The ninth U.S. president, William Henry Harrison didn't have time to achieve much of anything before dying of pneumonia a month after his inauguration. Harrison was president for a mere 31 days, so his accomplishments were complete before he moved to the White House.
It's very possible that his greatest — and we use the word "greatest" loosely — contribution to U.S. history is that he was first candidate to actively campaign for president. Up to that time, candidates let others do their campaigning. Harrison handed out campaign knick knacks and liberally used campaign slogans.
Remember “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”? That was Harrison. He handed out campaign buttons with that slogan. He passed out replica tomahawks made of blue glass. Supporters rolled around giant paper balls covered with campaign slogans (which is where the expression “Keep the ball rolling” comes from).
He also is one-half of the only grandfather/grandson team to be U.S. president: the 23rd president, Benjamin Henry Harrison is his offspring. (Historical tidbit: His father, Benjamin, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.)
And he had an immense family—he and his wife, Anna, had ten children, nine of whom survived to adulthood.
His Early Life
While still in his 20s, William Henry Harrison was appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory and soon was appointed the territory’s delegate to Congress. While in Congress, he introduced the Harrison Land Act, which made land in the territory easier and cheaper to purchase by divvying up the land into small, affordable tracts -- contributing greatly to the westward migration. Part of the Land Act provided for breaking off the western part of the Northwest Territory and creating the Indiana Territory (now Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota).
Harrison’s Land Act made him none-too-popular with the Native Americans who lived on the land. In fact, Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnee tribe, tried to create an Indian confederation to attack the settlers, but his plan didn't work. In negotiations, Tecumseh came to Harrison's house but refused to enter. Instead, he met with Harrison under a walnut tree just outside of the house.
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| Wood Carving of Tecumseh near Grouseland |
During the War of 1812, Harrison’s forces killed Tecumseh who had aligned with the British.
Views on Slavery
Harrison was generally opposed to the concept of slavery but he did enslave people himself. He seems for the most part to have limited their service and freed them after twelve or more years of services. He publically opposed slavery but aligned himself with the southerners on many slavery votes.
Harrison, the First Modern Candidate
Harrison was the first candidate of the Whigs, a party created by Henry Clay primarily to oppose Jacksonian principles. The Whigs were a diverse lot but mostly supported a strong central government that built national infrastructure, maintained a national bank, and built public schools. Having said that, the Whigs were extremely diverse and consisted of both slave owners and abolitionists as well as both pro and anti-national bank advocates (Collins, 2012).
Surprisingly, John Tyler, Harrison’s vice presidential running mate, held views inconsistent with Harrison’s. Tyler was a slavery advocate who was against a strong government role in building public works. The only thing he had in common with the Whigs was opposition to President Martin Van Buren.
This was the first presidential campaign where it became necessary to emphasize the candidates’ humble beginnings. Harrison became the “Log Cabin Candidate” even though he was brought up on a Virginia plantation. His opponent, Van Buren, who was actually brought up in the back of a tavern, was labeled an elitist and dandy. (Even today presidential candidates emphasize their humble roots: First lady Michelle Obama recounts how a young Barack Obama used to pick her up in a car with rust holes clear through the door.)
Drinking also became an important symbol for the rugged outdoorsman president, and Harrison was touted for his ability to drink “hard cider.” In fact, distiller E.G. Booz came up with an election year gimmick by bottling whiskey in bottles shaped like log cabins.
Campaign slogans were spun and songs were sung, the most famous being, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!” where they sang: “For Tippecanoe and Tyler too. For Tippecanoe and Tyler too. And with them we'll beat little Van, Van, Van…Van is a used up man.”
And of course, the aforementioned “keep the ball rolling” where huge (often 12 ft. diameter) campaign balls were rolled throughout the country. The balls were mostly made of paper campaign slogans but some were made of tin and cowhide (Collins, 2012).
In another first, Harrison gave his own campaign speeches which heretofore had been given by the candidate’s supporters.
The excitement around this election was so huge that more than 80% of the eligible voters cast ballots (Collins, 2012). (That compares to the 50-60 percent averages of our recent U.S. elections.)
And Harrison won the election, only to come down with pneumonia. It was cold and rainy on Inauguration Day, March 4, and he gave a record two-hour speech – a record that still stands. (Note from us long-time Washington dwellers: Inauguration Day is always the coldest day of the year.)
Visiting Grouseland was a last-minute surprise. We were preparing for a visit to Indianapolis when we learned that Grouseland was only a couple-hour drive from the state capital. A quick change of our flights, and we were off.
There, we found another surprise -- we are not unique in our quest to visit all the presidents. A docent at Grouseland, who had been on the job for two months, said we were the third set of people she had met on a presidential pilgrimage. On a positive note, we may be the only ones doing it in order.
Grouseland was the first brick house in the Indiana Territory. It had 400,000 bricks and was built like a fortress, since it was in the middle of the wilderness and was subject to attack by the Native Americans.
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| Occupants Could See in Many Directions |
The walls were extremely thick on the outside and even between inside rooms. Beams were twice as big as necessary, and the house had a well in the basement in case of attack. The house also features survey walls so occupants could see out in several directions, small semi-circular windows in the bedrooms, as well as a trap door in the roof.
The shutters are able to cover the windows from both inside and out as protection from attack. Good thing.
There is a bullet hole in one of them. Apparently, the Harrisons were shot at when William Henry and his infant son were in the room, but the shutter blocked it. If the son — Benjamin Harrison — had been hit, history would have been different, since he was the father of the 23rd president, Benjamin Henry Harrison.
But outside of that incident, the house was never attacked.
Vincennes
Don't expect much in the town of Vincennes. It's pretty run down, and Grouseland isn't in a historic area nor is it on a sweeping estate, like many of the presidents’ houses we've seen. The house itself is beautiful, although the grounds are lacking.
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| The Monster |
As a side note, in another part of Vincennes we found a massive monument to Revolutionary War hero, George Rogers Clark. Built in the early 1930s with funding under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), this monster appears to be as large as the Jefferson Memorial.
References
Collins, G. 2012. William Henry Harrison. Henry Holt and Company. New York, New York.
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