Grant was born as Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio on April 27, 1822 by Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant. Grant was the eldest of six. He lived in a small two-roomed cabin in Point Pleasant until the Fall of 1823 when he moved to the village of Georgetown, Ohio. Grant entered into the USMA (United States Military Academy) at West Point, New York. He got his recommendation from U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer, who accidentally wrote Grants name wrong in his recommendation. This is how Grant got the name Ulysses S. Grant instead of his birth name.
In West Point he graduated 21st out of 39 in his class. He was known as a fearless horseman but he didn’t join the Calvary instead he became a regimental quartermaster, managing supplies and equipment. Grant first war was the Mexican-American war, he served in the war from 1846 to 1848. During this time Grant was brevetted for bravery, one of these times was when he ran out into a crossfire to save his friend that had been shot in the leg. Later in life Grant wrote that the war was unjust and that all it was for is to gain land for slavery.
After the war Grant married Julia Boggs Dent who was the daughter of a wealthy slave owner. They had four children, Fredrick Dent Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., Ellen Wrenshall Grant and Jesses Root Grant. Soon Grant retired from the military and became a civilian trying to make a living. Civilian life was harsh to Grant, he failed at every job that he encountered. One of Grants greatest opportunities opened up when the civil war broke out between the southern and northern states. Immediately after the first shot was fired at Fort Sumner Grant was recruited by the Illinois Governor, Richard Yates to gather and train volunteers.
Grant did this job with deadly results, most of the recruits became good disciplined soldiers. Grant was then moved from recruiting to the position of commander of the 21st Illinois Infantry. In August of 1861 Jefferson Appointed Grant as Brigadier General of the volunteers. During the civil war Grant was in the battles of Belmont, Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Petersburg and the battle of the wilderness. The most valued battles were the ones that lead to Generals Lees surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Grant was known to be a very un forgiving but he had so much respect for General Lee that he let his troops go home with their pistols and horses.
After the civil war reconstruction began, President Johnson started but then Grant took over when he was elected as president in 1869. Grant tried to pass bills that would help the U.S. become whole again but all that he did was make the U.S. more and more disorganized. What didn’t help was the scandals in the political system, the first to corrupt the system was Black Friday. Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market and steal money from the government. The most famous scandal was the Whisky Ring of 1875, which the Secretary of the treasury stole over three million dollars from the government. Grant’s administration had many scandals in it but he tried as hard as he could to rebuild the U.S.A. once again.
The most successful achievement of Grants presidency was the 1871 Treaty of Washington, negotiated by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. It settled American claims against Britain concerning the wartime activities of the British-built Confederate raider CSS Alabama. He proposed to annex the independent, largely black nation of Santo Domingo. Not only did he believe that the island would be of use to the navy tactically, but he sought to use it as a bargaining chip. By providing a safe haven for the freedmen, Grant 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.
At the same time he hoped that U.S. ownership of the island would urge nearby Cuba to abandon slavery. The Senate refused to ratify it because of Senator Charles Sumner's strong opposition. Grant helped depose Sumner from the chairmanship, and Sumner supported Horace Greeley and the Liberal Republicans in 1872.
Over all Grants presidency was not a total catastrophe accept for the Panic of 1873. Grant issued a bill in March 1869, which established the value of the greenback currency issued during the Civil War, pledging to redeem the bills in gold. In 1874, he vetoed a bill that increased the amount of a legal tender currency, which defused the currency crisis on Wall Street but did little to help the economy as a whole.
Historian Allan Nevins says “Various administrations have closed in gloom and weakness... but no other has closed in such paralysis and discredit as (in all domestic fields) did Grant's. The President was without policies or popular support. He was compelled to remake his Cabinet under a grueling fire from reformers and investigators; half its members were utterly inexperienced, several others discredited, one was even disgraced. The personnel of the departments was largely demoralized. The party that autumn appealed for votes on the implicit ground that the next Administration would be totally unlike the one in office. In its centennial year, a year of deepest economic depression, the nation drifted almost rudderless.”
After Grants presidency he took a world tour with his wife to Ireland, Scotland and England. When he returned to the United States he tried to run for a third term as president but failed when the 1880 convention went to James A. Garfield. Soon after Grant purchased a home in New York and invested in the wall street but in 1884 the company of Grant and Ward went bankrupt so Grant fled. At the same time grant learned that he had throat cancer. Bankrupt and dieing Grant worked with Mark Twain to create a bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant which Grant would receive 75% of the profit.
It was not until 1958 that congress past a law granting pensions for a former president. Unfortunately though Grant died just a couple days after finishing his book, but Grants family received over 450,000 dollars from the publishing of the book.
Ulysses S. Grant died at 8:06 am on Thursday, July 23, 1885 at the age of 63. The last word that Grant spoke was “water”. He was buried in the New York City’s Riverside Park, in Grants tomb which is the largest in North America.
