The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809326310
Category : Manuscripts, American
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
This looks at events of 1876 - a trying year for the White House. The Seventh Cavalry was wiped out by the Sioux, and Ulysees Grant's peace process lay in tatters as a result. Scandals diverted Grant's attention from larger policy questions. A series ofprosecutions culminated in the February trial of Orville Babcock, Grant's private secretary.

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809326310
Category : Manuscripts, American
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
This looks at events of 1876 - a trying year for the White House. The Seventh Cavalry was wiped out by the Sioux, and Ulysees Grant's peace process lay in tatters as a result. Scandals diverted Grant's attention from larger policy questions. A series ofprosecutions culminated in the February trial of Orville Babcock, Grant's private secretary.

Papers of Ulysses S. Grant

Papers of Ulysses S. Grant PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809327751
Category : Manuscripts, American
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description


The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: October 1, 1880-December 31, 1882

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: October 1, 1880-December 31, 1882 PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description
In the final weeks of the 1880 campaign, Ulysses S. Grant left Galena and headed east to stump for the Republican ticket. At rallies in New England, upstate New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York City, sometimes several times a day, the reticent Grant warmed to his role. Sounding a familiar postwar theme, he repeatedly condemned voter harassment in the South, asserting the right of "our fellow-citizens of African descent, ... to go to the polls, even though they are in the minority, and put in their ballot without being burned out of their homes, and without being threatened or intimidated." James A. Garfield won a narrow victory over Major General Winfield S. Hancock and welcomed Grant's advice on matters ranging from cabinet choices to foreign policy. Rootless since their White House days, unsatisfied with backwater Galena, the Grants now decided to settle in New York City and took rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. In January, 1881, Grant accepted the presidency of the 1883 World's Fair Commission, charged with bringing an exposition to New York City. Initial enthusiasm soon gave way to rancor, as factions split over where to place the fair. Grant favored Central Park, but public sentiment intervened, and funding evaporated. By March, Grant resigned. A friend told a reporter, "Grant and I had a long talk over the matter across the way in his son's office, and we both arrived at the conclusion that the people of New-York don't want a World's Fair." Grant's business interests reflected the international stage he now occupied. Competing plans for an isthmian canal through Panama, Mexico, and Nicaragua jockeyed for support, and Grant had his favorite. "The only feasible route for a canal across from the Atlantic to the Pacific is by the Nicaragua route. I have been all over the routes myself, besides having examined all the reports made regarding each of them carefully, and that is my firm conviction." Grant published an article championing Nicaragua even as momentum swung behind Panama. But Grant's attention was drawn more to railroads and to Mexico. When his friend Matías Romero promoted a new line through Oaxaca, Grant jumped on board. A speech to American capitalists in November, 1880, led a few months later to the incorporation of the Mexican Southern Railroad, with Grant as president. By April, 1881, he was in Mexico City, where he told lawmakers: "I predict, with the building of these roads, a development of the country will take place such as has never been witnessed in any country before. . . . There is nothing, in my opinion, to stand in the way of Mexican progress and grandeur, and wealth, but the people themselves." In June, Grant returned from Mexico with a new charter in hand. But his mind was on Garfield and Secretary of State James G. Blaine, two men who had thwarted him at the Republican convention one year earlier. Grant supported his Stalwart ally, Roscoe Conkling, in a power struggle with Garfield and Blaine. From New Orleans to New York City, Grant spoke candidly. "If you want to know what I think of the manner in which Mr. Conkling has been treated by the President and his colleagues in the Senate, I will tell you without any hesitation. I think it is most outrageous." The feud ended after Garfield was shot on July 2. When he died in September, Grant wept with the nation. Fitz John Porter had sought restoration to the army since his dismissal after the Second Battle of Bull Run. Grant had previously rebuffed Porter but now reversed course. "I believe I have heretofore done you an injustice, both in thought & speach." Taking up a case that divided former commanders now in Congress, Grant forcefully argued for Porter's vindication. Grant and wife Julia bought a home just off Fifth Avenue in New York City. In the summer, he commuted from his seaside cottage at Long Branch, New Jersey, to his office on Wall Street, where he greeted a steady stream of admirers and influence-seekers. A silent partner in the brokerage firm his son Ulysses, Jr., formed with Ferdinand Ward, Grant left finances in Ward's hands. Surveys for the Mexican Southern proceeded. Banquets and parties filled many evenings. The Grants settled into Manhattan society.

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1876-September 30, 1878

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1876-September 30, 1878 PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
In his eighth and final annual message to Congress, Ulysses S. Grant reminded the nation that it was his "fortune or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training." The electoral crisis that dominated Grant's last months in office left little room for political error. On November 7, 1876, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but Republican Rutherford B. Hayes could claim the presidency by a single electoral vote if he captured all disputed electors from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon. Uncertainty gave way to deadlock as the crisis deepened. Grant's mail included a steady trickle of anonymous threats. In late January 1877, Grant signed a bill creating an electoral commission to end the dispute. Hayes won all disputed electors and succeeded Grant without incident. Out of the White House, without a settled home, the Grants spent two months visiting family and friends before embarking on their long-planned European tour. On May 17, Grant left Philadelphia aboard the steamer Indiana. When he arrived at Liverpool, crowds thronged the docks and streets to give him a hero's welcome, and Londoners welcomed Grant with similar enthusiasm. In July, the Grants crossed to Belgium, traveled through Germany, and summered in the Swiss Alps and the lakes of northern Italy. Back in Great Britain, they toured Scotland and northern England, then visited daughter Ellen Grant Sartoris at Warsash, the Sartoris country home near Southampton. Grant spent November in Paris, later writing "no American would stay in Paris if he found himself the only one of his countrymen there." The Grants wintered in the Mediterranean, sailing down the Italian coast to Sicily, where they spent Christmas, then to Alexandria, and a long trip up the Nile. The party toured the Holy Land, visited Constantinople and Athens, and spent a month in Italy. After another month in Paris, the Grants were off to Holland, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Austria, and Switzerland, exploring the Alps again before returning to Paris in September, 1878, to ponder their next move. Abroad and out of office, Grant freely talked about the war and his presidency. Several interviews stirred controversy in America and stoked talk of a third term in 1880, despite Grant's own protestation: "I never wanted to get out of a place as much as I did to get out of the Presidency." The Grants had seen Europe. Now they faced a choice between home and a journey to distant Asia.

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: October 1, 1878-September 30, 1880

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: October 1, 1878-September 30, 1880 PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
By late 1878, after a year and a half abroad, Ulysses S. Grant had visited every country in Europe, and he was homesick. "I have seen nothing to make me regret that I am an American. Our country: its resources; energy, inginuity and intelligence of the people, &c. is more appreciated abroad than at home." Grant decided to return through Asia. After "a delightful run" to Dublin and northern Ireland, he left Paris with his wife Julia, son Frederick, and a few friends in January, 1879. Heading east, Grant kept a travel diary. On the voyage to Bombay, travelers socialized on deck. "Four of the lady passengers and one of the gentlemen Amature Artists, amused themselves by sketching me." Crossing India overland, the Grant party rode elephants, visited the Taj Mahal, and witnessed Hindu ceremonies. From Calcutta, Grant sailed for Burma, Singapore, and Siam, where he found young King Chulalongkorn "quite impressive in appearance and intelligent." After stops at Hong Kong and Canton, Grant wrote: "I am satisfied that the Chinese are badly treated at home by europeans as well as when they emigrate." At Tientsin, Grant befriended Viceroy Li Hung-chang, "probably the most intelligent and most advanced ruler--if not man--in China," and at Peking he agreed to mediate a dispute with Japan over the Ryukyu Islands. While China languished, Japan had made "almost inconceivable" progress since the 1868 Meiji Restoration. During a "very delightful" ten weeks, Grant met the Emperor, visited shrines and hot springs, attended a play and a lantern parade in his honor, and held talks on the Ryukyu dispute. He departed "with assurances that pleasant recollections of my present visit will not vanish while my life lasts." Throngs welcomed Grant to San Francisco on September 20, 1879. Grant assured all that the United States stood second to none in the world in its people, institutions, and ideals. He told Confederate veterans: "I have an abiding faith that we will remain together in future harmony." Grant toured Yosemite and visited scenes from his army days in Oregon and Washington Territory, then headed east again, his train cheered at every stop. At Galena and Chicago he basked in the warmth of ovations and old friends. Another series of crowds and banquets culminated in December at Philadelphia, where Grant completed his circuit of the globe. As 1880 began, Grant headed south. He marveled at Florida's potential and groused at Cuba's heat, then reached Mexico, a country he had long ago admired as part of an occupying army. "The climate is perfection, the scenery unsurpassed and the people as clever and hospitable as it is possible for them to be." Grant met influential leaders, toured silver mines and old battlefields, and encouraged development. Grant returned to New Orleans and more banquets and speeches, touting reconciliation and praising black advancement. His progress north took on the air of a campaign as the Republican convention loomed. Newspapers debated a third term while Grant kept silent. In June, at Chicago, delegates split between Grant and James G. Blaine, and settled on dark horse James A. Garfield. Grant expressed relief at avoiding a "most violent campaign." Grant spent the summer in the Rocky Mountains inspecting mines, sometimes by pack mule, for possible investments. In September, back in Galena, he rejoined the political fray, attacking Garfield's opponent, Major General Winfield S. Hancock, in an interview. "He is the most selfish man I know.... He can not bear to hear anyone else praised, but can take any amount of flattery." With the election weeks away, and the outcome in doubt, Grant took to the stump. "I am a Republican," he told an Ohio crowd, "as the two great political parties are now divided, because the Republican Party is a national party seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens."

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant PDF Author: Garry Boulard
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1663263167
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
“Tolling, slowly tolling, the alarm bells of all America sent to every heart this morning the news, long expected and long dreaded, that Ulysses S. Grant was dead,” announced the Boston Globe on July 23, 1885, just hours after the one-time Commanding General of the U.S. Army and former President of the United States had passed on. Taking note of the extraordinary tributes and declarations of love expressed by people in all regions of the country, black and white, as Grant endured a months-long struggle with throat cancer, the paper asserted that such praise had “sweetened the draught from Death’s chalice, till all the bitterness of the deadly poison had passed away, and it was but as drinking from the Holy Grail.” In this work, Ulysses S. Grant--The Story of a Hero, Garry Boulard chronicles the career of one of the most consequential figures in American history. Rightly regarded as a great military commander whose skills and strategic vision combined to bring about the end of the Civil War, thus also forever obliterating a slavery that had entrapped nearly 4 million people, Grant would serve two controversial terms as president, working assiduously to foster a regional and racial reconciliation of the country. At the time of his death, he had just completed his monumental two-volume Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, since praised by generations of historians and regarded as one of the most important works in all of American non-fiction literature.

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: January 1, 1883-July 23, 1885

The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: January 1, 1883-July 23, 1885 PDF Author: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
Mexico had interested Ulysses S. Grant since the young lieutenant fought there. Now, as president of the Mexican Southern Railroad, he emerged as a strong advocate of increased trade and investment. Appointed by President Chester A. Arthur to negotiate a commercial treaty, Grant spent most of January, 1883, at the capital, working with his friend and counterpart Matías Romero. For months, Grant promoted the resulting treaty, granting interviews, giving speeches, and toasting visiting Mexican statesman Porfirio Díaz. Success gave way to bitter failure when the Senate rejected the treaty, led by sugar and tobacco protectionists, amid charges that Grant had crafted provisions to benefit his moribund railroad. Grant's support for Fitz John Porter, a former general who sought to reverse a wartime court-martial, brought him more controversy in Washington. U.S. Senator John A. Logan of Illinois, a stalwart supporter, broke with Grant and fought the measure. The bill passed anyway, but Arthur vetoed it. As Grant lost influence in the White House and in Congress, he turned his attention and energy elsewhere. In September, 1883, Grant joined a tour to celebrate the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, begun during his first presidential term. From Minnesota to Oregon, Grant saw firsthand the rapid growth of the northwest. "I was not prepared to see so rich a country or one so rapidly developing." On Christmas Eve, 1883, Grant slipped on an icy sidewalk. His injured leg kept him in bed for weeks and on crutches for months. Another crippling blow came in May, 1884, with the failure of Grant & Ward, the brokerage firm co-founded by Ulysses, Jr., in which his father was a silent partner. Ferdinand Ward had bilked the firm of its few real assets and all the Grant family had. Grant was devastated. "I could bear all the pecuniary loss if that was all, but that I could be so long deceived by a man who I had such opportunity to know is humiliating." Buoyed by loans from friends, determined to repay his debts, Grant wrote a series of articles about his Civil War campaigns, then began his Memoirs. In February, 1885, he was diagnosed with cancer. Newspapers published daily updates as Grant steadily declined. Fading health spurred Grant to finish his Memoirs. He accepted a generous publishing offer from Samuel L. Clemens and completed the first of two volumes by March. The second was nearly done in June, when the Grants left sweltering New York City for upstate Mount McGregor. Here Grant finished his work and faced his end, unable to speak, communicating by notes to his doctors and friends. "There never was one more willing to go than I am." Grant died on July 23, his family at his side. The late John Y. Simon was a professor of history at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He wrote or edited, in addition to the thirty published volumes of the Grant Papers, four books, among which is The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant. Aaron M. Lisec is associate editor of the Grant Papers. Leigh Fought is assistant editor of the Grant Papers. Cheryl R. Ragar is textual editor of the Grant Papers.

John McDonald and the Whiskey Ring

John McDonald and the Whiskey Ring PDF Author: Edward S. Cooper
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1683930134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The most flamboyant, consistently dishonest racketeer was Supervisor of Internal Revenue John McDonald, whose organization defrauded the federal government of millions of dollars. When President Grant was asked why he appointed McDonald supervisor of internal revenue he responded, “I was aware that he was not an educated man, but he was a man that had seen a great deal of the world and of people, and I would not call him ignorant exactly, he was illiterate.” McDonald organized and ran the Whiskey Ring but he always credited Grant with the initiation of the Ring declaring that the president “actually stood god-father at its christening.” The demise of the Ring rivals anything that the real or fictional Elliot Ness and his “Untouchables” ever accomplished during the prohibition era in America.

Amiable Scoundrel

Amiable Scoundrel PDF Author: Paul Kahan
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1612348491
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
From abject poverty to undisputed political boss of Pennsylvania, Lincoln’s secretary of war, senator, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a founder of the Republican Party, Simon Cameron (1799–1889) was one of the nineteenth century’s most prominent political figures. In his wake, however, he left a series of questionable political and business dealings and, at the age of eighty, even a sex scandal. Far more than a biography of Cameron, Amiable Scoundrel is also a portrait of an era that allowed—indeed, encouraged—a man such as Cameron to seize political control. The political changes of the early nineteenth century enabled him not only to improve his status but also to exert real political authority. The changes caused by the Civil War, in turn, allowed Cameron to consolidate his political authority into a successful, well-oiled political machine. A key figure in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War’s crucial first year, Cameron played an essential role in pushing Abraham Lincoln to permit the enlistment of African Americans into the U.S. Army, a stance that eventually led to his forced resignation. Yet his legacy has languished, nearly forgotten save for the fact that his name has become shorthand for corruption, even though no evidence has ever been presented to prove that Cameron was corrupt. Amiable Scoundrel puts Cameron’s actions into a larger historical context by demonstrating that many politicians of the time, including Abraham Lincoln, used similar tactics to win elections and advance their careers. This study is the fascinating story of Cameron’s life and an illuminating portrait of his times.

Knights of the Golden Circle

Knights of the Golden Circle PDF Author: David C. Keehn
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807150045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn's study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the "Golden Circle" region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of this mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement. Members supported southern governors in precipitating disunion, filled the ranks of the nascent Confederate Army, and organized rearguard actions during the Civil War. The Knights of the Golden Circle emerged around 1858 when a secret society formed by a Cincinnati businessman merged with the pro-expansionist Order of the Lone Star, which already had 15,000 members. The following year, the Knights began publishing their own newspaper and established their headquarters in Washington, D. C. In 1860, during their first attempt to create the Golden Circle, several thousand Knights assembled in southern Texas to "colonize" northern Mexico. Due to insufficient resources and organizational shortfalls, however, that filibuster failed. Later, the Knights shifted their focus and began pushing for disunion, spearheading pro-secession rallies, and intimidating Unionists in the South. They appointed regional military commanders from the ranks of the South's major political and military figures, including men such as Elkanah Greer of Texas, Paul J. Semmes of Georgia, Robert C. Tyler of Maryland, and Virginius D. Groner of Virginia. Followers also established allies with the South's rabidly pro-secession "fire-eaters," which included individuals such as Barnwell Rhett, Louis Wigfall, Henry Wise, and William Yancey. According to Keehn, the Knights likely carried out a variety of other clandestine actions before the Civil War, including attempts by insurgents to take over federal forts in Virginia and North Carolina, the activation of pro-southern militia around Washington, D. C. and a planned assassination of Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in early 1861 on the way to his inauguration. Once the fighting began, the Knights helped build the emerging Confederate Army and assisted with the pro-Confederate Copperhead movement in northern states. With the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of their members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to abduct and assassinate President Lincoln. Keehn's fast-paced, engaging narrative demonstrates that the Knights proved more substantial than historians have traditionally assumed and provides a new perspective on southern secession and the outbreak of the Civil War.