{"id":6334,"date":"2021-06-16T20:51:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T03:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=6334"},"modified":"2021-06-16T20:51:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T03:51:37","slug":"republicans-in-history-ulysses-s-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=6334","title":{"rendered":"Republicans In History: Ulysses S. Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Ulysses S. Grant took office in 1869, he was the youngest heretofore to be elected to the highest office in the land.\u00a0\u00a0Born as Hiram Ulysses\u00a0Grant, he\u00a0came from very humble beginnings.\u00a0 His father was\u00a0a tanner.\u00a0 His childhood was uneventful.\u00a0\u00a0He attended public schools and later private schools.\u00a0 The\u00a0talent\u00a0that stood out was his\u00a0remarkable skill as a horseman and horse whisperer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Grant was nominated to\u00a0West Point\u00a0by Congressman Thomas L.\u00a0Hamer\u00a0who mistakenly transcribed his name as \u201cUlysses S. Grant\u201d.\u00a0 He immediately adopted the name to avoid his appointment being questioned.\u00a0 He was a mediocre student, graduating 21<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0out of 39.\u00a0 His strong subjects were math and geology.\u00a0 His most memorable legacy from\u00a0West Point\u00a0was\u00a0his equestrian high jump record which stood for 25 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After graduation from West Point, Grant was transferred to the Jefferson Barracks near\u00a0St. Louis,\u00a0Missouri.\u00a0 It was there that he met his future wife, Julia Dent and they became engaged.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Mexican-American War broke out and Grant followed his unit under the command of Major General Zachary Taylor and later Major General Winfred Scott to fight in\u00a0Mexico.\u00a0 Although a quartermaster, Grant let the cavalry charge at the battle of Resaca de la Palma.\u00a0\u00a0As a quartermaster, he did not have a combat role, but he volunteered for perilous missions and was ultimately given dangerous assignments. It was during this time that he was able to observe closely the tactics and strategies of Generals Taylor and Scott.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Grant returned home and married Julia Dent after a long four-year engagement.\u00a0\u00a0Although his mandatory service had been completed, he chose to remain in the military.\u00a0\u00a0His post-war assignments took him to\u00a0Detroit,\u00a0New York,\u00a0and then the\u00a0Oregon\u00a0Territory.\u00a0 His wife Julia did not follow him as she was pregnant.\u00a0 His separation from his family was stressful and it was during this time that he started drinking.\u00a0 He was promoted to Captain and transferred to\u00a0Humboldt,\u00a0California.\u00a0 His off-duty drinking continued and his commanding officer gave him an ultimatum to resign\u00a0or face a court-martial.\u00a0 He resigned\u00a0and returned to\u00a0St. Louis,\u00a0Missouri.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Civilian life was never kind to him throughout his\u00a0entire lifetime.\u00a0 After the war, he got out of the military.\u00a0 He undertook various endeavors unsuccessfully.\u00a0 He farmed, worked in his father\u2019s tannery, sold wood on the streets, acted as a bill collector and a store clerk.\u00a0\u00a0These were very lean\u00a0times for the Grant family.\u00a0In spite of the family\u2019s financial stress, Grant freed the only slave he owned worth $1,500 that he had acquired from Julia\u2019s father.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Now the Civil War broke out and\u00a0Lincoln\u00a0called for 75,000 volunteers.\u00a0 Grant was recognized as a military expert\u00a0and was called upon to lead a\u00a0company of volunteers.\u00a0 Without any formal rank, he wanted a field command in the regular army and continued to lobby for such a position.\u00a0 With the aid of Illinois Congressman\u00a0Elihu\u00a0B.\u00a0Washburne, Grant was promoted to Coronel and put in charge of\u00a0restoring discipline to\u00a0the 21<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter,\u00a0Lincoln\u00a0promoted Grant to Brigadier General and gave him\u00a0command of the troops near\u00a0Cairo,\u00a0Illinois.\u00a0\u00a0His successful\u00a0assault on\u00a0Fort\u00a0Donelson\u00a0afforded\u00a0him the nickname \u201cUnconditional Surrender Grant\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Lincoln\u00a0promoted him to Major General of Volunteers.\u00a0 Grant was dogged and persistent\u00a0throughout the war.\u00a0 Despite heavy losses, Grant ultimately prevailed and Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lincoln\u00a0was assassinated and Andrew Johnson\u00a0(D)\u00a0became President.\u00a0 General Grant continued as commander of the army.\u00a0 Eventually, Grant fell out of favor and broke with Johnson over his lenient Reconstruction policies.\u00a0\u00a0President Johnson was at odds with the Radical\u00a0Republicans in Congress who passed, with General Grant\u2019s support,\u00a0the Reconstruction Acts, renewed the Freedman Bureau, and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over President Johnson\u2019s vetoes.\u00a0\u00a0President Johnson barely survived an impeachment attempt when he tried to replace\u00a0Lincoln\u00a0appointee Secretary of War\u00a0Edwin\u00a0Stanton who favored Congress\u2019 Reconstruction policies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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General Ulysses S. Grant was nominated as the Presidential candidate at the 1868 Republican National Convention in\u00a0Chicago.\u00a0 His popularity was at an all-time high after the Civil War.\u00a0 After the nomination, Grant went home and left the campaigning largely to his campaign manager William Chandler.\u00a0 The Democrats attacked Grant\u2019s support of Reconstruction and his\u00a0defense of former slaves’\u00a0civil rights.\u00a0\u00a0Grant won the election by an Electoral College landslide of 214 to 80.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ulysses S. Grant\u2019s administration was marked by the creation of the National Park Service, the designation of Yellowstone as a National Park, the creation of the Justice Department to pursue the enforcement of laws in the South\u00a0targeting the\u00a0KluKluxKlan, the creation of the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service),\u00a0the\u00a0return of the US Government to the gold and silver standard to stabilize the government\u2019s finances\u00a0after the Civil War\u00a0and the negotiation of the Washington Treat of 1871 to settle British claims resulting from the construction of Confederate ships during the Civil War.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Most\u00a0importantly was Grant\u2019s insistence on protecting the civil rights of former slaves\u00a0through the 15<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0Amendment.\u00a0\u00a0Grant insisted that the former Southern States ratify the 15<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0Amendment as a condition of being readmitted to the\u00a0Union.\u00a0 He made the Attorney General a cabinet position\u00a0to give the office the power to enforce the laws passed by Congress\u00a0and to relentlessly pursue the terror of the\u00a0Klu Klux Klan.\u00a0 He encouraged the passage of the Enforcement Acts which made the violation of African American civil rights a Federal offense and empowered the President with the ability to call upon the military to enforce the laws.\u00a0 He also strove\u00a0to improve a lot of Native Americans\u00a0with changes to the Bureau of Indians and the appointment of a Native American\u00a0as Commissioner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After Grant left the White House, he again returned to civilian life.\u00a0 Following a two-year whirlwind tour of\u00a0Europe\u00a0with his family, he returned home to renewed popular support and a third nomination for President.\u00a0 The Republican National Convention voted on three candidates for the nomination (Ulysses\u00a0S. Grant, James Blaine, and John Sherman).\u00a0 After 36 rounds of voting, James A. Garfield was nominated as a compromise candidate and Grant permanently left public life.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The world tour had diminished his personal savings.\u00a0 Grant needed to secure a source of income.\u00a0 He invested in a brokerage firm.\u00a0 His partner looted investor funds and forced both the firm and himself personally to declare bankruptcy.\u00a0 Grant was broke.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He wrote pieces about his world travels and chronicled his meetings with celebrity leaders and sold them to The Century Magazine.\u00a0 These articles became\u00a0very popular.\u00a0 His editor encouraged him to write a memoir.\u00a0 About this time, he came down with throat cancer.\u00a0 He was restored to the rank of General of the Army so as to receive his military pension.\u00a0\u00a0Although ill, he worked diligently on his memoirs finishing days before his death.\u00a0 He signed a book contract with his friend Mark Twain to publish his memoirs.\u00a0\u00a0The book was immensely popular and\u00a0provided his family\u00a0with\u00a0financial security after his death.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Ulysses S. Grant took office in 1869, he was the youngest heretofore to be elected to the highest office in the land.\u00a0\u00a0Born as Hiram Ulysses\u00a0Grant, he\u00a0came from very humble beginnings.\u00a0 His father was\u00a0a tanner.\u00a0 His childhood was uneventful.\u00a0\u00a0He attended public schools and later private schools.\u00a0 The\u00a0talent\u00a0that stood out was his\u00a0remarkable skill as a horseman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublicans In History: Ulysses S. 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Grant took office in 1869, he was the youngest heretofore to be elected to the highest office in the land.\u00a0\u00a0Born as Hiram Ulysses\u00a0Grant, he\u00a0came from very humble beginnings.\u00a0 His father was\u00a0a tanner.\u00a0 His childhood was uneventful.\u00a0\u00a0He attended public schools and later private schools.\u00a0 The\u00a0talent\u00a0that stood out was his\u00a0remarkable skill as a horseman...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=6334\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"San Diego News Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-17T03:51:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Sgrant.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Logo-SanDiegoNewsDesk-Article.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Logo-SanDiegoNewsDesk-Article.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"San Diego News Desk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/\",\"name\":\"San Diego News Desk\",\"description\":\"Your Source for News in San Diego\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=6334#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Sgrant.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Sgrant.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=6334#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=6334\",\"name\":\"Republicans In History: Ulysses S. 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