William Henry Harrison is running for president, again.
It seems impossible, because today would be his 239th birthday, and America has never elected a deceased person to the Oval Office.
Still, while his name isn’t actually on the ballot in the 2012 presidential primaries, Harrison’s legacy has been present in every campaign since his death in 1841. Every time a political ad shows a millionaire candidate wearing a blue-collar shirt, jeans and boots, and strolling through a farm field or a construction site, thank William Henry Harrison.
His 1840 campaign staff invented spin.
Is Mitt Romney a man of the people? Did Bill Clinton feel your pain?
Long before those guys were just a twinkle in the voters’ eyes, William Henry Harrison was packaged as a humble, log-cabin-raised war hero — a plain-thinkin’ and hard-cider-drinkin’ common man. His Whig Party handlers pioneered the use of campaign songs (“The Log Cabin Two-Step”) and slogans (“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”), rallies, personal appearances and publicity stunts. Americans ate it up. More than 80 percent of registered voters turned out in 1840, helping this simple soldier to unseat high-society incumbent Martin Van Buren.
Eighty percent. That turnout remains a record.
Of course, the alluring campaign portrayal of Harrison didn’t quite match reality.
The ninth U.S. president grew up on a sprawling plantation (not in a log cabin) in Virginia, into an aristocratic family. His father signed the Declaration of Independence. He attended Hampton-Sydney College and the University of Pennsylvania. Harrison indeed played a central role as a U.S. Army general in the War of 1812. But his most enduring actions with Native American tribes came as governor of the Indiana Territory through shrewd land acquisitions that expanded the nation westward.
Log cabins and hard cider sounded better, though.
His brief presidency (31 1/2 days) and trend-setting campaign tactics are illuminated in a fun, new biography, “William Henry Harrison,” by New York Times columnist Gail Collins. In the book released three weeks ago, Collins writes, “What stuns us is the apparent gullibility of the voters.”
Which is not to say that Harrison lacked admirable qualities and significant accomplishments. “If George Washington is the father of our nation, then William Henry Harrison is certainly the father of Indiana,” explained Dan Sarell, executive director at William Henry Harrison’s Grouseland estate — the historic mansion Harrison built in Vincennes while governor. Terre Haute also traces its roots to his exploits, springing up from the general’s construction of Fort Harrison in 1811.
Following his military days, Harrison maintained a concern for veterans, and Army widows and orphans. “I don’t know if anybody’s ever called him the father of the [Veterans Administration],” Sarell said, “but there’s a strong case for that.”
Most Americans know little about Harrison’s role in the development of Midwestern states, veterans affairs or his privileged background. Instead, what they do remember is that Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in history (one hour and 45 minutes) on a cold, snowy day, without a coat or tophat, catching pneumonia and dying a month later — the shortest presidency on record. According to legend, Harrison bagged the coat and hat to silence critics who claimed he was too old at age 68 and prove his vigor and virility. (Only Ronald Reagan was older when elected.) Life expectancy was just 45 years. “For that time period, it was like electing a man well into his 80s” today, Sarell said.
Like Harrison’s campaign image, though, his demise is misunderstood and filled with myths.
Harrison left his coat and hat so that people far back in the crowd could distinguish him from surrounding dignitaries in his March 4, 1841, inaugural, Sarell explained.
His pneumonia was not the result of being underdressed in wet, chilly weather. Pneumonia is caused by a microbe, a 2001 Washington Post story pointed out. Harrison worked the crowd that day, shaking so many hands that he eventually had to stop from soreness. One of those handshakes could have transmitted a virus.
The new president did not fall straight into his deathbed, either. He busily fulfilled his duties, and even walked around Washington, D.C., at night. It wasn’t until March 27 that Harrison developed a fever and reported feeling ill. Treatment of pneumonia was a bit different in those days. Doctors subjected President Harrison to various potions, including oils and tonics, opium and brandy, and the old reliable — blood letting, Collins’ book explains. (An HMO probably wouldn’t cover those.)
With his birthday today and the upcoming Presidents Day on Feb. 20, the memory of Harrison should not amount solely to his quirky place in presidential history. As Sarell put it, “Harrison was very much a vital link from 1776 to antebellum (pre-Civil War) America and continued westward expansion. His mythology was overblown, but the underlying reality was one of competence and self-sacrifice.”
That latter virtue, Collins concludes in her book, could be Harrison’s more fitting legacy. As an Army general, he was kind to his men, shared their worries and stood alongside them in battle. His “central mission” — which constantly drove him to look for any source of income after his birth family’s wealth dried up — was supporting his wife, Anna, and their 10 children, as well as a few orphans.
Instead of the no-coat-in-the-snow reputation, Harrison should be remembered as “a struggling American dad in a difficult era, trying to keep food on the table and a roof over everybody’s head,” Collins wrote.
That beats the log cabin and hard cider.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@ tribstar.com.
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