 True , his accomplishments were neither bold nor heroic , but his was not an age that called for heroism . His stormy presidency was brief and , and in some respects , unfortunate , but he did leave the office stronger than he found it . As a public man he had a hand in almost every issue of national importance for almost two decades , while as a party leader he , along with Blaine , forged the Republican Party into the instrument that would lead the United States into the twentieth century . 
