Download LESSER-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS

LESSER-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT OUR PRESIDENTS
Or PRESIDENTIAL PARAGRAPHS - #18
Mort Fox
No! Ulysses S. Grant was not a crook! Our 18th president was an honest man. Either by
stupidity, naiveté or the influence of others, he managed to become surrounded by a
conglomeration of scheming, corruptible and unscrupulous advantage takers. Grant’s
administration was plagued with scandals, one right after the other.
Like many other military heroes who became president, as a “reward” for services rendered,
Grant had never held any political office before becoming the President of the United States.
To illustrate how far this hero worship goes, he was reelected by an even larger margin.
He was born in 1822 in Ohio, Hiram Ulysses Grant. Self-conscious of his initials, H. U. G.
he sometimes called himself Ulysses H. Grant. And then a fortunate mistake by the
congressman responsible for his appointment to the West Point Military Academy, spared
cadet Grant a great deal of ribbing. Grant’s name was entered as Ulysses Simpson (his
mother’s maiden name) Grant, with the initials U. S. G. All cadet trunks were marked with
their initials. Now he was Uncle Sam Grant to some classmates. Friends began calling him
just Sam.
Years later, after the Union’s victorious Civil War battle of Fort Donelson, Confederate
General Buckner asked what Grant’s terms of surrender were. The reply, "No terms except
an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." From this point on, Grant had
the additional sobriquet of Unconditional Surrender Grant.
When he graduated from West Point in 1843, due to his poor scholastic and deportment
standing, he was only commissioned as a brevet (acting) second lieutenant, the rank not made
permanent for two years. His military career prior to the Civil War was difficult and lonely
for him. Families were not always easily accommodated at some posts. He would sometimes
turn to the bottle to combat his longing for them. Grant served in the Mexican War although
he was personally opposed to it. After various postings he attained the rank of captain. He
resigned in 1854 to pursue a career in farming, which failed four years later. Other civilian
failures followed, including real estate. Grant was then living in Galena, Illinois and working
in his father’s leather goods store and struggling to make ends meet.
When the Civil War began he had requested to be re-commissioned into the army. He never
received a response from the War Department. But he did work with the Illinois Adjutant
General to form a volunteer group. He was the mustering officer. A few months later, Grant
was appointed colonel in command of the 21st Illinois Infantry located in Missouri. Not long
after he was promoted to brigadier general. His victory at Fort Donelson, mentioned above,
was the beginning of his national reputation. After Vicksburg and other victories, he was
promoted to the coveted rank of lieutenant general and made commander of the Union Army.
In April of 1865 he accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.
A shoo-in for the Republican nomination in 1868, he was the unanimous choice in the first
ballot at the convention. In the election of that year, he received 214 of 294 electoral votes.
As stated before, his two administrations were riddled with corruption. There were actually
five major scandals. None was directly connected to the president. He glided to an easy
election victory in 1872.
Grant called it quits at that point, not wanting to exceed the traditional two presidential terms.
Another civilian financial business arrangement failed. All those cigars he smoked almost
constantly apparently caught up with him. He was diagnosed with throat cancer. He labored
to complete his two volume autobiography, doing so, just prior to his death.
His life was an example of extreme contrasts. The man, who commanded hundreds of
thousands of men and saw tens of thousands die, couldn’t look at a raw or rare-cooked steak
without getting nauseated.