American Executor: Ulysses S. Grant

From fields of war where armies broke and bled,

He comes not from the halls of ancient art;

The victories won beneath his banner spread

A name already written on the heart.

The nation turns to him when peace must start,

A soldier called to hold the Union’s hand—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

No crown commands the office he receives,

No royal line determines his command;

The people trust the man whose army leaves

A fractured nation joined beneath one stand—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

The war is done, but battles yet remain,

For freedom’s promise faces bitter test;

The laws may change, yet hatred still retains

The power to deny what law has blessed.

He uses federal strength to guard the oppressed,

And sends the nation’s force where rights are banned—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

The amendments become the nation’s creed,

A new definition of the public sphere;

The executive acts where there is need,

To make the promise of the law sincere—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

The South resists the changes born of war,

Secret societies rise against the freed;

Grant calls upon the power of federal law

To answer violence and protect the freed.

The government must act when words concede

No justice to those left without a hand—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

Yet peace proves harder than the battlefield,

For politics bring conflicts of their own;

The victories of war cannot alone yield

A stable nation fully grown—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

His administration faces stain and doubt,

As scandals cloud the office that he bears;

Though personal honesty is not in doubt,

The failures of his circle bring affairs.

The public turns a more suspicious gaze,

And questions how executive power stands—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

The presidency learns a difficult truth:

Great purpose may endure beside mistakes;

A leader’s name is judged by all his roots,

By every choice the administration makes—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

So stands the eighteenth in the nation’s line,

A general whose battlefield became

The office where reconstruction’s hopes combine,

And where the Union tested freedom’s name.

He sought to guard the victory he came

To win, not merely with a soldier’s hand—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

And history finds within his years a sign:

The executive may defend the weak,

May use the power of the federal design

When justice calls and silence cannot speak—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.

Envoi:

O victor who exchanged the sword for pen,

You bore the burdens peace would still demand;

You learned that wars may end, yet struggle then

Requires another kind of steadfast hand—

He leads the nation with a resolute hand.