William Henry Harrison Pays a Debt Out of His Salary As Governor of Indiana Territory to His Attorney General

William Henry Harrison was a Virginian and the son of Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Harrison. He was appointed Secretary of the Northwest Territory on June 26, 1798, and in 1799 was elected a territorial delegate to Congress, where he served until May 1800, when he was appointed Governor of the Indiana Territory, an area that then included all of the original Northwest Territory except Ohio. The 27-year-old Harrison served as Governor for twelve years. His dual responsibilities to secure justice for the Indians and to acquire Indian land were often contradictory, but his administration was generally able and honest. During his governorship his military career was enhanced when he defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe in 1811. He was given command of the Army of the Northwest in the fall of 1812, just after war was declared with Great Britain, and resigned as Governor a few months later. His forces decisively defeated the British at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, saving the Old Northwest for the United States.

Thomas Randolph, a fellow Virginian and a cousin of Thomas Jefferson, was a Harrison ally. Harrison appointed him Attorney General of the Indiana Territory on June 8, 1808. Randolph joined Harrison as his Acting Aid-de-Camp for the battle of Tippecanoe, and was killed in action there.

Harrison’s salary as governor was $166 per month, and these funds would be drawn on the Bank of the United States. He was chronically short of money and was known to incur debts and then pay them directly from his governor’s salary.

This document indicates that Harrison may have borrowed money from his Attorney General. Autograph document signed, Vincennes, Indiana, October 28, 1809, being a pay order “To the Cashier of the Bank of the United States”, asking that $100 of his salary be paid to Randolph. “Sir, On the 31st of December next or as soon after as you may receive my salary as Governor of the Indiana Territory for the quarter ending on that day, please to pay unto Thomas Randolph, Esq. or to his order One Hundred Dollars & charge the same without further advice to – Sir, your Huml Servt., William Henry Harrison.” This $100 was about 2/3 of his salary, and thus quite a lot of money for the time. We can only assume that the practice of a governor borrowing money from his own attorney general would be a practice frowned on today.

Only a very few pay orders on his salary as Governor have come up over the past twenty years.