Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant had quite an impressive career, he was 18th president of the United States serving for eight years, as well as General during the civil war. Grant’s military career is quite impressive too, it was one of the main reasons that he became president. Some examples of his skill as a general would be, Grant’s victory at Belmont Missouri in 1861 and Grant capturing Fort Henry on the Cumberland River. And Grant is most well known for his victory over Robert E Lee at the Battle of Five Forks,the capture of Richmond, Virginia and finally him taking Sayer’s Creek with General Lee finally surrendering at Appomattox courthouse. 

Grant wasn’t as good at being President than he was at being a general. His Presidency was filled with scandal and two economic crises. With one of the main reasons being Grant was a poor employer. Mainly because he put friends and people he liked in positions of power despite there being more qualified people. And a lot of people Grant put in positions of power abused it by taking deals from large companies, taking money off the top, and general corruption. And the two economic crises which many people believe could have been stopped if Grant moved faster. The first economic scandal Grant went through was when he had to deal with greenbacks, a pseudo currency printed by the government during the Civil War to pay for amenities. Greenbacks weren’t backed by gold unlike the US dollar and were never stable in value. So when Wall Street speculators, Gould and Jim Frisk were buying huge amounts of gold in an attempted corner to gold market the Greenback value plummeted ruining many farmers and Banks. Grant was slow to act and by the time he fixed the problem by selling large amounts of the government’s gold supply, many people had already been ruined as well as many banks. And by selling large amounts of gold he also made many people who bought it at its high price lose large amounts of money. Many historians agree that the whole problem could have been fixed if Grant had addressed the problem more quickly. 

There was also the Credit Mobile of America business scheme which was one of the biggest financial and political disgraces of the entire century.  The scandal included several stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad including Massachusetts congressman Oaks Ames. They bought the Pennsylvania Financial Agency and changed its name to Credit Mobile of America, the agency purchased all the new Pacific stocks and combined the ownership of the two corporations. The Union Pacific had been commissioned by the US government to build the railroad from the Midwest to the Pacific coast with loan subsidies and land grants. The Union Pacific Railroad turned around and awarded the contract to Credit Mobile. In effect the Union Pacific awarded large amounts of government money to itself, as owner of the company.  The construction costs were reported twice as much as actual costs, and as a result its stockholders got rich beyond their wildest dreams. When an investigation was suggested, Congressman Aims tried to stop it by distributing private mobile stocks among his colleagues in the House of Representatives. The bribes amounted to some $33 million dollars. The Scandal was exposed during the 1872 presidential campaign.  Vice President Colfax, President Grant’s own running mate Henry Wilson, and many other prominent Republicans were also tainted by the Scandal. Which put the spotlight on the extent of the widespread political corruption. 

Now despite all that Grant wasn’t a corrupt  president. With him taking a firm stance on reconstruction. With him even authorizing military force to support the right of black Americans to vote. Even playing legislation against the newly formed Ku Klux Klan otherwise known as the KKK. As well as the fact that when he left the presidency he was no richer and he would in fact go on to have Financial issues, after he moved to New York. He invested large amounts of money into his son’s business even borrowing some to more in taking on debt, only to have his son’s business fail. Putting them into financial trouble and he would go on to have financial issues until the end of his life when he wrote a memoir to provide his family with money and clear them of debt. 

After reading this document you may wonder why Grant is’t widely known. For he has certainly had an impressive and interesting life with him even writing a best selling memoir.