William Henry Harrison

Harrison, William Henry (1773–1841), 9th president of the United States. Harrison, a military hero and the first successful candidate of the Whig party, died 1 month after taking office—the briefest term of any U.S. chief executive.

Early life

Harrison's father was a prominent figure in Virginia politics and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The young Harrison attended Hampden-Sydney College, then studied medicine in Philadelphia. After his father's death in 1791, he entered the army and fought Indians in the Northwest Territory. He rose rapidly in rank and was given command of Fort Washington (now Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1795. He married Anna Symmes the same year.

In 1798, Harrison resigned from the army and settled at North Bend, Ohio. He was elected territorial delegate to Congress in 1799 and was appointed governor of Indiana Territory in 1800. By a series of treaties with the Indians (1802–09), Harrison opened 33 million acres of Ohio and Indiana to large-scale white settlement. But the Indians, led by Shawnee chief Tecumseh, formed a confederation with British support and threatened war if U.S. settlers occupied the Wabash Valley. Harrison, leading the territorial militia, invaded the Wabash Valley in 1811. He repulsed an Indian attack at the mouth of Tippecanoe Creek, which made him a national hero—”Old Tippe-canoe.” During the War of 1812, Harrison, who commanded all U.S. troops in the Northwest, defeated the British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario.

Politics

In 1814, Harrison left the military and entered politics. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1816–19), Ohio Senate (1819–21), and U.S. Senate (1825–28). After a brief stint as U.S. minister to Colombia, he retired to North Bend, where he served as county recorder and clerk of the county court.

In 1836, Harrison was one of the disunited Whig Party's 3 presidential candidates. He garnered the most votes of any Whig, but Democrat Martin Van Buren won the presidency. At the Whigs' first national convention in 1839, they nominated Harrison for the presidency and John Tyler for the vice presidency.

The 1840 campaign was the most colorful the United States had ever experienced. The slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” glossed over the Whigs' lack of any positive program or political position. When the Democrats sneered at Harrison as the “log cabin and hard cider” candidate, Whigs built campaign log cabins and freely dispensed hard cider. Harrison supporters represented the well-born candidate as a humble son of the people to contrast him with Van Buren, “the aristocrat.” In the largest turnout the nation had ever seen, the popular balloting was close but Harrison won by an overwhelming majority of electoral votes.

President

The inauguration was held March 4, 1841, in a cold drizzle. Harrison, who delivered his inaugural address without hat or overcoat, caught a cold that developed into pneumonia. He died on April 4, precisely one month after taking office.