President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
• Ulysses S. Grant, (April 27, 1822 – July 23,
1885), was an American general and the
eighteenth President of the United States
serving two terms. (1869–1877).
• He achieved international fame as the leading
Union general in the American Civil War,
capturing Vicksburg in 1863.
• He accepted the surrender of his Confederate
opponent Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court
House.
The Grant Family
• On August 22, 1848,
Grant married Julia
Boggs Dent (1826–1902),
the daughter of a slave
owner.
• They had four children:
-Frederick
-Ulysses, Jr.
-Ellen (Nellie)
-Jesse.
President Grant
• The first president from Ohio, Grant was
the 18th President of the United States
and served two terms from March 4, 1869,
to March 4, 1877.
• In the 1872 election he won by a landslide
against Horace Greeley.
President Grant
• Grant presided over the last half of
Reconstruction.
• He supported amnesty for Confederate
leaders and protection for the civil rights of
African-Americans.
• He favored a limited number of troops to
be stationed in the South to protect rights
of Southern blacks, and suppress the
violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan.
President Grant
• In 1869 and 1871, Grant signed bills
promoting voting rights and prosecuting
Klan leaders.
• Grant signed a bill into law that created
Yellowstone National Park (America's first
National Park) on March 1, 1872.
Panic of 1873
• At the end of the Civil War, there was a
boom in railroad construction, with 35,000
miles of new track laid across the country
between 1866 and 1873.
• The railroad industry, at the time the
nation's largest employer outside of
agriculture, involved large amounts of
money and risk.
Panic of 1873
• A large infusion of cash from speculators
caused abnormal growth in the railroad
industry. Many people had invested
heavily in the railroads.
• President Ulysses S. Grant's policy of
contracting the money supply made
matters worse. While businesses were
expanding, the money they needed to
finance it was becoming more scarce.
Panic of 1873
• Entrepreneurs had
planned to build a second
transcontinental railroad,
called the Northern
Pacific Railway. Firms
that provided the
financing, had become
overextended and
declared bankruptcy.
• This caused a major
upset to the economy of
the United States.
Post Presidency
• After the end of his second term in the White House,
Grant spent two years (1877 to 1879) traveling around
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,
and Burma. In Japan, they were cordially received by
Emperor and Empress at the Imperial Palace.
• Today in Tokyo, a tree still stands that Grant planted
during his stay.
Last Days
• In 1881, Grant purchased a house in New York
City.
• Grant learned at the same time that he was
suffering from throat cancer.
• Grant lost most of his money in an investment
deal after his presidency.
• 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.
Last Days
• It was not 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.
Last Days
• 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.
Grant’s Death
• Ulysses S. Grant died on Thursday, July
23, 1885,at the age of 63 in 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.
Grant’s Tomb