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Benjamin Harrison Presidential $1 Coin — 23rd President, 1889-1893
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in on a farm by the Ohio River below Cincinnati in North Bend, Ohio, He attended Miami University in Ohio and studied law in Cincinnati, later moving to Indianapolis, at age 21, where he practiced eventually becoming a prominent politician there. During the American Civil War, he served the Union as a Brigadier General in the XX Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. After the war he unsuccessfully ran for the governorship of Indiana, and was later appointed to the U.S. Senate from that state.
After the Civil War, during which Harrison served as colonel of the 70th Volunteer Infantry, he enhanced his reputation as a lawyer. In the 1880s, he served in the U.S. Senate, where he championed American Indians, homesteaders and Civil War veterans. In the presidential election of 1888, he received 100,000 fewer popular votes than President Cleveland but carried the Electoral College 233 to 168.
Harrison, a Republican, was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland. His administration is most remembered for economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act, and for annual federal spending that reached one billion dollars for the first time. Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress", and used the issue, along with the growing unpopularity of the high tariff, to defeat the Republicans, both in the 1890 mid-term elections and in Harrison's bid for re-election in 1892. Harrison advocated, although unsuccessfully, for federal education funding and legislation to protect voting rights for African Americans. He also saw the admittance of six states into the Union.
As President, Harrison was proud of his vigorous foreign policy. The first Pan American Congress met in Washington in 1889, establishing an information center which later became the Pan American Union. At the end of his administration, Harrison submitted a treaty to the Senate to annex Hawaii, but his successor withdrew it. He also signed important appropriation bills for internal improvements, naval expansion and subsidies for steamship lines and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act "to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies." This act was the first federal attempt to regulate trusts. He was re-nominated by his party in 1892 but lost to Grover Cleveland, who became the only President in U.S. history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. A dignified elder statesman, he died in 1901.
Defeated by Cleveland in his bid for re-election in 1892, Harrison returned to private life in Indianapolis. He later represented the Republic of Venezuela in an international case against the United Kingdom. In 1900, he traveled to Europe as part of the case and, after a brief stay, returned to Indianapolis, where he died the following year from complications arising from influenza. He is to date the only U.S. president from Indiana and the only one to be the grandson of another president.
Coinage Legislation under President Benjamin Harrison
Act of July 14, 1890 — Directing the purchase of silver bullion and the issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other purposes
Act of September 26, 1890 — To amend section 3510 of the Revised Statues of the United States and to provide for new designs of authorized devices of United States coins (included new designs for coins to be authorized every 25 years.)
Act of September 26, 1890 — An act to discontinue the coinage of the three-dollar and one-dollar gold pieces and three-cent nickel piece
Act of February 10, 1891 — To prevent counterfeiting or manufacture of dies, tools, or other implements used in counterfeiting, and providing penalties therefore, and providing for the issue of search warrants in certain cases
Act of August 5, 1892 — Authorizing coinage of 5,000,000 souvenir half-dollars for the World's Columbian Exposition
United States Mint Directors appointed by President Benjamin Harrison
• Edward O. Leech of California — 1889 — 1893