White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin CoolidgeColman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
History
White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin Coolidge
Colman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington (D.C.) -- Social life and customs; White House (Washington, D.C.)
The centennial census showed the population of the United States to
be more than 62,000,000, a gain over the first census of 1790 of
50,000,000 people. A centennial celebration was held by the Supreme
Court, and another by the Patent Office. This latter was especially
interesting because of the history it disclosed. The first patents
issued were for potash and soap in 1790. During the hundred years
that followed, 450,000 patents had been applied for and secured.
Inventors had endeavoured to enter every field of human skill, with the
result that America’s labour-saving machines led the world. A notable
and everyday utilitarian invention that has given satisfaction in
transportation to countless hundreds is the safety bicycle, which “Baby
McKee” learned to ride with his mother.
It was during this administration that national politics was invaded by
the Farmers’ Alliance. The immigration laws also came in for amendment.
An incident worthy of note was the great Carnegie Steel Strike at
Homestead, Pa., to which the governor finally had to send troops.
President Harrison could not fail to feel a satisfaction in the record
of accomplishment of his four years, and when he prepared to turn the
White House over to his successor, he resolved to go back to his law
practice, knowing that his future was established. He need accept only
such clients as appealed to him and would be able to meet his fees.
He went back to the lawyer’s office in Indianapolis where he had first
practised his profession. He accepted his defeat for reëlection in
1892 as final, and thereupon retired permanently from party politics.
His only reëntrance into national affairs was when he became a member
of the board of arbitration for Venezuela, which settled the historic
boundary dispute between Great Britain and the South American Republic.
After his presidential term General Harrison became less reserved. He
used to spend his vacations out of doors, and was most devoted to his
grandchildren, the McKees. He became a familiar figure at Cape May,
where the beach crowds often saw him romping in the surf with them.
On April 6, 1896, he married Mrs. Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, the niece
of his first wife, who had acted as Mrs. Harrison’s secretary during
her stay in the White House. The wedding took place at St. Thomas’s
Protestant Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue, New York City, in the
presence of a small group of friends. Neither General Harrison’s son
nor his daughter was present. He took his bride to his Indiana home,
where a baby girl was born to them the following year. This marriage
estranged his family, as it was not at all pleasing to the children of
his first wife.
He died of acute pneumonia in Indianapolis, March 13, 1901, with his
immediate family and a few old friends around him. Although en route to
his side, neither Russell Harrison nor Mrs. McKee was with him at his
death.
Benjamin Harrison’s rêgime was one of dignity. It reflected honour upon
himself and the nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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