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The Zero-Year Curse: Might Tragedy Befall the President?
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22111 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
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6 / 2001 |
2,692 Words |
| Author
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William S. Connery
William S. Connery is Current Issues editor at The World & I. |
Chief Tecumseh cursed William Henry Harrison before he took presidential office. Does the curse still linger?
On February 7, a former IRS agent was found just outside the fence on the southwestern side of the White House, brandishing a handgun. It was reported that several wild shots were fired before Secret Service officers disabled the man by shooting him in the knee. The public was quickly reassured that although President George W. Bush was in the White House at the time, his life was never in danger.
Or was it? Several times during Bill Clinton's presidency, people scaled the fence protecting the White House. One fired an automatic weapon, and a homeless man was shot dead on the sidewalk in 1995, after brandishing a knife. Incidents like this are not unusual. So what might give rise to added alarm about this most recent event? It is because Bush was elected in the year 2000. Every president elected from 1840 onward in the years ending in 0 either has been shot or has died in office. Indeed, this odd coincidence seemingly fulfills the folk myth of a remarkable Indian curse.
Legend has it that, after the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh sent Gen. William Henry Harrison a message. Delivered by released prisoners, the chief's words are supposed to have been a prophecy that history has labeled "Tecumseh's Curse": "Harrison will not win this year to be the great chief. But he may win next year. If he does ... he will not finish his term. He will die in office."
"But Chief Tecumseh, no president has ever died in office," one
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