Harrison, Benjamin 1833-1901
23rd President of the USA

Born in North Bend, Ohio, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, he studied at Miami University in Ohio, and in 1854 settled as a lawyer in Indianapolis. During the Civil War (1861-65) he joined the Union army in 1862, and was first lieutenant and then colonel of the 70th Regiment Indiana Volunteers. He served in General Sherman's Atlanta campaign, and fought in the battles of Resaca, Peach Tree Creek and Nashville, and in 1865 he became brevet-brigadier-general. Returning to Indiana after the war, he took an active part in Ulysses S Grant's presidential campaigns of 1868 and 1872, and was nominated by the Republicans for the state governorship in 1876, but was defeated. In 1880 he was chairman of his state delegation to the Republican national convention. As a US senator for Indiana (1881-87) he supported Civil Service reform and the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. In 1888 he was nominated for President against the Democrat Grover Cleveland. The contest turned on the issue of free trade, and Harrison's election was a triumph for protectionism. His administration (1889-93) saw the adoption in 1890 of the McKinley Tariff, which set the highest tariff rates in US history, as well as the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. He took an active interest in foreign affairs, pressing for the establishment of US military bases overseas and sponsoring the first Pan-American Conference (1889). In 1892 he failed to gain re-election against Cleveland, and returned to legal practice. He later served as chief counsel for Venezuela in its boundary dispute with Great Britain.