Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/67

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 43 son as chairman of the committee on military affairs, introduced a bill to prevent desertions, and exerted himself to obtain pensions for old soldiers. He resigned in 1828, having been appointed by President John Quincy Adams U. S. minister to the United States of Colombia. While there he wrote a letter to Gen. Simon Bolivar urging him not to accept dictatorial powers. He was recalled at the outset of Jackson s administration, as is asserted by some, at the demand of Gen. Bolivar, and retired to his farm at North Bend, near Cin cinnati, Ohio, where he lived quietly, filling the offices of clerk of the county court and president of the county agricultural society. In 1835 Gen. Harrison was nominated for the presidency by meetings in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and other states ; but the opposition to Van Buren was not united on him, and he received only 73 electoral votes to the former s 170. Four years later the National Whig convention, which was called at Harrisburg, Pa., for December 4, 1839, to decide between the claims of several rival candidates, nominated him for the same office, with John Tyler, of Virginia, for vice-president. The Demo crats renominated President Van Buren. The canvass that followed has been often called the "Log-cabin and hard-cider campaign." The eastern end of Gen. Harrison s house at North Bend consisted of a log-cabin that had been built