Harrison was tutored at home until age 14.

(meta data) TITLE: William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency | Miller Center

# William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency

## William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency

More than once, William Henry Harrison referred to himself as a "Child of the Revolution."

When the Harrison family had their baby, William, on February 9, 1773, musket fire at Lexington Green was only two years away.

The Harrisons were one of Virginia's elite families and close friends of the Washingtons.

The Declaration of Independence bears the signature of William's father, Benjamin, who served three terms as governor of Virginia.

William's mother, Elizabeth Bassett Harrison, hailed from one of the colony's earliest and most prestigious families.

It is likely that some of William's memories were of his parents talking about General Washington and his marathon struggle against England.

After all, the family plantation lay just thirty miles from Yorktown, at the base of the peninsula where Washington trapped Cornwallis's army in the battle that sealed the British fate in the Revolutionary War.

Doubtless the eight-year-old boy hailed the passing Continental troops, stared in awe at the great man leading them, thrilled at the news of the siege of Yorktown, and celebrated when word came of the British surrender.

William was the youngest of seven children, which under the laws and customs of the day limited his prospects.

A family's property usually went to the eldest son, with younger male siblings entering the military, clergy, or trade.

It was plain to William early in life that he would have to learn self-sufficiency.

The boy enjoyed a solid education—tutored at home, then three years at Hampden-Sydney College in Hanover County, Virginia.

Benjamin Harrison wanted his youngest child to be a doctor and sent him to Philadelphia to study under the tutelage of renowned physician Benjamin Rush.

In 1791, however, William's father died, leaving virtually all his estate to William's older brothers.

Short of money and not enthusiastic about a career in medicine, the young man quickly left medical school to pursue the military career he had always wanted.

Virtually all of William's life, there had been armed conflict somewhere in America—the Revolution, skirmishes with Native Americans, land disputes with the Spanish and French.

The military offered an opportunity for a bright, aspiring young man to make a name for himself.

Soon after leaving medical studies, Harrison used his family's connections with the Lee and Washington families to procure an officer's rank in an infantry division.

The eighteen-year-old Harrison rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to his assigned post, Fort Washington in the Northwest Territory.

The young man had entered the army as an ensign, the lowest officer's rank, but he made a strong impression and quickly won promotion to lieutenant.

The fort's commander, General Mad Anthony Wayne, made the handsome, polished Harrison his aide after a little more than a year of service there.

Mad Anthony commanded Fort Washington, near present-day Cincinnati—an installation established to protect settlers against Native Americans and the British agents who incited them.

By 1794, matters had reached the boiling point, and General Wayne readied the fort for a large-scale assault by Indian forces.

Harrison fought bravely and well, winning a citation from General Wayne for his valor: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp . . . Lieutenant Harrison, who . . . rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction . . .

conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory."

The rousing victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers ended the strong Native American presence in that part of the Northwest Territory, opening it for colonization.

After Wayne's death in 1795, Captain Harrison took command of Fort Washington.

Newcomers to the area near Fort Washington included twenty-year-old Anna Symmes.

Her father had just been appointed judge for the region.

Anna was quickly smitten by the handsome young officer, but her father disapproved, thinking his daughter could make a richer match elsewhere.

The young couple waited until Anna's father had to travel to another part of the territory; when he did, they found a justice of the peace and eloped.

When Judge Symmes returned and learned of the marriage, he shouted at Harrison, "How, sir, do you intend to support my daughter?"

The soldier coolly replied, "Sir, my sword is my means of support."

For Harrison, the marriage was politically astute.

The Symmes family had inside connections with the local land speculators, something the new son-in-law exploited.

By 1798, Captain Harrison saw the army as a career dead end and resigned his commission.

His father-in-law still saw little in Harrison to be impressed with, writing a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied."

Finally, the judge used his contacts in Washington.

The new President, John Adams, named Harrison secretary of the Northwest Territory.

In 1799, the territory could send a delegate to the United States Congress for the first time, and Harrison was elected to fill the post.

He played expertly to the voters by reforming land-buying policies allowing only large purchases.

These enabled cash-strapped settlers to buy smaller lots on four-year installment plans.

By 1800, the Harrisons had three of what would eventually be ten children, although only four would live to see their father in the White House.

That year the Northwest Territory split into what were known as the Ohio and Indiana Territories, and President Adams named Harrison governor of the latter.

This region was comprised of what would later be all or sections of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Harrison built a palatial home he called "Grouseland" near his headquarters in Vincennes.

The home came to be a political focal point for the territory, frequently hosting officials, friends, and meetings with Native Americans.

William Henry Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory for twelve years.

He speculated in land, invested in two mill enterprises, and had a reputation as an honest administrator.

To his credit, he was instrumental in improving the roads and other infrastructure in the region.

However, the primary task charged to him by Presidents Adams and Jefferson was to secure legal claims to as much territorial land from Native Americans as possible.

To many Native Americans of that era, the idea of owning land was a completely alien concept.

To claim sole right to a plot of land seemed as absurd as claiming sole right to the air.

Harrison took advantage of the Indians' communal approach to territory.

The governor pushed through seven treaties with Indians from 1802 through 1805, most shamefully exploitative of Native American poverty, corrupt leadership, or inability to hold liquor.

This culminated in late 1805 with a massive, largely fraudulent landgrab of 51 million acres.

Harrison and his aides warmly received five minor chiefs from the Sac tribe, softened them up with alcohol, then persuaded them to sign away one-third of modern Illinois, as well as sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri, for one penny per two hundred acres.

The leading Native American chief in the region, Tecumseh, grew increasingly angry by the endless encroachments of settlers.

He envisioned a grand alliance of Indian tribes, aided by the British, to stop it and began negotiating with other chiefs and Royal Army officers.

Despite their defeat in the Revolution, the British had never really given up on restoring America to rule by the Crown, and by this time they continued to assert themselves on the young nation's western frontiers.

Two British forts stood across the river from Detroit, and English agents were continually inciting Indian tribes to harass and attack settlers.

In response, congressional leaders like Henry Clay began to push for war with Britain.

Harrison, meanwhile, invited more than a thousand Native Americans for yet another round of land negotiations.

He offered to buy nearly three million acres of their land—for just under two cents an acre.

Harrison was attempting to secure the land to expedite statehood for a section of the territory called Indiana.

Indian tensions, inflamed by Tecumseh, were high, and the timing for such an action was not good.

The presidency of the United States, however, had just changed hands from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, and in the shift of power, Harrison's actions went largely unquestioned by the federal government.

Harrison did not invite Tecumseh or other openly hostile tribes to the conference, despite the fact that earlier treaties had named these tribes sole owners of the land now in question.

The Treaty of Fort Wayne was signed, and for Tecumseh, it was the last straw.

He openly courted British military assistance, and redoubled efforts at assembling a confederacy of tribes to retake lost Indian lands.

Word of this trouble reached Harrison through his network of spies among the Indian tribes, and he began asking President Madison to fund military preparations.

Madison, not eager to start a fight, dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate an end to the crisis with Tecumseh.

He sent a letter to the chief, warning him: "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash."

Tecumseh and his elite guard of about 75 warriors confronted Harrison and his officials outside the governor's Grouseland home on August 15, 1810.

The two had never met in person, and for days the impassioned Tecumseh berated the affable, condescending Harrison.

He plainly told the governor that any further incursions into Indian lands would mean war.

Harrison insisted that the land had been acquired legally, and Tecumseh began shouting that the governor was a liar.

Swords and war clubs were drawn, pistols cocked, and for a few seconds both sides stared one another down.

The council broke up, and negotiations never really got back on track.

Tecumseh traveled throughout the great territory, recruiting tribes for his quest to retake it.

Harrison became increasingly concerned that the chief's actions would slow Indiana's statehood and his own political climb, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages."

Indian raids on outlying settlements increased.

In the late summer of 1811, the Madison administration finally sanctioned a raid to punish the Native Americans.

Despite being thirteen years removed from military experience, Harrison managed to convince the President to allow him to command the operation.

In October, he set out from Vincennes with a mixed force of regular Army troops, volunteers, and militia.

Harrison saw it as a good time for such a strike because Tecumseh was out of the territory recruiting allies for his cause; in his absence, the Indians were led by his brother, Tenskwatawa, a spiritual leader known as the "Prophet."

On the sixth day of November in 1811, Harrison's force of about 950 moved into position outside the Prophet's camp, beside a small river known as the Tippecanoe.

Tired from their march, they made a camp of their own and prepared to attack the next day.

It had been a long time since Harrison had commanded troops, and the rust quickly showed.

The Indians discovered his force by the campfires he had allowed, and they infiltrated his camp before dawn on November 7.

Outnumbered, the Prophet's warriors were short of ammunition, but they had surprise on their side.

Several Army officers were killed, and their men broke and ran.

Dazed with sleep and terror, silhouetted against the campfires, many were cut down by the Prophet's warriors.

Harrison leapt onto his horse almost immediately, rallying his men.

Try as they might, the Indians could not get through the Army rifle lines and get the bulk of their force inside the camp.

They broke off the attack and melted into the woods.

Harrison ordered a counterattack that was successful in routing the Native Americans by midmorning.

The graves of several Indians killed in the battle were dug up and desecrated.

The battle became the talk of the young nation.

Public reaction to Harrison's actions ran mixed, but was on the whole favorable.

There were mutterings of poor generalship and the steep loss of life, but others welcomed the revenge on the Indians whose raids had increased in frequency and severity on the western frontier.

#### War of 1812 and Battle at Thames River

The Battle of Tippecanoe was good for William Henry Harrison and no one else.

While the Native American alliance had been badly frayed, it only hardened the resolve of warrior chiefs like Tecumseh.

Now they were not just fighting to retake their land; they were seeking revenge.

Vicious new raids terrified the settlers.

In the meantime, relations with Britain had worsened badly, and when America declared war against it in the summer of 1812 the Indians were even further emboldened.

By fall, Harrison commanded all forces in the Northwest with the rank of major general.

With the country ill prepared for war, it had been a disastrous summer for the American cause.

Much of the Indiana Territory had fallen to British control, and the fortress at Detroit had surrendered disgracefully.

Harrison received orders to retake Detroit and thus bolster morale, but Harrison cautiously held back, unwilling to press the war northward.

In September of 1813, however, Americans regained control of Lake Erie with Oliver Hazard Perry's smashing victory over the British fleet.

Once Perry sent the message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," England's prime supply line into the United was severed.

American troops could now be ferried across the lake into Canada to engage the British.

By the end of the month, Harrison's forces had retaken Detroit; they turned to chasing down the British and Native Americans.

Among them was Harrison's old enemy, Tecumseh.

On October 5, Harrison engaged the enemy in what is now Kent County in the province of Ontario, near a river called the Thames.

Harrison's force outnumbered the British-Indian contingent three to one and contained a band of Kentucky marksmen who were tremendous close-in fighters.

The British, poorly deployed and ill trained for such warfare, either fell dead or surrendered.

The Native Americans fared better, fighting off the initial assault by Harrison's men.

But the American force was relentless and finally overpowering.

Tecumseh was killed, and the Indians were routed, their alliance in the region smashed for good.

The victory did much the same for Harrison that the triumph at New Orleans did for Andrew Jackson later in the war.

(See Jackson biography, Life Before the Presidency section, for details.)

The War of 1812 had been a string of demoralizing defeats for the Americans, and the conflict was unpopular with many factions.

The victory at the Thames River boosted American morale and secured the national reputation of its commander.

Harrison, however, handled his sudden fame in a very different fashion than Old Hickory, and the difference speaks volumes about each man.

Jackson remained in the war and led expeditions against Native American contingents for years afterward.

The battle at the Thames River, on the other hand, virtually finished Harrison's military career.

Instead of following up on his triumph and wiping out the remaining British in Canada, Harrison took leave from the Army and undertook a tour of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, soaking up the adulation offered by each city.

He stayed in the East for months, choosing celebrity over duty, enjoying parties and banquets in his honor.

In May of 1814, with the war still raging, William Henry Harrison resigned from the Army once again and settled into life on his farm in North Bend, near Cincinnati.

#### A Quarter-Century in the Political Wilderness

Harrison's climb to political power would be a long and rocky one.

He spent the following twenty-five years, well into his late sixties, trying to seek office of one kind or another.

He was successful in getting to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1816 to 1819.

He lived well beyond his means and soon plunged deep into debt.

Harrison tried to secure the office of secretary of war in the new administration of President James Monroe but lost out to John C. Calhoun.

Harrison was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia.

His political career began to come to a close.

After his term in Congress, he returned to Ohio, won a post in its state senate, then lost a bid for governor of the state in 1820.

Over the next two years, he ran for both of Ohio's seats in the U.S. Senate and lost both races.

The failures peaked with an unsuccessful attempt to return to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1822, at the age of 59.

Personal tragedy showed its face, too: six of Harrison's ten children died between 1817 and 1840.

Harrison kept trying, and in 1824 he finally won a U.S. Senate seat.

He had barely arrived in Washington, D.C., before he began angling for posts.

He secured appointments to two military committees.

Then Harrison prevailed on his old friend Henry Clay—now secretary of state to the new President, John Quincy Adams—to be named an ambassador to Colombia.

Clay managed to push the appointment through in 1828, despite Adams's distaste for what he considered Harrison's "rabid thirst for lucrative office."

Colombia was a volatile post in early 1829, torn by revolution and foreign war.

Harrison's missteps were bad and frequent.

He failed to show neutrality in the nation's affairs and publicly sided with the opposition to President Simón Bolívar.

Colombia angrily planned to expel the envoy.

When Andrew Jackson assumed the presidency in March, he quickly recalled his old foe and used the post to repay a political favor from his campaign.

Harrison returned to Ohio, where his farm did not perform well, and money problems grew; he was reduced to a menial job as recorder for his county to make ends meet.

###### Life Before the Presidency (Current Essay)

Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison, born on February 9, 1773 at Berkeley Plantation, the Harrison family home along the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. He was a member of a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s and the last American president born as a British subject. His father was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence. His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–84) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–99).


Harrison entered Hampden–Sydney College when he was 14.

(meta data) TITLE: William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency | Miller Center

# William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency

## William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency

More than once, William Henry Harrison referred to himself as a "Child of the Revolution."

When the Harrison family had their baby, William, on February 9, 1773, musket fire at Lexington Green was only two years away.

The Harrisons were one of Virginia's elite families and close friends of the Washingtons.

The Declaration of Independence bears the signature of William's father, Benjamin, who served three terms as governor of Virginia.

William's mother, Elizabeth Bassett Harrison, hailed from one of the colony's earliest and most prestigious families.

It is likely that some of William's memories were of his parents talking about General Washington and his marathon struggle against England.

After all, the family plantation lay just thirty miles from Yorktown, at the base of the peninsula where Washington trapped Cornwallis's army in the battle that sealed the British fate in the Revolutionary War.

Doubtless the eight-year-old boy hailed the passing Continental troops, stared in awe at the great man leading them, thrilled at the news of the siege of Yorktown, and celebrated when word came of the British surrender.

William was the youngest of seven children, which under the laws and customs of the day limited his prospects.

A family's property usually went to the eldest son, with younger male siblings entering the military, clergy, or trade.

It was plain to William early in life that he would have to learn self-sufficiency.

The boy enjoyed a solid education—tutored at home, then three years at Hampden-Sydney College in Hanover County, Virginia.

Benjamin Harrison wanted his youngest child to be a doctor and sent him to Philadelphia to study under the tutelage of renowned physician Benjamin Rush.

In 1791, however, William's father died, leaving virtually all his estate to William's older brothers.

Short of money and not enthusiastic about a career in medicine, the young man quickly left medical school to pursue the military career he had always wanted.

Virtually all of William's life, there had been armed conflict somewhere in America—the Revolution, skirmishes with Native Americans, land disputes with the Spanish and French.

The military offered an opportunity for a bright, aspiring young man to make a name for himself.

Soon after leaving medical studies, Harrison used his family's connections with the Lee and Washington families to procure an officer's rank in an infantry division.

The eighteen-year-old Harrison rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to his assigned post, Fort Washington in the Northwest Territory.

The young man had entered the army as an ensign, the lowest officer's rank, but he made a strong impression and quickly won promotion to lieutenant.

The fort's commander, General Mad Anthony Wayne, made the handsome, polished Harrison his aide after a little more than a year of service there.

Mad Anthony commanded Fort Washington, near present-day Cincinnati—an installation established to protect settlers against Native Americans and the British agents who incited them.

By 1794, matters had reached the boiling point, and General Wayne readied the fort for a large-scale assault by Indian forces.

Harrison fought bravely and well, winning a citation from General Wayne for his valor: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp . . . Lieutenant Harrison, who . . . rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction . . .

conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory."

The rousing victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers ended the strong Native American presence in that part of the Northwest Territory, opening it for colonization.

After Wayne's death in 1795, Captain Harrison took command of Fort Washington.

Newcomers to the area near Fort Washington included twenty-year-old Anna Symmes.

Her father had just been appointed judge for the region.

Anna was quickly smitten by the handsome young officer, but her father disapproved, thinking his daughter could make a richer match elsewhere.

The young couple waited until Anna's father had to travel to another part of the territory; when he did, they found a justice of the peace and eloped.

When Judge Symmes returned and learned of the marriage, he shouted at Harrison, "How, sir, do you intend to support my daughter?"

The soldier coolly replied, "Sir, my sword is my means of support."

For Harrison, the marriage was politically astute.

The Symmes family had inside connections with the local land speculators, something the new son-in-law exploited.

By 1798, Captain Harrison saw the army as a career dead end and resigned his commission.

His father-in-law still saw little in Harrison to be impressed with, writing a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied."

Finally, the judge used his contacts in Washington.

The new President, John Adams, named Harrison secretary of the Northwest Territory.

In 1799, the territory could send a delegate to the United States Congress for the first time, and Harrison was elected to fill the post.

He played expertly to the voters by reforming land-buying policies allowing only large purchases.

These enabled cash-strapped settlers to buy smaller lots on four-year installment plans.

By 1800, the Harrisons had three of what would eventually be ten children, although only four would live to see their father in the White House.

That year the Northwest Territory split into what were known as the Ohio and Indiana Territories, and President Adams named Harrison governor of the latter.

This region was comprised of what would later be all or sections of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Harrison built a palatial home he called "Grouseland" near his headquarters in Vincennes.

The home came to be a political focal point for the territory, frequently hosting officials, friends, and meetings with Native Americans.

William Henry Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory for twelve years.

He speculated in land, invested in two mill enterprises, and had a reputation as an honest administrator.

To his credit, he was instrumental in improving the roads and other infrastructure in the region.

However, the primary task charged to him by Presidents Adams and Jefferson was to secure legal claims to as much territorial land from Native Americans as possible.

To many Native Americans of that era, the idea of owning land was a completely alien concept.

To claim sole right to a plot of land seemed as absurd as claiming sole right to the air.

Harrison took advantage of the Indians' communal approach to territory.

The governor pushed through seven treaties with Indians from 1802 through 1805, most shamefully exploitative of Native American poverty, corrupt leadership, or inability to hold liquor.

This culminated in late 1805 with a massive, largely fraudulent landgrab of 51 million acres.

Harrison and his aides warmly received five minor chiefs from the Sac tribe, softened them up with alcohol, then persuaded them to sign away one-third of modern Illinois, as well as sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri, for one penny per two hundred acres.

The leading Native American chief in the region, Tecumseh, grew increasingly angry by the endless encroachments of settlers.

He envisioned a grand alliance of Indian tribes, aided by the British, to stop it and began negotiating with other chiefs and Royal Army officers.

Despite their defeat in the Revolution, the British had never really given up on restoring America to rule by the Crown, and by this time they continued to assert themselves on the young nation's western frontiers.

Two British forts stood across the river from Detroit, and English agents were continually inciting Indian tribes to harass and attack settlers.

In response, congressional leaders like Henry Clay began to push for war with Britain.

Harrison, meanwhile, invited more than a thousand Native Americans for yet another round of land negotiations.

He offered to buy nearly three million acres of their land—for just under two cents an acre.

Harrison was attempting to secure the land to expedite statehood for a section of the territory called Indiana.

Indian tensions, inflamed by Tecumseh, were high, and the timing for such an action was not good.

The presidency of the United States, however, had just changed hands from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, and in the shift of power, Harrison's actions went largely unquestioned by the federal government.

Harrison did not invite Tecumseh or other openly hostile tribes to the conference, despite the fact that earlier treaties had named these tribes sole owners of the land now in question.

The Treaty of Fort Wayne was signed, and for Tecumseh, it was the last straw.

He openly courted British military assistance, and redoubled efforts at assembling a confederacy of tribes to retake lost Indian lands.

Word of this trouble reached Harrison through his network of spies among the Indian tribes, and he began asking President Madison to fund military preparations.

Madison, not eager to start a fight, dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate an end to the crisis with Tecumseh.

He sent a letter to the chief, warning him: "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash."

Tecumseh and his elite guard of about 75 warriors confronted Harrison and his officials outside the governor's Grouseland home on August 15, 1810.

The two had never met in person, and for days the impassioned Tecumseh berated the affable, condescending Harrison.

He plainly told the governor that any further incursions into Indian lands would mean war.

Harrison insisted that the land had been acquired legally, and Tecumseh began shouting that the governor was a liar.

Swords and war clubs were drawn, pistols cocked, and for a few seconds both sides stared one another down.

The council broke up, and negotiations never really got back on track.

Tecumseh traveled throughout the great territory, recruiting tribes for his quest to retake it.

Harrison became increasingly concerned that the chief's actions would slow Indiana's statehood and his own political climb, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages."

Indian raids on outlying settlements increased.

In the late summer of 1811, the Madison administration finally sanctioned a raid to punish the Native Americans.

Despite being thirteen years removed from military experience, Harrison managed to convince the President to allow him to command the operation.

In October, he set out from Vincennes with a mixed force of regular Army troops, volunteers, and militia.

Harrison saw it as a good time for such a strike because Tecumseh was out of the territory recruiting allies for his cause; in his absence, the Indians were led by his brother, Tenskwatawa, a spiritual leader known as the "Prophet."

On the sixth day of November in 1811, Harrison's force of about 950 moved into position outside the Prophet's camp, beside a small river known as the Tippecanoe.

Tired from their march, they made a camp of their own and prepared to attack the next day.

It had been a long time since Harrison had commanded troops, and the rust quickly showed.

The Indians discovered his force by the campfires he had allowed, and they infiltrated his camp before dawn on November 7.

Outnumbered, the Prophet's warriors were short of ammunition, but they had surprise on their side.

Several Army officers were killed, and their men broke and ran.

Dazed with sleep and terror, silhouetted against the campfires, many were cut down by the Prophet's warriors.

Harrison leapt onto his horse almost immediately, rallying his men.

Try as they might, the Indians could not get through the Army rifle lines and get the bulk of their force inside the camp.

They broke off the attack and melted into the woods.

Harrison ordered a counterattack that was successful in routing the Native Americans by midmorning.

The graves of several Indians killed in the battle were dug up and desecrated.

The battle became the talk of the young nation.

Public reaction to Harrison's actions ran mixed, but was on the whole favorable.

There were mutterings of poor generalship and the steep loss of life, but others welcomed the revenge on the Indians whose raids had increased in frequency and severity on the western frontier.

#### War of 1812 and Battle at Thames River

The Battle of Tippecanoe was good for William Henry Harrison and no one else.

While the Native American alliance had been badly frayed, it only hardened the resolve of warrior chiefs like Tecumseh.

Now they were not just fighting to retake their land; they were seeking revenge.

Vicious new raids terrified the settlers.

In the meantime, relations with Britain had worsened badly, and when America declared war against it in the summer of 1812 the Indians were even further emboldened.

By fall, Harrison commanded all forces in the Northwest with the rank of major general.

With the country ill prepared for war, it had been a disastrous summer for the American cause.

Much of the Indiana Territory had fallen to British control, and the fortress at Detroit had surrendered disgracefully.

Harrison received orders to retake Detroit and thus bolster morale, but Harrison cautiously held back, unwilling to press the war northward.

In September of 1813, however, Americans regained control of Lake Erie with Oliver Hazard Perry's smashing victory over the British fleet.

Once Perry sent the message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," England's prime supply line into the United was severed.

American troops could now be ferried across the lake into Canada to engage the British.

By the end of the month, Harrison's forces had retaken Detroit; they turned to chasing down the British and Native Americans.

Among them was Harrison's old enemy, Tecumseh.

On October 5, Harrison engaged the enemy in what is now Kent County in the province of Ontario, near a river called the Thames.

Harrison's force outnumbered the British-Indian contingent three to one and contained a band of Kentucky marksmen who were tremendous close-in fighters.

The British, poorly deployed and ill trained for such warfare, either fell dead or surrendered.

The Native Americans fared better, fighting off the initial assault by Harrison's men.

But the American force was relentless and finally overpowering.

Tecumseh was killed, and the Indians were routed, their alliance in the region smashed for good.

The victory did much the same for Harrison that the triumph at New Orleans did for Andrew Jackson later in the war.

(See Jackson biography, Life Before the Presidency section, for details.)

The War of 1812 had been a string of demoralizing defeats for the Americans, and the conflict was unpopular with many factions.

The victory at the Thames River boosted American morale and secured the national reputation of its commander.

Harrison, however, handled his sudden fame in a very different fashion than Old Hickory, and the difference speaks volumes about each man.

Jackson remained in the war and led expeditions against Native American contingents for years afterward.

The battle at the Thames River, on the other hand, virtually finished Harrison's military career.

Instead of following up on his triumph and wiping out the remaining British in Canada, Harrison took leave from the Army and undertook a tour of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, soaking up the adulation offered by each city.

He stayed in the East for months, choosing celebrity over duty, enjoying parties and banquets in his honor.

In May of 1814, with the war still raging, William Henry Harrison resigned from the Army once again and settled into life on his farm in North Bend, near Cincinnati.

#### A Quarter-Century in the Political Wilderness

Harrison's climb to political power would be a long and rocky one.

He spent the following twenty-five years, well into his late sixties, trying to seek office of one kind or another.

He was successful in getting to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1816 to 1819.

He lived well beyond his means and soon plunged deep into debt.

Harrison tried to secure the office of secretary of war in the new administration of President James Monroe but lost out to John C. Calhoun.

Harrison was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia.

His political career began to come to a close.

After his term in Congress, he returned to Ohio, won a post in its state senate, then lost a bid for governor of the state in 1820.

Over the next two years, he ran for both of Ohio's seats in the U.S. Senate and lost both races.

The failures peaked with an unsuccessful attempt to return to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1822, at the age of 59.

Personal tragedy showed its face, too: six of Harrison's ten children died between 1817 and 1840.

Harrison kept trying, and in 1824 he finally won a U.S. Senate seat.

He had barely arrived in Washington, D.C., before he began angling for posts.

He secured appointments to two military committees.

Then Harrison prevailed on his old friend Henry Clay—now secretary of state to the new President, John Quincy Adams—to be named an ambassador to Colombia.

Clay managed to push the appointment through in 1828, despite Adams's distaste for what he considered Harrison's "rabid thirst for lucrative office."

Colombia was a volatile post in early 1829, torn by revolution and foreign war.

Harrison's missteps were bad and frequent.

He failed to show neutrality in the nation's affairs and publicly sided with the opposition to President Simón Bolívar.

Colombia angrily planned to expel the envoy.

When Andrew Jackson assumed the presidency in March, he quickly recalled his old foe and used the post to repay a political favor from his campaign.

Harrison returned to Ohio, where his farm did not perform well, and money problems grew; he was reduced to a menial job as recorder for his county to make ends meet.

###### Life Before the Presidency (Current Essay)

Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison, born on February 9, 1773 at Berkeley Plantation, the Harrison family home along the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. He was a member of a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s and the last American president born as a British subject. His father was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence. His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–84) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–99). Harrison was tutored at home until age 14.


Hampden–Sydney College is a Presbyterian college in Virginia.

(meta data) TITLE: William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency | Miller Center

# William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency

## William Harrison: Life Before the Presidency

More than once, William Henry Harrison referred to himself as a "Child of the Revolution."

When the Harrison family had their baby, William, on February 9, 1773, musket fire at Lexington Green was only two years away.

The Harrisons were one of Virginia's elite families and close friends of the Washingtons.

The Declaration of Independence bears the signature of William's father, Benjamin, who served three terms as governor of Virginia.

William's mother, Elizabeth Bassett Harrison, hailed from one of the colony's earliest and most prestigious families.

It is likely that some of William's memories were of his parents talking about General Washington and his marathon struggle against England.

After all, the family plantation lay just thirty miles from Yorktown, at the base of the peninsula where Washington trapped Cornwallis's army in the battle that sealed the British fate in the Revolutionary War.

Doubtless the eight-year-old boy hailed the passing Continental troops, stared in awe at the great man leading them, thrilled at the news of the siege of Yorktown, and celebrated when word came of the British surrender.

William was the youngest of seven children, which under the laws and customs of the day limited his prospects.

A family's property usually went to the eldest son, with younger male siblings entering the military, clergy, or trade.

It was plain to William early in life that he would have to learn self-sufficiency.

The boy enjoyed a solid education—tutored at home, then three years at Hampden-Sydney College in Hanover County, Virginia.

Benjamin Harrison wanted his youngest child to be a doctor and sent him to Philadelphia to study under the tutelage of renowned physician Benjamin Rush.

In 1791, however, William's father died, leaving virtually all his estate to William's older brothers.

Short of money and not enthusiastic about a career in medicine, the young man quickly left medical school to pursue the military career he had always wanted.

Virtually all of William's life, there had been armed conflict somewhere in America—the Revolution, skirmishes with Native Americans, land disputes with the Spanish and French.

The military offered an opportunity for a bright, aspiring young man to make a name for himself.

Soon after leaving medical studies, Harrison used his family's connections with the Lee and Washington families to procure an officer's rank in an infantry division.

The eighteen-year-old Harrison rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to his assigned post, Fort Washington in the Northwest Territory.

The young man had entered the army as an ensign, the lowest officer's rank, but he made a strong impression and quickly won promotion to lieutenant.

The fort's commander, General Mad Anthony Wayne, made the handsome, polished Harrison his aide after a little more than a year of service there.

Mad Anthony commanded Fort Washington, near present-day Cincinnati—an installation established to protect settlers against Native Americans and the British agents who incited them.

By 1794, matters had reached the boiling point, and General Wayne readied the fort for a large-scale assault by Indian forces.

Harrison fought bravely and well, winning a citation from General Wayne for his valor: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp . . . Lieutenant Harrison, who . . . rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction . . .

conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory."

The rousing victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers ended the strong Native American presence in that part of the Northwest Territory, opening it for colonization.

After Wayne's death in 1795, Captain Harrison took command of Fort Washington.

Newcomers to the area near Fort Washington included twenty-year-old Anna Symmes.

Her father had just been appointed judge for the region.

Anna was quickly smitten by the handsome young officer, but her father disapproved, thinking his daughter could make a richer match elsewhere.

The young couple waited until Anna's father had to travel to another part of the territory; when he did, they found a justice of the peace and eloped.

When Judge Symmes returned and learned of the marriage, he shouted at Harrison, "How, sir, do you intend to support my daughter?"

The soldier coolly replied, "Sir, my sword is my means of support."

For Harrison, the marriage was politically astute.

The Symmes family had inside connections with the local land speculators, something the new son-in-law exploited.

By 1798, Captain Harrison saw the army as a career dead end and resigned his commission.

His father-in-law still saw little in Harrison to be impressed with, writing a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied."

Finally, the judge used his contacts in Washington.

The new President, John Adams, named Harrison secretary of the Northwest Territory.

In 1799, the territory could send a delegate to the United States Congress for the first time, and Harrison was elected to fill the post.

He played expertly to the voters by reforming land-buying policies allowing only large purchases.

These enabled cash-strapped settlers to buy smaller lots on four-year installment plans.

By 1800, the Harrisons had three of what would eventually be ten children, although only four would live to see their father in the White House.

That year the Northwest Territory split into what were known as the Ohio and Indiana Territories, and President Adams named Harrison governor of the latter.

This region was comprised of what would later be all or sections of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Harrison built a palatial home he called "Grouseland" near his headquarters in Vincennes.

The home came to be a political focal point for the territory, frequently hosting officials, friends, and meetings with Native Americans.

William Henry Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory for twelve years.

He speculated in land, invested in two mill enterprises, and had a reputation as an honest administrator.

To his credit, he was instrumental in improving the roads and other infrastructure in the region.

However, the primary task charged to him by Presidents Adams and Jefferson was to secure legal claims to as much territorial land from Native Americans as possible.

To many Native Americans of that era, the idea of owning land was a completely alien concept.

To claim sole right to a plot of land seemed as absurd as claiming sole right to the air.

Harrison took advantage of the Indians' communal approach to territory.

The governor pushed through seven treaties with Indians from 1802 through 1805, most shamefully exploitative of Native American poverty, corrupt leadership, or inability to hold liquor.

This culminated in late 1805 with a massive, largely fraudulent landgrab of 51 million acres.

Harrison and his aides warmly received five minor chiefs from the Sac tribe, softened them up with alcohol, then persuaded them to sign away one-third of modern Illinois, as well as sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri, for one penny per two hundred acres.

The leading Native American chief in the region, Tecumseh, grew increasingly angry by the endless encroachments of settlers.

He envisioned a grand alliance of Indian tribes, aided by the British, to stop it and began negotiating with other chiefs and Royal Army officers.

Despite their defeat in the Revolution, the British had never really given up on restoring America to rule by the Crown, and by this time they continued to assert themselves on the young nation's western frontiers.

Two British forts stood across the river from Detroit, and English agents were continually inciting Indian tribes to harass and attack settlers.

In response, congressional leaders like Henry Clay began to push for war with Britain.

Harrison, meanwhile, invited more than a thousand Native Americans for yet another round of land negotiations.

He offered to buy nearly three million acres of their land—for just under two cents an acre.

Harrison was attempting to secure the land to expedite statehood for a section of the territory called Indiana.

Indian tensions, inflamed by Tecumseh, were high, and the timing for such an action was not good.

The presidency of the United States, however, had just changed hands from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, and in the shift of power, Harrison's actions went largely unquestioned by the federal government.

Harrison did not invite Tecumseh or other openly hostile tribes to the conference, despite the fact that earlier treaties had named these tribes sole owners of the land now in question.

The Treaty of Fort Wayne was signed, and for Tecumseh, it was the last straw.

He openly courted British military assistance, and redoubled efforts at assembling a confederacy of tribes to retake lost Indian lands.

Word of this trouble reached Harrison through his network of spies among the Indian tribes, and he began asking President Madison to fund military preparations.

Madison, not eager to start a fight, dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate an end to the crisis with Tecumseh.

He sent a letter to the chief, warning him: "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash."

Tecumseh and his elite guard of about 75 warriors confronted Harrison and his officials outside the governor's Grouseland home on August 15, 1810.

The two had never met in person, and for days the impassioned Tecumseh berated the affable, condescending Harrison.

He plainly told the governor that any further incursions into Indian lands would mean war.

Harrison insisted that the land had been acquired legally, and Tecumseh began shouting that the governor was a liar.

Swords and war clubs were drawn, pistols cocked, and for a few seconds both sides stared one another down.

The council broke up, and negotiations never really got back on track.

Tecumseh traveled throughout the great territory, recruiting tribes for his quest to retake it.

Harrison became increasingly concerned that the chief's actions would slow Indiana's statehood and his own political climb, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages."

Indian raids on outlying settlements increased.

In the late summer of 1811, the Madison administration finally sanctioned a raid to punish the Native Americans.

Despite being thirteen years removed from military experience, Harrison managed to convince the President to allow him to command the operation.

In October, he set out from Vincennes with a mixed force of regular Army troops, volunteers, and militia.

Harrison saw it as a good time for such a strike because Tecumseh was out of the territory recruiting allies for his cause; in his absence, the Indians were led by his brother, Tenskwatawa, a spiritual leader known as the "Prophet."

On the sixth day of November in 1811, Harrison's force of about 950 moved into position outside the Prophet's camp, beside a small river known as the Tippecanoe.

Tired from their march, they made a camp of their own and prepared to attack the next day.

It had been a long time since Harrison had commanded troops, and the rust quickly showed.

The Indians discovered his force by the campfires he had allowed, and they infiltrated his camp before dawn on November 7.

Outnumbered, the Prophet's warriors were short of ammunition, but they had surprise on their side.

Several Army officers were killed, and their men broke and ran.

Dazed with sleep and terror, silhouetted against the campfires, many were cut down by the Prophet's warriors.

Harrison leapt onto his horse almost immediately, rallying his men.

Try as they might, the Indians could not get through the Army rifle lines and get the bulk of their force inside the camp.

They broke off the attack and melted into the woods.

Harrison ordered a counterattack that was successful in routing the Native Americans by midmorning.

The graves of several Indians killed in the battle were dug up and desecrated.

The battle became the talk of the young nation.

Public reaction to Harrison's actions ran mixed, but was on the whole favorable.

There were mutterings of poor generalship and the steep loss of life, but others welcomed the revenge on the Indians whose raids had increased in frequency and severity on the western frontier.

#### War of 1812 and Battle at Thames River

The Battle of Tippecanoe was good for William Henry Harrison and no one else.

While the Native American alliance had been badly frayed, it only hardened the resolve of warrior chiefs like Tecumseh.

Now they were not just fighting to retake their land; they were seeking revenge.

Vicious new raids terrified the settlers.

In the meantime, relations with Britain had worsened badly, and when America declared war against it in the summer of 1812 the Indians were even further emboldened.

By fall, Harrison commanded all forces in the Northwest with the rank of major general.

With the country ill prepared for war, it had been a disastrous summer for the American cause.

Much of the Indiana Territory had fallen to British control, and the fortress at Detroit had surrendered disgracefully.

Harrison received orders to retake Detroit and thus bolster morale, but Harrison cautiously held back, unwilling to press the war northward.

In September of 1813, however, Americans regained control of Lake Erie with Oliver Hazard Perry's smashing victory over the British fleet.

Once Perry sent the message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," England's prime supply line into the United was severed.

American troops could now be ferried across the lake into Canada to engage the British.

By the end of the month, Harrison's forces had retaken Detroit; they turned to chasing down the British and Native Americans.

Among them was Harrison's old enemy, Tecumseh.

On October 5, Harrison engaged the enemy in what is now Kent County in the province of Ontario, near a river called the Thames.

Harrison's force outnumbered the British-Indian contingent three to one and contained a band of Kentucky marksmen who were tremendous close-in fighters.

The British, poorly deployed and ill trained for such warfare, either fell dead or surrendered.

The Native Americans fared better, fighting off the initial assault by Harrison's men.

But the American force was relentless and finally overpowering.

Tecumseh was killed, and the Indians were routed, their alliance in the region smashed for good.

The victory did much the same for Harrison that the triumph at New Orleans did for Andrew Jackson later in the war.

(See Jackson biography, Life Before the Presidency section, for details.)

The War of 1812 had been a string of demoralizing defeats for the Americans, and the conflict was unpopular with many factions.

The victory at the Thames River boosted American morale and secured the national reputation of its commander.

Harrison, however, handled his sudden fame in a very different fashion than Old Hickory, and the difference speaks volumes about each man.

Jackson remained in the war and led expeditions against Native American contingents for years afterward.

The battle at the Thames River, on the other hand, virtually finished Harrison's military career.

Instead of following up on his triumph and wiping out the remaining British in Canada, Harrison took leave from the Army and undertook a tour of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, soaking up the adulation offered by each city.

He stayed in the East for months, choosing celebrity over duty, enjoying parties and banquets in his honor.

In May of 1814, with the war still raging, William Henry Harrison resigned from the Army once again and settled into life on his farm in North Bend, near Cincinnati.

#### A Quarter-Century in the Political Wilderness

Harrison's climb to political power would be a long and rocky one.

He spent the following twenty-five years, well into his late sixties, trying to seek office of one kind or another.

He was successful in getting to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1816 to 1819.

He lived well beyond his means and soon plunged deep into debt.

Harrison tried to secure the office of secretary of war in the new administration of President James Monroe but lost out to John C. Calhoun.

Harrison was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia.

His political career began to come to a close.

After his term in Congress, he returned to Ohio, won a post in its state senate, then lost a bid for governor of the state in 1820.

Over the next two years, he ran for both of Ohio's seats in the U.S. Senate and lost both races.

The failures peaked with an unsuccessful attempt to return to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1822, at the age of 59.

Personal tragedy showed its face, too: six of Harrison's ten children died between 1817 and 1840.

Harrison kept trying, and in 1824 he finally won a U.S. Senate seat.

He had barely arrived in Washington, D.C., before he began angling for posts.

He secured appointments to two military committees.

Then Harrison prevailed on his old friend Henry Clay—now secretary of state to the new President, John Quincy Adams—to be named an ambassador to Colombia.

Clay managed to push the appointment through in 1828, despite Adams's distaste for what he considered Harrison's "rabid thirst for lucrative office."

Colombia was a volatile post in early 1829, torn by revolution and foreign war.

Harrison's missteps were bad and frequent.

He failed to show neutrality in the nation's affairs and publicly sided with the opposition to President Simón Bolívar.

Colombia angrily planned to expel the envoy.

When Andrew Jackson assumed the presidency in March, he quickly recalled his old foe and used the post to repay a political favor from his campaign.

Harrison returned to Ohio, where his farm did not perform well, and money problems grew; he was reduced to a menial job as recorder for his county to make ends meet.

###### Life Before the Presidency (Current Essay)

Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison, born on February 9, 1773 at Berkeley Plantation, the Harrison family home along the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. He was a member of a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s and the last American president born as a British subject. His father was a Virginia planter who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence. His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–84) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–99). Harrison was tutored at home until age 14. Harrison entered Hampden–Sydney College when he was 14.


Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) was introduced for use by the Traffic Corps in 2009.

(meta data) TITLE: Gardai armed with 'hotlist' of uninsured drivers to clamp down on rogue motorists - Independent.ie

# Gardai armed with 'hotlist' of uninsured drivers to clamp down on rogue motorists

## Specialist mobile phone app will help officers catch motorists who push up cost of insurance

The new app will add to the arsenal in the fight against uninsured drivers.

Gardai have been armed with a 'hotlist' of uninsured drivers to clamp down on rogue motorists driving up premiums for road users.

And it has also emerged that a specially designed app - to allow a garda check a driver's details at the roadside on their personal mobile phone - is currently being developed.

In a landmark move, an automatic roadside number plate computer system, loaded with a highly sophisticated database of all known insured and uninsured vehicles, is now being rolled out.

There has been a significant increase in the estimated number of uninsured private vehicles - with the figure growing by more than 32,000 last year.

And the number of uninsured cars has nearly doubled to over 150,000 in the space of five years.

Uninsured or unidentified drivers cost between €50m and €60m a year, accounting for about 7pc of all motor insurance claims in this country.

Now the Department of Transport has confirmed the first phase of providing lists of insured and uninsured vehicles to the Gardai is undergoing "initial testing" on the force's Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

The first stage involves the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) providing insured and uninsured lists to An Garda Siochana.

The nationwide roll-out of ANPR technology was completed in 2010 within the Garda Traffic Corps.

There are currently some 100 operational units, with ANPR resources deployed in all Garda divisions.

The number of vehicles allocated to each division varies, depending on the type of roads, the amount of motorways, and "geographic profile" of the area to be covered.

The Department added that the updated system will help gardai catch rogue drivers, reducing the cost of "premiums of ordinary motorists".

It is hoped this will lead to an overall drop in the price of motor insurance, given the cost of accidents involving the uninsured ends up being added to the premium of a law-abiding driver.

Meanwhile, a specially designed phone app is currently being developed to provide gardai access to a specialist database.

Only "authorised users" will be provided with the app, providing access to a database containing the names and details of insured and uninsured motorists, their driving licence, and insurance policy number.

Sources say the technology could in the future allow for gardai to have automatic number plate recognition technology on their jacket, which would process vehicle and owner details, as officers walk down a street.

These developments come after the price of private vehicle insurance soared in recent years.

Premiums have risen by 70pc on average over the last three years.

In the past two years alone some drivers saw the cost of their cover jump by 200pc.

In a statement, An Garda Siochana confirmed they are currently working with the MIBI, and the Irish Insurance Federation to track down uninsured drivers across the country.

The implementation of full number-plate recognition was one of the key recommendations from the Cost of Insurance Working Group, which was established by the Government last year,

This was charged with identifying measures that would lead to reduced motor insurance costs.

## 'Shocked and devastated' community aims to raise €200k for young father paralysed...

THE friends and family of a young father paralysed in a "horrific accident" have begun a fundraising campaign to raise €200,000 to help him as he recovers.

Mícheál Ó Scannáil WEEKEND revellers will have to endure periods of rain in the coming days if they are to enjoy the soaring temperatures in the mid 20s.

## New Garda Divisional Policing Model Q&A: What are the changes, why are they being...

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The 'nationwide roll-out of ANPR technology was completed in 2010.

(meta data) TITLE: Gardai armed with 'hotlist' of uninsured drivers to clamp down on rogue motorists - Independent.ie

# Gardai armed with 'hotlist' of uninsured drivers to clamp down on rogue motorists

## Specialist mobile phone app will help officers catch motorists who push up cost of insurance

The new app will add to the arsenal in the fight against uninsured drivers.

Gardai have been armed with a 'hotlist' of uninsured drivers to clamp down on rogue motorists driving up premiums for road users.

And it has also emerged that a specially designed app - to allow a garda check a driver's details at the roadside on their personal mobile phone - is currently being developed.

In a landmark move, an automatic roadside number plate computer system, loaded with a highly sophisticated database of all known insured and uninsured vehicles, is now being rolled out.

There has been a significant increase in the estimated number of uninsured private vehicles - with the figure growing by more than 32,000 last year.

And the number of uninsured cars has nearly doubled to over 150,000 in the space of five years.

Uninsured or unidentified drivers cost between €50m and €60m a year, accounting for about 7pc of all motor insurance claims in this country.

Now the Department of Transport has confirmed the first phase of providing lists of insured and uninsured vehicles to the Gardai is undergoing "initial testing" on the force's Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.

The first stage involves the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) providing insured and uninsured lists to An Garda Siochana.

The nationwide roll-out of ANPR technology was completed in 2010 within the Garda Traffic Corps.

There are currently some 100 operational units, with ANPR resources deployed in all Garda divisions.

The number of vehicles allocated to each division varies, depending on the type of roads, the amount of motorways, and "geographic profile" of the area to be covered.

The Department added that the updated system will help gardai catch rogue drivers, reducing the cost of "premiums of ordinary motorists".

It is hoped this will lead to an overall drop in the price of motor insurance, given the cost of accidents involving the uninsured ends up being added to the premium of a law-abiding driver.

Meanwhile, a specially designed phone app is currently being developed to provide gardai access to a specialist database.

Only "authorised users" will be provided with the app, providing access to a database containing the names and details of insured and uninsured motorists, their driving licence, and insurance policy number.

Sources say the technology could in the future allow for gardai to have automatic number plate recognition technology on their jacket, which would process vehicle and owner details, as officers walk down a street.

These developments come after the price of private vehicle insurance soared in recent years.

Premiums have risen by 70pc on average over the last three years.

In the past two years alone some drivers saw the cost of their cover jump by 200pc.

In a statement, An Garda Siochana confirmed they are currently working with the MIBI, and the Irish Insurance Federation to track down uninsured drivers across the country.

The implementation of full number-plate recognition was one of the key recommendations from the Cost of Insurance Working Group, which was established by the Government last year,

This was charged with identifying measures that would lead to reduced motor insurance costs.

## 'Shocked and devastated' community aims to raise €200k for young father paralysed...

THE friends and family of a young father paralysed in a "horrific accident" have begun a fundraising campaign to raise €200,000 to help him as he recovers.

Mícheál Ó Scannáil WEEKEND revellers will have to endure periods of rain in the coming days if they are to enjoy the soaring temperatures in the mid 20s.

## New Garda Divisional Policing Model Q&A: What are the changes, why are they being...

Sweeping changes to policing in Ireland as part of a new Garda operating model - including increasing the number of front-line gardaí - were announced today by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

### Bungling ATM suspects caught with €100k - after returning to pick up cash missed by... Irish News

### Lucky Lotto winner scoops €11m in jackpot Irish News

### Husband who allegedly threatened to kill wife and 'burn the f**king house down' tells court... Courts

### Well-known entertainer charged with sexual assault Courts

### €5,000 award for Traveller denied room in two hotels Courts

### Phil Hogan launches scathing attack on Boris Johnson: 'Unelected PM... gambling with the... Brexit

### Stephen Rice: 'Job hoppers miss out on the value of pension pots' Pensions

### Secret talks on checks at ports to avoid Border chaos after Brexit Brexit

### 15 life skills every teenager needs to learn before college Going to College

### University challenge: 15 ways to cope with empty nest syndrome

### Tom Brady: 'Grim reminder of the security threat Brexit has reawoken'

### Eamonn Sweeney: 'Next decade could belong to Tipperary - and one man holds the key'

### 'Shocked and devastated' community aims to raise €200k for young father...

THE friends and family of a young father paralysed in...

### Latest Sporadic rain amid 24C heat as weather from Continental Europe and Iceland...

WEEKEND revellers will have to endure periods of...

### New Garda Divisional Policing Model Q&A: What are the changes, why are they...

Sweeping changes to policing in Ireland as part of a...

### 'Dehumanising remarks' - Irish psychologists challenge Trump's claim that mental...

IRISH psychologists have challenged Donald Trump's claim...

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Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) was introduced for use by the Traffic Corps in 2009.


In 2016, the fate of the agency became uncertain.

(meta data) TITLE: National wildlife crime unit facing closure within weeks | Environment | The Guardian

(meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/theguardian

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2016-02-18T08:04:16-0500

Available for everyone, funded by readers

# National wildlife crime unit facing closure within weeks

Government failure to confirm funding for police unit responsible for investigating crimes against British wildlife condemned

First published on Thu 18 Feb 2016 08.04 EST

Crimes against wildlife include rare-bird egg theft, deer poaching, trading in endangered species, hare coursing and animal cruelty.

Chris Packham, the naturalist and TV presenter, has said it is "disgusting and disappointing" that the UK's wildlife crime agency faces closure in six weeks unless the government renews its funding.

The national wildlife crime unit (NWCU) was established in 2006 to investigate offences including rare-bird egg theft, deer poaching, the trade in endangered species, hare coursing, illegal taxidermy and cruelty to wild animals.

George Osborne's spending review, announced in November, did not confirm government funding for the agency beyond the end of March and it is now expected to close within weeks.

The body, which receives the bulk of its funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office, was told shortly before Christmas that a decision would be made about its future before the end of January – but it still hasn't heard anything.

"[This is] a specifically trained, unique and dedicated branch of the police force [which is] able to respond to an increasing range of crimes [in its attempt] to implement the law of the land," said Packham.

The BBC broadcaster said: "They are thus invaluable if we have any desire to protect our wildlife and countryside.

Given the [financial] saving, one can only imagine there are ulterior motives to scrapping their funding.

It's frankly disappointing and disgusting that we face this situation."

Ch Insp Martin Sims, head of the NWCU, said that the closure of the unit would lead to the vast majority of wildlife crime going undetected.

"We are by far the cheapest option for policing across the UK in terms of support to wildlife crime," he said.

Sims said the closure of the unit would mean there wouldn't be sufficient UK infrastructure to gather intelligence on wildlife crimes.

Josh Kaile, head of public affairs at World Animal Protection UK, said: "Not only is this a slap in the face to the hard-working staff in the NWCU but it makes you wonder whether our government cares at all about our wildlife."

The government risks undercutting its leadership on wildlife issues, according to one of the world's foremost trackers of the wildlife trade.

Steven Broad, executive director of Traffic, said: "The UK government has shown commendable leadership to date in the international efforts to curb wildlife trafficking – it would appear very odd indeed if support for much-needed actions against wildlife crime at home were then undercut."

WWF echoed Traffic, saying the government had done good work internationally but needed to "walk the talk" at home too.

Heather Sohl, the group's chief adviser on wildlife, said: "Rather than pulling the rug from under the unit that is vital to effectively tackle this criminal activity, the UK government should strengthen its stance and secure the NWCU's long term future."

William Hague organised and hosted a summit on illegal wildlife trade in London two years ago, leading 46 nations to agree on a declaration addressing the problem.

The Conservatives also promised in their manifesto last year to continue to tackle the issue: "We … will continue to lead the world in stopping the poaching that kills thousands of rhinos, elephants and tigers each year."

A government source said a decision would be made very soon, while a spokesperson said: "The UK government is leading the global response to tackling illegal wildlife crime, funding practical action in developing countries through our illegal wildlife trade challenge fund, supporting anti-poaching projects and working with our African partners to improve the security of their parks.

"The national wildlife crime unit plays an important role in tackling wildlife law enforcement both at home and internationally.

Kaile said that without the 12-strong team in place, the government would be giving criminals "free rein to poach, bait, shoot, trap, smuggle, torment and exploit British wildlife however they like".

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, urged the government to save the unit from "extinction".

"Failing to support the unit will send a message about how little the government cares about protecting the environment," he said.

The Green party's MP, Caroline Lucas, said that the loss of "the world-leading expertise of this unit" was likely to result in a fall in the number of wildlife crimes being successfully investigated and prosecuted.

"This unit needs long-term sustainable funding so that it can concentrate on the crucial work it does," she said.

"The government must now offer a serious commitment to this unit and banish the shadow of financial uncertainty that has been lingering for far too long."

The Wildlife and Countryside Link, which represents 47 groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the National Trust and Campaign to Protect Rural England, recently warned that the UK would risk failing to meet its international commitments if the unit closed.

"If the unit is disbanded, a huge number of wildlife crime cases will never be successfully investigated or prosecuted, and it will prove far more difficult for the UK to meet its national and international commitments to tackle wildlife crime," it said in a statement.

Around 7,000 people have signed a petition calling for the government to continue funding the agency.

The idea was first piloted in 2002 and the unit initially functioned as a department within the National Criminal Intelligence Service.
 The NWCU was officially launched on 18 October 2006 as a standalone police-led Unit and tasked with targeting and disrupting serious wildlife crime, such as the illegal import of rare species. According to then Minister for Biodiversity Barry Gardiner, its role was to tackle an "illegal billion-pound industry".


The lack of commitment from the Government to include the agency in the budget documents followed a spending review by then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

(meta data) TITLE: National wildlife crime unit facing closure within weeks | Environment | The Guardian

(meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/theguardian

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2016-02-18T08:04:16-0500

Available for everyone, funded by readers

# National wildlife crime unit facing closure within weeks

Government failure to confirm funding for police unit responsible for investigating crimes against British wildlife condemned

First published on Thu 18 Feb 2016 08.04 EST

Crimes against wildlife include rare-bird egg theft, deer poaching, trading in endangered species, hare coursing and animal cruelty.

Chris Packham, the naturalist and TV presenter, has said it is "disgusting and disappointing" that the UK's wildlife crime agency faces closure in six weeks unless the government renews its funding.

The national wildlife crime unit (NWCU) was established in 2006 to investigate offences including rare-bird egg theft, deer poaching, the trade in endangered species, hare coursing, illegal taxidermy and cruelty to wild animals.

George Osborne's spending review, announced in November, did not confirm government funding for the agency beyond the end of March and it is now expected to close within weeks.

The body, which receives the bulk of its funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office, was told shortly before Christmas that a decision would be made about its future before the end of January – but it still hasn't heard anything.

"[This is] a specifically trained, unique and dedicated branch of the police force [which is] able to respond to an increasing range of crimes [in its attempt] to implement the law of the land," said Packham.

The BBC broadcaster said: "They are thus invaluable if we have any desire to protect our wildlife and countryside.

Given the [financial] saving, one can only imagine there are ulterior motives to scrapping their funding.

It's frankly disappointing and disgusting that we face this situation."

Ch Insp Martin Sims, head of the NWCU, said that the closure of the unit would lead to the vast majority of wildlife crime going undetected.

"We are by far the cheapest option for policing across the UK in terms of support to wildlife crime," he said.

Sims said the closure of the unit would mean there wouldn't be sufficient UK infrastructure to gather intelligence on wildlife crimes.

Josh Kaile, head of public affairs at World Animal Protection UK, said: "Not only is this a slap in the face to the hard-working staff in the NWCU but it makes you wonder whether our government cares at all about our wildlife."

The government risks undercutting its leadership on wildlife issues, according to one of the world's foremost trackers of the wildlife trade.

Steven Broad, executive director of Traffic, said: "The UK government has shown commendable leadership to date in the international efforts to curb wildlife trafficking – it would appear very odd indeed if support for much-needed actions against wildlife crime at home were then undercut."

WWF echoed Traffic, saying the government had done good work internationally but needed to "walk the talk" at home too.

Heather Sohl, the group's chief adviser on wildlife, said: "Rather than pulling the rug from under the unit that is vital to effectively tackle this criminal activity, the UK government should strengthen its stance and secure the NWCU's long term future."

William Hague organised and hosted a summit on illegal wildlife trade in London two years ago, leading 46 nations to agree on a declaration addressing the problem.

The Conservatives also promised in their manifesto last year to continue to tackle the issue: "We … will continue to lead the world in stopping the poaching that kills thousands of rhinos, elephants and tigers each year."

A government source said a decision would be made very soon, while a spokesperson said: "The UK government is leading the global response to tackling illegal wildlife crime, funding practical action in developing countries through our illegal wildlife trade challenge fund, supporting anti-poaching projects and working with our African partners to improve the security of their parks.

"The national wildlife crime unit plays an important role in tackling wildlife law enforcement both at home and internationally.

Kaile said that without the 12-strong team in place, the government would be giving criminals "free rein to poach, bait, shoot, trap, smuggle, torment and exploit British wildlife however they like".

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, urged the government to save the unit from "extinction".

"Failing to support the unit will send a message about how little the government cares about protecting the environment," he said.

The Green party's MP, Caroline Lucas, said that the loss of "the world-leading expertise of this unit" was likely to result in a fall in the number of wildlife crimes being successfully investigated and prosecuted.

"This unit needs long-term sustainable funding so that it can concentrate on the crucial work it does," she said.

"The government must now offer a serious commitment to this unit and banish the shadow of financial uncertainty that has been lingering for far too long."

The Wildlife and Countryside Link, which represents 47 groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the National Trust and Campaign to Protect Rural England, recently warned that the UK would risk failing to meet its international commitments if the unit closed.

"If the unit is disbanded, a huge number of wildlife crime cases will never be successfully investigated or prosecuted, and it will prove far more difficult for the UK to meet its national and international commitments to tackle wildlife crime," it said in a statement.

Around 7,000 people have signed a petition calling for the government to continue funding the agency.

The idea was first piloted in 2002 and the unit initially functioned as a department within the National Criminal Intelligence Service.
 The NWCU was officially launched on 18 October 2006 as a standalone police-led Unit and tasked with targeting and disrupting serious wildlife crime, such as the illegal import of rare species. According to then Minister for Biodiversity Barry Gardiner, its role was to tackle an "illegal billion-pound industry". In 2016, the fate of the agency became uncertain.


The Granby Zoo traded Cornelius to the San Diego Zoo.

(meta data) TITLE: After years of near-extinction, the whacky Rhino party is back - The Globe and Mail

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2018-04-26T06:53:41.519Z

# After years of near-extinction, the whacky Rhino party is back

Ingrid Peritz MONTREAL Published August 8, 2007 Updated April 26, 2018 Comments

Canada's Rhinoceros Party, the political beast devoted to bringing a smile to the Canadian body politic, says it's on the road back from extinction.

The party that once promised to repeal the law of gravity and keep none of its promises plans to run a candidate in the federal by-election in Montreal's Outremont riding next month.

Among the party's early planks: renaming our country Nantucket and abolishing lawn-mowing in Outremont.

The announcements came from not one but two Rhino herds that emerged from the political wilderness this week.

Yesterday, Ontario native and Rhino stalwart Brian Salmi filed a lawsuit in Federal Court challenging Canada's election reform law, hoping to strike down the $1,000 deposit for federal candidates so he can afford to run for office.

At a press scrum outside the Federal Court in Montreal, at which he was dressed as a clown, he immediately pledged to change the name of Canada if elected.

"We have a grave concern that Canada is seen as a definitely dull country in the rest of the world," he said, straight-faced.

"We seek to correct that misconception by changing the name to Nantucket."

He is not the only aspirant seeking to restore humour to the federal scene and capitalize on the dearth of political news during the dog days of August.

In a separate initiative, another Rhino group in Quebec announced its revival yesterday.

Dubbed the Neorhino Party, the group held a fundraiser last fall and has submitted 500 signatures to Elections Canada to register its party.

A spokesman for Elections Canada confirmed the party is in the process of registering.

The group, led by Montreal artist and former Rhino candidate François Gourd, went to a game park near Montreal and posed in front of a penned, real-life rhinoceros to announce its return to the federal scene.

Mr. Gourd wants to run under the Neorhino banner in Outremont.

The two groups say they were unaware of one another's initiatives, as befitting a "disorganized and anarchic" movement, but they plan to meet in a Montreal bar tomorrow to discuss a merger.

Their reappearance aims to revive a party that helped enliven politics from 1963 to 1988 with an absurdist take on Canadian affairs.

The party says it picked a rhino as its mascot since, like politicians, the animal is thick-skinned, slow-moving and dim-witted.

Among its planks was flattening the Rockies, banning guns and butter since both killed, and improving higher education by building taller schools.

Behind their latest antics, however, they say they're drawing attention to some serious issues.

Mr. Salmi says the $1,000 deposit required by the federal Elections Act is a deterrent for lower-income Canadians, and violates the Charter.

"It's a de facto economic means test that discriminates against the poor," said Mr. Salmi, a Montreal resident who has sought office on nine previous occasions, several of them in British Columbia.

(Mr. Salmi has legally changed his name to Sa Tan, so his challenge in Federal Court reads Sa Tan against Her Majesty The Queen.)

The Rhinoceros Party last ran in a general federal election in 1988, fielding 74 candidates.

None was elected, and the nascent groups say they're intent on matching that abysmal performance.

Mr. Salmi, for example, has no organization behind him.

Mr. Gourd, who hopes to run candidates across Canada, says his ambition is to come in dead last in the Sept. 17 by-election.

"We're aiming to be the party with the fewest votes," he said.

"That way, we'll be No. 1 starting from the bottom."

The party was founded by Montreal physician, author and noted wit Jacques Ferron in 1963.

Asked once what his candidates would do if elected, Dr. Ferron replied: "The same as yours - nothing."

The name springs from a prank pulled in Brazil in the late 1950s, when several reporters entered a rhinoceros in a Sao Paulo municipal election with the intention of cleaning up civic corruption.

The Rhinoceros Party's original leader was Cornelius I, a rhinoceros foaled in Quebec's Granby Zoo.

It was later traded to the San Diego Zoo for a giraffe.

The party's best showing was the 1980 federal election, when they garnered 110,597 votes, 1.01 per cent of the popular vote.

A dam on the St. Lawrence to make Montreal the Venice of North America;

A tax on milk to finance the appointment of Rhino followers to a new Ontario senate;

A 400-kilometre fishing limit to be drawn offshore in watercolour, to make sure the fish could see it and stay inside the Canadian boundary;

A Guaranteed Annual Orgasm through a network of regulated brothels;

To repeal the law of gravity (promised by Rhinos in 1984);

A proposal for free trade with the United States: "Trade Frank Zappa for Pierre Berton, Kermit the Frog for Lorne Greene, and we were prepared to put Anne Murray on the bargaining table."

Follow Ingrid Peritz on Twitter @iperitz Report an error Editorial code of conduct Comments


The Granby Zoo traded Cornelius for a giraffe.

(meta data) TITLE: After years of near-extinction, the whacky Rhino party is back - The Globe and Mail

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2018-04-26T06:53:41.519Z

# After years of near-extinction, the whacky Rhino party is back

Ingrid Peritz MONTREAL Published August 8, 2007 Updated April 26, 2018 Comments

Canada's Rhinoceros Party, the political beast devoted to bringing a smile to the Canadian body politic, says it's on the road back from extinction.

The party that once promised to repeal the law of gravity and keep none of its promises plans to run a candidate in the federal by-election in Montreal's Outremont riding next month.

Among the party's early planks: renaming our country Nantucket and abolishing lawn-mowing in Outremont.

The announcements came from not one but two Rhino herds that emerged from the political wilderness this week.

Yesterday, Ontario native and Rhino stalwart Brian Salmi filed a lawsuit in Federal Court challenging Canada's election reform law, hoping to strike down the $1,000 deposit for federal candidates so he can afford to run for office.

At a press scrum outside the Federal Court in Montreal, at which he was dressed as a clown, he immediately pledged to change the name of Canada if elected.

"We have a grave concern that Canada is seen as a definitely dull country in the rest of the world," he said, straight-faced.

"We seek to correct that misconception by changing the name to Nantucket."

He is not the only aspirant seeking to restore humour to the federal scene and capitalize on the dearth of political news during the dog days of August.

In a separate initiative, another Rhino group in Quebec announced its revival yesterday.

Dubbed the Neorhino Party, the group held a fundraiser last fall and has submitted 500 signatures to Elections Canada to register its party.

A spokesman for Elections Canada confirmed the party is in the process of registering.

The group, led by Montreal artist and former Rhino candidate François Gourd, went to a game park near Montreal and posed in front of a penned, real-life rhinoceros to announce its return to the federal scene.

Mr. Gourd wants to run under the Neorhino banner in Outremont.

The two groups say they were unaware of one another's initiatives, as befitting a "disorganized and anarchic" movement, but they plan to meet in a Montreal bar tomorrow to discuss a merger.

Their reappearance aims to revive a party that helped enliven politics from 1963 to 1988 with an absurdist take on Canadian affairs.

The party says it picked a rhino as its mascot since, like politicians, the animal is thick-skinned, slow-moving and dim-witted.

Among its planks was flattening the Rockies, banning guns and butter since both killed, and improving higher education by building taller schools.

Behind their latest antics, however, they say they're drawing attention to some serious issues.

Mr. Salmi says the $1,000 deposit required by the federal Elections Act is a deterrent for lower-income Canadians, and violates the Charter.

"It's a de facto economic means test that discriminates against the poor," said Mr. Salmi, a Montreal resident who has sought office on nine previous occasions, several of them in British Columbia.

(Mr. Salmi has legally changed his name to Sa Tan, so his challenge in Federal Court reads Sa Tan against Her Majesty The Queen.)

The Rhinoceros Party last ran in a general federal election in 1988, fielding 74 candidates.

None was elected, and the nascent groups say they're intent on matching that abysmal performance.

Mr. Salmi, for example, has no organization behind him.

Mr. Gourd, who hopes to run candidates across Canada, says his ambition is to come in dead last in the Sept. 17 by-election.

"We're aiming to be the party with the fewest votes," he said.

"That way, we'll be No. 1 starting from the bottom."

The party was founded by Montreal physician, author and noted wit Jacques Ferron in 1963.

Asked once what his candidates would do if elected, Dr. Ferron replied: "The same as yours - nothing."

The name springs from a prank pulled in Brazil in the late 1950s, when several reporters entered a rhinoceros in a Sao Paulo municipal election with the intention of cleaning up civic corruption.

The Rhinoceros Party's original leader was Cornelius I, a rhinoceros foaled in Quebec's Granby Zoo.

It was later traded to the San Diego Zoo for a giraffe.

The party's best showing was the 1980 federal election, when they garnered 110,597 votes, 1.01 per cent of the popular vote.

A dam on the St. Lawrence to make Montreal the Venice of North America;

A tax on milk to finance the appointment of Rhino followers to a new Ontario senate;

A 400-kilometre fishing limit to be drawn offshore in watercolour, to make sure the fish could see it and stay inside the Canadian boundary;

A Guaranteed Annual Orgasm through a network of regulated brothels;

To repeal the law of gravity (promised by Rhinos in 1984);

A proposal for free trade with the United States: "Trade Frank Zappa for Pierre Berton, Kermit the Frog for Lorne Greene, and we were prepared to put Anne Murray on the bargaining table."

Follow Ingrid Peritz on Twitter @iperitz Report an error Editorial code of conduct Comments

The Granby Zoo traded Cornelius to the San Diego Zoo.