72
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
them into submission. With one thousand
regular troops and militia, he built Fort
Harrison, near the present city of Terre
Haute, Indiana, and with part of the force
marched toward the Indian village. He
was attacked by Tecumseh and his band,
while in camp at night, but he defeated
them, and was highly complimented by the
President. When the war of 1812-14 opened,
the Indians sided with the British, who had
taken possession of Detroit. The Kentucky
legislature commissioned Harrison major-
general, though he was not a resident of
the state, and he proceeded with the troops
furnished him, but was unable to reach
Hull, who had surrendered. On September
2. 1 81 2, he was commissioned brigadier-gen-
eral, and on returning to \'incennes he was
appointed to the command of all troops in
the northwest. After an active but futile
campaign, he journeyed to Cincinnati to ob-
tain supplies. He was commissioned major-
general, March 2, 1813. He held Fort Meigs
against two severe attacks, and after Perry's
naval victory on Lake Erie, led his troops
for an expedition into Canada, overtaking
the British and Indians, in the battle of the
Thames, capturing the British force entire,
and killing Tecumseh and dispersing his
band. This battle ended the war in Upper
Canada, and Harrison was the popular hero.
In 1813 he resigned his military commis-
sion on account of an affront from the sec-
retary of war. He was Indian commis-
sioner in 1814-15, and member of Congress
from Ohio, 1816-19. In Congress he ad-
vocated a general militia bill, which was
defeated, but his bill for the relief of sol-
diers of the late war was passed. He was
a state senator, 1820-21 ; was defeated for
Congress in 1822, and a presidential elector
on the Clay ticket in 1824. He was elected
United States senator in 1825, succeeded
Andrew Jackson as chairman of the military
affairs committee, and resigned in 1828 to
accept the position of minister to Colombia,
under appointment by President John
Quincy Adams, but was soon recalled
through the influence of General Bolivar.
He retired to his farm at North Bend, Indi-
ana, and served as president of the County
Agricultural Association, and as clerk of
the court of common pleas at Cincinnati.
He was a Jeftersonian Republican in poli-
tics, and when the Whig party was formed
in 1834, he joined it, professing states' rights
views on the bank, tariff and internal im-
provements. In 1835 he was nominated for
President by some of the Whig legislatures
in the western and middle states, but he
was defeated by \*an Buren, the Demo-
cratic nominee. He was the successful
candidate and was elected four years later,
after one of the most exciting canvasses in
the history of the country, in which "the log
cabin," "hard cider,'* "Tippecanoe and Tyler,
tc»o," campaign cries were heard through-
out the land. He was inaugurated March
4 1841, selected his cabinet, and on March
17 called an extra session of Congress to
take up financial questions. Not believing
in the power of Congress to create corpora-
tions in the states, he had in mind a bank of
the District of Columbia, branching with
state assent. The trials of his position and
the apprehension of a breach with Henr>'
Clay, the leader of the Whigs in Congress,
brought on an attack of pneumonia, of
which he died April 4. His wife had not
yet taken up her residence in the White
House, and was not present at his death.
His body lay temporarily in the Congres-
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