Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth President of the United States, was a short man of medium build. He had a round face which he covered with a thick, well-trimmed beard. His wide eyes hid beneath a heavy brow, permanently accenting his face with an expression that was somewhere between sadness, sincerity, and utter bewilderment. Shy in manner, he spoke little, and when he did it was in a soft, unassuming voice. He was an expert horseman and a brilliant military leader, confident in his abilities on the field of battle, but humble enough to recognize and learn from his mistakes. His ability to take the initiative, and his determination in battle earned him the praise of President Lincoln and the command of the whole of the United States Army. As President, however, Grant was less than effective. He had little political knowledge and almost no political skill. His inability to judge character, combined with his ignorance of politics, made him an easy target for the unscrupulous people who occupied positions of high trust within his administration. Scandal after scandal came to light during the years of his second term. In his last public address before leaving office, President Grant apologized for the corruption of his administration, declaring that any mistake he may have made was unintentional.
Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was the eldest of six children born to Hanna and Jesse Grant. Jesse Grant was a successful tanner who also owned a small farm. Ulysses did not like the smell of his father's tannery and spent most of his time as a young boy taking care of the animals on his father's farm. His education began at an elementary school in Georgetown. When Ulysses was fourteen, his father, unsatisfied with the progress he was making at Georgetown, enrolled him in a private academy at Maysville, Kentucky. Ulysses lasted only a year at Maysville before low grades forced his father to enroll him in another private academy near Ripley, Ohio. In 1839 Jesse Grant secured for his son an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Ulysses had no interest in pursuing a military career, but went at his father's insistence. He spent most of his time at West Point reading books and wanted no part of the military. He excelled at mathematics and intended to become a math teacher after graduation, but his plans never materialized. Ulysses proved himself to be an exceptional horseman at West Point, but when he graduated in 1843, his ranking of twenty-one in a class of thirty-nine was not high enough to merit a commission in the cavalry.
Grant's first assignment out of West Point was a commission as second lieutenant to an infantry division in St. Louis, Missouri. His unit was transferred to Louisiana in 1844 and then to Texas in 1845. Grant's unit was among the troops that President Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead into the territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. This territory was claimed by both the United States and Mexico, but was occupied by Mexicans. President Polk's decision to send armed troops into this area was the beginning of the Mexican-American War. Grant did not think that the war was justified, but he fought in accordance with his duty. He fought Under Generals Taylor and Scott at the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterrey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, and Chapultepec. He was honored for his bravery in the battle to take Mexico City and promoted to first lieutenant in September of 1847.
After the war, Grant resumed a relationship he had had with the sister of one of his roommates at West Point. Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Boggs Dent were married on August 22, 1848. They had four children, the oldest, Frederick Dent Grant, served as a major general in the United States Army and was appointed minister to Austria-Hungary by President Benjamin Harrison. During the first years of their marriage, Ulysses was commissioned to several different posts around the United States. His pay as first lieutenant was not large enough for him to afford to bring his family along with him, and so his wife and children resided in St. Louis while he moved about the country. Ulysses hated being away from his family, and tried to console himself by turning to alcohol. While stationed in California, a drunken episode forced his commanding officer to demand his resignation.
When Grant returned home to his family in St. Louis in 1854, his father-in-law gave him a farm to work, but the farm failed within a year. Ulysses then took a job as a real estate broker, but the venture was not successful. Finally in 1860, a desperate Ulysses took his family to Galena, Illinois where he took a job as a clerk in his father's store.
The Confederate attack on the Union-held Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 forced President Lincoln to call for volunteers to put down the rebellion. In June, Ulysses S. Grant, a Unionist who had very recently come to stand against slavery (Grant had owned a slave, but set him free in 1859), joined the twenty-first regiment of the Illinois Volunteers with the rank of colonel. Because of his previous military experience, Grant was soon promoted to brigadier general.
In January 1862, Grant secured permission from his commanding officer to lead a campaign into the South. On February 6 Grant's troops took Fort Henry in Tennessee. On February 16 Grant led his troops in the battle for Fort Donnelson on the Cumberland River, Tennessee. Fort Donnelson was the first major victory for the Union forces, and Grant was promoted to major general, becoming a national hero for his efforts. His demand that the Confederate troops surrender without condition at Fort Donnelson earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
By June 1862 General Grant was in command of all of the Union forces in the western campaign. Grant continued to forge ahead into Tennessee. Early in August of 1862 his troops encountered Confederate troops at Shiloh Church, near Pittsburg Landing. The Union forces suffered heavy losses, and it was suggested to President Lincoln that Grant be relieved of his command, Lincoln refused, however, and praised Grant's willingness to fight.
Grant's next move was against the heavily-fortified Confederate base of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Fighting went on for an entire year, but when Confederate troops finally surrendered on July 4, 1863, the Union gained sole control of the Mississippi River, thereby splitting the South in two. In March of 1864, President Lincoln put General Grant in charge of the entire Union Army.
Relying on the Union Army's superior numbers, Grant waged a battle of attrition against the main body of the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee in Virginia. The Civil War ended when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia, on April 9, 1865.
After the war, President Johnson sent General Grant on a tour of the South to report on the damage. When Grant reported back to the President, he suggested a lenient path toward Reconstruction. General Grant was appointed to the newly-created position of General of the Armies of the United States in 1866.
Grant's entry into politics was as unintentional as his entry into the military. When President Johnson sought to challenge the Tenure of Office Act of 1867, he relieved his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and replaced him with General Ulysses S. Grant without first seeking the Senate's approval. On June 13, 1868 Congress declared President Johnson's actions illegal and reinstated Stanton as Secretary of War. Grant complied with Congress and left office. President Johnson was furious at Grant's compliance, and a rift developed between them. When Grant finally entered politics, he did so as a Republican.
Needing a war hero to regain the Presidency, the Republican Party nominated General Ulysses S. Grant for President in 1868. President Johnson was not nominated for re-election, and the Democratic Party nominated Horatio Seymour in his stead. Grant beat Seymour with almost fifty-three percent of the popular vote in the election of 1868. Ulysses S. Grant became the eighteenth President of the United States on March 4, 1869.
President Grant made appointments to his cabinet and other governmental offices by way of the spoils system. He was sharply criticized for his appointments of friends, relatives, and millionaires who had contributed to his campaign. Though Grant honestly trusted the people he appointed, the numerous scandals that came to light during Grant's second term proved that his trust was undeserved.
As President, Grant supported the Reconstruction Act that had been passed in spite of President Johnson's veto in 1867. In March of 1869, President Grant signed the Public Credit Act which provided for the payment of federal debts incurred during the Civil War with gold as opposed to paper money. His budget called for a gradual reduction of the federal war debt. The Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing the right of people of all races and creeds to vote, was signed by President Grant in March of 1870. In May of 1871, President Grant's Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, arranged the Treaty of Washington with Britain. The United States held Britain responsible for all the damage wrought by ships which Britain had provided to the Confederacy. The Treaty of Washington was an agreement between Britain and the United States to submit the matter to the impartial third party of Switzerland. The matter was eventually decided in the United States' favor. President Grant's personal secretary, Orville Babcock, arranged the annexation of Santo Domingo, but the Senate voted his treaty down. Between 1870 and 1871, three force bills were implemented to ensure that former slaves were able to vote in the coming election. In 1872 Yellowstone National Park was established by Congress as the first United States National Park.
Though nothing had as of yet been proven, rumors of governmental corruption were prominent enough for a Republican splinter group, the Liberal Party, to base a platform on in 1872. In the election of 1872, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party both nominated New York newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, for President. Despite accusations of corruption within his administration, President Grant won the Republican nomination and the election by a landslide. Proof of widespread corruption in the Grant administration, however, began to come to light just after the election.
Just before President Grant's second inauguration, an investigation by the federal government into the financial dealings of the Credit Mobiler Company, a construction company used as a front for major stock holders in Union Pacific Railroad, turned up evidence that the then Vice President, Schuyler Colfax, and the Vice President Elect, Henry Wilson, had used bribery to cut into the profits from the transcontinental railroad.
See Vice President Schuyler Colfax: Schuyler Colfax, who served as Grant's Vice President from 1869 to 1973, was discredited in the Credit Mobilier scandal.
In 1869 President Grant's Secretary of Treasury, George S. Boutwell, had deliberately misinformed the President to sell off a percentage of federal gold to quell a panic that had not actually happened. Boutwell lied to the President in order to get him to release the federal government's supply of gold so that he and a friend could corner the gold market in New York City. A real panic occurred in 1873 when several leading banks closed due to an inability to back its claims up with gold. The crash on Black Friday triggered a depression. Congress tried to ease the shock of the depression by taking the U.S. dollar off the gold standard, and flooding the economy with cheap money, but President Grant vetoed the bill.
In 1875 an investigation by the Treasury Department implicated President Grant's personal secretary, Orville Babcock, in the Whisky Ring Scandal. Babcock had used bribery to avoid paying tax on liquor. Then in 1876, President Grant's Secretary of War, William W. Bellknap, resigned before being impeached by the House of Representatives on bribery charges.
When President Grant left office on March 4, 1877, the scandals and depression had taken their toll on his popularity. Grant took his wife and youngest son on a world tour. The old General was received as a hero everywhere he went. Stories of how Grant was being honored all around the world reached home and helped inflate Grant's injured popularity. When he returned to the United States in 1880, he was the favorite for the Republican nomination for President. Grant lost the nomination to James A. Garfield on the thirty-fifth ballot.
Grant moved to New York City where he became a partner in the brokerage firm of Grant & Ward. When the firm failed, Grant had to sell most of his property to pay debts. In August of 1884, Ulysses S. Grant was diagnosed with cancer. He began to write his memoirs so that he could provide his family with the financial security from royalties after his death. The Personnel Memoir of U.S. Grant was finally finished on July 19, 1885. Ulysses S. Grant died on July 23, 1885.
