Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant;^[a] April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was American general who served as the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As commanding general of the U.S. Army, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War.

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio.^[2] He was the oldest of six children born to Jesse and Hannah Grant.^[2] Jesse Grant was a tanner. It was hard work, but he made a good living from it.^[2] Young Grant worked for his father in the tannery but hated the work.^[2] He went to local schools. In 1838 he attended the Presbyterian Academy in Ripley, Ohio.^[3] In 1839 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point.^[3] He was not the best student but was good at mathematics. When he graduated, he was placed in the infantry.^[4]

When Grant arrived at West Point and discovered that the academy had him registered under the wrong name, as "Ulysses S. Grant." He was told that despite what he or his parents thought that his name was, the official government application said that his name was "Ulysses S." and that application could not be changed. If "Hiram Ulysses Grant" wanted to attend West Point, he would have to change his name.^[5]

Before becoming the president, Grant was an officer in the Union Army. He fought in the Mexican-American War and became a general at the start of the American Civil War. He served as head of the Army of Tennessee and won victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. He became the top general in the Union Army from 1864 to 1865 and fought several battles against Robert E. Lee.

Since he fought well in the American Civil War, he gained popularity, which helped him to become the Republican Party's candidate for United States President. He accepted the nomination only reluctantly. Even though he was a respected general and supported civil rights for African Americans, historians have criticized his presidency because he appointed his friends into high political positions and tolerated their corruption even though Grant himself was innocent.

Grant was the youngest president, aged only 46, and was the first to have both parents attend his inauguration.^[6] He was also the first elected because of African American voters, most of whom were later prevenmted from voting by the Democratic Party. He won his election from about 500,000 African-American votes, and most white voters supported the Democratic Party's candidate, Horatio Seymour. Grant, however, believed that it was right for Africam-Americans to vote, unlike Seymour.

In 1872, Republican reformers split the party and nominated Horace Greeley to be president. The Democrats also nominated him.^[7] Greeley wanted to reform the civil service and to amnesty all former Confederates. Grant won the election by a landslide.^[7]

Very soon into Grant's second term, the Panic of 1873 started a depression in the United States that spread to Europe.^[7] In 1873, Republicans in Congress were caught in a bribery scandal by newspapers, which reported that had collected large bribes to give large federal grants to the railroads. The bribes had taken place before Grant was president, but the news came out during his presidency, which made it seem even more corrupt.^[8] Also in 1873, Grant signed a bill that rose his and Congress's pay. The press attacked him and called it a money grab. Republicans were getting a bad reputation in the press.

In the midterm ellections, the Democrats won a majority of seats in the Houseand started a number of congregational investigations. Grant's Secretary of the Treasury had to resign after being caught in a fraud scheme, involving taxpayer kickbacks.

The Whiskey Ring was the largest scandal and involved widespread fraud.^[8] Grant had appointed an army friend, John MacDonald, as an Internal Revenue Service supervisor for the St. Louis area. In return for bribes, whisky distillers paid taxes on only a small portion of the whiskey that they produced.^[8] They were cheating the U.S. government out of millions of dollars a year.^[8] MacDonald kept some of the money, and some of it went to the Republican Party.^[8] The Whiskey Ring paid some officials a regular salary to keep them from talking.^[8]

Benjamin Bristow, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time, had no idea that was going on.^[8] Each time he sent inspectors on a raid to check out suspected cheaters, their records were always in good order.^[8] Bristow had no idea that someone in his office was telling them in advance who would inspected. Meanwhile, Grant accepted expensive gifts from MacDonald and did not suspect that he was running a fraud scheme.^[8] MacDonald even told his friends in St. Louis that Grant was in on the scheme.^[8]

In 1875, MacDonald and more than 350 distillers and government officials were indicted.^[8] This included Grant's personal secretarym Orville Babcock, who kep the ring's members informed of any inspections.^[8] At his trial, witnesses lied, and even Grant wrote a letter stating Babcock was of good character.

As a result, Babcock was cleared of the charges, but the scandal prevented him from going back to his job in Washington.^[8] Of those accused, 60 paid fines, and MacDonald and two others went to prison.^[8] The Whiskey Ring proved to most Americans that Grant's administration was filled with corruption.^[8]

After his presidency, Grant was suffering from throat cancer. He made a long trip to Europe and tried to become president again in 1880. Nobody had been elected three times before, and it was seen as wrong by many because George Washington had refused to do so. In the end, the Republican party agreed to nominate U.S. Representative James Garfield instead. However, Grant kept the loyalty of many supporters in the party. The same year, one of them shot Garfield and killed him. Grant never became president again, however, and only one man has been elected three or more times, Franklin Roosevelt. Grant was the first one to try to do so, however.

Despite the problems during his second term, Grant was immensely popular, much like a modern-day movie star, and wrote a book about his life that sold millions of copies. He died three days after he had finished writing it. He is buried with his wife, Julia, in Grant's Tomb, New York City, New York State.

Historians once gave Grant a bad ranking since his cabinet members were corrupt. However, in 2000, scholars started to give him a more favorable ranking because of better civil rights, Grant personal lack of corruption, and his worked on parts of Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction.