Carter Harrison, Sr.

Carter Henry Harrison III (February 15, 1825October 28, 1893) was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1879 until 1887 and from 1893 until his assassination. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives. Harrison was the first cousin twice removed of President William Henry Harrison, whose grandson, Benjamin Harrison, had also been president until just months prior to the assassination. He was also the father of Carter Harrison IV, who would follow in his father's footsteps, and would serve five terms as the mayor of Chicago himself.

Early life, education, and career

Carter Henry Harrison was born on a plantation on February 15, 1825, in rural Fayette County, Kentucky near Lexington, Kentucky to Carter Henry Harrison II and Caroline Russell. He was birthed in his family's home, a log cabin (as one obituary would remark, "he saw the light in a log hut in a canebrake in Fayette County.") When Harrison was merely eight months old, his father died.

Harrison's family had a long Southern lineage, dating back to early colonial Virginia. He had ancestry in the Harrison family of Virginia, the Randolph family of Virginia, Carter family of Virginia, and Cabell family of Virginia. Harrison was a descendent of Richard A. Harrison, (a lieutenant general to Oliver Cromwell during the First English Civil War who had been involved in carrying out the execution of Charles I). His great-great-grandfather was Carter Henry Harrison I (who was a brother of founding father Benjamin Harrison V and a cousin of president Thomas Jefferson). He was a cousin of Vice President John C. Breckinridge, and was also related to presidents William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.

Harrison was educated by private tutors. At the age of fifteen, he began to be tutored by Louis Marshall. Harrison graduated from Yale College in 1845 as a member of Scroll and Key. He graduated from Yale in 1851. Following graduation, he traveled the world and studied in Europe from 1851 to 1853. His travels took him to England, Ireland, Scotland, and elsewhere. He also visited Egypt and accompanied Bayard Taylor to explore Syria and Asia Minor. After his world travels, he entered Transylvania College in Lexington in 1853, where he earned a law degree in 1855.

Move to Chicago, and early career in the city

In 1855, Harrison wed his first wife, Sophy Preston, in 1855. While traveling North for their honeymoon, Harrison stopped in Chicago and decided to settle there. He had decided to settle in Chicago because he saw it as a land of opportunity. At the time, he inherited the Kentucky plantation and almost 100 slaves but sold it away in order to be done with slavery.

After settling in Chicago, Harrison invested in real estate in Chicago, and became a millionaire. Harrison was also admitted to the bar in 1855, and commenced practice once he settled in Chicago.

The first property that Harrison bought in Chicago was the Adams house located at the corners of Clark and Harrison Street

Cook County Board of Commissioners (1871–1875)

After the Great Chicago Fire, Harrison became involved in politics. In the coinciding county elections, Harrison himself was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Harrison had run on a "union" ticket (dubbed the "Fireproof Ticket") that featured members of the Democratic and Republican parties. Harrison had been the leading figure in the formation of the Union–Fireproof Ticket and served as the chair of its nominating convention. The ticket ran candidates in both the Cook County and Chicago municipal elections (including in the mayoral election). The ticket's mayoral nominee, Joseph Medill, won election. Harrison had been key in convincing Medill to run for mayor. Later, during Harrison's own career in citywide politics, Medill, publisher of the ''Chicago Tribune'', would come to be a political rival of Harrison's.

In addition to being included on Union–Fireproof ticket, Harrison was also included as a county board nominee on the joint slate nominated by both the Cook County Democratic Party and Cook County Republican Party in the 1871 county and Chicago municipal elections (who partnered due to the extenuating circumstances of the fire).

Harrison served a single term on the county board, for three years

U.S. House of Representatives (1875–1879)

Harrison represented Illinois's 2nd congressional district for two terms (from 1875 until 1879). During the relevant period, with exception of the 6th ward, the district represented all of Chicago's "West Division" wards (the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th wards). During his time in congress, Harrison was noted for his flamboyant oration.

Unsuccessful 1872 campaign

Early into his tenure on the county board, Harrison ran an unsuccessful campaign in 1872 as the Democratic nominee in Illinois's 2nd congressional district for election to the 43rd United States Congress. Harrison faced Republican nominee Jasper D. Ward. The district had a strong Republican lean. Harrison, while unsuccessful, managed to greatly outperform previous Democratic nominees in the district. Harrison won 42.14% of the vote to Ward's 57.86%. Harrison led his opponent in the 8th and 9th wards, but trailed him in the other wards.

The congressional election coincided with the 1872 United States presidential election. Harrison (the Democratic congressional nominee) was listed on a local ticket that also included Liberal Republican Party presidential nominee Horace Greeley.

First term (1875–1877)

Due to his strong performance in his 1872 congressional campaign, in 1874 Harrison was again nominated in the 2nd congressional district by the Democratic Party for congress, and in a re-match against Ward won election 44th United States Congress by a margin of only eight votes. The ''Chicago Tribune'' would blame local Republicans' alignment with the Citizens Union ticket in the 1873 local Chicago elections as detrimental to Ward's re-election, as in the eyes of many voters it had placed Republicans on the less popular side of the "beer question" (positioning them in support of enforcing Sunday temperance blue laws (laws banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays). Many voters who typically voted Republican had in 1873 voted for the People's Party instead of the Citizens Union ticket due to the "beer question" At the time he was elected, he had been out-of-country visiting Europe with his family (traveling to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the Tyrol). After learning of his election, he returned to the United States to take office.

In 1875, during his first term in Congress, Harrison and his family again traveled to Europe. After accompanying his family through Northern Europe, Harrison returned to the United States while the rest of his family continued their trip. However, Harrison traveled to Europe again after his first wife died there.

Second term (1877–1879)

While he was out-of-country due to the death of his wife, he was re-elected in 1876 to the 45th United States Congress. He won 50.89% of the vote against Republican opponent George R. Davis.

Scandal occurred in his second term in congress when, as chairman of the Committee on Reform of the Civil Service, Harrison had pushed through the payment of benefits to four self-proclaimed Union Army veterans purporting disabilities from wartime injuries despite the fact that their claims had previously been rejected. None of these individuals had actually seen active service, and none of them had suffered serious injuries.

in 1878, Harrison lost re-election to congress. He was defeated by Miles Kehoe for re-nomination at the district's Democratic nominating convention.

First mayoralty (1879–1887)

During his first mayoralty, Harrison was elected mayor of Chicago for four consecutive two-year terms (in 1879, 1881, 1883, and 1885).

After he campaigned in 1879 with a pet eagle, he became affectionately nicknamed "the Eagle".

He was sworn in for his first term on April 28, 1879.

During his first mayoralty, he surpassed his predecessor Monroe Heath's title as the longest serving mayor Chicago had had up to that time.

Leadership and popularity

Harrison has been described as a practitioner of charismatic authority. He governed the city in cooperation with a fractious Democratic Party organization.

While Harrison garnered both business and working class support, the evangelical middle class generally disapproved of Harrison.

Infrastructure and public safety

At the time he took office, Chicago had nearly a half-million residents. However, it was still a developing city. Harrison would later remark that, when he took office as mayor, "there were not ten miles of paved street in the whole city over which a light vehicle could move rapidly without injury to wheel or axle.” Long a booster of his adopted city, Harrison was known to refer to Chicago as his "bride". Harrison significantly increased the city's number of paved roads and sidewalks in its downtown and increased the size and improved the efficiency of its fire department. Harrison also forced utility companies operating in the central business district to bury their wires. Harrison fought the Illinois Central Railroad's right to the lakefront, a legal battle which was ultimately taken by the State of Illinois to Supreme Court of the United States in '' Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois''. He also worked to persuade railroads to begin elevating their tracks to eliminate level crossings. He also attempted to push measures in the City Council that would have required locomotives, steamships and tugboats to burn anthracite, which burned cleaner. He also attempted to have the city build new and longer public water system intake pipes.

Haymarket affair

Harrison's first mayoral tenure was a period that saw many events which brought the city national and international attention. One such event was the Haymarket affair. Early on the evening of the Haymarket affair in 1886, Harrison had casually observed the then still peaceful demonstration of anarchists and trade unionists and advised the police to leave the demonstrators alone; he then left the scene before the riot and anarchist bomb-throwing occurred. A significant reason for his ability to attend the rally unbothered was that, while Harrison came from a Protestant background, he needed the votes of and thus made appeals to the city's large ethnic White Catholic population as well as its rapidly growing numbers of trade unionists. His administration gave the impression of being more favorable to trade unions and strikes than those of previous Chicago mayors as well as other mayors of the time, although his police force routinely put down striking workers and trade union activists when they interfered with the businesses hiring replacements.

In the aftermath, Harrison spoke against anti-socialist sentiments being published in the media. Harrison argued that socialists were not sympathetic with bomb throwers, and remarked that socialists were representatives of the country's "workers, thinkers, and writers."

1884 Democratic National Convention

Harrison was a delegate to the 1880 and 1884 Democratic National Conventions. At the 1884 convention, held in Chicago, Harrison supported the successful candidacy of Grover Cleveland, and delivered the seconding speech for Cleveland's nomination at the convention. Harrison was also alleged to have ordered the Chicago police to fill the convention hall's convention hall with as many men sympathetic to Cleveland's candidacy as they could find on the street.

1884 gubernatorial campaign

Heading encouragement from other Democrats, in 1884 Harrison ran as the party's nominee for governor of Illinois. While a reluctant nominee, he conducted an energetic and effective campaign. He lost to Republican incumbent Richard J. Oglesby. The result was unsurprising, considering that the state of Illinois had a strong Republican lean at the time. However, Harrison had managed to decrease the Republican margin of victory in the gubernatorial election from the 40,000 margin of the previous election to 14,500.

End of tenure

Towards the end of his fourth term, public approval of Harrison had significantly declined, which hurt his prospects of being re-elected to a fifth term in the 1887 mayoral election. Much of the dissatisfaction with Harrison came from disapproval of his handling of the Haymarket Riot. Harrison's handling of the Haymarket Riot had also harmed his standing with conservative business groups. Furthermore, Harrison's prospects of re-election to a fifth term was weighed down by a scandal involving criminal charges of election fraud against some of his supporters (for conduct during the previous mayoral election). Even though the charges against these individuals were did not implicate Harrison in misconduct, there was still concern that public awareness of the scandal would muddy Harrison's public image due to his proximity to the indicted individuals. Harrison's loss of public favor had led the prospect of re-nominating him to lose losing support within city's Democratic Party. . Initially, Harrison maintained intention to be re-elected, and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the United Labor Party to support him for re-election and to partner with the city Democratic Party to nominate a joint-slate. Harrison proposed a fusion nomination arrangement that would have seen the parties nominate identical tickets. Harrison's failure to persuade Chicago's United Labor Party to partner with city Democrats further harmed Harrison's support within the local Democratic party.

Recognizing that he would have difficulty being re-nominated by the Democratic Party, Harrison decided to retire at the end of his fourth term, opting against seeking re-election in 1887.Kantowicz, Edward. “The Emergence of the Polish-Democratic Vote in Chicago.” Polish American Studies, vol. 29, no. 1/2, 1972, pp. 67–80. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20147849.History of Chicago, Illinois by John Moses page 233 (293 in Google's digitalized form)
/ref> The Democratic Party voted at its convention to nomiante DeWitt Clinton Cregier. However, Cregier declined the nomination, refusing to run. After this (and despite his declared intent to retire) the party voted to re-nominate Harrison. Harrison initially accepted the nomination. However, before he could begin campaigning, his wife Elizabeth died. Experiencing great grief over his wife's passing, he withdrew from the election, and instead embarked on international travels. His tenure as mayor formally ended on April 18, 1887.

Post-mayoralty

On July 26, 1887, Harrison embarked on international travels, taking a sixteen-month world tour. He concluded this trip on November 8, 1888. Harrison documented his travels in letters he wrote that were published in newspapers. He compiled his travel writings into a book, which was published under the title ''A Race With The Sun''. After returning to Chicago, Harrison continued to be withdrawn from politics for several years. During this time, he focused on his business ventures and authoring literature. In 1890, Harrison and his daughter took a vacation trip from Chicago to Yellowstone National Park and Alaska. His letters from the trip were first published in the ''Chicago Tribune'' and later compiled into an 1891 book, ''A Summer's Outing and The Old Man's Story''.

In 1891, Harrison became the owner and editor of the ''Chicago Times''. THis marked a return to political engagement, as he used this newspaper to advocate for labor unions and the many Catholic and immigrant communities in Chicago.

Unsuccessful 1891 mayoral campaign

Harrison unsuccessfully sought to stage a comeback, running in the 1891 Chicago mayoral election. Failing to receive the Democratic nomination (with incumbent mayor DeWitt Clinton Cregier being renominated instead), Harrison ran an independent campaign for mayor. The election became a four-candidate race between Harrison, Creiger, Republican nominee Hempstead Washburne, and Citizens nominee Elmer Washburn (a former head of the United States Secret Service and Chicago Police Department). Hempstead Washburne won the election, receiving only a few hundred more votes than runner-up Cregier and a few thousand more votes than Harrison. Elmer Washburn placed a more distant fourth.

Second mayoralty (1893)

Harrison was again elected mayor in 1893, in time for the World's Columbian Exposition being held in the city. Harrison stated that his desire was to show the world the "true" Chicago during the world's fair.

Harrison was sworn in for his fifth nonconsecutive term on April 17, 1893. Harrison's first acts after being sworn in were to immediately submit vetoes of several ordinances that the council had already passed, one which served the interests of the Midland Elevated Railway (which stockbroker James R. Keene held significant stake in) and another which would have granted the Hygeia Springs Company permission to supply water into the city (which would have advanced a controversial project by Wisconsin businessman James C. McElroy to pipe water from the famed springs in Waukesha, Wisconsin to the grounds of the world's fair). Mayor Washburne had similarly vetoed the same ordinances in his final act as mayor. All vetoes were sustained.

Harrison appointed 1st Ward Alderman "Bathhouse" John Coughlin to sit on the reception committee for the world's fair. This appointment was a small part in Harrison's plan to create a centralized Democratic Party machine consisting of empowered ward committeemen and precinct captains that would answer to the local Democratic Party. The plan would not be accomplished until Anton Cermak came to power in Chicago politics in the 1920s.

Assassination

On October 28, 1893, a few months into his fifth term and just two days before the close of the World's Columbian Exposition, Harrison was murdered in his home by Patrick Eugene Prendergast, an office-seeker who had supported Harrison's re-election under the idea that Harrison would reward him with an appointment to a post within his mayoral administration. Harrison was buried in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery. As part of his funeral services, Harrison lay in state in the City Hall. A celebration planned for the close of the Exposition was cancelled and replaced by a large public memorial service for Harrison. Prendergast was sentenced to death for the crime and hanged on July 13, 1894.

While Harrison died at a time when the elites, Protestants, and Republicans of all kinds greatly disliked him, he never lost his core supporters of labor unions, Catholics and immigrants. He was Chicago's first mayor to be elected five times; eventually his son Carter Harrison IV was also elected mayor five times.

Harrison's career and assassination are closely associated with the World's Columbian Exposition, and are discussed at some length as a subplot to the two main stories (about the fair and serial killer H. H. Holmes) in Erik Larson's best-selling 2003 non-fiction book ''The Devil in the White City''.

Political positions

Harrison was a populist Democrat.

Harrison did not disapprove of liquor consumption or gambling.

Hailing from the Upland South and wed to a woman who hailed from the Deep South, during the American Civil War, Harrison had occasionally openly expressed sympathy towards the Confederate cause, leading him to be derided as a Copperhead.

Harrison saw the city's strength as being in its neighborhoods, and viewed it as a city of neighborhoods.

Personal life

Marriages and late engagement

On April 12, 1855, Harrison married his first wife, the former Sophie Preston. She hailed from the Preston family, a distinguished southern family. Harrison and his first wife, Sophie, had ten children together. Six of their children died either in infancy or early childhood.

Harrison became a widower after Sophie died in Europe in 1876. After being widowed, Harrison married Margarette (alternatively spelled "Margaret" or "Marguerite") E. Stearns in 1882. Stearns was a member of one of Chicago's earliest and most wealthy families, being the daughter of Chicago pioneer Marcus C. Stearns. He was widowed again when she died in 1887.

At the time of his assassination, Harrison was engaged to a young New Orleans heiress named Annie Howard, daughter of Louisiana State Lottery Company organizer Charles T. Howard, who had been worth an estimated $3,000,000, $700,000 of which she had inherited from him after his death.

Children

Harrison and his first wife, Sophie, had ten children together. Six of their children died either in infancy or early childhood.
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The four children whom survived to adulthood were Lina, Carter IV, William Preston, and Sophie.

Lina married Heaton Owsley, and became the step-mother of Jack Owsley (who became a noted American football player and coach, as well as a successful businessman). She and Owsley had a daughter who they also named Lina Harrison Owsley. This daughter of the Owsleys (granddaughter of Mayor Harrison) performed as an opera singer, studying opera under Hermann Devriès. In 1912, she married Paul Bartlett, a noted painter.

Carter IV served as mayor of Chicago from 1887 to 1905 and 1911 to 1915. He married Edith Ogden (who would garner note as the author of children's fairytale books) in 1887. Together, they had three children. Their firstborn died in infancy in 1889. Their other two children survived to adulthood: son Carter V (born in 1891) and daughter Edith II (born 1896).

Legacy

The Carter H. Harrison Medal is one of two medals "granted to sworn members of the fire and police departments who have performed distinguished acts of bravery in the protection of life or property", the other being the Lambert Tree Award.

A statue of Harrison is in Union Park on Chicago's Near West Side, about two blocks from the Ashland Avenue home where he lived and was murdered in 1893. It was erected in 1907. The plaque on the statue is a quote from Harrison's address to the World's Columbian Exposition, given hours before he died.

Electoral history

Mayoral elections

;1879

; 1881

;1883

; 1885

; 1891

; 1893

U.S. House elections

;1872

;1874

;1876

;1878

See also

* Samuel Gompers
* List of assassinated American politicians
* Casimir Zeglen

Notes

References

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External links

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Carter Harrison III (1825–1893)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Carter Sr.
1825 births
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Carter Sr.
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