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Harrison's wife [[Anna Harrison|Anna]] was too ill to travel when he left Ohio for his inauguration, and she decided not to accompany him to Washington. He asked his late son's widow [[Jane Irwin Harrison|Jane]] to accompany him and act as hostess until Anna's proposed arrival in May.
When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe and that he was a better educated and more thoughtful man than the backwoods caricature portrayed in the campaign. He [[Inauguration of William Henry Harrison|took the oath of office]] on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day.<ref name="Harrison's Inauguration">{{cite web |title=Harrison's Inauguration |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr22a.html#obj14|publisher=American Treasures of the Library of Congress |access-date=September 21, 2009|date=August 2007}}</ref> He braved the cold weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the ceremony rather than in the closed carriage that had been offered him, and delivered the longest inaugural address in American history<ref name="Harrison's Inauguration"/> at 8,445 words. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig [[Daniel Webster]] had edited it for length. He rode through the streets in the inaugural parade<ref name="loc">{{cite web|title=Harrison's Inauguration (Reason): American Treasures of the Library of Congress|publisher=Library of Congress|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr22a.html#obj14|access-date=June 9, 2008|date=August 2007}}</ref>, stood for a three-hour receiving line at the White House, and attended three inaugural balls that evening,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/days-events/days-event/inaugural-ball |title=Inaugural Ball |author=United States Senate |publisher=inaugural.senate.gov |date=June 10, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160225184825/http://www.inaugural.senate.gov/days-events/days-event/inaugural-ball |archive-date=February 25, 2016 }}</ref> including one at Carusi's Saloon entitled the "Tippecanoe" ball with 1,000 guests who had paid $10 per person (equal to $297 in 2020).<ref>{{cite web |title=Inflation Calculator |url=https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1841?amount=10 |website=Inflation Calculator |publisher=Inflation Calculator |access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref>
The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, essentially a repudiation of Jackson's and Van Buren's policies. Harrison promised to re-establish the [[Second Bank of the United States|Bank of the United States]] and extend its capacity for credit by issuing paper currency in [[Henry Clay]]'s [[American System (economic plan)|American system]]. He intended to defer to the judgment of Congress on legislative matters, with sparing use of his veto power, and to reverse Jackson's [[spoils system]] of executive patronage. He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government.<ref>{{cite web|title=William Henry Harrison Inaugural Address|year=1989|work=Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States|publisher=Bartleby.com|url=http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres26.html|access-date=February 11, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title="I Do Solemnly Swear ...": Presidential Inaugurations|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pin_mssmisc&fileName=pin/pin1402/pin1402page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/pin:@field(NUMBER+pin1402))&linkText=0|access-date=February 11, 2009}}</ref>
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