William Henry Harrison in 1841
Electoral Brawlage, #9
“Electoral Brawlage” examines the first inaugural address of each president in U.S. history, with some commentary and analysis. This is the ninth installment. Check back on Mondays for more.
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“Oh yeah, tough guy?”
William Henry Harrison was the ninth president of the United States, defeating Martin Van Buren’s hopes of a second term in the 1840 election. Harrison would then go on to generate two records that still stand to this day: his inaugural address is the longest in history (8400+ words), and his time in office is the shortest (31 days).
How did this happen? Well, if you ever heard a story about a president who gave a speech in the cold rain just to prove how tough he was, then died shortly thereafter of pneumonia, this is that guy. He was 68 years old and wouldn’t put a jacket on while he read the longest inaugural address ever.
As such, his accomplishments as executive are…basically nonexistent. But based on this speech we can have an idea of his values and governing philosophies.
—Limit executive overreach, because separation of powers is very important.
—States’ rights were good, Congress was more good, the executive shouldn’t act the monarch and give orders.
—He warned against excessive partisanship (spoiler alert, we didn’t listen)
—He reaffirmed religious liberty and individual sovereignty, with other rights of the people.
—He would only serve one term (this was a trend for a while).
And my personal favorite:
I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time.
We’ll prosper as a nation when we get back to these norms on the national level and as a matter of course. America is a Christian nation with religious liberty, not an economic market where Christianity ought to be banned under the auspices of that same liberty.
William Henry Harrison may have been too stubborn to throw on an extra layer of clothing, but he was right about that.
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