Volume 42, Issue 1
Jan - Mar 2016
A President at the Crossroads Benjamin Harrison became president during a pivotal time in our country’s history. While no wars were declared or armies massed, significant national issues divided the electorate and redefined party platforms. Here are some of the ways that President Harrison played an important role in the dawn of the modern era:
Harrison had the first peacetime billion-dollar budget The first federal budget submitted in 1789 was about $75 million. For the next few decades, the budget did not significantly increase. Even in 1860, it was under $100 million. The budget increased drastically during the Civil War, rising above $1 billion in 1865, then shinking to $293 million by 1870. When Harrison took office, the government was running a surplus. There was concern that so much government money was a drag on the economy. Harrison thought the best way to get the money back in circulation was to expand veteran pensions, including pensions for widows and orphans. Other ideas were put up for discussion as well. With a majority in both houses of congress, Harrison and Republican legislators were able to enact much of their agenda. The 51st congress passed 531 laws, an unprecedented level of accomplishment unmatched until Theodore Roosevelt’s second term. Henry Cabot Lodge wrote, “No Congress in peace time has passed so many great & important measures of lasting value to the people.” Significant measures relating to reorganizing the federal courts, tariffs, internal improvements, and naval expansion were approved. Harrison also
signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act "to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies," the first Federal act attempting to regulate trusts. For better or worse, Harrison‘s activism can be seen in the increase of federal workers. In 1871, the federal government employed 51,000 people, but 20 years later in 1891, more than 157,000 people worked directly for Uncle Sam. Obviously, all of this activity had a cost attached to it. For the first time except in war, Congress appropriated a billion dollar budget in 1890. When critics attacked "the billion-dollar congress," Speaker Thomas Reed flippantly replied, "Well, this is a billion-dollar country." His remark sparked criticism from those who felt that the government was consuming too much of the nation’s financial resources.
Women who voted, voted for Harrison Harrison was the first president to receive votes from women. New Jersey briefly gave women the right to vote from 1804 to 1807. In that era, people did not vote directly for a president, but rather for electors pledged to support a certain candidate. The Territory of Wyoming, when it was first incorporated in 1869, tried to entice more women to relocate themselves to a rugged west by offering them suffrage. This right was maintained when Wyoming became the 44th state in 1890. Historian George Noles wrote that, “Wyoming gave women the right to vote in all elections; consequently in 1892, for the first time, women voted in a presidential election.” (continued on pg. 4)