![]() ![]() Secretaries of Treasury: George Boutwell, William Richardson, Benjamin Bristow, Lot Morrill Sons: Frederick Dent, Ulysses Buck, Jesse Root Major Events For his financial and political loss of control, Grant is considered by many historians to be among the least successful American Presidents. During his second term, the US economy fell into a depression lasting five years. Grant continued the policy of reconstruction that included the Federal occupation of much of the South. Among the scandals were the attempt by Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the gold market the Credit Mobilier scandal where officers skimmed huge profits off of the federally subsidized construction of the Union and Pacific railroad a whiskey ring scandal in which millions of dollars of federal money were diverted into private pockets and, finally, there was the Belknap bribery case, which revealed that the Secretary of War had been receiving kickbacks. His lack of knowledge of politics and administration hampered his efforts, and caused his administration to become mired in scandal. Grant entered office determined to bring peace to a country that had endured the Civil War and the subsequent turmoil of Reconstruction. After the war, Grant was promoted to the rank of General of the Army, the first commandeer since Washington to hold this rank. After further victories, he became commander of all Union troops, whom he led to ultimate victory over the Confederacy. He successfully laid siege to Vicksburg, cutting the Confederacy in half. At this battle, he uttered his famous words "No terms except an unconditional surrender can be accepted." In February, 1862, he captured Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in the first major Union victory. In August he was promoted to Brigadier General. Eventually, he was appointed Colonel in the Twenty-First Illinois Infantry. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he asked to be recommissioned in the regular army but received no reply. Grant's military career continued uneventfully and without distinction until he resigned from the army in 1854 with the rank of captain. Grant participated in the Mexican War as a lieutenant, later writing that he had thought the war immoral. He graduated 21st in a class of 39 students in 1843. At West Point, he was only an average student. In 1838, unbeknownst to Ulysses, his father arranged his acceptance to West Point. Grant received a basic education at the local schools. He undertook all the tasks in the house that related to horses, while avoiding working in his father's tannery. Grant was an avid horseman from a young age. While Grant was still an infant, his family moved Eastwood to Georgetown, Ohio. He was incapable of controlling the financial scandals that seemed to engulf his administration. He finished these shortly before dying of throat cancer in 1885 at age 63.Grant, the great military hero of the Civil War, is considered one of the least successful American Presidents. His retirement was marked by popular acclaim and personal financial failure, from which he extricated himself by writing his memoirs. This, said Grant, “completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came to life.”Īfter winning re-election in 1872 and guiding the country through numerous political and economic crises, Grant declined to seek a third term. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was guiding the 15th Amendment to the Constitution to ratification, explicitly guaranteeing recently freed slaves the right to vote. I commence its duties untrammeled.” He found himself presiding over a nation in which the Ku Klux Klan and other renegades necessitated domestic troop deployments well into the 1870s. He won the presidential election easily, and in his inaugural address said: “The office has come to me unsought. He concluded his acceptance speech at the party’s convention with, “Let us have peace,” a desperate plea at a time when many wounds of war remained unhealed. Unlike many of his high-ranking colleagues, Grant considered himself solely a soldier, not a politician, but in 1868 he accepted the Republican Party’s nomination to succeed the hapless Andrew Johnson. ![]()
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