Benjamin Harrison Greatness

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Benjamin Harrison and the Homestead Strike Since the genesis of The United States of America many well known presidents such as Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt have made notable contributions that have significantly shaped this nation. Their “greatness” factor, for the most part is undisputed. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “All of our great presidents were leaders of thought at a time when certain ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified”. The question of greatness has been levied towards the contributions of our 23rd President Benjamin Harrison, who was the only president to be the grandson of a president. Harrison’s distinguished political lineage however, did not guarantee him greatness or wins in his presidential bids.…show more content…
Harrison graduated in 1852 near the top of his class from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In 1853 he married his high school sweetheart Caroline Lavinia Scott before going on to study law at the Cincinnati office of Storer and Gwynne. After passing the Ohio bar exam in 1854, Harrison and his wife moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he practiced law from 1854 to 1860 ( American Presidency: A Reference Resource). Harrison became a member of the Republican Party in the 1850s and held various state party positions such as, crier of the federal court, 1854; Indianapolis city attorney, 1857; reporter for the Supreme Court of Indiana, 1860-62; member of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879; and the U.S. Senate, 1881-87 (Pious 116). Harrison also joined the Seventieth Indiana Infantry Regiment at the rank of second lieutenant in 1862. He rose quickly from lieutenant to become brigadier general by the time he retired in June 1865. According Major General William T. Sherman, Harrison served with "foresight, discipline and a fighting spirit . . ." But even with such achievements and praise, in his mind, war was a dirty business that no decent man…show more content…
Privately, however, Harrison was a frigid character, so stiff and aloof that he was sometimes referred to as "the human iceberg." He opened Oklahoma to settlement in 1889 under the Homestead Act. During his term six states (Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota) entered the Union, completing the westward expansion of the nation (American Presidency: A Reference Resource). Harrison supported the Sherman Antitrust Act, this act was the first bill ever to attempt to limit power of America’s giant corporations; he convened the first modern Pan- American Conference in October 1889, where he boldly negotiated the establishment of a protectorate over the Samoan Island with Germany and Great Britain; he sanctioned two bills intended to prevent southern states from denying African Americans right to vote; and he appointed former slave Fredrick Douglas minister of Haiti. President Harrison took the nation to war with Chile over an assault on American sailors and he stood firm against Britain and Canada to protect the overharvesting of fur seals in the Bering Sea. Chile apologized and paid $75,000 in reparations. As an essential part of the nation’s foreign policy he saw trade, and negotiated a number of important reciprocal trade agreements that set the pattern for American trade policy in twentieth century. He also supported the expansion of the navy

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