Christopher Harrison - Political Career

Political Career

In 1816, Jonathan Jennings was elected as Governor of Indiana, and he had convinced Harrison to run as his Lieutenant Governor. Harrison won the election defeating John Vawter and becoming Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. In 1817, Harrison became one of the founding members of the Grand Lodge of Indiana. In 1818, Jennings left the capitol to conduct negotiations on behalf of the federal government with the native tribes in northern Indiana. While he was gone, Harrison was left as acting governor.

Harrison became involved in a scandal when Jennings returned by refusing to vacate the governorship, claiming Jennings' actions had violated the state constitution and that Jennings was no longer eligible to be governor. The constitution forbade members of the state government to hold any position in the federal government at the same time. Harrison seized the state seal and setup his own governor's office from where he attempted to run the state. After a brief period of wrangling in the state legislature, the impeachment proceedings against Jennings failed and Harrison was forced to vacate the governors position and it was returned to Jennings. Harrison became very angry with the outcome and promptly resigned his position as governor in a brief letter stating: "As the officers of the executive department of government and the General Assembly have refused to recognize and acknowledge that authority which according to my understanding is constitutionally attached to the office the name itself in my estimation is not worth retaining."

The legislature accepted his resignation and passed a resolution stating: "That the House of Representatives view the conduct and deportment of Lieutenant Governor Christopher Harrison as both dignified and correct during the late investigation of the differences existing in the executive department of this State."

Harrison ran against Jennings in the 1819 campaign for governor, but was soundly defeated 9,168–2,088.

Jennings was conciliatory towards Harrison, and in 1821 Harrison was appointed as a member of the committee who platted Indianapolis for the new state capitol. Harrison was the only member of the commission who arrived on time to the location that was sixty miles into the wilderness. The other commissioners were long delayed in reaching the site, and Harrison, being a practical man, decided he formed a majority of the present commissioners and voted to begin laying out the town without them. He choose Alexander Ralston, who had been an assistance to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, to survey the site.

In 1824 Harrison was again part of a commission that studied the possibility of building a canal around the Falls of the Ohio near Clarksville, Indiana. The commission ended after creating a report and a canal was built on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River using federal funds before Indiana could begin construction.