Ninth president of the United States. The son of Benjamin Harrison and a member of one of the most influential and wealthiest families of Virginia. Before he was 30 years old, he had been appointed to the post of governor of the Indiana Territory largely as a result of his father's influence. Harrison's military career included the suppression of the Shawnee uprising at Tippecanoe in 1811, and a victory in the War of 1812 near the Thames River in Ontario, Canada which helped to ensure American control of the western territories.
Held in low regard by John Quincy Adams and other political figures in Washington, he nevertheless was successful as a Whig candidate in 1840 for the presidency, primarily due to his military past. With John Tyler as his running mate, Harrison succeeded in defeating Van Buren in the election. In his very short term, which lasted only a month, Harrison appointed Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. Harrison is today remembered as the president that delivered the longest inaugural speech to date, which was given in a snow storm. He contracted pneumonia and succumbed a month later. |
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