Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant
Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress · Public domain · source
Name	Ulysses S. Grant
Caption	Grant c. 1870–1880
Order	18th
Office	President of the United States
Term start	March 4, 1869
Term end	March 4, 1877
Vicepresident	Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873), Henry Wilson (1873–1875), None (1875–1877)
Predecessor	Andrew Johnson
Successor	Rutherford B. Hayes
Office2	Commanding General of the U.S. Army
Term start2	March 9, 1864
Term end2	March 4, 1869
President2	Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson
Predecessor2	Henry W. Halleck
Successor2	William Tecumseh Sherman
Birth date	27 April 1822
Birth place	Point Pleasant, Ohio
Death date	23 July 1885
Death place	Wilton, New York
Party	Republican
Spouse	Julia Dent, August 22, 1848
Allegiance	United States, United States
Branch	United States, Union Army
Serviceyears	1839–1854, 1861–1869
Rank	General of the Army
Battles	* Mexican–American War * American Civil War ** Battle of Fort Henry ** Battle of Fort Donelson ** Battle of Shiloh ** Vicksburg campaign ** Chattanooga campaign ** Overland Campaign ** Siege of Petersburg ** Appomattox campaign

Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States and the commanding general of the Union Army during the American Civil War. His presidency, from 1869 to 1877, was a critical period of Reconstruction, during which he used federal power more aggressively than any president before him to enforce the Civil Rights Acts and protect the newly won freedoms of African Americans. Grant's commitment to securing civil and political rights for freedmen and his military response to white supremacist terrorism mark him as a pivotal, though complex, figure in the nation's long struggle for racial justice.

Early Life and Military Career

Born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1822, he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1843. He served with distinction in the Mexican–American War under generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Grant's early military career was followed by a period of civilian struggle, but the outbreak of the Civil War returned him to service. His rapid rise, marked by decisive victories at Fort Donelson and the Vicksburg campaign, culminated in his appointment as Commanding General of the United States Army by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Grant's strategy of total war, executed by commanders like William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan, was instrumental in defeating the Confederate States of America. His generous terms at the Appomattox Court House surrender to Robert E. Lee in April 1865 aimed at national reconciliation, but his wartime experience with the cause of emancipation deeply influenced his later political stance on civil rights.

Presidency and Reconstruction

Elected president in 1868, Grant took office amid the tumultuous process of Reconstruction. His administration was defined by an unprecedented effort to consolidate the Union victory by integrating four million freed slaves into the nation's political and social fabric. He strongly supported the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, and worked closely with the Radical Republicans in Congress. Grant oversaw the passage of key legislation, including the Enforcement Acts and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which made it a federal crime to deprive citizens of their civil rights. He also signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a landmark law that guaranteed equal access to public accommodations and jury service, though it was later struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws

Grant was the first president to systematically use federal authority to protect African-American citizens. He deployed the United States Army and the newly formed United States Department of Justice to suppress the Ku Klux Klan and other paramilitary groups like the White League and the Red Shirts. Under the authority of the Enforcement Acts, his Attorney General Amos T. Akerman prosecuted thousands of Klansmen in the South Carolina upcountry, temporarily crippling the organization. Grant also suspended habeas corpus in nine South Carolina counties in 1871 to quell violence. His administration established the precedent that the federal government had a duty to intervene when states failed to protect the constitutional rights of their citizens, a principle central to the modern civil rights movement.

Response to White Supremacist Violence

Grant's presidency coincided with a sustained campaign of terror by white supremacists to overthrow Republican-led Reconstruction governments and restore Democratic "Home Rule" through violence and voter intimidation. The most severe crisis came during the Colfax massacre of 1871, a massacre of Black militiamen in Louisiana, and the later Battle of Liberty Place in New Orleans in 1875. In the face of the Colfax massacre, federal prosecutions were secured, but the Supreme Court's subsequent ruling in United States v. Cruikshank (1875) severely limited federal enforcement power. Despite this, Grant continued to authorize military intervention, as seen in the deployment of troops to secure the election of Republican governors in states like Louisiana and the establishment of a federal garrison in Columbia, South Carolina, to protect the government of Governor Daniel H. Chamberlain.

Native American Policy and Relations

Grant's civil rights vision was tragically inconsistent when applied to Native Americans. Influenced by leaders of the Indian reform movement, he advocated a "Peace policy" to assimilate tribes, overseen by his Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Quaker activist Ely S. Parker, the first Native American to hold the post. This policy sought to replace corrupt federal Indian agents with religious leaders and promote assimilation through boarding schools and land allotment, a model that would later be formalized in the Dawes Act of .S. Grant's policy, while intending peace, often involved the use of the military to force tribes onto reservations, as seen in conflicts like the Red River War and the Great Sioux War of 1876.

Later Life and Historical Legacy

After leaving the presidency, Grant embarked on a world tour and later wrote his acclaimed Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant|Personal Memoirs, which were a major literary and financial success, securing his family's finances before his death from throat cancer in 1885. For much of the 20th Century, historians, influenced by the Dunning School, criticized Grant's presidency as corrupt and criticized his Reconstruction policies as a misguided attempt to impose Black suffrage on the South. However, a major presidential and a major Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in Washington, D.C., and a 21st-century reassessment, led by scholars like Ron Chernow, have dramatically revised this view. Grant is now widely regarded as a president who, despite the pervasive corruption of his administration, demonstrated a profound and often lonely commitment to securing civil rights for African Americans, using federal power to confront white supremacist terrorism more forcefully than any president of his era. His legacy is a testament to the ongoing struggle for civil rights and the federal government's role in that struggle.