Home of the Week
Madison graduation 2012
Warren County CC graduation
Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2010 > April > 07 > Entry
Senate President Harris backs Grant for Ohio statue
Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, on Wednesday, April 7, cast a vote for Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War general and president, to represent Ohio in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.
Harris, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, “felt an affinity” for Grant, a press release said.
Grant is one of 10 finalists for the statue. Ohioans can vote in person at historical sites around the state or by downloading a ballot and submitting it. Click here for information on how to vote.
The finalists include the Wright brothers, the aviation pioneers from Dayton, and former U.S. Rep. William McCulloch of Piqua, who played a key role in passage of major civil rights legislation.
Voting will continue until June 12. A legislative committee will have the final say in recommending a winner but members have promised to pay attention to voting by Ohioans.
The new statute will take the place of one representing former Gov. William Allen, whose anti-Abraham Lincoln and pro-slavery views prompted state officials to replace him.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment |
Comments
By willyman
April 10, 2010 8:34 AM | Link to this
Most historians list Grant as one of the 10 worst presidents in US history. Not exactly something Ohio wants to commemorate in Washington.
By David K. McClurkin
April 9, 2010 7:11 PM | Link to this
It’s too bad that this story has the nominees all mixed up with regard to how the Study Committee voted for the 10 named. General Grant was dead last in the voting. Harriet Beecher Stowe was second. Another Civil War era nominee, James Ashley, was fifth. Let’s look at them in order of the vote tally for the three: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) – After living 18 years in Cincinnati working with the Underground Railroad conductors and interviewing slaves and their families, she wrote her best-selling book in 1852. She demanded that the United States deliver on the promise of freedom and equality, galvanized the abolition movement and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. James M. Ashley (1824-1896) – He was a U.S. Congressman from Toledo that served from 1858 to 1868. His efforts in late 1863, 11 years after Stowe’s book, to support an amendment to abolish slavery throughout the entire United States culminated in its passage in early 1865 and final ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment by the end of that year…. See More Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) – In March 1864, 12 years after Stowe’s book, Grant traveled to Washington, D.C. and met President Lincoln for the first time, was promoted to lieutenant general and named commander of all Union forces. The rest is well-known history. He topped off his career of service as 18th U. S. President (1869-1877). Harriet Beecher Stowe stands out dramatically for being anti-slavery from the getgo. Her life work is the polar opposite of Governor Allen and makes the clearest possible statement of how Ohio values freedom from slavery. Stowe’s early and effective activism and advocacy in 1852 got the country moving toward the goal of freedom for all. Fighting and winning the war and gaining the Constitutional guarantee against slavery would have surely been delayed but for her.