President Benjamin Harrison and the modern U.S. Navy

Benjamin Harrison served as U.S. President from 1881 to 1887. His bio is an interesting read.

And this:

Over the course of his administration Harrison marshaled the country's technology to clothe the nation with a credible naval power.

When he took office there were only two commissioned warships in the Navy.

In his inaugural address he said, "construction of a sufficient number of warships and their necessary armaments should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care and perfection." Harrison's Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy spearheaded the rapid construction of vessels, and within a year congressional approval was obtained for building of the warships Indiana, Texas, Oregon and Columbia.

By 1898, with the help of the Carnegie Corporation, no less than ten modern warships, including steel hulls and greater displacements and armaments, had transformed the United States into a legitimate naval power.

Seven of these had begun during the Harrison term

(USS Texas, America's first battleship, built in 1892)

Harrison was also the first U.S. President that had to confront a federal budget of one billion dollars.