Biography: |
Grandson of President William Henry Harrison; graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1852; studied law in Cincinnati; moved to Indianapolis in 1854; admitted to the bar and practiced; reporter of the decisions of the supreme court of the State; served in the Union Army during the Civil War; brevetted brigadier general and mustered out in 1865; while in the field in October 1864 was reelected reporter of the State supreme court and served four years; unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1876; appointed a member of the Mississippi River Commission in 1879; elected as a Republican to the Senate (served 4 Mar 1881 - 4 Mar 1887); chairman, Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (47th Congress), Committee on Territories (48th and 49th Congresses); elected President of the United States in 1888; administration was marked by an innovative foreign policy and expanding U.S. influence abroad; Inter-American Conference in Washington, D.C. (1889-1890); resisted pressure from Germany and Great Britain to abandon U.S. interests in the Samoan Islands (1889); McKinley Tariff Act (1890) raised duties on most imports; Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) outlawed business combinations in restraint of trade; Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) increased the amount of money in circulation; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1892; attorney for the United States of Venezuela in the boundary dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain in 1900. |
Biographical sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (2005). |
Elections: |
Candidate |
Electoral vote (14 Jan 1889) |
Benjamin Harrison |
233 |
Stephen Grover Cleveland |
168 |
total number of electors appointed |
401 |
number of votes for a majority |
201 |
|
Source of electoral results: Congressional Record, 50th Congress, 2nd Session, 1860. |
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[1] |
Congressional Record, 50th Congress, 2nd Session, 1859-1860. |
[2] |
Congressional Record, 51st Congress, Special Session of the Senate, 1-4 (swearing-in was omitted from official account of the session; inofficial detailed report is found in The New-York Times, New-York, Tuesday, March 5, 1889, vol. XXXVIII, No. 11,705, pp. 1-2). |
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Image: photograph (1888). |