William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was the son of a Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence. He served in the Northwest Indian War, became governor of the Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated a series of treaties that transferred large areas of Native land to the United States. In 1811 he led troops against Tecumseh's confederacy at Tippecanoe, and in the War of 1812 he won the Battle of the Thames. Later a congressman and senator from Ohio, he won the presidency in 1840 as the Whig candidate after a 'log cabin and hard cider' campaign that avoided policy detail. He fell ill soon after his inauguration and died on April 4, 1841, the first president to die in office.

Harrison's presidency was too short to leave a policy record, and historians remember it mainly for its brevity and for the constitutional question it raised: his death led Vice President John Tyler to claim the full powers of the office, a precedent later written into the 25th Amendment. His 1840 campaign, with its slogans, songs and rallies, is often described as the first modern presidential campaign. Admirers in his own time celebrated him as a war hero of the Old Northwest. Critics and many historians emphasize that his career as governor and general centered on taking Native lands, often through treaties signed by leaders who did not represent the nations affected, and that, though he lived in the West, he consistently opposed attempts by Congress to restrict the spread of slavery.