HARRISON, Benjamin, 23d President of the United States : b. North Bend, Ohio, 20 Aug. 1833; d. Indianapolis, Ind., 13 March 1901. He was a great-grandson of Benjamin• Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence (q.v.), and grandson of William Henry Harrison, ninth President (q.v.). He was graduated from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in 1852, studied law in Cincinnati, was admitted to the bar in 1853 and in 1854 began in Indianapolis the practise of his profession. In 1860 he was elected reporter of the Supreme Court of the State. At the time of his election • to the Presidency (1888) he was one of the foremost leaders of the State bar. At the outbreak of the Civil War he assisted in recruiting the 70th regiment of Indiana Volunteers, of which he became colonel (August 1862). He was an exceedingly efficient commander. For some time he was detailed to guard railways in the West; and in the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta the regiment was in the 20th Army corps, the commander of which was Gen. Joseph Hooker. Harrison commanded a bri gade at Peach Tree Creek, where he served with especial distinction, and also at Nashville. He was present at Johnston's surrender at Dur ham Station, N. C., in 1865, was brevetted brig adier-general for his services in command of the brigade, and in June of that year was mustered out. The Supreme Court of Indiana had de clared that Harrison by his enlistment vacated his office of reporter, and a Democrat was elected by default to fill that office for the un expired term. At the election of 1864 Harrison, while still in the field, was, rechosen. In 1867 he refused a renomination, and recommenced his legal practice, in which he was largely retained in both the Federal and State courts. In 1876 he became, on the retirement of the original candidate, the Republican candidate for the governorship, and though he ran about 2,000 votes ahead of his ticket, he was defeated by a Democratic plurality of 3,000. He• was appointed a member of the Mississippi River commission in 1879, and in 1880 was chairman of the Indiana delegation in the Republican National Convention. At that convention, where he cast nearly the entire vote of the State for Garfield, he was himself mentioned in• connec tion with the Presidency. From 1881 to 1887 he was in the United States Senate, in which he took rank as a prominent debater. He op posed Cleveland's vetoes of the pension bills, urged increase in the navy and civil-service re form, and as chairman of the Committee on Ter ritories demanded the admission as States of North and South Dakota, Montana, Washing ton and Idaho. In 1884 he was a delegate to
the Republican National Convention. At the convention of 1888 (Chicago, Ili.) he was pre sented by the solid Indiana delegation as a can didate for the nomination to the Presidency; and on the eighth ballot he received the nom ination by a vote of•544. The campaign was a vigorous one, and Harrison made many excel lent speeches. He was elected, receiving in the electoral college 233 ballots to 168 for Grover Cleveland. His administration was broadly characterized by a firm defense of American interests in foreign affairs and a general pro motion of industry and governmental effective this time the 55th Congress passed the tariff act known as the McKinley Law; the reciprocity system was introduced; the new navy was extended; civil-service reform was promoted; and the Pan-American Congress with representatives from all Central and South American countries was held at Washington in the winter of 1889-90. The Bering Sea arbi tration respecting the seal fisheries was also or ganized between Great Britain and the United States. The Samoan difficulties were adjusted; and the Chile affair, concerned with an attack on American sailors either connived at or per mitted by Chilean authorities, was promptly and satisfactorily settled by enforced reparation on the part of Chile. At the Minneapolis conven tion of 1892 Harrison was renominated without serious opposition. He was a second time op posed by Cleveland, and his defeat by 276 elec toral votes to 145 was an occasion for some surprise. Upon his retirement from office, he returned to the practice of law, and in 189344 delivered a course of lectures on constitutional law at Stanford University. In 1899 he ap peared as counsel for Venezuela in the Anglo Venezuelan Boundary Arbitration Commission. He was appointed a member for the United States of the Peace Conference held at The Hague in 1899, and became one of the Interna tional Board of Arbitration. He wrote This Country of Otirs) (1897). A complete collec tion of his public addresses from 1888 to 1892 was edited by Hedges (1892). A posthumous collection of articles, (Views of an Ex-Presi dent," was published in 1901. Consult the campaign life by Lew Wallace (1888), and Wil son (editor), The Presidents of the United States) (1894).