The Long Arm of the Shortest President
William Henry Harrison is famous today for the longest inaugural speech at the start of the shortest presidency. Yet by the time he was elected in 1840, Harrison already had a dozen books published about his life. Son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he also was an 1812 war hero, but his popular campaign song Tippecanoe and Tyler Too referred to an earlier career as an Indian fighter. Harrison's military defeat of native rebels at Tippecanoe followed a career of persuading native leaders to sell land for as little as a penny per 200 hundred acres. With the blessing of President Jefferson, Harrison's deals took nearly 60 million acres of present day Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri out of native hands.
Not all natives were on board with the agreements. The Prophet, a Shawnee named Tenskwatawa, urged his men to fight for their land.
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