The General and His Fraudulency

The Kid Who Could Not Bargain

Grant grew up in Georgetown, Ohio, where his father turned animal hides into leather. Grant wrote that he "detested the trade." He loved horses. At about eight he wanted a neighbor's colt. The neighbor, Mr. Ralston, wanted $25. His father thought $20 was plenty and sent him over with a plan.

On the way to West Point in 1839 he hoped for "a steamboat or railroad collision" to keep him out. None came. He finished 21st of 39.

Ten Thousand Cigars

In February 1862 Grant trapped a Confederate army at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, and demanded "unconditional and immediate surrender." Newspapers loved it. They also said he smoked a cigar through the battle. He was really just holding a dead one.

"Many persons ... sent me boxes of the choicest brands from everywhere in the North. As many as ten thousand were soon received."Grant, to his aide Horace Porter

Lee surrendered to him in April 1865. In 1868, at 46, Grant became the youngest president up to that time.

The President Who Took On the Klan

The Fifteenth Amendment said no state could deny a man the vote because of his race. Grant called it

"the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life."Grant, message to Congress, March 30, 1870

The Ku Klux Klan answered by whipping and murdering Black voters and their white allies. Grant went after it.

By 1872 the first Klan was broken. New armed groups took its place within two years.

Pulled Over at 13th and M

People on 13th Street in Washington were tired of drivers racing their carriages. Officer William West, a Black Union Army veteran, was put on the corner of 13th and M.

Grant owned his own mistakes. He was bad at catching other people's.

In 1875 the Whiskey Ring was caught stealing millions in liquor taxes. Grant wrote "Let no guilty man escape." Then his own secretary was charged, and Grant defended him.

The Election Nobody Won

In 1876 Republicans ran Hayes, the governor of Ohio. Democrats ran Samuel Tilden, the governor of New York. On election night Hayes went to bed sure he had lost.

"We soon fell into a refreshing sleep and the affair seemed over."Hayes, diary, November 1876

By morning Tilden had 184 electoral votes, one short of 185. Hayes had 165. Twenty were in dispute.

The Deal

Southern Democrats could have stalled the count. They let it finish. Historians tie that to the Compromise of 1877: Hayes would pull federal troops out of the South. No written copy was ever found.

March 4 fell on a Sunday, so Hayes took the oath secretly on Saturday night in the White House Red Room. The public ceremony came Monday.

In April Hayes pulled the soldiers guarding the statehouses in South Carolina and Louisiana. The last Republican governments in the South fell. Reconstruction was over.

On election night Hayes had predicted what a Democratic win would do to the South:

"There the Amendments will be nullified."Hayes, diary, November 1876

He won, and it happened anyway. Southern states used poll taxes and literacy tests to take the vote from most Black men.

That July Hayes sent troops against the Great Railroad Strike. That story is in Who Showed Up.

Real or Fake?

Call each one before you look.

Grant's Last Race

After leaving office Grant's Wall Street partner ran a fraud, and in May 1884 Grant went broke. That fall doctors found throat cancer.

To leave his wife Julia money, he raced to write his memoirs for Mark Twain's publishing company. By summer he could barely speak, so he wrote notes to his doctor.

"The fact is I think I am a verb instead of a personal pronoun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; to suffer. I signify all three."Grant, note to his doctor, July 1885

1. May 1884Broke
2. Fall 1884Cancer
3. Early 1885Signs with Twain
4. June 1885Moves to the mountains
5. July 20, 1885Finishes
6. July 23, 1885Dies at 63

He beat the clock by three days. The book earned Julia more than $450,000.

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