Oh you guys. I've finally finished Old Tippecanoe by Freeman Cleaves, and let me just tell you: it was
not the best of times. While I can't in good conscience say this is the worst presidential biography I've read (
Lynne Cheney's biography on Madison and
Harlow Giles Unger's biography on Monroe were
pretty awful), this one was
just not good. My expectations for presidential bios have been completely upended so far this year. I was dreading
Martin Van Buren and then it turned out to be a pretty easy read, and I was looking forward to Old Tippecanoe and it turned out to be a slog.
Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time by Freeman Cleaves was originally published in 1939 and is the oldest presidential biography I've read to date by a solid 45 years (which may have something to do with how hard it was for me to stay interested?). There really aren't very many options for a full-scale biography of our nation's ninth president so I was kindof stuck with this one.
William Henry Harrison was born into Virginia aristocracy (his father was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence), but after his father died when he was only eighteen leaving him nothing as the youngest of seven children, he decided to go out west looking for excitement and an opportunity to make his way in the world. And make his way he did.
Before turning twenty, Harrison was already an officer in the army and a student of Indian affairs. By twenty-five, he had been appointed Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and by thirty he was governor of the Indiana territory. Much of what he was doing during this time was negotiating land cessions with the native tribes in the territory and trying to keep the peace between the settlers and Indians. He became a general during the War of 1812 and served a vital role during the conflict. He was a great motivator and won the respect of everyone who served with or under him. After being continuously undermined by Secretary of War John Armstrong, he retired from military service and eventually ended up going to Washington D.C. to serve in Congress mainly to clear his own name and fight for veterans' rights. He did a very brief stint as the U.S. minister to Colombia and then ended up running for president in 1836 against Van Buren (he lost) and again in 1840 (when he won). He was our nation's ninth president for a mere thirty-one days before succumbing to illness (probably pneumonia) and dying, making him the first president to die in office and the shortest-serving president in U.S. history.
In his personal life, William Henry Harrison at the age of twenty-two eloped with Anna Tuthill Symmes after her father refused to give him permission to marry her. He ended up winning the respect of his father-in-law, and he seemed to have a good relationship with his wife. They had ten children together, nine of which grew to adulthood. Cleaves did a deplorable job of developing Harrison's personal life in this biography which was a real bummer for me. In fact, he abruptly ended his sketch of Harrison's life at his funeral. If not for a little internet research, I would never have known what became of his wife (she outlived him by twenty-three years) and I'm still left wondering if she ever even saw him again after he left home in February of 1841 to take his oath as president with the plan that she would follow in May when the weather was a bit more mild.
William Henry Harrison seemed like a really likable man, and someone that I probably would have greatly respected. He was faithful to his wife, his first duty seemed to be to his family and he took his role as provider very seriously, he lived by a moral code, and stood by his plain values. He never got caught up in politicking and the door of his farm at North Bend was always open. He claimed he would only serve one term as president and it would have been very interesting to see what he would have done with his presidency had he lived longer. Being born in 1773, he was the last U.S. president born a British subject before the United States claimed its independence, and being 68 at the time of his inauguration, he held the distinction of being the oldest person to assume the presidency until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at the age of 69. I wish Cleaves had done a better job of bringing him to life instead of documenting dry facts and going off on tangents about other people around Harrison. He did a terrible job of contextualizing Harrison's life, and to be very frank, the whole section around the War of 1812—arguably the most pivotal time of Harrison's life—was boring. I did learn much more about Secretary of War Armstrong. Given what I'd read about him up to this point, particularly in Madison's and Monroe's biographies, I had the idea that he was just incompetent, but Cleaves shared more in-depth detail about Armstrong since he had a lot of direct dealings with General Harrison during the war and not only was he incompetent, he was downright despicable.
Another fun fact I learned while reading this biography is that Henry Clay was famous for his "handsome blooded jackasses and bulls" and a picture of his prize donkey—Magnum Bonum—has a place in the Library of Congress today. What does this have to do with the life of William Henry Harrison? Absolutely nothing except that Harrison asked for Clay's advice on a prematurely impotent jackass in a letter one time. But I thought it was a hilarious anecdote, particularly because I am 100% positive that Cleaves included this entirely unironically and with no intention of humor. (Also, if this doesn't give you an idea of how dry, factual, and random this biography was, I'm not sure what else to tell you.)
All in all, this biography was pretty disappointing and I wouldn't recommend it. William Henry Harrison led an interesting and exciting life and Cleaves did him no justice with this portrait. I was hoping to fit Tyler's biography in this year, too, but Old Tippecanoe took me a lot longer than anticipated and I'm not sure I'll get to Tyler before year's end.
What was the last book to really let you down?
