Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant
Encyclopedia
The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant
began during the turbulent Reconstruction period following the American Civil War
. Grant was elected
the 18th President of the United States in 1868 and was re-elected
to the office in 1872, serving from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. The United States was at peace with the world throughout the era, and was prosperous until the Panic of 1873
, that predominated Grant's second term in office. Grant was a Republican, and his main supporters were the Radical and Stalwart Republican factions. President Grant bolstered the Executive Branch's enforcement powers by signing into law the Department of Justice and Office of Solicitor General. President Grant supported Civil War values that included "union, freedom and equality." He was opposed by the Liberal faction of the party, many of them founding fathers of the GOP, who denounced Grant's patronage
. The Liberals insisted that Reconstruction had been successful and that Army troops should be withdrawn from the South so it could regain its normal political status. The Liberals nominated a candidate in 1872, who was supported by the Democrats, but was decisively defeated by Grant. President Grant was a loner who never developed a cadre of trustworthy political advisers; he relied heavily on former Army associates who had a thin understanding of politics and a weak sense of civilian ethics. His presidential reputation was severely damaged by repeated scandals and frauds.
Characteristically, Grant lacked discernment and good judgment when it came to appointing honest men. His Secretary of War, his personal secretary, and high officials he named to the Treasury and Navy departments joined bribery or tax-cheating schemes. Instead of exposing the culprits, Grant defended them and attacked the accusers. Middle-class public opinion, a key element in the Republican Party base, turned hostile to Grant. At various times capable appointments were made by Grant; honest men who desired to save Grant and the nation from scandal. After a false start with weak selections, Grant named to his Cabinet
leading reformers including Hamilton Fish
, Benjamin Bristow
, Alphonso Taft
, and Amos T. Akerman
. Fish, as Secretary of State, negotiated the Treaty of Washington
and was successful at keeping the United States out of trouble with Britain and Spain. Bristow, as Secretary of Treasury, ended the corruption of the Whiskey Ring
where distillers and corrupt officials made millions from tax evasion. Taft, a brilliant jurist as Attorney General, successfully negotiated for bipartisan panel to peacefully settle the controversial Election of 1876. Grant and Attorney General Akerman enforced civil rights
legislation that protected African Americans and destroyed the Ku Klux Klan
. Grant encouraged peaceful Congressional negotiations after the controversial Election of 1876; signed the Electorial Commission Act of 1877
; while the Compromise of 1877
ended Reconstruction.
Economically, Grant favored a hard-money, gold-based, anti-inflationary policy that entailed paying off the large national debt with gold. He reduced governmental spending, decreased the federal work force, and reduced the national debt, while tax revenues increased in the Treasury Department. During his second term in office, the Panic of 1873
, caused by rampant railroad speculation, shook the nation's financial institutions; banks failed, prices fell, and unemployment surged. Before the Panic there had been eight years of tremendous industrial growth after the Civil War
that fueled lavish money making schemes, personal greed, and national corruption. President Grant's contraction of money supply worsened the panic; the ensuing major U.S. depression that followed lasted for five years causing massive economic damage to the country. The Panic wiped out both the fortunes of business and corruption. Southern Reconstruction continued that included escalated sectional violence over the status of freedmen and fractured state party alliances and elections.
With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
in 1869, the West was wide open to expansionism that sometimes was challenged by hostile Native Americans
. Grant implemented an innovative peace policy, though not always successful, with Native Americans. Hostilities took place with the Modoc War
, the Red River War
, and the Great Sioux War
that culminated with the famous Battle of Little Bighorn where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
was killed. In 1874, millions of buffalo were being slaughtered to make room for settlers and ranchers. Grant, who favored ranchers land use for domestic cattle, rejected legislation that would have limited the slaughter of the bison. After the fatal Modoc
peace commission in 1873, Grant's Native American policy incorporated the military strategies favored by William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan. Corruption was rampant in the Department of Indian Affairs under Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano
. Grant's reputation as President by historians has traditionally ranked low, however, he has recently received higher ratings for his enforcement of African Americans civil rights in the South. Historians ranked high Grant's Secretary of State Hamilton Fish for settling the Alabama Claims
and coolly handling the Virginius Affair
.
civil rights. He leaned heavily toward the Radical camp and often sided with their Reconstruction policies, signing into law Force Acts to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan
. In foreign policy Grant won praise for the Treaty of Washington, settling the Alabama Claims
issue with Britain through arbitration. Economically he sided with Eastern bankers and signed the Public Credit Act that paid U.S. debts in gold specie, but was blamed for the severe economic depression that lasted 1873–1877. Grant, wary of powerful congressional leaders, was the first President to ask for a line item veto.
In the century after he left office most historians denounced the Reconstruction policies followed by Grant. More recently, Grant's support for and enforcement of African Americans civil rights has earned him praise from scholars. While graft and corruption existed in the Southern state governments he supported with the Army, many civil rights advances were made for African Americans. He was vigorous in his enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments and prosecuted thousands of persons who violated African American civil rights; he used military force to put down political insurrections in Louisiana
, Mississippi
, and South Carolina
.
As President, Grant failed to establish and enforce ethical standards with his cabinet and appointees. He failed to take measures to lessen the effects of the Panic of 1873
and the economic depression that ensued. The depression of 1873, along with the increasingly unpopular Reconstruction program, weakened his reputation and his party, allowing the resurgent Democrats to gain a majority in the House of Representatives in 1875. His Presidency was inundated with many scandals caused by low standards and carelessness with his political appointees and personal associates. Often through flattery, these corrupt associates used Grant as a shield against prosecutors and reformers. Grant surrounded himself with people denounced by reformers as scoundrels, and he unwisely accepted gifts from rich friends who used their friendship for financial advantage. Nepotism
, practiced by Grant, was unrestrained with almost forty family members or relatives who financially benefited from government appointments or employment.
In 1872, Senator Charles Sumner
, the leader of civil rights forces in Congress, compared him to the despotic Julius Caesar
and labeled his presidency as "one man and his personal will" and that the office of the President was treated no more than a "play thing and perquisite". Grant and Sumner were often at odds with each other on matters of foreign policy and political patronage. Sumner followed his own foreign policy and detested Grant's practice of nepotism
in making political appointments. One historian, Mary L. Hinsdale, described the Grant Administration as "a most extraordinary array of departures from the normal course" and a "military" rule, in close connection with a select Republican Senatorial group. In an unsuccessful effort to annex the island country of Santo Domingo, Grant completely bypassed the State Department by sending his military associate Orville E. Babcock to produce the treaty. Grant blatantly disregarded the public opinion of Attorney General
Ebenezer R. Hoar
over the McGarrahan mining claim patents.
Public policies were a burden and at times perplexing to Grant, and he often delegated unprecedented authority to others. Grant's foreign policy was heavily influenced by the able Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
. Grant depended on Fish's advice on domestic issues such as money policy and Reconstruction. His Secretary of Treasury, George Boutwell, was given full charge of national economic policies. In 1874, Grant began a series of appointments that included reformers and qualified statesmen to his Administration, starting with Benjamin Bristow
who prosecuted the Whiskey Ring
. With the departure of Orville E. Babcock and William W. Belknap
from the White House in 1876, the Grant Administration took on a civilian rather than "military" style.
There were two main divisive issues in 1868. The first was the continued Reconstruction of the South. The Democrats advocated allowing former Confederate soldiers to hold elective offices, and the Republicans endorsed the Fifteenth Amendment
to the Constitution which allowed African Americans to vote. The other controversial issue concerned the redemption of war bonds either in gold or paper money known as greenback
s. The Democrats wanted to redeem the bonds with $100,000,000 in greenbacks and the rest with gold. The greenbacks were known as "cheap money" and would be inflationary. The Republicans wanted to pay the redemption of war bonds only with gold, a position attractive to investors and bankers.
Finding a popular hero who endorsed their Reconstruction policies, the Republicans nominated Grant and Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax
. The Democrats, ignoring politically damaged President Andrew Johnson
(who was a political independent), nominated Horatio Seymour
– former governor of New York – and Francis P. Blair
from Missouri. Seymour was a wealthy conservative who came under GOP attack for weakness during the war and favoring the anti-war Copperheads
. The campaigning was nasty, as the Republicans waved the "bloody shirt" of treason against the Democrats-as-Copperheads. Grant himself never campaigned, except for his slogan "Let us have peace" and his apology to Jewish voters for his 1862 General Order No. 11 that banned Jewish merchants from his zone during the Civil War because of alleged profiteering. Grant won with 52.7% of the popular vote and won by a landslide in the Electoral College with 214 votes to Seymour's 80 votes. Grant was helped by the fact that six southern states were controlled by Radical Republicans who kept many ex-Confederates from voting.
, the nation was in a mood for reform. Rather than choosing his cabinet by consulting with key Senators such as Charles Sumner
, Grant chose his cabinet independently. Except for John A. J. Creswell, not one of Grant's choices would have been chosen by the Senate. Although the Senate was shocked by his appointments they were all unanimously ratified; the public rejoiced claiming that Grant had "cut himself loose from a set of party hacks". Senator Charles Sumner, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and leading Radical in the Senate, however, was no party hack and was insulted at not being offered a cabinet position or being consulted. When it was found out that A.T. Stewart, a wealthy New York businessman, would be Secretary of Treasury, Sumner blocked an exception to a Senate rule that stated a nominee could not own a business and be head of the Treasury. This example of Sumner's power in the Senate was only a first of clashes with President Grant. George S. Boutwell
, a Radical, was nominated by Grant and confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of Treasury. Some of Grant's cabinet members did not even know their names were offered to the Senate for confirmation. Grant's independent secretive manner in choosing his muddled cabinet, however, created animosity with many in Congress.
in making government office appointments. The controversial law had been invoked during the impeachment trial of Johnson in 1868. On March 5, 1869, a bill was brought before Congress to repeal the act, but Senator Charles Sumner
was opposed, unwilling to give Grant a free hand in making appointments. Grant, to bolster the repeal effort, declined to make any new appointments except for vacancies, until the law was overturned, thus, agitating political office seekers to pressure Congress to repeal the law. Under national pressure for governmental reform, a compromise was reached and a new bill was passed that allowed the President to have complete control over removing his own cabinet, however, government appointees needed the approval of Congress within a thirty day period. Grant, who did not desire a party split over the matter, signed the bill; afterwards, he received criticism for not getting a full repeal of the law. The unpopular measure was completely repealed in 1887. Grant was criticized for appointing many family members considered unqualified to highly sought government posts, a practice known as nepotism
.
and Henry Adams
became critical and discouraged over Grant's Presidency in the aftermath of the Black Friday
scandal. By 1870, Horace Greeley
lost enthusiasm for the Administration with the resignations of Attorney General Ebenezer R. Hoar
and Ambassador to Britain John L. Motley
. Prominent journalists Samuel Bowles
, Horace White, E. L. Godkin, and William C. Bryant
became concerned over alleged incompetence and lack of national direction from Grant. Personal animosity remained between Charles Sumner
and Grant over the Senate
rejection of the Santo Domingo Treaty. The common citizen, however, revered Grant for his gallant service in the Civil War
.
During Reconstruction, Freedmen (freed slaves), were given the vote by Congress and became active in state politics; fourteen were elected to Congress. In state government they were never governor but did become lieutenant governors or secretaries of state. They formed the voting base of the Republican party along with some local whites (called "Scalawags") and new arrivals from the North (called "Carpetbaggers".) Most Southern whites opposed the Republicans; they called themselves "Conservatives" or "Redeemers
". Grant repeatedly took a role in state affairs; for example on December 24, 1869, he established federal military rule in Georgia and restored black legislators who had been expelled from the state legislature.
, Grant and many in the north believed the American Civil War
extended democracy to the African American
freedmen. Grant used political pressure to ensure the states ratified the Fifteenth Amendment
, guaranteeing that "no citizen can be denied the right to vote based upon race, color, or previous condition of servitude". When it passed he hailed it as "a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day". Many in the south, however, were determined that the African American males' right to vote would be unenforcable.
and to aid the Attorney General, the Office of Solicitor General
. Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman
as Attorney General and Benjamin H. Bristow as America's first Solicitor General. Both Akerman and Bristow used the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute Ku Klux Klan
members in the early 1870s. In the first few years of Grant's first term in office there were 1000 indictments against Klan members with over 550 convictions from the Department of Justice. By 1871, there were 3000 indictments and 600 convictions with most only serving brief sentences while the ringleaders were imprisoned for up to five years in the federal penitentiary in Albany, New York
. The result was a dramatic decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and told a friend that no one was "better" or "stronger" then Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists.
that allowed persons of African descent to become citizens of the United States. This revised an earlier law, the Naturalization Act of 1790
that only allowed white persons of good moral character to become U.S. citizens. The law also prosecuted persons who used fictitious names, misrepresentations, or identities of deceased individuals when applying for citizenship.
from attacking or threatening African Americans. This act placed severe penalties on persons who used intimidation, bribery, or physical assault to prevent citizens from voting and placed elections under Federal jurisdiction.
On January 13, 1871 President Grant submitted to Congress a report on violent acts committed by the Ku Klux Klan
in the South. On March 20, President Grant personally took the lead and told a reluctant Congress the situation in the South was dire and federal legislation was needed that would effectively "secure life, liberty, and property, and the enforcement of law, in all parts of the United States." President Grant stated that the U.S. mail and the collection of revenue was in jeopardy. Congress investigated the Klan's activities and eventually passed the Force Act of 1871 to allow prosecution of the Klan. This Act, also known as the "Ku Klux Klan Act" and written by Representative Benjamin Butler
, was passed by Congress to specifically go after local units of the Ku Klux Klan. Grant was initially reluctant to sign the bill, being wary of charges that his administration was a military dictatorship. Grant signed the bill into law on April 20, 1871 after being convinced by Secretary of Treasury, George Boutwell, that federal protection was warranted, having cited documented atrocities against the Freedmen. This law allowed the President to suspend habeas corpus
on "armed combinations" and conspiracies by the Klan. The Act also empowered the president "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders". The actions of the Klan were defined as high crimes and acts of rebellion against the United States.
The Ku Klux Klan consisted of local secret organizations formed to violently oppose Republican rule during Reconstruction; there was no organization above the local level. Wearing white hoods to hide their identity the Klan would violently attack and threaten Republicans. The Klan was strong in South Carolina between 1868 and 1870; South Carolina Governor Robert K. Scott, who was mired in corruption charges, allowed the Klan to rise to power. Grant, who was fed up with their violent tactics, ordered the Ku Klux Klan to disperse from South Carolina and lay down their arms under the authority of the Enforcement Acts on October 12, 1871. There was no response, and so on October 17, 1871, Grant issued a suspension of habeas corpus in all the 9 counties in South Carolina. Grant ordered federal troops in the state who then captured and vigorously prosecuted the Klan. With the Klan destroyed other white supremacist groups would emerge, including the White League
and the Red Shirts.
was readmitted into the Union on March, 30, 1870, Mississippi
was readmitted February 23, 1870, and Virginia
on January 26, 1870. Georgia
became the last Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union on July 15, 1870. All members for the House of Representatives and Senate were seated from the 10 Confederate states who seceded. Technically, the United States was again a united country.
To ease tensions, Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 on May 23, 1872 that gave amnesty to former Confederates. This act allowed most former Confederates, who before the war had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, to hold elected public office. Only 500 former Confederates remained unpardoned and therefore forbidden to hold elected public office.
Grant's 1868 campaign slogan, "Let us have peace," defined his policy toward reconstructing the South and opening a new era in relations with the western Indian tribes. The goal of his "peace policy" was to minimize military conflict with the Indians, looking forward to "any course toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship". It was a sharp reversal of federal policy toward Native Americans
. "Wars of extermination ... are demoralizing and wicked.", he told Congress four years later in his second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1873. The president lobbied, though not always successfully, to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers. The economic forces of western expansionism led to conflicts between Native Americans, settlers, and the U.S. military. Native Americans were increasingly forced to live on reservations
. Statistical data of the number of Indian wars per year between 1850 and 1890, revealed that battles decreased during Grant's two terms in office from 101 in 1869 to 43 in 1877. In 1875 there were only 15 Indian battles, the lowest rate since 1853 at 13 battles.
In 1869, Grant appointed his aide General Ely S. Parker
(Seneca) as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs. During Parker's first year in office, the number of Indian Wars per year dropped by 43 from 101 to 58. Chief of the Oglala Sioux Red Cloud
wanted to meet President Grant, after learning that Parker was appointed Indian Commissioner. Red Cloud, along with chief of the Brulé Sioux Spotted Tail
, came to Washington, D.C. by train and met with Parker and President Grant in 1870. Grant held no personal animosity towards Native Americans and personally treated them with dignity. When Red Cloud
and Spotted Tail
first met Grant at the White House on May 7, 1870, they were given a bountiful dinner and entertainment equal to what was shown to a young Prince Arthur
at a White House visit from Britain in 1869. At their second meeting on May 8, Red Cloud informed Grant that Whites were trespassing on Native American lands and that his people needed food and clothing. Out of concern for Native Americans, Grant ordered all Generals in the West to "keep intruders off by military force if necessary". To prevent Native American
hostilities and wars, Grant lobbied for and signed the Indians Appropriations Act of 1870–1871. This act ended the governmental policy of treating tribes as independent sovereign nations. Native Americans would be treated as individuals or wards of the state and Indian policies would be legislated by Congressional statues.
The historian David Sim (2008) examined the peace policy, emphasizing incoherence in its formulation and implementation. Historians have debated issues of "paternalism" and "colonialism" but have glossed over the significance of contingencies, inconsistencies, and political competition involved in forging a substantive federal policy. While the Grant administration focused on well-meaning but limited goals of placing "good men" in positions of influence and convincing native peoples of their fundamental dependency on the US government, attempts to create a new departure in federal-native relations were characterized by conflict and disagreement. The muddled creation of what has become known as the peace policy thus tells much about the varied and divergent attitudes Americans had toward the consolidation of their empire in the West following the Civil War.
The innovation in Grant's Native American
peace policy was in appointing Quaker or Christians as US Indian agents to various posts throughout the nation. This destroyed the power of patronage, as Congress would be reluctant to go after church appointments. On April 10, 1869, Congress created the Board of Indian Commissioners. Grant appointed volunteer members who were "eminent for their intelligence and philanthropy"; a previous commission had been set up under the Andrew Johnson Administration in 1868. The Grant Board was given extensive power to supervise the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and "civilize" Native Americans. After the Piegan
Massacre on January 23, 1870, when Major Edward M. Baker killed 173 tribal members, mostly women and children, Grant was determined to divide Native American post appointments "up among the religious churches"; by 1872, 73 Indian agencies were divided among religious denominations. Quaker or other clergy officials predominately controlled most of the central and southern Plains Indian territories
, while all other surrounding territories were under the control of appointed military officers.
The historian Robert M. Utley
(1984) contended that Grant, as a pragmatist, saw no inconsistencies with dividing up Native American posts among religious leaders and military officers. He added that Grant's "Quaker Policy", despite having good intentions, failed to solve the real dilemma of the misunderstandings between "the motivations, purposes, and ways of thinking" between both White and Native American cultures. These inconsistencies were evident in the breakdown of peace negotiations between the U.S. military and the Modoc tribal leaders during the Modoc War
from 1872 to 1873.
In 1871, President Grant's Indian peace policy, enforced and coordinated by Brig. Gen. George Stoneman
in Arizona, required the Apache
to be put on reservations where they would receive supplies and agriculture education. The Apache slipped out and occasionally raided white settlers. In one raid, believed to be done by Apache warriors, settlers and mail runners were murdered near Tuscan, Arizona. The townspeople traced this raid to Apache reservation from Camp Grant. 500 Apache lived at the Camp Grant near Dudleyville. Angered over the murders, the Tuscan townspeople hired 92 Papago
Indians, 42 Mexicans, and 6 whites to take revenge on the Apache. When the war party reached Camp Grant on April 30, they murdered 144 Apaches, mostly women and children. Twenty-seven captured Apache children were sold into Mexican slavery. In May, an attempt was made by a small federal military party to capture Apache leader Cochise
; during the chase they killed 13 Apache. Grant immediately removed Stoneman of his command in Arizona.
Most detrimental to Grant's Peace Policy was corruption in the Department of Interior and the Department of War
. Columbus Delano
, whose tenure as Secretary of Interior from 1870 to 1875 was a debacle; allowed fraud to rampantly spread into the Department of Indian Affairs. Corruption was the rule rather than the exception. Money intended to supply Native American tribes with food and clothing was skimmed off by corrupt Indian agents and clerks, often allied with traders. After newspapers exposed Delano's delinquency, Grant defended him rather than investigate the matter. The previous Grant appointment, Secretary Jacob D. Cox, had run the department with efficiency and merit. Cox had been considered to be one of the best secretaries of Interior in the nation's history. When Cox resigned in 1870, Grant appointed Delano out of patronage considerations to appease Stalwart party bosses. Grant's Secretary of War, William W. Belknap
, took extortion money from a Fort Sill
Indian trading post.
was not perfect. While he advocated that African Americans enter the West Point Academy, he failed in 1870 and 1871 to protect the first African American West Point Academy cadet, James Albert Smith, from racist hazing by other cadets. This lack of protection was influenced by Grant's son, then West Point cadet Frederick Dent Grant
, who participated in the hazing against Smith.
President Lincoln signed into law the Morrill bill
that outlawed polygamy
in all U.S. Territories. Mormons who practiced polygamy in Utah for the most part resisted the Morrill law and the territorial governor. During the 1868 election, Grant had mentioned he would enforce the law against polygamy. Tensions began as early as 1870, when Mormons in Ogden, Utah began to arm themselves and practice military drilling. By the Fourth of July, 1871 Mormon militia in Salt Lake City, Utah were on the verge of fighting territorial troops, however, leveler heads prevailed and violence was averted.
President Grant, however, who believed Utah was in a state of rebellion was determined to arrest those who practiced polygamy outlawed under the Morrill Act. In October, 1871 hundreds of Mormons were rounded up by U.S. marshals, put in a prison camp, arrested, and put on trial for polygamy. One convicted polygamist received a $500 fine and 3 years in prison under hard labor. On November 20, 1871 Mormon leader Brigham Young
, in ill health, had been charged with polygamy. Young's attorney stated that Young had no intention to flee the court. Other persons during the polygamy shut down were charged with murder or intent to kill. The Morrill Act, however, proved hard to enforce since proof of marriage was required for conviction. On December 4, 1871 President Grant stated that polygamists in Utah were "a remnant of barbarism, repugnant to civilization, to decency, and to the laws of the United States."
's Anthony Comstock
, easily secured passage of the Comstock Act which made it a federal crime to mail articles "for any indecent or immoral use". Grant signed the bill after he was assured that Comstock would personally enforce it. Comstock went on to become a special agent of the Post Office appointed by Secretary James Cresswell
. Comstock prosecuted pornographers, imprisoned abortionists, banned nude art, stopped the mailing of information about contraception, and tried to ban what he considered bad books.
who was appointed by Grant as New York Custom Collector stated that the examinations excluded and deterred unfit persons from getting employment positions. However, Congress, in no mood to reform itself, denied any long-term reform by refusing to enact the necessary legislation to make the changes permanent. Historians have traditionally been divided whether patronage, meaning appointments made without a merit system, should be labelled corruption.
The movement for Civil Service reform reflected two distinct objectives: to eliminate the corruption and inefficiencies in a non-professional bureaucracy, and to check the power of President Johnson. Although many reformers after the Election of 1868 looked to Grant to ram Civil Service legislation through Congress, he refused, saying: "Civil Service Reform rests entirely with Congress. If members will give up claiming patronage, that will be a step gained. But there is an immense amount of human nature in the members of Congress, and it is human nature to seek power and use it to help friends. You cannot call it corruption – it is a condition of our representative form of Government." Grant used patronage to build his party and help his friends. He instinctively protected those whom he thought were the victims of injustice or attacks by his enemies, even if they were guilty. Grant believed in loyalty with his friends, as one writer called it the "Chivalry of Friendship".
On May 19, 1869, Grant protected the wages of those working for the U.S. Government. In 1868, a law was passed that reduced the government working day to 8 hours; however, much of the law was later repealed that allowed day wages to also be reduced. To protect workers Grant signed an executive order that "no reduction shall be made in the wages" regardless of the reduction in hours for the government day workers.
Treasury Secretary George S. Boutwell
reorganized and reformed the United States Treasury by discharging unnecessary employees, started sweeping changes in Bureau of Printing and Engraving to protect the currency from counterfeiters
, and revitalized tax collections to hasten the collection of revenue. These changes soon led the Treasury to have a monthly surplus. By May 1869, Boutwell reduced the national debt by $12 million. By September the national debt was reduced by $50 million, which was achieved by selling the growing gold surplus at weekly auctions for greenbacks
and buying back wartime bonds with the currency. The New York Tribune
wanted the government to buy more bonds and greenbacks and the New York Times praised the Grant administration's debt policy.
The first two years of the Grant administration with George Boutwell at the Treasury helm expenditures had been reduced to $292 million in 1871 – down from $322 million in 1869. The cost of collecting taxes fell to 3.11% in 1871. Grant reduced the number of employees working in the government by 2,248 persons from 6,052 on March 1, 1869 to 3,804 on December 1, 1871. He had increased tax revenues by $108 million from 1869 to 1872. During his first administration the national debt fell from $2.5 billion to $2.2 billion.
In a rare case of preemptive reform during the Grant Administration, Brevet Major General Alfred Pleasonton
was dismissed for being unqualified to hold the position of Commissioner of Internal Revenue
. In 1870, Pleasonton, a Grant appointment, approved an unauthorized $60,000 tax refund and was associated with an alleged unscrupulous Connecticut firm. Treasury Secretary George Boutwell promptly stopped the refund and personally informed Grant that Pleasonton was incompetent to hold office. Refusing to resign on Boutwell's request, Pleasonton protested openly before Congress. President Grant removed Pleasonton before any potential scandal broke out.
had attempted to annex the Dominican Republic
and Santo Domingo, but the House of Representatives defeated two resolutions for the protection of the Dominican Republic and Santo Domingo and for the annexation of the Dominican Republic. In July, 1869 Grant sent Orville E. Babcock
and Rufus Ingalls
who negotiated a draft treaty with Dominican Republic President Buenaventura Báez
for the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States and the sale of Samaná Bay
for $2 million. To keep the island nation and Báez secure in power, Grant ordered naval ships, unauthorized by Congress, to secure the island from invasion and internal insurrection. Báez signed an annexation treaty on November 19, 1869 offered by Babcock under federal State department authorization. Secretary Fish drew up a final draft of the proposal and offered $1.5 million to the Dominican national debt, the annexation of Santo Domingo
as an American state, the United States' acquisition of the rights for Samaná Bay
for 50 years with an annual $150,000 rental, and guaranteed protection from foreign intervention. On January 10, 1870 the Santo Domingo treaty was submitted to the Senate for ratification. Despite his support of the annexation, Grant made the mistakes of not informing Congress of the treaty or encouraging national acceptance and enthusiasm.
Not only did Grant believe that the island would be of use to the Navy tactically, particularly Samaná Bay
, but also he sought to use it as a bargaining chip. By providing a safe haven for the freedmen, he believed that the exodus of black labor would force Southern whites to realize the necessity of such a significant workforce and accept their civil rights. Grant believed the island country would increase exports and lower the trade deficit. He hoped that U.S. ownership of the island would urge Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Brazil to abandon slavery. On March 15, 1870, the Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Sen. Charles Sumner
, recommended against treaty passage. Sumner, the leading spokesman for African American civil rights, believed that annexation would be enormously expensive and involve the U.S. in an ongoing civil war, and would threaten the independence of Haiti and the West Indies, thereby blocking black political progress. On May 31, 1870 Grant went before Congress and urged passage of the Dominican annexation treaty. Strongly opposed to ratification, Sumner successfully led the opposition in the Senate. On June 30, 1870 the Santo Domingo annexation treaty failed to pass the Senate; 28 votes in favor of the treaty and 28 votes against. Grant's own cabinet was divided over the Santo Domingo annexation attempt, and Bancroft Davis
, assistant to Sec. Hamilton Fish, was secretly giving information to Sen. Sumner on state department negotiations.
Relying on his military instinct, President Grant fought back hard. Unable constitutionally to go directly after Sen. Sumner, Grant immediately removed Sumner's close and respected friend Ambassador, John Lothrop Motley
. With Grant's prodding in the Senate, Sumner was finally deposed from the Foreign Relations Committee. Grant reshaped his coalition, known as "New Radicals", working with enemies of Sumner such as Ben Butler
of Massachusetts, Roscoe Conkling
of New York, and Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, giving in to Fish's demands that Cuba rebels be rejected, and moving his Southern patronage from the radical blacks and carpetbaggers who were allied with Sumner to more moderate Republicans. This set the stage of the Liberal Republican revolt of 1872, when Sumner and his allies publicly denounced Grant and supported Horace Greeley
and the Liberal Republicans
. Biographer William McFeely stated that Grant's annexation of Santo Domingo plan was not unrealistic, since African Americans faced difficult racial oppression in the South.
A Congressional investigation in June, 1870 led by Senator Carl Schurz
revealed that Babcock and Ingalls both had land interests in the Bay of Samaná
that would increase in value if the Santo Domingo
treaty were ratified. U.S. Navy ships, with President Grant's authorization, had been sent to protect Báez from an invasion by a Dominican
rebel, Gregorio Luperón
, while the treaty negotiations were taking place. The investigation had initially been called to settle a dispute between an American businessman Davis Hatch against the United States government. Báez had imprisoned Hatch without trial for his opposition to the Báez government. Hatch had claimed that the United States had failed to protect him from imprisonment. The majority Congressional report dismissed Hatch's claim and exonerated both Babcock and Ingalls. The Hatch incident, however, kept certain Senators from being enthusiastic about ratifying the treaty.
negotiating. Grant and Fish wanted Cuban independence and to end slavery without U.S. military intervention or occupation. Fish, diligently and against popular pressure, was able to keep Grant from officially recognizing Cuban independence because it would have endangered negotiations with Britain over the Alabama Claims
. The Sickle's peace negotiations failed in Madrid, but Grant and Fish did not succumb to popular pressure for U.S. military involvement in the Cuban rebellion. Grant and Fish sent a message to Congress, written by Fish and signed by Grant. The message urged strict neutrality not to officially recognize the Cuban revolt, calming national fears.
to allow outside experts to settle disputes. Grant's able Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
had orchestrated many of the events leading up to the treaty. Previously, Secretary of State William H. Seward
during the Johnson administration first proposed an initial treaty concerning damages done to American merchants by three Confederate warships, CSS Florida
, CSS Alabama
, and CSS Shenandoah
built in Britain. These damages were collectively known as the Alabama Claims
. These ships had inflicted tremendous damage to U.S. merchant ships during the Civil War and Washington wanted the British to pay heavy damages, perhaps including turning over Canada.
On April 1869, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly rejected a proposed treaty which paid too little and contained no admission of British guilt for prolonging the war. Senator Charles Sumner
spoke up before congress; publicly denounced Queen Victoria; demanded a huge reparation; and opened the possibility of Canada ceded to the United States as payment. The speech angered the British government, and talks had to be put off until matters cooled down. Negotiations for a new treaty began in January 1871 when Britain sent Sir John Rose to America to meet with Fish. A joint high commission was created on February 9, 1871 in Washington, consisting of representatives from both Britain and the United States. The commission created a treaty where an international Tribunal would settle the damage amounts; the British admitted regret, not fault, over the destructive actions of the Confederate war cruisers. Grant approved and signed the treaty on May 8, 1871; the Senate ratified the Treaty of Washington
on May 24, 1871.
The Tribunal met in Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. was represented by Charles Francis Adams
, one of five international arbitrators, and was counseled by William M. Evarts
, Caleb Cushing
, and Morrison R. Waite. On August 25, 1872, the Tribunal awarded United States $15.5 million in gold; $1.9 million was awarded to Great Britain. Historian Amos Elwood Corning noted that the Treaty of Washington and arbitration "bequeathed to the world a priceless legacy". In addition to the $15.5 million arbitration award, the treaty resolved some disputes over borders and fishing rights. On October 21, 1872 William I, Emperor of Germany, settled a boundary dispute in favor of the United States.
A primary role of the United States Navy in the 19th century was to protect American commercial interests and open trade to Eastern markets, including Japan and China. Korea had excluded all foreign trade and, the U.S. sought a treaty dealing with shipwrecked sailors after the crew of a stranded American commercial ship was killed. The long-term goal for the Grant Administration was to open Korea to Western markets in the same way Commodore Matthew Perry had opened Japan in 1854 by a Naval display of military force. On May 30, 1871 Rear Admiral John Rodgers with a fleet of five ships, part of the Asiatic Squadron
, arrived at the mouth of the Salee River below Seoul
. The fleet included the , one of the largest ships in the Navy with 47 guns, 47 officers, and a 571-man crew. While waiting for senior Korean officials to negotiate, Rogers sent ships out to make soundings of the Salee River for navigational purposes.
The American fleet was fired upon by a Korean fort, but there was little damage. Rogers gave the Korean government ten days to apologize or begin talks, but the Royal Court kept silent. After ten days passed, on June 10, Rogers began a series of amphibious
assaults that destroyed 5 Korean forts. These military engagements were known as the Battle of Ganghwa
. Several hundred Korean soldiers and three Americans were killed. Korea still refused to negotiate, and the American fleet sailed away. The Koreans refer to this 1871 U.S. military action as Shinmiyangyo. President Grant defended Rogers in his third annual message to Congress in December, 1871. After a change in regimes in Seoul, in 1881, the U.S. negotiated a treaty – the first treaty between Korea and a Western nation.
in 1869 and the Whiskey Ring
in 1875. The Crédit Mobilier
is not a Grant scandal; its origins having been in 1864 during the Abraham Lincoln
Administration which carried over into the Andrew Johnson
Administration. The actual Crédit Mobilier scandal was exposed during the Grant Administration in 1872 as the result of political infighting between Congressman Oakes Ames and Congressman Henry S. McComb. Stocks owned by Ambassador to Britain Robert C. Schenck
in the fraudulent Emma Silver Mine is considered a Grant Administration embarrassment rather than a scandal.
Although Grant had many successes during the first term as President in the economy, civil rights, and foreign policy, scandals associated with the Administration were beginning to emerge publicly. Grant's inability to establish personal accountability among his subordinates and Cabinet members created an environment rife for scandals. Although Grant himself was not directly responsible for and did not profit from the corruption among subordinates, he was reluctant to believe friends could commit criminal activities. As a result, he failed to take any direct action and rarely reacted strongly after their guilt was established. Grant protected close friends with Presidential power and pardoned persons who were convicted in the Whiskey Ring scandal after serving only a few months in prison.
Grant's single-minded temperament would often lead to vigorous counterattacks when critics complained, as he was very protective and defensive of his subordinates. Grant was weak in his selection of subordinates, many times favoring military associates from the war over talented and experienced politicians. He alienated party leaders by giving many posts to his friends and political contributors rather than supporting the party's needs. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control. When his second term ended, Grant wrote to Congress that "Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent". Nepotism was rampant; around 40 family relatives financially prospered while Grant was President.
and Jim Fisk
set up an elaborate scam to corner the gold market through buying up all the gold at the same time to drive up the price. The plan was to keep the Government from selling gold, thus driving its price. President Grant and Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
found out about the gold market speculation and ordered the sale of $4 million in gold on (Black) Friday, September 23. Gould and Fisk were thwarted, and the price of gold dropped. The effects of releasing the gold by Boutwell were disastrous. Stock prices plunged and food prices dropped, devastating farmers for years.
and Southern regions of the United States. These were known as Star Routes
because an asterisk was given on official Post Office
documents. These remote routes were hundreds of miles long and went to the most rural parts of the United States by horse and buggy. In obtaining these highly prized postal contracts, an intricate ring of bribery and straw bidding was set up in the Postal Contract office; the ring consisted of contractors, postal clerks, and various intermediary brokers. Straw bidding was at its highest practice while John Creswell, Grant's 1869 appointment, was Postmaster-General
. An 1872 federal investigation into the matter exonerated Creswell, but he was censured
by the minority House report. A $40,000 bribe to the 42nd Congress
by one postal contractor had tainted the results of the investigation. In 1876, another congressional investigation under a Democratic House shut down the postal ring for a few years.
and Thomas Murphy. Private warehouses were taking imported goods from the docks and charging shippers storage fees. Grant's friend, George K. Leet, was allegedly involved with exorbitant pricing for storing goods and splitting the profits. Grant's third collector appointment, Chester A. Arthur
, implemented Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
's reform to keep the goods protected on the docks rather than private storage.
Grant remained popular throughout the nation despite the scandals evident during his first term in office. Grant had supported a patronage system that allowed Republicans to infiltrate and control state governments. In response to President Grant's federal patronage, in 1870, Senator Carl Schurz
from Missouri, a German immigrant and Civil War hero, started a second party known as the Liberal Republicans; they advocated civil service reform, a low tariff, and amnesty to former Confederate soldiers. The Liberal Republicans successfully ran B.G. Brown
for the governorship of Missouri and won with Democrat support. Then in 1872, the party completely split from the Republican party and nominated New York Tribune
editor Horace Greeley
as candidate for the Presidency. The Democrats, who at this time had no strong candidate choice of their own, reluctantly adopted Greeley as their candidate with Governor B.G. Brown as his running mate. Frederick Douglass
supported Grant and reminded black voters that Grant had destroyed the violent Ku Klux Klan
.
The Republicans, who were content with their Reconstruction program for the South, renominated Grant and Representative Henry Wilson
in 1872. Grant had remained a popular Civil War hero, and the Republicans continued to wave the "bloody shirt" as a patriotic symbol representing the North. The Republicans favored high tariffs and a continuation of Radical Reconstruction policies that supported five military districts in the Southern states. Grant also favored amnesty to former Confederate soldiers like the Liberal Republicans. Because of political infighting between Liberal Republicans and Democrats, the physically ailing Greeley was no match for the "Hero of Appomattox" and lost dismally in the popular vote. Grant swept 286 Electoral College votes while other minor candidates received only 63 votes. Grant won 55.8 percent of the popular vote between Greeley and the other minor candidates. Heartbroken after a hard fought political campaign, Greeley died a few weeks after the election and was able to receive only 3 electoral votes. Out of respect for Greeley, Grant attended his funeral.
operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan. Their goals were to oust the Republicans, return Conservative whites to power, and use whatever illegal methods needed to achieve them. Being loyal to his veterans, Grant remained determined that African Americans would receive protection.
was a split state. In a controversial election two candidates were claiming victory as governor. Violence was used to intimidate black Republicans. The fusionist party of Liberal Republicans and Democrats claimed John McEnery as the victor, while the Republicans claimed U.S. Senator William P. Kellogg
. Two months later each candidate was sworn in as governor on January 13, 1863. A federal judge ordered that Kellogg was the rightful winner of the election and ordered him and the Republican based majority to be seated. The White League supported McHenry and prepared to use military force to remove Kellogg from office. Grant ordered troops to enforce the court order and protect Kellogg. On March 4, Federal troops under a flag of truce and Kellogg's state militia defeated McHenry's fusionist party's insurrection.
A dispute arose over who would be installed as judge and sheriff at the Colfax
courthouse in Grant Parish, Louisiana
Kellogg's two appointments had seized control of the Court House on March 25 with aid and protection of Black state militia troops. Then on April 13, White League forces attacked the courthouse and massacred 50 black militiamen who had been captured. A total of 105 blacks were killed trying to defend the Colfax courthouse for Governor Kellogg. On April 21, Grant sent in the U.S. 19th Infantry Regiment
to restore order. On May 22, Grant issued a new proclamation to restore order in Louisiana. On May 31, McHenry finally told his followers to obey "peremptory orders" of the President. The orders brought a brief peace to New Orleans and most of Louisiana, ironically, except Grant Parish.
and Joseph Brooks
. Massive fraud characterized the election, but Baxter was declared the winner and took office. Brooks never gave up, and finally in 1874 a local judge ruled Brooks was entitled to the office and swore him in. Both sides mobilized militia units, and rioting and fighting bloodied the streets. There was anticipation who President Grant would side with – either Baxter or Brooks. Grant delayed, requesting a joint session of the Arkansas government to figure out peacefully who would be the Governor, but Baxter refused to participate. Then, on May 15, 1874, President Grant issued a Proclamation that Baxter was the legitimate Governor of Arkansas, and the hostilities ceased. In fall of 1874 the people of Arkansas voted out Baxter, and all the Republicans and the Redeemers
came to power. A few months later in early 1875, Grant astonished the nation by reversing himself and announcing that Brooks had been legitimately elected back in 1872. Grant did not send in troops, and Brooks never regained office; instead Grant gave him the high-paying patronage job of postmaster in Little Rock. Brooks died in 1877. The episode brought further discredit to Grant.
city government elected a White reform party consisting of Republicans and Democrats. This was done initially to lower city spending and taxes. Despite their early intentions, the reform movement turned racist when the new White city officials went after the county government comprised with a majority of African Americans. Rather than using legal means, the White League threatened the life of and expelled Crosby, the black county sheriff and tax collector. Crosby then went to Governor Adelbert Ames
to seek help to regain his position as sheriff. Governor Ames told him to take other African Americans and use force to retain his lawful position as Sheriff of Warren County
. At that time Vicksburg had a population of 12,443, over half of whom were African American.
On December 7, 1874, Crosby and an African American militia approached the city. He had declared that the Whites were, "ruffians, barbarians, and political banditti". A series of battles occurred that resulted in 29 African Americans and 2 Whites killed. The White militia retained control of the Court House and jail. On December 21, Grant gave a Presidential Proclamation for the people in Vicksburg to stop fighting. Philip Sheridan
in Louisiana dispatched troops who reinstated Crosby as sheriff and restored the peace. When questioned about the matter, Governor Ames denied he had told Crosby to use African American militia. On June 7, 1875, Crosby was shot to death by a White deputy while drinking in a bar. The origins for the shooting remained a mystery.
and Democratic militia took control of the state house at New Orleans, and the Republican Governor William P. Kellogg
was forced to flee. Former Confederate General James A. Longstreet
, with 3,000 African American
militia and 400 Metropolitan police, made a counter attack on the 8,000 White League troops. Consisting of former Confederate soldiers, the experienced White League troops routed Longstreet's army. On September 17, Grant sent in Federal troops, and they restored the government back to Kellogg. During the following controversial election in November, passions rose high, and violence mixed with fraud were rampant; the state of affairs in New Orleans was becoming out of control. The results were that 53 Republicans and 53 Democrats were elected with 5 remaining seats to be decided by the legislature.
Grant had been careful to watch the elections and secretly sent Phil Sheridan in to keep law and order in the state. Sheridan had arrived in New Orleans a few days before the January 4, 1875 legislature opening meeting. At the convention the Democrats again with military force took control of the state building out of Republican hands. Initially, the Democrats were protected by federal troops under Colonel Philip Régis de Trobriand, and the escaped Republicans were removed from the hallways of the state building. However, Governor Kellogg then requested that Trobriand reseat the Republicans. Trobriand returned to the State house and used bayonets to force the Democrats out of the building. The Republicans then organized their own house with their own speakers all being protected by the Federal Army. Sheridan, who had annexed the Department of the Gulf to his command at 9:00 P.M., claimed that the federal troops were being neutral since they had also protected the Democrats earlier.
During the election year of 1876, South Carolina was in a state of rebellion against Republican governor Daniel H. Chamberlain
. Conservatives were determined to win the election for ex-confederate Wade Hampton
through violence and intimidation. The Republicans went on to nominate Chamberlain for a second term. Hampton supporters, donning red shirts, disrupted Republican meetings with gun shootings and yelling. Tensions became violent on July 8, 1876 when five African Americans were murdered at Hamburg. The rifle clubs, wearing their Red Shirts, were better armed then the blacks. South Carolina was ruled by "mobocracy and bloodshed" than by Chamberlain's government.
Black militia did fight back in Charleston
on September 6, 1876 in what was known as the "King Street riot". The white militia assumed defensive positions out of concern over possible federal troop intervention. Then, on September 19, the Red Shirts took offensive action by openly killing 30 to 50 African Americans outside Ellenton
. During the massacre, state representative Simon Coker was killed. On October 7, Governor Chamberlain declared martial law and told all the "rifle club" members to put down their weapons. In the meantime, Wade Hampton never ceased to remind Chamberlain that he did not rule South Carolina. Out of desperation, Chamberlain wrote to President Grant and asked for federal intervention. The "Cainhoy riot" took place on October 15 when Republicans held a rally at "Brick Church" outside Cainhoy. Blacks and whites both opened fire; six whites and one black were killed. Grant, upset over the Ellenton and Cainhoy riots, finally declared a Presidential Proclamation on October 17, 1876 and ordered all persons, within 3 days, to cease their lawless activities and disperse to their homes. A total of 1,144 federal infantry were sent into South Carolina, and the violence stopped; election day was quiet. Both Hampton and Chamberlain claimed victory, and for a while both acted as governor; then Hampton took the office after President Rutherford B. Hayes
in 1877 withdrew federal troops and after Chamberlain left the state.
and the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway
, threatened to unravel Grant's peace policy, as white settlers encroached upon native land to mine for gold. Indian wars per year jumped up to 32 in 1876 and remained at 43 in 1877. One of the highest casualty Indian battles that took place in American history was at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Indian war casualties in Montana went from 5 in 1875, to 613 in 1876 and 436 in 1877.
, but Captain Jack killed him. Reverend Eleazar Thomas, a Methodist minister, was also killed. Alfred B. Meacham
, an Indian Agent, was severely wounded. The murders shocked the nation, and Sherman wired to have the Modocs exterminated. Grant overruled Sherman; Captain Jack was executed, and the remaining 155 Modocs were relocated to the Quapaw Agency in the Indian Territory
. This episode and the Great Sioux War undermined public confidence in Grant's peace policy, according to historian Robert M. Utley
.
, leader of the Comanche
, led 700 tribal warriors and attacked the buffalo hunter supply base on the Canadian River, at Adobe Walls, Texas
. The Army under General Phil Sheridan launched a military campaign, and, with few casualties on either side, forced the Indians back to their reservations by destroying their horses and winter food supplies. Grant, who agreed to the Army plan advocated by Generals William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan, imprisoned 74 insurgents in Florida.
In 1872, around two thousand white buffalo hunters between Arkansas
and Witchita were killing buffalo
for their hides by the many thousands. Acres of land were dedicated solely for drying the hides of the slaughtered buffalo. Native Americans protested at the "wanton destruction" of their food supply. By 1874, 3,700,000 bison had been destroyed on the western and southern Plains of the United States. Concern for the destruction of the buffalo mounted, and a bill in Congress was passed, HR 921, that would have made buffalo hunting illegal for whites. Grant pocket veto
ed the bill. Ranchers favored the buffalo slaughter to open pasture land for their cattle herds. With the buffalo food supply lowered Native Americans were forced to stay on reservations.
under Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano
. This proved to be the most serious detriment to Grant's Indian peace policy. Many agents that worked for the department made unscrupulous fortunes and retired with more money than their pay would allow. Secretary Delano had allowed "Indian Attorneys" who were paid by Native American tribes $8.00 a day plus food and traveling expenses for sham representation in Washington. Other corruptions charges were brought up against Secretary Delano and he was forced to resign; he had left the Bureau of Indian Affairs in complete corruption. In 1875, Grant appointed Zachariah Chandler
to Secretary of the Interior. Chandler vigorously uncovered and cleaned up the fraud in the department by firing all the clerks and banned the phony "Indian Attorneys" access to Washington. Grant's "Quaker" or church appointments partially made up the lack of food staples and housing from the government.
in the Dakota Territory
. White speculators and settlers rushed in droves seeking riches mining gold on land reserved for the Sioux
tribe by the Treaty of Fort Laramie
of 1868. In 1875, to avoid conflict President Grant met with Red Cloud
, chief of the Sioux, at Washington, D.C., and offered $25,000 from the government to purchase the land. The offer was declined. On November 3, 1875 at a White House meeting, Phil Sheridan claimed to the President that the Army was overstretched and could not defend the Sioux tribe from the settlers; Grant capitulated; ordered Sheridan to round up the Sioux and put them on the reservation. Sheridan used a strategy of convergence, using Army columns to force the Sioux onto the reservation. On June 25, 1876, one of these columns, led by Colonel George A. Custer met the Sioux at the Battle of Little Big Horn and was slaughtered. Approximately 253 federal soldiers and civilians were killed compared to 40 American Indians. Custer's death and the Battle of Little Big Horn shocked the nation. Sheridan avenged Custer, pacified the northern Plains, and put the defeated Sioux on the reservation. On August 15, 1876 President Grant signed a proviso giving the Sioux nation $1,000,000 in rations, while the Sioux relinquished all rights to the Black Hills, except for a 40 mile land tract west of the 103 meridian. On August 28, a seven man committee, appointed by Grant, gave additional harsh stipulations for the Sioux in order to receive government assistance. Halfbreeds and "squaw men" were banished from the Sioux reservation. To receive the government rations, the Indians had to work the land. Reluctantly, on September 20, the Indian leaders, whose people were starving, agreed to the committee's demands and signed the agreement.
that allowed citizens access to public eating establishments, hotels, and places of entertainment. This was done particularly to protect African Americans who were discriminated across United States. The bill was also passed in honor of Senator Charles Sumner
who had previously attempted to pass a civil rights bill in 1872.
, that he had been deceived concerning the Mormons. However, on December 7, 1875 after his return to Washington, Grant wrote to Congress in his seventh annual state of the Union address that as "an institution polygamy should be banished from the land…"
Grant believed that polygamy negatively affected children and women. Grant advocated that a second stronger law then the Morrill Act be passed to "punish so flagrant a crime against decency
and morality
."
Grant also denounced the immigration of Chinese women into the United States whose only purpose was prostitution
.
in public schools. Grant inexplicably in an 1875 speech advocated "security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion." In regard to public education, Grant endorsed that every child should receive "the opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheist tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools.... Keep the church and the state forever separate."
that started when the stock market in Vienna, Austria crashed in June that year. Unsettling markets soon spread to Berlin and throughout Europe. The panic eventually reached New York when two banks went broke – the New York Warehouse & Security Company on September 18 and the major railroad financier Jay Cooke & Company
on September 19. The ensuing depression lasted 5 years, ruined thousands of businesses, depressed daily wages by 25% from 1873 to 1876, and brought the unemployment rate up to 14%.
The causes of the panic in the United States included the destruction of credit from over-speculation in the stock markets and railroad industry. Eight years of unprecedented growth after the Civil War had brought thousands of miles of railroad construction, thousands of industrial factories, and a strong stock market; the South experienced a boom in agriculture. However, all this growth was done on borrowed money by many banks in the United States that have over-speculated in the Railroad industry by as much as $20 million. A stringent monetary policy under Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
, during the height of the railroad speculations, contributed to unsettled markets. Boutwell created monetary stringency by selling more gold then he bought bonds. The Coinage Act of 1873 made gold the de facto
currency metal over silver.
On September 20, 1873 the Grant Administration finally responded. Grant's Secretary of Treasury William Adams Richardson
, Boutwell's replacement, bought $2.5 million of five-twenty bonds with gold. On Monday, September 22, Richardson bought $3 million of bonds with legal tender notes or greenbacks
and purchased $5.5 million in legal tender certificates. From September 24 to September 25 the Treasury department bought $24 million in bonds and certificates with greenbacks. On September 29 the Secretary prepaid the interest on $12 million bonds bought from security banks. From October, 1873 to January 4, 1874 Richardson kept liquidating bonds until $26 million greenback reserves were issued to make up for lost revenue in the Treasury. These actions did help curb the effects of the general panic by allowing more currency into the commercial banks and hence allowing more money to be lent and spent. Historians have blamed the Grant administration for not responding to the crisis promptly and for not taking adequate measures to reduce the negative effects of the general panic. The monetary policies of both Secretary Boutwell and Richardson were inconsistent from 1872 to 1873. The government's ultimate failure was in not reestablishing confidence in the businesses that had been the source of distrust. The Panic of 1873 eventually ran its course despite all the limited efforts from the government.
Grant's "cronyism", as Smith (2001) calls it, was apparent when he overruled Army experts to help a wartime friend, engineer, James B. Eads. Eads was building a major railroad bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis that had been authorized by Congress in 1866, and was nearing completion in 1873. However, the Army Corps of Engineers chief of engineers, agreeing with steam boat interests, ordered Eads to build a canal around the bridge because the bridge would be "a serious obstacle to navigation." After talking with Eads at the White House, Grant reversed the order and the 6,442 feet (1,964 m) long steel arched bridge went on to completion in 1874 without a canal.
The rapidly accelerated industrial growth in post-Civil War America and throughout the world crashed with the Panic of 1873
. Many banks overextended their loans and went bankrupt as a result, causing a general panic throughout the nation. In an attempt put capital into a stringent monetary economy, Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson released $26 million in greenbacks. Many argued that Richardson's monetary policies were not enough and some argued were illegal. In 1874, Congress debated the inflationary policy to stimulate the economy and passed the Inflation Bill of 1874 that would release an additional $18 million in greenbacks
up to the original $400,000,000 amount. Eastern bankers vigorously lobbied Grant to veto the bill because of their reliance on bonds and foreign investors who did business in gold. Grant's cabinet was bitterly divided over this issue while conservative Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
threatened to resign if Grant signed the bill. On April 22, 1874, after evaluating his own reasons for wanting to sign the bill, Grant unexpectedly vetoed the bill against the popular election strategy of the Republican Party
because he believed it would destroy the nation's credit.
. This act provided that paper money in circulation would be exchanged for gold specie and silver coins and would be effective January 1, 1879. The act also implemented that gradual steps would be taken to reduce the amount of greenbacks in circulation. At that time there were "paper coin" currency worth less than $1.00, and these would be exchanged for silver coins. Its effect was to stabilize the currency and make the consumers money as "good as gold". In an age without a Federal Reserve system to control inflation, this act stabilized the economy. Grant considered it the hallmark of his administration.
On October 31, 1873, a steamer Virginius, flying the American flag carrying war materials and men to aid the Cuban insurrection (in violation of American and Spanish law) was intercepted and taken to Cuba. After a hasty trial, the local Spanish officials executed 53 would-be insurgents, eight of whom were United States citizens; orders from Madrid to delay the executions arrived too late. War scares erupted in both the U.S. and Spain, heightened by the bellicose dispatches from the American minister in Madrid, retired general Daniel Sickles
. Secretary of State Fish kept a cool demeanor in the crisis, and through investigation discovered there was a question over whether the Virginius ship had the right to bear the United States flag. The Spanish Rupublic's President Emilio Castelar expressed profound regret for the tragedy and was willing to make reparations through arbitration. Fish negotiated reparations with the Spanish minister Senor Poly y Bernabe. With Grant's approval, Spain was to surrender Virginius, pay an indemnity to the surviving families of the Americans executed, and salute the American flag; the episode ended quietly.
treaty with Hawaii
. The main product from Hawaii, sugar
, was made duty free while American manufactured goods, including clothing, were allowed to be sold in the island kingdom.
. Liberia was in practice an American colony. US envoy James Milton Turner, the first African American ambassador, requested a warship to protect American property in Liberia. After the USS Alaska he negotiated the incorporation of Grebo people into Liberian society and the ousting of foreign traders from Liberia.
where the investigation went up to Grant himself. The Emma Silver mine was a minor embarrassment associated with American Ambassador to Britain, Robert C. Schenck
, using his name to promote a worked out silver mine. The Crédit Mobilier scandal's origins were during the presidential Administrations of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, however, political congressional infighting during the Grant Administration exposed the scandal.
gave private contracts to one John D. Sanborn who in turn collected illegally withheld taxes for fees at inflated commissions. The profits from the commissions were allegedly split with Richardson and Senator Benjamin Butler
, while Sanborn claimed these payments were "expenses". Senator Butler had written a loophole in the law that allowed Sanborn to collect the commissions, but Sanborn would not reveal whom he split the profits with.
allegedly received a bribe through a $30,000 gift to his wife from a Merchant house company, Pratt & Boyd, to drop the case for fraudulent customhouse entries. Williams was forced to resign by Grant in 1875.
In 1875, the U.S. Department of Interior was in serious disrepair with corruption and incompetence. The Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano
, discovered to have taken bribes to secure fraudulent land grants, resigned from office on October 15, 1875. Delano had also given bogus lucrative cartographical contracts to his son John Delano and Ulysses S. Grant's own brother, Orvil Grant. Neither John Delano nor Orvil Grant performed any work or were skillfully qualified to hold such surveying positions. The Department of Indian Affairs was being controlled by corrupt clerks and bogus agents who made enormous profits from the exploitation of Native American tribes. Massive fraud was also found in the Patent Office with corrupt clerks who embezzled from the government payroll. Delano who refused to make any reforms resigned under public pressure rather than Grant asking for a resignation. It was another missed opportunity for Grant to support ethics in government. However, on October 19, 1875, Grant made another reforming cabinet choice when he appointed Zachariah Chandler
as Secretary of the Interior. Chandler cleaned up the Patent Office and the Department of Indian Affairs by firing all the corrupt clerks and banned bogus agents.
was indicted and later acquitted in trial. The Whiskey Ring was organized throughout the United States, and by 1875 it was a fully operating criminal association. The investigation and closure of the Whiskey Ring resulted in 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3,000,000 in tax revenues that were returned to the Treasury Department. During the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring leaders, Grant testified on behalf of his friend Babcock. As a result, Babcock was acquitted, however, the deposition by Grant was a great embarrassment to his reputation. The Babcock trial turned into an impeachment trial against the President by Grant's political opponents.
was taking extortion money in exchange for allowing an Indian trading post agent to remain in position at Fort Sill
. Belknap was allowed to resign by President Grant and as a result was acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial. Profits were made at the expense of Native Americans who were supposed to receive food and clothing from the government. In late April 1876, Grant lashed out at Lieut. Col. George A. Custer, after Custer had testified at a Congressional committee one month before against Grant's brother Orville and Sec. Belknap. There had been rumors Custer had talked with the press concerning the Indian post profiteering. Custer personally went to the White House to clear matters up with the President, however, Grant coldly refused to see him three times. When Custer left Washington on May 3 to return to Fort Lincoln, he had been spitefully removed from overall command by Grant and denied any participation of the Sioux Campaign; having been replaced by Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry
. However, at Terry's insistence, Grant partially relented and allowed Custer to participate in the campaign against the Sioux on the condition he did not take any pressmen.
was charged by a Democratic-controlled House investigation committee with giving lucrative contracts to Alexander Cattell & Company, a grain supplier, in return for real estate, loans, and payment of debts. The House investigating committee also discovered that Secretary Robeson had allegedly embezzled $15 million in naval construction appropriations. Since there were no financial paper trials or enough evidence for impeachment and conviction, the House Investigation committee admonished Robeson and claimed he had set up a corrupt contracting system known as "Cattellism".
, Superintendent of Public Works and Buildings, was indicted in a safe burglary
conspiracy
case and trial. In April, corrupt building contractors in Washington, D.C. were on trial for graft when a safe robbery occurred. Bogus secret service agents broke into a safe and attempted to frame Columbus Alexander, who had exposed the corrupt contracting ring. Babcock was named as part of the conspiracy, but later acquitted in the trial against the burglars. Evidence suggests that Backcock was involved with the swindles
by the corrupt Washington Contractors Ring and he wanted revenge on Columbus Alexander, an avid reformer and critic of the Grant Administration. There was also evidence that safe burglary jury had been tampered with.
was not seeking any office when his name was presented to the Senate for confirmation, and he even declined Grant's offer to serve as United States Secretary of State
. Grant insisted that Fish be in his cabinet and had his name placed before the Senate where he was confirmed on March 17, 1869. According to Fish's biographer and historian Amos Elwood Corning in 1919, Fish was known as "a gentleman of wide experience, in whom the capacities of the organizer were happily united with a well balanced judgment and broad culture". After the confirmation, Fish went immediately to work and collected, classified, indexed, and bound seven hundred volumes of correspondence of a malicious nature. He established a new indexing system that simplified retrieving information by clerks. Fish also created a rule that applicants for consulate had to take an official written examination to receive an appointment; previously, applicants were given positions on a patronage system solely on the recommendations of Congressmen and Senators. This raised the tone and efficiency of the consular service, and if a Congressman or Senator objected, Fish could show them that the applicant did not pass the written test.
Another reforming cabinet member was United States Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
who was confirmed by the Senate on March 12, 1869. His first actions were to dismiss S.M. Clark, the chief of U.S. Bureau and Engraving, and to set up a system of securing the plates that the paper money was printed on to prevent counterfeiting. Boutwell set up a system to monitor the manufacturing of money to ensure nothing would be stolen. Boutwell prevented collusion in the printing of money by preparing sets of plates for a single printing, with the red seal being imprinted in the Treasury Bureau. Boutwell persuaded Grant to have the Commissioner of Internal Revenue Alfred Pleasanton removed for misconduct over approving a $60,000 tax refund. In addition to these measures, Boutwell established a uniform mode of accounting at custom houses and ports. Boutwell along with Attorney General, Amos T. Akerman
, were two of Grant's strongest cabinet members who advocated racial justice for African Americans.
's tenure as Attorney General of the United States from 1870 to 1871, thousands of indictments were brought against Klansmen
to enforce the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871. Born in the North, Akerman moved to Georgia after college and owned slaves; he fought for the Confederacy and became a Scalawag
during Reconstruction
, speaking out for blacks' civil rights. As U.S. Attorney General, he became the first ex-Confederate to reach the cabinet. Akerman was unafraid of the Klan and committed to protecting the lives and civil rights of blacks. To bolster Akerman's investigation, Grant sent in Secret Service agents from the Justice Department to infiltrate the Klan and to gather evidence for prosecution. The investigations revealed that many whites participated in Klan activities. With this evidence, Grant issued a Presidential proclamation to disarm and remove the Klan's notorious white robe and hood disguises. When the Klan ignored the proclamation, Grant sent Federal troops to nine South Carolina counties to put down the violent activities of the Klan. Grant teamed Akerman up with another reformer in 1870 – the first Solicitor General and native Kentuckian Benjamin Bristow
– and the duo went on to prosecute thousands of Klan members and brought a brief quiet period of two years in the turbulent Reconstruction era.
's men who violated African American
voting rights. When Bristow assumed office he immediately made an aggressive attack on corruption in the department. Bristow discovered that the Treasury was not receiving the full amount of tax revenue from whiskey distillers and manufacturers from several Western cities, primarily St. Louis, Missouri
. Bristow discovered in 1874 that the Government alone was being defrauded by $1.2 million. On May 13, 1875, armed with enough information, Bristow struck hard at the ring, seized the distilleries, and made hundreds of arrests; the Whiskey Ring ceased to exist. Although President Grant and Bristow were not on friendly terms, Bristow sincerely desired to save Grant's reputation from scandal. At the end of the Whiskey Ring prosecutions in 1876, there were 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3 million in tax revenues returned to the Treasury Department.
with U.S. Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont
, a Yale
graduate. The appointment was popularly accepted by the public as Bristow and Pierrepont successfully prosecuted members of the Whiskey Ring
. Before becoming U.S. Attorney General, Pierrepont was part of a reforming group known as the "Committee of Seventy" and was successful at shutting down William M. Tweed's corrupt contracting Ring while he was a New York U.S. Attorney
in 1870. Although Grant's reputation was vastly improved, Pierrepont had shown indifference in 1875 to the plight of freedmen by circumventing Federal intervention when White racists terrorized Mississippi's African American
citizens over a fraudulent Democratic election. Every cabinet appointment made by Grant came with a political cost.
, who abruptly resigned in 1876 amidst scandal, he turned to his good friend Alphonso Taft
from Cincinnati
. Taft, who accepted, served ably as Secretary of War until being transferred to the Attorney General position. As Secretary of War, Taft reduced military expenditures and made it so that no post-traderships would be given to any person except on the recommendation of the officers at the post. Grant then appointed Taft as U.S. Attorney General. Taft was a wise scholar and jurist educated at Yale University
, and the Attorney General position suited him the best. During the controversial Presidential Election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes
and Samuel J. Tilden
, Attorney General Taft and House Representative J. Proctor Knott
had many meetings to decide the outcome of the controversial election. The result of the Taft-Knott negotiations, the Electoral Commission Act
was passed by Congress and signed into law by Grant on January 29, 1877; it created a 15 panel bipartisan committee to elect the next President. Hayes won the Presidency by one electoral vote two days before the March 4, 1877 Inauguration. Alphonso Taft was the father of future president William H. Taft.
, having taken bribes to secure fraudulent land grants, was forced to resign from office on October 15, 1875. On October 19, 1875, in a personal effort of reform, Grant appointed Zachariah Chandler
to the position and was confirmed by the Senate in December 1875. Chandler immediately went to work on reforming the Interior Department by dismissing all the important clerks in the Patent Office
. Chandler had discovered that fictitious clerks were earning money and that other clerks were earning money without performing services. Chandler simplified the patent application procedure and as a result reduced costs. Chandler, under President Grant's orders, fired all corrupt clerks at the Bureau of Indian Affairs
. Chandler also banned the practice of Native American agents, known as "Indian Attorneys" who were being paid $8.00 a day plus expenses for supposedly representing their tribes in Washington.
proved to be one of the ablest organizers ever to head the Post Office. He cut costs while greatly expanding the number of mail routes, postal clerks and letter carriers. He introduced the penny post card and worked with Fish to revise postal treaties. A Radical, he used the vast patronage of the post office to support Grant's coalition. He asked for the total abolition of the franking privilege since it reduced the revenue receipts by five percent. The franking privilege allowed members of Congress to send mail at the government's expense.
and the Democrats nominated reformer Samuel Tilden. Results were split. Tilden received 51% of the popular vote; Hayes 48%; while 20 key electoral votes remained undecided and in dispute. Both Republicans and Democrats claimed victory and the threat of a second civil war was eminent. Grant was watchful; encouraged Congress to settle the election by commission; and determined to keep a peaceful transfer of power. On January 29, 1877 Grant signed the Electoral Commission Act
that gave a 15 panel bipartisan commission power to determine electoral votes. The commission gave Hayes 185 electoral votes; Tilden received 184. Hayes became the 19th President of the United States
after being awarded 3 electoral votes from the state of Colorado
. Grant's personal honesty, firmness, and even handedness reassured the nation and a second civil war was averted.
:
Colorado came into the Union just in time to give enough electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes
to win the Presidential Election of 1876.
es. Grant had 4 vetoes overridden by Congress.
to hold two consecutive terms in office. The legacy of President Grant is one of American civil rights
, international diplomacy, scandals, and a boom-and-bust national economy. In terms of civil rights, Grant had urged the passing of the 15th Amendment and signed into law the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 that gave all citizens access to places of public enterprise. Grant defeated the Klan by sending in the Justice Department, backed by the Army. Grant's 1868 Presidential campaign slogan "Let us have peace" rang true when his State Department resolved crises with Britain and Spain, implementing the new concept of International Arbitration
.
The scandals revealed that Grant reacted too readily to protect his team, to coverup misdeeds, and to get rid of whistle blowers and reformers. It was impossible for Grant, who had neither the temperament nor training to be President, to morally check all of the corruption generated from the socioeconomic forces of a costly American Civil War
, rapid industrialization, and Westward expansionism. His acceptance of gifts from wealthy associates showed poor judgment. He distrusted reformers as busybodies who were interfering with party patronage. He was reluctant to prosecute cabinet members and appointees viewed as "honest" friends, and those who were convicted were set free with presidential pardons after serving a brief time in prison. His associations with these scandals have tarnished his personal reputation while President and afterward. Despite the scandals, by the end of Grant's second term the corruption in the Departments of Interior, Treasury, and Justice were cleaned up by his new cabinet members.
Grant's generous treatment of Robert E. Lee
at Appomattox
helped give him popularity in the South. Although he kept civil rights on the political agenda, the Republican party at the end of Grant's second term shifted to pursuing conservative fiscal policies. His weak response to the Panic of 1873 hurt the economy and seriously damaged his party, which lost heavily in 1874. His personal will often strayed from normal Presidential orthodoxy, and his administration defied the American tradition of a government run without political corruption
and favortism. Grant's financial policies favored Wall Street, but his term ended with the nation mired in a deep economic depression that Grant could not comprehend or deal with.
enforcement of civil rights laws and the protection of African Americans more than any other President. He used his full powers to destroy the Ku Klux Klan
, reducing violence and intimidation in the South. He appointed James Milton Turner as the first African American minister to a foreign nation. Grant's relationship with Charles Sumner
, the leader in promoting civil rights, was shattered by the Senator's opposition to Grant's plan to acquire Santo Domingo treaty. Grant retaliated, firing men Sumner had recommended and having allies strip Sumner of his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. Sumner joined the Liberal Republican movement in 1872 to fight Grant's reelection.
Grant's presidency was committed to treat Native Americans as individual wards of the state under a "peace" policy and encouraged their citizenship. Native Americans were eventually given full U.S. citizenship in 1924 under the Indian Citizenship Act
signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge
. Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875
. In his sixth message to Congress, he summed up his own views, "While I remain Executive all the laws of Congress and the provisions of the Constitution ... will be enforced with rigor ... Treat the Negro as a citizen and a voter, as he is and must remain ... Then we shall have no complaint of sectional interference." In the pursued equal justice for all category from the 2009 CSPAN Presidential rating survey Grant scored a 9 getting into the top ten.
to New York Historical Society on November 19, 1901. |oclc=484433457}}, Pulitzer prize, but hostile to Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
began during the turbulent Reconstruction period following the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Grant was elected
United States presidential election, 1868
The United States presidential election of 1868 was the first presidential election to take place after the American Civil War, during the period referred to as Reconstruction...
the 18th President of the United States in 1868 and was re-elected
United States presidential election, 1872
In the United States presidential election of 1872, incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant was easily elected to a second term in office with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts as his running mate, despite a split within the Republican Party that resulted in a defection of many Liberal Republicans...
to the office in 1872, serving from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. The United States was at peace with the world throughout the era, and was prosperous until the Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
, that predominated Grant's second term in office. Grant was a Republican, and his main supporters were the Radical and Stalwart Republican factions. President Grant bolstered the Executive Branch's enforcement powers by signing into law the Department of Justice and Office of Solicitor General. President Grant supported Civil War values that included "union, freedom and equality." He was opposed by the Liberal faction of the party, many of them founding fathers of the GOP, who denounced Grant's patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
. The Liberals insisted that Reconstruction had been successful and that Army troops should be withdrawn from the South so it could regain its normal political status. The Liberals nominated a candidate in 1872, who was supported by the Democrats, but was decisively defeated by Grant. President Grant was a loner who never developed a cadre of trustworthy political advisers; he relied heavily on former Army associates who had a thin understanding of politics and a weak sense of civilian ethics. His presidential reputation was severely damaged by repeated scandals and frauds.
Characteristically, Grant lacked discernment and good judgment when it came to appointing honest men. His Secretary of War, his personal secretary, and high officials he named to the Treasury and Navy departments joined bribery or tax-cheating schemes. Instead of exposing the culprits, Grant defended them and attacked the accusers. Middle-class public opinion, a key element in the Republican Party base, turned hostile to Grant. At various times capable appointments were made by Grant; honest men who desired to save Grant and the nation from scandal. After a false start with weak selections, Grant named to his Cabinet
United States Cabinet
The Cabinet of the United States is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, which are generally the heads of the federal executive departments...
leading reformers including Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretary of States in the United States history; known for his judiciousness and reform efforts...
, Benjamin Bristow
Benjamin Bristow
Benjamin Helm Bristow was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as the first Solicitor General of the United States and as a U.S. Treasury Secretary. Fighting for the Union, Bristow served in the army during the American Civil War and was promoted to Colonel...
, Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty. He was the father of U.S...
, and Amos T. Akerman
Amos T. Akerman
Amos Tappan Akerman served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. Akerman was born on February 23, 1821 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as the ninth of Benjamin Akerman’s twelve children...
. Fish, as Secretary of State, negotiated the Treaty of Washington
Treaty of Washington (1871)
The Treaty of Washington was a treaty signed and ratified by Great Britain and the United States in 1871 that settled various disputes between the countries, in particular the Alabama Claims.-Background:...
and was successful at keeping the United States out of trouble with Britain and Spain. Bristow, as Secretary of Treasury, ended the corruption of the Whiskey Ring
Whiskey Ring
In the United States, the Whiskey Ring was a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St...
where distillers and corrupt officials made millions from tax evasion. Taft, a brilliant jurist as Attorney General, successfully negotiated for bipartisan panel to peacefully settle the controversial Election of 1876. Grant and Attorney General Akerman enforced civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
legislation that protected African Americans and destroyed the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. Grant encouraged peaceful Congressional negotiations after the controversial Election of 1876; signed the Electorial Commission Act of 1877
Electoral Commission (United States)
The Electoral Commission was a temporary body created by Congress to resolve the disputed United States presidential election of 1876. It consisted of 15 members. The election was contested by the Democratic ticket, Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and the Republican ticket, Rutherford B....
; while the Compromise of 1877
Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Corrupt Bargain, refers to a purported informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election and ended Congressional Reconstruction. Through it, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J...
ended Reconstruction.
Economically, Grant favored a hard-money, gold-based, anti-inflationary policy that entailed paying off the large national debt with gold. He reduced governmental spending, decreased the federal work force, and reduced the national debt, while tax revenues increased in the Treasury Department. During his second term in office, the Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
, caused by rampant railroad speculation, shook the nation's financial institutions; banks failed, prices fell, and unemployment surged. Before the Panic there had been eight years of tremendous industrial growth after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
that fueled lavish money making schemes, personal greed, and national corruption. President Grant's contraction of money supply worsened the panic; the ensuing major U.S. depression that followed lasted for five years causing massive economic damage to the country. The Panic wiped out both the fortunes of business and corruption. Southern Reconstruction continued that included escalated sectional violence over the status of freedmen and fractured state party alliances and elections.
With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
in 1869, the West was wide open to expansionism that sometimes was challenged by hostile Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. Grant implemented an innovative peace policy, though not always successful, with Native Americans. Hostilities took place with the Modoc War
Modoc War
The Modoc War, or Modoc Campaign , was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc tribe and the United States Army in southern Oregon and northern California from 1872–1873. The Modoc War was the last of the Indian Wars to occur in California or Oregon...
, the Red River War
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874, as part of the Comanche War, to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory...
, and the Great Sioux War
Great Sioux War of 1876–77
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, against the United States...
that culminated with the famous Battle of Little Bighorn where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
was killed. In 1874, millions of buffalo were being slaughtered to make room for settlers and ranchers. Grant, who favored ranchers land use for domestic cattle, rejected legislation that would have limited the slaughter of the bison. After the fatal Modoc
Modoc War
The Modoc War, or Modoc Campaign , was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc tribe and the United States Army in southern Oregon and northern California from 1872–1873. The Modoc War was the last of the Indian Wars to occur in California or Oregon...
peace commission in 1873, Grant's Native American policy incorporated the military strategies favored by William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan. Corruption was rampant in the Department of Indian Affairs under Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was...
. Grant's reputation as President by historians has traditionally ranked low, however, he has recently received higher ratings for his enforcement of African Americans civil rights in the South. Historians ranked high Grant's Secretary of State Hamilton Fish for settling the Alabama Claims
Alabama Claims
The Alabama Claims were a series of claims for damages by the United States government against the government of Great Britain for the assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War. After international arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled...
and coolly handling the Virginius Affair
Virginius Affair
The Virginius Affair was a diplomatic dispute that occurred in the 1870s between the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain, then in control of Cuba, during the Ten Years' War....
.
Presidency 1869–1877
Grant's presidency has traditionally been viewed by historians as incompetent and full of corruption. An examination of his presidency reveals Grant had both successes and failures during his two terms in office. In recent years historians have elevated his presidential rating because of his support for African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
civil rights. He leaned heavily toward the Radical camp and often sided with their Reconstruction policies, signing into law Force Acts to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. In foreign policy Grant won praise for the Treaty of Washington, settling the Alabama Claims
Alabama Claims
The Alabama Claims were a series of claims for damages by the United States government against the government of Great Britain for the assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War. After international arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled...
issue with Britain through arbitration. Economically he sided with Eastern bankers and signed the Public Credit Act that paid U.S. debts in gold specie, but was blamed for the severe economic depression that lasted 1873–1877. Grant, wary of powerful congressional leaders, was the first President to ask for a line item veto.
In the century after he left office most historians denounced the Reconstruction policies followed by Grant. More recently, Grant's support for and enforcement of African Americans civil rights has earned him praise from scholars. While graft and corruption existed in the Southern state governments he supported with the Army, many civil rights advances were made for African Americans. He was vigorous in his enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments and prosecuted thousands of persons who violated African American civil rights; he used military force to put down political insurrections in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
.
As President, Grant failed to establish and enforce ethical standards with his cabinet and appointees. He failed to take measures to lessen the effects of the Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
and the economic depression that ensued. The depression of 1873, along with the increasingly unpopular Reconstruction program, weakened his reputation and his party, allowing the resurgent Democrats to gain a majority in the House of Representatives in 1875. His Presidency was inundated with many scandals caused by low standards and carelessness with his political appointees and personal associates. Often through flattery, these corrupt associates used Grant as a shield against prosecutors and reformers. Grant surrounded himself with people denounced by reformers as scoundrels, and he unwisely accepted gifts from rich friends who used their friendship for financial advantage. Nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
, practiced by Grant, was unrestrained with almost forty family members or relatives who financially benefited from government appointments or employment.
In 1872, Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, the leader of civil rights forces in Congress, compared him to the despotic Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and labeled his presidency as "one man and his personal will" and that the office of the President was treated no more than a "play thing and perquisite". Grant and Sumner were often at odds with each other on matters of foreign policy and political patronage. Sumner followed his own foreign policy and detested Grant's practice of nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
in making political appointments. One historian, Mary L. Hinsdale, described the Grant Administration as "a most extraordinary array of departures from the normal course" and a "military" rule, in close connection with a select Republican Senatorial group. In an unsuccessful effort to annex the island country of Santo Domingo, Grant completely bypassed the State Department by sending his military associate Orville E. Babcock to produce the treaty. Grant blatantly disregarded the public opinion of Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Ebenezer R. Hoar
Ebenezer R. Hoar
Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was an influential American politician and lawyer from Massachusetts.- Early life :...
over the McGarrahan mining claim patents.
Public policies were a burden and at times perplexing to Grant, and he often delegated unprecedented authority to others. Grant's foreign policy was heavily influenced by the able Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretary of States in the United States history; known for his judiciousness and reform efforts...
. Grant depended on Fish's advice on domestic issues such as money policy and Reconstruction. His Secretary of Treasury, George Boutwell, was given full charge of national economic policies. In 1874, Grant began a series of appointments that included reformers and qualified statesmen to his Administration, starting with Benjamin Bristow
Benjamin Bristow
Benjamin Helm Bristow was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as the first Solicitor General of the United States and as a U.S. Treasury Secretary. Fighting for the Union, Bristow served in the army during the American Civil War and was promoted to Colonel...
who prosecuted the Whiskey Ring
Whiskey Ring
In the United States, the Whiskey Ring was a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St...
. With the departure of Orville E. Babcock and William W. Belknap
William W. Belknap
William Worth Belknap was a United States Army general, government administrator, and United States Secretary of War. He was the only Cabinet secretary ever to have been impeached by the United States House of Representatives.-Birth and early years:Born in Newburgh, New York to career soldier...
from the White House in 1876, the Grant Administration took on a civilian rather than "military" style.
Election of 1868
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
to the Constitution which allowed African Americans to vote. The other controversial issue concerned the redemption of war bonds either in gold or paper money known as greenback
Greenback (money)
The term greenback refers to paper currency that was issued by the United States during the American Civil War.There are at least two types of notes that were called greenback:*United States Note*Demand Note...
s. The Democrats wanted to redeem the bonds with $100,000,000 in greenbacks and the rest with gold. The greenbacks were known as "cheap money" and would be inflationary. The Republicans wanted to pay the redemption of war bonds only with gold, a position attractive to investors and bankers.
Finding a popular hero who endorsed their Reconstruction policies, the Republicans nominated Grant and Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax
Schuyler Colfax
Schuyler Colfax, Jr. was a United States Representative from Indiana , Speaker of the House of Representatives , and the 17th Vice President of the United States . To date, he is one of only two Americans to have served as both House speaker and vice president.President Ulysses S...
. The Democrats, ignoring politically damaged President Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
(who was a political independent), nominated Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour was an American politician. He was the 18th Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in the presidential election of 1868, but lost the election to Republican and former Union General of...
– former governor of New York – and Francis P. Blair
Francis Preston Blair, Jr.
Francis Preston Blair, Jr. was an American politician and Union Army general during the American Civil War. He represented Missouri in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and he was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President in 1868.-Early life and career:Blair was born in...
from Missouri. Seymour was a wealthy conservative who came under GOP attack for weakness during the war and favoring the anti-war Copperheads
Copperheads (politics)
The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
. The campaigning was nasty, as the Republicans waved the "bloody shirt" of treason against the Democrats-as-Copperheads. Grant himself never campaigned, except for his slogan "Let us have peace" and his apology to Jewish voters for his 1862 General Order No. 11 that banned Jewish merchants from his zone during the Civil War because of alleged profiteering. Grant won with 52.7% of the popular vote and won by a landslide in the Electoral College with 214 votes to Seymour's 80 votes. Grant was helped by the fact that six southern states were controlled by Radical Republicans who kept many ex-Confederates from voting.
Independently chosen cabinet
In 1869, one year after the notorious impeachment trial of President Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
, the nation was in a mood for reform. Rather than choosing his cabinet by consulting with key Senators such as Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, Grant chose his cabinet independently. Except for John A. J. Creswell, not one of Grant's choices would have been chosen by the Senate. Although the Senate was shocked by his appointments they were all unanimously ratified; the public rejoiced claiming that Grant had "cut himself loose from a set of party hacks". Senator Charles Sumner, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and leading Radical in the Senate, however, was no party hack and was insulted at not being offered a cabinet position or being consulted. When it was found out that A.T. Stewart, a wealthy New York businessman, would be Secretary of Treasury, Sumner blocked an exception to a Senate rule that stated a nominee could not own a business and be head of the Treasury. This example of Sumner's power in the Senate was only a first of clashes with President Grant. George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
, a Radical, was nominated by Grant and confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of Treasury. Some of Grant's cabinet members did not even know their names were offered to the Senate for confirmation. Grant's independent secretive manner in choosing his muddled cabinet, however, created animosity with many in Congress.
Modified Tenure of Office Act
In March 1869, President Grant made it known he desired the Tenure of Office Act fully repealed stating it was a "stride toward a revolution in our free system". The Tenure of Office Act was passed by Congress in 1867, sponsored by Radical Republicans, to curb the power of the President Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
in making government office appointments. The controversial law had been invoked during the impeachment trial of Johnson in 1868. On March 5, 1869, a bill was brought before Congress to repeal the act, but Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
was opposed, unwilling to give Grant a free hand in making appointments. Grant, to bolster the repeal effort, declined to make any new appointments except for vacancies, until the law was overturned, thus, agitating political office seekers to pressure Congress to repeal the law. Under national pressure for governmental reform, a compromise was reached and a new bill was passed that allowed the President to have complete control over removing his own cabinet, however, government appointees needed the approval of Congress within a thirty day period. Grant, who did not desire a party split over the matter, signed the bill; afterwards, he received criticism for not getting a full repeal of the law. The unpopular measure was completely repealed in 1887. Grant was criticized for appointing many family members considered unqualified to highly sought government posts, a practice known as nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
.
Political defections
Initially, President Grant was popular among many political and newspaper elite. Political defections began as early as the spring and fall of 1869 when both Charles A. DanaCharles Anderson Dana
Charles Anderson Dana was an American journalist, author, and government official, best known for his association with Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his aggressive political advocacy after the war....
and Henry Adams
Henry Adams
Henry Brooks Adams was an American journalist, historian, academic and novelist. He is best known for his autobiographical book, The Education of Henry Adams. He was a member of the Adams political family.- Early life :He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Francis Adams Sr...
became critical and discouraged over Grant's Presidency in the aftermath of the Black Friday
Black Friday (1869)
Black Friday, September 24, 1869 also known as the Fisk/Gould scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. It was one of several scandals that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant...
scandal. By 1870, Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
lost enthusiasm for the Administration with the resignations of Attorney General Ebenezer R. Hoar
Ebenezer R. Hoar
Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was an influential American politician and lawyer from Massachusetts.- Early life :...
and Ambassador to Britain John L. Motley
John Lothrop Motley
John Lothrop Motley was an American historian and diplomat.-Biography:...
. Prominent journalists Samuel Bowles
Samuel Bowles (journalist)
Samuel Bowles III was an American journalist born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1844 he was the publisher and editor of The Republican , a position he held until his death in 1878....
, Horace White, E. L. Godkin, and William C. Bryant
William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
became concerned over alleged incompetence and lack of national direction from Grant. Personal animosity remained between Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
and Grant over the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
rejection of the Santo Domingo Treaty. The common citizen, however, revered Grant for his gallant service in the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Reconstruction
Redeemers
In United States history, "Redeemers" and "Redemption" were terms used by white Southerners to describe a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era which followed the American Civil War...
". Grant repeatedly took a role in state affairs; for example on December 24, 1869, he established federal military rule in Georgia and restored black legislators who had been expelled from the state legislature.
Fifteenth amendment
According to biographer, William S. McFeelyWilliam S. McFeely
William S. McFeely was a professor of history before his retirement in 1997.He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1952, and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 1966. He studied there with, among others, C. Vann Woodward, whose book "The Strange Career of Jim Crow" was a staple...
, Grant and many in the north believed the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
extended democracy to the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
freedmen. Grant used political pressure to ensure the states ratified the Fifteenth Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
, guaranteeing that "no citizen can be denied the right to vote based upon race, color, or previous condition of servitude". When it passed he hailed it as "a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day". Many in the south, however, were determined that the African American males' right to vote would be unenforcable.
Department of Justice
On June 22, 1872, Grant signed a bill into law passed by Congress that created the Department of JusticeUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and to aid the Attorney General, the Office of Solicitor General
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
. Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman
Amos T. Akerman
Amos Tappan Akerman served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. Akerman was born on February 23, 1821 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as the ninth of Benjamin Akerman’s twelve children...
as Attorney General and Benjamin H. Bristow as America's first Solicitor General. Both Akerman and Bristow used the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
members in the early 1870s. In the first few years of Grant's first term in office there were 1000 indictments against Klan members with over 550 convictions from the Department of Justice. By 1871, there were 3000 indictments and 600 convictions with most only serving brief sentences while the ringleaders were imprisoned for up to five years in the federal penitentiary in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. The result was a dramatic decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and told a friend that no one was "better" or "stronger" then Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists.
Naturalization Act of 1870
On July 14, 1870 Grant signed into law the Naturalization Act of 1870Naturalization Act of 1870
The Naturalization Act of 1870 was a law passed by the United States Congress concerning immigration and immigrants. It was created to deal with two immigration issues:...
that allowed persons of African descent to become citizens of the United States. This revised an earlier law, the Naturalization Act of 1790
Naturalization Act of 1790
The original United States Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 provided the first rules to be followed by the United States in the granting of national citizenship. This law limited naturalization to immigrants who were "free white persons" of "good moral character". It thus left out indentured...
that only allowed white persons of good moral character to become U.S. citizens. The law also prosecuted persons who used fictitious names, misrepresentations, or identities of deceased individuals when applying for citizenship.
Force Acts of 1870 and 1871
To add enforcement to the 15th Amendment, Congress passed an act that guaranteed the protection of voting rights of African Americans; Grant signed the bill, known as the Force Act of 1870 into law on May 31, 1870. This law was designed to keep the RedeemersRedeemers
In United States history, "Redeemers" and "Redemption" were terms used by white Southerners to describe a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era which followed the American Civil War...
from attacking or threatening African Americans. This act placed severe penalties on persons who used intimidation, bribery, or physical assault to prevent citizens from voting and placed elections under Federal jurisdiction.
On January 13, 1871 President Grant submitted to Congress a report on violent acts committed by the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
in the South. On March 20, President Grant personally took the lead and told a reluctant Congress the situation in the South was dire and federal legislation was needed that would effectively "secure life, liberty, and property, and the enforcement of law, in all parts of the United States." President Grant stated that the U.S. mail and the collection of revenue was in jeopardy. Congress investigated the Klan's activities and eventually passed the Force Act of 1871 to allow prosecution of the Klan. This Act, also known as the "Ku Klux Klan Act" and written by Representative Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
, was passed by Congress to specifically go after local units of the Ku Klux Klan. Grant was initially reluctant to sign the bill, being wary of charges that his administration was a military dictatorship. Grant signed the bill into law on April 20, 1871 after being convinced by Secretary of Treasury, George Boutwell, that federal protection was warranted, having cited documented atrocities against the Freedmen. This law allowed the President to suspend habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
on "armed combinations" and conspiracies by the Klan. The Act also empowered the president "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders". The actions of the Klan were defined as high crimes and acts of rebellion against the United States.
The Ku Klux Klan consisted of local secret organizations formed to violently oppose Republican rule during Reconstruction; there was no organization above the local level. Wearing white hoods to hide their identity the Klan would violently attack and threaten Republicans. The Klan was strong in South Carolina between 1868 and 1870; South Carolina Governor Robert K. Scott, who was mired in corruption charges, allowed the Klan to rise to power. Grant, who was fed up with their violent tactics, ordered the Ku Klux Klan to disperse from South Carolina and lay down their arms under the authority of the Enforcement Acts on October 12, 1871. There was no response, and so on October 17, 1871, Grant issued a suspension of habeas corpus in all the 9 counties in South Carolina. Grant ordered federal troops in the state who then captured and vigorously prosecuted the Klan. With the Klan destroyed other white supremacist groups would emerge, including the White League
White League
The White League was a white paramilitary group started in 1874 that operated to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. Its first chapter in Grant Parish, Louisiana was made up of many of the Confederate veterans who had participated in the...
and the Red Shirts.
Amnesty Act of 1872
TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
was readmitted into the Union on March, 30, 1870, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
was readmitted February 23, 1870, and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
on January 26, 1870. Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
became the last Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union on July 15, 1870. All members for the House of Representatives and Senate were seated from the 10 Confederate states who seceded. Technically, the United States was again a united country.
To ease tensions, Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 on May 23, 1872 that gave amnesty to former Confederates. This act allowed most former Confederates, who before the war had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, to hold elected public office. Only 500 former Confederates remained unpardoned and therefore forbidden to hold elected public office.
Native American policy
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. "Wars of extermination ... are demoralizing and wicked.", he told Congress four years later in his second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1873. The president lobbied, though not always successfully, to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers. The economic forces of western expansionism led to conflicts between Native Americans, settlers, and the U.S. military. Native Americans were increasingly forced to live on reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
. Statistical data of the number of Indian wars per year between 1850 and 1890, revealed that battles decreased during Grant's two terms in office from 101 in 1869 to 43 in 1877. In 1875 there were only 15 Indian battles, the lowest rate since 1853 at 13 battles.
In 1869, Grant appointed his aide General Ely S. Parker
Ely S. Parker
Ely Samuel Parker , was a Seneca attorney, engineer, and tribal diplomat. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel during the American Civil War, when he served as adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox...
(Seneca) as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs. During Parker's first year in office, the number of Indian Wars per year dropped by 43 from 101 to 58. Chief of the Oglala Sioux Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
wanted to meet President Grant, after learning that Parker was appointed Indian Commissioner. Red Cloud, along with chief of the Brulé Sioux Spotted Tail
Spotted Tail
Siŋté Glešká was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great warrior in his youth, and having taken part in the Grattan massacre, he declined to participate in Red Cloud's War, having become convinced of the pointlessness of opposing the white incursions into his homeland; he became a...
, came to Washington, D.C. by train and met with Parker and President Grant in 1870. Grant held no personal animosity towards Native Americans and personally treated them with dignity. When Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
and Spotted Tail
Spotted Tail
Siŋté Glešká was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great warrior in his youth, and having taken part in the Grattan massacre, he declined to participate in Red Cloud's War, having become convinced of the pointlessness of opposing the white incursions into his homeland; he became a...
first met Grant at the White House on May 7, 1870, they were given a bountiful dinner and entertainment equal to what was shown to a young Prince Arthur
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the shared British and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family who served as the Governor General of Canada, the 10th since Canadian Confederation.Born the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and...
at a White House visit from Britain in 1869. At their second meeting on May 8, Red Cloud informed Grant that Whites were trespassing on Native American lands and that his people needed food and clothing. Out of concern for Native Americans, Grant ordered all Generals in the West to "keep intruders off by military force if necessary". To prevent Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
hostilities and wars, Grant lobbied for and signed the Indians Appropriations Act of 1870–1871. This act ended the governmental policy of treating tribes as independent sovereign nations. Native Americans would be treated as individuals or wards of the state and Indian policies would be legislated by Congressional statues.
The historian David Sim (2008) examined the peace policy, emphasizing incoherence in its formulation and implementation. Historians have debated issues of "paternalism" and "colonialism" but have glossed over the significance of contingencies, inconsistencies, and political competition involved in forging a substantive federal policy. While the Grant administration focused on well-meaning but limited goals of placing "good men" in positions of influence and convincing native peoples of their fundamental dependency on the US government, attempts to create a new departure in federal-native relations were characterized by conflict and disagreement. The muddled creation of what has become known as the peace policy thus tells much about the varied and divergent attitudes Americans had toward the consolidation of their empire in the West following the Civil War.
The innovation in Grant's Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
peace policy was in appointing Quaker or Christians as US Indian agents to various posts throughout the nation. This destroyed the power of patronage, as Congress would be reluctant to go after church appointments. On April 10, 1869, Congress created the Board of Indian Commissioners. Grant appointed volunteer members who were "eminent for their intelligence and philanthropy"; a previous commission had been set up under the Andrew Johnson Administration in 1868. The Grant Board was given extensive power to supervise the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
and "civilize" Native Americans. After the Piegan
Marias Massacre
The Marias Massacre was a massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Indians by the United States Army which took place in Montana during the late nineteenth century Indian Wars.-Background:...
Massacre on January 23, 1870, when Major Edward M. Baker killed 173 tribal members, mostly women and children, Grant was determined to divide Native American post appointments "up among the religious churches"; by 1872, 73 Indian agencies were divided among religious denominations. Quaker or other clergy officials predominately controlled most of the central and southern Plains Indian territories
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, while all other surrounding territories were under the control of appointed military officers.
Robert M. Utley
Robert Marshall Utley is an author and historian who has written sixteen books on the history of the American West. He was a former chief historian of the National Park Service. Fellow historians commend Utley as the finest historian of the American frontier in the 19th century.The Western History...
(1984) contended that Grant, as a pragmatist, saw no inconsistencies with dividing up Native American posts among religious leaders and military officers. He added that Grant's "Quaker Policy", despite having good intentions, failed to solve the real dilemma of the misunderstandings between "the motivations, purposes, and ways of thinking" between both White and Native American cultures. These inconsistencies were evident in the breakdown of peace negotiations between the U.S. military and the Modoc tribal leaders during the Modoc War
Modoc War
The Modoc War, or Modoc Campaign , was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc tribe and the United States Army in southern Oregon and northern California from 1872–1873. The Modoc War was the last of the Indian Wars to occur in California or Oregon...
from 1872 to 1873.
In 1871, President Grant's Indian peace policy, enforced and coordinated by Brig. Gen. George Stoneman
George Stoneman
George Stoneman, Jr. was a career United States Army officer, a Union cavalry general in the American Civil War, and the 15th Governor of California between 1883 and 1887.-Early life:...
in Arizona, required the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
to be put on reservations where they would receive supplies and agriculture education. The Apache slipped out and occasionally raided white settlers. In one raid, believed to be done by Apache warriors, settlers and mail runners were murdered near Tuscan, Arizona. The townspeople traced this raid to Apache reservation from Camp Grant. 500 Apache lived at the Camp Grant near Dudleyville. Angered over the murders, the Tuscan townspeople hired 92 Papago
Tohono O'odham
The Tohono O'odham are a group of Native American people who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico...
Indians, 42 Mexicans, and 6 whites to take revenge on the Apache. When the war party reached Camp Grant on April 30, they murdered 144 Apaches, mostly women and children. Twenty-seven captured Apache children were sold into Mexican slavery. In May, an attempt was made by a small federal military party to capture Apache leader Cochise
Cochise
Cochise was a chief of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache and the leader of an uprising that began in 1861. Cochise County, Arizona is named after him.-Biography:...
; during the chase they killed 13 Apache. Grant immediately removed Stoneman of his command in Arizona.
Most detrimental to Grant's Peace Policy was corruption in the Department of Interior and the Department of War
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
. Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was...
, whose tenure as Secretary of Interior from 1870 to 1875 was a debacle; allowed fraud to rampantly spread into the Department of Indian Affairs. Corruption was the rule rather than the exception. Money intended to supply Native American tribes with food and clothing was skimmed off by corrupt Indian agents and clerks, often allied with traders. After newspapers exposed Delano's delinquency, Grant defended him rather than investigate the matter. The previous Grant appointment, Secretary Jacob D. Cox, had run the department with efficiency and merit. Cox had been considered to be one of the best secretaries of Interior in the nation's history. When Cox resigned in 1870, Grant appointed Delano out of patronage considerations to appease Stalwart party bosses. Grant's Secretary of War, William W. Belknap
William W. Belknap
William Worth Belknap was a United States Army general, government administrator, and United States Secretary of War. He was the only Cabinet secretary ever to have been impeached by the United States House of Representatives.-Birth and early years:Born in Newburgh, New York to career soldier...
, took extortion money from a Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
Indian trading post.
West Point controversy
Grant's record on civil rightsCivil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
was not perfect. While he advocated that African Americans enter the West Point Academy, he failed in 1870 and 1871 to protect the first African American West Point Academy cadet, James Albert Smith, from racist hazing by other cadets. This lack of protection was influenced by Grant's son, then West Point cadet Frederick Dent Grant
Frederick Dent Grant
Frederick Dent Grant was a soldier and United States minister to Austria-Hungary. Grant was the first son of General of the Army and President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Grant. He was named after his uncle, Frederick Tracy Dent...
, who participated in the hazing against Smith.
Utah territory polygamy
In 1862, during the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
President Lincoln signed into law the Morrill bill
Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act
The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was a federal enactment of the United States Congress that was signed into law on July 8, 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln...
that outlawed polygamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
in all U.S. Territories. Mormons who practiced polygamy in Utah for the most part resisted the Morrill law and the territorial governor. During the 1868 election, Grant had mentioned he would enforce the law against polygamy. Tensions began as early as 1870, when Mormons in Ogden, Utah began to arm themselves and practice military drilling. By the Fourth of July, 1871 Mormon militia in Salt Lake City, Utah were on the verge of fighting territorial troops, however, leveler heads prevailed and violence was averted.
President Grant, however, who believed Utah was in a state of rebellion was determined to arrest those who practiced polygamy outlawed under the Morrill Act. In October, 1871 hundreds of Mormons were rounded up by U.S. marshals, put in a prison camp, arrested, and put on trial for polygamy. One convicted polygamist received a $500 fine and 3 years in prison under hard labor. On November 20, 1871 Mormon leader Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, in ill health, had been charged with polygamy. Young's attorney stated that Young had no intention to flee the court. Other persons during the polygamy shut down were charged with murder or intent to kill. The Morrill Act, however, proved hard to enforce since proof of marriage was required for conviction. On December 4, 1871 President Grant stated that polygamists in Utah were "a remnant of barbarism, repugnant to civilization, to decency, and to the laws of the United States."
Comstock Act
In March 1873, strong anti-obscenity moralists, led by the YMCAYMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
's Anthony Comstock
Anthony Comstock
Anthony Comstock was a United States Postal Inspector and politician dedicated to ideas of Victorian morality.-Biography:...
, easily secured passage of the Comstock Act which made it a federal crime to mail articles "for any indecent or immoral use". Grant signed the bill after he was assured that Comstock would personally enforce it. Comstock went on to become a special agent of the Post Office appointed by Secretary James Cresswell
James Cresswell
James Arthur Cresswell was an English cricketer who played first class cricket for Derbyshire from 1923 to 1927....
. Comstock prosecuted pornographers, imprisoned abortionists, banned nude art, stopped the mailing of information about contraception, and tried to ban what he considered bad books.
Civil service reform
Grant was the first U.S. President to recommend a professional civil service, pushed the initial legislation through Congress, and appointed the members for the first Civil Service Commission. The temporary Commission recommended administering competitive exams and issuing regulations on the hiring and promotion of government employees. Grant ordered their recommendations in effect in 1872; having lasted for two years until December, 1874. At the New York Custom House, a port that took in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue, persons who applied for an entry position had to take and pass a civil service examination. Chester A. ArthurChester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
who was appointed by Grant as New York Custom Collector stated that the examinations excluded and deterred unfit persons from getting employment positions. However, Congress, in no mood to reform itself, denied any long-term reform by refusing to enact the necessary legislation to make the changes permanent. Historians have traditionally been divided whether patronage, meaning appointments made without a merit system, should be labelled corruption.
The movement for Civil Service reform reflected two distinct objectives: to eliminate the corruption and inefficiencies in a non-professional bureaucracy, and to check the power of President Johnson. Although many reformers after the Election of 1868 looked to Grant to ram Civil Service legislation through Congress, he refused, saying: "Civil Service Reform rests entirely with Congress. If members will give up claiming patronage, that will be a step gained. But there is an immense amount of human nature in the members of Congress, and it is human nature to seek power and use it to help friends. You cannot call it corruption – it is a condition of our representative form of Government." Grant used patronage to build his party and help his friends. He instinctively protected those whom he thought were the victims of injustice or attacks by his enemies, even if they were guilty. Grant believed in loyalty with his friends, as one writer called it the "Chivalry of Friendship".
Economy and Treasury reform
On taking office Grant's first move was signing the Act to Strengthen the Public Credit, which the Republican Congress had just passed. It ensured that all public debts, particularly war bonds, would be paid only in gold rather than in greenbacks. The price of gold on the New York exchange fell to $130 per ounce – the lowest point since the suspension of specie payment in 1862.On May 19, 1869, Grant protected the wages of those working for the U.S. Government. In 1868, a law was passed that reduced the government working day to 8 hours; however, much of the law was later repealed that allowed day wages to also be reduced. To protect workers Grant signed an executive order that "no reduction shall be made in the wages" regardless of the reduction in hours for the government day workers.
Treasury Secretary George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
reorganized and reformed the United States Treasury by discharging unnecessary employees, started sweeping changes in Bureau of Printing and Engraving to protect the currency from counterfeiters
Counterfeit money
Counterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government to resemble some official form of currency closely enough that it may be confused for genuine currency. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery. Counterfeiting is probably...
, and revitalized tax collections to hasten the collection of revenue. These changes soon led the Treasury to have a monthly surplus. By May 1869, Boutwell reduced the national debt by $12 million. By September the national debt was reduced by $50 million, which was achieved by selling the growing gold surplus at weekly auctions for greenbacks
United States Note
A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their heyday, a...
and buying back wartime bonds with the currency. The New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
wanted the government to buy more bonds and greenbacks and the New York Times praised the Grant administration's debt policy.
The first two years of the Grant administration with George Boutwell at the Treasury helm expenditures had been reduced to $292 million in 1871 – down from $322 million in 1869. The cost of collecting taxes fell to 3.11% in 1871. Grant reduced the number of employees working in the government by 2,248 persons from 6,052 on March 1, 1869 to 3,804 on December 1, 1871. He had increased tax revenues by $108 million from 1869 to 1872. During his first administration the national debt fell from $2.5 billion to $2.2 billion.
In a rare case of preemptive reform during the Grant Administration, Brevet Major General Alfred Pleasonton
Alfred Pleasonton
Alfred Pleasonton was a United States Army officer and General of Union cavalry during the American Civil War. He commanded the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Gettysburg Campaign, including the largest predominantly cavalry battle of the war, Brandy Station...
was dismissed for being unqualified to hold the position of Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Commissioner of Internal Revenue
The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is the head of the Internal Revenue Service , a bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury.The office of Commissioner was created by Congress by the Revenue Act of 1862...
. In 1870, Pleasonton, a Grant appointment, approved an unauthorized $60,000 tax refund and was associated with an alleged unscrupulous Connecticut firm. Treasury Secretary George Boutwell promptly stopped the refund and personally informed Grant that Pleasonton was incompetent to hold office. Refusing to resign on Boutwell's request, Pleasonton protested openly before Congress. President Grant removed Pleasonton before any potential scandal broke out.
Dominican Republic annexation treaty
In 1869, Grant proposed to annex the independent largely black nation of the Dominican Republican, then known as Santo Domingo. Previously in 1868, President Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
had attempted to annex the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
and Santo Domingo, but the House of Representatives defeated two resolutions for the protection of the Dominican Republic and Santo Domingo and for the annexation of the Dominican Republic. In July, 1869 Grant sent Orville E. Babcock
Orville E. Babcock
Orville Elias Babcock was an American Civil War General in the Union Army. Immediately upon graduating third in his class as United States Military Academy in 1861, Babcock would go onto serve efficiently in the Corps of Engineers throughout the Civil War and was promoted to Brevet Brigadier...
and Rufus Ingalls
Rufus Ingalls
Rufus Ingalls was an American military general who served as the 16th Quartermaster General of the United States Army.-Early life and career:...
who negotiated a draft treaty with Dominican Republic President Buenaventura Báez
Buenaventura Báez
Buenaventura Báez Méndez was the President of the Dominican Republic for five nonconsecutive terms. He is known for attempting to annex the Dominican Republic to other countries on multiple occasions.-Early years:...
for the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States and the sale of Samaná Bay
Samana Bay
Samaná Bay is a bay in the eastern Dominican Republic. The Yuna River flows into the Samaná Bay, and it is located south of the town and peninsula of Samaná....
for $2 million. To keep the island nation and Báez secure in power, Grant ordered naval ships, unauthorized by Congress, to secure the island from invasion and internal insurrection. Báez signed an annexation treaty on November 19, 1869 offered by Babcock under federal State department authorization. Secretary Fish drew up a final draft of the proposal and offered $1.5 million to the Dominican national debt, the annexation of Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
as an American state, the United States' acquisition of the rights for Samaná Bay
Samana Bay
Samaná Bay is a bay in the eastern Dominican Republic. The Yuna River flows into the Samaná Bay, and it is located south of the town and peninsula of Samaná....
for 50 years with an annual $150,000 rental, and guaranteed protection from foreign intervention. On January 10, 1870 the Santo Domingo treaty was submitted to the Senate for ratification. Despite his support of the annexation, Grant made the mistakes of not informing Congress of the treaty or encouraging national acceptance and enthusiasm.
Not only did Grant believe that the island would be of use to the Navy tactically, particularly Samaná Bay
Samana Bay
Samaná Bay is a bay in the eastern Dominican Republic. The Yuna River flows into the Samaná Bay, and it is located south of the town and peninsula of Samaná....
, but also he sought to use it as a bargaining chip. By providing a safe haven for the freedmen, he believed that the exodus of black labor would force Southern whites to realize the necessity of such a significant workforce and accept their civil rights. Grant believed the island country would increase exports and lower the trade deficit. He hoped that U.S. ownership of the island would urge Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Brazil to abandon slavery. On March 15, 1870, the Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Sen. Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, recommended against treaty passage. Sumner, the leading spokesman for African American civil rights, believed that annexation would be enormously expensive and involve the U.S. in an ongoing civil war, and would threaten the independence of Haiti and the West Indies, thereby blocking black political progress. On May 31, 1870 Grant went before Congress and urged passage of the Dominican annexation treaty. Strongly opposed to ratification, Sumner successfully led the opposition in the Senate. On June 30, 1870 the Santo Domingo annexation treaty failed to pass the Senate; 28 votes in favor of the treaty and 28 votes against. Grant's own cabinet was divided over the Santo Domingo annexation attempt, and Bancroft Davis
Bancroft Davis
John Chandler Bancroft Davis , commonly known as Bancroft Davis, was an American lawyer, judge, diplomat, and president of Newburgh and New York Railway Company.-Early life:...
, assistant to Sec. Hamilton Fish, was secretly giving information to Sen. Sumner on state department negotiations.
Relying on his military instinct, President Grant fought back hard. Unable constitutionally to go directly after Sen. Sumner, Grant immediately removed Sumner's close and respected friend Ambassador, John Lothrop Motley
John Lothrop Motley
John Lothrop Motley was an American historian and diplomat.-Biography:...
. With Grant's prodding in the Senate, Sumner was finally deposed from the Foreign Relations Committee. Grant reshaped his coalition, known as "New Radicals", working with enemies of Sumner such as Ben Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
of Massachusetts, Roscoe Conkling
Roscoe Conkling
Roscoe Conkling was a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was the leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party and the last person to refuse a U.S. Supreme Court appointment after he had...
of New York, and Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, giving in to Fish's demands that Cuba rebels be rejected, and moving his Southern patronage from the radical blacks and carpetbaggers who were allied with Sumner to more moderate Republicans. This set the stage of the Liberal Republican revolt of 1872, when Sumner and his allies publicly denounced Grant and supported Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
and the Liberal Republicans
Liberal Republican Party (United States)
The Liberal Republican Party of the United States was a political party that was organized in Cincinnati in May 1872, to oppose the reelection of President Ulysses S. Grant and his Radical Republican supporters. The party's candidate in that year's presidential election was Horace Greeley, longtime...
. Biographer William McFeely stated that Grant's annexation of Santo Domingo plan was not unrealistic, since African Americans faced difficult racial oppression in the South.
A Congressional investigation in June, 1870 led by Senator Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
revealed that Babcock and Ingalls both had land interests in the Bay of Samaná
Samana Bay
Samaná Bay is a bay in the eastern Dominican Republic. The Yuna River flows into the Samaná Bay, and it is located south of the town and peninsula of Samaná....
that would increase in value if the Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
treaty were ratified. U.S. Navy ships, with President Grant's authorization, had been sent to protect Báez from an invasion by a Dominican
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
rebel, Gregorio Luperón
Gregorio Luperón
Gregorio Luperón , is best known for being a Dominican military and state leader who was the main leader in the restoration of the Dominican Republic after the Spanish annexation in 1863....
, while the treaty negotiations were taking place. The investigation had initially been called to settle a dispute between an American businessman Davis Hatch against the United States government. Báez had imprisoned Hatch without trial for his opposition to the Báez government. Hatch had claimed that the United States had failed to protect him from imprisonment. The majority Congressional report dismissed Hatch's claim and exonerated both Babcock and Ingalls. The Hatch incident, however, kept certain Senators from being enthusiastic about ratifying the treaty.
Cuban insurrection
In 1869, Grant was urged by popular opinion to support rebels in Cuba with military assistance and to give them U.S. diplomatic recognition. Grant and Fish instead attempted to use arbitration with Spain with minister Daniel SicklesDaniel Sickles
Daniel Edgar Sickles was a colorful and controversial American politician, Union general in the American Civil War, and diplomat....
negotiating. Grant and Fish wanted Cuban independence and to end slavery without U.S. military intervention or occupation. Fish, diligently and against popular pressure, was able to keep Grant from officially recognizing Cuban independence because it would have endangered negotiations with Britain over the Alabama Claims
Alabama Claims
The Alabama Claims were a series of claims for damages by the United States government against the government of Great Britain for the assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War. After international arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled...
. The Sickle's peace negotiations failed in Madrid, but Grant and Fish did not succumb to popular pressure for U.S. military involvement in the Cuban rebellion. Grant and Fish sent a message to Congress, written by Fish and signed by Grant. The message urged strict neutrality not to officially recognize the Cuban revolt, calming national fears.
Treaty of Washington
Historians have credited the Treaty of Washington for implementing International ArbitrationInternational arbitration
International arbitration is a leading method for resolving disputes arising from international commercial agreements and other international relationships...
to allow outside experts to settle disputes. Grant's able Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretary of States in the United States history; known for his judiciousness and reform efforts...
had orchestrated many of the events leading up to the treaty. Previously, Secretary of State William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
during the Johnson administration first proposed an initial treaty concerning damages done to American merchants by three Confederate warships, CSS Florida
CSS Florida
At least three ships of the Confederate States Navy were named CSS Florida in honor of the third Confederate state:* The blockade runner was commissioned in January 1862, captured by the U.S. Navy in April 1862, and became...
, CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead, United Kingdom, in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company. Alabama served as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never anchored in...
, and CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah
CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full rigged ship, with auxiliary steam power, captained by Commander James Waddell, Confederate States Navy, a North Carolinian with twenty years' service in the United States Navy.During 12½ months of 1864–1865 the ship...
built in Britain. These damages were collectively known as the Alabama Claims
Alabama Claims
The Alabama Claims were a series of claims for damages by the United States government against the government of Great Britain for the assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War. After international arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled...
. These ships had inflicted tremendous damage to U.S. merchant ships during the Civil War and Washington wanted the British to pay heavy damages, perhaps including turning over Canada.
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
spoke up before congress; publicly denounced Queen Victoria; demanded a huge reparation; and opened the possibility of Canada ceded to the United States as payment. The speech angered the British government, and talks had to be put off until matters cooled down. Negotiations for a new treaty began in January 1871 when Britain sent Sir John Rose to America to meet with Fish. A joint high commission was created on February 9, 1871 in Washington, consisting of representatives from both Britain and the United States. The commission created a treaty where an international Tribunal would settle the damage amounts; the British admitted regret, not fault, over the destructive actions of the Confederate war cruisers. Grant approved and signed the treaty on May 8, 1871; the Senate ratified the Treaty of Washington
Treaty of Washington (1871)
The Treaty of Washington was a treaty signed and ratified by Great Britain and the United States in 1871 that settled various disputes between the countries, in particular the Alabama Claims.-Background:...
on May 24, 1871.
The Tribunal met in Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. was represented by Charles Francis Adams
Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
Charles Francis Adams, Sr. was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat and writer. He was the grandson of President John Adams and Abigail Adams and the son of President John Quincy Adams and Louisa Adams....
, one of five international arbitrators, and was counseled by William M. Evarts
William M. Evarts
William Maxwell Evarts was an American lawyer and statesman who served as U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York...
, Caleb Cushing
Caleb Cushing
Caleb Cushing was an American diplomat who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts and Attorney General under President Franklin Pierce.-Early life:...
, and Morrison R. Waite. On August 25, 1872, the Tribunal awarded United States $15.5 million in gold; $1.9 million was awarded to Great Britain. Historian Amos Elwood Corning noted that the Treaty of Washington and arbitration "bequeathed to the world a priceless legacy". In addition to the $15.5 million arbitration award, the treaty resolved some disputes over borders and fishing rights. On October 21, 1872 William I, Emperor of Germany, settled a boundary dispute in favor of the United States.
Korean incident
Asiatic Squadron
The Asiatic Squadron was a squadron of United States Navy warships stationed in East Asia during the latter half of the 19th century, it was created in 1868 when the East India Squadron was disbanded...
, arrived at the mouth of the Salee River below Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. The fleet included the , one of the largest ships in the Navy with 47 guns, 47 officers, and a 571-man crew. While waiting for senior Korean officials to negotiate, Rogers sent ships out to make soundings of the Salee River for navigational purposes.
The American fleet was fired upon by a Korean fort, but there was little damage. Rogers gave the Korean government ten days to apologize or begin talks, but the Royal Court kept silent. After ten days passed, on June 10, Rogers began a series of amphibious
Amphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...
assaults that destroyed 5 Korean forts. These military engagements were known as the Battle of Ganghwa
Battle of Ganghwa
The Battle of Ganghwa was fought during the conflict between Korea and the United States in 1871. In May, an expedition of five Asiatic Squadron warships set sail from Japan to Korea in order to establish trade relations, ensure the safety of shipwrecked sailors, and to find out what happened to...
. Several hundred Korean soldiers and three Americans were killed. Korea still refused to negotiate, and the American fleet sailed away. The Koreans refer to this 1871 U.S. military action as Shinmiyangyo. President Grant defended Rogers in his third annual message to Congress in December, 1871. After a change in regimes in Seoul, in 1881, the U.S. negotiated a treaty – the first treaty between Korea and a Western nation.
Scandals
There were eleven direct scandals during Grant's two terms as President of the United States. The main scandals included Black FridayBlack Friday (1869)
Black Friday, September 24, 1869 also known as the Fisk/Gould scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. It was one of several scandals that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant...
in 1869 and the Whiskey Ring
Whiskey Ring
In the United States, the Whiskey Ring was a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St...
in 1875. The Crédit Mobilier
Crédit Mobilier of America scandal
The Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872 involved the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company in the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The distribution of Crédit Mobilier shares of stock by Congressman Oakes Ames along with cash bribes to...
is not a Grant scandal; its origins having been in 1864 during the Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
Administration which carried over into the Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
Administration. The actual Crédit Mobilier scandal was exposed during the Grant Administration in 1872 as the result of political infighting between Congressman Oakes Ames and Congressman Henry S. McComb. Stocks owned by Ambassador to Britain Robert C. Schenck
Robert C. Schenck
Robert Cumming Schenck was a Union Army general in the American Civil War, and American diplomatic representative to Brazil and the United Kingdom. He was at both battles of Bull Run and took part in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, and the Battle of Cross Keys...
in the fraudulent Emma Silver Mine is considered a Grant Administration embarrassment rather than a scandal.
Although Grant had many successes during the first term as President in the economy, civil rights, and foreign policy, scandals associated with the Administration were beginning to emerge publicly. Grant's inability to establish personal accountability among his subordinates and Cabinet members created an environment rife for scandals. Although Grant himself was not directly responsible for and did not profit from the corruption among subordinates, he was reluctant to believe friends could commit criminal activities. As a result, he failed to take any direct action and rarely reacted strongly after their guilt was established. Grant protected close friends with Presidential power and pardoned persons who were convicted in the Whiskey Ring scandal after serving only a few months in prison.
Grant's single-minded temperament would often lead to vigorous counterattacks when critics complained, as he was very protective and defensive of his subordinates. Grant was weak in his selection of subordinates, many times favoring military associates from the war over talented and experienced politicians. He alienated party leaders by giving many posts to his friends and political contributors rather than supporting the party's needs. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control. When his second term ended, Grant wrote to Congress that "Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent". Nepotism was rampant; around 40 family relatives financially prospered while Grant was President.
Black Friday
In September 1869, financial manipulators Jay GouldJay Gould
Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
and Jim Fisk
James Fisk (financier)
James Fisk, Jr. —known variously as "Big Jim," "Diamond Jim," and "Jubilee Jim"—was an American stock broker and corporate executive.-Early life and career:...
set up an elaborate scam to corner the gold market through buying up all the gold at the same time to drive up the price. The plan was to keep the Government from selling gold, thus driving its price. President Grant and Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
found out about the gold market speculation and ordered the sale of $4 million in gold on (Black) Friday, September 23. Gould and Fisk were thwarted, and the price of gold dropped. The effects of releasing the gold by Boutwell were disastrous. Stock prices plunged and food prices dropped, devastating farmers for years.
Star Route Postal Ring
In the early 1870s during the Grant Administration, lucrative postal route contracts were given to local contractors on the Pacific CoastWest Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
and Southern regions of the United States. These were known as Star Routes
Star routes
Star routes is a term used in connection with the United States postal service and the contracting of mail delivery services. The term is defunct as of 1970, but still is occasionally used to refer to Highway Contract Routes or which replaced the Star routes.-Background:Prior to 1845,...
because an asterisk was given on official Post Office
United States Post Office Department
The Post Office Department was the name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the Postmaster General....
documents. These remote routes were hundreds of miles long and went to the most rural parts of the United States by horse and buggy. In obtaining these highly prized postal contracts, an intricate ring of bribery and straw bidding was set up in the Postal Contract office; the ring consisted of contractors, postal clerks, and various intermediary brokers. Straw bidding was at its highest practice while John Creswell, Grant's 1869 appointment, was Postmaster-General
United States Postmaster General
The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...
. An 1872 federal investigation into the matter exonerated Creswell, but he was censured
Censure in the United States
In the United States, a motion of censure is a congressional procedure for reprimanding the President of the United States, a member of Congress, or a judge. Unlike impeachment, in the United States censure has no explicit basis in the federal constitution. It derives from the formal condemnation...
by the minority House report. A $40,000 bribe to the 42nd Congress
42nd United States Congress
The Forty-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1871 to March 3, 1873, during the third and fourth...
by one postal contractor had tainted the results of the investigation. In 1876, another congressional investigation under a Democratic House shut down the postal ring for a few years.
New York Custom House Ring
Prior to the Presidential Election of 1872 two congressional and one Treasury Department investigations took place over corruption at the New York Custom House under Grant collector appointments Moses H. GrinnellMoses H. Grinnell
Moses Hicks Grinnell was a United States Navy officer, congressmanrepresenting New York, and Central Park Commissioner.-Biography:...
and Thomas Murphy. Private warehouses were taking imported goods from the docks and charging shippers storage fees. Grant's friend, George K. Leet, was allegedly involved with exorbitant pricing for storing goods and splitting the profits. Grant's third collector appointment, Chester A. Arthur
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
, implemented Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
's reform to keep the goods protected on the docks rather than private storage.
Salary grab
On March 3, 1873, President Grant signed a law that authorized the President's salary to be increased from $25,000 a year to $50,000 a year and Congressmen's salaries to be increased by $2,500. Representatives also received a retroactive pay bonus for previous two years of service. This was done in secret and attached to a general appropriations bill. Reforming newspapers quickly exposed the law and was repealed on January 1874. Grant missed an opportunity to veto the bill and to make a strong statement for good government.Election of 1872
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
from Missouri, a German immigrant and Civil War hero, started a second party known as the Liberal Republicans; they advocated civil service reform, a low tariff, and amnesty to former Confederate soldiers. The Liberal Republicans successfully ran B.G. Brown
B. Gratz Brown
Benjamin Gratz Brown was an American politician. He was a Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri, and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party Vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of 1872.-Early life:...
for the governorship of Missouri and won with Democrat support. Then in 1872, the party completely split from the Republican party and nominated New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
editor Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
as candidate for the Presidency. The Democrats, who at this time had no strong candidate choice of their own, reluctantly adopted Greeley as their candidate with Governor B.G. Brown as his running mate. Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
supported Grant and reminded black voters that Grant had destroyed the violent Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
.
The Republicans, who were content with their Reconstruction program for the South, renominated Grant and Representative Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson was the 18th Vice President of the United States and a Senator from Massachusetts...
in 1872. Grant had remained a popular Civil War hero, and the Republicans continued to wave the "bloody shirt" as a patriotic symbol representing the North. The Republicans favored high tariffs and a continuation of Radical Reconstruction policies that supported five military districts in the Southern states. Grant also favored amnesty to former Confederate soldiers like the Liberal Republicans. Because of political infighting between Liberal Republicans and Democrats, the physically ailing Greeley was no match for the "Hero of Appomattox" and lost dismally in the popular vote. Grant swept 286 Electoral College votes while other minor candidates received only 63 votes. Grant won 55.8 percent of the popular vote between Greeley and the other minor candidates. Heartbroken after a hard fought political campaign, Greeley died a few weeks after the election and was able to receive only 3 electoral votes. Out of respect for Greeley, Grant attended his funeral.
Second Term 1873–1877
Reconstruction
Conservative resistance to Republican state governments grew after the 1872 elections. With the destruction of the Klan in 1872, new secret paramilitary organizations arose in the Deep South. In Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, the Red Shirts and White LeagueWhite League
The White League was a white paramilitary group started in 1874 that operated to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. Its first chapter in Grant Parish, Louisiana was made up of many of the Confederate veterans who had participated in the...
operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan. Their goals were to oust the Republicans, return Conservative whites to power, and use whatever illegal methods needed to achieve them. Being loyal to his veterans, Grant remained determined that African Americans would receive protection.
Colfax Massacre
After the November 4, 1872 election, LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
was a split state. In a controversial election two candidates were claiming victory as governor. Violence was used to intimidate black Republicans. The fusionist party of Liberal Republicans and Democrats claimed John McEnery as the victor, while the Republicans claimed U.S. Senator William P. Kellogg
William P. Kellogg
William Pitt Kellogg was an American politician and a governor of Louisiana from 1873-1877 during Reconstruction. He was one of the most important politicians in Louisiana during and immediately after Reconstruction...
. Two months later each candidate was sworn in as governor on January 13, 1863. A federal judge ordered that Kellogg was the rightful winner of the election and ordered him and the Republican based majority to be seated. The White League supported McHenry and prepared to use military force to remove Kellogg from office. Grant ordered troops to enforce the court order and protect Kellogg. On March 4, Federal troops under a flag of truce and Kellogg's state militia defeated McHenry's fusionist party's insurrection.
Colfax, Louisiana
Colfax is a town in and the parish seat of Grant Parish, Louisiana, United States. The town, founded in 1869, is named for the vice president of the United States, Schuyler M. Colfax , who served in the first term of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, for whom the parish is named. Colfax is part of...
courthouse in Grant Parish, Louisiana
Grant Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 18,698 people, 7,073 households, and 5,276 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 8,531 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
Kellogg's two appointments had seized control of the Court House on March 25 with aid and protection of Black state militia troops. Then on April 13, White League forces attacked the courthouse and massacred 50 black militiamen who had been captured. A total of 105 blacks were killed trying to defend the Colfax courthouse for Governor Kellogg. On April 21, Grant sent in the U.S. 19th Infantry Regiment
19th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 19th Infantry Regiment is a United States Army infantry regiment which is assigned to the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, with the assignment of conducting Basic and Advanced Infantry Training.-Civil War:...
to restore order. On May 22, Grant issued a new proclamation to restore order in Louisiana. On May 31, McHenry finally told his followers to obey "peremptory orders" of the President. The orders brought a brief peace to New Orleans and most of Louisiana, ironically, except Grant Parish.
The Brooks-Baxter war in Arkansas
In the fall of 1872 the Republican party split in Arkansas and ran two candidates for governor, Elisha BaxterElisha Baxter
Elisha Baxter was the tenth Governor of the State of Arkansas.-Biography:Elisha Baxter was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Baxter received an appointment to the United States Military Academy but his father would not allow him to attend.In 1852 Baxter moved to Arkansas and opened a...
and Joseph Brooks
Joseph Brooks
Joseph Brooks was a Republican politician in Arkansas after the Civil War. He is mainly remembered for losing the 1872 gubernatorial race in Arkansas and then leading a coup d'état, now referred to as the Brooks–Baxter War, in 1874.-Early life:Joseph Brooks was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and worked...
. Massive fraud characterized the election, but Baxter was declared the winner and took office. Brooks never gave up, and finally in 1874 a local judge ruled Brooks was entitled to the office and swore him in. Both sides mobilized militia units, and rioting and fighting bloodied the streets. There was anticipation who President Grant would side with – either Baxter or Brooks. Grant delayed, requesting a joint session of the Arkansas government to figure out peacefully who would be the Governor, but Baxter refused to participate. Then, on May 15, 1874, President Grant issued a Proclamation that Baxter was the legitimate Governor of Arkansas, and the hostilities ceased. In fall of 1874 the people of Arkansas voted out Baxter, and all the Republicans and the Redeemers
Redeemers
In United States history, "Redeemers" and "Redemption" were terms used by white Southerners to describe a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era which followed the American Civil War...
came to power. A few months later in early 1875, Grant astonished the nation by reversing himself and announcing that Brooks had been legitimately elected back in 1872. Grant did not send in troops, and Brooks never regained office; instead Grant gave him the high-paying patronage job of postmaster in Little Rock. Brooks died in 1877. The episode brought further discredit to Grant.
Vicksburg riots
In August 1874, the VicksburgVicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910, 20,814; in 1920,...
city government elected a White reform party consisting of Republicans and Democrats. This was done initially to lower city spending and taxes. Despite their early intentions, the reform movement turned racist when the new White city officials went after the county government comprised with a majority of African Americans. Rather than using legal means, the White League threatened the life of and expelled Crosby, the black county sheriff and tax collector. Crosby then went to Governor Adelbert Ames
Adelbert Ames
Adelbert Ames was an American sailor, soldier, and politician. He served with distinction as a Union Army general during the American Civil War. As a Radical Republican and a Carpetbagger, he was military governor, Senator and civilian governor in Reconstruction-era Mississippi...
to seek help to regain his position as sheriff. Governor Ames told him to take other African Americans and use force to retain his lawful position as Sheriff of Warren County
Warren County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:* Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge * Vicksburg National Military Park -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 49,644 people, 18,756 households, and 13,222 families residing in the county. The population density was 85 people per square mile...
. At that time Vicksburg had a population of 12,443, over half of whom were African American.
On December 7, 1874, Crosby and an African American militia approached the city. He had declared that the Whites were, "ruffians, barbarians, and political banditti". A series of battles occurred that resulted in 29 African Americans and 2 Whites killed. The White militia retained control of the Court House and jail. On December 21, Grant gave a Presidential Proclamation for the people in Vicksburg to stop fighting. Philip Sheridan
Philip Sheridan
Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S...
in Louisiana dispatched troops who reinstated Crosby as sheriff and restored the peace. When questioned about the matter, Governor Ames denied he had told Crosby to use African American militia. On June 7, 1875, Crosby was shot to death by a White deputy while drinking in a bar. The origins for the shooting remained a mystery.
Louisiana revolt and coups
On September 14, 1874, the White LeagueWhite League
The White League was a white paramilitary group started in 1874 that operated to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. Its first chapter in Grant Parish, Louisiana was made up of many of the Confederate veterans who had participated in the...
and Democratic militia took control of the state house at New Orleans, and the Republican Governor William P. Kellogg
William P. Kellogg
William Pitt Kellogg was an American politician and a governor of Louisiana from 1873-1877 during Reconstruction. He was one of the most important politicians in Louisiana during and immediately after Reconstruction...
was forced to flee. Former Confederate General James A. Longstreet
James Longstreet
James Longstreet was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse." He served under Lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the...
, with 3,000 African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
militia and 400 Metropolitan police, made a counter attack on the 8,000 White League troops. Consisting of former Confederate soldiers, the experienced White League troops routed Longstreet's army. On September 17, Grant sent in Federal troops, and they restored the government back to Kellogg. During the following controversial election in November, passions rose high, and violence mixed with fraud were rampant; the state of affairs in New Orleans was becoming out of control. The results were that 53 Republicans and 53 Democrats were elected with 5 remaining seats to be decided by the legislature.
Grant had been careful to watch the elections and secretly sent Phil Sheridan in to keep law and order in the state. Sheridan had arrived in New Orleans a few days before the January 4, 1875 legislature opening meeting. At the convention the Democrats again with military force took control of the state building out of Republican hands. Initially, the Democrats were protected by federal troops under Colonel Philip Régis de Trobriand, and the escaped Republicans were removed from the hallways of the state building. However, Governor Kellogg then requested that Trobriand reseat the Republicans. Trobriand returned to the State house and used bayonets to force the Democrats out of the building. The Republicans then organized their own house with their own speakers all being protected by the Federal Army. Sheridan, who had annexed the Department of the Gulf to his command at 9:00 P.M., claimed that the federal troops were being neutral since they had also protected the Democrats earlier.
South Carolina 1876
Daniel Henry Chamberlain
Daniel Henry Chamberlain was a planter, lawyer, author and the 76th Governor of South Carolina from 1874 until 1877....
. Conservatives were determined to win the election for ex-confederate Wade Hampton
Wade Hampton III
Wade Hampton III was a Confederate cavalry leader during the American Civil War and afterward a politician from South Carolina, serving as its 77th Governor and as a U.S...
through violence and intimidation. The Republicans went on to nominate Chamberlain for a second term. Hampton supporters, donning red shirts, disrupted Republican meetings with gun shootings and yelling. Tensions became violent on July 8, 1876 when five African Americans were murdered at Hamburg. The rifle clubs, wearing their Red Shirts, were better armed then the blacks. South Carolina was ruled by "mobocracy and bloodshed" than by Chamberlain's government.
Black militia did fight back in Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
on September 6, 1876 in what was known as the "King Street riot". The white militia assumed defensive positions out of concern over possible federal troop intervention. Then, on September 19, the Red Shirts took offensive action by openly killing 30 to 50 African Americans outside Ellenton
Ellenton, South Carolina
Ellenton was a town that was located on the border between Barnwell County and Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. Settled around 1870, it was acquired by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1950 as part of a site for the Savannah River Plant. It was located between the current CSX...
. During the massacre, state representative Simon Coker was killed. On October 7, Governor Chamberlain declared martial law and told all the "rifle club" members to put down their weapons. In the meantime, Wade Hampton never ceased to remind Chamberlain that he did not rule South Carolina. Out of desperation, Chamberlain wrote to President Grant and asked for federal intervention. The "Cainhoy riot" took place on October 15 when Republicans held a rally at "Brick Church" outside Cainhoy. Blacks and whites both opened fire; six whites and one black were killed. Grant, upset over the Ellenton and Cainhoy riots, finally declared a Presidential Proclamation on October 17, 1876 and ordered all persons, within 3 days, to cease their lawless activities and disperse to their homes. A total of 1,144 federal infantry were sent into South Carolina, and the violence stopped; election day was quiet. Both Hampton and Chamberlain claimed victory, and for a while both acted as governor; then Hampton took the office after President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
in 1877 withdrew federal troops and after Chamberlain left the state.
Indian affairs
Under Grant's peace policy wars between settlers, the federal army, and the American Indians had been decreasing from 101 per year in 1869 to a low of 15 per year in 1875. However, the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of the Dakota TerritoryDakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
and the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
, threatened to unravel Grant's peace policy, as white settlers encroached upon native land to mine for gold. Indian wars per year jumped up to 32 in 1876 and remained at 43 in 1877. One of the highest casualty Indian battles that took place in American history was at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Indian war casualties in Montana went from 5 in 1875, to 613 in 1876 and 436 in 1877.
Modoc War
In January 1873, Grant's Native American peace policy was challenged. Two weeks after Grant was elected for a second term, fighting broke out between the Modocs and settlers near the California-Oregon border. The Modocs, led by Captain Jack, killed 18 white settlers and then found a strong defensive position. Grant ordered General Sherman not to attack the Indians but settle matters peacefully with a commission. Sherman then sent Major General Edward CanbyEdward Canby
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War, Reconstruction era, and the Indian Wars...
, but Captain Jack killed him. Reverend Eleazar Thomas, a Methodist minister, was also killed. Alfred B. Meacham
Alfred B. Meacham
Alfred Benjamin Meacham was an American Methodist minister, reformer, author and historian, who served as the US Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon . He became a proponent of American Indian interests in the Northwest, including Northern California...
, an Indian Agent, was severely wounded. The murders shocked the nation, and Sherman wired to have the Modocs exterminated. Grant overruled Sherman; Captain Jack was executed, and the remaining 155 Modocs were relocated to the Quapaw Agency in the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
. This episode and the Great Sioux War undermined public confidence in Grant's peace policy, according to historian Robert M. Utley
Robert M. Utley
Robert Marshall Utley is an author and historian who has written sixteen books on the history of the American West. He was a former chief historian of the National Park Service. Fellow historians commend Utley as the finest historian of the American frontier in the 19th century.The Western History...
.
Red River War and buffalo slaughter
In 1874, war erupted on the southern Plains when Quanah ParkerQuanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
, leader of the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
, led 700 tribal warriors and attacked the buffalo hunter supply base on the Canadian River, at Adobe Walls, Texas
Adobe Walls, Texas
Adobe Walls ia a ghost town in Hutchinson County, northeast of Stinnett, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was established in 1843 as a trading post for buffalo hunters and local Indian trade in the vicinity of the Canadian River. It later became a ranching community. Historically, Adobe Walls is the...
. The Army under General Phil Sheridan launched a military campaign, and, with few casualties on either side, forced the Indians back to their reservations by destroying their horses and winter food supplies. Grant, who agreed to the Army plan advocated by Generals William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan, imprisoned 74 insurgents in Florida.
In 1872, around two thousand white buffalo hunters between Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
and Witchita were killing buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
for their hides by the many thousands. Acres of land were dedicated solely for drying the hides of the slaughtered buffalo. Native Americans protested at the "wanton destruction" of their food supply. By 1874, 3,700,000 bison had been destroyed on the western and southern Plains of the United States. Concern for the destruction of the buffalo mounted, and a bill in Congress was passed, HR 921, that would have made buffalo hunting illegal for whites. Grant pocket veto
Pocket veto
A pocket veto is a legislative maneuver in United States federal lawmaking that allows the President to veto a bill indirectly.The U.S. Constitution limits the President's period for decision on whether to sign or veto any legislation to ten days while the United States Congress is in session...
ed the bill. Ranchers favored the buffalo slaughter to open pasture land for their cattle herds. With the buffalo food supply lowered Native Americans were forced to stay on reservations.
Bureau of Indian Affairs corruption
In 1874, massive fraud prevailed in the Bureau of Indian AffairsBureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
under Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was...
. This proved to be the most serious detriment to Grant's Indian peace policy. Many agents that worked for the department made unscrupulous fortunes and retired with more money than their pay would allow. Secretary Delano had allowed "Indian Attorneys" who were paid by Native American tribes $8.00 a day plus food and traveling expenses for sham representation in Washington. Other corruptions charges were brought up against Secretary Delano and he was forced to resign; he had left the Bureau of Indian Affairs in complete corruption. In 1875, Grant appointed Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler was Mayor of Detroit , a four-term U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan , and Secretary of the Interior under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant .-Family:...
to Secretary of the Interior. Chandler vigorously uncovered and cleaned up the fraud in the department by firing all the clerks and banned the phony "Indian Attorneys" access to Washington. Grant's "Quaker" or church appointments partially made up the lack of food staples and housing from the government.
Great Sioux War
In 1874 gold had been discovered in the Black HillsBlack Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
in the Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
. White speculators and settlers rushed in droves seeking riches mining gold on land reserved for the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
tribe by the Treaty of Fort Laramie
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
of 1868. In 1875, to avoid conflict President Grant met with Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
, chief of the Sioux, at Washington, D.C., and offered $25,000 from the government to purchase the land. The offer was declined. On November 3, 1875 at a White House meeting, Phil Sheridan claimed to the President that the Army was overstretched and could not defend the Sioux tribe from the settlers; Grant capitulated; ordered Sheridan to round up the Sioux and put them on the reservation. Sheridan used a strategy of convergence, using Army columns to force the Sioux onto the reservation. On June 25, 1876, one of these columns, led by Colonel George A. Custer met the Sioux at the Battle of Little Big Horn and was slaughtered. Approximately 253 federal soldiers and civilians were killed compared to 40 American Indians. Custer's death and the Battle of Little Big Horn shocked the nation. Sheridan avenged Custer, pacified the northern Plains, and put the defeated Sioux on the reservation. On August 15, 1876 President Grant signed a proviso giving the Sioux nation $1,000,000 in rations, while the Sioux relinquished all rights to the Black Hills, except for a 40 mile land tract west of the 103 meridian. On August 28, a seven man committee, appointed by Grant, gave additional harsh stipulations for the Sioux in order to receive government assistance. Halfbreeds and "squaw men" were banished from the Sioux reservation. To receive the government rations, the Indians had to work the land. Reluctantly, on September 20, the Indian leaders, whose people were starving, agreed to the committee's demands and signed the agreement.
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Throughout his Presidency, Grant was continually concerned with the civil rights of all Americans. Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was a United States federal law proposed by Senator Charles Sumner and Representative Benjamin F. Butler in 1870...
that allowed citizens access to public eating establishments, hotels, and places of entertainment. This was done particularly to protect African Americans who were discriminated across United States. The bill was also passed in honor of Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
who had previously attempted to pass a civil rights bill in 1872.
Polygamy and Chinese prostitution
In October, 1875 Grant traveled to Utah and was surprised that the Mormons treated him kindly. He told Utah territorial governor, George W. EmeryGeorge W. Emery
George W. Emery was the eleventh governor of Utah Territory. Emery was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant for Supervisor of Internal Revenue for the confederate states from 1870 to 1874 and governor in 1875. After his term ended in 1880, the Utah Legislature named Emery County, Utah in...
, that he had been deceived concerning the Mormons. However, on December 7, 1875 after his return to Washington, Grant wrote to Congress in his seventh annual state of the Union address that as "an institution polygamy should be banished from the land…"
Grant believed that polygamy negatively affected children and women. Grant advocated that a second stronger law then the Morrill Act be passed to "punish so flagrant a crime against decency
Decency
Decency is the quality or state of conforming to social or moral standards of taste and propriety.-See also:*Taste *Communications Decency Act*Public indecency*Indecent exposure*Sodomy law*Norm *Grotesque body...
and morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
."
Grant also denounced the immigration of Chinese women into the United States whose only purpose was prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
.
Secular education
President Grant believed strongly in the separation of church and state and championed complete secularizationSecularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
in public schools. Grant inexplicably in an 1875 speech advocated "security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion." In regard to public education, Grant endorsed that every child should receive "the opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheist tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools.... Keep the church and the state forever separate."
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a worldwide depressionDepression (economics)
In economics, a depression is a sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies. It is a more severe downturn than a recession, which is seen by some economists as part of the modern business cycle....
that started when the stock market in Vienna, Austria crashed in June that year. Unsettling markets soon spread to Berlin and throughout Europe. The panic eventually reached New York when two banks went broke – the New York Warehouse & Security Company on September 18 and the major railroad financier Jay Cooke & Company
Jay Cooke & Company
Jay Cooke & Company was a U.S. bank from 1861 to 1873. It was the first brokerage house to use telegraph messages to confirm with clients the purchase and sale of securities. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it had branches in New York City and Washington, DC...
on September 19. The ensuing depression lasted 5 years, ruined thousands of businesses, depressed daily wages by 25% from 1873 to 1876, and brought the unemployment rate up to 14%.
The causes of the panic in the United States included the destruction of credit from over-speculation in the stock markets and railroad industry. Eight years of unprecedented growth after the Civil War had brought thousands of miles of railroad construction, thousands of industrial factories, and a strong stock market; the South experienced a boom in agriculture. However, all this growth was done on borrowed money by many banks in the United States that have over-speculated in the Railroad industry by as much as $20 million. A stringent monetary policy under Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
, during the height of the railroad speculations, contributed to unsettled markets. Boutwell created monetary stringency by selling more gold then he bought bonds. The Coinage Act of 1873 made gold the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
currency metal over silver.
On September 20, 1873 the Grant Administration finally responded. Grant's Secretary of Treasury William Adams Richardson
William Adams Richardson
William Adams Richardson was an American judge and politician.Born in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, he graduated from Pinkerton Academy, Lawrence Academy at Groton, and attended Harvard University, graduating in 1843....
, Boutwell's replacement, bought $2.5 million of five-twenty bonds with gold. On Monday, September 22, Richardson bought $3 million of bonds with legal tender notes or greenbacks
United States Note
A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their heyday, a...
and purchased $5.5 million in legal tender certificates. From September 24 to September 25 the Treasury department bought $24 million in bonds and certificates with greenbacks. On September 29 the Secretary prepaid the interest on $12 million bonds bought from security banks. From October, 1873 to January 4, 1874 Richardson kept liquidating bonds until $26 million greenback reserves were issued to make up for lost revenue in the Treasury. These actions did help curb the effects of the general panic by allowing more currency into the commercial banks and hence allowing more money to be lent and spent. Historians have blamed the Grant administration for not responding to the crisis promptly and for not taking adequate measures to reduce the negative effects of the general panic. The monetary policies of both Secretary Boutwell and Richardson were inconsistent from 1872 to 1873. The government's ultimate failure was in not reestablishing confidence in the businesses that had been the source of distrust. The Panic of 1873 eventually ran its course despite all the limited efforts from the government.
Grant's "cronyism", as Smith (2001) calls it, was apparent when he overruled Army experts to help a wartime friend, engineer, James B. Eads. Eads was building a major railroad bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis that had been authorized by Congress in 1866, and was nearing completion in 1873. However, the Army Corps of Engineers chief of engineers, agreeing with steam boat interests, ordered Eads to build a canal around the bridge because the bridge would be "a serious obstacle to navigation." After talking with Eads at the White House, Grant reversed the order and the 6,442 feet (1,964 m) long steel arched bridge went on to completion in 1874 without a canal.
Vetoes inflation bill
ile:Grant Inflation Bill Veto.jpg|right|thumb|Political cartoon by Thomas Nast: Grant congratulated for vetoing the "inflation bill" on April 22, 1874The rapidly accelerated industrial growth in post-Civil War America and throughout the world crashed with the Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
. Many banks overextended their loans and went bankrupt as a result, causing a general panic throughout the nation. In an attempt put capital into a stringent monetary economy, Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson released $26 million in greenbacks. Many argued that Richardson's monetary policies were not enough and some argued were illegal. In 1874, Congress debated the inflationary policy to stimulate the economy and passed the Inflation Bill of 1874 that would release an additional $18 million in greenbacks
United States Note
A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their heyday, a...
up to the original $400,000,000 amount. Eastern bankers vigorously lobbied Grant to veto the bill because of their reliance on bonds and foreign investors who did business in gold. Grant's cabinet was bitterly divided over this issue while conservative Secretary of State Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretary of States in the United States history; known for his judiciousness and reform efforts...
threatened to resign if Grant signed the bill. On April 22, 1874, after evaluating his own reasons for wanting to sign the bill, Grant unexpectedly vetoed the bill against the popular election strategy of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
because he believed it would destroy the nation's credit.
Resumption of Specie Act
On January 14, 1875, Grant signed the Resumption of Specie Act, and he could not have been happier; he wrote a note to Congress congratulating members on the passage of the act. The legislation was drafted by Ohio Republican Senator John ShermanJohn Sherman (politician)
John Sherman, nicknamed "The Ohio Icicle" , was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Ohio during the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. He served as both Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State and was the principal author of the Sherman Antitrust Act...
. This act provided that paper money in circulation would be exchanged for gold specie and silver coins and would be effective January 1, 1879. The act also implemented that gradual steps would be taken to reduce the amount of greenbacks in circulation. At that time there were "paper coin" currency worth less than $1.00, and these would be exchanged for silver coins. Its effect was to stabilize the currency and make the consumers money as "good as gold". In an age without a Federal Reserve system to control inflation, this act stabilized the economy. Grant considered it the hallmark of his administration.
Virginus affair
Daniel Sickles
Daniel Edgar Sickles was a colorful and controversial American politician, Union general in the American Civil War, and diplomat....
. Secretary of State Fish kept a cool demeanor in the crisis, and through investigation discovered there was a question over whether the Virginius ship had the right to bear the United States flag. The Spanish Rupublic's President Emilio Castelar expressed profound regret for the tragedy and was willing to make reparations through arbitration. Fish negotiated reparations with the Spanish minister Senor Poly y Bernabe. With Grant's approval, Spain was to surrender Virginius, pay an indemnity to the surviving families of the Americans executed, and salute the American flag; the episode ended quietly.
Hawaiian free trade
In 1875, the Grant Administration had successfully negotiated a free tradeFree trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
treaty with Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. The main product from Hawaii, sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, was made duty free while American manufactured goods, including clothing, were allowed to be sold in the island kingdom.
Liberian-Grebo civil war
The U.S. settled the Liberian-Grebo civil war in 1876 by dispatching the to LiberiaLiberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
. Liberia was in practice an American colony. US envoy James Milton Turner, the first African American ambassador, requested a warship to protect American property in Liberia. After the USS Alaska he negotiated the incorporation of Grebo people into Liberian society and the ousting of foreign traders from Liberia.
Scandals continued
The corruption scandals and frauds continued to be exposed during President Grant's second term in office. The Democrats along with the Liberal Republicans had gained control of the House of Representatives and held many Committee meetings to stop political graft. The main scandal was the Whiskey RingWhiskey Ring
In the United States, the Whiskey Ring was a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St...
where the investigation went up to Grant himself. The Emma Silver mine was a minor embarrassment associated with American Ambassador to Britain, Robert C. Schenck
Robert C. Schenck
Robert Cumming Schenck was a Union Army general in the American Civil War, and American diplomatic representative to Brazil and the United Kingdom. He was at both battles of Bull Run and took part in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, and the Battle of Cross Keys...
, using his name to promote a worked out silver mine. The Crédit Mobilier scandal's origins were during the presidential Administrations of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, however, political congressional infighting during the Grant Administration exposed the scandal.
Scandal cabinet and appointees
The most infamous of Grant's cabinet or other presidential appointees who were involved in scandals or criminal activity:- Daniel ButterfieldDaniel ButterfieldDaniel Adams Butterfield was a New York businessman, a Union General in the American Civil War, and Assistant U.S. Treasurer in New York. He is credited with composing the bugle call Taps and was involved in the Black Friday gold scandal in the Grant administration...
, Assistant Secretary of Treasury – (Black Friday- 1869) - William A. Richardson, Secretary of Treasury – (Sanborn Contracts- 1874)
- George H. WilliamsGeorge Henry WilliamsGeorge Henry Williams was an American judge and politician. He served as Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States, and served one term in the United States Senate...
, Attorney General - (Pratt & Boyd- 1875) - Columbus DelanoColumbus DelanoColumbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was...
, Secretary of Interior - (Bogus Agents - 1875) - Orville E. BabcockOrville E. BabcockOrville Elias Babcock was an American Civil War General in the Union Army. Immediately upon graduating third in his class as United States Military Academy in 1861, Babcock would go onto serve efficiently in the Corps of Engineers throughout the Civil War and was promoted to Brevet Brigadier...
, Private Secretary – (Black Friday - 1869) (Whiskey Ring – 1875) (Safe Burglary Conspiracy - 1876) - John McDonald, Internal Revenue Supervisor, St. Louis – (Whiskey Ring– 1875)
- Horace PorterHorace PorterHorace Porter, was an American soldier and diplomat who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War....
, Private Secretary - (Whiskey Ring - 1875) - William W. BelknapWilliam W. BelknapWilliam Worth Belknap was a United States Army general, government administrator, and United States Secretary of War. He was the only Cabinet secretary ever to have been impeached by the United States House of Representatives.-Birth and early years:Born in Newburgh, New York to career soldier...
, Secretary of War – (Trading Post Ring- 1876) - George M. RobesonGeorge M. RobesonGeorge Maxwell Robeson was an American Republican Party politician and lawyer from New Jersey who served as a Union army general during the American Civil War, and then as Secretary of the Navy during the Grant administration. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1879 to...
, Secretary of Treasury – (Naval Department Ring- 1876)
Sanborn contracts
In June 1874, Treasury Secretary William A. RichardsonWilliam Adams Richardson
William Adams Richardson was an American judge and politician.Born in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, he graduated from Pinkerton Academy, Lawrence Academy at Groton, and attended Harvard University, graduating in 1843....
gave private contracts to one John D. Sanborn who in turn collected illegally withheld taxes for fees at inflated commissions. The profits from the commissions were allegedly split with Richardson and Senator Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
, while Sanborn claimed these payments were "expenses". Senator Butler had written a loophole in the law that allowed Sanborn to collect the commissions, but Sanborn would not reveal whom he split the profits with.
Pratt & Boyd
In April 1875, it was discovered that Attorney General George H. WilliamsGeorge Henry Williams
George Henry Williams was an American judge and politician. He served as Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States, and served one term in the United States Senate...
allegedly received a bribe through a $30,000 gift to his wife from a Merchant house company, Pratt & Boyd, to drop the case for fraudulent customhouse entries. Williams was forced to resign by Grant in 1875.
Delano affair
Columbus Delano
Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was...
, discovered to have taken bribes to secure fraudulent land grants, resigned from office on October 15, 1875. Delano had also given bogus lucrative cartographical contracts to his son John Delano and Ulysses S. Grant's own brother, Orvil Grant. Neither John Delano nor Orvil Grant performed any work or were skillfully qualified to hold such surveying positions. The Department of Indian Affairs was being controlled by corrupt clerks and bogus agents who made enormous profits from the exploitation of Native American tribes. Massive fraud was also found in the Patent Office with corrupt clerks who embezzled from the government payroll. Delano who refused to make any reforms resigned under public pressure rather than Grant asking for a resignation. It was another missed opportunity for Grant to support ethics in government. However, on October 19, 1875, Grant made another reforming cabinet choice when he appointed Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler was Mayor of Detroit , a four-term U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan , and Secretary of the Interior under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant .-Family:...
as Secretary of the Interior. Chandler cleaned up the Patent Office and the Department of Indian Affairs by firing all the corrupt clerks and banned bogus agents.
Whiskey ring
In May 1875, Secretary of Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow discovered that millions of dollars of taxes were being funneled into an illegal ring from Whiskey manufacturers. Prosecutions ensued, and many were put in prison. Grant's private Secretary Orville E. BabcockOrville E. Babcock
Orville Elias Babcock was an American Civil War General in the Union Army. Immediately upon graduating third in his class as United States Military Academy in 1861, Babcock would go onto serve efficiently in the Corps of Engineers throughout the Civil War and was promoted to Brevet Brigadier...
was indicted and later acquitted in trial. The Whiskey Ring was organized throughout the United States, and by 1875 it was a fully operating criminal association. The investigation and closure of the Whiskey Ring resulted in 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3,000,000 in tax revenues that were returned to the Treasury Department. During the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring leaders, Grant testified on behalf of his friend Babcock. As a result, Babcock was acquitted, however, the deposition by Grant was a great embarrassment to his reputation. The Babcock trial turned into an impeachment trial against the President by Grant's political opponents.
Trading post ring
In March 1876 it was discovered under House investigations that Secretary of War William W. BelknapWilliam W. Belknap
William Worth Belknap was a United States Army general, government administrator, and United States Secretary of War. He was the only Cabinet secretary ever to have been impeached by the United States House of Representatives.-Birth and early years:Born in Newburgh, New York to career soldier...
was taking extortion money in exchange for allowing an Indian trading post agent to remain in position at Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
. Belknap was allowed to resign by President Grant and as a result was acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial. Profits were made at the expense of Native Americans who were supposed to receive food and clothing from the government. In late April 1876, Grant lashed out at Lieut. Col. George A. Custer, after Custer had testified at a Congressional committee one month before against Grant's brother Orville and Sec. Belknap. There had been rumors Custer had talked with the press concerning the Indian post profiteering. Custer personally went to the White House to clear matters up with the President, however, Grant coldly refused to see him three times. When Custer left Washington on May 3 to return to Fort Lincoln, he had been spitefully removed from overall command by Grant and denied any participation of the Sioux Campaign; having been replaced by Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry
Alfred Terry
Alfred Howe Terry was a Union general in the American Civil War and the military commander of the Dakota Territory from 1866 to 1869 and again from 1872 to 1886.-Early life and career:...
. However, at Terry's insistence, Grant partially relented and allowed Custer to participate in the campaign against the Sioux on the condition he did not take any pressmen.
Cattellism
In March 1876, Secretary of Navy George M. RobesonGeorge M. Robeson
George Maxwell Robeson was an American Republican Party politician and lawyer from New Jersey who served as a Union army general during the American Civil War, and then as Secretary of the Navy during the Grant administration. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1879 to...
was charged by a Democratic-controlled House investigation committee with giving lucrative contracts to Alexander Cattell & Company, a grain supplier, in return for real estate, loans, and payment of debts. The House investigating committee also discovered that Secretary Robeson had allegedly embezzled $15 million in naval construction appropriations. Since there were no financial paper trials or enough evidence for impeachment and conviction, the House Investigation committee admonished Robeson and claimed he had set up a corrupt contracting system known as "Cattellism".
Safe burglary conspiracy
In September 1876, Orville E. BabcockOrville E. Babcock
Orville Elias Babcock was an American Civil War General in the Union Army. Immediately upon graduating third in his class as United States Military Academy in 1861, Babcock would go onto serve efficiently in the Corps of Engineers throughout the Civil War and was promoted to Brevet Brigadier...
, Superintendent of Public Works and Buildings, was indicted in a safe burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
conspiracy
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
case and trial. In April, corrupt building contractors in Washington, D.C. were on trial for graft when a safe robbery occurred. Bogus secret service agents broke into a safe and attempted to frame Columbus Alexander, who had exposed the corrupt contracting ring. Babcock was named as part of the conspiracy, but later acquitted in the trial against the burglars. Evidence suggests that Backcock was involved with the swindles
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
by the corrupt Washington Contractors Ring and he wanted revenge on Columbus Alexander, an avid reformer and critic of the Grant Administration. There was also evidence that safe burglary jury had been tampered with.
Scandal summary table
| Grant Administration Scandals and Corrupt Activities | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Black Friday Black Friday (1869) Black Friday, September 24, 1869 also known as the Fisk/Gould scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. It was one of several scandals that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant... |
Speculators corner the gold market and ruin the economy for several years. | |
| New York custom house ring | Three investigations, two congressional and one Treasury, looked into alleged corruption ring set up at the New York Custom House Collector of the Port of New York The Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, most often referred to as Collector of the Port of New York, sometimes also as Collector of Customs for the Port of New York or Collector of Customs for the District of New York, was a federal officer who was in charge of the collection of import... under two of Grant's appointments, collectors Moses H. Grinnell Moses H. Grinnell Moses Hicks Grinnell was a United States Navy officer, congressmanrepresenting New York, and Central Park Commissioner.-Biography:... and Thomas Murphy. |
|
| Star Route Postal Ring Star routes Star routes is a term used in connection with the United States postal service and the contracting of mail delivery services. The term is defunct as of 1970, but still is occasionally used to refer to Highway Contract Routes or which replaced the Star routes.-Background:Prior to 1845,... |
Bribery system of postal contractors, clerks, and brokers to obtain lucrative Star Route postal contracts. | |
| Salary Grab Salary Grab Act The Salary Grab Act was passed by the United States Congress on 3 March 1873. The effect of the Act was, the day before the second-term inauguration of President Ulysses S. Grant, to double the salary of the President and the salaries of Supreme Court Justices... |
Congressmen receive a rhetro active $5,000 bonus for previous term served. | |
| Sanborn Contract Sanborn Incident The Sanborn incident or Sanborn contract was an American political scandal which occurred in 1874.William Adams Richardson, Ulysses S. Grant’s Secretary of the Treasury, hired a private citizen, John D. Sanborn, to collect $427,000 in unpaid taxes. Richardson agreed Sanborn could keep half of what... |
John Sanborn collected taxes at exorbitant fees and split the profits among associates. | |
| Delano Affair | Secretary of Interior, Columbus Delano Columbus Delano Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was... , allegedly took bribes to secure fraudulent land grants. |
|
| Pratt & Boyd | Attorney General George H. Williams George Henry Williams George Henry Williams was an American judge and politician. He served as Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States, and served one term in the United States Senate... allegedly received a bribe not to prosecute the Pratt & Boyd company. |
|
| Whiskey Ring Whiskey Ring In the United States, the Whiskey Ring was a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St... |
Corrupt government officials and whiskey makers steal millions of dollars in national tax embezzlement scam. | |
| Trading Post Ring | Secretary of War William Belknap allegedly takes extortion money from trading contractor at Fort Sill. | |
| Cattelism | Secretary of Navy George Robeson allegedly receives bribes from Cattell & Company for lucrative Naval contracts. | |
| Safe Burglary Conspiracy | Private Secretary Orville Babcock indicted over framing a private citizen for uncovering corrupt Washington contractors. | |
Reforming cabinet members
Grant's cabinet fluctuated between talented individuals or reformers and those involved with political patronage or party corruption. Some notable reforming cabinet members were persons who had outstanding abilities and made many positive contributions to the administration. These reformers resisted the GOP demands for patronage to select efficient civil servants.Hamilton Fish
Hamilton FishHamilton Fish
Hamilton Fish was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretary of States in the United States history; known for his judiciousness and reform efforts...
was not seeking any office when his name was presented to the Senate for confirmation, and he even declined Grant's offer to serve as United States Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
. Grant insisted that Fish be in his cabinet and had his name placed before the Senate where he was confirmed on March 17, 1869. According to Fish's biographer and historian Amos Elwood Corning in 1919, Fish was known as "a gentleman of wide experience, in whom the capacities of the organizer were happily united with a well balanced judgment and broad culture". After the confirmation, Fish went immediately to work and collected, classified, indexed, and bound seven hundred volumes of correspondence of a malicious nature. He established a new indexing system that simplified retrieving information by clerks. Fish also created a rule that applicants for consulate had to take an official written examination to receive an appointment; previously, applicants were given positions on a patronage system solely on the recommendations of Congressmen and Senators. This raised the tone and efficiency of the consular service, and if a Congressman or Senator objected, Fish could show them that the applicant did not pass the written test.
George S. Boutwell
George S. Boutwell
George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S...
who was confirmed by the Senate on March 12, 1869. His first actions were to dismiss S.M. Clark, the chief of U.S. Bureau and Engraving, and to set up a system of securing the plates that the paper money was printed on to prevent counterfeiting. Boutwell set up a system to monitor the manufacturing of money to ensure nothing would be stolen. Boutwell prevented collusion in the printing of money by preparing sets of plates for a single printing, with the red seal being imprinted in the Treasury Bureau. Boutwell persuaded Grant to have the Commissioner of Internal Revenue Alfred Pleasanton removed for misconduct over approving a $60,000 tax refund. In addition to these measures, Boutwell established a uniform mode of accounting at custom houses and ports. Boutwell along with Attorney General, Amos T. Akerman
Amos T. Akerman
Amos Tappan Akerman served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. Akerman was born on February 23, 1821 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as the ninth of Benjamin Akerman’s twelve children...
, were two of Grant's strongest cabinet members who advocated racial justice for African Americans.
Amos T. Akerman
During Amos T. AkermanAmos T. Akerman
Amos Tappan Akerman served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. Akerman was born on February 23, 1821 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as the ninth of Benjamin Akerman’s twelve children...
's tenure as Attorney General of the United States from 1870 to 1871, thousands of indictments were brought against Klansmen
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
to enforce the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871. Born in the North, Akerman moved to Georgia after college and owned slaves; he fought for the Confederacy and became a Scalawag
Scalawag
In United States history, scalawag was a derogatory nickname for southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War.-History:...
during Reconstruction
Georgia during Reconstruction
-Wartime Reconstruction or Forty Acres and a Mule:At the beginning of Reconstruction, Georgia had over 460,000 Freedmen. In January 1865, in Savannah, William T. Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15 authorizing federal authorities to confiscate 'abandoned' plantation lands in the Sea...
, speaking out for blacks' civil rights. As U.S. Attorney General, he became the first ex-Confederate to reach the cabinet. Akerman was unafraid of the Klan and committed to protecting the lives and civil rights of blacks. To bolster Akerman's investigation, Grant sent in Secret Service agents from the Justice Department to infiltrate the Klan and to gather evidence for prosecution. The investigations revealed that many whites participated in Klan activities. With this evidence, Grant issued a Presidential proclamation to disarm and remove the Klan's notorious white robe and hood disguises. When the Klan ignored the proclamation, Grant sent Federal troops to nine South Carolina counties to put down the violent activities of the Klan. Grant teamed Akerman up with another reformer in 1870 – the first Solicitor General and native Kentuckian Benjamin Bristow
Benjamin Bristow
Benjamin Helm Bristow was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as the first Solicitor General of the United States and as a U.S. Treasury Secretary. Fighting for the Union, Bristow served in the army during the American Civil War and was promoted to Colonel...
– and the duo went on to prosecute thousands of Klan members and brought a brief quiet period of two years in the turbulent Reconstruction era.
Benjamin H. Bristow
As perhaps Grant's most popular cabinet reformer, Benjamin H. Bristow was appointed Secretary of Treasury in June 1874. Bristow had served ably as Solicitor General of the United States from 1870 to 1872, prosecuting many Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
's men who violated African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
voting rights. When Bristow assumed office he immediately made an aggressive attack on corruption in the department. Bristow discovered that the Treasury was not receiving the full amount of tax revenue from whiskey distillers and manufacturers from several Western cities, primarily St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Bristow discovered in 1874 that the Government alone was being defrauded by $1.2 million. On May 13, 1875, armed with enough information, Bristow struck hard at the ring, seized the distilleries, and made hundreds of arrests; the Whiskey Ring ceased to exist. Although President Grant and Bristow were not on friendly terms, Bristow sincerely desired to save Grant's reputation from scandal. At the end of the Whiskey Ring prosecutions in 1876, there were 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3 million in tax revenues returned to the Treasury Department.
Edwards Pierrepont
In 1875, Grant paired up Secretary of Treasury Benjamin BristowBenjamin Bristow
Benjamin Helm Bristow was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who served as the first Solicitor General of the United States and as a U.S. Treasury Secretary. Fighting for the Union, Bristow served in the army during the American Civil War and was promoted to Colonel...
with U.S. Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont
Edwards Pierrepont
Edwards Pierrepont was an American statesman, jurist and lawyer.-Biography:Born in North Haven, Connecticut, he graduated from Yale University and New Haven Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1840 and practiced law in Columbus, Ohio, from 1840 to 1845...
, a Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
graduate. The appointment was popularly accepted by the public as Bristow and Pierrepont successfully prosecuted members of the Whiskey Ring
Whiskey Ring
In the United States, the Whiskey Ring was a scandal, exposed in 1875, involving diversion of tax revenues in a conspiracy among government agents, politicians, whiskey distillers, and distributors. The Whiskey Ring began in St...
. Before becoming U.S. Attorney General, Pierrepont was part of a reforming group known as the "Committee of Seventy" and was successful at shutting down William M. Tweed's corrupt contracting Ring while he was a New York U.S. Attorney
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York , Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Preet Bharara, who was appointed by Barack Obama in 2009 is the U.S. Attorney for the...
in 1870. Although Grant's reputation was vastly improved, Pierrepont had shown indifference in 1875 to the plight of freedmen by circumventing Federal intervention when White racists terrorized Mississippi's African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
citizens over a fraudulent Democratic election. Every cabinet appointment made by Grant came with a political cost.
Alphonso Taft
When President Grant was in a bind to find a replacement for Secretary of War William W. BelknapWilliam W. Belknap
William Worth Belknap was a United States Army general, government administrator, and United States Secretary of War. He was the only Cabinet secretary ever to have been impeached by the United States House of Representatives.-Birth and early years:Born in Newburgh, New York to career soldier...
, who abruptly resigned in 1876 amidst scandal, he turned to his good friend Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft
Alphonso Taft was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty. He was the father of U.S...
from Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. Taft, who accepted, served ably as Secretary of War until being transferred to the Attorney General position. As Secretary of War, Taft reduced military expenditures and made it so that no post-traderships would be given to any person except on the recommendation of the officers at the post. Grant then appointed Taft as U.S. Attorney General. Taft was a wise scholar and jurist educated at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and the Attorney General position suited him the best. During the controversial Presidential Election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
and Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel Jones Tilden was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in the disputed election of 1876, one of the most controversial American elections of the 19th century. He was the 25th Governor of New York...
, Attorney General Taft and House Representative J. Proctor Knott
J. Proctor Knott
James Proctor Knott was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky and served as the 29th Governor of Kentucky from 1883 to 1887. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Missouri in 1850 and began his political career there...
had many meetings to decide the outcome of the controversial election. The result of the Taft-Knott negotiations, the Electoral Commission Act
Electoral Commission (United States)
The Electoral Commission was a temporary body created by Congress to resolve the disputed United States presidential election of 1876. It consisted of 15 members. The election was contested by the Democratic ticket, Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and the Republican ticket, Rutherford B....
was passed by Congress and signed into law by Grant on January 29, 1877; it created a 15 panel bipartisan committee to elect the next President. Hayes won the Presidency by one electoral vote two days before the March 4, 1877 Inauguration. Alphonso Taft was the father of future president William H. Taft.
Zachariah Chandler
In 1875, the U.S. Department of Interior was in serious disrepair with corruption and incompetence. The result was that United States Secretary of Interior Columbus DelanoColumbus Delano
Columbus Delano, was a lawyer and a statesman and a member of the prominent Delano family.At the age of eight, Columbus Delano's family moved to Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, a place he would call home for the rest of his life. After completing his primary education, he studied law and was...
, having taken bribes to secure fraudulent land grants, was forced to resign from office on October 15, 1875. On October 19, 1875, in a personal effort of reform, Grant appointed Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler
Zachariah Chandler was Mayor of Detroit , a four-term U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan , and Secretary of the Interior under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant .-Family:...
to the position and was confirmed by the Senate in December 1875. Chandler immediately went to work on reforming the Interior Department by dismissing all the important clerks in the Patent Office
Patent office
A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether or not the application fulfils the requirements for...
. Chandler had discovered that fictitious clerks were earning money and that other clerks were earning money without performing services. Chandler simplified the patent application procedure and as a result reduced costs. Chandler, under President Grant's orders, fired all corrupt clerks at the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
. Chandler also banned the practice of Native American agents, known as "Indian Attorneys" who were being paid $8.00 a day plus expenses for supposedly representing their tribes in Washington.
John A.J. Creswell
Postmaster General John A. J. CreswellJohn A. J. Creswell
John Angel James Creswell was an American politician from Maryland. He served as Postmaster General of the United States during the Grant administration.- Biography :...
proved to be one of the ablest organizers ever to head the Post Office. He cut costs while greatly expanding the number of mail routes, postal clerks and letter carriers. He introduced the penny post card and worked with Fish to revise postal treaties. A Radical, he used the vast patronage of the post office to support Grant's coalition. He asked for the total abolition of the franking privilege since it reduced the revenue receipts by five percent. The franking privilege allowed members of Congress to send mail at the government's expense.
Election of 1876
During the Presidential Election of 1876, the Republicans nominated the fiscally conservative Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
and the Democrats nominated reformer Samuel Tilden. Results were split. Tilden received 51% of the popular vote; Hayes 48%; while 20 key electoral votes remained undecided and in dispute. Both Republicans and Democrats claimed victory and the threat of a second civil war was eminent. Grant was watchful; encouraged Congress to settle the election by commission; and determined to keep a peaceful transfer of power. On January 29, 1877 Grant signed the Electoral Commission Act
Electoral Commission (United States)
The Electoral Commission was a temporary body created by Congress to resolve the disputed United States presidential election of 1876. It consisted of 15 members. The election was contested by the Democratic ticket, Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, and the Republican ticket, Rutherford B....
that gave a 15 panel bipartisan commission power to determine electoral votes. The commission gave Hayes 185 electoral votes; Tilden received 184. Hayes became the 19th President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
after being awarded 3 electoral votes from the state of Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. Grant's personal honesty, firmness, and even handedness reassured the nation and a second civil war was averted.
Supreme Court appointments
Grant appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
:
- Edwin M. StantonEdwin M. StantonEdwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War from 1862–1865...
– 1869 (died before taking seat) - William StrongWilliam Strong (judge)William Strong was an American jurist and politician. He was a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.-Early life:...
– 1870 - Joseph P. Bradley – 1870
- Ward HuntWard HuntWard Hunt , was an American jurist and politician. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1868 to 1869, and an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1873 to 1882.-Life:...
– 1873 - Morrison Remick Waite (Chief JusticeChief Justice of the United StatesThe Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
) – 1874
States admitted to the Union
- ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
– August 1, 1876
Colorado came into the Union just in time to give enough electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
to win the Presidential Election of 1876.
Vetoes
Grant vetoed more bills then any of his predecessors with 93 vetoes during the 41st through 44th Congresses. 45 were regular vetoes, and 48 of them were pocket vetoPocket veto
A pocket veto is a legislative maneuver in United States federal lawmaking that allows the President to veto a bill indirectly.The U.S. Constitution limits the President's period for decision on whether to sign or veto any legislation to ten days while the United States Congress is in session...
es. Grant had 4 vetoes overridden by Congress.
Government agencies instituted
- Department of JusticeUnited States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
(1870) - Office of the Solicitor GeneralUnited States Solicitor GeneralThe United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
(1870) - "Advisory Board on Civil Service" (1871); expired in 1873
- Office of the Surgeon GeneralSurgeon General of the United StatesThe Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
(1871) - Army Weather Bureau (currently known as the National Weather ServiceNational Weather ServiceThe National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
) (1870)
Presidential legacy
Grant was the first President since Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
to hold two consecutive terms in office. The legacy of President Grant is one of American civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, international diplomacy, scandals, and a boom-and-bust national economy. In terms of civil rights, Grant had urged the passing of the 15th Amendment and signed into law the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 that gave all citizens access to places of public enterprise. Grant defeated the Klan by sending in the Justice Department, backed by the Army. Grant's 1868 Presidential campaign slogan "Let us have peace" rang true when his State Department resolved crises with Britain and Spain, implementing the new concept of International Arbitration
International arbitration
International arbitration is a leading method for resolving disputes arising from international commercial agreements and other international relationships...
.
The scandals revealed that Grant reacted too readily to protect his team, to coverup misdeeds, and to get rid of whistle blowers and reformers. It was impossible for Grant, who had neither the temperament nor training to be President, to morally check all of the corruption generated from the socioeconomic forces of a costly American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, rapid industrialization, and Westward expansionism. His acceptance of gifts from wealthy associates showed poor judgment. He distrusted reformers as busybodies who were interfering with party patronage. He was reluctant to prosecute cabinet members and appointees viewed as "honest" friends, and those who were convicted were set free with presidential pardons after serving a brief time in prison. His associations with these scandals have tarnished his personal reputation while President and afterward. Despite the scandals, by the end of Grant's second term the corruption in the Departments of Interior, Treasury, and Justice were cleaned up by his new cabinet members.
Grant's generous treatment of Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
at Appomattox
Battle of Appomattox Courthouse
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and one of the last battles of the American...
helped give him popularity in the South. Although he kept civil rights on the political agenda, the Republican party at the end of Grant's second term shifted to pursuing conservative fiscal policies. His weak response to the Panic of 1873 hurt the economy and seriously damaged his party, which lost heavily in 1874. His personal will often strayed from normal Presidential orthodoxy, and his administration defied the American tradition of a government run without political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and favortism. Grant's financial policies favored Wall Street, but his term ended with the nation mired in a deep economic depression that Grant could not comprehend or deal with.
Civil rights record
Grant proactively used military and Justice DepartmentUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
enforcement of civil rights laws and the protection of African Americans more than any other President. He used his full powers to destroy the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, reducing violence and intimidation in the South. He appointed James Milton Turner as the first African American minister to a foreign nation. Grant's relationship with Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, the leader in promoting civil rights, was shattered by the Senator's opposition to Grant's plan to acquire Santo Domingo treaty. Grant retaliated, firing men Sumner had recommended and having allies strip Sumner of his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. Sumner joined the Liberal Republican movement in 1872 to fight Grant's reelection.
Grant's presidency was committed to treat Native Americans as individual wards of the state under a "peace" policy and encouraged their citizenship. Native Americans were eventually given full U.S. citizenship in 1924 under the Indian Citizenship Act
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act...
signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
. Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was a United States federal law proposed by Senator Charles Sumner and Representative Benjamin F. Butler in 1870...
. In his sixth message to Congress, he summed up his own views, "While I remain Executive all the laws of Congress and the provisions of the Constitution ... will be enforced with rigor ... Treat the Negro as a citizen and a voter, as he is and must remain ... Then we shall have no complaint of sectional interference." In the pursued equal justice for all category from the 2009 CSPAN Presidential rating survey Grant scored a 9 getting into the top ten.
By author
Chamberlain reviewed speech by Charles Francis AdamsCharles Francis Adams, Jr.
Charles Francis Adams II was a member of the prominent Adams family, and son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
to New York Historical Society on November 19, 1901. |oclc=484433457}}, Pulitzer prize, but hostile to Grant
- Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. A History of the United States Since the Civil War (NY: Macmillan, 1926) vol 3: 1872–1878
Further reading
- Buenker, John D. and Joseph Buenker, eds. Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2005). 1256 pp. in three volumes. 900 essays by 200 scholars
- Donald, David Herbert. Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man (1970), Pulitzer prize winning biography of Grant's enemy in the Senate
- Fitzgerald, Michael W. Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South. (2007) 234 pp. isbn 978-1-56663-734-3
- Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988) Pulitzer-prize winning synthesis from neoabolitionistNeoabolitionistNeoabolitionist is a term used by some historians to refer to the heightened activity of the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
perspective - Mantell, Martin E. Johnson, Grant, and the Politics of Reconstruction (1973) online edition
- Simpson, Brooks D. The Reconstruction Presidents (1998)
- Skidmore, Max J. "The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: a Reconsideration." White House Studies 2005 5(2): 255–270, favorable assessment
- Tatum, Lawrie. Our Red Brothers and the Peace Policy of President Ulysses S. Grant (2010)
- Thompson, Margaret S. The "Spider Web": Congress and Lobbying in the Age of Grant (1985)
- Trefousse, Hans L. Historical Dictionary of Reconstruction Greenwood (1991), 250 entries
- Woodward, C. Vann. ed. Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct (1974), essays by historians on each administration from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson.
Primary sources
- Simon, John Y., ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Southern Illinois University Press (1967–2009 ) complete in 31 volumes
- Online version vol 1–31; vol 19–28 (1994–2005) cover the presidential years; includes all known letters and writing by Grant, and the most important letters written to him.
- Richardson, James, ed. Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (numerous editions, 1901–20), vol 7 contains most of Grant's official presidential public documents and messages to Congress
- 1869 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1870 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1871 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1872 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1873 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1874 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1875 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1876 State of the Union Message - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1869 Inaugural Address - Ulysses S. Grant
- 1873 Inaugural Address - Ulysses S. Grant
Yearbooks
- American Annual Cyclopedia...1868 (1869), online, highly detailed compendium of facts and primary sources
- American Annual Cyclopedia...for 1869 (1870), large compendium of facts, thorough national coverage; includes also many primary documents online edition
- Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...for 1870 (1871)
- American Annual Cyclopedia...for 1872 (1873)
- Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...for 1873 (1879) online edition
- Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...for 1875 (1877)
- Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia ...for 1876 (1885) online edition
- Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...for 1877 (1878)