United StatesWho was Benjamin Harrison?
Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was an Indianapolis lawyer and Union brigade commander who served one term in the U.S. Senate. In 1888 he defeated Grover Cleveland in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. With Republican majorities in both houses, his administration enacted an ambitious program, including the McKinley Tariff, the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and expanded veterans' pensions, and six Western states joined the Union. Rising prices and the cost of the program contributed to his party's defeat in the 1890 midterms and his own loss to Cleveland in 1892.
Political views
Signed the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which imposed historically high protective rates, and the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgChampioned and signed the 1890 Dependent and Disability Pension Act, extending pensions to disabled Union veterans regardless of the cause of their disability.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSupported legislation for federal supervision of elections to protect Black voters in the South, which failed in the Senate.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgUsed the Land Revision Act of 1891 to create the first national forest reserves.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBuilt up the navy and pressed Chile for reparations after American sailors were attacked in Valparaiso in 1891.
Source: millercenter.orgSent the Senate a treaty to annex Hawaii after American planters helped overthrow its queen in 1893.
Source: millercenter.org
Legacy
Historians usually place Harrison in the middle or lower ranks of presidents. Admirers credit him with an active legislative record, the first federal antitrust law, the start of the national forest system and a sincere commitment to the voting rights of Black Americans at a time when most of his party had abandoned the issue. Critics argue that the McKinley Tariff raised consumer prices and that the spending of the 'Billion-Dollar Congress' squandered the federal surplus. Native American policy under his administration also included the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 1890, when the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry killed more than 250 Lakota, many of them women and children, on the Pine Ridge Reservation.