Francis Burton Harrison Francis Burton Harrison ( December 18 , 1873 – November 21 , 1957 ) was an American statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives and was appointed Governor - General of the Philippines by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson . Harrison was a prominent advisor to the Philippine Commonwealth president and the first four Presidents of the Philippines . He is the only former Governor - General of the Philippines to be awarded Philippine citizenship . Early life . Harrison was born in New York City to Burton Harrison , a lawyer and private secretary to Confederate President Jefferson Davis , and Constance Cary Harrison , novelist and social arbiter . Through his mother , Harrison was great - grandson of Virginia - planter , Thomas Fairfax , 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron . Through Fairfax in birth and marriage , Harrison was also relative to United States founding fathers : Gouverneur Morris ( his great - great - uncle ) , Thomas Jefferson , Robert E . Lee , the Randolphs , the Ishams , and the Carters . Harrison graduated from Yale University in 1895 , where he was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones , and from the New York Law School in 1897 . From 1897 to 1899 , Harrison was an instructor in the Evening Division at New York Law School . He later left to serve in United States Army during the Spanish - American War , first as captain and later as assistant adjutant general . Family . Harrison ' s first wife was Mary Crocker , daughter of California railroad and mining magnate Charles Frederick Crocker . They married on June 7 , 1900 . She died in 1905 in an automobile accident leaving Harrison to raise two small daughters , the eldest Virginia Randolph Harrison and the youngest Barbara Harrison Wescott . Harrison would marry and divorce five more times to : Mabel Judson Cox , Elizabeth Wrentmore , Margaret Wrentmore and Doria Lee . His last wife , Maria Teresa Larrucea , a young Basque woman , was born in Amorebieta ( Bizkaia , Spain ) and outlived Harrison . Congressman . A member of the Democratic Party , Harrison was elected to the 58th United States Congress , and served from March 4 , 1903 , to March 3 , 1905 . In 1904 , Harrison ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of New York . Afterwards he resumed the practice of law . He was again elected to the 60th , 61st , 62nd and 63rd United States Congresses , and served from March 4 , 1907 to September 3 , 1913 , when he resigned to become Governor - General of the Philippines . His Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was eventually passed on December 17 , 1914 . During his service in the Far East , Harrison was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1920 presidential election . He lost the nomination to Governor of Ohio James M . Cox at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco , who eventually lost to the Republican candidate Warren G . Harding . Governor - General . Harrison was Governor - General of the Philippines from 1913 to 1921 and advocated for and oversaw the process of Filipinization , or the transfer of authority to Filipinos in the United States territory ' s Insular Government to better prepare for independence . He was governor - general during the passages of the Philippine Autonomy Act , otherwise known as the Jones Act , which converted the partially elected Philippine Legislature with the appointed Philippine Commission as the upper house and the elected Philippine Assembly as the lower house , to a fully elected Philippine Legislature with the Philippine Senate replacing the now - dissolved Philippine Commission and the Philippine Assembly renamed the House of Representatives of the Philippines . Despite the length of his tenure as governor - general he vetoed only five bills , the least number by any American governor - general in the Philippines . His pro - Filipino stance made him a popular figure in the Philippines but also the object of criticism of conservative Americans who viewed his liberal governance as not supportive enough of U . S . interests . Under his administration , the Governor - General ' s Spanish - era mansion called Malacañan Palace was expanded with the construction of an executive building . When he left the Philippines , Harrison lived in Scotland until being recalled to the Philippines in 1934 during a period of transition from an unincorporated territory of the United States to the Commonwealth of the Philippines . Manuel L . Quezon became the first President of the Commonwealth and Harrison was asked to be Quezon ' s principal advisor in November 1935 . He served in that capacity for ten months . In 1936 , an act of congress made him a naturalized Filipino citizen upon Manuel Quezon ' s initiative . Harrison returned to the position of advisor upon Quezon ' s request in May 1942 , after Filipino and American troops had surrendered the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island during World War II and Quezon went into exile in the United States . Harrison would serve the government - in - exile . From November 1946 to February 1947 , Harrison served as Commissioner of Claims in the civil service of the United States Army in Manila . He later served as an advisor to the first four presidents of the new Philippine Republic after the country ' s independence in 1946 . Serving as special adviser of foreign affairs to Manuel Roxas . After this latest service to the Philippines , Harrison retired to Spain for six years , then chose to move to Califon , New Jersey in August 1957 . Death . Harrison died at Hunterdon Medical Center in Raritan Township near Flemington , New Jersey . He willed that he be buried in the Philippines and he was interred in the Manila North Cemetery in La Loma , Manila . Legacy . Harrison Avenue in the Metro Manila city of Pasay , starting in Baclaran , Parañaque and ends in Ocampo Street in the City of Manila , was named after him .