Editing William Henry Harrison (section)

==Political career==
Harrison began his political career when he temporarily resigned from the military on June 1, 1798, and campaigned among his friends and family for a post in the Northwest Territorial government.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=19}} His close friend [[Timothy Pickering]] was serving as Secretary of State, and along with Judge Symmes' influence, he was recommended to replace [[Winthrop Sargent]], the outgoing territorial secretary.<ref name="Freehling"/> President [[John Adams]] appointed Harrison to the position in July 1798.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=19}} The work of recording the activities of the territory was tedious, and he soon became bored, and sought a position in the U. S. Congress.{{sfn|Greene|2007|p=44}}

===U.S. Congress===
[[File:W.H. Harrison ca. 1800.jpg|thumb|left|An engraved portrait print of Harrison at age 27, as a delegate member of the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] from the [[Northwest Territory]] by [[Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin]], {{Circa|1800}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2007676954/|title=William Henry Harrison, 9th Pres. of United States|last=de Saint-Mémin|first= Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret|date=January 1800 |publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=August 5, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/presidents/bio9.htm|title=Biographical Sketch–William Henry Harrison|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=August 5, 2016}}</ref>]]
Harrison had many friends in the eastern aristocracy and quickly gained a reputation among them as a frontier leader. He ran a successful horse-breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=19}} Congress had legislated a territorial policy that led to high land costs, a primary concern for settlers in the Territory; Harrison became their champion to lower those prices. The Northwest Territory's population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799, and Harrison ran for election.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=20}} He campaigned to encourage further migration to the territory, which eventually led to statehood.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.in.gov/history/files/interritory.pdf|title=Indiana Territory|publisher=The Indiana Historian|access-date=November 13, 2021}}</ref>

Harrison defeated Arthur St. Clair Jr. by one vote to become the Northwest Territory's first congressional delegate in 1798 at age 26, and served in the [[Sixth United States Congress]] from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800.<ref name="wh">{{cite web|title=William Henry Harrison Biography |work=About The White House: Presidents |publisher=The White House |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1600/presidents/williamhenryharrison |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122233458/http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/williamhenryharrison/ |archive-date=January 22, 2009|access-date=November 6, 2021}}</ref><ref name="cb">{{cite web|title=William Henry Harrison (1773–1841) Biography|publisher=United States Congress|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=h000279|access-date=February 4, 2009}}</ref> He had no authority to vote on legislative bills, but he was permitted to serve on a committee, to submit legislation, and to engage in debate.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=45–48}} He became chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and promoted the Land Act of 1800, which made it easier to buy Northwest Territory land in smaller tracts at a lower cost.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=20}} Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth.{{sfn|Langguth|2007|p=161}}

Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=20}} The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and included present-day [[Ohio]] and eastern [[Michigan]]; the western section was named the [[Indiana Territory]] and included present-day [[Indiana]], [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], a portion of western [[Michigan]], and an eastern portion of [[Minnesota]]. The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=47–48}}

On May 13, 1800, President [[John Adams]] appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory, based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=50–51}} He served in this capacity for twelve years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.in.gov/history/about-indiana-history-and-trivia/governors-portraits/list-of-governors/indiana-territorial-governor-william-henry-harrison-1773-1841|title=Indiana Territorial Governor|date=December 15, 2020|publisher=Indiana Historical Bureau|access-date=November 28, 2021}}</ref> His governorship was confirmed by the Senate and he resigned from Congress to become the first Indiana territorial governor in 1801.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=20}}{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=50–53}}

===Indiana territorial governor===
{{see also|History of slavery in Indiana|Indiana Territory}}
Harrison began his duties on January 10, 1801, at [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]], the capital of the Indiana Territory.{{sfn|Owens|2007|p=53}} Presidents [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]] were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and they reappointed him as governor in 1803, 1806, and 1809.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=20}} In 1804, Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Louisiana]]. He conducted the district's affairs for five weeks until the Louisiana Territory was formally established on July 4, 1805, and Brigadier General [[James Wilkinson]] assumed the duties of governor.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=21}}

In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named [[Grouseland]], in tribute to the birds on the property.{{sfn|Madison|Sandweiss|2014|p=46}} The 26-room home was one of the first brick structures in the territory;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000018_text|title=Grouseland|publisher=National Register of Historic Places|access-date=November 13, 2021}}</ref> and it served as a center of social and political life in the territory during his tenure as governor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visitvincennes.org/attractions/grouseland-president-william-henry-harrison-mansion/|title=Grouseland|publisher=Historic Vincennes|access-date=November 13, 2021}}</ref> Harrison founded a university at Vincennes in 1801, which was incorporated as [[Vincennes University]] on November 29, 1806.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vinu.edu/web/guest/about-us |title=History – Vincennes University |publisher=Vincennes University|access-date=November 8, 2021|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816120836/http://www.vinu.edu/web/guest/about-us |archive-date=August 16, 2016 }}</ref> The territorial capital was eventually moved to [[Corydon, Indiana|Corydon]] in 1813, and Harrison built a second home at nearby [[Harrison Spring|Harrison Valley]].<ref>{{cite web|url =https://secure.in.gov/apps/dnr/shaard/r/25b93/N/Corydon_HD_Harrison_CO_Nom.pdf|title =National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Corydon Historic District|access-date=November 30, 2021|last=Griffin|first=Frederick Porter| date=1972}}</ref>

Harrison's primary responsibility was to obtain title to Indian lands that would allow future settlement and increase the territory's population, a requirement for statehood. He was also eager to expand the territory for personal reasons, as his political fortunes were tied to Indiana's eventual statehood.<ref name="Freehling"/> While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf, and acquiring two milling operations, he was credited as a good administrator, with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure.<ref name="Freehling"/>

When Harrison was reappointed as the Indiana territorial governor on February 8, 1803, he was given expanded authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=20}} The 1804 [[Treaty of St. Louis (1804)|Treaty of St. Louis]] with [[Quashquame]] required the [[Sauk people|Sauk]] and [[Meskwaki]] tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of [[Missouri]]. Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands, especially their leader [[Black Hawk (Sauk leader)|Black Hawk]].{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=87–89}} Harrison thought that the [[Treaty of Grouseland]] (1805) appeased some of the Indians, but tensions remained high along the frontier.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=104–106}} The [[Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)]] raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than {{convert|2.5|e6acre|km2|abbr=unit}} from the Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, and Eel River tribes. Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2017/09/29/treaty-fort-wayne-1809/|title=Treaty of Fort Wayne, 1809|publisher=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=November 13, 2021}}</ref> Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government, as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison.<ref name="Freehling"/>

He pursued the treaty process aggressively, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders, so as to gain political favor with Jefferson before his departure.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/william-henry-harrison-shady-treaty-maker-and-indian-land-taker|title=William Henry Harrison: Shady Treaty Maker (quoting Owens)|publisher=Indian Country Today|last=Landry|first=Alysa|date=September 13, 2018 |access-date=November 14, 2021}}</ref> Biographer Freehling asserts that the Indians perceived the ownership of land was as common to all, just as the air that is breathed. In 1805, Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51,000,000 acres from the Indians, after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol, for no more than a dollar per 20,000 acres {{USDCY|1|1805}}, and comprising two-thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri.<ref name="Freehling"/>

In addition to resulting tensions with the Indians, Harrison's pro-slavery position made him unpopular with the Indiana Territory's [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]], as he tried in vain to encourage slavery in the territory. In 1803, he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the [[Northwest Ordinance]] prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=68–69}} Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood, the proposal failed.{{sfn|Owens|2007|pp=69–72}} Lacking the suspension of Article VI, in 1807 the territorial legislature, with Harrison's support, enacted laws that authorized indentured servitude and gave masters authority to determine the length of service.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lib.niu.edu/1998/iht519802.html|title=Freedom's Early Ring|publisher=Illinois Periodicals Online|access-date=December 1, 2021}}</ref>

President Jefferson, primary author of the Northwest Ordinance, made a secret compact with [[James Lemen]] to defeat the nascent pro-slavery movement supported by Harrison.<ref name="Peck">{{cite book|last=Peck|first=J. M.|publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|year=1915|title=The Jefferson-Lemen Compact|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNASAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA32 |access-date=March 28, 2010}}</ref> He donated $100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works, and later (in 1808) another $20 {{USDCY|20|1808}} to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church.<ref name="Peck"/> In [[Indiana]], the planting of the anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory.<ref name="Peck"/>

The Indiana Territory held elections to the legislature's upper and lower houses for the first time in 1809. Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power, and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti-slavery population.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=21}} The Territory's general assembly convened in 1810, and its anti-slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.capitolandwashington.com/blog/2021/02/25/a-brief-history-of-race-and-politics-in-indiana|title= A Brief History of Race and Politics in Indiana|date= February 25, 2021|publisher=Capitol & Washington|access-date=December 1, 2021}}</ref> After 1809, the Indiana legislature assumed more authority and the territory advanced toward statehood.