How Party Disunity Cost Benjamin Harrison His Presidency

Benjamin Harrison, if he is remembered at all, is remembered as the president between the two terms of Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States; or as the only grandson of a former chief executive to hold the office himself. However, his single term in office was arguably one of the most consequential of the era. Although his attempts at civil rights and federal funding for education were not successful, he admitted six states to the Union; signed the Dependent Pension Act, which saved former Union soldiers and dealt with the budget surplus; passed the Sherman Antitrust Act that was famously used by Teddy Roosevelt and William H. Taft; allowed for the creation of national forests with the Land Revision Act of 1891; modernized the U.S. Navy; saved a multibillion dollar industry by passing the Meat Inspection Act; averted war with Chile and Britain over a number of issues; and annexed Hawaii. His foreign policy and domestic reforms served as the precedent for a quarter of a century to come.

In 1892, besides the sudden passing of his wife, a number of factors contributed to Harrison's failed bid for reelection. He lost the support of leaders of numerous factions of his party after he failed to appease each of their requests; in short, it was division that ousted his party from office. This year, we face an even tougher challenge, that of unseating an incumbent and placing a member of the opposition party in power. From the start our campaign has been an ugly battle, with supporters of Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, Warren, and Biden battling it out by attacking fellow candidates, failing to realize that in the end we would have to rally behind a candidate and that internal conflict can only occur as a result of the lack of external pressure, as outlined in the philosophy of President Martin Van Buren, a founder of the modern two-party system. With both internal and external pressure, we have an uphill struggle against the Orange Julius Caesar.

With the election just days away, we must all turn out and remember this election as a lesson for our party in the years to come.