Republican · 1889–1893
Benjamin Harrison
Tariff, pensions, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and a larger navy.
Benjamin Harrison was president 1889–1893. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Tariff, pensions, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and a larger navy.
The dot is economics +22 and authority +22. That is right of center on economics. The other axis sits toward authority. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: A protective tariff, pensions for Union veterans, and a stiffer foreign policy. Done: The McKinley Tariff, the Dependent Pension Act, and the Sherman Antitrust Act, which his Justice Department barely used. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Martin Van Buren (1837–1841, +18 / +22) and George Washington (1789–1797, +16 / +24). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.