Grant, Ulysses S.

18th president, 1869–1877

Born: April 27, 1822

Died: July 23, 1885

Vice Presidents: Schuyler Colfax, Henry Wilson

First Lady: Julia Dent Grant

Children: Frederick, Ulysses, Ellen, Jesse

Ulysses Grant was a store clerk who had resigned in disgrace from the U.S. Army when the Civil War broke out. By the time the war ended, Grant was the Union's most important general. Grant was born in Ohio in 1822 and attended West Point. In August 1848, he married Julia Dent, the sister of a former West Point classmate. They had four children: Frederick, Ulysses, Ellen, and Jesse.

During the Civil War, Grant led Union troops to victory in the western theater of the war at the key battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. In 1864, Lincoln promoted Grant to commander of all Union forces. In April 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant, making the Union commander a national hero. His popularity helped him become president in 1868 and was critical to his reelection in 1872. Grant, however, proved a better soldier than politician.

• Grant's nickname was "Hero of Appomattox."
• Grant's birth name was Hiram, but his parents chose to call him Ulysses, his middle name. The middle initial "S" was mistakenly added to his name at West Point.
• Grant was the first West Point graduate to serve as president.
• In 1872, Grant signed legislation that established Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world. This eventually led to the creation of the National Park Service.
• The celebrated author and humorist Mark Twain was the publisher of Grant's memoirs. Grant himself died days after completing the memoirs.

Scandal and corruption marked the Grant presidency. He gave jobs to his friends, who in turn accepted bribes and committed fraud. After his two terms, Grant put his life savings into a banking firm. He later learned that his partner had stolen all of the savings. At the end of his life, Grant turned to writing, and compiled one of the most widely read memoirs of the Civil War. He died soon after in 1885.

When Grant Was in Office

1869

The Transcontinental Railroad was completed.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, dedicated to securing women the right to vote.
Wyoming Territory gave women the right to vote.

1870

The 15th Amendment, guaranteeing voting rights to blacks, was ratified.
Hiram Revels went to work as the first black U.S. senator.

1871

A huge fire swept through Chicago and destroyed much of the city.

1873

Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire, which ended the era of the open range in the West.

1875

Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

1876

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
Sioux fighters led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse killed General George Armstrong Custer and all of his men in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

On Grant's First Inauguration Day

Ulysses Grant took the oath of office as one of the most popular figures of his time. Though he had earned a reputation as a general whose tactics led to unusually high Union casualties, he had achieved victory over Confederate forces. America was still recovering from the horror of war when the general became president. Like Lincoln and Johnson before him, Grant did not believe that Southern states should be punished harshly; they had already suffered enough.

Ulysses Grant's First Inaugural Address

In Washington, D.C., Thursday, March 4, 1869

Citizens of the United States:

YOUR suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the United States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our country, taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without mental reservation and with the determination to do to the best of my ability all that is required of me. The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me unsought; I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious desire and determination to fill it to the best of my ability to the satisfaction of the people.

On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express my views to Congress and urge them according to my judgment, and when I think it advisable will exercise the constitutional privilege of interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose; but all laws will be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not.

I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike—those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.

The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions will come before it for settlement in the next four years which preceding Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting these it is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained.

This requires security of person, property, and free religious and political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best efforts for their enforcement.

A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity the Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as the return to a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished without material detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large, must be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar of Government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the debt with bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. To this should be added a faithful collection of the revenue, a strict accountability to the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable retrenchment in expenditure in every department of Government.

When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with the ten States in poverty from the effects of war, but soon to emerge, I trust, into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying capacity twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably will be twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every dollar then with more ease than we now pay for useless luxuries? Why, it looks as though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box in the precious metals locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, and which we are now forging the key to unlock ¹, to meet the very contingency that is now upon us.

Ultimately it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach these riches and it may be necessary also that the General Government should give its aid to secure this access; but that should only be when a dollar of obligation to pay secures precisely the same sort of dollar to use now, and not before. Whilst the question of specie payments is in abeyance the prudent business man is careful about contracting debts payable in the distant future. The nation should follow the same rule. A prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.

The young men of the country—those who from their age must be its rulers twenty-five years hence—have a peculiar interest in maintaining the national honor. A moment's reflection as to what will be our commanding influence among the nations of the earth in their day, if they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national pride. All divisions—geographical, political, and religious—can join in this common sentiment. How the public debt is to be paid or specie payments resumed is not so important as that a plan should be adopted and acquiesced in. A united determination to do is worth more than divided counsels upon the method of doing. Legislation upon this subject may not be necessary now, or even advisable, but it will be when the civil law is more fully restored in all parts of the country and trade resumes its wonted channels.

It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect all revenues assessed, and to have them properly accounted for and economically disbursed. I will to the best of my ability appoint to office those only who will carry out this design.

In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law requires individuals to deal with each other, and I would protect the law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own. If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow their precedent.

The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land—the Indians—is one deserving of careful study. ² I will favor any course toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.

The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express the desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution. ³

In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.

Quotes to Note

1. "a strong box in the precious metals..." Grant is possibly referring to the Comstock Lode, a discovery of enormous silver deposits in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Other, smaller discoveries of gold and silver were made in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho during the 1860s.
2. "The proper treatment of the original occupants..." Grant was the first president in 20 years to address the issue of Native Americans. He is the first to call them the original—that is, native—occupants of America.
3. "I entertain the hope..." The 15th Amendment, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote, was ratified by the states in 1870.

On Grant's Second Inauguration Day

By Grant's second inauguration, the corruption of some of his appointees was public knowledge. Grant's popularity was such, however, that he was easily re-elected. His second term, however, proved as disappointing as his first.

Ulysses Grant's Second Inaugural Address

In Washington, D.C., Tuesday, March 4, 1873

Fellow-Citizens:

UNDER Providence I have been called a second time to act as Executive over this great nation. It has been my endeavor in the past to maintain all the laws, and, so far as lay in my power, to act for the best interests of the whole people. My best efforts will be given in the same direction in the future, aided, I trust, by my four years' experience in the office.

When my first term of the office of Chief Executive began, the country had not recovered from the effects of a great internal revolution, and three of the former States of the Union had not been restored to their Federal relations.

It seemed to me wise that no new questions should be raised so long as that condition of affairs existed. Therefore the past four years, so far as I could control events, have been consumed in the effort to restore harmony, public credit, commerce, and all the arts of peace and progress. It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending toward republicanism, or government by the people through their chosen representatives, and that our own great Republic is destined to be the guiding star to all others.

Under our Republic we support an army less than that of any European power of any standing and a navy less than that of either of at least five of them. There could be no extension of territory on the continent which would call for an increase of this force, but rather might such extension enable us to diminish it.

The theory of government changes with general progress. Now that the telegraph is made available for communicating thought, together with rapid transit by steam, all parts of a continent are made contiguous for all purposes of government, and communication between the extreme limits of the country made easier than it was throughout the old thirteen States at the beginning of our national existence.

The effects of the late civil strife have been to free the slave and make him a citizen. Yet he is not possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it. ¹ This is wrong, and should be corrected. To this correction I stand committed, so far as Executive influence can avail.

Social equality is not a subject to be legislated upon, nor shall I ask that anything be done to advance the social status of the colored man, except to give him a fair chance to develop what there is good in him, give him access to the schools, and when he travels let him feel assured that his conduct will regulate the treatment and fare he will receive.

The States lately at war with the General Government are now happily rehabilitated, and no Executive control is exercised in any one of them that would not be exercised in any other State under like circumstances.

In the first year of the past Administration the proposition came up for the admission of Santo Domingo as a Territory of the Union. It was not a question of my seeking, but was a proposition from the people of Santo Domingo, and which I entertained. I believe now, as I did then, that it was for the best interest of this country, for the people of Santo Domingo, and all concerned that the proposition should be received favorably. It was, however, rejected constitutionally, and therefore the subject was never brought up again by me.

In future, while I hold my present office, the subject of acquisition of territory must have the support of the people before I will recommend any proposition looking to such acquisition. I say here, however, that I do not share in the apprehension held by many as to the danger of governments becoming weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension of territory. Commerce, education, and rapid transit of thought and matter by telegraph and steam have changed all this. Rather do I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required.

My efforts in the future will be directed to the restoration of good feeling between the different sections of our common country; to the restoration of our currency to a fixed value as compared with the world's standard of values—gold—and, if possible, to a par with it; to the construction of cheap routes of transit throughout the land, to the end that the products of all may find a market and leave a living remuneration to the producer; to the maintenance of friendly relations with all our neighbors and with distant nations; to the reestablishment of our commerce and share in the carrying trade upon the ocean; to the encouragement of such manufacturing industries as can be economically pursued in this country, to the end that the exports of home products and industries may pay for our imports-the only sure method of returning to and permanently maintaining a specie basis; to the elevation of labor; and, by a humane course, to bring the aborigines of the country under the benign influences of education and civilization. It is either this or war of extermination: Wars of extermination, engaged in by people pursuing commerce and all industrial pursuits, are expensive even against the weakest people, and are demoralizing and wicked. Our superiority of strength and advantages of civilization should make us lenient toward the Indian. The wrong inflicted upon him should be taken into account and the balance placed to his credit. ² The moral view of the question should be considered and the question asked, Can not the Indian be made a useful and productive member of society by proper teaching and treatment? If the effort is made in good faith, we will stand better before the civilized nations of the earth and in our own consciences for having made it.

All these things are not to be accomplished by one individual, but they will receive my support and such recommendations to Congress as will in my judgment best serve to carry them into effect. I beg your support and encouragement.

It has been, and is, my earnest desire to correct abuses that have grown up in the civil service of the country. To secure this reformation rules regulating methods of appointment and promotions were established and have been tried. My efforts for such reformation shall be continued to the best of my judgment. The spirit of the rules adopted will be maintained.

I acknowledge before this assemblage, representing, as it does, every section of our country, the obligation I am under to my countrymen for the great honor they have conferred on me by returning me to the highest office within their gift, and the further obligation resting on me to render to them the best services within my power. This I promise, looking forward with the greatest anxiety to the day when I shall be released from responsibilities that at times are almost overwhelming, and from which I have scarcely had a respite since the eventful firing upon Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, to the present day. My services were then tendered and accepted under the first call for troops growing out of that event.

I did not ask for place or position, and was entirely without influence or the acquaintance of persons of influence, but was resolved to perform my part in a struggle threatening the very existence of the nation. I performed a conscientious duty, without asking promotion or command, and without a revengeful feeling toward any section or individual.

Notwithstanding this, throughout the war, and from my candidacy for my present office in 1868 to the close of the last Presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in political history ³, which to-day I feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your verdict, which I gratefully accept as my vindication.

Quotes to Note

1. "Yet he is not possessed..." Despite the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments, African Americans suffered greatly during Grant's second term. The rise of racist organizations in the South, such as the Ku Klux Klan, led to violence and intimidation against African Americans.
2. "The wrong inflicted upon him..." Grant was the first American president to state in an inaugural address that Native Americans have been mistreated.
3. "I have been the subject of abuse..." Grant was accused during the war of having a drinking problem as well as being a "butcher" whose tactics led to needless death. His first term in office was riddled with corruption. Despite his critics, he says, he has been re-elected.