Ulysses S. Grant: Champion of Minority Rights

Ulysses S. Grant  

President from: March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877

Age at inauguration: 46

Political Party: Republican

What I read:

Grant by Ron Chernow

Age at death: 63

Cause of Death: Throat Cancer (he constantly smoked cigars)

Health & Appearance: He had blue eyes and brown hair and stood 5’8”.  Grant was one of our healthiest presidents.  His health problems were all self-inflicted.  He smoked cigars almost continuously.  This habit certainly lead to his death from throat cancer.  He was probably an alcoholic. Though  his bouts of drinking have been disputed and while he was with his wife, he never drank.  He, like many in his day and today, dealt with depression through alcohol.  

Pre-Presidency: Grant started life working for his father as a tanner.  A horrible job which included boiling animal skins.  Grant told his father he would never do this job for life.  He was a quiet child and school children, thinking him dumb, called him “useless” Grant. 

Grant had an amazing talent with horses and animals in general.  He was sought after to help tame unruly horses and through his life people were amazed at his abilities on horseback. Being poor, his father could not send him to college, so he applied, without Grant's knowledge, to West Point Military Academy, which was free if you promised to serve in the military. Grant did not want to go but gave in to his father's wishes.

On his first assignment outside St. Louis, he met his future wife Julia Dent.  They had to put off their marriage while Grant served in the Mexican American war.  They wrote constant love letters to each other and Grant's devotion to Julia never changed. Grant was twice cited for bravery in the war and was Quarter Master for his unit which gave him an understanding of supplying military forces in the field.

He returned to marry Julia. Three of the members of his wedding party he would later fight in the Civil War.  He bounced around the country and his family followed, until he was sent to the West coast by himself.  Here his drinking started.  In 1854, Grant resigned from the Army under rumors of excessive drinking and depression. Grant then became a struggling farmer.  He hired free Black men and freed the one enslaved man his father gave him. Grant could not make it as a farmer so moved to Galena, IL to work for his younger brother in a leather shop.

The Civil War brought the need for experienced military men, so Grant reenlisted and was made Captain of an unruly unit. He worked them into a competent unit and for this was promoted to Brigadier General. Grant won many battles while other generals lost. He was known for his discipline and relationship with his men and especially his horsemanship.  He won the Civil War with superior numbers. He overpowered Lee in Virginia, forcing his surrender. Grant made the decision to not punish the southern soldiers and let them go with a rifle and a horse if they owned one.

Major accomplishments: Grant entered the presidency during what is arguably the most difficult time in American history.  He tried to juggle reforming the union while protecting the rights of newly freed enslaved people. He fought the KKK and beat it down, only for it to reform decades later.  He used U.S. troops to protect voting stations and break up terrorist groups who tried to reform the Confederacy.  He has a mixed record with using U.S. troops.  Though he often used them to help Black people, he did not uniformly apply this rule and when it became unpopular to Republican voters in the North, he backed down.

He championed the 15^th amendment which gave all free men the right to vote, regardless of color.

Grant backed a fiscal policy of gold backing U.S. currency rather than our currency being backed by faith in the government.  He was the first fiscal conservative president. 

Grant appointed the first Native American, Brigadier General Ely S. Parker, as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Grant believed the U.S. should treat Indigenous people better and tried to change the status quo by replacing political appointed governors with Quaker representatives. He had a good heart, but little changed.

Grant kept the U.S. out of a war in Cuba, which a majority in Congress wanted. He knew the U.S. military could not conduct such an action at the present time. 

His Secretary of State settled matters with England to the benefit of the U.S. This led to the start of using international arbitration to settle disagreements between nations.

Are you kidding me? Grant was arguably one of the greatest horsemen in the history of America.  Much the same was said about Washington, and they also shared the rank of Lieutenant General of the United States Army.  Washington was the first and Grant the second person to hold this rank.  It was the highest rank in the military at the time.

Grant could also not stand the sight of blood.  Go figure.

He tried to run for a third term but was not able to secure the nomination due to the popularity of his third Treasury Secretary, Bristow, who ran against him. Neither man could gain the majority needed and Rutherford B. Hayes was picked as a compromise, dark horse, candidate.

What I learned: My presidential top three are now Washington, Grant, Lincoln. In that order. He put action behind Lincoln's words. He crushed the KKK, supported Black voters, placed a thousand women, Black people and Jews into government positions. During the war, he put to work and paid ex-enslaved people. He defended using Black troops to fight, not just do menial labor. Was he perfect? No. Was he always there to protect? No. Yet, he did more for minority rights than any president before him and after him, until Lyndon Johnson.

There were numerous scandals because he was an easy mark and always believed the best about people. He was never implicated in any of the scandals and pushed for trials for all implicated people regardless of their friendship with him. Time has branded him a drunk. He was not, though he struggled with alcohol and was probably an alcoholic. There are a lot of stories of Grant drinking but many of them were made by people who did not like him, and many could not be corroborated. 

He traveled the world and mediated a conflict between Japan and China. He was not perfect by any stretch, but he did the right thing at the right time to the best of his ability.

Grant was supposed to be in the Presidential box with Lincoln at the Ford Theater and it haunted him for the rest of his life that he turned down the invitation. Mrs. Grant hated Mrs. Lincoln and did not want to go, so both the Grants and Lincoln’s Secretary of State declined their invitations. What would have happened if a hardened war general was in the box when Booth entered?

PRECEDED BY: Andrew Johnson

SUCCEEDED BY: Rutherford B. Hayes

Dear friends,
I've decided to take an indefinite break on reading on the presidents and writing this blog, as I've returned to full time day job and I still need time to write my screenplays. I hope to have the time to complete this challenge in the future.
Happy New Year!
- CJD