I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.

He offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general which he refused as he wanted sole command of the army. In these early years Harrison also earned money from his contributions to a biography written by James Hall entitled A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison publiWilliam Henry Harrisond in 1836. In 1803 Harrison lobbied Congress to repeal Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance in order to permit slavery in the Indiana Territory.

His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment. As a general in the subsequent War of 1812 his most notable action was in the Battle of the Thames in 1813 which brought an end to hostilities in his region. Defeated he retired again to his farm before being elected president in 1840 and died of pneumonia in April 1841 a month after taking office.