American Warrior, American President,
American Hero
 A) Abraham Lincoln
 B) William Tecumseh Sherman
 C) Ulysses S. Grant
 D) Charles Sumner
 Born in Ohio; April 27, 1822
 Fought in the Mexican
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American War
Commander of all U.S.
Armies in the Civil War
18th President of the United
States: 1869-1877
President during
Reconstruction and a time
of rapid industrialization
Died: July 23, 1885
 Ulysses S. Grant’s original name was Hiram Ulysses
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Grant (changed upon entering West Point)
Only one of two Presidents to attend West Point
Grant had a persistent drinking problem
Grant received the title of Commander of all U.S. Armies
during the Civil War (first since George Washington)
Youngest President to assume office until Theodore
Roosevelt (he was 46 years old)
As President, Grant was pulled over for a speeding
violation on 16th Street in Washington D.C. (Grant paid
the fine and walked home to the White House).
 The election was essentially a
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referendum on Reconstruction
Democrats ran a campaign to fight
back against Reconstruction
Grant ran as a Republican on a
campaign of reconciliation
Democrats nominated Horatio
Seymour, Governor of NY
Electoral Vote: 214-80
Popular Vote: 52.7%-47.3%
 Grant wanted to preserve
the rights the Civil War
had won for AfricanAmericans
 He wanted to bring about
the end of Reconstruction
in a way that would
reconcile the country and
preserve the Union’s
victories
 Restore order in the South
 Grant wanted to annex the modern day Dominican
Republic
 Wanted it to become a state and safe haven for
African-Americans
 Grant believed that it would…
 allow blacks to escape from discrimination
 convince whites to treat blacks better, so they could keep
their labor
 convince more Latin American countries to end slavery
 Grant also believed it would help the economy
 Defeated by Charles Sumner of MA in 1870
 White Supremacist Secret Society
 Led by a former confederate
general named Nathaniel Bedford
Forest
 “Midnight Rides”—men dressed
in white robes would attack black
communities (and carpetbaggers)
 Not only made up by “rednecks”
but diverse demographics
 Police officers
 Firemen
 Other respected men in society
 Enforcement Acts (or Ku Klux Klan Acts)
 Passed 1870 and 1871
 Prohibited states from discriminating voters based on
race
 Gave the federal gov’t the power to prosecute violators
 First time the federal gov’t could prosecute criminals under
federal law
 Authorized Grant to use the military to protect civil
rights and suspend the right of habeas corpus
 Grant used the acts against nine counties in South
Carolina in October 1871
 By 1872, Grant had succeeded in ending the Klan
 Jan. 1875, Democrats stormed the state assembly to
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install five white legislators in disputed seats
Grant sent Phil Sheridan with troops to New Orleans
to forcibly remove the legislators and support the
Republican state gov’t
Both the South and North responded in outrage. Saw
it as an overreach of the federal gov’t
In the future, Grant would back down from using
troops
Reconstruction was ending
 "When I said ‘Let us have peace,’ I meant it. I want peace
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on the Plains as everywhere else."
Grant disagreed with former colleague William
Tecumseh Sherman, who wanted a policy of
extermination
He believed Native Americans were the original
occupants and wanted them to be treated with respect
Grant supported the reservation system and wanted to
give Native Americans citizen-status and provide them
education
Unfortunately, Grant’s dreams were dashed by Western
expansionists
 Liberal Republicans split
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from the party in opposition
to “Grantism”
Democrats joined them to
nominate Horace Greeley
from the New York Tribune
Grant won in one of the
biggest landslides in
American history
Electoral Vote: 286-66
Popular Vote: 56%-44%
 Many scandals major and minor came to
light during the campaign of 1872
 Crédit Mobilier
 French company that used its power to
seize fraudulent gov. contracts
 Sold stock to high-profile Republicans to
prevent an investigation
 1872—Congress did investigate
 Haunts the Rep. Party for decades
 “Whiskey Ring”
 officials in the Treasury Department were
cheating the gov. out of tax revenue
 William W. Belknap, Secretary of War
 accepted kickbacks to retain an Indian-
post trader
 “Grantism” came to represent corruption
 Four-year depression
 Caused by Jay Cooke and Company’s overinvestment
in postwar railroad building
 Derailed Reconstruction by moving focus toward the
economy
 Opened up the “Greenback” or Currency Question,
which became a major issue in the last quarter of the
1800s
 Specie Resumption Act of 1879—replaced greenbacks
with currency pegged to gold, which helped creditors
but hurt debtors
 Alabama Claims—claim that England
had violated neutrality laws by
allowing ships to be built for the
Confederacy in England and that they
needed to pay for it
 Solved by Hamilton Fish—U.S.
Secretary of State under Grant
 Treaty of Washington of 1871
 Britain expressed regret for what had
happened
 Resolved many disputes over
international law
 American History: A Survey by Alan Brinkley
 American Experience: Ulysses S. Grant
 American Experience: Reconstruction—The Second
Civil War
 C-SPAN—Presidential Rankings
 Images:
 Wikimedia
 PBS