[1] For this building the legislature in 1901 appropriated
$4,000,000, stipulating that it should be completed before the 1st of
January 1907. It was completed by that time, the net expenditure of
the building commission being about $3,970,000. Although the
legislature had made no provision for furniture and decoration, the
state Board of Public Grounds and Buildings (governor,
auditor-general and treasurer) undertook to complete the furnishing
and decoration of the building within the stipulated time, and paid
out for that purpose more than $8,600,000. In May 1906 a new
treasurer entered office, who discovered that many items for
furniture and decoration were charged twice, once at a normal and
again at a remarkably high figure. In 1907 the legislature appointed
a committee to investigate the charge of fraud. The committee's
decision was that the Board of Grounds and Buildings was not
authorized to let the decorating and furnishing of the state house;
that it had illegally authorized certain expenditures; and that
architect and contractors had made fraudulent invoices and
certificates. Various indictments were found: in the first trial for
conspiracy in the making and delivering of furniture the contractor
and the former auditor-general, state treasurer and superintendent of
public grounds and buildings were convicted and in December 1908 were
sentenced to two years' imprisonment and fined $500 each; in 1910 a
suit was brought for the recovery of about $5,000,000 from those
responsible.
HARRISMITH, a town in the Orange Free State, 60 m. N.W. by rail of
Ladysmith, Natal, and 240 m. N.E. of Bloemfontein via Bethlehem. Pop.
(1904) 8300 (including troops 1921). It is built on the banks of the
Wilge, 5250 ft. above the sea and some 20 m. W. of the Drakensberg.
Three miles N. is the Platberg, a table-shaped mountain rising 2000 ft.
above the town, whence an excellent supply of water is derived. The town
is well laid out and several of the streets are lined with trees. Most
of the houses are built of white stone quarried in the neighbourhood.
The Kaffirs, who numbered in 1904 3483, live in a separate location.
Harrismith has a dry, bracing climate and enjoys a high reputation in
South Africa as a health resort. It serves one of the best-watered and
most fertile agricultural and pastoral districts of the province, of
which it is the chief eastern trading centre. Wool and hides are the
principal exports.
Harrismith was founded in 1849, the site first chosen being on the
Elands river, where the small town of Aberfeldig now is; but the
advantages of the present site soon became apparent and the settlement
was removed. The founders were Sir Harry Smith (after whom the town is
named), then governor of Cape Colony, and Major Henry D. Warden, at
that time British resident at Bloemfontein, whose name is perpetuated in
that of the principal street. In a cave about 2 m. from the town are
well-preserved Bushman paintings.
HARRISON, BENJAMIN (1833-1901), the twenty-third president of the United
States, was born at North Bend, near Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 20th of
August 1833. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison of Virginia (c.
1740-1791), was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His
grandfather, William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), was ninth president of
the United States. His father, John Scott Harrison (1804-1878),
represented his district in the national House of Representatives in
1853-1857. Benjamin's youth was passed upon the ancestral farm, and as
opportunity afforded he attended school in the log school-house near his
home. He was prepared for college by a private tutor, studied for two
years at the Farmers' College, near Cincinnati, and in 1852 graduated
from Miami University, at that time the leading educational institution
in the State of Ohio. From his youth he was diligent in his studies and
a great reader, and during his college life showed a marked talent for
extemporaneous speaking. He pursued the study of law, partly in the
office of Bellamy Storer (1798-1875), a leading lawyer and judge of
Cincinnati, and in 1853 he was admitted to the bar. At the age of
twenty-one he removed to Indianapolis. He had but one acquaintance in
the place, the clerk of the federal court, who permitted him to occupy a
desk in his office and place at the door his sign as a lawyer. Waiting
for professional business, he was content to act as court crier for two
dollars and a half a day; but he soon gave indications of his talent,
and his studious habits and attention to his cases rapidly brought him
clients. Within a few years he took rank among the leading members of
the profession at a bar which included some of the ablest lawyers of the
country. His legal career was early interrupted by the Civil War. His
whole heart was enlisted in the anti-slavery cause, and during the
second year of the war he accepted a commission from the governor of the
state as second-lieutenant and speedily raised a regiment. He became its
colonel, and as such continued in the Union Army until the close of the
war, and on the 23rd of January 1865 was breveted a brigadier-general of
volunteers for "ability and manifest energy and gallantry in command of
brigade." He participated with his regiment in various engagements
during General Don Carlos Buell's campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee in
1862 and 1863; took part in General W. T. Sherman's march on Atlanta in
1864 and in the Nashville campaign of the same year; and was transferred
early in 1865 to Sherman's army in its march through the Carolinas. As
the commander of a brigade he served with particular distinction in the
battles of Kenesaw Mountain (June 29-July 3, 1864), Peach Tree Creek
(20th of July 1864) and Nashville (15th-16th of December 1864).
Allowing for this interval of military service, he applied himself
exclusively for twenty-four years to his legal work. The only office he
held was that of reporter of the supreme court of Indiana for two terms
(1860-1862 and 1864-1868), and this was strictly in the line of his
profession. He was a devoted member of the Republican party, but not a
politician in the strict sense. Once he became a candidate for governor,
in 1876, but his candidature was a forlorn hope, undertaken from a sense
of duty after the regular nominee had withdrawn. He took a deep interest
in the campaign which resulted in the election of James A. Garfield as
president, and was offered by him a place in his cabinet; but this he
declined, having been elected a member of the United States Senate, in
which he took his seat on the 4th of March 1881. He was chairman of the
committee on territories, and took an active part in urging the
admission as states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Idaho and
Montana, which finally came into the Union during his presidency. He
served also on the committee of military and Indian affairs, the
committee on foreign relations and others, was prominent in the
discussion of matters brought before the Senate from these committees,
advocated the enlargement of the navy and the reform of the civil
service, and opposed the pension veto messages of President Cleveland.
Having failed to secure a re-election to the Senate in 1887, Harrison
was nominated by the Republican party for the presidency in 1888, and
defeated Grover Cleveland, the candidate of the Democratic party,
receiving 233 electoral votes to Cleveland's 168. Among the measures and
events distinguishing his term as president were the following: The
meeting of the Pan-American Congress at Washington; the passage of the
McKinley Tariff Bill and of the Sherman Silver Bill of 1890; the
suppressing of the Louisiana Lottery; the enlargement of the navy;
further advance in civil service reform; the convocation by the United
States of an international monetary conference; the establishment of
commercial reciprocity with many countries of America and Europe; the
peaceful settlement of a controversy with Chile; the negotiation of a
Hawaiian Annexation Treaty, which, however, before its ratification, his
successor withdrew from the Senate; the settlement of difficulties with
Germany concerning the Samoan Islands, and the adjustment by arbitration
with Great Britain of the Bering Sea fur-seal question. His
administration was marked by a revival of American industries and a
reduction of the public debt, and at its conclusion the country was left
in a condition of prosperity and on friendly terms with foreign nations.
He was nominated by his party in 1892 for re-election, but was defeated
by Cleveland, this result being due, at least in part, to the labour
strikes which occurred during the presidential campaign and arrayed the
labour unions against the tariff party.
After leaving public life he resumed the practice of the law, and in
1898 was retained by the government of Venezuela as its leading counsel
in the arbitration of its boundary dispute with Great Britain. In this
capacity he appeared before the international tribunal of arbitration at
Paris in 1899, worthily maintaining the reputation of the American bar.
After the Spanish-American War he strongly disapproved of the colonial
policy of his party, which, however, he continued to support. He
occupied a portion of his leisure in writing a book, entitled _This
Country of Ours_ (1897), treating of the organization and administration
of the government of the United States, and a collection of essays by
him was published posthumously, in 1901, under the title _Views of an
Ex-President_. He died at Indianapolis on the 13th of March 1901.
Harrison's distinguishing trait of character, to which his success is to
be most largely attributed, was his thoroughness. He was somewhat
reserved in manner, and this led to the charge in political circles that
he was cold and unsympathetic; but no one gathered around him more
devoted and loyal friends, and his dignified bearing in and out of
office commanded the hearty respect of his countrymen.
President Harrison was twice married; in 1853 to Miss Caroline Lavinia
Scott, by whom he had a son and a daughter, and in 1896 to Mrs Mary
Scott Lord Dimmock, by whom he had a daughter.
A "campaign" biography was published by Lew Wallace (Philadelphia,
1888), and a sketch of his life may be found in _Presidents of the
United States_ (New York, 1894), edited by James Grant Wilson.
(J. W. Fo.)
HARRISON, FREDERIC (1831- ), English jurist and historian, was born in
London on the 18th of October 1831. Members of his family (originally
Leicestershire yeomen) had been lessees of Sutton Place, Guildford, of
which he wrote an interesting account (_Annals of an Old Manor House_,
1893). He was educated at King's College school and at Wadham College,
Oxford, where, after taking a first-class in _Literae Humaniores_ in
1853, he became fellow and tutor. He was called to the bar in 1858, and,
in addition to his practice in equity cases, soon began to distinguish
himself as an effective contributor to the higher-class reviews. Two
articles in the _Westminster Review_, one on the Italian question, which
procured him the special thanks of Cavour, the other on _Essays and
Reviews_, which had the probably undesigned effect of stimulating the
attack on the book, attracted especial notice. A few years later Mr
Harrison worked at the codification of the law with Lord Westbury, of
whom he contributed an interesting notice to Nash's biography of the
chancellor. His special interest in legislation for the working classes
led him to be placed upon the Trades Union Commission of 1867-1869; he
was secretary to the commission for the digest of the law, 1869-1870;
and was from 1877 to 1889 professor of jurisprudence and international
law under the council of legal education. A follower of the positive
philosophy, but in conflict with Richard Congreve (q.v.) as to details,
he led the Positivists who split off and founded Newton Hall in 1881,
and he was president of the English Positivist Committee from 1880 to
1905; he was also editor and part author of the Positivist _New Calendar
of Great Men_ (1892), and wrote much on Comte and Positivism. Of his
separate publications, the most important are his lives of Cromwell
(1888), William the Silent (1897), Ruskin (1902), and Chatham (1905);
his _Meaning of History_ (1862; enlarged 1894) and _Byzantine History in
the Early Middle Ages_ (1900); and his essays on _Early Victorian
Literature_ (1896) and _The Choice of Books_ (1886) are remarkable alike
for generous admiration and good sense. In 1904 he published a "romantic
monograph" of the 10th century, _Theophano_, and in 1906 a verse
tragedy, _Nicephorus_. An advanced and vehement Radical in politics and
Progressive in municipal affairs, Mr Harrison in 1886 stood
unsuccessfully for parliament against Sir John Lubbock for London
University. In 1889 he was elected an alderman of the London County
Council, but resigned in 1893. In 1870 he married Ethel Berta, daughter
of Mr William Harrison, by whom he had four sons. George Gissing, the
novelist, was at one time their tutor; and in 1905 Mr Harrison wrote a
preface to Gissing's _Veranilda_ (see also Mr Austin Harrison's article
on Gissing in the _Nineteenth Century_, September 1906). As a religious
teacher, literary critic, historian and jurist, Mr Harrison took a
prominent part in the life of his time, and his writings, though often
violently controversial on political and social subjects, and in their
judgment and historical perspective characterized by a modern Radical
point of view, are those of an accomplished scholar, and of one whose
wide knowledge of literature was combined with independence of thought
and admirable vigour of style. In 1907 he published _The Creed of a
Layman, Apologia pro fide mea_, in explanation of his religious
position.
HARRISON, JOHN (1693-1776), English horologist, was the son of a
carpenter, and was born at Faulby, near Pontefract in Yorkshire, in the
year 1693. Thence his father and family removed in 1700 to Barrow in
Lincolnshire. Young Harrison at first learned his father's trade, and
worked at it for several years, at the same time occasionally making a
little money by land-measuring and surveying. The bent of his mind,
however, was towards mechanical pursuits. In 1715 he made a clock with
wooden wheels, which is in the patent museum at South Kensington, and in
1726 he devised his ingenious "gridiron pendulum," which maintains its
length unaltered in spite of variations of temperature (see CLOCK).
Another invention of his was a recoil clock escapement in which friction
was reduced to a minimum, and he was the first to employ the commonly
used and effective form of "going ratchet," which is a spring
arrangement for keeping the timepiece going at its usual rate during the
interval of being wound up.
In Harrison's time the British government had become fully alive to the
necessity of determining more accurately the longitude at sea. For this
purpose they passed an act in 1713 offering rewards of L10,000, L15,000
and L20,000 to any who should construct chronometers that would
determine the longitude within 60, 40 and 30 m. respectively. Harrison
applied himself vigorously to the task, and in 1735 went to the Board of
Longitude with a watch which he also showed to Edmund Halley, George
Graham and others. Through their influence he was allowed to proceed in
a king's ship to Lisbon to test it; and the result was so satisfactory
that he was paid L500 to carry out further improvements. Harrison worked
at the subject with the utmost perseverance, and, after making several
watches, went up to London in 1761 with one which he considered almost
perfect. His son William was sent on a voyage to Jamaica to test it;
and, on his return to Portsmouth in 1762, it was found to have lost
only 1 minute 54(1/2) seconds. This was surprisingly accurate, as it
determined the longitude within 18 m., and Harrison claimed the full
reward of L20,000; but though from time to time he received sums on
account, it was not till 1773 that he was paid in full. In these watches
compensation for changes of temperature was applied for the first time
by means of a "compensation-curb," designed to alter the effective
length of the balance-spring in proportion to the expansion or
contraction caused by variations of temperature. Harrison died in London
on the 24th of March 1776. His want of early education was felt by him
greatly throughout life. He was unfortunately never able to express his
ideas clearly in writing, although in conversation he could give a very
precise and exact account of his many intricate mechanical contrivances.
Among his writings were a _Description concerning such Mechanism as
will afford a Nice or True Mensuration of Time_ (1775), and _The
Principles of Mr Harrison's Timekeeper_, published by order of the
Commissioners of Longitude (1767).
HARRISON, THOMAS (1606-1660), English parliamentarian, a native of
Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, the son of a butcher and mayor of
that town, was baptized in 1606. He was placed with an attorney of
Clifford's Inn, but at the beginning of the war in 1642 he enlisted in
Essex's lifeguards, became major in Fleetwood's regiment of horse under
the earl of Manchester, was present at Marston Moor, at Naseby, Langport
and at the taking of Winchester and Basing, as well as at the siege of
Oxford. At Basing Harrison was accused of having killed a prisoner in
cold blood. In 1646 he was returned to parliament for Wendover, and
served in Ireland in 1647 under Lord Lisle, returning to England in May,
when he took the side of the army in the dispute with the parliament and
obtained from Fairfax a regiment of horse. In November he opposed the
negotiations with the king, whom he styled "a man of blood" to be called
to account, and he declaimed against the House of Lords. At the surprise
of Lambert's quarters at Appleby on the 18th of July 1648, in the second
civil war, he distinguished himself by his extraordinary daring and was
severely wounded. He showed a special zeal in bringing about the trial
of the king. Charles was entrusted to his care on being brought up from
Hurst Castle to London, and believed that Harrison intended his
assassination, but was at once favourably impressed by bis bearing and
reassured by his disclaiming any such design. Harrison was assiduous in
his attendance at the trial, and signed the death-warrant with the
fullest conviction that it was his duty. He took part in suppressing the
royalist rising in the midlands in May 1649, and in July was appointed
to the chief command in South Wales, where he is said to have exercised
his powers with exceptional severity. On the 20th of February 1651 he
became a member of the council of state, and during Cromwell's absence
in Scotland held the supreme military command in England. He failed in
stopping the march of the royalists into England at Knutsford on the
16th of August 1651, but after the battle of Worcester he rendered great
service in pursuing and capturing the fugitives. Later he pressed on
Cromwell the necessity of dismissing the Long Parliament, and it was he
who at Cromwell's bidding, on the 20th of April 1653, laid hands on
Speaker Lenthall and compelled him to vacate the chair. He was president
of the council of thirteen which now exercised authority, and his idea
of government appears to have been an assembly nominated by the
congregations, on a strictly religious basis, such as Barebone's
Parliament which now assembled, of which he was a member and a ruling
spirit. Harrison belonged to the faction of Fifth Monarchy men, whose
political ideals were entirely destroyed by Cromwell's assumption of the
protectorate. He went immediately into violent opposition, was deprived
of his commission on the 22nd of December 1653, and on the 3rd of
February 1654 was ordered to confine himself to his father's house in
Staffordshire. Suspected of complicity in the plots of the anabaptists,
he was imprisoned for a short time in September, and on that occasion
was sent for by Cromwell, who endeavoured in a friendly manner to
persuade him to desist. He, however, incurred the suspicions of the
administration afresh, and on the 15th of February 1655 he was
imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle, being liberated in March 1656 when he
took up his residence at Highgate with his family. In April 1657 he was
arrested for supposed complicity in Venner's conspiracy, and again once
more in February 1658, when he was imprisoned in the Tower. At the
Restoration, Harrison, who was excepted from the Act of Indemnity,
refused to take any steps to save his life, to give any undertaking not
to conspire against the government or to flee. "Being so clear in the
thing," he declared, "I durst not turn my back nor step a foot out of
the way by reason I had been engaged in the service of so glorious and
great a God." He was arrested in Staffordshire in May 1660 and brought
to trial on the 11th of October. He made a manly and straightforward
defence, pleading the authority of parliament and adding, "May be I
might be a little mistaken, but I did it all according to the best of my
understanding, desiring to make the revealed will of God in His holy
scriptures a guide to me." At his execution, which took place at Charing
Cross on the 13th of October 1660, he behaved with great fortitude.
Richard Baxter, who was acquainted with him, describes Harrison as "a
man of excellent natural parts for affection and oratory, but not well
seen in the principles of his religion of a sanguine complexion,
naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity and alacrity as another man hath
when he hath drunken a cup too much, but naturally also so far from
humble thoughts of himself that it was his ruin." Cromwell also
complained of his excessive eagerness. "Harrison is an honest man and
aims at good things, yet from the impatience of his spirit will not wait
the Lord's leisure but hurries me on to that which he and all honest men
will have cause to repent." Harrison was an eloquent and fluent
expounder of the scriptures, and his "raptures" on the field of victory
are recorded by Baxter. He was of the chief of those "fiery spirits"
whose ardent and emotional religion inspired their political action, and
who did wonders during the period of struggle and combat, but who later,
in the more sober and difficult sphere of constructive statesmanship,
showed themselves perfectly incapable.
Harrison married about 1648 Katherine, daughter and heiress of Ralph
Harrison of Highgate in Middlesex, by whom he had several children, all
of whom, however, appear to have died in infancy.
See the article on Harrison by C. H. Firth in the _Dict. of Nat.
Biog.; Life of Harrison_ by C. H. Simpkinson (1905); _Notes and
Queries_, 9 series, xi. 211.
HARRISON, THOMAS ALEXANDER (1853- ), American artist, was born in
Philadelphia on the 17th of January 1853. He was a pupil of the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
Paris, whither he went in 1878, having previously been with a United
States government survey expedition on the Pacific coast. Chafing under
the restraints of the schools, he went into Brittany, and at Pont Aven
and Concarneau turned his attention to marine painting and landscape. In
1882 he sent a figure-piece to the Salon, a fisher boy on the beach,
which he called "Chateaux en Espagne." This attracted attention, and in
1885 he received an honourable mention, the first of many awards
conferred upon him, including the Temple gold medal (Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1887), first medal, Paris Exhibition
(1889), and medals in Munich, Brussels, Ghent, Vienna and elsewhere. He
became a member of the Legion of Honour and _officier_ of Public
Instruction, Paris; a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts,
Paris; of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, London; of the
Secession societies of Munich, Vienna and Berlin; of the National
Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, New York, and other
art bodies. In the Salon of 1885 he had a large canvas of several nude
women, called "In Arcady," a remarkable study of flesh tones in light
and shade which had a strong influence on the younger men of the day.
But his reputation rests rather on his marine pictures, long waves
rolling in on the beach, and great stretches of open sea under poetic
conditions of light and colour.
His brother, BIRGE HARRISON (1854- ), also a painter, particularly
successful in snow scenes, was a pupil of the Ecole des Beaux Arts,
Paris, under Cabanel and Carolus Duran; his "November" (honourable
mention, 1882) was purchased by the French government. Another brother,
BUTLER HARRISON (d. 1886), was a figure painter.
HARRISON, WILLIAM (1534-1593), English topographer and antiquary, was
born in London on the 18th of April 1534. He was educated, according to
his own account, at St Paul's school and at Westminster under Alexander
Nowell. In 1551 he was at Cambridge, but he took his B.A. degree from
Christ Church, Oxford, in 1560. He was inducted early in 1559 to the
rectory of Radwinter, Essex, on the presentation of Sir William Brooke,
Lord Cobham, to whom he had formerly acted as chaplain; and from 1571 to
1581 he held from another patron, Francis de la Wood, the living of
Wimbish in the same county. He became canon of Windsor in 1586, and his
death and burial are noted in the chapter book of St George's chapel on
the 24th of April 1593.
His famous and amusing _Description of England_ was undertaken for the
queen's printer, Reginald Wolfe, who designed the publication of "an
universall cosmographie of the whole world ... with particular histories
of every knowne nation." After Wolfe's death in 1576 this comprehensive
plan was reduced to descriptions and histories of England, Scotland and
Ireland. The historical section was to be supplied by Raphael Holinshed,
the topographical by Harrison. The work was eventually published as _The
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland ..._ by Raphael Holinshed
and others, and was printed in two black-letter folio volumes in 1577.
Harrison's _Description of England_, humbly described as his "foule
frizeled treatise," and dedicated to his patron Cobham, is an invaluable
survey of the condition of England under Elizabeth, in all its
political, religious and social aspects. Harrison is a minute and
careful observer of men and things, and his descriptions are enlivened
with many examples of a lively and caustic humour which makes the book
excellent reading. In spite of his Puritan prejudices, which lead him to
regret that the churches had not been cleared of their "pictures in
glass" ("by reason of the extreme cost thereof"), and to exhaust his wit
on the effeminate Italian fashions of the younger generation, he had an
eye for beauty and is loud in his praise of such architectural gems as
Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster. He is properly contemptuous of the
snobbery that was even then characteristic of English society; but his
account of "how gentlemen are made in England" must be read in full to
be appreciated. He is especially instructive on the condition and
services of the Church immediately after the Reformation; notably in the
fact that, though an ardent Protestant, he is quite unconscious of any
breach of continuity in the life and organization of the Church of
England.
Harrison also contributed the translation from Scots into English of
Bellenden's version of Hector Boece's Latin _Description_ of Scotland.
His other works include a "Chronologie," giving an account of events
from the creation to the year 1593, which is of some value for the
period covered by the writer's lifetime. This, with an elaborate
treatise on weights and measures, remains in MS. in the diocesan library
of Londonderry.
For the later editions of the _Chronicles of England ..._ see
HOLINSHED. The second and third books of Harrison's _Description_ were
edited by Dr F. J. Furnivall for the New Shakspere Society, with
extracts from his "Chronologie" and from other contemporary writers,
as _Shakspere's England_ (2 vols., 1877-1878).
HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY (1773-1841), ninth president of the United
States, was born at Berkeley, Charles City county, Virginia, on the 9th
of February 1773, the third son of Benjamin Harrison (c. 1740-1791). His
father was long prominent in Virginia politics, and became a member of
the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1764, opposing Patrick Henry's Stamp
Act resolutions in the following year; he was a member of the
Continental Congress in 1774-1777, signing the Declaration of
Independence and serving for a time as president of the Board of War;
speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1777-1782; governor of
Virginia in 1781-1784; and in 1788 as a member of the Virginia
Convention he actively opposed the ratification of the Federal
Constitution by his state. William Henry Harrison received a classical
education at Hampden-Sidney College, where he was a student in
1787-1790, and began a medical course in Philadelphia, but the death of
his father caused him to discontinue his studies, and in November 1791
he entered the army as ensign in the Tenth Regiment at Fort Washington,
Cincinnati. In the following year he became a lieutenant, and
subsequently acted as aide-de-camp to General Anthony Wayne in the
campaign which ended in the battle of Fallen Timbers on the 10th of
August 1794. He was promoted to a captaincy in 1797 and for a brief
period served as commander of Fort Washington, but resigned from the
army in June 1798. Soon afterwards he succeeded Winthrop Sargent as
secretary of the North-west Territory. In 1799 he was chosen by the
Jeffersonian party of this territory as the delegate of the territory in
Congress. While serving in this capacity he devised a plan for disposing
of the public lands upon favourable terms to actual settlers, and also
assisted in the division of the North-west Territory. It was his
ambition to become governor of the more populous eastern portion, which
retained the original name, but instead, in January 1800, President John
Adams appointed him governor of the newly created Indiana Territory,
which comprised until 1809 a much larger area than the present state of
the same name. (See INDIANA: _History_.) He was not sworn into office
until the 10th of January 1801, and was governor until September 1812.
Among the legislative measures of his administration may be mentioned
the attempted modification of the slavery clause of the ordinance of
1787 by means of an indenture law--a policy which Harrison favoured;
more effective land laws; and legislation for the more equitable
treatment of the Indians and for preventing the sale of liquor to them.
In 1803 Harrison also became a special commissioner to treat with the
Indians "on the subject of boundary or lands," and as such negotiated
various treaties--at Fort Wayne (1803 and 1809), Vincennes (1804 and
1809) and Grouseland (1805)--by which the southern part of the present
state of Indiana and portions of the present states of Illinois,
Wisconsin and Missouri were opened to settlement. For a few months after
the division in 1804 of the Louisiana Purchase into the Orleans
Territory and the Louisiana Territory he also acted as governor of the
Louisiana Territory--all of the Louisiana Purchase N. of the
thirty-third parallel, his jurisdiction then being the greatest in
extent ever exercised by a territorial official in the United States.
The Indian cessions of 1809, along the Wabash river, aroused the
hostility of Tecumseh (q.v.) and his brother, familiarly known as "The
Prophet," who were attempting to combine the tribes between the Ohio and
the Great Lakes in opposition to the encroachment of the whites. Several
fruitless conferences between the governor and the Indian chiefs, who
were believed to be encouraged by the British, resulted in Harrison's
advance with a force of militia and regulars to the Tippecanoe river,
where (near the present Lafayette, Ind.) on the 7th of November 1811 he
won over the Indians a victory which established his military reputation
and was largely responsible for his subsequent nomination and election
to the presidency of the United States. From one point of view the
battle of Tippecanoe may be regarded as the opening skirmish of the war
of 1812. When in the summer of 1812 open hostilities with Great Britain
began, Harrison was appointed by Governor Charles Scott of Kentucky
major-general in the militia of that state. A few weeks later (22nd
August 1812) he was made brigadier-general in the regular U.S. army, and
soon afterwards was put in command of all the troops in the north-west,
and on the 2nd of March 1813 he was promoted to the rank of
major-general. General James Winchester, whom Harrison had ordered to
prepare to cross Lake Erie on the ice and surprise Fort Malden, turned
back to rescue the threatened American settlement at Frenchtown (now
Monroe), on the Raisin river, and there on the 22nd of January 1813 was
forced to surrender to Colonel Henry A. Proctor. Harrison's offensive
operations being thus checked, he accomplished nothing that summer
except to hold in check Proctor, who (May 1-5) besieged him at Fort
Meigs, the American advanced post after the disaster of the river
Raisin. After Lieutenant O. H. Perry's naval victory on the 10th of
September 1813, Harrison no longer had to remain on the defensive; he
advanced to Detroit, re-occupied the territory surrendered by General
William Hull, and on the 5th of October administered a crushing defeat
to Proctor at the battle of the Thames.
In 1814 Harrison received no active assignments to service, and on this
account and because the secretary of war (John Armstrong) issued an
order to one of Harrison's subordinates without consulting him, he
resigned his commission. Armstrong accepted the resignation without
consulting President Madison, but the president later utilized Harrison
in negotiating with the north-western Indians, the greater part of whom
agreed (22nd July 1814) to a second treaty of Greenville, by which they
were to become active allies of the United States, should hostilities
with Great Britain continue. This treaty publicly marked an American
policy of alliance with these Indians and caused the British peace
negotiators at Ghent to abandon them. In the following year Harrison
held another conference at Detroit with these tribes in order to settle
their future territorial relations with the United States.
From 1816 to 1819 Harrison was a representative in Congress, and as such
worked in behalf of more liberal pension laws and a better militia
organization, including a system of general military education, of
improvements in the navigation of the Ohio, and of relief for purchasers
of public lands, and for the strict construction of the power of
Congress over the Territories, particularly in regard to slavery. In
accordance with this view in 1819 he voted against Tallmadge's amendment
(restricting the extension of slavery) to the enabling act for the
admission of Missouri. He also delivered forcible speeches upon the
death of Kosciusko and upon General Andrew Jackson's course in the
Floridas, favouring a partial censure of the latter.
Harrison was a member of the Ohio senate in 1819-1821, and was an
unsuccessful candidate for the National House of Representatives in
1822, when his Missouri vote helped to cause his defeat; he was a
presidential elector in 1824, supporting Henry Clay, and from 1825 to
1828 was a member of the United States Senate. In 1828 after
unsuccessful efforts to secure for him the command of the army, upon the
death of Major-General Jacob Brown, and the nomination for the
vice-president, on the ticket with John Quincy Adams, his friends
succeeded in getting Harrison appointed as the first minister of the
United States to Colombia. He became, however, an early sacrifice to
Jackson's spoils system, being recalled within less than a year, but not
until he had involved himself in some awkward diplomatic complications
with Bolivar's autocratic government.
For some years after his return from Colombia he lived in retirement at
North Bend, Ohio. He was occasionally "mentioned" for governor, senator
or representative, by the anti-Jackson forces, and delivered a few
addresses on agricultural or political topics. Later he became clerk of
the court of common pleas of Hamilton county--a lucrative position that
was then most acceptable to him. Early in 1835 Harrison began to be
mentioned as a suitable presidential candidate, and later in the year he
was nominated for the presidency at large public meetings in
Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. In the election of the following
year he attracted a large part of the Whig and Anti-Masonic vote of the
Middle and Western states and led among the candidates opposing Van
Buren, but received only 73 electoral votes while Van Buren received
170. His unexpected strength, due largely to his clear, if
non-committal, political record, rendered him the most "available"
candidate for the Whig party for the campaign of 1840, and he was
nominated by the Whig convention at Harrisburg, Pa., in December 1839,
his most formidable opponent being Henry Clay, who, though generally
regarded as the real leader of his party, was less "available" because
as a mason he would alienate former members of the old Anti-Masonic
party, and as an advocate of a protective tariff would repel many
Southern voters. The convention adjourned without adopting any
"platform" of principles, the party shrewdly deciding to make its
campaign merely on the issue of whether the Van Buren administration
should be continued in power and thus to take full advantage of the
popular discontent with the administration, to which was attributed the
responsibility for the panic of 1837 and the subsequent business
depression. Largely to attract the votes of Democratic malcontents the
Whig convention nominated for the vice-presidency John Tyler, who had
previously been identified with the Democratic party. The campaign was
marked by the extraordinary enthusiasm exhibited by the Whigs, and by
their skill in attacking Van Buren without binding themselves to any
definite policy. Because of his fame as a frontier hero, of the
circumstance that a part of his home at North Bend, Ohio, had formerly
been a log cabin, and of the story that cider, not wine, was served on
his table, Harrison was derisively called by bis opponents the "log
cabin and hard cider" candidate; the term was eagerly accepted by the
Whigs, in whose processions miniature log cabins were carried and at
whose meetings hard cider was served, and the campaign itself has become
known in history as the "log cabin and hard cider campaign." Harrison's
canvass was conspicuous for the immense Whig processions and mass
meetings, the numerous "stump" speeches (Harrison himself addressing
meetings at Dayton, Chillicothe, Columbus and other places), and the use
of campaign songs, of party insignia, and of campaign cries (such as
"Tippecanoe and Tyler too"); and in the election he won by an
overwhelming majority of 234 electoral votes to 60 cast for Van Buren.
President Harrison was inaugurated on the 4th of March 1841. He chose
for his cabinet Daniel Webster as secretary of state, Thomas Ewing as
secretary of the treasury, John Bell as secretary of war, George E.
Badger as secretary of the navy, Francis Granger as postmaster-general,
and John J. Crittenden as attorney-general. He survived his inauguration
only one month, dying on the 4th of April 1841, and being succeeded by
the vice-president, John Tyler. The immediate cause of his death was an
attack of pneumonia, but the disease was aggravated by the excitement
attending his sudden change in circumstances and the incessant demands
of office seekers. After temporary interment at Washington, his body was
removed to the tomb at North Bend, Ohio, where it now lies. A few of
Harrison's public addresses survive, the most notable being _A Discourse
on the Aborigines of the Ohio_. It has been said of him: "He was not a
great man, but he had lived in a great time, and he had been a leader in
great things." He was the first territorial delegate in the Congress of
the United States and was the author of the first step in the
development of the country's later homestead policy; the first
presidential candidate to be selected upon the ground of "expediency"
alone; and the first president to die in office. In 1795 he married Anna
Symmes (1775-1864), daughter of John Cleves Symmes. Their grandson,
Benjamin Harrison, was the twenty-third president of the United States.
AUTHORITIES.--In 1824 Moses Dawson published at Cincinnati the
_Historical Narrative of the Civil and Military Services of
Major-General William H. Harrison_. This is a combined defence and
political pamphlet, but it is the source of all the subsequent "lives"
that have appeared. There are several "campaign" biographies,
including one by Richard Hildreth (1839) and one by Caleb Cushing
(1840); and there is a good sketch in _Presidents of the United
States_ (New York, 1894), edited by J. G. Wilson. An excellent study
of Harrison's career in Indiana appears in vol. 4 of the _Indiana
Historical Society Publications_. Selections from his scanty
correspondence appear in vols. ii. and iii. of the _Quarterly
Publications_ of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio.
HARRISON, a town of Hudson county, New Jersey, U.S.A., on the Passaic
river, opposite Newark (with which it is connected by bridges and
electric railways), and 7 m. W. of Jersey City. Pop. (1890) 8338; (1900)
10,596, of whom 3633 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 14,498. It is
served by the Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the Delaware, Lackawanna &
Western railways. Harrison was chosen as the eastern terminal of the
Pennsylvania railroad for steam locomotive service, transportation
thence to New York being by electric power through the railway's Hudson
river tunnels. The town has an extensive river-front, along which are
many of its manufactories; among their products are steam-pumps, steel,
iron, machinery, roller bearings, brass tubing, iron and brass
castings, marine engines, hoisting engines, metal novelties, dry
batteries, electric lamps, concrete blocks, cotton thread, wire cloth,
leather, trunks, beer, barrels, lumber, inks and cutlery. The factory
product in 1905 was valued at $8,408,924. The town is governed by a
mayor and a common council. Harrison was settled toward the close of the
17th century, and for many years constituted the S. portion of the
township of Lodi. In 1840, however, it was set off from Lodi and named
in honour of President William Henry Harrison, and in 1873 it was
incorporated. Harrison originally included what is now the town of
Kearny (q.v.).
HARRODSBURG, a city and the county-seat of Mercer county, Kentucky,
U.S.A., 32 m. S. of Frankfort, on the Southern railway. Pop. (1890)
3230; (1900) 2876, of whom 1150 were negroes; (1910 U.S. census) 3147.
On account of its sulphur springs Harrodsburg became early in the 19th
century a fashionable resort, and continues to attract a considerable
number of visitors. The city is the seat of Harrodsburg Academy,
Beaumont College for women (1894; founded as Daughters' College in
1856); and Wayman College (African M.E.) for negroes. Among its
manufactures are flour, whisky, dressed lumber and ice. About 7 m. E. of
Harrodsburg is Pleasant Hill, or Union Village, a summer resort and the
home, since early in the 19th century, of a Shaker community.
Harrodsburg was founded on the 16th of June 1774 by James Harrod
(1746-1793) and a few followers, and is the oldest permanent settlement
in the state. It was incorporated in 1875. Harrodsburg was formerly the
seat of Bacon College (see LEXINGTON, Kentucky).
HARROGATE, a municipal borough and watering-place in the Ripon
parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 203 m.
N. by W. from London, on the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1891) 16,316;
(1901) 28,423. It is indebted for its rise and importance to its
medicinal springs, and is the principal inland watering-place in the
north of England. It consists of two scattered townships, Low Harrogate
and High Harrogate, which have gradually been connected by a continuous
range of handsome houses and villas. A common called the Stray, of 200
acres, secured by act of parliament from ever being built upon,
stretches in front of the main line of houses, and on this account
Harrogate, notwithstanding its rapid increase, has retained much of its
rural charm. As regards climate a choice is offered between the more
bracing atmosphere of High Harrogate and the sheltered and warm climate
of the low town. The waters are chalybeate, sulphureous and saline, and
some of the springs possess all these qualities to a greater or less
extent. The principal chalybeate springs are the Tewitt well, called by
Dr Bright, who wrote the first account of it, the "English Spa,"
discovered by Captain William Slingsby of Bilton Hall near the close of
the 16th century; the Royal Chalybeate Spa, more commonly known as
John's Well, discovered in 1631 by Dr Stanhope of York; Muspratt's
chalybeate or chloride of iron spring discovered in 1819, but first
properly analysed by Dr Sheridan Muspratt in 1865; and the Starbeck
springs midway between High Harrogate and Knaresborough. The principal
sulphur springs are the old sulphur well in the centre of Low Harrogate,
discovered about the year 1656; the Montpellier springs, the principal
well of which was discovered in 1822, situated in the grounds of the
Crown Hotel and surmounted by a handsome building in the Chinese style,
containing pump-room, baths and reading-room; and the Harlow Car
springs, situated in a wooded glen about a mile west from Low Harrogate.
Near Harlow Car is Harlow observatory, a square tower 100 ft. in height,
standing on elevated ground and commanding a very extensive view. A
saline spring situated in Low Harrogate was discovered in 1783. Some
eighty springs in all have been discovered. The principal bath
establishments are the Victoria Baths (1871) and the Royal Baths (1897).
There are also a handsome kursaal (1903), a grand opera house, numerous
modern churches, and several hospitals and benevolent institutions,
including the Royal Bath hospital. The corporation owns the Stray, and
also the Spa concert rooms and grounds, Harlow Moor, Crescent Gardens,
Royal Bath gardens and other large open spaces, as well as Royal Baths,
Victoria Baths and Starbeck Baths. The mineral springs are vested in the
corporation. The high-lying moorland of the surrounding district is
diversified by picturesque dales; and Harrogate is not far from many
towns and sites of great interest, such as Ripon, Knaresborough and
Fountains Abbey. The town was incorporated in 1884, and the corporation
consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area, 3276 acres.
HARROW,[1] an agricultural implement used for (1) levelling ridges left
by the plough and preparing a smooth surface for the reception of seeds;
(2) covering in seeds after sowing; (3) tearing up and gathering weeds;
(4) disintegrating and levelling the soil of meadows and pastures; (5)
forming a surface tilth by pulverizing the top soil and so conserving
moisture.
The harrow rivals the plough in antiquity. In its simplest form it
consists of the boughs of trees interlaced into a wooden frame, and this
form survives in the "bush-harrow." Another old type, found in the
middle ages and still in use, consists of a wooden framework in which
iron pegs or "tines" are set. This is now generally superseded by the
"zig-zag" harrow patented by Armstrong in 1839, built of iron bars in
which the tines are so arranged that each follows its own track and has
a separate line of action. This harrow is usually made in two or three
sections which fold over one another and are thus easily portable, the
arrangement at the same time giving a flexibility on uneven ground.
Additional flexibility may be imparted to the implement by jointing the
stays of the frame which are in the line of draught. The liability that
the tines may snap off is the chief weakness of this type, and
improvements have consisted chiefly in alterations in their shape and
the method of fixing them to the frame.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Jointed Zig-zag Harrow. (Ransomes, Sims &
Jefferies, Ltd.)]
The other type of harrow most used is the chain harrow, consisting of a
number of square-link chains connected by cross links and attached to a
draught-bar, the whole being kept expanded by stretchers and trailing
weights. It is used for levelling and spreading manure over grass-land,
from which it at the same time tears up moss and coarse herbage. Mention
may also be made of the drag-harrow, a heavy implement with long tines,
approximating closely to the cultivator, and of the Norwegian harrow
with its revolving rows of spikes.
A few variations and developments of the ordinary harrow require
notice. In the adjustable harrow (fig. 2) the teeth are secured to
bars pivoted at their ends in the side bars of the frame, and provided
with crank arms connected to a common link bar, which may be moved
horizontally by means of a lever for the purpose of adjusting the
angle which the teeth make with the ground, and thus convert the
machine from a pulverizer to a smoothing harrow. The small figure
illustrates a spring connexion between the adjusting lever and its
locking bar, which allows the teeth to yield upon striking an
obstruction. As the briskness of the operation adds to its
effectiveness, the harrow is often made with a seat from which the
operator can hasten the team without fatiguing himself.
[Illustration: Showing tooth mechanism of harrow.