Editing William Henry Harrison (section)

===Ohio politician and diplomat===
[[File:WmHHarrison-poster.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.95|Poster lauding Harrison's accomplishments]]

Harrison resigned from the army in 1814, shortly before the conclusion of the War of 1812, and returned to his family and farm in [[North Bend, Ohio]].<ref name="Freehling"/> Freehling claims that his expenses then well exceeded his means and he fell into debt, that Harrison chose "celebrity over duty", as he sought the adulation found at parties in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, and that he became an office seeker.<ref name="Freehling"/> He was elected in 1816 to complete [[John McLean]]'s term in the House of Representatives, representing [[Ohio's 1st congressional district]] until 1819. He attempted to secure the post of Secretary of War under President Monroe in 1817 but lost out to [[John C. Calhoun]]. He was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia.<ref name="Freehling"/> He was elected to the [[Ohio Senate]] in 1819 and served until 1821, having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820.<ref name="cb" /> He ran in the [[1822 United States House of Representatives elections in Ohio|1822 election]] for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to [[James W. Gazlay]].<ref name="Freehling"/><ref>{{cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/pg15bf880 |website=Tufts Digital Collections and Archives |access-date=March 5, 2022 |date=January 11, 2012}}</ref> He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824, and was an Ohio presidential elector in 1820 for [[James Monroe]]{{sfn|Taylor|Taylor|1899|p=102}} and for [[Henry Clay]] in 1824.{{sfn|Taylor|Taylor|1899|p=145}}

Harrison was appointed in 1828 as [[minister plenipotentiary]] to [[Gran Colombia]], so he resigned from Congress and served in his new post until March 8, 1829.{{sfn|Bolívar|1951|p=732}} He arrived in [[Bogotá]] on December 22, 1828, and found the condition of Colombia saddening. He reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy, and that [[Simón Bolívar]] was about to become a military dictator.{{sfn|Bolívar|1951|p=732}} He wrote a letter of polite rebuke to Bolívar, stating that "the strongest of all governments is that which is most free" and calling on Bolívar to encourage the development of democracy. In response, Bolívar wrote that the United States "seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom", a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America.{{sfn|Bolívar|1951|p=732}}

Freehling indicates Harrison's missteps in Colombia were "bad and frequent", that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Colombian affairs, by publicly opposing Bolivar, and that Colombia sought his removal. [[Andrew Jackson]] took office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position.<ref name="Freehling"/> Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Colombia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome."{{sfn|Hall|1836|p=301}} A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr.

Harrison, after leaving his post but while still in the country, wrote his roughly ten-page letter to Bolivar, which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies. It left the former struck by Harrison's "deeply imbued principles of liberty". Burr describes the letter as "replete with wisdom, goodness, and patriotism…and the purest of principles".{{sfn|Hall|1836|p=301}}{{sfn|Burr|1840|p=256}}