About the Man
You may recognize the name “Harrison.” It’s legacy runs all the way back to Plymouth Rock, but we needn’t go back that far to make the connection.
Benjamin Harrison was 7 when his grandfather William Henry Harrison became President of the United States. He was still 7 when his grandfather died in office 1 month later.
What’s even harsher? I quote To the Best of My Ability by McPherson when I say “Benjamin Harrison might well be remembered more fondly had his administration also ended prematurely” like his grandfathers.
What was wrong with “the human iceberg?” He got that nickname from his cold nature, his awkwardness with the public and his distaste for incompetence. Harrison spent his presidency doing the bidding of those who got him into office, passing bills they wanted passed and trying his best to stay out of trouble.
Ironically, the man he replaced, Grover Cleveland, came back to the White House after a 4 year hiatus and rescinded most of the bills passed by Harrison. Then US Civil Service Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt referred to him even less fondly, calling him a “cold-blooded, narrow-minded, prejudiced, obstinate, timid old psalm singing politician.”
It’s not that Benjamin Harrison was a terrible president, politician or person. He was decent, but in effect he was just not cut out for the rigors of public office. His ability to keep a clean profile is the only reason he received the Republican nomination. When he passed the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 on the advice of others, a bill that sent consumer prices skyrocketing and raised prices of farm equipment effectively beginning a slow burn of distaste in the hearts of rural voters, he succinctly ended his chances for reelection.
Harrison died in 1901, 8 years after leaving office.
The quote I used is a truncated version of this quote: “The indiscriminate denunciation of the rich is mischievous. It perverts minds, poisons the heart and furnishes an excuse to crime. No poor man was ever made richer or happier by it. It is quite illogical to despise a man because he is rich as because he is poor. Not what a man has, but what he is, settles his class. We can not right matters by taking from one what he has honestly acquired to bestow upon another what he has not earned.” Taken from Views of an Ex-President by Benjamin Harrison.
