Often remembered as the president who died shortly after taking office, William Henry Harrison remains misunderstood by most Americans. Before becoming the ninth president of the United States in 1841, Harrison was instrumental in shaping the early years of westward expansion. Robert M. Owens now explores that era through the lens of Harrison’s career, providing a new synthesis of his role in the political development of Indiana Territory and in shaping Indian policy in the Old Northwest. Owens traces Harrison’s political career as secretary of the Northwest Territory, territorial delegate to Congress, and governor of Indiana Territory, as well as his military leadership and involvement with Indian relations. Thomas Jefferson, who was president during the first decade of the nineteenth century, found in Harrison the ideal agent to carry out his administration’s ruthless campaign to extinguish Indian land titles. More than a study of the man, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer is a cultural biography of his fellow settlers, telling how this first generation of post-Revolutionary Americans realized their vision of progress and expansionism. It surveys the military, political, and social world of the early Ohio Valley and shows that Harrison’s attitudes and behavior reflected his Virginia background and its eighteenth-century notions as much as his frontier milieu. To this day, we live with the echoes of Harrison’s proclamations, the boundaries set by his treaties, and the ramifications of his actions. Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer offers a much needed reappraisal of Harrison’s impact on the nation’s development and key lessons for understanding American sentiments in the early republic.
Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy
Assesses the president's political career and month-long term in office, including his considerable contributions to the War of 1812 and his role in making permanent changes to the campaign process.
Nichols, Red Gentlemen, 6–10, 112–114; Arrell M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 58–79; Atkinson, Splendid Land, Splendid People, 111–137. 11. ... Lee, Apr. 28, 1793, CVSP, vol. 6, 1792–1793, 354; ...
In Polk, Walter R. Borneman gives us the first complete and authoritative biography of a president often overshadowed in image but seldom outdone in accomplishment.
As this book makes clear, the Indian wars north of the Ohio River make sense only within the context of Indians' efforts to recruit their southern cousins to their cause .
February 21, 1848, the House of Representatives, Washington D.C.: Congressman John Quincy Adams, rising to speak, suddenly collapses at his desk; two days later, he dies in the Speaker’s chamber.
Dingledine, Raymond C. “The Political Career of William Cabell Rives. ... Elliott, Charles W. Winfield Scott: the Soldier and the Man. ... Hatcher, William B. Edward Livingston: Jeffersonian Republican and Jacksonian Democrat.
They called him "the Magician," "the Red Fox" and other names that celebrated his political skill. And, indeed, there is no doubt that Martin Van Buren was the most innovative politician of his age.
Correspondence of James K. Polk, Vol. II, 1833–1834, Herbert Weaver and Paul Bergeron, eds. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1972. Correspondence of James K. Polk, Vol. VI, 1842–1843, Wayne Cutler and Carese M. Parker, eds.
... George Pence , “ General Joseph Bartholomew , ” Indiana Magazine of History , XIV ( 1918 ) , 295 ; George Pence , “ Indian History of Bartholomew County , ” Indiana Magazine of History , XXIII ( 1927 ) , 226 ; Hamilton , Taylor , I ...