Benjamin Harrison
By: Charles W. Calhoun.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: The American presidents series; American presidents series (Times Books (Firm))
Publisher: Times
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
ISBN-13: 9780805069525
Subjects: Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; United States -- Politics and government -- 1889-1893
Genres: Biography.
Description: Politics was in Benjamin Harrison's blood. His great-grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was the ninth president of the United States. Harrison, a leading Indiana lawyer, became a Republican Party champion, even taking a leave from the Civil War to campaign for Lincoln. After a scandal-free term in the Senate -- no small feat in the Gilded Age -- the Republicans chose Harrison as their presidential candidate in 1888. Despite losing the popular vote, he trounced the incumbent, Grover Cleveland, in the electoral college. In contrast to standard histories, which dismiss Harrison's presidency as corrupt and inactive, Charles W. Calhoun sweeps away the stereotypes of the age to reveal the accomplishments of our twenty-third president. With Congress under Republican control, he exemplified the activist president, working feverishly to put the Party's planks into law and approving the first billion-dollar peacetime budget. But the Democrats won Congress in 1890, stalling his legislative agenda, and with the First Lady ill, his race for reelection proceeded quietly (she died just before the election). In the end, Harrison could not beat Cleveland in their unprecedented rematch.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-190) and index.