Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/724

686 Gen. Harrison returned to Indianapolis and as- sumed the duties of his office as reporter of the supreme court, to which he had been re-elected in 1864 by a majority of 19,913. At the expiration of his term of office he declined a renomination, and cesumed his practice, which he has since fol- lowed success- fully. During the presiden- tial canvasses of 1808 and 1872 he trav- elled through Indiana and addressed large audiences, but did not again enter politics until 1876, when he declined the nomination for fovernor. Godlove S. Orth was then chosen, but uring the canvass he withdrew, and Gen. Harri- son reluctantly allowed his name to be used, in the hope of saving Indiana to the Republican candi- date for the presidency. The work was begun too late, and, although an' energetic canvass was car- ried on, James D. Williams was elected by a plu- rality of 5,084, in a total vote of 434,457 ; but Gen. Harrison was 2,000 stronger than his party. In 1879 President Hayes appointed him a member of the Mississippi river commission. He was chair- man of the delegation from Indiana at the National convention held in Chicago in 1880, and on the bal- lot that nominated James A. Garfield he cast the entire vote of his state for that candidate. His own name was placed in nomination at the beginning of the convention, but, although some votes were cast in his favor, he persisted in withdrawing. He ac- companied Gen. Garfield on his trip to New York, and participated in the speech-making along the route. Subsequently he was offered a place in the cabinet of President Garfield, but declined it. The Republicans regained control of the Indiana legislature in the election of 1880. and Gen. Harri- son was chosen U. S. senator, and took his seat as such on 4 March, 1881, holding it until 3 March, 1887. His career in the senate was marked by the delivery of numerous speeches on subjects of gen- eral interest. He pronounced in favor of a judi- cious tariff reform, advocated the rights of the working classes, opposed President Cleveland's ve- toes of pension bills, advised the restoration of the American navy, and voted for civil-service re- form. In 1884 he was a delegate-at-large from his state to the National Republican convention held in Chicago, and his name was again discussed in connection with the presidency. The Republican national convention of 1888 was held in Chicago in June. For some time previous he had been fre- quently referred to as a desirable candidate for the presidency, and on the first ballot he received 83 votes, standing fifth on the list, John Sherman standing first with 225. Seven more ballots were taken, during which Chauncey M. Depew withdrew and transferred his strength to Gen. Harrison, who then received 544 votes on the eighth and final ballot. On 4 July following he received the formal notification of his nomination, and on 11 Sept. sig- nified his acceptance in a letter in which he said : " The tariff issue cannot now be obscured. It is not a contest between schedules, but between wide- apart principles. The foreign competitors for our market have, with quick instinct, seen how one issue of this contest may bring them advantage, and our own people are not so dull as to miss or neglect the grave interests that are involved for them. The assault upon our protective system is open and defiant. Protection is assailed as uncon- stitutional in law, or as vicious in principle, and those who hold such views sincerely cannot stop short of an absolute elimination from our tariff laws of the principle of protection. The Mills bill is only a step, but it is toward an object that the leaders of Democratic thought and legislation have clearly in mind. The important question is not so much the length of the step as the direction of it. Judged by the executive message of December last, by the Mills bill, by the debates in congress, and by the St. Louis platform, the Democratic party will, if supported by the country, place the tariff laws upon a purely revenue basis. 1 his is practical free trade — free-trade in the English sense. . . . Those who teach that the import duty upon foreign goods sold in our market is paid by the consumer, and that the price of the domestic competing arti- cle is enhanced to the amount of the dutv on the imported article — that every million of dollars col- lected for customs duties represents many millions more which do not reach the treasury, but are paid by our citizens as the increased cost of domestic productions resulting from the tariff laws — may not intend to discredit in the minds of others our system of levying duties on competing foreign products, but it is clearly already discredited in their own. We cannot doubt, without impugning their integrity, that, if free to act upon their con- victions, they would so revise our laws as to lay the burden of the customs revenue upon articles that are not produced in this country, and to place upon the free list all competing foreign products. I do not stop to refute tins theory as to the effect of our tariff duties. Those who advance it are students of maxims and not of the markets. . . . The sur- plus now in the treasury should be used in the pur- chase of bonds. The law authorizes this use of it, and, if it is not needed for current or deficiency ap- propriations, the people, and not the banks in which it has been deposited, should have the advantage of its use by stopping interest upon the public debt. . . . The law regulating appointments to the classi- fied civil service received my support in the senate, in the belief that it opened the way to a much- needed reform. I still think so, and therefore cor- dially approve the clear and forcible expression of the convention upon this subject. The law should have the aid of a friendly interpre- tation, and be faithfully and vig- orously enforced. All appointments under it should be absolutely free from partisan con- siderations and in- fluence." The elec- tion resulted in Mr. Harrison's fa- vor, who received 233 votes in the Electoral college, against 168 for Grover Cleveland. The above engrav- ing is a view of his home in Indianapolis. His life has been written by Gen. Lewis Wallace (Philadelphia, 1888).— His wife, Caroline Lavinia Scott, b. in Oxford, Ohio. 1 Oct., 1832, is the daughter of John W. Scott, who