Benjamin Harrison, Patriot and Partisan

Abstract

AbstractBenjamin Harrison was, by most measures, supremely equipped to deliver a booming economy. He was college educated and, for his time, exceedingly well-versed in political economy. He was also a devoted public servant, with decades of leadership experience and considerable background in public policy and legislative affairs. In fact, Harrison was one of the most competent administrators ever to enter the White House. He mastered every major aspect of domestic and foreign policy, even running several federal departments himself. In politics, he was a formidable campaigner and a paragon of decency in an indecent era. He was also a keen strategist who understood issue framing, campaigning, and political messaging. He was reportedly an amazing public speaker. And, unlike most executives of the Gilded Age, he had a positive vision for the presidency, the federal government, and what both could do for the American economy. Working with Harrison, Congress passed more major legislation than it had in twenty years. However, instead of prosperity, Harrison created the conditions for a devastating financial crisis and a deep recession. For Harrison had few consistent policy preferences; rather, he tended to support whatever policies were necessary to unify the Republican Party or to reward Union army veterans. The result was a haphazard mixture of fiscal, trade, and monetary policies that spiked deficits and scared investors. Conditions then gradually snowballed into a financial panic and the Great Depression of 1893–1897 that commenced soon after he left office.