Benjamin Harrison

Grandson of President William Henry Harrison; graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1852; studied law in Cincinnati; moved to Indianapolis in 1854; admitted to the bar and practiced; reporter of the decisions of the supreme court of the State; served in the Union Army during the Civil War; brevetted brigadier general and mustered out in 1865; while in the field in October 1864 was reelected reporter of the State supreme court and served four years; unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1876; appointed a member of the Mississippi River Commission in 1879; elected as a Republican to the Senate (served 4 Mar 1881 - 3 Mar 1887); chairman, Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (47th Congress), Committee on Territories (48th and 49th Congresses); elected President of the United States in 1888; administration was marked by an innovative foreign policy and expanding U.S. influence abroad; Inter-American Conference in Washington, D.C. (1889-1890); resisted pressure from Germany and Great Britain to abandon U.S. interests in the Samoan Islands (1889); McKinley Tariff Act (1890) raised duties on most imports; Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) outlawed business combinations in restraint of trade; Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) increased the amount of money in circulation; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1892; attorney for the United States of Venezuela in the boundary dispute between Venezuela and Great Britain in 1900.