Thread by @Jeff_Jacoby

For #PresidentsDay, how about some presidential history? Each year I devote a column to a 19th-century chief executive you probably never learned about in high school.

My subject this year: Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.

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Last year, I wrote about Chester Alan Arthur, a sleazy pol who became president by accident — and turned, against all expectations, into a conscientious and honest reformer.

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My 2017 column told the story of Millard Fillmore, a wretched president given to conspiracy theories, ethnic bigotry, and anti-Catholic prejudice — and unwilling to to do anything to condemn the spread of slavery.

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John Tyler, elected as vice president in 1840, was the first man to accede to the presidency because his predecessor died. The event triggered a Constitutional dilemma: Was the VP expected to become merely an acting president, or the president in fact?

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In 2015, I wrote about a president who was known above all for his integrity. Grover Cleveland was as famed for honesty as George Washington had been. The hefty president was possessed of so much backbone, it was said, that it made him stick out in front!

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James Garfield, whom I wrote about in 2014, might have been among America's greatest presidents had he not been shot by an assassin soon after taking office. He never lusted for power, but was so admired that he kept rising to ever-higher public offices.

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