Benjamin Harrison Writes His Son, Lamenting his Ingratitude: “You have never come to me or shown me any consideration save when you were in trouble”

He also invokes the final wishes of his departed first wife in counseling his son

“You have never come to me or shown me any consideration save when you were in trouble…You have often said that your sonship had brought you a great deal of trouble…I will try to state as considerably as possibly and with the restraints your mother’s last request put upon me…Whatever further is said let it be face to face, and God give me the grace to say it in kindness for I must always desire your good and the happiness of your family.”

Benjamin Harrison was born in 1833 in North Bend, Ohio, to a prominent family that had a legacy of political activism. He was the great-grandson of a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and grandson of the nation’s 9th President, William Henry Harrison. Raised on a farm adjacent to his grandfather’s vast estate, Harrison believed he was destined for greatness, and ended up following in his grandfather’s footprints as President.

In 1853 Harrison married Caroline Lavinia Scott, and they moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, the following year. There he began his own law practice, and got involved in Republican politics. The Harrisons had a son Russell and a daughter Mary.

During Benjamin Harrison’s presidency, Russell was his father’s aide and secretary, and Russell’s wife assisted the First Lady from the time Caroline became ill up to the time of her death in the White House in 1892. After the term ended, both the President and son Russell returned to Indiana, where the latter practiced law. Russell served in the Spanish-American War, and was responsible for overseeing the evacuation of Spanish troops from Cuba.

In a letter of December 3, 1895, the former President informed Russell that he would marry Mary Lord Dimmock, his first wife’s widowed niece and former secretary. She was 38 years old – 25 years younger than Harrison – and his two adult children, Russell, age 41, and Mary, age 38, did not attend the wedding on April 6, 1896, as they considered the marriage of their father to their cousin inappropriate. This strained the relationship of father and son. Benjamin tried to reconcile Russell to the marriage, and to provide him with help and advice. Their letters from these years shed light on their continuing efforts to understand each other and maintain their family, but because their issues – relationships of fathers to sons, second marriages, family squabbles – are to an extent universal, they are also a moving study in love and estrangement in the human condition. They also, of course, remind us that even great men and women are just people, whose lives resemble our own.

Russell responded poorly to the news of his father’s pending remarriage, writing a caustic letter back to Benjamin that elicited this response. In it, Benjamin laments that his son only seeks him out when he wants something, yet, reminiscent of the parable of the Prodigal Son, still wishes for nothing more than his son’s happiness.

Autograph letter signed, on his personal letterhead, Indianapolis, December 13, 1895, to Russell, with envelope marked “Private.” “Dear Son, I cannot write what I want to say to you but do want to tell you what I think of your letter and its unjust imputations. You have never come to me or shown me any consideration save when you were in trouble. But I will not write what I must have an opportunity to say to you very soon. If you give wings to false impressions that were fully…explained, you must take responsibility. You have often said that your sonship had brought you a great deal of trouble, and you must come now and hear my side, which I will try to state as considerably as possibly and with the restraints your mother’s last request put upon me. You must not fail to put all the responsibility on me. I will hear nothing else. Sincerely yours, Benj Harrison. Postscript: “Whatever further is said let it be face to face, and God give me the grace to say it in kindness for I must always desire your good and the happiness of your family.”

This unpublished letter was acquired directly from the Harrison descendants and has never been offered for sale before.