Sharon McMahon: He really wanted to restore America to what he
viewed as its proper constitutional balance, as an
antidote to everything that had happened in the era of
Jacksonian democracy, as a counterpoint to everything that
had been happening with old Van Ruin over here. He viewed
himself as the person who could right the ship.
On a cold and blustery day in March 1841, William Henry
Harrison stood before a crowd of 1000s and delivered the longest
inaugural address in American history. Few men were better
prepared for the presidency. The 68-year-old Harrison had been a
soldier, a senator, an ambassador, and a governor
before his election to the nation's highest office. He was
also the last man who had been born a British subject to win
the presidency. While refusing to wear a coat and gloves in the
frigid weather, Harrison reminded his fellow Americans
what the revolutionary generation had won, and what
could be easily lost. And then, only a month later, he was dead.
Yet, as today's guest Sharon McMahon argues, the shortest
presidency left a lasting legacy. So, what might we learn
from Harrison's last will and testament? I'm Colleen Shogan,
and this is In Pursuit, a podcast that explores lessons
from America's past to rate the history of America's future.
Episode eight: William Henry Harrison delivers a warning.
Sharon McMahon, welcome to In Pursuit.
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
Colleen Shogan: We're talking about William Henry Harrison
today, perhaps best known for dying one month into his
presidency, but there's more to him than just that. Tell us
about his early life before he became president of the United
States.
Sharon McMahon: Despite Harrison's image as sort of a
log cabin dwelling man from the Northwest Territories, Harrison
was actually born into the Virginia planter class. His
father was a founding father of the United States and signed the
Declaration of Independence. They were a slaveholding family,
so he really grew up seeing his father as the governor of
Virginia. So he didn't have humble origins, despite trying
to portray himself in that way later on in his career. When he
is 18, his father dies and leaves his older siblings with
all of the inheritance, leaving very little for him. And he had
wanted to become a physician, and in fact went to the
University of Pennsylvania to study medicine. But when his
father dies and leaves him little money, this of course was
before things like student loans existed, and so he did not have
the means to continue his medical studies, so he
ultimately drops out, joins the army, and that ended up being
very fateful decision because being in the army catapults him
into national fame. So, how does he acquire the nickname "Old
Tippy Canoe" or "Old Tip" That's related to his military service.
He was involved in a very contentious battle with a Native
American tribe, the Shawnee. They were led by Tecumseh, and
the Harrison men were camped on the shores of the Tippecanoe
River. And this battle was so legendary that people around the
country got word of it when they heard what had happened. When
they heard of the victory that Harrison had clinched, they
started, as people are wont to do, they started calling him by
this nickname, Old Tippecanoe, and then of course Tippecanoe is
a long word. It got shortened to Old Tip, and he made use of that
later in his political career.
Colleen Shogan: Harrison is an anti-Jacksonian, and he becomes
a member of the newly formed Whig Party, which doesn't last
that long in American history. But who were the Whigs, and what
did they believe?
Sharon McMahon: You're right that the Whigs were formed in
response to who they viewed as King Andrew, and that, of
course, is King Andrew Jackson. They viewed Andrew Jackson's
expansion of executive power as being too monarchical, as being
overreach from the design of the founders. So this was a
coalition. The Whig Party was a coalition of people who would
later become Republicans, of people who were disgruntled with
the aspects of the Democratic Party, people who opposed
Jackson's tactics and they opposed many of his domestic
policies and formed their own party. And of course, we had
several Whig presidents. That coalition eventually fell upon.
And gave rise to the Republicans.
Colleen Shogan: Now, when Harrison ran for the presidency
in 1840, he's running against the sitting president Martin Van
Buren. But what was on Americans' minds at that time?
Sharon McMahon: People gave Martin Van Buren the nickname
Martin Van Ruin because things were so fraught, especially in
the economic sense, that people looked around and saw nothing
but ruins when it came to the American economy. Despite
Jackson being famous for having no national debt during his
presidency, he actually created a number of the economic crises
that were then handed to his vice president when Van Buren
became president. So the Panic of 1837 is really at the top of
people's minds. This is the worst economic conditions the
country has ever faced, and would remain some of the worst
economic conditions the country would face for nearly 100 years
until the Great Depression. So not only do we have these very
serious issues with bank failures, with collapsing
credit, with business closures, with lack of security
surrounding the government's ability to handle these issues.
We also have westward expansion being highly in top of mind for
many people. Tensions involving Native American groups, treaties
with them, battles with them, the acquisition of territory,
and then Americans too. This is important to remember that
Americans have been grappling with what democracy actually
means and looks like since before this country's inception,
and they were still grappling with it during Harrison's rise
to power.
Colleen Shogan: Well, that's interesting. So, tell us more
about how democracy had changed. We're in 1840 now, so that's 50
years after the Constitution is into operation. So, how are
things changed from 1789?
Sharon McMahon: The first thing that comes to mind is that most
states had expanded voting rights to allow all white men to
vote? You no longer needed to be a property owner as you did at
the founding of the country. Now they did not expand voting
rights to include women or any minority groups, but that also
leads to another very interesting development, which
is the founders never conceived of an electoral college system
in which there was a winner take all, where all of one state's
electors went to one candidate. They always viewed it in the
founding era as every elector will be allowed to vote for whom
they feel is the best candidate, and you can see that in early
election results. Sometimes the electoral votes are very split
amongst candidates, so we have the consolidation of power in
relationship to political parties. Political parties have
become more influential in politics; they had become their
own sort of machine. Before the founding era, they had existed
as sort of loose identifiers of you know I'm a Federalist, I'm
an Anti-Federalist. There wasn't a party apparatus, but beginning
in this era, we start to see the invention of these apparatuses
surrounding political parties like the Whig Party, and this
actually becomes something that concerns Harrison and that he
later speaks out against. But one other thing that I'll note
about how democracy changed: it expanded voting rights to almost
all white men, and voter turnout amongst white men is very
different than it is today. Voter turnout in the election in
which Harrison was elected president, voter turnout was
over 80% So we have a actually a very high buy-in amongst white
men that they are meant to participate in democracy.
Colleen Shogan: It's an extraordinary number. I read
that as well. The 80% turnout compared to what our turnout
overall is in today's even national elections are
presidential elections.
Sharon McMahon: Yeah, I totally agree. I know political
scientists have been studying this topic for decades about
what increases voter turnout, what decreases voter turnout,
and it is interesting that there was such high voter turnout
despite the economic unrest. Often, when things are not going
well politically, or there's a perceived lack of economic
opportunity, you get less buy-in into the democratic process, and
that was not the case in 1840.
Colleen Shogan: Well, one of the reasons might have been that it
was such an interesting campaign in 1840. It was a different type
of campaign. Tell us a little bit about how the campaign
managers, particularly for William Henry Harrison, how did
they approach 1840, and what were some of the things that
they did to entice voters to support Harrison and Tyler and
become engaged in the process?
Sharon McMahon: This is such an interesting campaign. Of course,
a lot of people point to the Jackson v. John Quincy Adams as
the advent of sort of the modern campaign structure in which
candidates hated each other and actively insulted each other.
But in this scenario, the political parties, specifically
the Whig Party, developed a campaign strategy that involved
merch. It involved posters. It involved campaign rallies. It
involved songs. It involved visual imagery, like a log cabin
that was meant to be attached to people's perception of Harrison.
I mentioned earlier that despite his log cabin roots, alleged log
cabin roots, he actually didn't grow up in a log cabin, and all
of these things created a certain amount of hype
surrounding Harrison and his VP candidate John Tyler that had
never been seen before. We're talking maple syrup, branded
maple syrup in bottles, parades in which people built faux log
cabin floats, rallies in which people stood and did their
cheers. You know, campaign rallies are still popular today,
and now they tend to use signature songs. You know, like
Kamala Harris's signature song was Beyonce's Freedom. That, of
course, was not possible in 1840. But the people did have
chants, and so the participants in these rallies would have
their chants and the songs that they would learn, that they
would then repeat as parades went down the street. So all of
these things created a different amount of hype, and it was
positive hype for the candidate as opposed to the fighting
amongst the candidates that you saw between Jackson and John
Quincy Adams.
Colleen Shogan: I mean, the management of his image is
really extraordinary because, like you said, he was born of
the Virginia elite, not in a log cabin. They portray him as sort
of this hard scrabble, whiskey drinking guy, and he was really
a scholar. And he also apparently really liked wine. So
I don't know. That's a complete image makeover.
Sharon McMahon: You know, like you can picture. I don't know.
This wasn't true, but if he were born today, the maple syrup
would come in a maple leaf-shaped bottle, like that's
the kind of vibes that were given out. But this was a jug
that had their campaign slogans on it, and so you would take
this home. And of course, we all know that a bottle of maple
syrup-it's precious, takes a lot of work to make, and you have it
for a long time. It's not just eaten and thrown away. It's not
quickly consumed. So you have this bottle with his campaign
slogan and his face on it at your house for months. That's
actually really smart.
Colleen Shogan: That is smart
Sharon McMahon: branding. Yeah,
Colleen Shogan: very smart. You
Sharon McMahon: see his face every morning at breakfast.
Colleen Shogan: So Harrison, why is he running for president?
What does he want to do for the nation.
Sharon McMahon: He really wanted to restore America to what he
viewed as its proper constitutional balance, as an
antidote to everything that had happened in the era of
Jacksonian democracy, as a counterpoint to everything that
had been happening with old Van Ruyn over here, he viewed
himself as the person who could right the ship, as the person
who could realign the direction America was meant to point in.
There are, I think, many things that we can look at his writings
and his feelings that are instructive and valuable to
today. It's also worth pointing out. I think that throughout his
political life, he advocated for, or at minimum tolerated,
the idea of enslaving other individuals, and felt like every
state should be allowed to choose for themselves how they
want to handle that issue. So, despite his advocacy for
democracy, that did not extend to a fully inclusive democracy.
It still, in his mind, meant democracy for white Americans.
Colleen Shogan: Harrison is victorious. He defeats Martin
Van Buren pretty handily in 1840. Let's fast forward to
inauguration day on March 4, 1841 in Washington D.C. Take us
there. What was that day like in our nation's capital?
Sharon McMahon: What a day! It was a day that we're down in
infamy, as they say. It's a very cold day. It's a very rainy day.
The wind is blowing very hard. If you've been to D.C. in early
March, the weather can be very fickle, can be beautiful, it can
be absolutely terrible. And there were quotes from people
who were there that talk about the cold being carried up the
street, and that you know, no amount of wrapping yourself in
your winter coat seemed to keep the chill at bay. So it is
remarkable that despite the real. Bad weather that is
happening that day. That crowds pack the streets. They are there
to see old tip. They want to see this new era of American
democracy be ushered in, and fatefully, Harrison decides that
he is not going to wear appropriate attire, and this
became national news. His lack of appropriate attire for the
weather is something that, for many many decades, if not more
than a century, was cited as the reason for his death a month
after he assumes the presidency. His lack of gloves, his lack of
a warm coat. He does not dress himself appropriately, and at
the time, people believed that caused illness.
Colleen Shogan: Well, why wouldn't he wear an overcoat and
gloves? It was a cold day in Washington D.C.
Sharon McMahon: It's one of those things that we can
speculate about, but our best guesses about why he is not
attired appropriately is he is old. This is the first thing.
He's the oldest president ever elected at that point. He was
60-eight years old, and I also think it's very interesting that
his wife Anna is a couple of years younger than him, but she
is so infirm that she actually does not make the journey to
Washington D.C. for his inauguration, and in fact never
got there before he died. So they sent along their
daughter-in-law to help settle him into the White House and act
as a White House hostess. The role of the First Lady was still
evolving at the time, but that just speaks to the first thing
is that they wanted him to appear vital and not elderly,
like
Colleen Shogan: all bundled up or something. Right,
Sharon McMahon: exactly. Like he's an old man who can't keep
out the cold. He wants to appear like strapping and Kevin
Costner-esque, you know, like set on the set of Yellowstone.
So he wants to appear young and vital, given his age, I think it
also has to do with the fact that he wants to be seen as a
man of the frontier, and men of the frontier they don't need
gloves. You know what I mean? A fancy overcoat, something that's
Colleen Shogan: what a gentleman might wear.
Sharon McMahon: Exactly. You know what I'm out here doing
with these cows every morning? I don't need no gloves. You know,
I'm of course making that up, but I think a lot of it had to
do with the image that he wanted to project-that he was tough and
young, strong.
Colleen Shogan: So we don't have that much of the Harrison
presidency to study because he only lasts 32 days in office,
but we do have the inaugural address, which is the longest in
American history. He goes for this probably also exacerbates
the problem. He goes for about two hours for the inaugural
address, but there's a lot of important messages contained in
that address that you talk about in your essay for in pursuit.
Tell us a little bit about those.
Sharon McMahon: Yeah, his inaugural address was over 8400
words, and Daniel Webster actually had the opportunity to
edit it before he delivered it, and Daniel Webster bragged about
having cut 17 different things from his address. So even though
Daniel Webster does all of his editing, he still has 8400 words
to deliver, and as you can imagine, that's a very long time
for the audience to stand there in the cold, listening to him
speak. He hit on a few important themes that I think are worth
remembering from somebody who was born. He was the last
president born as a British subject. Again, his father is a
founding father. All of the people he studied under in
college, founding father, so he had a very unique perspective on
these issues. But some of the themes that he talked about in
his inaugural address were warnings about the separation of
powers-that we cannot have too much power concentrated in the
hands of any individual. This, of course, is a direct answer to
Jacksonian democracy. We cannot have an executive that has
unchecked power around the country. The next thing that he
talked about was that majority rule has limits. Sometimes we
hear people talk about democracy as being mob rule, and that's
not true in representative democracy. But it's still an
idea that persists. In that, if you have two wolves and a sheep
going for dinner. Guess what's going to get eaten? So this idea
that the majority does rule in a democracy, but the majority's
power has limits. It cannot just run amuck and completely
disregard the rights of the minority. He also talks to
people about being aware of political frauds, and these are
people that he viewed sort of as-he didn't use this phrase,
but another way to phrase it might be a silver-tongued
serpent. People who were co-opting or usurping the
language of democracy in an effort to make themselves. Sound
trustworthy, but in reality, they had ulterior motives.
Colleen Shogan: A soft demagogue in the Federalist, a soft
demagogue.
Sharon McMahon: Yes. He talked about true liberty being mild
and tolerant, and this spirit of the political fraud is harsh and
vindictive, and intolerant and reckless. Those are the words he
used. So he's comparing and contrasting what American
government should look like with what some people were attempting
or did do in the past. And then the fourth thing that he warns
about, which I think is an interesting warning, is about
the danger of political parties, and it's an interesting warning
because he became president because of a political party
apparatus, as we were just talking about the merch and the
rallies, and you know this entire organization that props
him up. He warns that people should use vigilance to avoid
the spirit of party, as people have talked about in American
history. He is worried about the allegiance to, say, the
Democratic Party, which at the time Andrew Jackson had been at
the helm of, and people's allegiance to this party and the
person at the top of the party led them astray from the
foundational civic virtues, as what he viewed American
democracy should be. That's a lot to pack in, you know. One
inaugural address. I think one of the things I take away is
something that he said: that party loyalty must never replace
loyalty to democratic principles, and this is a
concept that I am still talking about today. That the principles
of democracy should have higher allegiance in our consciousness
than the allegiance to any political organization.
Colleen Shogan: Well, a lot of his observations are very
relevant to what we're facing today, and some of the
challenges.
Sharon McMahon: Absolutely. Again, it speaks to the idea
that Americans have been wrestling with democracy since
the beginning.
Colleen Shogan: So, what happened to Harrison a month
after his inauguration?
Sharon McMahon: Several weeks after he is inaugurated, he gets
sick, and as I mentioned, people attributed this to having gone
outside without a coat. They attributed to having gone
outside without his appropriate outerwear, and had he not been
standing out in the rain and the wind for two hours without a
coat, this would have never happened. That was the sort of
prevailing sentiment. He catches what you might describe today as
a cold, and then that worsens into pneumonia. It worsens into
pleurisy, where he has inflammation around his lungs.
He was treated with the best that modern medicine had to
offer at the time, which involved things like ipecac,
mercury-based remedies, crude oil, heated suction cups. You
know, like they really are throwing everything they can at
the problem. This man is the president. No president had ever
died in office before, and they didn't really want to find out
what was going to happen if somebody did. So they tried
their best, but eventually he becomes delirious. His fever
eventually starts to overcome him. He declines relatively
quickly. He doesn't linger. You know, he gets sick three weeks
after taking office, and he's dead within the week or
thereabouts. His last words were they're presumed by historians
to be directed at the vice president John Tyler, but his
last words were, "Sir, I wish you to understand the true
principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask
nothing more.
Colleen Shogan: Amazing, and of course that precipitates, and
this is of course the subject of another discussion. But
precipitates what will actually happen when the vice president
ascends to the presidency? Will the vice president act with the
powers of the presidency, or will the vice president become
the president of the United States?
Sharon McMahon: Exactly right. Yes, that was a legitimate
debate that people were having at the time, and we have gone
through and updated the Constitution now to better
clarify exactly when the vice president can take over and how
long they can be in office, and we've clarified the manner in
which presidential succession is meant to work. But having never
done it before, it was a very novel legal concept. Will
somebody act as the president, as you mentioned, which is a
different legal status than being the president, it's almost
like being an interim administrator versus I am the
administrator of this thing. Like I'm his president
Colleen Shogan: or acting as the president of the United States,
and Tyler makes the decision pretty quickly that he's going
to take the oath and he's going to be the president of the
United States.
Sharon McMahon: That's right. Of course, that's. Story for
another day, but it's an important ending to Harrison's
story. It is that there is a peaceful transition of power,
and that there is not a fight over this line of succession of
like, well, if you're just the acting president, I'm going to
be the real president. Like it could have gone in a different
direction.
Colleen Shogan: Absolutely,
Sharon McMahon: but that peaceful transfer of power that
we now view as a very important aspect of American democracy,
Harrison's death laid the foundation for what that would
look like for 150 years to come.
Colleen Shogan: Sharon, in pursuit, of course, aims to find
relevant lessons in our nation's past, so what can we learn from
William Henry Harrison?
Sharon McMahon: I think the many of the cautions, warnings, and
also invitations that he has in his inaugural address are
important to remember that power must not fall into one set of
hands alone. That power is shared, and it was designed to
be shared amongst three branches of government and multiple
levels of government at the national, state, and local
levels, and that makes government more responsive to
the needs of citizens, and it also prevents tyranny. So the
idea that nearly 50 years after the Constitution is written,
that we have a president who feels it incumbent to reaffirm
these democratic principles because he saw the nation from
his viewpoint begin moving away from them. So we have to be
vigilant that power cannot be concentrated in the hands of a
single individual. As I mentioned before, I think the
concept of allegiance to the principles of democracy and not
allegiance to a single individual or allegiance to a
political party should be held in the highest regard in our
minds. Much like members of the military, people who serve in
high appointed office, they swear an oath to the
Constitution. They don't swear an oath to serve an individual,
and this isn't the the layperson's version of that.
That we our allegiance is to the principles of democracy and not
to a political party. And then I think it's also worth
remembering that we have to protect the rights of the
minority in a representative democracy. That this is
something that America still struggles with. To what extent
must we protect people with whom we disagree? To what extent must
we protect people who we don't think are deserving of rights?
And these are tensions that continue to exist, existed in
1840, and I do think some of Harrison's advice would be well
heeded today.
Colleen Shogan: Sharon McMahon, one of our nation's most
effective communicators for both history and civics education.
Thank you so much for joining in pursuit today.
Sharon McMahon: My pleasure. Thank you, Colleen.
Colleen Shogan: To read Sharon McMahon's essay on William Henry
Harrison, and to enjoy other great in pursuit essays and
podcasts. Visit in pursuit.org In pursuit with Colleen Shogan
is a podcast by More Perfect. The series is written and
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