publicans must perforce raise the banner of high
protection; but public opinion did not forestall the convention in
naming the Republican standard-bearer. The convention met in Chicago. At
first John Sherman of Ohio received 229 votes; Walter Q. Gresham of
Indiana, 111; Chauncey M. Depew of New York, 99; and Russell A. Alger of
Michigan, 84. Harrison began with 80; Blaine had but 35. After the third
ballot Depew withdrew his name. On the fourth, New York and Wisconsin
joined the Harrison forces. A stampede of the convention for Blaine was
expected, but did not come, being hindered in part by the halting tenor
of despatches received from the Plumed Knight, then beyond sea. After
the fifth ballot two cablegrams were received from Blaine, requesting
his friends to discontinue voting for him. Two ballots more having been
taken, Allison, who had been receiving a considerable vote, withdrew.
The eighth ballot nominated Harrison, and the name of Levi P. Morton,
of New York, was at once placed beneath his on the ticket.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Levi P. Morton.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Benjamin Harrison.

Mr. Harrison was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, great
grandson, therefore, of Governor Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, the
ardent revolutionary patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
An older scion of the family had served as major-general in Cromwell's
army and been executed for signing the death-warrant of King Charles I.
The Republican candidate was born on a farm at North Bend, Ohio, August
20, 1883. The boy's earliest education was acquired in a log
schoolhouse. He afterward attended Miami University, in Ohio, where he
graduated at the age of nineteen. The next year he was admitted to the
bar. In 1854 he married, and opened a law office in Indianapolis. In
1860 he became Reporter of Decisions to the Indiana Supreme Court. When
the civil war broke out, obeying the spirit that in his grandfather had
won at Tippecanoe and the Thames, young Harrison recruited a regiment,
of which he was soon commissioned colonel. Gallant services under
Sherman at Resaca and Peach Tree Creek brought him the brevet of
brigadier. After his return from war, owing to his high character, his
lineage, his fine war record, his power as a speaker and his popularity
in a pivotal State, he was a prominent figure in politics, not only in
Indiana, but more and more nationally. In 1876 he ran for the Indiana
Go