Harrison, Benjamin (redirected from Benjamin Harrison)

Harrison, Benjamin, political leader in the American Revolution

Harrison, Benjamin, 1726?–1791, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Charles City co., Va. As a member (1749–75) of the house of burgesses, he protested against the Stamp Act (1765). He was a delegate (1774–78) to the Continental Congress and later governor of Virginia (1781–84). His son William Henry Harrison and his great-grandson Benjamin Harrison were U.S. Presidents.

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Harrison, Benjamin, President of the United States

Harrison, Benjamin, 1833–1901, 23d President of the United States (1889–93), b. North Bend, Ohio, grad. Miami Univ. (Ohio), 1852; grandson of William Henry Harrison. After reading law in Cincinnati, he moved (1854) to Indianapolis, where he was a lawyer and politician. He served in the Civil War as commander of an Indiana volunteer regiment and in 1865 was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers. A well-established corporation lawyer, he was (1881–87) a member of the U.S. Senate as a Republican but was defeated for reelection. The Republicans chose him (1888) as presidential candidate against Grover Cleveland, and he was elected in the electoral college, though Cleveland had the larger popular vote. Harrison as President approved all regular Republican measures, including the highly protective McKinley Tariff Act. His equivocal stand on civil service reform displeased both reformers and spoilsmen. The first Pan-American Conference was held (1889) in his administration. Defeated for reelection in 1892 by Cleveland, Harrison returned to his Indianapolis law practice. He later represented Venezuela in the Venezuela Boundary Dispute. Harrison wrote This Country of Ours (1897) and Views of an Ex-President (1901).

Bibliography

See his public papers and addresses (1893, repr. 1969); biography by H. J. Sievers (3 vol., 1952–68).

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Harrison, Benjamin

Benjamin Harrison, photograph by George Prince, 1888.

(credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Aug. 20, 1833, North Bend, Ohio, U.S.—died March 13, 1901, Indianapolis, Ind.) 23rd president of the U.S. (1889–93). The grandson of William H. Harrison, the 9th president of the U.S., he practiced law in Indianapolis from the mid-1850s. He served in the Union army in the American Civil War, rising to brigadier general. After a single term in the U.S. Senate (1881–87), he won the Republican nomination for president and defeated the incumbent, Grover Cleveland, in the electoral college, though Cleveland received more popular votes. His presidency was marked by passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act. His secretary of state, James Blaine, presided at the conference that led to the establishment of the Pan-American Union, resisted pressure to abandon U.S. interests in the Samoan Islands (1889), and negotiated a treaty with Britain in the Bering Sea Dispute (1891). Defeated for reelection by Cleveland in 1892, Harrison returned to Indianapolis to practice law. In 1898–99 he was the leading counsel for Venezuela in its boundary dispute with Britain.

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Harrison, Benjamin (?1726–91) governor; born in Charles City County, Va. (father of William Henry Harrison). He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses (1749–75), later leading resistance to the British. In the Continental Congress (1774–77), he presided over debates which led to the Declaration of Independence, which he signed. A member of Virginia's House of Delegates (1777–81, 1784–91), and Virginia's governor (1781–84), he championed the Union and the Bill of Rights.

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Harrison, Benjamin (1833–1901) twenty-third U.S. president; born in North Bend, Ohio. Grandson of a U.S. president and son of a U.S. senator, he took up law practice in Indianapolis in 1854. During the Civil War he raised a regiment and led it with distinction. Active thereafter in Republican politics, he made two unsuccessful bids for the Indiana governorship before gaining a seat in the U.S. Senate (1881–87), where he supported civil service reform and a protective tariff. In 1888 he rode the tariff issue into the presidency with the support of big business. As president he signed the high McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (both highly unpopular) as well as the Sherman Antitrust Act; he also supported several international conferences. His association with high tariffs was the main element in his loss to Grover Cleveland in 1892. He returned to legal practice in Indianapolis, regaining respect for his responsible views on national and international issues.