Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy

The book is good for what it is. It is a summary of parts of Harrison's life as Governor on the frontier of Indiana. It does not give much biographical data, nor does it elaborate on the election or his political views. It mostly deals with Harrison's treatment of the Indians, of which the author strongly disapproves. The commentary is strongly leftist and slanders several former Presidents for their outrageous belief that American culture and Christianity is superior to the savage way of life and their worship of the Great Spirit. There are not many accessible biographies of Harrison and this does give the reader a glimpse of who he was.On June 22, 1807 the British warship Chesapeake encountered the American ship Leopard in American territorial waters. The latter did not have its guns installed. The British were ruthless toward the Americans on the seas. The captain ordered the Americans to stand down and allow the Brits to board. They were searching for deserters from the Royal Navy. But this was an American ship, not a merchant ship, and in American territorial waters. When the US captain refused the Chesapeake fired, killing three and wounding others. They then boarded the ship and removed the accused deserters. This policy of impressment was one of the reasons for the War of 1812. It was considered the second American Revolution and seen as inevitable due to British treatment of America.William Henry Harrison, son of the Revolutionary hero, was Governor of the Indiana Territory at this time. He viewed Britain as an enemy that allied with the Indians against America. ¨For who does not know that the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage are always employed as the instruments of British vengeance.¨ Most Americans agreed. The years of Jefferson's Presidency, 1801-1809, coincided with the most crucial years of Harrison's governorship in Indiana Territory. During these years he won land cessions from the Indians that accounted for about half of what would become the state of Indiana.Harrison was born to wealth in Virginia. The Whig campaign of the 1840's portrayed him as a hard cider drinking Ohio farmer, which was false. It was a log cabin campaign portraying him as a regular Joe against President Van Buren. It worked and he won the Presidency, though he would die just one month after taking the oath of office, making way for John Tyler to assume his duties.At the Peace of Paris America gained the western lands from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian mountains. But the Indians caused problems. After many deaths in the 1780's, America decided to purchase these lands from the Indians in land cession treaties. George Rogers Clark had won much of this land in the Revolutionary War but the reality was much different with many tribes living in the area. The British refused to vacate their forts in the Great Lakes region in agreement with the Paris Peace Treaty. They had a lucrative trade market with the Indians for furs. The Ohio Valley Indians refused to sell their land. Wayne had an army known as the Legion which was well known for its discipline and efficiency. Wayne and others noted the valor and skill of Harrison in one of the battles during Washington's Presidency.After the battle at Fallen Timbers a treaty was signed by the Delawares, Wyandots, Shawnees, Miamis, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Potawatamis. The Kickapoos, Weas, Eel Rivers, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias did not oppose the United States. In the treaty annuities were granted to the tribes. The treaty ended war in the Great Lakes-Ohion Valley region for 15 years.There were American abuses such as horse thievery that resulted in retaliation by the Indians.Harrison said that there was ¨no dishonor in a well meant and well conducted enterprise, even if it should fail in its object.¨ The Ordinance of 1787, also known as the Northwest Ordinance, detailed how the Ohio Territory would in the future consist of 3 to 5 states. It prohibited slavery within the territory.Jeffersonianism sought to reduce the size of the standing army if not eliminate it. Harrison opposed. He believed that militias were not well disciplined and desired to return home quickly. Congress reduced the army.Harrison set up land sale offices of public land. He was supported by Gallatin and opposed by the Federalists.Harrison had 10 children with only the last dying in infancy. The name of his estate was Grouseland.As Governor he brought slaves to the area. Even when this became unpopular later he stuck to his pro-slavery stance.President Jefferson wrote Harrison a letter. He urged the Governor to attempt to convert the Indians to farming, trade, and debt, by which they would agree to sell their lands. Many desired that the Indians be assimilated into American culture as their only path to existence.The most popular measure of Harrison's governorship was his land cession deals. His slavery position became unpopular as many anti-slavery people moved into the territory. He also moved Indiana to the second grade of government according to the Northwest Ordinance which was just one grade removed from statehood with equal rights as the other states.In 1805 arose an Indian resistance led by the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa and later his brother Tecumseh. Harrison opposed both men and issued a challenge to the prophet to make the sun turn black. A few days later there was a solar eclipse. At this time Aaron Burr attempted to throw the US into upheaval.At the least Burr desired to create an army to liberate Mexico and establish himself as Emperor. Others charged he attempted to break away the western territories to establish a republic, with himself as its leader. He contacted the British for Naval aid. Pitt's death in 1806 ended Burr's hopes for this assistance. Burr's co-conspirator was General James Wilkinson, military governor of the Louisiana-Missouri region. Burr had fooled Andrew Jackson who issued him a private contract into believing that he was only attacking Spain. Jefferson tried him for treason but his nemesis Chief Justice John Marshall acquitted him.Harrison attempted to establish a planter elite in the west who supported slavery. Migrants to Indiana resented them. Anti-slavery sentiment in the East was strongest, particularly along the Ohio. Resistance to Harrison arose among two other groups as well. Pro-slavery Illinois men resented him not choosing representatives from west of the Wabash. The third group wanted self-government and resented his veto and appointments. Harrison faced an antislavery faction, a pro-slavery and pro-division faction (Illinois), and a pro self-government faction. In the elections of 1808 the pro-slavery pro-division faction united with the anti-slavery faction united. They agreed on a division of territory and free soil east of the Wabash.In Virginia, militia status mimicked social status. An officer was a gentleman. A gentleman was someone who did not need employment to be self-sufficient. He was of the land owning aristocracy. This idea had its roots in ancient Rome. The arms bearing English yeomanry and gentry were so closely related to the farmer-soldiers of the venerated Roman republic that Edward Gibbon wrote in his famous Decline and Fall that the captain of the Hampshire militia had not been useless to the historian of the Roman Empire. Harrison wrote: ¨One of the principal characteristics which distinguishes the citizens of a free government from the subjects of a despotic one is the right of keeping arms; and that any American should neglect to avail himself of this valuable privilege manifests a supineness which is highly censurable.¨ Many agreed with him. The result was the Militia Act of 1807 which would raise a force to combat the savages. Despite opposition close to home, the Jefferson and Madison administrations supported him.The Indiana territory grew significantly demographically during Harrison's tenure. It consisted of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. They produced cotton, nails, leather, whiskey, wheat, lumber, spinning wheels and a loom. Harrison criticized taxes on milk and workhorses as burdensome on the poor. Gils were to learn to read and write, master basic figuring and manners and etiquette. Classical philosophy and languages, history and the natural sciences were strictly for the males. Prior to the Revolution only the New England colonies allowed for absolute divorce in which both could marry again. After the Revolution every state legislature except South Carolina passed similar laws. This was a major break from English practice. Harrison viewed pure democracy as mob rule, as did many of the leaders of early America.Tecumseh made an alliance with the British. This was due in part to Harrison's Fort Wayne land cession treaties. At a conference at Grouseland Tecumseh raised his tomahawk and Harrison his dress sword until cooler heads prevailed. Harrison assembled a force of 1,000 with Kentucky men who believed Great Britain had driven them to a second revolution as important as the first that must involve driving them out or the Declaration of Independence would be for nought.At the battle of Tippecanoe Harrison lost 68 men killed to the Indians 50. The Indians fled the field under the prophet and Tecumseh was not present. Harrison burned the food and everything else. The author disagrees that the Battle of Tippecanoe was a great victory that staved off disaster on the frontier. In the aftermath Indians terrorized settlers in Indiana and Illinois.In January 1813 General James Winchester disobeyed orders and advanced north to the River Raisin. He and his men were captured and later 30 were massacred by drunk Indians. The Massacre on the River Raisin became a battle cry against the British as Remember the Raisin. Indians did not think that killing prisoners was wrong. They either adopted or killed women and infants. Where the Indians had lost lives it was nearly impossible to save any prisoner. The British and Indians attempted to take Fort Meigs with Harrison inside but could not, though they killed 300 and captured 600. At the Battle of the Thames Richard Mentor Johnson, leader of the Kentucky militia, is said to have killed Tecumseh. This was Harrison's last battle. The treaty of Ghent ended the second Revolutionary War. Johnson became Van Buren's Vice President. Harrison lost on the Whig ticket in 1836 and won in 1840 with the ¨Log Cabin Campaign.¨ This highlighted his Indian fighting and frontier, common man personality. Harrison crushed Van Buren with his Tippecanoe and Tyler, too slogan.Harrison's tomb lies on the Ohio River with a giant monument. Benjamin Harrison, his grandson, was elected President in 1888.

I just finished reading Owens' work *Mr. Jefferson's Hammer* last night. Overall it was an interesting work. As a life long resident of the northeast corner of the Vincennes Tract, this book is set kind-of in my stomping grounds. I have visited Grouseland several times, but this is the first book I have read about William Henry Harrison.In this 2007 book Professor Owens paints a cultural biography of WHH. He writes of the events of WHH's life, primarily focusing on his time in Indiana as territorial Governor and then General. I enjoyed the details of his military service and Indian treaty negotiations. He notes that much of the flak WHH took during his time as Governor was probably personal and from patronage's "outs" who wished they were his "ins", not based on any real misconduct of WHH.In this book Owens seems to like WHH, or at least not dislike him. He is very clear that he rejects much (most?) of the worldview of WHH and the men of his generation, such as their thoughts on race, slavery, patriarchy, and the role of women in society. *Mr. Jefferson's Hammer* is obviously written from a leftist and Enlightenment perspective, as is to be expected of anything published by a university press in the last half century. It just assumes that modernity is correct and the past benighted and oppressive. But the leftism of this book is *mild* in that it wants to preserve history, even if it disagrees with the philosophy driving its main characters, not the *extreme* leftism we saw during the summer of 2020 where mobs demanded statues of past White men be torn down and streets and schools renamed. Overall this was a decent book for the time period it was written in. But I like older books best.

I never read reviews before I start a book. Everyone has an opinion; sometimes we agree and other times we don't. Sometimes I take a break from reading and take a look at what others have said.In the case of Mr. Jefferson's Hammer, I found that most readers did not like this book. I take the other position. Although this book is not a "Presidential" biography as one would expect, it paints a picture of William Henry Harrison in describing the way his politics evolved.Mr. Harrison, the 10th US President, died one month into office. After giving a two hours inauguration speech, he contracted Pneumonia. In the 1800s, one did not have great odds of survival from Pneumonia. He was succeeded by John Tyler, often called the "accidental president."Personally, I found this fascinating. President Thomas Jefferson had a very strange view of the Native Americans. Since the "white culture" was so much more evolved, by eliminating the Native American cultures and making them educated as Europeans, he would save them from themselves. This was obvious to him.Jefferson found Harrison, an affluent educated Virginian like himself. Harrison wanted to serve government, as his father did. (His father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia.) Harrison was given several jobs before finally receiving a commission in the military. While he had no experience per se, he was seen to be a gentleman (a requirement for officers) and was well read on military strategy. After fighting several wars against the various Native American tribes and British Agents, he was made chief negotiator of treaties with the tribes.He was a shrewd negotiator, who took every advantage he could find to acquire land. He saw himself, as Jefferson saw himself, as a redeemer to the Native Americans. In reality, he caused grief and disadvantage to the entire Native American nation. His actions caused skirmishes and battles between the white settlers and the Native Americans, ultimately leading to the disbursal of the remaining Native Americans to ever more remote Reservations.After a brief retirement, he was called back to government service. He served as Vice President under Andrew Jackson. Jackson worked feverishly to help get Harrison elected. And he succeeded.The book itself read very well. It did not feel like reading history, although I know it was. The story was told from a vantage point of almost being inside of the action. Owens brought the characters to life.Now, that all being said, I do agree with the other reviewers that the book would have been more fulfilling had Owens carried it just a month further to learn more about what Harrison did during his short one month term as President of the United States. But, the knowledge gained through the rest of the book was well worth this minor disappointment.

I am trying to read a book about each of the US Presidents. This is one of the few books that I could find about William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States.The problem with this book, given what I'm trying to do, is that this book isn't really about his presidency (such as it was -it lasted 31 days). What does do is give you an idea about the character of the guy, which is... a product of his Virginia planter society at the turn of the 17th (into 18th) Century.The result is that you're probably not going to like him much, if you look at him through a 20th Century lens. He's misogynistic (he'd probably have called it paternalistic), racist (he is the epitome of how Anglo society at the time managed African and Native-Americans at the time), and... the sort that would look down on the middle, and working class. So... all in all, he's not someone we'd recognise nowadays.This said, if you're interested American presidential history, you'd find it interesting. It will give you a sense of what society was like way back when, and how those who thought they were "born to lead" acted at the time.The one thing I didn't realise was that he ran for President in 1836, and lost to Martin Van Buren, which isn't something I remember reading about before.