The Most Underrated President in American History - ULYSSES S. GRANT

Back before the turn of the 20th Century, textbooks and historians routinely placed Ulysses S. Grant in the upper echelon of great American presidents, alongside names like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  However, in the last 125 years or so, historians view on Grant has soured greatly and he is often found towards the bottom of the list on many presidential rankings.  Today we’ll look into the main challenges, accomplishments and failures of Grant during his presidency and why I believe he is vastly underrated and, as a hardcore defender of equal rights, did his part to at least try to bring universal and unalienable rights to all Americans regardless of skin color long before the Civil Rights Act was actually passed.  He also took measures to improve the postwar economy and improve foreign relations.

Ulysses S. Grant was of course a famous Civil War General for the north before he ran for president.  During the war in which one side, the South, clearly had more competent generals, Grant rose up as a resourceful, aggressive and brilliant strategist whose key victories at Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Petersburg, helped lead the north to victory, finally ending the terrible conflict.  It was Grant himself who met with Robert E. Lee at the Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865, to arrange for the South’s final surrender.

Grant during the Civil War

Even during the late stages of the war, rumors circulated about Grant’s possible political ambitions, but he initial squashed them, saying his only ambition was to see the rebellion suppressed and Lincoln re-elected.  Of course, Lincoln was re-elected, and shortly thereafter, invited Grant and his wife to attend a play at Ford’s Theater – Our American Cousin.  But Grant’s wife, Julia Boggs Grant, had a bad feeling about going to the play and convinced her husband to leave Washington with her.  Lincoln would be shot and killed at the play and Grant agonized over his decision to not attend, thinking he might have been able to stop the assassination.  Now, to his dismay, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president.

Johnson was a stubborn, racist and egoistical president, who did all he could to prevent equal rights bills and amendments from passing.  He angered and shocked Grant when he vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau Act, which had had the purpose of helping former slaves transition to freedom by providing things like shelter, clothing, medical needs and education along with assistance in contacting lost family members.  Johnson also vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act, but congress overrode the veto.  Still, Johnson’s presidency set the country’s progress on equal rights back significantly and he was so unpopular, he was impeached and even lost as an incumbent to Horatio Seymour in the 1868 Democratic National Convention.  

President Andrew Johnson

At the Republican National Convention, Grant, the now hugely popular Civil War hero, was selected as the nominee by all delegates present.  Grant felt he had no choice but to accept the nomination and try to get the country back on the right track.  After the assassination of President Lincoln and failed term of President Johnson, reconstruction was clearly off to a rocky start.  “I have been forced into it in spite of myself,” said Grant.  In the Election of 1868, with Schuyler Colfax as his running mate, Grant soundly defeated Seymour, and became the 18th President of the United States. He did not even need to campaign.  

In his Inaugural Address, he became the first president to ever discuss the rights of American Indians.  Grant believed the previous policies towards them were immoral and it was time to help them transition into regular citizens.  His new policies would turn out controversial and did not always work as planned, but he certainly sympathized with the Native Americans and their struggle.  He also advocated the passage of the 15th amendment – the right to vote for all Americans, regardless of race or former slave status.  He not only had to deal with civil rights and general reconstruction, but also a struggling economy and national debt that skyrocketed from $64 million before the start of the Civil War to $2.8 billion by the time he took office.  Also, despite all the problems he needed to deal with in-house, Grant had to take measures to improve foreign relations and deal with critical situations abroad.  This video will look into three important problematic areas during reconstruction that Grant took measures to improve during his presidency – equal rights, the economy and foreign relations. 

Equal Rights

Even before Grant was elected as president, he was a vocal defender of equal rights, especially concerning the black population.  He was a huge supporter of the 14th amendment, which granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people. Despite President Johnson’s disapproval of the amendment, it was passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified on July 9th, 1868.

Ulysses S. Grant

After taking office in 1869, one of the biggest challenges Grant would face would be trying to promote peace, racial harmony and equal rights in a country where about 4 million slaves had just been freed yet racism still raged throughout.  The task might have been too tall for just about anybody during that time, but Grant did his best.  One of his first objectives was to get the 15th amendment passed, and it happened just a month into his term.  The amendment was ratified on February 3rd, 1870 and allowed every former slave to vote or even run for office should they choose to.  

He did all that he could to ensure these amendments were enforced, including the signing of multiple Enforcement Acts, the first stating that “every person despite race, color, or previous condition of servitude must be granted equal opportunity to become qualified to vote.” Grant would threaten federal force including deployment of the Army if these new laws were ignored.  He had to continuously deal with voter suppression and violence against black voters, and constantly asked congress for more enforcement powers.  

However, the racism at this time was completely out of control, made worse by a mysterious organization that emerged during Grant’s presidency – the Ku Klux Klan.  They beat, kidnapped and murdered thousands of black citizens.  Grant took actions against the klan and pushed for a Ku Klux Klan Bill, and did whatever necessary to get Congress to pass such a bill to give him more authority, along with the previously passed Enforcement Acts, to stop this repulsive group.   The act was passed and Grant issued a proclamation, pledging to exhaust all the powers vested in the executive branch to ensure all citizens are able to peacefully enjoy their rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws.

He contacted prosecutors willing to take down members of the KKK and deployed soldiers to arrest them, supported by the recently passed legislation.  Klansmen were arrested, prosecuted, fined and imprisoned.  The Klan was essentially extinguished thanks to Grant’s efforts, and they did not emerge again until the 20th century, after Grant’s death.

The Ku Klux Klan

Although Grant clearly did not completely succeed in his efforts to create equal rights for all, it was not due to lack of effort.  In addition to rights for black citizens, he also focused on the rights of Native Americans and even appointed American Indian Ely S. Parker as commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  During his presidency, he lobbied Congress for better funding for Native peoples, and attempted to encourage American Indians to better embrace American society.  He may have gone too far in this area, encouraging them to embrace Christianity and even wear more standard American clothing.  He received much criticism for his attempts to change the country’s Indian policies and never fully accomplished his goals, but his heart seemed to be in the right place and Grant did all he could to create a land where all are truly created equal with certain unalienable rights during a time when racism was near its height in the United States.

The Economy

During Grant’s first term, he took measures to get the economy back to pre-war standards.  As mentioned earlier, the national debt had ballooned to $2.8 billion and the problem was made worse as hundreds of millions of nonredeemable paper money known as “greenbacks” had been issued during the war to pay war debts.  They caused massive inflation and pushed gold-backed bills and gold coins out of circulation.  Grant signed a law – the Public Credit Act of 1869 – which guaranteed the federal government would pay its debt in “gold or its equivalent” and redeem the greenbacks as soon as practicable with the plan of returning to the gold standard within ten years.  

Grant understood he was not a financial expert and hired trusted associates with experience in finances to help manage the situation and reduce the national debt.  Measures were taken to improve tax collecting and reduce counterfeiting.  Grant’s chief financial officer George Boutwell instituted a policy to sell gold for gradually less and less in order to help pay off the national debt and stabilize the dollar.  Within a few months of Grant’s inauguration, the National Debt was reduced by $12 million.  That number improved to $50 million by September.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous businessmen noticed what was happening and attempted to corner the gold market, leading to what is known as Black Friday, which occurred on September 24th, 1869.  During the prior summer, Grant went on vacation in New Jersey with Julia.  During the vacation, he traveled to New York to visit his sister Virginia, who had recently married a businessman named Abel Rathbone Corbin.  

The 61-year old Corbin was a smooth talking real estate mogul who was motivated by power and money.  He had recently met two younger very wealthy businessmen – James Fisk and Jay Gould – who wanted to use Corbin to get to the president.  During Grant’s visit to New York, Corbin introduced him to Gould and from that point on, any time Grant would visit his sister, Gould and Fisk would be notified of the visit by Corbin and would show up, engage in conversation with Grant and try to convince him it would be good for the country if the price of gold rose.  They wanted to get inside information on when the price of gold would go back up so they could sell their holdings at a higher price.  

Plotting the Gold Ring of 1869

To Grant’s credit, he revealed no helpful information on the government’s plans and would always steer the conversation away from official matters.  Attempts by Fisk and Gould to get information from other sources such as Grant’s sister or his secretary also failed.  However, being seen conversing with Grant was enough to convince many powerful people in Wall Street that Fisk & Gould were indeed convincing the president to help drive up the price of gold.  Additionally, although Grant did not reveal inside information, he was convinced that the falling price of gold might be bad for the farmers out west and had Boutwell stop selling gold.  Meanwhile, Fisk & Gould bought $1.5 million in gold and watched the price skyrocket.

Grant eventually figured out what was going on and, after a meeting with Boutwell, decided to sell millions of dollars in gold that the government held in order to stabilize the markets.  On September 24th, the government sold $4 million in gold and the price of gold crashed, destroying Fisk and Gould’s scheme.  It created a temporary gold panic, but also averted a national financial crisis and possible depression.   Grant was exonerated of any illicit involvement in the conspiracy, although his decision making in being seen and influenced by shady businessmen cannot be completely ignored.

The second financial crisis during Grant’s presidency occurred during his second term.  Banks had been lending money in large amounts without sufficient collateral to the railroad industry and the cost of building miles and miles of tracks across the vast mountains and wilderness out west turned out to be much higher than expected.  One of the biggest brokerage houses, Jay Cooke & Company, ran out of liquidity and completely collapsed, causing a chain reaction, leading to the Panic of 1873.  A huge number of banks, railroads and other companies went out of business, and thousands of individuals lost their jobs.  

Greenbacks

Grant quickly sent out a public letter assuring the people that the government would do everything in its power to relieve the situation.  Congress passed a bill called the “inflation bill” in 1874, which would add $400 million in greenbacks into circulation, but after long consideration, Grant surprisingly vetoed it, believing it would destroy the credit of the nation.  The veto was sustained after a vote in the Senate.  The American people largely supported Grant for his courage in vetoing the bill, but even he was conflicted, believing the bill might’ve helped western farmers, but would ultimately only make the economy worse by weakening the gold-backed dollar.

Instead, Grant focused on restoring the gold standard and worked to get the Specie Payment Resumption Act passed, which would restore the gold standard and stabilize the economy.  His popular veto and leadership during the crisis elevated him to the point that speculation began that he would run for a third term.  After being endorsed for a third term by the Pennsylvania Republican Party, Grant responded by ensuring every one he was not going to be a candidate for renomination and would follow in the footsteps of Washington and every other president before him in not serving more than two terms.

Foreign Relations

Although the USA had no time or energy to worry about foreign relations during and immediately after the Civil War, Grant’s presidency began to change that.  He appointed Hamilton Fish as his Secretary of State, a 60-year old former senator who had also served as the Governor of New York.  Fish planned to stay on as Secretary of State only for a few months while Grant found a permanent replacement, but after only a few weeks working with Grant, he signed on to stay for his entire term.  Grant and Fish dealt with three main challenges regarding foreign relations – a deteriorating relationship with Great Britain, a Cuban Insurrection and the annexing of Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo

Grant, understanding that he was not an expert in everything, tried to appoint leaders who were clearly better and more experienced than he was in their fields.  Fish was no exception and turned out to be an extremely effective Secretary of State.  One of his initial goals was to repair relations with Great Britain, who secretly built ships such as the CSS Alabama and supplied them to the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Despite declaring themselves to be “neutral,” Great Britain seemed to be secretly supporting the Confederacy and the U.S. wanted an apology and compensation after the war in a demand known as the “Alabama Claims,” but the aggressive nature of the demands, along with some “anti-British” propaganda, only worsened relations.

With Grant in office, he and Fish decided to let some time pass as a “cooling off” period.  As a former Civil War General, Grant was just as outraged at Great Britain over the Confederate ships, but knew that peace had to prevail and relationships abroad, just like those in the states, needed to be repaired.  There was some unrest going on in Canada, which was stilled ruled by the British Crown.  Americans were also being denied the right to fish in U.S.-Canadian borders.

the Alabama

Grant stayed in touch with Queen Victoria, updating her on the situation and building trust between the two nations.  He also let Fish, who lived in Europe for 3 years and had a great knowledge and respect for Great Britain and its culture, be the main handler of the negotiations.  American, Canadian and British negotiators met up in Washington D.C., where Grant could oversee everything, and the issues were quickly resolved.  The Treaty of Washington was approved, which determined Great Britain would pay $15.5 million to the United States.  Anglo-American relations quickly improved.

Another situation Grant had to deal with that quickly emerged after becoming president was a clash on the island of Cuba.  Going back to the 1850s, Cuban merchants and planters had been demanding social reforms to no avail and in 1868, an uprising began to win independence from Spain – the first of multiple Cuban uprisings known as the “Ten Years War”.  Americans in large part supported the Cuban patriots and Civil War Veterans from both sides offered their support.  Grant sympathized with their situation and was lobbied hard to officially recognize the Cubans as independent from Spain and even lend military support.

However, Secretary of State Fish spoke out against this idea and Grant eventually agreed.  Having just been completely decimated by Civil War, the country was not in a position to participate in another conflict.  Grant, despite pressure to support the Cubans against Spain, kept a level head and announced the U.S. would maintain neutrality.  This would be tested by Spain with the “Virginius Affair” when Spain captured the Virginius, a United States steamship hired by the Cubans to bring supplies and weapons.  Spain arrested the crew for piracy and tore down the U.S. flag.  The crew were mostly innocent Americans and Englishmen who did not understand the details of the mission.

Secretary of State Fish

Even after this event, despite the clamors for war, Grant aimed for a peaceful resolution.  He demanded the restoration of the vessel and the return of every U.S. citizen to the states along with an assurance that no insult to the flag of the United States was intended when they tore down the flag.  To avoid a war with the United States, Spain agreed to the terms.  Grant kept the country out of another war in order to focus on reconstruction.

Another Caribbean island would also bring challenges for Grant and it was Santo Domingo, today known as the Dominican Republic.  For years, the U.S. had an interest in Santo Domingo and Grant began an initiative to annex the country with plans for eventual statehood.  The island was attractive for a multitude of reasons, one being that black Americans could move there if they chose to or at least threaten to do so for better working conditions in the South.  Grant also thought the annexation could help the U.S. have the bargaining power to end slavery in places like Cuba, since they could threaten to end trading tobacco and sugar with them due to more natural resources in Santo Domingo.

Grant visited senator Charles Sumner to discuss the idea of annexing Santo Domingo.  Sumner’s support would be absolutely crucial to get the Annexation Treaty passed.  It is unknown exactly what was discussed during the meeting, but Grant left Sumner’s house believing he had his support.  When the treaty was submitted to the U.S. Sentate, it got huge opposition, mainly due to the thought of a U.S. state with so many black and mixed-race citizens and Sumner’s surprising opposition.  He addressed the Senate for hours, arguing against the annexation.  The treaty failed to pass.

Grant

Grant continued to fight for annexation of Santo Domingo and formed an objective commission to travel to the island and assess whether annexation would be beneficial.  Civil Rights activist Frederick Douglass was a member of the commission.  They reported that Santo Domingo supported the idea themselves and it would be ultimately beneficial for the U.S., but Sumner continued to fight against it, saying it would be giving up on equality in the United States by proving refuge to the black population.  The enthusiasm in the Senate did not budge and Grant could never make serious progress on this goal.  Grant was unable to get enough support publicly or in the Senate, but his heart was in the right place – Grant witnessed the horrific treatment of black citizens and despite all his efforts, could not fully fix the problem and he truly believed Santo Domingo could be a free and peaceful haven for them, and a place that could squash slavery in its surrounding neighbors.  

And so you have the presidency of Ulysses “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.  It was far from perfect, and could be described as a total roller coaster ride.  There was corruption from within, some naive decisions and failed initiatives, but any ranking that places Grant as one of the worst 5 Presidents ignores that he did everything in his power to enforce Civil Rights Acts, create a truly free America, avoid new wars, improve the economy and repair strained foreign relations.  Some of these acts were successful and others weren’t, but overall, Ulysses S. Grant was a fantastic president, who Frederick Douglas praised by saying, 

“To him more than any other man the Negro owes his enfranchisement and the Indian a humane policy….He was accessible to all men...The black soldier was welcome in his tent, and the freedman in house.”  

At the time of Grant’s death, it was widely believed he would go on to be one of the nation’s great presidents.  Rhode Island governor Augustus O. Bourn said in Grant’s eulogy, 

“As the centuries roll on, and the history of our country shall be written by impartial posterity, the names of Washington, Lincoln and Grant will shine with increased luster.”

Unfortunately, that did not happen, but President Ulysses S. Grant is the most underrated president in history in my opinion and should be widely studied.  He saved the country once during the Civil War and did his best to do it again as president.