The Story of Ulysses S. Grant
2020 Edition By Corinne Waterstraut
One hundred
and 98 years ago today, the future 18th president of the United
States of America was born in relatively poverty in a log cabin in Point
Pleasant, Ohio. His name: Hiram Ulysses Grant.
“Useless
Grant” was teased by not only other kids, but by his father, who all saw
Hiram’s extraordinary ordinariness as a signal that the kid will never amount
to anything. His mom is also very detached and cold. She’s uber religious
(something Hiram doesn’t especially take to). Her rules include no drinking and
no dancing. No dancing his fine, Hiram is tone deaf. He can’t carry a tune, and
will even have trouble marching in step to military music.
His dad is a
tanner, he makes leather from dead animal carcasses for a living. Hiram can’t
stomach the thought of helping, he’s got an aversion to blood that surprisingly
he’ll carry with him for the rest of his life. The sight of it makes him
nauseous. In fact, it’s so bad he will never be able to eat meat unless it’s
charred into a well done crispy meal, and can’t even stomach the thought of
eating anything on two legs. He won’t even hunt like other kids.
And he’s not
particularly great at school. He’s not bad at math, but that’s about it. At age
7, Hiram falls into a creek and nearly drowns. He’s only saved because of one
of his few friends jumped in to fish him out.
When we
think Ulysses S. Grant today, we think winner. But, that’s not an accurate
picture of him, outside of his time in the Civil War. He is only ever good at
three things: winning battles, obviously, sketching pictures (he’s a decent
drawer and painter), and horseback riding.
Hiram loves
horses. The circus swings through town and takes volunteers to ride the crazy
horses. Hiram is the only kid who doesn’t get thrown off.
He can’t get
enough of horses. He’ll tame them, and care for them. He saves $25 from hauling
wood to buy his first horse when he was just 8 years old. By 9, townspeople
were hiring him to tame their colts. He’s so good at riding horses, he’ll
gallop through town doing acrobats on their backs. Later, he’d be hired to
drive carriages to and from Cincinnati and Louisville. He’ll get to see the
country by driving horses! It’s his dream job.
But his dad
wants his son to be something more than an expert horse rider, so he calls in a
favor and gets Hiram into West Point, though Hiram really does not want to go.
There’s a
screw up on the West Point paperwork and Hiram is listed as “Ulysses S. Grant”.
Introverted Hiram decides to go with it. He never much liked the name Hiram,
and at least his initials of U.S. would be cool. Later it can even stand as
“Unconditional Surrender” Grant, so it works out well for him.
So where did
the S come from? Well, it technically doesn’t stand for anything, but his
mother’s middle name was Simpson. So ta da! Here we have it: Ulysses Simpson
Grant is born. He’s not so formal though, you can call him Sam like most of the
other guys at the West Point.
Sam is still
not the badass we think of him as today. No, he’s small, skinny, rosey faced,
and is often called a girl with his light sing-songy voice. He doesn’t even
want to be at West Point. He’s ready to graduate, spend the minimum amount of
time he has to as solider, and get the eff out of the military.
So it’s no
surprise Sam’s not a standout student. His best subjects are math and
horsemanship. (He breaks the record for long jump) But he racks up demerits for
his sloppy dress and being late. He hosts gambling games and sneaks out to go
get drunk. Eventually he’ll graduate 21st in his class, which isn’t
all the impressive since there were only 39 men graduating with him. (He is one
of only 3 presidents to graduate from a military academy- Eisenhower &
Carter)
Sam did
manage to make a few friends at West Point, Including buddies Pete and Fredrick.
And Fredrick has a sister that catches Sam’s eye. Julia is a rural Missouri
girl who prefers fishing and horseback riding to books. The world is her
classroom! She’s a tomboy, but adventuring his hard. As a kid, Julia gets
whacked in the head by an oar and she becomes cross-eyed. Julia won’t be able
to see straight for the rest of her life, and will barely be able to cross a
room without bumping into furniture.
Julia isn’t
the prettiest girl in the room, but her adventurous spirit attracts Sam or
“Ulys” as she will call him. She’s really great on a horse, and that’s like the
number one thing Sam was looking for in a wife. He will drive her over a
rickety bridge, Julia will “cling to him” for safety, and Ulys will ask her
“How’d you like to cling to me for the rest of your life?” AWWW!
But Julia’s
dad is like ‘Let’s wait here just a minute’. He doesn’t love the idea of Julia
marrying an army officer. Army officer’s make very little, Sam won’t be able to
support his little girl. Beyond that, Sam frowns upon people owning slaves, and
the Dent’s utterly rely on it.
Julia wants
to have her cake and eat it too, as far as slavery goes. She admires her
fiancée’s progressive and courageous views, but she is also savoring her
charmed life being served by slaves.
Sam and Mr.
Dent also disagree about the looming war President Polk seems to be leaning
toward with Mexico over land in the southwest. Grant hates the aggression
toward what he sees as a weaker country, while Mr. Dent is an ardent
expansionist who extra buys into the idea Manifest Destiny.
The war of
course breaks out. We’ll talk the Mexican-American War in November for Polk.
But for now, just know Sam isn’t a stand out solider. Sure, he serves in a war
he morally opposes, and fights alongside Robert E. Lee, but that’s about it for
his highlights during the Mexican American War.
The war is
over now, though, and Sam and Julia get married, Mr. Dent’s feelings be damned.
The two will be loving spouses. They’ll do everything together, teasing and
flirting with each other in public for the duration of their marriage, complete
with a large assortment of pet names for each other.
In six years
they’ll have four kids, 3 boys and a girl: Fredrick, Ulysses Simpson Grant
Junior, Ellen (aka Nellie) and Jesse.
Over these
years, Sam Grant will be forced to spend time away from his family in a series
of monotonous postings in the Northwest Frontier. He missed them so much he
becomes depressed. He deals by drinking, and drinking, and drinking some more.
In fact, while Sam will keep it together whenever he is around his family, he
will always be known as a drunkard in the field. He may be a drinker and a
smoker, but worth noting: he seldom swears, and he doesn’t like dirty jokes.
He’s not THAT kind of guy.
He wants to
get out of the army, and so in 1854, he gets his wish, simply because his army
officers have become alarmed with his drunken stints, they finally accept his
resignation.
Now a
private citizen, Ulys needs to find a job to provide for his family. But he’s
still not good at anything. He tries his hand at rent collection, farming,
working in a hardware store, and as a customshouse clerk (basically a
receptionist). He even resorts to selling firewood on the streets.
The Grants
are poor, and down on their luck. But, Julia with her good humor, smiling
demeanor, and vim and vigor won’t let that get her down. Despite the ridicule
of her friends, Julia stays firm in her belief that Ulys is destined for
greatness.
By 1860, Sam
is working in his brother’s leather shop. But Lincoln is about to be elected
President, and the world is about to change. Sam is about to be rescued from
selling firewood, eventually becoming an American icon.
The first
shots of the Civil War will be fired at Fort Sumter, and President Lincoln will
be calling for volunteers to join the Union Army (since the US has no standing
army right now).
By 1861, Sam
Grant will be back in his military uniform, metaphorically speaking, he’ll
actually show up to duty in rumpled civilian clothes. In fact, the first time
he volunteered for the army, he was turned down.
But the US is
getting desperate do they eventually let
Sam back in. It’s a good option for Sam, he’s failed at basically everything
else he’s tried to do.
This time
Grant is going to move quickly through the ranks. He’ll rise from trainer of
the troops to battlefield commander. Grant wasn’t a solid military strategists,
but he had an unquantifiable instinct for war. He didn’t ever so much as pick
up a book on strategy, and didn’t make decisions based on being one step ahead
of the other guy. He just has a primitive war IQ that worked for him. His
victories will be a who’s who’s of battles from the Civil War making it into
your history books.
The Fort Donelson
victory will (Feb 11-16, 1862) take place at the Confederate fort near the
Tennessee–Kentucky border in the dead of winter. Relatively unknown, obscure,
Brigade General Sam Grant will capture the fort, accepting nothing less than
“Unconditional Surrender” earning him his famous nickname and elevating him to
celebrity status. The victory opened the Cumberland River to the Union, an important avenue for the invasion of the
South. Grant will be promoted to Major General, and after hearing about his
love of tobacco, will receive over 10,000 boxes of cigars from his new fans.
The Battle
of Shiloh will last two days, (April 6-7, 1862) and see Grant lead the Army of Tennessee, coming out
victorious after the Confederates surprise him with a sneak attack. On the
first day they killed the Confederate’s General, then called for
re-enforcements. The next day, those reinforcements will help the Union erase
the Confederate’s gains from the Sneak Attack.
By mid-May
1863 you will find General Grant commanding his troops at Vicksburg. Capture of
the Mississippi River town was critical to Union control of the strategic river.
The battle lasted six months, and Grant spends much of his nights on a river
boat for all-night binge drinking sessions. It doesn’t take a lot to get Sam
Grant drunk. He’s 5’8” and 135 pounds. Drunk or not, the man still comes out a
winner. The Confederates finally surrendered on July 4, 1863 earning another
tally on General Grant’s wall of victories.
Grant’s
vital and uncanny list of victories earns his name a place of privilege in
White House meetings. When people raise the question of General Grant’s
drinking habits to Lincoln, Lincoln is willing to over look it, saying “I need
this man, he fights.” Lincoln had been though a lot of Generals, and Grant was
a good one, so who cares if he’s drunk! He was almost better at commanding
while drunk, so lets get this man some more Whiskey! (Fun fact: Sam is well
aware he drinks to much and at times even hires an ARMED solider to keep him
from drinking, but he STILL DRANK!)
Even as he’s
drunk and smoking an obscene amount of cigars, Sam Grant had finally found
something he was good at: War.
By March 2,
1864 the newly re-elected Lincoln promotes General Grant to Commander in Chief
of the Union Army, it’s a rank that had only ever been held by George
Washington. His new title is “General in Chief”, he’s a pretty big deal.
With General
Grant now in command of all Union Armies, he had a good working relationship
with President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln didn’t care how Grant was getting it
done. He just cared that it was getting done.
It’s a mystery where Grant’s battlefield courage came from. For a guy who wasn’t really great at anything, and hated blood, he was amazing at winning battles, even if he suffered an ungodly amount of casualties while winning. The guy with the squeamish stomach had a name that was now synonymous with butchery. But we were winning, and General Grant was seen as the creator of modern American warfare.
Grant didn’t
often lose his temper with his men, unless of course they abused their horses.
Then Grant would go absolute ape shit on them. General Grant tolerates no
cruelty towards animals. He once tied a guy to a tree after he saw him beating
a horse. (Fun fact, one of Grant’s horses during the Civil War was named Jeff
Davis, after the Confederate president)
For Julia,
Sam’s military career was tough. He made long journeys to see her, and she
becomes one tough cookie too, traveling with the kids to see her husband
whenever she can. She loves Ulys so much she’s going to make it work. She’ll
eat gross military foods in mess halls, and write letters for soldiers who have
suffered amputations. Making life even
harder for her, she had to give up her slaves. While she spent some years
traveling to see her husband with slaves in tow, eventually the PR of that just
becomes too much and Julia will have to free them.
General
Grant spent the next year wearing down the Confederate Army. His drunkenness
combined with his terrifying innate battle prowess made him an impossibly great
Commander. He was regularly going up against generals who had more skill,
experience, and sobriety, but he was knocking his enemies out left and right.
By April 9,
1865 he was meeting Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse to accept the
Confederacy’s surrender. It was said that it was Pete, Sam’s old friend, who
convinced Lee that Grant would offer generous terms (that’s right, Pete fought
for the Confederacy!)
Grant is his
usual sloppy self, getting off topic while reminiscing about the war before scribbling
the terms of surrender on a page torn out of his notebook. The terms were
generous. The confederate men were starving, and Grant made sure they were fed.
He took the confederate men’s rifles, but let them keep their horses and mules,
saying they might need them for plowing in the spring.
When Lee
offered his sword to Grant, a traditional token of surrender, General Grant
declined, believing it was unnecessary humiliation. The two Generals shook
hands, and walked out to the front porch of the McLean House, where Grant came
face to face with his old buddy Pete. That was the reality for a lot of Civil
War solders, they could finally see friends and family again after being
divided by the war.
620,000
Americans died during the Civil War, more than any other war (2/3 died to
disease- but that’s still a lot!) Lincoln felt their had been enough bloodshed.
He was ready to work on putting the country back together. Reconstruction was
his goal.
Five days
after the surrender, Grant was back in Washington DC to attend a cabinet
meeting. When it was over, Lincoln invited Julia and Sam to join him and Mary
Todd for an evening at the theater. Sam tells Abe he’ll talk to Julia and get
back to him.
There’s a
few stories about why Sam and Julia passed on the invite. Some say Julia hated
Mary Todd didn’t want to go, some say the Grant’s were headed out of town to
see their kids, some say Julia had a premonition that they shouldn’t go. For
whatever reason, the Grants boarded a train and left town instead of going to
Ford’s Theater, a decision that may have well altered the course of the
country.
The next day
the Grant’s were eating at a restaurant in Philly when they found out President
Lincoln had been assassinated. General
Grant headed back to Washington for Lincoln’s funeral, where he stood alone and
openly wept for “the greatest man I have ever known”. Sam would always feel guilty, believing if he
had gone to the theater, he might have been able to stop the assassination.
But Lincoln
was gone now, and Andrew Johnson was president. Sam wouldn’t be as close to the
17th president as he had been to Lincoln, but Sam will work as
Johnson’s acting Secretary of War for a time (in between the firing of Edwin
Stanton which will spell impeachment for Johnson).
We won’t
learn about Andrew Johnson’s presidency until December, but for now, you’ll
just need to know that Reconstruction is a tricky subject, and Johnson can’t
please anyone. He’s a Democrat, when it was a Republican president the people
had elected. And now Republican leaders are in a tricky position. The problems
of the war are unresolved. Lincoln isn’t here to guide reconstruction, or
restore the seceded states. And nobody knew what to do with the approximately 4
million emancipated African Americans.
The end
result of all of this is a feud between Andrew Johnson and Congress that leads
to the first impeachment of a US president. The Senate will acquit him by just
one vote, leaving him in office by title, but the guy was essentially done as
president.
While
Johnson tanked, General Grant’s popularity soared. He was the nation’s most
popular citizen. Julia is happy to live in DC and soak in her husband’s new
celebrity status.
Under
Johnson’s administration Grant had walked a political tight rope, keeping his
views on reconstruction private, though he supported the Radical Republicans,
who have *Radical* beliefs like allowing blacks to vote, and giving them basic
civil rights, while also favoring laws that punish former rebels.
By 1868,
it’s obvious the Republicans are going to nominate Grant for president, which
they do unanimously on the first ballot just 4 days after Johnson’s acquittal.
Publicly, Grant is reluctant to accept the nomination, but accepts out of a
sense of duty. He’s only even voted once (in 1858, he voted for Buchanan
because “I know Fremont). Privately though his ambition to be president is
clear.
The
Republicans will run on a platform to uphold Congressional Reconstruction,
denounce the Johnson’s administration obstruction and corruption, and equal and
reduced taxes for everyone. But also, controversially, the Republican leaders
will guarantee suffrage (right to vote) for freed men in the South.
The
Democrats are looking for a candidate not tainted by disloyalty during the
Civil War, with no extreme Reconstruction policies, and no gloom of the
impeachment trial.
They’re
going to have to tow the line between a fractured party, too. Western Democrats
want paper currency (greenbacks), and are hoping to spur inflation to help
farmers. Easter Democrats want hard money backed by gold and silver to maintain
a stable economy.
The party is
so fractured, the sectional differences divide delegates and complicate the
balloting process. It takes 22 ballots and a ton of candidates for the
Democrats to settle on a dark horse candidate, orchestrated by Samuel Tilden:
Horatio Seymour.
Horatio
Seymour is a former New York Governor, who is completely surprised, and
frankly, reluctant to accept the nomination. He’s so flustered and overwhelmed by
it in fact, when he gets up on stage at the Convention to speak, he gets
emotional and his friends have to lead him off the stage where he bursts into
tears and cries “pity me! Pity me!” before finally accepting.
The
Democrats will adopt a platform of immediate restoration of southern states,
amnesty for all political officials, payment of the public debt, equal
taxation, and equal rights for naturalized and native born citizens (not black
people though, lets not get crazy).
Horatio
Seymour is one of the most obscure presidential candidates ever, which isn’t
going to bode well against the Rockstar, American icon of General U.S. Grant. He’s
a West Point graduate, Lincoln’s dream General. He’s been showered in ovations
and gifts since the war ended.
For obvious
reasons, Reconstruction would be the Main Issue in 68. Vote for a Republican
and Reconstruction proceeds. Vote for a Democrat and it rolls back. Opinions
are varied and violent.
Democrats
were fighting an uphill battle. Why would you not vote Republican in 1868? They
were the one’s who preserved the union, and freed four million blacks with the
13th Amendment!
Republicans
would “wave the bloody shirt” and remind everyone that the Democrats were the
ones who instigated the whole war. They’re the disloyal ones.
Democrats
will label all Republicans as radicals (when in reality moderates actually make
up more of the party). They claim all Republicans want “negro supremacy” and
military states.
They say
Grant’s running mate, Schuyler Colfax (House Speaker) is Anti-Catholic (though to
be fair, he was part of the Know-Nothing Party for a hot minute in the 1850s)
And Grant
isn’t a hero, he’s “Grant the Butcher”. He made his way though the war in a
blind drunken stupor. He’s Anti-Semitic, the father of an illegitimate Indian
child, and wants to “Africanize” the south.
Republicans
saw Grant’s plain spoken, smoking, gambling, hard drinking ways as endearing.
It just makes him more fun! He’s a 46 year old legend. And all of those charges
are lies, anyway.
Democrats
are bitter though. The army had been sent into several southern states to
enforce Reconstruction, and they don’t like it. They say Grant is acting like a
military dictator.
The
Republicans sling mud back at Seymour. As governor, he refused to give Lincoln
troops. He opposed Emancipation, he’s basically insane, and did you see his
tentative acceptance to the nomination? They start calling him “The Great
Decliner” as a result.
As the
election nears, Grant goes the customary way of no campaigning, and no speeches
(leaving Democrats to call him the “deaf and dumb” candidate). But he will have
a campaign slogan: “Let there be peace.” Meanwhile, Seymour spends the three
weeks before the election on a frantic tour to try and make up some ground.
But
Democrats see the writing on the wall. They’re so afraid of being humiliated in
a crushing defeat they consider replacing Seymour.
In the end,
37 states vote in the election of 1868. Mississippi, Virginia and Texas were
not allowed to vote, because they hadn’t been admitted back into the Union yet.
It’s closer
than anyone expected. While Grant won in an electoral landslide, the popular
vote was much closer. If Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas could have voted,
Seymour might have won the popular vote. But he still would have come up way
short in the electoral college (those three states were only worth 23 electoral
votes).
Grant won
off of the black vote, though their votes were only counted in 16 of the 37
states. Some states don’t allow them to vote outright (Connecticut), some
states say you have to own $250 worth of property to vote (New York). But,
500,000 blacks vote in the south despite acts of terror and threats of violence
that kept many voters from the polls.
Ulysses S.
Grant will be inaugurated as our 18th president, and despite the
fact that both of his parents are living (the first time this has ever
happened), neither one of them show up on the very cold day in 1869 to see
their son sworn in as president. It’s so cold in fact that the canaries that
were supposed to sing, froze to death. A bad omen perhaps?
Julia
doesn’t think so. The Grants have been in DC for four years now. She was the
wife of the most powerful solider in the country, and loves every minute of
being at the top of DC political society. And now, she was going to be First
Lady. After Grant took the oath of office he turned to her and said “And now,
my dear, I hope you are satisfied”.
Julia is
happy. Worth noting, she won’t serve alcohol at the inauguration. She doesn’t
want things to get out of hand.
And her one
rule is “no smoking”, a rule her husband breaks frequently. In an ongoing
battle, Julia, who hated tobacco smoke would throw out his stash. But he had
reserves (remember those 10,000 cases). Grant continues to smoke and obscene
amount of cigars (even eating them on occasion). He’s almost never seen without
one, and reeks of tobacco smoke.
Julia will
be a legendary entertainer. She serves 20 or 30 course meals served by an
Italian Chef. Alcohol can be served now, Sam can handle his liquor even better
now that he’s gained 25 pounds from all that pasta. Plus, he never drinks that
much when his family is around, magically then, he can keep it in check.
The new
first lady welcomes everyone from the working class to the rich and fancy to
the White House. She’s a breath of fresh air after the antics of Mary Todd
Lincoln, and the mysterious anonymity of Eliza Johnson. People love her
enthusiasm, and she loves being associated with DCs rich and famous figures.
The sophisticated elite find her direct manner refreshing.
Her one
weakness is her lousy memory. She has an inability to remember people’s names,
and the White House Staff will stand by her during receiving lines to feed her
information. Sometimes, Ulys would feed her wrong info just to mess with her.
Julia would
get him back though, she would get wallflower quiet Sam to talk by purposefully
getting a story wrong, so he’d have to jump in and tell it. Sam was notoriously
a man of few words, once standing simply to say “I rise only to say that I do
not intend to say anything.”
The Grant’s
teased each other frequently. It was part of their loving couple banter. The
Grant family is endearing, and people love them all. They gather in the
residence during the evening to tell stories, gossip, and make fun of each
other (all in good humor of course).
The older
Grant boys, Fredrick and Ulysses are off at college. But daughter, Nellie, is
being treated like a princess in the White House with midnight dancing parties
(not with Sam though, he does not dance). Jesse, is a prankster who frequently
goes to the roof with his dad and his telescope to star gaze.
Grant’s
presidency begins the Gilded Age, with the first couple hob knobbing with
industry guys and business men. The Grant’s are glittery and charming. It makes
the press, and people, not even care about Grant’s missteps as president, or
the fact you won’t find him working before 10 AM (Ulysses S. Grant is not a
morning person).
The Grants
will expand the White House stables, having more horses at the White House
(including Jeff Davis) than any other president (they’ll also bring dogs and
their parrot). Julia added closets to the White House, and decorated with art
and pillows to make the place brighter and cheerier.
All of this
is a nice change of pace from the hardships the country, the presidency, and
the White House have suffered. But, Grant’s first term is going to highlight
his political experience. Grant’s going to be a victim of the spoils system he
embraces. He relies on family and friends who are also inexperienced, pissing
off some Republicans who wanted experienced guys in those positions. The spoils
system is reaching new levels under Grant, and is rebranded as “Grantism”.
Now Sam is
an honest guy. So honest in fact, when he gets pulled over speeding in his
carriage, he insists on paying the fine and walking back to the White House. No
special treatment for the president. (After his presidency he’ll even realize
he’s fishing out of season, and go down to pay that fine too).
But he knows
some dishonest people, and he’s going to overly trust those beneath him. For
being a tough, decisive general, Grant is easily manipulated by smooth talkers
with valuable gifts. It makes him look weak and ineffective.
Grant should
have known better, but he still appoints anyone and everyone who had ever done
him a favor (Grant will later say it was a judgement error, not intent).
Now, Grant
is going to have a lot of “rings” over the course of his two terms, it’s what
they called scandals before “gate” came around (you know, Watergate,
inflate-gate). Up first, The gold ring scandal.
These two
financier guys, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, are determined to corner the gold
market. The befriend Abel Corbin, Grant’s brother in law, and Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury, David Butterfield, to get access to the president. The
guys say they’re going to make sure Grant doesn’t sell the government owned
gold, and he doesn’t, for awhile. By the time President Grant figures it out,
he orders the immediate sale of $4 million worth of gold, tanking investors.
But it still isn’t a good look, and the scandal reaches all corner of his
administration (some even say the First Lady made a profit on the whole thing-
yikes).
The Whiskey
Ring will see Grant’s private secretary and 200 others indicted, after a
complex bribery scam where tax collectors and whiskey distilleries skimmed off
millions of federal tax dollars.
The Indian
Ring involved Grant’s Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Interior giving
kickbacks from profits that were slated to help Native Americans.
The most
famous of all of Grant’s administrations’ scandals, though, goes to Credit
Mobilier. This railroad scandal will even involve the Vice President.
Basically, the government had contracted Union Pacific Railroad to build it’s
government funded railroad. That’s fine. But, Union Pacific created a dummy
construction company (Credit Mobilier) to bill Union Pacific (that is, itself)
at an inflated rate. Union Pacific added on more charges and the passed the
bill to the government.
For all the
scandals, Grant still doesn’t want to fire anyone. He’s the anti- Donald Trump.
Most of these scandals will go on unknowingly to the American Public, at least
for now.
Instead,
Grant will have some presidential highlights. He’ll admit Colorado into the
Union and readmit Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas.
He will
declare Christmas a federal holiday!
He’ll sign a law to make Yellowstone our very first national park.
He’ll sign a law to make Yellowstone our very first national park.
And he will
enforce civil rights laws, even sending troops to fight the Ku Klux Kaln’s
violence against blacks in the south.
In 1870, the
15th Amendment will be ratified, stating “the right to vote cannot be denied
because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It’ll protect new
Republican voters. (Though many blacks will not vote for nearly 100 years- with
the Voting Rights Act of 1965)
Grant’s
uneven presidency still garners him plenty of fans. You can’t discount the hero
of the Civil War, after all. But the Republican party will start to fracture,
into the Radicals, who are committed to Reconstruction and Freedom (those will
be Grant’s guys), and the Liberals who want some civil service reform (the guys
who want to end the spoils system and base appointments on what you know, not
who you know).
The
fractured Republican party will make things interesting for the election of
1872. The majority of Republicans still favor Grant. He’ll easy be renominated
for president. He’s got the radical
republicans no problem. For the most part, the full scope of the Grant
Administration corruption isn’t known to the public yet.
But, the
Liberal Republicans are fed up with Grant and his buddies in office. The
Liberal Republicans consider Charles Frances Adams as a candidate. He’s JQA’s
son, John Adam’s grandson, it’s in the genes. But, people don’t really like
him, and he’s not all that exciting (that must be in the genes too).
The Liberal
Republicans are not just about civil service reform, and an “uprising of honest
system” (down with the spoils system!), they also want to withdraw all the
troops from southern states, and an end to Reconstruction.
The Liberal
Republicans pick their nominee first, and they go with a truly perplexing pick.
Enter: Horace Greeley, a potbellied, balding, scruffy, baby faced, crusading
newspaper editor and publisher of the New York Tribune. Horace has been
politically influential through his newspaper, but he has no political
experience. He supports Civil Service Reform though.
He looks as
eccentric as his socialist fringe ideas. He wears a white hat wherever he goes,
On the pro side, he’s intelligent, sincere, idealistic, and unquestionably
honest. His newspaper has made him a national celebrity. On the con side, he’s
erratic, unpredictable, crochety, and incompetent in politics.
When the
Democrats have their convention, they want to have anyone who they think can
beat Grant. Some might say their goals aren’t too different from the liberal
republicans. If they team up, maybe they could oust Grant from the presidency.
So the Democrats hastily get on
board with the Liberal Republicans, and in a matter of 6 hours they vote to
accept both Horace as their candidate and the platform of the Liberal
Republicans.
Everyone is
pretty shocked by the nomination of Horace Greeley, especially his fellow
newspaper editors. If the Democrats hadn’t got on board, Horace would have just
been a fringe third party candidate, and fallen into obscurity. Nobody thought
the Democrats would get on board, saying “I did not suppose any considerable
number of men outside a lunatic asylum would nominate Greenly for president.”
But the Democrats got on board, and now Horace was a legit candidate for
president, prompting headlines like:
“Biggest
Disappointment since the first Battle of Bull Run”
“the nomination is drowned in a wave of
laughter”
“A joke on
the nation”
Horace is
almost doomed from the start though. With Greenly in the running, Grant is
unbeatable. It’s the election of the Legendary War Hero vs. the Atheist
Vegetarian Newspaperman.
Some people
aren’t pleased with either choice, calling it the man of no ideas vs the man of
too many. Some claim “never in American History have two more unfit men been
offered to the country for the highest office.”
Old charges
about Grant will resurface. He’s a drunk, a crook, a dictator, a swindler.
Republicans will refuse to miss a chance to blame the south for the war, waving
the bloody shirt, reminding everyone that the Southern Democrats started the
whole thing.
Media
influence in this one is huge, in particular political cartoons. Grant is
usually favored, depicted as ‘defender of liberty and freedom’, while
cartoonists can’t resist the opportunity to draw Horace as a caricature.
Things go
from bad to worse, when Horace’s wife dies just a few days before the election.
He is devasted, saying “I am not dead, but I wish I were”.
The election
of 1872 will see the first female candidate to run for president, Victoria,
Claflin Woodhull, a leader of the American suffragist movement.
But the
leader of woman’s suffrage that will make it into the mainstream history books
is Susan B. Anthony. And she’s here too. She’ll attend all three party
conventions, but only Grant’s team agrees to include a reference in support of
woman to their platform.
On November
5, Susan B. Anthony votes for Grant for president, claiming the 15th
Amendment gives ALL Americans, even women the right to vote. The police
disagree though, and she gets arrested nearly two weeks later for voting. She’s
found guilty, and fined $100. Susan B. Anthony won’t ever pay the fine, though.
Grant easily
wins the election. He’ll be the first president since Andrew Jackson to serve
two full terms. Horace, the editor-turned-candidate won only six states (out of
37): Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.
Horace
complains “I am the worst beaten man who ever ran for high office.” (Not quite,
others had lost by more.) He went on to wallow in his defeat saying he is
“utterly ruined beyond hope.”
Nobody’s
ever quite taken a loss as bad as Horace. He began becoming mentally confused,
and suffering from hallucinations.
He was
placed in a private sanitorium for mental patients, and dies on November 29th,
just 24 days after losing the presidency. President Grant will attend his
funeral.
The
electoral college hasn’t even met yet to certify the vote, so nobody is quite
sure what to do with the electoral votes. They split them up between some other
guys (42-Thomas Hendricks, 18- Benjamin Brown, 2 Charles Jenkins, 1-David
Davis, and 17 don’t vote).
Grant’s
second term will be harder than the first. The economic recession known as the
Panic of 1873 will see 18,000 failed businesses and 14% unemployment. Grant
knows nothing about finance, and isn’t much help in helping pull Americans out
of economic despair.
His Vice
President, Henry Wilson, has a stroke and dies.
Scandals
continue, and now they’re more widely known about. Members of his
administration are being indicted.
The south is
back in the grips of white supremacy.
And on a
personal note, Nellie gets married in the White House (in a total lavish affair),
and Grant is devastated to see his only daughter go off to Europe with her new
husband. He goes to her room to cry after the wedding.
By the time
1876 came around, Grant was done being president and announced he would not
seek a third term. Julia was upset that she would be giving up her job as First
Lady. She weeps as they leave DC, the White House basically had to be pried
from her by the incoming Hayes administration.
The only
thing that can console Julia is a 2 year world tour, where the Grant’s are
treated like royalty wherever they go- from Egypt to India.
But back in
the states, Sam is going to need to figure out what to do, and remember? He’s
not so great at anything but war, and he’s got no war to do. He’s lost a good
portion of their money investing in his son’s failed banking venture, and
resorts to hawking Civil War memorabilia.
Mark Twain,
of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer fame, convinces Sam he should write his
memoirs. Grant discovers he does in fact have another hidden talent: he’s a
freaking good writer.
But all that
smoking has caught up to him, and he’s got throat cancer. Sam knows he’s dying,
but he wants to make sure even after he’s gone, Julia is taken care of, so he
works hard to finish before he dies. He makes it with 3 days to spare.
Sam Grant
dies on July 23, 1885, at the age of 63 in New York. He’s the only president
who has ever died from cancer. Julia was distraught.
More than a
million people turned out to witness Grant’s funeral procession. He was laid to
rest in Grant’s Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America.
His memoirs
are his greatest gift to us, and Julia. They made over half a million dollars,
allowing Julia to move back to DC and live comfortably for the rest of her
life, and still to this day stand as one of the finest accounts of the Civil
War ever written.
Julia would
live another seven years, fighting for women’s suffrage, and staying in the DC
political scene, being nearly as beloved as Dolley Madison had been.
The kids
would go on to do good things too. Fredrick became US Minister to
Austria-Hungry (under Benjamin Harrison), and Secretary of War (under William
McKinley). Ulysses Junior became a wealthy well-known lawyer. Nellie lived
until she was 67, and is buried in the same cemetery as Lincoln and Jesse Grant
will follow in his father’s footsteps in 1908 by running for president. (He
loses the primary to William Jennings Bryan)
Grant’s
legacy is mixed. Of course he is known as a brilliant General, but his
presidency is a conundrum for historians. A flawed success? Some say so. Others
claim it’s an abject failure.
The truth,
with Grant and many presidents, lies somewhere inbetween. His administration
was one of the most corrupt in US history, but his commitment to empowering
freed slaves, and making peace with the Plains Indians stands out.
Since 1913,
Grant has been honored on the $50 bill, and that man in the middle of the
reflecting pool in from of the US Capitol Building, why that’s none other than
Ulysses S. Grant, the greatest General our country has even seen, looking out
across the country he helped save.
