CHAP. Cleveland, and for the second office Allen J. Thurman LXXI. of Ohio; that of the Republicans met at Chicago, and 1888. nominated for the first office Benjamin Harrison of Indiana and for the second Levi Parsons Morton of New York.

June 21.

1

As to the principles on which the canvass was to be conducted by the two main political parties, the President had given the key, as has been mentioned, in his Annual Message the previous December, and the Democratic platform was framed to coincide with the theories of that document. After endorsing the platform of 1884 in its position on the tariff and its opposition to what were termed "sumptuary laws," the Convention said:" "We endorse the views of President Cleveland in his last Annual Message upon the question of tariff reduction; we also endorse the efforts of our Democratic Representatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation," the latter statement being in allusion to the Mills Tariff Bill, then before the Lower House. The Republican platform said: "We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of protection; we protest against its destruction, as proposed by the President and his party. They serve the interests of Europe: we will support the interests of America."

Other than the tariff position, both platforms contained chiefly the usual "pointing with pride" to their own, and "viewing with alarm" the other party's doings or Nov. 6. omissions. The Republican nominees, Harrison and Morton, were elected.

In the second session of the Fiftieth Congress was 1889. established a "Department of Agriculture," the Secretary of which is a member of the Cabinet.

Feb. 11.

Under the usual conditions, four new States were adFeb. 27. mitted to the Union: South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington.

1 Hist. p. 1101.

1129

CHAPTER LXXII.

HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION.

Sketch of Life.-Inauguration Ceremonies.-Inaugural Address.— The Cabinet.-The last National Centennial Celebration.-Ceremonies at Washington's Inauguration.-The Imitations.-The Coming from Elizabethport.-The School Girls.-Religious Services.-Meeting at the Statue in Wall street.-Military Parade.— The Civic Parade.

BENJAMIN HARRISON, the great-great-grandfather of CHAP. the present President, was a native of the Colony of LXXII. Virginia. We infer he was held in high respect by his fellow-colonists, inasmuch as he was at times a member, and also Speaker, of the House of Burgesses. In 1765 he took decided ground in opposition to the famous Stamp Act. He was a member of the greatly influential Continental Congresses of 1774, 1775 and 1776. As a member of the latter he signed the Declaration of Independence. The second son of Benjamin Harrison,— William Henry,-was elected President of the United States by an unprecedented majority. He was the 1840. grandfather of the Benjamin Harrison who was elected President in 1888.

Benjamin Harrison was born in the homestead of his 1833. grandfather at North Bend, Ohio. He grew up a Aug. 20. farmer's son, and did his share of work when not at school. After being prepared at an academy in the vicinity he entered Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1852, in his nineteenth year. 1 Hist. p. 734.

LXXII.

CHAP. His position was high in the studies required in the college and also among his fellow-students, he being especially noted for his off-hand speeches, which, owing to their clearness of expression and appropriateness of thought, appeared to have been written out in his study instead of being impromptu. On graduation he began 1854. the study of law, and in 1854 we find him beginning its practice in the City of Indianapolis. In 1860 he was elected Reporter of the State Supreme Court.

1861.

Troublous times for the Union were foreshadowed. Fort Sumter had been fired upon, and that act fired the Ap'l 12. hearts of the loyal men of the nation. Into the preceding exciting Presidential canvass Harrison entered heartily, and was in deep sympathy with the political principles of the party that elected Abraham Lincoln.

When President Lincoln issued a proclamation for troops in 1862, Harrison offered his services to Governor Oliver P. Morton, was accepted, and authorized to raise a regiment. He acted promptly. On his way back to his office he purchased a military cap, secured a fifer and drummer, and at once threw out a flag from his office window and began recruiting men for the Union army. One company was soon obtained, put into camp and set at learning to drill, Harrison having, at his own expense, employed a drill-master from Chicago. The regimentthe Seventieth Indiana Volunteers-was completed in a comparatively short time, and the Governor appointed Harrison Colonel. Distrusting his own knowledge of military tactics, Harrison declined the office, but was finally persuaded to accept it. He entered the service as soon as possible with his regiment, being assigned to duty under General Buell, in Kentucky. He commanded his regiment with marked success in a number of battles. Afterward, for his bravery and discretion, he was recommended by General Joseph Hooker, under whose eye he had come, for brevet in the grade of Brigadier

AN INCIDENT.

1131

LXXII.

General, as an "officer of superior abilities, and of great CHAP. professional and personal worth." He received the brevet January 23, 1865.

Sept.12.

When at Atlanta with Sherman, Harrison was ordered by the War Department to report at Indianapolis for special duty. That duty was to obtain recruits for the 1864. army. Aided by his popularity he was so successful in enlisting men that the work was finished by the 9th of November, and he was free to set out to join his command in the march to the sea, but being unavoidably delayed, he arrived too late, as General Sherman was already far on his march. He found, however, an order to report at Chattanooga. There he was put at the head of a brigade, and transferred to the command of General George H. Dec. 3 Thomas, at Nashville, Tenn.

An incident that occurred here reveals in one respect the character of the man. The weather became unusually cold, the earth being covered with snow and ice; his brigade was at the front and the sentries placed, one of whom, R. M. Smock of Indianapolis, relates: "I saw a man approaching from the direction of the officers' quarters; I halted him, and when he gave the countersign and advanced, I saw it was Colonel Harrison. He had a large can of hot coffee, with which he regaled the sentries in front of his brigade, lest, as he said, 'they should freeze to death.""

After the battle of Nashville, Harrison was ordered to report to General Sherman at Savannah, Georgia; but having been detained, he was able to join him at Goldsboro, North Carolina. He remained in the service to the end of the war.

After the close of the war, General Harrison returned to the active duties of his profession, having been in 1864 re-elected Supreme Court Reporter. He was not, however, permitted by his political friends to be inactive when questions of a national character were to be dis

CHAP. cussed, and in such debates he took part, especially in LXXII. several Presidential campaigns.

In 1876, General Harrison was Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana, and ran ahead of his ticket, although defeated by a small plurality. He was urged in 1880 to permit his name to come before the people as a candidate for the Presidency, but refused. He also declined an invitation to become a member of the cabinet of President Garfield. He had, meanwhile, in 1881, been elected almost unanimously to the Senate of the United States. At the end of his six years' senatorship he retired once more to the practice of his profession, and while thus in private life was nominated for the Presidency by the Republican National Convention asJune sembled at Chicago. More directly than in 1884, the 21. canvass turned on "tariff reduction," as called for by the

1888.

March

4.

Democrats, and "protection to American industries," as the Republican motto. As stated above, Mr. Harrison was elected.

The ceremonies pertaining to the inauguration of 1889. President Harrison were the most imposing in our history. It is estimated that about 100,000 persons attended from all sections of the Union. The inaugural address, in its views of national affairs, was broad and comprehensive, and expressed in terms clear and terse. In respect to the principal feature of the discussion in the recent canvass, he recognized among the people a “patriotic interest in the preservation and development of domestic industries and defense of our working people against injurious foreign competition." In allusion to the first tariff bill of the Nation enacted by Congress and 1790. signed by George Washington,' he said: "It is not a departure, but a return, that we have witnessed. 1. If

the question [of the tariff] became in any way sectional, it was only because slavery existed in some of the States."

1 Hist., pp. 575, 576.