Inauguration and cabinet Harrison was sworn into office on March 4, 1889, by
Chief Justice Melville Fuller. His speech was brief—half as long as that of his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, whose speech remains the longest inaugural address of a U.S. president. In his speech, Benjamin Harrison credited the nation's growth to the influences of education and religion, urged the cotton states and mining territories to attain the industrial proportions of the eastern states, and promised a protective tariff. Of commerce, he said, "If our great corporations would more scrupulously observe their legal obligations and duties, they would have less call to complain of the limitations of their rights or of interference with their operations." Harrison also urged early statehood for the territories and advocated pensions for veterans, a call that met with enthusiastic applause. In foreign affairs, he reaffirmed the
Monroe Doctrine as a mainstay of foreign policy, while urging modernization of the Navy and a merchant marine force. He gave his commitment to international peace through noninterference in the affairs of foreign governments.
Labor policy Various reforms affecting labor were carried out during Harrison's administration. An Act was passed in 1891 relating to convict labor that prohibited, as one study noted, "work outside the prison enclosure or machine production of commodities". The same year, the first federal legislation governing safety standards and inspection practices in America's coal mines was enacted. In 1892, Congress allocated $20,000 to the Commissioner of Labor "to make a full investigation relative to what is known as the slums of cities" with a population of 200,000 or more in 1890. In August that year, an eight-hour workday was introduced for all mechanics and laborers working for the federal government, along with subcontractors or contractors of public works projects. A Railway Safety Appliance Act introduced the next year included various provisions designed to protect railway workers from harm.
Native American policy During Harrison's administration, the
Lakota, who had been forcibly confined to
reservations in
South Dakota, grew restive under the influence of
Wovoka, a
medicine man, who encouraged them to participate in a spiritual movement known as the
Ghost Dance. Though the movement called for the removal of
white Americans from indigenous lands, it was primarily religious in nature, a fact that many in Washington did not understand; assuming that the Ghost Dance would increase Lakota resistance to U.S. government, they ordered the
American military to increase its presence on the reservations. On December 29, 1890, the
U.S. Army's
7th Cavalry Regiment perpetrated a
massacre of over 250 Lakota at the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near
Wounded Knee Creek after a botched attempt to disarm the reservation's inhabitants. American soldiers buried the massacre's victims, many of them women and children, in
mass graves. In response to the massacre, Harrison directed Major-General
Nelson A. Miles to investigate and ordered 3,500 U.S. troops to be
deployed to South Dakota, which suppressed the Ghost Dance movement. The massacre has been widely considered the last major engagement of the
American Indian Wars. Harrison's general policy on
Native Americans in the United States was to encourage their
assimilation into white society and, despite the massacre, he believed the policy to have been generally successful. This policy, known as the allotment system and embodied in the
Dawes Act, was favored by liberal reformers at the time, but eventually proved detrimental to Native Americans as they sold most of their land at low prices to white speculators.
Technology and naval modernization During Harrison's time in office, the United States was continuing to experience advances in science and technology. A recording of his voice is the earliest extant recording of a president while he was in office. That was originally made on a wax
phonograph cylinder in 1889 by
Gianni Bettini. Harrison also had electricity installed in the White House for the first time by
Edison General Electric Company, but he and his wife did not touch the light switches for fear of electrocution and often went to sleep with the lights on. Over the course of his administration, Harrison marshaled the country's technology to clothe the nation with a credible naval power. When he took office there were only two commissioned warships in the Navy. In his inaugural address he said, "construction of a sufficient number of warships and their necessary armaments should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care and perfection." Secretary of the Navy
Benjamin F. Tracy spearheaded the rapid construction of vessels, and within a year congressional approval was obtained for building of the warships , , , and . By 1898, with the Carnegie Corporation's help, no fewer than ten modern warships, including steel hulls and greater displacements and armaments, had transformed the U.S. into a legitimate naval power. Seven of these had begun during the Harrison term.
Foreign policy Latin America and Samoa Harrison and Secretary of State Blaine were often not the most cordial of friends, but harmonized in an aggressive foreign policy and commercial reciprocity with other nations. Blaine's persistent medical problems warranted a more hands-on effort by Harrison in conducting foreign policy. In
San Francisco, while on tour of the United States in 1891, Harrison proclaimed that the nation was in a "new epoch" of trade and that the expanding navy would protect oceanic shipping and increase American influence and prestige abroad. The
First International Conference of American States met in
Washington in 1889; Harrison set an aggressive agenda, including customs and currency integration, and named a bipartisan delegation to the conference, led by
John B. Henderson and
Andrew Carnegie. The conference failed to achieve any diplomatic breakthrough, due in large part to an atmosphere of suspicion fostered by the Argentinian delegation. It did succeed in establishing an information center that became the
Pan American Union. In response to the diplomatic bust, Harrison and Blaine pivoted diplomatically and initiated a crusade for tariff reciprocity with Latin American nations; the Harrison administration concluded eight reciprocity treaties among these countries. On another front, Harrison sent
Frederick Douglass as ambassador to
Haiti, but failed in his attempts to establish a naval base there. In 1889, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the
German Empire were locked in a dispute over control of the Samoan Islands. Historian George H. Ryden's research indicates Harrison played a key role in determining the status of this Pacific outpost by taking a firm stand on every aspect of Samoa conference negotiations; this included selection of the local ruler, refusal to allow an indemnity for Germany, as well as the establishment of a three-power protectorate, a first for the U.S. These arrangements facilitated the future dominant power of the U.S. in the Pacific; Blaine was absent due to complication of
lumbago.
European embargo of U.S. pork Throughout the 1880s various European countries had imposed a ban on importation of American pork out of an unconfirmed concern of
trichinosis; at issue was over one billion pounds of pork products with a value of $80 million annually (equivalent to $ billion in ). Harrison engaged
Whitelaw Reid, minister to France, and
William Walter Phelps, minister to Germany, to restore these exports for the country without delay. Harrison also persuaded Congress to enact the Meat Inspection Act to eliminate the accusations of product compromise, and partnered with Agriculture Secretary Rusk to threaten Germany with retaliation by initiating a U.S. embargo on Germany's highly demanded beet sugar. By September 1891 Germany relented, and Denmark, France, and Austria-Hungary soon followed.
Crises in Aleutian Islands and Chile The first international crisis Harrison faced arose from disputed fishing rights on the
Alaskan coast.
Canada claimed fishing and
sealing rights around many of the
Aleutian Islands, in violation of U.S. law. As a result, the
United States Navy seized several Canadian ships. In 1891, the administration began negotiations with the British that eventually led to a compromise over fishing rights after international arbitration, with the British government paying compensation in 1898. In 1891, a diplomatic crisis emerged in
Chile, otherwise known as the
Baltimore Crisis. The American minister to Chile,
Patrick Egan, granted asylum to Chileans who were seeking refuge during the
1891 Chilean Civil War. Previously a militant Irish immigrant to the U.S., Egan was motivated by a personal desire to thwart Great Britain's influence in Chile; his action increased tensions between Chile and the U.S., which began in the early 1880s when Blaine alienated the Chileans in the
War of the Pacific. The crisis began in earnest when sailors from took
shore leave in
Valparaiso and a fight ensued, resulting in the deaths of two American sailors and the arrest of three dozen others.
Baltimores captain, Winfield Schley, based on the nature of the sailors' wounds, insisted the Chilean police had bayonet-attacked the sailors without provocation. With Blaine incapacitated, Harrison drafted a demand for reparations. Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Manuel Matta replied that Harrison's message was "erroneous or deliberately incorrect" and said the Chilean government was treating the affair the same as any other criminal matter. Tensions increased to the brink of war: Harrison threatened to break off diplomatic relations unless the U.S. received a suitable apology and said the situation required "grave and patriotic consideration". He also said, "If the dignity as well as the prestige and influence of the United States are not to be wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who in foreign ports display the flag or wear the colors." The Navy was placed on a high level of preparedness. A recuperated Blaine made brief conciliatory overtures to the Chilean government that had no support in the administration; he then reversed course and joined the chorus for unconditional concessions and apology by the Chileans, who ultimately obliged, and war was averted. Theodore Roosevelt later applauded Harrison for his use of the "
big stick" in the matter.
Annexation of Hawaii In the last days of his administration, Harrison dealt with the issue of
Hawaiian annexation. Following
a coup d'état against Queen
Liliʻuokalani, Hawaii's new government, led by
Sanford Dole, petitioned for annexation by the United States. Harrison was interested in expanding American influence in Hawaii and in establishing a naval base at
Pearl Harbor but had not previously expressed an opinion on annexing the islands. The U.S.
consul in Hawaii,
John L. Stevens, recognized the new government on February 1, 1893, and forwarded its proposals to Washington. With just one month left before leaving office, the administration signed a treaty on February 14 and submitted it to the Senate the next day with Harrison's recommendation. The Senate failed to act, and President Cleveland withdrew the treaty shortly after taking office.
Cabinet ,
John Wanamaker,
Redfield Proctor,
James G. BlaineBack row, left to right:
William H. H. Miller,
John Willock Noble,
Jeremiah M. Rusk,
Benjamin F. Tracy Judicial appointments . Harrison appointed four justices to the
Supreme Court of the United States. The first was
David Josiah Brewer, a judge on the
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The nephew of Justice
Field, Brewer had previously been considered for a cabinet position. Shortly after his nomination, Justice
Matthews died, creating another vacancy. Harrison had considered
Henry Billings Brown, a
Michigan judge and
admiralty law expert, for the first vacancy and now nominated him for the second. For the third vacancy, which arose in 1892, Harrison nominated
George Shiras. Shiras's appointment was somewhat controversial because his age—60—was higher than usual for a newly appointed justice. Shiras was also opposed by Senator
Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania because they were in different factions of the Pennsylvania Republican party, but his nomination was confirmed. Finally, at the end of his term, Harrison nominated
Howell Edmunds Jackson to replace Justice
Lamar, who died in January 1893. Harrison knew the incoming Senate would be controlled by Democrats, so he selected Jackson, a respected Tennessee Democrat with whom he was friendly, to ensure his nominee would not be rejected. Jackson's nomination was indeed successful, but he died after only two years on the Court. In addition to his Supreme Court appointments, Harrison appointed ten judges to the
courts of appeals, two judges to the
circuit courts, and 26 judges to the
district courts.
States admitted to the Union Six new states were
admitted to the Union while Harrison was in office: •
North DakotaNovember 2, 1889 •
South DakotaNovember 2, 1889 •
MontanaNovember 8, 1889 •
WashingtonNovember 11, 1889 •
IdahoJuly 3, 1890 •
WyomingJuly 10, 1890 More states were admitted during Harrison's presidency than any other.
Vacations and travel Harrison attended a grand, three-day
centennial celebration of George Washington's inauguration in
New York City on April 30, 1889, and made the following remarks: "We have come into the serious but always inspiring presence of Washington. He was the incarnation of duty and he teaches us today this great lesson: that those who would associate their names with events that shall outlive a century can only do so by high consecration to duty. Self-seeking has no public observance or anniversary." The Harrisons made many trips out of the capital, which included speeches at most stops – including Philadelphia, New England, Indianapolis and Chicago. Harrison typically made his best impression speaking before large audiences, as opposed to more intimate settings. The most notable of his presidential trips, theretofore unequaled, was a five-week tour of the west in the spring of 1891, aboard a lavishly outfitted train. Harrison enjoyed a number of short trips out of the capital—usually for hunting—to nearby Virginia or Maryland. During the hot Washington summers, the Harrisons took refuge in
Deer Park, Maryland, and
Cape May Point, New Jersey. In 1890, John Wanamaker joined with other Philadelphia devotees of the Harrisons and made a gift to them of a summer cottage at Cape May. Harrison, though appreciative, was uncomfortable with the appearance of impropriety; a month later, he paid Wanamaker $10,000 () as reimbursement to the donors. Nevertheless, Harrison's opponents made the gift the subject of national ridicule, and Mrs. Harrison and the president were vigorously criticized.
Reelection campaign in 1892 portrait of Benjamin Harrison, painted by
Eastman Johnson The treasury surplus had evaporated and the nation's economic health was worsening – precursors to the eventual
Panic of 1893. Congressional elections in 1890 had gone against the Republicans; and although Harrison had cooperated with congressional Republicans on legislation, several party leaders withdrew their support for him because of his adamant refusal to give party members the nod in the course of his executive appointments. Specifically, Thomas C. Platt, Matthew S. Quay, Thomas B. Reed and James Clarkson quietly organized the Grievance Committee, the ambition of which was to initiate a dump-Harrison offensive. They solicited the support of Blaine, without effect, and Harrison in reaction resolved to run for reelection – seemingly forced to choose one of two options – "become a candidate or forever wear the name of a political coward". It was clear that Harrison would not be renominated unanimously. Many of his detractors persisted in pushing for an incapacitated Blaine, though he announced that he was not a candidate in February 1892. Some party leaders still hoped to draft Blaine into running, and speculation increased when he resigned at the 11th hour as secretary of state in June. At the
convention in
Minneapolis, Harrison prevailed on the first ballot, but encountered significant opposition. The Democrats renominated Cleveland, making the 1892 election a rematch of the one four years earlier. The tariff revisions of the past four years had made imported goods so expensive that now many voters shifted to the reform position. Many westerners, traditionally Republican voters, defected to the new
Populist Party candidate,
James Weaver, who promised free silver, generous veterans' pensions, and an
eight-hour work day. The effects of the suppression of the
Homestead Strike redounded against the Republicans as well, although the federal government did not take action. Harrison's wife Caroline began a critical struggle with
tuberculosis earlier in 1892, and two weeks before the election, on October 25, she died from the disease. Their daughter
Mary Harrison McKee assumed the role of
First Lady after her mother's death. Mrs. Harrison's terminal illness and the fact that both candidates had served in the White House called for a low-key campaign, and resulted in neither of the candidates actively campaigning personally. Cleveland won the election with 277 electoral votes to Harrison's 145, and also won the popular vote by 5,556,918 to 5,176,108; this was the most decisive presidential election in 20 years. ==Post-presidency (1893–1901)==