Ulysses S. Grant Totally Explained

Everything about Ulysses S Grant totally explained

Grant maintained that he was unaware that a staff officer issued it in his name. Grant's father Jesse Grant was involved; General James H. Wilson later explained, "There was a mean nasty streak in old Jesse Grant. He was close and greedy. He came down into Tennessee with a Jew trader that he wanted his son to help, and with whom he was going to share the profits. Grant refused to issue a permit and sent the Jew flying, prohibiting Jews from entering the line." Grant, Wilson felt, couldn't strike back directly at the "lot of relatives who were always trying to use him" and perhaps struck instead at what he maliciously saw as their counterpart — opportunistic traders who were Jewish. It has been largely considered as being outside the normal inclinations and character of Grant, but individuals such as Bertram Korn have suggested that the order was part of a consistent pattern. "This wasn't the first discriminatory order [Grant] had signed [...] he was firmly convinced of the Jews' guilt and was eager to use any means of ridding himself of them."
The issue of anti-Semitism was raised during the 1868 presidential campaign, and Grant consulted with several Jewish community leaders, all of whom said they were convinced that Order 11 was an anomaly, and he wasn't an anti-Semite. He maintained good relations with the community throughout his administration, on both political and social levels.

Administration and Cabinet

Supreme Court appointments

Grant appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

Edwin M. Stanton – 1869 (sworn in but died before taking seat)

William Strong – 1870

Joseph P. Bradley – 1870

Ward Hunt – 1873

Morrison Remick Waite (Chief Justice) – 1874

States admitted to the Union

Colorado – August 1, 1876

Government agencies instituted

Department of Justice (1870)

Office of the Solicitor General (1870)

"Advisory Board on Civil Service" (1871); after it expired in 1873, it became the role model for the "Civil Service Commission" instituted in 1883 by President Chester A. Arthur, a Grant faithful. (Today it's known as the Office of Personnel Management.)

Office of the Surgeon General (1871)

Army Weather Bureau (currently known as the National Weather Service) (1870)

Post presidency

World Tour 1877-1879

After the end of his second term in the White House, Grant spent over two years traveling the world with his wife. He visited Ireland, Scotland, and England; the crowds were huge. The Grants dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and with Prince Bismarck in Germany. They also visited Russia, Egypt, the Holy Land, Siam(Thailand), and Burma. In Japan, they were cordially received by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken at the Imperial Palace. Today in the Shibakoen section of Tokyo, a tree still stands that Grant planted during his stay.
In 1879, the Meiji government of Japan announced the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands. China objected, and Grant was asked to arbitrate the matter. He decided that Japan's claim to the islands was stronger and ruled in Japan's favor.
That same year, Grant was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Third Term attempt in 1880

In 1879, the "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party led by Senator Roscoe Conkling sought to nominate Grant for a third term as president. He counted on strong support from the business men, the old soldiers, and the Methodist church. Publicly Grant said nothing, but privately he wanted the job and encouraged his men. His popularity was fading however, and while he received more than 300 votes in each of the 36 ballots of the 1880 convention, the nomination went to James A. Garfield. Grant campaigned for Garfield, who won by a very narrow margin. Grant supported his Stalwart ally Conkling against Garfield in the terrific battle over patronage in spring 1881 that culminated in Garfield's assassination.

Bankruptcy

In 1881, Grant purchased a house in New York City and placed almost all of his financial assets into an investment banking partnership with Ferdinand Ward, as suggested by Grant's son Buck (Ulysses, Jr.), who was having success on Wall Street. Ward swindled Grant (and other investors who had been encouraged by Grant) in 1884, bankrupted the company, Grant & Ward, and fled.

Last days

Grant learned at the same time that he was suffering from throat cancer. Grant and his family were left destitute; at the time retired U.S. Presidents were not given pensions, and Grant had forfeited his military pension when he assumed the office of President. It wasn't until 1958 that Congress, feeling it inappropriate that a former president or his wife might be poverty-stricken, passed a bill granting a pension to such individuals, a practice that continues to this day. Grant first wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine, which were warmly received. Mark Twain offered Grant a generous contract for the publication of his memoirs, including 75% of the book's sales as royalties.
Terminally ill, Grant finished the book just a few days before his death. The Memoirs sold over 300,000 copies, earning the Grant family over $450,000. Twain promoted the book as "the most remarkable work of its kind since the Commentaries of Julius Caesar," and Grant's memoirs are also regarded by such writers as Matthew Arnold and Gertrude Stein as among the finest ever written.
Ulysses S. Grant died at 8:06 a.m. on Thursday, July 23, 1885, at the age of 63 in Mount McGregor, Saratoga County, New York. His last word was a request, "Water." His body lies in New York City's Riverside Park, beside that of his wife, in Grant's Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America.

In memoriam

In World War II, the United States produced a tank known as the Grant tank (an upgrade of the American M3 "Lee").

Grant's portrait appears on the U.S. fifty-dollar bill.

The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, located on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., honors Grant.

Grant Park in Chicago honors Grant.

Grant Avenue, a nine block long, north-south street in the Bronx, New York, is named after Grant. It is parallel and adjacent to Sherman Avenue.

Dupont Street, the main thoroughfare in San Francisco's Chinatown, was renamed Grant Avenue in his honor. The famous dragon gate at the entrance to the district is at the corner of Grant and Bush Street.

Grant, depicted riding a horse, is honored by a statue at the intersection of Bedford Avenue, Rogers Avenue and Dean Street in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y.

There is a U.S. Grant Bridge over the Ohio River at Portsmouth, Ohio.

There is a U.S. Grant Memorial Highway (US 52) in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Counties in twelve U.S. states are named after Grant: Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia, and Grant Parish, Louisiana. Note: Grant Counties in Indiana, Kentucky and Wisconsin were named after other Grants, not Ulysses Grant.

Ancestry

Grant was a descendant of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.

Grant is also a descendant from John Lothropp, who is also an ancestor to Benjamin Franklin.

Anecdotes from Grant's life

As a young man, Grant's father, Jesse, taught him the trade of tanning. Jesse Grant had been taught how to tan by Owen Brown, the father of known abolitionist John Brown.

When Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1864, he agreed to sit down for photographer Mathew Brady. As the sun had begun to set by the time Grant arrived, Brady instructed one of his assistants to open the shades of the skylight in Brady's studio. The assistant slipped and shattered the skylight, causing two-inch-thick shards of glass to rain down around Grant, who had taken his seat as requested. He was unharmed, and showed "the most remarkable display of nerve" that Brady had ever seen.

Grant was known to visit the Willard Hotel to escape the stress of the White House. A long-standing story is that he referred to the people who approached him in the lobby as "those darn lobbyists," implying that he was the source for the term lobbyist. This story is unlikely to be true since there are examples of the term being used in U.S. and British magazines and newspapers before Grant's presidency.

While in California, Grant tried selling ice to San Francisco, but failed when it melted in the warm weather aboard the ship.. This anecdote is disputed by Edward G. Longacre in "General Ulysses S. Grant: The Soldier and the Man" (2006) in which he says -- in a referenced statement -- that the ice venture had failed because of "an unexpected glut of [ice] imports from Alaska."

In 1883, Grant was elected the eighth president of the National Rifle Association.

Grant suffered from tone deafness. He disliked music intensely and would go out of his way to avoid having to hear any other than patriotic songs. In Jeffrey Shaara's The Last Full Measure - which is set after the Battle of Gettysburg, the subject of his father Michael's 1974 bestseller The Killer Angels - Grant is portrayed as saying, "I know only two songs. One is Yankee Doodle. The other isn't." Whether he actually said this is unclear.

Grant's wife, First Lady Julia Grant, was cross-eyed. When it was suggested to her that she have an operation to have it corrected, President Grant replied that he liked her that way.

Grant's favorite brand of bourbon whiskey was Old Crow.

Grant enjoyed eating cucumbers soaked in vinegar for breakfast.

Popular culture references

An apocryphal story about Grant's drinking has the general's critics going to President Lincoln, charging the military man with being a drunk. Lincoln is supposed to have replied, "I wish some of you'd tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I'd like to send a barrel of it to my other generals."

A similar story was told of General James Wolfe during the French and Indian Wars. When King George II was told that Wolfe was a "mad dog", he's said to have replied, "Then I'd wish he'd bite the other generals."

The question "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" was used by Groucho Marx in his radio and TV quiz show, the correct answer to which resulted in a consolation prize to contestants who had won no money. Some contestants thought it was a trick question. Grant's grandson, Ulysses S. Grant IV (a professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles) appeared on the program on March 12, 1953.

This was also featured on an episode of the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, in which in a dream sequence Dorothy competes on Jeopardy against a scholar and her roommate Rose. When asked the question, Dorothy replies Ulysses and is wrong, while Rose replies Cary Grant and is correct.

A dispute between Grant and his commanding officer Henry Wager Halleck is the subject of a pivotal question in the film Quiz Show.

Captain Ulysses S. Grant is the eponymous character in "The Stranger", a Grizzly Adams episode.

In the film Wild Wild West, President Grant is a minor character that must deal with the Loveless Alliance.

Once while in office he was arrested for speeding his horse and buggy and fined $20 and had to walk back to the White House.Further Information

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