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Ohio's Gen. Grant under attack
(by Dave Lange - May 06, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Ohio's Gen. Grant under attack
Folks down in Clermont and Brown counties, near Cincinnati, have gotten themselves all atwitter over a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that seeks to put the face of former President Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. It's not that they have anything against President Reagan. They just want to keep the face of former President Ulysses S. Grant, who was born and raised in their area, on the bill.
They are coming to realize that the Civil War isn't over in North Carolina. U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is the culprit behind the sneak attack against the great Northern general who defeated the Confederacy and then went on to become a great advocate of civil rights as president.
As another recent event has shown, the Civil War isn't over in Virginia either. After proclaiming April as Confederate History Month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, also a Republican, said he didn't consider slavery significant enough to mention it in his proclamation speech.
Some Southern politicians would rather forget the fact that their side lost the war between the states, as well as the reason why the war was fought in the first place. Now, they want to erase the image of Northern leaders who won the war.
Ulysses S. Grant, like President Abraham Lincoln before him, was a Republican back in the days when Southerners did not like Republicans. Ronald Reagan was a Republican at a time when Southerners were beginning to like Republicans a lot -- because the mantel of civil rights had switched parties. So now, Rep. McHenry and at least 16 other legislators who have signed on to co-sponsor his Reagan bill want to cash in on historic revisionism.
This is not a question of whether Ronald Reagan was a great president or whether he deserves to have his mug on U.S. currency. The question is whether his greatness surpasses that of Ulysses S. Grant. And the answer is, not even close.
During the Civil War, Gen. Grant fought at Shiloh and led Union forces to victories at Vicksburg and Chattanooga before gaining Robert E. Lee's Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Granted, Mr. Grant is not considered one of nation's best presidents.
Ronald Reagan made training films for the Army Air Force during World War II. As commander in chief, his peace-keeping mission to Lebanon resulted in the slaughter of 241 U.S. Marines and sailors by a terrorist bombing at a poorly defended barracks in Beirut. He followed that up a few days later with the U.S. military invasion of the tiny island nation of Grenada.
Rep. McHenry correctly credits Mr. Reagan with changing the way Americans think politically and economically, although current thinking is beginning to question the precedent he set on uncontrolled deficit spending. And while some political partisans give him credit for the fall of the Soviet Union, it actually was a Polish labor union leader named Lech Walesa whose stand against communism led to its eventual collapse in Europe. President Reagan was no friend of labor unions.
Although Rep. McHenry hasn't been making many friends in Gen. Grant's old stomping grounds with his $50 bill gambit, there might be a way for him to show that there really are no lingering hard feelings about the Civil War. Since his guy has the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington County, Va., named in his honor, he could sponsor a companion bill to honor Southern Ohio's guy with the Ulysses S. Grant International Airport in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. He should put up or shut up.
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