William Henry Harrison: The Shortest U.S. Presidency Ever

When William Henry Harrison was sworn in as the 9th U.S. president on a cold, wet March 4, 1841, no one suspected that only 31 days later, President Harrison would die from pneumonia and pleurisy, on April 4, 1841.

Despite historical lore, Harrison did not contract pneumonia from not wearing a coat or hat during his inaugural address. He was ill only 9 days before he passed away.

Harrison's record of the shortest term in office is only one of several notable facts about his brief presidency and lengthy political career:

• Harrison, at age 68, was the oldest person to be sworn in as president--until Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980.
• He was the first president to die in office.
• Born on Feb. 9, 1773, Harrison was also the last president to be born before the Declaration of Independence was written.
• He was the first non-voting U.S. Congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory (1799-1800).
• Later, Harrison was the first governor of the Indiana Territory (1801-1812).
• After serving in the Ohio state senate (1819-1821), Harrison represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate (1825-1828) and ultimately became the first Ohioan elected president.
• Harrison's first, unsuccessful campaign for office in 1836 was the first and only time that a political party purposefully ran more than one candidate for president.
• Harrison's inaugural address was, and still is, the longest ever given, clocking in at nearly two hours.
• When his grandson Benjamin became president, William Henry Harrison became the only president to also be the grandfather of a president.

To eventually have the dubious honor of Shortest Presidential Term, Harrison first had to be elected. His initial run for president came in 1836, when the Whig party decided to try to prevent Democrat Martin Van Buren from winning by running regional candidates. This dubious idea was to prevent Van Buren from obtaining the necessary number of electoral college votes and force the election to the House of Representatives, which the Whigs hoped to control after the general election.

Harrison was the Whig nomination for most states, while Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Hugh White were the Whig candidates in Kentucky, Delaware, Massachusetts and Maryland. Van Buren won, despite the plan, and the Whig party only succeeded sending the vote for Vice President to the Senate. Finally, because the Whigs did not take control of the House that year, their grand scheme would have failed in the end had they managed to send the election to the House. (Michael Sheppard, MIT, www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html#1836).

In 1840, Harrison was back. This time as the lone Whig candidate and again facing Van Buren. Harrison based his campaign on the weak economy and on his heroic military record, which included the Battle of Tippecanoe.

This 1811 battle took place as Harrison led 1,000 troops north through Indiana Territory in order to create a show of force and convince Tecumseh and the Shawnees to commit to peace as the U.S. prepared for imminent attack by Great Britain. At the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers north of what is now Lafayette, Indiana, the Shawnees launched a surprise attack. Harrison's men rallied and defeated the Native Americans at Prophetstown. The battle became famous throughout the country. Harrison was considered a hero and was nicknamed Old Tippecanoe. (Langguth, "Union 1812", 2006, Simon & Schuster).

"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" became one of the most memorable presidential campaign slogans in history. Tyler, of course, referring to his running mate, John Tyler. To further his appeal and connect with the "everyday" man, Harrison's campaign also made use of  log cabin and hard cider imagery and handed out log cabin-shaped bottles of cider at campaign events. (Carnes, "The Routledge Historic Atlas of Presidential Campaigns," 2001, Routledge)

This time, Harrison easily won the electoral college and the popular vote. 

Like many U.S. presidents, Harrison entered office in the middle of a financial crisis. The Panic of 1837 had left the U.S. economy severely weakened. Harrison's one of his only official acts as President was to call a special session of Congress in order to address the fact that federal funds were so limited that, according to the Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing, the government could not continue to operate all the way to December when Congress was next scheduled to meet. (Brinkley et al, "The American Presidency," 2004, Houghton Mifflin)

Trying to "reach across the aisle," Harrison angered fellow Clay and other Whigs when he refused to remove all Democrats from all appointed offices and replace them with patronage appointments.

Had the White House been as secure and closed--and the President as physically removed from the population--as now, there is a chance that Harrison may have been able to recover from the pneumonia. But as hounded as presidents were--waking to lines of office seekers and everyday working people stopping by to pay respects--Harrison was unable to find the time or quiet his body needed to fight his cold. 

Harrison's death was the first time that a president died while in office--and thus the first use of the Constitution's succession clause. Of course, as with many "firsts", this transition didn't go as smoothly as one would have thought, partly because the Constitution seemed to contradict itself as to whether or not the Vice President assumes the office of president or only takes on the duties of president along with his vice-presidential duties.

Article II, Section 1:

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President … until the disability be removed, or a President elected.

Article I, Section 3:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall  exercise the office of President of the United States.

Vice President John Tyler considered himself the new president and took the presidential oath of office. However, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, members of the Congress, Harrison and Tyler's own Whig party leaders and members of their own cabinet believed that Tyler was only the acting president. According to "John Tyler: The Accidental President" (Crapol, 2006, UNC Press), Tyler insisted he held the office and returned all mail addressed to Acting President of the United States. Because of his persistence, the Senate voted on the matter, accepting Tyler's use of the term "President." ("Accidental Presidents," Abbott, Presidential Studies Quarterly: Dec. 2005). This set precedent for subsequent successions and was eventually clarified by the 25th Amendment. 

Like many politicians and military personnel, Harrison moved around a lot during his adult life. The house selected as the "official" Harrison home is located in Vincennes, Indiana, where Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory. Built by Harrison in 1803 in the Virginia Plantation style of his childhood home in Viriginia, Grouseland served as Harrison's home and territory headquarters. Although Grouseland remained in the family until 1848, Harrison's wife, Anny Symmes, and their children only lived in the house until the beginning of the War of 1812, at which point they returned to the family's original farm in North Bend, Ohio. In 1901, a local DAR chapter acquired the run-down Grouseland, restored it and opened it to the public. Many furnishings are actually from the Harrison family. (grouselandfoundation.org)

Despite his busy schedule, Harrison and Anna had 10 children, nine of whom survived into adulthood. After her husband's death, Anna lived with her son John and helped raise his children, one of whom, Benjamin, also became president. Anna lived to the age of 88.

Harrison is buried in North Bend, Ohio, which is near Cincinnati. His wife and other family members are also buried with him.