Tippecanoe and 32

*I've kept this blog post to a minimum as the topic, once you dive into it, is lengthy. So, with that said, this post is not a definitive, exhaustive presentation but rather a post to get the juices flowing and perhaps end on a "hmmm...I didn't know that."

Thirty-two days. That’s all it was-the administration of the United States 9th President-William Henry Harrison-was a grand total of 32 days. Before him, eight presidents served the entirety of their terms, whether one or two terms. From 1789 beginning with Washington’s first term to the end of Van Buren’s only term in 1841, America had seen each president start and end each term. The idea of a president dying in office, while certainly a possibility recognized by the public given the precarious state of medicine and the average lifespan of an adult male in 1841 (albeit nine years later, the life expectancy for a male in 1850 was 37), was not a radical concept. At the time of Harrison’s inauguration, he was 69, the oldest president until the inauguration of President Reagan in 1981. So, Harrison was already old, an elder general who honed his military career in the fierce North West Territories and the War of 1812, battle tested and heroic in the eyes of his campaign supporters. But he was also in fairly decent health, which comes as a surprise being he spent a considerable period of time on the frontier and was unscathed from its rigors and near certain physical harm. Inauguration Day, Thursday, March 4, 1841, was a cold, rainy, stinging, and wintry. Harrison rode on a horse and eschewed a heavy winter coat and gear, namely hat and gloves, to protect himself from the wintry mix in order to appear more robust and not as some weak old man. Now, the story goes Harrison caught a cold after his inauguration and was on death’s door for the remainder of March, but this is not the case. The historic record points to late March as the beginning of the end for Tippecanoe, which came to an inglorious end on April 4 when he left this mortal coil. The biggest part of Harrison’s death, or rather, the biggest contribution he made to the United States as the 9th President came after his death and that was in the making of the state funeral. As stated in the beginning of this post, the country had not lost an acting president to death until Harrison assumed room temperature in the White House in 1841. Now suddenly, after 53 years of the presidency, the country had to deal with this inevitable odd of president dying in office and it chose to do so on a grand scale in what came to be the country’s first state funeral on April 7. That Harrison died in the Territory of Columbia (it was renamed the District of Columbia in 1871) played a big role in the whole of the federal government being able to organize and pull-off this grand spectacle that laid the groundwork for all future state funerals. As there were no plans to view Harrison’s remains in additional cities and that his body would be temporarily held in the city’s Congressional Cemetery, the funeral and internment was done in a span of a few hours witnessed by some 30,000 mournful faces along the processional route and those who managed to find a spot in the cemetery. All of this is fine and well and doesn’t really say much in terms of a state funeral. So, what made it a state funeral? Well, compared to state funerals that came after Harrison’s the differences are vast but there are a few minor similarities: procession, artillery salute as the coffin atop the funeral car passed the Capitol (it was under construction and there was no Lying in State period), and rifle volley during the internment. So, you may still be asking, what made it a state funeral? Quite simply, the funeral held for Harrison was the highest national tribute afforded to him by the country at the time it was executed. As the years passed and as the country grew along with its military and the military’s traditions, the parts of the state funeral also grew, such as the use of the caisson, 21-gun salute, riderless horse, lying in state (this is specific to the US Capitol of a state’s Capitol), Honor Guard, Flyover, Flag draped casket, and the playing of TAPS. In doing so, the United States has created a unique tribute and memorial to presidents who chose to have a state funeral (state funerals are not reserved for presidents as the president can designate a state funeral for anyone).

Congressional Cemetery-The Public Vault. Harrison rested in this vault for nearly 3 months. on July 3, his coffin was removed and shipped home arriving in Cincinnati on July 7 and taken to the family vault in North Bend.