Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1892-06-30
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Distinguished Career of the Repub
lican Leader.
Lawyer, Soldier, Statesman. Personal
characteristics.

grandson OF aslgner of the Declaration
OF Independence and a grandson O.
William Henry Harrison, the ninth
President of the United States, but hi
own career has now eclipsed the grand
uer OF his ancestry. He will be &
greater figure in American history thar
any Republican President since Lin
coin and Grant, whose great fame was
won in the glaring light of a great
war. Harrison will stand on an i'm.
perishable platform of personal valoi
IN war, personal sincerity, simplicity
and stalwart Republican in politics
and peace, strength and prosperity in
government.
He was born August 20, 1888, at the
home OF his grandfather at North Bend,
Ohio, on the bluff overlooking the Ohio
River, fifteen miles from Cincinnati.
He was poor and attended the old log
school house in his boyhood. When
sixteen years of age he became a stu.
dent in Miami University, Oxford, O.
lie graduated fourth in class of six
teen in June, 1852.
After leaving the university young
Harrison, then in his eighteenth year,
began to study law in Judge Bellamy
Storer's Office in Cincinnati, where he
remained for two years. He was al
ready in love with Miss Carrie L. Scott,
the daughter of the Rev. J. w. Scott,
the principal of the seminary at Ok
ford, Ohio, and they were married when
Harrison was nineteen and Miss Scott
eighteen.
The parsonage to whom General Wal
lace introduces us in his description of
Harrison make up" at the time his
biographer first met him, is a stripping
lawyer, married, though barely out of
his teens, who had hung out his shing-
lie in Indianapolis and was ready for
clients. General Wallace says:
He was small in stature, of slender
physique and what might be called q
blond. His eyes were gray, tinged
with blue, his hair light, reminding
one OF what in ancient days along the
Wabash was more truly than POLITICALLY
described as a tow head He was
plainly dressed, and in that respect
gave tokens or indifference to the can.
ons. of fashion. He was modest in
manner, even diffident but he had
pleasant voice and look, and did not
lack for words to express himself. At
first one wondered that young man
apparently so lacking in assertion
should presume to entrust himself so
far from home. But it was noticed
that everything he undertook to do he
did with remarkable sincerity and abil-
lty, and he was soon winning suits at
the bar. l believe it was one of his
early peculiarities not to take case he
didn t believe in."
AS soon as he was admitted to practice
at the bar he located in Indianapolis.
he was too poor to have an office, and
John II. Rea, who was clerk of the
United States District Court, offered
him desk, and the young attorney
won the first case ever extended to him.
The young lawyer and his wife kept
house in small one story frame dwell
ing, and when business was over he
went home and sawed the wood for the
cooking stove.
His first political convention was in
1850. He was nominated by the Re-
publican party for Reporter of the Su-
preme Court, and elected by majority
OF 9.6SS. 1t was during this canvass
that young Harrison first demonstrated
his power as a ready speaker. Thomas
A. Hendricks, the great Indiana leader,
was the Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor. Harrison, many years his ju-
iior, had taken tine stump for the Re-
publican party. Mr.. Hendricks and
Daniel w. Voorhees, were announ ced
to speak at Rockville the same night
Harrison was announced. The Demo-
Gratis hectored the Republicans to have
their young man with Hendricks and
Voorhees, in joint debate. They de-
clared the Republicans were afraid to
accept the challenge.
Harrison met it with this remark
Hendricks is the head of the Demo-
cratic ticket, while / am the tail of the
Republican ticket. He is an expert.
enced public debater, while l am on
my first trip. Buff we can 'tget along
without showing the white feather just
tell them we will consent to joint
meeting" The audience seemed to
pity Harrison when they saw what
kind of a job he had tackled. He
spoke after Hendricks. He at once
launched into the record of the Demo-
cratic party, and charged that every
Democrat in Indiana had but few
years ago conceded the truth of the
proposition they now deny" Voorhees,
was on his feet in I'm instant with de-
nial. Harrison stopped for moment.
II beg your pardon, fellow citizens"
he said, ~ should have said every
Democrat, Mr.. Voorhees,. He was then
a Whig."
A shout of applause swept over the
audience and Harrison was the victor