Chapter 24

NON-POLITICAL EVENTS OF PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TERM

President Harrison's quadrennium was a milestone between two generations. Memorials on every hand to the heroes of the Civil War shocked one with the sense that they and the events they molded were already of the past. Logan, Arthur, Sheridan, and Hancock had died. In 1891 General Sherman and Admiral Porter fell within a day of each other. General Joseph E. Johnston, who had been a pall-bearer at the funeral of each, rejoined them in a month.

This presidential term was pivotal in another way. The centennial anniversary of Washington's inauguration as President fell on April 30, 1889. In observance of the occasion President Harrison followed the itinerary of one hundred years before, from the Governor's mansion in New Jersey to the foot of Wall Street, in New York City, to old St. Paul's Church, on Broadway, and to the site where the first Chief Magistrate first took the oath of office. Three days devoted to the commemorative exercises were a round of naval, military, and industrial parades, with music, oratory, pageantry, and festivities. For this Centennial Whittier composed an ode. The venerable Rev. S. F. Smith, who had written "America" fifty-seven years before, was also inspired by the occasion to pen a Century Hymn, and to add to "America" the stanza:

"Our joyful hearts to-day, Their grateful tribute pay, Happy and free, After our toils and fears, After our blood and tears, Strong with our hundred years, O God, to Thee."