Randal Wallace

In the past few weeks a small debate has raged in Congress over a bill signed on to by 14 Republican Congressman. The Bill asks for the removal of President and General Ulysses S. Grant from the $50.00 dollar bill and replacing him with President Ronald Reagan. This has me in the strange position of having two of the men in history I most admire pitted against each other . In the end,  it is not a tough call. President Grant should stay.

Ronald Reagan was one of the nation’s greatest Presidents, in my opinion. He led a movement to shrink the size of government, strengthen our national defense, restore freedom around the world and bring pride back to a hurting nation. Ronald Reagan’s belief in “Peace through Strength” led to a military build up the Soviet Union could not match financially and ,within a year of leaving office, saw the Berlin Wall come down and eventually the fall of the Soviet Union itself.

Ronald Reagan restored a badly wounded nation’s pride and confidence. He had a steadfast belief in the greatness of the country, that it was a “Shining City on a Hill”.  The U.S.A. needed that uplifting presence at that time in its history. As a nation, we had lived through the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a bloody war in Vietnam, President Johnson’s withdrawal from office, a huge political scandal that led to the resignation of President Nixon, and the Iranian hostage situation that defeated President Jimmy Carter.  Ronald Reagan changed the nation’s downward spiral and  many have thought  he was only man who could.  He has had a D.C downtown  airport , federal building  and countless other things  named in his honor.  He has become the most popular man of the last half of the 20th century.

Ulysses S. Grant was easily the most popular man of the 19th century by his own contemporaries. He stood as the central political figure in the United States for over 20 years. He was the general to whom Lincoln could finally turn to win the Civil War. After President Lincoln’s assassination, the country fell into a leaderless despair and Grant was the only man who could fill the void.

General Grant’s finest hours are the ones for which he receives very little credit. His position of leadership from 1865 to his death in 1885 was still a time of  deep division in the country.  While his Presidency has been derided and called a failure due to scandals that he was never a part of himself,  it is often overlooked that he alone was the only person with the moral authority to lead the nation during this time of extraordinary crisis .

The country had lived through an enormously bloody Civil War, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, a feud between the U. S.  Congress and the President that led to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, the freeing of thousands of people and an entire region of the country, the South, that was in ruin and under military occupation. The only person in the country that had the respect and stature to bring things together  and lead us out  of  the turmoil was General Ulysses Grant.

As President, he fought for and signed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. That guaranteed the right to vote to all of the freedman. While that amendment would be thwarted for another 100 years in the South, its intent was to give African Americans the full benefits of American life. President Grant was the last champion of civil rights to reside in the White House until Harry Truman.

These 14 congressman, in an attempt to honor one of our great presidents of the 20th century, actually will resurrect an appreciation for one of the great men of the 19th century. The nation may soon truly recognize the legacy of this extraordinary, unassuming man, who rose from obscurity to lead , first a great army to the victory that saved the Union, and then held that nation together at one of its most vulnerable moments. To those people, the citizens of the United States alive at the time, Ulysses S. Grant was the only man who could.

An achievement worthy of his  SECURE place on the

$50.00 dollar bill.

Tags: Civil War, Ronald Reagan, Ulysses Grant

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