 |
Benjamin Harrison
b. 20 Aug 1833, North Bend, Hamilton County, Ohio
d. 13 Mar 1901, Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Title: |
President of the United States |
| Term: |
4 Mar 1889 - 4 Mar 1893 |
| Chronology: |
13 Feb 1889,
election to the office of President of the United States is declared upon counting electoral votes (cast 14 Jan 1889),
joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, House Chamber, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. [1] |
|
4 Mar 1889,
commencement of term |
|
4 Mar 1889,
took an oath of office as President of the United States, inaugural ceremony as part of the special session of the Senate, East Portico, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. [2] |
|
4 Mar 1893,
expiration of term |
| 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. |
| |
| [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). |
|
Image: photograph (1888). |
