Tecumseh's Curse on US Presidents

[Guest guest]

Great American Indian Leader, Tecumseh's greatest opponent was

W.H.Harrison. Harrison died within one month of becoming the US

president.Was it due to the Curse of Tecumseh?

 

Tecumseh's Curse

After the historical battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, legend has it that

the Shawnee Indian Chief, Tecumseh, sent General William Henry

Harrison, via released prisoners, a message… a prophecy that history

justifiably 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 his office.' 'No president has ever died in office,' declared a

visitor. 'But Harrison will die I tell you. And when he dies you will

remember my brother Tecumseh's death. You think that I have lost my

powers. I who caused the sun to darken and Red Men to give up

firewater. But I tell you Harrison will die. And after him, every

Great Chief chosen every 20 years thereafter will die. And when each

one dies, let everyone remember the death of our people.'"

In the year 2000, another election occurs in a 'zero year.' Does a

danger of death lurk for a President elected this year? Does it

follow that we should be scrutinizing vice-presidential candidates as

likely candidates for President?

In 1840, the sinister presidential death cycle foretold by Shawnee

Chief, Tecumseh, began and every sitting President elected in a year

ending in zero died in office, except for President Ronald Reagan who

luckily survived, but still endured a serious assassination attempt.

An equally auspicious correlation is the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle

in earth signs, occurring in an air sign in 1980 and attributed to

President Reagan's assassination escape, yet returning in 2000 to an

earth sign. Is it possible even more correlation exists?

 

History of The Curse

Since the inception of Tecumseh's prophetic curse, the Presidents

elected in zero years and their Vice-presidents who inherited the

Presidency are as follows:

Elected in 1840, William Henry Harrison

Died April 6, 1841 of pneumonia.

Vice Ppresident John Tyler

Elected in 1860, Abraham Lincoln

Assassinated April 14, 1865

Succeeded by Vice Ppresident Andrew Johnson

Elected in 1880, James Abram Garfield

Assassinated July 2, 1881

Succeeded by Vice Ppresident Chester Alan Arthur

Elected in 1900, William McKinley

Assassinated September, 6 1901

Succeeded by Vice Ppresident Theodore Roosevelt

Elected in 1920, Warren Gamaliel Harding

Died August 2, 1923 from food poisoning

Succeeded by Vice PpresidentCalvin Coolidge

Elected in 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Died April 12, 1945, stroke, medical records missing

Succeeded by Vice PpresidentHarry Truman

Elected in 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Assassinated November 22, 1963

Succeeded by Vice PpresidentLydon Baines Johnson

Elected in 1980, Ronald Wilson Reagan

Assassination attempt on March 30, 1981

Succeeded by George Bush by election.

Elected in 2000,George W Bush

Tecumseh and Harrison

Tecumseh, Chief of the powerful Shawnee Tribe, was distinguished

among his people for his prowess in battle although he greatly

opposed the practice of torturing prisoners. He was a staunch

believer in the principle that all Native American land was the

common possession of only Native Americans and that the land could

not rightly be ceded by or purchased from, an individual tribe.

When the United States refused to recognized this principle, he set

out to bind together the Native Americans of the Old Northwest, the

South, and the eastern Mississippi Valley as a military force to

fight for Native American rights to the land. His plan failed with

the defeat of his brother, the Shawnee Prophet, at the battle of

Tippecanoe.

Even though Tecumseh was Chief of the Shawnees, Tecumseh's brother

was almost as distinguished, not only as a warrior but also perhaps

more importantly, as the spiritual leader of the Tribe. He became

known as the Shawnee Prophet after a revelation supposedly from the

Native American 'master of life,' which urged the renunciation of

white ways and a return to Native American customs. He gained further

prestige as a prophet when he foretold an eclipse in 1806.

Tecumseh was away recruiting, when Harrison's and his men came close

to the Shawnee village in 1811. In Tecumseh's absence, the Shawnee

Prophet that led the dawn attack that started the battle of

Tippecanoe. Harrison's men drove them back and retaliated by razing

their village. Although the battle of Tippecanoe was considered a

draw, since the U.S. forces eventually retreated, it nevertheless

broke the power of the Shawnees and became known historically as

marking the collapse of the Native American military movement. When

Tecumseh returned, he released the prisoners the Shawnees had

captured and sent them to Harrison with his legendary message.

Bannered with the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," General William

Henry Harrison was elected as the ninth president in 1840. Only a

month after his inaugural, Harrison died and his running mate, John

Tyler, became the first Vice Ppresidentto inadvertently fall heir to

the Presidency. Tyler sustained as President through the remainder of

the term as did each of the Vice-presidents so succeeding. Thus,

Harrison became known, not only as the first elected President to die

in office, he was the first President of a 120-year consecutive death

cycle in seeming fulfillment of the legendary Tecumseh curse.

Fulfillment of the Curse

Four Presidents died as victims of assassination, Lincoln, Garfield,

McKinley and Kennedy…. plus there was a major attempt on Reagan's

life. That's five of the eight Presidents elected in 'zero years.'

Two deaths of the eight elects were questionable, Harding's with food

poisoning and FD Roosevelt's, the clue, being his missing medical

records. That's seven. Only one remains, the first… Harrison who

reportedly died of pneumonia and was the original object of

the 'curse.' Only once in the past 140 years did a President survive

Tecumseh's Curse… Reagan… only once out of eight opportunities. Based

on this fact alone, shouldn't the second name on the 2000 election

year ticket be as toughly evaluated as the first?

As if the correlated death statistics weren't enough to be seriously

concerned, when we probe deeper, the data becomes even more

astonishing. One very disquieting factor is a correlation to

assassination. Even though other Presidents suffered attempts, only

those elected in 'zero years' were actual victims of death. The very

first known assault was against Andrew Jackson in 1835, after being

elected in 1832. Just prior to his inauguration in 1933, F.D.R

survived an attack, but the Mayor of Chicago, also present, wasn't as

lucky. After his election in 1948, Truman escaped an attempt in 1950

that left dead a White House guard. Tyler survived a shipboard

explosion that killed Secretaries of State and the Navy although it

is unclear if this was a premeditated assault. That makes only three

additional attacks, (that we know of) and Tyler's as a fourth

possibility. Reagan's survival of his assault makes five; however,

his election in 1980 was a 'zero year.' No assassination attempt on a

President elected in any other year resulted in death. Yet, all but

one attempt on those elected in 'zero years' did!

Increasing the odds even more is the limited number of events leading

to other types of Vice-presidential takeovers. One was the only death

of a sitting President not elected in a 'zero year,' Zachary Taylor,

who died of cholera in 1850, bringing forward Millard Fillmore.

Another was Nixon's resignation, calling forth Gerald Ford. Thus, in

all other election years, only two resulted in untimely events that

promoted Vice-presidents. On the other hand, except for one, in

every 'zero year' election since Tecumseh's Curse…. seven out of a

possible eight Vice-presidents were fast-forwarded.

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Could It Really Happen Again

Let's crunch a few numbers. Counting all elections, including

Washington's first inauguration, but not Clinton's last, there was 46

elections out of which nine Vice Presidents inadvertently inherited

the Presidency…that's a 19.5% chance. Counting all inaugurations, the

odds are even less…. a total of 51 out of which nine were promotions,

revealing a 17.7% chance. Yet, for zero years with seven events out

of a possible eight, the chances of it happening again are a whopping

87.5%!