Thomas Harrison

“ In concluding, he called for the choicest blessings upon his comrades, saying: "To each one, God bless you and your families; God keep you and protect you in your homes!"
INDIANAPOLIS, FEBRUARY 25, 1889. The Departure for Washington.
President-elect and Mrs. Harrison bade their friends and neighbors good-by and left Indiana on February 25 for Washington. Governor Hovey, Mayor Denny, and several thousand citizens escorted them from their residence to the railroad station. In the escort column were 1,000 G. A. R. veterans from Geo. H. Thomas and other posts, commanded by H. C. Allen. ”

“ It was about 3 P.M. Thursday when the train crossed the Indiana line and arrived at Montezuma, where the President was met by a very large and enthusiastic delegation from Indianapolis, headed by Gov. Alvin P. Hovey, Mayor Thomas L. Sullivan, Gen. Lew Wallace, ex-Gov. Isaac P. Gray, Judge William A. Woods, ex-Senator McDonald, and Senator David Turpie. The escort from Indianapolis included representatives from 52 labor organizations, from each G. A. R. post in the city, and delegates from the Hendricks, Gray, Cleveland, Columbia, Marion, Metropolitan, and Tippecanoe clubs. ”

“ He had hardly commenced the study of his new profession when the death of his distinguished parent obliged him to [176] return. After his return, and during the time appropriated for the settlement of his father’s estate, the preparations for a campaign against the Indians of the west caused much excitement, and Harrison resolved to enter the service of his government despite the most eloquent entreaties and persuasions of his guardian and friends. ”

“ Republican ranks, which have been depleted by the invitations which the agricultural States of the West have extended to our enterprising young men. I welcome your here to-night, and will be glad to have a personal introduction to each of you. [Applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 29.
Ohio and Illinois did honor this day again to the Republican nominee. From Cleveland came 800 voters; their organizations were the Harrison Boys in Blue—200 veterans of the Civil War—commanded by Gen. James Barnett; the Garfield Club, led by Thomas R. Whitehead and Albert M. Long; the Logan Club, headed by Capt. ”

“ And notable men were there for him to observe; vast forces moving for him to study. Thomas Jefferson had again become a member of the House after his vindication from threatened impeachment. Patrick Henry was a member, too, and William Cabell, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, and other men whose names have become historic. During Marshall's later years in the Legislature, James Madison, George Mason, William Grayson, Edmund Randolph, George Nicholas, and others of like stature became Marshall's colleagues. ”

“ It is lodged safely in the affections of the people, and having its impregnable defence and its assured perpetuity in their love and veneration for law. [Cheers.]
TULARE, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 25.
Tulare was reached at 10 o'clock. Nearly 6,000 people awaited the President's arrival. Capt. Thomas H. Thompson, E. W. Holland, and Hon. O. B. Taylor met the distinguished travellers. The other members of the committee were: Hon. John. G. Eckles, Hon. J. O. Lovejoy, I. N. Wright, J. Wolfrom, E. T. Cosper, Hon. J. W. Davis, Sam Richardson, Dr. ”

“ The vote being passed, although further observation on it was out of order, he could not refrain from rising and expressing his satisfaction, and concluded by saying, "there is but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I disapprove, and that is the word Congress;" on which Ben Harrison rose and said, "There is but one word in the paper, Mr. President, of which I approve, and that is the word Congress." ”

“ Harrison, as if she divined what he was about, would upset all his plans by a few words, or a look or smile—some little expression which meant nothing, and could never be used against her; but which, by a man in his state, might be interpreted to mean a great deal. ”

“ Harrison exists very decidedly—a Wall-street speculator, and well known as such by business people, a capital man behind a trotter, an excellent judge of wine. Probably he will come here from the city once or twice before we leave, and I shall find an opportunity to introduce you to him, for he is really worth knowing and considerable of a man, as we say—no fool at all, except in the way he lets his wife bully him. ”

“ The Whigs, having exhausted their language in denouncing their opponents for nominating a man like Andrew Jackson, proceeded to look about in their own party to find one who should come as near him as possible in all the attributes that had given him so deep a hold on the people; and they succeeded perfectly when they pitched on the old Indian fighter, Harrison. "Tippecanoe" proved quite as effective a war-cry in bringing about the downfall of the Jacksonians as "Old Hickory" had shown itself to be a dozen years previously in raising them up. ”

“ General Harrison was akin to the Covenanters who bore both Bible and sword into battle. His eminence in the law was due to his deep learning in its history and philosophy. Short of stature, and without grace of person,—with a voice pitched rather high,—he was a remarkably interesting and persuasive speaker. If I may so put it, his political speeches were addressed as to a trial judge rather than to a jury, his appeal being to reason and not to passion or prejudice. He could, in rapid flights of campaigning, speak to many audiences in a day without repeating himself. ”

“ A few of Harrison’s public addresses survive, the most notable being A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Ohio. It has been said of him: “He was not a great man, but he had lived in a great time, and he had been a leader in great things.” He was the first territorial delegate in the Congress of the United States and was the author of the first step in the development of the country’s later homestead policy; the first presidential candidate to be selected upon the ground of “expediency” alone; and the first president to die in office. ”

“ Harrison has lived a long life, and has often been in the midst of seeming peril. He has often been in battle with savages and with the British soldiery. He has often trodden the forest amid all the dangers and vicissitudes that beset the traveller there. He has spent many days of toil in the field, laboring as a farmer. ”

“ Harrison has the courage of vigorous opinions politically, municipally and in other ways. While some may differ from him as to his beliefs and methods, even these admit his possession of those qualities which enable him to successfully fulfil duties that are usually relegated to much older men. ”

“ Although now almost a forgotten figure, General Harrison was one of the ablest and worthiest of our public men. Born in Berkeley, Virginia, February 9, 1773, he grew to manhood with the close of the Revolution and the establishment of the national government. His father was the friend of Washington, and when the son went into the Western wilds he held a commission as ensign signed by the first of the Presidents. At the age of thirty he was a delegate in Congress from the Northwest Territory. ”

“ Harrison was too independent in mind, too republican in principle, and too penetrating in their designs, to be caught in the silken web of ministerial intrigue or royal cunning. With all his wealth and influence he was a plain common sense man, acting upon the principle that modesty is the handmaid of virtue, and has more charms than the pomp of courts and the flourish of high pretensions. ”

“ Many of the Democratic frontier men admired General Harrison for his great worth as a man and liked his having a national reputation for bravery. They said he was an honor to America as an American citizen and soldier, but that he was on the wrong side.
At that time I was in my teens and looking anxiously forward for time to help me to the elective franchise. Perhaps, I should state here that father was a Democrat as long ago as I can remember. In York State he was a strong Jackson man and coming into the woods of Michigan did not change his political principles. ”

“ No one has ever thought Harrison a great statesman, and any undue severity on the part of the Evening Post may be attributed to the warmth of the campaign. It called him “a silly and conceited old man whose irregularities of life have enfeebled his originally feeble faculties, and who is as helpless in the hands of his party as the idols of a savage tribe we have somewhere read of, who are flogged when they do not listen to the prayers of their people for rain.” ”

“ He had talents to perceive the right and firmness enough to pursue it however violently opposed."
At the close of 1777 Mr. Harrison resigned his seat in Congress and returned to the bosom of his family. No one member had performed more labor than him—no one was more highly esteemed and honored. [Pg 146] He was emphatically a working man—a colossus in the cause of liberty and human rights. He returned home to enjoy repose. This was of but short duration. He was immediately elected to the Virginia Legislature and made Speaker, which station he ably filled for five consecutive years. ”

“ Harrison's reclusive manner of living, he was not a man of the world, and that from his unacquaintance with letters he was little of a writer; yet, in conversing on his profession, he was clear, distinct, and modest. He resided in Red Lion Square, London, where he died, and his gravestone is in Hampstead Parish Churchyard. ”

“ Aware that from a military point of view no land-campaign could, except by accident, effect any result proportionate to its cost, Harrison had placed himself at the head of a popular movement so strong that he would have met the fate of Hull and Alexander Smyth, had he not made at least a demonstration86 against an enemy whose face he had not yet seen. ”

“ Harrison bore up with the firmness of a Roman matron, and the humility and resignation of a tried Christian mother.
In 1814, General Harrison resigned his position in the army and went to live at North Bend, fifteen miles below Cincinnati, on the Ohio. In the limits of this sketch it is impossible to give all the interesting details of Mrs. Harrison’s life during her thirty years’ residence at the old homestead. Many, very many of her acts of neighborly kindness and Christian charity will never be known on earth, for she shrank from any display of benevolence. ”

“ He was not sworn into office until the 10th of January 1801, and was governor until September 1812. Among the legislative measures of his administration may be mentioned the attempted modification of the slavery clause of the ordinance of 1787 by means of an indenture law—a policy which Harrison favoured; more effective land laws; and legislation for the more equitable treatment of the Indians and for preventing the sale of liquor to them. ”

“ Had that sullen, desperate wretch been indeed Dick Harrison? He realized that he was alive; he could still enjoy the common comforts of food and fire; he could think; he could plan! His feet were once more treading solid earth; his brain began to spin anew the projects that had delighted him of yore; his heart began to stir with the hopes of old. Across the sea there were still battles to fight, new states to found. Liberty was not an idle word; love might still make life glorious. ”

“ Harrison was not indifferent to the political events of the age in which she lived, and few were better informed with regard to public men and measures than herself. Much of her time she spent in reading, during the closing years of her life, and she kept herself informed, through the medium of the daily papers, of the transactions of the outside world. Very few persons of 363even younger years took a greater interest in the movements of the armies during the late civil war, or could give a more succinct and graphic account of the details of a campaign. ”

“ He climbed into the luxurious car with a sense of pleasure as of coming to his own surroundings once more, and rode down the pretty village street, his companion meanwhile drawing his attention to the buildings they were passing.
“This is the manse. You’ll like Mr. Harrison, I’m sure. He’s a marvellous humble-great man. If it weren’t for his humility he’d be nabbed up by some of the great city churches. Here the senior elder lives. ”

“ That Harrison had ever practically implicated himself in any attempt to upset the Protectorate by force hardly appears from the evidence. He was an experienced soldier, and, with all his fervid notions of a Fifth Monarchy, too massive a man to stir without calculation. All that can be said is that he was an avowed enemy of Cromwell's rule, that he was looked up to by all the Fifth-Monarchy Republicans, and that he held himself free to act should there be fit opportunity. ”

“ The reader, if he has himself cherished and matured a scheme of magnitude, on which both fame and emolument depended; or if he has witnessed in others that inquietude, that anguish, comprehensively denoted when we repeat that 'hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' may fully conceive the painful suspense of John Harrison, as well as his solicitude to exculpate himself before so august an inspector of his deserts, who, when the insignia of royalty were laid aside, condescended to become the active and zealous friend of a humble man of science. ”

“ But as he required only a moderate salary for his services, he was engaged on trial for the next three months.
CHAPTER VII.
GEORGE HARRISON.
George Harrison was not distinguished by any remarkable talents; or endowed with that aspiring genius which forces its way through every obstacle, and places the possessor above the ordinary mass with whom he is daily forced to associate. Yet, his was no common character; no every-day acquaintance, with whom we may spend a pleasant hour, and care not if we ever meet again in our journey through life. ”