A Presidential Rarity: An Autograph of William Henry Harrison Signed During His One-Month Presidency

The Jacksonian era was one of adversity for Harrison, the military hero who had been a supporter of Henry Clay and former President John Quincy Adams, and opposed President Andrew Jackson. Having aspirations for the presidency, he promoted his candidacy by touring the country during 1835-6. This was the first time a person had campaigned for president himself, rather than through his friends. Anniversary celebrations of the battles of Tippecanoe and the Thames glorified his military career, friendly editors publicized his political availability, and local Whig conventions in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, and Indiana pledged their support.

The Whig Party was formed in 1833 in opposition to the policies of President Jackson and the Democratic Party, and was composed of supporters of Clay, Adams, Webster, and others who favored favored a strong national government and a program of modernization and economic protectionism. It absorbed the old National Republican Party and even brought in some anti-Jackson southerners like John Tyler. In 1836, the Whigs had not yet coalesced as a party and could not agree on a standard bearer. So Whig state conventions nominated a number of persons for president. These included Daniel Webster, Sen. Hugh L. White, and Harrison. President Jackson’s hand-picked successor, Martin van Buren, won the election, with the disorganized Whig candidates splitting the anti-Democratic vote. Of these, Harrison performed the best, picking up 73 electoral votes.

The Whigs were determined not to repeat their mistake of 1836, and for the 1840 election planned a national convention in December 1839 to select a single nominee, As 1839 dawned, Harrison was again in campaign mode, lining up support and maneuvering to be that nominee. This time his main opponent would be Henry Clay, the foremost Whig in the nation. One of Harrison’s allies was prominent Pennsylvania Whig Charles Macalester, a partner in the banking firm of Gaw, Macalester and Company, director of the Second Bank of the United States, and an active philanthropist who donated the land in Minneapolis on which Macalester College is situated.

At the national Whig convention in Harrisburg on December 4, the delegates rejected their acknowledged leaders, Webster and Henry Clay, and nominated Harrison. In Harrison the Whigs believed they had found a new Jackson attractive as a war hero and a frontiersman. No platform was adopted, and advisers told Harrison to keep his lips “hermetically sealed” on the issues of slavery, the tariff, and the U. S. Bank. To gain support in the South, the Whigs nominated John Tyler, a former senator from Virginia, for the vice presidency. Northern and Southern Whigs were urged to rally behind “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too.” This was the famous Log Cabin Campaign, the first modern presidential campaign, and it brought victory to the Whigs.

Strong campaigning by the Whigs led to an overwhelming victory for Harrison. With the highest voter turnout to date, Harrison won 234 electoral votes to Van Buren’s 60. He was the oldest man, at age 67, ever elected president up to that time. Harrison allowed Secretary of State-designate Daniel Webster to edit his inauguration speech, but he nevertheless spoke for an hour and 45 minutes, setting a record that still stands. As the public was not excluded from the White House, there was no relief from the swarms of office seekers even after March 4, and relations with Clay broke down to such an extent President Harrison banned him from the White House. Clay left town, never to see the President again. Harrison delivered his inaugural address, which lasted nearly two hours, in a cold drizzle, wearing no gloves or overcoat. He contracted a cold that later developed into pneumonia, and, after one month’s service, on April 4, 1841, he became the first president to die in office. Thus were the Whig hopes dashed.

Being ill for weeks after the inauguration, and then dying April 4, Harrison had very little time to sign letters and documents. The ones he did sign are great rarities.

Partial document signed by Harrison as President and Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, Washington, likely March 1841. Being signed also by Webster, the document could have been a diplomatic appointment. This is the only signature of Harrison as President that we have ever had.