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BENJAMIN HARRISON 23rd US President Legal Document Signed as: Porter + Harrison

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 800.00 USD
BENJAMIN HARRISON 23rd US President Legal Document Signed as: Porter + Harrison
Autographs
Benjamin Harrision Document Signed “Porter & Harrison”
BENJAMIN HARRISON (1833-1901). 23rd President of the United States, serving one term (1889-1893), Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, US Senator, the Grandson of President William Henry Harrison, and Great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
c. 1866 (Undated), Scarce Autograph Manuscript Document Signed, “Porter & Harrison”, measuring 7.75” x 12.5”, 2 pages, no place, Choice Extremely Fine. Being a legal document, a brief regarding a case where his firm is representing a client, fully written in Benjamin Harrison’s hand. Document deals with a case surrounding the explosion of a boiler at a saw mill and death of a worker. In this case of William H. Davis v Edward J. Binker, Harrison writes that someone other than the defendants, a man named John Gall, was in-charge and was thus responsible for the accident. This document is easily readable on light blue lined legal size wove period paper that is extremely clean written in rich brown ink. Added paper reinforcement on the reverse bottom below the signature. Boldly Signed “Porter & Harrison, - Attys. for Defts.” (Defendants), measuring about 3” across at the conclusion.

Harrison entered the Civil War in 1862. The Governor offered him command of a regiment of volunteers as a Colonel. The regiment, 70th Indiana Volunteers, was involved in heavy fighting and “Little Ben” as he was known, showed bravery and leadership. In March of 1865, he was promoted to Brigadier General. After the war, Harrison returned to Indianapolis. He had been reelected to the Reporter position in his absence in 1864. He declined to run in 1866 and went back into private Law practice with Governor Porter. The relationship was good and Harrison prospered, becoming a leading figure in the state. Harrison reluctantly ran for Governor as a Republican in 1876. This is a wonderful, vivid example of later President Benjamin Harrison’s actual Post Civil War legal work product while in private Law practice with Governor Porter.
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, creating the only grandfather–grandson duo to have held the office.

He was also the great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a founding father. Before ascending to the presidency, Harrison established himself as a prominent local attorney, Presbyterian church leader, and politician in Indianapolis, Indiana.

During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army as a Colonel, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers in 1865. Harrison unsuccessfully ran for governor of Indiana in 1876. The Indiana General Assembly elected Harrison to a six-year term in the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1881 to 1887.

A Republican, Harrison was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Grover Cleveland. Hallmarks of Harrison's administration included unprecedented economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff, which imposed historic protective trade rates, and the Sherman Antitrust Act. Harrison also facilitated the creation of the national forest reserves through an amendment to the Land Revision Act of 1891.

During his administration six western states were admitted to the Union. In addition, Harrison substantially strengthened and modernized the U.S. Navy and conducted an active foreign policy, but his proposals to secure federal education funding as well as voting rights enforcement for African Americans were unsuccessful.

Due in large part to surplus revenues from the tariffs, federal spending reached one billion dollars for the first time during his term. The spending issue in part led to the defeat of the Republicans in the 1890 mid-term elections. Cleveland defeated Harrison for re-election in 1892, due to the growing unpopularity of the high tariff and high federal spending. Harrison returned to private life and his law practice in Indianapolis.

In 1899 Harrison represented the Republic of Venezuela in their British Guiana boundary dispute against the United Kingdom. Harrison traveled to the court of Paris as part of the case and after a brief stay returned to Indianapolis. He died at his home in Indianapolis in 1901 of complications from influenza. Although many have praised Harrison's commitment to African Americans' voting rights, scholars and historians generally regard his administration as below-average, and rank him in the bottom half among U.S. presidents. Historians, however, have not questioned Harrison's commitment to personal and official integrity