The position was not a politically powerful one, but it did provide Harrison with a steady income for his work preparing and publishing court opinions, which he sold to the legal profession. Harrison also resumed his law practice in Indianapolis. He became a skilled orator and known as 'one of the state's leading lawyers'. He became a skilled orator and known as 'one of the state's leading lawyers'. In 1869 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Harrison to represent the federal government in a civil suit filed by Lambdin P. Milligan, whose controversial wartime conviction for treason in 1864 led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case known as Ex parte Milligan.