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By Joseph Gray Kitchell, 1879. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
Institution |
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Twenty-third President, 1889-1893
Grandson of President William Henry Harrison and great-grandson of
a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Harrison was
a colonel in the Civil War and a Senator from Indiana prior to becoming
president. A gifted public speaker, Harrison was so cold on a personal
level--obsessed with germs, he wore gloves when shaking hands--that
he was nicknamed the "Human Iceberg." During Harrison's administration,
six states were admitted to the Union. He approved the Dependent Pension
Act establishing funds for disabled Civil War veterans that Grover
Cleveland had vetoed, set aside large appropriations for rivers and
harbors, laid the groundwork for trade agreements with Latin America,
and saw Congress pass the Sherman Silver Bill of 1890. The bill committed
the U.S. Treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver per month which
triggered the Panic of 1893--just in time for Grover Cleveland's second
administration. |
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