BHPortrait comingOfficial portrait of Benjamin Harrison
23rd president of the United States · 1889–1893

Benjamin Harrison

RepublicanVice president: Levi P. MortonLost re-election in 1892 to Grover Cleveland

Grandson of President William Henry Harrison. He won the electoral vote in 1888 while losing the popular vote. He signed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the McKinley Tariff and a large expansion of Civil War pensions, and six new states joined the Union. His Congress was the first in peacetime to spend a billion dollars.

Debt paid down
−$104.39million
$1.69 billion → $1.59 billion (−6%)
Debt-to-GDP, latest
9.4%
FY1888: 12% → FY1892: 9.4%
Unemployment
3.0%
1890: 4.0% → 1892: 3.0%
Average inflation
-1.1%a year
1888–1892: -1.1% a year
Executive orders
143
About 36 a year in office
Pardons & commutations
—
Not recorded before 1900
Impeached
No
No · Convicted of a crime: No

The economy, first day to last

Shaded areas show the years in office, with a few years before and after for comparison. Budget years ran July to June until 1976 (now October to September), so each year's figures cover parts of two calendar years.

National debt

June 30, 1888 (end of fiscal 1888): $1.69 billion → June 30, 1892 (end of fiscal 1892): $1.59 billion

Daily debt figures don't exist before 1993, so Harrison's numbers use the fiscal years closest to his term, the same rule as every other page.

Debt compared with the economy

Debt as a share of GDP. Above 100% means the debt is bigger than a year of everything the country produces.

Deficits and surpluses

Money borrowed each budget year (below the line) or paid down (above). The White House budget office's yearly figures begin in 1901.

Unemployment

1890: 4.0% → 1892: 3.0%. Yearly averages. National estimates by economist Stanley Lebergott begin in 1890.

Inflation

How much prices rose each year (consumer price index).

Cost of living

What everyday prices and paychecks did while in office.

What cost $100 in 1888$95.66 in 1892

Prices use the consumer price index (MeasuringWorth). The minimum wage is the federal rate set by Congress.

Executive orders

143 orders. Count from the American Presidency Project.

Orders signed each year

Yearly counts aren't reliable for this era. Orders were not numbered until 1907, when the State Department numbered the ones already in its files, and many orders were never numbered at all, so only the total is shown.

Source: American Presidency Project: executive orders (full list of every order).

Notable orders

Most orders in this era were routine, such as setting aside public land or exempting jobs from civil service rules.

Every executive order we have 67Search, filter by topic or year, and open any order's full text

Incomplete: orders before 1929 were not numbered or collected consistently. This archive has 67 of the roughly 143 orders counted for this president.

  1. OrderMarch 11, 1889Executive Order
  2. OrderApril 17, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  3. OrderApril 23, 1889Executive Order—Regulations for the Distribution of Arms, Ordinance Stores, Quartermaster's Stores, and Camp Equipage to Territories in the District of Columbia
  4. OrderMay 4, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  5. OrderMay 6, 1889Executive Order—Creation of Mission Indian Reservation
  6. OrderMay 27, 1889Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  7. OrderMay 29, 1889Executive Order
  8. OrderJune 7, 1889Executive Order
  9. OrderJune 10, 1889Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  10. OrderJune 18, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  11. OrderJuly 26, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  12. OrderJuly 26, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  13. OrderAugust 17, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  14. OrderAugust 20, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  15. OrderOctober 29, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  16. OrderNovember 1, 1889Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  17. OrderNovember 18, 1889Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  18. OrderJanuary 29, 1890Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  19. OrderJanuary 29, 1890Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  20. OrderMarch 10, 1890Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  21. OrderMarch 10, 1890Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  22. OrderMarch 28, 1890Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  23. OrderApril 24, 1890Executive Order
  24. OrderMay 27, 1890Executive Order
  25. OrderMay 31, 1890Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  26. OrderJuly 14, 1890Executive Order—Death of John C. Fremont
  27. OrderJuly 30, 1890Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  28. OrderJuly 30, 1890Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  29. OrderSeptember 2, 1890Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  30. OrderOctober 31, 1890Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  31. OrderJanuary 19, 1891Executive Order—Death of George Bancroft
  32. OrderJanuary 26, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  33. OrderJanuary 30, 1891Executive Order
  34. OrderFebruary 13, 1891Executive Order
  35. OrderFebruary 14, 1891Executive Order
  36. OrderFebruary 16, 1891Executive Order
  37. OrderFebruary 18, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  38. OrderFebruary 21, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  39. OrderFebruary 26, 1891Executive Order
  40. OrderMarch 4, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  41. OrderMarch 16, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  42. OrderApril 3, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  43. OrderApril 13, 1891Executive Order—Civil Service: Classification of Indian Service
  44. OrderApril 13, 1891Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  45. OrderMay 25, 1891Executive Order
  46. OrderJuly 6, 1891Executive Order—Death of Hannibal Hamlin
  47. OrderAugust 6, 1891Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  48. OrderOctober 1, 1891Executive Order—Civil Service: Indian Rules
  49. OrderOctober 9, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  50. OrderOctober 16, 1891Executive Order—Extension of Hoopa Valley Reservation Boundaries
  51. OrderNovember 24, 1891Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  52. OrderDecember 4, 1891Executive Order
  53. OrderJanuary 12, 1892Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  54. OrderJanuary 20, 1892Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  55. OrderFebruary 23, 1892Executive Order—Amendments of Civil Service Rules
  56. OrderMay 5, 1892Executive Order
  57. OrderMay 7, 1892Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  58. OrderMay 7, 1892Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  59. OrderSeptember 16, 1892Executive Order
  60. OrderSeptember 23, 1892Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  61. OrderNovember 19, 1892Executive Order—Utah and Arizona Land to Public Domain
  62. OrderNovember 21, 1892Executive Order—Expansion of Red Lake Indian Reservation Boundaries
  63. OrderNovember 28, 1892Executive Order—Approving Interior Order on Yakima Reserve
  64. OrderJanuary 5, 1893Executive Order—Amendment of Civil Service Rules
  65. OrderJanuary 18, 1893Executive Order—Death of Rutherford B. Hayes
  66. OrderJanuary 19, 1893Executive Order
  67. OrderJanuary 19, 1893Executive Order

Source: Executive Orders Archive, compiled from the American Presidency Project and the Federal Register. Topics are the archive's automated tags; "Revoked" and similar labels come from the Federal Register's records.

Pardons and commutations

A pardon wipes out the punishment for a federal crime; a commutation shortens a sentence but leaves the conviction. The Justice Department's published counts begin in 1900.

Granted each year

The Justice Department's published clemency counts begin in fiscal 1900, so there are no reliable yearly totals for this presidency.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, clemency statistics, which lists every recipient with the crime and sentence.

Notable grants: tap to see the crime

Mormon polygamistsAmnestyJanuary 4, 1893

The crime: Polygamy and 'unlawful cohabitation' under the Edmunds Act

Sentence: Various

Why it drew attention: Granted after the Latter-day Saints church renounced plural marriage in 1890, for those who had since obeyed the law. Cleveland broadened it in 1894.

Source

Controversies and scandals

What happened, what was proven, and how it ended.

Proven convicted, admitted or confirmed by a court or official investigationCharged indicted or impeached (outcome stated)Disputed facts established, whether it was wrong is debatedAlleged reported but never established
'Blocks of five' vote buyingCharged1888

A letter from the Republican national treasurer, William Dudley, told Indiana party workers to 'divide the floaters into blocks of five' and put a trusted man in charge of each, which critics read as a plan to buy votes.

Outcome: Dudley was indicted, but the case was dropped after the judge narrowed the law.

Source
The Wounded Knee massacreProvenDecember 29, 1890

The Army's 7th Cavalry killed about 250 to 300 Lakota, many of them women and children, while disarming a camp at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota.

Outcome: An Army inquiry cleared the commander, and 20 soldiers received the Medal of Honor. Congress expressed 'deep regret' in 1990.

Source
The McKinley TariffDisputed1890

Raised average tariff rates to about 49 percent, and prices on many goods went up.

Outcome: Republicans lost the House in a landslide that fall; Harrison lost in 1892.

Source

In their own words

Widely quoted remarks, with the context they were said in.

Providence has given us the victory.

November 1888 · To party boss Matthew Quay after the election. Quay later said Harrison would never know how close a number of men came to the penitentiary to make him president. Source

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment will starve in the process.

1888 · Campaign speech defending high tariffs. Source
How this page is made. Every president gets the same sections and the same checklist. A controversy is listed if it led to an investigation by Congress, an inspector general, a special or independent counsel or a court, or was a sustained national story covered across the political spectrum. Labels follow the strongest official finding, not media coverage. Debt figures come from the U.S. Treasury; deficits and GDP from the White House budget office and the Commerce Department; unemployment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (before 1948, yearly estimates by Stanley Lebergott via NBER and the Census Bureau's Historical Statistics); prices from MeasuringWorth; executive orders from the Federal Register and National Archives; clemency from the Justice Department.