Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Indiana: President Of The Month with Sharon McMahon

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

 In this episode, Sharon shares the story of the shortest American presidency in our nation’s history. William Henry Harrison was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States, elected during the 1840 election. Harrison became the first president to die in office just one month after taking the Oath of Office. Harrison was the last U.S. president born under British rule and became a pioneer of the American Whig Party during his presidential campaign. Not only was William Henry Harrison’s untimely death caused a riff controversy in the capital about the role of the vice president upon the death of the president, and the decisions that resulted ultimately set a precedent we still uphold in our democracy today. For more information on this episode including all resources and links discussed go to https://www.sharonmcmahon.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What do Ontario dairy farmers bring to the table? A million little things. But most of all, the passion and care that goes into producing the local, high-quality milk we all love and enjoy every day. With 3,200 dairy farming families across Ontario sharing our love for milk, there's love in every glass. Dairy Farmers of Ontario. From our families to your table, everybody milk. Visit milk.org to learn more. This episode is brought to you by Dyson OnTrack. Dyson OnTrack headphones offer best-in-class noise cancellation and an enhanced sound range, making them perfect

for enjoying music and podcasts. Get up to 55 hours of listening with active noise cancelling enabled, soft microfiber cushions engineered for comfort and a range of colours and finishes. Dyson OnTrack. Headphones remastered. Buy from DysonCanada.ca. With ANC on, performance may vary based on environmental conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately. Hello friends. So glad you're here today. Delighted to be talking to you about the great state of Indiana. And what would Indiana be without William Henry Harrison, the future U.S. president who served the shortest time in office? He's one of those people where it's like, what do I know about him? I don't know. Short shortest time in office. He's one of those people where it's like, what, what do I know about him? I don't, I don't know. Shortest time in office. That's what I got.

Maybe you know that he was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, a later U.S. president, but that's it, right? Right. So that's going to change today. Let's dive into our story about William Henry Harrison. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. So let's start off with the fact that he was born like every single human on earth. He was born in 1773, and he was the last U.S. president to be born a British subject. So he was actually born in the state of Virginia. His family had been in the United States since the 1630s and his family was the owner of a large plantation in Virginia.

His father, Benjamin Harrison V, was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and he was actually a governor of Virginia. William Henry Harrison's brother was in the House of Representatives. So take note that he actually was born into a family of means, significant means, because it is going to play a role in this conversation later. So he gets the best education that a man in the 1700s could get in the United States of America. And by the time he was 18 years old, he was admitted to medical school. He was going to go to the University of Pennsylvania, and he got there. He started studying medicine. And then very quickly, he had to drop out. His

father died, and that left him without the means to attend medical school. So he had wanted to be a doctor and had to abandon those plans at age 18. Another governor of Virginia, subsequent governor Henry Lee, reached out and was like, hey, I can get you a commission in the military. You can be a military officer. And so William Henry left Pennsylvania and headed to the Northwest Territory. Now when we think about the Northwest, we think about what? The Pacific Northwest, right? We think about like Washington, Oregon. That was not the Northwest Territory. Think about the United States in the 1790s. The Northwest Territory was actually Ohio. It was Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, like a little piece of what is now Minnesota.

That was the Northwest Territory. It was not the state of Washington and Oregon. So he gets this military commission and goes to the Northwest Territory to fight in the Northwest Indian War. So this was a war between the United States who were being helped by a few Native American tribes and the British who were also being helped by a larger number of Native American tribes. And it was over territory. The British were like, hello, anything west of the Great Lakes that belongs to us. The French gave it to us. Thank you. And of course, the Americans were like, no, we would like it. This is tremendously valuable pieces of land. Like the Great Lakes are extremely valuable to us. All of these animals, all of this fur trade,

all of this navigation, we want it. We want all this land. William Henry Harrison was sent to fight in that war. That is what establishes him in the Northwest Territory and in Indiana. And his military career was actually very important in his development as a politician. So in 1795, he met this beautiful young woman named Anna Tuthill and wanted to marry her, but her dad said, no, you may not marry her. One day when her dad was traveling out of town, they decided to elope. They eloped and got married anyway. And when her dad returned home, he was of course, toweringly angry. How are you going to support my daughter? Who are you anyway? Etc, etc. Eventually, William Henry wins over Anna's dad and her dad sells them 165 acres of farmland

in what is now North Bend, Indiana, and they begin having children. They eventually had 10 children. Anna had many health issues throughout their marriage, in part because she continued to have all of these back-to-back pregnancies that left her in weakened medical states. In 1798, so again, he's born in 73 by 1798. That means he's 25 years old. Okay. John Adams, second president of the United States, appoints William Henry Harrison as the governor of the Northwest Territory. This is a tremendously large parcel of land for a 25-year-old to govern over, but he did it. And then one year later, they discovered like,

wow, this guy really knows what he's doing. He's entering into all these treaties with all these native tribes. He's really making a name for himself out there in the Northwest Territories. One year later, he was elected as a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, let me explain the difference between a delegate and a representative. So a representative, of course, is elected and they go to Washington, serve in the House of Representatives, vote on things, introduce bills, et cetera, et cetera, right? That's what you think of when you think of somebody who's in the House. A delegate, we still have delegates, is there in an advisory capacity.

They can offer comments, they can participate in discussion, but they can't actually vote on anything. We still use delegates for things like Washington, D.C. and for the Virgin Islands and for Guam. We have delegates from a variety of places where they want to have some kind of representation, but they don't actually get to vote. And so that is what was happening when William Henry Harrison went to Congress to be a delegate for the Northwest Territories. Why couldn't he just be a representative? It's because the Constitution says that representatives can only come from states, and the Northwest Territory was

not a state. While he was in Washington, D.C., though, he began to advocate for splitting up the Northwest Territory. He was like, it's too much. It's too big of a piece of land. And he advocated breaking it into two. So he thought that Ohio and the, like, eastern chunk of Michigan, that should be one territory and it should continue to be called the Northwest Territory. And the rest of it, Indiana, Illinois, the western half of Michigan, Wisconsin, and the eastern half of Minnesota, that should be called the Indiana Territory. Congress agreed, let's split this up into two territories.

The Indiana Territory. Congress agreed, let's split this up into two territories. And then shortly thereafter, John Adams appointed William Henry Harrison to be the governor of the Indiana Territory. And he was like, okay, back to Indiana I go. While he was there, as the governor of the Indiana Territory, he tried to introduce slavery. as the governor of the Indiana Territory, he tried to introduce slavery. He said, if we permit slavery, it will further the economic development of the region. He felt that the economic development was being hampered by the fact that this region did not permit slavery. And ultimately, his idea was rejected. It was rejected by Congress. It was rejected by people who lived there. Most of them did not want to have slavery. So his idea was shot down. He was governor of the Indiana Territory from 1801 when he was appointed by John Adams

until 1812 when he resigned that commission to fight in the War of 1812. During his time as governor of the Indiana Territory, he negotiated dozens and dozens and dozens of treaties with the Native American tribes that lived there. Many of them were not pleased about these treaties that they were being asked to negotiate. Some of the time he was asking other tribes to negotiate on behalf of others where he was like, hey, will you give us this land as well? And the tribe would be like, sure, because it wasn't actually their territory. And then the tribe who had just had their land given away was like, excuse us? It became very controversial what was happening with William Henry Harrison and all of the native tribes.

Of course, back in Washington, they really liked what he was doing because he was expanding the territory of the United States of America, consolidating the native lands down further and further and further. And so most people have heard the name Tecumseh. And so most people have heard the name Tecumseh. He was a Native American leader and he had negotiated with William Henry Harrison and a group of armed men during the middle of the night. And this battle took place near the Tippecanoe River. Ultimately, William Henry Harrison won. Tecumseh wasn't at that battle, but he was killed in a later battle. wasn't at that battle, but he was killed in a later battle. And this became a very, very important part of William Henry Harrison's future political career, because initially it had been misreported. They sent word back that we had just had this big battle, like surprise attack during the night, and somehow it was misinterpreted that William Henry Harrison had lost when in fact he had won. So once they got the story right, they were like, oh, dang.

Okay, you guys won? That is sick. That's incredible. That's how they felt at the time. I'm sure they said, that is sick. Y'all afraid of ghosts? How about ghost peppers? It's the moment you've been waiting for.

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about a struggling Asian actor who gets a bigger part than he expected when he witnesses a crime in Chinatown. Streaming November 19th only on Disney+. Amazon's Black Friday week starts November 21st with new deals added every day. Save on home goods to deck their halls, toys to stuff their sockets, and fashion like slippers to mistle their toes. Shop great deals on Amazon. After the War of 1812, he had some offices in Ohio, tried to run for various offices, didn't get elected to some of

them. Eventually appointed the minister plenipotentiary to the country of Columbia in South America. When people hear the word minister plenipotentiary, they're like, what is that? It's a little bit like being an ambassador, except they have actual power. They are the official representative of the United States to that country, and they act on behalf of the United States. What they say has meaning. And again, you can understand why a system like that would have been used in the past, because we did not have a quick and easy way to communicate overseas. So you would need to send an emissary to a foreign country to act on your

behalf, to promote your agenda, to know what it is that you want to achieve in that country. He was quickly recalled from Columbia, however, because Andrew Jackson won the presidency. And Andrew Jackson was all about giving his friends positions. It's called the spoils system. And so William Henry Harrison, after a year, came back from Columbia, back to the United States. For a period of time, he kind of retired from public office a little bit, distilled some whiskey, planted some corn, and then felt kind of bad because he felt that the effects of alcohol were to the detriment of society. He was like, I kind of regret making whiskey. In 1836, he decided, you know what? Let me go ahead and run for president. Let me throw my hat in the ring. And at the time, we did not have the Democrats and the

Republicans. I am not going to give you an entire history lesson on the history of political parties in the United States. I do have a workshop on that if that interests you. But let me just tell you that after Alexander Hamilton died, and John Adams left office, we were left kind of with one political party in the United States, the Democratic Republicans. I know that's confusing because it has the names of both of our current political parties in it. I know it's a little confusing, but we were left with the Democratic Republicans. And after a period of time, another party began to gain prominence, and they were known as the Whig Party, W-H-I-G, the Whig Party. And they were more conservative. In fact, the Whigs were the first political party in the United States to identify themselves as conservative. So William Henry Harrison became the Whig nominee for

president in 1836. Meanwhile, Martin Van Buren was the Democrat nominee for president in 1836. Martin Van Buren, who by the way, looks like a koala bear. In the election of 1836, William Henry Harrison only got 73 electoral votes and Van Buren got 170. That is butt kicking. That's what that is. So Martin Van Buren became president and he didn't have that successful of a presidency. Some very serious economic problems occurred during his presidency. And so once again, William Henry Harrison threw his hat in the ring in the election of 1840. His campaign slogan was Tippecanoe and Tyler too.

John Tyler was his vice presidential nominee. And again, at the time, it was the parties that chose these things. You didn't necessarily choose your own running mate. But that is how famous the Battle of Tippecanoe had become. That he was known as Old Tip or Tippecanoe. So Tippecanoe and Tyler too. And what was fascinating was that he was fashioned by the Whig Party and himself as this like log cabin and hard cider kind of candidate because he had been living out in the Northwest Territory, when in reality,

he was from the equivalent of American aristocracy. They were looking for another Andrew Jackson who had been wildly popular as a populist candidate, self-made man who was an orphan, who worked his way up into being a slave owner and made a lot of money for himself. They were looking for another Andrew Jackson because Jackson had been such a success for them. And they knew this like frontiersman kind of situation really played well with the voters.

So they leaned hard into this. William Henry Harrison is from a log cabin. He likes to sit around his log cabin and drink hard apple cider. And again, that was not the origin story of William Henry Harrison. He was from American aristocracy. He was from a very wealthy family. Obviously, things changed when his father died, but let's call a spade a spade. This is also very interesting. People today like to discuss how polarizing and how mean people are in politics, and that is true. People are mean. I'm not going to deny that. And I'm not going to deny that social media has amplified those kind of messages. But during the election of 1840, Martin Van Buren was called Martin Van Ruin because he had, quote unquote, ruined the American economy. On the other hand, Democrats told people that Harrison was Granny Harrison, the petticoat general, because Harrison was in his late 60s. In fact, when he ultimately beat Martin Van Buren in the election of 1840, he was the oldest president to ever have been inaugurated at the time. Here was another thing that they would say about him. What is Harrison's name spelled backwards? No sirrah. Like, I ain't voting for him. No sirrah.

It's Harrison spelled backwards. So they like to tease him. Like, they took this notion of him being a man who sat around in his log cabin drinking hard cider. They turned that against him. And they were like, excuse us? What kind of president sits in a log cabin drinking hard cider? Harrison and Tyler leaned so hard into that strategy that they had a bunch of campaign materials made that had log cabins and jugs of hard cider, like whiskey bottles that were in that shape and other memorabilia with Tippecanoe and Tyler too, and memorabilia that had log cabins and cider jugs. And because the Whigs had done a better job of running a candidate against Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison won resoundingly.

He got 234 electoral votes to Martin Van Buren's 60. That's not even a little bit close. William Henry Harrison, 68 years old, when he went to Washington to be inaugurated, and at the time, inaugurations were in March. It was held on March 4th. And his wife, Anna, was too sick to travel to Washington, D.C. So he asked his son's widow, one of his sons had died as a young man, he asked his son's widow, would you come to Washington and be the hostess? Of course, during that time, it was not socially acceptable for men to host parties because of course that is what women are

good for. Ha ha, planning parties. So his daughter-in-law had not yet made it to Washington, D.C., but that was the plan. By the way, until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, Ronald Reagan was 69 when he was inaugurated. Until then, William Henry Harrison held the record for being the oldest president until 1981 when Ronald Reagan became president. So he takes the oath of office on March 4th. It's a cold, rainy, drizzly day in Washington, D.C. And he stood outside giving his inaugural address for over two hours. Who wants to listen to a two-hour speech in the rain? That does not sound like my idea of a good time. But he clearly had a lot of things to say. And one of the things he wanted to say was that he took the job seriously.

He was not going to try to run any schemes. And that he intended to serve one term as president. That this was not a power grab for him. He really felt like he wanted to further the Whig agenda and promote Whig policies and not necessarily gain a lot of power for himself. So he gives his inaugural address. He stood in a three-hour receiving line at the White House, shook hands for three hours, and then went to a bunch of inaugural balls. On March 26th, so this is 22 days later after taking office, he started to get symptoms of a cold. He kept feeling a little bit worse, a little bit worse, and they sent for some

doctors. And the doctors listened to his lungs and they were like, you got pneumonia. And these are some of the treatments that they tried to cure William Henry Harrison of his pneumonia. They tried heated suction cups. They tried bloodletting, which if you don't know what that is, it's where they use like leeches to try to suck out some of your blood. And the idea was that leeches would suck out the toxins and leave the good blood. That was the idea. and leave the good blood. That was the idea. They did things like they administered mustard plasters, castor oil, ipecac. They boiled a mixture of crude petroleum and Virginia snake root. And they like putting that all over his chest, trying to draw out the impurities. Of

course, a lot of medical treatment at the time was trying to draw out impurities. They didn't understand about germs. They didn't understand like fighting infection from the inside out. They were just trying to kick out the impurities. Needless to say, of this worked. And the people were wondering what is going on because from March 26th onward, he had not been seen. Nobody was giving them any information. Nobody was like, listen, he's really not feeling well. Hopefully he'll be back soon. Nobody was saying anything. And so by the time April 4th, 1841 rolled around, there were people sitting vigil outside the White House. They became convinced he was deathly ill, and he was. And on April 4th, he died. He died in office one month after taking the inaugural oath. Modern physicians, modern medical researchers have gone back and

reviewed all of the records, both historic and medical records, trying to make a determination about what actually killed William Henry Harrison. And they believe that he died from septic shock due to typhoid. Understand that Washington, D.C. was real swampy. Real, real swampy, like standing water. Not good drainage at the time. And it allows bacteria to breed because it doesn't wash away. So at the time, the White House was situated downstream from a public sewage dump. It's probably a really good guess that he got sick from drinking contaminated water at the White House.

Other presidents were later sickened for similar reasons. His last words, he spoke them to his doctor, and we assume that they were intended for his vice president, John Tyler, his last words to his doctor were, sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more. By the way, y'all, he was the first president to die in office. By the way, y'all, he was the first president to die in office. I don't know if I mentioned that. So people were like, a president died? What are we supposed to do now? So after he died, they had this invitation only funeral.

They went into this 30 day public mourning period. Somebody later wrote in a memoir. This is the quote they had in the period immediately following his death, the next day there was a great pageant in Washington. Of course, pageant just meant like a big show. The roar of cannon and the tolling of bells filled the air while many houses were shrouded with crepe and the streets were black with people. As the day advanced, the procession made its appearance coming slowly through the avenue, carriage after carriage in long succession, while thousands upon thousands followed on foot, all moving to the sound of melancholy music. They were bearing the dead body of Harrison to the grave. I remember

distinctly how the window glass would break and rattle to the ground after each report of the cannon they were firing in the burial ground. Because no president had ever died in office before. There was some controversy over what Article II of the Constitution actually meant when they were discussing the vice president ascending to the presidency. Were they to only act as the president while still remaining the vice president, or were they actually to assume the oath of office and fully take over the role of president? And so there was a lot of discussion amongst members of Congress, other people in the cabinet. They consulted the Supreme Court. What is this supposed to mean? Is John Tyler supposed to actually become the president or

is he only supposed to act like the president? They ultimately decided that John Tyler would become the president, take the oath of office, become the president. At the time, again, in 1841, there was nothing in the constitution that said, here's how you will get a new vice president. there was nothing in the constitution that said, here's how you will get a new vice president. And so the office of the vice president was just left empty. And we did not have a method to replace the vice president of the United States until the 1960s. Now we have a method to appoint a vice president should that position become vacant. You know, John Tyler, of course, really wanted to become the president. And in May, Congress convened and they were like, yes, we are confirming Tyler as president for the remainder of his term. So that set the precedent for the vice president ascending to being the actual president and not just the acting president. not just the acting president. This is also interesting. William Henry Harrison's wife,

Anna, of course, left back in Ohio because that's where they had moved to. Congress voted to give her a president's pension, so to speak. They voted to give her $25,000. $25,000 is the 2021 equivalent of $696,000. And also she had the right to mail letters for free. That's what they gave Anna. $25,000, the equivalent of $696,000 plus free letter mailing. I have to tell you one other thing. I mentioned about Tippecanoe. I mentioned about Tecumseh, Tecumseh's brother. After William Henry Harrison died, something called Tecumseh's curse became a popular theory. People began looking back on history and realized that a whole bunch of presidents who had been elected in 20-year spur60, killed in office. James Garfield, elected in 1880, killed in office. William McKinley, elected in 1900, killed in office. Warren Harding, elected in 1920, died in office.

Franklin Roosevelt, elected in 1920, died in office. Franklin Roosevelt, elected in 1940, died in office. John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960, died in office. Ronald Reagan, shot but didn't die after being elected in 1980. George W. Bush, elected in 2000, obviously did not die in office, did have several assassination attempts against him, including a grenade that was thrown on stage while he was speaking, but did not fire because the person who threw the grenade wrapped a bandana around it too tightly because they were trying to avoid detection. Joe Biden elected in 2020. So we'll see what happens. Is Tecumseh's curse real? Probably not. It's probably not real, but it is interesting, right? It's an interesting phenomenon that presidents elected in that 20-year cycle, a bunch of them in a row died in office. 1840, 1860, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1940, 1960.

That's interesting, right? I think it is. All right, y'all. It was the shortest presidency ever. It's going to be the shortest presidency ever for a long time, most likely. But I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about William Henry Harrison. And maybe at some point in the future, we will talk about his grandson, Benjamin. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor.

Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. I cannot wait to have another mind-blown moment with you next episode. Thanks again for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast.