President William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, is a trivia-lovers’ delight, as he is known primarily for dying. Harrison, the Trivial Pursuit cards read, was inaugurated on March 4th, 1841, then promptly caught pneumonia and died in office on April 4th, 1841. He has had the shortest tenure of any American president, lasting a mere 30 days. When people point to lame duck presidents, they often point to Harrison. Another fun bit of trivia about Harrison: at 68, he was the country’s oldest president-elect, all the way until Ronald Reagan.
But on this Presidents Day, we should step back, take a look at William Henry Harrison, and see what he may have accomplished. And, ultimately, what really did him in.
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Harrison was, briefly, an intellectual snot turned military hawk. He studied classics in college, and was incredibly well-read, often dropping classical allusions and references in his stump speeches. Indeed, Harrison’s inaugural speech had to be severely edited by advisor Daniel Webster. His comment on the matter was that he, as an editor, managed to kill “seventeen Roman proconsuls as dead as smelts, every one of them.” These days presidential speeches tend to be free of any sort of allusion or reference, so it’s astonishing to contemplate that, at one point in the nation’s history, a president had to be edited down.
After graduating, Harrison became an efficient and well-known soldier who led several successful charges against (I know, I know. It was a markedly different time). His most successful campaign, and the one that made him gave him national recognition, was the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 where he repelled an Indian coalition. In 1813, General Harrison led the charge against Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. He sat as a Representative for a few years, retired, and then was hauled out of retirement in 1836 to become a presidential candidate. Harrison was, in short, a man’s man. He was seen as a tough military hero, and an ultra-masculine leader.
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Harrison ran after Martin Van Buren, who was known, at the time, for being an out-of-touch, upper-crust namby-pamby. Harrison’s machismo was meant to fly in the face of all that. The Whig party then was kind of like the GOP is today; selling themselves as boldly traditional, finding strength in that which is old fashioned and classical. A strong, classically-minded war hero was just what the nation wanted at the time.
Here’s how manly he was; while giving his inaugural speech, there was an unexpected bout of cold weather. To show how manly he was, Harrison gave his inaugural speech with no coat or protection from the elements. Ironically, that act of machismo was what ultimately led to his cold, which led to his pneumonia, which led to his death. Harrison, then, was done in by his own macho pride.
With only 30 days to get shit done, Harrison accomplished very little as president. His one action of consequence was to call Congress into a special session to discuss the nation’s finances. There was some back hallway drama about this session, but it eventually went through. It was to take place on May 31st. Harrison died on April 4th.
Harrison’s legacy, however, lives on in his campaign folk song (and, yes, there was a time when campaigns had their own folk songs). Thanks to the Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison was known as “Old Tippecanoe,” and the song “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” became the rallying cry of the Whigs. The song was recorded by They Might Be Giants a few years back, and might make a good companion piece to their song about James Knox Polk.
Happy Presidents Day, William Henry Harrison. May your legacy live on.
Top Image: whitehouse.gov
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia and to Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
