William Alexander Harris was an American engineer, politician and soldier during the Civil War. He was also the vice president of the Denver, Laramie & Northwestern Railroad.
Background
William Alexander Harris was born on October 29, 1841, in Luray, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, the son of William Alexander and Frances (Murray) Harris. His father, a lawyer, was a member of Congress, minister to the Argentine Confederation under Polk, editor for a time of the Washington Union, and printer to the Senate, 1857-1859, under President Buchanan.
Education
William received a primary education in Luray County, graduated from Columbian College (now George Washington University). He subsequently became a student at Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, graduated with his class to enter the service of the state in 1861.
Career
During the Civil War William Harris was assigned to duty with Col. William N. Pendleton. Later he was promoted to be assistant adjutant general under Gen. C. M. Wilcox and later was ordnance officer under D. H. Hill and Robert E. Rodes in the Army of Northern Virginia. In 1865, he went to Kansas, where his training secured for him employment as resident engineer for the Union Pacific; he built one branch of the road. He had charge of the sale of some railroad lands, and in 1868 accepted the agency for the sale of the Delaware reservation and some other lands.
After 1876, he devoted himself to his large farm at Linwood, near Lawrence, Kansas. Recognizing the necessity of improving Kansas cattle, he made investigations which ultimately led him to specialize on a breed of Scotch Shorthorns which he imported. He built up a herd at Linwood which became famous among Shorthorn breeders, and his sales were widely attended.
Harris filled various city offices of Lawrence, but as a Democrat and former Confederate he seemed barred from any political career in his state. When the Peoples Party was created to unite the agricultural sections, however, they jeered the “bloody shirt” as an evasion of the “real issues, ” and while Harris was in Europe in 1892, nominated him at the Wichita convention for congressman-at-large, as a concrete demonstration that the bloody chasm was closed. Democrats indorsed the Populist ticket, and Harris was elected with the others. In 1894, he was defeated when the fusion agreement failed. Following his defeat, he was elected state senator, but after the fusion victory in 1896, was chosen to the seat of United States Senator W. A. Peffer, Populist. In Congress, his training and experience qualified him to speak with some authority on railroad problems and on the Isthmian Canal; his work was solidly constructive rather than spectacular. Contemporaries credited him with saving fifteen million dollars in the settlement of the Pacific Railroad debt. After the expiration of his term, he was considered by President Roosevelt as a member of the Canal Commission.
Harris left the Senate with his fortune seriously reduced, and accepted employment in Chicago with the National Livestock Association. He refused to consider the Democratic nomination for the governorship of Kansas in 1904, but in 1906, over his protests and in spite of eighteen months’ actual residence in Chicago, he was named as the most available man in the party. He was narrowly defeated after an energetic canvas. Three years later he died in Chicago.
Achievements
Politics
Though Harris was the last senator to drop the term Populist, he was in fact and in policy an agrarian Democrat, more conservative than his Populist contemporaries, and frequently acted independently.
Membership
Harrid was a founding member of the American Shorthorn Breeders Association.
Personality
In person, Harris was tall and muscular, a farmer rather than a student.
Connections
In 1863 Harris married Mary A. Lionberger, who died in 1894; soon thereafter he married Cora M. Mackey.