Passed Presidents - # 9 – William Henry Harrison

On this day, 173 years ago, our ninth president gave up the ghost.  William Henry Harrison was the first president to die in office and he holds the distinction of serving the shortest term on record.  On a miserable, late winter day, he gave the longest inaugural speech EVER and did it without wearing a hat, coat or gloves.  He caught a cold and pneumonia finished him off exactly a month later.  This is why mothers all over say, “Put a coat on.  I’m cold.”  They all used to say, “That’s how President Harrison died, you know.”  When kids started saying, “President who?”, mothers left that part out and stayed with the tried-and-true, “...because I said so.”  

Born to plantation aristocracy in Virginia (his father signed the Declaration of Independence), he joined the Army and went to the Northwest Territories after daddy died and left him no money.  There, he fought Indians, met his wife and settled into territorial government after leaving the military.

I guess if Native Americans had their ‘Hall of Shame’, Harrison would be a prominent member.  As governor of the Indiana Territory, one of his primary duties was to make things easy for settlers – with no regard for the people already living there.  Negotiating treaties with the tribes was a less messy way to acquire their lands.  Liberal donations of alcohol made the process go smoothly and the final terms more agreeable.  If we didn’t want to abide by the terms of the treaties, we didn’t and would conquer them anyway.

Entrance to William Henry Harrison Memorial,

North Bend, OH [21 October 2006]

Apart from his record term length, Harrison is known by his campaign nickname.  With his running mate, John Tyler, their slogan was ‘Tippecanoe and Tyler too’.  Tippecanoe was the battle he won against the Shawnee Confederation.

Some refer to the 1840 election as the first ‘modern’ presidential campaign because the Whigs manipulated the issues and stressed style over substance.  The issues were secondary as Harrison’s handlers preferred to falsely emphasize his frontier background and tout his military victories over the Indians. 

I guess his brief time in office did have something to show for it...even if that happened because he croaked.  Harrison’s premature passing prompted us to clarify the vague constitutional aspects of presidential succession.  

We can also give him this much.  When C-Span conducted its Second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership in 2009, 65 experts placed Harrison firmly in the Bottom Ten but at Number 39.  There were still three guys who ranked lower...despite his being in office for only a month and in a sick bed most of that time.

It’s only fitting that my visit to the grave of the president with the shortest term was also abbreviated.  It was late in the day when I arrived at the memorial and it was too late to enter.

All I could see of the Harrison Tomb [21 October 2006]

Until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981 at age 69, Harrison was the oldest man to take the oath at age 68.  Interestingly, another thing Reagan did was defeat ‘Tecumseh’s Curse’.  It was said that Tecumseh’s brother, Tenskwatawa, also known as The Prophet, put a curse on Harrison.  He said Harrison will die and “every Great Chief chosen every twenty years thereafter shall also die.”  Damned if that didn’t work for a long time.  After Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley were assassinated, Harding was poisoned...um, died suddenly, FDR died on the job and JFK was shot.  For the next 120 years, every president elected in a year ending in ‘0’ died in office until Ronnie lived through his two terms...despite John Hinckley’s effort to keep the streak going in 1981.

William Henry Harrison

9th President; Served 1841

Born: February 9, 1773, Berkeley, VA

Died: April 4, 1841, Washington, D.C.

Grave Location: Harrison Tomb State Memorial, North Bend, OH

Date Visited: 10/21/2006