By Luisdes Diaz

The fifty-dollar bill could soon be sporting a new face if Rep. Patrick McHenry manages to get a law passed making it feature Ronald Reagan’s beardless visage.

Which is why Ulysses S. Grant’s descendants, fans, and scholars came together yesterday at Grant’s Tomb on Riverside Drive not just to celebrate the late president’s 188th birthday, but also to express disagreement with McHenry, a North Carolina Republican.

Gunja SenGupta, professor of Civil War and American history and director of the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, extolled Grant’s accomplishments as a military general and U.S. president, arguing that he should continue to be honored with his face on the bill.

“I think that Grant paved the way for President Obama,” said SenGupta. “He helped to make the United States a better country by being willing to use federal power to stand for civil rights for all Americans.”

Ulysses Grant Dietz, the Civil War hero’s great, great-grandson, said that if his ancestor’s face were replaced: “I’d be hugely disappointed; it would be a tremendous insult beyond any political finagling that’s going on to do that.”

Dietz added, “Whoever believes Grant should be taken off the fifty-dollar bill, should really go back and re-learn their history.”

Dietz uses the annual ceremony at the tomb as an opportunity to speak to school children on field trips about the history and accomplishments that made the 18th president a great American.

“Grant definitely deserves to stay on the bill,” said Emanuel Torres, a high school student. ” After being here today I learned a lot of surprising things I didn’t know about him that our text books don’t teach us in school.”

And he certainly knew who was buried in Grant’s Tomb.