The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison (American Presidency Series)

Rating:
Summary: With No Favors From Blaine
Review: Not only is he one of America's lesser known presidents, Benjamin Harrison is not even the better known of presidents named Harrison. His grandfather, William Henry Harrison, bears the name most Americans remember if they recognize the Harrison name at all. Old Harrison made his name as a dashing military hero; his grandson decades later would fight well under Sherman and attained the rank of brevet brigadier general, but as events would unfold, the country was awash in brevet generals in 1888.

The University Press of Kansas began its presidency series with a treatment of George Washington's tenure in 1974, and as of this writing has brought the series as far along as the presidency of George Bush, Senior. A survey of the series indicates that coincidentally or not, all the volumes to date are remarkably similar in length, just under three hundred pages in most cases. Critics may argue that presidencies such as Lincoln's or FDR's might merit more ink than, say, Franklin Pierce or our subject at hand, Benjamin Harrison. Having read several volumes, I would say that the success of the series to date has been bringing the achievements of the lesser known presidents to more public prominence. Presidents such as Hayes and the second Harrison have done better by this series than have Nixon or Kennedy, whose volumes naturally have had to compete with the products of the likes of Sorensen, Manchester, Caro, Dallek, etc.

The University Press has attempted to stay focused upon the presidencies themselves, which has had the effect of dulling some of our more charismatic leaders and their colorful pasts. [One wonders how the editors will come to grips with Monica Lewinski, when that day inevitably arrives.] Diminishment of charisma is not a problem when treating of Harrison. He was Robert Taft before there was Robert Taft, a tweedy Midwest lawyer who successfully put the excitement of war behind him and nurtured a competent, unflappable, and predictable personality. He won and lost a senate seat prior to the Republican convention of 1888, and became an eighth ballot nominee when it became clear that his party's reigning Hamlet, James G. Blaine, would not run, apparently for reasons of health.

Harrison's pragmatism led him to undertake the formation of his cabinet as an exercise in party unity. One can probably argue that Harrison's presidency never really survived the selection process, for Harrison, in a gesture of perhaps insecurity and stubbornness, refused to allow state party bosses their traditional say in cabinet appointments. Harrison chose a cabinet of men like himself: Midwesterners, brevet generals, Presbyterians. And, until the very last moment, no Blaine. Maine's favorite son assumed himself a shoo-in as Secretary of State. Blaine, a master of denial whose illnesses compromised his effectiveness in Harrison's cabinet, and Mrs. Blaine, put out by her perception of Harrison's lack of reverence for her husband, were simply two of many disgruntled forces in the Republican Party. That the Democrats would storm back in the 1890 congressional elections--aided by a distinct lack of Republican enthusiasm--was predictable early in the Harrison presidency.

Harrison's domestic policy prior to 1890 focused upon issues which, to one degree or another, had been problematic since the Civil War. Tariff restraints, currency debates, civil service reform, civil rights, management of western territories, Indian affairs [including the battle at Wounded Knee], immigration, labor issues and safety were regular staples of government debate. With the House and Senate nearly evenly matched till the 1890 elections, there were no spectacular federal breakthroughs for which Harrison could claim victory. The authors do note that the president deserves more credit for his efforts to establish federal land reserves in the teeth of opposition from the lumber industry. It is also worth noting that more states were formed under Harrison's administration than under any other president; the northwestern alignment of states, as we know them today, took shape with apparently minimal controversy.

Harrison's alienation from party leaders, an unremarkable first two years, his administrative inexperience, and a rather cold demeanor did not augur well for a long tenure in the White House. The disastrous [for Republicans] returns of 1890 assured that Harrison in all likelihood would not lead the ticket in 1892. [His wife's illness and death in that year would make such considerations irrelevant when the time came at any rate.]

Harrison turned his attention to foreign affairs in the last half of his presidency. By 1890 it was beginning to dawn upon politicians of both parties that affairs in Central and South America were taking on an added importance in this country's commerce and defense. For most of the century America's chief concern had been the designs of foreign powers from across the sea. Now the necessity of an ocean-to-ocean canal involved this country more deeply into the relations of South American countries themselves. Harrison was not the first, and certainly not the last, president to assert American hegemony on the South American continent, and his warlike gestures toward Chile were of a cloth with McKinley and certainly Roosevelt, who admired Harrison's belligerence. Harrison also saw the importance of American military and fueling bases in the Pacific in the face of growing German interest in the region. It is not clear that Harrison fully appreciated the unfolding of the new international military order in the way that an Alfred Thayer Mahan or Theodore Roosevelt would, but he can be commended for fidelity to a policy that made the American position in South America and the Pacific much more tenable. And, it should be noted, Harrison conducted his foreign policy without the help of Blaine, who was too ill to assist and too proud to step aside.

Harrison was re-nominated by the anti-Blaine forces of his own party but without wholesale Republican support. The death of his wife during the campaign presaged the elector outcome and Cleveland's re-emergence.