William Harrison

“ Harrison was a cold-blooded man, But it is possible that such men are not as well qualified to judge of the temperature of a man's blood as his friends and intimates who have seen him in all the vicissitudes of his daily life, ministering with sympathy and self-sacrifice to relatives and friends who, overtaken by some great calamity, have found his heart as tender as a child's. ”

“ Hence his Majesty's reasoning as probably the reader will, and finding that the ex-president, then deceased, but who seemed to have left the Prophet's mangle to the party at the Board jealous of the mechanics, had insisted on William Harrison and a Timekeeper being sent to Hudson's Bay, testified his indignation at so gross a departure from the original implied compact with any person who should undertake the discovery of the Longitude. "These people have been cruelly treated;" ”

“ Harrison realized the truth of what he said in a speech on the day of his nomination in 1888: “Kings sometimes bestow decorations upon those whom they desire to honor, but that man is most highly decorated who has the affectionate regard of his neighbors and friends.” ”

“ He was a great leader and an eloquent speaker. He was called "the Great Pacificator" and "the Great Compromiser," and one of his sayings, "I had rather be right than be President," has become famous.
[10] William Henry Harrison was a son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was born in Virginia in 1773, served in the Indian campaigns under St. Clair and Wayne, commanded Fort Washington on the site of Cincinnati, was secretary of the Northwest Territory, and then delegate to Congress, and did much to secure the law for the sale of public land on credit. ”

“ Harrison to Findlay
Richmond, Va., July 18, 1800
Pub. Hist, and Phil. Soc. of Ohio, I, 100 Dear [James] Findlay, [1]
It has been a long time since I received a line from you—what can be the reason? I arrived here with my wife and family about six weeks ago. Mrs. H. is not very well. What are you doing at Cincinnati? does trade flourish? are the crops promising? what has our Distiller done last winter? I should like to hear from you on all these subjects. I expect to leave this State about the 10th of October for the Ohio and shall see you at Cincinnati about the 10th of November. ”

“ William Henry was educated at Hampden Sidney college, Virginia, and began the study of medicine, but before he had finished it accounts of the Indian outrages that had been committed on the western frontier raised in him a desire to enter the army for its defence. ”

“ Harrison was chosen to the senate of Ohio, and in 1822 was a candidate for congress, but was defeated on account of his vote against the admission of Missouri to the Union with the restriction that slavery should be prohibited there. In 1824 he was a presidential elector, voting for Henry Clay, and in the same year sent to the U. S. senate, where he succeeded Andrew Jackson as chairman of the committee on military affairs, introduced a bill to prevent desertions, and exerted himself to obtain pensions for old soldiers. ”

“ Harrison to go on in that way he would elect himself in spite of any blundering of the committee or campaign managers.
A few extracts from some of these speeches may give an idea of their quality. To the California delegation the day after the nomination he said: “I feel sure, too, my fellow-citizens, that we have joined now a contest of great principles, and that the armies which are to fight out this great contest before the American people will encamp upon the high plains of principle and not in the low swamps of personal defamation or detraction.” ”

“ No nation cherisheth such store of them as we do here in England, in hope of which maintenance many give themselves to idleness that otherwise would be brought to labour, and live in order like subjects. Of their whoredoms I will not speak anything at all, more than of their swearing; yet is it found that some of them do make the first a chief pillar of their building, consuming not only the goods but also the health and welfare of many honest gentlemen, citizens, wealthy yeomen, etc., by such unlawful dealings. ”

“ The post secured him a livelihood, and permitted him to engage in original research. After seven years of hard labour at his Glasgow post, Graham became professor of chemistry at University College, London (succeeding Dr. Edward Turner in 1837) , and he held that chair with great distinction until 1855, when the government appointed him master of the Mint in succession to Sir John Herschel. He had for many years acted as non-resident assayer. Graham continued to preside at the Mint until his death at his residence in Gordon Square, London, 11 Sept. 1869. He was never married. ”

“ But such is our nature, and so blind are we in déed, that we sée no inconuenience before we féele it: and for a present gaine we regard not what damage may insue to our posteritie. Hereto some other man would ad also the desire that we haue to benefit other countries, and to impech our owne. And it is so sure as God liueth, that euerie trifle which commeth from beyond the sea, though it be not woorth thrée pence, is more estéemed than a continuall commoditie at home with vs, which far excéedeth that value. ”

“ After relieving Fort Wayne, which had been invested by the Indians, he turned over his force to Gen. Winchester, and was returning to his home in Indiana when he met an express with a letter from the secretary of war, appointing him to the chief command in the northwest. “You will exercise,” said the letter, “your own discretion, and act in all cases according to your own judgment.” No latitude as great as this had been given to any commander since Washington. Harrison now prepared to concentrate his force on the rapids of the Maumee, and thence to move on Malden and Detroit. ”

“ Veloces nostríq; orbis venatibus aptos,
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of which sort also some be smooth, of sundrie colours, and some shake haired: the sixt a liemer, that excelleth in smelling and swift running: the seuenth a tumbler: and the eight a théefe, whose offices (I meane of the latter two) incline onelie to deceit, wherein they are oft so skilfull, that few men would thinke so mischiefous a wit to remaine in such sillie creatures. ”

“ Thomas Harrison said to him, "Perhaps thou art not aware that thou hast a legal claim to thy freedom already; for I am a citizen of Pennsylvania, and the laws here do not allow any man to hold a slave."
William replied, "I am too grateful for the kindness you have shown me, to feel any disposition to take advantage of that circumstance. If I live, you shall never lose a single cent on my account."
He was soon after indentured to Mr. Jacob Downing a respectable merchant of Philadelphia, who agreed to pay one hundred and twenty-five dollars for his services. ”

“ Harrison also tells us that he had for a time the “collection” (of MSS., maps, etc.) of “William Read, [36] sometime fellow of Merteine college in Oxford, doctor of diuinitie, and the most profound astronomer that liued in his time.” He has a cut at the Popes’ nephews—“for nephues might say in those daies: Father, shall I call you vncle?”—says that [Pg xxiii] he knew one of the Norwich-diocese churches turnd “into a barne, whilest the people heare seruice further off vpon a greene: their bell also, when I heard a sermon there preached in the greene, hanged in an oke for want of a steeple. ”

“ These are truths that do not require profound study.” To an Indiana delegation: “I hope the time is coming, and has even now arrived, when the great sense of justice which possesses our people will teach men of all parties that party success is not to be promoted at the expense of an injustice to any of our citizens.” As early as July 31, 1888, he said: “But we do not mean to be content with our own market; we should seek to promote closer and more friendly commercial relations with the Central and South American states, . ”

“ Harrison’s only son and heir, Edmund Harrison, was the first prebendary of the diocese, who is described in the Visitation as “a man very well qualified both for life and learning.” From the manuscript Dr. Furnivall extracted various entries relating to Harrison’s own time, which are of most picturesque quality if of rather meagre quantity. Those of especial bearing on the reign of Elizabeth, though beginning just before her advent, are as follows:—
Dearth and Sickness in England. ”

“ From one point of view, such a course in a public man may be criticised. It may be doubted, however, if any Indiana Republican who has been confronted with the type of Democrats which have dominated that party for the last thirty years is to be censured for standing by his own party.
[ Fac-simile letter from Benjamin Harrison to Gen. James Grant Wilson ]
The Republican party leaders saw in 1888 that the only hope of winning against Cleveland was to put up a candidate who could carry some of the doubtful States. ”

“ The innumerable towers and spires of the churches rose tall and dark through the wavering sheet of flame, and every now and then one of them would topple down or disappear, as if swallowed up by the devouring element. ”

“ For if it be a vertue to deale vprightlie with singlenesse of mind, sincerelie and plainlie, without anie such suspicious fetches in all our dealing, as they commonlie practise in their affaires, then are our countrimen to be accompted wise and vertuous. But if it be a vice to colour craftinesse, subtile practises, doublenesse, and hollow behauiour, with a cloake of policie, amitie and wisedome: then are Comineus and his countrimen to be reputed vicious, of whome this prouerbe hath of old time beene vsed as an eare marke of their dissimulation,
Galli ridendo fidem frangunt. ”

“ Day by day, and almost hour by hour, some drop of health came back, and mingling with the spent and feeble stream of life which circulated languidly within you, swelled it again to a high and rushing tide. ”

“ CHAPTER XLVIII — THE FLIGHT OF SIKES
Of all bad deeds that, under cover of the darkness, had been committed within wide London’s bounds since night hung over it, that was the worst. Of all the horrors that rose with an ill scent upon the morning air, that was the foulest and most cruel.
The sun—the bright sun, that brings back, not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man—burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. ”

“ They were erected by their founders at the first, onelie for poore mens sons, whose parents were not able to bring them vp vnto learning: but now they haue the least benefit of them, by reason the rich doo so incroch vpon them. And so farre hath this inconuenience spread it selfe, that it is in my time an hard matter for a poore mans child to come by a felowship (though he be neuer so good a scholar & woorthie of that roome.) Such packing also is vsed at elections, that not he which best deserueth, but he that hath most friends, though he be the woorst scholer, is alwaies surest to spéed ”

“ These addresses were non-political, and breathe throughout a spirit of high patriotism and a call to the high responsibilities of citizenship. In a letter to an American friend who had sent him the volume containing these speeches, the late Lord Coleridge says: “The speeches give me a very high idea of Mr. Harrison. We know very little here of your politicians, and it is pleasant to be brought face to face with any one so manly and high-minded as Mr. Harrison shows himself in the book you sent me. ”

“ But, for many days, Oliver remained insensible to all the goodness of his new friends. The sun rose and sank, and rose and sank again, and many times after that; and still the boy lay stretched on his uneasy bed, dwindling away beneath the dry and wasting heat of fever. The worm does not work more surely on the dead body, than does this slow creeping fire upon the living frame. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All the livelong day, and for hours after it had grown dark, Oliver paced softly up and down the garden, raising his eyes every instant to the sick chamber, and shuddering to see the darkened window, looking as if death lay stretched inside. ”

“ I saie not that the ground is not able so to doo, but that we are negligent, afraid of the pilling of our grounds, and carelesse of our owne profit, as men rather willing to buie the same of others than take anie paine to plant them Flax. here at home. The like I may saie of flax, which by law ought to be sowen in euerie countrie-towne in England, more or lesse: but I sée no successe of that good and wholesome law, sith it is rather contemptuouslie reiected than otherwise dutifullie kept in anie place of England. ”

“ The moon was shining brightly, and silvered the massive square tower of the fane, the battlements, pinnacles, buttresses, and noble eastern window, with its gorgeous tracery. While Guy Fawkes paused for a moment to contemplate this reverend and beautiful structure, two venerable personages, having long snowy beards, and wrapped in flowing mantles edged with sable fur, passed the end of the street. ”

“ Another band of cavalry charged the Indians, who lost their leader, Tecumseh, in the beginning of the fight, and afterward made no great resistance. This battle, which, if mere numbers alone be considered, was insignificant, was most important in its results. Together with Perry's victory it gave the United States possession of the chain of lakes above Erie, and put an end to the war in uppermost Canada. Harrison's praises were sung in the president's message, in congress, and in the legislatures of the different states. ”