Never Take Victory for Grant-ed

“I know only two tunes. One of them is 'Yankee Doodle' the other isn't.”

-Ulysses S. Grant

Any history buff knows a little something about U.S. Grant and his journey from farmer to soldier to general to president. He was the son of an abolitionist who married into a slave-holding family, the quartermaster who would rise to the highest military rank, the personally honest man with a corruption filled administration. Here I would like to take a look into his life and try and get into the mind of good old Ulysses, to understand why he did things the way he did. To do that, we must have a little bit of an understanding of what happened in the life of U.S. Grant.

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First off, Ulysses was not Grant's first name. On April 22, 1822 Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. A clerical error when his father signed him up for West Point Military Academy resulted in Ulysses being listed as his first name and added a phantom S. for a middle initial. Grant changed his name on the spot so that he could get in.

Grant was not known for being outgoing at West Point, or even a very good student. He had a reputation for arriving to class late and "slovenly dress". He graduated in 1843 near the middle of his class, with plans to get out of the military as soon as possible. After his graduation he was stationed in Missouri, where he met his wife Julia Dent. They got engaged just before Ulysses was called up to serve in the Mexican-American war. During the war Grant served primarily as a quartermaster, but when he did have a chance to lead troops into combat he was credited as being brave under fire. Grant was disillusioned by the Mexican-American War however, believing it to be a bullies war.

After the war he married Julia and decided to stay with the army. He was stationed in forts around the country (including Fort Vancouver, WA), and the distance from his family took a toll on Grant, driving him to the bottle. Ulysses resigned from the army in 1854 amid allegations of a lack of discipline and heavy drinking. In 1861 at the start of the U.S. Civil War, Grant volunteered for military service, but because of his reputation for drinking he was originally denied. Only after getting the support of an Illinois congressman was he given command of a volunteer regiment.

The story of Grants rise from Captain to Lieutenant General are well documented and I wont go into all the details here. If you're interested in the story, I would recommend you read this website for a short biography or the book Grant by Ron Chernow for a more in-depth view.

After the war Grant was an influential actor in the military side of the Reconstruction. He came into conflict with President Johnson over his policies towards the Reconstruction era. Grant believed that whites who had supported the Confederacy should not be allowed to resume positions of power. Grant ran for president on the Republican ticket and in 1868 became the 18th president of the United States. His popularity remained high with much of the public throughout his two terms, but his administration was plagued by scandals and he was know to run the White House like he had run the Army. He ended up serving 2 terms as president before returning to civilian life.

After his presidency he didn't have much success, going bankrupt in an investment firm when his partner embezzled funds. He decided to ask a friend, Mark Twain, to write his biography, which when released became hugely popular. Ulysses S. Grant Died on July 23, 1885 at the age of 63.

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What I would like to explore today is Grants views on Slavery as an institution and how they changed over time. It often appears that Ulysses S. Grant was an abolitionist all his life who avidly opposed slavery, but that is simply too convenient. The truth is, during the mid 1800's, people had a much more complicated view of slavery as an institution than we do today.

Grant's father was a true abolitionist, a rarity even in the North. Grant himself was much more ambivalent towards the institution. He wrote in 1863 that "I was never an abolitionist, not even what could be called anti-slavery..." Grant was also know to own a 35 year old slave named William Jones in the years leading up to the Civil War. Grant granted Jones freedom shortly before the war broke out. Grant's wife, Julia, also owned four slaves that were given to her by her father. After he left the military in 1854, Grant moved next door to his father-in-law's estate and gave farming a go, often using the help of African heritage slaves.

Ulysses didn't fit into the culture of the South perfectly however. When he tried to start his own farm in 1854 he would work alongside the slaves. Furthermore, when he took over his father-in-law's estate which he managed from 1854-1859, he refused to whip or exact extreme punishments on the slaves in his care. His neighbors are quoted as saying " He couldn’t force them to do anything. He wouldn’t whip them. He was too gentle and good tempered and besides he was not a slavery man."

It seems to me that pre-war Grant, like many of his day, was not totally against slavery and yet not for it either. He had a generally negative personal view of the institution and yet he participated in it. It is easy for us 21st century Americans, as we sit at home reading a random blog post on our computer screens, to cry out in rage about how a man who would eventually become the president of the United State could have owned slaves himself. Grant's history of owning slaves has even been compared to that of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, saying that Grant owned more slaves than Lee ever did. While factually true, statements like this miss the actual character of the man himself. Grant changed as the war went on.

Compare here two quotes, one from 1861 and another from 1863. The first is a quote from a letter from Grant to his father.

“My inclination is to whip the rebellion into submission, preserving all Constitutional rights. If it cannot be whipped any other way than through a war against slavery, let it come to that legitimately. If it is necessary that slavery should fall that the Republic may continue its existence, let slavery go.”

The second is a letter sent in 1863.

“I try to judge fairly and honestly, and it became patent in my mind early in the rebellion that the North and South could never live at peace with each other except as one nation, and that without slavery. As anxious as I am to see peace established, I would not therefore be willing to see any settlement until the question is forever settled.”

Grant's views changed during the war, going from the opinion 'if slavery must go, it must go' to the opinion that 'only once slavery is dealt with could there be peace.' Grants acts in the post-war Reconstruction era as well as his presidency also highlighted his desire to see the institution of slavery forever abolished. He wrote in his memoirs, “As time passes, people, even of the South, will begin to wonder how it was possible that their ancestors ever fought for or justified institutions which acknowledged the right of property in man.”

I believe he was speaking there out of experience

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