Benjamin Harrison was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893.

He was a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, creating the only grandfather-grandson duo to have held the office. He was also a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a founding father who signed the Declaration of Independence.

The Indiana General Assembly elected Harrison to a six-year term in the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1881 to 1887.

The Republicans chose Harrison as their nominee because of his war record, his popularity with veterans, his ability to express the Republican Party's views, and the fact that he lived in the swing state of Indiana.

Harrison's opponent in the general election was incumbent President Grover Cleveland. Harrison received 90,000 fewer popular votes than Cleveland, but carried the Electoral College 233 to 168. Although he made no political bargains himself, Harrison's supporters made many pledges on his behalf. When political boss Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania heard that Harrison ascribed his narrow victory to Providence, Quay exclaimed that Harrison would never know "how close a number of men were compelled to approach the penitentiary to make him president."

As first lady, Caroline Harrison was noted for her elegant White House receptions and dinners. She also purged the White House of rodent and insect populations, laid new floors, installed new plumbing, painted and wallpapered, and added more bathrooms. In 1891 she had electricity installed but was too frightened to handle the switches. She left the lights on all night and a building engineer turned them off each morning.

The Harrison family were great animal lovers and brought a number of pets with them to the White House, including a goat named Whiskers, a mixed-breed collie named Dash, and two opossums named Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection.

Harrison was a gifted public speaker, but he hated small-talk. He developed a stiff and formal personality as president and was so cold on a personal level that his own staff privately referred to him as "the human iceberg."

Levi P. Morton served as vice president from 1889 to 1893. In 1894, Morton was the successful Republican nominee for governor of New York, and he served one term from 1895 to 1896.

Harrison vetoed 44 bills during his presidency (19 regular vetoes and 25 pocket vetoes), with just one of his vetoes being overridden by Congress.