The life of Major-General William H. Harrison ..

Front matter

m

SPSsf^i

1 \-

Preface

Another life of so eminent a general, and so unselfish a patriot, as William Henry Harrison, — a man whose history is almost literally the history of the country for fifty of the seventy-five years which make up the length of our national existence, — was not undertaken with the hope of producing anythinoeither novel or exciting. No such ambitious design prompted the compiler to the temerity of attempting what had already been done by a Hall and a Todd. His humble object has been to combine, in a single volume, as much of what is now scattered throughout many, and all over the records of the times, as he considered of sufficient interest. No memoir of General Harrison but contains something that others do not, and much, indeed, that ought to be preserved to 1*

Vi PREFACE.

the country, in a more durable and attractive form than a badly printed shilling pamphlet. Most of the biographies, too, of the eminent soldier and civilian, ■ft-ere Avritten with the single view to promote his election to the presidency. This destroys none of their merit, nor diminishes the value of the many facts and truths they contain ; but it is a reason why they contain also much that cannot claim to be preserved in a sober, posthumous biography, written, not to advance the political fortunes nor to defend the political character, but to do justice to the memory and faithfully to describe the acts of an eminent man.

It has elsewhere been said, that not a complete biography of General Harrison, in a permanent form, has ever been published. Judge Hall's Memoirs, and Sketches of Harrison, by Colonel C. S. Todd and Benjamin Drake, Esq., are both admirable in many respects. But the first was written previous to 1835, to promote his first nomination to the presidency, and is therefore necessarily defective, stopping as it does far short of the most important event in his career. The other is much more complete, though it was originally prepared under the supervision of a political committee, with a political design solely. It was

PEEFACE. Vii

much extended after his death. These comprise the only attempts of any pretension that have ever been made to present the public with even a tolerably full sketch of William Hexry Harrison's life. There are also many other sketches of his life of more or less merit, but all having for their aim the single object of promoting his poHtical prospects.

And yet to these unpretending little works the compiler is indebted for much of whatever merit may be accorded to his enterprise. He is also greatly in- . debted to McAfee's History of the Late War, to Burnett's Notes on the N'o7'th-we stern Territory, Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, Frost's Book of the Army, Dawson's Historical Narrative, Niles' Register, and, above all, to Brackenridge's Late War. He has made free use of their pages wherever he has found anything to his purpose or taste. It may be that he has not been over scrupulous in giving them credit as he went along for all the good things he has thus appropriated. The fear that he may have done them this great wrong, and the equally strong fear that he will be thought to have attempted thus to appear in borrowed plumes, has prompted him to make an acknowledgment, which he trusts is

Vlll PREFACE.

broad enough to cover all his delinquencies of this character.

He claims but little originality for his book. He might, perhaps, assume for it something more than a compilation, with as much justice as many others ; but a discriminating public would discover the attempted cheat as it is discovered in other cases. Policy, therefore, as well as honesty, has induced him to claim no more than he deserves, believing that the most certain means of securing quite as much. It is not much, indeed, in regard to such a man as Harrison, that has not already somewhere and in some shape been said. If the following pages have a redeeming point it can only be that there has been grouped together within the more of them facts that make up his public life than are anywhere else to be found. As many of these facts as were accessible, which were considered necessary to complete the record of his acts, illustrate his character, and do justice to his memory, will be found there.

Some things may be found in the Appendix, which have little apparent, and indeed little real, connection with a Life of General Harrison. But still it is believed they will be admitted to occupy an appropriate

PREFACE. ix

place, and to possess an interest and value that entitles them to it. Some are important for the instruction they give, some for the information they contain, some for the pleasure they will afford, and others as simple matters of reference. And it may be thought, that only so many of the events of the war of 1812, as transpired within the range of General Harrison's command, should have been recorded in a Life of Harrison ; but the compiler believed his name and fame sufficiently identified with the whole war to make appropriate a brief sketch of all its most remarkable incidents. This, therefore, has been done, and it is trusted the book will possess none the less interest for the innovation.

Little more need be said, — and perhaps it would have been better for the book if much less had been said. The compiler has labored to make it as deserving the great merit of its subject, and as worthy of public approbation, as his humble abilities would permit. To what degree of merit it is entitled, and how near it comes to the point at which it aspires, he is quite willing to submit to the universal umpire in all similar cases ; and this he is all the more willing to do, as he has not been able to discover any alternative.

X PREFACE.

The only merit he will therefore absolutely claim^ is that of making a virtue of necessity, and of submitting with cheerfulness to what an inexorable necessity imposes.

Auburn, July 1852.

Introduction

The cheapest as well as the most enduring monument that can be erected to the memory of those whose virtues and public services have endeared them to their countrymen is a true and impartial history of their lives, and a faithful record of their acts. Monuments of stone, the sculptured marble, and the animated canvas, may preserve to their posterity, for a few ages, the names of our statesmen, and patriots, and heroes ; but it requires the ever living and speaking pages of written history to perpetuate what is far more useful to mankind, and much more worthy to be held in everlasting remembrance — their great and noble deeds, and the examples of wisdom and virtue presented in their lives. While the pyramids and other monuments of antiquity throw but the faintest possible light upon the character and history of the people, by whom they were built, and have scarcely preserved even the names of those to whose memory, or the events to commemorate which they

Xii INTRODUCTION.

were erected, written history has made us familiar with all we know of the men and their history, as well as the manners and customs, not only of that, but a much earlier period.

Though the monument which the American people are now erecting, at the capital of the nation, to the memory of its founder and the Father of his country,' is a tribute to George Washington, most grateful to the heart of every true American, and though it may stand long after the Union has ceased to exist, yet if there were no more lasting record of his services to his country, and his unrivaled virtues, than that pile of crumbling marble, a few ages hence it might be a disputed point, whether it was reared by " the great American rebel" as a monument at once of his successful treason and his overweaning ambition, for a shot-tower, or as a tomb for American kings. It is only by books that the history of nations and men can be permanently preserved from oblivion. What is true of Washington is equally true of every other distinguished American, and it is as much a duty to transmit to their posterity a correct account of their acts, for its benefit and example, as it is to exhibit our gratitude for their public services, by raising to their memories lofty monuments.

It has already been said, that this is the cheapest as well as the most enduring means of honoring the memories of national benefactors, and illustrating their virtues, as it is the only means of preserving a faith-

INTRODUCTION. xiil

ful record of their lives. Biographies of the great and good are, besides one of the most interesting and agreeable, one of the most useful studies. Certain it is, at all events, that no class of books is so eagerly read by the American public as the lives of our own distinguished patriots, statesmen, and generals. Our country is not so old yet, but it may almost be said, that the life of every citizen composes a part of its history — at least, that every American can recollect much of its history, from the day it began its struggle for an independent national existence. Biographies, therefore, of the men who have contributed most towards establishing that independence, and who have pai'ticipated most actively and successfully in creating for us national character and importance, are sought for more with the interest and avidity that we exhibit for an account of the scenes, and events, and men, with which and with whom we are familiar in everyday life, than with that sober and philosophical spirit of investigation, which is shown for that class of biographical writings, which more exclusively and appropriately help to form the history of the past.

Great as this demand has been for a history of the lives of those who have distinguished themselves, either in the field, the cabinet, the forum, or the pulpit, it still seems to increase in proportion to the efforts made to supply it ; and the Life of one distinguished man but creates a desire for that of another, and that again for still the third. And thus the 2

Xiv INTRODUCTION.

public appetite is increased indefinitely by what it feeds upon, like that of the inebriate for the intoxicating cup, after he has once tasted its contents. The American press has been prompt to take advantage of this determination in the public mind, to know the history of our public men, and it annually teems with hundreds and thousands of volumes, embracing every degree of merit, from the mere hasty compilation to those displaying profound research, philosophical enquiry, and striking originality of thought. They all, however, if they but exhibit a reasonable regard for the truth of history, and a fair share of skill and industry in the use of materials, find eager, or at least abundant, readers.

It is with the hope of contributing something towards satisfying the public desire for this kind of knowledge, but more with the view of erecting a "monument," though a very humble one, to commemorate the services of a great General, a pure Patriot, and a distinguished Statesman, and to supply what is believed to be a public want, that another Life of William Henry Hakrison has been undertaken. As large a space as he filled in the public eye for 'nearly half a century, important as were the services he rendered his country, great as were his virtues, and closely as his name is identified with the history of the government, it is a singular fact, that the whole history of his life has never yet been published in a single volume.

INTRODUCTION. XV

The half century between the entrance of General Harrison upon public life, in 1791, in defence of what was then the wild western portion of our country, and his death in 1841, embraces almost the whole period of our existence as an independent nation. Commencing his career nearly cotemporaneously with the adoption of the constitution under which we now live, he grew up with the country, and lived to see the original thirteen States of the Union multiplied into twice that number ; the population of the country increased from four to seventeen millions, and instead of a weak and distracted people, but recently emerged from a long and bloody war, and just entering upon the doubtful experiment of self-government, scarcely respected at home, and openly derided abroad — a great and flourishing republic, respected and feared by the nations of the earth, afl"ording security to its own citizens, and a refuge and protection to the oppressed of every land.

We had, to be sure, as already stated, just emerged from that glorious struggle which ended in givinous a name amongst independent nations, and in permanently establishing the only free form of o-overnment that had then ever existed. But, though we had succeeded in asserting our freedom of a foreign yoke, we could yet scarcely claim to be really independent. The country had hardly begun to recover from the exhausting effects of the war of the Revolution, and it was still suffering the curse of poverty,

XVI INTRODUCTION.

and the moral as well as physical debility, produced by that long and relentless contest. The government was without credit, without resources, and almost literally bankrupt.

The north-western territory, with whose history the name of General Harrison is more closely interwov^en than that of any other American, was then almost one unbroken wilderness. The first emigrants, to what is now the seat of empire of the American Union, planted ihemselves at the mouth of the Muskingum but three ^'ears before he forsook the pleasures and comforts of J"<ome and of civilized life, to aid in defending the infant settlements from the ruthless savages, Avho claimed undisputed possession of that vast region.

"What a change was wrought in this wild region during the fifty years that began with his military services, at the age of nineteen, and ended with his elevation to the presidency of a great and powerful nation ! The wild north-western territory of 1791, in 1841 embraced several of the most powerful States of the Union, holding in their hands the destinies of a mighty republic, scattered all over with populous cities, and flourishing villages, and seats of learning, manufactures, rail-roads, canals, and every other indication of the highest state of civilization. The crack of the hunter's rifle is now nowhere heard, and the once powerful savage nations, who then held undisputed dominion over those unbroken forests, have long since wholly disappeared. Civilization reigns supreme

INTRODUCTION. XVU

where, but little more tlian half a century ago, nothing was heard but the war-whoop of the Indian, or the howl of the beasts of prey. All this almost miraculous change General Harrison lived to witness, and to contribute his full share to bring about. What in other countries and in other ages of the world would have required many generations to accomplish was here wrought during the public life of a single man. In that brief half century we made a longer stride towards greatness and power than even ancient Rome, with all her boasted progress, did in ten centuries.*

All that is physically, intellectually, or politically essential to national strength and power, is undeniably to be found in the geographical position and extent of our territory, in the character of our people, and the form of our government ; or rather, these undeniable advantages of position, character, and institutions, have already given us a higher rank in the scale of nations than any other people ever reached in many centuries. The United States is now only the second power in Christendom, and before the present generation has passed away, estimating the future by the past, it will no longer occupy even a secondary position. At least, nothing but our own folly, and those intestine commotions and feuds, which have ever been the rock upon which free governments have wrecked, can snatch from us the sceptre of empire which Providence seems to have destined for our country.

* See Appendix (A). 2*

Xviii INTRODUCTION.

That we owe much of our present greatness and prosperity to the wisdom of our statesmen, and to the ability and patriotism of the men who have played the most conspicuous part in the affairs of the Republic, as well as to the virtue, intelligence, and native energy of the people, is a proposition too selfevident for argument. To the sages, patriots, and heroes of the revolution, undoubtedly belongs the chief glory of founding a great and free nation, and establishing a government, Avhich affords the blessings of civil and religious liberty to so many millions of people, and which holds out in the future so much of hope and promise to the oppressed and suffering millions of other nations. But all their labors, and sacrifices, and sufferings would have been of little avail, if the duty of carrying out the principles, and of perfecting the designs, contemplated by the noble system of govmiment they created, had fallen upon ambitious demagogues, or narrow-minded statesmen. Fortunately for us, for our posterity, and for the world, however, what was so well begun by them, has been as wisely carried out by their successors. The spirit of patriotism, with which the founders of our government were so eminently embued, was shared by those on whom devolved the task of perfecting their noble

work.

This is especially true of General Harrison, indeed, he inherited patriotism from one of the most devoted spirits who bequeathed to us, besides their

INTRODUCTION. XIX

patriotism, the inestimable blessings of the free institutions, of whose great benefits we all now partake. Stimulated by the example of the revolutionary patriot whose name he bore, and whose blood coursed in his veins, possessed of superior talents, and occupying a large field for usefulness and renown, he had the power, and he did not fail to exert it, to contribute largely to that eminence which is the envy of other nations, and towards securing those privileges which are our own greatest boast. Anything like a faithful biography of one who, for so long a portion of our national existence, performed so prominent a part in public affairs, and filled so large a space in the public eye, though destitute of great skill, and marked by no very profound ability, cannot fail to be received with favor, if with no very warm approval. The acts of such a man are ever of deep interest to those, to whose services he devoted his life, however clumsily they may be recorded.

THE LIFE or

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

Chapter I

William Henry Harrison was born at Berkley, Charles City County, in Virginia, February 9th, 1773, and was the third son of Benjamin Harrison, a leading patriot of the revolution, and one of the most prominent actors in the events that lead to that glorious struggle for independence. He was a descendant of Colonel John Harrison, a distinguished officer during the civil wars of England, and one of the judges who tried and condemned the ill-fated Charles, for which, and for his active participation in the affairs of the Commonwealth, he was himself tried and . executed after the Restoration.

Benjamin Harrison, the father of William Henry, was, as has already been stated, one of the leading.

most devoted, and most influential of the many noble patriots, whose v?rtues, and talents, and self-sacrificing love of country, the occasion called into requisition. He was amongst the first to embrace the cause of the l^eople in the contest with Great Britain, which preceded the resort to arms, and one of the last who would have yielded one hair's breadth to her tyrannical and haughty demands. The patriot cause had no more active, uncompromising, and fearless defender and advocate, nor any whose services were more important, or whose counsels were wiser, than Benjamin Harrison's.

At the early age of twenty-one years, he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia, in which capacity he gave such signal evidence of ability and rising distinction as to attract the immediate attention of the English government. And in order to rid themselves of one who gave promise of becoming so powerful and dangerous an opponent of British aggression, and so eloquent and effective a champion of the people's rights, they attempted to purchase his friendship, or at least his silence, by ofi'ering him a place in the Executive Council of the colony, notwithstanding he had yet scarcely reached the age of manhood. Though this was a distinction corresponding in character with that of member ' of the English Privy Council, and presented decided advantages, and opened future prospects of promotion and distinction, that few so young, with the necessity* before them of carving out their own fortunes, ever possessed virtue and patriotism sufficient to resist, — young Harrison indignantly and promptly rejected it. He had already seen enough of the grasping disposition and the grinding oppression of the British government throughout the American colonies to understand what Avas to be expected by a tame submission, or passive obedience, to these incipient measures of a tyrannical prince. Between his own interest and advancement and the submission of his country on the one hand, and the possible fate of a rebel or the independence of his country on the other, he did not for a moment hesitate. He decided to take sides with the people in the approaching struggle between them and the ' mother country, and to share with them the fortune, good or ill, of the unequal contest.

From the termination of his duties as a member of the House of Burgesses, until the imposition of the attempted obnoxious Stamp Act, little is recorded of the life of Mr. Harrison, beyond his continued and zealous resistance to every attempt, on the part of England, to abridge the liberties of the colonies. But, in 1764, he was appointed one of a committee to prepare a remonstrance against that odious Act, a measure at that time in contemplation by the British cabinet, and which soon after actually became a law. If anything had yet been wanting to decide the future course of Harrison and the other patriots of the different colonies, this adoption of the principle of taxation without representation would have left them no longer room for hesitation. From that time he continued to exert all the energies of his strong mind and his great influence, in connection with the other noble spirits of the day, towards the maintenance of that civil, religious, and political liberty, for which they had already sufiered and sacrificed so much, and in resisting the encroachments of a profligate government.

In 1774 he was elected a member from Virginia to the Continental Congress, which assembled at Philadelphia, in September of that year. That Congress being unwilling quite to close the door of reconciliation, made a last attempt to bring the parent government to a sense of justice, adopted a pacific and conciliatory address to the crown, proposing such conditions of settlement as a proper regard for their honor and the rights of the colonies would permit. After having adopted this measure of peace, it adjourned, patiently and calmly to await the result of the appeal.

He was also elected a member of the Continental Congress from Virginia, in 1775. Soon after the meeting of this Congress, his brother-in-law, Peyton Randolph, vacated the office of Speaker of Congress, and the duty devolved upon it of electing a new speaker. The members were divided in their preference of a successor to Mr. Randolph, between Mr. Harrison and John Hancock, of Massachusetts. But Mr. Harrison, with the magnanimity of a noble mind, promptly waived his claims in favor of Mr. Hancock. Upon modestly hesitating to accept the office after his election, through distrust in his capacity and ability for the proper discharge of its responsibilities, Harrison seized him in his athletic arms, and placed him in the presidential chair, exclaiming as he did so, "AVe will show mother Britain how little we care for her, by making a Massachusetts man our president, whom she has excluded from pardon by a public proclamation."

On the 4th of June of the same year, he was selected a member of a committee to place the American Colonies in a state of defence. The report of that committee, which was made after a month's earnest deliberation, formed the basis of the present militia system of the United States. In the following September he was also appointed a member of a committee, in connection with the immortal Washington, who devised and perfected a plan for the support of the provincial army, and was chairman of the committee through whose agency Lafayette and his companions were induced to enlist in the American cause, as well as a member of the Board of War.*

On the 10th of June 1776, Harrison called up the resolution, offered three days before by one of his colleagues, Richard Henry Lee, declaring "that the United Colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Though

* Sanderson's Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

this bold proposition to dismember tbe British Empire was received with great anxiety by all, and Avas strongly opposed by some, yet in Harrison it found an eloquent, able, and unflinching advocate, and after two days of very warm debate was finally passed by a bare majority. In accordance with this resolution, a committee was appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence. They reported a draft on the 28th of June, and on the 1st of July it was adopted in committee of the whole, nine States out of the thirteen having voted for it ; and on the Fourth of July it was finally passed, and published to the world.

Amongst the signers to this "Great Charter" of American liberty is the name of Benjamin Harrison. To illustrate the fearless and cheerful character of the man, and to show in how much dread he stood of British vengeance while about to take a step by which he would forfeit his life if the colonists should prove unsuccessful, a curious anecdote is recorded of him. On signing the Declaration, he turned to Elbridge Gerry, — one of the delegates from Massachusetts, who was standing beside him, and who was as slender and thin as Harrison was vigorous and portly, — and remarked to him with a pleasant smile, "When the hangingscene comes I shall have the advantage over you, for it will be all over with me in a minute, but you will be kicking in the air half an hour after I am gone."

Mr. Harrison remained in Congress until 1778, and continued to exert all his powers and influence in behalf of the cause of his struggling country.

AVILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 27

At the end of that time he withdrew from Congress, but not from the cause he had so ardently espoused and so zealously defended. Soon after, he was elected a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia, and speaker of that body. He continued to discharge the duties of this new and responsible position until 1782. On the resignation of Governor Nelson, in that year, he was elected Governor of Virginia, and was re-elected until the constitution rendered him ineligible, all the time exerting his whole personal as well as political influence to further the independence of the United States. In 1791 he was again unanimously elected to the Legislature, but suddenly died the next day, at the age of sixty-five years, universally known and universally regretted by those for whom he had aided to establish a free country.

Such is a brief sketch of the father of William Henry Harrison, the subject of this biography. Springing from such patriot-stock, reared amid such scenes as he must have been familiar with, and seeing the example of such patriots as must have been his father's companions and associates, he must have been much less susceptible to good impressions than most other young Americans of that period, not to have imbibed much of that spirit of freedom and love of liberty that was diffused throughout all classes and conditions. But young Harrison was no such dull student, nor such unconcerned spectator, young as he was at the close of the revolutionary struggle, of the great events of those stirring times. It was from such men and such events that he received those principles of truth and justice, and that patriotic devotion to his country which so distinguished his after-life. Here was laid deep the foundation upon which was built the superstructure of greatness which he finally attained.

Notwithstanding Mr. Harrison left an ample fortune, it was still insufficient to render all his sons independent of their own mental resources. Devoting so much of his time and means to the service of the people, he knew that his fortune had become too much shattered to place them above the necessity of relying upon their own talents and energies, and therefore wisely resolved to leave them a richer inheritance than gold and lands — sound morals, correct principles, and a good education. With this determination in view, the education of young Harrison was committed to the care of Robert Morris«i, his guardian, and one of the most illustrious patriots of the revolution ; and at an early age he was placed under the best teachers in the colony — as his brothers had previously been — when he made such rapid progress, and gave such evidence of talent, as to afford his friends the most gratifying assurances of future distinction.