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact On
  account that Harrison exercised his right only in
  times when other foreign countries reduced the
  tariff placed on United States imports, Harrison
  held a slight monopoly over foreign trade,
  especially that with Latin America. This, as a
  result, set the model for the United States
  great involvement in world trade.

http//smallbusiness.chron.com/mckinley-tariff-act
-733.html
http//warnerssafeblog.wordpress.com/category/jame
s-g-blaine/
16
Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890
John Sherman

• Description/Provision Named after Senator John
  Sherman, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was a means
  by which Congress exercised its right to regulate
  interstate commerce. The Act itself forbade any
  and all large corporations from obtaining a
  concentration of economic power in their
  respected field(s).
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The Act,
  accordingly, protected the citizens and their
  financial stability, as no corporation could
  exponentially inflate prices without the threat
  of competition. In later years, the Act
  dismantled the monopoly of the American Telephone
  Telegraph (ATT) Company (1974-1982).

http//www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0844878.htm
l
http//constitutioncenter.org/timeline/html/cw07_1
2123.html
17
Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890

• Description/Provision Named after Senator John
  Sherman, the Act required that, each month, the
  United States Treasury purchase approximately 4.5
  million ounces of silver from miners to add to
  the fluidity of the nations economics. The Act,
  moreover, required that the Treasury dispense
  cards, which the citizens could redeem for either
  silver or gold.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact
  Ultimately, as the Treasury purchased twice what
  it had before, the price of silver experienced a
  deflation, thus harming both the miners and the
  national economic standings. Furthermore,
  preference of gold created much loss for the
  United States Gold Reserves.

http//www.u-s-history.com/pages/h762.html
http//www.123rf.com/photo_7324198_isolated-logo-o
f-united-states-treasury-department-with-black-bac
kground.html
18
Battle of Wounded Knee, 1890
Battle of Wounded Knee

• Description/Provision Following frequent
  conflict between the American troops and the
  Native Americans, including the conflict that
  killed Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, several hundred
  Sioux Indians fled to Wounded Knee Creek, located
  in South Dakota. There, the American troops fired
  on the Indians, affording for many fatalities.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact As the
  last major battle between the Americans and the
  Native Americans, the Battle of Wounded Knee
  acted as a means by which the Americans could
  remove much of the Native American legacy from
  the land and, thus, create a land of a new, more
  English/American-like identity.

http//www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedk
nee/WKIntro.html
http//history.howstuffworks.com/native-american-h
istory/battle-of-wounded-knee.htm
19
Frontier Concludes, 1890
Frederick Jackson Turner

• Description/Provision The American Frontier, as
  defined by the United States Census Bureau, was
  a point beyond which the population density was
  less than two persons per square mile or, in
  other words, a scarcely explored area. However,
  by 1890, there were no longer unpopulated areas
  along the West Coast of America.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The
  replacement of Native American settlements with
  American settlements afforded for the near
  discontinuation of the Native American family
  lines. Additionally, the replacement in favor of
  the American settlements promoted, as depicted by
  Historian Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932),
  the most rapid Americanization.

http//www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/turner.
htm
http//www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/turner/t
urner.html
http//www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/The-Closing
-of-the-Frontier.topicArticleId-25238,articleId-25
176.html
20
All-Black Towns Established in Oklahoma,
1890-1910

• Description/Provision In response to the Land
  Rush of 1889, countless African Americans,
  seeking a promise land without discrimination
  or slavery, migrated to Oklahoma and formed
  several All-Black towns with churches, schools
  and other public works.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact The
  settlement of African Americans in Oklahoma
  promoted the growth of a society founded on
  equality and, as of 1907, a society officially
  recognized as a state.

http//wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/okl
ahoma/
http//digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/en
tries/A/AL009.html
21
Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks Established,
1890

• Description/Provision In attempts to protect the
  Big Trees in the Giant Forest, Harrison
  established the Sequoia area as the nations
  second national park. Likewise, as an extension
  to President Abraham Lincolns Yosemite Park Act
  (1864), which gave the government right to the
  Yosemite area, Harrison, with the aid of
  naturalist John Muir, established the area as the
  nations third national park.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact
  Harrisons efforts to protect the environment
  acted as a model for the creation of the United
  States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in
  1970.

http//www.sequoia.national-park.com/info.htm
http//www.shannontech.com/ParkVision/Yosemite/Yos
emite.html
http//business-ethics.com/2011/02/05/1448-measuri
ng-success-of-u-s-environmental-protection-agency/
22
Populist Party Organized, 1891

• Description/Provision Following the Panic of
  1873, when prices of agricultural goods decreased
  astronomically, and the introduction of the
  McKinley Tariff, which increased the prices of
  manufactured goods, American farmers experienced
  an economic crisis. To medicate their troubles,
  the Populist Party, also known as the Peoples
  Party, formed to call, in later years, for civil
  service reforms, abolition of the national bank,
  free coinage of silver, direct election of
  senators, etc..
• Overall Significance and Future Impact Although
  the Partys success was short lived, its platform
  and efforts ultimately led to the end of the
  famers economic crisis through increased prices
  of agricultural goods.

http//encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Populis
tParty
http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Popu
list-logo.jpg
23
Homestead Strike, 1892
Homestead Strike

• Description/Provision In Homestead,
  Pennsylvania, Andrew Carnegie owned Carnegies
  Steel Company, one of the most prosperous steel
  industries of the time. Although financially
  stable, Carnegie and his general manager, Henry
  C. Frick, called for wage cuts on for their
  employees. Unable to afford their living
  expenses, the employees protested. Against the
  company, the strikers proved superior but,
  against the Pennsylvania states army, the
  strikers were forced to surrender.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact Fighting
  for workers rights, the strikers actions set
  the precedent for future labor protection and
  employee rights legislation.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents
/pande04.html
24
Populist Party Draws Up Omaha Platform, 1892

• Description/Provision As a result of its
  convention in Omaha, Nebraska, the Populist Party
  developed a platform that demanded the conduction
  of private voting, popular election of senators,
  free and unlimited access to silver coinage,
  government ownership of transportation structures
  (e.g. railroads), abolition of the national bank,
  institution of graduated income taxes and
  establishment of a more direct democracy.
• Overall Significance and Future Impact Many of
  the Partys demands, including conduction of
  private voting and more direct democracy through
  referendums and recalls, were adopted in the
  early twentieth century.

http//www.u-s-history.com/pages/h875.html
http//www.rocketbanner.com/states/nebraska/omaha-
vinyl-banners.htm
25
Ida B. Wells Strikes on Lynching, 1892
Ida B. Wells

• Description/Provision Ida B. Wells, a civil
  rights advocate, following years of investigation
  on lynching of African Americans in the United
  States, published her findings in Southern
  Horrors Lynch Law and All Its Phases.
• Overall Significance and Future During a time
  when accusations against African American men for
  sexual assault of Caucasian women rose
  exponentially, Wells findings revealed that
  sentences to death by lynching were motivated by
  racial discrimination, rather than confliction
  with law. Accordingly, Wells exposure of the
  unlawful sentences brought awareness to the
  inequality of race, thus promoting racial
  equality movements.

http//rheath.glogster.com/englashrichie/
http//www.webster.edu/woolflm/idabwells.html
26
Quotations

• Gen. Harrison was a man of the highest
  intellectuality, of great will power, of tireless
  industry, with a genius for details and all his
  faculties were under the guidance of a conscience
  that never slept. He believed in the right as a
  ruling principle among nations, in statesmanship
  and in politics no less than in business and
  private life. He recognized the necessity and
  usefulness of political parties but as means to
  an end, not as the end in themselves. Hence, in
  his administration as president, the first
  consideration was the country.
• In the distribution of patronage, for instance,
  the first, the essential thing was fitness.
  Without this qualification, no appointment was
  knowingly made. Legitimate party service, while
  not lightly esteemed, was secondary. As to
  federal judges, of whom he appointed nearly
  fifty, he was wont to say that they were no man's
  patronage that they would continue in the
  service of the country longer than presidents or
  senators.
• He bowed to the limitations of the Constitution
  and the laws, binding alike upon the president
  and citizen. He respected the bounds of the three
  great departments of the government and neither
  sought undue influence in Congress and the
  judiciary, nor suffered such undue influence to
  be exercised by them in the executive department.
• I believe that Gen. Harrison's greatest service
  to the country as president, when impartial
  history comes to be written, will be found in his
  illustrations of these high principles.
• Ex-Attorney General W.H.H. Miller on President
  Benjamin Harrison

http//starship.python.net/crew/manus/Presidents/b
h/bhobit.html
27
Quotations

• I will never know how close a number of men
  were compelled to approach the gates of the
  penitentiary to make him Benjamin Harrison
  president.
• -Pennsylvanian Matt Quay

http//georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/history
/presidents/bh23.html
28
Quotations

• "Ten days ago, Benjamin Harrison was the foremost
  man in America. I make no exception. He had every
  quality of greatnessa courage that was
  dauntless foresight almost to prophecy a mind
  clear, strong and of breadth by nature,
  strengthened by exercise and constant dealing
  with subjects of National import, subjects of
  world-wide interest. And of these qualities the
  people knew, and they drew them to him as
  listeners and believers, and in the faith they
  brought him there was no mixture of doubt or
  fear. The sorrow for him must be universal.
• General Lew Wallace

http//starship.python.net/crew/manus/Presidents/b
h/bhobit.html
29
Quotations

• Coffee-table history books depict Benjamin
  Harrison as a lightweight puppet of political
  party bosses. He is often viewed as little more
  than a human iceberg who sleepwalked through
  the presidency. We are told that, while he could
  sway a crowd of 30,000 with powerful speeches, he
  could not talk for two minutes in a room of five
  people. Because of his lack of personal passion
  and the failure of anything truly eventful, such
  as a major war, during his administration,
  Harrison, along with every other president from
  the post-Reconstruction era to 1900, has been
  assigned to the rankings of mediocrity. He has
  been remembered as an average president.
• -Miller Center

http//millercenter.org/president/bharrison/essays
/biography/9
30
Overall Significance
Benjamin Harrison

• Positives

• Negatives

• Hindered farmers efforts to live financially
  stable with increased taxes on equipment
  (McKinley Tariff)
• Contributed to the gold debt of the United States
  Gold Reserves (Sherman Silver Purchase Act)
• Added to the nations economic crisis via tariffs
  placed on foreign imports (Blaine-Harrison
  Reciprocity Provision)
• Caused the removal of many republicans in
  government, due to his lack of significant acts
  for the nation
• Interrupted the progressive presidencies of
  Grover Cleveland

• Dispensed funding for war veterans and their
  families (Dependent and Disability Pensions Act)
• Protected citizens from the abuses of companies
  holding monopolies (Sherman Anti-Trust Act)
• Promoted the institution of organizations founded
  on equality
• Encouraged public awareness for protection of the
  environment through the establishment of the
  second and third national parks (Sequoia and
  Yosemite)
• Provided Americans with a four-year period of
  relative foreign peace

http//www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/exhibits/el
ections/1892.asp
31
The End

• Blake Lubinski
• September 17, 2011
• US History Period 7