P. Rice

03/13/2003

Collector Notes for the Easton Press edition of

The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison by Homer E. Socolofsky, and Allan B. Spetter

Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third president of the United States, established a reputation as a man of fierce independence, high intelligence, and an uncompromising sense of justice. At the time of his election to the presidency he was widely lauded as a successful lawyer and senator. He was an acknowledged humanitarian, and, having served as an officer in the Union Army, he was a popular spokesman for veterans of the Civil War. His term in the nation’s highest office was marked by landmark events that would influence the remarkable changes embraced by world leaders in the twentieth century. And yet his administration has been blatantly overlooked and often disregarded by historians and scholars of political science.

The grandson of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison was born in 1833 in North Bend, Ohio. As a youth he believed himself to be destined for greatness, and his ambition and desire to succeed reflected a dedication to seeing this belief fulfilled. He graduated at the top of his class from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and subsequently studied law with a prominent firm in Cincinnati. He married his childhood sweetheart, Caroline Lavinia Scott, in 1853. The young couple moved to Indianapolis soon thereafter, and Harrison became an active member of the fledgling Republican Party. He strongly supported General John C. Fremont as the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856, and in 1860 he stridently worked for the election of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War he enlisted in the 70^th regiment of the Indiana Volunteers, serving with distinction and becoming a brigadier general before the war’s end. He returned to his law practice following the war and was an ardent supporter of the Radical Republicans’ firm Reconstruction policy toward the South.

Harrison’s enthusiastic campaign for the governorship of Indiana proved unsuccessful at the polls but served to establish him as a nationally recognized politician. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, and as a senator he began the legacy of action that he would build upon in his presidential career, working for pensions for Civil War veterans, high protective tariffs, an updated navy, and the conservation of western lands. He received the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1988 with New York banker Levi P. Morton selected as his running mate. Incumbent President Grover Cleveland was the Democrat’s choice, and the election proved to be close and mildly controversial. President Cleveland received the greater number of popular votes, but Harrison carried the electoral college, 233 to 168, to become the president-elect.

The Harrison administration boasted an innovative foreign policy and oversaw the expansion of U.S. international interests and influence. Charismatic Secretary of State James G. Blaine presided over the first Inter-American Conference in Washington, D. C. in 1889-90. This established the Pan-American Union for exchange of cultural and scientific information and essentially initiated the Pan-American movement. Under Harrison’s tutelage, Blaine successfully resisted pressure from Germany and Great Britain to abandon U. S. interests in the Samoan Islands, and he negotiated a treaty with Great Britain to arbitrate a long-standing controversy over the hunting of seals in the Bering Sea. The administration unsuccessfully sought to acquire the Hawaii Islands, but the foreign policy established in the process was integral to the eventual annexation of Hawaii and the extended reach of American expansion in the Far East.

The domestic programs were less successful and overshadowed his efforts abroad. An economic depression in the agrarian South and West caused pressure for legislation that did not generally appeal to conservative Republicans. Harrison was a protectionist who favored high tariffs, a trait reflected by his careful handling of the McKinley Tariff of 1890. The intention was to impose high import duties to protect American corporations, but the result was inflated prices and a marked deflation in popularity for the president. He lobbied successfully for the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, but the plan proved to be flawed and nearly depleted the U. S. treasury of gold reserves.

Although he sought re-election, the illness and death of his wife Caroline caused him to neglect some of his campaign in favor of personal priorities, and the tragedy of her death greatly distracted him from the business of election. Harrison was re-nominated in 1892, but growing Populist discontent and several national strikes late in his term sealed his fate at the polls. Grover Cleveland staged a comeback and regained the presidency by an electoral vote of 277 to 145. Returning to his private law practice in Indianapolis, Harrison remained active in public life until his death from pneumonia in 1901.

The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison is a fascinating portrait of the twenty-third president and a scholarly analysis of the policies and administration of one of the most underrated American leaders. Authors Homer E. Socolofsky, professor of history at Kansas State University, and Allan B. Spetter, associate professor of history at Wright State University, have provided the authoritative study of a quiet president whose influence on geopolitics continues to gain recognition.

This Easton Press edition of The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison is handsomely bound in genuine leather adorned by accents of 22kt gold on the spine. Printed on archival quality paper specially milled for this edition, The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison is designed to endure for generations as an indispensable addition to your Library of the Presidents collection.