The President typically made his best impression speaking before large audiences, as opposed to more intimate settings.[176] The most notable of his presidential trips, theretofore unequaled, was a five-week tour of the west in the spring of 1891, aboard a lavishly outfitted train.[177] Harrison enjoyed a number of short trips out of the capital—usually for hunting—to nearby Virginia or Maryland.[178]
During the hot Washington summers, the Harrisons took refuge in Deer Park, Maryland and Cape May Point, New Jersey. In 1890, John Wanamaker joined with other Philadelphia devotees of the Harrisons and made a gift to them of a summer cottage at Cape May. Harrison, though appreciative, was uncomfortable with the appearance of impropriety; a month later, he paid Wanamaker $10,000 (equivalent to $301,593 in 2021) as reimbursement to the donors. Nevertheless, Harrison's opponents made the gift the subject of national ridicule, and Mrs. Harrison and the president were vigorously criticized.[179]

Reelection campaign in 1892
Main article: 1892 United States presidential election
Official White House portrait of Benjamin Harrison, painted by Eastman Johnson
The treasury surplus had evaporated and the nation's economic health was worsening – precursors to the eventual Panic of 1893.