From Civil War memory, shaped by ancestral name,
He takes the chair where old divisions remain;
The nation’s past still echoes through the frame,
As questions of its future rise again.
No crown commands the office he must gain,
Yet history places power in his hand—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The Republican cause calls him to extend
The reach of government across the land;
He sees the federal power as a friend
To those who seek protection where they stand—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The veteran’s cause receives his careful ear,
As pensions grow beneath the public claim;
The nation honors those who served in war,
Though critics question the expanding flame.
The treasury feels the pressure of the same,
As spending reaches heights not known before—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The Congress works with him in common cause,
And legislation fills the public sphere;
The executive supports a broader law,
A stronger federal presence drawing near—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The Sherman Act becomes the nation’s tool,
A federal answer to concentrated might;
The government begins a different rule,
Where commerce faces oversight and light.
The executive helps define the right
Of national power to answer growing need—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The navy rises, modern ships are planned,
The nation looks beyond its continental shore;
A changing world requires a stronger stand,
And Harrison prepares for something more—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The question of the ballot remains alive,
For citizenship requires more than name;
The rights once promised struggle to survive
When states deny the freedoms they proclaim.
Federal elections become part of the game,
Yet resistance prevents the fullest plan—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
The executive seeks to use the law,
To make the Union’s promises endure;
But political forces still withdraw
The measures meant to make those promises sure—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
So stands the twenty-third in the nation’s line,
A president of action and design;
He seeks a government whose reach may shine,
A stronger hand to meet the changing time.
Yet voters judge the cost of every sign,
And return another course the nation planned—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
For every executor must face the test
Of balancing ambition with restraint;
A government that acts must also rest
Upon the trust that citizens maintain—
He leads the nation with an active hand.
Envoi:
O steward of a changing nation’s span,
You sought to use the power of the land;
Your years revealed both promise and demand—
That strength must serve the people’s plan—
He leads the nation with an active hand.