Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison, 23rd United States president, defeated incumbent Grover Cleveland after a notably corrupt campaign. Harrison ended American isolationism, setting the stage for future territorial and economic expansion. He signed into law the Sherman Antitrust Act and the McKinley Tariff Act. Harrison was defeated by Cleveland after one term.

Harrison, a Republican, was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating the Democrat Grover Cleveland. He was the first, and to date only, president from the state of Indiana. His presidential administration is best known for its economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act, and for annual federal spending that reached one billion dollars for the first time. Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress", and used the issue to defeat the Republican Party, both in the 1890 mid-term elections and in Harrison's bid for reelection in 1892.

Harrison's wife died near the end of his presidential term. After failing to win reelection he returned to private life at his home in Indianapolis where he remarried, wrote a book, and later represented the Republic of Venezuela in an international case against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1900 he traveled to Europe as part of the case and, after a brief stay, returned to Indianapolis where he died the following year, from complications arising from influenza. [read the Wikipedia article]

• Benjamin Harrison at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-08-15
• Official White House biography
• Benjamin Harrison: Resource Guide, from the Library of Congress
• Harrison's State of Union Addresses
• The Indianapolis Home of Benjamin Harrison
• Works by Benjamin Harrison at Project Gutenberg
• Views of an ex-president by Benjamin Harrison at archive.org

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